The Gremlin, Also a link to help request on Critter Netbook Options

[BRodda]

OK here is a pass at trying to "unbland" spirits a little; the Gremlin. This is basically a specific type of Spirit of Man with a techno anarchist bent. Also I'm looking for people who would like to help with the netbook I'm putting together; fiction (CanRay I'm looking at you), critters, art and all that type of stuff. Link to it is here.


Gremlin (Spirit of Man)
Attributes:
Body: F-1
Agility: F
Reaction: F+2 EDIT per Errata
Strength: F-2
Charisma: F
Intuition: F
Logic: F+2
Willpower: F
Edge: F
Init: (Fx2)+2 EDIT per Errata
IP:2
Magic:F
Astral INIT/IP: F x 2, 3

Movement: 10/25
Skills: Assensing, Astral Combat, Dodge, Perception, Spellcasting, Unarmed Combat, Mechanic Group, Gunnery
Powers: Accident, Astral Form, Enhanced Senses (Low-Light, Thermographic Vision), Materialization, Sapience, Search, Banishing Resistance(SM), Juryrigger (Per Quality RC pg98)

Optional Powers: Fear, Confusion, Psychokinesis EDIT: removed Innate Spell (any one spell known by the summoned)

Summoning Notes: To summon and/or bind a Gremlin you must be able to summon Spirits of Man. For purposes of summoning/binding treat a Gremlin as being one force higher (treat a Force 4 Gremlin as a Force 5)

Notes: Gremlins are spirits of man that love loud noises, bright lights and lots and lots of machinery. They are not as fond of electronics or computers, but anything that has complex moving parts or are able to make loud noises are favorites. They are extremely gifted when it comes to building traps and their overly complicated Rube Goldberg are both humorous and dangerous. Noteworthy is the fact that Gremlins tend to be very social with each other and tend to be found in groups. This leads to one upmanship as one try's to out show the other with their hijinks. They have been known to become "Fans" of runners that tend to have lots of loud firefights, explosions and car chases.

[WeaverMount]

A skill based on force plus the ability to cast Analyze Device & Enhance Logic without sustaining penalties. That kinda makes mechanics irrelevant. If you give this to a materialization tradition, you have summonable mechanic that comparable to or better than a heavily specialized 400 BP character, except that it can do astral infiltration, materialize deep inside a machine, and generally be more useful that a comparable PC.
Plus they will likely have more soak, more dodge, better armor, and better unarmed combat.

If you go possession, are you looking the extra buffs from 'ware to boost logic, and the nano-systems that give you a +3 logic linked skills, and you will blow past any other type of mechanic. Not as flexible as the materialization traditions, but for the 13 karma to get channeling, they can afford to skip on perseption, dodge, and unarmed combat. This means they can afford really specialize in magic and get even scarier spirits.

And then there is gunnery, My first though was that this was totally broken, but then I realized that spirits can't use any kind of digital interface, also reaction for spirits was errata-ed to F+n rather than F*n

[BRodda]

A skill based on force plus the ability to cast Analyze Device & Enhance Logic without sustaining penalties. That kinda makes mechanics irrelevant. If you give this to a materialization tradition, you have summonable mechanic that comparable to or better than a heavily specialized 400 BP character, except that it can do astral infiltration, materialize deep inside a machine, and generally be more useful that a comparable PC.
Plus they will likely have more soak, more dodge, better armor, and better unarmed combat.

If you go possession, are you looking the extra buffs from 'ware to boost logic, and the nano-systems that give you a +3 logic linked skills, and you will blow past any other type of mechanic. Not as flexible as the materialization traditions, but for the 13 karma to get channeling, they can afford to skip on perseption, dodge, and unarmed combat. This means they can afford really specialize in magic and get even scarier spirits.

And then there is gunnery, My first though was that this was totally broken, but then I realized that spirits can't use any kind of digital interface, also reaction for spirits was errata-ed to F+n rather than F*n

I'll fix that reaction to match errata. Thanks.

Keep in mind these are meant to be something that appear "In the wild" so giving them the mechanic skills made sense. I specifically made them materialization rather than possession just because I see them more as physically doing things rather than just "jumping into them"

As for the "astral mechanic" yes that can happen, however your idea of "fix" and their idea of "fix" are probably far different things. You could end up with a lvl 3 Pimped vehicle that they ripped the rigger controls out of, added 4 SMGs to the front of (where they got them no one knows), hydraulics that make it bounce, a horn that is louder than a 747 at takeoff and a massive engine that makes the car able to do 200 MPH but steers like a brick. Also keep in mind that they will still need a shop or facility to do most vehicle mods unless you want them to jury-rig it.

If you were looking to go the astral mechanic route a Task Spirit of Force 3 or great would be much better (and more controlable) source of help. They get technical skills as an optional power and they also get both Materialization and Unarmed combat.

As for gunnery, no they can't use any kind of digital interface, but they can jury-rig their way around that. Also its not the shooting things that you'll have a problem with, its the getting them to stop.

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

"Stop shooting cars!"

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

"Someone get that thing off the Vindicator!"

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

"Great there's a Lone Star cruiser after us now..."

"Ohhhhh loud and flashy...."

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

"And it explodes too!!!"

[WeaverMount]

ok cool, you can have baddies of whatever power level you like, and I do really like the concept. As written though, they are just a huge upgrade for any summoner that can use spirits of man. Just as an idea you could make them a para critter with the astral form power. That way they aren't nearly as controllable by PCs. Another idea would be to make a meta magic in-line with invoking or blood magic. If you wanted to go that route, a fun idea to throw out there would be to make them go free or uncontrolled or some such very often, so if you use them all the time you pile up a bounch of gremlins who know and 'love' you.

[BRodda]

ok cool, you can have baddies of whatever power level you like, and I do really like the concept. As written though, they are just a huge upgrade for any summoner that can use spirits of man. Just as an idea you could make them a para critter with the astral form power. That way they aren't nearly as controllable by PCs. Another idea would be to make a meta magic in-line with invoking or blood magic. If you wanted to go that route, a fun idea to throw out there would be to make them go free or uncontrolled or some such very often, so if you use them all the time you pile up a bounch of gremlins who know and 'love' you.

They are intended to be a type of wild spirit per pg 93 in Street Magic.
"Perhaps lending credence to the idea that spirits are autonomous entities, some spirits seem to exist independent of
conjuration. Called wild spirits, their appearance and presence obeys no known paradigm or common rule, with the exception that they have not been summoned by metahuman means (as some will even attest to) and to a degree seem resistant to conjuring methods."
Hence the Force+1 to summon them. Also they can just show up whenever a GM needs them rather than having them always be summoned. Not sure about the meta-magic or just making them a paracritter, it overly complicates things.

I'm still not sure how they are any more powerful than a Task Spirit though. Task Spirits are stronger and have a higher body, more powers, the same access to skills at Force 3 or higher (even gunnery, its a physical skill) and as they are easier to summon they will have skills one level higher than a Gremlin (comparatively).

The only thing Gremlins have over them (if summoned) is that they are smarter, hard as hell to banish and can jury-rig.

If I'm missing something please let me know because I don't want to introduce anything that is "broken".

[WeaverMount]

So I want to say again that I really like this idea, just in case that didn't come though.

As for the criticism you asked for; IMO skills and spells are the most useful of spirit powers. You have combined that. Innate spell really powerful. That could be improved reflexes, fix, analyze device, etc. Plus you made the mechanic AND gunnery skills default as opposed to optional power. A task spirit must be at least force 3 to even have a mundane skill. Getting more than 2 skills in the same place really hard. You hand gremlins that for free. Also no other spirit has a modified mental stat. That makes low force spirits much more useful(3 LOG + 1 skill vs. 1 LOG -1 default).

Now the thing is, none of this matter in the slightest if they are unsummonable. As wild spirit NPCs they are great. As it stands it's just a random upgrade for any tradition with access to one of the spirit types to begin with. If you want PCs to be able to summon them, I hightly recomend that you use an establish avenue for summoning buffer spirits ie invoking, blood magic, corruption, etc.

[BRodda]

So I want to say again that I really like this idea, just in case that didn't come though.

As for the criticism you asked for; IMO skills and spells are the most useful of spirit powers. You have combined that. Innate spell really powerful. That could be improved reflexes, fix, analyze device, etc. Plus you made the mechanic AND gunnery skills default as opposed to optional power. A task spirit must be at least force 3 to even have a mundane skill. Getting more than 2 skills in the same place really hard. You hand gremlins that for free. Also no other spirit has a modified mental stat. That makes low force spirits much more useful(3 LOG + 1 skill vs. 1 LOG -1 default).

Now the thing is, none of this matter in the slightest if they are unsummonable. As wild spirit NPCs they are great. As it stands it's just a random upgrade for any tradition with access to one of the spirit types to begin with. If you want PCs to be able to summon them, I hightly recomend that you use an establish avenue for summoning buffer spirits ie invoking, blood magic, corruption, etc.

Glad you like it. I'm still partial to having it be able to be summoned spirit as it gives GMs some fun RP.

OK I see what your saying. I think I'll trim off the Innate spell ability. I though of it being more a combat spell, but I can see how it can get broken. I'll take that off. That should limit the abusiveness and make them much more narrow in scope (The desired effect).