Monday, April 8, 2013

G is for Geist: The Sin-Eaters


"We're in the Deathclub/. All free to sin way./ Take your life away/ Membership is pain.
We're in the Deathclub./ All free to sin way./ Take your life away/ Silent, damned, and strange."
William Control - Deathclub

Next to Changeling, my favorite World of Darkness game is Geist: The Sin-Eaters.You could probably guess by the title but Geist is a game about ghosts. However, despite the name "Sin-Eaters" in the title, the game doesn't really have anything to do with the classic concept of sin-eating. If you want to include that in your World of Darkness games you should pick up Vampire: The Requiem Mythologies (which contains a brief section that discussed both moral and vampiric sin-eating).

Characters in Geist are individuals who have did and returned to the living world. Unlike vampires, Sin Eaters (who are referred to as the Bound), aren't undead. They are living beings bound to a Geist, an embodiment of an aspect or personification of death. The two serve have a symbiotic relationship, which allows the Bound to interact with the spirit world. How the Bound deals with their new relationship with ghosts and their second chance at life is up to each individual.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of the game is that means of death (referred to in game as your "Threshold") affects what kind of abilities and perspective a character has. For example a Bound murdered in a dark alley (a Torn) will have very different abilities then someone struck by lighting (whose threshold is Forgotten).

I've only played Geist once at a convention but it was a lot of fun. It can be pricey from most online stores, but Drivethru rpg has it for a reasonable price.

1 comment:

  1. I don't really play tabletop RPGs anymore (though I've toyed with the idea of starting a group a time or two LOL) but if I did, this sounds like the kind of game I could get into :)

    ~ Rhonda Parrish

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