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

[Frank <frank.wisnes@student.uib.no>]

At 11:59 12.04.2003 -0600, you wrote:
> >I looked over the section on rituals and on filling up the guardian spirit,
> >and looks to me like it's perfectly legal in gameterms. Might be time for
> >me to make some houserules on this subject though.
>
>Yup - since there is the rule that asking for the same Favor more than 
>once in a day costs extra Appeasement, it's not that hard of a stretch to 
>say that when using the same Ritual more than once a day grants a +2 to 
>the base Target Number. (Similar to the write-up of Pledge in GD, which 
>costs +1/per use each day)
>
>Spirit Song was also given for free in GD, but that was back in the day 
>when the rules stated that each ritual had to be bought separately - so 
>you would most likely see a Shaman with Pledge 4, Dance 2, War Cry 2 - at 
>the cost of 8 character points during creation. This was both expensive 
>and limiting to Shamans.  Nowdays all they need is 5 point into Ritual and 
>they get 5 rituals, all cast at 5 dice.  The bottom line is that it may be 
>desirable to limit filling the Guardian Spirit to only using the Spirit 
>Song ritual, and at 1/day.
>
>Owl as the totem huh?
>That's a nasty one, all right.  Owl is almost not meant to be a  PC totem, 
>as the ghost way is filled with a lot of Favors that you just don't tend 
>to see heroes doing and the Owl's abilities are just brutal.  You did 
>remember that non-ghost Favors cost "double" during character 
>creation?  That illusion ability of his would take two of the granted 
>slots.  There is also an optional rule in Hexarcana that non-favored 
>Favors cost two extra bounty to buy during game play (7 as opposed to 5).
>Also - only ghost favors get the double appeasement point 
>factor.  Illusion still costs one for one, and don't forget that the 
>appeasement costs double if the illusion is out of contact with the 
>shaman.  Those viewing the illusion do get a tough roll to try and beat 
>it, too.
>
>Shapeshifting is limited to natural animals only, and the shaman isn't 
>carrying any gear.
>
>By the way - what Favors and Rituals does your player have?
>
>And keep an eye out for the red chip ability of Owl - it is potentially 
>very nasty, especially in combination with Shapeshifting.


I'll keep those things in mind.
I think illusion is the only favor he has that's not ghost medicine, 
remember he complaining about it being expencive.

As for the Owl not being a player totem, I agree. It's not something I 
would allow a second time, I actually didn't allow it this time either, I 
just didn't police the character creation and thus ended up with one. As I 
said, I hadn't allowed indians as PC earlier, but he was out of ideas on 
what to play so I said he could make an indian tracker with a few rituals 
and favors he could use when he was lost.. like Chavez in Young Guns. So 
I'm still kinda angry with him for abusing my goodwill, which he btw have 
completely drained.


As for the houserule, I'm thinking something in the lines of that a ritual 
can only be used once for filling up the guardian spirit.. that should 
limit it a little. If he want to fill it up more he'll have to use another 
one. The spirit song on the other hand can be used as many times as he 
wants, as it already has the limitation of once each day. Or maybe as Mac 
suggested only let the once a day rule apply for all rituals.. easier to 
keep track of that way.


As for the "smooking too much" thing, I don't think that's gonna be a 
problem. First of all it says in GD that smoking is a ritual thing, so 
mental addiction should be out of the question. And I don't think nicotine 
occur naturaly in tobacco.. as far as I know it's added. Not 100% on that 
one though.

And I don't like the idea of giving him an ailin' for smoking a little.. 
don't like to do things that way. Get associations to the character in 
Cyberpunk that got hit by a meteor because the GM though he was too powerfull.


We're playing tomorrow (monday), and I'll make sure to get his 
charactersheet with me for studying.. gotta review exacly what he can and 
can't do. I usually leave it to the players to play on their own 
hindrances, but this time I might have to enforce them myself.



- Frank -