Hi all,

My current character is a chinese swordsman adept. I'm getting to a point where I want to get more out of initiating. As such I have had a look into taking voluntary gease the next time I initiate.

All I need is some ideas.

I have firstly come up with Chinese Belief/Superstition ideas and they are as such:

Wear Crystal
Wear Jade
Wear Red & White
Wear Buddish Charm
Carry seven pieces of leaves from a Banyan Tree

Don’t place socks and shoes near the bed before sleeping
Never pat a friend on the shoulder or head.
Don't press your chest against the floor or against a dark place.

A Moustashe is bad luck
Don't cut finger or toe nails at night

Pay all debts by New Year

Wear symbols or the number 8 and 9

Never point at the moon.



Any gease that you have chosen for your character which sound better??? Even if they don't, mention em anyway

I don't know much about Chinese culture, but the first one that popped into my head based solely off of movies and the like was the following:

Ritual Condition: Kata -- You must perform your martial arts (whichever you chose) kata every morning at dawn. Failure to do so breaks the geas for the next 24 hours.

I'm also a fan of basing geasa off of more cheesy or painfully stereotypical sources. For example, taking inspiration from The Mandarin from the old Iron Man comics and having a Talisman geas that requires you to wear a ring on every finger of both hands representing each of the five Chinese elements. If an adept, you could use the alternative Geasa for Adepts rule and make each ring a separate geas, too.

Many of those would be more along the lines of simple RP elements (Not patting someone on head/shoulder for instance) but some of them could work well. The Banya leaves could replace a talisman fairly nicely. You could also do a Crystal and Jade Buddah charm as a talisman.

I like the kata thing from above, would work especially well for an adept. Otherwise simple meditation (hour each morning) would work out more or less the same.

Perhaps along the fung shi (or however you spell it) having a restriction against sitting facing a particular direction, or that they must face a particular direction. Dietary requirements might also be good, like being vegetarian, though that doesn't mean much in SR. Perhaps the opposite, being required to eat real meat (like maybe chicken or pork) at least once a day.

Just some thoughts.

One geas I always loved came from the movie Leon - The Professional. At least I interpreted it as a fun, creative geas. It was basically a combination of a Talisman and Condition Geas. The condition was that as long as his plant was alive and healthy, the geas was fulfilled. You could easily take that idea and convert it to your theme by replacing the plant with a bonsai tree or whatever the Chinese equivalence is. Maybe even a cricket in a clay jar (not sure if there's a specific term for that), or anything else along that idea.