[Dark Days] Character Descriptions Matter!

[northerain]

In Dark Days, characters are mortals that came back from the dead, infected with an entity called Darkness. This entity gives them creepy ass powers but it ultimately wants to consume them so it can have a vessel in our world.
Now I didn't come up with this idea by actively trying  to solve a ''problem'', but I got the idea anyway.

Essentially, character descriptions always fall flat in my games. Maybe we don't have a knack for it, but even though the characters are interesting, the descriptions are not. Usually it's just height, weight, hair color, clothing. Maybe some mannerisms too.
In our first playtest of Dark Days, I used the setting to try and make characters more interesting. Every character in Dark Days has the ability to see things that others can't. Essentially, they can see how Darkness manifests in the world (think monsters, haunted places). But what happens when you look at one of your fellow characters?
Each of them has a different appearance, for those that can see how Darkness manifests. This appearance is based on their personality and their past, rather than physical characteristics.
So for example, one of our characters was a religious guy that got stabbed in prison and that's how he died. His appearance to the other characters was that of a man bleeding profusely from his stomach, where a shiv was still sticking out. On his head, he had a crown of thorns, since his religion was what got him killed. It also tied in with his character concept, that of a Martyr.

Now for the characters or another NPC, looking at him means something else. You can tell a few things about him that you couldn't have otherwise. If you recognize the shiv, you can tell he was in jail. The crown of thorns can mean anything, but it's also a hint towards his concept and his past, if you can deduct that.

I'm kinda please with myself, but at the same time, I'd love to find more uses for this, to make it matter in the game.
One of them is that when Darkness starts taking over more and more, some of your more... creepy characteristics start appearing to mortals too.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions for further use or finetuning?

[Callan S.]

Characters could start to be influenced by each others metaphors/alagories (ala-gorys?). Someone who died in the name of scienctific advancement might start to grow their own crown of thorns, after dealing with the martyr. In gameplay terms, you might get more power if you blend other peoples alagories into your own. In the game world this means the ideas behind these traumatic and significant events are blending between the characters. To what end, who can say? But they blend and hybridise.

[C. Edwards]

One thing I've done in a game where you play a sort of Frankenstien's monster (similar but not as complicated as White Wolf's Promethean game) is have a character's "true form" be visible when they use special abilities or act under stress. They then have to deal with the possible situation of having witnesses to who or what they are really.

Also, they have a monstrosity gauge which slides either towards PC's becoming full on monsters or becoming more human with possibility of actually becoming human. The more monstrous, the more power the PC can bring to bear when using their monstrous abilities, but using those abilities increases the risk of being discovered. So there is an enticement to use them, but associated dangers. I mention it because it sounds like your Darkness may do something similar. It's probably mainly a matter of if you want dealing or worrying about witnesses to be an integral part of play.

[northerain]

Characters could start to be influenced by each others metaphors/alagories (ala-gorys?). Someone who died in the name of scienctific advancement might start to grow their own crown of thorns, after dealing with the martyr. In gameplay terms, you might get more power if you blend other peoples alagories into your own. In the game world this means the ideas behind these traumatic and significant events are blending between the characters. To what end, who can say? But they blend and hybridise.

This is interesting, but I don't know what the explanation is. But what interests me is that characters can gain new aspects in their Visage(the true form or whatever I'll call it), based on important game events. Nifty!

[northerain]

One thing I've done in a game where you play a sort of Frankenstien's monster (similar but not as complicated as White Wolf's Promethean game) is have a character's "true form" be visible when they use special abilities or act under stress. They then have to deal with the possible situation of having witnesses to who or what they are really.

Also, they have a monstrosity gauge which slides either towards PC's becoming full on monsters or becoming more human with possibility of actually becoming human. The more monstrous, the more power the PC can bring to bear when using their monstrous abilities, but using those abilities increases the risk of being discovered. So there is an enticement to use them, but associated dangers. I mention it because it sounds like your Darkness may do something similar. It's probably mainly a matter of if you want dealing or worrying about witnesses to be an integral part of play.

Actually yes, this is very similar. There's a Darkness gauge where the more monstrous you become, the more power you can wield but the more horrific you appear.
Witnesses isn't a big part of play, but having their true form appear whenever they use a power makes sense. The danger in my case isn't being discovered, but giving in to the Darkness and losing your individuality.

[Selene Tan]

One thing you could do is have important NPCs who have completely succumbed to the Darkness and function as archetypes. PCs can choose to deliberately take on powers/abilities from the archetypes, but it means taking on their characteristics as well. A PC who took on all the abilities of one specific archetype would be really powerful, but would also be so consumed by Darkness as to be indistinguishable from that archetype.

The NPCs could be specified in the game text or generated by a GM or the players -- whatever fits the game best.

[Certified]

One thing that comes to mind is having the visage linked to different aspects of the character. As you've said they martyr wears a crown of thorns and his death wound still bleeds from the lingering shiv. Depending on how you categorize supernatural abilities each of this manifestations may unlock abilities for them. For example The crown of thorns is a symbol of lordship and suffering allowing the player to take wither Command/control abilities or Defense/Resistance abilities, the bloody shiv is a symbol for suffering and violence giving access to Defense or Attack abilities. This could be limited in scope by saying only one ability per manifestation or should a manifestation is somehow removed they cannot access those abilities until they have retrieved them. This creates a kind of visual road map of what a risen character is capable of for those that can decipher the symbology of the visage. This would also mean that as characters grew in power their image is likely to shift growing more disturbing. Although, in keeping with the ideals laid out earlier I would think these new symbols would continue to retain their meaning to the character's death. For Example the inmate might manifest stigmata or prison tattoos that tell the story of how he was killed.

[Warrior Monk]

Some of this reminds me of Don't Rest Your Head, where characters abilities can be easily defined from 4 questions made at character creation, making their supernatural powers not only colorful but quite original each time. Of course, power limitation goes the same way: the more you use the power, the more your character becames a mindless creature taking the shape of his nightmares. You might like to take a check on this game.

[northerain]

Some of this reminds me of Don't Rest Your Head, where characters abilities can be easily defined from 4 questions made at character creation, making their supernatural powers not only colorful but quite original each time. Of course, power limitation goes the same way: the more you use the power, the more your character becames a mindless creature taking the shape of his nightmares. You might like to take a check on this game.

I've read DRYH. Hell, I did the art for DLYM!
It's the general idea for DD too, that you become more monstous as you abuse your power.

One thing that comes to mind is having the visage linked to different aspects of the character. As you've said they martyr wears a crown of thorns and his death wound still bleeds from the lingering shiv. Depending on how you categorize supernatural abilities each of this manifestations may unlock abilities for them. For example The crown of thorns is a symbol of lordship and suffering allowing the player to take wither Command/control abilities or Defense/Resistance abilities, the bloody shiv is a symbol for suffering and violence giving access to Defense or Attack abilities. This could be limited in scope by saying only one ability per manifestation or should a manifestation is somehow removed they cannot access those abilities until they have retrieved them. This creates a kind of visual road map of what a risen character is capable of for those that can decipher the symbology of the visage. This would also mean that as characters grew in power their image is likely to shift growing more disturbing. Although, in keeping with the ideals laid out earlier I would think these new symbols would continue to retain their meaning to the character's death. For Example the inmate might manifest stigmata or prison tattoos that tell the story of how he was killed.

This is kinda interesting, but it doesn't mesh with the rest of my ideas too well. I think Orpheus does this with Stains. They're weird appearance-altering traits that provide bonuses like armor and such.
In my case, I'm using Fate Aspects, so I'm considering using these manifestations as Aspects that are visible to anyone after you've gone over to the dark side enough.

Alternately, I could make powers manifest effects on your appearance, like Warrior Monk says.