Am I missing something, or is possession way overpowered?

A standard Force 5 spirit is likely to be able to possess anyone. In combat, that removes 1 enemy, and turns him into a complete monster with incredible stats that is extremely well positioned to kick the crap out of the opposition.

ok so it removes 1 enemy. but besides that, what makes it different from having the spirit show up right next to the enemies when summoned?

(i have yet to read street magic)

Are the stats Force + Victim's stats, or Spirit's +Victim's?

I thought possession required the victim to either be willing or astrally active. ( I never really dealt with it much ) How does it differ now?

( I'm waiting for the deadwood version of Street Magic )

Stats are force + vic stats. They get all powers, including immunity to weapons.

Possession attempt is force x 2 vs will + int.

There is no mention of requiring a willing subject.

Isn't this basically a low-drain control action spell that gives the target incredible powers?

There is one reason why possession is not overpowered. All possessed characters become NPCs till the end of the possession. Now they are a challenge not an overpowered PC.

There are several other limitations linked to Possession, to name but a few:

* It requires a Complex Action to accomplish.
* The spirit is fully in charge of the body (ie. it's an NPC not a PC).
* Statistically speaking Possessing spirits tend to have lower average stats than their Materialized counterparts (unless you can find a troll gang to possess).
* Possession only lasts while services remain (while in combat this won't make much difference but calling on physical powers during the course of a run will whittle down the services).
* Finally casting a Control Thoughts spell is a much cheaper and more effective option of controlling someone directly.

On the other hand you can now have a Possessed red corvette...

Posession is only overpowered if augmented attribute caps don't apply.

Is possession resisted continously like controll thoughts?
Controll thoughts has been nerfed a lot by the ability of the victim to chew away hits with opposed willpower tests every X combat turns.

something tells me that street magic is one "insane" book

K.I.T.T.!

Among insane and really cool things would be drive around with a plasteel homunculus in the passenger seat of your car, and then animate it with a possessing spirit to kick some serious ass

What does the Latent quality do, and is mundane astral sight as good as awakenend astral sight?

The Latent Quality allows you to make a downpayment in BPs so that your character may Awaken later in play. However, the manner in which he does awaken, when it happens, and what abilities he develops is not up to the player but the GM.

Sweet! Thanks!

oops, wrong topic.

Damn, a possessed red corvette is so cheesy, it's cool!

What model was the car in Carrie Christine?

I'm eager to read this spirit possessing objects stuff.

I doubt possessing a car is the most common use. But blood thirsty spirits bound to a weapon or an amulet slowly influencing and taking ovefr the personality of its owner are stapples of the fantasy genre.

A staple of the fantasy genre, and to some extend already existing is Shadowrun. For example Imps.

Except that Imps are inside foci.

Under the new spirit pact rules Imps could in fact be the Foci. Or more to the point it could be a spirit inhabiting a cheap piece of glass and tin. The Drain Pact is particularly nasty as its use to a character for supplimenting the dice pool for a Drain Test is addictive. The spirit can also at any time withhold the service and demand additional payment, such as karama.

It's pretty common in literature, and it's easier to include something that some GMs ignore than it is to leave something out and make GMs create it. at least, it's easier from a developer's chair.

'raising the dead' - Check!

heh, i mean in a less Night of the Living Dead manner. you know, guy dies and comes back, but doesn't crave the brains of the living.

as for golems, i thought ally spirits had that covered nicely. if we're talking about literature, it's not like qabbalists had lots of golems running around under their command.

SR already had golems, service loa, gizmos, etc.

What it didn't were unified rules.

Shedim, for example, use the spirit power Possession (Dead or Abandoned Vessels). Same Possession rules, but they have a subset of the ability limiting them to certain types of vessels.

you can have unified rules without having possessed cars. there already have to be special-case powers, unless you're allowing shedim to possess corvettes and imps to possess Plymouth Furies.

bah, so much for me letting it drop.

mechanics don't have to be universally applied to be universal. you've got mechanics for possessing inanimate objects--that doesn't mean you need to give spirits the ability to possess any and every inanimate object. you can have Possession (Dead or Abandoned Vessels) for shedim, Possession (Clay Humanoids) for golems, Possession (Foci) for imps, etcetera. you don't have to give some spirits Possession (Whatever It Is They Feel Like Possessing Today).

car foci are okay(ish, but not in my game) because car foci aren't going to drive themselves around.

Since the GM, with whatever level of input from the players, is ultimately in control of the design of a tradition. Therefore via the designaton of the Possession trait they are in control of what the spirits of that tradition can and cannot inhabit.

*shrug* SR4 is all about GM-guided play, make it a general rule that the GM gets to enforce as he sees fit. "most spirits can only possess certain types of vessels; for instance, qabbalists frequently have their spirits possess clay humanoids."

three or four minutes, at least.

It is already a bit of a general rule. We do say on page 102: "Ultimately, it’s up to the gamemaster to rule what the spirit can control and what it can’t." So if a GM wants to say that a spirit can not control a Corvette and make it drive, it's within his power to do so. He'll have to explain to his PCs why a spirit might not be able to make a car drive around but can make a corpse walk, but that's his call.

This was something the writers and playtesters went back and forth on for a long time. Probably the single-most reviewed mechanic in the book.

I suppose that is why it got it's own multipage sidebar?

Sadly, a posessed answering machine is out of the question.