Astral Plane / Spirit World / Immaterial Realm

“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter!”  – Jedi Master Yoda

The astral plane, spirit world, or immaterial realm are all synonyms for the same thing.  In short, it is the transcendent, luminescent, world that lays just behind the physical reality that normal people see & feel every day.  It is often the source of magic.  Further reading if you need more info on what we’re trying to describe here.

This system directly addresses and codifies the rules for this spirit realm, and how it interacts with the physical world.  While the details of the setting-specific version of your spirit realm may differ, these rules will provide a framework to keep it all from getting out of hand in your game.

The “Nearest” Plane of Existence

The physical world and spirit world are so “close” together that they can, and do, interact with each other regularly.

Your setting may have dozens of planes of existence, but these rules only apply to the plane of existence “nearest” to the normal, physical, world.

What The Spirit World Contains

Auras, Spirits, Emotions, Mana, Meaning, & Magic

The astral plane is radiant with auras.  All living things generate their own aura.  Emotions can change the look & feel of an aura.  Magic generates an aura, whether the magic is on a person, place, or thing.  Steps can be taken to conceal an aura, usually by using powers.  Some non-magical objects may gain an aura if a living thing invests a lot of time & emotion into them.  A beloved book may have its own aura, being invested with meaning & emotion by a reader who has read it over and over again.

Settings Will Differ

Not all settings describe their spirit world in terms of auras, mana, and magic.  The mechanics for the spirit world are treated the same, regardless of setting specific descriptions.

Physical Objects

In the astral plane, as perceived via the Spiritual Awareness skill, physical objects which lack a magical or emotional aura of their own look dark & hazy.  Lacking detail & substance, physical objects seem less real here, and in some cases can be passed through by immaterial objects & entities.

Reading a book, watching a television, or knowing what color shirt someone is wearing is impossible with Spiritual Awareness alone.

Spiritual Awareness

In this system, Spiritual Awareness is a skill.  Physical Awareness is also a skill, but the two have very little in common.  You might roll a Physical Awareness test to see that someone is wearing colored contact lenses, eavesdrop on a conversation, or spot an enemy sniper.  Spiritual Awareness is rarely so precise or mundane.  Those with a low dicepool for Spiritual Awareness  will rarely garner more than vague feelings & strange intuitions.  Those with mastery of spiritual  awareness can use it to navigate difficult situations involving supernatural & powerful entities & locations.

“Astral Perception” is a synonym for “Spiritual Awareness”, and the two may be used interchangeably.

Spiritual Senses

No physical senses are required for spiritual awareness.  A blind & deaf person with total loss of sensation would still be capable of spiritual awareness. You may describe things in terms of seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.  All of those things are analogous to spiritual awareness.  Your descriptions of spiritual senses should match whatever setting you’re playing in.

Things Spiritual Awareness Is Good For

• Identifying the nature of a person or spirit
  • Whether or not they are gifted with magic
  • What powers they possess
  • What powers they’re currently using
• Identifying places of power, ley lines, etc.
• Identifying magically enchanted items or equipment
• Judging someone’s emotional state
• Discerning whether someone is being possessed or otherwise influenced by magic

Things Spiritual Awareness Can’t Do

• Read books
• Watch TV/screens
• Read minds (although it can tell you their general emotional state)

Spiritual Awareness Tests

Most tests for Spiritual Awareness will be ((Mental) + (Spiritual Awareness) +/- Modifiers).

Spiritual Awareness Common Test Tables

Hits needed are noted as “net hits needed” due to the possibility of care being taken to conceal the nature of the object being scrutinized with spiritual awareness.

Astral Projection

Detach your spirit from your body and go explore the astral plane!

This is a power linked to the Spiritual Awareness skill.  Your spirit-body is treated the same way as any other immaterial spirit in this system, and must follow the same basic rules as any other immaterial spirit.

There are a number of pros & cons to astral projection (certain powers, such as Materialize or Possession, may change these):

• Pros
  • You move at the “speed of thought”
    • In terms of the system, you have 2 Speed (can move 2 spaces per 1 simple action).
  • You’re undetectable to physical awareness
• Cons
  • Your body is left behind, unconscious.
    • Without returning to your body, you are totally unaware of anything happening to it.
      • You wouldn’t feel it if someone stabbed you.
      • It’s usually best to have a trustworthy babysitter for your body.
  • Your body is left vulnerable to any nearby spirit with the possession power.  They may possess your body with no contested roll.
  • Spiritual Awareness is your only method for perceiving the world.
    • This can be problematic, as Spiritual Awareness lacks details of mundane physical objects.
      • You could tell that something is a sword, or a book, but you wouldn’t be able to read it or make out engraved markings.

Magical Locations

Locations can have a variety of things that make them interesting to view on the astral plane.  This can include anything from the location asset mods list.  It can also include changes to the location’s aura & leylines, caused by highly emotional or traumatic events, such as a grisly murder.

Leylines & Places of Power

Leylines are flows of mana across the geography of the world, somewhat similar to rivers.  Where multiple leylines meet, you get a place of power.

Exploring & mapping the leylines of an area may lead to discoveries of wondrous locations. Like rivers, leylines can be redirected, given enough time and effort.  Also like rivers, leylines can be polluted and poisoned.  This can ruin places of power, even making them into nexus’ that drain mana instead of restoring it.

More reading on leylines at TVTropes & Wikipedia.

Spirits

Spirits are native to the astral plane.  Most are naturally immaterial, and must use powers to interact with the material world.  Your setting may have a huge variety of spirits in it.  Here is a brief list of common things that could be treated as spirits in this system:

• Ghosts
• Demons
• Angels
• Fae / Fair Folk
• Elementals
• Gods

Spirit Rules

Spirits are characters like any other.  They follow most of the same rules that other characters follow, with exceptions noted below.  Most spirits have cares, like any NPC, although their cares may be incredibly alien, strange, or irrelevant to the player characters.

Most spirits have very limited methods for interacting with the material world; usually just a power or two.

Spirit Movement

Materialized spirits follow all the same rules for movement as physical characters do.

Immaterial spirits have some special rules regarding movement.  For clarity, we’ll elucidate the important similarities and differences:

• An immaterial spirit cannot fly unless it has a flight power.
• An immaterial spirit cannot pass through solid earth any more easily than a physical body could.
• An immaterial spirit may pass through walls and closed doors.
  • Some types of magic & location asset mods can prevent this.
• An immaterial spirit has a natural Speed of 2.
  • They may move 2 spaces per simple action instead of 1.
  • They lose this speed bonus if they materialize or possess.

The Materialize Power

Spirits with the Materialize power can use it to become fully material, which allows them to interact with the material world as much as they want.

Materializing is not without risk, though, as a materialized spirit can be acted upon by other material things, including mundane weaponry.

Materialized spirits can be seen, heard, and felt in the same manner as any physical person could be.

Materialized spirits are obviously supernatural.  No one would mistake a materialized spirit as being a normal, physical, mundane, person.  The Realistic Material Form power changes this.

The Manifestation Power

Similar to the Materialize power, the Manifestation power allows spirits to reveal themselves on the material plane, but does not actually make them material, mitigating some of the risks taken by materializing.

While a manifested spirit cannot perform physical actions, they are able to be seen, heard, & felt by people using physical awareness.  This means that a manifested spirit can perform social actions on people who lack Spiritual Awareness.

Manifested spirits are obviously supernatural.  They are also obviously insubstantial; no one would think that they could successfully attack one with a mundane weapon.  The Realistic Material Form power prevents you from seeming obviously supernatural, but it does not prevent you from appearing insubstantial; you might look like a hologram projection or something.

The Possession Power

The possession power allows a spirit to take over and use the body of a living person, dead person, or animal.

During possession, you can interact with the physical world in the same manner as the body you’re possessing could.

During possession, you use the Physical attribute of the spirit doing the possessing.  You do not use the Physical attribute of the possessed victim.  You could view this as imperfect control of a strange body, but it is also a game balance thing.

This power lasts as long as you sustain it, or until you are exorcised or incapacitated.

Requisites of Possession

Possession requires a state of being in which you are a disembodied spirit.  There are multiple powers that can grant you this state: Astral Projection, Disembodied Spirit, Become Spirit-Stuff, Astral Gate.

Possession requires your full attention; you cannot control 2 bodies at once.

Taking possession of a body requires about an hour of work.  This time can be cut down to a single complex action with the Quick Possession power.

Dead bodies are easy to possess.  The only way you can fail to possess a dead body is if there is magic explicitly preventing possession, such as holy wards or charms.

Bodies of people who are currently Astrally Projecting are as easy to possess as a dead body is.  Although, you may have to fight when the original owner returns home and finds his body has been stolen.

Live bodies require much more work to possess than dead bodies do.  You cannot possess a live body unless it is incapacitated or consenting.  In most cases, it is just easier to kill someone and then possess their corpse.

Plugin: Tech Possession

Some settings simply do not have spirit possession as a possibility.  Many such settings will be in the sci-fi genre.  In these settings, the ability to “possess” technology can be achieved through hacking.

When using this plugin, reduce the buy cost of all possession related powers by 2.

Plugin: Easy-To-Possess Minions

The GM may rule that minions are very easy to possess, requiring no more effort than a dead body does.  The GM can enact and veto this optional rule on a whim.  The GM does need to inform a player when they can use this optional rule.

Detecting Possession

Live Bodies:

If the possessing spirit lacks a Masking power, you can detect that a spirit is possessing someone with an uncontested (Mental) + (Spiritual Awareness) test with a difficulty of 2.  With a Masking power, it becomes a contested roll.

Dead Bodies:

In addition to all the ways you can detect possession of a living body, dead bodies offer more detection vectors.  Some dead bodies will be so obviously dead that no one could mistake them for a living body.  Less obviously dead bodies can be spotted with an uncontested (Mental) + (Medicine) roll, with a difficulty set by the GM.  If care is taken to disguise the body, a contested roll against the person doing the disguising makes sense.

Possession As Disguise

Wearing another person’s body is an effective disguise.

If someone cannot detect possession via Spiritual Awareness (listed above), they have very limited options for penetrating your “disguise”.

If they know your possession victim well, they can use sense motives actions on you to detect your cares, which may clue them in that your personality does not belong to the body you’re wearing.

Extremely strange behavior can also give you away.

The Combat Possession Power

This power allows you to initiate a grapple using your (Mental) + (Spiritual Awareness) + (Weapon rating) dicepool instead of a Close Combat dicepool.

This is a melee attack. You must be a disembodied spirit to use this power, such as when you are using the Astral Projection power. 

You can use this power without being materialized.

Test: (Mental) + (Spiritual Awareness) + (Weapon rating) vs (Defense, which can include Shrewdness, Self-Control, Dodge, Parry, & Soak)

Combat Possession does not have the same pre-requisites that normal possession has.  You do not need to incapacitate your enemy in order to use this power; that would obviate the power.

The Lesser Possession Power

A lesser form of possession. Instead of taking over and controlling a body, you’re just along for the ride.

You can use social actions against the victim of this power.

No one else can easily detect that you’re using social actions against your victim.

You cannot interact with the physical world with this power alone.

Lesser Possession does not have all of the requirements that normal Possession has; your victim doesn’t have to be incapacitated or consenting.  If you are currently using Lesser Possession on a victim, and you have the normal Possession power, you may seize opportunities to use the full Possession power on them, such as when they become incapacitated.

Test: (Mental) + (Spiritual Awareness) vs (Shrewdness or Self-Control)

This power lasts as long as you sustain it, or until you are exorcised or incapacitated.

Dealing With Immaterial Spirits

Driving immaterial spirits away can be achieved in a number of ways:

• Other immaterial spirits can act on them, attacking them or similar.
• If your weapon has the Spirit Slayer mod, you can simply attack an immaterial spirit until it is incapacitated and destroyed.
  • If the immaterial spirit is possessing someone with the Possession or Lesser Possession powers, you can still attack them, but the body they are possessing will take an equal amount of damage.
• The Exorcism power can be used to combat & control spirits (both material & immaterial).
• Social actions can be used on immaterial spirits.

The Masking Power AKA Spiritual Stealth

“I sense something, a presence I’ve not felt since…” – Darth Vader

If you want to avoid the same fate as Obi-wan Kenobi, you may wish to conceal your presence from those who possess sharp Spiritual Awareness.

The Masking power allows you to conceal your presence on the Astral Plane.  This is a passive power.  A character with this power automatically and unconsciously conceals their magical, spiritual, presence.  Although, they can choose to reveal themselves when they wish to.

This power is not linked with any particular skill.

This power creates a contested roll when there would not normally be one.  Without this power, a user of Spiritual Awareness only needs 1 successes on their (Mental + Spiritual Awareness) roll to detect that there is a spirit nearby.  You can be detected from up to [Potency Attribute] Kilometres away.

The dicepool for the Masking power can be calculated with a number of Attribute & Skill pairings.  The dicepool for any one character always defaults to the highest of the possible pairings.

Test: (Social + Mental) OR (Shrewdness) OR (Self-Control) OR (Mental + Spiritual Awareness)  OR  ((Physical OR  Social OR Mental) + (Stealth)) VS. (Mental + Spiritual Awareness)

GM Tip: Masking

As the GM, you probably want to either roll on behalf of the player, or simply grant them automatic successes equal to half their dicepool.  The player isn’t supposed to know someone may detect them.