User:Fwcain/PDQ/DI

These are Franklin's "house rules" and other notes specifically involving Dead Inside, including how to integrate it with PDQ Sharp.

Mundanes
A Mundane (aka "Average Person" in "DI") is one of the unenlightened, someone who is blissfully ignorant and unaware of the spiritual cosmos.

A Mundane who has his veil of ignorance removed from his eyes and becomes truly aware of the existence of the spirit realms -- one who has actually experienced contact with the spiritual cosmos -- can become one of the Enlightened, if this enlightenment came in a relatively peaceful manner. Unfortunately, the means of enlightenment are all too often far from peaceful -- in fact, they are most often traumatic, resulting in grievous spiritual harm to the person, causing him to become one of the Half-Souled...

In game terms, "Mundane" is Pseudo-Gift automatically given to the overwhelming majority of characters in the game. As such, the player (if any) of that character does not actually have this "Gift" on their character sheet, and is not able to utilize this "Gift" for any purpose (e.g.: damage absorption). It exists only for the GM's use.

Half-Souled
A Half-Souled person (aka "Dead Inside" in "DI") is someone who has become painfully aware of the spiritual cosmos, often times as the result of a traumatic encounter with one of the predatory horrors lurking the spirit realms.

Presuming the Half-Souled is able to heal his spiritual injuries, he can become one of the Enlightened. In game terms, "Half-Souled" is a Gift, and the improvement of this Gift tracks the character's spiritual restoration. Once the character has improved this Gift the Master [+6] Rank, the next such promotion will actually grant the new Gift "Enlightened" at Average [+0] Rank.

Enlightened
An Enlightened person (aka "Sensitive" in "DI") is someone who is not only aware of the spiritual cosmos, but is capable of interacting with the Spirit Realms.

Through study, meditation, and good deeds, an Enlightened can eventually ascend to the next higher level of spiritual awakening. In game terms, once the character has improved this Gift the Master [+6] Rank, the next such promotion will actually grant the new Gift "Magi" at Average [+0] Rank.

Magi
"Paging Doctor Strange. Doctor Stephen Strange, please..."

(Technically, the proper singular term for one of the Magi would be "Magus". However, we will be using "Magi" for both the singular and the plural.)

Shadow Points
Any time the character is to suffer a loss of "Soul Points" (as per the rules in Dead Inside as written), he instead receives an equal number of Shadow Points.

Shadow Points will be used as a specialized version of Training Points, solely for "improving" the Pseudo-Gift "Corrupted Soul".

Corrupted Soul
This Pseudo-Gift will track the character's spiritual digression. When the character earns (or re-earns; see below) his first Rank in this Pseudo-Gift, it starts off at Average [+0] Rank. Once the character has spiritually devolved completely (i.e.: once this Pseudo-Gift has been improved all the way to Master [+6] Rank and the character has enough Shadow Points to promote that Pseudo-Gift once more), he becomes one of the Qlippoth.

The player can, however, save his character from this doom, by repairing the damage to his soul. In game terms, any time the character improves the Gifts "Half-Souled", "Enlightened", or "Magi", he also gets a demotion in this Pseudo-Gift. And once he gets it down to "Poor [-2] Rank, the next such demotion with remove this Pseudo-Gift entirely! (At least, until he earns it again...)

In case the character has already ascended as high as he can go. he can still repair his soul by means of the same efforts as he once did. In other words, once he has already promoted Magi to Master [+6] Rank, he can still "demote" this Pseudo-Gift by paying the same amount of Training Points as it would have taken to promote Magi another Rank.

Please note that the player of any character having this "Gift" is not able to utilize this "Gift" for any purpose (e.g.: damage absorption). This "Gift" exists only for the GM's use.

Qlippoth
Qlippoth are soul-sucking entities of the void. Any character who becomes a Qlippoth has become a non-player character (NPC) under the control of the Game Master.