Respawn theme in a roleplay.

[Sugo]

So, for those who aren't aware for a popular anime called 'Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World'. It is an anime about a character who is an otaku living in modern day Japan who goes to a store to collect some Ramen for a late night snack only to walk out of the store and find himself magically appeared into a Fantasy world.

That part of the show isn't however the thing that I would think would be an interesting RP theme, it is instead the fact that the character has a unique ability called 'Return from dead.' Basically, he can't die, well, he can, just he re-spawns at a 'Save Point', and the concept is that he can then obviously attack his situation with a different thought process as he knows what happens.

However having this sort of ability leads to scenarios where you see people die and then you die, then you respawn, then they're all around you and you are the only one who has memories of what happened and everyone around you is oblivious, and any relationships you'd formed from the save point to your previous death would have been lost, so theoretically if you have a very long gap between finding this new save point (that the character isn't even aware of what happens.) you could find someone you loved make progress with a relationship with them only to see them die then die yourself and they don't even know you again.

So the concept is basically exploring the 'Respawn' that's in a lot of games nowadays and how traumatic this could actually be for a character, imagine respawning only to find out everything you'd done for the past week, any relationships you've bolster any money you've earned any work you've done towards your ultimate goal is gone.

Needless to say, this drives the main character bonkers.

Thoughts on this as a roleplay theme?

 

[Rudolph Quin]

So the concept is basically exploring the 'Respawn' that's in a lot of games nowadays and how traumatic this could actually be for a character, imagine respawning only to find out everything you'd done for the past week, any relationships you've bolster any money you've earned any work you've done towards your ultimate goal is gone.

Needless to say, this drives the main character bonkers.

Thoughts on this as a roleplay theme?

I really like the idea as a story but for a role-play it'd be extremely difficult. One, for the bolded part above because a lot of writers want to actually build up a story, build up relationships and the like. If every time this one character dies, we have to throw all of that development out the window, it'd feel kind of like you put all that work in for nothing. It's also why some people don't like their characters to die in rps because of the work they put into it suddenly becoming meaningless. Two, this is assuming your character, or the one with the Respawn ability, is the main character. Hard enough when people write their character's thoughts into the narrative for the partner to ignore the reveal of this internal information, despite the character not knowing any of this about the other character. Sometimes, it's hard not to give in to the temptation to respond in a way that puts that internal information to use(like, an outwardly jerkish character thinks to himself, "If she'd just apologize" so the partner has their stubborn female eventually come around to the other's point of view, despite him still being outwardly jerkish. She has no reason to think apologizing would work but she tries it anyway, giving in to what the other wants because she's "told" by his thoughts that it will work to manipulate the situation in her favor). The same might happen with the forgotten timeline. They're not supposed to remember but knowing what is supposed to happen might influence their decisions to act differently. Plus, a lot of people don't like all the drama to only happen to one person and this seems like the type of situation where all the interesting and important stuff is happening to the respawn character.

Other than that, if you can find a particularly skilled writer, one who is able to sacrifice a bit of ego for the sake of the story you want to write and one who doesn't give in to the urge to completely ruin the premise by having their own character remember stuff they have no knowledge of, then it could be a really cool story. ^^ I personally would not though, simply for the complexities of how the situations come about but I might read the book, lol.

 

[Erit of Eastcris]

I'm going to be a party pooper and point out that this concept of save points was already touched on by a film titled "Edge of Tomorrow", and of course by "Groundhog Day". Quin stole any further input I might have been able to add on the subject like the GD predator he is.

 

[Rudolph Quin]

I'm going to be a party pooper and point out that this concept of save points was already touched on by a film titled "Edge of Tomorrow", and of course by "Groundhog Day". Quin stole any further input I might have been able to add on the subject like the GD predator he is.

Listen, I waited almost a full 20 minutes.

 

[Xanaphia]

I actually had two rps with a similar idea, though not quite as extensive. I had one where my partners' character was psychically gaslighting my own, making my character become obsessed with his by attacking her mind directly. Part of this included him controlling her memories, specifically him locking away any memories of sexual encounters between them. So, our character would have sex, and after they finished, he would lock those memories away in her mind, so she would just remember coming on to him, and getting rejected, keeping her consistently frustrated and seeking his approval. In over 100 pages of rp, we had two instances that were wiped from her mind, and several other implied times that he used my character, and wiped her memories after. It was a lot of fun to play, and I personally enjoy playing around with perception and memories, and character knowledge, so it was an enjoyable challenge.

The other involved a wizard capturing and manipulating his rival, before turning her out to gain favors from the various royalty and nobles of his city. He also reset her memories each day, so the horror of what he was doing to her was reignited each day.

the main problem with this idea is how much work it is going to take to write it. The first rp was over 100 pages in word, and we only got to use the device twice. The second rp was 60 pages and barely covered three days.

 

[Sugo]

Indeed, this is far from an easy concept to run in an RP, just an interesting one. Hence why this is a discussion thread not a request thread.

Like Quinn said, it includes three things that are all concerns of most role players.

1) Character Death.



2) Relationship resets.

3) Overly complex.

It would need to be played as a 1x1 'GM Style' Roleplay, where one person plays everything that isn't the main character and the other plays the main character. That way one person will be keeping track of how relationships change with a respawn.

The idea of a checkpoint being after an argument between the protagonist and the main love interest is hilarious though. They spend 3 pages of RP patching the wounds of their relationship only to die and have their love interest pissed at them again.

God this is masochistic.

 

[Rudolph Quin]

I think it could work "easier"(at least, in my mind) to go an almost black humor route with it, with a Groundhog Day vein to it all. Like, yes, still focus on the respawned character slowly wearing away because it's frustrating and all, but also explore a sort of comedic side to it as well. Like, go through about a 3 day cycle where they meet a seemingly unavoidable death after every three days. Maybe mess with the concept of fate a little bit and have it less like a video game and more like, even if the action in that 3 day cycle is changed and derailed and they end up in a completely different spot at the end of those 3 days, they still die in some manner, maybe even different for each time they change something about the timeline. Like, go through a 3 day cycle of normal interaction a couple times and then do a "skip" where it is assumed that they've been through this 50 times already. So, if information is revealed to the "non remembering party" it really will be unremembered because you didn't play through every moment of the previous timeline resets.

THAT seems much more fun and relaxed to play with, finding the respawned dude after the 50th cycle, walking like Bill Murray with Andie MacDowell down the street apathetically pointing out cars passing by and dogs barking on the exact second and glibly knowing everybody's names, just completely tormented by the endless repetition.

 

[Erit of Eastcris]

Alternatively, do a story where the leading pair is stuck in this respawn cycle together and it's the rest of the world they need to deal with. See Edge of Tomorrow for an example of such.

 

[Rudolph Quin]

Alternatively, do a story where the leading pair is stuck in this respawn cycle together and it's the rest of the world they need to deal with. See Edge of Tomorrow for an example of such.

Oooo! +1!

I like that. It might be more compelling to explore a madness aspect and isolation for a main character if the story was solo focused but if you're going for a romance or just simply a partnered role-play, I definitely like the pairing up idea. Hmm, maybe even like a competition game of some kind, like geocaching or some sort of race across the world. Maybe when one of then dies, they both respawn? Or some silly rules like that. Having them be partners solves almost all of the previous problems I originally outlined.

 

[Sugo]

Has a fairly distinct Romeo and Juilet attachment to it also. The idea that they will always be together. If one character dies and the other one is still alive they will likely seek death. Unless we go the route of Battle Royale and say they're linked.