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[kj1225]

How about if children aren't necessarily more sensitive to spirits in any way, but spirits nevertheless often seek them out for a different reason?

A child, as I see it, is like any other human, but A) less learned in the ways of the world, B) used to putting implicit trust in others (parents, teachers, friends), C) less attached to conventional models of morality, D) usually not very clever. A spirit may feel much more comfortable approaching a child, especially if it has a plan that most humans would be hesitant being an accomplice to, or even if they're just afraid a more mature human is going to screw them over at some point. The relationship is easier to form, and so more than a few spirits have attained hosts in this manner - a fact that has not helped their publicity among humans in any way, especially given that spirits who gravitate toward children tend to be the more unstable, fundamentally alien types (not always in a bad way, mind you - one can be fundamentally alien and altruistic at the same time).

Instead of making physicality gross, why don't you make it feel unnerving? These are non-physical beings becoming at least partially physical so it's definitely going to feel unnatural and possibly eldritch.

A possible interpretation is that spirits who jump into humans see them for what they are - 37.2 trillion little units of life, blind and helpless individually, communicating almost purely through strategic discharges of minute amounts of an astounding variety of chemicals, integrated into a strange semblance of a spirit's intelligence. To them, we are like a mixture of The Worm That Walks and a Rube Goldberg device, while they comprise only one indivisible functional unit, being adapted incarnations of homogenous chaos.

That's a good explanation. Thanks Baldman, you're the real MVP.

[WillowLuman]

And it's not necessarily that only certain people can see the spirits, it's that spirits are often hard to find (and there are far fewer of them in the human world than there are humans).

Adults who stumble across spirits with no prior knowledge also probably make good candidates for PCs.

[Harry Baldman]

Right then. This seems to mostly be figured out in general terms. Any more pressing questions?

I suppose characters and factions of note, maybe?

[kj1225]

Actually, what's more pressing is what the players want out of the game isn't it?

[Harry Baldman]

Actually, what's more pressing is what the players want out of the game isn't it?

What do you want out of the game, then?

[kj1225]

I personally want to beat up entire criminal organizations for fun and profit.

[Harry Baldman]

I personally want to beat up entire criminal organizations for fun and profit.

Well then, that brings us to characters and factions, aka lists of faces to punch.

Criminal organizations, then. What would a criminal organization be in the days of spirits running around? And how punchable are their faces?

[kj1225]

Well, there's always going to be mundane factions, gangs and the like, more high level being mafias. Of course, there's probably also smaller ones that are made up of bonded people, which would be more difficult to fight one on one but be smaller. There's obviously got to be some overarching conspiracy doing things but I don't have idea for that one.

It's also good to establish where this is going down and when. After all, there's a huge difference to WW2 Germany and modern America for example.

[GiglameshDespair]

I personally want to beat up entire criminal organizations for fun and profit.

Well then, that brings us to characters and factions, aka lists of faces to punch.

Criminal organizations, then. What would a criminal organization be in the days of spirits running around? And how punchable are their faces?

London, maybe, as opposed to a city in America: criminals are probably more likely to have knives rather than guns, because however fast you move, bullets move faster. Of course, the big gangs have their illegal firearms, but that's less likely to be street level stuff.

Obviously, spirits would be very valuable to gangs, being powerful and circumspect when not in use. I can picture groups of one spirit-ganger and a bunch of mundanes.

[Harry Baldman]

How about Glasgow? Seems like a more flavorful locale to me. I'd agree that Just Another American City is probably an overplayed locale. Maybe Amsterdam? Or Bruges?

And if it has to be American, how's Detroit sound?

[kj1225]

Guns aren't all that good in urban enviroments though because of the close quaters and all of the cover available. Also, I can't believe I forgot about cults.

[birdy51]

Some questions.

1). If fusing with a spirit is bad for you in the long run, does simply seeking or summoning out a spirit for advice cost anything?

2). Would binding a spirit to a machine, weapon, or otherwise inanimate object to amplify it be possible? be considered amoral?

3). Faith. What role does it play when there is a defined something beyond?

4). Are there certain spirits that are stronger spirits that can burn someone out faster?

5). Are there means of forcing possession upon a person to force them to divulge their thoughts?

[Harry Baldman]

Some questions.

1). If fusing with a spirit is bad for you in the long run, does simply seeking or summoning out a spirit for advice cost anything?

2). Would binding a spirit to a machine, weapon, or otherwise inanimate object to amplify it be possible? be considered amoral?

3). Faith. What role does it play when there is a defined something beyond?

4). Are there certain spirits that are stronger spirits that can burn someone out faster?

5). Are there means of forcing possession upon a person to force them to divulge their thoughts?

According to my proposed spirit mechanism, which people seem to find agreeable thus far:

1) Humans don't summon spirits, and fusing with them is not necessarily bad in the long run if all goes well (can give you healing and shapeshifting and maybe other things). You should be able to talk to it just fine, though. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be properly invisible or just intangible and ghostlike.

2) You shouldn't be able to bind spirits to objects, either. You can try to twist them into one - this kills you in all likelihood if they resist, and they probably will, and kills them if they do not. Maybe kills them if they do. You don't really need enchanted objects so much if you have a spirit to make your body into whatever you need, though. And spirits affecting objects as such isn't something that's been addressed in my model. Let's say they can't to preserve balance, due to the object being non-living - life forms a bridge of understanding between the spirit and what it seeks to affect.

3) It plays the same role it does in our world. Faith can be a useful relationship between a human and a spirit, as it allows for the human to trust the spirit more easily.

4) Spirits and humans fusing with one another works a bit differently - spirits introduce chaos to the human body (turning their bodies into something more useful for the moment), while humans introduce order to the spirit (mostly undesirable, since this can kill a spirit if gone too far). The fusing is mostly a unique thing for each pairing, and spirits don't have power levels as much as spirits and humans have their relationships.

5) A spirit can forcibly fuse with you, but this can easily backfire on it if you know that they can be killed simply by you thinking about the wrong thing too hard in the process. It's also definitely not possession, though I could see how a spirit (an uncautious one) can try impromptu brain surgery on a person, though results are unlikely to be pretty in any way.

Of course, that's just according to me. People can oppose these thoughts, since I don't have the final say.

[Lord_lemonpie]

ptw

[GiglameshDespair]

Guns aren't all that good in urban enviroments though because of the close quaters and all of the cover available. Also, I can't believe I forgot about cults.

That's why handguns and sawn-off shotguns are a thing. Carbines and a lot of SMGs tend to have short barrels for close in work. In fact, the only thing sawn-offs are good for is pretty much point blank.

-snip

-snip-

+1 again. Solid.