| From: | Georg Greve <ggreve@*******.HANSE.DE> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Interesting Idea |
| Date: | Wed, 13 Sep 1995 10:35:28 +0200 |
> The snake totem came to him and asked him if he wanted to become
> a snake shaman but because of his fear of snakes he rejected the snake totem.
> The snake totem in return covered Vipers body with magical tatoos of snakes.
Huh ??? Why should Snake do this ??? You have to SEEK the totems to
get the chance to follow them. So if he hasn't TRIED to contact the
totem they would NEVER talk to him. If he is afraid of snakes, Snake
would NEVER even consider him to follow her path. A totem and the
character follow a similar way and have similar attitudes toward most
things, that's why the totems choses you: you think and behave like it
does.
Totems would NEVER come to someone who isn't like them - they would
only make contact to people who A.) have a similar personality, B.)
seek them with all their will and C.) have a magic attribute (the
magic genes). And they would never punish anyone for not following
their path (if I think about it twice: maybe insect or toxic totems
would).
> When the character is resting the tattoos look dull and lifeless but as the
> level of activity increases the snake tatoos become more life like and
> eventually look real when the character is in full activity such as combat.
This is a nice idea, but if you want to make it realistic you have to
remove this "Snake covered me with tattoos" - nonsense.
> Snake shamans do not like this character. In fact they will often
> attack this character without warning but because of the magical tatoos that
the
> snake shaman has placed on Viper's body he is resistant to spells cast by
> snake shamans. This is been an interesting point in role-playing,
No, it isn't. Snake HATES combat and so do the snake-shamans - they
would NEVER fight unless they are cornered and seriously
threatened. And this immunity stuff is just too dumb. I REALLY like
some good character quirks and stories, but this is not Shadowrun any
more. I think you played too many Fantasy RPGs and can't differ
between AD&D and Shadowrun any more. The concept of totems is, that
they NEVER show theirselves to non-shamans. They NEVER give prove of
their existence (all non-shamans think they only exist in the heads of
the shamans - who knows) and they would NEVER affect something
directly. This immunity stuff is against all Shadowrun-principles,
because Shadowrun is based on a "you can increase your chances, but
you can never be sure/safe" idea and it totally kills the
game-balance. And totems do not behave like gods in AD&D do.
O.K. - enough for now, I hope I didn't offend you too much,
Bye...
Georg
