Wraiths, revenants, and souls.

[ferriswheel1]

Two things.

First up we've mostly avoided mechanics that let someone become an antag during the round due to worries people will aim to get converted. The playerbase has matured some since then so I am not certain if that concern is still valid.

Second up I'm not keen on the whole 'soul stealing' aspect of things. For as dark as this game can get you still do wind up with some religious folks playing and I know that I for one am not entirely at ease with such elements even if it is just some lulz-y bullshit in a 2D specman sim. This is a concern that I had with being forced to sign the Infernal Contract as well and which a workaround was found but I would prefer to not have to avoid a whole antag role over it. Is there is a way to re-theme it so that 'soul stealing' isn't a thing? (Keeping the mechanics is fine - it's the terminology.)

For point one, I can see the problem with conversion-based antagonists, but with the weaknesses of shells (no healing and slow movement) and them being obvious enough that stealth isn't an option, I am pretty sure people will have enough reasons to avoid being enslaved.

For point two,  if anyone has a better term, just say something. I am willing to change it if the general consensus is it should be changed.

Personally, I don't see any problem with the concept of soul-stealing and I wasn't aware any particularly religious people played. But I'm sure it could be rephrased as "essence" or "spirit" if anyone takes issue with the terminology. 

I would think a better alternative to conversion-based mechanics would be something like the existing mid-round antagonist thingy, that randomly selected an existing dead player and shoved them into whatever eldritch horror the wraith could make. It makes thematic sense too, what with the wraith and it's general ghostiness vibe. There's no guarantee of a antagonist role though, so people are unlikely to rush towards a death by wraith. 

I had a cool idea for the wraith which kinda follows with this: Nightmares. Essentially, the wraith gains a whole load of affliction-based powers, like making you hallucinate constantly, have paranoia or a psychosomatic illness, that could be cured by resting in a bed or hibernating in a sleeper. The wraith can also "harvest" nightmares from any sleeping player, giving them a bunch of scary messages and waking them up. This nightmare can later be released to create a ghost-controlled minor antagonist. My main idea would be to have the nightmare pull from a random set of forms, powers and weaknesses. So you could have a space bear made out of smoke that made slippery floors, or a spooky martian that phased though walls and threw lightning bolts. Requiring people to go to sleep would mean it'd be something you would only see occasionally, and might work into cooperation with other antags. 

Really though, I would hold off on adding any more powers to the wraith until the crew gets more means to fight it. Currently there's not a whole lot you can do to deal with a wraith besides chuck down salt lines that will be instantly scuffed away by passing crew members. I'd like to see more entertaining means of fighting off spooky ghosties.