[Afraid, a bit of DitV too] Possession

[Valvorik]

Some questions about possession, crossing over from Afraid and DitV.

1.  Was there ever a  blow-by-blow description of an exorcism for DitV, per last past in:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16699.0
- note, can't find the "Chinese Ghost Story" cited.

2. In Afraid, how would a monster with the power to possess function? 

This has two ways of coming up: one is that possession is the key access avenue for Victimization (e.g., story is the Exorcist, the possessed person is an NPC, the conflicts are PC's exorcising etc.); the other is if the Monster has this as a nightmarish resource power (would come up in fantasy and other variants of DitV as well if 'magic jar' is an option) and it can possess/as good as possess - compel subjects which could include PC's.

First case, vis a vis Victims, I think this could work based closely on DitV demonic possession.  A monster that destroys via possession takes Victim through 4d10's set out there, as the Victimization increases (nice coincidence it goes to 4?).  The number indicates the same scale of "chronic" as in DitV.  Thus at 4 dice all four described Powers from DitV are in play - whether this is in addition to everything else Monsters get or not to be determined (e.g., do you make the monster take traits representing these aspects, I think so and you may have to tinker to make it come out right with the Monster's alloted dice).  The Manifestations are suitable to, blend with the stages of Victimization.

In the second case, or perhaps coming up in first, there is the conflict of Monster attempts to seize control of a PC's body .  Has anyone example of handling this?  I think it's a social challenge (for spiritual level conflict).  It could be physical (since physical body is at stake) but social makes more sense to me in terms of stat dice involved.  Can the Monster escalate to anything else?  Can the defending PC?

I'm inclined to say the Monster gets only Social and Acuity escalations (still Heart and Acuity only really), plus traits (it will have a trait for its nightmarish ability to possess that it invokes at start of such a conflict), plus bonds.  The PC has Social and Acuity, and can escalate through all arenas up to an including threatening to kill themselves rather than be possessed.

Friends can lend the PC helping dice through reaffirming actions etc.   I would say they act only that way and if Monster not physically present can't Challenge the Monster, except by escalating to a physical/fighting/lethal challenge where they do so as if exorcising and inflict d4's on Monster but regular d's of Fallout on the PC.  So they give 1 helping dice on each Challenge by target PC and one on each Answer.  A circle of praying friends can really amp up both.

So the total dice pools look like: Monster its relevant traits (Say 7 d6) plus its possession trait (say 2d10)  plus bond dice for typical monster: 1d4 2d6 3d8 1d10 +10d10 = total 1d4, 9d6, 3d8, 13d10 for this conflict.

Player has all stat dice eventually if they escalate to hilt, say 12, say brings in traits of 1d6 and 1d10, for 13d6 1d10 or so.  On an "alone circumstance", the PC looks cooked - alarmingly so.  PC getting helping dice from two friendly characters every round looks much better off at least in terms of being able to not see their pool exhausted. 

If "possession" is not the Monster's key focus, I wouldn't let loss of these stakes actually "cook" a PC but make it a smaller consequence ~ it could be an "unknowing" possession/control to manifest at some point (going over to Monster's side in a fight, the 'plant in their midst' information leak, wake up someplace strange not remembering what you've done etc.).  I think a PC would also have to do something to be vulnerable to the attempt to possess at all, to be landed in it straight off would be "in trouble".

3.  How to run exorcism in Afraid?

Afraid has no Ceremony rules and DitV doesn't seem to have "exorcism" rules though "I've exorcised a demon" is an example used in text of initiation etc.

Challenges to "drive out" or "quiet" or "make appear and answer" a possessing Monster should be feasible.  Players would have to narrate how their characters knew the procedure, perhaps including a flashback conflict or pointing to a trait that indicates they would.  Traits such as "True Faith", "Religious Training", "Expelled from Seminary"  would be applicable.  A more "psych 101" model might work as well.

The principle Arena for such is "Social/Talk" with the Fallout to possessing  Monster always being so.  Actions escalating to physical etc. are possible but the Fallout to possessing Monster is still d4's whereas a possessed person takes Fallout too and it is the die appropriate for the action (if you go physical/fighting etc. and demon takes fallout, it gets that many d4's and the Victim gets that may d's of the size challenge arena calls for).  As a I understand it, to "go fighting" (and slap it out of Victim) I would need on the Escalation to script slapping and maybe inflict fallout but thereafter I can (with my now increased dice pool) still again use Social Challenges (right?)  - Escalation means I can't escalate back into the other arena, it doesn't mean I can't script Challenges from it.  Point is the ultimate risk to Victim is not so great though the demonic Monster will love to answer/see any high Fallout die escalations with measly dice taking lots of fallout.  Being in control of Victim, the Monster can answer appropriately to Challenges in different arenas and doesn't lose automatically.  Its Challenges back are going to be social but perhaps in this case really bad social per the DitV chronic feature (d6's not d4's).

Comments?

[lumpley]

I wouldn't do a single thing mechanically to accomodate possession and exorcism; the rules cover them fully already.

I've run one zillion attempted possessions of PCs, some successful, and one zillion attempted exorcisms, some successful, in Dogs, using just exactly the rules in the book. Ceremony is a very minor mechanical effect - it only changes the size of fallout dice, it doesn't do anything else - so doing away with it, as Afraid does, won't matter.

Here's how you run an exorcism or a possession: say what's at stake. Set the stage. Name the opening arena. Roll dice. Make raises and sees. Escalate. Give. Roll Fallout. Play forward from there as the inviolate inner logic of the game's fiction requires.

Same as always.

-Vincent

[Valvorik]

Thanks.

[lumpley]

Don't be sore! Try it, you'll see.

-Vincent

[Valvorik]

It's cool.  I take the "text is bad medium to get true intent so always reread anything offputting in the cheeriest most friendly tone you imagine it being said", and have added this line into my GM notes:

Don't try to invent subsystems for things that can be handled by narrating into the existing system - the system is intended to a broad 'universal resolution' mechanism.  A possession attack is simply a set of Challenges and Answers using descriptions particular to that form of possession and whatever arena are appropriate (the invulnerable unintelligent alien goo slime that enters body may be all physical/fighting and the spirit may be all social, but in either case other types of Challenges and Answers can likely be described).

[lumpley]

ExACTly. Well said.

-Vincent