This is a fork from rtwolf. Changes are based on a fun idea inspired by my friend, Lodane, that "John is Haunted" by spirits who battle for posession of his body.
- Replaced concepts and verbiage that may be construed as ablest or transphobic, as well as those that could be stigmatizing or alienating to people who live with mental health conditions.
- The GM, as John, can also win possession of John in a bid if they wish. This can help redirect the story if needed, and/or provide a cleaner ending once all PCs have expended their willpower.
Ghosts of John is a humorous, competitive roleplaying game about playing the various Spirits who follow and haunt John, a regular dude from Minneapolis. One participant is the GM, or, in Ghosts of John lingo, "Everyone Else.", and may also occasionally win possession of John. All of the other players are "Spirits" that can take posession of John.
Ghosts of John uses six-sided dice (you really only need one, but it might be easiest if every participant carries one) for play.
Spirits are the Player Characters (PCs) in Ghosts of John. They are defined by a simple character sheet:
- Willpower - A pool of points that the Spirit can spend to take possession of John or improve its chance of success in any given action. Willpower will go down and up a lot in the game, so it might be easier to represent it with tokens rather than numbers on a page. Willpower starts off at 10 for most Spirits.
- Skills - Each Spirit has two or three skills that they carried over from their previous lives. This is a freeform game, so just write down a short description of the skill, like "Drives well," or "Good at persuading people." Most Spirits have two skills, but you can have three if you start at 7 Willpower instead of 10.
- Obsessions - These are kind of like winning conditions: if you complete your obsessions more than other Spirits complete their obsessions, you win. Obsessions come in three grades:
- Level 1 (pretty easy to accomplish, like "Pigging out on candy"). A fun concept for Ghosts of John is that this is some normal or mundane task you were doing when you died
- Level 2 (more difficult or risky, like, "dressing up like a doctor and hitting on strangers,"). A fun concept for Ghosts of John is that this is something you always wanted to do while you were alive, but were too anxious and never did.
- Level 3 (nearly impossible to accomplish, like, "Blowing up buildings"). A fun concept for Ghosts of John is that this is a secret passion the Spirit had while living
The harder obsessions count more than the easier ones.
If you're going to seriously compete with the other Spirits, you probably should keep your sheet a secret.
John is a totally average guy in Minneapolis. He is occasionally posessed by the Spirits that haunt him — one at a time, of course.
While John is a pretty normal guy with his own thoughts, skills, and abilities; spirits are unable to access them while they are in posession of his body. Spirits also find it a little strange and awkward to inhabit a body that does not belong to them, so they may have difficulty with a lot of things that you and I might take for granted. Whenever a Spirit attempts anything while in possession of John that an ordinary person might have any chance of failure at, they need to roll for success.
The Spirit who is currently in posession of John does the rolling. If that Spirit has a skill that applies to the situation, the Spirit needs to roll a 3 or higher on a single d6. If it doesn't have a skill that applies, it needs to roll a 6. However, before the roll, the Spirit can spend any number of Willpower points to get a +1 per point spent on the die roll. This can make success automatic.
Becoming the active Spirit is a bit of a challenge, though. Whenever John wakes up or gets hurt, a test for posession of John happens. Also, whenever the currently active Spirit fails a roll or completes its obsession, a test for posession of John happens.
When a test for posession of John occurs, all of the Spirits who are interested simultaneously bid one or more Willpower points (if you're using tokens for Willpower, it's easiest for everyone to just hold out the tokens in their closed hands, and then, when everyone's ready, reveal the number of tokens). Spirits don't have to bid if they don't want to (and you can hold out zero tokens if you want to fake out the other Spirits). In Ghosts of John, while John doesn't have a pool of willpower, the GM may make a bid for possession, if they wish, by rolling a concealed d6 to represent John's Willpower. The highest bid of Willpower wins posession of John. If multiple people bid the same highest amount (including the GM acting as John), then they roll off to see who wins posession.
The Spirit who wins possession loses the amount of Willpower it bids. All others keep their bids. It's perfectly acceptible for the previously active Spirit to win a bid and remain in possession of John.
Whenever John wakes up, the struggle for possession of John happens before the GM describes the situation John wakes up into.
If the GM wins posession of John, they may play out the story as they wish to help redirect or bring the gameplay to a close.
As a Spirit, it is awkward and somewhat difficult to remain in possession of John's body. Whenever nothing exciting is happening for ten minutes or more (such as on a bus ride or the like), the GM should roll a die. On a roll of 4 or higher, John goes to sleep and wakes up whenever (prompting a struggle for posession of John). When John naps like this, all of the Spirits gain one Willpower.
Play begins with John waking up in the morning (and with a test for posession of him). The GM then describes the circumstances into which he wakes up. With all the different Spirits that haunt John, you never can tell. He could be in a gutter somewhere, or he could be in a palatial estate, or anywhere in between. Taking possession of the living is a jarring experience, and once in possession of John, the Spirits really have no idea how they ended up here. Likewise, if John wins possession he has no recollection of his activities while possessed by a Spirit.
At this point, the Spirits should start working on fulfilling their obsessions and avoiding getting John killed. Inevitably, their Willpowers will decrease. Once all of the Spirits are out of Willpower, John regains possession, sinks back into sleep, and the game session is over.
At this point, the Spirits reveal their obsessions and count up how many times each was filled. Note that it counts for you if another Spirit is in possession of John and fulfills your obsession.
Now, multiply the number of times you fulfilled your obsession by your obsession's rank (1, 2, or 3). That's the number of points you have. Highest number of points wins the game, and, generally speaking, is the GM of the next game of Ghosts of John.
Everyone is John is © 2002 by Michael Sullivan.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
