Yes, you read the topic title right-
i am possibly looking into making an npc who follows a Rabbit mentor
spirit...the problem?! No rules material covering such wonders.
Usually, i would probably try to scratch out something myself,
but i am curious as to what you rules proficient fellow runners
might throw towards the pros/cons of a Rabbit mentor spirit-
things i was hoping to find a not rules destroying of touching on
is the traditional outlook of rabbits being a "lucky" animal-
i was thinking of a disadvantage similar to Rats.

So what say you fellow runners/gm's?

+2 d to seduction (whatever the appropriate skill is) and +2 to running, combat paralysis. The seduction because of their notable ability to reproduce.
or for the luck aspect
+1 edge and +1 increase to max edge (yes this raises the max for a human to 8 ) and +2 to running or jumping, have to have a cyber foot or focus addiction (mummified foot). or a combination of the two making the mummified foot their own.

maybe a + to shape earth for their burrowing ways, or spirits of the appropriate area of effect(i.e. usual living room of rabbits)

9 with the Luck quality. So why not use that? Keeps the game balance a lot better.

+2 to spirits of the earth, +1 to shape earth, +1 to healing spells, +2 to running tests, combat paralysis, luck

Unsure about the sex thing. +2 to seduction doesn't sit wel with me - Rabbit's justa but fucking, not the siren totem. A penalty if the character hasn't had sex in a given amount of time comes to mind, but that can horribly backfire and will make the character seem like an idiot in many situations, so ... I dunno.

Actually, rabbits are associated with fertility, spring, cowardice, trickery and creation in quite a few cultures. The entire idea of the Easter bunny, for example, or Nanabozho, the Great Rabbit of Anishinaabe myth. The lucky rabbit's foot thing I think came outta hoodoo, and I think rabbits are considered pretty lucky in Chinese astrology. Otherwise, it's all tricksters and makin' babies (There's a reason Brer Rabbit seemed a logical canidate to absorb the Anansi tales). Hell, the Aztecs had the Centzon Totochtin, which were apparently a few hundred divine rabbits that meet up for parties and together are essentially the governing deity of drunkeness. Basically, think Bacchus the Bunny(ies). Also, by Japanese folklore rabbits live on the moon and like to make mochi. But, uh, I'm not sure how you'd include that one.


I'd go with a bonus to Health Spells and Con, plus a penalty to combat spells or the has to flee penalty from Rat.

Extra edge from a totem!? Sign me up on that one!

Not trying to be 'uncreative', but realistically (Not that Mentor spirits are real) I don't see why the rabbit should differ from the rat to much. The disadvantage is very appropriate. You could add dice to running instead of infiltration, and instead of resistance to disease perhaps give a like bonus to listening, digging, or the number of offspring the 'Runner is capable of producing at one time (If thats what really floats your boat).

Remember, that mentor spirits are not actual manifestations of the animal, but manifestations of metahuman perspective of the animal. The edge bonus is appropriate, but a bit too overpowered for my taste.
Oh. And hello everyone. Glad to be here.

Maybe a bonus to awareness or surprise tests. Or perhaps escape tests. You could maybe give a negative to fear resistance-type tests.

The problem I would have with combat paralysis is that I was a huge fan of the old comic/MTV cartoon the Maxx, which was about a homeless guy that had a rabbit for a spirit animal. I don't think his actions very closely mirrored what a rabbit totem should be in SR, but I'd still be a little peeved if I played a character with a rabbit totem and didn't get to unleash some major pain on some isz.

It basically would - in my iteration - give youa quality you could have anyway (and that's a damn sensible buy for advanced characters).

i like a lot of the ideas so far-
especially the possible awareness/perception bonus
and the earth spirits bonus.

much like another poster, the bonus edge felt a little
overpowering to me as well for a mentor spirit boost.

I am still iffy on the ratlike disadvantage, but currently yes,
it is still the most rabbit like sense rabbits by nature are
easily startled.

...have you ever read Watership Down?
I would seriously recommend at least browsing it and using such material to assist in RPing the mentor spirit. Lots of nice phrases and other such fluff. Perhaps a bit of a heavy homework assignment just for someone's spirit mentor, but its a great read anyhow.

Screw "Rabbit," I'm gonna be a follower of the Bigwig Totem. It stats up like Wolf. Grrr!

Oddly enough, when I think of rabbit totems I think of a disadvantage of not respecting boundaries/curiosity. So perhaps a willpower roll to resist "going into the farmers pasture" or getting into something he knows he shouldn't.

The lucky thing, with the feet and whatnot dosen't fit with me. Off the top of my head I would think that you could allow a bonus to the number of bound spirits, or a simple +2 on summoning a certain kind of spirit to represent their fertility

i like the curiosity/boundaries thing a lot-

That brings to mind the classic children's book 'Peter Rabbit'. Knowing he shouldn't pilfer Mr. McGregor's garden, and yet doing so anyway. Good old fashioned American fables, just what Mentor Spirits are made of! What is the ethnicity and loose upbringing of the runner, btw? Might help narrowing down the many cultural interpretations of the essential rabbit.

Perhaps you should have a Willpower+Charisma roll to avoid pursuit of one's curiosity/primal interests. A bit like the seductress for my liking though... How else could one systematically express such leporidian inclinations?

Heh. I wouldn't want to cross the path of a dark rabbit follower... Unless of course I had a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch near at hand.

+2 to health spells, +2 to running tests.
Rabbits are cowardly as the Rat totem.

Simple and to the point. You can use it for a sexy sex cultist, you can use it for a tricksy coward, you can use it for a lunar patron of justice, you just need to arm him or her with the right health spells.

-Frank

What if you said:

Advantages: +2 for Health. +2 to Running or Con (choose one).
Disadvantages: Cowardly, as Rat totem


That pretty much covers all the myth-related bases, doesn't it?
I guess one could expand it to Health or Illusion, but Con by itself probably fits better.

Funny how no one has mentioned the legendary keen hearing of rabbits.. but myself i was thinking more along the line of The overconfident hare

the edge thing was meant to be at least somewhat tongue in cheek. However, I thought the balance was decent. Losing aa foot means automatically having tose a point of magic and the cap to magic; when combined with the focus addiction (mummified foot) that is a very strong drawback.

I really don't like the extra Edge. In addition to all my usual objections, I encountered a SR4 GM who said that he scored a TPK with an otherwise-normal NPC with max Edge.

I'd go with Whipstich. Rabbits have been traditionally associated with luck, trickery, fertility, and creation. While Edge is out, maybe a +2 to illusion and a +2 to con, plus cowardice, would be appropriate?

I created (but did not play) a character who had Bugs Bunny as his Mentor Spirit (although it was actually just Trickster). Trickster's great for Rabbits as well as Coyotes, depending on your character's background. Rabbits are also (IRL) quite territorial and will fight pretty impressively considering their lack of claws/horns/fangs. Hares, I think, have sometimes used a system where one would flee to near the hiding spot of another, who would then take off in a sort of relay race to confuse/exhaust a predator.

Anyway, fleeing like Rat is definitely more apt than Combat Paralysis.

Great - what's next? Jackalope?

-Siege

you could name him jackhammer

Nah - Jackalope is nothing more than a horny rabbit.

-Siege

Jack-a-bassalope? Part jack rabbit, part bassalope?

Some people have hinted at it, but I will try and get the quote right:
All the world will be your enemy prince with a thousand enemies, and if they can catch you, they will kill you.
but first they must catch you.
Digger,
Listener
Prince with the swift warning
Be cunning and your people shall never die.
-Robert Adams


I love the idea of boundries, curiosity but for a benefit I would give "information/detection" spells +2. The rabbit always knows what is going on around him and knows how to best exploit the terrain to best effect. But this can be dangerous as his innate curiosity means he will take great risks to see what is just around the bend.

So, what would the Toxic version of the Rabbit totem be? The Beast of Caerbannog?

It's got a vicious streak a mile wide!

BookWyrm, that was awesome.

My interpretation:

Advantages: +2 to Health, Manipulation, or Illusion Spells (Pick one) +1 to Running, Jumping, Digging, or Seduction rolls (Pick one)

Disadvantages: Cowardly like Rat In addition any use of the Seduction or Con skills on the magician have a +2 bonus provided that the user of these skills isn't defaulting or has the Uncouth Flaw

I totally made that joke 5 posts before you

Rabbit totems strike me as an odd selection in the first place. You'd think rabbit spirits wouldn't be all about the helping their human slayers out, right? I mean rabbits have been slaughtered wholesale since man's first contact with them. At best we admire their capacity for reproduction and how silly their floppy ears look!
If I ever met a Rabbit Shaman I would totally make fun of him.

That's true of most animal totems -- either we eat them or we shoot them to keep them from eating the animals we're going to eat. Of course the whole animal totem thing is tied into the hunter/gatherer or nomad/pastoralist Native American cultural gloss, so it's not quite a real description (more respectful or whatever -- like a buffalo would be like "oh okay go ahead and kill me, as long as you make sure to use my scrote as a handbag"). And also the totems (Mentor Spirits) represent something not quite the same as actual animals.

I always thought that spirits were something akin tot he residue of the belief of all of metahumanity. But now that I look at those words before me, I realize that I am most likely crossing genres with some white-wolf game or other. SR bases the perception of spirits almost entirely upon the individual summoning them, correct?

So however you view rabbits, personally I would summon up Bigwig or Hazel and have them rip ass and bite face (These are my claws, and this is my cowslip!) in the name of savage bunnyhood. But also in that case I would try and push some 'Tharn'like disadvantage such as when I reach half or 3/4 my damage caps, I gotta make that Charisma+willpower roll to flee wildly, and if cornered just sit there and stare as my death comes unto me.

Rabbit is a strange animal, as is. Did you know: One former U.S. president was actually attacked by an Australian Rabbit? That a significant number of the Rabbits in Australia have become omnivores?

So, yes, some Rabbits might be cowards, but some might not be?

I think it should, perhaps, be more like:

Advantages: + 2 to Health, Manipulation, or Illusion Spells(Pick one), +1 to Running, Jumping, or Con(which Seduction is a specialty of)(pick one) as mentioned above

Disadvantages: As above, non-defaulting users of Con get a +2 dice to their roll, for rabbit, unfortunately, is rather gullible(and, of course, easily seduced).
Then, pick one: Cowardly, as Rat, or "Boundary Issues": You must make a willpower+ettiquette(2) roll to not give into an innate sense of curiosity or not violate personal boundaries. For the curiosity, it must be something you were told NOT to do("DO not look at this file" "Do not open the briefcase" "Do not go into Farmer McGregor's garden"). For Violate personal Boundaries, this can be anything from not grabbing that hot Trolless's rear, to flirting with the Johnson! Though, it is not that you are doing this deliberately to cause trouble, it is just, well, you just really don't see why such boundaries exist.

Jimmy Carter was attacked by a bunny while fishing.

I thought the debate on totems were are they:
1) What humans think of the animal so it can be shaped by human thoughts.
or
2) They are the true essence of the animal they represent and so shape human thought.

A spirit who takes the form of a rabbit is barely a step below the creator deity for the Ojibwa and factors heavily into the mythos of several other Amerindian tribes. Around the Great Lakes region the rabbit filled much the same role as coyote does in the southwest. You could make a pretty decent argument that the totem should have been Coyote/Rabbit from day one, if you wanted to get all nitpicky about it, especially since Amerinds figure so heavily into the SR setting.

So you did, Screamin. You are hearby awarded a 1-day at the abbey of the most holy Attilla.

I would go with #1. Hence, Gator being an urban totem in SR1 (they live in the sewers, y'know).

I serve the God-Emperor of Man - fear the holy redemption of my sacred bolt pistol!

Gawd, I just love -4 delusions.

-Siege

It's more like the relationship between mentor and human is shaped by human thought. Beyond that, who can say?