Dyluth
I have a question for all the GM's out there who've ever had a situation in a game where a PC, through no fault of their own has failed their will save or what not and no find themselves possessed by an evil spirit. In cases like these, is it proper to let the player still play the PC only with the motivations and stats of the possessing spirit? Or is it best for the GM to temporarily take over the player character themselves until the other players exorcise the evil spirit? Or even possibly force the player of the possessed PC to fight to regain their mind in a series of strange "Inception" like environments and scenarios.
Twice I've been able to play a PC while they were possessed and both times the games went quite well, but I was curious to hear what other GM's thought.
Comments
On the other hand, if everyone (players and characters) is aware of the possession, I think I would take over the character until the spirit was exorcised. In the mean time I'd let the player whose character is possessed run an NPC. Course that's just me. From what I've read so far of your campaign Dyluth, I'm really interested to see where this is going. Guess I'll have to wait till September to find out though won't I.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
So, I gave the possessed PCs control of the hunters that weren't possessed, and had a two-front battle.
The trick is that the demon's spirit is currently split between the PC and this as yet unnamed orc. While split, it is weak enough for the PC to manage, because I halved all it's stats. The demon needs the PC to kill the one holding its other half or vice versa, so that the demon's spirit will snap back to whole leaving the victor possessed by a full-power marilith. So far, the demon has been largely hiding, except during the PCs dreams, or when he comes in contact with sources of taint.
Whether you let your player continue to have control while possessed depends on how much you trust them to play the part... and in any case, it is only really a factor if the possessor is taking on a controller roll, as opposed to an enemy, ally or rider.
Last week, I kibitzed a 4th-ed game and my GM asked me to run one of the monsters for him. It was a succubus. Succubi dominate people. Whenever I had folks dominated, I got to tell them where to move and what to attack, but I had them roll their own dice - mostly to help the players keep *some* sense of control over their characters during the fight. They could psychically influence their dice to roll poorly, you know the superstitions. :)
Mostly, I played my character and the GM whispered in my ear as the demon. I had minor control, and he'd let me make rolls when my character really didn't want to do something. But on the occasions that the demon took over, I let the GM have total control.
In other cases, for the shorter term type thing, I generally ask the GM exactly what my character is now thinking/feeling/seeing and act based on that. If my character has no control, but the party doesn't know, I'll have secret text conversations with the GM about what he wants to see happen with it.
Ultimately, I think it depends a lot on what the player wants to do.
BLAM!
or
BOOM!
or something of that nature, which really doesn't help at all, and only tends to scare you into messing my pants just now.
Gotta go,
"Duskreign":http://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/Duskreign
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Tell them - in vague terms - the demon/spirit/casserole's motivations, and let them have a refreshing break from the norm. I mean, who doesn't love a get-out-of-jail-free card to inflict mischief on their friends?
Admittedly, it doesn't work unless you have a group of solid role-players, and an antagonist who is restrained enough to not start rampantly team-killing, but a similar sentiment actually bred one of the greatest table-top moments of my career.
What happened:
Party goes to the library to research the plane of shadow
The library's expert on the subject is kind of creepy, so the paladin detects evil.
botched hide check for the demon possessing our monk.
The player for the paladin shouts *what the f!" when she is told that evil is present, but not where it is suspected.
The paladin then tries to nonchalantly pull the others aside while the bard keeps the plane of shadows expert talking. Post-it notes begin to fly about the table.
The bard's sense motive tells him something is up, but he assumes it's with the expert and so tries to keep him talking.
Once everyone is filled in, the whole party goes back to the thieve's guild to hold a great big, "WHY ARE YOU RADIATING EVIL AURAS!?" intervention for the monk, who thinks they suspect, but is not sure. Only, at the guildhall, the evil aura is gone (the demon hid more successfully)
The monk reveals some of what has been going on, voices, dreams etc.
The cleric suspects possession, then the bard who has major issues with evil outsiders tries to taunt the demon out.
The taunting works and the demon tries to take direct control of the monk for the first time, but the monk successfully resists.
The monk then tells the whole story of what has been happening.
The group wants to exorcise the demon, but the monk doesn't, because he thinks it may provide insight into his forgotten past.
They compromise and head to an Olidammari temple to see if they can remove and bind the demon elsewhere.
When the priestess casts True Seeing to see what she is dealing with, everyone learns that it is not a whole demon, but half of a really powerful demon who is weakened and manageable by being split between two bodies.
The group's attitude instantly switches to "We can live with a manageable half demon! rather than restoring it to its full power somewhere in the world."
YAY! Possessed monk! The first of several epic reveals I have planned is now complete!
Of course now I have to figure out how to appropriately play the motivation of the demon without breaking my own game. The good news is the monk has proven he can resist direct control, and the demon wants him alive, because to be made whole the two vessels carrying her essence must meet and transfer the spirit through combat. The bad news is the bard really pissed off the demon with his taunting and the demon has no issues with trying to kill other party members should he get ahold of the monk. Hopefully the possibility of a 1/2 orc monk suddenly turning on the party will add spice & depth without overwhelming the overall story.