Extra Life

Extra Life (25/level) is where you can come back from the dead!
==Classic==
In addition to being present there, Vampiric Immortality functioned in a similar way by charging 25 cp per death cancelled. It could be used an unlimited amount of times. It was a lot like Unkillable (somewhere between 2 and 3) powered by a large amount of character points.
==Special Enhancements==
*Reanimation (-20%): "When you die, you’re guaranteed to rise as undead. The exact form is up to the GM, and may well be disadvantageous, even mindless.
==Affliction==
There is an example of being able to use Affliction (advantage) to apply it retroactively?
*however if EL is all that's keeping someone alive, then removing the affliction w/ Healing (or duration expiring) should cause them to die, since they did not actually buy the permanent effect of cancelling their death through spending character points.
==Schrödinger’s Advantage==
This is basically how buying Extra Life works, in comparison to the retroactive 50 charged under Impulse Buys.
==Reverse engineering==
"One use" abilities like Favor are 1/5 the price for recurring usability, which implies "recurring extra life" would be worth 125 pounds. That happens to fall somewhere between the value of Unkillable 2 (at 100) and Unkillable 3 (at 150)
*unlike these, there was no fixed recovery time based on healing or regeneration rates, instead it could be anywhere from instant to story-based depending on the GM.
**to give better guidelines, it might assumed to be instant by default with Onset allowing discounts before the character reappears (it's cheaper because it keeps you ought oh the story longer .. though that's good sometimes if your allies kill the monsters so they won't kill you a second time, which might happen if you come back instantly!)
***Fixed Delay would be a zero-point feature (specified on purchase) for lesser times than what Onset requires
****Variable Delay enhancements might allow the player to specify how many seconds before coming back to life at time of death rather than at time of purchase
*****Triggered Delay might allow players to just specify a condition that brings them back (all enemies are dead? ally begins to weep?)
One Use Only being -80% might be viewed differently: sometimes rules allow limitations to be bought off (or bought "up" to a lesser one) so one might argue the advantage still exists (it just cannot recharge) and paying points to improve that to the next step (limited use daily) restores usability.
*this may not be entirely legal though, because drawbacks from a prior use should not cease to exist just because it's bought off, that should only apply to FUTURE uses.
**which means for example if you had Aftermath obligations to suffer a disadvantage for 24 hours due to a prior use of an ability, spending points to buy off aftermath would not immediately erase that effect, just prevent if from happening the next time your ability ended!
***you could easily get -80% using less limited means! For example in addition to one use per day, you could take Takes Recharge or Aftermath or Maximum Duration
****you can take stuff like that on Allies too, to bring down their cost, before making them a Favor
==Limitations before your divisions==
One might assume prior to being 1/5 cost (like Favor) that "extra life" was already a -80% ability in ways like that.
*if that is the case then instead of the base cost being 125, "return to life instantly" might be viewed as a 625 point ability, or possibly multiple abilities
Regeneration (Extreme) [150] at 10HP/s is not enough to return a 10HP character back from -10xHP.
*RE10[1500] is
**only lasting 29 seconds is a -75% max duration which reduces it to 375 points
***that's regenerating 100 HP per second, so it can heal 2900 hit points.
*add 150 for UK3 that's 525 points
*maybe also add 100 for UK2 so the PC has option to respawn where they died instead of GM's choosing, if preferably
==Impulse Buys==
Pg 10 (right col) suggests this initially:
:convert this trait into an impulse buy is to permit a player whose character dies to spend 25 character points to resurrect him. That is, to extend the option of buying Extra Life retroactively
That's kind of unbalanced when compared to other options though. For example:
:Pg 10 (left col) under Deflecting Disadvantages mentions "costs half the points that the PC would otherwise lose" 
It would for example also cost 25 points to prevent the PC from losing Blindness which is -50. Death is worse than blindness!
It also violates the earlier rule: "if the player didn’t or couldn’t avoid it by spending points sooner"
This problem appears to be acknowledged:
:In a campaign where heroes are allowed to start with Extra Life, this option is somewhat unfair.
:Players who choose Extra Life must make do with 25 fewer points of useful starting capabilities, some of which might not be available in play.
Pg 11 is more reasonable:
:decree that wishing Extra Life into effect retroactively costs double, just like conjuring an NPC out of nowhere.
:That is, it costs 50 character points to come back from the grave if you didn’t buy life insurance
This comparison is made:
:applying Deflecting Disadvantages to duck the worst level of Terminally Ill (p. B158), which is worth -100 points
The Terminally Ill comparison actually highlights that it's still underpriced though, because Terminally Ill means "a month to live" not "already dead".
*perhaps the difference is that unless you buy off Terminally Ill, you'll die again as soon as you come back to life? The timer doesn't even reset
**this is an example of a disadvantage which should actually WORSEN in value over time. For example if you begin with the -50 point version and one year passes in-game, you should lower point total by 25 points and change it to the -75 version. If another 11 months go buy, you should lose another 25 points.
***someone with attributes hoveirng around 1 near the end of their lifespan are probably just as bad, that's why age is a disadvantage as Fright Checks well knows, even though they forget that elsewhere in basic.
Affliction implies that "permanently asleep" or "permanently paralyzed" are -140 point disadvantages, while "permanently unconscious" is a -190 point disadvantage. So half the price of those should be 70 or 85 points to buy retroactively.
*which also would mean Extra Life would be overpriced if it was actually as bad as those.
Reasons it might not be:
*Death is not permanent unconsciousness: you were an insubstantial spirit possessing a meat puppet since conception! You didn't know?
**you just happen to have Impervious to Exorcism, but only while in your original body
***your possession was One Use Only so you'll have to buy off that limitation to try and possess anything else after losing your body!
****Insubstantial Only attacks DO damage your original body, but it's Unkillable 2, and you don't actually feel it (it's mindless)
*****you also CAN'T choose to leave your host at any time, you've got a Minimum Duration of average human lifespan. If you don't live that long, enjoy living in the corpse for a few decades
*Death is not permanent paralysis in the sense that it's joints are locked like a STATUE: most bodies just have "Not Paralysis" (while conscious) and you aren't fulfilling the terms of that condition
**because reaching -10xHP causes automatic knockout overall (as per the UKs) or -5xHP causes automatic knockout (for non-UKs)
***and BTW if you get knocked out, at -1xHP or less and fail the 1-time HT roll, "medical treatment" is needed to regain consciousness
****otherwise you'll need to pass enough daily HT rolls to get above the threshold: then you can make hourly attempts
*****but until that happens, keep in mind that "death" (ie knockout) is going to happen if you fail subsequent HT rolls every 12 hours
==References==
* Basic Set: Characters pg 13, 53
*GURPS Zombies pg 52
Category:Advantages