Soulshaper

Copyright (C) 2023, ghobo

A Collaborative Character Writing Game

You were once a great hero or an unparalleled evildoer in ages past.

Your deeds have immortalized your spirit in the unseen records of the world.

After thousands of yours, as bloods and magics intermingle, the successors of your blood have converged into one individual.

And your spirit once in a slumbering state has strangely awoken alongside the birth of this individual.

You remember in your past there was a great goal you wanted to achieve, yet you fell short in spite of your greatness that has now been long forgotten due to the vicissitudes of time.

You realise you have considerable power to shape the soul of this individual, to inherit your great power or find your treasures, and should they be sufficiently aligned with you at a point, you may be able to wrest control of this individual and their descendants for a period of time in order to enact your ultimate goal.

You are a Soulshaper.

But you realise you are not alone with this individual within this vessel....

Two to three players will shape the design of 1 individual and their backstory.

Character Creation

Each player will first design their own character - the hero, demon lord or demigod of legend.

There are a few points that the player must cover:

1. Their appearance
2. 3 words for each aspect of their personality
3. Their alignment (Chaotic Neutral etc)
4. 2d2 epic feats they accompished in their time (will be used to detail the setting)
5. 2d2 epic treasures that they owned, and where they last left them
6. 2d2 great powers that they had
7. 2d2 buildings or structures they made their domicile or holding
8. Any descendants they left behind, or any legacies of power that they left behind with the intention of overwhelming an individual to inherit their will
9. How they died

Once each player is done, they will design their Chosen One, who have awakened their spirit from slumber.

The GM will first randomly pick traits from each character created, and then present it to the players.

The Chosen One will have a weakened version of some of the powers of the each player.

Each player will then have 3 points with which to change any part of the character they wish to change.

Players who want to change the same of 1 aspect will have to contest with one another using opposing 1d6 rolls (roll until higher wins)

The Chosen One's Backstory

The players will then be involved in creating a summary of the chosen one's backstory.

Each player will have 3 points with which to change a randomly rolled part of the backstory.

Other players may then spend points to compound the change, and only add their own spin to the backstory, not remove any part or the backstory.

Infancy

Therys was born an orphan, abandoned by her wench mother, and was left to fend for himself.

=> Player A may influence this outcome by having him for example:

- Therys was born into a loving family of mercenaries

- ... Therys was then strangely adopted by wolves and brought up in the wild

=> Player B compounds the change with 1 point

- When Therys grew bigger, the wolves sought to eat him, but he fought and killed them.

Childhood

Catheia's family was attacked by brigands and slain.

Player A: 

Catheia's family was attacked by brigands, but she training with her uncle and sheer luck led her to slay one of them which caused the brigands to flee.

Player B: 

Seeing the brigand bleed as she cut off his leg awakened a strange desire in Catheia to cleave flesh and draw blood from others.

There are a total of 3 stages of the Chosen One's backstory in total.

Infancy > Childhood > Youth

The Chosen One's Quest

After Youth, the Chosen One enters adulthood, and will have an objective.

This objective is formed from an inference of the backstory and world events inferred by the GM.

The Players' objective will be to lead the Chosen One to places they think they can have the Chosen One regain some of their powers or treasures.

For each fragment of power of treasure (split into 3 pieces each) that the Chosen One regains, the Player gets 2 spirit points, which they can use either to temporarily assume more of their power in the Chosen One, or to affect some external forces with more spirit points, or overrule the manipulation of other Soulshapers sharing the vessel with them.

At any point during the Chosen One's Quest, each Player may make a competing 1d6 roll against the Chosen One (rolled on behalf by the GM). 

If they roll higher or equals to the Chosen One, they can influence the action to their benefit and in alignment with their character in a way that still keeps in line with the overall personailty of the chosen one.

Other Players may try to contest this roll by rolling equals or higher against the contester.

Every time a player fails to win a contest, they gain a karmic point which they can use to add to their roll, in future contests to prevent excessive one-sidedness due to luck (lol)

The Chosen One's Lifespan

Each adventure will take around 5 years, and the Chosen One's lifespan is limited.

If the Chosen One dies before leaving any descendants, it is game over for the players.

In order to ensure the continuation of their influence, they will have to egg the Chosen One to find a suitor during some point in their journey. The choice of the Chosen One's partner may influence how much each Player has influence over the Chosen One's descendants.

When the Chosen One eventually dies, the Chosen One's will, powers and some treasure is passed on to one of the descendants, which the Players will have to contest over.

The Soulshaper's Goal

The Soulshaper has a goal that they need to achieve.

This is usually a nearly impossible goal, such as killing a God, or ascending to divinity, or destroying an empire, or conquering the world.

To do this, the Soulshaper will need to manifest in the world again this can be done in a few ways:

Gather all the treasures and powers of the Soulshaper and carrying out feats similar to them

Finding extremely rare treasure that allows the Soulshaper to assume flesh

Forcefully trying to take control of the Chosen One's body when the Chosen One's soul is at risk

Should any of the Soulshaper's manage to manifest in the world again, they can thereafter dictate the ending or leave it up to the GM to conclude the session.