The Campaign Builder's Guild

In Japan, it is believed that one must be composed at the moment of death, rationally accepting it, not enraged, in despair nor other strong emotion, including fear. If you are than you risk becoming a ghost (yurei or dim spirit).

This could be handled two ways. As mental state of the PC at the moment of death... or how the player handles PC Death. The second would be too much of a penalty to players I think, but also brings in a diabolical twist that fits the setting.

I've introduced Karma as a mechanic already in previous Kaidan threads, the accumulation of points either positive for acts that benefit society (lawful) or negative for acts that harm society (chaotic), rather than good vs. evil. Karma is used as the mechanic to determine whether your soul migrates up or down the cosmic caste system of Kaidan in your next life. Remember in Kaidan, one can reincarnate and multiclass across multiple lifetimes.

One thought to further utilize the Karma rules and bringing a PC Death/Ghost rules, is whatever reason is determined to cause PC Death to lead to ghostdom, rather than onward onto the Wheel of Life, the amount of Karma determines how powerful of a ghost one becomes. I want one's personal history, the actions performed just prior to the moment of death, the PC's class and level in life, and the amount of positive or negative Karma accrued to determine the nature and power level in the form of a Yurei ghost.

In the case of a PC becoming a ghost, it is possible to allow the ghost to accomplish its dedicated purpose and then reincarnate to return to the game as a PC again, however, the path is riddled with danger and potential failure, though this could add another dark twist into the game.

Thoughts?

GP

I love it, adds some serious potential depth in the form of plot hooks and quests. So what do you envision it being like to be a ghost and what are some examples of tasks completed to return to the reincarnation cycle?

I'm undecided whether to make ghost form PCs as NPCs, or as a template with heavy duty restrictions and mandatory requirements. All Japanese ghosts are defined by a single purpose, once achieved are released into the afterlife, or in Kaidan onto the Wheel of Life.

As a template it allows the ghost PC to continue to play, with unstable alignment issues, extra roleplay potential, possibilities of bouts of madness forcing ghost players to seek vengeance on those around it, the acquisition of cruel powers defined by their actions in life.

Being a Yurei ghost would be an experience in horror. Rather than the knowledge that one is dead, the emotions at the moment of death, the torments of goals unfulfilled, the quests uncompleted become heightened. Nothing else matters at all. Obstacles and moments of delay can cause the ghost form PC to become lost in undead madness, and attack those it perceives as preventing its final escape. This mad state will become permanent after a predetermined random period if its purpose is prevented in any way. Then as an NPC/monster it will hunt the PC party in retribution, as a possibility.

Obviously a quest uncompleted by a PC in life is one such task, and as such would parallel the existing campaign. Sometimes tasks could be as simple tell Michiko, the merchant's daughter that I loved her, but did not have time to return her correspondence saying so. Of course vengeance is often the task unfulfilled. The tasks should be related to immediate and overwhelming goals the PC had in life.

Becoming a Yurei Ghost would be a bad roll on the PC Death/Reincarnation chart. 8)

GP

I like your idea of karma relating more to impact on society than what an individual is like as a person. It eliminates a lot of the grey area created by different points of view. It also implies an order to the cosmos that wills society to be the way it is and you can't escape that. It may be a little restricting to some, particularly those that would play an antiheo, but could really enhance the horror aspect.

Consider using game mechanics to represent the goals, ambitions and desires of a character. These could be listed on the character sheet, perhaps given numeric values to represent how strong each of them is. That way it can be objectively established how much of a danger characters are of becoming ghosts upon death, and avoids potential arguments ("but my PC didn't really give a damn about that incident").

Of course, there would have to be some incentive for players to pick up these properties. Perhaps they get some sort of competence bonus to rolls made toward the fullfillment of these goals? Or bonus XP if they actually do?

@ NinjaD - caste system of Kaidan, society is cosmic, a defined part of the setting. As long as one does not become a ghost, reincarnating from a Commoner Bushi, Monk or other class into a Kitsune (foxwoman), Mujina (badger shape-changer) or other kinds of yokai is only possible with enough accumulation of negative karma. So an anti-hero still has a path worth playing, as a Commoner, who could reincarnate two more castes before damnation in hell.

@ Ghostman - I've already been hinted by one critic/fan to ensure to include a character sheet as part of the publication as a necessity. One should be able to look at a character sheet and see the new rules integrated into the system's standard - and be easily understandable in that format. So I intend to do just that. Having a place for the PCs goals should have it's place as well.

I've already created my Ancestral Relics (magic item) idea and posted it as a preview. Though I had a thread for it here, some small changes and improvements were made in the final posted at Rite Publishing's website, here...

These magic items have event triggers, mini-quests to achieve one's next power acquisition with his ancestral relic. These have built-in goals, at least short term, that could easily apply as a goal, beyond any other long term, or background goal.

I like the idea of including say a background goal chosen by the PC at character generation, achieving such goals should grant some kind of bonus, extra experience, a bonus Ancestral feat, bonus skill points, something...

I got alerted that there's a 'Bronze Patronage' sale for Kaidan going on until midnight on Monday, $5 off the normal price, for what its worth. Kaidan Patronage Project.

GP

Quote from: Gamer Printshop@ NinjaD - caste system of Kaidan, society is cosmic, a defined part of the setting. As long as one does not become a ghost, reincarnating from a Commoner Bushi, Monk or other class into a Kitsune (foxwoman), Mujina (badger shape-changer) or other kinds of yokai is only possible with enough accumulation of negative karma. So an anti-hero still has a path worth playing, as a Commoner, who could reincarnate two more castes before damnation in hell.

It may not lead to damnation but I would think that people would try to go a step down.

Quote from: Gamer PrintshopI got alerted that there's a 'Bronze Patronage' sale for Kaidan going on until midnight on Monday, $5 off the normal price, for what its worth. Kaidan Patronage Project.

That started the day after I signed up. If I had only gone bronze, I would have been annoyed. Does the sale indicate trouble reaching the threshold amount?

I would think some people certainly would want to become non-human, and Kaidan is setup such that one needs to acquire negative karma as a Commoner to die and be reborn as a shape-changer, I agree. Though some would want to acquire positive karma and become a samurai, so there are multiple paths in Kaidan.

Budget hasn't been achieved, though its close from what I understand, the current sale is to reach the goal in the next few days. I don't believe this is the first time Rite Publishing gave a patronage sale. Though currently Rite Publishing has a 30% off sale on all his products. My patronage is going on right now, so I think he just added the patronage sale, in the spirit of the season...

GP

It won't be officially announced until tomorrow, but Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting has been greenlighted for final development. Its a go!

GP

Congratulations Mike :D

Kaidan Patron Forums are now open!

GP

As an update to activity in the development of Kaidan, especially from the point of view brought up in my other thread, where one possible 'fear' is that patrons will be taking your setting in a direction you don't really want to go - making a patronage possibly less desireable a development method to publish by.

As NinjaD and I are discovering, this doesn't seem to be a problem. What the problem seems to be is lack of participation from those paid patrons. As if they are truly paid observers.

We had a poll to determine what would be the starting level of the adventure - 5th being default. The poll shows six votes, but again, the only people to have posted anything on the patronage forum so far is me, Jonathan McAnulty (lead designer) and NinjaD - that's it.

So I don't see the problem of the setting being taken where the original designer didn't want to go. I see the same problem that exists here, and that is LACK of active participation on the part of reviewers and suggesters. At least in the patronage method, the cost of development is paid for, the only real advantage I see so far.

In the end, Jonathan made it clear that most patronages include lots of paid observers, but also notable by Jonathan there usually is more participation than we've had so far...

GP

Back on subject...

We've decided that there are a finite number of souls in existence within Kaidan, which creates two anamolies.

1. When through drought, blight, disease or otherwise infant death is high, and there are no vessels for the spirit to reincarnate, thus in such times the number of yurei ghosts are higher.

2. When seasons are bountiful and conditions are ripe for a baby boom, there aren't enough souls to share with the number of available vessels. A being called a Tamashinaki is created, essentially a soulless being - basically an elemental spirit, something akin to a demon takes control of an otherwise empty shell, is mute and cannot take caster levels, but may take levels in martial classes. It has a low Will Score, making it susceptable to domination as well, so dead PCs can reincarnate into Tamashinaki with appropriate 'possession attempt' rolls.

Apparently some recent bountiful years have created an imbalance in the number of Tamashinaki available, and this is the reason the borders of Kaidan have opened trade to the outside - to gain quota of new souls to address the imbalance. At some point the borders will be closed once again...