Had our first game tonight! Minor snags which mostly came from overthinking things, but the assassination went well. 🙂
One thing we noticed (after an unexpected run-in with a ghost) was that the Leech doesn’t have a spiritbane charm listed. Is this intentional or an oversight (I’m assuming intentional, but also feel that in a city of ghosts most people should have one)? The Leech was almost pushed into Trauma save the Spider anchoring the ghost and putting it into a bottle!
The last line of the standard equipment allows you to write in anything you want, which is a lot more powerful than most people realize. I’ve seen it used for all kinds of exotic equipment, and in a pinch, it allows the Leech and the Whisper to have a Spiritbane charm if they need one.
Ben Morgan I thought you needed to fill that only temporarily using an acquire asset roll. Having access to absolutely anything would be ridiculous
That puzzles me as well. I would make sence if there were more advanced means of protection available to the Leech and the Whisper by default, but I can’t see any,
Antimatter​ This is true, but for something as trivial as a spiritbane charm I would rule it a 0 Stress flashback to get it.
Spiritbane charms, are, honestly, something that always came across as more superstition than actual effect, which might explain why the Whisper doesn’t have one.
Mike Pureka
This is certainly how our Leech is playing it. Sure there are ghosts around, but there’s a perfectly logical explanation; they’re just residual energy patterns left over from the deceased’s biolectrical neural impulses. No reason to get superstitious about it.
Taking up a slot of useful equipment with a “lucky charm” doesn’t sit well with me. A superstitious trinket is fluff, which leads me to believe a spiritbane charm has an actual effect. Perhaps the Leech and Whisper don’t have one because they’re the only two who can make these expensive protections (a cool thing could be fake spiritbane charms and all the bad that ensues).
Now, what IS the effect? Automatic repulsion? Seems thematically feasible but mechanically overpowered. Does it add effect? This seems the most logical, leading to the question of what to roll (Attune, I assume). The above can (should?) also apply to spirit bottles. In our session, I ruled that a spirit bottle traps a ghost automatically, however after some thought I feel it’s cooler if you need to make a roll to trap a specter.
Ben Morgan , I really like this “science vs superstition” idea. Imagine two whispers with opposing views debating the nature of the soul, ghosts, etc.
Ben Liepis
Right now we have a Whisper and a Leech who can’t stand each other for exactly this reason. Each claims the other doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Ben Morgan , I love it!
I think it is intentional, since v6 had the same list of items as v7. I also think they are things which are easy enough to produce (they simply require emotional investment, or belief or something; I heard John describe them as being worn in quantity around the neck of a Fog Hound deckhand trained to fight ghosts, and each was different, like they all might work). The whisper having a demonbane charm and no spiritbane charm throws me off though. Like.. Demons > ghosts, but demons also =/= ghosts. ::ahem:: hmm, maybe a “summon” will help 🙂 John Harper
RE: Are the charms a flavor item, or actually useful?
Both. Thing is, the spiritbane charms are going to work unless the ghost pushes themselves to avoid being repulsed (see Ghost playbook), but then the item description tells us it is “A small arcane trinket which ghosts prefer to avoid.” So while they don’t have to avoid it, they will unless cornered, because doing otherwise is costly for them.
In other words, a Ghost PC has to push him or herself (2 stress) to resist being repelled by the charm. So an NPC ghost should too. And technically, NPCs lack stress tracks. I decided that overcoming this repulsion should trigger a fictional effect something like whatever “taking drain” would look like – or, more dramatically, whatever “gaining Gloom” would look like.
On-screen in my games, ghosts are put into “fight or flight” mode, mortal fear response, by the charm. However, “fight” is not an option without significant drain to their essence to do it, so I portray them as shrieking in anguish, fear, or sadness in order to stand and fight someone directly with a charm, and being edgy, despondent, or nervous to even be within long range of it.
Mark Cleveland Massengale My problem with this solution is that it makes ghosts kinda trivial. Why are we bothering to cremate corpses and build huge electric barriers if ghosts just run away from little trinkets (that basically everyone has) all the time? It also undercuts ghosts as being seriously terrifying.
Mike Pureka , exactly! For future games such charms will give a -1d to the fortune roll when a ghost tries to possesss a PC. As far as I can tell, that makes sense fictionally and mechanically. The ghost’s still scary and if they possess a person, off comes the charm!
One other bit: say a ghost attacks a person. What action should they take to stop it? Is it only a resistance roll? I figure bullets and blades are still harmful, even if only a little bit, so a ghost won’t like being shot or slashed at. These are rather ineffective, though, so proper attuning and magic is best. Thoughts?
The way I’ve played it, I’ve shown the ghost NPCs to be visibly uncomfortable in the presence of it, and it makes it significantly more difficult for one to possess a living person if they’re wearing one, but other than that it doesn’t limit the ghost’s behavior. In short, the charms work because they’re a severe annoyance to the ghosts, and 99% of the time it’s easier for the ghosts to simply go away. However, if the ghosts had sufficient reason to stick around and act against the living person, the charm alone wouldn’t save them.
didn’t mean to do that Mike Pureka. They still fight after reacting that way, and possess others, etc. – when its important to them. I am just talking about the RP along the way
Of course there’s no canon here. You all don’t have to align on a singular right way to handle ghosts and charms. Like most things in the setting, this is an element to be explored and defined by play.
John Harper , I agree! As pretty much everyone knows, that is a feature not a bug! I love that we’re not just discussing rules. Those are dry. Those can be explained and it’s done; you go back to your creative world. The way the setting and rules interact allows for these discussions of “What do you think of this? How do you handle that?”, bringing so much creativity to the game and encouraging some ingenious ideas. I’ve been awestruck by some of the things here and they’ve been immeasurably helpful. I love that Blades is like an unfinished canvas for all of us to paint on, making a fantastic picture we all can share.
OK, that got a wee sappy. 🙂