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I suppose it's not unreasonable to assume this is a psionics related thing right? Here's a thought: rather than set down rules for ghosts make them mysterious and that way your players will wonder just what the ⌧ is going on and try to figure it out. That way you can define how ghosts 'work' in game with the participation of the players.
Perhaps they're jumpspace phenomena? The ghosts only appeared whilst in-transit, after the engineer complained for the nth time that the jump engines needed a bit of a tune up. The captain 'forgot' to do it because he's a cheap ass bastard, and now as a result the ship is cursed with the souls of the damned. Hilarity ensues.
The easiest way to handle them is the way they are dealt with in both Babylon 5 (the TV show) and System Shock 2 (a computer game) - as "residual psionic impressions", i.e. leftover psionic energies that linger behind a dead mind, so that a sensitive person (mid-to-high PSI strength, with or without training) would see "ghosts", that is actually reading the psionic impressions left behind by the dead. the stronger the emotions caused by the cause of death, the longer the "ghost" lasts.
Yeah. They will have been created by some uber-tech from a dead civ.
Here is the general outline.
Ghosts will have an afterlife PSR equal to their Int score while they were alive.
They will have access to three Psi talent areas and will have to “spend” their Psi points in the normal way. They are immune to normal physical damage but EMP weapons will disrupt their field/matrix/whatever. Every tie they reach 1 Psi point they need to sleep by returning to their base or power chamber thing. I guess the real question is how to destroy them and make it interesting.
Well, if they are created by uber-tech, maybe an Ancient Artifact will destroy it (unless you have a couple of spare Unlicensed Nuclear Accelerators/Positron Colliders and a Ghost Trap) Don't forget the TK for the Poltergeist effect.
I once tried a ghosts in jump space adventure which involved time travellers materialising on a long liner in Solomani space, scaring the hell out of all, unable to communicate and finally interacting with the ship environment with possibly disasterous consequences.
I'm going to keep up with this as it could useful.
A ghost is the psionic echo of a human mind. It is normally imbedded in a structure or physical location like an electrical charge. This psiconic echo needs energy to survive it need to feed. Minds , especially psionicly enabled minds are sources of energy that they need to feed on. Strong emotions like fear and rage a good suppliers. Some electrical fields and even jump drives can generate the power they need. The ghost has a finite reserve of psi points that it can expend to be seen, be heard, or move objects. How are the total psi points determined? Well I am glad you asked, oh wait I had not figured that out yet.
Minimum PSR 5 for ghost form conversion.
Ghosts have a life force equal to their Intelligence + Education. This represents the cohesiveness of their form I will call the matrix.
Ghosts loose one point of life force every month they remain active, a sleeping ghost or one using the suspended animation talent could live for centuries.
When the conversion to ghost matrix occurs the "mind" of the being is expanded and other psionic talents become possible. In addition to the original talents 1d6 more talents become available. Advance ment is made in the usual way.
Teleportation beyond "unclothed" allows the ghost to teleport with a human occupant! Vacuum has no effect on ghosts.
The ghost matrix needs to feed off human brain energy. The human can naturally replenish its mental powers with rest so a gentle gleaning of mental power may not be noticed. The life force is the pool from which the psi points recharges so a ghost that performs activity will need to recharge to fill both categories.
The advantage is that the ghost does not have to sleep. Physical contact with a living human or other energy sources is all that is required. High power ghosts can both assault a human mind and drain it of energy making them very dangerous.
There should be a way to destroy them - but it should be challanging. Exorcists (sp?) are rare and their services are expensive for a reason. Folklore usually states that correcting the wrongness that has created the ghost, and/or burying a badly-buried skull/corpse and/or finding an object important to a ghost in its life could help to "bring it to rest".
Hmmm... Should we add an "Occult" skill to Traveller (probably as a suggested replacement for other skills, similarly to how Robotics was handeled in LBB8)? This will allow knowledge of the weierder kinds of psionics (such as ghosts) and, possibly, exorcism.
I am thinking of a special kind of telepathy skill to combat ghosts or the Assault skill.
Technologically something might be available. Psi helmets might help and some Zho tech could help (if you can find it). I am thinking that ghosts can exist in jumpspace forever driving them mad. Jump drives are a good source of raw power. Electrical wires are a good way to move around as well.
EMP pulses tuned to the exact freq of the ghost might disperse it. Centers of power might show up as cold spots as the ghost is sucking energy from the location. The ghost might exist in a form of jumpspace reaching out to normal space. Most of the time the ghost will be virtually undetectable. That way the ghost must spend life force just to stary in normal space. I figure if the ghost was 100% in normal space the energy and heat signature would make it easy to spot. If part of it exists someplace else it gets more spooky.
A ghost with a supply of brain power and practice will increase its PSR by one point every four years of active use. It can gain talents at the same rate as a normal human gains skills in CT that is to say one or two per term.
Stats:
Ghost of Dorian Smith
Int 8 Edu: 7
Human terms: Scout 3
Human skills:
Vacc-1 Pistol-1, Pilot-1, Rifle-1
Ghost terms: 3
Life force: 18 [edit]
Current life force: 12
PSR 8
Talents:
Telepathy @ X
Telekinesis @ X
Clairvoyance @ X
I've added two psionic skills that opens the door for this kind of thing. From combinations of these two new skills with the typical psionic skills come a host of trouble.
^Since you have obviously thought about this more than I have do you have any suggestions on mechanics or interactions between corporeal beings? I want them to stand a chance but still be in danger.
On the side…one psi skill we added to awareness was “lightening reflex” The ability to see what is going to happen a split second before it happens based on a hyperawareness of your surroundings using your five senses.
Try using a Neural Rifle on the ghosts, combined with plasma at the right frequencies and we are in a ghostbusting mode. Also, wasn't there an article in Challenge that outlined more Special psionic powers...surely some of those must have been offensive in nature?