Demonic Possession

[Ian.Plumb]

Hi,

I'm in the midst of writing a small scenario that involves one of the player characters becoming possessed by a demon. I intend handling this through the character's SAs. Here is the mechanism I am contemplating using.

The character can only become possessed when they lower their spiritual defenses -- in our game world, this involves succumbing to temptation in one form or another. When this occurrs, the demon may attempt to possess the character -- a straight contested roll of character WP v demon WP. If the demon wins the roll then one of the character's SAs is replaced by one of the demon's SAs. The new SA will be at level 1.

When a situation arises that is appropriate for the SA then the character may allow it to activate (and thus act in accordance with the SA) or they may attempt to resist its activation. This is a contested roll, character WP v (demon WP + SA value).

If the demonic SA activates and the action is successful then the SA gains 1 point (similar to any SA). Thus it becomes increasingly difficult to resist its activation.

When the SA reaches level 5 another one of the character's SAs is replaced by one of the demon's SAs.

When all of the character's SAs have been replaced by the demon's SAs and all are at level 5 then the demon is said to be "incarnate". The character now has access to all of the demon's powers and knowledge. The relationship is symbiotic in the sense that the player now has two voices in their head. However the character acts according to the demon's desires as defined by the SAs. Effectively the player character becomes an NPC, though the player may choose to continue playing the character under the referee's broad guidelines.

By handling demonic possession in this way its effects are initially subtle (especially to the other PCs). Over time the character changes, steadily becoming self-centered and eventually evil. Rather than representing demonic possession as a foaming-at-the-mouth head-rotating experience the result would be a character that is apparently normal yet wrestling spiritually with dark desires.

The mechanism for exorcising the demon will be fairly simple -- a ritual of exorcism, at the end of which a contested roll is conducted character WP v demon WP for each demonic SA. If the player wins the roll then the SA is removed and replaced with one of the character's SAs at the value it was before it was replaced by the demon's SA. If all demonic SAs are removed then the character is "back to normal". If any demonic SAs remain then the character is still possessed. The exorcism ritual must be performed again.  If the ritual is not performed again then the demonic SAs will begin to increase and replace the character's SAs once again. How anyone will know whether the exorcism has been completely successful remains to be seen...

Cheers,

[Ingenious]

Sounds pretty good so far, though why not just make there be yet another struggle of WP between the PC and the demon inside of him after the first SA gets taken over and gets to 5? This can show additional struggle and torment as the PC's soul slowly starts to wither away and become submissive to the stronger demon's soul? That would make for a better experience IMO than just one SA after another being taken over without additional struggle from the PC's perspective.

Just a thought.
-Ingenious

[Ian.Plumb]

Hi,

Sounds pretty good so far, though why not just make there be yet another struggle of WP between the PC and the demon inside of him after the first SA gets taken over and gets to 5?

There is a WP check with each activation if the player chooses to resist the temptation to use the new SA. Thus the character has already resisted and failed five times before the SA reaches a level of 5 and the next SA is replaced. Personally I don't see any need for another WP check, but then again nor does it hurt.

Cheers,

[Ingenious]

Well from my perspective, it appeared that after that first SA was taken over... that the character basically gave up trying to fight for his soul. At that point his soul would only be 20% lost. The next SA taken over would mean he had 40% of his soul taken away, etc. Well, I use the phrase 'taken away' loosely. I probably should'nt, but I don't care.. it's too damned late to worry about that shit.
The only thing I dont want is for a character to get possessed like this and when one SA goes, he basically stops fighting for his life.

-Ingenious

[Bob McNamee]

Another possiblity for doing the possession is to add in the new Demonic SA and require that the Player transfer say 1/4 of their total clean SA points into the new one(rounding up?). If they decide to drop a 1 SA to a zero, it is gone.

If they have  2 SA'a at 3 and 2 more at 2... they've got 10 SA points.
So now they have to shuffle around 3 points into the new Demonic SA: Destiny: To establish mime art in every town( or whatever):D ...at SA:3.

So maybe the Player completely dropped the SA:Passion:Loves the princess-3. And the player can have the fun of ruining the characters love life with an insane goal.

Starting with a higher value in the demonic SA creates more of a mechanical temptation to use it.

Perhaps anytime they use the Demonic SA it still has the chance of going up as you said...and if one gets maxed at 5 and new one comes in...but all advancing on a Demonic SA comes at the expense of having to reduce another regular SA.

That way the Player can bring in a desperate struggle to keep playing to the characters real SA'a trying to keep them up high...for when they have to feed the demonic ones. Perhaps, additional Demonic SA demands more than 1/4 of the existing regular SA points...?

So it gets harder and harder to play regular, when all those Demonic SAs are calling out.

Maybe more math than its worth.

There's also the possibility of using the rule for buying off/switching SA's maybe?

[Ian.Plumb]

Hi,

Well from my perspective, it appeared that after that first SA was taken over... that the character basically gave up trying to fight for his soul.

Here is a clearer, revised version of what I'm suggesting:

1) Character sins, exposing themselves to the possibility of possession.

2) Demon attempts to possess. Character WP v Demon WP, contested roll.

3) If character wins, no posession.

4) If demon wins, posession occurs. The character's least developed SA is replaced by the demon's least obvious SA. The new SA is at level 1.

5) When a situation arises that is applicable to the new SA and the character wants to perform an action where SAs may be involved (combat, skills, whatever), then the SA will attempt to fire. The character may attempt to resist using the SA. To resist using the SA, a character WP v (Demon WP + SA level + Number of demonic SAs at 5) roll is performed. If successful, the SA does not fire. If unsuccessful, or if the character chooses not to resist, then the SA fires and the character behaves according to the demonic SA.

6) If an action is performed where the demonic SA has fired and it is successful then the demonic SA is raised by 1.

7) When a demonic SA is raised to 5 another one of the next lowest character SA is bumped and replaced with the next demonic SA. The new SA is at level 1. Points 5 and 6 are repeated for the new SA. When it reaches 5 the next SA is replaced and so on.

8) When all of the character's SAs have been replaced by the demon's SAs and all of the demonic SAs are at level 5 then the demon is said to be "incarnate". This process will take weeks if not months of game time as the character will potentially have to fail up to 25 contested WP checks before this happens. When the demon is incarnate the character gains access to all of the demons knowledge, skills, and powers -- and the character behaves according to the SAs of the demon.

9) To remove the demonic SAs requires a ritual of exorcism. When the ritual is completed a contested roll is conducted (character WP + cleric WP) v demon WP for each demonic SA. If the player wins the roll then the SA is removed and replaced with one of the character's SAs at the value it was before it was replaced by the demon's SA. If all demonic SAs are removed then the character is "back to normal". If any demonic SAs remain then the character is still possessed. The exorcism ritual must be performed again. If the ritual is not performed again then the demonic SAs will begin to increase and replace the character's SAs once again.

The intention here is to role-play the possession process. The demon doesn't have the capacity to bludgeon the character into submission. The demon's WP should be low as their capacity to affect the temporal world is low (in our gaming environment). Each time a character sins shouldn't result in a possession even if there is a demon attempting to do such a thing at that time and place. As the demon's WP is low when a demonic SA is low it will be difficult for it to come into play against the character's will.

Therefore, the demon will initially need to convince the character to use it voluntarily. Thus the temptation process. The demon will need to convince the character that it is acceptable to use the SA or that the situation is so desperate that the character must use the SA to save themselves or the others in the player party.

The initial demonic SA should appear to be almost acceptable to the character and those viewing the actions that result from the SAs activation should be able to explain the character's behaviour in positive terms. An SA such as "Drive: Protect those that belong to you" will initially appear to others to be quite positive -- the character is loyal to their friends. The character may well see no need to resist its usage.

When the demonic SA is higher the demon may see less need for persuasion and more need for command. It will soon return to persuasion when the second demonic SA starts up. By the time the third or fourth demonic SA is loaded the character will struggle to resist the temptation to use the new demonic SA. The demon will be commanding rather than persuading. In addition, as the SAs represent the motivations of the character the character's personality is changing. The player may decide that their character is embracing the situation rather than continuing to resist...

At this point it is up to the referee and player to decide whether the the character becomes an NPC. Personally I would lean towards the character becoming an NPC.

Cheers,