How would a GM approach a PC wanting to stay a ghost but continuing on the campaign?
For context,
One of my players was playing a ghost cleric in the RoW campaign, and I know she will want to go back to that character, but it also occurred to me that she could stay a ghost with her current character - a witch doubly so because her witch's patron is fate, which all ties in nicely with RoW (a witch-heavy AP and Baba Yaga's original patron was a Norn - fate-related).
Open to suggestions :)
Not sure.
Are you asking if a PC from SoG can replace an existing ghost character in the RoW party when you resume that campaign?
Sure, I guess? If you can square it to your own satisfaction then why not?
I have no idea on how to make such a leap though.
Are you asking if a PC can be a ghost in SoG after a certain point? That would be tricky to explain, especially if it is just one single person that is affected this way. But I don't think it would be a problem mechanically.
Perhaps some souls are different and cannot reincarnate like the rest, perhaps it is a matter of faith? So X% of citizens linger as ghosts with their living families while the rest reincarnate. You could probably do cool stuff with that if you want to put in the work.
I'm thinking this would probably have serious implications for Shinzo, helping trapped souls reincarnate is one thing, unleashing ghosts en-masse is another.
If it has to be just one person though... perhaps they were already a ghost before the adventure began? And that's why they respond differently to the ritual.
James Jacobs (creative director, also wrote the SoG player's guide) has gone on record suggesting that undead PCs are pretty antithetical the the themes of this adventure. On top of that, it might be pretty hard to explain why, in a region where townsfolk conduct yearly rituals to ward off ghosts, where lighting the town's lantern grants it protection, and with a big temple to Pharamsa, this one specific ghost hangs around town and nobody is upset by it. Ghosts, undead, and other monsters associated with the failure to pass on through the normal cycles of reincarnation/afterlife make up the primary villains, so it's muddies the narrative water a bit, not the least of which reason being the unique circumstances surrounding Willowshore's curse and isolation.
That said, I don't think it would be impossible to pull off a ghost character in Season of Ghosts if you were willing to do a little fudging. One option that strikes me is if you were to swap 'ghost' for 'phantom' - there's already at least one phantom-like entity in the town, so if you dropped void healing and maybe changed a few Ghost archetype mechanics, you could get what you wanted without needing to find the narrative justification for keeping an undead ghost around. Furthermore, you could perhaps tie the ghost/phantom to some anchoring item that grants them legitimacy in the town's eyes, like a sacred object or holy relic that narratively says "this one is cool, they've got a Job To Do".
On the other hand, bear in mind that a player who had access to ghost abilities in 1e might not be as happy with the mechanical compromises that 2e makes to allow undead PCs to work within a semblance of balance. Here, you might work in some narrative justifications (like the tangible object above preventing the ghost from moving through walls without the appropriate feat). It might be worth seeing if the aspects which drew your player to playing a ghost (whether they're narrative or mechanical) are still present in the 2e version.
In addition to the cultural issues, there is also the big problem that is the central plot point of No Breath to Cry:
Thanks, everyone. Good feedback.
Not sure.
Are you asking if a PC can be a ghost in SoG after a certain point? That would be tricky to explain, especially if it is just one single person that is affected this way. But I don't think it would be a problem mechanically.
The latter, but, this would mean the PC doesn't reincarnate if I want to have a consistent narrative. Having said that, I may play it in my ear. I might be worrying about something that may not happen.