I'm reading Street Magic and am at page 100-101, reading up on the spirit power Inhabitation and the various forms the Merge can take.

According to the table on pg. 101, it would seem that the more successful the SPIRIT is, the more likely it is to get a True Form Merge. However, reading the sidebar on page 100, it seems to me that a Flesh Form Merge would be preferable to a True Form. Am I missing something?

If I'm wrong, could someone tell me why?

Thanks!

Well, for the spirit he really wants to be a spirit, so the tureform is probably best for what it wants.

For the Bug Shaman who wants the Good Merge then he would have to support the inhabitee by throwing his binding skill in on the side of the inhabitee, if that were what he wanted...

Or another way to look at it:

What is happening is the spirit is taking over the form. If it does really well it destroys the form and comes out as it would be in its home plane. If the subject does real well then a semblence of him remains that is not consumed, and becomes a flesh form or a good merge.

Ok...I guess...

It just sounds counter-intuitive to me. I would think that with the additional powers gained with a Good Merge as well as being able to blend in with society (not hunted as easily) that the spirit would prefer a Flesh Form as well. I guess that's what I get for thinking like a human instead of a bug...

Thanks for the clarification!

Yea, that's a good way of looking at it. Especially as a GM remembering that even the GM can't really understand the thought processes of the hive. I always try to do counterintuitive things that don't really fit well with how I would achieve the goals of the hive but instead just make it look like random thrashing that ends up getting you where you want to go.

It does happen to have a nice balancing facotr built into it that way though. Consider the high force spirits are very unlikely to be good merges, and are much more likely to be true form. So the weaker spirits tend to get the advantages and the spirits balance out a bit.

The original material on insect spirits (from Universal Brotherhood) mentioned victims being sorted, with strong personalities preferred for merging.