[GtS]Geist: the Sin-Eaters, Что известно о четвертой "четвертой" игре.

[Alexius]

Standing on Death’s Threshold
Death was not the end — it was a transition. Still alive but bound to the forces of death, you are now one of the Sin-Eaters: gatekeepers of the Underworld, possessed of the strange and powerful geists. The gates to the realm of the dead yawn open. You hold the keys.

Rulebook for Geist: The Sin-Eaters™
• A rulebook for playing the Sin-Eaters, mortals who have passed through the gates of Death and returned, bonded with the unusual shades known as geists
• An expanded look at death and the Underworld in the World of Darkness, from simple ghosts to strange threats such as the Kerberoi
• Provides new player types and antagonists for crossover chronicles as well as chronicles focusing on Sin-Eaters

Page Count: 320 (hardcover)
Authors: Alan Alexander, Jess Hartley, Jesse Heinig, Wood Ingham, Matthew McFarland, John Newman, Malcolm Sheppard, Christopher Simmons, John Snead, Travis Stout, Chuck Wendig
Developer: Ethan Skemp
Cover Artist: Aileen E. Miles

Еще несколько цитат из Summoners:
Doors. Corridors. Archways. Shadowy chambers; ranging from caves, to vast mausoleums, to vaulted cathedrals, and more. These are the things that ghosts speak of when they are summoned up from the Underworld. So, too, do they tell of societies of the lost and forgotten dead, most of whom have long since given up hope of being claimed by the heavens — or even hells — of which they were taught. Then again, many of them believe they are in Hell, having been judged and found wanting, and cast into exile from life, along with countless millions of others.
And when, at last, a ghost in the Underworld has dwelt for too many interminable centuries among her kind, she is taken by an urge to wander downward, ever downward, into the parts of the realm of the dead never chronicled by its unhappy shades, there to open one last door and step through, into a Fate that not even the wisest know. Some few, extraordinarily strong-willed, ghosts manage to stave off this calling, but rare, indeed, are those who last more than a handful of centuries, let alone stand fast against the crushing tide of a millennium… or longer.

When a ghost’s anchors are finally gone (or when it otherwise loses its tenuous connection to the material realm), it falls, inexorably, into the Underworld. Upon arriving in the realm of the dead, however, a strange thing happens: the ghost regains some measure of its volition, becoming once more capable of thoughts, emotions, and deeds that are no longer defined by set responses imprinted at the instant of physical death. Theories abound as to why, exactly, this is, but some Awakened scholars believe the soul somehow “glances off” of the Underworld after the body dies, leaving a bit of its substance there, a fragment of the self that merges with the spiritually empty template of the psyche encapsulated within a ghost. This miniscule shard, say such willworkers, returns a measure of sentience to a restless shade when it finally descends to the realm of the dead.

Dead, But Never Born — Chthonians
When willworkers first began to explore the Underworld, they discovered things that they did not expect: inhuman things, dwelling amongst the dead. These beings were powerful and jealous… and hungry. Mages who dared to ask questions of them (and who survived long enough to return to the living realm with news of their answers) reported that these entities had no recollections of having ever been alive.
At frst, they dwelt among those dead, feeding upon those unhappy shades as they desired, but the sheers numbers of the dead eventually grew overwhelming and the entities fed deeper into the endless corridors of the Underworld, there to hide themselves from the ghosts that they came to fear and whom they envied, for having ever known life. Over the ages, the so-called chthonians delved so deeply into the realm of the dead that they became all but impossible to locate for any Underworld explorer and were forgotten by all save the most sagacious (and powerful) of summoners.

[Ордос]

это как бы новые Wrath?

[Alexius]

Ну как бы в чем-то да, но как сказал Скемп "Если бы это был Wraith, то мы бы так его и назвали".
Вот еще худ. отрывок:

You promised.
I lied. It sounds almost gleeful.
I peel back the caul on my face and sit up. My shirt is riddled with bullet holes and caked with dried blood. Mine. I pull it, and it rips the hair from my chest as it comes free. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. My body is whole, but not unblemished. A hole in my shoulder, one in my legs, and violent bruises on my torso…but I can move. No bullets. Where did they go? Did they vanish, pulled into the Underworld to await some violent shade that dragged his gun down with him? Did my body absorb them? Did my other half take them away?
I did not, it replies.
I stumble to my feet. I’m in a crypt. Makes sense; I was in a cemetery when she shot me. I don’t remember much — I remember she was dark-skinned, maybe Latino or Arabic. She wore something around her neck that gleamed, not just in the moonlight, but with emotion. Love, I think.
Regret. She was a Sin-Eater, I’m sure of that much, but she didn’t seem familiar…
Yes, she did.
All right, then. Who was she?
I don’t know her. I know the one that rides her. I know the Unrequited Lover. I wonder how he knows her, but I don’t wonder too long. If I ruminate on the question, I’ll know the answer, and just at the moment, I don’t care. I’m more interested in the poor bastard dying at the other end of the cemetery. My caul — my ticket back to this world — is melting away in my hand like gelatin under a faucet. I saw the last thing he saw: headlights. And then pain. And then nothing. No so very different from me, from what I saw years ago, except I lived. He did not. His name was Allen Michael Brexton, and he had a wife and three children. He thought of them as he died.
You said you wouldn’t bring me back.
I lied, it says again. I needed you back. I need you to find her again.
Her?
Her, it insists. The Unrequited Lover. Find her, and help her reach her end. And then you can die, if you wish.
Her end? I’m not sure what it means. The geist inside me remains a mystery in many ways. I only know its name, one single word… “Regret.”
Oh. You…knew her.
I did, it says. And now you must. If she is to have any peace.
Why should I care if she does? But I already know the answer.
Because until she does, you won’t, it says.
I peel off my shirt and go looking for Mr. Brexton’s body. If it’s still there, I’ll be taking his wallet.
There might be money, yes, but more important, there might be Love.
And I’ll need that.

Насколько можно судить, то:
1. Диалог человека с его гейстом. Похоже на Тень из WtO, но отношения, видимо, совсем другие.
2. Гейст позволяет умершему человеку вселяться в тела только что погибших людей, оживляя их. Причем даже не просто позволяет, а насильно впихивает, преследуя свои интересы.

[Ордос]

а что-то похожее на №2 вроде бы в Орфеусе было, да?

[Sardagon]

это как бы новые Wrath?

Как-бы типа да.

Хотя, судя по анонсу, основное действие будет все так же происходить на Земле, возможно с путешествиями в Underworld.

[Lord of the Hunt]

Интересная мысль получается! По отрывкам судить сложно, но мне кажется, они собираются "одушевить" силу персонажа (как если бы Gnosis мага был живым). Что-то подобное было в Ascension с аватаром, которого при большом желании можно было отыгрывать как отдельную от мага сущность. Если это так, то это великолепно вообще.

[Alexius]

Еще небольшой текст. Правда, не слишком информативный.

It feels like when I died, all over again.
I can feel that I’m afraid, but it’s a faraway sensation, like I’m looking down on it from a high bridge. My fear is down there, drifting slowly on the river, real but not reachable.
Everything goes slow. I realize that my watch has stopped: I can feel the cold metal back against my wrist, and there is no tick of the second-hand to beat out in time with my pulse.
My pulse has stopped, too. I am between heartbeats. The stillness is rising up in me, a perfect wave of cold motionless.
Its fingers rest on my shoulders. Again, I don’t flinch at their touch. I didn’t then because I didn’t know any better. I don’t now because its fingers are a part of me, like my hand moving on its own.
I see the three men in front of me, now gray and indistinct. The caul is over my eyes — shapeless, but casting a shadow in my mind, a shadow shaped like a key.
The voice rushes in my ears, a tumble of dry leaves and mouse bones.
Let me.
I nod, and I turn the key.

Я думал, что caul (оболочка?) - это тело человека, в которое вселился Sin-Eater. Но судя по этому тексту это что-то совсем другое...

[Maggot]

А известно когда они зарелизятся?

[Alexius]

А известно когда они зарелизятся?

Как обычно, в августе.

[ave]

Кстати, они опубликовали отчёт со встречи имени Брэма Стокера:

World of Darkness
Proof Ready-made PC groups
Ready Made PCs

Changeling
Finish up prepping Goblin Markets for edits

Hunter
Proof Blood Drive SAS
Blood Drive SAS

Geist
Trying to finish Geist so it can get proofed.
Redline Geist scenes

P.S. On May 18, 1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker was published!

[Alexius]

Book of the Dead. Underworld каждому и пусть никто не уйдет обиженным.

[ave]

Похоже это уже традиция - выпускать после выхода удачной линейки или прогноза удачно книги её логическую почти копию в синей линейке. =)

[Alexius]

М... Skinchangers (MtAw) и Second Sight (WtF)? Ну, еще Book of Spirits (все те же WtF и MtAw)... С большой натяжкой Dogs of War (HtV). И будущие Wicked Dead, но они все же именно под Реквием (хотя оттуда явно можно будет натягать и для других игр).

[Alexius]

On the broadest scale, the obvious theme of Geist is death. The Sin-Eaters are born when they die; the dead cry out for their help or come storming in to menace them and their loved ones. But humanity deals with death in countless ways, and addresses it through countless metaphors.

Among the many aspects of death as a theme is that of transition. We speak of it in terms of boundaries and doors. “Beyond the grave” establishes the grave as a dividing line; “at death’s door” speaks of a threshold. Even in the traditional Tarot deck, the Death card is said to represent not an end, but a significant change from one state of being to another. The Sin-Eaters, as protagonists of this game about Death, are those who walk the path of transition. They stand with one foot on either side of the boundary. They may cross back and forth from living to dead, though at some cost.

As an extension of this theme, the question is inevitably asked: “What would you do with a second chance at life?” The Sin-Eaters have an ever-evolving subculture that stresses the importance of wringing the most out of their extended lives, but it also stresses the responsibility thrust on them by their unique station. If you almost died —if you did die, but only for a moment — how would that inform your life?

[Alexius]

Немного инфы от счастливого обладателя демки

THRESHOLD – X-axis – inborn splat (5) – How you die gives you an idea of what your Threshold is.
The Torn are a group of people who died because of great trauma- mutilation, violence
PSYCHE – Power Stat
PLASM – Fuel Stat
KEYS – List of Powers (10)
They are akin to your sphere of influence a la Mage. It is half metaphor, half actual object. You USE that key and you if you use the same one, the results would be different based on the characters involved.
Primeval Key – grants access to control over the animal kingdom.

[Alexius]

И еще немного:

morality is synergy
x-splat is threshold
y-splat is archetype
and powers are "weird" and consist of keys, manifestations, and ceremonies
you have to "listen to the voice in your head or terrible things happen" (I guess that is probably connected to morality?)

As for Threshold, that's been spoiled -- it's how you died. There are five different Thresholds: the Silent (who died due to deprivation -- bleeding out, drowning, smoke inhalation, etc.), the Stricken (who died of disease), the Prey (who died due to nature -- animal attacks, rockslides, etc.), the Torn (who died due to violence), and the Forgotten (who died by accident).
The Keys have also been spoiled -- we've got the four elements, Industry, Passion, Phantasm, Primeval, Silence, and Stigmata. The Manifestations are closely tied to the Keys, and the Ceremonies are... something extra.

Набор Ключей несколько загадочный...

[Alexius]

В связи с выходом Quickstart'a начинаю копи-пастить спойлеры.

Folk who suffered near death - or deathlike experiences and came back changed. Fused with a shade known as a Geist - so part human and part something else.

How they react to this varies:
Advocate - those who finish the unfinished business of the dead.
Bonepickers - those who use their spooky new powers for personal gain.
Celebrant - those who live life to the fullest having tasted death.
Gatekeeper - those who watch the boundary between the living and the dead. Haunters by the sound of it.
Mourners - a philosophy that life and death are simply different ways of encountering the world.
Necromancers - those who seek greater knowledge and wisdom in the lands of the dead.
Pilgrim - those who realise that a life free from regret will save them from lingering with unfinished business in the living world. They seek to live a fulfilled and accomplished existence.
Reaper - those who 'do what they can to make the world a better place, bringing death to those who don't deserve to live any more.'

Thresholds
The manner in which a Sin-Eater died is important and marks them. The Geist which they are connected/partnered/infested with is usually one that died in a similar fashion.
The Torn, death by Violence, Chosen of the Red horseman have an affinity for Stigmatic and Passionate effects
The Silent, death by Deprivation, Chosen of the Black Horseman have an affinity for Stillness and Cold Wind
The Prey, death by Nature, Chosen of the Pale horseman have an affinity for Primeval and Grave Dirt keys
The Stricken, death by Sickness, Chosen of the White horseman have an affinity for Phantasm and Tears manifestations
The Forgotten, Death by Chance, Chosen of the Gray horseman have an affinity for Industrial and Pyre effects

The manner of the death influences which Keys a Sin-Eater possesses:
The Elemental Keys:
- Grave-Dirt Key
- Cold Wind Key
- Pyre Flame Key
- Tear Stained Key
(Elemental powers as manifested through a lens of death and decay)
The Industrial Key
- Influence over machines
The Passion Key
- Influence over emotions
The Phantasmal Key
- Illusions tinged with pain and insanity
The Primeval Key
- Influence in the world of nature and animals. Includes animalistic behaviour and traits.
The Stillness Key
- Powers of stealth and dulling the senses of others
The Stigmata Key
- The use of blood and sacrifice to control and dominate spirits and the spirit world.

Synergy is the equvilant of Clarity representing the delicate balance between Sin-Eater and Geist.
The power that fuels the Sin-Eater's powers is called Plasm and can be used to heal oneself also. It can be gained by use of Virtues and Vices and also by devouring the ghosts of the dead.

[Sardagon]

В связи с выходом Quickstart'a начинаю копи-пастить спойлеры.

А вот это очень заманчиво!
Кажется, игра обещает быть очень интересной. Особенно варианты философии понравились - даже трудно выбрать, что наиболее нравится.

[Alexius]

Интересно, можно ли в GtSE "выиграть" (по примеру PtC) - освободиться от своего Гейста и окончательно умереть. Если это, конечно, можно считать выигрышем...

[Viridian]

Alexius, милорд, в одной из соседних тем на беловолсковском форуме было написано, что synergy падает каждый раз после смерти гейста. После каждой смерти текущая synergy падает на 1 пункт, максимальная на 2. Вопрос в том, что происходит после того, как synergy станет равно 0...

А! К тому же каждый раз вместо гейста умирает кто-то другой...

[Alexius]

Церемонии - местные ритуалы.

Final vision allows a Geist to see the final thing that a corpse saw before his death, imprinted in its eyes. Speaker of the Dead allows a ghost to use the Geist as a medium, and speak in her own living voice. Warding circle prevents ghosts, spirits, or any of their powers from affecting anyone within a circle. Each of the three ceremonies require a Psyche (power stat) + Attribute extended roll, with each ceremony requiring different number of successes, and different times per roll.
Unlike vampire blood magic or werewolf rituals, these ceremonies are treated as a type of merit; the ceremonies were even purchased using starting merit points. This could make high level rituals very expensive (30 experience points for a five dot ceremony!). Assuming, of course, that there's no special rules regarding ritual cost.

Mementos - местные артефакты.

Certain items are infused by deathly energies. The blood-stained veil of a murdered bride or a forgotten toy, thrown from the wreckage of a five car pileup. Sin-Eaters treaure these artifacts quite highly, wearing them as badges of honour, shamic totems of power or simply deathly 'bling.'

At their most common, they are simply charms that augment a Sin-Eater's abilities slightly. Other items, however hold great power all their own. These items, called Memorabilia by the Bound, are legendary objects even among mortals, like the silken cape buried with Bela Lugosi or a saint's reliquary.

Each Sin-Eater has at least one memento, known as a keystone. Each keystone is different and the form it takes bears direct signifigance tot he history of the geist, even if the geist can't remember exactly why that might be. The waterlogged specter of a geist, dripping with seaweed, might not remember why its keystone is a polished ivory tusk, but that in no way diminishes the power of the memento. Only the keystone mementos of geists that have been defeated and destroyed can be stolen, traded or lost.

[Sardagon]

Интересно, можно ли в GtSE "выиграть" (по примеру PtC) - освободиться от своего Гейста и окончательно умерет

Ну если только в качестве "проигрыша" - т.к. вроде бы ни одна из философий напрямую не направлена на смерть. Наоборот, большинство из них направлены на то, чтобы получить максимум пользы из своего существования.

[Alexius]

Ну если только в качестве "проигрыша" - т.к. вроде бы ни одна из философий напрямую не направлена на смерть. Наоборот, большинство из них направлены на то, чтобы получить максимум пользы из своего существования.

Пилигримы, вроде как.
Просто, если одна из тем игры - это призраки, которые зажились засуществовались в нашем мире, то сами пожиратели грехов не далеко от них ушли. И как бы одна их основных фабул подобного жанра - "после долгих перепитий герой умиротворенно принимает смерть как должное".

[Alexius]

Innate Abilities
Ghost sight - all Sin-eaters naturally can see ghosts. This can be turned off for a scene with a successful Synergy roll.
Morbid Reality - Sin-Eaters can determine the relative health of a human with a reflexive roll. Creatures that only mimic being alive (like undead critters) register as dead.
Clinical Precision - Sin-Eaters can determine a person's cause of death by touching the corpse and rolling Wits + Medicine. This allows the SE to feel how a person died, not see or simply know.
Reverse Possession - The physical bodied sin-eater can possess the ephemeral Geist, effectively shifting him into Twilight to combat ghosts.
Sixth Sense - much like a mage's Unseen Sense, Sin Eaters can detect whenever ghosts use their powers.
Unnatural Mediums - ghosts are drawn to Sin-Eaters, and have an easier time manifesting in their presence.
Plasma Infusion - Geister can help stabilize ghosts for a short time, restoring their memory and mind to the clarity of their living days.

[Alexius]

Собственно, а вот и он:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info...oducts_id=63060
(Пока только Quickstart, а не сам Гейст )

[RedTalon]

Оффтопик:
Слово Geist заимствовано из немецкого, где оно читается как "гайст".

[Alexius]

Да оно так и в английском читается. =) Просто у меня как-то сложилось называть его по аналогии с полтергейстом, который все же по духу как-то ближе, чем немецкая философия. Но я могу исправиться

[Alexius]

Еще один (неожиданный, по крайней мере, для меня) момент: будущий Пожиратель Грехов отличается от других людей еще до смерти.

Those who will become Sin-Eaters are different almost from the start. One girl has an imaginary friend in childhood. Her parents don’t think anything of it, until they realize that when the girl describes her “friend,” she’s describing the grandmother that died three weeks before she was born. A boy is committed to a mental institution for increasingly-frequent panic attacks. Medication doesn’t work — no anti-anxiety pill can shut out the barrage of hellish whispers, of dry sepulchral voices howling demands into his ear. Another is shunned throughout elementary school for being a creepy loner. It’s not until she’s thirteen that she realizes it’s not normal to be able to see exactly when and how someone will die just by looking at them. By then, it’s far too late to convince herself it’s just her imagination.

Every single one of the Bound manifested some sort of supernatural connection with the energy of death before the Bargain. Sometimes it’s present from birth (like the old wives’ tale that babies born with part of the amniotic sac covering their eyes will be able to see ghosts and spirits), sometimes there’s an event that triggers it (perhaps an echo or a precursor to the Bargain that binds them to a geist, or maybe an encounter with some supernatural force), and sometimes it just starts happening one day and the proto-Bound has no idea why or what it means. Unlike, say, a vampire, whose first brush with the hidden occult world was probably when his date grew fangs and started chewing on his neck, Sin-Eaters come out of the Bargain with at least some awareness of what’s really going on in the world.

Sometimes, the mortal is intensely curious about her ability. She might believe it’s a gift she must understand in order to use, or she might be driven purely by a desire to know how this is possible. She might try to communicate with the dead in some way (which, given that she lacks the full gifts of a Sin-Eater, is likely to be imprecise and prone to cause more trouble than it solves), try to help them resolve whatever keeps them here, or her actions might be motivated more by personal gain or other petty motives. She might delve into the occult, seeking an explanation for her abilities. Her investigation might even lead her to some of the stranger denizens of the shadows: A pale young man with bewitching eyes who tells her he answers to all her questions lie in the blood. A group of urban primitives who claim they can speak not just to the dead, but to Death itself. The parish priest who tells her to be wary of deceiving demons — after she tells him about the ghosts she’s seen, they disappear.

Others withdraw from their ability, seeing it not as a gift but as a curse. It might be due to upbringing (many religions teach that trafficking with the dead is a mark of evil), or being unable to reconcile ghosts and hauntings with the apparently rational world around them, or just because what they see and experience is too horrific.

How the nascent Sin-Eater reacts to their “gift” often determines how they use the greater powers that come with binding their souls to a geist. The girl who talks to her Nana’s ghost withdraws into herself after her violent near-death at the hands of an abusive boyfriend; now she’s more comfortable with the dead than the living. The boy grows up and leaves the mental institution, but the voices aren’t gone. After he slits his own wrists, he can hear the voices more clearly than ever before — only now he has the power to make them shut up. The girl who sees people’s deaths realizes she can use that for her own ends: she becomes the perfect black widow, and the police can never finger her for the deaths of her husbands because she doesn’t kill them. She tells herself she’s doing a service, giving these doomed men a few months of pleasure before their time is up. Padding her bank account is just an added boon.

[ave]

http://www.gnomestew.com/specific-rpgs/gei...h-is-not-wraith
Очень неплохой обзор.

[kveldulv]

есть мнение, что ГтС задумывалась быть похожей на "Dead Like Me". этим она отталкивает пока меня. полностью не читал еще, правда квикстарт из-за подготовки по хантерам.