Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Brian A Stewart <bstewart@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Ghosts and Wraiths in SRII
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 11:44:15 -0700
Query to all. My group and I have been discussing the presence for
(meta)human spirits in SRII gameworld. Very limited information is
described in the reference books. What do you think. Are there
(meta)human spirits? Can a mage contact/conjour them? What various
types may exist? Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

Brian A. Stewart
"Silverstreak"
Message no. 2
From: Blade Hunter <bladehnt@********.COM>
Subject: Re: Ghosts and Wraiths in SRII
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 22:33:02 -0400
On Mon, 26 Jun 1995, Brian A Stewart wrote:

> Query to all. My group and I have been discussing the presence for
> (meta)human spirits in SRII gameworld. Very limited information is
> described in the reference books. What do you think. Are there
> (meta)human spirits? Can a mage contact/conjour them? What various
> types may exist? Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

Well, what exactly constitutes as a 'soul' and such is all up to the
philosophy of the gm & players, but I'll just give you my take on the
whole ghost thing:

All of nature has some form of astral form (though commonly dormant).
Upon death of something with a high emotional or psychic content, the
astral form imprints itself onto astral space in a deffinite pattern to
create a ghost (along with the usual clutter that creates the 'background
count'). The true astral form fades away after death, while imprint
continues on. Of course, the imprint is virtually never an exact
duplicate of the original astral form, and it is thus usually restricted
in its thought patterns, actions, etc.

Now then, in order to get rid of whatever pesky ghost that is haunting
you, you either:

a) do what the ghost wants to be done, resolving its emotional conflict,
thought pattern, or whatever, and allowing it to naturally dissolve into
astral space,

b) use conjuring skill to banish it like any other spirit (I give my
ghosts a 'ghost rating', similar to Spirit Force, and give the magicker's
TN a + 2 + Background Count), or

c) strap on that proton pack! :)

Other stuff: All of my ghosts are individualized (like dragons and
such). Wraiths are something different (though ghosts *can* be
similar). And I allow Mind Probe on the recently dead (as long as they
still have the 'astral form'/Essence...-1 Essence/hour unless special
circumstances).

sNirK, long post, so enough of this for now....
Message no. 3
From: Mark Steedman <RSMS@******.EEE.RGU.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Ghosts and Wraiths in SRII
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 08:42:21 GMT
> From: Blade Hunter <bladehnt@********.COM>

> On Mon, 26 Jun 1995, Brian A Stewart wrote:
>
> > Query to all. My group and I have been discussing the presence for
> > (meta)human spirits in SRII gameworld. Very limited information is
> > described in the reference books. What do you think. Are there
> > (meta)human spirits? Can a mage contact/conjour them? What various
> > types may exist? Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.
trimmed
>
> All of nature has some form of astral form (though commonly dormant).
> Upon death of something with a high emotional or psychic content, the
> astral form imprints itself onto astral space in a deffinite pattern to
> create a ghost
have a look under Ghost in the critters section SR2. There is more
there.

> Now then, in order to get rid of whatever pesky ghost that is haunting
> you, you either:
>
> a) [reolve its reason to exist] - fine

> b) use conjuring skill to banish it - fine
>
> c) strap on that proton pack! :) :) :) : )
>
> Other stuff: All of my ghosts are individualized (like dragons and
> such).

> Wraiths are something different
>
yes see thier entry in PAE. They are also mentioned in 'and so it
came to pass' in Earthdawn. These things are actually a threat from
astral space.
threat 1 : wraith [hence the comment from '-H-' in PAE
threat 2 : the bugs
threat 3 : the 'Horrors' (called the 'enemy' in SR)

these things are also very very hard though if you hit them realy
hard before they start powering up you might get one.

---
Ghosts are best played the individualised way, i have run into these
done like that and it worked quite well.

Mark

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Ghosts and Wraiths in SRII, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!