Death and Dieing

=Death and Dying=

Characters in FLAG are mortal and death happens more often than you might think. Death in this fantasy game however is not always the end.

Body is a measure of a character’s ability to survive damage, whether through sheer size, toughness, or finesse. If a character’s body is ever reduced to 0 that character falls unconscious and enters the critical stage. The critical stage lasts one minute, which is counted by the critical character. During this time the victim may be saved by magical healing, first aid, or some other specialized effects (stabilize effect). If they do not receive aid, the character dies once the count reaches 60. If a critical character receives first aid for less than one minute, and the first aid is disrupted, the critical character resumes the critical count where they left off.

Once a character is dead, the spirit may remain with the body until the next convergence. During the first five minutes the body is still a capable vessel for holding the character’s spirit and during this time a character may be brought back to life by a partial resurrection in a spirit circle, or a life spell. If no other action is taken during the first five minutes of death, the body becomes incapable of holding the spirit, and a new body must be formed by a full resurrection in a spirit circle. The spirit may still remain with the body until the next convergence (called a lingering spirit). The character may not be resurrected partially or life spelled after 5 minutes of death without a preservation spell. Preservation must be cast within the first five minutes of death, and it keeps the body as a capable vessel for the spirit for an extra 12 hours. Without a preservation spell, the only way a character that has been dead for more than five minutes can be brought back to life is by full resurrection.

Partial resurrection
If a character dies and the body, still capable of holding the spirit (preservation spell or within 5 minutes of death), is returned to a spirit circle, the dead character may be brought back to life by a partial resurrection, re-bonding the body to the spirit. A resurrection by this method takes five minutes to perform. The character when brought back to life has one body and retains any equipment he or she may have been still carrying when the resurrection is performed. A life spell is considered a partial resurrection except that the caster does not need to draw from a side effect pick bag and no spirit circle is needed.

Full resurrection
If a character has been dead for more than 5 minutes and has not received a preservation spell within those first five minutes, the body with the lingering spirit may be carried to a spirit circle and a full resurrection may be performed.

At any time after a character dies, the character may choose to have his or her spirit call out to any spirit circle that they have visited. If a player decides to have his or her character’s spirit call out to a circle, the character must drop all in game tags, as well as their corpse tag, where the character lies and put on a white headband, indicating that the spirit has left the body behind. The player then walks to the spirit circle in town (if using the Thornhill circle) or to a marshal to indicate what circle they will go to. Once the player reaches the circle, it indicates that the spirit is calling out to the circle. At this time, persons within earshot of the circle can hear the voice of the spirit and thereby the player’s voice is in game.

A full resurrection forms a new body for the dead character, thus he or she returns to life with full body, but the character retains no equipment, being left with the old body. Further, a character so resurrected acts as if struck by a weakness effect (see the effects section for more info). A resurrection by this method takes ten minutes to perform, and requires picks for the dead character and the resurrector.

In order to perform a full resurrection on the spirit, a character must have a spirit attribute score of at least three. The chance for the resurrection’s success depends on the skill of the resurrecting character. Further, characters that die have a chance that they will not come back from the dead, based on character level and the number of previous full resurrections taken. The random chance implied is represented by pick bags. During each full resurrection, the character performing the resurrection and the character being resurrected must each make a pick from the respective pick bags. Each bag contains a certain number of good and bad stones. If a good stone is picked, all goes well. If a bad stone is picked, something went wrong. In the case of the dead character’s pick, a bad stone means that the character resurrects, but the character’s spirit is too weak to survive another resurrection. In the case of the resurrector’s pick, it means that the resurrection had a side effect, or a backfire. The severity is determined by subsequent picks, performed after the bad stone is replaced in the bag, more bad stones mean worse effects. A game marshal must witness all resurrections, and results and effects are recorded on the dead character’s info sheet, as well as in the book of the dead.

A character spirit may always refuse a resurrection. A refused resurrection forces the spirit to call to a different circle or wander until the next convergence.

=How Resurrection Works=

Number of stones put in a bag...


 * Performer
 * Base 5 clear stones, 5 black stones
 * Resurrection performed in permanent circle +1 clear
 * Healing Touch skill +1 clear
 * Spirit level +1 clear -1 black for each 2 points above 1.
 * For each school of spirit casting +1 clear, -1 black (there must always be at least one black stone in the performer’s pick bag.)


 * Dead character
 * Base 20 clear stones
 * Each previous partial resurrection +0 black stone
 * Each previous full resurrection beyond 1st +1 black stone, -1 clear stone
 * Each level of advancement beyond 2nd +1 black stone, -1 clear stone

Characters level 3 and up must pick from the bag for each full resurrection beyond the first.

The first full resurrection for each character is free, no pick, no stone placement.

A character may use the Luck skill to add clear stones to certain pick bags, including their resurrection bag.