Haunted Feat

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Personally, I'd recommend that the geist only appear when the Haunted character is alone, and not even every time he/she's alone. For one thing, having the NPC geist offer its constant input would detract from the player's autonomy in running the Haunted PC. For another, it'd reduce the spookiness of ghostly phenomena in general, if the geist is constantly tagging along with the whole party, invisibly kibbitzing their actions like Al from Quantum Leap.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Personal taste, I guess. You definitely have to watch it so the geist doesn't become a crutch for the DM to make up for poor adventure design. But the mechanical benefit of the feat, the extra spot check, wouldn't do much if the geist couldn't communicate what he sees 90% of the time because other PCs are there.

I let the geist talk all the time (in the Haunted PC's head of course) because I'm going for the "the voices in my head driving me mad" motif. It helps that my geist isn't a loved one, so he doesn't really care what happens to the PC (beyond his survival), so he doesn't pipe up much.

So, "Watch out, falling rocks!" => yes. "Did you see the blood on his shoes?" => no.

[Guardian of Twilight]

Ok, thank you for all of the clarifications and also for the way everyone uses it in their campaign. I think it'll help out a lot, really.

[lordsathien]

Four words: Turn of the Screw. A governess for two young children begins to suspect that the children are being haunted by malevolent ghosts, but as readers we can never tell if they're actually being haunted or if the governess is just completely off her rocker. There's an excellent Masterpiece Theatre version starring Jodhi May, and another version starring Ingrid Bergman that I hear is even better. It really sounds like exactly what you're looking for.

EDIT: Masterpiece Theatre, not BBC. Argh.

In that sense I suppose Pan's Labyrinth could be a good model as well.

[Lucien Doomdark]

I think some good examples of how to portray or play out the Haunted feat are:

- Russell Crowe's character in Beautiful Mind was battling with mental illness in a very compelling way. The way he tried to deal with them was very novel and interesting as well. Good source of inspiration.

- Six Feet Under (series) is also a prime source, if not the best one I can think of. Almost every main character is "haunted" by their departed loved ones, or by the various deceased that are taken in by their funeral home.

- If you're looking for a more classic example of someone being haunted, I recommend movies like The Others and any good books on schizophrenia.

good luck

Four words: Turn of the Screw. A governess for two young children begins to suspect that the children are being haunted by malevolent ghosts, but as readers we can never tell if they're actually being haunted or if the governess is just completely off her rocker. There's an excellent Masterpiece Theatre version starring Jodhi May, and another version starring Ingrid Bergman that I hear is even better. It really sounds like exactly what you're looking for.

EDIT: Masterpiece Theatre, not BBC. Argh.

The Innocents is by far the best version of what is one of Henry James' poorer ghost-stories, I can't remember when it was made (I seem to recall either late '30s or '40s), but it treads the line between madness and the supernatural. They recently released a cleaned-up print in UK theatres so it might kicking around on DVD?

Otherwise, haunted characters should be a little crackers...I can't think of many suggestions other than to read as many classic ghost stories as you can get your hands on.