I was avoiding the Internet on April 1st and have been distracted with news from WonderCon.
I don’t agree with your Class II, as I think it is a class suited for minor entities i.e. whether it be incomplete manifestations such as ghost hands or minions like Spider Crawlers. Should still keep the incomplete manifestations (which I think you added to Class III?) there but I like the notion of adding the animal spirits. However, I think there should be a distinction between the entities that crudely imprint animal traits when they manifest such as with the Venom Crawlers and Candelabrum Crawlers versus ghosts of deceased animals. The latter being a higher class like III and IV.
Idk, I find myself disagreeing more and more on this topic it seems. :walterpeck:
Sorry just wrapped up wondercon, I like what you have so far but as far as anything I can add my brain is too tired from the con right now. I’ll reread it later on today and if I have any questions or something of value to add to the discussion I’ll post it then.
I did dig up some of my old notes I wrote about the GBI system. Let me paraphrase some of it:
–Remember that it’s not a power scale. The Class VI seems to be the “odd one out” (but more on that in a moment) but remember, Slimer would be a Class V, Vigo would be a Class IV (I’m just not sure he’s quite enough to be upgraded to Class VII, though if he’d taken over the world he sure would be). Vigo is a lot more powerful than Slimer.
You can actually break down the first six classes into groupings of two:
–Class I and II are indistinct/incomplete. Their prior nature can be difficult to ascertain. You can almost think of them as fractions of Class III-VI ghosts.
–Class III and IV are ghosts of humans. The only real difference is that you know who a Class IV used to be. I admit this seems a bit odd to base the difference on, but knowing a ghost’s pre-death identity means you have access to more information about it, and thus clues on how to deal with it. Again, the power level is meaningless here–it’s easy to imagine a Class III being more powerful than many Class IVs.
–Class V and VI are non-human. V is unidentified, possibly totally extradimensional. VI is the ghost of an identified non-human life form. In some ways, you could say the real “difference” is the same as III and IV–you know what a Class VI used to be, while with V you do not.
–VII of course is the “super” class, Metaspectres, powerful entities usually of extradimensional origin. In a way, it’s a catch-all–Class VIIs could have traits similar to a Class III-VI entity, but in this case it IS a power assessment. An inhuman entity who eats everything and slimes you is a Class V. An inhuman entity that can sneeze and turn Cleveland into charcoal is a Class VII.
I guess it’s mostly a non-sequitur, but I thought I’d put that out here.
Allow me to explain my reasoning behind the adjustments Ive made. I reassigned animal spirits to Class II because animals are considered lower life forms. Therefore it would only be logical to assume that animal ghosts would be of a lower class than those of humans. I understand why you would think that Class VI still seems to be in the right place, but the previous Class V governs ghosts of neither human nor animal form, so in my opinion it doesnt belong in that category at all. Thats why I reassigned Class VI as monsters. I will post the description for that class when I am finished with the previous 2. As for the “incomplete” ghosts (I.E. hands, lips, etc.) they are still parts of a HUMAN form. Just because the apparition is not complete does not mean it is not a human presence. Thats why I added that to Class III.
It’s been a long while since I’ve posted regarding this, and I am still fine tuning it, as well as working on a “Psychokinetic Spectrum” based off of NASA’s Electromagnetic Spectrum and my own ghost classification system. I’m developing this in hopes of completing a Ghostbusters Field Manual that will detail the science fiction behind the ghosts of Ghostbusters and the equipment used to detect and entrap them. This will be a compilation of ideas that have been researched here in this community as well as my own. Also, Tristan if you happen to read this, I know you have expressed interest in this before, and I’ve been attempting to contact you to share ideas in hopes of establishing an official system of sorts, if you haven’t already made one yourself in the comics.