CoreBrute Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Since this thread has been resurrected may as well offer my two cents. Here is an idea of what to do with a person who has lost his soul. 1st. He gains Unluck first of all. First 1d6, then 2, then 4 and doubles every day until he has 8. Then his powers start getting activation rolls. 2nd. While this is going on, a new villain has appeared, with the same powers and appearence as the souless character (Darker of course), but as the hero grows weaker the Shadow Hero grows stronger. This new being makes the player's life suffer, attacking him at work, striking his DNPC, and using all kinds of inside knowledge that only the PC should know to make him the most hated super since Dr destroyer. Finally he will cause a great tragedy, that unless stopped will either: 1.drive the hero into suicide 2. Become a hearltess vigilantee/villain that works as the Demon's agent on earth. The only way out is to get back his soul, either by taking it from the one who took it from him originally, or complete his request which is now a lot worse then the original one. But how does he do that, when everyday he becomes weaker and weaker, and the shadow being becomes stronger and doesn't want the hero to succeed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korvar Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Does a necromantically resurrected thread have a soul? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal'El Wayne Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Thing is, the guy who chose to sign up to 'do a task or lose your soul' in return for getting the butler's soul back where it belonged, is doing something heroic and if he chooses to give up his soul rather than help evil, that's also a good thing, so if he chooses to give up his soul, I'd have that act of complete unselfishness be enough to release his soul at the very least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoreBrute Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Thing is' date=' the guy who chose to sign up to 'do a task or lose your soul' in return for getting the butler's soul back where it belonged, is doing something heroic and if he chooses to give up his soul rather than help evil, that's also a good thing, so if he chooses to give up his soul, I'd have that act of complete unselfishness be enough to release his soul at the very least.[/quote'] While that would work in a comic book or a tv series, for a gaming group I would say it would be kind of a cop out. If being heroic means they can trick a demon out of their souls, then they would abuse the system, always asking for favours to do good things so they don't have to without fear of reprisal. And besides, since the NPC is incharge of the soul trade, I don't think he really cares whether they do something good. For example the show 'The collector' had the devil give people a gift for 10 years in exchange for their souls. Didn't matter what they did with it. One traded his soul for emphatic healing, another for super powers. In the end, he still got his soul regardless of how good they were with it. This guy sounds a lot like it. It wouldn't make any sense to deal with heroic people, if heroics were what could get you out of a deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
input.jack Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Kal makes a good point. Ultimately the GM has to decide the answer to the question "Can a deal with a supernatural being override the Divine Order of where souls ought to go, based on the qualities of the soul itself?" In other words, if there -is- a Divine Order of some kind (and the existence of Souls seems to indicate that there is), can anything -less- than a Supreme Being determine where that Soul goes? Does any lesser being have the -capacity- to alter the Soul's destination? Thats the problem I have with "selling your soul" deals; its not necessarily yours to sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? This is, of course, if it can be quantified that souls actually exist... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Input.Jack has got it pegged, in my opinion. For some time now I've been of the opinion that the soul goes where it should, regardless of any deal that might have been made. So why does the Devil bother making the deal? Well, maybe thinking that your soul has been signed away keeps you from repenting. Maybe he just wants the deal to cause misery. Maybe it's what you'll do to "get your soul back". Despite being the Father of Lies, he won't go back on his word or break the deal . . . Because the deal itself is the lie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? This premise might be used by the character Mr Infamy from Freedom City. He makes devil's deals with people, with no particular strings attached. Why? Most likely, because anybody willing to make the kind of deal he offers, is going to do evil upon the world anyway. If he actually does want souls, he can get ones that have been self-damned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinniuint Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? If the GM wants to go with the characters lose their souls only when they die option, then he needs to have an NPC die to show what happens. The NPC could have greatly enhanced powers in the service of his/her new owner, and would have to perform great evil, preferably in violation of the PCs psych lims, and ideally in violation of the NPCs known psych lims, as well. Somehow, it does have to have some negative consequence. That is the story. It doesn't, have to be immediate, but it does have to come into the story eventually. Another option is the Xanth solution. Another character can give up half their soul to allow the PC to keep half theirs. If half the soul is left, it can regenerate in time. The ultimate lesson of this thread is the GM should have some idea of the metaphysics of his world, and the possible story possibilities and consequences of those metaphysics. Oh! and don't start a story you don't have some idea how to end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Then again the "Xanth" solution is a bit of a cop out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Thing is' date=' the guy who chose to sign up to 'do a task or lose your soul' in return for getting the butler's soul back where it belonged, is doing something heroic and if he chooses to give up his soul rather than help evil, that's also a good thing, so if he chooses to give up his soul, I'd have that act of complete unselfishness be enough to release his soul at the very least.[/quote'] "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Stories of doing evil for good reasons usually do not turn out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbywolfe Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? Since the question is how to deal with PCs losing their souls, I have to ask, what happened to the butler when he lost his? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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