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!

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