We have the new subtitle for Geist now. The full name for the game is Geist: the Sin-Eaters. This, of course, raises more questions than it answers. It’s a pretty safe bet that with the name Geist, Wraith is this game’s antecedent. Oh, man. Wraith.

Wraith was a bit odd among World of Darkness games. While you could make the case that the likes of Vampire, Werewolf, or Mage conferred on PCs a fair amount of power over their destiny, a cursory reading of Wraith led me to the opposite conclusion. It struck me very much as a roleplayer’s game, a game for folks who really enjoyed character-driven narrative. It was one of those games that I guessed would require really good role-players to work well, but if you could pull it off, it would be amazing.

Just like I imply, though, I never actually got to play Wraith. It’s also been a while since I’ve read it, so I could be wrong about all of that. Still, it’s interesting to think back on where Wraith was coming from and where Geist might go. Harrows were pretty important in Wraith, and my gut tells me that maybe there’s an analogous theme, here. Perhaps a sin-eater creates something analogous to these sorts of shadow plays for people, either guiding them through it or destroying them in the process.

The list of White Wolf books on my shelf reminds me that I really should be doing more role-playing. I’m working on that in the short term— this weekend, we should be playing either the ultimate or penultimate chapter in Er-Eret. (More on that in a moment.) There’s also a whole host of games on my shelf which I have not run or played. Maybe it’s time to change that by breaking games down to be shorter, one or two session affairs. Or maybe I should start a new post.