When a player character is knocked unconscious they have the option to have an out of body experience; the character’s spirit temporarily leaves its shell to continue to influence the events around them. Of course, doing so is risky, as it puts the character in danger of other spirits and mages that can interact with them.
A PC spirit is a rank 3 spirit with Essence equal to 3 plus the amount of Mana and undamaged mental health boxes the character had before falling unconscious. The spirit is bound to its unconscious body and any Knacks or Specialties become Influences.
If the body wakes up the spirit instantly returns to it. However, if the body dies, the player may declare one short term goal (they may choose one recorded or make a new one). They will continue to exist on the physical plane as a spirit until that goal is concluded or the spirit is destroyed.
The section on Ephemeral Experiences describes spirits, their capabilities, and their interaction with the world, as well as some of the mechanics to use for spirits. However, for quick reference when a player is unconscious:
Spirit PCs exist in the ephemeral realm as identical, but transparent versions of their physical selves. Most creatures cannot see spirits.
Spirits can see the ephemeral and physical realms, but only regularly interact with the ephemeral realm. Generally, they can see but not touch anything within physical realm. However, as a spirit, the PC’s Knacks and Specialties turn into Influences.
As rank 3 spirits, the PCs can touch something in the physical realm if the thing relate to one of the PC’s influences. Spirit PCs can also bind themselves to new objects, but doing so is not recommended, since they may lose track of their body.
- A PC spirit can spend 1 Essence to use their influences from a Far Away distance.
- A PC can spend 2 Essence to create something of size 5 or less in the physical realm based on the PC’s influences. (plus 1 Essence per 2 increase in size)
- While in our world, spirits burn one essence per rank per day.
- While Far Away from their binding, spirits burn one essence per hour.
- At the end of each day a spirit may attempt to gather essence from its Binding, making a Constitution Ability Check. A failed check means they only gain 1 essence; a partial success means they gain 3 essence; and a full success means they gain 5 essence.
All damage is the same to a spirit, and it takes directly from the spirit’s essence. When a spirit dies, it leaves behind free essence equal to twice its rank (except rank 1 spirits, which leave nothing behind). This essence can be eaten by spirits to recover their own essence, but several things may happen if the essence is from a spirit of rank equal to or greater than that eating it.
- The eaten essence can increase the spirit’s health beyond the maximum, increasing the spirit’s maximum essence permanently.
- If the eaten essence is greater than the spirit’s current essence, then the spirit gains a new influence from its food, redefining itself. (spirits are what they eat.)
- Each new and different influence a spirit gains puts it closer to becoming a Malignant, a spirit that has lost its sense of self and driven it mad. When a PC wakes up from their out of body experience, they must resist 1 Traumatizing attack on sanity for each new influence they gained as a spirit.