Steve Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 I was reading an interesting way to present elves in the "Red Tide" campaign sourcebook I recently picked up. When an elf dies in that world, their spirit does not go to a final reward but instead reincarnates as another elf. They also remember all of their past lives. How would one represent the ability to remember past lives in Hero terms? Would it be as simple as a form of Eidetic Memory? Maybe postcognitive clairsentience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianaJoe3 Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Well, what does, "remembering past lives" let you do? It might be as simple as a good KS: History skill and a few extra Area Knowledges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 Allows you all the skills learned prior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianaJoe3 Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 That could be Cramming, a skill VPP, or simply justification for buying extra skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 From my write up of Scarab 10 Far Memory: Retrocognitive Clairsentience (Sight Group And Normal Hearing) (45 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Retrocognition Only (-1), Only Through The Senses Of Previous Incarnations (-1/2) 4 Notes: In either secret or heroic identity, Scarab sometimes has glimpses of past incarnations, especially of being a priest of Ra. These can be full fledged "visions" of a past life, or sudden flashes of insight or special knowledge - "This way! The fourth duke built a secret tunnel in case of seige, it may still be there." "I thought you had never been in this castle before?" "Not in this life...." While locating that, I stumbled on this thread http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/86059-incarnation-awareness/ Lucius Alexander On a clear day, a palindromedary can see forever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massey Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 It's Regeneration, with Resurrection, and perhaps a small limitation that you lose your current identity (you don't get to keep your stuff). Might have time delay and a small linked teleport to send you somewhere else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 I'm not sure if it is a resurrection, since a character can change gender and appearance when being reborn. I suppose its a little bit like how the Avatar is treated in the cartoon series. An elf dies, their spirit waits for a new elf to be conceived and then that is the body they get. It's the same person in a new body, remembering friends and enemies from previous lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massey Posted August 14, 2014 Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 There could be a physical limitation "random changes when dies", or something similar. Of course, if it takes a few centuries for an elf to go from birth to adulthood, it might not need a power to represent it at all. By the time you get old enough to be out of diapers, campaign over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 It's a perennial topic here on the Hero Boards - how to write up an immortal who has already had a long life. That's all this is, except that the long life includes multiple physical childhoods. Lucius Alexander unlike a palindromedary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 Is every elf who is born a reincarnated previous elf? This might be a substitute for traditional Elven immortality. The body matures, grows old, and eventually dies, and then the process repeats -- over and over again, to infinity. It's a cycle that the elves apparently cannot escape. I don't know how to model it, but elves might well have flashbacks of their former lives that can get pretty disturbing. They would remember every time they died, for example -- including the horrible ones. Some of those deaths and other experiences would be traumatic (ranging from the emotional pain of a failed relationship to having been tortured on the rack a few cycles ago). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 Regeneration with Resurrection. Extra Time (whatever the elven gestation period is). Side Effects: Cosmetic Transform (to random elf baby). Limited Power: Requires an elf to become pregnant. Alternately, use Possession from APG. Triggered (upon death), Only Works On Elven Fetuses, plus Mental + Spiritual Transform (elven fetus to self). Edited to add: Or: Mental + Spiritual Transform, Random Elven Fetus to Self, Triggered (upon death), No Conscious Control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted August 15, 2014 Report Share Posted August 15, 2014 Limited Power: Requires an elf to become pregnant. Focus: Pregnant elf of opportunity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted August 17, 2014 Report Share Posted August 17, 2014 Focus: Pregnant elf of opportunity. Or an elf does not become pregnant until a spirit becomes available to inhabit the body. Spirit and body are fused at conception, so there's no existing soul to "kick out" Which would mean the population of elves is static there are always a certain number of elves in the world and no more. An elf who is reincarnated this way will not be in adventuring condition for many years, depending on how rapidly the new body matures. So in game terms it hardly matters. And it could be that this is a Hindu-like religious belief of the elves that humans might think is untrue (much as most Westerners don't believe someone when they say they are the reincarnation of someone else). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 In the world setting, there is a fixed number of elves, set at 100,000 for some reason. Once every elf spirit has a body, no further conceptions can take place. Elves were originally human, but they performed a ritual to try and become divine. It did not succed and left their race in its current state. Occasionally, an elf spirit will incarnate as a human, and such humans have an elfin quality to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted August 19, 2014 Report Share Posted August 19, 2014 Having a large number of elves (like, say, 25,000) die in go, especially if they are all the same gender (like males dying by the thousands in a lost battle) would probably have a calamitous impact on Elf society and culture in this scenario. The entire energy of the society would be taken up by conceiving and bringing up the next generation. And if something happens that leads to the deaths of ALL the elves, can they come back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted August 19, 2014 Report Share Posted August 19, 2014 And if something happens that leads to the deaths of ALL the elves, can they come back? Elves were originally human, but they performed a ritual to try and become divine. It did not succed and left their race in its current state. Occasionally, an elf spirit will incarnate as a human, and such humans have an elfin quality to them. Seems so Lucius Alexander Human with a palindromedary quality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spacethingy Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 I feel as though Regeneration is probably the best option, though you might need to add Immortality (I'm just picturing an elf dying of old age... forever). Depending on the scale of the campaign, you might just be able to hand-wave it, using it as the flavor behind buying lots of skills. If the campaign only spans two in-game years, for example, most players might prefer to make a new character than play as a newborn or toddler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 As I recall, Elves in this world don't die of age or disease, just from mishaps or violence. On a related note, how would one do a D&D style reincarnation spell? The Druid casts it and "poof" you're alive again, just you're a badger now (or whatever). Healing with the Resurrection option with a Side Effect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianaJoe3 Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 On a related note, how would one do a D&D style reincarnation spell? The Druid casts it and "poof" you're alive again, just you're a badger now (or whatever). Healing with the Resurrection option with a Side Effect? I think that would effectively be a new character... I'm trying to think of a reasonable alternative to XDM and not coming up with anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spacethingy Posted August 21, 2014 Report Share Posted August 21, 2014 Maybe you could buy it as a unified cheap summon and resurrection with the limitation "requires polymorph spell." The flavor being, of course, that you summon the character as a random animal, say a badger or weasel, and then, once the supplies have been gathered, change the animal back into the original character. This has the bonus that the player can play as a cute little badger in the mean-time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted August 23, 2014 Report Share Posted August 23, 2014 On a related note, how would one do a D&D style reincarnation spell? The Druid casts it and "poof" you're alive again, just you're a badger now (or whatever). Healing with the Resurrection option with a Side Effect? Maybe you could buy it as a unified cheap summon and resurrection with the limitation "requires polymorph spell." The flavor being, of course, that you summon the character as a random animal, say a badger or weasel, and then, once the supplies have been gathered, change the animal back into the original character. This has the bonus that the player can play as a cute little badger in the mean-time. I can't help but think of one of the things the party is questing for to get their friend back to "normal" are several varieties of mushrooms. Unfortunately they are guarded by snakes. Really big, mean, and smart snakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 Transformation [physical points reallocated for new body] triggered by resurrection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted August 31, 2014 Report Share Posted August 31, 2014 I'm not sure if it is a resurrection, since a character can change gender and appearance when being reborn. I suppose its a little bit like how the Avatar is treated in the cartoon series. An elf dies, their spirit waits for a new elf to be conceived and then that is the body they get. It's the same person in a new body, remembering friends and enemies from previous lives. What does it do for the player charcters? The dead character is still dead. His new body won't be adventure ready for a few decades. So nothing for the old character. The new Elf charater (first created or to replace the "last elf we had") just has this as a special effect for "having all those skills". You could just as well say "used a magical memory sphere that imparted the knowledge of the regulary choose hero". Or "is really 500 years old mage, but has most magic tied up keeping alive so he has maybe inferior magic to a young mage, but better skills". Are you certain you are not going to end up forcing your players to take skills they don't want to have? Is there truly never forgetting? If so, how are they not mad at birth? Forgetting is the small brother of death and perhaps the most precious gift humans have received since the Silmarillion. I think I saw a writeup for an El-Aurian (human looking, can get thousands of years old) and a Joined Trill (memories of several lifetimes) from Star Trek once, with several levels of Overall Skill Levels/10 point Skill Levels to simulate the effect. Neither of those memories is perfect. You can't just store infinite amount of data in a brain and hope it works out. In Schlock Mecernary there was one race that tried it. They went all insane within 200 Years of going immortal. Another group got sucessfully immortal - by adding prodigious amount of seneltiy into the mix. Immortal but senile, because otherwise you just go nuts. A.I. in that universe can suffer from "Isolation for a felt eternetiy". And thier cure is also to "forget". They remake themself as a new personality to overcome being stuck in that loop. In the world setting, there is a fixed number of elves, set at 100,000 for some reason. Once every elf spirit has a body, no further conceptions can take place. Elves were originally human, but they performed a ritual to try and become divine. It did not succed and left their race in its current state. Occasionally, an elf spirit will incarnate as a human, and such humans have an elfin quality to them. Is there any way to "bind" souls in this world? If you bound a elfs soul at the moment of death, he should not be able to reincarnate. Also does this limit the "Ressurection" time limit for Elf's of this world? I mean if you are unlucky, you might not even have a day to revive him. Or you might have 1 year. As I recall, Elves in this world don't die of age or disease, just from mishaps or violence. On a related note, how would one do a D&D style reincarnation spell? The Druid casts it and "poof" you're alive again, just you're a badger now (or whatever). Healing with the Resurrection option with a Side Effect? That is hard to figure out, Basically it is resurrection with the limiting factor "might need a seperate spell to get into the original/humanoid body" (that is why it is avalible at such a low level). How much of a inconvenience this really is, depends how hard it is to get transformed back into your original form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted September 1, 2014 Report Share Posted September 1, 2014 Just had a wild thought. How about a new Skill Enhancer: Memory of Past Lives? Each skill from a former life costs 1 less, and it creates a nice framework for 'remembering' skills later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted September 1, 2014 Report Share Posted September 1, 2014 A funky triggered duplication build could work too, with altered duplicate (weaker, being an infant). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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