Possession

[RPGPundit]

Beyond mere "Mind control" or even high-compelling, have you ever had a PC who was possessed by the consciousness of an NPC; or vice-versa, where a PC character ended up possessing the body of an NPC or another PC?

How did you handle that within the confines of the game?

RPGPundit

[flyingmice]

Beyond mere "Mind control" or even high-compelling, have you ever had a PC who was possessed by the consciousness of an NPC; or vice-versa, where a PC character ended up possessing the body of an NPC or another PC?

How did you handle that within the confines of the game?

RPGPundit

Yep! In Blood Games many times, by Dybbuks and Demons. The ultimate solution was exorcism, but I let the players play the demon/dybbuk possessing their characters. They delight in being fiendish occasionally.

-clash

[AshenHaze]

I recently had one of my NPC's "possess" or at least directly control one of my player characters.  The PC had already received a blood curse from the NPC, which was that he would be a prisoner in his own mind.  The Mind control was slowly established over a period of 8 sessions or so, during which he took no action to determine what was happening.

[RPGPundit]

I recently had one of my NPC's "possess" or at least directly control one of my player characters.  The PC had already received a blood curse from the NPC, which was that he would be a prisoner in his own mind.  The Mind control was slowly established over a period of 8 sessions or so, during which he took no action to determine what was happening.

Fantastic; that's what I think possession should seem like in Amber. Also, great use of a blood curse!

RPGPundit

[AshenHaze]

Thanks!  The player has finally decided to act, and his solution was to have his trump permanently blocked.

[RPGPundit]

Thanks!  The player has finally decided to act, and his solution was to have his trump permanently blocked.

Talk about putting your players into a lose-lose situation! Awesome.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Well, I had one player "fuse" partly with the logrus, which resulted in a kind of possession: I colored what he saw and felt (like describing some people in a favorable light), up to describing utterly false things. IIRC, there were even cases when he just "blanked out". Long time

[RPGPundit]

I guess you could say that all cases of Logrus Insanity are a type of possession.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Good one!

[malhoteras]

Fantastic; that's what I think possession should seem like in Amber. Also, great use of a blood curse!keep it up..buddy

[Phantom Black]

I had a sorcerer in my high-level  D&D campaign who, evry now and then, liked to cast "Soul Jar" and mess with NPCs, was almost every time very amusing...

[RPGPundit]

That leads me to consider a different kind of "possession" in Amber; if you could remove a character's essence and put it in an object; perhaps not even removing his consciousness or occupying his body, you just have his soul in a little jar somewhere, capable of either controlling or affecting or even harming him from a distance thanks to that.

Imagine having to negotiate with another Amberite, when he knows where your soul is...

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

This might also have detrimental effects on the amberite, like a constant loss of essence and reality. Maybe, in the long run, you'd become a shwadowling?

But then, I'm not sure I wanna go into souls and such. This seems a little contrary to the usual amber feel to me.

[RPGPundit]

Not if you define "soul" as you just did, as "the essence of your Realness". In that context, you might say that shadows have no souls, or very small ones.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Not if you define "soul" as you just did, as "the essence of your Realness". In that context, you might say that shadows have no souls, or very small ones.

RPGPundit

Yup, this might work for me. Talking "reality" instead of "soul"

But this is really interesting, you know?

Let's consider that reality becomes considered as "soul" in a religious version of Amber. Then, you could end up with the same justification for shadowling treatment that were used by our ancestors with slavery.