Possession FAQ, Answers to your possession questions Options

[Ryu]

EDIT ( 2 ): The Dumpshock possession FAQ, point #2, says the Channeling mage's Special attributes override the spirit's special attributes. Which directly contradicts p. 55, p. 102 of SM. Hmm.

There is no backup provided (that I found), and the reasoning is a bit iffy. You would have a magic attribute to use with the abilities provided by the mage, no problem.

I would generally advise against balancing the rules with special consideration for the spot Uncle Zola is in. What a possessing force-16 spirit could do, the same spirit could do without the shoe - if it could materialise.

[pbangarth]

There is no backup provided (that I found), and the reasoning is a bit iffy. You would have a magic attribute to use with the abilities provided by the mage, no problem.

I would generally advise against balancing the rules with special consideration for the spot Uncle Zola is in. What a possessing force-16 spirit could do, the same spirit could do without the shoe - if it could materialise.

Ryu, I'm sorry, I don't understand. Could you explain?

Peter

[Ryu]

The reason he provides for using the mages special attributes is questionable - the magician can cast spells with the magic rating of the possessed entity. There is also no rules reference provided.

Uncle Zola is pretty high-powered - I think the highest force rating to be seen at our table was 7 (on the player side). Spirits with double-digit force ratings are not really balanced at all.

[pbangarth]

Thanks, Ryu. I see what you are saying now.

Uncle Zola is a character I created for the 800 point thread in Community Projects. The OP wanted people to make the most out-there PCs they could to give him something to practice on for a high-powered campaign he hopes to publish.

Yes, this would be the campaign (yes, there very well may be more than one of these scenarios) where the Infected, AIs, Free Spirits, and other oddities start getting rolled out. Advance your favorite character, the concept you always dreamed of, or make some hellacious twinkbeast, I don't personally care, the doors are wide open. The goal of this scenario is A) to kill off heinous GMPCs with a nasty habit of becoming "PC parachutes" and B) To educate the GM as to what nastiness his table is capable of, so as to learn better character and story design, not to mention better tailor his rewards.

You are functionally building the stars of Shadowrun...the runners so big that they take jobs in public view.

So I decided to see what I could do with 800 points. There are several characters there that you might find enjoyable. Having spent more time on this project than I should have, I made four PCs: Uncle Zola, a Voodoo magician; Oro the Unstoppable, a machine-gun-toting primal force from Kazakhstan; Stardust, a cybered magician in a spacesuit; and Bongo Slade, mystic drummer. Other cool PCs there fill out the archetype range.

Peter

[Ryu]

No problem, Peter. I´m recently getting the impression that I might have to improve on my explanations anyway.

(Having written one of the chars on that thread, I was of course aware that Uncle is special. I just wanted to submit that things look differently at other force ratings.)

[pbangarth]

Yes, I knew you were there, too, Ryu. My turn to be implicit rather than explicit. I just wanted to advertise the thread to get more readers.

Peter

[pbangarth]

Point #6 in the FAQ at the beginning of this thread suggests that the dual-natured being of a possessed individual would not be affected by the -2 modifier for seeing both astrally and materially at the same time. This brings up some questions for me:

1) Does a mage that is Channeling and controlling his own body at the moment still benefit from this freedom from distraction?

2) This dual-naturedness is a continuous state of being, and therefore always on. It doesn't have to be turned on as a service. What about other continuous powers of the spirit, specifically the Energy Aura power (SR4, p. 287; SR4A p. 294). With this power, the creature "continuously radiates an aura of damaging or negative energy." If a mage summons a fire spirit and has it possess him, does that mage, even while Channeling, radiate a fire aura?

Does he then set fire to a chair he sits in?

If he summons a fire spirit to possess the amulet he is wearing, does the amulet burn a hole in the mage's chest?

3) If the answer to the first part of #2 is yes, it is continuously on, then can it be turned off, perhaps with a service?

[Karoline]

Does he then set fire to a chair he sits in?

If he summons a fire spirit to possess the amulet he is wearing, does the amulet burn a hole in the mage's chest?

I hope so for comic value. And more importantly: does he burn off all his clothing?

Hmm... seems odd to me that the mage is astral perceiving automatically just because he is possessed. This mean that any being that was possessed would be able to astral perceive, even if they are mundane. It seems to me that the possessee should just be seeing however they normally would, and the possessor would be seeing dually.