Where are the rules regarding ghosts located? Ive scoured my 4th Ed .PDF's (CTRL-F is my freind) but cannot find the rules dealing with them. I've also seen several referecnces to a ghosts 'chain' (any bleach fans smile at that?)

I'll be damned if I can find where the rules and descriptions regarding them are in any of the books though. Can anybody help me out?

There are SR3 rules for ghosts in Magic in the Shadows. There may be SR4 ghost rules in Street Magic but you'd have to ask someone who owns that book.

In SR3, ghosts are basicly a unique type of free spirit that may or may not be created from a dead person's soul. They do not have a True Name like other free spirits. Instead, some of them have a "chain." This chain is what keeps them attached to the world. They cannot be destroyed so long as it exists but it can be used by magician or mundane alike to bind the ghost. Possessing a ghost chain provides the same binding dice bonus that knowing a True Name provides.

They come in two types. The most common type cannot materialize but can manifest. These are an annoyance to physical beings but are quite dangerous to astrally active beings. The ones that can materialize are very dangerous and often have a selection of powers such as Fear, Noxious Breath, Paralyzing Howl, and ect.

Is the 'chain' sort of like a material link? Im guessing its what anchors them to our world.

Now how are they dangerous astrally? Are we talking essence drain?

Are the assumed to malevolent, or can they be helpful?

(PS I have street magic, and they are only mentioned peripherally.)

Some ghosts can be very helpful. There is this one adventure in Super Tuesday that requires the PCs to cooperate with the ghost of Humanis affiliated Archconservative Presidential Canidate Kenneth Brackhaven who, oddly, is a 12-year-old ork that has been dead for 34 years.


Some ghosts are like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. They don't know that they're dead and they don't know how much time has passed. Others are fully aware of their condition. Some want to fix personal problems and mistakes from their life. Some want revenge on the living just for being alive. Some are probably like those ghosts in The Frighteners, con artists who haunt places so that their living buddy can get paid to drive them out. Others are like Vigo the Carpathian, kicking ass and taking names even while confined to the astral plane. Ghosts are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.

Excellent! These are definately going to be making some appearances in my campaign.

Now if I can just figure out the Shedim.

I've been noticing that running 4th edition requires copious amounts of 3rd edition knowledge. I may have to bag some 3rd ed .PDF's to fill in my knowledge, which is mostly from 2nd edition.

Define "running 4th edition"? If you want the good stuff you'll have to own large swathes of every previous edition, just like it's always been.

~J

I think making ghosts Wild Spirits would be your best bet. Or converting old rules.

Make sure to buy used books online if they're cheaper than the PDFs. I've gotten a lot on Amazon for cheap and in very good condition

Ah, touche. My Street Magic is so much more useful as a PDF.

Ghosts should be more than just a group of stats. encountering one, even in the owlrd of Sr should be unnerving and uncertain, not just a case of rule 12B sub section 4.

Why? I mean, I agree that it should, but that's not special to ghosts. It's just important to keep in mind that there's no actual trace of the dead person present—that theory was clearly debunked by Michaels and Koizumi.

~J

That has not always been my experience. Some are just enbergy, some are like a spectral recording but some have been noted to be active players.

that's just another reason for me not to go 4th ed.