Try a covert possession, in which the PC is him-/herself, but with one or two of the possessor's most obsessive hopes and fears superimposed onto them? (You probably need to brief the affected players individually in private about how they are affected, and hope they will pick it up and run with it). After all covertly possessed characters don't usually know they are possessed (and it is not that easy to see from the outside without good spirit-centred magic).
Maybe also bestow some lingering benefits and penalties upon the possessed characters to reflect some of the skills of the possessing spirits -- and maybe don't tell the individual players about these? Or have them know, but not be able to say?
Also make some or all of the possessors subtle and ambiguous -- have them think their best chance of achieving their own goals is, at least in the short term, to try and help the PCs achieve at least some of theirs (unless these goals are wholly incompatible), at least to the extent that they can infer what the PCs' goals are from what is going on around them. As the ghosts are enemies of the guardian as well, they have at least one important piece of common ground with the PCs.
Maybe not all the possessing spirits have the same goals -- maybe one wants to complete their mission, another wants revenge and a third just wants to get out as soon as possible?
Maybe a possessed player receives information about the location of an important treasure from the possessor which is mostly, but not 100%, accurate, which they will now seek obsessively. Alternatively maybe they have a real fear about a powerful guardian or other danger that is mostly, but not 100%, right?
Would it be too sneaky to have one case of obvious dominant possession that the PCs can probably diagnose and fix, leaving one or more covert possessions in place? Especially if a covertly possesssed character helps to cure the dominant possession using their existing abilities ...
Also maybe the setting is scary enough to merit some Call of Cthulhu-style Sanity rules anyway? So the other PCs might just think that their comrade is a bit spooked?
Hope some of this helps
Richard Hayes
To: Forum Glorantha <WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 7 December 2011, 17:19
Subject: Playing possession by ghosts in an interesting way
Gentlemen,
My players' characters have gone in a Very Old Place full of treasures. Of course, the Guardian of said treasures isn't happy about that, buth him I can handle. What I wonder more about are the ghosts of former visitors, slain by said Guardian and who would DESPERATELY love to get OUT of this place, which I call the "Nostromo".
The ghosts attempt to possess the PCs : fine and well. PCs are scared spitless (I like them like that) and fight like hell. If Ghost succeeds, he's "inside" the PCs, but that's not dominant possession : the PC can still think and act.
How could I make this extra interesting in play ? How could such a possession generate more tension, more fear, more hopes ?
Hervé
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