So, me and a friend were discussing Last Jedi last night, and we started debating just what can a Force Ghost do, in regards to interacting with the world.

Now, up until Last Jedi, I would've said that it would just be a mentor/advisor capacity, simply there to act as a foil for the protagonist, to provide advice at a key point in the narrative, allowing for a change in strategy/behavior. But...then Ghost Yoda acted like a little froggy boss and called down a pillar of lightning to zot a tree, meaning that they can apparently still manipulate the physical world.

Which then sparked the random thought in my head (I get those a lot), of someone actually PLAYING a Force Ghost, and how you would actually structure that kind of campaign.

One thought I had, was to take the approach that Jim Butcher did in one of his novels.
Spoilers for Ghost Story:

The plot of the book, mostly focused on the spirit world (something that would have to be fully fabricated for a Star Wars game), with some interaction with the physical.

Another idea was to have the character operate from a limited fashion. That there is no "spirit world" that the Force Ghost defaults to, but that the ghost spends most of their time simply observing what's going on, and perhaps using some of the more subtle, and mental related Force powers, to try and nudge things. Perhaps ample use of Foresee, to see when the best point in the future would be for them to appear and give out sage advice. Or perhaps without manifesting, but still using Influence, sort of like how Old Ben's voice seemed to come to Luke in New Hope, you could see that as perhaps a use of Influence, to try and nudge him along. Stuff like that.

Now, this is obviously a very odd idea, but I thought it sounded fun, and it's definitely something that would likely fit with a single PC campaign between 2 people, in my opinion anyway.

I'm curious how you would try and run something like this. What types of limitations you would place on a ghost character, but also what types of advantages that would offset the limitations. How would their powers work, how often could they manifest to people, and under what conditions, etc.

Thoughts?

In Return of the Jedi, Kenobi's ghost brushes aside vines to sit down, so Force ghosts have been interacting from way back (mostly unnoticed, to be sure).

In a Certain Point of View, there's a story from Qui Gon Jinn's viewpoint - as a Force ghost. While its canonical status is nebulous, I liked its depiction of Force ghost-hood. It describes him slowly pulling his consciousness away from the larger Force, becoming instantiated as a separate entity again, yet still vastly more aware of what is and will be.

That would be a tricky thing for a PC Force ghost. They really should know a lot - given that it's part of a game whose outcome depends at least partially on dice rolls, they really ought to know more than even the GM can really know for sure. Yet they must be unwilling to share that information clearly, because reasons. There's no, "hey, Obi-Wan, buddy; you're gonna die real soon. But, good news! You'll get to be a Force ghost, so we can hang out and contemplate the mysteries of existence. Hey, let me Force slam some stormtroopers for ya!"

I personally wouldn't do it - their abilities, apparent immunity to all forms of opposition, the narrative limits that keep them from driving action - it all screams "NPC" to me.

2 hours ago, coyote6 said:

I personally wouldn't do it - their abilities, apparent immunity to all forms of opposition, the narrative limits that keep them from driving action - it all screams "NPC" to me.

Yeah, Force Ghosts are still such an unknown in terms of a lot of things. They very much still encapsulate the "wise mentor" trope, so I'm not sure it would work out too well to have a player controlling one as a regular party member. Say that player had a character that eventually achieved Force Ghost status, then I'd totally let them come in as a mentor for the future Jedi generations and give sage advice for a minute and then poof into the spirit world once more.

How about to have the Gatekeeper from Mountaintop Rescue as Template. The Charakter has no stats for Brawn and Agility and no skills regarding to that two attributes to simulate that he can not act in the real world. But like Yoda in Episode VIII he would be able to use the force to manipulate the real world.

31 minutes ago, SWFan said:

How about to have the Gatekeeper from Mountaintop Rescue as Template. The Charakter has no stats for Brawn and Agility and no skills regarding to that two attributes to simulate that he can not act in the real world. But like Yoda in Episode VIII he would be able to use the force to manipulate the real world.

Yoda whacked Luke on the head a few times and Luke winced. Pretty sure he's got a Brawn rating too...

1 hour ago, SWFan said:

How about to have the Gatekeeper from Mountaintop Rescue as Template. The Charakter has no stats for Brawn and Agility and no skills regarding to that two attributes to simulate that he can not act in the real world. But like Yoda in Episode VIII he would be able to use the force to manipulate the real world.

So what you’re telling me is that, near a light side nexus/vergence, right next to the very first Force tree, on the island where the Jedi may have originated a Jedi’s Force ghost was a bit more than ghosty?

With regard to Yoda on Ep8, as Nytwyng noted the island was most likely a very powerful Force vergence on a planet that's apparently steeped in the Force, so him being able to exert a greater degree of influence on his environment, such as whacking Luke with a ghostly cane or calling down a thunderbolt, shouldn't be taken as evidence that a Force ghost can do that stuff at other locations. Plus, it's Yoda, who has a greater and quite possibly deeper understanding of the Force than most beings could hope to have, especially after having 20+ years in the wake of the fall of the Jedi Order to reflect and contemplate where he (and by extension the Jedi Order) went wrong and so broaden his already considerable understanding of the Force.

To be honest, I would advise steering away from having a PC be a Force ghost. For one, seeing as they're already dead said character really isn't in much danger from the majority of situations that PCs tend to find themselves in. At worst, the Force ghost PC might be banished back to the nether-realm of the Force for a time (might be a long time, might be as little as a few minutes), but based on what lore there is about Force ghosts it's not really possible to permanently destroy them (or at least not destroy the light side version) with breaking out some seriously potent dark side artifacts (if you include Legends material such as the old Tales of the Jedi comic book series). And if there's no threat of the PC truly being killed, that takes some of the suspense out of adventures.

Another thing is we have to remember that Yoda only appeared before Luke AFTER Luke reconnected himself to the force. It was also implied that Yoda had not spoken to Luke in a long time, so it is highly likely that the Force Ghost must act THROUGH another being. In other words Yoda was not using his own power, but using Luke's power and his connection to both Luke and the force itself to impart his wisdom into Luke. This is also why we never see non-force sensitives interact with them.

8 minutes ago, tunewalker said:

Another thing is we have to remember that Yoda only appeared before Luke AFTER Luke reconnected himself to the force. It was also implied that Yoda had not spoken to Luke in a long time, so it is highly likely that the Force Ghost must act THROUGH another being. In other words Yoda was not using his own power, but using Luke's power and his connection to both Luke and the force itself to impart his wisdom into Luke. This is also why we never see non-force sensitives interact with them.

Interesting idea there.

Yeah, that's part of my understanding of Force ghosts. We've never seen anyone who is not Force-sensitive interacting with them. We have no idea what Finn would have seen had he been standing there watching Luke at that tree, but my guess is that it most likely would have been Luke talking to the air, and flinching from an imaginary cane-smack.

And I think it's definitely the case that the various ghosts couldn't appear to Luke until he reconnected to the Force (however much I dislike the idea of being able to disconnect and re-connect to the Force in such a manner). I'm fairly positive only sensitives can see them, and my guess is that doing any sort of action, even Ben's whispers into Luke's mind, requires a significant amount of effort, explaining why they aren't more active in important galactic affairs.

And actually...other than whispers, and the (exceptionally brief) appearance of Ben to a dying-of-hypothermia Luke on Hoth, we've never seen a Force ghost appear outside of an area that is either explicitly or implicitly a vergence. It's possible they are entirely unable to manifest, except in the rarest of circumstances, outside of vergences.

EDIT: Oh wait, Endor. That blows that out of the water. But still! No one but Luke sees the ghosts on Endor, and Han literally runs right through ghost-Ben without making note of it in Empire, so I think that's strong support for the idea that only sensitives can see or interact with ghosts. I still think that the idea of ghosts being required to tap into the Force abilities of the person they're interacting with to do...well, anything really, is an interesting idea. That could explain why Ben doesn't appear visually until Empire, and why, even when he does so, it's so brief the first time. Luke's still a novice at the Force, barely able to move a lightsaber. Ben can't manifest for long to Luke at that point, until Luke gains more experience and sensitivity.

What would be more interesting is if you explored the netherworld presumably as your described force ghost. The campaign would be centred around exploring and interacting with the nether world. Then for the complication, someone might be trying to escape the netherworld, and it is your job to rally the powers of other force ghost alike to stop this person who may be a huge threat to the real word Galaxy.

Any way just a thought, sounds interesting though.

IIRC Leah sees the ghosts on endor when Anakin joins Ben and Yoda...

But I'd agree in that they can only manifest to or through rather powerful sensitives and can only influence the world at or near vergences.

Perhaps even only manifest to those who have learned that... talent?... of the force?

3 minutes ago, jayc007 said:

IIRC Leah sees the ghosts on endor when Anakin joins Ben and Yoda...

But I'd agree in that they can only manifest to or through rather powerful sensitives and can only influence the world at or near vergences.

Perhaps even only manifest to those who have learned that... talent?... of the force?

I couldn't remember precisely, but my memory was telling me that Leia didn't see them; Luke saw them, and was sharing a silent moment with them as Anakin's ghost appeared. Then Leia came over and pulled Luke back to join the celebration without ever looking over at where the ghosts were.

This clip seems to support that , which likewise supports the idea that only trained sensitives can see Force ghosts.

The Force Sensitives they have... special eyes.

My bad. Sorry.

20 hours ago, Nytwyng said:

So what you’re telling me is that, near a light side nexus/vergence, right next to the very first Force tree, on the island where the Jedi may have originated a Jedi’s Force ghost was a bit more than ghosty?

That depends of how you define "ghosty". Remember poltergeist? They can also manipulate the real world. And if you also remember on Dagobah, yeah was the dark side cave as nexus/vergence but on Endor? And there we had three Force Ghosts. Think about it, they don't use the Force to manipulate the real world doesn't mean they couldn't. In the new Canon everything seems possible But to be fair if they could do everything "forcy" everywhere, why Ben hasn't blown up the Death Star after he was killed just by manipulating the Reactor by himself