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tisoz
What additional forms have you given familiars that proved useful or interesting?

What was the true form?

I was looking for some ideas that come no where near abusing the rules as the magic section author's own motorcycle ally, but that were still unique.

How about one that looks like a Great Dragon? smile.gif
wienerwürstchen
I've given my ally the shape of a lovely elven woman....
kevyn668
QUOTE
I've given my ally the shape of a lovely elven woman....


you're probably not the only one... nyahnyah.gif
Dashifen
I've always liked the idea of having the form of a huge, armored, cybered, claymore wielding troll ... just for the initmidation factor.

Think about it ... you're in combat with a group of bad-guys ™. All of a sudden, have your ally manifest as this huge troll and they're going to piss themselves. They thought they had it easy and now there's this "extra" combatant.

Course, then they call for back up and then you're fooked. So, perhaps it isn't such a great idea.

____

How about a large sign reading "don't shoot me" that hangs from your back? silly.gif

-- Dashifen --
Friggas Ring
I'd like to point real quick to an article by Steve Kenson that you can find on on his website that has a lot of interesting ideas about Ally Spirits.

Y'know what though? I've always wondered why players don't create these ally spirits with one huge form with major reach bonuses etc etc (yeah, I know it's stats have nothing to do with its form) and what's to stop me from creating an ally spirit that is as big as and looks like a great dragon? I think the final explanation why I don't is that I believe that it's size depends on its force until it's inhabiting a homunculi or something.
Sunday_Gamer
It hasn't gone down yet, but I'm working on something for my future Ally spirit...

I myself, once I have enough masking to cover a force 4 spell (rank 4) plan to get an ally spirit. Why force 4? Because I have a force 4 transform.

Being that I am a monkey shaman, my ally, Dr.Zaeus, will have 2 material forms: that of a small rhesus monkey, and that of, me.

That way I can transform into a small rhesus monkey and perch on my ally's shoulder while he plays me.

Just a thought I had, should be neat.

Sunday.
Talia Invierno
For the Phoenix shaman, currently a Force 6 initiation-ally which is for all practical intents and purposes free-willed. It has two forms: a small firebird which loves to make an Entrance, is practicing "nesting" ("you don't need that newsprint anymore? can I have it? Ooh, fire!"), and has a habit of talking back to anyone and everyone; and a "greater phoenix" mythic form which, well, (edit to finish) might suggest something like this. (No, that's not what my shaman looks like nyahnyah.gif For one thing, she's paler.)

For the Jedi-former cop, a few initiations down the road his restored and re-engined '57 Dodge is about to "come alive" (Force and specific abilities still open per continued discussion with GM and available karma).

For the security specialist mage / assassin: a Force 2 laser sight-style point of light.

The former Force 5 ally (current free spirit) of a since-deceased NPC had two forms: a competent (human) corporate secretary, and that pocket secretary we were debating before (no innate Matrix accessibility, of course!).

Edit: I fixed the link. I think. I don't actually know why it wasn't working to begin with.
Friggas Ring
QUOTE (Talia Invierno)
It has two forms: a small firebird which loves to make an Entrance and has a habit of talking back to anyone and everyone; and a "greater phoenix" form


Heh heh. Sounds like Needle from that old Conan the Barbarian cartoon.
Talia Invierno
Sorry about the belated editing - I got suddenly pulled away.
Herald of Verjigorm
biggrin.gif grinbig.gif biggrin.gif
Drain Brain
Want the Ally to appear as a troll dimensioned, sci-fi horror flick Anthroform Robot, complete with big bang bangs, and a reworked laser spell for his sorcery skill... so it can come out of his eyes.

All praise the lowly ganger who now has a pet fraggin' robot!
zephir
Some additional forms, I sure hope someone else has more:

- Fairlight Excalibur, missing it's power source (to pay gangers and "Hey, don't shoot me, I'm only the decker!")
- plant in a pot (to inconspiciously stake out offices, perhaps a man-eating-flower?)
- some piece of discarded rubbish (eg. crushed can, also for surveillance)
- cyberzombie
- corp suit
- cop
- beggar/junkie/BTL-addict
- horror
- insect spirit
- (window) cleaning drone (it could fly inconspiciously)
- kid
- your own form
- fat american tourist (male/female)
- fitting wife
- rope
- heavy pistol
- mist
- brick wall (to block LOS)
- dragon
- hot nurse
- little clown
- stuffed animal
- bird
- book
- chip
- credstick
- some unidentifiable machinery/electronics (those last to give instead of something much sought by others)
- IPE grenade
- blanket
- t-bird
- plain-clothes person
- freight-box / container
- ant
- street sam
- watcher
- camera
- briefcase
- bomb
- street cleaning drone (the speed fits)

Spells to give to my allies:
- astral static (might help to mask on the astral, can also help me combat enemy mages without materializing)
- stabilize


Before 20 people write me that form does not allow spirits to anything they can't do normally: The techological items do not work! The dragon has no dragon powers! smile.gif

I tried to work only with size and color, and in some debatably allowed cases (mist, blanket, rope) with consistency. GM's call, I guess. Would you allow it?

EDIT: Plaese porrf raed!
Demosthenes
I've always been fond of the "Spectacles or Sunglasses" form myself...
cool.gif
Crusher Bob
Curse you and your thread necromancy! You made me think that Talia was back. sarcastic.gif
fistandantilus4.0
I think it was the "Wolf and Raven" novel, some skag had an ally spirit that was a friggin' yacht!
Gilthanis
I have always wondered myself about the effects of making the spirit in the form of form fitting body armor with a facial covering. Would your PC have immunity to normal weapons? Would the spirit create a barrier rating arround you? Would the armor also provide astral armor/barrier arround you?

My GM has already ruled out any possiblilties of clothing for pure cheese factor, so just wondering what others have tried.
zephir
Gilthanis: I would not allow the spirit to armor you, because I always saw immunity to normal weapons as "is not affected much by" (bullets etc. pass through) rather than "bullets bounce back."
YMMV

EDIT: Crusher Bob: Do you think it's wise to curse a necromancer? wink.gif
tisoz
QUOTE (Crusher Bob)
Curse you and your thread necromancy! You made me think that Talia was back. sarcastic.gif

Talia has been around for quite a while, just using a new name.
Clyde
Dikoted Ares Viper Slivergun

grinbig.gif
Eyeless Blond
QUOTE (tisoz)
QUOTE (Crusher Bob @ Feb 9 2005, 09:38 AM)
Curse you and your thread necromancy!  You made me think that Talia was back.  sarcastic.gif

Talia has been around for quite a while, just using a new name.

Oh really? Does that mean that the Infiltration Challenge thread is going to just die then, or is it still in the works? Enquiring minds want to know.
kevyn668
QUOTE (Eyeless Blond)
QUOTE (tisoz @ Feb 9 2005, 03:35 PM)
QUOTE (Crusher Bob @ Feb 9 2005, 09:38 AM)
Curse you and your thread necromancy!  You made me think that Talia was back.   sarcastic.gif

Talia has been around for quite a while, just using a new name.

Oh really? Does that mean that the Infiltration Challenge thread is going to just die then, or is it still in the works? Enquiring minds want to know.

Echo that.
tisoz
She is very busy, as I understand it, running a game in Welcome to the Shadows. She mentioned getting back to the Infiltration Challenge, when I reminded her of it, saying she was sorry for leaving people hanging. I think she felt so bad about leaving it, and maybe being pressured into reviving it, that she started using the alternate moniker.

Maybe she'll see this and respond. Probably not if my name is attached to it. Maybe you should find the thread and bump it.

Drek, you've probably even talked to her and not even known it.
Eyeless Blond
Heh, wouldn't be surprised. I'm not very insightful. smile.gif
Crusher Bob
Are we really so ogreish as tht? Kyaaa, now I really do feel bad...
Xirces
QUOTE (Crusher Bob)
Are we really so ogreish as tht? Kyaaa, now I really do feel bad...

Ogrish, us? We ought to club them and eat their bones.
The Jopp
Oh my, ally spirit forms...If I ever was allowed to play that character...

1. Gigers Alien (ask it to manifest inside the vehicle you are pursuing and kiss the driver)

2. Sasquatch (same as above, but smile this time)

3. Invisible human (very useful, has hands, can manipulate things)

4. Nude human (male/female) Can wear clothes, armour, use guns (if you teach them)

5. Cat (no-one will suspect that cute little puttytat in the corner...)

6. Bird (pigeon, crow, whatever, instant recon)

7. Ford Americar (just don't let it get a parking ticket)

8. A modern public toilet (the one without windows, coin slot and all that jazz, very good if you want a quick place to hide). Yes, it's a bit bizarre but I'm sure it can be useful

9. *insert random monster here* Do you want a Beholder to scare the pants off a gang? A Balrog to stalk (insert hated individual here)

10. A dustbin

11. Parked Bicycle (and it can be used as transportation)

12. A suit of formfitting armour (yes, kinda kinky, but wait until you hae replaced someone ELSES suit...)

13. Secure Clothing (as above)

14. Underwear (can you say magical wedgie)

15. Gloves (very useful on someone who is about to shoot you and he suddenly cannot move his fingers)

16. Celebrity (pick one)

17. One of your contacts (yes, can be dangerous, but imagine the fun...)

18. One of the OTHER characters in the group (as above)

19. A copy of yourself (now you see me, and now you see me again.)

20. A tiny but cute dragon (cute shoulder dragon...)

21. Your most hated adversary (why not make that guy even more wanted...)

22. A pedestrian

23. A generic Lonestar

24. A bum

25. One of the AAA executive directors or members of the board

26. An immortal elf

27. A brick

28. An OMC computer chip (just when you need too fool someone that they have what they want)

29. A medieval suit of armour (the statue kind that just stands there looking cool)

30. A street kid

31. An emty suit of clothes (just to freak people out)

32. The Luggage

33. Facehugger

34. A Predator

35. A book

36. A computer

That's enough of my insane ideas...
zephir
Great, Jopp, I like the nude, glove and hated adversary a lot. The president would be cool, too.
The Luggage is a reference to Pratchett, I guess?
Talia Invierno
For the most part tisoz is accurate.

I'd been looking for an outlet, my real-life group had fallen apart even before I'd have fallen out of it (Link - updating that one next), and I ran across Living in the Shadows. I asked if I could create a PC for it. WinterRat agreed. Later, he asked me to GM, and I said I couldn't then, and wouldn't touch GMing a run in any case. (You all know why.)

Since then I reconsidered. Turned out to be one of the best choices I ever made: my fellow GMs ended up keeping me anchored, and I had a supportive outlet that forced me to something resembling coherence -- something that could build despite my apparent complete inability to process rules, or indeed anything beyond story structure.

It took me maybe two weeks after I'd first rejected WinterRat's offer to realise that if WinterRat didn't get some help then, there was going to be no more Living in the Shadows. So I agreed to fill in a plothole for his character, the one he was entangled with, and one other, with the understanding that fully half the GMing was nothing more than story-spinning. That, at least, is something that comes to me even when I'm beyond exhausted and am seeing things crawling up the walls (yesterday, incidentally). Actual rules apparently don't. Remember what I said about not being able to process rules? Here's a typical example. I was lucky: everyone was really nice about that, but that's not the kind of thing I'd trust myself with when there's no ability to check up on me, not after that. Even before that, more than half the time I was doing nothing more than answering questions, with the two of them doing a good 90% of the writing; and after that, they were doing all the number crunching until -- well, now.

So I'm not running LitS. I couldn't. I can't. I won't ever do a run in that universe: the Infiltration Challenge has already grown almost beyond what I can handle in that respect. I continue to be in awe of the administrative abilities of those coordinating everything. I'm the background webmaster, because html's easy for me and because translating out individual stories from a thread format doesn't require frontal lobe action and because it's something I can do without requiring a lot of thinking. And I stick to my little corner of the universe with the three PCs I'm sheepdogging through their storylines, and somehow I've been talked into a fourth.

When I was posting there, I used a different name for two reasons:

(1) How do you explain that you can always spin a story and stay coherent and consistent (although I slipped once or twice even there), regardless of whether other cognitive aspects are functioning at all?

(2) Reduction in confusion for other players. The character I asked to play was not a new one at all, but a very, very old one which had never gotten properly played. In fact, it is the one behind *this* username.

I'd been trying to get back to the Infiltration Challenge for a couple of weeks now, basically since the beginning of February, even before tisoz drew my attention to this thread (its resolution is backstory for the LitS thread), but I thought I had better give you something more substantial, this time, than a "will post this Sunday". I owe you that. But when I tried to access the thread on the previous forum, it seems to be gone. Anyone know what's up with that? If it's gone for good, I suppose I can try to work with what we've got, but we had some major information in the previous thread too.

Sorry it took so long to answer here. I was told the thread, but not given the link, and I kept not having the time to hunt it down. But today I had time for more than one post in LitS ... which meant I had the time to find and answer here as well; and after this, in one more thread. But it will be a while before I am even back to daily blog writing.

Anyway, for what it's worth, that's the story, some of the rest is in the profile link, and some of the rest has spilled out on various and sundry co-LitS GMs, mostly when I'm explaining why I'm a month behind in answering about a proposed PC and only managed to get that e-mail out on the very day that player began posting. (Much self-cursing ensued -- I'd just finished the e-mail, finally -- and then I got to Dumpshock.)

And I absolutely guarantee that I haven't talked with any of you under a different name -- which you'll know for a fact, once you follow the link.
Cynic project
Well, I have had an ally with the forms of, hot chick, ring, cat, copy of my character, high tech plank.
kevyn668
High tech plank?

Good to see you again, Talia. smile.gif
DocMortand
So far my group has had spirits materialize in some wierd forms - I personally have had free spirits materialize as an urchin and a scientist, but the one form the player chose was the Master from Japan's Iron Chef ( the dramatic guy who bites a Yellow Pepper and smiles through the tears...)
Talia Invierno
Thanks, kevyn668 smile.gif
zephir
"big-ass mirror" (to achieve LOS), thanks to Fortune
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