Author: Oliver Granger (watergoesred)

Is the Whisper’s Compel power meant to refer to “ghosts” not “spirits”? The talk of satisfying the need for life essence, exacting vengeance and the other descriptions make it sound like you mean to say “ghost”.

I ask because referring to compelling a spirit makes me think can I affect compel a soul or a possessed, a hull or even a vampire, because they all have spirits that that could feasibly be summoned and controlled. Sounds too powerful to me, though.

Compel p86

You can Attune to the ghostfield to force a nearby spirit to appear before you and obey a command you give it. You are not supernaturally terrified by a spirit you summon or attempt to compel (though your allies may be).

The GM will tell you if you sense any spirits nearby. If you don’t, you can gather information (maybe Attune, Survey, or Study) to attempt to locate one. By default, a spirit wants to satisfy its need for life essence and to exact vengeance. When you compel it, you can give it a general or specific command, but the more general it is (like “Protect me”) the more the spirit will interpret it according to its own desires. Your control over the spirit lasts until the command is fulfilled, or until a day has passed, whichever comes first.

Satisfying a Ghost’s Need

I assume a Ghost PC can possess a living victim to consume its spirit energy even if they don’t have the Possess trait. Otherwise I don’t see how they reduce drain.

On pages 214-5, the rules say to satisfy their need for life essence, a Ghost PC must “possess a living victim and consume their spirit energy (this may be a downtime activity)”. However, I noticed that a new Ghost PC may not choose Possess as a starting trait, which grants the ability to “attune to the ghost field in order to take control of a living body.”

So is the distinction here that any Ghost PC can possess a body to consume its spirit energy, but only those with the Possess trait can try to control that body?

Also, if I’m reading it right, possessing a body to consume its spirit energy seems to be the Ghost’s version of Indulging vice, except the Ghost version isn’t limited to downtime only. Is it intended that any Ghost can reduce their Drain mid-score, for example?