Collected from the web: There are over 200 bodies on Mt. Everest.
Because it is so difficult (if not impossible) to retrieve those bodies, they are simply left in situ. Grisly, but fascinating monuments to those who have attempted the most famous of climbs.
(For the record, if this were to be the way I died, I would actually prefer to have my body left there and remembered. A fleeting touch of immortality.)
What’s interesting is that many of these bodies have become actual landmarks. Some have earned nicknames. They have become part of the mountain and part of the experience of climbing the mountain.
Turning this to our most prevalent topic here at the Alexandrian: When I’m DMing, because I’m forgetful, corpses will frequently end up disappearing as if they were phasing out from a CRPG. This is not a deliberate choice on my part; quite the opposite, in fact. When I remember to account for corpses, some great gaming experiences have come from it: Whether it’s the heads of formers PCs on pikes outside the Caverns of Thracia. Or the murder investigation launched when the PCs irreverently left corpses laying in an alley. Or the mystery posed by disappearing corpses in the labyrinth. Or the sinking, near-poisonous miasma which resulted from the PCs leaving a bloody charnel house of corpses to molder and rot.
At an open game table, of course, this sort of thing will crop up more frequently. (Where the heck did that corpse of a necromancer come from?) But even without an open game table, you can consciously choose to have the environment evolve when the PCs aren’t looking; or evolve as a result of the actions the PCs have taken (or not taken). The typical milieu of a D&D campaign is strewn with corpses. Don’t forget about them.
Random corpse table?
I think we all tend to forget the corpses from time to time.
I at least try to keep track of them during combat. I’ve got a collection of markers that I use to show where bodies are (so I can take cumbersome minis off the table) – because a pile of corpses around the Fighter is a) awesome, and b) a grisly obstacle.
Good point! Raggi’s modules usually have corpses planted to show that a location is dangerous, and I recently stocked a dungeon with both undead and regular corpses, but I’d never really consciously processed the idea that they take on significance beyond “somebody died here.”
Actually, a “what’s happened to those corpses you left in the dungeon” table was my submission to the recent random tables contest.
Interestingly, the new season of Leverage (S04, aired about 2 weeks ago) had the finding of a corpse on an icebound mountain as the main plot. Without wanting to spoil the episode for anyone, the resolution of the finding touches on your point.
I try to remember corpses, as has been noted above, they can serve as odd springboards to new adventure.