John Harper Sean Nittner Just been listening to the AMA stream and first of all wanted to say thank you as it’s great to see such a community built around this game and the devs listening and answering questions. Second, my crew just picked up Ghost Echoes and I wanted some advice (seeing as it’s John’s favourite). How do the players interact with these ghost echoes? What are they useful for from your own experiences? As a GM how can I use the Ghost Echoes ability to not only better the gaming experience, but introduce new obstacles for my crew? Do the PCs always have to interact with the echoes or can it be switched off? Sorry from the bombardment of questions, its just foreign territory to me and I can’t quite grasp how Ghost Echoes works in play (mechanically and fictionally)
John Harper Sean Nittner Just been listening to the AMA stream and first of all wanted to say thank you as it’s…
John Harper Sean Nittner Just been listening to the AMA stream and first of all wanted to say thank you as it’s…
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Clues from the book:
There’s an echo of the entire city, across the ages, trapped in the ghost field… Echoes are “loops” of behavior captured in the ghost field, repeating over and over. They have no will of their own, but are still dangerous because of the electrical discharge of their plasmic forms. They sometimes spontaneously manifest at the site of an extremely violent event, whether or not death was involved.
With Ghost Echoes, the PCs can perceive past events; useful for investigations or tracking, e.g. identify an item stolen, read a book that’s no longer there, find object’s echoes in the ghostfield even if they’re obscured physically (snow, water, fog, earth). And they can interact with the echo’s electroplasm as if it were still physical; useful for traversing difficult spaces or overcoming obstacles, e.g. cross a river over the echo of a fallen bridge, enter a building through the echo of a bricked up door.
And the PCs gain the ability to see and interact with echoes of the city, they’re not cursed by it. Not being able to unsee the city’s echo could make a good Devil’s bargain, but it shouldn’t be the default. I wouldn’t want the players to feel punished for earning Ghost Echoes.
When the PCs bungle rolls while using Ghost Echoes, that’s a good time to introduce harm from electroplasmic discharge or terrible visions, or complications from unwanted attention or being distracted from problems creeping up on them in the physical world. Just like any bad result, look for consequences in the threats already established. And as always, you can ask your players why things went wrong.
Maybe Dishonored2 level “A Crack in the Slab” is good inspiration, too.