as soon as ginny appeared with the pentagram top, my first instinct was to point at the screen and say 'spooky' like i was a baby monster taking scaring classes in Monster's Inc
Just a quick and friendly correction about the word 'pentagram' feel free to ignore. A pentagram is a shape made with 5 lines. Think of the way you would draw a star, with each line crossing over each other. A pentacle is a pentagram closed within a circle. Pentacles are usually the ones used in rituals or summoning circles. Just a minor pet peeve I have regarding this terminology.
my GM did an awesome thing where my PC was possessed by the BBEG. they had him in their head, and the two were communicating telepathically, and my PC was being shown selective visions of the BBEG's memories. they had to work towards his goals from the info he was feeding them, while otherwise still seeming like themself. so it wasn't "turn against the party violently", but more "make this ulterior motive the sensible goal". this was early on in the campaign, where we weren't sure if the BBEG was bad or not, so it made some sense that someone might be arguing for his side. and i made occasional saves to try to shake him out. it was such an amazing experience, and a very fun challenge for me!
That is awesome!! That kind of long-game manipulation is so rich for roleplay, and the moral ambiguity must have kept everyone on their toes. Plus, making the BBEG’s goals seem reasonable adds such a cool twist. Did you ever manage to shake him out, or did things get… complicated? 😅
@@GinnyDi For sure!! There were a lot of added layers with his plans stemming from universe/religious knowledge/beliefs opposite what my character had been raised with. Hah, yes, we were only level 2 at that point so a successful charisma save drove him out!
I’ve been possessed by a ghost in a game and loved every minute of it! I went all in with the creepy head tilts, altered voice, and rarely blinking once the dm set me loose on the party 😅
Meanwhile, in my former Curse of Strahd game, both my character AND the rogue got possessed by ghost children, and instead of being freaked out by it, we were like “Wait-you’re, like, eight years old. We can’t just abandon you! You know what? You can hang out, I’m adopting you.” And thus the Rogue took on the Soulknife subclass and my character (a Paladin) multiclassed into Undead Warlock.
My players wound up hoarding orphans in CoS. When they met Blinsky the creepy toy maker, they commissioned a bunch of toys for the daycare they’d set up at the Blue Water Inn…
My character was possessed rather recently during my home game, and I really liked how my DM did it! He did take complete control of my character to fight against, but he also gave me another character sheet for an NPC that was traveling with us. What made this so thoughtful was that I expressed interest in taking over this particular NPC as a backup in case my PC died, as the NPC was reoccurring and knew what was going on with the plot. This was a way to try out the NPC and see how I liked playing with her, without loosing my actual character for good. Also, the possession was a pretty neat too, where it was a sentient/cursed item that took my character over rather than a monster. Plus, she could end the fight early if she succeeded on a charisma saving throw and essentially talk the item into giving control of her body back. Now she has a free item that is attuned to her and she can't take it off! Fun times! I know this is very situational and won't work for every game, but just thought I'd share!
This was my first thought, and I was waiting to see it brought up in the video, but I'm glad to find someone was on the same wavelength, and that it's a tested method that can work well in the right circumstances If it wasn't an NPC you were already considering, I'd also consider what class the NPC is, and the player's experience (if they're a newer player that mostly just hit things, it's probably not a great idea to dump a magic heavy class on them). Potentially have a simple new NPC join - give them their name, stats, etc. and introduce them "Sam, you're in the woods foraging, when you hear a commotion nearby. You rush over and see what appears to be [describe what the situation looks like to them. Are the party fighting robed cultists, obvious undead or other enemies, or is it 3v1, but the possessed character is obviously bad/powerful, glowing with green energy as their voice booms unnaturally?]". Something to make the character decide they should be joining the *party's* side, but might or might not be aware of the possession yet. Overall, assuming the other players can handle their friend turning against them, as Ginny brought up, I'd give the player a choice: play their possessed character, turning against their friends, or swap character sheets with the DM, temporarily playing as an NPC
What's really cool about the "Battle at the center of the mind" (what this trope is called in fiction) is that even though they are seperated, the posessed and the party can still help or even negatively affect each other in many different, interesting ways. Say the posessed landed a crit on the creature posessing them, what if that means they get one turn where they can briefly re-gain control of their body? Is the rest of the party trying to reach the possesed (aka. the "I know you're in there somewhere!")? what if that gives the posessed some sort of buff or advantage in their fight? What if dealing damage to the posessed's body triggers some type of lair action wherever the posessed's conciousness is? The possibilities are endless.
I usually handle it in such a way that it is discussed with the player in private or the mind can be calmed down by something. The last time the spirit wanted his dead body to be buried
not sure how a video on YT can be an hour and a half late. it's like, maybe a day late, but otherwise, what's the deadline? also, quality + ambition never needs an apology.
@@indycinemayeah that crush is absolutely insane. You have meme compilation channels that release days late and nobody cares, but some some niche channel releases an hour late and the algorithm buries them.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft also added a really cool possession monster: the Carrionette. It's basically a chucky-esc haunted puppet, and it has the ability to soul swap. It basically works similarly to the ghost possession, however the player and the Carrionette swap bodies Freaky Friday style controlling each other. So the possessed player can still play, but they have to work within the body of a tiny and frail toy with a reduced moveset. I like to add the fun roleplay detail that the puppet body doesn't have a mouth. So the player in the puppet body has to play a bad game of charades to try to non-verbally communicate to the party what has happened, and ideally convince them to stop attacking them. This ability is pretty devastating, but it's also balanced by being somewhat hard for the Carrionette to pull off. It has to hit the target with its silver needle weapon, causing them to be "cursed" if they fail a CHA save. Then on its next turn it can use its action to try and soul swap with a cursed target if they fail ANOTHER charisma save. So having to fail 2 saves over 2 rounds makes it a lot less of a punishing "save or suck" feature than other possessions that reduce a player's agency. The fun part is that even after the party figures out what has happened, they still have to figure out how to reverse it. This creates a small puzzle as the players need to figure out that they need to use the Silver needles to attack the now possessed players body to switch them back. This leads to a fun moment where the player often has to attack their own body to save themselves. And if they can't figure this out, beating their friends possessed body to unconsciousness always works as a last resort. I've run this twice and it was an absolute blast each time. You get all the juicy narrative and combat implications of possessing a PC, while still giving that player plenty to do on their turns. It plays more like a narrative/puzzle encounter than a combat really. Edit: after re-reading the Carrionette stat block, it seems I've embellished its features somewhat. Still, the idea of a body swap instead of a straight possession is really interesting to me. (My version is cooler anyways 😎)
I usually try to stick to situational possessions, where the possessed player can normally act for the most part. But when the time comes the possessor will attempt to force the player to do certain actions on their turn like attack the party, but I make it clear it’s me doing that so there aren’t hard feelings among the players. The player can make saves to assume temporary control again of their character and usually still get the benefits through the round (if other enemies are involved) from the possessor, which usually has spells to make up for it. The player then can reassume full control after enough consecutive saves in the fight
I did this my game with a parasite monster. It's job was to keep the player from remembering things he had found out about the spy hidden in the school. When they where banishing the monster it mind controlled one of the party members to attack the other as it tried to escape. I based the monsters abilities on the mind flayer in old school essentials. One of the games I play in went super hard on the 'you now see the party as an enemy' thing with like 5 monsters doing that to us which got old fast. In that game we are meant to be over powered heroes so I guess the DM wanted to use our own power against ourselves. To me it emphasized just how underpowered my character is when compared to the party.
Honestly, Saying "You're posessed, the thing posessing you wants you to " is usually all I've needed to get players to go along with it in fun ways. Similar for charm and mind control effects. It also gives a fun chance for "Okay, the person controling you has given you this command -- how would that be interpereted by this character, and how would you try to follow it?" sorts of RP scenes. Often the players come up with more interesting things than I would for it, lol.
Everytime I posess a player, I send them a text with a prepared text that starts with "Your character feels their will be replaced with another" and then detail them for a character they have to roleplay. First couple times were a bit rocky but now I've got it streamlined to what details matter, what bullet points their motivation is, and what "tells" they give off. Heavily inspired by a storyline from Order of the Stick. Pretty much exactly #1 method. My players 100% have a Dark Kermit, but it never gets to death. BBEGs always want to gloat and leave themselves open, or do nonlethal damage, or the PC manages to wrest control in a critical moment. It's all very dramatic and cinematic.
Matt Mercer did something really interesting with possession in C3 recently (no spoilers). When a PC got possessed, he gave the possessed character's player a list of things they could do to essentially fight against the possessing entity and give the party a mechanical advantage against the entity. The possessed character's player got to act on their own turn if they made a save, and then choose if the entity would get disadvantage on saves (I think), or if everyone had advantage on attack rolls against the entity. And that lasted for a round. I think that's a very elegant solution that emphasizes the fight for control between the host and the possession. It also addresses exactly what's brought up in this video.
My friend once played in a campaign where they simply could not schedule sessions that everyone could attend. They did however manage to figure out a schedule where two of the players could attend every other session. What they ended up doing was sharing a character in a sort of jekyll and hyde situation. Added a very fun layer into the campaign and also meant that they could catch up the players about the last session in character.
I was in a city D&D game where my character was a whimiscal, cheerful elven mage, tending to use spells that didn't do much damage, or just trapped the enemies, and some of the other players were mocking my character for not having killer instinct, to which I would say "and which of us rarely has to explain ourselves to the town guard, hmm?" Then one of them brought me an item to check, and I got possessed by a "Spirit of Malevolence", by way of the DM handing me a note telling me that the spirit wanted a corpse to possess so it could be free, and it was influencing me from my usual chaotic good to full-on chaotic evil. The fear in their eyes when, after taking down our bounty, I proceeded to cast Evard's Black Tentacles on THEM was gratifying. They ended up figuring out how to get rid of the spirit out of my character, and when they had it trapped in the soul jar they had created, and asked me how I felt. They got scared again when I said, in character, "A bit diminished... there was a certain gratification in truly unleashing my abilities. Perhaps I should do it more often..." Possession can, if the player is up for it, give them some interesting insights into themselves, depending on the kind.
I had a character get possessed in a Curse of Strahd game I ran. I told the player that the ghost wanted to leave but couldn't without a body. The ghost was going to do everything in their power to make sure they left and had access to all his abilities. He quite enjoyed fireballing his friends when they tried to stop him.
I’ve actually had a character concept floating around in my head that deals with possession. This character was possessed by a demon, but rather than letting it puppet them or casting it out, they took control of it instead. They have a demon trapped inside their head, and they use its powers for heroism. I think this would be an interesting way to flavor a fiend pact warlock.
Idea. A ghost possesses a player/npc in order to experience a meal that they loved having at the local tavern which just isn't the same in the ethereal plane.
We had a possession recently in my game. Basically, the cleric had become possessed by a ghost who couldn't leave the room she died in. The cleric said, 'yeah, you just want to leave, sounds fair.' Ghost goes in and the player just walks past the rest of the party during a bandit fight (luckily, there was only about three of them) the other monk went with her to keep her safe. The cleric's player controlled the body, while the DM provided the voice. All in all, it worked out fairly well...aside from the part where the ghost left and the giant zombie-crocodile-thing launched itself out of the river at them. It didn't attack while the cleric was possessed, since it was created by the same god the ghost worshipped, but it was clearly still hungry even after we managed to bait most of the bandits in there earlier.
Good stuff. I can attest that letting a player control their character while they turn on the rest of their party can be very fun. One of my favorite moments in a game I DMed was when a succubus charmed a PC in the middle of a fight and I let the player keep control. Next round the character downs a telekinesis potion and hurls one of the other party members off the wall where they were fighting and into the raging sea hundreds of feet below. Suddenly the objective for everyone else became not just defeat the succubus and her minions, but do it fast enough to be able to save their now-unconscious ally from drowning! Giving the player the opportunity to do something unexpected like that added so much drama and excitement that we wouldn’t have gotten if I had just taken control of the character myself!
Telling a player that they are no longer controlling their character, but instead, controlling an ill-intentioned spirit controlling their character can really save this
A fair few years ago, during a boss encounter, a player picked up and wore a cursed crown after having beaten the encounter and I used this moment to reveal a kind of possession moment where the crown and / throne were actually what was driving the boss mad instead. Did a similar thing as suggested here and had the player act out the various attack actions and they were forced to only say one particular line but they could change the intonation and timing all they wanted, to illustrate it wasn't them at the wheel (so to speak). This was a high point for this particular character, and a low point, and is often referred to as their moment of "really dude" when similar potential opportunities for wearing dropped / discarded gear come up for them.
I've done this from both sides of the screen. The way I handled possessing the party (AD&D 1st Edition) for a fun fight was that I had the demon using Magic Jar and jumping from PC to PC every other round. Took them forever to figure out they should be looking for motionless body of the culprit. When possession happened to one of my characters, I convinced the DM that, no my PC does not go quietly into the night... Instead I started a rendition of "I'm king henry the eighth I am I am...." and was a general PITA for the demon until it fled my insanity.
Consider doing the Gravity Falls approach: the DM becomes the player and player becomes the ghost, without the ability to possess their own body, but with the ability to possess other people/vessels. Turn your players into a sock puppet, you cowards!!
I like the "split screen" idea, seems like a good way to give players something to do without worrying about potential social consequences or metagaming from players that don't really want to hurt their party.
These are all great solutions to the dilemma of possession- a narratively interesting event that takes the player out of the action. I did another thing running a version of Death House. The possessed PC's spirit became a ghost. I had the player use their mental/social stats with the Etheral Sight and Incorporeal Movement Traits, and let them make Wisdom and Charisma save to communicate with the other PCs, move objects, etc. They could attack the Possessor ghost on the Ethereal Plane using their normal combat stats as well. They actually got really into the strategic possibilities of being able to walk through walls and float up and down floors of the house.
for shorter or less violent possessions, it can also be fun to soul bump: basically have the possessing ghost bump the player character's spirit. let the character's spirit interact with the world haunting style (rustling branches, pulling other players' hair, etc.) and have the other players roll to see if they realize someone is trying to communicate. the more creative the spirit characters' attempts, the easier the check can be. you can even have the spirit character take the help action to disrupt the possession spell, or trip their body to break concentration, etc. it's a fun way to get players problem solving in an unusual and creative way while still allowing a necessary monologue or something to happen.
Thanks for this; I finally got to run a possession session tonight. I did play the split-screen fight as you suggested, and it worked like a charm! It was all of 3 rounds: the PC (in her head) "fought" the 3 deadliest monsters she'd fought in the rest of the campaign while the rest of the party tried to get through a charmed crowd of NPCs to get to the body of their comrade. If the PC had "lost" any of those rounds, the possessor could have cast spells in addition to leading the crowd. That was a LOT more fun than just a Wisdom save to take off the cursed item.
This is fun because I just listened to the (well, one of the) recent episodes of Critical Role where Delilah took charge and fought Bell's Hells. I am... *not* as good at listening to podcasts as I'd like to be, especially not while doing a boring day job that I get easily distracted at, but from what I could tell, Delilah was taking her turns to do insane shit like summon a ghostly, giant version of Craven Edge to fight the heroes, but Laudna was also taking turns to attempt save against the possession and maybe get to take an action. I think that whole "the monster and the PC are separate creatures with separate Initiatives; they just share a space and the one you actually like takes all the damage" is probably the way to do a possession that's gonna play the most to D&D's strengths.
I'm GM'ing now where one of the players is possessed. She's a great roleplayer and I've given her a sweet set of extra abilities that she KNOWS comes from a spirit, but she uses them all the time and is kind of acting addicted to them. The spirit gets its way and she can roleplay normally. On the odd week where she misses a session, well... her character does stuff that she doesn't remember later. "Shrug" she says, and on the possession goes. =D Someday that spirit will cross a line, and it will be a great couple episodes.
Sort of similar to this, in one game I ran, I used a version of a Danse Macabre trap, which makes the PCs that fail their save float into the air and compels them to dance to a ghostly tune, As written, the players would have just stayed up there, waiting until they either roll a successful save or someone drags them down. But, while the players were in the air, I pulled them into a second voice channel and described a scene from the past of the haunted mansion they were in. I described the scene, then left to rejoin the first vc to continue the fight with the players who succeeded on their saves, while the possessed players stayed in the second vc discussing what they just saw. It had all of the fun flavor of possession, but gave the possessed players something to do and gave them some lore hints. Highly recommend trying something like this out in a haunted house. Also, in the combat that was going on while the possessed players were trapped, I reflavored a succubus stat block to be an evil muse. When the muse successfully charmed a PC, that PC was compelled to sing. And as long as that PC was singing, the muse could drain their HP as an action to heal herself. It was a fun encounter.
I think what also could be fun, kind off Like the Split Screen Idea, is that the PC actively has to fight the creature they're possessed by in every move almost. So If the creature wants to Attack, the Player can Roll against it to Take control again, and when the Player does Something the creature can Roll against that. But that would Not be easy to pull off.
I love this idea! In the wrong hands, it could turn into a series of wisdom saving throws, but if players have to describe how they resist-drawing on their character’s inner thoughts and emotions-it could lead to some amazing roleplay moments! That extra bit of storytelling would really make the struggle feel personal and intense.
I was a player in a session where the characters were swept away into a vision of the past where we proceeded to murder each other as different sides of a battlefield we were crossing. Secretly the DM let us know as we died that it was all a dream but to keep it quiet until we were all done.
Possession mechanics in our games work like this: we had a fight, you died, now we posses your stuff. I've never had a GM who messed us this way, so I appreciate this video.
Another alternative i like is kind of like a "puppeteer" kind of possession - the player gets to continue to play as normal on their turns, but on the ghost (or whatever creature is possessing) turns the enemy uses the player character also. Like two different spirits are both steering the one body, so they both get to use it. Has the benefits of using one character against their allies, and allies not necessarily wantong to hurt them, while making it clear that it's the DM doing this, not the player, sparing feelings, and maintaining player agency. Still a YMMV scenario though, naturally.
doing something with possession right now, at the beginning of the campaign i had everyone make 3 separate characters, as i wanted the party to feel like a proper mercenary company. The characters that are under possession or were taken out during the current dungeon are under my control, while the players get to test out and run their backups in a desperate bid for survival. So far, everyones loved it.
One thing I often take inspiration from is how Vampire: the Masquerade handles frenzies, when the player character's body is possessed by The Beast within: you can spend some resource (or make a charisma save, etc) each turn to try to take control for just that turn. Another way I've done this before is that I had a player character who had a demon riding along, and the demon basically gave them goals every once in a while. The demon had very real threats of taking them over entirely or making them do awful things, but the demon wouldn't want to try taking them over if it didn't have to because it wanted to remain unnoticed for as long as possible.
Fourth option: something i like to call subtle possession. No one knows who is actually possessed because the possession doesn't actively manifest at first. The player is allowed to play their character as they wish because they don't know they're possessed and actually no one knows who is possessed because the attacks seem to come out of nowhere and at random. The ghost/demon/fae/eldritch abomination bent on a tpk is really just using the player's body as a convenient meat shield to tank half damage until the rest of the party is dealt with. You wouldn't believe how many times I have used this to terrifying effect.
Can you explain this more? I don't understand. Like people near a player get attacked, but you don't say that player is attacking them? Or it's like an invisible monster that goes around? I don't get it :/
@@Teinve characters around the player keep getting attacked by the Ghost/Demon/whatever but have no idea where it is coming from (unless they make a really good perception check) It's really fun when the Barbarian is the host and is really mad about the possessor being a coward and not facing him.
Another i like is the long con possession. You get either a PC aho is down for ut or an NPC, then have them "unknowingly" possessed for several sessions. As DM, the possessors knowledge is a strong urge, and can easily be overlooked. At first, easily resisted but then they start making saving throws to resist. The list of things slowly grow over the weeks and months. And eventually, if the possession isnt found out, they make seemingly random saves to resist taking entire actions that just occur. Trust me: Everyone in my party had a feeling my Cleric was acting off. No one expected that he was slowly being prepared to be fully possessed by Asmodeus himself. Then when i did it again, but it was a Fae who possessed them as a child to suppress horrific memories that shattered their mind? Everyone was mad when they freed the NPC from that possession to lose an ally.
Shout-out to my players! I had an encounter planned with a possessed NPC, but one of the characters rolled so high on perception that she noticed the ghost literal weeks before he was supposed to possess the NPC. And, upon realizing that the ghost is, while evil, a teenager who has been stuck in a terrible echo chamber for 40 years of hell, decided to cautiously adopt him. There's still most likely getting to be a possession plotline soon. And I'm not sure if it's going to be with the ghost kid or one of his "friends" from hell, but it will most likely have to happen to a PC at this point. So, I've ruled it that if a PC gets possessed, they essentially link minds with the ghost possessing them. They can choose to fight back at narratively satisfying moments in battle or start poking around the mind of the ghost in a skill challenge (which, if successful, will grant them advantage on future fighting back). I don't anticipate the ghost will hold on to the possession after battle if they win, so hopefully this will just need to be a combat situation. And, if it is a less plot-relevant ghost, there's also a chance my player can play as them during the time of the possession.
I'm actually playing a permanently possessed character in PirateBorg - in fact, my character is the ghost, and only occasionally does he get shunted out, temporarily, by the original host, who I also control. Most recently, the dastardly cockney pirate got blasted by a magical creature's hallucinogenic light and was sent on a panicked T-posing flight from a ghost dog whom he was convinced was Davey Jones come to claim him, giving the gentlemanly naval officer most of the day back in his body.
I've done possession a few times - once with Magic Jar I just had the unlucky victim play as an allied NPC (a golem who was helping them out, which he enjoyed!). Once I just had a shadow demon haunt someone and try to take over briefly every now and then, but I often forgot about it because it's a lot to keep track of! If I was doing that now I'd have given that player secret chaotic objectives in return for spell slots or something. My favourite one didn't start as possession - the character was killed by an arcane explosion and their spirit was stuck haunting the area. They ended up possessing another party member to pass information they'd gathered on the ethereal plane back to everyone else! It wasn't long before they got things sorted out and the body resurrected but I could definitely make that a whole plot with another party if I put more things to do on the ethereal plane and more reasons to jump into different bodies so that everyone gets a chance to be a ghost for a bit!
The funniest OneShot i ever mastered was a Comedy one where my players were given Monsters with customized powers and who's goal was to reach Santa's Home for storyline reasons. One of the players was indeed a Ghost. Not only he spent all his Possessions to drive crazy the Santa's Factory elves into doubting each other and starting a riot where the NPC started killing each other out of panic... but the best moment was when he faced Rudolph, which I buffed a lot to have him as a big foe. But destiny had something different in store for me. The player sayd "I use Horrifying Visage" which on a fail make the target aging 1d4x10. He rolls 3. ... Silence at the table. A player asks "how many years do a Reindeer live?" I google. "...So... Rudolph is dead..." This is still quoted today.
I got a sentient Armor that just forcefully moves the possessed character's limbs. It’s not evil, but has an inherent distrust towards the players and a fear of abandonment. I was thinking of making the player that is possessed make Cha checks on their turns to see how much the armor cooperates.
That intro meme and that transition into what you were actually thinking about made me laugh so hard. 1:52 "And I'm pretty sure tier 4 isn't real" Tier 4 is actually a lot of fun to DM if you have the right group. The few times I've been able to dm for such a group, I actually enjoyed it significantly more than Tier 1-3. It does, again, require the right group though and very good communication. ... Just don't roll damage for anything but like, the most dramatic of events. Especially with the bigger spells. And get really good at stats and averages so you can throw literal armies without the game breaking down by using averages very efficiently so everything but the bbeg can go all at once. (For any arbitrary number of monsters, assuming they're low level and don't have unique moves, they'll have average damage equal to the number of monsters times their average damage times [the ac of the target - the monsters to hit bonus + 2, the plus two representing the guarenteed hit and doubled damage of a crit, all divided by 20.]. Work out all your math and multipliers before hand for each monster type, assume all damage is dealt to the lowest health monster except in the case of aoes, in which case it's to the lowest monsters. Just adjust the multiplier based on how many are left. And voila, even assuming 5 different monsters numbering about 500 each, the low level monsters will only take about 30 seconds to go. The big guys take normal length turns. And then the players go, and, this is why you need the right group because they need to know their character extremely well, pay a lot of attention, and be prepping while they wait for their turn, they only take about a minute each. Making combat highly manageably, epic, and rewarding be it against gods, or entire nations. Also you provided a lot of very good options for possession. I haven't ever done it, but I might bring it up before the next game to see if they're interested some time in the future. I suspect they will, at least for a Halloween themed one shot. The variation in the options is excellent!
03:20 we basically had to be possessed to survive that Highschool, let's be real. I know for me If it wasn't for D&D/MTG with friends in the cafeteria, I would have never attended. Glad to see someone made it out alive and successful! Keep up the good content!
This reminds me of an episode of NADDPOD where (spoiler now) they have to participate in a witch's game. Murph, the DM, declares that each of them gets to draw a piece of paper which may or may not mark them as the traitor, who is meant to do their best attempt to play a witch lying as them, suggesting it's the first kind of possession from the video. Instead, it's actually the third kind: all the slips were empty and Murph had already decided to make the one who's possessed the NPC who's paper he'd unfolded. And then the game begins, the players are to ask eachother questions, and the very first question goes to the NPC. Now, the party has a running gag that this NPC absolutely LOVES tuna an absurd amount, so they ask "what's your favourite food?" and Murph answers: "chicken"
There's another option that has been used on more than one occasion on my table: a non-evil ghost, or even an evil ghost with motives/unfinished business that *requires* the party's cooperation. Fill the possessed player in on the ghost's motives, and let them loose. Whether players are up for mechanics like possession is one of the topics I generally try to raise in a session zero. In fact, talking about attitudes towards enchantment magic more generally is a pretty important topic for discussion in session zero, in my experience.
I actually had my DM do the PvP possession thing and it was well executed. We were in the underdark trying to locate and stop some evil rock elemental cult run by a Medusa, my paladin wasn't so lucky in the Medusa fight and the party had to lug me around as I imitated the tin man from the Wizard of Oz when he doesn't have oil, and on the travels we were ambushed and my character suddenly heard the rock elemental god's voice for a second and I was handed back my character as a paladin with the ability to go through solid stone and I "saw cult members" which were just my friends, but the god prevented me from seeing them as such.
Another fun idea for possession I think is when the PC doesn't just lose control over their body but also gets expelled from it so they are forced to watch their own body act against the party and to dwell as an invisible, intangible and inaudible soul. The only way of making themself known would be either communicating through external matters (writing on walls for example) or possessing another body or object. I got this idea from both the Adventure Zone and from rewatching Gravity Falls. Both shows have a character getting expelled from their bodies while another entity is taking over control. The characters possess an object for the time being and the next quest is for the character to drive out the entity as well as to regain their body. It might not be as spooky as having another entity as your roommate in your body, but I think this might be a good compromise to not take away too much agency from the player when dealing with possession.
Not sure it was possession per se, but a couple years ago my summoner was ensorcelled in some way to have to fight the rest of her party. We were level 3, so I only had a familiar and a weird aberration companion to help me face my 5 teammates, but I dropped a well-placed Web before they knew what was going on and we had a fun combat encounter until my party was able to shake me free of my enchantment. My inner dark Kermit would love for that to happen again now at level 11, since I travel with 3 Tiny Servants, Summon Greater Demon, and a Summon Shadowspawn in a Ring of Spell Storing worn by my familiar… Also great video! And that makeup is killer too!
One of my players had their character possessed by the spirit of a lich when they wore a necklace which was one of the lich's phylacteries. Instead of putting them on the sidelines, I wrote up a mini-game for them so they could mentally break out and gave it a repeating scene of them rowing on a longboat. They had to disbelieve several of these repeating scenes, that got continually harder and eventually found themselves tied to the mast of the ship listening to the creature's monologue. Meanwhile in the real world, their body was fighting the rest of the party. The back and forward between scenes was really fun.
For me, a possession encounter would involve me as the DM controlling the PC's body, attacking the party while they struggled to not kill their friend On the flipside, the PC's soul would be battling the creature in their mind. If the party went the extra mile and prayed for help from the heavens, a Deva would appear and assist the PC in kicking the intruder out - allowing the possessed PC to feel badass for taking back control of their body, while also realizing there are people on the other side rooting for them.
There were two possessions in the game I’m in. They were the fresh ghosts of some people we tried to save but failed. The two possessions worked differently because the ghosts had different goals. One wanted to kill the person responsible for their death. Huntington down this person became the player’s goal and had to make saves not to rage when we got clues and eventually encountered them. The ghost left once their murderer was dead. The second ghost just wanted to go home. The character became home sick and any suggestions of what to do next was to just go home and had to negotiate with the ghost to help. The ghost ended up falling in love with the host and it got a little complicated. The ghost left after the host had dinner with the ghost’s family, and told them stories of their adventures- omitting that they were a ghost for all of this and phrasing it like it was a light hearted adventure. Think cold jumping for fun vs being tossed off a cliff.
I like the idea of giving the possessed character a goal to break the spell. Something like, "drop the cleric to the ground." The straps on your top remind me of Dr. Strange's sanctum.
My DM got with me before the possession and we worked out what my character's motivation would be. The party's bard had recently been saved from a near death/death experience and was going down a darker path. She began being more goth and when she saw saw a death angel statue, she engaged. On her turn at watch, she saw the death angel appear and 'followed it" so the party had to find her. When they found her, she had more abilities and became the BBEG. Yet, the secret was the party had to figure out how to free her without dying as she was trying to kill them. Basically they succeeded, but my character became a bard/warlock from that point with some creepy abilities and a dark patron.
The most fun and hilarious (for me) enncounter I ran was when I had the incorporeal dracolich possess the party wizard. She was jumping around and peppering the party with fireballs for six rounds, escaping grapples with misty step. We had a homerule that misty step was allowed to use together with another leveled spell, and turning it against them was pure joy. Rogue was locked in Tasha's laughter for eleven saving throws with advantage while Ranger was punching him in the face to give him said saving throws. Good times
I always ensure everyone knows this rule at my tables: If you don't want your character to die, your character doesn't. Most people just let their character die though.
My DM used the suggestion spell in a similar way to one of the suggested ideas in this. Rather than just blindly following the command, she allowed some leeway in how my character acted while under its effects. I was instructed to 'deal with' the rest of the party, but she had me rolling each turn to decide if I would blindly follow and go all out when attacking, or if I would try to resist and pull my punches. (Only attacking once, not adding any optional damage/dice) We'd still be acting against our own interest, but it allowed for some more narrative fun and kept us more involved rather than just having us do entirely as the DM instructed.
I was so intrigued by possession in D&D that I added some extra lore to my world: when fiends are killed on the material plane they don't just go straight back to hell, but instead remain as an incorporeal essence until they decide to go back or are forced back. Because they have no body in this form, they mostly need to resort to possession to do anything. Devils usually decide to go back immediately due to their lawful nature. Their master in hell would likely be displeased if they wasted time hanging around the mortal world, unless they think they can accomplish something to please their master before they go (usually making a deal). They also need permission from a host to possess them. Demons of course will continue to go on a rampage using any body they can get their hands on, and will not leave until someone casts banish on them or exorcises them (generally by trapping them and making their stay so unpleasant they decide it's not worth sticking around anymore and go back to hell).
8:30 this is the first thing I thought of for my next possession encounter. I had a similar encounter that I scrapped for time in my last campaign where the whole party would get basically Maze'd at the same time in separate places, and let each character endure some fighting until the spell wears off, and the real end boss encounter began.
I think some parties just aren't for possessing. I have a group of super heavy roleplayers, write huge backstories, love getting into character, even give themselves penalties to rolls if they think it makes roleplay sense. But the second one of them gets possessed, and I let them control the character, every single thing I tell them they should work toward becomes a monkey's paw ridiculous interpretation. From chasing after animal companions commanded to leave the battle to just standing behind a corner for an entire dungeon "waiting to ambush them," it got me pretty freakin annoyed, so I just don't do it anymore.
I'm actually sorta doing this at the moment! We're playing a Power Rangers TTRPG campaign and our Red Ranger has turned into the Evil Green Ranger for a three-session story arc. I homebrewed mechanics for her to fight against Lord Zedd's control and she's having a battle in her own mind while also being forced to attack her friends. The other Rangers can also do various things to try to help her break the evil in her mind, so they're holding back in combat but they're still fighting, just in a different way! It's proving to be a very strange take on a PVP arc, but it's going well so far!
This is just what I needed for my Halloween one shot. I’ve actually already built some ideas around possession and adapted rules from Grizelda’s Guide to Ghost Hunting. I have an anger ghost that possesses someone and passes along like a hot potato to a person they attack or they take fire damage. But, if they resist the urge to hurt their friends and the ghost cannot jump to another host, it becomes neutralized. I specifically designed the encounter around not taking player agency away. Another one that i think will be really fun is the snake thief. A snake bites the a player and then transforms into them while the player transforms into a snake. If that player, now a snake, bites another player, they transform into that player and the one they bit turns into a snake. Im hoping my players enjoy trading character sheets for a while with only a slim chance that they all ended up permanently as each other. I’m going to take that split screen idea though and adapt it a bit. I think it will be really cool to have the player, on their turn, try and end their possession or protect their allies while the ghost tries to stop them (maybe competing d20 tests) and on the ghosts turn they get to move the player around while the player tries to resist wha the ghost wants.
In some situations it could be an idea that possession is a bit like musical chairs so that a ghost possessing them knocks their soul into the nearest dead body (Maybe on taking over a body they get to roll a hit dice of health, which they can repeat each time a possessed body get destroyed until they are out of hit die or functional dead bodies). This makes dead enemies a fun resource, especially if they have interesting abilities PCs don't usually get.
1. You gotta drop a make up tutorial. This look is so sick! 2. I love the split screen idea!!! That’s such a good idea! I was thinking of having the player make saves to fight for control each turn, but that’s WAY better.
3:19 an interesting alternative I saw someone use recently is that instead of taking control away from the player, the ghost changes the PC's personality substantially. Obviously only works with a group thats really into roleplaying though
Wow just yesterday I tought about some gemstone that plants itself into a players forehead and make them a zombie like vessel. Basically sometimes the stone takes over and the character is forces to do random stuff (or things that make sense for the stone) but there is always some internal power struggle for the player to "play" against. I am also thinking about letting the power struggle evolve and let it get easier for the player to break out of the controll after each time they actually break out or the party has to do some sort of ritual to bring the consciousness of the player back on track.
Being possessed is actually one of the main traits of my player character. According to his backstory, his soul merged with a disembodied demonic entity from another dimension during a ritual that went horribly wrong. Usually, this nameless entity cannot take full control of my character, it can only try to influence him through direct mental communication or give him small nudges that influence his decision. Most of the time, it just tries to keep him out of harm's way, because if my character dies, the demonic entity will be sucked back to its original dimension, probably taking my character's soul with it. Likewise, it is impossible to separate them without killing my character. The demon can only take full control of my character if he is in the presence of strong dark magic or another evil demonic entity or both. This happened during a side quest when my party tried to stop such an entity from entering their reality and was suddenly attacked by my character. Another time when I took on the role of DM, my character fell under the control of the demon again and could only be returned to his former self through a pact with a goddess who would now help him suppress the demon's influence in exchange for certain services. In theory that would make my character a warlock except that his "patron" doesn't grant special powers other then a greater resistance against the demon.
3:27 image if like when your character got possessed you were still in control but the dm prompts you to play as the ghost not your player character and if you do something the ghost wouldn't do but you're player character would then you get some kinda penalty representing the strain of your characters mind fighting back the possession. Like you take damage or a stat is temporarily lower, like charisma, dexterity or wisdom something that shows how shaken up your character is at the end of this encounter 6:32 same wave length!
It wasn't quite the same, but there was a fun thing somewhere between this and the style of cursed items you made another video about, when a player in a Blades in the Dark game I was in got a cursed sword that marked her character as the champion of a Forgotten God called the Conqueror. It was a big buff but every time he used it it ticked a clock towards the Conqueror making him its avatar. The GM said that wouldn't have been a game over for the PC, but the player decided her character wasn't on board with that and we developed a ritual to break the sword's hold, and the GM let me take the reigns for the mini-session where that played out. He hadn't even planned it to be a fight but was cool with it when I turned it into a duel between the cutter, fighting with blades that were supernaturally anathema to the Conqueror because they were gifted to him by people he saved from a demon, against the Conqueror's manifestation wearing his face and wielding the cursed sword. And because of an absolutely perfect bit of the dice playing along with some drama, the fight ended with him accepting a trauma to stop the blade from stealing his lifeforce destroying it for good and removing the Conqueror's only foothold in the world.
You could also do posession in a 'death saves' style where each round the plauer rolls, on a save they are in control, on a fail they are not - first to 3 wins control of the meat bag. Higher stakes you say? A win doesn't eject the passenger, but they are subdued for 1 day, but they may attempt posession again at any time after 24 hours (which PCs only know with lore)
I had a player get possessed right at the end of a session because he was staying to fight and distract the enemies as the rest of the party run away from an encounter that they were absolutely not prepared for. I chose to possess his character since it was either that or kill his character since he was left alone in this dangerous situation. I quickly wrapped up the session and asked him to create a temporary new character as the next session will be a rescue mission. He made a cleric with the spells necessary to force a ghost out and it even narratively fit that the party hired him for a day to help exorcise their friend. They had to journey back into dungeon with a new plan since they’ve seen the place before and they rescued the original PC. It made for a really fun experience even using official possession rules
I found an old Dungeon Article for allowing fiends to possess Mortals as well. We only ever see demons and devils fully materially manifested, but it's certainly possible to have a spirit form fmof them hanging out around their talisman, etc.
I imagine some of this advice could work for doppelgängers as well, such as a situation where the real version of the character is stuck in some sort of mirror dimension while the doppelgänger takes their place. You probably would need to have a sidebar convo with the affected player so that they're okay with it, and have an incentive to go along with the ruse, such as a reward the player can earn if they accomplish certain tasks while avoiding suspicion, with the rarity of that reward increasing for however long the player can avoid being discovered.
as soon as ginny appeared with the pentagram top, my first instinct was to point at the screen and say 'spooky' like i was a baby monster taking scaring classes in Monster's Inc
😂 I guess that means the possession is working
Just a quick and friendly correction about the word 'pentagram' feel free to ignore.
A pentagram is a shape made with 5 lines. Think of the way you would draw a star, with each line crossing over each other.
A pentacle is a pentagram closed within a circle.
Pentacles are usually the ones used in rituals or summoning circles. Just a minor pet peeve I have regarding this terminology.
@@dingpart1 so pentagrams are the same as pentacles but they're not enclosed inside a circle, meanwhile pentacles *are* enclosed within a circle? 👀
@@irithylldragon yeah basically
@@dingpart1 neat! I'll remember that next time i play an occultist or witch or what have you :)
my GM did an awesome thing where my PC was possessed by the BBEG. they had him in their head, and the two were communicating telepathically, and my PC was being shown selective visions of the BBEG's memories. they had to work towards his goals from the info he was feeding them, while otherwise still seeming like themself. so it wasn't "turn against the party violently", but more "make this ulterior motive the sensible goal". this was early on in the campaign, where we weren't sure if the BBEG was bad or not, so it made some sense that someone might be arguing for his side. and i made occasional saves to try to shake him out. it was such an amazing experience, and a very fun challenge for me!
That is awesome!! That kind of long-game manipulation is so rich for roleplay, and the moral ambiguity must have kept everyone on their toes. Plus, making the BBEG’s goals seem reasonable adds such a cool twist. Did you ever manage to shake him out, or did things get… complicated? 😅
@@GinnyDi For sure!! There were a lot of added layers with his plans stemming from universe/religious knowledge/beliefs opposite what my character had been raised with. Hah, yes, we were only level 2 at that point so a successful charisma save drove him out!
I’ve been possessed by a ghost in a game and loved every minute of it! I went all in with the creepy head tilts, altered voice, and rarely blinking once the dm set me loose on the party 😅
Having a player that's excited to lean into the RP side of possession is SUCH a gift! 🥰
Meanwhile, in my former Curse of Strahd game, both my character AND the rogue got possessed by ghost children, and instead of being freaked out by it, we were like
“Wait-you’re, like, eight years old. We can’t just abandon you! You know what? You can hang out, I’m adopting you.”
And thus the Rogue took on the Soulknife subclass and my character (a Paladin) multiclassed into Undead Warlock.
My players wound up hoarding orphans in CoS. When they met Blinsky the creepy toy maker, they commissioned a bunch of toys for the daycare they’d set up at the Blue Water Inn…
omg thats actually adorable
@@Newnodrogbob do all parties end up hoarding orphans in CoS?
awwwww
@@ryankunst668 Mind did only in the epilogue. We were to driven to beat Strahd to take care of the orphans before that.
My character was possessed rather recently during my home game, and I really liked how my DM did it! He did take complete control of my character to fight against, but he also gave me another character sheet for an NPC that was traveling with us. What made this so thoughtful was that I expressed interest in taking over this particular NPC as a backup in case my PC died, as the NPC was reoccurring and knew what was going on with the plot. This was a way to try out the NPC and see how I liked playing with her, without loosing my actual character for good.
Also, the possession was a pretty neat too, where it was a sentient/cursed item that took my character over rather than a monster. Plus, she could end the fight early if she succeeded on a charisma saving throw and essentially talk the item into giving control of her body back. Now she has a free item that is attuned to her and she can't take it off! Fun times!
I know this is very situational and won't work for every game, but just thought I'd share!
This was my first thought, and I was waiting to see it brought up in the video, but I'm glad to find someone was on the same wavelength, and that it's a tested method that can work well in the right circumstances
If it wasn't an NPC you were already considering, I'd also consider what class the NPC is, and the player's experience (if they're a newer player that mostly just hit things, it's probably not a great idea to dump a magic heavy class on them).
Potentially have a simple new NPC join - give them their name, stats, etc. and introduce them "Sam, you're in the woods foraging, when you hear a commotion nearby. You rush over and see what appears to be [describe what the situation looks like to them. Are the party fighting robed cultists, obvious undead or other enemies, or is it 3v1, but the possessed character is obviously bad/powerful, glowing with green energy as their voice booms unnaturally?]". Something to make the character decide they should be joining the *party's* side, but might or might not be aware of the possession yet.
Overall, assuming the other players can handle their friend turning against them, as Ginny brought up, I'd give the player a choice: play their possessed character, turning against their friends, or swap character sheets with the DM, temporarily playing as an NPC
What's really cool about the "Battle at the center of the mind" (what this trope is called in fiction) is that even though they are seperated, the posessed and the party can still help or even negatively affect each other in many different, interesting ways.
Say the posessed landed a crit on the creature posessing them, what if that means they get one turn where they can briefly re-gain control of their body? Is the rest of the party trying to reach the possesed (aka. the "I know you're in there somewhere!")? what if that gives the posessed some sort of buff or advantage in their fight? What if dealing damage to the posessed's body triggers some type of lair action wherever the posessed's conciousness is? The possibilities are endless.
I can not explain to you how excited my nephew would be if I said "Okay you're possessed by a ghost, go kill your brothers character now"
I usually handle it in such a way that it is discussed with the player in private or the mind can be calmed down by something. The last time the spirit wanted his dead body to be buried
Your production quality is always so high, I feel like you have the best vfx of any dnd youtuber
this is a very reassuring thing to read after releasing a video an hour and a half late because all the greenscreen took me too long 😅
@@GinnyDi Technical difficulties are a pain that even the best of us deal with, so don't beat yourself too much over it.
not sure how a video on YT can be an hour and a half late. it's like, maybe a day late, but otherwise, what's the deadline? also, quality + ambition never needs an apology.
Sound quality is priority no. One; visuals is secondary. (After the actual theme/information/fun of course)
@@indycinemayeah that crush is absolutely insane. You have meme compilation channels that release days late and nobody cares, but some some niche channel releases an hour late and the algorithm buries them.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft also added a really cool possession monster: the Carrionette.
It's basically a chucky-esc haunted puppet, and it has the ability to soul swap. It basically works similarly to the ghost possession, however the player and the Carrionette swap bodies Freaky Friday style controlling each other.
So the possessed player can still play, but they have to work within the body of a tiny and frail toy with a reduced moveset. I like to add the fun roleplay detail that the puppet body doesn't have a mouth. So the player in the puppet body has to play a bad game of charades to try to non-verbally communicate to the party what has happened, and ideally convince them to stop attacking them.
This ability is pretty devastating, but it's also balanced by being somewhat hard for the Carrionette to pull off. It has to hit the target with its silver needle weapon, causing them to be "cursed" if they fail a CHA save. Then on its next turn it can use its action to try and soul swap with a cursed target if they fail ANOTHER charisma save. So having to fail 2 saves over 2 rounds makes it a lot less of a punishing "save or suck" feature than other possessions that reduce a player's agency.
The fun part is that even after the party figures out what has happened, they still have to figure out how to reverse it. This creates a small puzzle as the players need to figure out that they need to use the Silver needles to attack the now possessed players body to switch them back. This leads to a fun moment where the player often has to attack their own body to save themselves. And if they can't figure this out, beating their friends possessed body to unconsciousness always works as a last resort.
I've run this twice and it was an absolute blast each time. You get all the juicy narrative and combat implications of possessing a PC, while still giving that player plenty to do on their turns. It plays more like a narrative/puzzle encounter than a combat really.
Edit: after re-reading the Carrionette stat block, it seems I've embellished its features somewhat. Still, the idea of a body swap instead of a straight possession is really interesting to me. (My version is cooler anyways 😎)
I usually try to stick to situational possessions, where the possessed player can normally act for the most part. But when the time comes the possessor will attempt to force the player to do certain actions on their turn like attack the party, but I make it clear it’s me doing that so there aren’t hard feelings among the players. The player can make saves to assume temporary control again of their character and usually still get the benefits through the round (if other enemies are involved) from the possessor, which usually has spells to make up for it. The player then can reassume full control after enough consecutive saves in the fight
I did this my game with a parasite monster. It's job was to keep the player from remembering things he had found out about the spy hidden in the school. When they where banishing the monster it mind controlled one of the party members to attack the other as it tried to escape. I based the monsters abilities on the mind flayer in old school essentials.
One of the games I play in went super hard on the 'you now see the party as an enemy' thing with like 5 monsters doing that to us which got old fast. In that game we are meant to be over powered heroes so I guess the DM wanted to use our own power against ourselves. To me it emphasized just how underpowered my character is when compared to the party.
Honestly, Saying "You're posessed, the thing posessing you wants you to " is usually all I've needed to get players to go along with it in fun ways.
Similar for charm and mind control effects.
It also gives a fun chance for "Okay, the person controling you has given you this command -- how would that be interpereted by this character, and how would you try to follow it?" sorts of RP scenes.
Often the players come up with more interesting things than I would for it, lol.
Everytime I posess a player, I send them a text with a prepared text that starts with "Your character feels their will be replaced with another" and then detail them for a character they have to roleplay. First couple times were a bit rocky but now I've got it streamlined to what details matter, what bullet points their motivation is, and what "tells" they give off. Heavily inspired by a storyline from Order of the Stick. Pretty much exactly #1 method. My players 100% have a Dark Kermit, but it never gets to death. BBEGs always want to gloat and leave themselves open, or do nonlethal damage, or the PC manages to wrest control in a critical moment. It's all very dramatic and cinematic.
Matt Mercer did something really interesting with possession in C3 recently (no spoilers).
When a PC got possessed, he gave the possessed character's player a list of things they could do to essentially fight against the possessing entity and give the party a mechanical advantage against the entity.
The possessed character's player got to act on their own turn if they made a save, and then choose if the entity would get disadvantage on saves (I think), or if everyone had advantage on attack rolls against the entity. And that lasted for a round.
I think that's a very elegant solution that emphasizes the fight for control between the host and the possession. It also addresses exactly what's brought up in this video.
My friend once played in a campaign where they simply could not schedule sessions that everyone could attend. They did however manage to figure out a schedule where two of the players could attend every other session.
What they ended up doing was sharing a character in a sort of jekyll and hyde situation. Added a very fun layer into the campaign and also meant that they could catch up the players about the last session in character.
I was in a city D&D game where my character was a whimiscal, cheerful elven mage, tending to use spells that didn't do much damage, or just trapped the enemies, and some of the other players were mocking my character for not having killer instinct, to which I would say "and which of us rarely has to explain ourselves to the town guard, hmm?" Then one of them brought me an item to check, and I got possessed by a "Spirit of Malevolence", by way of the DM handing me a note telling me that the spirit wanted a corpse to possess so it could be free, and it was influencing me from my usual chaotic good to full-on chaotic evil.
The fear in their eyes when, after taking down our bounty, I proceeded to cast Evard's Black Tentacles on THEM was gratifying. They ended up figuring out how to get rid of the spirit out of my character, and when they had it trapped in the soul jar they had created, and asked me how I felt. They got scared again when I said, in character, "A bit diminished... there was a certain gratification in truly unleashing my abilities. Perhaps I should do it more often..."
Possession can, if the player is up for it, give them some interesting insights into themselves, depending on the kind.
I am actually making a whole homebrew class themed around channeling spirits and possession!
Uhhh sounds intresting :D How far have you come with your creation and is there a place where we could find it?
Yes! Please share it once you're finished - that sounds like so much fun
Sounds a little bit like PF2e's upcoming Animist class, exciting stuff!
Simple.. Add either Ghosts and Tuffles. Both can posses people.
My barbarian gets its "rage" benefits from fae possession. Tiny girl with supernatural strength
I had a character get possessed in a Curse of Strahd game I ran. I told the player that the ghost wanted to leave but couldn't without a body. The ghost was going to do everything in their power to make sure they left and had access to all his abilities. He quite enjoyed fireballing his friends when they tried to stop him.
I’ve actually had a character concept floating around in my head that deals with possession. This character was possessed by a demon, but rather than letting it puppet them or casting it out, they took control of it instead. They have a demon trapped inside their head, and they use its powers for heroism. I think this would be an interesting way to flavor a fiend pact warlock.
That pentangle neckline is fantastic, as are those ear-knives. Another great episode with a cool colour palette.
Reverse elf ears
Idea. A ghost possesses a player/npc in order to experience a meal that they loved having at the local tavern which just isn't the same in the ethereal plane.
We had a possession recently in my game. Basically, the cleric had become possessed by a ghost who couldn't leave the room she died in. The cleric said, 'yeah, you just want to leave, sounds fair.' Ghost goes in and the player just walks past the rest of the party during a bandit fight (luckily, there was only about three of them) the other monk went with her to keep her safe. The cleric's player controlled the body, while the DM provided the voice.
All in all, it worked out fairly well...aside from the part where the ghost left and the giant zombie-crocodile-thing launched itself out of the river at them. It didn't attack while the cleric was possessed, since it was created by the same god the ghost worshipped, but it was clearly still hungry even after we managed to bait most of the bandits in there earlier.
Love the outfit in this video really gives off the spooky vibes while not being over the top
Good stuff. I can attest that letting a player control their character while they turn on the rest of their party can be very fun.
One of my favorite moments in a game I DMed was when a succubus charmed a PC in the middle of a fight and I let the player keep control. Next round the character downs a telekinesis potion and hurls one of the other party members off the wall where they were fighting and into the raging sea hundreds of feet below. Suddenly the objective for everyone else became not just defeat the succubus and her minions, but do it fast enough to be able to save their now-unconscious ally from drowning!
Giving the player the opportunity to do something unexpected like that added so much drama and excitement that we wouldn’t have gotten if I had just taken control of the character myself!
YES! My popcorn just finished, and now I get a video to watch
Telling a player that they are no longer controlling their character, but instead, controlling an ill-intentioned spirit controlling their character can really save this
A fair few years ago, during a boss encounter, a player picked up and wore a cursed crown after having beaten the encounter and I used this moment to reveal a kind of possession moment where the crown and / throne were actually what was driving the boss mad instead. Did a similar thing as suggested here and had the player act out the various attack actions and they were forced to only say one particular line but they could change the intonation and timing all they wanted, to illustrate it wasn't them at the wheel (so to speak).
This was a high point for this particular character, and a low point, and is often referred to as their moment of "really dude" when similar potential opportunities for wearing dropped / discarded gear come up for them.
DAEL KINGSMILL REFERENCED
I love when my favorite creators reference one another!
Always enjoy the RUclips Cinematic Universe 😄
I've done this from both sides of the screen. The way I handled possessing the party (AD&D 1st Edition) for a fun fight was that I had the demon using Magic Jar and jumping from PC to PC every other round. Took them forever to figure out they should be looking for motionless body of the culprit. When possession happened to one of my characters, I convinced the DM that, no my PC does not go quietly into the night... Instead I started a rendition of "I'm king henry the eighth I am I am...." and was a general PITA for the demon until it fled my insanity.
9:14 huh n.. nnn nooo i wasn't watching the video while on the toilet, it's all an illusion 😅
HOW DOES SHE KNOW!!
I actually scrunched up like a ball of tinfoil and went beet red with embarrassment, way to call us out, Ginny
Consider doing the Gravity Falls approach: the DM becomes the player and player becomes the ghost, without the ability to possess their own body, but with the ability to possess other people/vessels.
Turn your players into a sock puppet, you cowards!!
I like the "split screen" idea, seems like a good way to give players something to do without worrying about potential social consequences or metagaming from players that don't really want to hurt their party.
Eyes matching the hair is GORGEOUS!
These are all great solutions to the dilemma of possession- a narratively interesting event that takes the player out of the action. I did another thing running a version of Death House. The possessed PC's spirit became a ghost. I had the player use their mental/social stats with the Etheral Sight and Incorporeal Movement Traits, and let them make Wisdom and Charisma save to communicate with the other PCs, move objects, etc. They could attack the Possessor ghost on the Ethereal Plane using their normal combat stats as well. They actually got really into the strategic possibilities of being able to walk through walls and float up and down floors of the house.
for shorter or less violent possessions, it can also be fun to soul bump: basically have the possessing ghost bump the player character's spirit. let the character's spirit interact with the world haunting style (rustling branches, pulling other players' hair, etc.) and have the other players roll to see if they realize someone is trying to communicate. the more creative the spirit characters' attempts, the easier the check can be. you can even have the spirit character take the help action to disrupt the possession spell, or trip their body to break concentration, etc. it's a fun way to get players problem solving in an unusual and creative way while still allowing a necessary monologue or something to happen.
Thanks for this; I finally got to run a possession session tonight. I did play the split-screen fight as you suggested, and it worked like a charm! It was all of 3 rounds: the PC (in her head) "fought" the 3 deadliest monsters she'd fought in the rest of the campaign while the rest of the party tried to get through a charmed crowd of NPCs to get to the body of their comrade. If the PC had "lost" any of those rounds, the possessor could have cast spells in addition to leading the crowd. That was a LOT more fun than just a Wisdom save to take off the cursed item.
This is fun because I just listened to the (well, one of the) recent episodes of Critical Role where Delilah took charge and fought Bell's Hells. I am... *not* as good at listening to podcasts as I'd like to be, especially not while doing a boring day job that I get easily distracted at, but from what I could tell, Delilah was taking her turns to do insane shit like summon a ghostly, giant version of Craven Edge to fight the heroes, but Laudna was also taking turns to attempt save against the possession and maybe get to take an action. I think that whole "the monster and the PC are separate creatures with separate Initiatives; they just share a space and the one you actually like takes all the damage" is probably the way to do a possession that's gonna play the most to D&D's strengths.
Great vid Ginny, loved the eye makeup. Can't wait to come up with a plotline to possess my players now XD
I'm GM'ing now where one of the players is possessed. She's a great roleplayer and I've given her a sweet set of extra abilities that she KNOWS comes from a spirit, but she uses them all the time and is kind of acting addicted to them. The spirit gets its way and she can roleplay normally. On the odd week where she misses a session, well... her character does stuff that she doesn't remember later. "Shrug" she says, and on the possession goes. =D Someday that spirit will cross a line, and it will be a great couple episodes.
Sort of similar to this, in one game I ran, I used a version of a Danse Macabre trap, which makes the PCs that fail their save float into the air and compels them to dance to a ghostly tune, As written, the players would have just stayed up there, waiting until they either roll a successful save or someone drags them down. But, while the players were in the air, I pulled them into a second voice channel and described a scene from the past of the haunted mansion they were in. I described the scene, then left to rejoin the first vc to continue the fight with the players who succeeded on their saves, while the possessed players stayed in the second vc discussing what they just saw. It had all of the fun flavor of possession, but gave the possessed players something to do and gave them some lore hints. Highly recommend trying something like this out in a haunted house.
Also, in the combat that was going on while the possessed players were trapped, I reflavored a succubus stat block to be an evil muse. When the muse successfully charmed a PC, that PC was compelled to sing. And as long as that PC was singing, the muse could drain their HP as an action to heal herself. It was a fun encounter.
I think what also could be fun, kind off Like the Split Screen Idea, is that the PC actively has to fight the creature they're possessed by in every move almost. So If the creature wants to Attack, the Player can Roll against it to Take control again, and when the Player does Something the creature can Roll against that. But that would Not be easy to pull off.
I love this idea! In the wrong hands, it could turn into a series of wisdom saving throws, but if players have to describe how they resist-drawing on their character’s inner thoughts and emotions-it could lead to some amazing roleplay moments! That extra bit of storytelling would really make the struggle feel personal and intense.
I was a player in a session where the characters were swept away into a vision of the past where we proceeded to murder each other as different sides of a battlefield we were crossing. Secretly the DM let us know as we died that it was all a dream but to keep it quiet until we were all done.
Ohhhhhh this'll be perfect for my Halloween and dark spooky campaign
Possession mechanics in our games work like this:
we had a fight, you died, now we posses your stuff.
I've never had a GM who messed us this way, so I appreciate this video.
Another alternative i like is kind of like a "puppeteer" kind of possession - the player gets to continue to play as normal on their turns, but on the ghost (or whatever creature is possessing) turns the enemy uses the player character also. Like two different spirits are both steering the one body, so they both get to use it. Has the benefits of using one character against their allies, and allies not necessarily wantong to hurt them, while making it clear that it's the DM doing this, not the player, sparing feelings, and maintaining player agency.
Still a YMMV scenario though, naturally.
Your makeup in this episode is GORGEOUS!
Gotta say, i love the eyeshadow! It looks really cool with the hair
I like the method of the DM instructing the player to roll who they are going to attack and the hit and damage dice.
Love these ideas sm! split screen possession had me plotting and scheming... + your makeup looks amazing in this video!
doing something with possession right now, at the beginning of the campaign i had everyone make 3 separate characters, as i wanted the party to feel like a proper mercenary company.
The characters that are under possession or were taken out during the current dungeon are under my control, while the players get to test out and run their backups in a desperate bid for survival. So far, everyones loved it.
One thing I often take inspiration from is how Vampire: the Masquerade handles frenzies, when the player character's body is possessed by The Beast within: you can spend some resource (or make a charisma save, etc) each turn to try to take control for just that turn.
Another way I've done this before is that I had a player character who had a demon riding along, and the demon basically gave them goals every once in a while. The demon had very real threats of taking them over entirely or making them do awful things, but the demon wouldn't want to try taking them over if it didn't have to because it wanted to remain unnoticed for as long as possible.
Fourth option: something i like to call subtle possession. No one knows who is actually possessed because the possession doesn't actively manifest at first. The player is allowed to play their character as they wish because they don't know they're possessed and actually no one knows who is possessed because the attacks seem to come out of nowhere and at random. The ghost/demon/fae/eldritch abomination bent on a tpk is really just using the player's body as a convenient meat shield to tank half damage until the rest of the party is dealt with. You wouldn't believe how many times I have used this to terrifying effect.
Can you explain this more? I don't understand. Like people near a player get attacked, but you don't say that player is attacking them? Or it's like an invisible monster that goes around? I don't get it :/
i don't get it either.
I love this what a cool idea
@@Teinve characters around the player keep getting attacked by the Ghost/Demon/whatever but have no idea where it is coming from (unless they make a really good perception check) It's really fun when the Barbarian is the host and is really mad about the possessor being a coward and not facing him.
okay but how can the attacks come out of nowhere, the will plainly see the possessed player attacking them.
Another i like is the long con possession. You get either a PC aho is down for ut or an NPC, then have them "unknowingly" possessed for several sessions. As DM, the possessors knowledge is a strong urge, and can easily be overlooked. At first, easily resisted but then they start making saving throws to resist. The list of things slowly grow over the weeks and months. And eventually, if the possession isnt found out, they make seemingly random saves to resist taking entire actions that just occur.
Trust me: Everyone in my party had a feeling my Cleric was acting off. No one expected that he was slowly being prepared to be fully possessed by Asmodeus himself.
Then when i did it again, but it was a Fae who possessed them as a child to suppress horrific memories that shattered their mind? Everyone was mad when they freed the NPC from that possession to lose an ally.
Shout-out to my players! I had an encounter planned with a possessed NPC, but one of the characters rolled so high on perception that she noticed the ghost literal weeks before he was supposed to possess the NPC. And, upon realizing that the ghost is, while evil, a teenager who has been stuck in a terrible echo chamber for 40 years of hell, decided to cautiously adopt him.
There's still most likely getting to be a possession plotline soon. And I'm not sure if it's going to be with the ghost kid or one of his "friends" from hell, but it will most likely have to happen to a PC at this point. So, I've ruled it that if a PC gets possessed, they essentially link minds with the ghost possessing them. They can choose to fight back at narratively satisfying moments in battle or start poking around the mind of the ghost in a skill challenge (which, if successful, will grant them advantage on future fighting back). I don't anticipate the ghost will hold on to the possession after battle if they win, so hopefully this will just need to be a combat situation. And, if it is a less plot-relevant ghost, there's also a chance my player can play as them during the time of the possession.
I find your outfit and makeup particularly compelling in this episode. I appreciate your style.
I am ALL ABOUT ALL OF THIS- The background, the makeup, the jewelry, the SHIRT... GIRL. Fkn slay. Also possess the hell out of your party.
I'm actually playing a permanently possessed character in PirateBorg - in fact, my character is the ghost, and only occasionally does he get shunted out, temporarily, by the original host, who I also control.
Most recently, the dastardly cockney pirate got blasted by a magical creature's hallucinogenic light and was sent on a panicked T-posing flight from a ghost dog whom he was convinced was Davey Jones come to claim him, giving the gentlemanly naval officer most of the day back in his body.
I've done possession a few times - once with Magic Jar I just had the unlucky victim play as an allied NPC (a golem who was helping them out, which he enjoyed!). Once I just had a shadow demon haunt someone and try to take over briefly every now and then, but I often forgot about it because it's a lot to keep track of! If I was doing that now I'd have given that player secret chaotic objectives in return for spell slots or something.
My favourite one didn't start as possession - the character was killed by an arcane explosion and their spirit was stuck haunting the area. They ended up possessing another party member to pass information they'd gathered on the ethereal plane back to everyone else! It wasn't long before they got things sorted out and the body resurrected but I could definitely make that a whole plot with another party if I put more things to do on the ethereal plane and more reasons to jump into different bodies so that everyone gets a chance to be a ghost for a bit!
The funniest OneShot i ever mastered was a Comedy one where my players were given Monsters with customized powers and who's goal was to reach Santa's Home for storyline reasons. One of the players was indeed a Ghost. Not only he spent all his Possessions to drive crazy the Santa's Factory elves into doubting each other and starting a riot where the NPC started killing each other out of panic... but the best moment was when he faced Rudolph, which I buffed a lot to have him as a big foe. But destiny had something different in store for me. The player sayd "I use Horrifying Visage" which on a fail make the target aging 1d4x10. He rolls 3.
...
Silence at the table.
A player asks "how many years do a Reindeer live?"
I google. "...So... Rudolph is dead..."
This is still quoted today.
I got a sentient Armor that just forcefully moves the possessed character's limbs.
It’s not evil, but has an inherent distrust towards the players and a fear of abandonment.
I was thinking of making the player that is possessed make Cha checks on their turns to see how much the armor cooperates.
This is a pretty perfect timing, I want to run a fight with ghosts soon so thank you for the ideas!
That intro meme and that transition into what you were actually thinking about made me laugh so hard.
1:52 "And I'm pretty sure tier 4 isn't real" Tier 4 is actually a lot of fun to DM if you have the right group. The few times I've been able to dm for such a group, I actually enjoyed it significantly more than Tier 1-3. It does, again, require the right group though and very good communication. ... Just don't roll damage for anything but like, the most dramatic of events. Especially with the bigger spells. And get really good at stats and averages so you can throw literal armies without the game breaking down by using averages very efficiently so everything but the bbeg can go all at once. (For any arbitrary number of monsters, assuming they're low level and don't have unique moves, they'll have average damage equal to the number of monsters times their average damage times [the ac of the target - the monsters to hit bonus + 2, the plus two representing the guarenteed hit and doubled damage of a crit, all divided by 20.]. Work out all your math and multipliers before hand for each monster type, assume all damage is dealt to the lowest health monster except in the case of aoes, in which case it's to the lowest monsters. Just adjust the multiplier based on how many are left. And voila, even assuming 5 different monsters numbering about 500 each, the low level monsters will only take about 30 seconds to go. The big guys take normal length turns. And then the players go, and, this is why you need the right group because they need to know their character extremely well, pay a lot of attention, and be prepping while they wait for their turn, they only take about a minute each. Making combat highly manageably, epic, and rewarding be it against gods, or entire nations.
Also you provided a lot of very good options for possession. I haven't ever done it, but I might bring it up before the next game to see if they're interested some time in the future. I suspect they will, at least for a Halloween themed one shot. The variation in the options is excellent!
03:20 we basically had to be possessed to survive that Highschool, let's be real. I know for me If it wasn't for D&D/MTG with friends in the cafeteria, I would have never attended. Glad to see someone made it out alive and successful! Keep up the good content!
This reminds me of an episode of NADDPOD where (spoiler now) they have to participate in a witch's game. Murph, the DM, declares that each of them gets to draw a piece of paper which may or may not mark them as the traitor, who is meant to do their best attempt to play a witch lying as them, suggesting it's the first kind of possession from the video. Instead, it's actually the third kind: all the slips were empty and Murph had already decided to make the one who's possessed the NPC who's paper he'd unfolded. And then the game begins, the players are to ask eachother questions, and the very first question goes to the NPC. Now, the party has a running gag that this NPC absolutely LOVES tuna an absurd amount, so they ask "what's your favourite food?" and Murph answers: "chicken"
There's another option that has been used on more than one occasion on my table: a non-evil ghost, or even an evil ghost with motives/unfinished business that *requires* the party's cooperation. Fill the possessed player in on the ghost's motives, and let them loose.
Whether players are up for mechanics like possession is one of the topics I generally try to raise in a session zero. In fact, talking about attitudes towards enchantment magic more generally is a pretty important topic for discussion in session zero, in my experience.
I actually had my DM do the PvP possession thing and it was well executed. We were in the underdark trying to locate and stop some evil rock elemental cult run by a Medusa, my paladin wasn't so lucky in the Medusa fight and the party had to lug me around as I imitated the tin man from the Wizard of Oz when he doesn't have oil, and on the travels we were ambushed and my character suddenly heard the rock elemental god's voice for a second and I was handed back my character as a paladin with the ability to go through solid stone and I "saw cult members" which were just my friends, but the god prevented me from seeing them as such.
Another fun idea for possession I think is when the PC doesn't just lose control over their body but also gets expelled from it so they are forced to watch their own body act against the party and to dwell as an invisible, intangible and inaudible soul. The only way of making themself known would be either communicating through external matters (writing on walls for example) or possessing another body or object. I got this idea from both the Adventure Zone and from rewatching Gravity Falls. Both shows have a character getting expelled from their bodies while another entity is taking over control. The characters possess an object for the time being and the next quest is for the character to drive out the entity as well as to regain their body.
It might not be as spooky as having another entity as your roommate in your body, but I think this might be a good compromise to not take away too much agency from the player when dealing with possession.
Not sure it was possession per se, but a couple years ago my summoner was ensorcelled in some way to have to fight the rest of her party. We were level 3, so I only had a familiar and a weird aberration companion to help me face my 5 teammates, but I dropped a well-placed Web before they knew what was going on and we had a fun combat encounter until my party was able to shake me free of my enchantment.
My inner dark Kermit would love for that to happen again now at level 11, since I travel with 3 Tiny Servants, Summon Greater Demon, and a Summon Shadowspawn in a Ring of Spell Storing worn by my familiar…
Also great video! And that makeup is killer too!
One of my players had their character possessed by the spirit of a lich when they wore a necklace which was one of the lich's phylacteries. Instead of putting them on the sidelines, I wrote up a mini-game for them so they could mentally break out and gave it a repeating scene of them rowing on a longboat. They had to disbelieve several of these repeating scenes, that got continually harder and eventually found themselves tied to the mast of the ship listening to the creature's monologue. Meanwhile in the real world, their body was fighting the rest of the party. The back and forward between scenes was really fun.
For me, a possession encounter would involve me as the DM controlling the PC's body, attacking the party while they struggled to not kill their friend
On the flipside, the PC's soul would be battling the creature in their mind. If the party went the extra mile and prayed for help from the heavens, a Deva would appear and assist the PC in kicking the intruder out - allowing the possessed PC to feel badass for taking back control of their body, while also realizing there are people on the other side rooting for them.
There were two possessions in the game I’m in. They were the fresh ghosts of some people we tried to save but failed. The two possessions worked differently because the ghosts had different goals.
One wanted to kill the person responsible for their death. Huntington down this person became the player’s goal and had to make saves not to rage when we got clues and eventually encountered them. The ghost left once their murderer was dead.
The second ghost just wanted to go home. The character became home sick and any suggestions of what to do next was to just go home and had to negotiate with the ghost to help. The ghost ended up falling in love with the host and it got a little complicated. The ghost left after the host had dinner with the ghost’s family, and told them stories of their adventures- omitting that they were a ghost for all of this and phrasing it like it was a light hearted adventure. Think cold jumping for fun vs being tossed off a cliff.
I like the idea of giving the possessed character a goal to break the spell. Something like, "drop the cleric to the ground."
The straps on your top remind me of Dr. Strange's sanctum.
My DM got with me before the possession and we worked out what my character's motivation would be. The party's bard had recently been saved from a near death/death experience and was going down a darker path. She began being more goth and when she saw saw a death angel statue, she engaged. On her turn at watch, she saw the death angel appear and 'followed it" so the party had to find her. When they found her, she had more abilities and became the BBEG. Yet, the secret was the party had to figure out how to free her without dying as she was trying to kill them. Basically they succeeded, but my character became a bard/warlock from that point with some creepy abilities and a dark patron.
The most fun and hilarious (for me) enncounter I ran was when I had the incorporeal dracolich possess the party wizard. She was jumping around and peppering the party with fireballs for six rounds, escaping grapples with misty step. We had a homerule that misty step was allowed to use together with another leveled spell, and turning it against them was pure joy. Rogue was locked in Tasha's laughter for eleven saving throws with advantage while Ranger was punching him in the face to give him said saving throws. Good times
I always ensure everyone knows this rule at my tables: If you don't want your character to die, your character doesn't. Most people just let their character die though.
That eye makeup is next level!
My DM used the suggestion spell in a similar way to one of the suggested ideas in this.
Rather than just blindly following the command, she allowed some leeway in how my character acted while under its effects. I was instructed to 'deal with' the rest of the party, but she had me rolling each turn to decide if I would blindly follow and go all out when attacking, or if I would try to resist and pull my punches. (Only attacking once, not adding any optional damage/dice)
We'd still be acting against our own interest, but it allowed for some more narrative fun and kept us more involved rather than just having us do entirely as the DM instructed.
Your makeup slays. I've been slain. I am dead.
I was so intrigued by possession in D&D that I added some extra lore to my world: when fiends are killed on the material plane they don't just go straight back to hell, but instead remain as an incorporeal essence until they decide to go back or are forced back. Because they have no body in this form, they mostly need to resort to possession to do anything.
Devils usually decide to go back immediately due to their lawful nature. Their master in hell would likely be displeased if they wasted time hanging around the mortal world, unless they think they can accomplish something to please their master before they go (usually making a deal). They also need permission from a host to possess them.
Demons of course will continue to go on a rampage using any body they can get their hands on, and will not leave until someone casts banish on them or exorcises them (generally by trapping them and making their stay so unpleasant they decide it's not worth sticking around anymore and go back to hell).
8:30 this is the first thing I thought of for my next possession encounter.
I had a similar encounter that I scrapped for time in my last campaign where the whole party would get basically Maze'd at the same time in separate places, and let each character endure some fighting until the spell wears off, and the real end boss encounter began.
I think some parties just aren't for possessing. I have a group of super heavy roleplayers, write huge backstories, love getting into character, even give themselves penalties to rolls if they think it makes roleplay sense. But the second one of them gets possessed, and I let them control the character, every single thing I tell them they should work toward becomes a monkey's paw ridiculous interpretation. From chasing after animal companions commanded to leave the battle to just standing behind a corner for an entire dungeon "waiting to ambush them," it got me pretty freakin annoyed, so I just don't do it anymore.
This makeup and outfit is GIVING girl. *chefs kiss* Happy spooky season!
I'm actually sorta doing this at the moment! We're playing a Power Rangers TTRPG campaign and our Red Ranger has turned into the Evil Green Ranger for a three-session story arc. I homebrewed mechanics for her to fight against Lord Zedd's control and she's having a battle in her own mind while also being forced to attack her friends. The other Rangers can also do various things to try to help her break the evil in her mind, so they're holding back in combat but they're still fighting, just in a different way! It's proving to be a very strange take on a PVP arc, but it's going well so far!
ugh the knife earrings are amazing! Also I love the cage-match-in-their-brain idea.
This is just what I needed for my Halloween one shot.
I’ve actually already built some ideas around possession and adapted rules from Grizelda’s Guide to Ghost Hunting.
I have an anger ghost that possesses someone and passes along like a hot potato to a person they attack or they take fire damage. But, if they resist the urge to hurt their friends and the ghost cannot jump to another host, it becomes neutralized. I specifically designed the encounter around not taking player agency away.
Another one that i think will be really fun is the snake thief. A snake bites the a player and then transforms into them while the player transforms into a snake. If that player, now a snake, bites another player, they transform into that player and the one they bit turns into a snake. Im hoping my players enjoy trading character sheets for a while with only a slim chance that they all ended up permanently as each other.
I’m going to take that split screen idea though and adapt it a bit. I think it will be really cool to have the player, on their turn, try and end their possession or protect their allies while the ghost tries to stop them (maybe competing d20 tests) and on the ghosts turn they get to move the player around while the player tries to resist wha the ghost wants.
Love, Love, LOVE, your makeup in this episode! More please!
In some situations it could be an idea that possession is a bit like musical chairs so that a ghost possessing them knocks their soul into the nearest dead body (Maybe on taking over a body they get to roll a hit dice of health, which they can repeat each time a possessed body get destroyed until they are out of hit die or functional dead bodies). This makes dead enemies a fun resource, especially if they have interesting abilities PCs don't usually get.
1. You gotta drop a make up tutorial. This look is so sick!
2. I love the split screen idea!!! That’s such a good idea! I was thinking of having the player make saves to fight for control each turn, but that’s WAY better.
3:19 an interesting alternative I saw someone use recently is that instead of taking control away from the player, the ghost changes the PC's personality substantially. Obviously only works with a group thats really into roleplaying though
Wow just yesterday I tought about some gemstone that plants itself into a players forehead and make them a zombie like vessel. Basically sometimes the stone takes over and the character is forces to do random stuff (or things that make sense for the stone) but there is always some internal power struggle for the player to "play" against. I am also thinking about letting the power struggle evolve and let it get easier for the player to break out of the controll after each time they actually break out or the party has to do some sort of ritual to bring the consciousness of the player back on track.
Being possessed is actually one of the main traits of my player character. According to his backstory, his soul merged with a disembodied demonic entity from another dimension during a ritual that went horribly wrong. Usually, this nameless entity cannot take full control of my character, it can only try to influence him through direct mental communication or give him small nudges that influence his decision. Most of the time, it just tries to keep him out of harm's way, because if my character dies, the demonic entity will be sucked back to its original dimension, probably taking my character's soul with it. Likewise, it is impossible to separate them without killing my character. The demon can only take full control of my character if he is in the presence of strong dark magic or another evil demonic entity or both. This happened during a side quest when my party tried to stop such an entity from entering their reality and was suddenly attacked by my character. Another time when I took on the role of DM, my character fell under the control of the demon again and could only be returned to his former self through a pact with a goddess who would now help him suppress the demon's influence in exchange for certain services. In theory that would make my character a warlock except that his "patron" doesn't grant special powers other then a greater resistance against the demon.
3:27 image if like when your character got possessed you were still in control but the dm prompts you to play as the ghost not your player character and if you do something the ghost wouldn't do but you're player character would then you get some kinda penalty representing the strain of your characters mind fighting back the possession. Like you take damage or a stat is temporarily lower, like charisma, dexterity or wisdom something that shows how shaken up your character is at the end of this encounter
6:32 same wave length!
It wasn't quite the same, but there was a fun thing somewhere between this and the style of cursed items you made another video about, when a player in a Blades in the Dark game I was in got a cursed sword that marked her character as the champion of a Forgotten God called the Conqueror. It was a big buff but every time he used it it ticked a clock towards the Conqueror making him its avatar. The GM said that wouldn't have been a game over for the PC, but the player decided her character wasn't on board with that and we developed a ritual to break the sword's hold, and the GM let me take the reigns for the mini-session where that played out. He hadn't even planned it to be a fight but was cool with it when I turned it into a duel between the cutter, fighting with blades that were supernaturally anathema to the Conqueror because they were gifted to him by people he saved from a demon, against the Conqueror's manifestation wearing his face and wielding the cursed sword. And because of an absolutely perfect bit of the dice playing along with some drama, the fight ended with him accepting a trauma to stop the blade from stealing his lifeforce destroying it for good and removing the Conqueror's only foothold in the world.
Makeup is on point, love your videos. Keep it up :)
You could also do posession in a 'death saves' style where each round the plauer rolls, on a save they are in control, on a fail they are not - first to 3 wins control of the meat bag.
Higher stakes you say? A win doesn't eject the passenger, but they are subdued for 1 day, but they may attempt posession again at any time after 24 hours (which PCs only know with lore)
I adore your look for this video! That makeup is awesome, and the pentagram top is too good!
I had a player get possessed right at the end of a session because he was staying to fight and distract the enemies as the rest of the party run away from an encounter that they were absolutely not prepared for. I chose to possess his character since it was either that or kill his character since he was left alone in this dangerous situation.
I quickly wrapped up the session and asked him to create a temporary new character as the next session will be a rescue mission. He made a cleric with the spells necessary to force a ghost out and it even narratively fit that the party hired him for a day to help exorcise their friend.
They had to journey back into dungeon with a new plan since they’ve seen the place before and they rescued the original PC. It made for a really fun experience even using official possession rules
I found an old Dungeon Article for allowing fiends to possess Mortals as well. We only ever see demons and devils fully materially manifested, but it's certainly possible to have a spirit form fmof them hanging out around their talisman, etc.
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Loved this episode!
And I absolutely adored the outfit!!
I am a really big fan of having the player fighting back in a different realm!
I imagine some of this advice could work for doppelgängers as well, such as a situation where the real version of the character is stuck in some sort of mirror dimension while the doppelgänger takes their place. You probably would need to have a sidebar convo with the affected player so that they're okay with it, and have an incentive to go along with the ruse, such as a reward the player can earn if they accomplish certain tasks while avoiding suspicion, with the rarity of that reward increasing for however long the player can avoid being discovered.