Re: [DL] A small mail on shamans and such.

[Brett Dixon <balance@tubas.net>]

On Tuesday, April 8, 2003, at 12:27  PM, Frank Wisnes wrote:

> Howdy!
> I'm new here, signed up today :)

Welcome!

> When it comes to Deadlands on the other hand, I'm far from a freshman. 
> I've been
> running Deadlands for little over three years now. Well.. enough with 
> the
> introduction and over to the question at hand ;)

> First a little background. I've never bothered much with indians. Sure 
> I've used
> them as villains (or guides) every once in a while, but when it comes 
> to social
> relations and cultures I never did much of it. I had read most of the
> sourcebooks except Ghost Dancers (never got hold of it) before I 
> started the
> group, and thought I'd save the indians for when I ran out of ideas 
> and it never
> happened. Then one day (a few months ago) one of my players really 
> wanted to
> play an indian scout/pathfinder. I agreed, and said he could have a 
> few minor
> shamanic powers knowing that the powers in the players handbook are 
> very
> limited. Then he got hold of Ghost Dancers on PDF and said that "he 
> just had" to
> use that book, since it was an update on the shamanic powers. I 
> agreed, and next
> thing I know we have a powerhouse of a ghost shaman in the posse. And 
> if that
> wasn't enough, he's careless with his powers and use them at every 
> opportunity.
> I actually haven't had time to read the book, though he printed out 
> the PDF for
> me to read and look at when he uses a power. I've ordered the "real" 
> book and
> are still waiting for it, hate to read those outprinted PDFs. 
> Anyways.. from
> what I can see the shaman is so overpower he belongs in a hackunivers. 
> Turning
> into animals at will, creating perfect illutions that's virtually 
> impossible to
> see through, increasing his strength to ungodly levels and so on. In 
> addition to
> that he's posing as a mexican and thus get no ill-effects of being an 
> indian in
> the western society.

Got Hucksters and Hexes? Most of the info in that for how obvious users 
of the arcane arts get treated (I.E. String'em up!) counts for Shaman, 
too... And they're "dirty savage indians," too!

He still has to spend time to build up appeasement, but he can put it 
off.

Mexican? Most of my posse hates Mexicans! Lots of characters have 
serious grudges against Mexicans!

> The thing is that I barely have time to prepear for sessions at the 
> moment
> (exams and such), much less read a whole sourcebook just to look for a 
> way to
> limit a single players powers. So I was wondering of anyone of you 
> fine people
> at this mailinglist have the laydown on shamanic powers and guardian 
> spirits.

As i said, have fun with him, and don't let him abuse it. The basic 
theory for shamans and spirits is that the spirits do what the shamans 
ask in return for the shaman keeping things the way the spirits want. 
Imagine an old uncle who gives you gifts and pocket money, but you have 
to put up with his interests in old movies (and none of those 
new-fangled video tapes) weird food (really, try eating nothing but 
diner food for a month...) and the like...

That's kind of how i see shamans. They want their environment to remain 
the same way it was five hundred years ago, and take care of those who 
do.

> I'm planning on giving him a hard time as soon as rangers or the 
> agency finds
> out about him, but he's been lucky so far (and not to mention in Salt 
> Lake
> City). And I should probably get familiar with the indian culture but 
> I just
> cant find the time to do that now.

For real fun, pick up Lost Angels. If the Shaman is the only Arcane 
Background in the group, he'll get a rude surprise as he is VERY 
aggressively singled out.

> I guess my question is.. what are the limits of shamanic powers?

You're the marshall...