[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Medium

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

I always thought of it as the equivalent of yelling into a thick fog "Hey! Come over here please! I'd like to talk to you!"

It's not restricted to spirits that are nearby, though. That's the thing. You want to invite Julius Caesar's ghost to your tea party in Sidney? He likely won't show, but he will know you asked.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

It's not restricted to spirits that are nearby, though. That's the thing. You want to invite Julius Caesar's ghost to your tea party in Sidney? He likely won't show, but he will know you asked.

How far is that range? Can I call the ghosts of astronauts that flew too close to the Sun? One that had a poor accident on the moon? Australia?

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

It's not restricted to spirits that are nearby, though. That's the thing. You want to invite Julius Caesar's ghost to your tea party in Sidney? He likely won't show, but he will know you asked.

Yeah. Don't forget the need to share a language though. The Universal enhancer is a bargain if you want to do stuff like a Meeting of Minds séance (maybe even inviting Steve Allen to host).

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

How far is that range? Can I call the ghosts of astronauts that flew too close to the Sun? One that had a poor accident on the moon? Australia?

I'd figure the scope to be equal to whatever the travel limit of the campaign is. It's up to the GM if they want to set range limits, of course.

[RogerBW]

The existence of Medium defines quite a bit about spirits in that particular world. I think the only game I've used it in is that occult WWII game, where clearly spiritualism had to be a thing – but the implications of at least some spirits of the dead being geographically available are substantial.

I'd like to see it broken down as "perceive insubstantial", "communicate with insubstantial".

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

I'd figure the scope to be equal to whatever the travel limit of the campaign is. It's up to the GM if they want to set range limits, of course.

That feels a bit iffy to me compared to how ranges in GURPS usually works on traits (which only leans more into my feeling iffy about the trait in general). With that kind of range, Medium is just much better in spacefaring campaigns than island survival ones.

[johndallman]

A couple of add-on pieces for Medium:

Help Onwards This specific enhancement for Medium allows the medium to show how a newly dead spirit how to move onwards to its appropriate afterlife, reincarnation, etc. The medium can also force an unwilling spirit to move on, by winning a Quick Contest of Will with the spirit. The spirit has +1 to Will for this purpose per week since its physical death. If the spirit moves on, the medium can cut its ties to the material, preventing it from being brought back. This is the medium's equivalent of the Final Rest spell.

Spirit Testimony This is intended to allow a spirit to give testimony in court, or the like. Affliction [10] 0f Negated Advantage (Not Insubstantial, Not Invisible) +120%, Negated Disadvantage (Not Mute (substantial only)) +230%, Reliable +2 (+10%), Easily Resisted +8 (‑40%), Immediate Preparation Required, 1 minute, ‑30%, Insubstantial Only ‑30%, PM ‑10%, [35]. This version usually only works if the spirit is willing and waives its resistance roll. To be able to force a spirit to testify, remove Easily Resisted and add more Reliable.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

That feels a bit iffy to me compared to how ranges in GURPS usually works on traits (which only leans more into my feeling iffy about the trait in general). With that kind of range, Medium is just much better in spacefaring campaigns than island survival ones.

How ranges usually work with traits is that the trait says exactly how range works with it. Medium mostly...doesn't. Medium only appears to distinguish two range bands: "nearby"/"in your presence", where you can detect and converse with spirits, and everywhere else.

[johndallman]

We have not pinned the range down in the occult WWII campaign, but the general pattern is that calling spirits ad hoc works fine within a mile or so. If you want to call them over long distances, especially across a national border, you have to do a formal séance, possibly combined with a Summon ritual (Path/Book magic, p. 162 of Thaumatology).

[Daigoro]

IIRC, when I played a medium character, Medium by itself seemed to make sense, but it wasn't clear what it actually did when combined with other spirit-oriented powers like See Invisible (Spirits) or Spirit Empathy. Which is a way of saying that it works fine in low-level occult investigation games (which makes sense as I recall it was introduced in GURPS Horror*), but doesn't mesh with more super-powered games.

*Oops, as the OP also said.

[transmetahuman]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

That feels a bit iffy to me compared to how ranges in GURPS usually works on traits (which only leans more into my feeling iffy about the trait in general). With that kind of range, Medium is just much better in spacefaring campaigns than island survival ones.

Standard spirits can't travel fast enough to be any use at all at interplanetary distances, much less interstellar. Can you imagine even jogging (flying at Move) to the Moon? Even the ones with psionic or magical Warp aren't likely to burn all their FP+ER for some vague invitation. Not even from a friend.

I guess if you rule that Mediums can transmit more information than the invitation, the Medium's general location, and maybe a "voice equivalent" to let the spirit recognize who's calling (which is about what I picture it doing), the spirit could relay it to another Medium and you'd have one-way FTL communication. Still not very game-breaking, especially since most spacefaring settings have FTL comm anyway.

Really, the same applies to long enough terrestrial distances - you can call Napoleon from Chicago, but he's probably not going to spend several days getting there.

Edit: just remembered the Inner Astral, which might provide shortcuts - if spirits in your setting can access it, and if the spirit knows its way around in there, and if the location information presumed to be sent is able to be used to exit the Inner in the right place.