Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Ideas for evil things you can do to gain Potency

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 2 2007, 11:09 PM

In SR3 the idea is that if an evil magician has a spirit pact he can go around doing evil things. If he succeeds he's rewarded with potency so the idea is to have a campaign where the player characters must foil the evil actions so that when they have an eventual showdown with the evil magician he's not as buffed as he could be.

I think it's worth starting a thread where we discuss horrific things that someone could do for potency which aren't just the usual cliched "be a serial killer/rapist, torture people in vague ways" schlock. For example, do you think that an evil magician could get Potency by becoming a successful televangelist?

I was inspired to make this thread by the following fact from Morbid Fact Du Jour:

QUOTE

Tanzanian police arrested two men accused of killing a 9-year-old boy and
selling his skin for 20,000 shillings ($18) to make sorcerers' get-rich-quick
charms. Police said they arrested Martin Kalunga, 25, and his associate Nico
Benson, 31, in Lilwa village in southern Tanzania Tuesday after neighbors
overheard Benson accusing Kalunga of plotting with their buyer to skin him as
well. The identity of the buyer was unclear. "The two were arrested after they
had a loud quarrel, because Benson suspected Martin of colluding with their
buyer to skin him," Suleiman Kova, police commander for the southern Mbeya
region, told Reuters. "During interrogation, Martin confessed that they were
both skinners and that they had skinned a boy in Mbozi six months ago. They then
threw his body into the river Jianga," Kova said. "These cases are few but are
very shocking," he said. Human skins are used by witch doctors to make charms or
potions designed to make their users rich, especially in southern Tanzania,
renowned as a center for traditional sorcery. Police say the once rampant
practice has decreased significantly in recent years due to tougher action by
the authorities, describing this as the first suspected skinning case in
southern Tanzania since April 2004.

Culled from: Reuters

It gave me the following idea for an unusual way to create potency: just set up shop as a witch doctor and convince rural people that if they bring you peoples' skins that you will be able to provide valuable magical services for them. Claim you can cure their parents' cancer, or find a lost child. Really work their emotions regarding their loved ones in order to lure them into doing something really horriifc for you, like bringing you somebody's skin.

I suppose the icing on the cake would be that the skin itself doesn't do anything but give you more potency. It's all just a ruse to make normal people act in evil ways.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 2 2007, 11:22 PM

This one is good, but is it too cliche?

QUOTE

A court in the Russian internal republic of Bashkortostan has passed an 11-year
sentence to a woman who killed her boyfriend with an axe and then cooked him in
a variety of dishes which she fed to her guests at a New Year party.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports that the incident took place in the small
town of Sterlitamak. The 44-year old woman suspected her boyfriend, who was
younger than her, of unfaithfulness and in a heated row grabbed an axe and
hacked him to death.

Then, the woman flayed and dismembered the body. She threw away the head and
used the rest to cook a New Year dinner. She minced some meat and used in
meatballs and dumplings and also made jellied meat with hands and feet — she
later bartered that dish for liquor with neighbors.

When the guests arrived, the woman treated them to everything she cooked —
meatballs, dumplings, soup and liver sausage. The people did not know they were
eating human flesh, only one guest noticed that the meat was unusually sweet,
but he was told that this was because it was very fresh.

When the party was coming to an end, one of the guests looked into the fridge
and found a severed human hand there. He called the police and the murderer
confessed during the first questioning.

Culled from: MosNews.Com
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/11/16/bashkircannibal.shtml

Posted by: Drraagh Jan 2 2007, 11:26 PM

I remember a news article a few years back. I can't find any trace of it online at the moment, but it was about a babysitter who was arrested for trying to (not sure if he was successful) cut open the child's arm and cook his fat to gain magical powers like in the movie Warlock.

I remember the article because I had never heard of the movie before then, but now I can't find anything about that incident so I'm wondering if I was reading about a sequel or some such.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 2 2007, 11:56 PM

QUOTE (Drraagh)

Hmm. A magical teenage girl who gets Potency by mutilating the children she's trusted to babysit?

Posted by: Slump Jan 3 2007, 10:21 AM

How about he uses his magical powers to manipulate two neighbors into an ever-escalating paranoiafest that culminates in the neighbors enthusiastically murdering each other in a hail of automatic gunfire and high explosives (with plenty of innocent bystanders killed in the crossfire, of course).

Hook: One of the character's fixers asks him/her/it to look into why two upscale neighbors are trying to buy bigger and nastier weapons. Fixer suspects a sting operation in the works.

Shamelessly stolen from KOTOR (Dantooine, the Family Fued)

Posted by: nezumi Jan 3 2007, 02:46 PM

I think the televangelist is a good route. I sorta feel like the whole killing people to gain power by eating them or feeding them to other people or making attractive dishware out of them is all still in the category of killing people to get power. Making a false religion, swindling, creating unnecessary bureaucracy, narcing would all be interesting and unusual sources of evil power. Oh yes, and making your fortress of power a tower in a rocky eastern European castle perpetually plagued by lightning storms.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Jan 3 2007, 02:57 PM

One really evil and nasty thing you could do is dump a huge shipment of Aztecola into the storm drain.

Also, damaging Aztechnology corporate property.

~J

Posted by: Backgammon Jan 3 2007, 03:52 PM

QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Jan 2 2007, 07:09 PM)

This reminds me of the http://www.religionnewsblog.com/3905/focus-muti-the-story-of-adam in the UK.

And more wiki info on Muti killing (or "medecine killing" as they call it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_murder

Posted by: SL James Jan 3 2007, 07:41 PM

QUOTE (Wounded Ronin)

For example, do you think that an evil magician could get Potency by becoming a successful televangelist?

How else do you think Pat Robertson can do 700-pound leg lifts and tell the future?

Posted by: 2bit Jan 3 2007, 08:21 PM

QUOTE

Really the more story-appropriate scenario is to have the PC's unknowingly working toward the evil magician's goals, so that the more success they have in the setup chapters, the tougher the final showdown will be. Doing it the other way around is anticlimactic.

Posted by: Bodak Jan 4 2007, 04:34 AM

That would be great storyline wise, but rationally wouldn't you be handing out bad-karma for their part in strengthening the evil magician's stranglehold?

Posted by: Crusher Bob Jan 4 2007, 06:16 AM

There is no bad karma; just karma.

Posted by: Herald of Verjigorm Jan 4 2007, 02:58 PM

QUOTE (2bit)

QUOTE

I'd suggest making both available. As long as they just do as they're told to get the nuyen, potency increases. If they get a case of morality, they may realize what's going on and be able to (at little or no direct pay) interfere with their replacements as they try to figure out how and where to fight the mage.

Posted by: Kremlin KOA Jan 4 2007, 03:57 PM

Okay try this

two magicals, one a surgery adept, the other a corrupted mage... bot seriously twisted

both part of the same spirit pact

They capture rats, cats and dogs.

they use transformation magic, quickening, 'Bunraku" P-Fix chips, skillwires, and cybersurgery to turn these thing into Anything the customer desires

Legal
Simple
Profitable (even after the amoral campaign cash for karma rules)

Now the true evil. The customer will eventually realize their 'living dolls' are not the real thing, and go for watever they had the doll patterned after.

This turns repressed, and passive, sexual deviants into active, possibly violent ones.

Best of all, these guys can hide behind the law, corporate sponsorship of their business. etc etc. This is a true subtle evil.

Posted by: Thane36425 Jan 4 2007, 05:32 PM

QUOTE (nezumi)

That would be your cult leader. It would be very easy for a mage to lure in gullible and lost people with a little magic and get their own manson family thing going on.

I ran a campaign sort of like this years back. The team in question was was in a rural area doing an investigation. The small town, a few hundred people, mostly dispersed, that they sort of operated from was attacked one night with dozens killed and mutilated. The team investigated and found it was a twisted shaman and his cult. Thing of it was, they were practically worshipping a Wendigo (read up on them and you will see how that fits). The team hit back and killed most of the followers, but the shaman and Wendgio escaped. The rest of the campaign was chasing them and trying to stop them. After a series of smaller attacks and the shaman recruiting some new members, there was a big showdown in the wilds in what is now northern Canada. After each successful attack, the shaman gained more potency and power. In the end, the Wendigo was just corrupting the shaman to make him good eating. When the shaman fell badly wounded, the Wendigo carried him off and ate him. The team caught it enjoying its meal and killed it, putting an end to the campaign.

Posted by: nezumi Jan 4 2007, 08:12 PM

Not just cults (although that's obviously an excellent start and a wendigo cult especially is something I have been wanting to play with eventually), or at least not just religious cults, but con artists, pick-pocket 'families', perhaps even prostitute or drug rings, where followers are aware of how bad a situation they're in, but don't feel they can escape.

Posted by: Lindt Jan 4 2007, 08:25 PM

QUOTE (Kremlin KOA)

Best of all, these guys can hide behind the law, corporate sponsorship of their business. etc etc. This is a true subtle evil.

You twisted muther.... I love it.

Posted by: PBTHHHHT Jan 4 2007, 08:39 PM

QUOTE (nezumi)

but con artists, pick-pocket 'families', perhaps even prostitute or drug rings, where followers are aware of how bad a situation they're in, but don't feel they can escape.

Darn gypsies!

Hmmm... reminds me of the religious groups that have their people doing things like selling/preaching at airports. (A friend of my sister in college got into that crazy thing. Very, very crazy)

Posted by: toturi Jan 5 2007, 01:22 AM

QUOTE (Lindt)

You twisted muther.... I love it.

You would. Dumpshockers usually would love such stuff.

Posted by: Kremlin KOA Jan 5 2007, 05:33 PM

QUOTE (toturi)

QUOTE (Lindt @ Jan 5 2007, 04:25 AM)

You twisted muther.... I love it.

You would. Dumpshockers usually would love such stuff.

does that make 2 fans?

Posted by: Vagabond Jan 5 2007, 06:15 PM

This thread is giving me the jibbly-jibblies.

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 5 2007, 09:27 PM

Anyone can kill but it takes a true genius to ruin someone emotionally.

Find a sweet, innocent, and naive Catholic schoolgirl who is saving herself for "the One"; court her in the most gentlemanly manner possible; propose when she is at her weakest and sure to accept; convince her that it is okay to have sex since you're going to get married anyway; impregnate her; on the day of the wedding dispose of your fake ID, get plastic surgery and DNA masking, and go to the wedding pretending to be a guest so that you can watch her humiliation when you don't show up. After the wedding console her, seduce her, propose to her, impregnate her again, and leave her at the alter again. Repeat until she is violently jaded and world-0weary.

Posted by: mfb Jan 5 2007, 10:10 PM

QUOTE (SL James)

QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Jan 2 2007, 05:09 PM)

For example, do you think that an evil magician could get Potency by becoming a successful televangelist?

How else do you think Pat Robertson can do 700-pound leg lifts and tell the future?

it was a one-ton leg lift. Jesus is Pat Robertson's personal trainer!

Posted by: Thane36425 Jan 5 2007, 11:07 PM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

The entire Harlequin campaign was based on ruining someone. It was an ancient elven vengence rite that showed the one side could destroy everything the target loved and held dear and that there was nothing that they could do to stop it. I think there is more about that in the Tir Tairgire sourcebook, if you can find one.

On a less lethal note, but kind of like the Gargoyles reference, there is something else a villian could do. The villian, or aggrieved party, could harass the target with humiliating scenes. If they are married, have a hacker get access to their account and charge things like hotel rooms, jewerly and flowers to their account. When the spouse finds that, they will have some explaining to do. Along the same lines, have flowers sent to the wife but with another woman's name on the card, and have a hacker raid the florist's system to make it look like sending flowers to the other woman was a regular thing. You could also hire a woman to show up at a restaraunt, or where ever, the target is and make contact. That should also cause a scene.

Here's a good one I read a while back: when the target and girlfriend/wife are together, have a woman storm in carrying an "inflatable date" and throw it at the man saying stuff like that's all he's fit to be with and asking wishing the wife good luck with the pig.

The target could also find themselves getting very odd messages because he has accounts at several "adult dating service" sites, the more embarassing the better. They could also end up subscribed to raunchy pornography as well.

Have an ugly troll stripper show up at a business meeting, hired by the target, assuming that would shock and offend the other members. If not, use whatever metatype, etc. that would offend.

There are plenty of things that could be done just to harass the target into madness. One fun one is to keep a person's car topped off with gas, especially if they are very possessive about their car. It will drive them crazy wondering who is driving their car to fill it up.

Posted by: Nasrudith Jan 5 2007, 11:49 PM

Here's an idea, a magical detective who either links intentionally the wrong people to the crime, preferring innocent or decent people who can be easiest linked to the crimes he is called upon to solve the most, ones of awakened nature. He provide the evidence to prove that the mind control induced rape was "really" done by that promising young hermetic. Not only would his victims lose several years of their lives to prison if convicted (or all if executed), but they would also suffer irrepuable damage to their reputation, not to mention all the additional monitoring that would come from a criminal SIN.

Posted by: Butterblume Jan 5 2007, 11:57 PM

Change the plans for the new road so the road looks like an evil symbol and produces extra traffic jams, accidents and anger .

Posted by: Slump Jan 6 2007, 05:01 AM

Or you could just hack gridguide and throw an agent/spite into the system that would constantly work to ensure that traffic signals change at the most inopportune times for the largest number of people possible.

Not to mention things like 15-minute red-lights in the middle of the night, and it just clicked over to red when the lone person within 5 blocks is approaching the intersection. Run it and get an automatic ticket or try to wait it out -- your choice.

Posted by: Thane36425 Jan 6 2007, 05:11 AM

QUOTE (Slump)

Or just turn all the lights green at the same time. Instant gridlock. Something else would be to have the grid cause all vehicles to pump the brakes while driving. That jumpy motion would be sure to cause lots of motion sickness. Hmmm, maybe that could be an angle for a cabal of dry cleaners and auto detailers: it would be sure to bring both lots of business.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 6 2007, 08:32 AM

QUOTE (Butterblume)

Change the plans for the new road so the road looks like an evil symbol and produces extra traffic jams, accidents and anger

Seeing how car accidents are responsible for a lot of deaths each year doing something like that is probably no joke. Like, it would be legitimately evil.

Posted by: emo samurai Jan 6 2007, 08:36 AM

I have one.

Find a loving couple. Then infect one of them with a terminal illness that can't be cured. Then mindwipe everyone who's ever known that person, friends, relatives, your own friends, after that person's died, and destroy all traces of his/her existence so that the survivor has nothing to remind himself of her but his tears.

That'll net, like, 50, 60 karma for the spirit. Until he, you know, kills himself.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 6 2007, 08:39 AM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

That's pretty awesome, but how would you work that into a campaign?

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 6 2007, 08:50 AM

If it were a detective campaign the woman could hire the runners to find her missing lover(s). If she weren't quite jaded yet she could hold onto the belief that there is some sort of serial killer targeting her finances and send the Shadowrunners out on a bizarre revenge mission. If she is sufficiently jaded it could instead be am even more bizarre child support collection mission.

In a less friendly campaign the dude could be the runner's wetwork target on the day of his wedding (messy, public, and spectacular wetwork) and they'll find themselves just as embarrassed as his victim when he stands them up, forcing them to unravel the mystery of his ID change so that they can kill him in the most public and brutal way possible. If they don't do wetwork he could be an involuntary extraction target.

Posted by: mfb Jan 7 2007, 05:07 PM

here are two i've used recently.

the first one, the mage killed a victim and strew the body parts to form a magical circle, which he enchanted as an anchoring focus with a suggestion spell, linked to a 'detect attention' spell. basically, anyone who looked at the murder site for too long was hit with a low-force suggestion to commit suicide.

the second one, he gathered bones from hundreds of indian burial mounds and ground them into a powder, then did a ritual thingy which turned about a pound of the powder into an anchor for the wraith of every indian whose bones had been mixed into it. he sealed the dust in a warded container, which had the effect of keeping the wraiths trapped inside. then he took it to a public mall and sprinkled it all over. as long as even a speck of the bone dust remained unwarded, it'd keep summoning an effectively unlimited number of wraiths, 1-5 or so at a time.

neither are strictly canon, per se, but they're not restricted by canon, and i tend to give bad guys a bit more leeway in stretching the bounds of the rules than i would a PC.

Posted by: SL James Jan 7 2007, 10:17 PM

QUOTE (Wounded Ronin @ Jan 6 2007, 02:39 AM)

QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jan 5 2007, 04:27 PM)

That's pretty awesome, but how would you work that into a campaign?

What campaign?

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 7 2007, 10:33 PM

QUOTE (mfb)

the second one, he gathered bones from hundreds of indian burial mounds and ground them into a powder, then did a ritual thingy which turned about a pound of the powder into an anchor for the wraith of every indian whose bones had been mixed into it. he sealed the dust in a warded container, which had the effect of keeping the wraiths trapped inside. then he took it to a public mall and sprinkled it all over. as long as even a speck of the bone dust remained unwarded, it'd keep summoning an effectively unlimited number of wraiths, 1-5 or so at a time.

See, though, the whole "indian burial ground" is extremely cliche. If that did come up in an adventure I'd personally see it more as a comedy detail than a scary detail. I would have trouble taking it seriously and would be more tempted to just keep cracking jokes about it in-character.

Posted by: Butterblume Jan 7 2007, 10:46 PM

That would be completely unsensitive, if that cliche hasn't been overused .

For variance, try bones from soldier's graveyards...

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 7 2007, 10:58 PM

QUOTE (Butterblume)

That would be completely unsensitive, if that cliche hasn't been overused

.

For variance, try bones from soldier's graveyards...

I once did something vaguely like that on a Halloween game. In the middle of the night in a museum gallery filled with vintage weapons a whole bunch of ghosts materialized and sprayed the party with automatic fire using M14s.

Posted by: mfb Jan 8 2007, 02:46 AM

heheh, WR, you finding something cliche has made my day. it's sorta cliche, i guess, if you know what's going on. if you're just enjoying a day off at the mall and all of the sudden screaming native american ghosts start chopping everyone up...

Posted by: SL James Jan 8 2007, 03:03 AM

... then you and your drones get the fuck out of Dodge.

Posted by: Thane36425 Jan 8 2007, 03:33 AM

What about something as simple as a serial killer travelling from city to city killing one or two of the bottom rung SINless, the ones nobody would miss in SR. If they kept moving and stayed under the radar, they would be hard to detect and catch. A twisted mage could build a lot of potency that way.

Posted by: SL James Jan 8 2007, 04:59 AM

Bo-ring.

Posted by: mfb Jan 8 2007, 05:06 AM

if it's not hard or elaborate, i don't think it should grant potency. anybody can go around killing people--hell, most runners probably kill more security guards than your theoretical twisted mage would. to gain potency, it's gotta be special somehow.

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 8 2007, 05:48 AM

Right. Just killing a bum wouldn't earn potency since it is so mundane. Sacrificing a virgin on the first full moon of the new year would. However, it doesn't have to be violent at all. Why, I'm sure that the dude who convince Lucas that a Christmas Special was a great idea got potency for that.

Posted by: emo samurai Jan 8 2007, 06:33 AM

Why do spirits grant potency? And how can I profit directly from fantastic acts of evil?

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 8 2007, 06:50 AM

Spirits don't grant potency. Potency comes like karma, from doing momentous deeds and accomplishing goals, so long as the deeds and goals are in line with the character's paradigm. The only exception to this is certain pacts made by shadow spirits which tie the characters potency and the spirit's spirit energy together so that a change in one causes an equal change in the other, which may be a quick way to gain many points of spirit energy if it is made with a very effective threat.
However, potency is can be lost through failure.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 9 2007, 03:43 AM

QUOTE (mfb)

Right. Think about it this way: most PCs are mercenary mass-murdering bastards and yet they're STILL not allowed to be twisted adepts and magicians. In order to be a twisted adept or magician you have got to be head and shoulders more evil than just an ordinary mass murderer for hire.

Posted by: 2bit Jan 9 2007, 03:39 PM

Discussions like this just lead to questions like, "Does the Heal spell repair the hymen?"

Posted by: Fortune Jan 9 2007, 07:36 PM

QUOTE (2bit)

Discussions like this just lead to questions like, "Does the Heal spell repair the hymen?"

Only if cast within that magic hour right after breaking.

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 12 2007, 11:18 PM

I recently watched Blood Feast, which is great inspiration for magical threats.
You have an Egyptian caterer/high priest of Ishtar who is hired to cater a dinner party. The woman who hires him requests something unusual and exotic so he recommends an "authentic Egyptian feast" which hasn't been eaten in 5000 years.
Well, she agrees, and he drops blatantly obvious hints that something sinister is going on. These hints fly right over her head, of course.

The feast in question is the feast of Ishtar. Ishtar is served by 20 virgin priestesses who go into town the week before the feast and have as much sex as is possible. They are then butchered and cooked by the High Priest once the sexual debauchery is done. The High Priestess is sacrificed by ritual heart removal on the day of the feast to consecrate it and once consecrated the townspeople all eat the previous-prepared priestesses to symbolically consume the Goddess Ishtar.
Since actual priestesses were not available the caterer uses sexually-promiscuous young women instead and intended to have the dinner-party's guest of honor substitute for the High Priestess.

Posted by: Muzzaro Jan 14 2007, 10:53 PM

What about magic that makes the victim look like they are dead, even when they are not?

Reminds me of how people in the 'old days' could be in comas and such were buried alive, their final hours of life before the air in their coffin ran out,was spent clawing desperately at the lid.

Managing to pull off anything like that (even if they are 'alive' and 'conscious' of what is happening, as they are tossed onto the conveyor for the incinerator, or pulled apart by organ-leggers), should net a pretty nice amount of evil-ness.

I'd think stuff like the SAW films would have plenty of inspiration for being evil. Giving people choices that goes against what humanity they have, and then killing them afterwards (making sure they realised that you was only joking and didn't want them to kill anyone) seems pretty evil to me.

Posted by: SL James Jan 15 2007, 12:55 AM

QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jan 12 2007, 05:18 PM)

I recently watched Blood Feast, which is great inspiration for magical threats.
You have an Egyptian caterer/high priest of Ishtar who is hired to cater a dinner party. The woman who hires him requests something unusual and exotic so he recomends aan "authentic Egyptian feast" which hasn't been eaten in 5000 years.
Well, she agrees, and he drops blatently obvious hints that something sinister is going on. These hints fly right over her head, of course.

The feast in question is the feast of Ishtar. Ishtar is served by 20 virgin priestesses who go into town the week before the feast and have as much sex as is possible. They are then butchered and cooked by the High Priest once the sexual debauchery is done. The High Priestess is sacrificed by ritual heart removal on the day of the feast to consecrate it and once consecrated the townspeople all eat the previous-prepared priestesses to symbolically consume the Goddess Ishtar.
Since actual priestesses were not available the caterer use sexually-promiscuous young women instead and intended to have the dinner-party's guest of honor substitute for the High Priestess.

HAHAHAHA

QUOTE (Muzzaro)

I'd think stuff like the SAW films would have plenty of inspiration for being evil. Giving people choices that goes against what humanity they have, and then killing them afterwards (making sure they realised that you was only joking and didn't want them to kill anyone) seems pretty evil to me.

I'd say MitS, and well... since Awakenings, has put a lot of credence to the idea that people who produce horror fiction (stories, movies, etc.) are apparently geniuses insofar as what they write generally tends to be used as examples of how to gain Potency. Frankly, if that's the case, then SR4 was right to be rid of it. I'm not demeaning authors like Lovecraft, but rather more like, oh... 99.99% of stuff on the Internet or Hentai, aka "Crap."

I mean, really, real life can be pretty sick in that regard. On another forum I was reading yesterday, someone posted a bunch of links to rather gruesome murders that were in the news (e.g., the four=year old who was decapitated). Sadly, the first thing I thought of what "So, when did they start posting SR news here?"

I also thought that as fucked up as they were, they aren't Potency-worthy. Ironically, according to the rules they would allow a Wraith to gain karma from the killer. Then again, a Wraith can gain karma from riot police.

Posted by: Pendaric Jan 15 2007, 12:56 AM

QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jan 5 2007, 04:27 PM)

Anyone can kill but it takes a true genius to ruin someone emotionally.

Find a sweet, innocent, and naive Catholic schoolgirl

Hahaha I grew up with Catholic schoolgirls, good luck finding one like that!
Otherwise a cool idea though.

Posted by: SL James Jan 15 2007, 12:59 AM

QUOTE (Pendaric)

QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jan 5 2007, 04:27 PM)

Anyone can kill but it takes a true genius to ruin someone emotionally.

Find a sweet, innocent, and naive Catholic schoolgirl

Hahaha I grew up with Catholic schoolgirls, good luck finding one like that!

Second that.

Posted by: Pendaric Jan 15 2007, 01:14 AM

Too make up for my previous out burst:
I had a petro Voudoo hugan of baron Samedi Sons of Sauron terrorist enter a spirit pact with a master shedim. They entered hospital morgues via magic. Killed everyone in the morgue. Breach the wards on the morgue for shedim to enter the bodies.
Master shedim and hougan team up and kill investigating astral projecting mage/shaman.
Then the master shedim in the body of a former decker sealed all the doors and silenced all the alarms via the matrix. Set a delay of 48 hours on the doors to unlock. Release shedim and zombie hoard.
Move to next population center along the mana line, repeat. The idea was to taint the entire mana line with death and pain. While getting more powerful shedim/potency/terror from humans

Posted by: nezumi Jan 15 2007, 01:26 AM

QUOTE (Pendaric)

QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jan 5 2007, 04:27 PM)

Anyone can kill but it takes a true genius to ruin someone emotionally.

Find a sweet, innocent, and naive Catholic schoolgirl

Hahaha I grew up with Catholic schoolgirls, good luck finding one like that!
Otherwise a cool idea though.

Maybe you find one younger than 10?

Although I suppose the whole marriage proposal bit gets a bit tougher then.

Posted by: SL James Jan 15 2007, 01:37 AM

Hey, one of the Roman Catholic Church's fastest-growing areas is Africa. And, well... age is more relative there.

Posted by: hyzmarca Jan 15 2007, 01:45 AM

You could replace Catholic with Fundamentalist Mormon if you had about a dozen female accomplices to pose as your other wives.

Posted by: Moto42 Again Jan 15 2007, 10:36 AM

The way the potency rules work never set well with me. "Completion of Great Work of Evil 'A' increases Stat 'B'!"
Yay. It's a quick-and-easy way to scale a villain in response to in-game events, so it's not all bad for overworked GMs (That would be most of us.)

I prefer, though, to have these plans result in more specific gains. Such as initiation, the creation of powerful foci, access to powers that would be unavailable normally. straight stat-boosts or more subtle rewards, such as a measure of power over those falling under the influence of your works.

Here is a random idea.
Firewire
The Plan
Seattle's power-grid has been undergoing a number of major upgrades and repairs lately. Not the least of which being the replacement of a LOT of power-lines and sub-stations in and around the city.
Westinghouse, a mage who was once an electrical engineer, has been using a combination of blackmail, low-level shadow-ops, and extortion to make certain changes to these plans.
Cables bound for these projects have been doped with his alchemical radicals, and the occasional ritual.
Buried deep within circuits that will soon be routing power to homes and bussinesses all across the metroplex are strange circuits that don't seem to do anything, but look strange.
Once these elements are in place Westinghouse must ritualy electrocute a human sacrifice at a power substation to "activate" it.
The Payoff

Bonus dice to electrical elemental spells when within LOS of one of his magicaly doped wires, equal to the number of activated power-stations that wire can "connect" too. (Thus the GM can scale the power when and how he wishes, and Westinghouse has a valid reason to perform the ritual as often as he can)
Access to the regeneration critter-power by way of ritualy electrocuting himself with power from his doped wires. (If they connect to an active station.)
When astrally projecting near one of his wires he may cast a lightening-based spell at physical targets without penalty, but doing so blows out power to the neighborhood, so he only get's one shot.

Posted by: Moto42 Again Jan 16 2007, 03:39 AM

Heart-strings

The Plan
Even in the 2060's people aren't taking proper care of cardiovascular system, and occasionally they even need to have their ticker replaced. So, your original heart, once the seat of your emotions that literally pumped life itself through your veins; what happens to it once it has been cast aside like a broken tool?
Dyre, a shaman with a penchant for controlling people, believes it could become a powerful weapon to hold over it's former owner.
The plan is this.
1> Obtain a cybernetic rabbit heart (preferably more than one) and the knowledge of it's installation (or outsource it) to begin experiments in using the original heart as a powerful material link focus. (We can keep a rabbit's heart alive outside the body for some time, IRL.) Eventually move on to human subjects.
2> Identify and obtain technologies and/or magics that will allow a human heart to survive indefinitely (or darn near it) outside the body.
3> Identify powerful individuals who are likely to need a heart-transplant within the next 5 years and monitor them. Perhaps help them along with certain poisons or ritual sendings.
4>When one of the targets eventually goes in for surgery, hire shadowrunners to obtain the original heart ASAP, as there is only a window of a few hours wherein it will remain viable.
5> ?
6> Profit!

The Payoff
This plan will take a few years to reach fruition, but the rewards could be great.
He will have created a Living Link Focus; a magical tool that greatly aids all ritual magics used against it's target. It: adds dice equal to the target's essence to the force of any spell cast through it, allows the casting magician to ignore the "Poor link" edge and reduces the effective force of any wards protecting the target by 1/2. You can assense the target, through the Focus, as if it were still part of him. Squeezing the focus acts as an "agonizing pain" spell on the target. Destroying it improperly (IE: Shotgun blasts) will cast a Death spell on the target with a force equal to his essence; if he resists he no longer has to worry about it, if he fails he has a massive heart-attack and shuffles off the mortal coil.
Needless to say, once he's finished creating this new focus, his "How I did it" lecture-notes will be worth millions.

Getting Involved

Cybernetic parts for critters don't come cheap (An IRL heart lung machine on Ebay can be had for about $2500, that's kind of creepy really). For that price a team of reasonably competent scum could snag all the cyber-hearts they can carry, an autoclave AND a couple other odds and ends from a high-end veterinary clinic! Thus your team is hired, and charged with the task of ripping off Dr. Doolittle.
The equipment to keep human organs alive for extended periods is likewise outrageously priced, and experimental! (I think current techniques boil down to "Keep it on ice, don't let it dry out, don't brake for yellow lights.") The team is hired and charged with the task of ripping of Pacific Medical Preservatives, who are on the verge of bringing just what Dyre needs to the market.
Break into 3 area hospitals and clinics and obtain the medical records for everyone on this list.
Insert this poison into Mr Iyabochi's coffee-cup, sitting on his desk in The Office Building That Eats Shadowrunners. If they do well, he has a list of 3 more people he wants poisoned in this fashion. (The poison is actually a chemical that greatly enhances the buildup of plaque in the arteries and stays in the blood for years, increasing the odds of a heart-attack.)
One of the men Dyre has been monitoring is scheduled for a transplant in 3 days. He needs a reliable team for a rush job that will be incredibly time sensitive, and guess who he's worked well with in the past...
"Go pick up this extortion money. I suspect a trap so I'm paying you Â¥X if everything goes as planned, and Â¥X+(Y% of the money) if it really is a trap."
"Someone is using magical means to threaten and extort Mr Johnson, find him and neutralize him.

Posted by: SL James Jan 16 2007, 04:41 AM

QUOTE (Moto42 Again)

The way the potency rules work never set well with me.

Probably because they suck.

QUOTE

I prefer, though, to have these plans result in more specific gains. Such as initiation, the creation of powerful foci, access to powers that would be unavailable normally. straight stat-boosts or more subtle rewards, such as a measure of power over those falling under the influence of your works.

Not bad.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 16 2007, 05:49 AM

QUOTE (SL James)

Yeah, good thing that meatpuppets have no place in Shadowrun. No, wait...

Posted by: SL James Jan 17 2007, 02:09 AM

Meh.