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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Ed Matuskey <MATUSKEY@***.EDU>
Subject: Slavery
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 14:26:03 -0700
I was at work yesterday, not really thinking about much, when this really
off-the wall, evil, guarunteed to get peoples' dander up idea came to me.
I don't know why I think of stuff like this, I should be stopped, but since
no one has done it yet, here goes:

All mages/shamans who summon spirits/elementals are slavers.
Spirits/elementals are intelligent beings, capable of independent thought,
and are not simply extrusions of the conjurer's personality.
Why can I say this? Free spirits. When a spirit gets the chance to free
itself, it takes it. After that, it is an independent entity. Even if the
mage who called it is killed (like by an escaping spirit), the entity lives
on.
I can see the start of a new policlub, working towards the freeing of spirits
already summoned, and leaving the spirits still in their homeland alone, not
allowing mages to ship them to the New World for their own purposes.
If you see the similarities between mages & spirits, and whites & blacks from
colonial times, you can see what I mean.
Commments? Flames? Thwaps? All will be listened to. If this topic has
already been talked about to death, and I missed it, sorry.
-Ed
-Highlander
Message no. 2
From: Dave Sherohman <esper@*****.IMA.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Slavery
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 16:33:30 -0500
Minor point here - your thoughts hold true for hermetics & elementals, but (in
the game world) shamans request that spirits assist them. Of course, as
players we know that the spirits don't actually have any choice in the matter.

esper@***.umn.edu
Message no. 3
From: "Dark Thought Publications." <JEK5313@*****.TAMU.EDU>
Subject: Slavery.
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 09:56:43 -0500
I personally agree with the Highlander in the thought that it sounds exactly
like something for GM's discretion.

The way we run the idea (and NO!! we don't have any "burners") is that the
mage or shaman trying to conjure is somewhat like a fisher trolling a line into
the plane of your choice, with big letters on a billboard at the end saying
something like "Vacation on the Prime Material Plane, only >insert here<
services. Leave your cares behind on a fabulous journey to the other side of
the cosmos. The worst thing that can happen to you is that your trip'll get
cut short."

Pure roleplaying, and since none decide to burn elementals for any reason
(anctually, they're much like pets) we don't normally have to deal with getting
an irate spirit.

-Ethan Court
Message no. 4
From: Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@******.COE.NORTHEASTERN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Slavery
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 11:11:24 -0400
>>>>> "Ed" == Ed Matuskey <MATUSKEY@***.EDU> writes:

Ed> All mages/shamans who summon spirits/elementals are slavers.

Wrong. Shamans *ASK* a spirit for favors/services, not force them.

--Rat PGP Public Key Block available upon request
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Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat ratinox@******.coe.northeastern.edu
The only way to deal with temptation is to yield to it. --Oscar Wilde
Message no. 5
From: Christopher Bellovary <bellovar@***.WISC.EDU>
Subject: Re: Slavery
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 12:03:29 CDT
In our game - our mage pointed out an important distinction to me.
She always treated her elemetals as equals - not as either summoned slaves,
pets, or summoned help = but as an equal.

To her - the idea of treating them as anything else would degrade
an entity in many cases both more intelligent and superior to mankind.

-- CrossFire --
Message no. 6
From: Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@******.COE.NORTHEASTERN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Slavery
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 12:19:09 -0400
>>>>> "Dave" == Dave Sherohman <esper@*****.IMA.UMN.EDU>
writes:

Dave> Minor point here - your thoughts hold true for hermetics &
Dave> elementals, but (in the game world) shamans request that spirits
Dave> assist them. Of course, as players we know that the spirits don't
Dave> actually have any choice in the matter.

That's not true. If a shaman blows his roll, he gets didly-squat; ie, none
of the spirits in the area listen to his call.

--Rat PGP Public Key Block available upon request
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Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat ratinox@******.coe.northeastern.edu
I'm so hip I can't see past my own pelvis. --Zaphod Beeblebrox

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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!