Story / strategy idea - how do you deal with a child mage? Options

[Cthulhudreams]

He might be talking about the 'balant and unsupported rumors' section of the rulebook, not the bits with rules in them.

[O'Donnell Heir]

The Mad Driver's Guide to Taking Out Toxics!
Car + Orichalcum + Attuned mage = Fun!

Oh, you might want a hazmat suit.

[hyzmarca]

Invest the kid with a high-force insect queen and watch the bug and the toxic duke it out. You probably don't have a bug shaman in your group, but it shouldn't be difficult to find one.

To be less evil, just have the kid possessed and send him to fight the toxic spirit. The key here is that damage sufficient to disrupt the possessing spirit would also be sufficient to kill the kid, meaning that the toxic spirit, if it has any loyalty to the kid (or if the kid is integral to its plans), would be limited in what it could do.

[FlakJacket]

Find out where they live and poison their food or water.
Sniper rifle shot to the back of the head from a mile away.
Remote detonated or booby trapped explosive device.
Throw a dozen or so grenades through a window into the room they're in.
Drop a laser designated heavy mortar shell onto them or a vehicle they're travelling in.
Get two mages of your own to tackle them.
ATGM in the back.

[Kruniac]

Injection based toxins...

Followed up by forceable BTL/Narcotic administration to curb Essence stat.

Leaves you with one less Damien in the world, and one more burnout to emo over.



..Sell to Vory slave trade, head to Dante's for a drink.

Easy.

[Oracle]

First I would tell my GM that he sucks.

Second I would look for a new GM.

I just hate GMs that rape the setting to put out some Manga style high-power magic.

[Fuchs]

I just hate GMs that rape the setting to put out some Manga style high-power magic.

Like the Great Ghost Dance? Or astral rifts? or the veil around Tir na Nog? Or Sam Verner's ritual? The veil around tibet? Or the dozens of powerful magically active NPCs who can do the same as the kid, or more?

[Oracle]

Yes, exactly like that.

[CanRay]

Yeah...

And how many of those are seen in Campaign?

[DocTaotsu]

I think I saw a trid about the Ghost Dance once...

[Fuchs]

I don't dispute that such are rarely seen in a campaign - and probably with good reason - but that doesn't mean they are not part of the setting.

[CanRay]

Exactly. Dragons are part of the setting.

How often do you see a Great Dragon? Pretty bloody darn rare. (Well, except for Wyrm Time, but that's because two of them wanted their own TV shows.).

How often do you see any of the other Dragons? Only slightly more so, often getting upset that something is in THEIR airspace! (Have they figured out how to get Dragons to start carrying Transponders and obeying international flight regulations yet?)

[paws2sky]

I think I saw a trid about the Ghost Dance once...

"I don't think the Daniel does Dancing-Ghost porn flick counts. Though... it is a classic."

[DocTaotsu]

But... Dancing-Ghost made all those "volcanos" explode....

[paws2sky]

But... Dancing-Ghost made all those "volcanos" explode....

"Yep. Four simultaneous... eruptions. Wow. All of a sudden I'm remembering the ad campaign..."

[DocTaotsu]

Was that the one with the psychotropic IC variant? I think I still see Dancing-Ghost in my peripheral vision every now and again...

[Fuchs]

Exactly. Dragons are part of the setting.

How often do you see a Great Dragon? Pretty bloody darn rare. (Well, except for Wyrm Time, but that's because two of them wanted their own TV shows.).

But magic in general is far more common in the shadows than in "civilian life" in 2070. Toxics, free spirits, insect spirits, shedim, paracritters etc. are all staples of runs. And if we take the novels, then a child prodigy starts to look rather normal compared to what went down in some.

What's the difference between a cyberzombie and such a child prodigy? Or an insect hive?

[Captian C-Bucks]

Adopt the Child, Raise it for my Purposes, and never forget the Cookies and Candy..
A child of that nature will surely be manipulated easily, due to its powerful nature and immaturity (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Blade]

Except that if he's that good, he'll have a high willpower, and you don't easily manipulate someone with a high willpower, even if he's a child.

Welcome to Dumpshock, by the way.

[Fuchs]

As a tangent, if a GM is shooting for some "See the runners having to deal with a powerful kid by diplomacy and other talking" (probably something he saw in a novel or movie) scene, it usually works better if the runners need the kid to do something for them - it prevents them from simply sedating the kid.

For example having a child prodigy being the surviving student of a mage reasearcher that the runners should have extracted, and possibly the only one left that knows the formula/data the mage had (=run objective 2).

[Captian C-Bucks]

Except that if he's that good, he'll have a high willpower, and you don't easily manipulate someone with a high willpower, even if he's a child.

Welcome to Dumpshock, by the way.

Well, I did take this into consideration- but what the high Willpower represents (imo) is the childs ability to resist beeing manipulated. If you get the oppurtunity -and have enough time on hand to actually convince the child that you would do whats best for him/her then there would be no reason for resist-checks.. a child like this would desperatly want to be able to hang on to someone that is a bit more experienced (a mom/dad figure), especially after what it has probably been through.

And thanks for the heartly welcome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[hyzmarca]

I still think that a couple of shots from Davey Crockett nuclear bazooka are the best solution.

[Cantankerous]

Well, I did take this into consideration- but what the high Willpower represents (imo) is the childs ability to resist beeing manipulated. If you get the oppurtunity -and have enough time on hand to actually convince the child that you would do whats best for him/her then there would be no reason for resist-checks.. a child like this would desperatly want to be able to hang on to someone that is a bit more experienced (a mom/dad figure), especially after what it has probably been through.

And thanks for the heartly welcome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

As I live and breathe! One of my Players actually decided to post. This is a banner day.

As a side note, Willpower doesn't make it any easier to resist being SUBTLY manipulated, only blatantly. I gotta agree with Pete here. As long as you aren't trying to dominate them or get them to do something they don't want to do, their willpower means nothing in this mix. Maturity, experience and maybe intellect can help, but subtly is POWERFUL used against the naive.

You need a good dose of TRUTH when dealing with such an individual, a good fall back position, but then subtle manipulations become extremely potent tools.


Isshia

[DocTaotsu]

Hasn't anyone seen Akira? Overpowered super powered being? Laser weapons... big ones. Extra points if you burn out the engine whilst charging your weapon.

[CanRay]

Oh man, I can't believe I forgot my group's secondary back-up plan for dealing with situations where force is not appropriate! (Rare as those are.).

DRINKING!

I'm sure the kid doesn't have any kind of capacity for alcohol, and after a few shots of "Jesus Juice", there you go!

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