Innovation of the Week: The Corpse Run

The quest for firsts and mapping out the early evolution of notable video game innovations continues! This week, let's dive into a mechanic that is sometimes divisive, yet can add a layer of excitement to the games that utilize it well: the Corpse Run. A corpse run is when a player, upon dying in a game, is required to navigate back to their place of death to retrieve dropped resources such as items, currency and/or experience points. Generally the return trip starts from a place of safety such as the last visited town or campsite, and it often involves retracing one's steps through dangerous territory where enemies await. The corpse run contributes to a sense of vulnerability and adding tension, but can also come off as unfair or tedious depending on the execution. Here's how it came to be and evolved during its formative years.

The first example can be found in the text-based game MUD1 (1978), created by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at the University of Essex. In this pioneering online MP RPG (more commonly called a Multi-User Dungeon), there are two different kinds of player character deaths. Dying in a fight results in permanent death, while other events such as being trapped or jumping off a cliff results in a temporary death. After a temporary death, the player is booted from the game, all their items are dropped where they died, and they must be recovered manually. And just like that, the corpse run was born! However, it would take quite a while for the mechanic to get any mainstream impact in video games.

Some more retro game examples:

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981), Ultima III: Exodus (1983) and Dungeon Master (1987) - We are still some ways off from corpse runs as we now know them making a return in games, but while these games don't quite have them, they do include fairly similar mechanics related to dead player characters: If a party member dies, their body remains on the ground, and the remaining party members can retrieve their equipment by either reviving the character or by picking it up from their corpse. This added a layer of strategy and resource management, especially when facing challenging combat or when needing to conserve essential equipment, since inventory space is also limited. Furthermore, each individual death tends to be less punishing than in a game where you control a single player avatar. The dead character's body can also be retrieved and brought back to a temple at the surface (or at a healer's place in Ultima III, or a resurrection alcove/altar in Dungeon Master) for revival. However if either this or reviving on the spot fails in Wizardry or Ultima, the character is lost forever.

NetHack (v3.1.0 onwards - 1993, originally from 1987) - This rogue-like game also doesn't have corpse runs, but it features something similar that I found interesting enough to mention: If you have died one or more times and you start a new game, there's a chance (about 33%) that you might come across the bones (really a ghost hovering over the character's bones, or a vampire if the character was killed by one which is a neat touch) of your previous character(s). This feature is known as the "bones file" or "bones". Here's how it works: When a character dies in NetHack, the game saves the state of the dungeon level where the character died, along with all the items the character was carrying. This saved state is called a "bones file." In subsequent playthroughs/runs, if the player reaches the same dungeon level where a previous character of theirs died, there's a chance that the game will load the bones file. When this happens, the player will find the bones and ghost of their previous character, along with any items they were carrying at the time of death. The new character can then loot the items from the dead character’s bones after killing or luring away their ghost, recovering any items from a previous run. There can only be one bones file per dungeon level, and each bones file only has a random chance of being selected as a bones level when entered for the first time. So while not the same as a typical corpse run since you weren't setting out to find your current character's remains or items, you are in a sense doing one. Except you're looting the remains of a different character you played as, from a previous run, that may or may not have happened a long time ago.

Diablo (1996)(Multiplayer mode) - This rogue-like and Zelda series inspired ARPG is the game that first popularized corpse runs, and we start seeing more of a mainstream presence of the feature from this point onwards. In case you forgot: When a player character dies, everything they were carrying is dropped in a pile and they are resurrected back in town with reduced HP and MP, carrying nothing. Unless playing on Hardcore, in which case they stay dead and the items are truly lost. While this seems harsh at first, players soon learn that anything dropped in town will stay there after reviving*, and that opened town portals stay open until used to go back into the dungeon. This allows the return trip to generally be pretty fast, but the retrieval process can be quite tense and even exciting if their reserve equipment is a bit crappy and the spot they died in is crowded with tough enemies.

To further soften the blow, having a party of other players around to help you get back on your feet is also an alternative, since Diablo is also a MP RPG and an online game, just like the aforementioned MUD1. On the other hand, there are several opportunities for mischief in a MP game. For example, another player can hold your dropped equipment hostage. If you are unable to get to it yourself and/or the other player stole it and your spare equipment back in town, it's up to them if you get your stuff back or not since that game's content is gone if all players decide to leave. Personally, I would never think of doing such a thing to another player. Lastly, if you are killed by another player (which can only happen outside of town) you only drop an ear with your character’s name, regardless of if you were in aggressive or peaceful mode. A secondary economy eventually developed for the game where infamous players would have bounties on their ears.

*This is before player stashes/chests, however one could use a secondary character to store items and gold provided another player stays in the game to let them do so.

Ultima Online (1997) - This game is one of the first MMORPGs that can be called popular, and it was pretty influential on later games. Ultima Online incorporates corpse run mechanics that are quite similar to those in the later World of Warcraft. When you die, your items stay on your corpse while you turn into a ghost and need to go to a wandering healer or an ankh (you might have to find a placed town portal to get to these), or have someone else resurrect you. Then you can go back to your corpse and pick up your items. The items stay on your corpse when you die, and eventually your corpse will turn into a skeleton, then decay completely at which point anything on your corpse is actually lost. This takes around 10 minutes if I'm not mistaken. But wait, there's more! The items can also be looted by monsters, or even other players if playing in the Felucca area. To prevent (most) item loss, you can use item insurance - probably the first example of such a mechanic - which costs in-game gold to use. If you have the gold it is easily accessed via a menu. Other methods of item retrieval include using a Recall spell stored in a blessed rune book (which isn't lost when dying) to get back to town for restocking and then to get back to near where you died, evening the odds for yourself, and/or using other spells such as summoning a mount for increased speed, or making yourself invisible. Of course, other players can also help you out, should you have any friends.

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What are your thoughts on corpse runs? What's your favorite example, and why does it stand out to you? Share your thoughts and memories!