Orpheus - Ghost Stories for Ghosts

Started by ferrousaemyr, January 27, 2011, 01:20:50 AM

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ferrousaemyr

Don't Look Back

This is the real world. The ghosts are coming up through the cracks in the ground, dancing behind the windows at night, sitting in your attic and playing cards, weeping by their gravestones, following their murderers and planning bloody mayhem, dealing drugs in the back streets and forming cults to try to unearth what truly lies beyond them, just as they in turn lie beyond death.

And they are all around you.

This is the real world. You're an agent for a mysterious group that may have a shadowy history but who won't admit it. You and your team can cast off your physical bodies - or already have done so - and walk through walls, take over people, scream down houses. But if the body dies, so do you. You've been given missions, important, dangerous missions that have you working with (or against) the rich and famous, saving lives, banishing ghosts, expanding the frontiers of human knowledge by determining what really happens after death. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds like the sort of thing that ought to be front page news. It is.

This is the real world. Trust Orpheus, but trust nobody else. There are other organizations out there who aren't as ethical as you are, and who want to control the living by using the powers of the dead. There are ghosts being twisted into creatures of malice and pain. There are living people creating tormented ghosts through cruelty, or malice or simple ignorance. There are people who want to use you. There are people who want to kill you. For real.


The World of the Dead

In Orpheus, you are the heroes of your very own ghost yarn. This isn't one of those stories where there's another side, however, or where happy ghosts come back from Heaven to provide counseling or their ex-wives and depressed children. This is a tale where ghosts walk side by side with living human beings, unseen and unheard, possibly benign, often malignant. This is a story where human beings are tearing back the veils from death, uncovering the secrets of what comes next, and discovering strange new abilities in the process.

This is a story of pride, of ambition and of temptation. You have all nearly died more than once. How long can you continue avoiding it? You belong to an agency with private agendas and concerns, and you are constantly sent on dangerous missions. Legality is apparently a thing of the past to people with your abilities and connections. You're special agents, sent on some missions too important and too dangerous to tell the rest of the world about. You're able to separate spirit from body - indeed, some of you already have - and can affect people or things purely through willpower.

At the same time, there's a darker side to all this rampant heroism and power. Your new abilities came through venturing to the very edge of death - and who knows what else may come back with you? Look at the other ghosts haunting the world. How many of them are sane? How many of them are safe? And you are one of them. It's a pity, but there it is. It may take awhile for you all to realize it, but you're displaying the same powers as ghosts, you've gone through a kind of death to separate body and spirit, and you must now undergo the same dangers.

Yet, you're still human, and this is still a story about the living world. You can't escape into some sort of secret society or find another reality in which to hide. This world is your problem; you must deal with it or face the consequences. Ghosts are apparently a part of the real world, even if nobody realized it before. You just didn't know it - no one did. How many times have you walked past ghosts before without realizing it? Will you ever be able to visit an old building again or see a site where a murder took place without wondering if a ghost haunts the spot? This is the end of innocence, but also the beginning of conscious investigation. Knowledge once acquired cannot be unlearned; you can't stuff the genie back in the bottle, and ghosts won't simply go away. This is the point in the horror movie where the characters have their equipment, know how to use it and believe they can handle the situation.

Of course, since this is a horror story, it isn't that easy.


You And Orpheus

Each of you is a member of a private, well-funded organization known as Orpheus Group. The group's mission statement involves helping distraught citizens obtain closure in matters pertaining to departed friends and loves ones. Imagine what would happen if the boy from The Sixth Sense grew up to form his own "ghostbusting" organization and you're on the right track. Rather than destroying or capturing ghosts, however, Orpheus Group agents seek to understand and communicate with them... mostly. The exact nature of each mission varies with the client, of course (and on occasion, with company directives). The company charges a nominal fee for its services, of course, since without money, none of their efforts would be possible.

Also known to the general public, however, is the manner in which Orpheus Group accomplishes its task. It carefully selects each prospective agent, for only those with the right background can function in the capacity of agent. Only those who survived multiple near-death experiences make it past the initial screening phase, and even then, only a handful makes it through the advanced training. Agents of Orpheus Group can communicate with the dead because they don't do the bulk of their work among the living - they actually join the dead, by projecting their souls from their bodies.

Some agents accomplish this through meditation alone ("skimmers"), but others who haven't mastered this technique are placed in a deep, coma-like state using cryogenics and embalming cocktails to ensure their body stays "dead" without actually undergoing necrosis ("sleepers"). From there, the agent's soul is free to roam, and in this state, he can and will encounter other spooks (ghosts or "projectors", those who skim or sleep). Orpheus also "employs" ghosts, those people with the wherewithal to survive past death. Between Orpheus' so-called projectors and ghosts, the afterlife is mankind's newest frontier.

Whether Orpheus sought you out or you applied, you made it past its rigorous screening and training and are now one of its agents... this world is your world.

ferrousaemyr

#1
What's In A Ghost?

Ghosts are, simply put, a person's soul. There are no standardized rules for who becomes a ghost; religion, culture, and geography have nothing to do with it. Victims of violent, brutal crimes, and those with strong connections to unresolved goals or with "unfinished business" make up a greater percentage of ghosts than otherwise, but that isn't the only cause, either.

Ghosts are incorporeal and invisible. The majority of ghosts have the faintest ability to manifest to humanity (glowing lights, moving shadows, white humanoid shapes and the like) and have no strong ability to affect the living. Such ghosts are barely cognizant of anything but the last moments of their life or some task that consumed them, endlessly repeating these motions for the rest of their ghostly existence ("static repeaters").

More rarely, stronger ghosts come into being ("blips" and "spirits") that are more aware of themselves and their existence, and they can have much stronger impacts upon the living and the dead. Like in Poltergeist, the Amityville Horror, The Shining, and other movies about hauntings, these stronger ghosts can cause all sorts of havoc, mayhem, horror and death.

These ghosts can manifest more fully, taking on stronger appearances - some are even able to take the form they once held in life. Some abilities require manifestation, while others don't, causing the previously inexplainable events that have been ascribed to ghosts (or other things) throughout time. While ghosts aren't manifested, the only humans who can see them are projectors.

Ghosts follow some physical laws and disregard others. They are susceptible to gravity, for example, but can walk through walls. They seem to be made of a solid kind of substance ("gauze"), but aren't detectable by normal instruments as including atoms or molecules. Some researchers have suggested that they are made of neutrinos, and ghosts do emanate electromagnetic fields, but they are otherwise wholly separate from the living.

There aren't any recorded ghosts that have been around longer than three years (no ancient Greek philosophers lurking about), and the lands of the dead don't seem to that populated with ghosts. No one is sure why.

These are the broad classifications of ghosts and their associated powers, as coined by Orpheus:

Poltergeists - Moving objects (flying knives and couches, storms of objects)
Haunters - Inhabiting objects and structures (closing doors of a house, a machine "coming to life", cars that drive themselves)
Banshees - Communicating (whispers that reveal secrets, deranged sounds), Destructive wails (harming objects, people, or ghosts with screams)
Skinriders - Possessing the living (just as powerful and scary as it sounds)
Wisps - Beguiling and manipulating (balls of light that lead people to their demise, implanted suggestions, persuasive words)

ferrousaemyr

#2
Amongst The Quick and the Dead

This is a game of Orpheus (World of Darkness / White Wolf).

Details for the game -


  • Long Campaign: I want to go through the full metaplot of the Orpheus series, and I'd like to keep the same characters around for the entire show.
  • Players: 3 - 7, preferably players with little or no experience with the Orpheus setting.
  • System-Light: After character creation, only four statistics will be tracked - Health, Vitality, Spite, and Willpower. No rolls will be made, everything will be adjudicated. Characters can only "spend experience" by having their characters train in-game, as an athlete would build muscles, an engineer would learn new software, and a socialite would develop new contacts.
  • Story-Focused: Along with System-Light, the emphasis will be on role-playing, story, character development, and the like. There won't be grinding or "routine missions" that get played out in order to "level up" your characters.
  • Fast-Paced: I'd prefer players that can post at minimum once every other day. If something comes up, let me know ASAP and we'll work out me botting your character during your absence.
  • Content: NC-Human to encompass any possibilities. This is a Horror-genre story, and I like playing up the psychological horror to the max; that generally won't involve sex because of the antagonists involved. Characters will only be involved in sex scenes with player consent, and most, if not all, of sexual content would take place in side-threads. I'll cater to most requests, though.
  • Setting: As per Orpheus, the game will start in 2003 and progress from there. It will be a "major" city in America, but the specific city is as yet undecided. The World is slightly different from our own (other than Ghosts), but is largely the same otherwise, and I'll adhere to as much realism as is possible.


If you're interested, please reply with the following -

I. That you've read all of these details and are happy with all of them.
II. Your familiarity with the Orpheus setting.
III. What sexual content you're interested in.
IV. What city you'd like to see the game (mostly) play out in.

Thanks!

Prakkie

Is this game to be set in America or elsewhere?

Either way, interested.

Senti


Liberi Fatali

Quote from: Anael on January 27, 2011, 01:21:10 AM

I. That you've read all of these details and are happy with all of them.
II. Your familiarity with the Orpheus setting.
II. What sexual content you're interested in.
IV. What city you'd like to see the game (mostly) play out in.

Thanks!

I. I'm happy with the details.
II. I have read the Orpheus core book cover to cover, but that was quite a while ago so I've forgotten many of the details.
III. Not interested in sexual content but might be open to Light.
IV. I really don't have a preference.

Prakkie

I. I've read all the details and am happy with them
II. Not familiar with the Orpheus setting
III. Maybe something light if it's appropriate to the story
IV. You pick one ;)

Senti

I have read the details and am happy with them.
Though familiar with WoD not familiar with Orpheus setting.
I dont mind a sexual game but dont want it to be the main theme and only as background to the main story.
I have no preference.


Muse

Hey, may I play? 

I. That you've read all of these details and are happy with all of them.
----Indeed, these details are intruiging.  (Can we living folks at orpheus learn how to do what the dead do?  Like, say wail of the bansidhe?) 

II. Your familiarity with the Orpheus setting.
----This is my first real exposure to it. 

III. What sexual content you're interested in.
----As much or as little as is apropriate, though I lean at least a little bit towards much. 

IV. What city you'd like to see the game (mostly) play out in.
----How about Baltimore? 
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

ferrousaemyr

Quote from: Muse on January 28, 2011, 07:36:19 AM
Hey, may I play?

Of course!

Quote
I. That you've read all of these details and are happy with all of them.
----Indeed, these details are intruiging.  (Can we living folks at orpheus learn how to do what the dead do?  Like, say wail of the bansidhe?) 

Quite so, yes. ;) That's the special powers agents wield that I allude to. By projecting your spirit, you become a "temporary ghost", and have the same sorts of access to powers (and gain the same limitations).

Quote
IV. What city you'd like to see the game (mostly) play out in.
----How about Baltimore?

You'll have to tell me more about it!

ferrousaemyr

Character thread is up in the group games section.

Three more possible slots; I'll give it several more days before I close this.