I’m making a character for a new game and have decided on a Bacchus Shaman. I started to come up with the details and hence started thinking about the shamanic mask but drew a total blank. On thinking about it I realised that I’ve never been involved in a game with someone playing a shaman following other than an animal totem.

Thus I come here looking for suggestions as to what others think the shamanic masks would look like for the Idols. And while we’re at it what else have people come up with to fit in with an Idol shaman concept? You know, such things as what the spirits look like, fetishes, casting methodologies, lodges etc. Anything that might serve to inspire me in coming up with these sort of details for my character is welcome.

Regardless of precisely how a Bacchus shaman looks, here is some inspiration for their behavior.

In some ways the characterization is more important than the totem for designing IC descriptions. For example, Belmont, my wild huntsman shaman has a spooky, cobweb-filled, organ-music-playing lodge to fit with his evil para-creature-hunting mentality.

There is some material on Idol followers of the Neo-Classical and Norse varieties in the new SOTA64, including some roleplaying guidelines. The thing to remember is that while the player refers to it as an Idol, the character believes in the archetypical diety that it represents (in this case Bacchus, Dionysis, Pan to name just the Classical ones - others include the Celtic, Native American and the Norse). Sorting out which mythological tradition you are drawing on for the actual diety, you can find references of relevant symbolism, magic sites, rituals and instruments.

Regarding the Shamanic Mask I'm with RangerJoe views regarding IC characterization, in that it can be something evocative of the diety and possibly not necessarily visual (lightning flashing when you call down Thor's ire or the sound of a wave crashing when evoking Poseidon can be cool). Assuming you're wanting to play a follower of Bacchus/Dionysis some of the more obvious possibilities are intoxicating smells (strong perfumes or wines ), enchanting music (flute, lute and pan pipes are particularly assoicated with the Classic God) and flashes of strong hedonistic emotions (desire, enebriation, pleasure).

Regarding spirits, Neo-Classical magicians would be seeing nature spirits as nymphs, sylphs, dryads and other spirits of nature from classical mythology. In the case of a (true) male Bacchus follower scantily clad female figures such as these seem particularly appropriate.

Same for a female follower

~J

Upon further reflection, the Bacchus shaman would gain mucho classiness points for having a bathtub filled with champagne in his "lodge."

Remember that the idols are mythological archetypes, so a character with such a Totem does not necesarily have to be a neo-pagan. A Dragonslayer shaman could simply be someone with weird dreams, who fights corporate corruption and parties hard afterwards, or a Catholic who prays to Saint George, and so on. Even if you go the neo-pagan route, there is still a lot of variety. Sky Father could be Zeus or Odin, for example.

For Totem effects, they would probably resemble aspects of the Totem. For a Bacchus shaman, he might look wilder or more feral, or have a shimmering halo of moonlight around him, or have glowing leaves wreath around him, or have his eyes take on an amber light. A Bacchus shaman from the Seattle Sprawl with no knowledge of classical Greek mythology might manifest his shamanic mask much differently - a halo of glitter, a shimmering neon glow to his eyes, etc. The same thing for spirits. They could look like mythological nymphs, or like slightly unearthly club habitue'.

Thanks all, this has all provided lots in the way of inspiration for me - as well as managing to help me see why I was having trouble with the Idol shamans conceptually.

Having been away from Dumpshock (and Shadowrun) for a while its good to see that this place is still going as strong and is as helpful as ever.