Supernatural Resilience

By Felipe Lohan Pinheiro da Silva

Agora cabelos negros,   
(The hair that's black today,)
Máis tarde cabelos brancos;
(Later will become white;)
Agora dentes de prata,
(The teeth that are silver-like now,)
Mañán chavellos querbados;
(Tomorrow will become crooked and broken;)
Hoxe fazulas de rosas,
(The pinky cheeks of today,)
Mañán de coiro enrugado.
(Tomorrow will become worn leather;)

Morte negra, morte negra,
(Dark Death, Dark Death;)
Cura de dores e engaños,
(Healer of misery and mistakes,)
¿ Por qué non mátalas mozas
(¿ Why you don't kill the girls)
Antes que as maten os anos?
(Before the time does it?)

Rosalía de Castro (Poeta Galega / Galician poet)

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“Full-faced moon with light unshaded,
Let my beauty never be faded.
¡ Never let my cheek grow pale!
While the moon is waning nightly,
May the maiden bloom more brightly,
¡ May her freshness never fail!”

This magical ritual appeared in the tale "The Dragon of The North" ("Der Norlands Drache") – Compiled by Andrew Lang in the Yellow Fairy Book, referencing the book “Estnische Märchen” by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald.

***

Note: This article serves as an advice for both the gaming group and authors that want to drag their characters through endless [campaign/franchise]s.

RPG groups and ƒіction [franchi[se]ri]es, sooner or later, will have to deal w/ the issues of the character getting old. Some snob [authors/GM]s just replace an older character by an younger one and carry on; they say that it helps the [play/view/read]ers to get "maturity" to deal better w/ matters of ageing and death. Well, ¡ Bullshit! ¡ My fucking ass! It's enough for the players to have it happening in the everyday life.

The most obvious alternative is making them immortal by super[natural/scientiƒіc] means. That's what I call "Supernatural Resilience". It comes in levels, presented here from the most basic to the most advanced:

0 – The character stops ageing.

1 – The character gets rejuvenation, until the point of becoming biologically in his early twenties or late teens.

2 – The character gets regeneration from wounds (no scars), but severed bodyparts DOESN'T grow back.

3 – Like above, but the character DOES grows back, after a healing period and proper feeding.

4 – The interior of the body of the character becomes homogeneous, like rubber or a hard gelatin; so he becomes immune to bleeding. Note: For those who reads RPGs the so-called “oldscholl” RPGs, it means immune to the increased damage from both critical hits and sneak attacks, due to the fact that [weak points / internal organs] were hit; for those who reads RPGs w/ “damage soaking” mechanics, it means to be allowed to make "soaking rolls" against piercing and slashing damage. ¡ Enough of dying due to a single stab from a common minion/enemy!

Now you may ask: ¿ So the PCs/main characters can't die anymore? Answer: They still can die, BUT ONLY FOR A VERY GOOD FUCKING REASON. Higher the mortality rate in your setting or system, higher the level of Supernatural Resilience that you need to give to the Pcs/main cast. It prevents the death of the PCs/main characters to become a trivial thing. After all, creating a character, or presenting a character to the [view/read]ers (in the case of [franchi[se]ri]es), is a time-consuming task.