So, I had a brain fart listening to Pundit's latest video (the one about eliminating easy resurrection in new school games) and thinking about Microscope at the same time. It's like oil and water mixed and threw up a cloud of angry prickly steam. I want to know if this has been done before.
Given that:
1. OSR games are deadly and, in my view, this is a good thing. Character creation starts with "character creation" and arguably continues until the character dies; and
2. In Microscope, you can play dead characters by simply adding to the story at a time before their death. A character can die in the very first scene. If you want to know about that character, you just play a period/event/scene where that character was still alive. Essentially, you play a younger version of that character.
Q. Is there a published TTRPG mechanic/game that provides for play of earlier versions of dead characters?
Suppose during a campaign, Muffy the Mage gets axed in the head by a crazed gnome. Everyone is sad, but this is OSR and thems the breaks. Maybe later you play a one-shot set in the past where Muffy is alive and obivously younger. The other players could play younger versions of their characters or different characters entirely. Muffy is dead but can still be played. The one-shot might give rise to interesting things when the campaign is resumed, like: "We were sad when Muffy bought it, but reflecting on the past (the one-shot), she was kind of a bitch."