In happened upon me that my character died and I decided to transfer to the ghost playbook. But I’m a bit confused about for what I actually need the possess ability.
1) Do I need it to “indulge my vice” aka. feed on life essence?
2) Do I need it to possess a hull or hollow to change my playbook?
3) Do I need it to take control of a body in free play/?
4) Do I need it to take control of a body during a score?
I pretty much think it all boils down to yes, it just seems a bit odd to me so I was looking for confirmation.
1, 3 and 4 are a definite yes. I’d say you could enter a hollow without possess because I see that more as being bound to something (potentially against your will?). To become a vampire you would need possess though.
On the page before the playbook info it says:
“Your vice is replaced with a need: life essence. Ghosts must possess people in order to satisfy this need (which you can’t do at first—you have to advance to earn that ability).”
So yes, it’s needed to indulge. The move description is also clear that it allows you to control the body, so I assume you cannot control bodies without it. The move description is also where it says “You may easily and indefinitely possess a hull or hollow”. So yes, I would also say that the Possess move is needed to change to one of those playbooks. I assume the intention is that there is a difficult adjustment period, requiring a new ghost to level up once before being able to reset your drain (as well as either a complex sparkcraft project or a difficult ritual to change playbooks to hull or vampire).
Of course, player experience trumps specific rules, so if you want to skip that period and your GM and other players are okay with it, you can just possess a hull or hollow without having to play until you have the ability.