The penalty of death in games (part 5)

How do we handle player death in Solar Echoes? In most table-top RPG's, death is sometimes truly the end of the character, and the Game-Master will advise the player to “roll up a new character.” However, at higher levels, death can usually be avoided. For instance, in fantasy games, there are resurrection spells that can be paid for at local churches, and some high level players can acquire magic spells to do the same thing, in some shape or form. We wanted Solar Echoes to be realistic, at least within a sci-fi perspective, so we decided to focus on technology as a solution, rather than the magic you'd expect in a fantasy game. If a character dies, the Union Guard he works for will submit his archived DNA to a cloning facility. The cost of cloning is not cheap, so either the team will pitch in to help—effectively a group penalty—or the player's possessions and money might be used to pay. However, cloning in Solar Echoes carries an additional penalty: if your character dies several times, each copy of the previous clone copy begins to degenerate in some way. Some talents may be lost, some skills may be affected, and eventually, the MC can choose to give your character a new personality entirely. This can make for some excellent role-playing opportunities (your previously shy character seems different now—he's become a bombastic, loud-mouthed agitator), but eventually, if you get to the last clone copy you can make (number nine), your character will have gone totally insane.