For many, a dead PC at low levels is simply a corpse; similarly, a PC captured and abandoned by their group is never heard from again, save a poignant mention of familiar broken and battered prisoner seen during the group's return. My current group never liked this approach for several reasons: enduring the mistreatment/slavery/etc. for a chance to escape, morbid curiosity, campaign foreshadowing, where did the corpse go?, and so on.
Everyone managed to get today off, so an early morning journey to Rappan Athuk was called for. Two characters fell within half an hour and I spent a solid ten minutes detailing the pair's death. The next Game Over involved a PC's capture that took almost twenty minutes to cover where, what, and how that character's end finally came. All of this has been at the group's request and they have yet to discover an entrance.
No other group I've GMed for or played with wanted to peek behind the "Game Over" screen. Getting to the point of the thread: How does your group handle "Game Overs"?
If the character is dead, the rest of the party deals with the body one way or another. If they abandon it, and it's gone when they get back, I generally get a "we'll be seeing him/her again won't we?" from them.
Captured? Unless instantly executed I always allow the group to RP through.
I still use the resident evil game overs.
"You Died".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDPtMh-mpDw
Games might be cancelled due to a lack of attendance, a dispute, a new game. Take a break then come back to it.
.
It means the alien invaders have destroyed the last means of escape,
and now all that is left is a slow wait until the grave.
.
Usuallly with obscenities.
