Hullo, a rule/setting bit that I liked a lot in SR3 were pantheistic shamans, who venerated a whole set of gods/totems and reaped some aid from all of them, instead of a single archetype figure. Now, SR4 basic rules are different, since Mentor Spirits now are a wholly optional rule for all kind of magicians and adepts, however, I would still like to bring back something like pantheistic Awakened in SR4 who can still have a whole set of friends in high places.
So there's this wholly tentative Quality:
Pantheon Mentors (5-20 pts)
The character has managed to establish a durable mystical connection with a whole group of mentor spirits, typically belonging to the same pantheon of gods or group of affiliated animal totems, mythological figures, or concepts. Or, from a different perspective, she has managed to link his magical practices to different, yet related, aspects of his personality and spiritual beliefs.
The result is that the character honors and follows multiple mentor spirits and may call for aid on all of them at different times and circumstances, even if all of them put their mark on the magician.
The character may have up to five different mentor spirits, which must all belong to the same mystical tradition, and at any time he may have three different advantages that he may select from those offered by his patrons; if some god he worships embodies multiple mentor spirit archetypes, he may choose which one to focus on, among the various aspects of the god.
The magician or adept may change the blessings he receives by prayer and meditation at times of mystical significance, which are established by the value of the Quality:
every moon cycle (28-days), 5 pts;
every phase of the moon (7-days), 10 pts;
every sun cycle (every sunrise, sunset, noon, or midnight, player's choice), 15 pts;
every day and night (at sunrise and setset, or at noon and midnight, player's choice), 20 pts.
If one of the gods he follows has multiple aspects, the magician can choose to focus on a different aspect every change of the cycle.
In times of great need, once a day, the character can petition for a different blessing, and change the advantages he's receiving for a scene, by paying 1 Karma. If the GM deems that the request was made frivolously, he's free to ask a Deed or Metaplanar Quest of atonement from the character, to be performed at the earliest possible opportunity.
The character always has to honor, venerate, and follow the ideals of all the mentor spirits he's following, and strive to reconcile all their different philosophies in a coherent whole as best as he can.
The magician also suffers all the disadvantages of the mentors she has chosen, all the time; if one of the gods in her personal patron group has different mentor spirit aspects, she only suffers the disadvantage of the aspect he is currently following.
Overlapping advantages do not add, except to cancel out the effect of a disadvantage, while overlapping disadvantages add on: e.g. the character suffers cumulative penalties to dice pools, or a personality trait becomes more difficult to resist.
The character may petition his patrons for receiving more flexible blessings, and increase the frequency of change, by spending the usual Karma amount for increasing a Quality, and performing a Deed or Metaplanar Quest for each of his patrons. Magicians, mystic adepts, and adepts can all have Pantheon Mentors.
Opinions ? Suggestions ?
Full Version: Pantheon Mentors Quality
*Bump* What, no feedback ? 
Any chance you could break up the massive paragraph of DOOM?
| QUOTE (Ranneko) |
| Any chance you could break up the massive paragraph of DOOM? |
Done. More readable this way ??
I really like the premise. I haven't had the time to consider if the point values are balanced, but I would definately allow it (or a variation) in my games. Serving a pantheon just adds so many possibilities role play wise.
| QUOTE (Toshiaki) |
| I really like the premise. I haven't had the time to consider if the point values are balanced, but I would definately allow it (or a variation) in my games. Serving a pantheon just adds so many possibilities role play wise. |
Happy you liked the premise, it was the reason that prompted me to wirte the house-rule in the first place, the RP personality and story hooks of the various mentor spirits are great, but the occurrence should exist of a magic dude with a personality and mystic allegiances more multi-faceted than that, who would manage to balance his various affinities. Plus, pantheon/pantheistic mystics were a classical option in SR and a frequent occurence in RL.
What is your opinion on the rule details ? Any suggestions ? I struggled a bit on exactly how many mentors to allow under this rule, then taking a glance to the tradition pantheon guidelines in SM I opted for five, a number replete with mystical significance, and which has a nice simmetry with the rest of the shadowrun magical system (five spell categories, five spirit types), and it would cover most members of the listed pantheon, esp with the loophole that all possible aspects of a god are included, and three as the number of mentor dice pool advantages a character may have at any time, as slightly more powerful than vanilla Mentor Spirit but not overwhelmingly so.
The point value scale is a tentative guess, taking canon Mentor Spirit as the base and building up, adding a level for every reduction of the waiting time before switches: at the base level (one month), it's not much that different from having a single mentor (rarely one adventure will last longer than that), while the highest level (12-hours) should allow one switching from one scene to the other in most cases. In any case, all levels are the option of activating infrequent emergency switches by paying Karma, and the GM may penalize abuses of the latter.
Taking into account that the Quality works much like activating and deactivating a power focus, it seems roughtly balanced to me, esp. since the character is bound to suffer all the disadvantages of the patrons all the time (even if one can use some advantages to balance out some disadvantages, eg. using Wise Warrior's blessing to balance Great Mother's burden), and that the player has to make an effort to represent all mentors' influences and allegiances in RP the character.
I'm uncertain whether the Mentor Spirit quality should be a prerequisite for Pantheon Mentors, or if the latter should simply substitute the former. I'm also uncertain whether emergency switches should subsequently go on until the next normal switch, or resettle to normal option after the end of the scene, even if I'm ve provisionally opted for the latter.
I think this quality should be a useful RP tool for many traditions, eg. Aztec, Druids, Hindu, Norse, and Voodoo magicians.
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