Just finished running a game where one of my players has a voodoun. Now everythings going fine, players summons a force 8 great form Loa . Now, by the book, at this point, the player basically hands the character sheet to the GM, and the GM runs the character for the duration of the - whatever.

Well, we tried it that way, and it sucked. Talk about as bored ass player. So what we'replanning on doing next game (assuming this comes up again) is to have me (the GM) dictate the players actions, and have the player roll. And I guess if the Loa is stil in charge during any roleplaying, the Loa (aka me) would do that .

Just looking for other opinions on how to do this.

You could have the player Role-play the Loa, and if he deviates too much from how the Loa (in your opinion and based on info from the books) would act in a situation, you can give him a little heads up/remind him of the Loa's personality.

The only reason that I haven't done this is that , at least he way I see it, the Loa, even in a combat situation, would have different goals than the player. Good example, the player summoned Baron Samedi (she's Petro, but more Petro as in border line like it actually is, than perto=toxic like in SR) to defend herslef from the Star. She didn't really want t okill anyone. The good Baron decided that didn't really matter though, and started throwing out Slay Human. Then when another player was in trouble, and he could have easily hepled, went on his merry -killing - spree -way.

Get her Channeling quick. That or zombies, everyone loves zombies.

Mind you, you don't /have/ to have the loa spirit possess something, it can still perform services and use its powers on the astral plane. If you do need it to possess someone, I suggest having a serviteur handy. But yeah, the possee basically lets the GM play.

No it doesn't. A loa-possessed hougan is still under the player's control, it's just expected that the player will roleplay the character properly. You're basically just playing a materialized loa now instead of the hougan who, for the duration of the possession, is effectively non-existant.

God, I love that hand.... *evil cackle* Here's my other other question: (kind of a newbie question, but, eh..) Can I have my loa possess someone else, like another member of the group? If yes, what do they get to resist it with?

Assuming it's not a restricted version of possession (I don't remember and am not about to look it up), they'd need to be dual natured at the time and lose an astral combat with the spirit. The other option is to trick them into becoming willing serviteurs so the non-astral ones can be possessed.

Well, I can see Doc Funk's point in this. The zombie hand is a bit weird. If you ever manage to gain a sidekick/convert among the group, they can pay the karma and you can put them through an initiation-like ritual for them to become a serviteur, which means the spirit can then possess them.

The hand rules!

Especially since it is 'dual', and we still use grounding rules

Although I don't have my old books handy, I think I remember 2nd edition voodoo types getting channeling free (before it was a metamagic) just so they could be in charge when the Loa is called on. That tends to imply that the Loa shouldn't complain any significant degree when (gasp) told what to do by a human. Abusing a spirit may result in loss of abilities, but just demanding that you stay behind the neurons during the fuse of abilities would only cause such loss if channeling had some text about being despised by all totems, idols, loa and spirits.

interesting ideas..... kinda depends on how self important you make the Loa I guess. I may say that it can't be done, simply because I like the flavor of it. We'll see

I would like to point out that a well-built voodoun is extremely nasty. Why? Initiate at least once. Create a high-force zombie. Lock it in a well-built and warded room. Render yourself unconsious throught the method of your choice. DMSO+ GammaScopaline or beating your head against a handy wall are good. When you wake up, the zombie will either be free or turned to dust. If dust, make another zombie and try again. If free, go on astral quest to learn its true name. Bind it. If you're lucky, it has the Hide Life power. If not, you've got a powerful servitor and get to try again. Repeat until you get a grande zombie w/ Hide Life. As a newly freed spirit, it has 1 Spirit Energy. You probably made ot w/ 5 or 6 Force, so when you order it to hide its life in you, you get +6 or 7 to all of you physical attributes. You then summon a high force loa to possess you, and go to town with a dikoted combat axe or polearm.

Okay, great forms posses the use for however the loa wants to. I have a great form loa in a character from I think 27 days. In that time, there were I think 6 large fights, two dealing with vampires, one had heavily armed drones... Well, there is a lot of things a man can live threw with basically 16 points harden armour and a body of 15.