 Ideas for evil things you can do to gain Potency, Let's get away from the old cliches |
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 Jan 2 2007, 11:09 PM
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#1
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Great Dragon  Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383  |
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:
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. |
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Jan 2 2007, 11:22 PM
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#2
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383 |
This one is good, but is it too cliche?
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Jan 2 2007, 11:26 PM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 308 Joined: 1-June 06 From: Nova Scotia, Canada Member No.: 8,631 |
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. |
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Jan 2 2007, 11:56 PM
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#4
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383 |
Hmm. A magical teenage girl who gets Potency by mutilating the children she's trusted to babysit? |
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Jan 3 2007, 10:21 AM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 295 Joined: 10-July 05 Member No.: 7,492 |
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) |
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Jan 3 2007, 02:46 PM
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#6
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
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.
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Jan 3 2007, 02:57 PM
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#7
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 17,006 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
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 |
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Jan 3 2007, 03:52 PM
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#8
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Ain Soph Aur Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,477 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Montreal, Canada Member No.: 600 |
This reminds me of 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 |
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Jan 3 2007, 07:41 PM
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#9
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Shadowrun Setting Nerd Group: Banned Posts: 3,632 Joined: 28-June 05 From: Pissing on pedestrians from my electronic ivory tower. Member No.: 7,473 |
How else do you think Pat Robertson can do 700-pound leg lifts and tell the future? |
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Jan 3 2007, 08:21 PM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 749 Joined: 28-July 05 Member No.: 7,526 |
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. |
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Jan 4 2007, 04:34 AM
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#11
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Moving Target Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 573 Joined: 23-July 03 From: outside America Member No.: 5,015 |
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?
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Jan 4 2007, 06:16 AM
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#12
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,598 Joined: 15-March 03 From: Hong Kong Member No.: 4,253 |
There is no bad karma; just karma.
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Jan 4 2007, 02:58 PM
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#13
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,066 Joined: 5-February 03 Member No.: 4,017 |
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. |
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Jan 4 2007, 03:57 PM
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#14
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,590 Joined: 11-September 04 Member No.: 6,650 |
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. :eek: :eek: Best of all, these guys can hide behind the law, corporate sponsorship of their business. etc etc. This is a true subtle evil. |
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Jan 4 2007, 05:32 PM
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#15
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 21-December 06 Member No.: 10,416 |
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. |
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Jan 4 2007, 08:12 PM
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#16
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
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.
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Jan 4 2007, 08:25 PM
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#17
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Man In The Machine Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 2,264 Joined: 26-February 02 From: I-495 S Member No.: 1,105 |
You twisted muther.... I love it. |
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Jan 4 2007, 08:39 PM
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#18
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,174 Joined: 13-May 04 From: UCAS Member No.: 6,327 |
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) |
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Jan 5 2007, 01:22 AM
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#19
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Canon Companion Group: Members Posts: 8,021 Joined: 2-March 03 From: The Morgue, Singapore LTG Member No.: 4,187 |
You would. Dumpshockers usually would love such stuff. :P :love: |
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Jan 5 2007, 05:33 PM
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#20
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,590 Joined: 11-September 04 Member No.: 6,650 |
does that make 2 fans? |
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Jan 5 2007, 06:15 PM
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#21
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Target Group: Members Posts: 71 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Georgia Member No.: 1,112 |
This thread is giving me the jibbly-jibblies.
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Jan 5 2007, 09:27 PM
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#22
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
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. |
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Jan 5 2007, 10:10 PM
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#23
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Immortal Elf Group: Members Posts: 11,410 Joined: 1-October 03 From: Pittsburgh Member No.: 5,670 |
it was a one-ton leg lift. Jesus is Pat Robertson's personal trainer! |
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Jan 5 2007, 11:07 PM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 21-December 06 Member No.: 10,416 |
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. |
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Jan 5 2007, 11:49 PM
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#25
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 106 Joined: 10-April 06 Member No.: 8,447 |
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.
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