Spooky Little Thing Like You
One of the big parts of playing the Spooky is the Dark Side where the Keeper can ask terrible things of you or else withhold your powers until you give in. So this is an important thing for the Keeper and Spooky to find a good common ground on.
The phrasing of the Dark Side "asking" you to do things is easy to conceptualize when the Dark Side involves stuff like Poor Impulse Control or Dark Bargain representing a possessing entity. But how does pain from barely controlled powers "ask" you to do anything? And what exactly does the game mean by "Secrets" as a Dark Side?
I talk about this in the Spooky advice in Hunter's Journal. But it's a topic with a lot of room to talk about. So, I'm going to do something here where I look into five extended examples.
Before I move on, some thoughts:
Be Sparing
If every scene the Spooky involves their Dark Side then it gets to be a little one note. One way to cover it is to only bring it out with more stand out cases. A psychic getting angry at a murderer is not really something worth pinging them on Rage for, they're already pretty justified in retaliating. But inflicting someone with a bad case of the flu in response to having a paper ball thrown at their heads over over is definitely the sort of nasty thing the Dark Side tags are meant to push you toward.
Signpost Everything
The Hunter might not know exactly what the consequences of their choices are, but player should be making an informed choice about moving forward. If the nasty thing is that the hunter will forget something important, tell them that they will forget something important. You don't have to tell them what it is, but let them know the broad strokes of the consequence coming for them. You'll see me say this a few times below but it's important enough that I decided to come back up here and say it as a general consideration.
Giving in vs Resisting
In a lot of cases, I am presenting inversions of the normal expectations for one tag or another. In these cases, "giving in" to the dark side is actually long term a healthier thing. But for game play purposes focus on how that makes things a lot harder in the short term.
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NOTE: I'm listing some inspiration characters, but in some cases I'm including tags that don't fit the inspiring character.
Eldritch Exposure (Heather Morell - Katalepsis)
Yes, her name is a link.
In this example, the character's powers come due to exposure to some sort of supernatural or eldritch power that is causing them to change in fundamental ways that are wreaking havoc with their mental and physical health as they become something that doesn't easily work with normal physics or human biology. This dark side is not intelligent, but merely a progression that is hard to deal with.
For this I'm using the following Dark Side tags:
Hallucination
Pain
Paranoia
For hallucinations. This is a matter of senses beginning to adapt or new senses starting to form. In the interim, the hunter is getting a lot of junk information that serves no useful purpose. The result of a still human brain trying its hardest to parse a very much not human array of senses.
Pain is similar, the body is reshaping itself to account for developing powers and in the meantime, the spooky can't easily handle the strain and thus experiences chronic extreme pain. This could also come with intense nausea and other symptoms.
Finally you come to Paranoia, which may be the easiest tag to work with in the way Dark Side is phrased. With the hunter having difficulties understanding what's real and what's a glitch in their sensory abilities and constant worry about when their pain might make itself an issue leads the character to become constantly anxious about what's coming next.
This is inspired by the character Heather Morell from Katalepsis. The only reason I opted not to use Hallucinations in my reworking of Katalepsis as an MotW series is because Heather has the Sight and is reliably seeing actual spirits. So as much as she tries to convince herself they're hallucinations, they are not. Also note that you could easily present a young Heather as a Spooky who does have another voice in their head pushing them places. But early on in the story, she isolates herself from the entity that started her change and is mostly dealing with issues inherent to who she herself is.
Now, how to apply these tags in a game. What are some terrible things that these powers can ask of you?
Pain
We're going to start with Pain here. What can pain ask of you? Quite simply... the pain itself. Using the powers causes pain and the hunter knows that. The dark side asks the hunter to accept that using their power is likely to cause them pain. Most of the time, this pain will be at a level that the hunter is used to and thus not worthy of an experience point.
The Keeper should sign post when the spooky is about to a level of pain that is not ordinary for them with the "ask" the dark side is coming with is to ask the hunter not to do the thing they were just about to do and force the hunter to use other means to handle the situation. If they go through with it, though, they will mark one experience as well as suffer some other consequence due to the dark side such a -1 forward until the character has a chance to rest.
Example: Powers cause pain.
Nasty Thing: The pain this time is going to be really bad.
Give in: experience pain and nausea maybe taking -1 forward or ongoing, but can use powers.
Resist: They can't use their powers and must find alternate means to help the situation.
This covers the situation of "do nasty things" (experience pain) with the consequence of "your powers are not available" if you don't go through with it.
Hallucinations and Paranoia
Moving on to Hallucinations and Paranoia which I've bundled together because the answer to dealing with each of these is very similar. In some ways you still have an entity trying to push you to do something terrible, only the entity is yourself rather than something truly external. (That said, both of those could also be played as the result of direct manipulation by some possessing spirit.
In this case, the "ask" comes of the false information and urgency these Dark Side tags provide. For example, if you suddenly describe fire catching all over the building. Maybe it's real, maybe it's a hallucination. Likewise, the hunter might suddenly be struck with an absolute certainty that some bystander is lying to them or maybe following them. You might also combine the two and have the hunter "notice" that something seems to be moving under the skin of some person.
Example: Spooky hallucinates that a fire is happening.
Nasty Thing: Start a panic, pull fire alarms, get people out!
Give in: They rush about causing problem when there's no danger and have to deal with the fall out.
Resist: The effort to shut out the hallucinations prevents them from focusing on their powers.
Example: Spooky convinced that person is lying!
Nasty Thing: Confront them, interrogate them.
Give in: Spooky gets in the person's face and awkward social situations insue.
Resist: Not trusting themselves or their powers, they instinctively shut them off until they have a chance to calm down somehow.
Example: Spooky convinced that person is possessed/replaced!
Nasty Thing: Attack that person. Kill or exorcise them.
Give in: Has to be stopped by other hunters. Or maybe they hurt the person in the attempt to exorcise them.
Resist: As with above, the immediate revulsion as they realize their powers are lying to them causes the Spooky to shut them off for a time.
But. Here's a thing with these tags. You can also turn them around like so:
Example: Spooky doesn't believe the fire in front of them is real.
Nasty Thing: Ignore it, do nothing.
Give in: The fire spreads out of control, people are hurt, possibly including the Spooky.
Resist: The close call and confusion leads to the same instinctual power shut down.
Example: Spooky worries that their distrust of a person is delusional.
Nasty Thing: Let the person get away with lying.
Give in: Believe them. Maybe even defend them from other Hunters.
Resist: Mind is in chaos and indecision on some levels. Can still act mostly normally, but their powers are inaccessible.
Example: Spooky thinks they were seeing things and person isn't really possessed or replaced.
Nasty Thing: Let the monster/minion go.
Give in: That monster attacks someone, maybe even the hunter.
Resist: Same sort of instinctual shut down as above.
Regardless of whether the hunter is faced with some real thing they're doubting or a threat that isn't really and they're only imagining, the Keeper should make it clear which choice provides XP and which choice takes away their powers. Yes, this does make it obvious whether something is true or imagined, but that should be fine. The player deserves to know which story direction they're taking at the moment.
Lab Rat (Eleven - Stranger Things)
In this case, the Spooky's power is as a result of being experimented upon to bring out their raw latent supernatural abilities. They've been subjected to various drugs and training regimens that have left all sorts of impact on them. Then there is also the matter of the culture surrounding them as they go through all this.
For this I'm using the following Dark Side tags:
Secrets
Rage
Greed for Power
For Secrets, the Spooky has been in an environment in which everyone is keeping secrets from them. The people running their experiment know things about the character that the Spooky doesn't and they may know many other secrets besides. This may also be portrayed as the Spooky becoming obsessed with keeping their origin a secret out of some sort of shame.
Years of abuse and torture have given the Spooky a hair-trigger temper. There's very little space between calm and absolutely berserk for this character. It may have even been vital to what allowed them to escape. They overreact to things, taking mild threats to be a matter of life and death.
In this case, the lab experiments found the Spooky feeling powerless for a long time. So now, they are driven to get more and more power for the simple reason that it makes them feel safe. There's also a potential for falling into the cycle of abuse where the abused becomes the abuser. Though ideally as a hunter, this doesn't last long.
Aside from the Greed for Power element, this is Eleven from Stranger Things. Instead of that, I would give her Poor Impulse control. But otherwise this example is entirely inspired by her circumstances. Her reactions to bullies are extreme and she spends most of the season chasing secrets that people refused to tell her about.
Secrets
So how does the matter of people keeping secrets from you lead to your powers potentially shutting down? One of the big ones is secrets that the experimenters know about just how the hunter's powers work. This could be a maintenance cycle that the character doesn't know about. Or an inherited genetic disorder that a biological ancestor had which will cause problems.
An interesting interpretation on this approach is that the powers starting to fail could be the inciting event rather than the consequence of the choice. This is certainly something you would want to talk about with your Spooky ahead of time as normally the loss occurs after the choice and you'll want to make sure they're okay with that reversal.
Example: Power shut down.
Nasty Thing: The Spooky needs to contact the people that experimented on them or maybe break into a facility.
Give in: A scene around the above need occurs at the end of which the hunter should get their powers back somehow.
Resist: The hunter continues on the mystery without their powers. If this goes on to the end of mystery their powers will come back but there's no way of knowing what triggered the loss in the first place.
Rage
The many sorts of terrible things that can result from Rage are pretty obvious. This Dark Side is going to push the Spooky into conflict with other people possibly even more than Violence does. And the kicker is that this might a situation one can turn to Billy Joel about because the anger isn't always evil and it isn't always wrong. (for those that don't know, that's a reference to the lyrics of The Stranger.) The Rage might very well be a part of how the character escaped in the first place.
Another take on this might be that currently the character can only use their powers while their veins are filled with the hormones that come with being angry. So, instead of having someone with a hair trigger temper, you might have someone that has to make the effort to build up their anger anytime they want to use their powers. In this case, I would only pull this dark side if the Spooky is feeling happy or joyful about something. Basically, the need for their powers ruining one of the few times they don't feel angry.
Example: An annoying bystander makes the Spooky mad.
Nasty Thing: Go overboard in reacting to them.
Give In: The Spooky terrifies or hospitalizes the bystander.
Resist: The mental stress makes it impossible to reach the powers for some time.
Example: The Spooky needs to make themselves angry.
Nasty Thing: There will be collateral damage.
Give In: The Spooky is in an enraged state lashing out verbally, physically, and psychically.
Resist: The Spooky is unable to reach the heights of anger necessary to use the powers.
Greed for Power
This isn't a very difficult tag to work around. Greed for Power is going to push the Spooky to do questionable things pretty easily. Where this becomes a problem from a gameplay perspective is in how to explain the powers not functioning when the Spooky resists. When the Dark Side represents a sapient entity manipulating the hunter, that's easy, but as an internal function or malfunction it's a little bit different.
That said, we've been making use of the idea of the mind instinctively shutting down the powers as a response to sudden shocks about terrible things it almost pushed the Spooky to do, and that still works for this one. That does sound like "hey isn't that just the same answer to all these questions" and sure, but so is "the creature giving you power punishes you by taking it away."
Example: The Spooky is tempted to use a machine to boost their power.
Nasty Thing: The machine will over stress the local power grid or maybe just the building.
Give In: Danger power fluctuations, rolling brown outs, or shorted fuses.
Resist: The Spooky cuts the experiment off just before bad stuff happens, but the effort to that point temporarily exhausts their powers.
But less turn this on its head again. What if instead of actually being greedy for power, the Spooky is terrified of themselves giving in to the lure of power. In this case, the Dark Side might pop up in cases where the Spooky feels like powers aren't needed and refuses to use them. The problem here is that on its face, then giving in to the impulse means not using their powers where as resisting it means using the powers.
The best way to handle this sort of thing is to reverse some of the way the Dark Side works.
In this case the "Nasty Thing" is not having powers because you're resisting the urge to use them. In which case you would get an experience for not using your power in this one instance. But in this case, I would again only award the experience if the character resolves the entire situation without using powers that would really make it a lot easier. So, at the end of the whole scene.
Example: The Spooky is concerned about using their telepathy and other powers to invade someone's privacy.
Nasty Thing: The Spooky has to investigate without powers.
Gives in: The Spooky doesn't use powers.
Resist: The Spooky does use powers.
Vow of Purity (The Golden Child)
In this case, the Spooky's powers extend from a staying true to a code of intense virtue. If they fall off the proper path then their powers may weaken or fail them completely, and the demands of the path might be something that's easy to hold to in a temple, but much less so when you are faced with the threat of a monster about to eat one of your friends.
For this, I'm using the following Dark Side tags:
Violence
Rage
Guilt
And all of these are going to be used in their inverse.
Part of the code the Spooky must follow is that they must eschew violence to keep their powers. In this case, they may be placed into a position where they see a monster about to eat a bystander and have to make a choice between their vow and that person's life in the moment. Or at least it may appear so in that moment of crisis.
Contrary to the Lab Rat above, the Spooky with this vow of purity must not give in to rage or else they will find their powers failing them. This means that they may have to tolerate a lot of petty abuse without resorting to any sort of retaliation on their tormentors.
Finally, we have Guilt. As I said, it is easier to be virtuous in an isolated temple where the sources of temptation are few and far between. Once out in the world, the Spooky is going to find themselves presented with situations where they maybe could have done something to prevent a terrible thing if only they had acted rather than cling to their vow.
The Golden Child is never really shown being tempted in the movie, rather the movie is spent with the villains are trying to undo the child's supernatural protections in other ways. However, this felt like the best example I could think of for this sort of character.
Violence
So let's start with violence. The life of a hunter is generally filled with violence so the character is going to be seeing a lot of it. More than that, they may find themselves in a position where none of the rest of the team is around to help and someone's life is at stake. The obvious route is to fight off the villain or monster but that will mean the loss of their powers until they get a chance to atone. So how do they solve it?
An important part of this approach is to not punish the Spooky for solving the problem without using violence. If the Spooky protects someone by simply standing between them and the monster, that's not violence. The challenge here is to create a scenario where violence presents itself as desirable but is also definitely not the best choice for the situation. Immediate self-defense or defense of other I'd probably not punish.
Example: The Spooky is speaking to a villain who is gleefully explaining all his plans. Nobody else in the team is nearby.
Nasty Thing: You could kill them right now, but it would break your vow.
Gives In: Holds back on attacking the villain and letting them live.
Resists: Takes the opportunity to kill the villain right there. Ending the threat. You can atone later.
Rage
As an inverse in the case above and also a Dark Side point, you have to be a bit more strict on what is considered acting in anger. A Spooky calmly using their spells to ward or even rebuking a demon is not going to be running afoul of their Dark Side tag. However, if a bunch locals start harassing the Spooky in petty ways, like hitting their head with tiny paper balls over and over, then telling them off might be considered breaking the tenet.
Also note that in even in cases where some manner of anger is proper and necessary, the Spooky might be tempted to still go beyond that point. Consider bringing out this Dark Side in the middle of a tense moment to tempt the Spooky into going over board. Show them a friend harmed in the crossfire and ask them what they are going to do about it. Nasty things in this case is again going to be letting the monster free.
The other thing to be aware of is that Rage and Violence have a lot of overlap, but are not the same thing.
Example: Some locals are harassing the Spooky with petty things like tripping them, calling them names, or getting in their face.
Nasty Thing: Let the bullies continue to harass you without retaliation.
Gives In: The Spooky is distracted by their tormentors until they get bored or someone else interferes.
Resist: Tell off the bullies, maybe humiliate them.
Example:
Nasty Thing: Something or someone the Spooky cares about is threatened or harassed. Deadly harm is not at immediate risk.
Gives in: The Spooky focuses on supporting the friend and repairing the damage done.
Resist: The Spooky resorts to retaliating against the tormentor, perhaps even using their powers against the villain.
Guilt
This is a matter of always feeling like there was something more the Spooky could have done. The constant worry that their vows cause more harm than good and that there's seemingly no permanent solution available that doesn't involve breaking one tenet or another.
The sort of acts this can lead to might be similar to those presented in Rage and Violence, just with a different internal motivation. But in the interest of avoiding every Dark Side situation feeling the same again focus on what could be different.
Example: The Spooky is aware that someone they are tempted to hurt is going to be somewhere and it isn't a clear final confrontation.
Nasty Thing: The Spooky refuses to go with the team to do that part of the investigation.
Gives In: The Spooky is not around to provide their help in the investigation.
Resists: The Spooky goes, but refuses to use any of their powers around that person for fear of accidentally breaking their vow.
The Drunken Medium (Winter Mullins - Dark Quarter)
In this case, the Spooky's powers are heavily tied up in an addiction of some sort. Perhaps their powers only work while they are engaging in the addiction, or maybe the addiction interferes with those powers. Regardless, the addiction and assorted feelings come around over and over for the character. In all honesty, this is one of the more straight-forward of these example characters, even with a second mind pressing the issues.
I'm using these Dark Sides for this.
Addiction
Mood Swings
Self-Destruction
Addiction is the most prevalent in this theme on the face of it, the title and inspiring character to lean this toward alcohol, but any addiction can be worked around. And again, this could be a case where the powers only work while you're engaged in the addictive behavior. Or it could be the powers are inhibited by the addictive behavior.
In chasing the highs of whatever addictive behavior or substance is involved comes the wildly swinging moods of the character. They'll be joyous and happy one moment, filled with rage the next, and completely chill and laid back soon after. They are mercurial, and if that comes a wide range of erratic behavior.
Recklessness and self-recrimination alike both tend to lead addicts into some form of self-harm either intentional or incidental. And this is something that definitely cause issues in a hunter's career. This isn't always about causing one's self physical injury, but also covers sleep deprivation and financial ruin.
Winter Mullins from the board game Dark Quarter is a good example of this. I've only seen one or two of his scenes in the game, but I do know that his story line revolves around his addiction. Unfortunately his ability to speak to ghosts only works while he is inebriated.
Addiction
Whether the addictive behavior is needed to use the powers, then hype up the cost on the hunter's personal life and the toll that addiction has. You might start to ask questions as to whether the power is something toxic that is overall unhealthy, or perhaps the addiction is a crutch the hunter uses to do something they should be able to do without it.
On the other hand, when the addiction causes the powers to fail, then you'll be focused on the sort of harsh experiences the hunter has while trying to keep away from the addiction. Withdrawal, temptation, shakes. In this case giving in is actually the healthier option, but it will come with downsides in the short term. In this case, assume that downtime does involve some addictive behavior and make that clear with the player.
To be clear. If the powers come with the addiction give the hunter gameplay downsides to go with being drunk or sleep deprived or stressed out from losing money. If the powers come by avoiding the addiction, then avoid mechanical downsides for "resisting" and instead give them for the downsides of staying away from addiction: withdrawal, temptations etc. Among other things, this would make the "resist" path of, say, getting drunk have the "benefit" of not have that -1 ongoing for going through withdrawal symptoms.
Example: The hunter needs the addiction in order to use their powers.
Nasty Thing: Getting into the addiction is definitely going to ruin something.
Give in: The hunter goes deep into drink, gambling, adrenaline chasing, or whatever and the damage is immediate apparent.
Resist: The hunter avoids the addiction and has to do without their powers.
Example: The hunter needs to avoid addiction in order to use their powers.
Nasty Thing: Withdrawal, shakes, distraction and temptation.
Give in:The short-term downsides of resisting addiction cause noticeable obstacles, but you do have your powers.
Resist: Get drunk, go to the casino, who cares. Everything is smooth and easy.
Mood Swings
There is a common thought that happiness is always better than sorrow or anger, but toxic positivity and unhealthy elation are definitely things. When the character is riding high on their emotions they are prone to forget important things and let stuff slide. The downward swing of this equation uses the same sort of suggestions you can see above in rage and guilt.
Another thing about mood swings is that you can have them going on in the midst of addictive behavior or in the midst of a period of trying to stay on the wagon. So this presents a way to change up the depiction of the situation by not mentioning the addiction directly but instead focus on the emotions going on. If the hunter brings up the addiction themselves, well, then you're doing your job.
Example: The hunter is excited/depressed and letting the rest of the world go by without thinking about it.
Nasty Thing: The hunter will forget to do something that is very important.
Give In: The hunter will only remember the important thing when it is either too late or almost too late.
Resist: The shock to the hunter's mind and system on remembering to do the thing causes disrupts their powers.
Self-Destruction
In a lot of ways, this entire concept is self-destruction. The addiction is the cause and the mood swings are part of the symptoms. But here we get to the core of the matter. However, this tag can be treated on its own merits. Perhaps the hunter has something of a martyr complex so that even without the addiction they may be self-destructive.
Another way to address this is maybe the self-destruction presents a way around one of the other two tags. If instead of giving in to the addiction they can suggest to the Keeper that they start using pain as a way to distract them from the temptation and stay focused on using their powers.
Example: A bystander is danger.
Nasty Thing: Regardless of what action the hunter takes the first thing they do is put themselves in the line of danger. Even if another hunter is ready to protect the bystander.
Gives in: They face the danger the bystander would have.
Resist: They stay where its safe and their lack of confidence in themselves causes their powers to slip away for now.
Example: The hunter is tempted to go back to drinking.
Nasty Thing: The hunter periodically gives themselves small cuts and jabs to stay focus and not think of the addiction.
Give In: The hunter takes 1 Harm past any means of harm reduction.
Resist: The hunter avoids harming themselves but will lose their powers due to the effort of resisting both the addiction and the self-destructive thoughts.
The Sleepy Psychic (Taniyama Mai - Ghost Hunt)
In this case, I'm going to actually create one of my own Dark Side tags. The game doesn't expressly say that you can do this, but it's part and parcel to the way a lot of the game works. In any case, this is a case where the Spooky's powers mostly only work while they're asleep leaving them vulnerable to other dangers.
In this case I'm using the following tags:
Lethargy
Paranoia
Poor Impulse Control
Lethargy in this case comes from the fact that while the Spooky has several minor or passive abilities that just function all the time, their biggest powers only happen while they are asleep. And they have an instinct for when they need to use these powers resulting in them periodically going to sleep when it would be inconvenient for other purposes.
Paranoia here is less about the Spooky and more about the monsters and villains. Monsters and curse-wielders tend to figure out the Spooky is a threat to their plans very quickly and then identify them as a major target even if they're not the most physically or magically dangerous. This is partially based on picking up things the Spooky says but could also be due to a lot of the passive level supernatural stuff the Spooky is doing.
Since the Spooky at least initially isn't aware of how much of what they do involves using psychic senses and premonitions, they also don't have the awareness of when something may or may not be dangerous. Their instinct tells them that something should be looked at or someone should be defended and they do it without even thinking about questioning it.
The inspiration character for this is Taniyama Mai who throughout the series shows herself to have excellent instincts for the core of any particular problem, who is innocent, and what is dangerous. This is even well before she or anyone else are aware that she's a psychic. The other psychics on the team eventually teach her some self-defense magics and the last graphic novel (never adapted to the anime) has her almost solo saving the whole group from a haunt. But still, the big bursts of knowledge she gets comes from her dreams which seem to be a combination of several Spooky moves.
Lethargy
I'm going to go over two ways that this can be interpreted and I'll start with the interpretation Mai has: several of her major powers only work while she's asleep. In this case, there's an instinct that comes with these powers that will push her to fall asleep when there's something her she's subconsciously aware of that needs a dream in order for her to be consciously aware of it. This can even come to her when falling asleep is dangerous.
The other interpretation is that using the powers causes the character to become incredibly sleepy and tired. Such that they must choose to either not use the power and stay awake or else use the power and be forced to get a lot of sleep afterwards. I'm pretty sure there is a character that has this sort of price to their powers, but I'm not sure where I saw it.
If the character does fall asleep while a villain, minion, or monster is nearby and they're alone, then they'll wake up just barely at the last moment where they can do something to get away. If it is just dangerous to their personal life, then they'll be woken up by their teacher, boss, parent, or such.
Example: Something dangerous is coming and instincts demand the Spooky sleep.
Nasty Thing: Falling asleep right now is at least inconvenient. Maybe you're at work or school. Or maybe something dangerous is physically near.
Give In: The Spooky falls asleep and has to deal with whatever sort of fallout that comes with.
Resist: The character stays awake and misses out on the chance to use their powers to learn more detail about whatever's going on.
Example: Using their power might give a vital bit of intel.
Nasty Thing: They'll fall asleep right after using their power and passing on whatever they've learned... or finished starting fires, or whatever.
Give in: The hunter gets the chance to use their power and stay awake long enough to pass on info or complete a task. But then falls asleep immediately and needs to be protected.
Resist: The character stays awake and has to help in less supernatural ways. Missing out on whatever they could have done.
Paranoia
I'm going to start with the weird interpretation here, that being this represents the paranoia of the people around the Spooky. In this case not giving means that those unconscious powers the Spooky uses without thinking just don't go off at the moment and thus they don't do anything to alert the villain. Otherwise, it means that villains, minions, hostile bystanders, and monsters will become suspicious of the character either because they say something that says they know more than they should or because the creature can actually feel the Spooky's power, consciously or otherwise. Meaning that annoying and abusive high school teacher who may not be the villain but is still bad immediately dislikes the Spooky.
The other interpretation is more expected. The Spooky's instincts and gifts have left them nervous and jumping at shadows. They're never sure when their powers are warning them of a danger or whether they're just imagining things. They are right often enough to never disregard it but wrong often enough to never totally trust their feelings.
Example: A potential suspect for casting the curse is being accused and the Spooky might instinctively reach out to see if it's valid.
Nasty Thing: Someone will immediately dislike or suspect the Spooky of being a problem.
Give in: Use your power, get some feeling about the truth of the matter. You're now a target.
Resist: Go unnoticed but also not learn anything to see if the accused is guilty.
Example: The Spooky has doubts about a recent feeling they had.
Nasty Thing: You will have no confidence in what you sensed.
Give In: Don't say anything to anybody else yet, even the other hunters. It will be almost too late when you suggest it.
Resist: Tell the others what you sensed but immediately feel like it was worthless and your powers fail for now.
Poor Impulse Control
The most obvious interpretation of poor impulse control is the idea of a character who instantly gives in to any whim. Buys the stuff at the impulse buy shelves. Says things without thinking. All that sort of stuff that one associates with over enthusiastic dogs in movies. Or memes about ADHD.
Another option for poor impulse control could be far more directed and focused on a particular type of impulse. Maybe the hunter is instinctual about protecting people and will move to defend people or check things out without considering that that might put them in danger. They never seem to learn. It's part of their power, but gets them in danger regularly. In some ways this will work like the Mundane's don't worry I'll check it out as it encourages going into danger while providing an experience point.
Example: There's a pretty necklace there on the cultist's desk.
Nasty Thing: Take the necklace that is almost certainly cursed or extremely important to some ritual.
Give In: The curse or attention of the cult is firmly targeted on the Spooky.
Resist: Your brush with the curse or enchantment has left your powers bound up for the moment.
Example: You immediately want to go to the person you saw when you tuned in to the monster.
Nasty Thing: Go to the potential victim first. Then call the other hunters.
Give in: You're firmly in the path of danger with the other hunters far away when trouble starts.
Resist: You get help, but working against your instincts shuts down your power.
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Some other thoughts. The Dark Side ramps up over time as you spend Luck just like a Monstrous curse, so a lot of the advice from my post on escalating curses can be useful.
For another consideration, you might decide that different Dark Side tags mostly affect different aspects of the Spooky's power.
For example, using Taniyama Mai:
Mai's Lethargy associated powers are The Sight, Tune In, and Premonitions as well as a Guardian spirit she talks to often. Essentially she astrally projects and is able to observe the psychic environment while asleep. Her Premonitions are a result of observing patterns of behavior during this time, and also conversations with her guardian.
Mai's Paranoia connected powers would mostly be her basic weird move: Trust Your Gut and Hunches. Because again, she is almost unerring at realizing who's innocent or needs protecting which makes villains really not like her.
Almost all of Mai's information gaining powers trigger into her Poor Impulse Control because while she often tells people what she saw, she also has bad habits of rushing to try to do things herself and get in over her head as well.