The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Ghost Light is a game dealing with adventuring in the afterlife. It uses a simple system, has some great concepts, but is not wholly finished. It is available at this URL: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9180/ghost.html Please note that at one point the author swears if that is a concern.

The Premise

As it says above, in Ghost Light you are a ghost, a spirit, a dead dude. You are in the afterlife. Ghost Light posits reincarnation as being essentially accurate. Between lives spirits (ghosts) dwell in a spirit realm that may or may not overlap with our own Earth (more on that later). Some spirits have lived many lives and are powerful as a result, others are new and weak. In between lives a spirit has little by way of memory or intellect, it is rather a creature of will and emotion.

Character Creation

Ghost Light uses a rules set based heavily (and admittedly) on Risus and Over the Edge. I intend to address character creation before system, odd as that may seem, as I think it will be easier to follow that way on this particular game.

In essence, a beginning ghost has a number of Emotion Points (EP) calculated in reference to the age (number of lives lived) of that ghost. A young ghost has 6 EP, an adult 10, an old ghost 16 and an ancient ghost 24 or more. Characters are typically adult ghosts.

The EP are used to buy the traits used in the game. Basically, characters are defined in terms of their powerful emotions. Each EP buys you one dice in a given emotion, with no single emotion being greater than four dice (in the case of adult ghosts, others have different caps).

You choose the emotions your ghost has dice in. One might have Lust 4, hate 3, rage 3 with another having angst 2, pity 3, envy 4 and spite 1. Whatever emotions you can come up with, you can have.

You also have an attribute called spirit, set initially at three dice. Spirit equates to your ghost's will to continue existing, if reduced to zero you are killed (whatever that may mean in this context, I would probably say you are reincarnated having lost the will to continue).

Each emotion of 2 dice or more must also have a stimulus, something which forces you to roleplay that emotion. An additional stimulus is required for each three dice after the first two (so two stimuli at five dice, three at eight and so on). An example would be Rage (2) with the stimulus (people who don't shut up). Stimuli can cause a ghost to act on its emotion even where it does not wish to, meaning that the more powerful the ghost the more prone it is to irrational and compulsive behaviour.

EP can also be spent on skills, which are not really defined in the rules. One EP buys one dice of skill, up to a cap of two dice. Skills are broad and would be such things as "persuading people" or "combat" on my understanding.

Finally, quirks, merits and flaws are briefly discussed. Basically, quirks are simply roleplaying details like "likes to burp" or "hums to himself" and have no EP value. Merits cost EP and flaws gain EP, they are not really detailed but suggestions include charismatic and nasty attitude respectively. A GM planning to run Ghost Light would need to give some thought to what merits and flaws she wanted in her game and what they would be worth in EP terms.

Appearance is entirely up to the player, a given ghost might look as it did in life, like an image or vision the player finds appealing or as pretty much anything else. Ghosts look how they want to look, although once chosen appearance is fixed.

The Game System

Players use their emotions (and skills, if possessed) to achieve their goals. Any given task has a task number (typically very low), calculated on the basis of the difficulty of the task and its size. I would have preferred a simple difficulty based task number, incorporating size within that and have found it personally a little difficult to get to grips with fixing difficulty ratings in this game. Having said that, it is a flaw (if it is a flaw and not just me) easily fixed simply by deciding how difficult you as GM want any given task to be.

In play, if a given task has a difficulty of 2 (medium difficulty and size) and you are trying to accomplish it with your (for example) emotion of Avarice (3 dice) then you roll your three dice and calculate your success as follows: Each roll of 1-3 equals no success, each 4-5 equals one success and each 6 equals two successes. You need a total number of successes equal to your difficulty number to succeed. Where a character has a relevant skill, the dice for that skill can be added to the number of dice in the emotion being used when rolling.

Frequently a character will not have enough dice in a given emotion to accomplish a given task (don't worry, I will explain how emotions achieve things from a character's perspective in a bit). Where this occurs the character may channel emotions. Essentially this means the character temporarily sacrifices dice in one emotion in order to provide additional dice in another. For example, you feel your three dice in avarice may not be enough for a given task and would rather have five. So as to be sure of success, you channel two dice of another emotion (lets say pride) into your avarice. You must roleplay this and explain how your pride is supporting your avarice in this example. The drawback with this is that your result will be tainted by the boosting emotion and there is a risk that your boosted dice will be lost permanently, so that your pride permanently reduces by two.

One benefit to skills is that when they are used to boost an emotion there is no risk of taint.

Using Emotions from a character's perspective

I think its now worth exploring what it means in game when you do something like using avarice three boosted by pride two. Basically, the spirit world is not material, nor are the ghosts. The spirit world is formed of the imaginings and wishes of its inhabitants, it is a sort of consensual hallucination. By channelling your emotion towards a particular goal, you force a change in that illusion. So, one character might use their curiosity to go through a locked door while another uses rage. Each player must then describe how this appears in the spirit world. The curious character may appear to pick the lock while the raging character appears to kick the door down. There are parallels with how cyberspace is often represented in Cyberpunk games.

So going back to our example of avarice boosted by pride, lets imagine the task is stealing an amulet from another ghost. The character uses his avarice describing himself as sneaking up on the other ghost and lifting it while he is distracted. Pride is channelled with a description that he refuses to fail because he is so determined to show he is capable of taking the amulet. The taint crops up in the success, the character has successfully used his avarice to steal the amulet but his success is tainted by pride, perhaps he insists on wearing it prominently now in order to show it off.

As should be obvious, a great deal is expected of players in terms of descriptions. Each action mechanically is an emotion overcoming an illusionary obstacle (or another emotion in opposed rolls), how it appears in game is a question of description.

Combat

Combat is a matter of contested emotions. The difference between the two rolls gives rise to a number of wounds, the GM then rolls a number of dice equal to the number of wounds and the player rolls a number of dice equal to their spirit. If the ghost wins, some wounds are lost, if the GM wins the ghost can become unconscious or "dead". I suspect in play it would be simpler than it sounds, but would have preferred a system with slightly fewer rolls given the rules light nature of the game generally.

Characters have an opportunity to improve emotions through use and to gain new emotions where they have tried express emotions they do not have dice in. This leads for me to one problem with the system as described. At the beginning of the rules it is implied that the number of dice a ghost has is simply a function of its number of incarnations. Player ghosts however can have large numbers of dice without large numbers of incarnations through character advancement. Logically, this means that ghosts which have spent a long time in the afterlife will often be as, if not more, powerful than old ghosts with many lives.

The Setting

Here is why I haven't given the game full marks. Basically, the setting is not finished.

It is indicated that ghosts gather into groups depending on matters such as how the last life was lived (shipwrights for example); what the ghost does (societies of ghost slavers); sects united by common emotions and beliefs; and races (groups of NPC ghosts such as the ghosts of the unborn). None of these groups are really described and it is up to the individual GM to decide what groups exist and how characters join them for her game.

Shrouds of existence are also referred to. These are essentially the consensual hallucinations the ghosts inhabit. They include the Earth shroud (a slightly twisted replica of the real world), historical shrouds (memories of the Earth as it was), Worldly shrouds are ones where the entire environment is a desert or ocean or some such. Lastly there are personal shrouds which are the creation of individual ghosts of great power and are effectively private universes. None of the shrouds are really described except as basic ideas. Having said that, creation of shrouds in practice would not be terribly difficult. Note that it is not wholly clear the extent to which, if at all, these shrouds overlap the world of the living and to which ghosts can interact with the living.

Summary

And that's pretty much it. I haven't gone into every mechanic (how stimuli overcome emotions for example) but I hope the gist is clear. In essence, this is a high concept game with a simple base mechanic (although surprisingly hard to describe I've found) which absolutely requires tons of high level roleplaying. Against that its not really finished, merits and flaws are only touched upon rather than fleshed out. Skills are unclear in scope. The setting is slight and more of an idea than a place to play in.

So, the three question:

1. What did the book set out to do? 2. Did it achieve it? How well? 3. Was that goal worthwhile in the broader scheme of things?

It set out to create a story-intense rules light game where players would be forced to portray emotions and to do some intensive roleplaying. Does it achieve this? I think so, yes. By making emotions the basis of the game players are forced to roleplay. Was the goal worthwhile? If you like story intense, emotion driven, roleplaying sure.

So why didn't I give it five? Well, firstly because it simply isn't finished (which is also partly why it only gets a two on style) and secondly because some of the dice mechanics I found needlessly complex. Why as good as four? Because I think its a great concept and there is the kernel of a truly unique roleplaying experience inside it.

Who should try it?

Well, people who read this review and thought it sounded fun I guess. Having said that, if you're not prepared to put a bit of work in finishing it off for your game then its not for you. If nothing else though, it may give you some good ideas. And hey, its free.

Ghost Light
Ghost Light Capsule Review by Balbinus on 02/04/01 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Ghost light, the roleplaying game of spirits in the afterlife but without the angst. Unless you want angst, in which case its easily incorporated. Product: Ghost Light Author: ? Category: RPG Company/Publisher: N/A Line: Cost: Free Page count: Year published: ISBN: SKU: Capsule Review by Balbinus on 02/04/01 Genre tags: Fantasy Modern day Historical Horror	Ghost Light is a game dealing with adventuring in the afterlife. It uses a simple system, has some great concepts, but is not wholly finished. It is available at this URL: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9180/ghost.html Please note that at one point the author swears if that is a concern. The Premise As it says above, in Ghost Light you are a ghost, a spirit, a dead dude. You are in the afterlife. Ghost Light posits reincarnation as being essentially accurate. Between lives spirits (ghosts) dwell in a spirit realm that may or may not overlap with our own Earth (more on that later). Some spirits have lived many lives and are powerful as a result, others are new and weak. In between lives a spirit has little by way of memory or intellect, it is rather a creature of will and emotion. Character Creation Ghost Light uses a rules set based heavily (and admittedly) on Risus and Over the Edge. I intend to address character creation before system, odd as that may seem, as I think it will be easier to follow that way on this particular game. In essence, a beginning ghost has a number of Emotion Points (EP) calculated in reference to the age (number of lives lived) of that ghost. A young ghost has 6 EP, an adult 10, an old ghost 16 and an ancient ghost 24 or more. Characters are typically adult ghosts. The EP are used to buy the traits used in the game. Basically, characters are defined in terms of their powerful emotions. Each EP buys you one dice in a given emotion, with no single emotion being greater than four dice (in the case of adult ghosts, others have different caps). You choose the emotions your ghost has dice in. One might have Lust 4, hate 3, rage 3 with another having angst 2, pity 3, envy 4 and spite 1. Whatever emotions you can come up with, you can have. You also have an attribute called spirit, set initially at three dice. Spirit equates to your ghost's will to continue existing, if reduced to zero you are killed (whatever that may mean in this context, I would probably say you are reincarnated having lost the will to continue). Each emotion of 2 dice or more must also have a stimulus, something which forces you to roleplay that emotion. An additional stimulus is required for each three dice after the first two (so two stimuli at five dice, three at eight and so on). An example would be Rage (2) with the stimulus (people who don't shut up). Stimuli can cause a ghost to act on its emotion even where it does not wish to, meaning that the more powerful the ghost the more prone it is to irrational and compulsive behaviour. EP can also be spent on skills, which are not really defined in the rules. One EP buys one dice of skill, up to a cap of two dice. Skills are broad and would be such things as "persuading people" or "combat" on my understanding. Finally, quirks, merits and flaws are briefly discussed. Basically, quirks are simply roleplaying details like "likes to burp" or "hums to himself" and have no EP value. Merits cost EP and flaws gain EP, they are not really detailed but suggestions include charismatic and nasty attitude respectively. A GM planning to run Ghost Light would need to give some thought to what merits and flaws she wanted in her game and what they would be worth in EP terms. Appearance is entirely up to the player, a given ghost might look as it did in life, like an image or vision the player finds appealing or as pretty much anything else. Ghosts look how they want to look, although once chosen appearance is fixed. The Game System Players use their emotions (and skills, if possessed) to achieve their goals. Any given task has a task number (typically very low), calculated on the basis of the difficulty of the task and its size. I would have preferred a simple difficulty based task number, incorporating size within that and have found it personally a little difficult to get to grips with fixing difficulty ratings in this game. Having said that, it is a flaw (if it is a flaw and not just me) easily fixed simply by deciding how difficult you as GM want any given task to be. In play, if a given task has a difficulty of 2 (medium difficulty and size) and you are trying to accomplish it with your (for example) emotion of Avarice (3 dice) then you roll your three dice and calculate your success as follows: Each roll of 1-3 equals no success, each 4-5 equals one success and each 6 equals two successes. You need a total number of successes equal to your difficulty number to succeed. Where a character has a relevant skill, the dice for that skill can be added to the number of dice in the emotion being used when rolling. Frequently a character will not have enough dice in a given emotion to accomplish a given task (don't worry, I will explain how emotions achieve things from a character's perspective in a bit). Where this occurs the character may channel emotions. Essentially this means the character temporarily sacrifices dice in one emotion in order to provide additional dice in another. For example, you feel your three dice in avarice may not be enough for a given task and would rather have five. So as to be sure of success, you channel two dice of another emotion (lets say pride) into your avarice. You must roleplay this and explain how your pride is supporting your avarice in this example. The drawback with this is that your result will be tainted by the boosting emotion and there is a risk that your boosted dice will be lost permanently, so that your pride permanently reduces by two. One benefit to skills is that when they are used to boost an emotion there is no risk of taint. Using Emotions from a character's perspective I think its now worth exploring what it means in game when you do something like using avarice three boosted by pride two. Basically, the spirit world is not material, nor are the ghosts. The spirit world is formed of the imaginings and wishes of its inhabitants, it is a sort of consensual hallucination. By channelling your emotion towards a particular goal, you force a change in that illusion. So, one character might use their curiosity to go through a locked door while another uses rage. Each player must then describe how this appears in the spirit world. The curious character may appear to pick the lock while the raging character appears to kick the door down. There are parallels with how cyberspace is often represented in Cyberpunk games. So going back to our example of avarice boosted by pride, lets imagine the task is stealing an amulet from another ghost. The character uses his avarice describing himself as sneaking up on the other ghost and lifting it while he is distracted. Pride is channelled with a description that he refuses to fail because he is so determined to show he is capable of taking the amulet. The taint crops up in the success, the character has successfully used his avarice to steal the amulet but his success is tainted by pride, perhaps he insists on wearing it prominently now in order to show it off. As should be obvious, a great deal is expected of players in terms of descriptions. Each action mechanically is an emotion overcoming an illusionary obstacle (or another emotion in opposed rolls), how it appears in game is a question of description. Combat Combat is a matter of contested emotions. The difference between the two rolls gives rise to a number of wounds, the GM then rolls a number of dice equal to the number of wounds and the player rolls a number of dice equal to their spirit. If the ghost wins, some wounds are lost, if the GM wins the ghost can become unconscious or "dead". I suspect in play it would be simpler than it sounds, but would have preferred a system with slightly fewer rolls given the rules light nature of the game generally. Characters have an opportunity to improve emotions through use and to gain new emotions where they have tried express emotions they do not have dice in. This leads for me to one problem with the system as described. At the beginning of the rules it is implied that the number of dice a ghost has is simply a function of its number of incarnations. Player ghosts however can have large numbers of dice without large numbers of incarnations through character advancement. Logically, this means that ghosts which have spent a long time in the afterlife will often be as, if not more, powerful than old ghosts with many lives. The Setting Here is why I haven't given the game full marks. Basically, the setting is not finished. It is indicated that ghosts gather into groups depending on matters such as how the last life was lived (shipwrights for example); what the ghost does (societies of ghost slavers); sects united by common emotions and beliefs; and races (groups of NPC ghosts such as the ghosts of the unborn). None of these groups are really described and it is up to the individual GM to decide what groups exist and how characters join them for her game. Shrouds of existence are also referred to. These are essentially the consensual hallucinations the ghosts inhabit. They include the Earth shroud (a slightly twisted replica of the real world), historical shrouds (memories of the Earth as it was), Worldly shrouds are ones where the entire environment is a desert or ocean or some such. Lastly there are personal shrouds which are the creation of individual ghosts of great power and are effectively private universes. None of the shrouds are really described except as basic ideas. Having said that, creation of shrouds in practice would not be terribly difficult. Note that it is not wholly clear the extent to which, if at all, these shrouds overlap the world of the living and to which ghosts can interact with the living. Summary And that's pretty much it. I haven't gone into every mechanic (how stimuli overcome emotions for example) but I hope the gist is clear. In essence, this is a high concept game with a simple base mechanic (although surprisingly hard to describe I've found) which absolutely requires tons of high level roleplaying. Against that its not really finished, merits and flaws are only touched upon rather than fleshed out. Skills are unclear in scope. The setting is slight and more of an idea than a place to play in. So, the three question: 1. What did the book set out to do? 2. Did it achieve it? How well? 3. Was that goal worthwhile in the broader scheme of things? It set out to create a story-intense rules light game where players would be forced to portray emotions and to do some intensive roleplaying. Does it achieve this? I think so, yes. By making emotions the basis of the game players are forced to roleplay. Was the goal worthwhile? If you like story intense, emotion driven, roleplaying sure. So why didn't I give it five? Well, firstly because it simply isn't finished (which is also partly why it only gets a two on style) and secondly because some of the dice mechanics I found needlessly complex. Why as good as four? Because I think its a great concept and there is the kernel of a truly unique roleplaying experience inside it. Who should try it? Well, people who read this review and thought it sounded fun I guess. Having said that, if you're not prepared to put a bit of work in finishing it off for your game then its not for you. If nothing else though, it may give you some good ideas. And hey, its free.