Just bought Paladin, and had a question or two

[urbwar]

I bought Paladin yesterday, and read through it last night. Still figuring out the rules and such, but it seems pretty straightforward and easy to use.

I was thinking of using it down the road for mini-campaign with my group, and even have a setting in mind.

The setting would be in China, and the players would be Taoist Priests who handle the mortuary rites for the dead. Bad guys would be corrupt wizards and their servants, some of whom are human martial artists, but others who would be Jiangshi, the Hopping Vampires of Asian myth.

My main question is how to design the Jiangshi. I was looking at how the Unliving were made in Sword of Heaven, but wasn't sure if that is how you make creatures or not.

The priests would be similar to the Shaolin Monks described in Paladin, but they also use magic, and can use weapons (mainly swords made of Peach Wood, and the occasional coin sword bathed in moonlight to slay the vampires with). The book is kind of sparse on descriptions, so I am assuming Paladins could use martial arts abilities and magic, since the system seems fairly free-form on that. I'm thinking the coin sword would be one of their abilities, since it only works on vampires, and the priest controls it mentally after it's enchanted.

Any hints or suggestions?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I think you're on the right track with all these. As for the hopping vampires, I'd create them like you'd create a free-willed unliving thing in the Sword of Heaven.

[urbwar]

I think you're on the right track with all these. As for the hopping vampires, I'd create them like you'd create a free-willed unliving thing in the Sword of Heaven.

Clinton,

Thanks for the fast response! That helps alot. Now I've got a firmer idea of what to do when I finally sit down to write this all out.

Another question: Since I am basing this on a series of movies I've seen, there would also be the occasional ghost. Most of the ghosts are female, and can interact with the living world (ie have physical form, and even be hit). Some of the tend to drain life force through sexual contact. I'm thinking it could be described as draining Animus, but the ghosts are not necessarily evil. Would that matter for them to drain Light Animus?

[Spooky Fanboy]

Ghost draining Animus:

I'd say that they drained whichever Animus the person had the most of, switching to Dark if Light ran low, and vice versa. I imagine to them it's all food.

[urbwar]

Ghost draining Animus:

I'd say that they drained whichever Animus the person had the most of, switching to Dark if Light ran low, and vice versa. I imagine to them it's all food.

That makes sense.

I have a version of this setting written up for All Flesh Must Be Eaten (using the Enter the Zombie supplement), and I had the Ghosts target people with strong Chi (Essence is the stat in game). Animus, whether Light or Dark would be chi, just different versions of it (Light = Yang Chi, Dark = Yin Chi). So your suggestion that what kind of Animus is drained doesn't matter to the ghost, since Animus is just food.

Now to just figure out what kind of effects draining the Animus has (the ultimate result is death if they take too much), and whether or not to make the drain permanent or temporary

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Now to just figure out what kind of effects draining the Animus has (the ultimate result is death if they take too much), and whether or not to make the drain permanent or temporary

One idea: drains are temporary in the conflict, but afterwards one point of the drain is always permanent.

[urbwar]

One idea: drains are temporary in the conflict, but afterwards one point of the drain is always permanent.

Clinton,

Since the Ghosts only drain outside of conflict (it's done during sexual contact), my concern was that they would drain away a character's Animus, and leave them with none (which would suck for the pc). The Jiangshi forcibly take it (I'm going with a non-movie version of them, where they actually steal a person's breath, which I would use Animus in game to represent), so making it temporary is good.

What are the side effects of having your animus drained like that? If Light Animus was drained, and that made the Dark Animus points higher, would that affect the pc as if they had tapped into the Dark Animus willingly? What happens if both Animus scores were drained to 0?

I guess I am creating more questions as I figure this out. Just hope I'm not overly complicating things; is this kind of detail considered too much for a Paladin setting?