 Goto [ Index ] |
Nonetheless, as I do have strong opinions on the subject of ghosts and gaming, and as some members of the rpg.net community kindly expressed an interest in my views on this book, I have contributed a review. Please note also that I was not a big fan of the old World of Darkness, but that I have some experience now in running both Orpheus and the New World of Darkness core rules, and have indeed written a ghost adventure for the system myself (unpublished, but played with two groups.) I am therefore passingly familiar with the system and using I to tell ghost stories…
On with the review! Ghost Stories is a 128pp (about 122pp new material) hardback supplement containing a thoughtful introduction and five scenarios for the World of Darkness Core rules. It’s level of physical production is high, and the art work excellent throughout, though to be fair the cover is not particularly striking or interesting, and the flavour text on the back is utterly useless. The casual browser is unlikely to be enticed, if your copy like mine comes heavily shrink wrapped. In the UK it is priced very competitively at £15 owing to the very weak dollar, but this is still outrageously expensive compared with the incredible good value of Atlas Games new hardback Ars Magica 5th edition core rules, which is really setting the standard at the moment for value rpg books. I have no idea how expensive it is in American terms however, but I suspect it is a fair price, though the volume appears very slim.
Pricing aside, I will once again state – the book is beautifully presented – the art varies in style, and as someone who loathes rpg art, and is uninterested in illustrations generally, it is pretty good throughout, with some superbly evocative pieces, while others appealed less to my eye. It is very well written throughout, clearly presented, well edited and despite a few minor typos the layout and choice of fonts is good, the product only really being let down by the cover. I will therefore give it a 4, but really 4.5 would be closer, for style.
On to the contents – there is some opening fiction, after which we have the Introduction. It is very well written, though I noted certain concepts seemed to be repeated, or dwelt upon heavily. It’s a sound piece, and I can not fairly comment on it as my expectations and work in the field renders me overly critical. What I can do is comment on the adventures…
One of the things which I will suspect will disappoint many purchasers is that the adventures do not constitute a linked campaign, or really support that option. However, I think they could be run that way; and I will therefore review each Chapter out of order, but in the order I would run them, making comments on the links which could be used… From this point in, until you see the clearly marked end of the spoilers, there are spoilers which would possibly ruin the adventure for you. Have been careful to not really giveaway much, but in each case I have really had to give away the entire plot to allow a full and fair discussion. As an amusing side note, most of the scenarios work at least partially on the idea that at first the characters are not aware the supernatural is involved, and that the presence of ghosts is a surprise. It may be to the characters, but unless you have a very sneaky Storyteller who is willing to recover the book, the title is a bit of a give away to the players! Player knowledge is not character knowledge, but one does lose a little of the thrill of the unknown - a more ambiguous title would have perhaps been better for a book of scenarios!
***SPOILERS TILL END SPOILER NOTE***
The scenario would use to open a chronicle is Adam Tinworth’s excellent No Way Out. I will say absolutely nothing about this scenario, for fear of creating spoilers, apart from it could work well in any urban setting, anywhere in the world. It is a clearly written, nicely non-linear scenario. There is one major plot element which I am unconvinced many players will stumble across without assistance from the Storyteller, but as one potential opening has them already aware of it, well that is not really an issue. One excellent rationale for a group of nWoD characters may be that they all work in a manufacturing plant or factory, and this is a perfect introduction, or for suburban housewives, or many other typical characters. Remember this is the New World of Darkness – ex-Green Beret’s, Hitmen and Professional Occultists need not apply. School dinner ladies, used car salesmen and disgruntled factory workers are much better choices to get the best from the game. I really rate this as one of the best scenarios I have read in a while. It employs mundane domestic issues and very real themes to generate a feeling of fear effectively. It is not a particularly atmospheric read, but I think it would make a great gaming session, and the author falls over himself to help and provide options for Storytellers to adapt it to their own chronicles.
I think I would then run my favourite scenario in the whole book, Holy Ghost by Matt Forbeck. If this scenario was easily usable I think the strength of the previous two alone would justify the purchase of the book. And easily usable it is, except… Part of the strength of this story is the bleak desolate urban wasteland it is set within – a ghetto, in the worst part of town, where sporadic gang violence is taking many lives, and despair and terror are normal, without the need for supernatural assistance. The author offers advice on adapting the setting to other protagonist than gangs, but I felt that would really entail a great deal of work, and would also diminish the scenario greatly. Now comes the problem – Gangsta Rap, Hoods, and Gangs with guns are NOT part of the European experience. Sure there are a few gangs in Britain – but they are actually dissimilar to the American model, and this level of urban deprivation does not exist. Setting the story in Occupied Europe during World War 2, and replacing the gangs with Nazis might work, or indeed setting it in any part of the world where violence and extreme deprivation go hand in hand would work well. I do not think the plot is feasible in a European setting, and in some areas like Scandinavia it would appear too fantastic to give credence.
Now we have the second problem – the game is set in a black neighbourhood (sorry, I’m Danish so I use English not American spellings in case you were wondering!), and yet most role-players I know are white. I have played with I think six non-white role-players – one Black player, One Middle Eastern player, One Indian player and two Asians, and one part-Maori. OK, that implies to me most players of rpgs are white, comparatively privileged folks. What about characters – yes, I have seen plenty of Black characters in play, though they tend to be closer to the aspirational roles seen on The Cosby Show than the ghetto. OK, I don’t think I suffer from Liberal Guilt – us Danes never actually enslaved a million plus folks – but I am not comfortable with the fact that in the scenario the characters, who are probably white outsiders to the ghetto, are able to come in and by their actions, unskilled in the particular issues at hand, find a solution for the problems of a community. It reminds me of the film Mississippi Burning, where the sacrifices of the white civil rights guys and the whole black community were overshadowed by the cool FBI guys, to the detriment of the whole film. Now there are very strong Black character sin this plot; all flawed but so is everyone in the World of Darkness, and I do not think the author has a racist bone in his body – far from it, this is a commendable effort to introduce themes and areas of America life often ignored or sidelined by the rpg community. The author has done a fine job; but he has set us a challenge – why is our hobby so ethnically limited?
There is a brief boxed insert which implies that white middle class characters may be victimised or suffer resentment – er, yes, they may suffer from racism as well, directed at them, and from one would have suspected a lot more anger and difficulty in dealing with this environment than the scenario depicts.
Anyway, the best scenario in the book – but immediately a second question arises –
Ok I live in a house with no heating, cracks in the walls which are coated with black mould, and no flooring in two rooms. I choose to live here – I could easily find somewhere better, and the State would pay the new rent, but the landlord is a friend, and I’m hoping he can fix his house up. Maybe once a month I go a day without food, because I have not got any money, and no bank will lend me any as I have no credit rating – fifteen years in education, no debts, no loans, no credit history, no steady history of employment – I work in TV and in university lecturing. I am frequently a recipient of the UK’s generous welfare system – yet I have broadband internet access, a fantastic book collection, and three well fed cats. I am by no means poor. I can’t imagine life in the ghetto, and while uniquely in my experience in this country I have been a victim of violent street crime (three times) and was hospitalised by other kids several times in childhood, I still can not in any way relate to the levels of violence and poverty one finds in the ghetto depicted. Again, a challenge for UK and European gamers, whose experience of these topics is probably limited to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and films and music. Does playing in other peoples misery trivialise it? I don’t think so; it may actually be a useful way of thinking about the issues raised, and how people in other countries we regard as First World Nations and civilised are allowed to live. (Sorry that sounds Anti-American – it’s not. We have our own problems in Europe, it’s just harder to see the plank in your own eye. For the record my fiancée is an American and many of my friends are American republicans, while I remain a Welfare Socialist Democrat.)
So, ethical and racial issues aside, what the scenario like? Again, I want to avoid unnecessary spoilers despite the warning. It is very much to my taste, and while not the best scenario ever, it’s certainly on my list for the top ten, if I can find a way of addressing the above issue of a European setting.
The only point I would make is that the church which features in the scenario, the Seventh Congregationalist, is clearly fictional, yet the author does not demonstrate a great deal of familiarity with contemporary American religion. The church as depicted would best be noted as Episcopalian but effectively very high Anglo-Catholic, or Roman Catholic – there is one scene which involves oral confession, in a confessional, which strongly implies Catholicism, and is not normative in any Protestant tradition I am aware of. Also, and I hate to return to race again, my recent work in academic studies on American Popular Religion has convinced me that the churches are the last stronghold of (voluntary ion this case) segregation in US society. The church as portrayed in certainly in the Episcopalian/catholic or perhaps Baptist tradition – perhaps Pentecostalist, Non-denominational (effectively a denomination the US) or Methodist would have worked better.
This brings me to an aside; several of the authors mention Church exorcism, or imply that church men carry out exorcisms or teach other quite happily how to do so. This may be the case in some sects, but it is extraordinarily rare. A Catholic Priest requires authorisation from the Vatican to conduct exorcism, and in the Anglican and Episcopalian churches one has to go through the Bishop and the Diocesan Exorcist will be brought inn, or if there Is not one, then a fully qualified Exorcist from elsewhere. These individuals are usually very well trained in psychiatry, medicine and psychical research. Unlicensed exorcisms have a very bad press, and while most churches if not all will hold a prayer meeting or have a minister conduct a blessing, the kind of full on Spiritual Warfare depicted is rather limited in real life, though there was a brief phase in the 1980’s Charismatic Movement when it was popular. I deal with these issues in my rpg supplements – I think it is excusable for rpg professionals with no real world experience of trying to arrange exorcisms for distraught families to depict it like this for game purposes, but obviously it slightly amused me. (And yes, I have written to White Wolf in the past offering to act as a consultant on such matters – no reply, but then they probably assumed I am a fruitbat – which I may well be, let the reader judge….)
Still, absolutely brilliant scenario. If you live in America, excellent stuff!
Rick Chillot brings us Roots and Branches, a scenario which drips atmosphere, and is one of the most evocative and atmospheric pieces of rpg writing I have ever seen. Yet I do not rate it as highly as the previous two stories. The setting is excellent, easily adaptable to any urban environment, and it has perhaps the most Call of Cthulhu feel to it of any of the stories. I liked it a great deal, but find the problem lies in that after a very open and well done start, the characters eventually hit the right track and are then railroaded, and perhaps spoon fed towards the conclusion. It becomes extremely linear – the ghost dictates the finding of an object, the characters are drawn to visit a certain location, etc. there are multiple possible endings, but one clearly preferred route. This may be a terribly unfair criticism – remember I have not yet played or run any of these scenarios.
If Mr Chillot had written this as a short story, I am convinced he would have won recognition – he has a real talent. I certainly would buy an anthology of his fiction, or more of his adventures, and the artist for this piece deserves recognition too. I did feel that in this scenario the motif of the holy man who has lost his faith was handled a little clumsily, and indeed in the adventure reviewed above, but I happen to be preparing for ordination and very involved with institutionalised religion, and am perhaps more aware of it’s strengths as well as weaknesses and of how ministers actually crack up under stress and how the Church authorities respond. Gray Pete is a believable character, all that said, but he does become something of a deus ex machina.
The scenario has many merits, especially in the scenes involving the ghost. In fact overall it is excellent, but there are a few ways it could be improved. Library Research is downplayed throughout the entire book – this is not Call of Cthulhu and ye one would expect the original murders to feature on websites, local histories, and in many other sources. Piecing together the background would be far more plausible and fun than the way it is presented.
My biggest gripe is the hearts carved on the tree which has a minor role in the story. (Here follows a major spoiler). Look, the tree is the favourite of the landowner, yes? He lies under it many days and daydreams. The tee is in no way supernatural at this point. So why would his unfaithful wife and her lover, known to the landowner, carve there initials in a heart on the tree? I just do not understand. It is mind boggling stupid, unless they wanted to be caught out – yet they have successfully conducted there relationship for at least a few years (one can infer this by the fact they have children together.) Also, does bark not overgrow such carvings over a few years? It is also a very direct clue to what actually happened. In fact all the clues are of the level I would associate with a computer adventure game, and lack plausibility. The overall story is first rate, but the Storyteller needs to think about rejigging the information sources to allow library research, reducing some of the helpful plaques, and creating some other sources or handouts by which the background can be pieced together. Ultimately the research is not actually needed anyway, which is also a great pity. A helpful NPC draws attention to the nature of the problem, and understanding it’s origin in now way contributes to it’s resolution. A hauntings scenario, beautifully written, starting in the Ghost Story and ending in the style of American Gothic, yet to my mind deeply flawed as a game scenario.
Up to this point the scenarios are all written in such a way that no real knowledge of the supernatural is required, and ordinary folks happen upon them. This certainly could be the case with The Terrifying Tale of James Magnus by Geoff Grabowski, but it easily supports character who have developed an interest in investigation of the paranormal, so it would run well here. The following comments are amended version of my previous discussion of this scenario on the rpg.net forums, so may well be familiar, and you may wish to skip to the next story… I began by liking this adventure, for using the mundane effectively as a backdrop, yet I can see why you might find it distasteful or too 'glamorous'/'sick' for an effective ghost story - as I read further those thoughts did crop up, it was only the opening where a sparse description gives a very good feel for Hampton County. It does feel a bit 'Delta Green', or maybe that is just me.
However on further reading it does actually become a horror rather than a supernatural fiction/ghost story scenario - which is a shame because I felt the writer showed excellent ability and good effect with sparse prose, in his insights in to what makes the ghost story work. A good analogy from fiction would be Peter Straub's novel Julia - great atmosphere, good build, ends with horror sex & violence thing a I recall, cheating the reader. I generally dislike ghost stories which end in an orgy of madness, zombies and possessing spirits, though I have written some.
Then ending any ghost story is very difficult - because ghost stories are, with the exception of the Phantom Hitchhiker and one or two folklore tropes, generally unreconciled. The coda usually identifies the ghost - it is Ghostbusters which really renders the ghost story pro-active, and Orpheus has clearly staked and dominated that territory. In many ways, this is the weakest element in severalof the scenarios – while some effectively deal with the resolution of tethers, in others it goes astray a little.
I do dislike the 'no map' thing - this usually means - the narrator can just torture the players as they feel. Denied internal logic or tactical options any rpg becomes a storytelling rather than a game exercise, which in my world is a bad thing. What is it about White Wolf that amps are forever blasphemies beyond imagination to them? There is not a single map in the whole book, and losing some art to replace with maps would be excellent – scenario books are toolkits, not works of aesthetics. Maps easily and usefully convey information, and can easily be adapted by Storytellers to fit local architecture or terrain styles. Why no maps?
I still rate this as a very good scenario, and the authors notes are excellent, and his general feeling for the ghost story as an rpg form first rate. There is an interesting narrative device for rpgs, which mirrors the flashbacks of films and novels, giving players information the characters do not have. I am probably biased because it is highly influenced by M.R.James though who I feel a deep personal affinity for, having grown up next door to his childhood home, and having lived in a similar academic environment with a similar love of Scandinavia and early Church manuscripts…
Anyway, I have nothing constructive to say here. It does rather over use the kinky occultist BDSM weirdo image, and in fact the BDSM elements seemed out of place – my limited experience of BDSM players is that they are usually anti-authoritarian, liberal caring folk outside the bedroom. Here however the sex is secondary to rape torture and a real catalogue of horrors we are invited to wallow in – but in fact only really evoked mild prurient interest in my case. There is a complex background for the chief protagonist, but again, there is no way for the characters to actually find it out, and I ended up half skimming it, as the character is already well drawn.
The final scenario I will address is the first one in the book, and the longest, Dust to Dust by Chuck Wendig. Again Mr Wendig has talent, and I look forward of seeing more of his work, but this rapidly became my least favourite scenario despite an interesting handling of the theme of genius loci. It is a walking set of Americana clichés – and almost completely useless outside of the continental USA. There are ghost villages in Britain; I grew up by one which died in roughly the same period as the one in this book, and which still haunts my real life nightmares, but adaptation would be very difficult. I could run it as a one off – but it just failed to grab me.
If however I was to run it as a one off, my chosen method would be to have the characters start in media res, as robbers in a bank hold up. As they flee the bungled raid, under fire and hotly pursued, they are force din to the desert, where a freak sandstorm loses the helicopter pursuit, and driving blind find themselves in the town…
One question nagged me about this scenario – the symptoms in the graveyard appear to be that of flu, the illness that gripped the town was in 1919, when flu devastates America, so why is the disease given as smallpox? This strikes me as an editorial change and one which puzzled me. It just does not make sense. The protagonist could easily have ignored the global flu epidemic and still ascribed the local outbreak to the same reason he does the smallpox in his insane state of mind?
My other chief criticism is that native Americans, School Ma’ams and Sheriffs are just too obvious for this scenario. The hog farmer would have made a far more interesting culprit. I liked the style, the advice, and yet…
There is one final quote I must address. Nearly a century ago Arthur Machen reminded us that there were “Sacraments of evil as well as good.” Ghost Stories includes the line “…while supernatural evil exists, so does supernatural good (albeit to a lesser degree).” Mr Lovecraft, you have much to answer for!
***END OF SPOILERS***
So how effective is Ghost Stories? For the US market, or players whose games are set in the US, very much so. I really think White Wolf however should consider the global market more in future scenario books – while obvious Americanism which render parts of the much loved Unknown Armies impenetrable to me are missing, two of the scenarios are hard to fit in non-US chronicles. It’s not as bad as Orpheus where I had to give in and set it in the USA, but it is difficult. Being able to adapt an rpg product on ghosts to your home environment is useful – ghosts work partially on the contrast between the everyday and the Other – why I think the ghost town worked least well for me. For several systems, British sales make up 50%, and I suspect Britain and Europe must make up at least a quarter of the White Wolf market, though I have no evidence for that assertion. . I am not sure if the stories really in anyway would serves as preludes to Vampire, Mage or Werewolf centred chronicles. I rather think that would cheapen them, and that the tone would be different, an the coincidence of the same people then turning in to Vampires or whatever a bit hard to take, but it might well work.
It’s a good book, and could have been a great one. In terms of what I have seen of the (new) World of Darkness so far, it is by far my favourite, ahead of the core rules, Coteries and Vampire the Requiem which I am finding difficult to be enthused by so far, though that may change on further reading. I certainly would recommend buying it, as the best parts are superb, and for casual readers this is probably a good place to end the review.
However, for those who are interested in such things – there is one interesting thing about all the scenarios. It is apparently assumed that players have read the Core Book and know how ghosts work in the nWoD. Everyone of the ghost featured works in what I would call a naïve dualist paradigm; that is Spirits survive bodily death and that is what all ghosts are. The game ignores all other theories, such as the dominant paradigm of academic parapsychology, the psi hypothesis, where many paranormal events are ascribable to the usually unconscious GESP (general ESP –psychokinesis, clairvoyance, telepathy, premonition, etc) of living human agents. This means that parapsychologist in the nWoD are really Spiritualists, and indeed Spiritualism seems to have a significant amount of truth in it’s understanding of things. If the characters seek help from scientific experts they will be hopeless misled if those experts subscribe to real world theories – including real world theories on ghosts, apparitions and post-mortem survival.
Now obviously I am incredibly biased here – I just find this naïve dualist view a little simplistic, and like my games to take parapsychology and the paranormal a little more seriously – as is the case with Conspiracy X and Unknown Armies both of which are little short of perfect in their handling of these issues. I am quite happy for the psi paradigm to be balderdash – I actually suspect as much myself – but the complexity of real world investigation of the paranormal in no way mirrored here. Dealing with ghosts becomes a sort of hands on psychotherapy, with rituals to allow cathartic release – it is as if the whole question of life after death in this game has been reduced to a visit to the psychiatrist couch, but a peculiar psychiatrist who resolves issues by burning down things which caused trauma, and laying to rest the ghosts of ones life. Once the players understand resolving tethers they have an effective strategy to deal with ghosts – more complex, meaningful and emotionally fulfilling than hitting an orc with a sword, but still stripping away the mystery of the paranormal. In many ways it is the worldview of the psychic or Spiritualist to whom this sort of talking to the dead is normal, and for whom resolution of tether is part of the job. Yet where are these mediums and psychics? Derek Acorah and Jonathan Edwards would have their work cut out if they lived in the nWoD.
I sincerely believe that if this is how all ghosts are going to work, and yes the Introduction to this book makes clear Storytellers should create new and mysterious ghosts if the desire with unknown powers, characters should be able to develop psychic abilities to communicate with the beasties. It is all too simplistic for me – once ghost become a known and understood force, all the mystery and fear resides. Instead Dr Venkmann will lead another troubled spirit to the metaphysical consulting couch, and all troubles will be resolved by the power of psychicbabbble. A known ghost lose much of it’s awe – it works in Orpheus and Wraith, and works well, but there the ghosts re the protagonists. I faced his issue in some of my rpg writing, and found ways round it, but so far I am troubled if the nWoD approach can ever lead to satisfying ghost campaigns.
It is for this reason that there is absolutely no emphasis on investigation of hauntings in this book, at least in the ‘professional’ sense. In the nWoD one would not play ghost hunters or parapsychologists – mediums and counsellors would be far more effective. It keeps the ghosts fully human, but by doing so limits them. I’m sure the line will expand, and address these issues, but I felt they were worth raising.
To end this review, I will finish with some marks culled from my posts on running ghost stories in the nWoD on the forums, but corrected and expanded. I feel they are directly relevant to the book at hand, especially as four key pages of the core rule book material is actually reprinted in Ghost Stories…
“Ok, I am burning to review the New World of Darkness; my forum posts over the last few days show this. However, one thing is stopping me - would you ask a ethologist specialising in lupine behaviour to critique Werewolf, even if they happened to be a gamer? I thought not...
Many of the niggles and issues I have with nWoD derive from my participation for the last decade in the discourse of academic parapsychology, where I specialise in spontaneous cases (Ghosts, Poltergeists and Hauntings.) I write mainly on the cultural history of the supernatural, with a strong interest in epistemology and the construction of cultural theories of the Other.
However, some gamers are simulationists, and as the ghost story is placed at the core of the NWOD, here follow some brief remarks - supposing a Western European/ North American white European cultural mindset and mythic structure, and in line with contemporary parapsychology. Conspiracy X achieved a truly fascinating and incredibly well thought out interpretation of the supernatural, which I would find hard to fault - though naturally I did - how does New World of Darkness do?
I will assume the reader has read the relevant section; however even if you have not, well this should make some sense. It is a preliminary survey; an invitation to discussion...
The section begins with the unproblematic Quote:
'Ghosts are the spirits of mortals which linger in the physical world.
Supporting a dualist rather than an epiphenomenalist psi hypothesis, that immediately puts the game at variance with the central trend of contemporary parapsychology which places 'ghosts' and other paranormal events in the context of unknown human psi, that is psychic powers, abbreviated to psi, the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet. I think this is a wise choice; parapsychology has in Super-ESP and Psi set up a ludicrous philosophical situation where post mortem survival becomes an unverifiable hypothesis; furthermore the psi hypothesis is unfalsifiable, so in terms of Science, meaningless. Ghost as 'dead guys' bring colour, romance and passion to a story - they have human motivations, and in a world where vampires mages and werewolves are real, yes, absolutely excellent choice.
There follow three types of ghosts - the non-self aware lacking consciousness 'looping' recording - in parapsi terms, the apparition, the lost soul who clings to the world, and the spirit which has survived through sheer strength of will. The latter two would be identified by parapsychologist as ghosts - despite the popularity of the recording theory post the 1970's, actual cases studies of cases in the peer reviewed parapsychological literature have led me to the hypothesis that the true ghost, as described in this game, more accurately reflects the experiences of percipients and the cases which have come to parapsychologist's attention. the apparition is difficult to use in an rpg context - there is nothing actually there, so the only use I have found is to have it as either window dressing - which debases the ghost concept, or to actually have it serve as a clue; it's actions cause the characters to closely examine the flagstone where it vanishes, or whatever. The True Ghost, of either type, is in fact a spectacularly living NPC, and has so much potential - it is wisest to tend that way, as well as gratifying pedantic gaming parapsychologists.
Ghost Traits - I love this section. The use of Power, Finesse and Resistance, and indeed the whole new division of Stats in nWoD has made my storytelling s much easier. This section is truly first rate, and is probably the best simple dice system for dealing with spooks i have seen yet. Bravo!
The Nature of Ghosts
Apart from having Power 3 ghosts appear as not appear as transparent or translucent shades (not found much in the literature; the rules reflect reality more than popular culture here), I would wholeheartedly endorse the opening paragraph. The power 4 or 5 ghost actually appears solid - personally based on cases like Coates 1996 I would have a physical manifestation possible, with effects on the environment, but we can leave that happily to Numina.
The idea of Anchors is again first rate, and truly deserving of compliment; the haunted house, haunted person and haunted object all are related to gameable story concerns, as in Orpheus and Wraith. I have seen cases of haunted objects written up in the literature, and while my sceptical mind tends to reject most haunts, these rules mirror well the diversity of apparent case material while actually staying gameable and true to supernatural fiction - bravo!
OK, on to Manifestations. This is a peculiar section, the rules are good but do not to my mind reflect either popular, folkloric or parapsychological ideas of the ghost. I like the manifesting but non-visible concept - well done - but would take issue with the 'heightened magnetic fields' concept. I have spent far to long ridiculing people who hunt ghosts with EMF meters, and taking the mickey out of my friend Phil Whyman wandering around detecting washing machines and fridges (he is the paranormal investigator on the British cult TV show [i}Most Hauinted) to want anyone to argue for an electromagnetic model of ghost activity. It's polluting the mental environment man! [See Taylor, 1976; 1979, or Cornell 2001] Parapsychology journals are not that hard to locate chaps. I think we can safely say this idea is one we can do without popularising further, lest I murder the next person who tells me about anomalous results coming from near the wall on their EMF meter, as they trace the wiring convinced they are tracking a ghost. If you must play with EMF meters, Spectral Electronics the UK firm makes some very reasonable ones which ignore signal generated by household voltages, though they made need re-tuning for the US or European markets. I'm sure they would build you one if you asked...
OK, now we get to the core - ghosts respond to emotional energy in some way. The easiest way to describe this if you have not read the book is in terms of the Ars Magica idea of Auras - the aura of reason (dropped in AM4th) seems to reduce the capacity for manifestation. a modern laboratory reduces manifestation by 3 dice - tell Vic Tandy that - ok, so it turned out to be standing wave, but labs certainly do get haunted - and Modern industrial buildings get -2 dice, which must seriously annoy the ghost of the Corydon Oil Refinery, Essex, England. the Corydon case is one of the finest modern ghost stories from a chills part - a figure dressed in protective hood an overalls and boots, seen against the 1950's gleaming steel of the modernist oil refinery - that image is worth a hundred white ladies in medieval manors in my book. That is my basic problem here - i) it reduces ghosts to trite settings - in reality they appear anywhere, and a ghost in a modern office building of a secretary killed last year in a car crash, still seen in her cubicle, is a hundred times more emotionally powerful and creepy than the Ragged Spectral Monk of Olde Spooksbury Hall.
Conversely graveyards get +3 -sure, people get spooked in graveyards, but why would anyone haunt them? ) and battlefields +2 - well in many years research, battlefield ghosts are incredibly rare. While I like to think unburied or unrecovered human remains are involved in some haunts, The Somme is the argument I can never manage to get past - at least I raised it as a critique of my own theory - how many bodies lost forever, yet not a peep of a ghost as far as I recall.
Hospitals and Churches do get their fair share of spooks - what is particularly noticeable about hospital ghosts though is it is never the patients who haunt - it's the staff. Every hospital seems to have a ghost nurse but I can't think of a ghost patient account, except the Swedish Classic in the Return of Harry Price [Mackenzie 83], a poignant case of the ghosthunter turned ghost.
I loathe the Manifestation table; if you scratch deeper than the very edges of folklore, it doe snot represent folkloric reality, it certainly does not reflect the literature, and to be honest is damned bad gaming. The idea of the ghost is frightening because it occurs in a mundane setting; to try and force them in to trite B Movie settings just appals me.
I can follow the logic; but schools have high emotion, as do Sports Arenas - so a baseball arena or soccer stadium should be a +3? There are logical issues with the model, and my very thoughtful players would soon tear it apart.
Ok, Numina. the choice of word was odd; I thought Otto [1908] on the numinous and sacred space, and halos, but heck, you have to call them something...
To quickly flip through them...
Animal Control - not based on any folkloric or literature cases i can think of, but fun.
Clairvoyance - eh, you what? Clairvoyance is 'seeing at a distance'; even in the archaic English usage of Prophecy, it makes no sense whatsoever used to discuss this power, which might possibly be called overshadowing but has no basis in much that I can see beyond game expedience. I like my ghosties to feel and act like ghosties, in case you had not gathered...
This really is one for the Errata - WTF has the ability to talk through a living human got to do with any version of Clairvoyance? That's like me writing an ability to interior design and calling it 'Golf'. I was boggled, as Renee Hayes would have said... (As Balbinus swiftly corrected me, the word was employed occasionally like this in Spiritualist circles.)
Compulsion This is similar to the parapsychological concept of overshadowing with overtones of possession. Fun, straight from Skinriders, but not really applicable in this direct form to most ghost stories, and rather a shame in rpg terms because it diminishes the players control over their environment, while in no way reflecting folklore or the literature. I have used a version in a scenario I'm writing - I'll tell you how it works out.
Ghost Sign Marianne.. candles..prayers...light. Nice. Anyone get my reference?
Ghost Speech Ok, but does it really need a numina?
Magnetic disruption Yes, in this case, worthy, and reflecting many investigators experiences. I know I said ghosts were not electromagnetic entities, but I'll agree this is good, and fun game possibilities.
Phantasm – interesting and a great game power
Possession – difficult, a is tend to dislike anything which reduces player control over their characters. Actually very rare in the literature and not usually assocuiated with ghosts.
Now, just to make one thing totally clear - I'm not bothered by 'realism' - in the paranormal, that is a silly concept, for there may be no such thing as the ‘real’ paranormal - but I felt some of the game handling was actually bad for gaming ghosts, which was a damn shame.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
