Mechanics of the Afterlife

[Scubasteve0209]

I'm currently concocting a campaign that takes place in Folkvangr (Valhalla's counterpart). The idea is that the PCs are all dead, and are now drafted into the army of Einherjar (I'll modify the names a bit to make it a bit less of a Norse myth ripoff).

The PCs all arrive on the same boat, and are placed in the same unit together under the command of a low-level Valkyrie. As both new recruits and new spirits, they're weak (level 1), so they have to work to build themselves up by performing menial quests/tasks to build their strength up.

I have a basic campaign concept, but I'm having trouble with the fiddly specifics.

Ideas:
* You can't die in the afterlife (with a few exceptions). When you're stabbed, sliced, bashed, mangled, sauted, etc. silvery essence pours from the wound. If you "die" you explode in a cloud of silver light only to awaken on the docks of the city where new souls arrive.

* Folkvangr is populated with animals and monsters the same as the real world. It wouldn't be much of an afterlife if the people couldn't hunt or hone their skills/weapons on a monster.

* Hunger & Thirst are still a thing (so is getting drunk). They can't kill you, but it'll make you uncomfortable.

* Being dead, the PCs will be subject to any number of spells, effects, & powers that control/contact/repel spirits. I plan on them coming into contact with a few different things, like a death-god cleric investigating an imbalance in the natural order.

What would you like to see out of an afterlife adventure? What kind of mechanics or fluff would make a life of adventuring after death more real to you?

~Scubasteve

[Zaydos]

I'd want some way to look in on/influence the lives of my family and friends left behind; either through minor direct intervention or through some means to earn them good karma through actions. Maybe even an unsavory being who makes a living influencing the lives of mortals in exchange for payment/favors from those in the afterlife.

[Scubasteve0209]

The Meta:
The soldiers of Einherjar's purpose is to fight against the armies of hell at the End of Days (Ragnarok). A portion of those who died in combat go to Valhalla, while others go to Folkvangr. (This means you can end up in the afterlife alongside the people you were fighting in life)

There are only two known ways to kill a dead spirit. Wielding a weapon from the "Armory of Ash" (guarded by the Valkyries until the End of Days occurs) and killing a creature once it's been brought into undeath (vampires, liches, etc).

A group of powerful hell-cults have infiltrated Folkvangr and Valhalla, and are attempting to bring down their armies from the inside through powerful necromantic magics that can destroy even the spirits of the dead.

The adventure will take place in a few locations. Folkvangr (rooting out the source of an infection/poison killing off the dead), the Prime material Plane (after the helpful death-priest binds them into constructed loaner bodies) to continue hunting the cultists, and finally into the hells (to stop the the plague/poison/evil at its source)

[NichG]

I've run, well, lots of campaigns like this actually. Planescape is basically this, setting-wise, except that lots of living people are getting in the way and gumming up the works. From a Planescape point of view, focus on the mythic - the souls of the heroic dead don't just putter around, they have tasks that befit those who have transcended death and are touching the great mysteries... or at least, can actually point to the great mysteries on a map now. Steal a hair from Cerberus, share drinks with Charon, eavesdrop on angels discussing the fate of the world, etc.

The other campaign I ran along these lines was called A Few Dead Men and the hook was 'bring in a PC and tell me how they died'. In that game, the dead were basically collectively the deities of the world - sort of an ancestral spirit kind of thing. They could get skills and powers that would let them modify the fundamental function of the world - they could get together and change weather patterns, curse people, possess people, grant magic to a select few, etc. Each spirit had some characteristic 'thing' that was their defining aspect, be it fire or parties or alcohol or whatever, and they could bring about things relating to that aspect.

That said, the party mostly stayed interested in what was going on in the afterlife rather than poking at the mortal world all that much. The afterlife had gotten overcrowded, and so the inner city closed its doors, dooming the souls of the newly dead to slow dissolution in the void. So the PCs broke in and worked to change that.

[BWR]

Folkvangr

Drop the -r suffix. -r is a strong masculine singular nominative suffix and is erroneously kept when certain words are adopted into English.

[Grinner]

* Folkvangr is populated with animals and monsters the same as the real world. It wouldn't be much of an afterlife if the people couldn't hunt or hone their skills/weapons on a monster.

How set on this are you? I feel like the afterlife should be populated with afterlife-only creatures, as that would better differentiate it from the mortal coil.

[Scubasteve0209]

Drop the -r suffix. -r is a strong masculine singular nominative suffix and is erroneously kept when certain words are adopted into English.

I wasn't going to be keeping the same names anyways. At most I'd name the main city Port Vangor.

How set on this are you? I feel like the afterlife should be populated with afterlife-only creatures, as that would better differentiate it from the mortal coil.

Nothing is set in stone. Although without animals where would they they get all the food for the nightly feasts?

[Grinner]

Nothing is set in stone. Although without animals where would they they get all the food for the nightly feasts?

And how would they avoid depopulating Folkvangr of animal life?

Since this is a game, you ultimately need to consider what would be fun first and foremost. Don't fall into the trap of rationalizing the trivial details.

Besides, this is the afterlife we're talking about. Mundane logic need not apply.

[dps]

Ideas:
* You can't die in the afterlife (with a few exceptions). When you're stabbed, sliced, bashed, mangled, sauted, etc. silvery essence pours from the wound. If you "die" you explode in a cloud of silver light only to awaken on the docks of the city where new souls arrive.

If you're of a mind to do so, you can use this to actually make "death" harder on the PCs than it is in more standard campaign settings. "Die" in the afterlife, and, yes, you just awaken on the docks again, but you're back to level 1 again.