Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Razors Edge. razrzedge@*****.com
Subject: Ally Spirit Inhabiting
Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 21:42:44 -0700 (PDT)
The idea for this question was inspired by Steve
Kenson's, A Little More Familiar article found at
http://members.aol.com/talonmail/familiar.html .

The concept of allowing allies to inhabit mundane or
even magical items other than an homunculus, good idea
or bad? Talos the statue seems to be a classic example
of a homunculus. The cyberdeck example Archimedies
seems a bit extreme, but what about Cruiser the
Eurorcar Westwind? Parts of me think back to KITT and
I am ashamed to admit I like the idea. The weapon
focus and predator seem pretty reasonable. Especially
a serial killer of the path of madness (non-adept). He
accidently summons a spirit into the knife he uses to
kill with. The Son of Sam even makes sense if it woud
be summoned, accidently, into the neighbors dog.


_____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com
Message no. 2
From: Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com
Subject: Ally Spirit Inhabiting
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 12:00:25 EDT
In a message dated 5/15/1999 11:42:43 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
razrzedge@*****.com writes:

> The concept of allowing allies to inhabit mundane or
> even magical items other than an homunculus, good idea
> or bad? Talos the statue seems to be a classic example
> of a homunculus. The cyberdeck example Archimedies
> seems a bit extreme, but what about Cruiser the
> Eurorcar Westwind? Parts of me think back to KITT and
> I am ashamed to admit I like the idea. The weapon
> focus and predator seem pretty reasonable. Especially
> a serial killer of the path of madness (non-adept). He
> accidently summons a spirit into the knife he uses to
> kill with. The Son of Sam even makes sense if it woud
> be summoned, accidently, into the neighbors dog.

The idea of putting an Ally into a vehicle is *neat*, but after some personal
GMing experience, there are some nightmares just waiting to happen.

For instance:

Ally Inhabitation gives the form "3 Dimensional Movement". Okay, sure common
sense just screams this to mean "small items", but what if the item isn't so
small? Does "KITT" (using the above analogy) get to "drive on air
then?"
Here's a good one for you all.

There was a tank once a LONG time ago in a PBEM I ran back then (8 years or
so now) that was rumored to have an Ally Being that was the magicians' ally
spirit "form". Does the Tank suddenly have an entirely new power plant that
has nothing to do with fuel?

Additionally, either with the Cyberdeck or the Vehicle's considerations,
comes the concept of "can the spirit interact with the computer?" Okay
folks, time for some major reality checks IMO. I have *loved* the havoc
we've created using various house rules on these ideas, but in the end, I
have to admit, the idea of a spirit *directly* interacting with a
cyberterminal (via autopilot connection or whatever else comes to mind) is a
tad bit unbalancing.

Under normal considerations, I would say "No Way". But, given that the
body/form the ally is in is now "it's own", the theoretical arguments do
begin.

-K
Message no. 3
From: dghost@****.com dghost@****.com
Subject: Ally Spirit Inhabiting
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 15:48:16 -0500
On Sun, 16 May 1999 12:00:25 EDT Ereskanti@***.com writes:
<SNIP>
>The idea of putting an Ally into a vehicle is *neat*, but after some
personal
>GMing experience, there are some nightmares just waiting to happen.
>
>For instance:
>
>Ally Inhabitation gives the form "3 Dimensional Movement". Okay, sure
common
>sense just screams this to mean "small items", but what if the item
isn't so
>small? Does "KITT" (using the above analogy) get to "drive on air
then?"
>Here's a good one for you all.

What I did before MitS was say that the Ally could drive the vehicle
using the vehicle's normally. However, whenever the Ally engaged it's
3-D Movement, it used it's own movement rate. (Remember, it doesn't
matter if the Ally is inhabiting a balsa wood body or a lead one, it
still has the same natural movement rating. We could use some rules for
different Homunculus bodies. A light weight body should be faster than a
heavier one.

>There was a tank once a LONG time ago in a PBEM I ran back then (8 years
or
>so now) that was rumored to have an Ally Being that was the magicians'
ally
>spirit "form". Does the Tank suddenly have an entirely new power plant
that
>has nothing to do with fuel?

Before MitS, I allowed the Ally to propel the vehicle at its "natural"
movement rate. Any faster and the Ally had to engage the vehicle's
engines.

>Additionally, either with the Cyberdeck or the Vehicle's considerations,

>comes the concept of "can the spirit interact with the computer?" Okay
>folks, time for some major reality checks IMO. I have *loved* the havoc

>we've created using various house rules on these ideas, but in the end,
I
>have to admit, the idea of a spirit *directly* interacting with a
>cyberterminal (via autopilot connection or whatever else comes to mind)
is a
>tad bit unbalancing.

I would say the Ally, with the proper interface, could interact with the
computer if given the proper skills. "The proper interface" would be a
keyboard and display screen and thus the spirit would always be a
tortoise.

>Under normal considerations, I would say "No Way". But, given that the
>body/form the ally is in is now "it's own", the theoretical arguments do

>begin.

} (C reference ;)

--
D. Ghost
(aka Pixel)
"Hello, my name is Stephen. This is Dick. He'll see if he has something
your size." -- Jug Ears

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
Message no. 4
From: runnerpaul@*****.com runnerpaul@*****.com
Subject: Ally Spirit Inhabiting
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 19:33:11 -0400 (EDT)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

At 12:00 PM 5/16/1999 -0400, Ereskanti@***.com wrote:
>Ally Inhabitation gives the form "3 Dimensional Movement". Okay,
>sure common
>sense just screams this to mean "small items", but what if the item
>isn't so
>small? Does "KITT" (using the above analogy) get to "drive on air
>then?"

Come on, didn't you ever watch Knight Rider? :)
_At_least_ once an episode, there would be some need for Michael
Knight to press that little white button marked Turbo Boost, causing
KITT to make some spectacular physics defying car jump, such as
jumping from one multi-level parking structure to another one across
the street (with sidewalks, parking lanes, and two lanes of traffic on
each side of the street between the two parking garages).

One show, the car had been dropped to the bottom of a deep shaft in
the ground, and then the bad guys filled in the shaft with loose
gravel. To get out, KITT had to Turbo Boost, from a _standing_ start
at the bottom of the shaft, at something like an 80 degree angle,
_THROUGH_ the gravel. Sure sounds like the 3 Dimensional Movement
power to me. :)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Personal Privacy 6.0.2

iQCVAwUBNz9Uf6PbvUVI86rNAQHAigP7BWnS0jPkPwWrZmsFKmR+yj4S6LvczI3n
7vLRT7C/V/d9v29jifr9gVeULceFpJkZjC49B53GMNYLyVcN9Gbyvv74Ov1BNiFP
ACCV7nyuNSyZR3bXrlq1d6XHApKwO5cZ2iMMfkVRj69TwBSbc92zJmAjXA4YlXh9
4W/qxE0BSm4=fugS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
-- Paul Gettle, #186 of 1000 (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
PGP Fingerprint, Key ID:0x48F3AACD (RSA 1024, created 98/06/26)
C260 94B3 6722 6A25 63F8 0690 9EA2 3344

---------------------------------------------------
Get free personalized email at http://www.iname.com
Message no. 5
From: Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com
Subject: Ally Spirit Inhabiting
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 17:48:15 EDT
In a message dated 5/16/1999 4:40:52 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
dghost@****.com writes:

>
> >There was a tank once a LONG time ago in a PBEM I ran back then (8 years
> or
> >so now) that was rumored to have an Ally Being that was the magicians'
> ally
> >spirit "form". Does the Tank suddenly have an entirely new power
plant
> that
> >has nothing to do with fuel?
>
> Before MitS, I allowed the Ally to propel the vehicle at its "natural"
> movement rate. Any faster and the Ally had to engage the vehicle's
> engines.

Your general idea here is a nice one, but what *if* the vehicle were gunning
it's engines for a while, and then, simply shut them off and "glided" on the
3-D Movement afterwards?

-K (who's curious, he's already given his opinion)
Message no. 6
From: dghost@****.com dghost@****.com
Subject: Ally Spirit Inhabiting
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 18:59:41 -0500
On Mon, 17 May 1999 17:48:15 EDT Ereskanti@***.com writes:
>In a message dated 5/16/1999 4:40:52 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
>dghost@****.com writes:
<SNIP>
>> Before MitS, I allowed the Ally to propel the vehicle at its
"natural"
>> movement rate. Any faster and the Ally had to engage the vehicle's
>> engines.

>Your general idea here is a nice one, but what *if* the vehicle were
gunning
>it's engines for a while, and then, simply shut them off and "glided" on
the
>3-D Movement afterwards?

The Horizontal component of Ally's movement would accelerate (ussually
negatively) to the Ally's movement rate. :)

--
D. Ghost
(aka Pixel)
"Hello, my name is Stephen. This is Dick. He'll see if he has something
your size." -- Jug Ears

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Ally Spirit Inhabiting, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!