New Metamagic: Genius Loci, "The Spirit of a Place" Options

[Tanegar]

Genius Loci
Prerequisite: Invoking
Many magicians believe that each place has its own spirit, a being which both personifies and serves as guardian to a location. This metamagic technique allows a magician or mystic adept to call upon such spirits and request their aid.

In order to address a genius loci, the magician must be physically present at the location; this technique cannot be used while astrally projecting. Genii locorum are Great Form free spirits and cannot normally be bound; attempts to do so will elicit a violent response, often fatal to the offending magician. There are three distinct steps to be completed: addressing the spirit, negotiating with the spirit, and serving the spirit.

To gain the attention of a genius loci, the magician must address the spirit. The magician rolls Magic + Summoning, and the number of successes indicates the spirit's starting attitude toward the magician: no successes mean the spirit is prejudiced against the magician, 2 successes mean the spirit is suspicious of the magician, 4 successes mean the spirit is neutral, and 6 or more successes mean the spirit is friendly toward the magician (see Social Modifiers table, SR4A, p.131). A glitch on this test means that the spirit is actively hostile to the magician and anyone with him, while a critical glitch means the spirit perceives the magician and his allies as its enemies and will attack them immediately.

The form of a genius loci varies according to the location it's associated with. The spirit of a forest might be a plant or beast spirit, the spirit of a factory could be a task spirit, a fire spirit might embody a foundry, or an air spirit could be the guardian of an airport. The exact appearance of the spirit is at the GM's discretion, but a genius loci often takes a form appropriate to its home: the factory's task spirit could look like an assembly-line worker with tattooed schematics that writhe subtly across his face, or the airport's wind spirit could appear as a pilot with clouds and mist spilling from her mouth as she speaks. Regardless, genii locorum tend toward the upper end of the power spectrum, with spirits of relatively small places like a coffee shop being Force 4 or 5, while the spirit of a large international airport could be Force 10, 12, or even higher.

Once the magician has the spirit's (hopefully friendly) attention, he must negotiate for what he wants. This is handled in the usual way; the genius loci is considered to have the Negotiation skill at a rank equal to its Force, and its Charisma of course is also equal to its Force. Genii locorum are perfectly willing to do favors for mortals (assuming the magician doesn't torque them off just by asking; see above) in return for a similar favor or favors. Genii locorum typically want their homes kept up and generally taken care of; if the spirit is of a place where people congregate (apartment buildings, bars, theaters, etc.) it may also develop affection and concern for the welfare of "its" people. Alternatively, if a place has been mistreated by its residents or patrons, the spirit may become angry and vengeful. More powerful and intelligent spirits may develop more sophisticated and/or far-reaching agendas. In any case, the GM is encouraged to come up with favors which the spirit will demand in exchange for its aid.

Genii locorum generally have all the normal powers for a spirit of their type, as well as optional powers at the GM's discretion. In addition, a genius loci is automatically aware of everything which transpires within its home territory, and can answer questions in detail. It does not know the mental states of metahumans or other sapient beings unless it specifically assenses them, nor can it see through solid objects. For example, the spirit of a Starbucks could tell a magician that on the 28th of September at 1:43pm, a male elf in a blue suit came in carrying a silver metal briefcase and had a venti mocha and a cinnamon roll, but the spirit would not know what was in the briefcase or where the elf was taking it.

Once negotiations are complete, the spirit will perform the agreed-upon service or services, and the magician must do likewise. Welshing on a deal with a spirit can have serious consequences. Genii locorum have excellent memories, and will remember a magician who skipped out on his debt, and any of the magician's allies it may have come into contact with, for the rest of its existence. A magician who does this repeatedly may find that his reputation for dishonesty precedes him in later dealings with similar spirits. In the case of very powerful genii locorum (Force 10+), the magician may even be magically bound to honor his agreement; treat such bonds as temporary geasa - if the magician attempts to wriggle out of his obligation, he suffers -1 to his Magic Attribute until he lives up to the agreement.

[Sixgun_Sage]

Someone is a novel or two back...

[Tanegar]

Come again? The only Shadowrun novel I've read is World Without End, and I remember nothing about it other than it involved Horrors and immortal elves.

[pbangarth]

I've been out of touch with the novels, but I do miss this aspect of earlier games. The spirit of a place is a deeply entrenched tradition in many cultures throughout the world, and we have lost something by discarding that from SR.

Maybe my ignorance comes from the aforementioned dearth of reading, but these guys do seem pretty tough. Tanegar, why do you include this level of power? I kind of liked to summon the odd, little hearth spirit in SRs past.

[Tanegar]

Power creep, basically. It seems like every magician build I see has Magic 5 or 6 plus a Force 4 Power Focus right out of chargen, and I wanted to communicate the sense that magicians can't just bend these spirits to their will. That's also why I made it so you need 6 hits to get a "Friendly" attitude out of a genius loci. I kind of tied the level of an individual spirit's power to the number of people who live in or pass through its domain: hence the Starbucks spirit is "only" Force 4 or 5, while the airport spirit, whose domain plays host to thousands of people every day, is a minor godling at Force 10 or better. The spirit of, say, a one-family home, could be Force 2, maybe. Of course, at that level and with Logic = Force, it would be a fairly dumb little guy and most magicians would walk all over him.

I also feel like SR4's magic system is more... "sterile" for lack of a better word, than in previous editions. I also want to bring back some flavorful abilities that maybe aren't geared toward min-maxers but that a good roleplayer could get a lot of mileage from.

[Makki]

Druids do have this technique built into their view of spirits already...

All druids invoke spirits of particular places and landmarks
when conjuring, and they believe the spirits of nature
to which they pay tribute are aspects of the greater spirit of the
land.

[Lansdren]

Come again? The only Shadowrun novel I've read is World Without End, and I remember nothing about it other than it involved Horrors and immortal elves.

I think he was more commenting that it sounded like you have been reading the Dresden files as the idea is very similar to my take on the island that Harry attaches himself to

[Tanegar]

Aha. I haven't read any of the Dresden Files books.

[Tanegar]

I've been thinking a little bit more about this idea, and how to make it more than a GM handwave. For the moment, I'm abandoning the idea of individual buildings having their own spirits, and focusing more on cities. If we give the spirit of, say, Seattle 1 Force for every ten square miles of area (Seattle occupies 142.5mi^2, according to Wikipedia), plus 1 for every 100,000 people (608,660 as of the 2010 census; 662,400 estimated in 2015), we get a Force 21 genius loci. Applying the same formula to New York City (468.9mi^2, 8,491,079 people) makes its spirit Force 90. Force 21 for Seattle seems reasonable to me, but I'm not sure how I feel about Force 90 New York. Obviously, it's an entity that no sane magician (or even dragon) would want to tangle with.

[pbangarth]

How would such an entity interact with characters at the level of PCs? Or would it be a manipulator at the back of things, as dragons are portrayed?

[Kren Cooper]

I've been thinking a little bit more about this idea, and how to make it more than a GM handwave. For the moment, I'm abandoning the idea of individual buildings having their own spirits, and focusing more on cities. If we give the spirit of, say, Seattle 1 Force for every ten square miles of area (Seattle occupies 142.5mi^2, according to Wikipedia), plus 1 for every 100,000 people (608,660 as of the 2010 census; 662,400 estimated in 2015), we get a Force 21 genius loci. Applying the same formula to New York City (468.9mi^2, 8,491,079 people) makes its spirit Force 90. Force 21 for Seattle seems reasonable to me, but I'm not sure how I feel about Force 90 New York. Obviously, it's an entity that no sane magician (or even dragon) would want to tangle with.

How about - get area and population, from this you can work out the density of people / square mile. Divide this result by 1000 to give you the force of the spirit:
Based on 5 mins with wikipedia, this gives the following sample results:
City, Area, Population, Density, Divide by 1000
Seattle 142, 662400, 4648 per sq m, force 4.64 rounded up to force 5.
New York, 468, 8491079, 18108, F18
London 607, 8538689, 14067, F14
Denver, 155, 600000, 3870, F4
Shanghai, 2448, 24256800,9908, F10
Mexico City, 573, 8918653, 15564, F15

The bigger a cities population, the more powerful the spirit is. The bigger the physical area of the city, the more diffuse it is. The two factors balance against each other to give you a relative power level for the spirit. Add in spirit pool, karma, home turf advantage etc and you've got something not to be messed with, but still in the bounds of reasonableness? Dragons aren't going to go out of their way to piss off the spirit of a city like New York (Force 18, doubled for home domain to 36, add a few points of spirit energy to take it to 40 - but it's possible, if they really, really needed to)