You awake to find that you are dead. You are a spirit. You have several options to go on, and a branching power tree that lets you begin to grow.
There are four main attributes that you as a spirit have. Visibility, Tangibility, Morality, and Respectability.
You start with each of these at 0. You are a very limited spirit that can see, hear, and understand the living world around you, and see and work with other spirits, but otherwise you are useless.
There are certain quests that you pick up by listening to the mortals who do not see you. As you do these quests you gain some powers.
Visibility. At first you are just an unseen spirit, but as you progress you learn how to be seen, and even how you will be seen. Will you use this to lure living to their doom and by sucking the energy from their bodies, gain levels--the Will-0-Wisp route, or will you use it to aid the living by helping sensitive psychics solve other people's problems--the Friendly Ghost. Later when you want to cover up your decaying corpse with the semblance of a romantic Vampire, this helps as well.
Tangibility. You learn how to manipulate things in the living world, and how to grow solid yourself. Will you use this to animate your decaying body--Zombie to Ghoul to Vampire route to un-life, or will you just Poltergeist the neighbors? There is the call for Guardian Angels, spirits that help the chosen or the forsaken whom none other would deem worthy.
Morality. Here we ask, are you Angel or an Angel or are you a simple Vampire, ghoul, hunger for the souls you can have.
Respectability. Zombies get no respect. Vampires, however, can be lords of the decaying. Helpful spirits are fine, by Arch-Angels get to swing the burning sword. Respect is important whether you are going to be Casper, Dracula, or you want to move up from the golden harp to the horn section.
The problem, combat weapons would be very limited, crafting would have to be thought out, and magic rules created. I think it could work out though.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
Huh. At first I was going to smugly point to my "you die and go to hell" MMO I posted about a while ago, but as I read more I actually became pretty interested in this. I particularly like the getting quests from people who can't see you thing. I find myself looking at this through a lens of "the American Gothic MMO." (American Gothic is a show that has a ghost character, who starts out in a very minor roll of being able to flicker in, whisper something than vanish, but gradually gains more control of her powers and eventually can possess people, manipulate the weather and turn the river to blood).
Posted by Darth_Mauve (Member # 4709) on :
I see several paths to power here.
1) You go the ghost route, from flicker to medium spirit to poltergeist to full bodied floating phantasm
2) The possession route, from quick control to a Frankenstein like existence in some corpse or eventual taking over some "living" person.
3) The Body Route where you kill things and use their blood and body to get a body. This can sub-break at the animal level where you choose the Vampire Route after killing some humans or the Were Animal Route.
The Vampire route can then break off into the "Reformed Vampire" for those seeking to atone for their earlier level misdeeds.
4) The Saintly route where you go for the gold and become a savior of people, churches, religious artifacts, eventually ascending to Angelhood.
The fun part is that the "monsters" you fight to level up are...
S-Mart employees with shotguns. Jump-Suited psuedo-scientists with proton packs. Stake slinging high school cheerleaders with issues. Annoying little boys who can hear you, but prefer talking to their dead psychiatrists. and more.
Another good part is that this has no "Resurrection" issues. If you are "killed", well, you are already dead. You just loose all your energy and have to regain it at your grave.
Posted by Traceria (Member # 11820) on :
This is an awesome idea!
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
The thing that *slightly* bugs me is that since birth I have been raised to believe that these various make believe creatures (vampires, werewolves, etc) all have separate origin myths, so a game where a ghost can turn into a werewolf makes me twitch a little.