Krewe Questions

[KingBellos]

I have a couple questions regarding Krewes. My old man brain is not as sharp as it used to be and some things are just not clicking for me.

I have looked at the Krewe Archtypes and I understand the general themes/goals of the Furies and Mourners. Justice and finding lost knowledge. Fair enough. I am having a heck of a time with the others.

Undertakers just seem to talk to dying people or something so they dont make a ghost, but also deep dive into the Underworld bc they want to see see why other Sin Eaters failed? That seems like two very different goals.

Pilgrims seem to want to put Ghosts to rest, but isnt that the core of all Sin Eaters?

Necropolilitians seem to want to network. Make a safety blanket for everyone and have resources to help each other. What does that have to do with the party stereotypes they have? Also how does that help put Ghosts to rest?

Those 3 I am just having a time getting what makes them different. I am not sure of their overall goals. Bc so far it seems like they either just do what Sin Eaters are supposed to do normally or just do something else all together.

Last thing is a two parter. As looking at one made me think of the other. If there a guide to how many things you make for a Krewe? I get a Sin Eater or Ghost per player. Got to play something. Then it says to make a Ghost and/or living ppl to help out as well. Is there a general rule of thumb to how many or is it just a “Make as many as you feel comfortable with”?

That lead to my final question. Why are we making Ghosts to be in the Krewe? My understanding is that Sin Eaters are trying to help ghosts move on. If that is the case then why are we paling around with some? Why are we not helping them move on?

Any clarification will help. For what ever reason I am reading the book and it just isnt clicking at all.

[Satchel]

Undertakers just seem to talk to dying people or something so they dont make a ghost, but also deep dive into the Underworld bc they want to see see why other Sin Eaters failed? That seems like two very different goals.

Undertakers are trying to hack mythology and the human conception of death as part of an ongoing attempt to specifically change the nature of the Underworld. Many types of krewe aim to make the Underworld a better place, but it's the focal activity of an Undertaker krewe.

Pilgrims seem to want to put Ghosts to rest, but isnt that the core of all Sin Eaters?

Pilgrims want to make it so that ghosts are not created as frequently and are more able to let go of the problems that Anchor them. For many krewes, putting individual ghosts to rest is a happy side-effect of the larger purpose they pursue, but Pilgrims aim to bring ghosts to rest so that ghosts in general can more effectively come to rest; for some, this is adjacent to the Undertakers' goal of making the Underworld serve a greater purpose than suffering and corruption.

Necropolilitians seem to want to network. Make a safety blanket for everyone and have resources to help each other. What does that have to do with the party stereotypes they have? Also how does that help put Ghosts to rest?

Necropolitans fill the institutional equivalent of 1e's Celebrant Archetype, filtered through the greater emphasis 2e places on community and the isolating effects of being dead. It is outright easier to move on from your problems and fixations when you have someone to talk to and aren't stuck alone with your issues for practically forever. The Necropolitans benefit the dead in an equal but opposite fashion to how Defiler demons from Inferno benefit sin — by making the world a materially better place for ghosts, you make it easier for ghosts to be better-adjusted and capable of letting go.

Those 3 I am just having a time getting what makes them different. I am not sure of their overall goals. Bc so far it seems like they either just do what Sin Eaters are supposed to do normally or just do something else all together.

The Bound aren't "supposed to" do anything normally — the Bargain doesn't come with terms and conditions and the geist only incidentally exists as a channel for the Underworld's power. Sin-Eaters help the dead because they chose to help the dead; the player krewe Archetypes are common categories that the ways they do so fall into.

Last thing is a two parter. As looking at one made me think of the other. If there a guide to how many things you make for a Krewe? I get a Sin Eater or Ghost per player. Got to play something. Then it says to make a Ghost and/or living ppl to help out as well. Is there a general rule of thumb to how many or is it just a “Make as many as you feel comfortable with”?

They're supporting cast for a game where the default assumption is that you're part of a group, much like Werewolf and the pack. At least one dead character and at least one living character per player is the explicit recommended minimum (even if you don't make a ghost, you're advised to have everyone put in an idea for one) and there's an open invitation to make more.

That lead to my final question. Why are we making Ghosts to be in the Krewe? My understanding is that Sin Eaters are trying to help ghosts move on. If that is the case then why are we paling around with some? Why are we not helping them move on?

Because sometimes they can't. Because sometimes they need a little time. Because sometimes there's something they need to help with personally. Because sometimes they want to repay the favor. Because sometimes you need someone who can trade Memories without learning an obscure Haunt. Because having a person on the team who's got the spectral equivalent of two days 'til retirement is a fun narrative beat to have in your back pocket. Because "secretly a Reaper" doesn't work for people who aren't ghosts. Because having someone on the team who can theoretically become a geist makes for a fun complication later on, particularly if you need a new Sin-Eater PC.

It supplies options, is what I'm getting at.

[ArcaneArts]

One of the keys(no pun intended) to grokking Krewes is getting what they think is the main universal cause of ghosts, what they conventionall call out for from their state of death.
The Furies see the dead as crying out for justice, and see injustices from minor crimes to systemic failures as obstacles to passing on and changing the Underworld.
The Mourners see the dead as crying out for recognition, and see the failure to remember the past and honor the creations and revelations in life as obstacles to passing on and changing the Underworld.
The Necropolitans see the dead as crying out for connection, and see isolation and denied emotional release as the obstacles to passing on and changing the Underworld.
The Pilgrims see the dead crying out* for detachment, subscribing to the idea that attachments of any sort as obstacles to passing on and changing the Underworld.
The Undertakers see the dead crying out for enlightenment, and see fear of death and the dead and the misunderstanding of the Underworld as obstacles to passing on and changing the Underworld.
With those keys, it's easier to grok the lot. So, that said,

Undertakers just seem to talk to dying people or something so they dont make a ghost, but also deep dive into the Underworld bc they want to see see why other Sin Eaters failed? That seems like two very different goals.

All the Archetypes are focused on changing the Underworld, but the Undertakers are the ones most concerned with radically changing the state of affairs in a post-death world. For them, this forms a threefold exercise that chase two particular rabbits-early prevention of post-death condigtions, and a as-roots-deep-as-possible restructuring of the Underworld.

For the living world, this means working to get people to not fear death and to be as ready as possible for it as possible, while also getting them to contribute resources to the dead. For the twilight world of the dead, it means helping ghosts to get their affairs in order and to also communicate information to the living, as well seeing how what a ghost's passage into the Underworld does to shape that realm. For the Underworld, it means figuring out how it operates and in particularly measuring the effects of a krewe's collected efforts to change it by learning about the Dead Dominions, and thus find the right right way to attempt Catabasis in such that the Dominion they create is basically the new Underworld.

The main thread that conencts all of this is that the underworld and the dead are made up of the piecemeal memories and beliefs that are brought with them, their mythologies tampering with the entire system of death as it exists even as those mythologies are thrown into a blender and spat out into different directions to build the world of Death. If the Undertakers can hack mythology itself, then they've got death by the tail.

Pilgrims seem to want to put Ghosts to rest, but isnt that the core of all Sin Eaters?

What seperates Pilgrims from the other archetypes is that their main enemy is attachment period. Where a Fury says a ghost just needs justice and a Necropolitan needs to feel connected, a Pilgrim says it's all anchorage, and that static clinging induces rot in the worlds of death, notably the Underworld. When a Pilgrim says you need to let go, they mean you need to let go of everything. They the most ascetic of the Archetypes.

Necropolilitians seem to want to network. Make a safety blanket for everyone and have resources to help each other. What does that have to do with the party stereotypes they have? Also how does that help put Ghosts to rest?

The Necropolitans deal with death via the lens of connection and satisfaction-their argument is that it's enough to deal with the bad things that afflict a ghost, they need to have lived the lives they never got to, and more importantly feel like they mattered to other people-not enough that it's a dependency, but that they actually contributed to the lives of others. The party aesthetic emerges from this conflation of values.

Last thing is a two parter. As looking at one made me think of the other. If there a guide to how many things you make for a Krewe? I get a Sin Eater or Ghost per player. Got to play something. Then it says to make a Ghost and/or living ppl to help out as well. Is there a general rule of thumb to how many or is it just a “Make as many as you feel comfortable with”?

The rule of thumb is One Sin-Eater, One Ghost, and three Humans, to the end of troupe-style play where you can shift between power scales as is convienent, and let's people play at different levels of the death cult everyone has set up. there may be more people in the cult, but these are the core, actionable people.

That lead to my final question. Why are we making Ghosts to be in the Krewe? My understanding is that Sin Eaters are trying to help ghosts move on. If that is the case then why are we paling around with some? Why are we not helping them move on?

On the Doylist side of things, because playing a ghost who has to deal with all the ghost crap is fun and people would want to. On the Watsonian side of things, because not every ghost can just move on easy peasy, and while they're dealing with their own things, they can have just as much cause to support and stand with a Krewe as a Sin-Eater or human can, and in fact dedication to a death cult may be all they need to move on anyways. For Sin-Eaters, Ghsots are both valuable members likes anyone else and also offer resources and tools that neither themselves or the living can offer.


*Okay, stretching it here, but the Pilgrims believe detachment is what all ghosts really need.