Axel

My take is that one of the main reasons for the ransom system is to encourage Players to surrender rather than fight to the death, so the details should support that. Generally players hate losing gear, often more than losing the PC entirely, in which case the default would be that ransomees keep their gear. That said, I would ask your players when first explaining ransoms, or as a Session 0 question, how they want it handled in your campaign 'cos this seems like a YGWV issue.

When I played a Mreli, I played an alternate character in Dark and Storm Season. I think RQ is best played with a stable of characters because characters can die very easily so it's good to have a replacement ready to go, a successful Divine Intervention can make a character not want to adventure for a couple of years while they recover their POW, a character can be a bad fit for a given story so having alts gives GMs more flexibility in the adventures they throw at players. I think it's also worth remembering that in RQ2 players were expected to have multiple characters (The Cradle adventure, and stories from Greg's House campaign make that clear).