i need help /tg/. My players fucked up and died in Barovia.

>>48847430
I have played but not finished the 5e campaign (if you are playing that)
There is a ..bishop? or something that can revive them, it could be a nice way to introduce a new quest and character, and also you can test the ressurection table.
Also they have failed the mission wich they were doing, thats itshelf is a penalization.

>>48847430

>the party wakes up sitting before a big feast in Castle Ravenloft
>Strahd welcomes them graciously, telling them he's been watching them and likes what he saw.
>He gives them each a magic ring, telling them he'll "be in touch"
>Strahd has their souls bound to a magic font in his castle, and the rings are what he can use to "recall" them and get them to do busywork

Not the best idea but it saves you from starting over and hopefully springboards some new ideas.

>>48847430
When they're revived, "something" hitches a ride and comes back with their soul. This "something" slowly starts to corrupt the player's body and take control of it (especially when they're sleeping or otherwise vulnerable). At first it's just written off as stress or nightmares, but eventually have it culminate with the "something" being exorcised and the player having to beat it in single-combat to truly reclaim sole sovereignty of their body.

Revival magic is a dangerous business... and sometimes things on the other side of the Life/Death veil are best left there. There's a reason for the separation in the first place.

They don't have any initiative if they have no soul. All they feel is fear.

Being dead for more than 24 hours inflicts them with a random permanent madness.

The Abbott can revive people.

Souls in Barovia are trapped there, anyone with a soul is either a traveler from another plane or has lived a life there before.

Ravens are said to be carriers of the dead's souls.

Read the book you fuck there's like a million things you could do. You could even pull a fucking Dark Souls and have them pick up their old shit after a session long side quest.

>>48847430
Firstly. why do you "need" to punish them? A tpk is as much your fault as the players.
2ndly. Did they die at the bone grinder? Thats a significantly hard fight. See point 1.

Either way, Wizards released rules for revenants, maybe have the party rise from their graves in barovia village, or climb out of their coffins at Valaki

>>48848029
Jinx you owe me a coke.

When they come back, the world is different. It is as though they never existed. Some people they were close with might have an odd sense of familiarity with them, but no one knows who they are. Bad guys are still around and things have gotten worse. Now they need to fix the world again.

I'd just have them raised by a necromancer or something, who plants some manner of control magic on them. Whenever he needs bullshit busy work done by someone with more intelligence than your standard zombie, he compels them to come by.

Whats wrong with punishing your players ? Players are generally worthless human beings who spit on all the work good GM's and deserve to be punished.

I'd make them all laboriously make new characters at level 1 complete with background but put them back at exactly the spot they died. Then watch them die over and over again while cackling lots.

Alternatively bring their original characters back but at level 1 with no items and make them Strahds bitches, inbetween daily forced rimjobs and anal poundings they have to do menial shitty quests for the vampire like 'clean the latrines with your tongues' , dig burial mounds with spoons and shine the vampire lords armour with their blood.

There is a list that the players can roll for when they die. It is called "Dark Powers?". The Mists of Barovia will bring them back to life but they will have a curse. The original is a d4 but there is an expansion to the list that is called "Darker Powers" I think.

Some players that have died in my campaign liked it others didn't but they accepted it, they made another character or the party forked over the gold for the revives.

File: Darker_Gifts_-_Curse_of_Strahd_Expansion_(8657972).pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>48849280
Correction "Dark Gifts" and "Darker Gifts".

>>48849256
Neat, thanks for the input

>>48848029
There's no sense ramrodding them for dying, but on the other hand players should have some reason to fear death

>>48848103
Something like this seems like a cool idea. You could do something very dark and mysterious with it and leave them on edge