Ghosts and Wraiths?

[dbhoward]

I was surprised to find that neither ghosts nor wraiths, nor any sort of spirit of the angry dead, is included in the core rulebook or Monster Coliseum. Why were these iconic supernatural beings omitted from the basic rules?

And how should they be represented in MRQII?

 

[simonh]

I'm guessing that's because they get their own dedicated supplement - Necromantic Arts.

Simon Hibbs

 

[dbhoward]

I'm guessing that's because they get their own dedicated supplement - Necromantic Arts.

I'm sorry, Simon, that makes no sense--- skeletons, ghouls, mummies, zombies and vampires all made it into the either (or both!) the core book or monster coliseum, after all. And ghosts can occur without necromantic intervention, unlike zombies and mummies.

Ghosts are the *single* most common kind of spirit in folklore, legend, literature, and belief. And we have to buy a separate supplement to get even basic stats for them????

 

[simonh]

I'm not saying how great it is, but without actually having a copy of Necromantic Arts I'm guessing this is the situation.

Simon Hibbs

 

[dbhoward]

Sorry, I thought you meant they were in there definitely.

It just confuses me. I was annoyed that they were not in the Spirit Magic chapter, but assumed they would be in the monster book as they were for MRQ1.

Given that, if anyone has not seen ghosts or wraiths yet, any ideas how you would treat them? They don't seem to fit any of the categories given for spirits in the main book.

 

[dbhoward]

I apologize if anyone is put off by the tone of my post. I'm aware that the designers wanted to make spirits more unique and interesting than previously.

For example, it isn't bothering me that nymphs and such aren't in the book. The rules for nature spirits give you all you need to put dryads etc. into the game and keep them interesting, powerful and special.

I am only expressing a degree of surprise and disappointment that the same wasn't done for the spirits of the dead; given that this is an adventure game, tombs and barrows and unquiet spirits are going to be met with. How about some guidelines from Mongoose?

 

[soltakss]

Necromantic Arts definitely has many varietites of ghosts. I can't remember if there are wraiths or not.

 

[Loz]

I apologize if anyone is put off by the tone of my post. I'm aware that the designers wanted to make spirits more unique and interesting than previously.

For example, it isn't bothering me that nymphs and such aren't in the book. The rules for nature spirits give you all you need to put dryads etc. into the game and keep them interesting, powerful and special.

I am only expressing a degree of surprise and disappointment that the same wasn't done for the spirits of the dead; given that this is an adventure game, tombs and barrows and unquiet spirits are going to be met with. How about some guidelines from Mongoose?

Ghosts, wraiths and the like are all perfectly creatable using the spirit magic rules in the core rules. I left them out of Monster Coliseum both for space reasons and also because their applicability in an arena environment - which isn't an unreasonable omission.

A standard 'haunting' ghost, for example, is a spirit that is bound to the mundane world for a particular reason. It may or may not have any of the capabilities of the various nature spirits, ancestors, or others, depending on your need.

Malign spirit entities, like wraiths, are creatures that seek to possess: and the spirit magic rules have mechanics for possession. You can, without too much effort, I believe, create all manner of spirit creatures for your games.