Dark Fantasy: Our favourite undead

For my Kaidan campaign setting (currently a Kickstarter Project) is heavily focused on Japanese ghosts, known as yurei – really in Kaidan, all undead are types of ghosts, however not all are incorporeal. In fact some ghosts can appear as living beings that can ‘shapechange’ to their true gruesome selves.

The beauty here is what might appear as an animated skeleton, might actually be a lich, a graveknight or a corporeal ghost. Defying player expectations is at the heart of this concept.

I love undead too. Taking the concept towards feudal Japanese ideology takes it to a whole new level.

Thank you, Graeme! I hope you and others reading this will consider making pledges to the Kickstarter. I’d love for you to buy the books, but first we have to create and fund them, and that’s what the Kickstarter is for. I do appreciate you posting the link, to get more eyes on the project.

Oh, and I definitely think you could use Kaidan in a 4e game, or any system, really. Many of the rules within the guide books are setting specific and not really Pathfinder per se. In fact one of the reviewers to our free one-shot released last Halloween, called Frozen Wind, planned to use it in his L5R campaign. The isn’t necessarily system neutral, but could be easily adapted to whatever system you prefer.

More thoughts.

While there are certainly vampires in some J-Horror films, the concept of a blood drinker seducer. Vampires are not a part of Japanese tradition. Of course horror fans insist, so they might show an appearance somewhere. I’d rather stick to authentic folklore and not influenced by modern cinema.

That said, I am a fan of many J-Horror movies like Ju-on (The Grudge) and Ringu. Ghosts are the theme, so I’ll incorporate some of these more modern ideas.

There are Japanese ghouls and in Kaidan, they too are technically yurei ghosts, however, when they were living beings their lives or the trauma of their deaths involved avarice as a central concern.

Also the appearance of undead, as well as their creation doesn’t really work like it does in D&D. A wight has a standard appearance, you can tell by the illustration next to it’s Monster Manual and victims of wight attacks come back as wights – well not in Kaidan. A yurei ghost’s appearance, type and special attacks are related to that individuals powers, skills, agenda, fears in life – and whatever transpired at the moment of death leading to ‘ghostdom’.

I’d say there are plenty of ghouls, and while it’s true Japanese folklore is dominated by ghostly entities, as stated there many kinds of corporeal undead, yet they are all ghosts or yurei.

Yurei is almost a categorical title, which includes:

Goryo – ghosts of the aristocracy, with powers that cause natural disasters and great fires. These were ghosts that an entire religion (Goryo Shinko; religion of Ghosts) was designed to quell their angry spirits, being elevated to god status with their own shrines. (As stated Goryo is a type of ghost, and could be found in any undead form: lich, wight, skeletal, ghoul or traditional ghost.

Onryo – ghost of vengeance, the most common type, usually a woman spurned that commits suicide. The ghost in The Grudge is of this type.

Ubume – a ghost of a woman who died in childbirth. She brings candy and toys to her growing children, and will eventually begin stealing innocent babies (that aren’t hers) to console her despair. Because she must ‘physically’ carry the stolen child, she is a corporeal ghost, however she can go ‘ethereal’ to enter her grave with the still living child.

The list goes on. So the division of ghosts (undead) in Kaidan is through the elements of their former lives and moments of death. Japan had a rich undead tradition, but by their categorization and culture, all undead are ghosts.

There are probably as many corporeal ghosts and incorporeal ones in Japanese tradition.

One of the interesting new tools from Pathfinder is the Haunt mechanic and one I use extensively in Kaidan, especially when associated with a ghost. The haunt is like a magical trap crossed with undead. One can detect a haunt without triggering it’s effects (usually a relatively high difficulty check is required), and requires positive energy to destroy. The saving throw is Will based, as all haunt effects are fear effects, and not the normal save from whatever empowering spell is causing the effect.

What’s cool about a haunt is it’s descriptive behavior. Let’s say a haunt exists around a throne. Triggering it causes a greenish mist to rise from the cracks in the flagstone floor beneath the throne which rise up to form miasmal ghostly shapes of skeletons wielding long curved blades – once formed they encircle the throne swinging their blades wildly. In reality, it’s just a Blade Barrier spell trap that has been triggered. With the visual effects combined with the fear effect, haunts become a very visceral encounter – and not boring like a simple trap.

I always combine haunts with my undead encounters these days.