I read an old post recently about players in rpgs summoning zombies and demons from the underworld and sending them off to fight on their behalf, and I had what I hope is a radical idea (I have never played many rpgs, and for all I know it may already have been done) Supposing players were able not just to summon demons or monsters, but to summon previously slain human players, bring them back to life and have them win a fight, then be on their way, restored to life, as repayment. The biggest flaw is obviously that, in the period between death and ressurection, the human player will have a long, boring wait, drifting around in the underworld, waiting to be summoned. To solve this, I would propose that the game universe consists of two environments running in parallel, the world of the living and the world of the dead. A new player will arrive in the living world (being alive, of course!) will play for a bit, then might lose a brawl somewhere and wind up in the underworld, and then have to explore, fight and survive down there. They would either have to wait to be found by a wizard in need of protection in the living world and be summoned back, or find a way of communicating with said wizard and making a deal with him. However, to make the game more difficult, after physical death in the living world and descending to the underworld, subsequent defeat by a foe in the underworld should NOT send you back to the world of the living, it should be terminal.(otherwise anyone who wants to change worlds would simply kill themselves in either place, and keep going around in a loop.) The only way to return to the world of the living should be to be summoned by a wizard. Of course this would give rise to interesting puzzle/tactical situations. Suppose a team of two adventurers wants to enter a sealed area, a locked castle, in the living world, but in the underworld the castle is unlocked(In the underworld everything is reversed). If one player dies, he then moves inside the castle in the underworld, and is then resurrected (by his still living companion) inside the locked castle back in the living world. He then opens the portcullis for his friend to enter, assuming his friend hasn''t welched on their deal and left him to rot in Hades. From this one example we can see how a whole new dimension is added to gameplay. This is my very first Gamedev post, and so I expect to get heavily flamed, but personally I''m chuffed with this idea.

pretty radical idea, dont you think? Riding the suicide express into the enemy fortress.....

i assume youre talking about an MMORPG here, right?

what will all the players in the underworld do? There should be other ways to keep them occupied, as you obvoiusly cant just copy the day side.. one possibility to rejoin the living might be to redeem yourself somehow... floating around as a helpful spirit in the world of the living....

another assumption here is that people don´t die too often, it would kill the fun of the whole thing to have people constantly hopping from here to there.....

I´d rig it so that people cant die in the unerworld (maybe just decrease their "account", I´ll explain this later).... or better: not underworld but some sort of between-world, not living but not truly dead too.... integrated into the story somehow (horrible curse, blah, blah... people cant really die anymore - there, solved the whole death problem ).

Each of the lost souls could have some sort of account, showing how far he is from returning to the living... this might be increased by various deeds... if the character was devoted to a deity he might make his way back up by doing good (returning lost souls to their families, being a do-gooder in the world of the living, whatever).
Another way would be to ally yourself with one of the more powerful demons of the otherworld... do stuff for them in the world of the living.. there the player might inhabit other creatures, maybe corpses.... he might even be turned against other players.
Or the deal with the summoner you mentioned... the summoner would have to pay some price however (some part of his life-force?) to get the spirit to work for him (bring the other player back for a limited amount of time), thereby increasing the dead ones "account"....

and then what? how are they brought back to the living? what if they die again?
I´m not sure how to do this right, but as long as your character can advance in whatever state he´s in there should be no problem of players accepting their "death".

also have enough to do in the underworld to make some people want to stay there... every world needs experienced players..

I like the idea a lot, but I´d make it a bit more serious than you proposed, cause then there will be situations where gangs of players just cut the throat of one of their comrades, then catapult him over the castle wall onto the pavement of the courtyard (splat!), and resurrect him to open the gate...

have you looked at "Soulreaver"? I liked the idea of two very similar parallel worlds a lot....

Hmmm... interesting.

You really ought to read To your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer.

I like the idea, but here''s a suggestion. Simply WAITING to be summoned would get on peoples nerves. Maybe you could implement some sort of system where after completing a certian task (killing X number of demons, doing good deeds, etc.) that person is put in a que for summoning. I don''t know... this is just me rambling... I still like your idea though.

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Blue*Omega

(Insert Witty Quote Here)

If you''re worried about players doing a "leapfrog" suicide to get through barriers and castle walls, you could make it so that resurrected players reappear in a predetermined spot, some sort of planar portal. (Like in Soul Reaver). Just a thought.


- Bong, James Bong

How about some sort of power level for the undead (closer to returning - more powerful, more likely to escape the summoners hold on him... to walk the world of the living again, but not quite alive yet).

I´d simply make going back such a difficult and long journey that no player would do it more often than once or twice...

you might even set the theme of the RPG on that journey... and on how different people master it... starting out in life... but naturally being to weak and inexperienced dying at some point... then trying to go back and fix what´s wrong.

there´s also be a lot of opportunities for "evil" players, as both sides (even monsters) are available... so the whole PKing problem would be eliminated.