"Ghost Canon WIP" By Vigilance99 (https://pastebin.com/u/Vigilance99) URL: https://pastebin.com/37arux33 Created on: Monday 10th of June 2019 01:25:03 AM CDT Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 10:10:28 AM UTC Major Roleplaying Notes: -Ghosts should never be treated purely as a character's race, their status as one of the dead should inform their character. Ghosts should be tragic, sad characters. The primary three 'aspects' of the dead I want played up for emotional reaction [feels] are A) The Dead are diminished. They are less then they were when they were alive. This is the reason they're see-through, they've become something insubstantial like a shadow or a mist. They've lost senses or faculties, they've lost certain pleasures or experiences, they've become something LESS then they were when they were alive. B) The Dead are exiled. Their deaths severed them from normal society, they are barred, exiled, unwelcome foreigners. No matter how much they might want to rejoin the world of the living they cannot. Their inability to eat/drink/sleep/age/reproduce/etc prevents them, their inability to stay materialized for long periods prevents them, and any attempt to ignore this [such as possession] is regarded as unethical or unnatural. C) The Dead cling to the past. More then anything else, ghosts exist because they refuse to let go. Almost all ghostly motivations amount to an inability to accept their death and its implications. Ghosts cling to their past identities, their names, their bodies, their memories, their friends, their family, their status, their powers [most are lost in reincarnation], a sense of duty, something from their past they cannot let go of. In most cases this is something the dead cannot get back. The minority of ghosts with other reasons for Tarrying do so out of a desire for justice, revenge, a proper burial, and other more temporary reasons for not passing on. In short I want ghosts to be played as a source of feels, mostly regarded to how much they've lost in becoming ghosts, and whatever it is they cling to as rationale for Tarrying. The top question and motivation for a ghost should be 'Why are they Tarrying?'. Especially at first I do not desire ghosts for whom death is merely a race, like 'I'm a ghost pirate'. At the least it should be expanded into the more emotional 'My ship went down and my men drowned and I couldn't accept what happened'. As I noted before being dead should be integral to their character, not something that could be removed and leave the same NPC. Minor Roleplaying Notes: -Ghosts in SQ are more powerful then ghosts in most folklore. As a result some motivations are harder to justify. If a ghost wants vengeance against her killer its entirely likely she could simply materialize and murder him instead of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for a group of investigators. If a ghost didn't recieve a proper burial, appearing dramatically before the priest and telling him where your body is [or if its accessible, burying it yourself] is as much an option as writing 'HELP ME' on a foggy shower mirror. -Unlike in other settings, ghosts can have something resembling lives due to their ease of interfering in the normal world, and not all pleasures require lost senses. As such a 'haunted house' or ruin is likely to have signs of activity unlike other fiction where the haunt seems unchanged for decades and completely thick with dust. -So this begs the question, why bother with 'haunting' at all? There are a number of reasons a ghost may opt for subtly. The ghost may not desire to kill its victims. If a ghost is actively living in its old house, slaughtering the new owners is likely to draw more attention then scaring them off. It may also view killing innocents as unethical. The ghost may want to avoid people trying to harm or help it, such as mediums or adventurers. Leaving a body count or openly walking the streets makes it more likely you'll be targeted as a problem to be dealt with. This is also the reason many ghosts live in ruins, caves, and old houses. Out of the way locations guarantee a degree of privacy, easily preserved by scaring off trespassers. -In short, if a ghost is haunting someone the question should be asked 'what do they hope to gain out of the haunting, and why are they doing this instead of simply Materializing and taking more direct action? -When it can be justified I strongly desire hauntings and folklore style ghost behavior. Appearing briefly then vanishing, walking around at night, appearing still as a statue with a corpselike appearance, flickering the lights/blowing out the torches, making short cryptic statements, possessing people, throwing objects with telekinesis [which lacks aura when a ghost does it, and is best done while the ghost is hiding since it cannot do so unmaterialized], causing the walls to run with blood or strong mist to blow in, etc. -Animals fear the dead, regardless of form. They act as one would suspect if someone in the real world saw a skeleton walking around or a ghost in their house. The best rubric to determine their reaction is 'how would a real person react to this', with the only difference being all Tetrans believe undead exist. -Elementals act in a very similiar way, but being immortal unless killed they also are repulsed and disgusted, if not outright hate, reminders of death such as Tarrying. -Plants remember being dead, possibly many times, and therefore do not tend to feel fear. They interpret the Cycle of life and death in a similiar fashion to the seasons and do not generally approve of prolonged Tarrying. -Machines view fear of the dead as a superstition, and often attempt to 'convert' the dead spirit to the Path of the Machine. Though even their front as 'men of science' can break down in the face of genuine danger or weird occurrences. In short their confident assurance or attempt to dismiss the dead as nothing to be afraid of exists entirely to be invalidated by spooky things happening. Biology: -Ghosts do not taste or smell, and cannot feel temperature or pain, only weight, texture, etc. -Ghosts do not eat, drink, sleep, breath, excrete, etc. -Ghosts can cry, but do not bleed or sweat. They lack most organs. Injuries result in a cut through a mostly uniform material. -Ghosts are extremely physically weak in most circumstances. -Ghosts appear as they did in life, except semi-transparent and with a turquoise silhouette. -Ghosts' bodies are room temperature but not cold. -Ghosts give off faint light when materialized and no light when not materialized. -Ghosts should never, ever have wispy tails. -Ghosts who shapeshift to scare should use ghostly horror not body horror. Corpse-like appearance, manifesting the wounds they died of, purely black eyes, etc etc. They also cannot generally use Astral Body Shaping to disguise themselves as living with shapeshifting. -If killed a ghost simply dematerializes and cannot rematerialize for a long span. Powers/Mechanics: -If a ghost can Materialize, it is a 5-pt PC with a minimum HW of 5/5. Otherwise it has the HW and Skill Points it had when alive. -All ghosts have the Ghost Flight and Natural Catalyst Racial, as well as one racial most representing one they had while alive [Unicorns get Telekinesis, Diamond Dogs burrowing, etc] -If a ghost can Materialize, it must somehow spend 3 SP on the Ghost Skill, either by simply buying it regardless of Class, or by having Astral Projection and spending one's Talent on it. -As a result all Materialized ghosts have the Ghost Flight, Natural Catalyst, and Ghost Skills allowing them to turn invisible, inaudible, intangible, as well as fly. -There are six abilities that come very easily to ghosts and makeup their most commonly found abilities, especially among ghosts that didn't have skills while alive. They are Materialization, Astral Body Shaping, Astral Matter Creation, Telekinesis, Possession, and Flight. These abilities, gained through SP or Anima, are common because they are all applications of a ghost's basic existence. -Any dead Psyche on Tetra will eventually learn to Materialize. Materialization causes a Psyche in the Astral Plane to gain a physical body again so they can interact with the world around them. For most spirits this takes several weeks minimum to develop, and thus most dead have reentered the Cycle long before this happens. This body drains Vimana to continue existing and thus ghosts can only remain physical for hours at a time. -Astral Body Shaping is the ability of a ghost to shapeshift. Barring unusual circumstance, ALL shapeshifting skills when used by a ghost results in Astral Body Shaping. There is no visible transformation, instead the body or body parts phase out of existence and are replaced by new pieces phasing in. The most common application of this ability is terrifying the living. -Astral Matter Creation is the ability of a ghost to create objects out of thin air. These objects, like their bodies, are always temporary. They are mechanically refluffing of Hat Magic [or Ethereal Weapon]. -Possession allows a ghost to take over a body. It has two varieties. The first is done through the Raise Dead skill and posseses an empty [dead] body, the second is done through Command or Vampire Ilo and possesses a living person. In both cases mechanically the ghost enters the astral plane and merely speaks through their minion, losing access to their other abilities for the duration. In most cases possessing a living person does not let the ghost smell, taste, sleep, or do other 'living' activity. -Telekinesis is self-explanatory. Usually gained through the Telekinesis racial or Esper Soul, the telekinesis of poltergeists lacks an aura and is usually for the creepy moving of objects or angered displays, rather then calm, casual manipulation. -Flight is simply the ability of a ghost to float or fly. -None of these skills are gained PURELY by being a ghost [except Flight]. They must be purchased mechanically through the ghost's 5 SP. A full Numeri who dies and Materializes will not fluffwise lose any abilities but may mechanically if they are needed to make room for the Ghost skill. -Other abilities attributed to ghosts in folklore such as controlling the weather, entering dreams, disturbing electronics, and so on might be possessed by a ghost but aren't part of the common arsenal of the dead.