possession..., and ways to fight it. Options

[6thDragon]

I plan on adding an encounter with a spirit with the possession power at my next session and was wanting to plan out ways for the PCs to fight back. I know when the spirit wants to take possession of a PC the spirit rolls force x2 against the characters willpower+intuition (I assume many players will also add edge or save it for a reroll). Now comes the part of what to do once the spirit eventually takes possession of a character. The obvious way to handle it would be for any team magician to try to banish the spirit, but if that doesn't work what methods of attacking the spirit would not kill the character? Obviously they would be better off inflicting stun damage instead of physical. I'm trying to think of some other ways of fighting back. Could the mage astrally project and attack the spirit...they are dual natured after all? Would this damage be limited to the spirit or would the character get hurt as well? Has anyone else used this in their game sessions lately? If so how powerful is it? It would suck for which ever player has his character taken over, but that's what edge is for. I want to add a challenge to the next session, but I want to give the players a fighting chance. Any suggestions?

[knasser]

Given that PCs usually have some good attributes and will certainly be using Edge to fend off the possession attempt, then it's going to have to be a reasonably high-force spirit to succeed in the possession attempt. That means the resulting composite entity will be quite powerful. Particularly as the most susceptible characters to possession are likely to be the most physically powerful. Make sure you do a mental dry-run on the resulting abilities before you inflict this on a team that's suddenly minus their tank.

That aside (and I hope you don't take offense at the above), I would firstly provide a few handy ways to deal with the spirit if the party get into trouble. You're right that they're going to need to use stun damage so convenient power outlet panels, overhanging electricity cables etc, might be handy.

Attacking the spirit in the astral wont spare the possessed player as such because it's now a single composite entity, although you could choose to inflict stun damage via astral which would have the similar effect.

Under normal circumstances a ward will simply block the creature. However, if you were to use the rules for involuntary travel through a ward in SR4, you could probably allow the spirit to be forced out. Probably would knock out the character as per the dual nature rules, though. If the battle takes place in a highly secure area with a lot of strong wards about, then this gives the PCs another avenue of attack. Similarly if you had previously set-up security measures such as stun-gas (forget the name) filling a room when the alarm triggered. That sort of stuff.

The PCs could just grapple the bastard and pump him full of supplies from the medkit, though I don't fancy their chances.

Give some thought to the type of spirit and its motivations. Maybe they can bargain or initimidate it. They could restrain it and torture it until the pain causes it to flee the host.

Also give some thought to what the possessed player is doing all of this time. If he's just sitting around frustrated because you took his character away from him, that's not good. I'm planning this to happen at some point in my game, and my idea is that the player will be consoled when I suddenly present him with a temporary modified character sheet and give him free reign to take on the rest of the party. You have to be very careful with this and trust your player, but it could be a lot of fun. Particularly if he leads them on a bit of a hunter-prey chase.

These are just some thoughts. Seriously though, be careful with the power levels. I really hope I'm not being patronising, but think about what giving the party troll +5 to all physical attributes, 10 points of hardened armour against everything and whatever odd powers the possessing spirit has such as elemental aura (flame).

EDIT: I ommitted mentioning just manabolting the thing into unconciousness, because you said you were looking for alternate ways of handling it.

[6thDragon]

I was under the impression manabolting would inflict physical damage on the player.

[Jaid]

[James McMurray]

Can you attack it astrally or is it buried out of reach inside the subject?

[Jaid]

[Kyoto Kid]

...just dealt with Possession from the GM's perspective during our last session. Had it attempted on an NPC & it took several tries by the persistent spirit to actually take over the character. Of course, this was a "Star" NPC who did have better than average scores for Willpower & Intuition.

Not one of my favourite powers mind you. Does kind of take things out of the Player's or GM's hands depending on who summoned the spirit. In the scenario mentioned above, it did take away from one of the more fun aspects of the mission since part of the challenge was that the fellow the team was hired to play bodyguard for was an eccentric scientist.

[Lord Ben]

I don't think the power is right for the "take him over and play around a little bit before he gets his body back" type scenario. It looks more like a "well he has your body now" type thing.

Your best bet would be to tailor some mechanics to suit the situation. And describe it with hints as to ways around it.

Fire (for example) Spirit visibly shoves himself into Bobs body and Bob's eyes glow with an evil glint. Bob reaches for his gun and a look of horror spreads across his face as he shoots at Sally while saying "I'm sorry".

Then let the PC's try to talk him down and give him another roll to try to get his body back, etc. It may not be 100% by the book, but if it's the scene you're looking for then who cares.

And if a PC argues with you tell them to STFU and roll paranormal knowledge. If they fail say they have no clue, and if they succeed tell them people have been known to force the body out themselves.

[FrankTrollman]

While the spirit and the vessel are merged, any damage of any type inflicted on either affects both. That's bad, but at least it's consistent. On the minus side, this means that an astral attack or even an attack of will against the spirit will cause sympathetic wounds to the vessel. On the plus side, this means that shooting your friend in the face with a physical bullet will cause sympathetic wounds to the spirit.

That being said, Stun Damage is the way to go. As soon as the victim is unconcious, the spirit is too. It'll just sit there being unconcious. And if you eject it with Banishment, the spirit will be immediately disrupted.

The spirit can't really cause any trouble and your friend will be fine. You'll have to kick the spirit out and revive them - but they won't die or suffer permanent physical injury.

-Frank

[Jaid]

hmmm... well that's annoying... convenient from a bookkeeping aspect, but annoying...

so, uhhh... this means that a possessed (meta)human in space is going to die a horrible, horrible death i take it?

[FrankTrollman]

[Jaid]

hmmm... you know, it seems the longer it is since street magic came out, the more the mana static spell looks better and better (turn my rating 1 aspected power site into a rating 6? yes, please, and thank you FAQ.)

[knasser]

[RunnerPaul]

[Slithery D]

[FrankTrollman]

Or just a really persistent spirit following you around for days.

-Frank