From:	Stefan Struck <struck@******.INFORMATIK.UNI-BONN.DE>
Subject:	Re: Zombies
Date:	Tue, 26 Sep 1995 14:25:51 +0100

Chukoo wrote:
> For flavor, we felt that it was very important to emphasize each fetish,
> what it was, and what he did with it. For example, his fetish for his flame
> bomb spell is a hand made match (enchanted of course) that he strikes and
> blows out, when it goes out, the spell goes off. He also does a lot of
> interesting non-numbers related things. He keeps a small jar of dry peas
> and beans on the table and a wide mouth glass of water. When he feels its
> appropriate, he chants, and dips his fingers in the water, flicking it on
> the other players, who are mercifully good natured. Sometimes he go to town
> with his jar 'o' beans, dancing around the living room and using it as a rattle.
> We also decided to capitolize on ritual magic, which is a great
> opportunity to role play during his preparations. He has to find a live
> chicken to sacrifice, using the blood to draw mystical diagrams and shit all
> over the place.
> One of the things we were tinkering with is taking ritual samples of
> the party members and cating spells like heal, clairvoyance, and
> clairaudience through the link. I haven't skimmed the text on this one yet,
> but I don't see why not.
>
Sounds ok to me but I have to stress one importan point here:
A houngan gets his power from the loas. He can do spell all allone withouth
this help, but the REAL power was given to him. He has to listen to the loas
to do things right and help the community. There are version of "evil
sorcerers" (bocors). This are the ones doing sorcery without the knowing of
the loas. Therefor conjuring has to be the major point and not ritual sorcery
(but this is better than "normal" sorcery). This ritual stuff with piercing
dolls etc. is straight (sp?) out of Hollywood.
A good book to read about voodoo is Wade Davis "The serpent and the rainbow"
(important note: I mean the book and NOT the movie). Good background
information 'bout voodoo and the role of houngans in the society.
bye,
Stefan
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e-mail: struck@****.informatik.uni-bonn.de
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...but there's nothing like having your friends show up with lots of guns.
-Frank Miller, The Big Fat Kill
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