Truthsayer Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 How would you quantify the soul in the terms of characteristics and gameplay? Is it ego? Body? Int? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul It is the essence of a human that contains his consciousness and subconsciousness. I think you'd have to include the INT with the EGO in order to allow it to be self aware and intelligent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul It depends on what you want the soul to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul We didn't quantify it... or rather, the Soul is the sum total of all the parts, and then some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul It kinda depends on your application. If you want to define a soul with out a body, that's basically a ghost. Pick a bunch of the non-physical characteristics, and say the rest are not defined. Good for characters on the Astral Plane or somesuch. If you want to do things to another person's soul, that's a Transform, Based on EGO CV, maybe with AVLD just to spice things up. (Or that's how I would do it.) Or maybe a soul is just an SFX or a plot device for the GM. It all depends, really. What are you looking to do with these souls, dude? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul Well, given that my present game is CU standard, I can't give my typical response as 'nonexistent', and their existence is canonical in the CU. Gamewise, it's just SFX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truthsayer Posted June 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul I'm thinking about my PC's encountering lost souls. Would they have body based on ego and int? Desol of course. Full life support? I'm trying to conceptualize how to write up a soul form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul I'm thinking about my PC's encountering lost souls. Would they have body based on ego and int? Desol of course. Full life support? I'm trying to conceptualize how to write up a soul form. Desolid Inherent and Always On ... past that, everything else is gravy, I expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Now that we know WHAT you're trying to do.... Create them using the AI Computer rules. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary observes that they have neither BODy, nor a body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truthsayer Posted June 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul AI computer rules, interesting. BTW, what does inherent advantage mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul Well, it depends on what you want to happen. Does the party have any Affects Desolidification attacks? Or mental abilities? If not, lost souls are gonna be tough for them to handle. So maybe the lost souls "manifest" (turn solid) so the PCs can hit them and send them to hell or heck or Fresno or where ever. Or maybe the Lost Souls aren't even Desolid, maybe they're something else entirely, and the PCs have to figure out some sort of mystery to put the lost souls to rest. Everything depends on what you want to happen.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul How would you quantify the soul in the terms of characteristics and gameplay? Is it ego? Body? Int? I wouldn't. Unless I had to, and then it would depend on what I wanted the soul to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul AI computer rules' date=' interesting. BTW, what does inherent advantage mean?[/quote'] It means the Power cannot be Drained or Aided or otherwise denied the character through the use of Powers. It's litterally a part of him, like his arms. You can't Drain someone's arms to make them vanish or Aid them to give him more for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul Is there a difference between Hell & Fresno? Hai, Inherent means that it's integrated into who they are. There's a rule in 5ER which says that Multiple Limbs aren't necessarily Inherent, although you can buy them that way (as an insect would, as they have extra legs). I agree with CC, and he took the words right out of my mouth. Being a 'soul' or a 'soulform' is a special effect - you're going backwards. You're asking "How do I make a soul?" which will take a while even if we're all ready to try and grapple that. What you're really asking is "I have this idea and I'm going to slap a label on it, but before I do that, I'd like it to have the traits a, b & c. Any suggestions on how to build those traits efficiently?" Then, once it's built, you can call it a Cadillac for all we care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul For a "Lost Soul", look in Hero System Bestiary or one of the other HERO books and sites with character write ups. Find an example of Ghosts. Now add any powers you think a soul should have, and remove any you think it shouldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Johnston Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Re: The soul I'm thinking about my PC's encountering lost souls. Would they have body based on ego and int? Desol of course. Full life support? I'm trying to conceptualize how to write up a soul form. In what sense are they lost? You need to clearly visualise what the capabilities of your "lost souls" are, what you expect them to do and to be able to do. Generally speaking if they are actually capable of doing stuff rather than just being voices in the void, I'd give them the full slate of characteristics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Re: The soul Is there a difference between Hell & Fresno? Well, not a lot, I guess. I agree with others. Based on what you've explained so far, a Lost Soul is the SFX or character concept. You need to reason backwards from effect. Figure out what you want the Lost Souls to do, and give them those powers. You mentioned you wanted Lost Souls to have a BODY equal to their EGO. Well, if Lost Souls have an EGO of 20 (that's a lot of EGO, btw), then just buy up their BODY to 20. Done! Easy! Maybe Lost Souls can't be touched by normal weapons. I'd give them Desolidification, Not vs. Magic or Magic Weapons, -1/2 or so. Maybe Lost Souls can be repelled by Holy Objects. That's a Psych Lim, Runs Away from Holy Objects (and maybe a Phys Lim too). Etc. It's easy. Just decide what you want, then give them those powers. The hard part is sometimes having a clear idea what you want them to do. Once you decide on that, you're home free on the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Re: The soul What's a "lost soul". Is this the astral form of a person who's physical body has died? The spirit of a dead person who never made it to Heaven or Hell (or whever they were "supposed" to go)? A ghost that needs directions to the mall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Re: The lost sole The bottom of a boot seperated from the top? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary suggests, a fish out of water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alibear Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Re: The lost sole The bottom of a boot seperated from the top? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary suggests, a fish out of water? A flatfish who can't find the seabed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Re: The soul A jazzman singin' folk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truthsayer Posted June 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: The soul Okay, see I got this idea for a character. I call him Phantasm. He is a collection of souls that were bound together in the destruction of a dimension of psychics. So I'm trying to figure out how to write him up. He absorbs lost souls, and when he takes body, he loses souls. So I'm trying to figure out how to write up a soul or a collection of souls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: The soul Okay' date=' see I got this idea for a character. I call him Phantasm. He is a collection of souls that were bound together in the destruction of a dimension of psychics. So I'm trying to figure out how to write him up. He absorbs lost souls, and when he takes body, he loses souls. So I'm trying to figure out how to write up a soul or a collection of souls.[/quote'] Sounds like you may be working backwards from the HERO point of view. I'd decide exactly what the caracter can do. His origin is just an origin; what in game powers and skills does this guy have? Flight? A ghost-like form (Desolidification)? A blast of psychic fire (Ego Attack)? Next, I'd decide exactly what happens when he "loses souls". Is it just a cool effect where ghosts boil out of his body? Does he lose a certain amount of power until he can absorb another soul? Does he lose some powers and skills forever? Once you know what "losing souls" actually does, it can probably be represented as a limit on his powers or as part of his disadvantages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: The soul Okay' date=' see I got this idea for a character. I call him Phantasm. He is a collection of souls that were bound together in the destruction of a dimension of psychics. So I'm trying to figure out how to write him up. He absorbs lost souls, and when he takes body, he loses souls. So I'm trying to figure out how to write up a soul or a collection of souls.[/quote'] You might be attempting something very difficult to model correctly. I'd pick an easier character to define. You can be a group of lost souls, and just lump your powers into an EC. Assume losing souls == losing STUN and BODY, that's the easiest way to do that one. You could try looking at the Focus rules, I believe Foci can lose powers when they take damage. That might give you something to base this on. Personally, I think I'd drop you one level of Focus if your powers can't be taken away, but can be damged. So drop from OIF (-1/2) to IIF (-1/4) and that's what I'd give you for a power than can be taken away (damaged) when you take damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Re: The soul Okay' date=' see I got this idea for a character. I call him Phantasm. He is a collection of souls that were bound together in the destruction of a dimension of psychics. So I'm trying to figure out how to write him up. He absorbs lost souls, and when he takes body, he loses souls. So I'm trying to figure out how to write up a soul or a collection of souls.[/quote'] The next logical question to ask would be, "what does the characther do with these sould/what do these souls do for the character?" If it's just a background effect, then it may just be that the character's BODY Characteristic represents how many souls he currently has absorbed instead of how much physical integrety he has. No matter what, BODY represents how hard the character is to kill. If for this guy, how hard he is to kill is represented by how many souls he's absorbed, the game mechanic for that is BODY. As far as absorbing more, it could just be an Aid/Healing Power and the "lost souls" just happen to be everywhere (or it can be limited to certain places where "lost souls" tend to congregate, like tombs or cemetaries), and the effect roll determins how many he was able to absorb. If the "lost souls" represent individual entities that can interact with the characters in some meaningful way, the "absorbing" could be a Power that makes such souls go away and increase the character's power, such as a Transfer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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