ParanetOnline
The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: admiralducksauce on July 06, 2011, 06:23:38 PM
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I'm trying to wrap my head around part of the Spirit Form power. Specifically:
You must manifest
visibly to truly perceive anything “useful”
about the world around you.
I understand this - In order TO see, you have to be able to BE seen. But what does the opposite entail? Does a spirit form have any senses at all while they're intangible? Is it just black oblivion until they manifest? Can they move blindly about? Can they hear? Can they speak?
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I think the basic assumption with a Spirit (at least in this setting) is that it occupies a Nevernever Demesne of its own making, which will colocate with a location that is important to said spirit (and possibly with other, thematically similar locations).
While in its Demesne, it presumably has full sensory powers. When in the real world, it blunders about on instinct, causing whatever mayhem it is driven to cause - almost as if sleepwalking - which I presume would require a minimal amount of sensory data. But when actually confronted with resistance and forced to respond, I *think* that is when it has to manifest.
Edit: but I don't have the rulebooks in front of me.
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But what does the opposite entail? Does a spirit form have any senses at all while they're intangible? Is it just black oblivion until they manifest? Can they move blindly about? Can they hear? Can they speak?
My take: - Spirits with "No Mortal Home" are in the Nevernever unless manifesting. They can see normally in the Nn and may sense particularly strong magics or, in the case of ghosts, things strongly related to why they're a ghost.
- Spirits without "No Mortal Home" are either permanently manifest, only manifest when summoned / called / constructed, or simply spend periods between manifestations in a mindless haze (most minor ghosts).
- Specifics depend on type of spirit (ghost, construct, demon, elemental, fae, or whatever) and on how powerful the spirit is. Some may well have a Supernatural Sense allowing them to see limited areas across the border between worlds. (A Supernatural Sense of sensing "the area I was murdered in" or even "gang wars in Juarez like the one that killed me" are examples of what I'd set up for a ghost to sense the world from the Nn.)