I Speak to Dead People

[Bansidhe]

Hi there. I don't know if this is the appropriate board for this or not, but I didn't see any that seemed to be better suited for it. I have a dark fantasy super hero game that my friends and I are starting. The game has super heroes but focuses a lot on the supernatural/mystical world.

 

One of my players has a character that wants to talk to dead people to be his earliest manifestation of power. I am good with this, but have been wondering how I should build this. We have discussed both setting the power up as a Mind Link that needs the corpse of the deceased present to establish (his own limitation to the power, not mine).

 

I was wondering what some other thoughts on how to construct that type of power would be. Thanks for any input.

Bansidhe

[L. Marcus]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Hiya! That sounds like a straight Summon to me . . . Summon 75 point Human Deceased's Spirit, Frendly (+1/4); 20 APts; OAF (corpse; -1); 10 RPts.

[steriaca]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Humm...speaking to the Dead...try Telepathy with the advantages Transdimentinal (relms of the dead), Transdimentinal Only, Only To Speak With Ghost/Spirits, Focus (must have at least a 50% completed corpse of the intended target near by), and Incantations (you *must* speak your questions verbly), and Side Effect (Images to sound, always happens, as the ghost speaks back).

[Mightybec]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Or you could make it an Enhanced Sense for an Unusual Group.

[caris]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

I've also seen variations on Clairsentience used.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Okay, here's how I'd do it; it assumes the spirits of the dead are generally well-disposed towards the character and are willing to help out if they can or share knowledge if they have it.

 

 

Contact: 11- (2 points)

 

+4 to roll (4 points)

 

Contact has useful Skills or Resources (mainly information) (2 points)

 

Good Relationship with Contact (2 points)

 

Organization Contact -- "the spirits of the dead" (x3)

 

Cost: 30 points.

 

If it requires the corpse: OAF Corpse (-1)

 

If it requires Extra Time -- choose something that's appropriate

 

If it requires a Skill Roll (possibly vs. EGO or PRE) that's -1/2

 

In the earliest stages, before he learns how to control it, it might even be No Concious Control.

 

Edit: Okay, I'm going to go ahead and 'compact' it, the way it'd appear on a Hero Designer-done character sheet:

 

I Speak to Dead People: Contact (spirits of the dead): 15-, Contact has Useful Skills or Resources, Good Relationship with Contact, Organization Contact (30 Active) OAF Corpse of the person you wish to speak with (-1), Incantations Throughout (talking aloud to the spirit, -1/2), Extra Time* (5 Minutes, -1 1/2) (8 Real)

 

 

* The correct value for Extra Time [5 Minutes] is of course -2. Since the actual time it takes to contact the spirit, ask it questions, and get answers is going to vary -- and probably vary considerably -- I decided what a good 'average' time would be, then took a Limitation value that's one step down the Time Chart to reflect that there will be cases where it takes less than 5 minutes. (Yes, there will be times where it will take more than 5 minutes as well -- but the general way the rules seem to do things is that if there's a chance a Limitation could be both more and less limiting than the chosen benchmark, you take the Limitation value of the less limiting circumstance.)

[MisterBaldy]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Advise him to stop "living in the past", and don't go hanging out with those silly voodoo priest wanna-bees...

 

OK...I'll get serious for a moment.

 

L. Marcus and steriaca both have some good ideas on the topic. Dr. Anomaly's concept has some merit as well.

 

I think what Mightybec suggests, although insightful...it falls a little short of the concept that you are looking for. caris...not really sure.

 

Personally...I think that steriaca's idea holds the most merit.

 

For that...I bestow REPUTATION upon you.

[L. Marcus]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Personally, I feel that the Doc got it "right"*. That's the way I'd go, especially in a non-fantasy campaign.

 

*= Right is always right, for a given value of "right".

[Killer Shrike]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Hold up there.

 

Talking to dead people is just a SFX. What is the game effect/benefit of doing so?

 

If the benefit is just information gathering, then build it as Retrocognition.

 

If the benefit is that the spirits can do favors for the character out of combat in an ongoing relationship build it as Spirit Contacts.

 

If the benefit is that the spirits can do things for the character in combat then build it as any number of Powers, ranging from TK, to Luck, to Drains (spectral touch), etc.

 

If the benefit is that the spirits are called forth and act as individual entities, then build it as a Summon and stat out the spirits.

 

And so on and so forth, or some combination of several such abilities.

 

 

Its not a question of what the character does to accomplish th end effect; its a question of what the end effects are and work backwards from there.

[Zeropoint]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

You don't need any kind of "power" to talk to dead people. They're fantastic listeners.

 

Getting them to say something back is the hard part.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

You don't need any kind of "power" to talk to dead people. They're fantastic listeners.

 

Getting them to say something back is the hard part.

Good point. Maybe the hero is actually delusional

[Storn]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

I did it with Geist as Universal Translator, Only w/ dead people. Allowing me to understand them despite ancient languages or dialects.

 

This also gave the GM control over the situation as he was the one who introduced spirits. I rarely "summoned" them. It was more of a disad than anything... cutting short many a pleasant time.

[Jaxom]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

Hold up there.

 

Talking to dead people is just a SFX. What is the game effect/benefit of doing so?

 

If the benefit is just information gathering, then build it as Retrocognition.

 

If the benefit is that the spirits can do favors for the character out of combat in an ongoing relationship build it as Spirit Contacts.

 

If the benefit is that the spirits can do things for the character in combat then build it as any number of Powers, ranging from TK, to Luck, to Drains (spectral touch), etc.

 

If the benefit is that the spirits are called forth and act as individual entities, then build it as a Summon and stat out the spirits.

 

And so on and so forth, or some combination of several such abilities.

 

 

Its not a question of what the character does to accomplish th end effect; its a question of what the end effects are and work backwards from there.

 

Bingo. I have *gasp* a Voodoo Priest that I play in one of our campaigns and what he wanted was to be able to get information about what they had seen or done. I took it as Retrocog, only through the senses of others, requires OAF of opportunity - dead body. I was not interested in arguing with the spirit or anything so I took it as retrocog. If you have a different result in mind you could go a different direction with it.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: I Speak to Dead People

 

I do this as Transdimensional Telepathy to speak with someone on another plane of existance.