Ghosts?

Can ghost powers such as terrify on vampires, or is it only mortals? Also, the ghost type Deceiver,can project images, refer to page 216 in the core rulebook , can these images be used on vampires?

I asked Brandy about ghost powers a while back because the Nosferatu can get ghosts (Unliving Anchor) as retainers and her reply was that only Compulsion can work on vampires. 

Phantasm works by manipulating a mortal's mind into believing/seeing an object and/or person. It only works on one person at a time. For instance, a three man team walks in a room. You can command your ghost to make one of them to smell smoke, shit, jellybeans, etc or see an object/person. (WoD Corebook pg 213)

It should be noted here that just because you have a ghost retainer, doesn't mean it is going to follow your every command. It may not be able to, for lack of better term, hear you or it may go against its vice/virtue. They are certain merits that allow you to communicate with ghosts a lot better (Nosferatu book).

so it's only on mortals? Like any of their powers?

That's a freakin excellent question, Emily!.... I'm a little concerned over why you want to know... =P

If the ghost is an antagonist NPC, yes. They can use their powers on Vampires just like on mortals, within the rules of their powers.


(My reasoning, for those that like to read.)
Ghosts are in the Antagonists chapter for the core book for a reason. They are a usable antagonist for all venues. 

In the WoD book, p. 208, it says "The following rules for handling ghosts are written with mortal, living people[...] as spirits' enemies or rivals. Yet these rules could also apply to other supernatural beings whom players can portray, such as vampires,...."

But those very truncated rules of how ghosts can work in any WoD game are intended for ST use as needed for their story, just like the rules on animals. There's no mention of ghostly abilities to which Vampires are specifically immune (but Vampires would naturally be more resistant). In fact, there is VERY little mention of ghosts in all of the Requiem books as a whole. Vampires aren't really expected to face off against ghosts (or fae, or demons, or spirits, or mummies, or prometheans) all that often because the two supernatural archetypes don't generally share any of the same goals, or basic needs, or (often) plane of existence. Most of the very few references to ghosts in Requiem give ways to see, hear, or (very rarely) speak with them passively, not aggressively.

The Nos stuff Chad's talking about is mostly just an alternate Retainer idea, with both pros and cons, for fluff and drama specific to the clan of "Haunts". Interactions this way are purposefully limited for game balance.


I hope this was helpful. If not, or if anyone has other specific questions about interacting with ghosts, let me know! I've been researching it a lot, recently. Feel free to PM or text me, but I'd rather you just post here to keep the dialogue going! 


~Carl

Yes, that helps! Thank you  all I can say is I'm hoping to slide into an AST position and I think I've come up with some good ideas.

It's worth noting that ghosts have their own core book for a playable venue, called Geist: The Sin-Eaters. There was only one supplement for that game, I think, called Book of the Dead.


There are, however, several WoD books that give a whole lot of amazing setting ideas around having ghosts in the game. In fact, if I'm remembering correctly, the very first non-venue-specific supplement for the new World of Darkness was Ghost Stories, which (as the name may suggest) has many great ideas for using ghosts in the world of darkness. 


The most notable book for the mechanics of non-Geist, non-Werewolves, and non-Mages dealing with ghosts is a supplement for Mortal characters, called Second Sight, which is in the addendum as an ST-only book, as far as approvals go.

I'll have to look at those books. They'll really help. I was only looking at the core rule book and that's how the question came up; the wording was confusing so I was really hoping some one knew where I could get more info. Your an AST, right?

I'm ADST - Rules.

I put it in my signature, and I added my name and email to "Player Resources (OOC) - Contact list" earlier this week.