I wrote this game today and wondered what people thought. It's an abstract RPG with a focus on storytelling. You take on the role of an abstract noun or 'Opus' like Beauty or Hatred. You begin at level 1, an idea and your goal is to reach level 5, manifestation. As an Opus you take on a persona, i.e. a real human and you must gradually work your way to level 5 by making the persona act like your Opus.
Wierd, I know, but check it out, it's not done yet.
Coincidence?
Hehe, it's quite similar to a RPG idea taking shape on the back of my head, although completely different. I'll try and write a post here when I land it a bit more.
Anyway, the idea is nice, but have you thought how it would work at party level?
An idea that occurs to me now, maybe this Opuses know each other and know that their personnas are posessed, and then work together to cover their backs. If a mobster becomes a nice guy suddenly, all his pals would discover he's posessed and exorcise him.
At the beginning of time, opuses used to posess people all the time, and then the humans realize that until they discover how to exorcise the opuses and now any discovered opus is exorcised at the spot. Therefore, opuses help each other to provide alibies, excuses, or simply notify to each other when the other is being too evident.
A party of opuses could be a group of somewhat related opuses (I find hard to carry a party group assembled by Kindness and Hatred), trying to manifest on people somewhat opposed to their ideals (there's no big deal on a beauty Opus to posess a Miss World).
The "Losing levels" part could be more dramatic and less farfetched with this setting, because the consequences of acting too much out of character is being exorcised. Maybe exorcisms don't eliminate the opus entirely, but gives him less control over the body, so this could be gradual.
I know the idea is making it diceless, but there could be a "self-aware check" that the personna could do when doing something against its nature. The check should depend on how much it is opposite to his nature, and how much control it has over the body. If the personna loses, he does the action without suspecting of the opus influence. If the personna wins, it will run to an exorciser.
Maybe communication between personnas could be made during some activities without being noticed. For example, if both personnas are sleeping, both opuses can talk to each other directly through dreams. The same goes if the personnas are eating together without speaking, or making love, whatever.
In everyday communication, the personnas are aware of the actions of the other members of the party, and could help on a "self-aware check" of a party member (against the other opus) if he notices unusual behavior on the other player. It is probably that when someone finds out he's posessed, his roommate will also go to exorcism, just in case! So keep a low profile on normal player interaction.