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Message no. 1
From: William Monroe Ashe <wma6617@******.TAMU.EDU>
Subject: PBEM rules for playing a Toxic Shaman
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 09:28:43 -0600
Morning all, I would appreciate some feedback regarding these rules. If
you think "They Suck" please tell me WHY they suck. IMHO I think that
these are fair and balanced.


Rules for playing a toxic shaman;

Since in my amoral PBEM I said that I would let the players
play a toxic shaman, so I guess that I must generate some rules
for it. I have kept to the Grimmy as close as possible, so if you notice
some horrendous error please point it out.

As in all of these things you get from the net, YMMV.

I have tried to design these rules so that a player would have a
tough time munchkining one of these. So here goes;

Preliminary Rules
1) It is only possible to play an "Avenger". Because of the
Avenger's aggressive stand toward the enviroment, any cyberware
doubles the essence cost, no matter which totem is selected.

2)He can cast spells like a regular shaman with no added bonuses
or penalties

3) A toxic shaman is NOT required to conjure only toxic spirits.
He can conjure regular ones also. He can still only conjure one
at a time though. In this way he is still just a regular shaman.
Things become interesting when he tries to conjure a toxic spirit.


Conjuring a Toxic Spirit;

1) Recall from the Grimmy that a toxic spirit's conjured force is
supplemented by the "toxic" background count.
i.e. a rating 4 spirit conjured in a "toxic" area of rating
3 manifests at force 7, but the shaman only has to resist drain
at force 4.

***If the toxic shaman is in a "happy" place he might not be able to
conjure a toxic spirit at all.***

2) Conjuring a toxic spirit is hazardous to the toxic shaman's
sanity.
Toxic spirits are warped, twisted creations. The reflect
the pain, and suffering of a poisoned area. This kind of psychic
shock WILL drive the toxic shaman temporarily insane. If he
conjures toxic spirits often it will drive him PERMANENTLY insane
eventually.

Temporary Insanity;
The toxic shaman CANNOT resist being driven insane by the
conjuring of a toxic spirit. The question is, can he regain his
sanity back. A shaman will manifest his insanity only after the
spirit is dismissed, banished, set free etc. etc. etc. The toxic
shaman must make an additional willpower roll. This roll
determines how long the toxic shaman is loopy.
The toxic shaman rolls against the target number that the
toxic spirit actually manifests at plus the number of toxic
spirits he has conjured in the past month. Using the above
example; he conjured the spirit at force 4, but it manifested at
force 7, so he must make a sanity roll against a target number of
7. If the shaman has conjured one spirit in the last month that
raises the target number to 8.
The base time of insanity is 12 hours multiplied by the
actual force of the spirit. For our example the base time would
be 12 X 7 = 84 hours or 3.5 days. Every success that the toxic
shaman gets reduces this time by 4 hours. So if a shaman has six
successes he reduces his insanity time by 6 X 4 = 24 hours.
During this period the player has NO CONTROL over what the
character does. He could become catatonic, suicidal, violent, or
whatever the GM's twisted mind desires. He could even decide to
conjure another toxic spirit which would make him insane longer.

Note 1: A "Cure Deadly Insanity" Spell would help. Use this
spell in the standard way. But, I don't think that the insane
shaman would have the presence of mind to cast that spell on
himself.

Note 2: If the shaman rolls all 1's he goes permanently insane.
But the "Cure Deadly Insanity Spell" will still work.

Permanent Insanity;
Upon character creation, the GM will make a secret roll of
the shaman's willpower multiplied by whatever factor the GM deems
appropriate. This number is the total number of toxic spirits
the shaman can conjure before he goes permanently insane. Treat
this in the same vein as the security tally in VR2.0. When the
character goes permanent, he is for all practical purposes DEAD,
becasue the shaman is now so insane he is beyond the character's
control. The "Cure Deadly Insanity" Spell is by now useless .
The player will have to generate a new character.
Message no. 2
From: Brett Borger <bxb121@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: PBEM rules for playing a Toxic Shaman
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 10:48:40 -0500
William Monroe Ashe enlightened us with these words of wisdom:
>Morning all, I would appreciate some feedback regarding these rules. If
>you think "They Suck" please tell me WHY they suck. IMHO I think that
>these are fair and balanced.

They look good, except that I wouldn't say they could summon "normal"
spirits. And the insanity rules look a bit harsh.....perhaps a system of
Derangements that eventually lead to Permanent insanity?

-=SwiftOne=-
Message no. 3
From: Drekhead <drekhead@***.NET>
Subject: Re: PBEM rules for playing a Toxic Shaman
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 11:32:20 +0000
On 27 Mar 97 at 10:48, Brett Borger wrote:

> They look good, except that I wouldn't say they could summon
> "normal" spirits. And the insanity rules look a bit
> harsh.....perhaps a system of Derangements that eventually lead to
> Permanent insanity?

That's the point. They are supposed to be harsh to keep the player
from becoming munchy. But if you do not allow them to also cast
normal spirits like you suggest, then I agree the insanity rules
should be watered down somehow. As the rules stand now, if a player
only conjures toxic spirits, he knows he is toying with his sanity.
I like it.




====DREKHEAD==============================================================
Tim Kerby | Never relax. Your run may be over, but someone,
drekhead@***.net |somewhere, is just starting his and the target
drekhead@***.com | could be you.
drekhead@*******.com | ---http://users.aol.com/drekhead/home.html---
=========================================================================
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------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
Message no. 4
From: David Buehrer <dbuehrer@****.ORG>
Subject: Re: PBEM rules for playing a Toxic Shaman
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 10:44:59 -0700
William Monroe Ashe wrote:
|
| Rules for playing a toxic shaman;
|
| 1) It is only possible to play an "Avenger". Because of the
| Avenger's aggressive stand toward the enviroment, any cyberware
| doubles the essence cost, no matter which totem is selected.

Go all the way and say that they can't use any cyberware. It's the nature
of Totems to be strict.

| 3) A toxic shaman is NOT required to conjure only toxic spirits.
| He can conjure regular ones also. He can still only conjure one
| at a time though. In this way he is still just a regular shaman.
| Things become interesting when he tries to conjure a toxic spirit.

How about giving him a negative modifier to conjure standard spirits, or an
increased drain. I would think that your standard spirit would *not* want
to serve a toxic shaman.

| The base time of insanity is 12 hours multiplied by the
| actual force of the spirit. For our example the base time would
| be 12 X 7 = 84 hours or 3.5 days.

Is that the base force, or the force modified after the background count?

And, that base of 12 hours is pretty harsh. A base of 10 minutes would be
pretty crippling to a shadowrunner.

| Every success that the toxic
| shaman gets reduces this time by 4 hours. So if a shaman has six
| successes he reduces his insanity time by 6 X 4 = 24 hours.

SR uses the standard "divide the base time by the number of successes
gained" rule for just about everything that is time dependant. It'd be a
lot easier if you stuck with that, IMHO :)

| During this period the player has NO CONTROL over what the
| character does. He could become catatonic, suicidal, violent, or
| whatever the GM's twisted mind desires. He could even decide to
| conjure another toxic spirit which would make him insane longer.

Hmmm, I'm the type of GM that would say "your insane, go for it" and
give the player the chance to roleplay it. If he isn't doing a good
job I would give him some "guidance".

| Permanent Insanity;
| Upon character creation, the GM will make a secret roll of
| the shaman's willpower multiplied by whatever factor the GM deems
| appropriate. This number is the total number of toxic spirits
| the shaman can conjure before he goes permanently insane. Treat
| this in the same vein as the security tally in VR2.0. When the
| character goes permanent, he is for all practical purposes DEAD,
| becasue the shaman is now so insane he is beyond the character's
| control. The "Cure Deadly Insanity" Spell is by now useless .
| The player will have to generate a new character.

I feel that this is saying "I don't want you to play a toxic shaman, but
you can, and if you do you'll lose the character." When I would rather
hear a simple "No, you can't play a toxic shaman in my game. Period." If
your going to let toxic shamans into your game, at least give them the
chance of being playable. I might be reading something into this that
isn't there, if so I apologize :)

I like the idea of playing an avenging shaman that uses his enemies
toxic creations against them. Cool idea.

-David
--
/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking
alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm~~~~
Message no. 5
From: Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject: Re: PBEM rules for playing a Toxic Shaman
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 14:15:23 -0500
I like your rules for the handling of toxic shaman in general, but I have a few
suggestions.

Instead of the insanity being a binary state, have it be a steadily increasing
number; let's call it toxicity. The toxic shaman adds his toxicity to the target
numbers to summon normal spirits, or least spirits of man, but the main use is
this: whenever the player wants to do something that the GM thinks is non-toxic,
he must roll willpower dice vs. his toxicity. If he fails, he is forced to behave as
the GM wishes. Once toxicity is over 12 or so, the GM essentially has a veto over
everything the player does; if he is a role playing it well, let him, otherwise,
takeover his character.

Double-Domed Mike
P.S. This mail was written using computer dictation

Further Reading

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