04-29-2021, 03:54 PM | #1 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
Medium [10] is a supernatural mental advantage. You can detect the presence of, and communicate with, immaterial spirits, including dead people, nature spirits, spirits of places, and so on. This advantage probably dates back to the first edition of GURPS Horror.
The basic advantage implements the kind of mediumship found in traditional spiritualism. You cannot see spirits, but you’re aware of their presence near you, and you can call out to them at longer ranges: they will hear you, but are not compelled to come. You can speak with any spirit in your presence, provided you share a language with them. You do not get a reaction bonus from spirits, or any control over them. They may find you interesting, but they can also mislead you. Personally, I'd also let a Medium communicate with people using astral projection, but that's somewhat setting-dependent. Several advantages and skills are useful with Medium. Detect (Spirits) will tell you about spirits that are bound, in possession of somebody, or just too distant to talk to. An appropriate See Invisible can give you a better idea of what kind of spirit you’re dealing with, and Spirit Empathy lets you use your social skills and reaction bonuses on them. If the spirits are angelic or demonic, Blessed and/or Religious Rank may be useful. Detect Lies, Exorcism, and appropriate Hidden Lore specialisations can be relevant, as are languages. It’s not clear if you need to speak aloud to be heard by spirits, but I’m reasonably sure that you are the only one that can hear their replies: to let them speak aloud, buy Channelling so that they can use your voice. The Autotrance perk may be helpful, too. Powers has enhancements that let you make it easier for spirits to become visible, to make spirits visible to you while you’re talking to them, and to dispense with the need for a common language. Common limitations are (Immediate) Preparation Required, for a ritual or séance, and a limitation to a particular kind of spirits. Powers also implies that you can talk to spirits within a yard of you, but is not explicit on the point. To force spirits to become visible or substantial, buy an Affliction that negates their Invisibility or Insubstantiality. Searching for Medium in the GURPS corpus is complicated by Medium-sized equipment, Medium encumbrance, and Medium range. In Banestorm, Sahudese spirits can speak for themselves, while DF mystical types have limitations to particular kinds of spirits, except for Necromancers. Fantasy’s coverage of Shamans includes using Medium, and other advantages, and Metro of Madness has a couple of NPCs who are either Mediums or delusional. The Church in Worminghall regards contact with spirits as perilous to your soul, making it LC0, and Horror Magic makes it part of the Forgotten Wisdom style. Steampunk has advice and a template for Victorian spiritualists, and Thaumatology points out the value of this advantage in spirit-based magic. My experience of Medium has been shaped by the occult WWII campaign I play in, where we had a medium with a spirit guide Ally from the beginning. Ghosts, elementals and demons have all been significant, and although our original medium left, we have developed two more, plus one who only does elementals. It seems as if the post-war world will have some of the dead as an accepted part of society, and there’s no telling how that change things. Has Medium been important in your games?
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04-29-2021, 05:17 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
I've never known how to actually run Medium in a game. The concept sounds neat, but there's a lot of oddly weird parts of it that I'm not entirely certain exactly how it works and precisely what things only a Medium can do. Unless it's literally as simple as "You can hear spirits talk* and spirits that hear you talk know you have Medium**."
*Do spirits have a trait that makes it so their voice can't cross to the physical world? **I'm guessing this is optional in choosing to speak in a way that makes it obvious. |
04-29-2021, 06:05 PM | #3 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
The Spirit meta-trait on p. B263 can speak aloud, but the updated one on p. 134 of Fantasy has Mute (Substantial Only, -10%) [-22]. Medium is clearly unnecessary if all spirits can speak by themselves. Spirits can usually hear material people, but settings where they can't would seem plausible.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
04-29-2021, 08:39 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
I've never used it in my games, but it really feels like a package of Detect (Spirits, Common) (Vague, -50%) and a Perk: Can Talk to Spirits.
I'm not sure spirits have any way to notice a Medium beyond Body Language to notice they notice. That certainly fits with various recent fiction where the spirit is shocked that the medium can see them.
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04-29-2021, 08:51 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
Would replacing the "detect the presence of" part with See Invisible (Spirit) and "communicate with" par with a new Speak with Spirits advantage be better?
Also, Sahudese Spirits can speak for themselves but they still have the Spirit meta-trait, so Medium (or See Invisible) are still useful to find them. |
04-29-2021, 09:08 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
It might be worth more than a perk, but I'm not sure what I'd apply Affects Insubstantial to. Maybe Mute (-120%) [5]. That comes out to 15pts. Of course, Detect (Common, Vague) is a pretty useless advantage so I don't know if it being 10pts is appropriate.
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04-29-2021, 09:21 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
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The Detect (Common, Vague) was based purely off how the point costs worked out. If we consider spirits occasional, then it becomes Detect (Spirits, Occasional) (vague, -50%) [5] plus the perk, bringing it down to a 6 point trait.
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04-29-2021, 09:35 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
The one aspect that seems beyond 'instead of being totally unable to perceive spirits, you're only mostly unable to' is the summons. It's effectively just sending out an invitation, but it's not tagged with any limitations besides its lack of coercive effect. No range, no required connections to the subject...
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04-29-2021, 09:38 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Kentucky, USA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
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GURPS Fanzine The Path of Cunning is worth a read. |
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04-29-2021, 09:52 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium
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advantage of the week, medium, path/book magic, spirits |
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