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The First Glance
Picking up the book, you would have to notice the nice key effects on the cover. A quick glance might lead you to think that the book is washed out and just generally not exciting. You've got the title, a nice looking antique key, and lots of black. Pick it up, let the light shift over the cover, and you'll see that the colored key is just one in a large pattern of other keys, all slick to the touch compared to the background, all unique.
If there's a motif other than "second chances" to Geist, it's that of keys. Opening the cover and briefly flipping through the pages, you'll notice the page borders are an endless sea of keys. It's skull insignia on the spine has a key in the center of it. It gives a unique feel to this World of Darkness game.
Whoever was in charge of the production of the actual book must have loved the game and everything it stands for, as it's the nicest fatsplat I've held in my hands. The inside binding on the front and back covers is classy and mesmerizing to stare at. The text is the polar opposite of that found in Mage: The Awakening. It's very readable and offers some nice horrific art work. I can tell I won't need to be gritting my teeth trying to read thin cursive letters or faint golden ink. Much like Hunter: The Vigil, this book does not mess around.
The opening fiction is a welcome change as well. It's only four pages, and shifts focus several times so we end up with a lot of little character ideas and introductions. The only comment I'll make about the opening story is that Sin-Eaters (the characters the players will build and control) can be vicious, and should give the players a lot of freedom with their actions. There is real power there, just hinted at, but it sounds neat and unique from any other RP game (with the possible exception of the pieces I've read about Monsters and Other Childish Things).
Based on the introduction flavor, it looks like the characters may actually be jovial in their activities. Sin-Eaters actually have parties and gatherings that seem to have a Carnivale feel to them with lots of drinking and lots of celebrating. I'm excited by this because WW's game that focuses most strongly on death looks to actually be its most light-hearted and upbeat. The Sin-Eaters gather because they've died once and have been given the trademark second chance. They know what it is to be without life, so they take every opportunity to enjoy simply being alive.
The thing that really caught my eye in the lexicon was the existence of several different types of Sin-Eaters who weren't quite "with-it" compared to the average Sin-Eater. Sacrosancts, Vacants, and Wretcheds all seem to be characters potentially full of conflict and story development potential as they may be able to blend in with other Krewes when in fact they are extremely dangerous. They also seem to be a way to put forth a warning for the Sin-Eaters about what can happen if you're not careful.
Chapter 1: At the Cemetery Gate
This chapter acts as a more complete introduction to the "fluff" or mostly story-related elements of playing a game of Geist. Chapter 1, At the Cemetery Gate, introduces more about the general concepts of Sin-Eaters.
I would summarize the Sin-Eater's concept as two words "secretive" and "disorganized." Secretive because they are a secret society that even other supernaturals don't know about, and disorganized because their culture is, as the author describes it, "cannabilistic." It's a neat concept that SE culture (kulture? sorry) is unique to each krewe and geographic area.
A Sin-Eater is an individual who has had at least a touch with death and pulled back to life with the help of a geist. A geist is a spirit/god/ghost that can be an archetype (like the mad surgeon or the lover scorned) or have more of an individual personality. The geist bonds itself to the actual soul of the SE and the two together have powers neither would have apart. Those powers are only hinted at here, but generally a SE sees ghosts constantly and interacts with them, can enter the underworld freely and interact with the bizarre/terrifying creatures that exist there, and can help a lingering ghost in the mortal world better than any other being of supernatural profession (much better than those pesky Hunters who, the book reminds us, can't even see the ghosts they're trying to battle. what. punks.)
This chapter goes into great detail explaining SE culture including krewes, parties, and the Twilight Network. I felt that, although it was all very informative, it was a little difficult to get through the details. The Twilight Network seemed to go on and on. I'm sure this information will be more valuable once a group began making a krewe and a ST was developing his story, but these sections often came off as thick blocks of text that could have been shortened.
Sin-Eaters love to have parties, it says so right in the book. There are several types of gatherings a SE can attend, but not all are happy. The types are outlined, and I found the idea of a market gathering very interesting. I'm a sucker for Fae markets, and if I do end up running a game of Geist, there will definitely be a death market for my players to visit.
The Twilight Network is a horse of a different color. The name conjures images on an online community, and it is that, in part. As anything with SE culture, it's incredibly disorganized, but universally an aspect of the SE zeitgeist (SO pleased I found a use for that word at least once here). Krewes and SE's use it to pass on messages and important information. It seemed standard stuff until the section that outlined the dangers of the TN. This was one of the best sections of this chapter as I love taking concepts that should be safe, taken for granted by my players, and then flipping them. Without getting too specific, the TN can't always be trusted.
This chapter also sheds some light on the other denizens of Geist as well as where SE's fit into the world of darkness as a whole. Lightning Round explanation of how other supernaturals view sin-eaters!
Vampires? Nuisances that get in the way of my food, hey, wait, they could be food! Werewolves? What's a Sin-Eater? Ghosts = kids' stuff. Kerberoi? I AM THE LAW * Mages? I was using that ghost, thank you very much. Dick. Hunters? Hey, these guys are pretty goo... OHMYGODAGHOST!
*Kerberoi are neat. The picture in the book is terrifying with a bit of a Clive Barker feel to it, but mostly feels like an impossible creature. Basically these are found only in the underworld, and they serve the ancient and arcane laws written for those realms (written by who? great question). They're great because A. they are incredibly powerful and brutal in their enforcement of the law and B. no one (ghost or SE) knows even a small portion of the laws they enforce or if they're even breaking them. A Kerberoi is a ST's best friend and can act as Deus Ex Machina feared by SE's.
Chapter 2: Character Creation
Let's get to the good stuff: I'm just going to post a sample character to show off the neat options given in character creation.
The Sin-Eater Template
I get to pick how my sample character, Damien, died, his archetype, and the ways to access his Geist powers. We get to the fun stuff and real meat of the review to see what sets Sin-Eaters apart from other supernaturals in the World of Darkness.
Archetype - First we look at Damien's outlook on death, the afterlife, and ghosts. This is the archetype and is a role-playing mechanic from what I've gathered. There are many neat options, but I've narrowed down my choices from 8 to 2: Advocate and Necromancer.
Advocates work for ghosts helping them move on and resolve the issues keeping them amongst the living. Necromancers, on the other hand, are seekers of undead secrets and lore. After comparing the two, I'm choosing necromancer. I like the concept that I created for Damien that he would insert himself into the world of Sin-Eaters and the Underworld as soon as possible to put himself into a good position. He wanted to know about his surroundings and those he'd have to play to get by. Necromancer, being a seeker of knowledge, is a good choice.
Threshold - How does the Sin-Eater become a Bound in the first place? How did Damien die exactly? This is one of the things I found most intriguing about Geist in the first place. There are five choices, and all offer specific keys to choose from and may influence how I flesh my Geist out more as well. The effect a threshold has is similar to the type of cell, compact, or conspiracy you chose in Hunter: The Vigil.
Each threshold is unique and determines a lot of how Sin-Eaters interact with the world and underworld around him. I chose The Prey: Death by Nature. Damien had an appetite for the sauce before his death and made enemies as he sometimes clumsily tried his cons on other bar patrons - those not so inebriated as himself. One cold night in NYC he angered some tourists, they took it outside, and it was one quick crack of a pipe to the back of his head that sent him staggering off into the cold night. He never woke up.
It's explained well that one death can fall into many categories and each player has the freedom to choose their own threshold. I chose The Prey because he died from exposure due to the cold. I could have as easily chosen The Torn: Death by Violence since his concussion put him to sleep and was earned through violence. I could have chosen The Forgotten: Death by Chance since it was dumb luck that that pipe was sitting right on the ground next to the fighters and Damien chose the wrong person to harass that night.
Psyche
Psyche's a trait determining other traits. This acts kind of like an attribute and determines some of your Sin-Eater specific traits. In setting terms, psyche is another description of the relationship between you and your geist.
Manifestations and Keys
This part took me 2 or 3 times to read over to understand the interactions. I can put it like this: manifestations are the power behind locked doors that the SE accesses by opening the door with a specific key. The way the manifestations work depends on the key used. Each manifestation is tied to an attribute and each key is tied to a skill. Got it?
With building Damien's powers, I want to find manifestations that are linked to social attributes and skills. There are a ton of manifestations and keys and the book explains how each interacts, organized by manifestation with a nice summary of the powers preceding 35+ pages of in-depth descriptions.
It looks like The Curse, based on Presence, fits Damien. I could go with the Marionette since it's based on Manipulation, which is also one of his strengths, but I'm going to vary it here and go with The Boneyard, based on wits and seems to have some fun haunting effects that can be pulled off.
Now I choose 2 keys. One comes from two options given by the threshold, the other is open, but looks to be tied to my keystone memento. I'm going with Grave-Dirt which is based on Occult and one of my threshold options. For my other starting key, I'm choosing Phantasmal, based on persuasion. Reading the descriptions of my powers (Grave-Dirt Boneyard, Phantasmal Boneyard, Grave-Dirt Curse, and Phantasmal Curse), Damien has several choices to tackle any obstacle.
Keystone Memento
I'm a little confused with what I'm supposed to do. I believe I create my own memento. This is a tool that will occasionally help me manifest powers but is also a symbol of my Geist. I've been developing the idea of my Geist and will use my idea to create my Keystone Memento. It ends up looking like this:
Red Blade of Toshiro Keystone: The Prey Keys: Grave-Dirt, Phantasmal Skill: Persuasion
Step 6: Choose Merits
I'd like to put all 7 points I start with into Geist-specific merits. However, there is a very limited selection of merits offered in Geist, which is disappointing. The merits offered in Geist deal with adding extras onto what you already have. At this point I'm going to leave the merits location vague since I'm not trying to do a review of the WoD rulebook but rather Geist. Hopefully we'll see some more Geist-specific merits in Book of the Dead.
The other two stats that are new advantages for Sin-Eaters are Synergy and Plasm. Synergy is another stat like Psyche that tells us how a Sin-Eater and Geist interact. Plasm is the fuel for many of the Sin-Eaters powers.
Ceremonies
The chapter ends with a section explaining ceremonies, what they are, and why they're important to Sin-Eaters. Remember how I was saying that there aren't many merits in Geist? That's true, but there are a lot of new options to spend your merit points on.
Ceremonies appear to be well thougt-out, but of course I'll have to see them in action to know for sure. Each ceremony costs a number of dots which you buy with merit points and needs an extended challenge to resolve. The powers scale well with the more expensive ceremonies taking longer and requiring more successes. They have neat effects that range from creating items, binding a krewe together, creating illusions, and classic fantasy concepts like Warding Circle.
The five dot ceremonies are all impressively powerful just as they should be for such a big investment in a single power. I like the way they implemented these ceremonies and hope to see more in BotD.
Playing a Sin-Eater is an intriguing and very open option for a supernatural in the WoD. They don't have as much base power as some of the other Supers, but they have some neat and unique ways to interact with the dead and play tricks on the living.
Chapter 4: The System
Chapter four: The System can be broken down to the following sections: Sin-Eaters and how they interact with the world, forming a krewe, and creating mementos and other unearthly items and artifacts to be used in a chronicle of Geist.
Part 1:
The first section, regarding all the special rules not covered in character creation that a Sin-Eater needs to know, is organized very well. Each special rule introduced begins with a fluff explanation followed by a very clearly section titled "mechanics" that explains how to resolve the specific power. I like this presentation quite a bit as it will make it easier to look up rules on the fly in the middle of a game session.
Make no mistake, you will be looking up rules. There are no less than 16 different powers and senses that a Sin-Eater has access to. Some of them overlap (like how Sin-Eaters can stay standing in a fight or come back from the dead, basically points out how tough a Sin-Eater can be), but they all have a different trigger and a unique way to be resolved. I'll admit that as much as I love the WoD, I'm still a newbie and haven't read a full fatsplat, so I don't know how this compares to other supernatural beings in the WoD, but this does seem like a lot of rules to remember. I would hate to have to be the only one in a group with a copy of the book and only one to have read it before meeting to create characters.
Part 2:
The implementation of krewe creation is handled very well and seems to be a huge part of the replayability of the game with it's very limited line of books. It begins as an out-of-character discussion and is a cooperative enterprise between players and storyteller. There are going to be a huge variety of krewe "flavors."
The rules begin by giving direction to the players to help them build a philosophy and the way the members have worked together in order to understand the metaphysics of death and further life. Once the ground rules and guiding philosophies are set for the krewe, there are many choices to add to the krewe and the krewe itself gains experience and advancement through play and the earning of krewe-specific experience points. The players earn these points if they've been ceremoniously inducted and then by play to the ethos, philosophies, and rules of the krewe during play. The idea is to expand your krewe's influence and power through actual play.
Part 3:
The last part (and I believe biggest chunk) of the chapter is devoted to artifacts and unique items to be used as totems, wands, whatever you want to call them in Geist. Some of the items appear to be of generic power, whereas Keystone Mementos, which are expanded here, are the actual hearts of the geists that Sin-Eaters have become bound to. This section also relates to the merits offered in chapter 2 as most of the objects which are craftable through a merit are explained here through fluff, examples, and finally directions for creating your own.
The authors provide several different items, but more often than not they are defined by their use. Whether it's a weapon, a tool to contain or enslave a ghost, or the excellent section describing death masks, we get many different versions of the objects described and it's very clear how these interact with the world and can be created by storytellers and players alike. This section (and the chapter) ends with a good reminder that all these items, because of how random they may appear to the average joe, all have power because of the story and the meaning they carry with them. It serves as a great reminder that all things in the world of Geist are powerful because of the weight they carry. It's all very...magical when you think about.
The authors do a great job of explaining each of these systems within the system and how they relate. I was a little overwhelmed by the first section as, opposed to the other two, every single rule in it applies to every Sin-Eater in any game. The other two sections were great for options, but the first section that sets Sin-Eaters apart from other supers in the WoD will take some re-reading before an actual play of the game. The rest of the chapter is chock full of story hooks both deliberate and by using a little imagination. I know people have been hoping we'll get more Geist releases so we get some more sample krewes (and I'm sure mementos), but it seems simple to take the concepts here and twist them a little to serve the purpose of the ST and his chronicle.
Chapter 4: Story Telling + Appendices
We've looked at the characters, the system, and flavor, and now we've finally gotten to the real meat of the system: telling a story. If White Wolf is known for anything, it's delivering plot and story hooks left and right in almost every product they release. Every supplement and core item just oozes new ideas to be played with. It can be so overwhelming, the desire so strong to include every neat little idea possible, that Chapter 4 literally warns against doing it. Yes the system is a toolbox, but you know, you don't have to use every tool at your disposal.
What's this mean for Geist? Well, the last chapter of the book offers some very good advice on how to construct a chronicle of Geist whether you want the players to drive the plot, or you have a neat idea for a story-based campaign. The authors have put some great materials together. It's like a how-to for writing a campaign, and it rivals the core Dungeon Master's Guide + Monster Manual for 4e in terms of direction. The structure of the chapter as a step-by-step guide is very helpful.
Two things really stand out in this last chunk of book: characters and setting. We get a ton of new supernatural beasties that more often than not make me uncomfortable just trying to picture them. We also get a ton of new numina for ghosts, even though plain old pedestrian ghosts aren't really a match for the average Sin-Eater. Finally we get some setting specific characters like those you could expect to find in New York City, the basic city setting for Geist. We get some Sin-Eaters and some popular and historical ghosts.
This brings us to the two settings: New York City and the Underworld. Both are presented in fantastic detail and I was surprised by how much we got about the Underworld given that we'll have a whole book dedicated to it when Book of the Dead releases. What was nice though was the information they give about New York City. Yes, it's nice if you're going to run a game in NYC, but it also serves the purpose of providing you with leads you should follow to create a Geist setting in other cities or even for making your own. Thinking about how famous ghosts might have developed or where a haunt might be found is easy when you're looking at how the places and beings occupying NYC were imagined.
I am very pleased with Geist and how it turned out. I have to say that it lived up to the hype I was placing on it for the months leading up to its release. It's very well-rounded and I would be happy to run the game simply out of its core book with no supplements, Geist-specific or otherwise. Given it's heavy status as a niche game (I think you really have to be in the mood to play a Sin-Eater whereas some of the other games like Hunter can easily be manipulated to get anyone to play) may be one of the major limiting factors for future releases, but then again Changeling did better than was expected, and that game is both unique and original, from what I understand of it. It was a pleasure to read Geist, and maybe some day I might actually play a game. Fingers crossed!
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