Building Your Krewe

@G_C, GM posts like this one (and several others that you have made) have provided invaluable insight into both the mechanics and the lore of Geist. They have also served to ramp up my enjoyment of and excitement about this game to a whole new level, and I was already pretty stoked since this is my first foray into the WoD/ChroD universe.

Having seen this, in spite of what I said in my last post, I am going to spend a couple of days with these questions and see if I can come up with a way to add a dash of religious flavor to the proposed doctrines.

@everyone, I am having a lot of fun digging into the setting lore. That is probably, at least in part, because it pushes me out of my comfort zone, but also because it helps me understand the fictional world. Once I have Max's answers to those questions I'll post them. If anyone else has the time and the inclination to do the same, I'd love to read them. The exercise would benefit everyone in terms of getting to know each other's PCs. Beyond that, though, I would like to be able to take everyone's responses into consideration when I start working on ways to, potentially, revise the Doctrines that I suggested earlier. I'd like to be able to take the beliefs of all of the PCs into account and, hopefully, come up with a set of Doctrines that reflect the beliefs of the whole Krewe, instead of just Max.

Adriana was interested in the occult even before her bargain. One of the reasons she decided to move to New Orleans was the rich culture and diversity of the belief systems in the area. Her personal beliefs and interests are an eclectic hodge-podge of these different systems—effectively making her into chaos majick, taking bits and pieces she finds resonate with her and making it her own. This includes bits of Romanian folklore and the old ways, Sophian Gnosticism, Goetic sigils, Ancient Egyptian religion, Wicca, CoS hedonism, Voodoun, and legends related to spirits, such as crossroads and the four horsemen.

That fits pretty well with the Sin-Eater "trash culture." Lots of krewes mix and match beliefs that are, in some cases, incompatible. Most krewes have fairly syncretic and eclectic mythologies.

Happy to help! Making Doctrines can be tricky. I find that it's typically the most difficult part of building a krewe. Getting everyone to agree on specific beliefs and narrowing down the themes of the krewe can be tough. Once Doctrines have been nailed down, the rest of krewe creation usually goes quickly.

I should clarify that religious doesn't have to mean that the krewe worships any kind of concept or higher power (though many krewes do have patrons that they pray to). Instead of divine reverence, "religious" may simply mean that the krewe places its faith in unproven beliefs. With your archetype serving as the foundation, the krewe has created its own mythology based on unfounded ideas about ghosts, death, and the Underworld. As a matter of faith, your characters have chosen to accept certain things to be true, and you've managed to convinced others (your celebrants) to do the same.

Ideally, the beliefs of your krewe aren't completely random, but rather, informed somewhat by the backgrounds, interests, and pre-existing beliefs of the members. That's why many krewes in Louisiana borrow from Christianity and Voodoo... because it's what they know. Sometimes even geists might provide inspiration. One krewe - the Chosen of the Pale Rider - had a founder whose geist looked like popular depictions of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte from Mexican folk belief. Thus, the krewe adopted aspects of Mexican neo-paganism, folk Catholicism, and Day of the Dead imagery into its mythology.

But don't let that stop you from introducing new ideas into your belief system, or fusing odd cultural and religious elements into something new and interesting. Sin-Eater mystery religions are an eclectic salad of beliefs.

Your krewe archetype is Mourner, so your characters are about honoring the dead and preserving traditions. This fits really well with a lot of existing belief systems, since many religions are all about remembering and honoring ancestors (Voodoo being a big example).

Jay's beliefs have evolved quite a bit over the past few years; going from agnostic hellion to reluctant, captive audience' congregation to dead to true believer in spirituality thanks to Long Man.

Initially, he'd agree that spirituality was for the weak minded or those too afraid to really live for the moment. Losing his mother and having to live with his grandfather softened that stance more than a bit. Cherokee are a 'churchy' lot, by and large, having lost a lot of the old ways and beliefs thanks to the relentless missionary efforts by Christian denominations. For Jay it was fascinating to learn things most other people and elders hid away. His death and transition into a Sin Eater really brought his spirituality into full bloom. Exposure to a deeper truth led him to embrace the importance of positive spirituality in the lives and deaths of others.

He uses mostly Native methodology and trappings for his spirituality; which can get him the side-eye from others for appropriation and 'Pan-Indianism' but he's more focused on what works than what people think. He also realizes that's what every other SinEater is doing so he doesn't get too hung up on what anyone else believes asking as it isn't predatory or exploitative. He does still have a few hang-ups with purely Christian methodologies due to lingering issues from his childhood.

As for the Underworld, he has little doubt that it wasn't as screwed up as it currently is before the 'modern era', i.e post 1492. If the Underworld is a reflection of the living world, modern society has screwed it up for a number of reasons...primary amongst those being the utter rejection of any kind of sense of community. Individualism as a religion, the idea that you are 'in it alone', bootstrapping and 'showing weakness is a sin' mentality allowed the Underworld to devolve into the miserable state as it currently exists. If things below, or above, are going to change it's not going to be one person responsible for that... it's going to have to be a group effort and it will be neither easy nor pretty.

Okay thank you. This is good to know. Between the five of you, this will be a very interesting krewe.

Although he left the church when he left home, Max was raised in a Roman Catholic household. He absolutely believes that ghosts are the actual souls of the dead.
Because he was taught Roman Catholic beliefs about the afterlife during his formative years as if they were matters of fact, Max's views are heavily skewed in that direction. In spite of having spent almost every night for roughly fifteen years telling ghost stories, he never spent any time contemplating death or the afterlife to any meaningful degree. Being dead has forced him to do so, though, at least to some extent, and he has begun to question what he's been taught. Some things that the Church teaches about the afterlife, Purgatory for instance, resembles what he has experienced in the Underworld, but its not quite right. So, now he is trying to divorce himself from his upbringing because he is of the opinion that the Catholic system of belief has missed or left out something important. He suspects that this missing piece is the key to understanding the Underworld.

Almost everything in the Underworld is the ghost of ar a reflection of someone or something in the 'real world'. The Chthonians and the Chthonic gods are notable exceptions. Max thinks that suggests that they are not meant to be there. He believes that they either infiltrated the Underworld in the distant past from someplace 'other', or that they are spirits that have somehow become so corrupted that they are no longer recognizable.

Max believes that Geists are spirits that the Underworld has appointed to be its defenders.
Max has come to believe that for some reason, the Underworld is not functioning the way it should. His goal is to figure out why it isn't and to fix it, if possible.

---

OK, Reality check, please. Is it plausible that a guy who has been dead for fifteen (+-) years and has spent some, but probably not a lot of time in the Underworld could have come up with that hypothesis about the Chthonic Gods?

So, where do we stand on doctrines?

To be honest, when I try to focus on it more than we already have, I get a migraine. If what we have doesn't work, I'd rather just copy and paste the doctrines of the Crossroads Kings.

Been silent about them but if the group agrees with them in general I'm okay with what we have, that said doctrine is doctrine and open to personal interpretation no?

I agree. I still don't have any substantive changes to suggest apart from, perhaps, clarifying the second doctrine? Maybe something like:

The last moments of life are precious. All too often we humans are at our most insightful during the transition from flesh and blood to plasm. Coming face to face with death often provides valuable insight into the meaning of life. Therefore, as we encounter people who have experienced such moments, we should record and catalog them so they may be studied collectively. Therein lies the path to preparing the soul for departure and easing its journey to the other side.


I'm not sure that can accurately be termed a substantive change, though. I don't mind leaving it as it is if that is the case.

I think a lot of the issue we all have with Doctrine, and krewe building in general, is that we're all very new to Geist and it's systems. We don't really have any experience in setting the parameters for our organization because we don't honestly have a good grasp on what that entails. There's not a unifying structure between the characters to build a framework around so it's probably like herding cats at the moment...
More experienced players could probably hash out a Doctrine pretty easily but I just don't think he have the perspective of experience nor character cohesion really necessary to do so without a few missteps.

Yes, I agree that Doctrines are a challenge, especially over PbP. I find it goes quickly in person, but the internet obviously makes the process drag. I think the Doctrines presented by the_puppeteer are pretty good. For the sake of not spending too long on this, let’s use the Doctrines as is. Your krewe doesn’t need to have an opinion on all aspects of Sin-Eater life or the Underworld.

So we have the archetype as Mourners, the Virtue as Enlightened, and the Creed as Stewardship. We can now move on to allocating the Attribute dots. From there, you all just need to pick the krewe merits and detail the Mystery Cult Initiation, and you’re done.

Alternately, if people want to skip this Krewe creation process and find it to be too much work, I’m fine with people co-opting the Crossroads Kings template. You can always claim it as your krewe. The Kings are very oriented toward Voodoo and, obviously, crossroads mythology. Any of that can be emphasized or downplayed, as fits people’s tastes. As long as everyone agrees to it, this is an option.

I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, even though I don't necessarily envision Max as being a likely founder of a Krewe, and least not in any formal sense, I generally prefer that we create the Krewe. Ideally, by doing so we ensure that the Krewe is a representation of our characters rather than having to adjust our characters to fit the Krewe. On the other hand, I recognize that some of us may lack the time or the appetite to participate in what is unquestionably a challenging group activity. Max is cajun and was raised in the Mississippi Delta. So, culturally the Crossroad Kings would be a good fit for him. That is all to say that if the group chooses to claim the Crossroad Kings template for our Krewe, I would not oppose doing so.

On another note, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of southern Louisiana, southern Mississippi, and all those who are in the path of Hurricane Ida. If this area is home to any of you, please heed the guidance of the national hurricane center, the national weather service, and your local emergency management officials and stay safe!

Using the Crossroads Kings as our Krewe, I would not need to make any adjustments to my character. I still think, for those who want to use the ghost tour angle, it will work in the framework of the Kings as well.

The Crossroads Kings have Library as a Merit, which works well with my NPC celebrant, as she is a French/Creole Occultist with a focus on Voodoun.

So a couple of people are fine with taking the Crossroads Kings as their krewe. Any objections from anyone?

I'm good if that counts for something, we starting this week?

No objections from me, either.

Ok great! So you are officially the Crossroads Kings. I will repost the krewe stats here for everyone's perusal. I will need to tweak the krewe traits slightly, since the original Kings are designed as a more powerful and experienced krewe.

With that, character creation is concluded. Give me a few days to put together the first post for the game.

All of your characters automatically have access to your krewe's one-dot Ceremony, The Diviner's Jawbone. You all also have a free dot in the Mystery Cult Initiation (The Crossroads Kings) Merit described below. Each additional dot that you purchase in this Merit will provide access to another krewe Ceremony for free.

I will soon provide a write-up for the rest of the krewe's celebrants.


The Crossroads Kings

Archetype: Mourner
Virtue: Honest
Creed: Judgmental
Membership: 15 members (five Sin-Eaters and ten celebrants)

Doctrines
• Ghosts must be remembered and honored in order to resolve their Anchors and Pass On.
• The act of consuming another’s ti-bon-ange is taboo and should avoided at all costs.
• Deals made at a crossroads must never be broken.

Attributes
Power: 4
Finesse: 5
Resistance: 3

Merits
Safe Place 1 (free)
Contacts (local voodouisant community) 1
Cenote 3
Library 3

Ceremonies
The Diviner's Jawbone 1
Gifts of Persephone 2
Bloody Codex 3

Advantages
Esotery: 1
Congregation: 8
Krewe Actions: 1
Task Limit: 3
Attribute Maximum: 5
Krewe Regalia: 0

Regalia: Legba the Messenger
In Voodoo, Papa Legba is not merely the loa of the crossroads and gatekeeper to the Spirit World. He is also a facilitator of communication and understanding. He speaks all languages and serves as an intermediary between humanity and the loa. Those who don Legba’s regalia can more adeptly mediate between the living and the dead.

• Improve your impression level with other Sin-Eaters by 1.
• Glory: The character gains 8-again on rolls using Persuasion.


Mystery Cult Initiation (The Crossroads Kings)
• Gain the Voodoo Specialty in the Academics Skill.
•• Gain the Language Merit in a language of choice.
••• Gain a Skill dot in Occult.
•••• Gain the Reconciler Merit at three dots.
••••• Choose a single crossroads. This intersection serves as a three-dot Cenote for the character, generating three Plasm per chapter.