Small Idea: Have the death of a player character leave a skeleton on the ground until the next map update.
Skeletons look pretty neat and them indicating that someone fell at that position would be something I'd find to add a tiny bit of dynamic environmental storytelling to the game world.
So you get a new skeleton after each death? I am not sure how to handle that lore-wise. It feels quite strong to leave a skeleton where someone died and therefore, I would like to have some information for the characters what that means.
PS:
How to prevent abuse? Intentional mass spawning of skeletons by dieing again and again?
Another idea: Make skeletons identifyable for those having named the character. And make the skeletons removeable by those they belong to.
Most fighter characters are proud creatures and would dislike a token of their inability laying about for everyone to see. Maybe even add an automatic quest for it. It would make death more inconvenient and add something to do after recovery from resurrection.
Lore:
Current in game text: Player Characters are pandered by Cherga and are restored to life (in a temporarily weakened/ injured state) everytime they die as they are not ready to enter the realm of the dead yet.
Characters returning to the cross 'do' physically die right now kind of Dark Souls style. A part of their last mortal shell might be left behind as a warning of Cherga.
Ideas to prevent abuse:
Double recovery time for each skeleton of the character out there. (0 Skeletons: 30 Minutes; 1: 1hour; 2: 2hrs; 3: 4hrs; ...)
And/or disable movement for the first yx% of recovery time after repeated death.
Or only have one skeleton per character.
Do not treat skeletons as a blocking item (for blocking doors, tools, ec).
If this is implemented, just simply leave one skely in place at the last death spot for a set time period and then rots. When ever a player dies the skely is moved to that spot and only for a set time period.
This would be confusing to some, as the character is resurrected. Is there skeletal structure left behind? It would make no sense. How would people RP it?
If this is about putting more meaning into death, I would go for something else: When someone dies, have a chance that a bad shadow is created (maybe Moshran did something evil, corrupting the process of resurection). It will have skills and attributes of the one who died but weaker equipment. It is is basically a pitch black version of your character.
For many, it will be a question of honour to destroy that bad corrupted shadow. Adds an immersive element to death without punishing the players too much.
I just dont get this.
If you perma-death. Get a head stone. That is reasonable. For the die but resurrected, maybe just stay a ghost until you are ready to face Cherga. In this way, if you had died during a quest, you could still hang around to see what happened, instead of having to go right to the cross and stay close to it, missing all the story.
Other than that, this all escapes me.
Maybe the newly dead get to stay dead until they run back home, instead of being wisked off to a cross.
If they choose to be dead, they can. They will not gain any skills, cant earn any coins, cant do any thing but be there. But they could then be used as scouts, spies. They could only talk to those that have a high average of say, wisdom and essence. Give the mage types something to be useful until the magic comes back. This is already done with alchemists, they need an average of skills to be able. So the dead can walk the world, until they choose to go to their cross, and can only talk with those that can hear them. The dead should also be able to cross any town lines, they are ghosts, they cant hurt anyone, or even talk to most. I am just thinking outside the lines, but this seems to me, better than a skeleton laying on the ground every time I die.
I dont want a Diablo thing , where I have to hunt down my own corpse to be rid of it.