Hello there! I've played and GM'd Shadowrun since way back when it first came out, but I've a few questions related to the current campaign I'm a player in. I thought this would be the best play to perhaps get some solid answers concerning the character and some tactics for combat.

1) Can a shaman command a spirit to 'overlay' their form, thus providing protection and augmenting actions the shaman takes? (Using the shaman's skills, but the physical attributes of the spirit). This was something we allowed in 3rd Edition, but the GM isn't sure if it is possible. He believes that the spirit would harm the shaman while 'overlapping'.

2) This is a tricky one. The character's background involves his twin being ritually sacrificed by his mentor (long story), and at the end of it all, he became a shaman. His twin is haunting him, but we wanted to allow his twin to possess him and use his body from time to time. I figured the best way to do this would be to give the twin their own skill-set, but since this would have other benefits, we hit the rules to try to find a close parallel. The closest I could come to was 'spirit pact' between him and his twin, allowing for the twin to possess him, and use his Edge. Anyone have other ideas? I don't believe in just getting freebies, so I wanted to try to find rules/costs which would fit it the best.

Thanks for your patience!

1) by default: no. The Inhabitation power allows that, but it's kind of very permanent and very harmful to the shaman if he is the target.

2) If the twin is real and not just a figment of the chars imagination, the spirit pact thingy might be the best solution.

Re: #1. Ah well.
#2: The twin is real, and yeah, I guess Spirit Pact would be the best bet. This means sort of building them as a Spirit I guess, but removing Materialization, and granting them Possession instead. Tough call.

Good luck finding the balance with this one. Spirits can be very annoying in this edition. But I kind of like the idea.

Create a character sheet for the "Twin" with some background and have the PC blackout when ever possessed.

Then hand wave point cost on it figuring the pluses and minuses will work out.

He knows generally about his twin but there is a lot he doesn't know.

Just make sure the player doesn't know how the mechanics work or it will be old hat to him rapidly.

And instead of being something to be spooky and weird it will be something to power game.



The twin can leave messages on the mirror and voicemails to communicate.

Keep the twin's appearances random and spooky. Maybe only when he is wounded, drunk, or been up for 48 hours straight.

And remember the Twin has his own goals that might not sync up with the PC.

The PC can go out parting and wake up in bed with someone more to his twin's tastes that he doesn't remember meeting.

Or the Twin could decide that the PC's current girlfriend isn't right for him and he needs to get back together with his old girlfriend.

Or he finds out he just picked a fight would some huge thug for something the thug did to his twin.

Also remember is the twin was sacrificed then part of the twin's soul would have been consumed by the sacrificed. What was left of him bonded itself to the PC's soul.

Maybe killing the bastard that did this too him won't be enough. He also has to destroy the flint blade used to cut his heart out before he can find peace.

And the blade is in possession of the master of the bastard the killed his twin who is even further up the power structure. Of course his twin never considered that bastard who killed him wouldn't be carrying it.

There are a lot of possibilities here.

Well, it is my character. I wasn't planning on the blackout condition. That's been overdone.
What we finally agreed on was to pay for Pact, and make her a Guardian Spirit. So she has her own attributes, skills, and powers, and over time I'll be giving her part of my karma so she can advance. It cuts my karma more or less in half, but that's fine. It makes the relationship more symbiotic.

From the two questions you asked, it seems you want a very possession-flavored shaman. Why not just ask your GM if you can play a possession tradition shaman? There are 1001 cultures in the world with shamans, and at least 1/2 of them lean more toward possession-based spirits than materialization-based spirits. Seems logical to me. Then write the twin up as a free spirit of man and form a pact with him. Wa-la!

Interestingly enough, the two questions were unrelated. I sort of liked the idea of a shaman calling upon a spirit to surround him as he fights, was all. Hmm, possession-based spirits. That would be interesting, actually. I'll have to look into that. Cool concept!

(It shouldn't work too badly with the fact the character is Shinto...)

Oh, or you could make it permanently possess your character, but only come out while asleep. like in the novel Tails You Lose. (Well, kind of ) However, personally, if starting from character creation, i think the Immunity to Natural Weapons and Armour ans stuff are a bit much. But since it's a dead twin, you could probably pretend it doesn't work the same way. (Well, assuming that stuff happens in 4ed..)

make it a possession tradition and the twin a spirit of man.