Revenants have the ire of many players, especially medbay where the Revenant has an all you can eat buffet of dead bodies. I wanted to take a jab at designing a Revenant whose purpose is to spread fear among the crew.
Disclaimer: I have never done BYOND coding. But before anyone says WYCI, I wanted to jot this down for someone who does know how to code to pull ideas from or on the off chance I get the motivation to actually attempt it. Some of the suggestions presented might not even be possible to code but still, I’m also just brainstorming for fun. This is gonna be a long post…
Role: Revenant
You are a lost soul empowered by alien energies that have been brought back to the living world in an incomplete state. Whether you are the soul of a former NT worker, a syndicate member killed in action, or just some unlucky sap who died in the depths of space, no matter the case you are motivated by the pain of the limbo you find yourself in. Your goal: Spread misery and fear among the living in the name of vengeance.
Revenants are purple ghosts whose objectives generally cause misery and spread fear among the crew. They’re not meant to be round ending, and their abilities are meant to be terrible for murdererbone. But left unattended, they can cripple a station to the point that they are unable to respond to much more dangerous threats.
Whenever a Revenant uses an ability, they become tangible for as long as the ability is active. Certain items also forcibly make them visible.
Revenant Abilities
- Revenants have Max Health up to their amount of Essence. This does not regenerate normally.
- Starts with Harvest, Phase Shift, Nightvision, and Telepathy. The same as Revenant as it is according to the wiki.
- More abilities can be acquired by spending Essence. More Essence can be acquired by using Harvest on humanoid corpses, using certain unlockable abilities or standing on haunted ground. Revenants can have a maximum of 200 Essence and can regenerate a minimum of 75 Essence.
- Classic Revenant abilities are available/unavailable depending on the chosen archetype
- Seeing the Revenant applies a small mood/sanity debuff.
- Haunt - A new basic ability that the Revenant starts with. Corrupts a 5x5 area around the Revenant which provides passive bonuses to the Revenant when it is connected to their beacon.
- Telekinesis - Unlockable ability for the Revenant. Functions the same as normal telekinesis.
- Apparition - Unlockable ability. Creates spooky illusion on the tile it’s targeted on. Lowers sanity of those who witness it, especially when they try to examine it.
- Fake Noise - Unlockable ability. Creates a noise of the Revenant’s choice at a certain point.
- Phasmophobia - Unlockable ability. The Revenant moves up to their target and scares them in their face. When their sanity is low enough, inflicts a phobia of ghosts. (Cannot be taken when another “phobia” ability is taken and vice versa)
Haunting
When a Revenant spawns, they may place down an invisible beacon visible only to the Revenant. The beacon will begin to spread its influence and Haunt the area around it. The Revenant may create more haunted ground using their abilities. For as long as the Revenant is within this haunted ground, they can regenerate health up to their essence. When the Revenant dies, the beacon becomes visible to everyone and remains visible until the Revenant respawns. While it is visible, crew members can destroy the beacon, killing the Revenant for good. Should the beacon be destroyed while the Revenant is still alive, they will not be able to respawn should they be killed.
Finding the ghosties
Certain types of items can pick up on the revenant’s ghostly activity. Security can seek out and ask other departments for these devices or allow for ghost enthusiasts to try to find them.
- Revenants are normally unable to be heard by the living. However, their voices can still be picked up by radio and by the Universal Translator.
- Geiger Counters can coincidentally detect anomalous electromagnetic interference near the Revenant and on haunted ground. This interference can range from a level of 1-4 and a special level 5 for certain Revenant types.
- Detective scanners can detect “Revenant prints” on items that certain types of Revenants have interacted with.
- Certain types of Revenants and beacons are visible on Film Cameras. Camera Obscura will always see Revenants (but not always their beacons)
- Salt will not stop Revenants but it will slow them and forcibly make them tangible as long as they step on the salt, as well as some time afterwards.
Revenant Archetypes
Revenants will be prompted to select what archetype they are at the start. Each archetype will determine what sort of abilities a Revenant will have, as well as its weaknesses. A Revenant that wishes to survive for as long as possible can try to hide their unique traits and throw off investigators, or they could fully embrace the archetype.
Shade
Dwellers of darkness, Shades are similar to Nightmares in that they thrive in the dark. Shades have abilities that allow them to drag their victims into the dark, never to be seen again… at least until someone goes maintenance diving.
Shades are meant to be ambushers that jumpscare people going through dark spooky places. Their unique abilities allow them to turn their haunted room into a well defended nest. However, most of their
Unique Traits and Unlockable Abilities
- Shadow Grasp - Immediately aggressive grabs the target. If the target is in a dark enough area, stuns for 4 seconds during the grab. Lowers sanity and adds a mood debuff. (Victims can resist off the grab in bright areas but not in dark areas. Victim should also still be able to scream on comms).
- Shadow Trap - Places a black colored trap on the ground, hard to see but not invisible. Makes a loud snap when stepped on, stuns the target for 4 seconds, and alerts the Revenant. Trap can be easily destroyed.
- Nyctophobia - All lights within a 9x9 area switch off (stopped by walls). Humanoids in this area with low sanity receive a phobia of ghosts.
- Does not have access to Malfunction ability.
- Visible on film cameras, leaves special prints, beacon is visible when fully lit by any light source, takes increased damage from energy weapons
Geist
An engineer’s worst nightmare. Geists have control over their surroundings and can use their ghost powers to turn the station against its crew. Better get your insuls!
Unique Traits and Unlockable Abilities
- Siphon Power - Generate essence from electricity instead. Consume power from APCs which is converted into essence. Not as efficient as eating souls however.
- Hijack - Take control of a device as if you’re an AI. Can be used to control an empty borg for a minute (AI Shells with Boris Modules not currently used by AI). Cannot hijack a borg controlled by a player.
- Aerophobia - Creates a pulse in 7x7 area centered around the Revenant that violently throws objects and people around. Humanoids with low enough sanity caught within this area receive a phobia of ghosts.
- Does not have access to Blight.
- Interference level 5, revenant is visible on cameras, beacon becomes visible when there is no power in its area, increased damage from holy water, gain essence when hit by laser weapons and stun batons.
Demon
There’s a difference between devils and demons. This Revenant is infused with hellish energy that allows it to mess with minds but not fully.
Unique Traits and Unlockable Abilities
- Mental Parasite - You may gain essence from living humanoid hosts by sapping their happiness. You gain the empath trait and when this ability is used on a living humanoid, they are immobilized as you gain essence relative to their mood.
- Demonic Possession - Choose a host, they become a secondary Revenant beacon. The passive effects of being on haunted ground activate when you are near the host. The host is compelled to be protective of you and as long as the host is alive, you regenerate 100 essence instead of 75. Cannot work on mindshields, does not take precedence over brainwashing/hypnosis. Host is immune to Revenant abilities.
- Archephobia - Choose a single target, they will begin convulsing as you attempt to take control of their body, inflicting a mood and sanity debuff. If their sanity is low enough, you share the body with the original host like split personalities. A condition will appear on the medscanner. Holy water or salt on the host will forcibly eject the Revenant and end the ability.
- Does not have access to Malfunction.
- *Interference level 5, special prints, takes damage from salt, when taking damage from Holy Water, becomes enraged, *
Playing as Revenant
A revenant’s general goal is to cause havoc and be a pest on the station as much as possible. It’s meant to be more of an annoyance that amplifies existing threats by hampering the performance of the department its from. Revenant objectives would generally be along the lines of the following:
- Absorb at least X amount of Essence from the station.
Rev can accomplish this the old fashioned way of stealing corpses from medbay. Shade rev can set up shop and haunt the maints, Geist rev can haunt a powered room, and Demon rev can choose a person or a group to harass for essence. - Ensure an area is haunted by the end of a round.
Revenants may be tasked to take control of an area. This objective will be a success when at least a certain percentage of an area is haunted ground or to haunt as much ground as you can. - Teach [Crewmember] to be afraid of ghosts.
Use your revenant abilities to drive your target insane then give them a scare so bad they develop Phasmophobia, otherwise known as the phobia of ghosts. You succeed if they have fear of ghosts at round end. - Scare the crew! Give at least X amount of people the fear of ghosts.
Similar to above but tracks the amount of people with fear of ghosts at the end of the round.
Playing Against Revenant
Station’s haunted… Revenants are still griefers and if left unattended can deal some serious harm. You can still get rid of Revenants the old fashioned way, with steel and a prayer.
- Revenants become tangible when they activate their abilities. During this period, you can smack them to death with regular weapons. SOME WEAPONS CAN HEAL REVENANTS INSTEAD SO PAY ATTENTION TO THEIR POWERS OR DO SOME INVESTIGATION.
- Salt makes Revenants vulnerable and visible. When all else fails, salt in a Smoke Dispenser still works wonders.
- Chaplains: Dealing with evil spirits is one of their specialties. Holy water is one of the most important things to get rid of Revs. Additionally, Chaplain is immune to most Rev abilities
- Security: Detective scanners can identify the Rev type and the good ol classic laser guns can take a rev out… most of the time.
There you have it. The half baked ideas that came out of my delusions. Like it? Hate it? I dunno… Feel free to pick apart my ideas, add onto it, tell me which parts are horrible, tell me which parts are good. I don’t really expect much out of this and just thought it’d be fun to make this.
