From: Loren J. Miller (MILLERL@WILMA.WHARTON.UPENN.EDU)
Date: Wed 20 Nov 1991 - 09:56:33 EET
Tim Leask asked about Shamans and Fetches and other things spiritual.
There were a few points to his article, and I'll tackle them in order.
1. I don't think that adding a new skill "Spirit Sense" is a good idea.
If it works just like Scan except it uses the Shaman's Second Sight,
then it should use the Scan skill, and likewise for any Searching on the
spirit plane. After all, RQ3 Trolls use the Scan skill to "see" using
their darksense, don't they? (don't they? I hope they do, otherwise I'm
making a fool of myself.)
2. Speed of moving spirits, I think MP (temporary POW) is fine. (I like
the idea of MPx10 or POWx10, though, and think that spirits with an
elemental affiliation might be able to move through that element at the
higher speed. Besides, it's very genre for primitive and horror movies,
as shown in the Evil Dead and Conan movies.)
3. Spirit combat between discorporate spirits. How about a slight mod of
the existing rules? If a spirit is engaged in combat with another
spirit, the spirit with more MP at that time can flee the other. The
chasing spirit must make a [Track | Scan] roll to follow the fleeing
spirit's path.
4. Discorporate Shamans can *not* return instantly to their bodies. They
must use the standard rules for travel on the spirit plane, moving at
POW or MP meters per strike rank. I think that allowing shamans to
travel instantaneously when other spirits can't would be a major
mistake. Also, the Tlingit stories about shamans (presumably Stafford's
basic source) repeatedly describe the long, arduous journeys that
shamans must make to the magic places they seek and back home from those
treacherous magic places. There is no concept of a silver cord or other
modern ideas about astral projection in the stories of the shamans of
the gobi desert. Rather those who venture into the ancestral lands
venture into peril which may prevent them from returning, the bones of
many shamans which litter the ground below them will attest to that.
5. What happens to shamans who go to 0 MP in spirit combat? What happens
to anybody who loses spirit combat with a spirit? If the spirit is a
type that would possess a body then it will possess the body, otherwise
it will go away. Any time a living body is just lying there without a
spirit in it any nearby spirit can notice the empty vessel and go in.
Shamans are lucky because they have fetches which inhabit their bodies
when they go onto the spirit plane, thus keeping nearby spirits from
jumping in and taking over. Fetches can also defend against spirits that
have beaten their shaman. So what happens to the shaman? Once his MP
have regenerated he will need to find his way back through the spirit
plane and return to his body. If the spirit that beat him can trap or
imprison him somehow he may never return to his body. Can you say
"Quest"?
6. What is a fetch? I understand a fetch as a spirit which is the
shadow, or superconscious, part of the shaman. It is actually part of
the shaman's own soul. Where does it hang out? Around the shaman,
occasionally you can see it as an indistinct or fleeting image of the
shaman's totem animal. Cormac, in the RQ3 Magic Book, saw his shaman's
fetch as a huge cobra. When the shaman leaves his body the fetch keeps
watch over it to guard against threats from the material plane. The
rules do not say that a fetch can animate the shaman's body, but I
suppose it's possible. The fetch, however, would start all skills at
default or worse, since it has no experience. A shaman, if he was able
to trust his guards and instructors, might be wise to let his fetch
receive training (minimally, how to speak the local language) while he
was off in the spirit plane. You also might want to limit the time that
a fetch can animate the body, perhaps to 5 minutes per POW at first, and
maybe later up to 1 hour per POW.
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
"I don't have to practice what I preach 'cause I'm not the kind
of person I'm preaching to." -- Book of the SubGenius
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