The creation of a Sin-Eater

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Damnation and Salvation are big themes in the setting, she wants to be able to mete out her own justice since she views both the Host and the Damned as self-serving manipulative entities.

Sending someone to 'Heaven' dominated by The Host isn't something I'd consider a good thing to do if I also consider The Host to be self serving manipulative entities.

Where does her "absolving them of sins" power send them after they die?

Yeah, I guess I was a bit vague. I don't want to create a mechanic to represent sins...I think that would just be silly but you bring up a good point, how does one measure sin in a meta-game view.

Gah. Overthinking...

I nominate disadvantages as a measure of sin, going with the idea that people are tormented by their sins and so suffer for bearing them.

Absent using disadvantages, you really need to define what sin is, mechanically, so that her power can meaningfully interact with it.

Hmm...Negate Disadvantage...must break out Powers now.

Powers, pg 41. +10% / point of disadvantage.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Sending someone to 'Heaven' dominated by The Host isn't something I'd consider a good thing to do if I also consider The Host to be self serving manipulative entities.

Where does her "absolving them of sins" power send them after they die?

The Host doesn't have total control, basically everyone gets their own heaven, and while they can't meddle but so much they can still meddle. Essentially heave and hell are what you make it, if you think you are guilty you go downstairs (which would give sociopaths a free ride except some crimes scar the soul in such a way that regardless of what you think you're going down the elevator; same thing with certain selfless acts).

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

I nominate disadvantages as a measure of sin, going with the idea that people are tormented by their sins and so suffer for bearing them.

Absent using disadvantages, you really need to define what sin is, mechanically, so that her power can meaningfully interact with it.

Okay, that seems like a good yardstick but there are *numerous* disadvantages to be negated...how would you handle that for a affliction. I would think something like a Wildcard! Powers might do it, except use it for modifiers. Or perhaps Modular Abilities (a route I don't look forward too...)

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Powers, pg 41. +10% / point of disadvantage.

Thanks, I found it as soon as the thread popped up on the browser. :)

Ghostdancer

[Figleaf23]

I would echo Sunrunner's Fire on this.

The first challenge is to operationalize the in-setting meaning of what she is doing.

What happens if someone dies without a Sin-Eater? Are the dead still 'in' the campaign somehow? How/why does it affect the PCs where a dead soul goes?

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Yeah I thought of that but it doesn't work the way I wanted it too. From what I've read (very little) being a sin-eater historically wasn't a Good Thing(TM) you took all the sin of others onto yourself and regardless of whether you lived a righteous life or not...you went to hell.

The way I have seen it portrayed, being a Sin Eater was a form of self-sacrifice, and a calling a person pursued despite being treated like an untouchable, and usually people already in untouchable situations would be chosen.

A sin-eater however had the power to go "on strike" if they were too badly treated, and they could expect *not* to go to hell as long as there was someone to take their place when they died - perhaps a relative who could negotiate better terms or would expect redress for mistreatment of the previous sin-eater before agreeing to take up the calling.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Okay, that seems like a good yardstick but there are *numerous* disadvantages to be negated...how would you handle that for a affliction. I would think something like a Wildcard! Powers might do it, except use it for modifiers. Or perhaps Modular Abilities (a route I don't look forward too...)

(Negated Disadvantage, up to 100 points, +1000% (Cosmic: Can Negate Any Disadvantage of Lesser Value, +50%)) +1500%.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

The way I have seen it portrayed, being a Sin Eater was a form of self-sacrifice, and a calling a person pursued despite being treated like an untouchable, and usually people already in untouchable situations would be chosen.

A sin-eater however had the power to go "on strike" if they were too badly treated, and they could expect *not* to go to hell as long as there was someone to take their place when they died - perhaps a relative who could negotiate better terms or would expect redress for mistreatment of the previous sin-eater before agreeing to take up the calling.

Good to know! :) Thanks Jeff.

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

(Negated Disadvantage, up to 100 points, +1000% (Cosmic: Can Negate Any Disadvantage of Lesser Value, +50%)) +1500%.

I like it, its going on the list :) Thanks SF.

Ghostdancer

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Assuming there is a Hell, and if you do bad things you go there. You can do bad things all the way up to your death and as long as the sin eater is there at the end you go to heaven...because they take your sin (or some such).

Huh. that might be a idea there, some sort of technique for Religious Ritual....not bad.

In the sort of setting where it's possible to doubt heaven and hell and "sin" isn't objectively defined in any agreed upon way, then yeah, it's mostly a performance art of some sort. Religious Ritual is as good as any. Any personality changes as a result of having your sins eaten would have to come from the character being transformed - i.e. it functions as a valid excuse for spending points to buy off your sin related disadvantages, same as successful psychotherapy would.

In a setting where it had a little more effect, I'd look at the Brainwashing skill, though that's not actually defined much either.

As a Power, Affliction is the wrong base to start with. It's Mind Control with Conditioning.

[David Johnston2]

The first thing you need to decide is what the game effects of sin are. Is there a Detect Sin spell or advantage? Do sin laden bodies or spirits come back as undead? Is sin a magical power source? If all it does is improve a dying person's odds of making it to a better afterlife then the effects are fundamentally social and the supernatural effects can be handed with a perk.

[BaHalus]

Originally Posted by malloyd

In the sort of setting where it's possible to doubt heaven and hell and "sin" isn't objectively defined in any agreed upon way, then yeah, it's mostly a performance art of some sort. Religious Ritual is as good as any. Any personality changes as a result of having your sins eaten would have to come from the character being transformed - i.e. it functions as a valid excuse for spending points to buy off your sin related disadvantages, same as successful psychotherapy would.

In a setting where it had a little more effect, I'd look at the Brainwashing skill, though that's not actually defined much either.

As a Power, Affliction is the wrong base to start with. It's Mind Control with Conditioning.

It is supposed to work on living people? Or only in the dead ones? I had understood the second option.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by BaHalus

It is supposed to work on living people? Or only in the dead ones? I had understood the second option.

Something you do to a living person just before they die, usually. Though I imagine the principle can be applied to a recently dead person just as easily.

I just assumed the character was targeting the subject's soul which doesn't necessarily require the subject to be living at the time.