Rules Questions

Actually, you're right: nowhere in Geist does it say that each ceremony is a separate Merit.  In fact, the final paragraph of the Merit's write-up states that a ceremony is purchased with experience in a manner not unlike how a werewolf would spend experience for a rite or a mage would spend experience for a rote.  In fact, once you've determined your starting allotment of ceremonies, the Merit no longer does anything; it doesn't even act as a cap to the number of dots that subsequent ceremonies acquired through experience can have.  It doesn't matter how much it would cost to improve the Ceremonies Merit, since there's no point in improving it. 

Exactly. I always thought of them as Geist's Rite counterpart.

Dataweaver:

Actually, you're right: nowhere in Geist does it say that each ceremony is a separate Merit.  In fact, the final paragraph of the Merit's write-up states that a ceremony is purchased with experience in a manner not unlike how a werewolf would spend experience for a rite or a mage would spend experience for a rote.  In fact, once you've determined your starting allotment of ceremonies, the Merit no longer does anything; it doesn't even act as a cap to the number of dots that subsequent ceremonies acquired through experience can have.  It doesn't matter how much it would cost to improve the Ceremonies Merit, since there's no point in improving it. 

I've always assumed each Ceremony counts as an individual, fixed-rate merit (though you can increase the merit rating by one in order to customise the effect somewhat.)

Reread the Ceremonies Merit:

1. "This Merit represents the number of ceremonies (see page 150) that a Sin-Eater knows and can perform. A character beginning play with three dots of Ceremonies might know three one-dot ceremonies, one one-dot and one two-dot ceremony, or a single three-dot ritual."

2. "When purchasing new ceremonies with experience points, they aren’t treated as expansions of this Merit. Learning a new ceremony costs 2 experience points per dot, or three per dot if the character has no instructor available and must devise it on her own."  Note the first sentence. 

There is a single Ceemonies Merit that determines your initial allotment of ceremonies (rather than one Merit per ceremony), and the Merit becomes meaningless once you get past character creation. 

...hmmm. My Reaper needs some serious restructuring, then.

Why not treat the Merit as the highest dot-rating of Ceremony that can be bought after character creation?

These may be some possible dumb questions but here they go (and if the answers to them were posted already I'm sorry) :

- If an unfettered geist dies does he leave a deathmask behind? It seems that the keystone is given to the Bound as a sign of the Bargain but doesn't it already exist inside the Geist before that?

- The character creation example and Psyche table don't seem to match very well concerning max plasm pools? Is this an error or I'm missing something?

Thanks in advance, guys. :)

Thanks for all good questions and answers so far.

 I have a question regarding Phantasmal Marionette. For the second dot it's mentioned that a maximum of 2 dots may be added to an attribute. Does this hold true regardless if I have 2 or 5 dots in the Phantasmal Marionette Manifestation? Some interpret this as +2 per level of manifestation. Which is it?

jrnmariano:

If an unfettered geist dies does he leave a deathmask behind?

Yes.

jrnmariano:

The character creation example and Psyche table don't seem to match very well concerning max plasm pools?

Use the chargen table.

Also, the book talks about how Geister have anchors and, depending on how many they have, are more or less human. However, it also talks about becoming a Geist being a way of avoiding falling into the Underworld once all your anchors are resolved. Am I missing something?

Crabbadon:

Also, the book talks about how Geister have anchors and, depending on how many they have, are more or less human. However, it also talks about becoming a Geist being a way of avoiding falling into the Underworld once all your anchors are resolved. Am I missing something?

Becoming a Geist creates an anchor that is not a tangible object - it is an idea, an archetype, a concept, which prevents the Geist from falling and gives them a more elemental strength that allows them to claw their way up and find a potential Sin-Eater. Also, the keystone memento can act as a failsafe anchor if all others are resolved or destroyed.

Here's one:
Supposedly, invoking your Archetype and your Virtue (or Vice) refills plasm AND willpower to full (or just adds 1.)
Isn't this horribly unbalanced? I have Psyche 2, only just begun, plasm of 6 currently. Should invoking my archetype and virtue jack me all the way up to 18? Because that is 'full'.

GoldMatenes:

Becoming a Geist creates an anchor that is not a tangible object - it is an idea, an archetype, a concept, which prevents the Geist from falling and gives them a more elemental strength that allows them to claw their way up and find a potential Sin-Eater. Also, the keystone memento can act as a failsafe anchor if all others are resolved or destroyed.

That doesn't really answer my question though. I want to know if they retain physical anchors which determine how human they remain, and if so, why it goes on about becoming Geister stopping them from falling into the underworld if they still have these anchors anyway.

Crabbadon:

That doesn't really answer my question though. I want to know if they retain physical anchors which determine how human they remain, and if so, why it goes on about becoming Geister stopping them from falling into the underworld if they still have these anchors anyway.

H'OK. So. Geister may remain in the material realm whether or not they retain anchors, and in becoming a Geist, they trade not just anchors but the obsessions relating to those anchors (kinda like Passions from Wraith or nRevenants?) for new and bizarre obsessions, and the thing determining how human they behave is how many of the original obsessions they've kept intact? That about right?

Crabbadon:

H'OK. So. Geister may remain in the material realm whether or not they retain anchors, and in becoming a Geist, they trade not just anchors but the obsessions relating to those anchors (kinda like Passions from Wraith or nRevenants?) for new and bizarre obsessions, and the thing determining how human they behave is how many of the original obsessions they've kept intact? That about right?

Crabbadon:

jrnmariano:

If an unfettered geist dies does he leave a deathmask behind?

Yes.

Thanks for the quick answer. Can unBound folks perceive and pick-up a deathmask?