Reroll player traits upon cloning

[Frank_Stein]

I think it's important to rebuttal the whole don't die argument: There are too many ways to die or be murdered that death is inevitable, and common for most of the crew. There are a lot of things that can and will instantly kill someone, not even counting things that insta-gib. Plenty of chem mixes, kinetic and traitorous weapons, antagonist abilities, natural game mechanics, random events, the sheer will of a robust person/mob to cave your head in with a toolbox, and plenty of other ways and things to die to. It's also not a fair argument to make for newer or unrobust players, or those who get ignored while being killed by an antag, who through no fault of their own have died because of it.

I think my general notion was something to make the process of being cloned feel a bit roguelike, in that you'd get a new set of advantages and disadvantages to work with on a second life. Traits seemed like the current mechanic best suited for that.

Like your current set? Don't die.

Need to tweak or offset some of your new body traits? Visit the doctors or geneticists

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There should also be an element of luck, with getting traits that are unique to this method that are better than you could normally have

Except ss13, and especially goon, is not a roguelike. Mucking with traits, a currently completely player determined part of their character, is changing a fundamental part of character creation, and arguably a core aspect of any given character. It's not something to take lightly, or throw the idea around and about like there isn't a major consequence to it. Traits are a way to change how one's character acts or appears from other characters and distinguish them as unique, and making it a giant lottery spin upon cloning fundamentally changes that character, the player's intent, and even the fun in how the character was built. Traits should NOT be luck based in cloning nor be even altered in almost any way by a standard game mechanic, because at that point I would argue you lose the ability to make a unique character that can and will only be that character.

Those are all good points, but consider this...

What are the downsides to a second life? It used to be, waiting. Wisely, we changed that in a way that keeps people in the game longer.

Now, people seem to think I want this to be harsh and punishing, that you should get traits like puritan and immediately die. I don't. I just think there should be some downside to an instant revival. Having to deal with some kind of lasting trauma, especially from a character death is also a significant opportunity for RP

Characters can, like people, experience major life events like accidents of diseases that permanently disable them. Gaining or losing traits as a consequence of death really, in my mind, can reflect that.