Recalling new past lives in play?

I have seen expansions, revisions, and simplifications of the rules for generating past lives, even saving their Occult Development Points (ODPs) for later use. What I don’t recall seeing were rules for remembering new past lives during play, nor having flashbacks to known past lives that relate to events in the current adventures a la Highlander: The Series. Probably because the rules for generating past lives and stealing skills are hella complicated and aren’t designed to be done retroactively?

In the French version, recalling new past lives during play or flashing back to past life eras for adventures was presented in later editions under the rule “Mnemos Effect”. This was never backported to the US version, altho the unfinished fanbook Ex Oculis planned something similar.

If I was adapting this to English, then I have some ideas for handling it. As always, GM’s discretion applies.

  1. The nephilim’s stolen skills are no longer a thing: Instead, skills are assigned individually to each past life as if they were full characters (use the advanced or simplified past life generation rules as suits your group). This is because the nephilim isn’t a parasite, but a composite being (see my other posts for details).
  2. New past lives may be recalled during play by spending 2 Ka (the cost keeps players from doing it too often). The ODPs are not applied retroactively to the PC (as that would take the fun out of learning), but spent on developing treasures, grimoires, cults, etc from the past that the PC may benefit from in the present. ODPs convert to POTentials on a 1:1 basis.
  3. PCs cannot recall new past lives that predate when their Stasis object was made. While their Stasis object is not necessarily their real first one, it serves as an anchor for their past life memories (see my posts on replacing stasis for details).
  4. During play, a PC may have a flashback to a past event that emotionally resonates with a situation in the present. This is largely a roleplaying tool, but the GM may decide to apply various bonuses or penalties as a result. E.g. a PC encounters a thief in the present who looks identical to a beloved lover from a past life, applying a penalty when trying to stymie the thief’s larceny efforts.

Hope you enjoyed!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are the decans?

Image
In astrology, the zodiac signs  are ruled by particular planets  and divided into  three decans per sign  as shown on the figure below:  In the French 3e supplement  Codex des Ar-Kaïm , the concept of Decans is introduced as an additional way to define a character's personality. Each House has its own emotional nature, further modified by the character's Decan. All Houses have three Decans, except for Serpentarius that has none. In other words, the combination of House and Decan serves a similar role to the Nephilim's Metamorphosis. In the US version, this would be represented by BRP's Passions (or Personality Traits as they're labeled in Chronicle of the Awakenings ). I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate Passions into the Ar-Kaïm rules, as Ar-Kaïm lack metamorphoses but the concept overlaps heavily with the Essences mechanic (i.e. their magic points). Ar-Kaïm display environmental manifestations as a result of their Essence values and ...
Read more

What are the Minor Tablets?

In the third edition Gamemaster's Screen , the Quest for the Cycle of Destiny is introduced. (The fanzine  Vision-Ka  #3  specifies on p41 that this Quest is one and the same as the Arcane Quest of The Magician.) The goal of this quest is to acquire and study the Minor Tablets, crafted by Akhenaton as supplements to the 22 Major Arcana Trumps. The purpose of these Minor Tablets is to help mortals reach Agartha. There are four Minor Arcana  in total: The Wand (Fire), The Cup (Water), The Sword (Air) and The Coin (Earth). Keen-eyed readers may notice that the symbolism of the suits correspond loosely to the traditional magical tools (see Liber Ka p52). By pursuing this quest, the Nephilim is better able to understand their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka: they can boost their chances of Critical Success based on their Solar-Ka, retain player control during Shouit seizures rather than handing control to the GM, and develop Solar Resistance through initiation into a Minor Arcanum...
Read more

"Reverie" as a new degeneration for Ar-Kaïm?

In the character creation for Ar-Kaïm, during the Past step the note determines how much of their mortal life the character remembers. Apprentice means they have total amnesia, Journeyman means they remember only dreams and confuse it with reality, and Master means no memory loss. However, this section contradicts the rest of the book(s): Ar-Kaïm don't suffer any Skill loss and amnesia is never mentioned in their lore. I suspect this text was leftover from an earlier draft as an oversight. It obviously creates problems for roleplaying so I can understand why it was revised. However, the Ar-Kaïm Codex has a short story where the narrator briefly mentions she sometimes has difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality. This inspired me to imagine a new degeneration just for Ar-Kaïm, one I tentatively call "Reverie." Ar-Kaïm have a close bond to the Astral and to the dreams of humanity. The idea behind Reverie is that it represents a loss of control and identity as a result ...
Read more