A Post-Death World

THIS IS A ROUGH OUTLINE!!

So my friend and I have this idea of an RPG that is set in a postmortem world, similar to the book "Elsewhere" by Gabrielle Zevin. It would be set in a city, though we are not sure to have the city in a modern setting or have the city be a collection of periodical locations, such as there would be a castle, skyscrapers, thatch houses, teepees, etc! This city would be where people go after they die, but at first they have no recollection of the life they lived before or the fact that they are ‘dead’ to begin with. There would be people from all different eras, like a Pharaoh from Egypt to a soldier from the French Revolution to someone who just died in a car accident. People relive their deaths at a random time, so the Pharaoh could technically not relive his death until 2000 years later. When someone relives their death they are visited by a group of people who decide their ‘fate’ so to speak. If someone is judged worthy enough they can continue to ‘live’ in this world until it comes time for them to be rebirthed once more into the real world but if they are not judged worthy they are killed permanently so they cannot be rebirthed. Regardless, after having relived your death you would be susceptible to being killed in this world, though no one knows what truly happens when that happens; whether or not you get reborn into the real world.

The site wouldn’t be focused on the reliving/birth part because we can’t go around killing characters that relive their births but it would be more player driven with how each character copes with what happens in this afterlife. The main plot would be about how a character has figured out how to trigger someone to relieve their death and thus being able to prevent his own, keeping him ‘immortal’ so to speak.

Would this appeal to anyone? Obviously things would be fleshed out more but since we just got the idea today, I figured I would appeal to everyone on RPG-D and see what they thought of the general idea! Any thoughts and inputs are greatly appreciated!

I love that book a lot. Made me cry XD. And this idea sounds like it would be really interesting. Do the characters get younger like they did in the book until it's time for them to be rebirthed?

I also second watching Wristcutters!

I will have to check that movie out!

And no, people wouldn't get younger! People would stay the age they died at. We figure that the moment they 'relive' their death, there would be a set amount of time left (probably around ten years, though we are still figuring the amount of time out) before they are reborn!

Wristcutters *-*

Both incredibly sad, and incredibly awesome. Also, Gogol Bordello! Hot damn, Gogol Bordello!

Question. Do they know that the giant era mishmash is "wrong" so to speak? Or do they think it's normal?

Do they just wake up with amnesia? Or do they have a false childhood/memories implanted?

They would wake up with amnesia and have no recollection of what happened to them in the past at first. A they go on living, so to speak, more of their memories will come back to them up until the point of their death in the real world. So a person who died 1000 years ago could still be wandering around and know everything about his past but still not know how he died until he relives that experience.

As for the mishmash era/city, initially most would think they are in a dream so initially it wouldn't seem to out of the ordinary, but there would always be that sense of "Wow this doesn't seem right..." until they learn where they are and that they are dead, te reaction of which is completely up to the player and of they want their character to be in denial and believe they are dreaming or I'd they accept the fact that they are truly dead.

Hope that made sense!

Basically we're thinking there would be some sort of afterlife 'tour guides' so to speak; like when they first arrive in the city (I know in Elsewhere they come in by boat) there'd be people there to greet the new arrivals - they'd explain that they were dead and they'd fill them in on how to settle into the new world, but it would be absolutely the character's choice whether or not to believe it! I imagine many of them would reject it and keep on thinking they were alive until they got to the point where they relived their death etc, but some might choose to accept it. Thinking about it, the 'tour guide' part could well just be a part of the application, with the character's response to the guide being the application itself. Thoughts, anyone?

I think I need to watch Wristcutters now :D

I like that application idea, I know that the SH site I'm on more or less uses a "last testament, if you don't find me alive, here's how to identify the body/what to tell my family" to describe characters and I just loved using it, especially for my more "traumatized" character. Tl;dr: hilarious to write.

That said, that's all very interesting, still a little curious. Do memories come back in chronological order or are they scattered? Also, still curious if there's an innate "wrongness" with the anachronistic people and setting/how the people would know that it's not right or if they would know it's right all while avoiding metagaming? -headscratch--shrug- You might want to figure out how the weirdness with time mash is handled as a societal factor when you're fleshing out.

Memories would come back at random intervals but it would be completely up to the player if they want them to come back chronological or have one flash of a memory of their character riding their bike for the first time and then the next one they have be their first day of high school. The manner of how these memories come back would also be up to the player; they could come as dreams, for example. Ultimately the individual would be able to piece together most of their past and when they do have that moment where they relive their death, they'd remember virtually everything from their past as well as the manner of their death.

Again, the "wrongness" would be completely up to the player on how they want their character to interact/respond with their death. As Warped said there would be people who would inform the individual that they are, in fact, dead but to avoid godmodding and all that nastiness it would be completely up to the player on how their character responds. If they accept their death, they would know that the world around them isn't the 'real' world but they would still have to find a way to cope. Now, the more interesting part would be those that reject what they are told. For example, I was thinking of making a drug addict who dies of an over dose. He wouldn't believe that he was dead, just based on the fact that he has tripped out before and although the world may seem different, he will just think that he is still high and on one heck of a trip.

To view this post-death world as 'wrong' or to get a sense of it being 'wrong' would, ultimately, be up for the player to decide for their character!

But they have no concept of the living world or their past selves, so they wouldn't know what a "bad trip" is. I mean, I get what you're saying, but it doesn't entirely add up, I guess? It sounds like you're trying to make a world where people enter and have a clean slate (reminds me of the amnesiac super power school from a few interest checks back - that was cool), but at the same time saying that their past selves flavor the way they view the world, which doesn't entirely work out if they don't remember their past selves.

-shrug- Telling them they're dead is a good start and can be a great application process, though having the character know who they were in life (if you're going to make them amnesiacs) doesn't mesh with the idea of being a total bleating lamb with no idea what the hell is going on. Maybe instead of allowing a history section, just have them focus on the character's immediate personality and appearance? They can fill in memories as they go, maybe keeping a tracker of recovered memories/reactions to these/how they view the world now/testing the world/trying to escape/something?

Wow, that is a very cool idea. My only objection is that having a plot focused around one character might be a little limiting. How does this affect the world at large?

It is up to the player during the application process in how much/what they want their character to remember. Because each person doesn't die at the same time, each case will be different and it's up to them on how they view the world. Do they accept the general "wrongness" and live in this world and make it work? Do they live in denial, believing that this world and everything in it is just a dream? Memories are a tricking thing to work into a board like this, so through te application the player can decide how much the character remembers. We, as admins, aren't going to dictate what people can and cannot remember.

They come to this world with no memories, but from that point it's up to the player during the application process. It all depends what YOU want to rp: soneone who is completely aware of what's going on or a more innocent, unaware individual or even somewhere inbetween.

As for the plot, that was just an extremely rough idea. Obviously we are going to formulate something that involves everyone on the board, but we are still in the very infant stages of the site!

Hope that help clears it up. We really want more player creatvity then dictating what te character can and can't remember or believe in terms of "wrongness".

If there are any spelling errors I apologize, I'm posting this from my phone haha!

I love this idea <3 I read Elsewhere a few years ago and I think a post-death world would be make a fascinating RP environment. Go ahead and shoot me a PM if you ever get this rolling!