Bay 12 Games Forum

Or maybe "Possessive Ghosts," but that seemed more confusing.

The idea I have here is that few ghosts should have the ability to interact with the physical world directly, but most would be able to do so indirectly, by possessing objects and maybe people.

1. Possessing Corpses:
Ghosts could possess corpses and body parts, ideally their own. They would then be able to interact with the fortress as though they were rotting, probably missing-several-pieces dwarves. This could be Fun, if only for the miasma. It opens up a bunch of possibilities, from sufficiently happy ghosts returning to work more and enjoy the fortress (assuming they STAY happy, and woe betide us if they don't...), to the bones and spirits of the dead warriors of the fortress returning to arms to fight some deadly force before returning to their rest, to the ghosts of dead invaders possessing their old bodies or random body parts of random animals or whatever to aid a siege. To say nothing of if a dead baron's body is possessed by an angry peasant to make amends for hurts sustained in life...Or, better yet, if someone possessed the dead body of a titan/dragon/etc worshiped as a god...

2. Possessing Objects:
If a dwarf can't or won't possess an appropriate corpse, all sorts of other options might be available. A dwarf that just wants to be with its loved ones might possess a figurine and walk around to find them; a dead soldier whose body is unavailable might possess a statue to attack the enemies of a fortress (bonus if it was a bronze colossus). Dwarves could theoretically possess all kinds of objects. A dead moody dwarf might possess a rock or a bar of metal or something, moving it and maybe hopping from object to object, until made into something, permanently binding its spirit. (Moody dwarves might prefer possessed crafting materials, which could get interesting if you Planepacked them.) Elves who died at your fort might make a last stand against your use of wood by binding their spirits to logs, which are, again, permanently bound to anything you make out of them. (Please consider the uses of filing your dormitory with beds literally full of the vengeful but impotent spirits of elves trying uselessly to convince you of your Wrong Ways, and don't just burn them. That might release the spirit, anyway.) Dead kobolds might possess gems or crafts or whatever, which then try to roll or slither or whatever off the map. Vengeful goblins might possess the weapons or ammunition of your dwarves, requiring exorcism or powerful-willed dwarves to deal with. Conversely, dead dwarven soldiers might possess the gear of living dwarves to lend them advice in battles, temporarily increasing their skill and helping them learn faster. Once tools like metalsmiths' hammers and masons' chisels and such are implemented, they might be possessed by dead master artisans; until then, workshops might be. Naturally, dwarves might possess their own artifact on death, or a named weapon, leading to the voices of dead dwarves giving advice to the living.

3. Possessing Creatures
This is where it gets fun. A possessed creature, depending on its will and the intentions of the possessor, might be almost unaffected but with the knowledge the possessor had, or completely controlled with his memories open to the possessor, or somewhere in between. Obviously, all kinds of dead soldiers might possess living ones, whether their own or the enemy's, although only champions would have any reason to possess their own recruits. A lonely child or whatever might possess a dog or other animal, which could be cute, and interesting if the ghost could get possessed by a mood...Dead kobolds might possess children, causing them to steal stuff, run away, and get captured by kobolds, who might use them as thieves against you in the future. Dead goblin snatchers might possess children to kidnap babies and run, catching two or more kids in one fell swoop. A dead dragon might possess a dwarf to try and get revenge, then repeat when he tries to path off a cliff and kills his host. A dead dwarf might possess a dragon, and try to get people to worship it. The possibilities are endless, even before considering vermin...which could be eaten by cats, or even starving dwarves...

4. Other:
Creatures could possess areas, causing interactions in those areas. A necromancer that dies might possess the area nearby and reanimate any bodies in that area as long as they stayed there. A dead elf might possess an area of woodland, giving advice to passing adventurers and animating trees to act as guardians when needed. A dead miner might possess areas where noob miners are working, to help them mine better. Or maybe that last one's not such a good idea.
Elves, and maybe other creatures, could possess plants. A massive, motile oak would be terrifying, although if it chose to uproot a kobold bulb instead, that would be...pathetic.
Possessing mechanical devices seems possible, whether it's a bored dead pump operator giving random machinery a spin (possibly triggering your complex water-based trap, possibly powering something useful) or a dead berzerk dwarf possessing random levers/pressure plates/etc and triggering the randomly, or possessing doors/bridges/etc and making them open or close randomly...
I'm not sure how these would be implemented, but possessing fluids and natural features seems cool.


Any other ideas for possession? Any of my ideas you don't like? Etc? It just seems weird to end a suggestion with the end of the suggestion, for some reason...

Quote from: GreatWyrmGold on December 21, 2011, 08:55:15 pm

radiuses and unlas

Typo's galore!

Radii, as radius stems from the latin directly... And that's a !!FUN!! way to spell Ulna's

Sorry, grammar is a sticking point with me D:

It's okay. I myt mayl a fyew tyops, espeshly when maykin gokes abowt my speling.

What about biome related civs?

Evil biome - > Evil civ
Savage Desert biome - > An army of legendary bowmen riding atop legendary bowmen giant scorpions?

Sounds Fun! Except that GDSs can't learn, IIRC.

Quote

So you say we need humans as an "average?" Makes sense, except that currently humans are the largest of all civilized races.

That true, Wyrmie?  Largest, you say.  In your world, there, or all the time?  After we generate DF, we pick an embark location, that if we tab, prior to hitting e for embark can see the likelihood of our neighbors.  In some regions, humans don't even show up.  And in others, its Dwarf, Human, Elf, Goblin, as opposed to Dwarf, Goblin, Elf.  Or just Dwarf, Goblin.  It all depends on your starting conditions, location.  It always has Dwarf in the mix I noticed, otherwise I doubt Toady's story, plot points would develop, as our fortress advanced.

A. Check the raws. Human size: 70,000. Dwarf, elf, and goblin size: 60,000. Kobold size: 20,000, IIRC.
B. Of course there are always dwarves, YOU'RE the dwarves!

I never meant to imply we need humans to be an average race, with average roles.  That's how Dungeon and Dragons portrays them, I just meant to say, we need humans, if we don't have them, another race will fill their role, in many cases the average role.  Many gamers tend to min max, or leverage themselves to take advantage of the most powerful strategy.  If that is average, then I guess thats what would be enjoyable to the most people.  However, flexibility seems to be the greatest evolutionary strategy for success.  That and jaw size and crunch.

I think I misunderstood you. I also think you're saying the same thing I thought you were saying earlier, though, so I'm not sure what to think.

Quote from: Loud Whispers on January 02, 2012, 09:34:30 pm

Humans aren't these pigs to be preyed on, they're weird iron clad creatures that tower over your average Dorf

I agree. But I wouldn't use weird.  There are many similarities.  I imagine Dorf breed for shortness and fullhairedness.  Some scientists say the wolf devolved into a pink poodle in just one generation, of living with us and eating slum pile gourmets.

Either you're exaggerating or those scientists should not be allowed anywhere near somewhere they might accidentally interfere with actual science. Wolves did slowly "self-domesticate," in the sense that they made themselves less fearful of humans to feed off of refuse piles, but it was human breeding that turned them into "pink poodles," and the changes took many generations, not just one.

Could humans have devolved from dorfs in just one generation, by simply eating dorf refuse?  Makes me scratch my head.  And what is a generation, to an elf?  Infinity? 

Sincerely,
Knutor

A. ...What? Humans "devolve" from dwarves by eating dwarf refuse? First off, "devolve" is not a particularly scientific term. Or a scientific term at all, to my knowledge. Second off, the way you put it, it sounds like dwarves turned into humans by eating their own garbage.
B. An elven generation is the average time from birth to having one's first child. Same as any other race.


Hm...maybe humans would be the "pragmatic" race, while elves and dwarves have their own belief systems about what to use, goblins follow their leaders, and kobolds don't follow much of anything?

Quote from: Loud Whispers on January 03, 2012, 12:11:57 am

A dwarf vampire that drinks booze with a preference for blood would be a great way to disguise vampirism

Better if it did it whilst stealthed.

But, but... Zey do not drink... Mushroom vine...

Joke aside, Vampires definately need to be more or less invisible to you when they do illegal vampire stuff.

Or else normal dwarves need to do "vampire" stuff as well.

Quote from: Dwarvinator on January 04, 2012, 04:10:12 am

Are this Curator's methods too harsh? Any suggestions warmly received.

Please never use the word "too" in this forum again.

Why not? Too many elves. Too many demons. Too many hostiles. Too much Fun. It fits!

I shudder to remember 'that' Mayor. Trembling, corpulently with rage before me, in her tattered robes - demanding platinum items, yet again. "But we don't have any platinum available, your Modomship." I would groan. Well, she wanted the platinum baubles, that was an end to it. I considered putting an end to her - by dark means - but was halted on learning she was a mother of six.

The metalcrafter took the rap, of course. Took a hiding that broke his liver. Poor guy, and then he was remorselessly dragged from his bed in the ER to do his porridge in a poorly designed Gaol. That possibly hastened his demise. Even so, the Mayor in question is still in good health two years on.

I have now been inspired by a miserable dwarf whom I fear may be the cause of some future discontent in the community, perhaps even civil unrest! I am creating the Long Range Dwarf Patrol, which will be modeled on a Napoleonic-era punishment battallion. The members of this unit will be compelled to attack hordes of goblins, or large monsters, dependent on availability - with broom handles. Or at least ordered to a position that would lead to them being cornered nicely by said beastie(s).

Are this Curator's methods too harsh? Any suggestions warmly received.

You let her live? Good job. I'd have killed the mayor without a second thought if it wasn't for her family. Everyone else would find themselves testing my newest System for Executing Migrants and Extra Nuisances...maybe I shouldn't make this an acronym, on second thought...

...For several separate categories, which anyone could add entries to at any time until midnight, 12/31/11? (Or would it be midnight, 1/1/12?) I'm all for dwarfy, but this is pushing it.

Although about 2 seconds, tops, after I hit post, I realised that it would probably have been a good idea if I had set it up a bit differently...there's always next year.

From the diary of Wyrmsgold:

This fortress is a rather interesting place. It seems to have mastered design techniques that evade the rest of the empire. Personally, I hope that my superiors will not destroy it. I think it would be in our interest to merely infiltrate the fort's leadership, then rule it from the shadows, to the benifet of all.
I don't think my view is widely shared.

Erm...the spoiler...I changed it...or did I?

I would like a mousillian without any useful skills nicknamed Wyrmsgold the Great. He's coming here to try at a better life, but refuses to share his true name.