Sacrifice

The Sacrifice is a tricky thing, especially with players who are used to Munchkining their way through adventures.

The best example of an appropriate sacrifice would be in Dungeons and Dragons when a player decides to voluntarily break the Staff of Power to invoke the retributive strike ability. Another excellent example can occur in Heroes Unlimited, where character with the 'Physical Transformation: Fire' ability can use a desperation move called Super Nova that acts like a mini-nuke, but is very likely to either kill the character or burn out his powers permanently.

Obviously not every resurrection scene requires a sacrifice on that level, the level of the sacrifice needed will depend upon two things: the scale of the campaign or adventure, and the skill of the players. Smaller scale adventures generally require a smaller sacrifice (but not always), and highly skilled player can generally get away with smaller sacrifices due to the level of play they are able to bring to the table.

Easy sacrifices to start with are special power items. In Dungeons and Dragons, players often hoard magical items- and the resurrection scene is a great place to force the player's hand by putting their characters is so much danger that they are willing to part with part of their stash of god-like power. Burning out the charges in their wand of lighting, casting every enhancing scroll that they have, anything of that sort qualifies as a reasonable sacrifice. In other games the special power items are often not as big, but forcing a Vampire to sacrifice his loyal Hell Hounds in a suicidal rush on the villain to buy time for a final mystical attack is a perfect example. Palladium games are excellent for this type of sacrifice as well, because the games depend so heavily on gear. Hong Kong Action Theater offers a unique method of sacrifice, since the players can literally sacrifice their character's lives in the adventure (the movie) without losing the character forever (since the character is an actor playing a part), but simply until the end of the adventure. In Nomine and other games involving such powerful beings can require the Player Characters to burn off their innate power to achieve success.

More difficult and interesting sacrifices could involve an unfavorable option for defeating the final villain that involves a sacrifice of something important. Perhaps the villain's power armor has an exposed wire just under the left shoulder pad that- if touched by something conductive such as a human being or a piece of metal- would short out the entire left side of the suit. It's a tremendously risky move and one that might kill or cripple the person who tries it. This is a classic movie sacrifice. Likewise on a fantasy front, there could be a ritual that will lock out the villain's magic for something like five minutes, but which requires the blood sacrifice of a certain number of experience levels (that can be given by multiple people to lessen the individual burden). These options may not be required, but if the battle goes poorly and they were mentioned back around either Meeting the Mentor or the Tests stage of the campaign, the players may start considering them.

The noble sacrifice by an NPC is a possible option, but should be used sparingly and only if it seems appropriate and cool/tragic. Since it isn't the players making the sacrifice, this move can seem contrived if it isn't done right. If this is the end of the entire campaign and the group is going to start a different game with different players, the Game Master may wish to require a whole sacrifice to banish the villain. The only way to stop the Villain from fleeing the collapsing space station is for one hero to stay behind and hold him or her there. The Villain is can only be killed by somebody he has murdered, necessitating that a hero take a lethal hit in the hopes of getting a lethal hit on the villain in return. The ritual to banish the elder god that the villain summoned (and then got eaten by), requires the sacrifice of a willing human life.

This option is best used at the end of a truly epic, and hopefully final adventure. Done right, it should allow for other answers as to how to beat the villain and the player characters should have been unable to make those options work. At this point the players will consider that worst case scenario option that you the Game Master laid out so long ago. Done right this option will have players talking for months about the adventure. the key to remember is that there should always be another option that has a chance of succeeding and it should always be the player's choice which method to use. This option works well if a really cool NPC has already sacrificed their life to save the Player Characters' lives- it tends to put the players in the right mood. That said the NPC noble sacrifice should be cool and should matter to the plot and the players.

One of the game purposes of the sacrifice is also to keep the characters from becoming too overpowered. By really challenging the players and forcing them to expend a lot of their character's skill and power and gear and experience in the big final confrontation, it doesn't feel as though the Game Master is stealing from them, but rather simply giving them a really good challenge. This is also the truth; because if the players aren't being challenged to the point where they have to scrounge and gamble and burn up stock piled power, then it isn't much of a story climax. Look at the film "Independence Day" the heroes risk everything and nearly lose everything. Crop Duster Pilot Russell Case sacrifices his life to save his children, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith's characters believe that they have done so as well. The President of the United States gambles his life, the survival of his nation, and indeed the survival of the remainder of his species on a plan that is entirely untested.

This is the essence of good story survival. Whatever else that movie may have done right or wrong it got the final sacrifice of the resurrection scene perfect.

People can also sacrifice their reputation, their position, their rank, their wealth, their pride, and a host of non-combat related sources of power. This works well as long as such things give tangible benefit in the game, have value to the player, and can be sacrificed in a way that would actually help the final confrontation.

The sacrifice required is a sacrifice of...


 * 1) blood


 * 1) body/body part


 * 1) item


 * 1) experience


 * 1) knowledge


 * 1) allegiance


 * 1) power


 * 1) potential sacrifice of life

Every sacrifice should offer some consolation prize to show what the hero did.

The consolation prize is...


 * 1) a mark of valor


 * 1) a supernatural power (a low level power)


 * 1) public recognition


 * 1) treasure or a monetary reward


 * 1) rank or title


 * 1) secret knowledge