I'm a little confused on how this stuff in Street Magic works, maybe you guys can help?

Let's say I follow the Voodoo Tradition (Possession-based), so Combat is handled by Spirits of Man. In Possession-based Traditions, a spirit's Materialization power is replaced with Possession, and when they use it against specially-prepared vessels, they have to make opposed tests to see how successful the merge was. Okay, so let's also say that the summoner (and in this case, the vessel) has taken the Dark King Mentor Spirit, which gives him +2 dice for Spirits of Man; does the Summoner get this dice bonus in the opposed test, or does the Spirit of Man gain the bonus against the Summoner? I guess it's not altogether clear to me.

Also, I'm not sure how to get a spirit out of your own body once it's in. It says, "The spirit is under no obligation to return to its metaplane of origin if/when its services are banished away and will simply persist as an uncontrolled spirit indefinitely." Maybe I'm missing something?

-milk.

The bonus doesn't, in my opinion, apply to the Possession test made by the spirit. It applies to the Summoning, Binding, and Banishing of the specified spirit-type by the magician.

Okay, I think I've got it. So it also says that, in the opposed test, the Summoner can add his Binding skill as a bonus to either dice pool. So it should apply as a positive dice pool modifier in my favour, I think.

-milk.

Note that this only applies to certain services offered by bound spirits, such as assistance in spellcasting or learning new spells.
Every spirit can be sent into combat and Houngans may use Guardian spirits frequently for this task.



No, that's Inhabitation, used by Bug spirits and certain ally spirits.
Posession spirits only have to make a test to see wether they can posess a target or not.
Inhabitation is different from this.



Where does it say this?
Does this refer to Posession or Inhabitation?

Banishing explicitly removes the spirit from the vessel (cf p.101 of Street Magic) and leaves it on the astral plane.

If you prefer a more violent approach, you can simply knock the vessel out (or kill/destroy it), disrupting the spirit and ending the posession.

Or you cast Mana Static at an appropriate Force and disrupt the spirit with this.

Or -if you're the summoner and have services left- you just order it to leave.

If it is a summoned spirit, you could also just wait until the next sunrise/sunset.



That's also referring to Inhabitation.
There, this bonus would apply, as the Binding dice pool is involved.
This does not work for Posession, as it requires either an opposed test between Spirit's Force x2 vs. the victim's INT+WIL or (in the case of inanimate vessels) a (Forcex2) (Object Resistance) test.
No Binding or Summoning dicepool is involved anywhere in the process.

You're right, I've gotten Inhabitation and Possession all mixed up somewhere along the line. No wonder I'm confused. This is my first attempt at an awakened character, so I'm sort of out of my element anyway. Thank you for the clarification. So I can just order the spirit to leave the body? Can I still do that if I'm the one that's possessed? The book says that the spirit and the summoner are considered "a single dual-natured entity for the duration", but it also says in the Possession and Vessels Sidebar that the "spirit is in full physical control of the vessel", and that the vessel's mind becomes an "impotent witness locked inside its own body for the duration".

So I guess I'm still a little confused. >.>

Also, in regards to sending ... let's say Guardian Spirits into Combat once I've summoned one; it still has to possess someone (or something) in order to directly interact with the physical world (since its Materialization power is replaced by Possession). Can he still cast offensive spells and use his abilities while in Astral form, without having to Possess something?

-milk.

Yes, it's entirely possible to issue commands to a spirit posessing you if you're the summoner.
Your mind is still active and, like every summoner, you can communicate with your spirit via a mental connection.

In fact, self-posession is probably the easiest alternative if you have no prepared vessel at hand, as it requires no test for the spirit to posess you.




Yes, but only on the astral plane.
You could target an entirely astral or dual natured being, but not someone entirely on the physical plane without resorting to posession.

However, it is possible to move to the physical plane, use a power there (say, Concealment) and sustain it even after returning to the astral.

One thing I still don't get about Possession based traditions: how services are handled regarding possession ??

Let's take the simplest scenario: 'spirit, attack these goons !!!'

In the case of Materialization, the spirit will materialize without the need of a service to perform the 'attack goons' service. How those it work with Possession ??
- Who or what will the spirit possess to attack the goons ??
- If the spirit possesses on of the said goon, how will it be able to complete its service since it is possessing the goon to attack (assuming all other goons are down) ??

Let's take the following command from the conjurer: 'possess this goon and attack the others'
Is this 1 or 2 services ?? I believe it would be 2 because the conjurer specifies who to possess (kinda like asking the spirit to materialize)

Digital Grimoire elaborates a bit on this.

-Posessing a vessel is included in the service, just as Materialization doesn't use up a service in spite of being "use of a spirit power".
Likewise, tasks demanding the use of several powers still count as one service if they're actually a single task ("Kill these guards!" is one service, even if the spirit chooses to first posess someone, then use the Fear power to drive them apart and take them out seperately using the Accident, Concealment, Elemental Aura, Compulsion and Elemental Attack powers).

If spirits follow orders literally, this is usually a sign that the magician has treated his spirits badly in the past and is on the road towards Spirit Bane.

-If the spirit is not advised to inhabit a specific vessel, it will prefer a prepared vessel.
If no prepared vessel is available, it will generally prefer a living vessel over an inanimate object.
Depending on the tradition, other preferences may also come into play.

-If the spirit has to kill the vessel it is inhabiting, it is faced with two choices :
a) killing off the vessel while it is still posessed is pretty easy to do and the spirit may even make it through without being disrupted (keep in mind that a posessed vessel always has higher condition tracks than the unposessed entity!), but this may be painful to the spirit. The easiest choice would probably be something like jumping off a tall building and leaving the vessel on the way down...
b) taking posession of someone or something else, then killing the former vessel.

Lacking specific orders to the contrary, spirit could also possess the summoning mage and use his body to beat the goons up, right? If this would be inconvenient to the mage I'd probably reserve this approach for mages heading toward Spirit Bane.

Actually, on page 95 of Street Magic, under Spirits and Vessels, it tells us that the conjurer is automatically considered a Prepared Vessel for any spirit he conjures. Preparation facilitates but does not guarantee success in the Possession Test. There still needs to be a Possession Test.

And yes, a high Willpower therefore can be both a boon and a detriment to a Possession tradition mage.

I'd say it depends on the tradition.
For a Santero, it's typical that they get posessed by the spirits during their rituals.
For a Quabbalist, that's rather unlikely, as the whole concept of Quabbala as a Posession tradition is based on golem lore.



Thanks, i had overlooked that part.

Well, at least the spirit gets +6 to the Posession test.
Keep in mind that there's some ways to artificially lower someone's Willpower and/or Intuition, both by magical and pharmaceutical means- either the Decrease [Attribute] spells or certain drugs, such as novacoke or gamma-scopolamine.
Such measures would be a great help if someone wants to facilitate Posession of a particularly strong-willed target.

Yes, those are some good ideas, Rasumichin.

The way I'd handle it is that you (the mage) have two options here:

"Spirit, attack these goons!" 1 service. Since the spirit needs to possess something to attack these goons, it does so without explicit orders. However, no explicit orders from you also means that it's using its own discretion (based on tradition, what's available, and its attitude toward you) to decide who/what to possess. May result in spirit possessing a host that's not up to the job (even with the bonuses from possession, are you sure a teacup chihuahua is going to win a fight against a gang?), or will suffer badly from the fight (Yes, the immunity to natural weapons stops most attacks - do you want the bullet holes from any that it doesn't to be in your body?). Assuming that you and your spirit are on good terms, they shouldn't deliberately screw you with this choice, but its priorities for determining who/what to possess may be different from yours (sure, the troll in the back of that gang is the best body for stomping holes in stuff, but there's several other gang members who are closer, and you're the only prepared vessel here.)

"Spirit, possess the big troll in the back with the cyberware, then attack these goons!" 2 services. The spirit possesses the target you told it to, however you used an extra service to get this guarantee.