Daemongar said:
In U7, you would die, then wake up in a bed. Most likely Paws in the Fellowship hall, with a story about how Elizabeth and Abraham found you and brought you back there.
I think resurrection has to be divided into at least two categories for any meaningful discussion. One is the method you described, the other is a method that requires some action on your part.
Personally I think you can get the most out of virtually any RPG by playing strictly without reloads once you get the hang of it. Chances are you will die at least once though, especially if the game includes critical strikes. Which means I'm a proponent of resurrection because it allows me to play in a challenging yet enjoyably relaxed way. Baldur's Gate II for example was marred for me by the fact that once the main character dies, it's definitely over, and the same goes for PCs who got "chunked". Add the very limited number of available PCs, especially for evil parties, and you got a real downer.
Now the method of resurrection that doesn't require any action on your part is decidedly too cheesy. Die... wake up... die... wake up... it encourages a mind-numbing style of play. Resurrection should always have some requirements. This should include either some very high material cost (be it gold or some other possession with limited availability), the need to be physically present at some fixed location (like a temple), the need for party members to actually
carry the dead bodies so they have to free up carrying capacity, etc. It doesn't have to be free, it doesn't have to be unlimited, but I think some sort of resurrection that rewards you if you have been playing efficiently; spent your funds wisely, didn't waste powerful items, displayed a good grasp of the game's mechanics.
My take on resurection in several games:
1.) Ultima 7: Interesting because different methods of resurrection were used. while resurrection of the main char was cheesy, resurrection of companions was more interesting. To carry your companions' bodies back to LB, you often had to get rid of excess equipment to free up carrying capicity. An alternative was getting Jaana in your party, who had some limited ability to resurrect. Later on you could also cast the spell yourself, which is another cheesy and overpowered method.
2.) Wizardry 8: this game has balancing issues, and it affects resurrection too. Resurrection powder is just too cheesy, especially because it:
- restocks at shops periodically
- money is never a problem if you abuse alchemy
In itself the idea was neat in that it actually required you to develop your Artifacts skill. Fumble that powder, there go 2000 gp, though as I said this would have required some limited funds too.
You don't have to carry the bodies of the dead as this happens automatically, but at least the weight of equipment is then spread across the surviving party members. Tbh, I never researched wether the dead body of a PC alone would cause other member's share of weight to go up, but I doubt it.
3.) Arcanum: Allowing for resurrection on both tech and magickal characters was nice, as was the option of having your companions resurrect each other and you. Unfortunately here too gold was never a problem if you didn't mind abusing some glitches in the system. In fact the way resurrection worked for tech characters had more potential; you had to build the device(s) yourself, and they were weighing a ton each, which was a lot more limiting than buying infinite resurrection scrolls (in theory at least, unfortunately the ingredients for the resurrector were too common).