Spirit Bane Antics, Share your favorites Options

[bibliophile20]

My PCs have been enjoying taking Spirit Bane in my current game; as they're all newbies to the system, they haven't quite realized how nasty it can be, so I've been fairly gentle (so far... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif) ) Out of the eight PCs (4 primaries, 4 backups for when the inevitable happens...), at least a quarter of them have Spirit Bane of some sort. The voodoo-mon mage has Spirit Bane: Guidance. He doesn't like how bloody cryptic the damn things are, and wishes they'd just give a straight answer for once. Things in that department have been going downhill for a long time... hehe...

So, last session, he has to summon Guidance spirits to use their Divination power. First time around, the spirit rolls a critical glitch on the power activation, so I stand up and give about five solid minutes of pseudo-philosophical BS about how ultimately everything is meaningless, especially the concept of possession, so it is hard to say if this man will possess the stolen statue-masterpiece, because who can ultimately determine what possession really means? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif) The look on the player's face was priceless. Later, he tries to summon a Guidance spirit again, and the damn thing gets 4 hits on its resistance test. Mage suddenly has a very nasty headache from Drain and I tell him, that he thinks that, just maybe, in the back of his head, but he might be imagining it... but just possibly... he thinks he hears... coming from the metaplanes... *raspberry* Was quite entertaining.

So, anyone else got any fun Spirit Bane stories?

[DireRadiant]

Spirit Bane:Watchers....

Think it won't hurt to have that and get your freebie BP eh?

After Watchers stopping by and watching everything you are doing on a run while manifesting, Watchers showing up and finding you instead of what they should have found, Watchers showing up delivering messages intended for someone else, showing up asking you for messages intended for someone else, and Watchers being sent by really powerful mages who get really annoyed when you keep banishing or destroying them. Watchers falling in love with you and scaring your SO... Watchers chatting with the Johnson during your meet.

After that, they'll take a regular Spirit Bane:Beast Spirits every time....

[DireRadiant]

Oh, what was really funny is that I had TWO PCs with that Watcher Spirit Bane ....

[Makki]

sadly nothing ever happened at our table in this area. Probably nobody takes this quality, because we really fear spirits.
But sometimes we use this house rule with a little mechanical effects on the spirits' character. Spirit Bane has an influence here.

[ggodo]

One of my players took Spriti Bane: Water and Incompetent: Swimming with a fear of water from a past Trauma. Toxic shaman is polluting the river, SUMMON TOXIC WATER SPIRIT! Player: I'm going to run away. The rest of the team take down the shaman while the infiltraition expert gets chased around by a floating ball of greenish water. Best distraction ever.

[toturi]

Spirit Bane:Watchers....

Think it won't hurt to have that and get your freebie BP eh?

After Watchers stopping by and watching everything you are doing on a run while manifesting, Watchers showing up and finding you instead of what they should have found, Watchers showing up delivering messages intended for someone else, showing up asking you for messages intended for someone else, and Watchers being sent by really powerful mages who get really annoyed when you keep banishing or destroying them. Watchers falling in love with you and scaring your SO... Watchers chatting with the Johnson during your meet.

After that, they'll take a regular Spirit Bane:Beast Spirits every time....

Actually it doesn't really matter which type of spirits is taken for the Spirit Bane. If the GM feels the need to take the player to task for taking the Quality for his character, then it doesn't really matter which spirit is specified. Strictly speaking, I run Spirit Bane as only as explicitly spelt out in the book. So if it was Watchers, then they'd harass the character only if they are in his presence, but they won't go out of their way to find him.

In fact I think that it is not that it won't hurt to have Spirit Bane: Watchers but it should hurt the least. Nearly any other spirit type is capable of doing worse things. As it stands, it is more likely the Watcher spirits will screw up harassing the PC and not accomplishing their goal of harassing him.

[CanRay]

I took "Spirit Bane: Watcher" for my Elven Wheelman, Nas, as I figured those would be the worst for him to have to deal with. Being able to track him and on the watch for him, aggressively so, while he can't even see them.

But, yeah, other spirits will frag your drek up five ways from Sunday!

[Falconer]

I don't think I'd allow spirit bane: watcher.

It's a bit too much cheese. Yeah watchers can do X, Y and Z... but so can any REAL spirit sent out on the same missions! To be useful as a negative quality... it would almost have to distract any watchers from their original tasks. (hey boss, here's the guy you were looking for...).



Of the ones I've taken as a PC... only spirit bane: beasts so far...

[The Wrestling Tr...]

We are playing "Ghost Cartels" at the moment and my mage tried to Initiate with suffering ordeal.
Well he survived the Initiation but my GM gave the the Spirit Bane "Plant Spirits" and I think that will cause a lot of pain since the description of the questbook on the back says the Run leads to the amazon jungle ... and it is name GHOST cartels ...
Think I shouldn't be too attached to my character now hehe

But don't spoiler any of the rest of the run please, haven't played it before (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I will post again in case something happens to my character!

[pbangarth]

I have a PC magician of the Zoroastrian Tradition who is Amnesiac and believes (rightly or wrongly, as the GM chooses) that he is a fallen angel from the hosts of Ahura Mazda. He must, in his own estimation, redeem himself for whatever transgression got him banished to Earth by waging war against demons on this plane of existence.

He has Spirit Bane (Shedim). Should be fun.

[CanRay]

I thought everyone got Spirit Bane: Shedim for free?

[pbangarth]

Well, instead of watchers following him around, maybe there are Shedim waiting for him to astrally project and leave his body behind.

"What's that noise? Oh... it's three Shedim fighting over which one gets to possess Yazata's body."

[Falconer]

That's hardcore... taking a bane quality against any kind of free spirit like that. Brownie points to the mage for taking that one!

Unlike the guys running around with watcher banes...

[Makki]

I thought everyone got Spirit Bane: Shedim for free?

I strongly want to take Spirit Affinity (Shedim) for my next character. Just out of curiosity, what the GM will do with it.

[CanRay]

Spirit Bane: Insect.

[bibliophile20]

Spirit Bane: Insect.

Doesn't Sticks have that one? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[CanRay]

Spirit Bane: Toxic Spirits?

[bibliophile20]

Spirit Bane: Toxic Spirits?

I could see a crusading environmentalist that's had major successes against Toxics to get that by default.

[toturi]

Spirit Banes I have allowed other than Watcher:
1) Shedim
2) Blood Spirits
3) Toxic Spirits, by subtype, eg. Carnage
4) Insect Spirits, by "species" and/or subtype, eg. Roach Caretaker

I would allow some subtype of Shadow spirits as Spirit Bane but no one has taken me up on that.

Oh wait, I recall two more:
5) Imps
6) Ghosts, by subtype, eg. Apparitions

[pbangarth]

That's hardcore... taking a bane quality against any kind of free spirit like that. Brownie points to the mage for taking that one!

Unlike the guys running around with watcher banes...

Thanks, but it just made sense for him.

[Yerameyahu]

Doesn't anyone think Watchers are too mindless to support a Bane? I had thought that this was their crucial difference.

[toturi]

Doesn't anyone think Watchers are too mindless to support a Bane? I had thought that this was their crucial difference.

I agree partially. I think that they are able to support the Bane but not able to do anything significant about it.

[3278]

So, anyone else got any fun Spirit Bane stories?

Most of the interesting powers could be runs unto themselves. The team could get halfway through a run before realizing they were currently experiencing a share hallucination courtesy of one of Bob's spirit buddies; then they have to figure out how much of their day has been real, and how much Confusion. Did they agree to the run? Are they on the run now? Is this still Confusion?

Movement can be crippling or just cruel, depending on how it's used. Speeding someone up unexpectedly while they're walking down stairs can kill them; slowing someone down when they're on the way to an important meeting can just be annoying.

Accident is the same way: pratfalls are just humiliating, but falling off a fourth-story gantry while breaking out of the research facility could well be the death [or perhaps just capture, mwah ha ha] of the character.

So they can be plot drivers, or just flavor. Players like the personal acknowledgement of little asides like, while they're walking down a crowded city street, a Spirit of Man just stopping them to berate the character, for whatever slight, real or imagined. Little scenes like that really make a game, and they're one of the best opportunities for Qualities like Spirit Bane.

Doesn't anyone think Watchers are too mindless to support a Bane? I had thought that this was their crucial difference.

They're mindful enough to insult a burger joint. I think of them as being about as smart as a dog gifted with the power of speech. An obedient but not particularly clever dog. Certainly I think they're mindful enough say, while the character's in bed, "It's funny, but he didn't make that noise when he was with your sister last week," or while the character's sneaking under the fenceline, "He's over here. You might also like to know he was in that shed over there a couple of minutes ago, and I hear he was at one of your offices last week. If you need some proof, I can take you to his house," or while he's meeting with the Johnson, "Pretty brave, considering what he did to the last guy who hired him, but it's your money and your knees, so be my guest!" Watchers could be every bit as terrible to make enemies of as any other spirit, if used strategically. And their very mindlessness makes them capable of any kind of personality: they can be empty drones, fragments from the depth of the astral plane, proof that the whole cosmos hates the character; or they can be lighthearted pranksters, a way for the GM to inject a little levity into the game.

[Yerameyahu]

Ah. I always thought of them as totally brain-dead robotic, with no capacity to 'dislike' anything, in the same way a chair can't. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Tools, not entities. I also had the idea that they're not really persistent creatures, just astral things that exist for a few hours and then… don't.

[CanRay]

Nah, they're described as "Dog Smart", and I often play them up as overactive children. Like a hyper puppy that's eager to please.

You get the Spirit Bane, however, they'll do everything in their power to piss you off.

One trick that I figured out for a Pseudo-TacNet Communications System is a Watcher that just runs to everyone REALLY FAST and repeats what everyone says to each other. No Emissions to catch that way if the security is high tech/low magic. Thing is, if you have Spirit Bane: Watchers, well... It'll get your messages wrong, "Forget" to tell you, instead of whispering in your ear it'll scream it really loud (In your ear, and audible to everyone else), and so on.

As asked of me at a Con Demo: "How loud do these things get, anyhow?" "Led Zeppelin, Live, cranked to 11. Over 140 dB. Barely trying." "Damn... That's loud."