I am starting to conceptualize a crew who handles spirit removal. Ghostbusters style. A game set in duskwall about hunting down ghosts and cleansing warehouses, apartments, and factories.
I’m currently split between making it a spirit wardens crew sheet and having players be part of that organization or having the crew be a sort of unofficial/unlicensed service. “we’re like Uber, but for exorcisms”
Does anyone have any preference to one or the other?
Ghosts are used to extract electroplasm, right? I could easily imagine a crew specialising in the high profits of the spirit trade. It could be an interesting and highly illegal race between them and Bellwater, any time some criminal element or citizen dies.
Mhmm! The ghosts themselves, in lieu of being destroyed, could serve as a commodity to be traded/smuggled. My original thought was that ghost are inherently dangerous how they could wreck havoc on sensitive factory equipment, ruin high quality opera performances, or overcook steaks in fancy restaurants. This crew are glorified occult pest control.
Being your own startup crew in a world where one group has a monopoly will probably suit Blades better anyways. Definitely leaning towards that approach.
But why hire a start up over the spirit wardens? I need to flesh this out.
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Awesome idea. I like unofficial, racing against the spirit wardens. But I’m sure a spirit warden crew could be really cool also.
One approach to consider would be analogous to crime doctors. People show up with gun shot wounds or signs of combat damage, police get involved, so it’s better to have someone you can go to who doesn’t care.
Likewise, there are sometimes issues with ghosts in places you don’t want the Spirit Wardens to enter. The inner recesses of aristocratic manses, for example, or criminal warrens, or immigrant ghettos, or high profile opera houses that require discretion.
Great points Andrew! Good analogy to crime doctors. I’m going to keep that in mind when making this crew sheet tonight!
I like the idea of a ghost black market mentioned above, and you could further expand that into a conspiracy of some sort (by the government, or by a faction). Currently the one thing lacking in Blades for me is city-threatening plots, like you get in the Thief computer games. So I’d always be in favour of having a campaign story arc, or the equivalent of Fronts in Dungeon World. Again with the Ghostbusters analogy – it could just be something as non-conspiracy as the containment device being turned off for some reason.
Peter Cobcroft Skovlander terrorist attack on the lightning walls that keep the ghosts out–that would be a great way to START the campaign.
Have some sweaty desperate looting while all authorities were fully occupied trying to deal with the inrush of spirits, then when the walls are back up, massive cleanup of the dead and the damned swarming the city and surviving in its darkest corners.
Ideas for a ghost black market are at the bottom of this post.
https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/the-trouble-with-rogues/