|
Do your characters take the time to bury the fallen or otherwise see to their final rites, whether in accordance with their traditions or yours? Do they just leave the fallen to scavengers and the elements? Do they replenish their food supplies?
My characters seemed to tend towards burial or respectful cremation(as in not just piling them up on a bonfire) whenever possible for sapient beings. The only character I can remember that left dead enemies to rot was my one evil thief/sorcerer, and that was in Conan RPG so...expected M.O., really.
Started thinking about this because of all of the disappearing bodies in Mass Effect 2.
Meat bucket.
OK, we don't actually put enemy body parts in a salty bucket for making jerky. We just joke about it. Most of the time, we leave them for the crows.
We disassemble them into basic molecules and recycle them.
After claiming their water we give them back to the desert... for dessert.
Well, I DM a game set in Fantasy Flight's Midnight setting. In that setting, an evil god's armies has essentially conquered most of the world, and mortals have been cut off from the other gods as a result of an event called the Sundering. Another by-product of the Sundering is that the souls of the dead often are not able to make the journey into the afterlife--some inhabit the carcasses of their dead corpses and become undead... which is a fairly common occurrence. Beheading and cremation are the only ways to prevent the dead from rising as undead... and the PCs in my group have been pretty diligent about carrying out these unsavoury tasks, for allies and foes alike (usually opting for decapitation, since they are usually short on time).
The what's of my who'sits?
It's rare if my group even remembers to check if things are "officially" dead and not just in the negatives once they're down. Sometimes it's fun to remind them about that with enemies showing up after they've been healed.
Occasionally they'll get a wild hair about corpses. This is usually for a session or two after a necromancer makes a nice sized army from their leavings.
|
Early on in my current campaign, the PCs were very careful about the proper care and interrment of their fallen comrades.
One amusing example invloved the death of a 300 lb. barbarian. Rather than try to lug his body out of the dungeon, the sorcerer cooked him down with a burning hands spell to make his remains more portable.
As the party got higher in level, there were more raise deads, ressurections and reincarnations, so fewer burials.
On the ocassions that the character was irrevocably killed, there was nothing left to bury anyway.
EDIT: Just realized the OP pertained to the bodies of enemies. The PCs only disposed of them if it helped the accomplish the mission without detection. Otherwise, the left them where they fell.
seriously if the body is of a really good monster,dire boar I'm looking at you, I use it as a extra tank when I zombiefie it.
If they are just low lvl npc punks or such we strip the bodies, give the blood stained, hole filled, fireball smoldering clothing to the nearest temple of a good deity and keep the coin for ourselves.
That way we stopped evil and helped the needy so were good aligned.
After we take their stuff and make sure all of them are dead dead usually we just leave them. Unless it was an animal. Those make good eating. :)
Honestly, we're usually working under such a time crunch that stopping to deal with the bodies of our enemies would be suicidally stupid.
|
Leave em'. Shoot, we don't even loot the bodies.
In one game I used to run, when someone died, their body stayed around for a number of days equal to their character level and/or Total Hit Dice, at the end of which the body vanished into the afterlife, bringing along any wordy possessions. This was because of how the world worked; had there ever been a TPK, the game would have continued into the next life!
|
In the early days of 3.0, I did manage to convince the entire party to eat the brains of all fallen sentient enemies after the druid had hit them up with purify food and drink to remove the mad human disease prions. That was one of my prouder player moments, actually. The GM was running a blended group: some of us were his college group (usually more sedate, cooperative, and plot-oriented do-gooders, which, included me and the druid player) the others were some of his high school group from his hood (who were more prone to PvP, pure chaos, playing all tank parties, and doing the unexpected for the metagame reason of making him adjust).
It was quite the in-character sales job for my elf rogue to talk up this practice, as the druid was initially reluctant. However, team chaos was quickly brought on board and "persuaded" him to contribute. In fact, those players were generally shocked the idea had never occurred to them before. But in the end, my elf (as usual, the only nonhuman in the party) did not partake of this practice of the lesser humanoids. He may have been a vegetarian.
Good times.
Wait... they don't just disappear?
With how hard our fighter hits them I'm surprised they don't disappear in a cloud of blood.
Usually we leave them where they fall. The burial traditions of goblins, gnolls and whatnot are largely irrelevant to us and beneath our bother.
We do on occasion drag the dead away so they won't be immediately seen- but only if its practical to the mission at hand. Likewise, we've been known to make the roughest of funeral pyres if the situation warrants it.
Exceedingly rarely have we gone through the trouble to actually bury anyone or "take care of it" in any formal, respectful manner. That usually comes up when its one of us and they've declined to be returned to life.
I'd say probably 95% or more of the time we just loot 'em and leave 'em as they fall.
-S
Very rarely do my players ever deal with the dead, aside from stripping them of their belongings or decapitating them for good measure. (They don't like BBEGs making return appearances, so they take small measures like that against fast heal and the like.) The most that happens is that if the party is attacked in camp, they'll drag the bodies away so they don't attract predators or other wandering monsters.
Depends... do I have BBQ sauce?
"You should always have BBQ sauce. I can hook ya up if ya need"
|
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Un-Named"
That's pretty cold, dude. Worst thing I've ever been party to in terms of revenge on a defeated foe was in a 2E game. We had chased down the evil party that had been impersonating us. I was playing an elf M/T. I polymorphed the bard that had been impersonating me into a slug, then I poured salt in a circle around him and left him there. Cold as hell.
My short stint as a priest of Pharasma saw me giving every fallen enemy a funeral pyre, with a silver piece over each eye.