The ultimate point of these houserules is to limit the amount of Gruntwork required of GMs who wish to use Toxic Spirits and Magicians. The idea is to create a simple templating system that can be applied to any spirit of any tradition without major adjustments. Hopefully, this will go a long way towards removing the crippling diversity of the current toxic spirit "system"

It is also motivated by a desire to bring Toxics back in line with previous editions and remove some of the silliness like radioactive binding materials.







Fluff


On the nature of Toxic Spirits.
Fifteen years ago I sat in this very classroom and asked my esteemed professor a question that I felt was very important but which was actually very silly. I asked him, "how are toxic spirits summoned." His reply, "there are no such things as toxic spirits." For a moment, I was agast. He not only flew in the face of conventional wisdom, but was denying undeniable truth. Everybody knows that toxic spirits exist after all. And indeed, they do, but then he elaborated. "Toxic is not a class of spirit", he said. "It is an illness, one that can capture any spirit, but it does not change that spirit's nature."

It is with deference to that professor that I tell you now, there are no such things are "Nuclear Spirits", though there are spirits who have been corrupted by radiation. This corruption does not change the nature of the spirit, it merely twists it slightly.

Toxic Domains
Everyone here knows about Domains and Background Count. What some of you may not know is that there are Toxic Domains. Anything can create a background count, if it is present in sufficient quantities for long enough. Toxic Domains are Background Counts that are created by things that are antithical to life as we know it. Spirits summoned in these domains are easily corrupted by the aspected mana, becoming what we refer to as Toxic Spirits.
Magicians can also become corrupted by such Domains, if they remain in them for too long.
There Toxic Domains can be broadly classified into four types.

Poisoned Domains
Poisoned domains are the most common. These domains occur in areas that have been made harmful to life by chemical pollution, man-made or otherwise. Natural poisoned domains do occur, but they are rare compared to many poisoned domains that have been created by metahuman industry. Spirits summoned from these domains tend to be sickly and deformed in appearance.

Radiation Domains
Every place on Earth has some small amount of background radiation, but some places have more than others. Radiation interacts with mana in strange and currently unpredictable ways. This fact that led to the several power plant meltdowns worldwide and kept the Lone Eagle incident from sparking World War III. It also creates some very dangerous toxic domains. Radiation Domains occur only when background radiation rises to levels that are harmful to living things and remains at that level for a prolonged period of time. Even if plants and animals in the area adapt to the radiation and are able to live normally, the domain will remain until the radiation levels fall, and for some time after.
Many spirits summoned in this domain show no outward signs of corruption, but appear to be rotting from the inside out when assensed.

Suffering Domains
Suffering domains are caused by a great deal of fear, pain, and death over an extended period of time. They can be found in concentration camps, torture chambers, and on some battlefields. Spirits summoned in these domains appear to be emaciated or wounded, their faces are often contorted into a permanent mask of pain.

Sterility Domains
The sterility domain is the rarest of the toxic domains. They usually occur in areas which are almost totally devoid of life for a very long period of time, particularly places with are incapable of sustaining life. The furthermost north and south poles are sterility domains. Some large salt flats are sufficiently devoid of life to become minor sterility domains. Human-created sterility domains are extremely rare and are almost invariably found within large totally automated factories.
Spirits summoned in sterility domains do not appear any different than their uncorrupted counterparts, but are cold and emotionless.

Toxic Magicians
Any magician who spends a great deal of time in a toxic domain is at risk of becoming corrupted by it. Shamans and others who rely on emotion and spirituality rather than logic and reason are the most vulnerable, but even the most rational of Hermetics can fall prey to the mind-altering influence of channeling this corrupted mana.



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Crunch

Toxic Spirit
Toxic Spirits are identical to normal spirits of their type in every way, except for those properties that come from being toxic.

Toxic Aspect
Every Toxic Spirit has one of four toxic aspects, matching the domain that it was summoned in or the magician who summoned it, Poison, Radiation, Suffering, or Sterility.

Notation
When noting the spirit's type and tradition, add its toxic aspect in parenthesis. For example, a Shaman's Toxic Air spirit from a Sterility domain would be noted as a Shamanic Air (Sterility) spirit.

Optional Powers
Toxic Spirits are not limited in their selection of optional powers and may choose any power available to any spirit of their base tradition, except those exclusively limited to Great Forms, or any of the Toxic Powers.

Power Substitution
A Toxic Spirit may substitute any one of its normal powers for an extra optional power

Elemental Attack
A Toxic Spirit with Elemental Attack may add an extra element to that attack as an optional power. Only Radiation Aspected Spirits may use Radiation as an Element.
Only Radiation Aspected Spirits may use the Radiation Element.

Background Count
Toxic Spirits are immune to the deleterious effects of positive background counts, but are still vulnerable to negative background counts.

Toxic Domains
A Toxic Spirit gains power from toxic domains of its aspect. Add 1/2 of the domain's background count (Round Up) to the spirit's Force while it is within the domain. Do so after the summoning test if the spirit is summoned in a toxic domain. A Spirit may gain optional powers from this boost.

Summoning withing a Toxic Domain
Any magician who summons within a Toxic Domain has a chance of summoning a Toxic Spirit. If a non-toxic magician glitches or critically glitches a summoning test within a toxic domain, the resulting spirit will be match the domain's aspect and be uncontrolled.
Any spirit summoned by a Toxic Magician with a Toxic Domain will be Toxic.

Free Toxic Spirits
When a spirit with a Toxic Aspect goes Free, it follows all of the normal rules for Free Spirits, but retains its Toxic Aspect.

Wild Toxic Spirits
Sometimes, spirits appear spontaneously without being summoned. These Wild Spirits, when they appear within a Toxic Domain, take on that domain's Aspect. Wild Toxic Spirits follow the rules for Wild Spirits.

Toxic Magicians

Toxic Magicians have lived in and worked magic within a toxic domain for so long that its corruption has become a part of them. This little writeup does not contain any hard and fast rules for when a magician becomes toxic because I feel that they are unnecessary. Toxicity is a plot device, pure and simple.

Aspect
Like Toxic Spirits, all Toxic Magicians have one of the four Toxic Aspects.

Notation
Write a Toxic Magician's aspect after his tradition on the same line as his Awakened Quality. For example, a Mystic Adept Wujen who has been corrupted by a suffering domain would be noted as Mystic Adept: Wujen (Suffering) under Positive Qualities.

Agendas
Toxic Magicians vary in motivation, but they can generally be classified in two types, Redeemers and Corrupters.

Redeemers lament their corrupt existence and see their powers as a tool to help them heal toxic domains and prevent the spread of more toxicity. Redeemers, however, have a tendency to go overboard due to their corrupt nature. While some are compassionate individuals who use media to bring awareness of the damage that pollution causes, many are eco-terrorists who would happily murder thousands to save a few trees.

Corrupters, on the other hand, enjoy their power and seek to increase it be spreading toxic domains of their own aspect. Some truly believe that they're doing the right thing and that everyone would be better off if the whole world were toxic. Others simply don't care.

Tradition
Toxic Magicians always retain their original tradition, but often reinterpret it in light of their toxic aspect.

Domains
Like any magician, a Toxic gains a dice pool bonus in a domain aspected towards his tradition. He also gains this bonus in domains that matches his Toxic Aspect. A Toxic Magician with Geomancy can aspect a toxic domain towards his tradition for double the bonus.

Mentors
Toxic Magicians with Mentor Spirits do not change Mentor Spirits, though they often reinterpret their Mentors in light of their Toxic Aspect. Toxics with Mentors retain the same Advantage and Disadvantages that the had before being corrupted.

Summoning
Spirits summoned by a Toxic Magician share the magician's Toxic Aspect by default. Outside of a Toxic Domain, a glitch or critical glitch may cause a Toxic magician to summon a non-toxic spirit. In a Toxic Domain of a different Aspect from the Magician's, a glitch or critical glitch will cause the spirit to take on the domain's aspect, rather than the Magician's. Toxic magicians cannot control spirits which do not share their toxic aspect, including non-toxic spirits, just as normal Magicians cannot control toxic spirits.

Binding
Toxic Magicians may bind Toxic Spirits using the rituals and materials of their tradition.

Nice. Copy/Paste for future reference, hope you don't mind. I like this much better than the idea of 'new' kinds of spirits.

Very well done. One small note, however: it's != its.

Very nice. I may as well share what I've been doing, since it's on topic.

I lost my Magic in the Shadows book, so I'm running on memories. However, my assumption was that toxic spirits are the result of areas with a background count. While a background count does result from pollution and despair, it also results from other situations which we might consider good. It can come up as a result of anything contrary to nature, or dangerously extreme, in any direction. A happy love orgy site would generate a background count. An alien landing pad with living aliens (whether friendly or not) would generate a background count in that their nature is simply different from ours. Similarly, bugs, even friendly bugs, generate a background count in their nest resulting from their fundamentally alien physiology.

I would argue that firstly, the "suffering" domain is greater than simply suffering. It is ANY emotion felt to a dangerous extreme for too long. Commonly, the 'happy' version would probably end up in insanity, but it would be a happy insanity. A place where everyone is on happy BTLs all day 24/7 until they die (imagine the Matrix with more pink bunnies), and their bodies cared for would still generate a background count because it's unnatural.

Second, I would argue another domain is 'alien' - anything from beyond our planet and our understanding of nature. Neither necessarily good or bad, it's just inherently different, to the point that the two are not compatible.

QFT.

Not every background count is toxic.

I don't agree that bugs would automatically generate a background count. They aren't alien, they're fundamental parts of the ecosystem. And Insect Spirits, while their thought processes are alien to the human mind, are still just idealized versions of their mundane brethren. But even if bugs were to produce background count aspected in their favor, that doesn't make it toxic. In fact, it wouldn't be. Which is great, since it allows us to make Toxic Insect Spirits. The lack of extraterrestrials also severely limits the utility of an Alien domain.


I also considered expanding the Suffering domain to make it more nuanced, but found it difficult to draw a line. There are just so many possible varieties of suffering domain, just as there are many possible varieties of poisioned domain. Trying to Name them all would be counterproductive.

I do disagree that all strong emotion would create one. All strong emotions create background count if they last long enough, but not all background counts are toxic. A suffering-aspected magician and a normal magician would both be equally screwed in super-happy-land. Though the suffering-aspected spirit wouldn't care because they're immune to background counts.

I'd say that the difference is that the suffering domain embodies man's inhumanity to man. Hatred, violence, and abuse in the extreme create them. Fear, despair, hopelessness create them.
The BTL issue is interesting because BTLs produce artificial emotions. Personally, I don't believe that artificial emotions would cause a background count, because of difficulty that technology and magic have with each other. Instead, the true emotions of the chiphead, which are being suppressed and overwritten, would dominate the magical landscape. Thus, you have an odd juxxtoposition of total mind-numbing happiness on the physical plane and total mind-numbing despair on the astral plane.


I'd like some more constructive feedback and ideas. Personally, I'm not entirely satisfied with the way I handled their powers, ,but can't think of a better way to do it.

I think we're at a fundamental disagreement on the nature of bugs. While I do think they look like their mundane counterparts, I'm of the opinion that they're foreign interlopers, like horrors, who have come over from somewhere else. Hence why I think they'd cause a background count. However, if you'd prefer to substitute bugs with space aliens, I think you get the same understanding of what I'm trying to say.

There are examples of alien creatures in shadowrun. Horrors and shedim are two we're pretty sure on (as both are documented as coming from another dimension or plane). Any other sort of creature which comes from another plane, including a huge army of elementals or somesuch, would corrupt nature in our plane, resulting in background count.



Is there a reason you don't think super-happy-land would be as toxic as super-emo-land? Do you have a canon reference?


Hmm... I like your comments on BTLs. Not sure if that's how I'd implement them, but they're interesting. The problem for me is it becomes a question of where to draw the line. Is someone high on drugs producing "natural" or artificial emotions? A person on an overdose of artificially administered human serotonin? On naturally-produced serotonin (say because of a genetic disease which cases the body to just wash the brain in the stuff)? What about just classic insanity? Where is happiness 'naturally' created versus unnaturally so?

I also don't see suffering as the only result of man's inhumanity to man. Certainly there were many very happy masochists, butchers, and so on. A cannibalistic orgy would probably have a lot more positive than negative emotions, but would still (IMO) produce at least a weak background count.

MitS 126, under Toxic Spirits of Man






Because the masochist enjoys his torture, it doesn't produce a toxic background count. The cannibal orgy would be dominated by the degradation of the victims, the reduction of them from human to meat, and the utter callousness of the feasters.

I don't have any problem with shedim or invae causing background counts, I just wouldn't describe them as toxic, simply because doing so would imply that a Toxic magician could summon these beings. Since there are rules for insect shaman seperate from the rules for toxic shaman, that would be a little too much overlap, and just plain redundant. While the rules are explicit that you can't summon shedim. The idea of the alien aspected toxic simply butts in on the territory of other magical threats.



I'll draw the line at self-medication. Drug use specifically to dull externally-caused misery or depression isn't going to stop that misery and depression from leaking into the astral plane. In other words, if you use drugs because your life sucks, then your life still sucks, and the astral plane will reflect that. If you use drugs because you have a medical condition, and your life doesn't actually suck, it's alright.