I’m not…I’m not literally basing the game on Pet Sematary. (Which was a book before it was a movie). It was just a quote for my feelings about how rezzing should work and why I don’t like it. But, thinking about it, I’ll put it to my players. If most of them want rezzing, I’ll see if I can make it work. Still feel it cheapens death.
I see that. But when a PC dies- does not the player come in with a new character? or when Black leaf dies is the Player out of the game? 
We have not have a raise dead or a resurrection in our game, altho my clerc has cast revivify a few times.
People get attached to their characters. If I see a moving death in a film, it still moves me even if the actor goes on to play someone else.
* bump *
Am seeing reviews of the new DMG that definitely make me want to buy it - not new class stuff, but the bastions stuff.
Can you go into any details?
I’m not sure what bastions are.
Bastions are castles, strongholds, that sort of thing. I remember seeing rules for them in the UA preview material for 5.24e though, being currently in two Pathfinder campaigns with a “Build a castle!” mechanic, I’m a bit bastioned out. Good to see this version tries to make some rules for them though.
I’ve heard good things about this DMG versus the 2014 one though that’s a low bar. Most of the stuff I’ve heard was people gushing over how great the chapter about social contracts and table wrangling is but this is the first I hard people talking about liking the real mechanics so that’s good.
Do bastions have any mechanical effect on the game? i.e. Other than a role playing reason, is there a reason to build one?
There’s various crafting effects and stuff that you can add to the game. I don’t have the new DMG but here’s the UA rules from the playtest days:
They’re character-related bases that come with material benefits. Also good money sinks. Here’s a summary of the new DMG take.
I love stuff like that. D&D badly needs money sinks; the base game has basically no runway between “make sure you have enough gold for rations” and “coins are annoying to carry, just take the gems and leave the rest behind.”
You can make magic items available for purchase, but that creates a whole lot of other issues that I don’t like to deal with.
In the last game I played, our party gladly dumped tens of thousands of gold into purchasing shop upgrades worth something like 8d20 gold a week (before employee expenses).
I don’t know if it would work for your campaigns, but in the last 3.5 game we played, I added a Church of the God of Wealth. It would enhance your favor with the gods by generous donations. To the tune of 1 EXP per 100g donated. 20% off if you were a member of the Church (layperson, as well as Clerics or Paladins).
It worked reasonably well, the players rarely kept more than 1000g on them for expenses.
It did mean that most aristocrats weren’t complete pushovers either. They too bought their way up. Of course, no one is saying the wealth of the church was spent all to the good. They were True Neutral after all, and were moneylenders to Everyone.
Honestly, I haven’t tracked EXP in decades. 
Back in early editions, the Fighting Man, Cleric and Wizard each automatically got a bastion when they topped out for hit dice- I remember if was 9th level for Fighter. After that they got 1 HP per level.
The Fighter got a Keep, the wizard a tower, and the cleric a temple?
And henchmen and followers automatically showed up. However you were encouraged to spent more gold on building them up.
I really like the idea of bastions. One game we played in had a bastion built into the module (Dragon Heist, I think), and it was a blast to play with. I tried to introduce one into my own Saltmarsh campaign, but gave it to the least-active player in an attempt to draw him more into the game, with the result of having a completely neglected bastion.
Ooh–would the new rules work with a ship bastion? Because that was the other piece in my campaign, and having a ship was a freaking blast.
I mainly remember it from the 1e DMG though that was more concerned with what each crenellation and arrow slit cost and how many cubic yards of stone a gnoll could move per day if there was a troll overseer. Delightfully detailed and crunchy reading but probably not as player-oriented as the new Bastion rules.
I’ll admit that, as a whole, RPG homesteading never really appealed to me. I let other party members dither over blueprints and whether we should build a guard post before or after an arched gate. My adventurers are for sleeping in inns and caves and forest floors!
It was a great thing to do between games. Plan and spend.
In the game I DM they have had their own home.
Bastions sound nice, but they’re not for me. I prefer my characters as wandering adventurers; real estate just ties you down.
After several reviews of the 2024 DMG, I did buy it to see the differences. I hope I keep learning how to DM better. The contrast to the 2014 DMG is amazing. 2024 DMG teaches a new DM how to DM. 2014 DMG teaches a new DM how to make their own world where they can eventually run adventures. A bit of snark but that is the case. 2024 starts small and grows outward in explaining things. 2014 starts big and finally zooms down.
Bastions are in the DMG because they are optional. I like the idea, although some of the specifics like maximum area in squares, are strange. The idea is to have a passive base somewhere and then every game week there is a Bastion Turn. When you create a Bastion, you get hirelings that take care of it, whether the PC is there or not. If the PCs aren’t there, the hirelings are assumed to Maintain it. There is a chance for it to be attacked and lost but again that’s up to the DM. If the PCs are there, they can issue orders like Craft, Empower, Harvest, Maintain, Recruit, Research, or Trade. There are 28 rooms/facilities a Bastion could have and what is picked determines what order can be given. For example, at lvl 5, you could have a Garden and then issue the Harvest command. It can give floral bouquets, candles, rations, or herbs for a healer’s kit or healing potion. Later, at 9th level, a Greenhouse could be picked and again a Harvest could be done. In this case, could gain a potion of healing (greater) or poison.
I hope that gives a better explanation of Bastions. It does have game mechanic effects and is a place to use gold because high level PCs will probably have more than they need to build and maintain a Bastion.
Thanks for the discussion! Take care!
That’s what airships and floating castles are for!
Or a Sending spell…