[X] My Assistant

[blakkie]

[FrankTrollman]

Mantis spirits have two main ways they can show up: True Form and Flesh Form. The flesh form is going to be seven kinds of complicated, because the rules for possession haven't been published. At its core, the spirit is going to have physical attributes of the host's plus the force of the spirit, and then have whatever modifiers on top of that the writers of the spirits and threats section of Street Magic agree upon. I don't know what those will be, so I'd suggest not doing that.

The true form on the other hand, works just like a normal spirit once it's been conjured. The conjuring itself is a weird blood ritual which requires the sacrifice of one living creature and some of the spirit energy gained from killing another spirit that itself required the sacrifice of a living creature to bring into the world, and the rules for that whole thing haven't been written for SR4. Again, I don't know what they'll look like in Street Magic (honestly I wish I did, it would make my life easier). But since this spirit has already been conjured, you don't have to care. That all happened off camera before the spirit even entered stage left, so it's not important.

True form is definately the way you want to go if you want to stay within the rules as much as possible. In previous editions, all male mantids were true form and all female mantids were flesh form, so you might want to make this a cockroach spirit or fly spirit instead if you want to put it in a position of major antagonist. Mantids aren't particularly human-friendly, so really any free solitary insect spirit can perform the kinds of plot hooks you seem to want.

A true form solitary insect spirit is (hopefully) just a beast spirit. Optional powers can be Natural Weapon and Venom.

---

If you really want the whole "hot chick who is really a mantis spirit" thing going... I suggest the following ad hoc house conversion for one:

Take a basic human profile (3s in every physical stat or there abouts. Maybe give her an agility of 4 and strength of 2 to drive home that she is little and hot and maybe Asian).

Add the spirit's force to all her physical stats.

Replace all the mental and special attributes with the spirit's force.

Give her all the spirit powers of a spirit of beasts except materialization and astral form.

Make her dual natured and give her immunity to normal weapons.

Give her the initiate power of Masking, with an effective grade of her Force (which is to say: "good luck on seeing through that, biatch!"). Allow her masking to cover up her continual spirit powers even though it normally doesn't.

That should do. Free Spirits used to have all kinds of extra crazy rules involved, such as Spirit Energy and bonus powers and such, but you don't really have to worry about all that.

-Frank

[boskop-albatros]

yes it is me

I'm not into bugs too much....so what if you get a shaman who has an anti-insect spirit totem/metor spirit to come around?

racoon could be slightly anti-bug but the main ones would be

Armadillo
possum
ant eater(s) [more then one type]
skunks(s) [all kinds]
shrikes [it's a perching bird that eats lizards and bugs]
chameleon
gecko
sherews

Just to give your campaign some ideas

[blakkie]

I agree with Frank that true form is going to be easier. But his fleshform suggestions make sense too given SR3 rules. You might consider imposing the Modified Attribute cap for the physical stats if you want to tone it down a smidgen. But then again these are normally NPCs so it is quite possible that won't happen with the canon Street Magic rules.

Still a few tweaks from the SR3 rules that you may or may not want to bring forward. For example the part about only insect spirits with wings can fly doesn't really make sense since under SR4 rules generally all the spirits can "fly".

Also there is the SR3 rule that when Banishing a trueform the spirit is treated as having double the Force. Given how SR4 rules work that would make any attempt to Banish a Force 9 insect spirit foolhardy since the spirit would roll 18 dice and the Drain on that is 2*hits DV. Average 12P drain before the spirit uses Edge? Ya, scatch foolhardy and replace that with suicidal. :vegm:

[emo samurai]

Hmmm... when she goes free, is she cut off from the insect metaplane? If she is, does she have a greater degree of free will?

Oh, and we should totally have a Desert Flame Wars thread that just has Critias, Blakkie, and everyone else who wants to be involved just hurling insults at each other. It would be funny, and I wouldn't have to deal with it.

[blakkie]

[emo samurai]

Do insect spirits need human hosts for new insect spirits after they become free?

[blakkie]

[emo samurai]

So she should have no problem fitting in. Except for the eating roaches part.

[blakkie]

Perhaps the wetwork target is a weaker male mantis. The gang leader's "groupie" in the background is the real master, being the Mother. Ganking the male is going to piss off the female because you just killed Mommie's lunch. :D Female mantis do something akin to Essense Drain (to death) of the males they summon so that they can gain the strength to summon more mantis spirits (both male and female). The Mother can only summon more spirits after they consume a male in this way!

[fistandantilus4....]

Back to something mentioned before by mfb, it's unlikely that a mantis spirit would actively get another insect groups hive to grow. For one, that's not how a normal mantis would work, and they do have an underlying insect mentality. But most importantly, the roach's are going to know that the mantis is trying to bug-farm them , and they do have the ability to fight back. One Mantis against a hive is a bad idea, even with 'goons'..

boskop: anti-bug? that's what mantis spirits basically are. The anti-bug bug. They're the bug anti-christ.

back to emo: if you want to really mess with their heads, make the mantid have ties to the Mothers of Metahumans policlub.You can make a full campaign of them with factions of MOM running against them! :rotfl: Imagine their suprise when they find the deepest entrenched bug of them all, Anne Penchyk! Then watch them squirm while they try to expose "the horror of her true self" to the media. Good times. Good times.

[Azralon]

[Critias]

Don't bother. I'm finished, and hopefully so is he. Apologies for the disruption -- there was an attempt to take it to PMs, initially, but then I decided "fuck it" and just stopped talking to him entirely. Sorry for derailing.

Are you getting a few more concrete ideas out of the (on topic) parts, Emo? It sounds like the campaign idea/arch-villian part is progressing nicely, at least.

[blakkie]

[emo samurai]

SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!1!!!11!!!!

There. And how is asking for a Desert Flame Wars thread more wise than having a mystical ninja poser in a dank and gritty world like SR4?

[Azralon]

Now, see, I told you it was a wise thing to say but never said it was a wise thing to do.

[blakkie]

[Adam]

I don't think there's anything to be gained by keeping this open. Emo, if you want, start a new thread for your campaign ideas.