Greetings.

I've been working on a way to utilize the Planetary Hours as a geas or as a variant of the Polytheistic Shaman and I need some help working out the mechanics.

Each day of the week corresponds to a planet-pretty self explanatory-Sunday-sun (I know it's not a planet, but the is magik), Monday-moon, Tuesday-Mars, etc. Each day is further sub-divided into 'hours' (some schools use regular clock hours, the more 'hardcore' divide the numbers of daylight into twelve equal parts and use that as an hour, then doe the same for the night). Each hour has a planetary correspondence, the first hour of each day corresponding to the planet of that day, and so on throughout a cycle.

Now, each planet has different effects associated with it. The Sun would be good for healing spells; Mars, combat; Moon, Emotions and Illusion; Saturn, Combat and Death; Mercury, Communication; and so on.

So, the way I figure the geas would work: Spells associated with the planetary hour they are cast in get a +2 rating (so, you'd get a +2 for a Combat spell in a Mars hour), further modified by the day. Certain planets traditionally oppose one another: Sum/Moon, Mars/Venus, Jupiter/Saturn (Mercury's neutral). So, if the hour is opposed by the planet of the day, a -2 should be applied. Thus, a Combat spell in the hour of Mars on Friday, -2.

Further penalties would apply-trying to cast an opposed type of spell in the wrong hour would accrue an additional -2 penalty. A combat spell in the hour of Venus on Friday would be -4. Bonuses apply-the same spell in the hour of Mars on Tuesday would be +4.

I figure it could be a major Geas-ONLY casting spells according to days/hours. I also thought that it'd be kind of similar to the Polytheistic (or Pantheistic, I forget the exact term that they use in Magic in the Shadows), but with more rapid 'shifts' happening-instead of a random change once a month, a scheduled change, hourly.

Probably not the most effective character-may make for a neat NPC, though. Still, planning runs to take advantage of the hours could be a neat little headache for a player. It would probably tend to make one very impatient-'Hurry up, my time's almost up!' Likewise, the character would probably be very punctual. A run runs overlong-losing your advantages, or worse, having them become reductions in ability-horrible.

Obviously, I've not worked out all of the correspondences or the mechanics, so any opinions or other help'd be appreciated.

TIA

R

Wow you just made may Astrologer house mate have a fit as she read over my shoulder...

Good work sir!

Nice idea, bit heavy on the work front though...

Sorry to make anyone have a fit-hope that I've not mangled the concept TOO much. Might your room-mate have some input...?

The work would be a bit heavy at first, but there are easily accessed tables with the planetary hours, and even with the proportioned hour length, it's not that big of a deal (Sneaky runs on Saturday, information gathering on Wednesday, armed resistance anticipated runs on Tuesday-sucks having to wait until Sunday for healing, though. Good thing to know if said sneaky runs go egg shaped Saturday night.).

Working out the exact mechanics may take a bit of cerebration-but, hey, that's what work's for-playing with ideas for ShadowRun, right?

R

I'm pretty 'paper-work lite', myself.

I've an excellent little program that runs on my desktop that keeps track of the planetary hours for me-even pops up and tells me when they change and which the planet new 'hour' is-hour and day. Handy-and, I can print out the hours for pretty much any day through accessing the calendar. So, finding out the relevant information involves just consulting the chart.

My main concern is getting workable correspondences between the planets and SR spells. Combat=Mars, Healing=Sun, Communication=Mercury, Stealth=Saturn, Illusion=Moon-but what of Venus or Jupiter? I've not got any idea how to handle summoning spirits or elemntals for this type of character, either.

What type of spells would Jupiter and Venus correspond to-thus giving bonuses or penalties?

How would you handle spirit summoning for this character?

What would add, delete or otherwise alter-for flavor effect OR for game mechanics?

TIA

R

Now to add a spanner to the works:

You going to add summoning in there? Perhaps Venus and Jupiter could have something to do with that?

Are you using 3rd ed or 4th?
3rd I presume.
I'd have them summon nature spirits.

My take on the correspondances

Sun - Health spells
Moon - Illusion Spells
Mars - Combat Spells
Mercury - Divination
Jupiter - Sky Spirits
Venus - Spirits of Man
Saturn - Manipulation spells? Saturn is to do with time and that sort of stuff. I'll pester my astrologer house mate when she gets back from scotland if we're stuck.

Sounds great so far.

What about an Hermetic option? Off the top of my head-use Jupiter's hour(s) for summoning Elementals, and use ... I'm drawing a blank on Venus. But, lots of grimoire thumpers pay heed to the planetary influences.

To further add to the confusion, we could make them dual correspondences-Illusion/Manipulation for Moon, Communication/Illusion for Mercury, and so on...

By the way, I'm writing this in the Hour of Jupiter on the Day of Jupiter.

Thanks for the input.

R

Yeah, hermetic sits better really but elementals take hours to summon so how to adjudicate? Maybe make them summon spirits of the elements?

Could try haveing it so the Summoning is only affected by the day its self then apply the corosponding element of that planet if there is any that is.