02-08-2008, 07:13 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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a puzzle about spirits
I'm looking at starting up a fantasy campaign in a few months, where some of the player characters are likely to be spirits living and acting in the spirit plane. Now, I understand how the spirit form meta-trait works. But that's for spirits that have come from the spirit plane to the material plane, where on the one hand they are invisible, intangible, and (in some versions) inaudible—basically just floating points of view, and on the other hand they are exempt from all metabolic needs. But that's not necessarily true on the spirit plane, in either case. Everything there is a spirit, or made of whatever "stuff" spirits are made of, and presumably spirits have some sort of life-sustaining interaction that's functionally equivalent to eating, drinking, and breathing, in the same way that a machine has a need for fuel.
(i) What is the proper representation for a spirit residing in the spirit plane? (ii) What is the proper way to define the trait "able to visit the material plane and travel about there as an invisible, intangible being"? Also, there will probably be human characters visiting the spirit plane, whether in dreams, in trance, via spells that produce the same effect, via spells that transpose their bodies there, or via gates or "soft places" that let them walk from the material world to the spirit plane. How does one represent a material being visiting the spirit plane, from the viewpoint of the spirit plane? I'm getting a bit stumped by this. But it seems to me there out to be a way to define all this under the RaW that I'm just not seeing. Bill Stoddard |
02-08-2008, 07:28 AM | #2 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Rochester, MN
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Re: a puzzle about spirits
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If so, then I'd assume that "spirits" visiting the physical realm would be using the Projection version of Jumper (Spirit). Their "bodies" would remain behind in the spirit realm, but their "points of view" would be here in the physical realm. Give all spirits that trait with proper enhancements/limitations. As for matieral being visiting the spirit plane. Depends. If they're traveling there "in body," then they'll be just as "physical" as the native "spirits." If they're Projecting, then they'd be insubstantial "points of view." In either case, if being able to visit the spirit realm is an innate ability, then you'll need to price a Jumper (Spirit) for them. Does that help? Jerander. |
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02-08-2008, 08:54 AM | #3 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: a puzzle about spirits
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Bill Stoddard |
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02-08-2008, 09:17 AM | #4 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Orange County, VA
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* - this may seem expensive, but overall the "balance" needs to be maintained between the characters. Also, if the physics of your spirit realm are more "iconic" for distances, you will need to apply an equivelant distance in yds between locations. This distance can, and most likley, will change due to the somewhat fluidic nature of an iconic representation. |
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02-08-2008, 09:33 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: a puzzle about spirits
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I mean, for example, a fish has Doesn't Breathe (Gills) for 0 points, because the fish can only breathe water. And that's fair, because I have Breathes Air, which also costs 0 points; and a hypothetical Neptunian would have, say, Breathes Methane, also for 0 points. If a spirit looks like a person, and has nostrils and the ability to inhale and exhale, and needs to do so to tap the flow of mana or chi or whatever through the spirit plane's analog of air, it seems that it ought not to need to pay for the ability Breathes Pneuma. Bill Stoddard |
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02-08-2008, 10:22 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Rochester, MN
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Re: a puzzle about spirits
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Can "humans" (material beings) enter the spirit realms *in body*, or can they only project their souls into it? If they can only project their souls, then Projection. If in body, then plan Jumper (Spirit). As for the rest of it -- pricing out the abilities when they get where they're going -- I'll have to think about it a little more. And it does kind of depend on your answers above and how you envision the whole set-up. Jerander. |
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02-08-2008, 10:48 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: a puzzle about spirits
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Bill Stoddard |
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02-08-2008, 11:28 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Rochester, MN
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Re: a puzzle about spirits
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Material beings would get either Jumper (Spirit) (Projection, +x%) + Doesn't Breathe (Only while in Spirit Realm, -10%) or Jumper (Spirit). If they enter in body, how dangerous is the different "physics" of the Spirit Realm to that body? Are their bodies automatically translated into "spirit stuff" to survive there or will they need to bring some form of protection (air tanks, food, force fields...)? |
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02-08-2008, 12:22 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Orange County, VA
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02-08-2008, 02:35 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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dungeon, fantasy |
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