THE SPIRIT GUIDE Jerry Stratton ([j--r--y] at [teetot.acusd.edu]) >>>[The following spirits are best introduced as part of an adventure: the enemy will have them, and if the runners play their cards right, they'll discover the means of summoning them.]<<< -- Jerry [01:55:06/08-31-92] SPIRIT TYPES There are three classes of spirits: Individual spirits, Major spirits, and Minor spirits. A conjurer can have a number of Major spirits bound equal to the conjurer's Charisma. The conjurer can also have a number of Minor spirits bound equal to the conjurer's Charisma. Minor spirits do not count against the charisma limit for Major spirits, and vice versa. Individual spirits can be bound in any number, but individual spirits are usually independent and tough to control. THE SPIRIT TYPES Major Spirits: Nature Spirits, Elementals, Advisors, Parasites, Ghosts Minor Spirits: Watchers SUMMONING CREATURES Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law One of the things shamans and mages seemed to do in legend is summon animals and possess humans. Summoned animals always seemed hardier and more intelligent than the average animal, able to perform small services on request of the summoner. It turns out that something like this is possible. The shaman/mage conjures a special spirit (we're calling it a Parasite, but other suggestions are welcome) which takes over the host. CONJURING THE PARASITE The conjurer can bind a number of Parasite groups equal to Charisma. Parasites are major spirits, and these do count against the number of Elementals/Nature Spirits the conjurer can have bound. The conjurer chooses the force of the Parasite and the target. The target can be general or specific. A general target is simply a species, and a member of the target species must be within Magic kilometers. A specific target is a specific creature, which must be visible (physically or astrally sighted) and within Magic times 10 meters. The conjurer makes a Conjuring test vs. the Parasite's force. The first success brings one Parasite for one day. Extra successes can increase the number of days the Parasite is bound or increase the number of Parasites. Multiple Parasites conjured in one conjuring test only count as one spirit vs. the Charisma limit. If the conjurer spends force Karma Points now, the Parasites are bound for weeks instead of days. The ritual requires a conjuring library with a rating at least equal to the force of the Parasite. It takes 1 action per force rating of the Parasite summoned (and initiative is rolled with intelligence, as astral initiative). Summoning materials cost 1,000 Nuyen per force. INITIAL DRAIN Initial drain is vs. (Force)S(number summoned). If force is less than or equal to half Charisma, the drain is only (Force)M(number summoned). If force is greater than Charisma, the drain is (Force)S(number summoned)/Physical. If force is greater than twice Charisma, drain is (Force)D(number summoned)/ Physical. If the conjurer falls unconscious, the Parasite is uncontrolled, and can inhabit whatever body it desires (the conjurer is a good bet, though, since no fight is required to inhabit an unconscious body). TAKING POSSESSION Once conjured, the Parasite must take over the target. The target (either a general species or a specific creature) must be specified during conjuring. The Parasite's astral reaction is twice its force, and its Intelligence, Willpower, and Charisma are equal to its force. It gets the automatic 5 for initiative, as is usual for spirits. If the target is unconscious, no fight is necessary (although it might want to be careful not to wake the target up -- then it will have to fight to keep possession). If the target is conscious, the Parasite's force is pitted against the target's Charisma, with Conjuring (Spiritfighting) added in as a pool (refreshed each action, as usual). The number of successes of the winner (beyond the number of successes of the loser) reduce the spirit's Force (or the target's Charisma). When charisma is reduced to zero, the spirit has taken control. If the spirit's force is reduced to zero, the spirit is killed. Force or Charisma return at 1 point, at the following rate: divide 60 minutes by the number of successes on a willpower test vs. the number of points lost. If no successes are rolled, the time is 2 hours. Note that the spirit's willpower, intelligence, charisma, and reaction change when its force is temporarily reduced. >>>[I've heard of variations on this ritual that will call Parasites into inanimate objects, such as cars, tractors, telephones, or toasters. The two rumors I've heard are that toxic shamans are the only ones that can do it, and they do it just like normal shamans call Parasites into an animal; and that any mage can do it, but it requires a very arcane ritual involving human sacrifice.]<<< -- Dweomer [07:19:04/09-01-52] >>>[In either case, the Parasite fights the item's Body, instead of Charisma, although the item's Body doesn't really go down (it just does for purposes of determining how hard it is for the Parasite to take control). Once the Parasite wins, it has full control over the item, and can use it in whatever manner it was meant to be used. When the Parasite leaves the item, the item must make an Armor+Body test vs. the Force of the Parasite that left. Each success brings the damage the item takes down from Deadly. For the arcane mage ritual, the sacrifice must be a creature with Willpower at least equal to the Force of the Parasite being summoned.]<<< -- Jerry [07:20:41/09-01-92] TARGET NUMBER MODIFIERS AND DICE The body's current controller gets a bonus of 1 to the target numbers. If the spirit is currently being summoned for a general summoning, the spirit has a bonus of 1 to its target numbers. If the spirit is being summoned for a specific target sighted astrally, the spirit has a penalty of 1 to its target numbers. If the conjurer is a shaman, summoning its totem animal, the spirit has a bonus of 2 dice for taking over that type of animal. If the target has no charisma (most unintelligent animals), the target gets a 'fake' charisma of 1, with a penalty of 1 to the target numbers. If the body's owner is intelligent, the owner gains a bonus of 1 to all target numbers. Shamans gain a bonus of two dice to summon their totem animal. GIVING UP The conjurer can give up before the Parasite has taken control. If this happens, the conjurer must immediately make the second drain test as described below, and the Parasite is free. The same occurs (drain test is required, spirit goes free) if the conjurer is rendered unconscious. FINAL DRAIN TEST Once the Parasite has taken control, a second drain test must be made, vs. (Force)D(Turns), where Turns is the number of turns it took the spirit to take over the target. This is always stun. If the conjurer falls unconscious now, the Parasite is still bound, but uncontrolled, until the conjurer awakens. The Parasite is controlled as long as the conjurer is conscious and can see the creature (or the Parasite is within Magic times Conjuring meters). If the Parasite is outside of that range, the Conjurer can still call it back. It'll come back as fast as it can, given its body. IN CONTROL Once the Parasite has taken control, the conjurer can empathically communicate with it, and must do so to tell the creature its desires. The conjurer cannot order the Parasite to leave the host body. If the host body dies, roll d6: if this is greater than the Parasite's force, the Parasite dies as well. Re- roll sixes as normal. If the Parasite lives, it is uncontrolled. When the time is up, a controlled Parasite leaves, unless a 2d6 roll comes up less than the Parasite's force. A free Parasite is able to leave hosts at will. Intelligent hosts will often continue to try and push the spirit out every time they regain consciousness (they awaken or their charisma/willpower goes to normal). The host gains the target number bonus for being the body's owner, but not for being the person in control. A Parasite that is already in control of the body can, if desired, give up control without leaving the body; a mundane is unlikely to know it is still there, although it can be banished as normal. A Parasite that is free can also decide to leave the host body on any action. If the Parasite is bound, it cannot leave unless freed by the conjurer. Parasites can add up to Force to any of the host's physical attributes (Body, Strength, or Quickness). A Parasite of Force 6 could add 6 points to any one, 2 points to all, 3 points to Quickness and Strength, 2 points to Body, 1 point to Strength, and 3 points to Quickness, or any combination that adds to 6. The Parasite can change the combination on any of its actions, and still be able to act. If a Parasite is controlled by someone else, it cannot do this on its own -- it can only be told to do it by the controller, on the controller's action. FIGHTING AND BANISHING Someone with conjuring who is being taken over can divide conjuring dice up between banishing and fighting the takeover attempt, if desired. FOCI Spirit Foci can be made for Parasites. These foci must be limited to a type of animal (rabbits, humans, elves, etc.). EXAMPLES Abby the Action Mage attempts to summon a rabbit. Rabbits do not have a charisma, so she figures a Force 2 Parasite should be all she needs. She pulls out her 2,000 Nuyen of rabbit feed (rabbit caviar) and starts summoning. It's a force 2, so it takes her 2 actions (which ends up being two turns, Abby doesn't roll above 10 on her intelligence initiative roll) to conjure the Parasite. Abby has a conjuring of 5 and a charisma of 5. She puts 3 dice of her conjuring to the conjuring test, and saves the other 2 for drain. The rolls 3 dice vs. the force of 2, getting 1 success (5,1,1). Then, she makes her initial drain test, vs. 2M1. Her charisma is 5; she saves her 2 dice until the second drain test, so only rolls 5 dice, getting 5 successes (11,4,4,2,2), taking no drain. Now, the Parasite is conjured. It finds a nearby rabbit. If there were no rabbit nearby, the Parasite would have simply left at this point. The referee rules that there is a rabbit within 6 (Abby's Magic) times 5 (her Conjuring), or 30, kilometers. In fact, he rules that there's one about 500 meters away (the Parasite always takes the nearest possible target). Rabbits have a fake charisma of 1, so the Parasite rolls 2 dice against 2 (the lowest possible target number in Shadowrun). The rabbit, meanwhile, rolls 1 die against 2 (Parasite's force minus 1, but 2 is the lowest possible target). The Parasite has a bonus of 1 (because this is a general summoning), but this doesn't matter since the lowest possible target number is 2. The Parasite gets 2 successes (2,2). The rabbit gets no successes (1). The rabbit's fake charisma is reduced to 0, and the Parasite has taken control. It took 1 turn to take control, so Abby's final drain is 2D1. She rolls her charisma plus the two dice she saved and takes no drain (7,5,4,4,4,3,1). She has the rabbit for 1 day. The rabbit has an intelligence, wisdom, and charisma of 2 (the Parasite's force), and the Parasite can add 2 to any of the rabbit's physical attributes. JOHN WALKING DICE John Walking Dice is a Bear Shaman. He's on a run against Exxon (yay!) in the Arctic, and decides to summon a bear or two. He conjures a Force 1 Parasite, using 1,000 Nuyen of materials and 1 action. John has a Conjuring of 4 and a Charisma of 6. Bears are his totem, so he has 6 dice for conjuring. He uses 4 of his Conjuring dice for conjuring, saving two dice for drain. He rolls 3 successes (4,3,3,1) and decides to summon three bears, for one day. He makes his initial drain test vs. 2M3, taking Light drain (7,4,3,3,2,2). He saved two dice for the final drain test. The referee rules that there are 3 bears within 24 kilometers (John's Magic of 6, times Conjuring 4). Like most animals, the bears have no charisma, so a fake charisma of 1 (at -1 target numbers) is used. There is virtually no chance that the Parasites will lose. Their target number is 2, and they roll three dice (Force of 1, plus 2 dice because bears are John's totem). As long as they each get at least 2 successes, the bears don't stand a chance. Their rolls are (11,4,3), (9,4,4), and (2,1,1). So, the last Parasite's bear might hold out -- the Parasite only got one success. The bear rolls 1 die vs. 2, getting a success (3). Next turn, the Parasite rolls (4,3,3), an automatic success. Now, John makes his final drain test, vs. 2D2. The staging is 2 because it took the last Parasite 2 turns to take over its bear. John has a penalty of 1 for light stun damage, so his target is 3. He rolls 3 successes (10,7,4,2,2,2,1,1), enough to bring the damage down to Serious, so he takes Serious stun damage. But he's got three bears in his control, for one day. Not a bad trade. He'll be rested up fairly soon. MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL Crystal Balls and Magic Pools An Advisor is an information spirit. Shamans must have a body of clear water in order to cast this spell (an ocean, lake, or non- toxic puddle will work fine). It doesn't matter what the shaman's totem is, water is still important (if the shaman is a toxic shaman of a type that water isn't important to it, that shaman cannot summon an advisor at all, even with water). Hermetic mages must use glass or crystal (not plastic) to summon an advisor. A crystal ball, a true glass windowpane (or old-style television screen), or a glass mirror will all work. SUMMONING AN ADVISOR The conjurer's target number is the force of the advisor. The number of successes is the number of services that advisor can give. The only service an advisor gives is answering a question. It takes a conjuring library of rating at least equal to the force of the advisor, and summoning materials worth force times 2,500 Nuyen. The summoning process takes force times 5 minutes. DRAIN Normal drain is (Force)L2. If the force is greater than the conjurer's charisma, drain is (Force)M2, and if the force is greater than twice the conjurer's charisma, drain is (Force)S2. If the advisor is uncontrolled, it will generally leave (it may stay for a while and cause trouble for the conjurer, but it can still only manifest as a face in the specified reflector (water or crystal). Roll 2d6. If this is greater than the advisor's Force, it leaves immediately. Otherwise, it stays and causes trouble for as long as the referee wants it to (unless it is banished). ASKING IT QUESTIONS The advisor will attempt to answer all questions that are verbalized within earshot of the reflector. The advisor understands the native tongue of its conjurer (and any tongue that the conjurer knows as well as that tongue). Most wizards thus require that everybody else leave the room when they speak with an advisor. Some hired mages will simply inform the customer that they must not ask any questions, and when they invariably do, it simply means less work for the mage (for the same amount of money). The referee will need to determine the target number for the information desired, based on how common the knowledge is. Some knowledge may be simply impossible -- advisors, like other spirits, are unlikely to be able to penetrate the astral barrier surrounding the earth, and even if they do, will probably be dissipated in the void beyond it (see the First Annual Neo- Anarchists Guide to Everything Else). It takes a number of days equal to the Target Number of the information, for the advisor to return (modified by 2d6-7, times 5%, if the referee desires). This can be changed from days to hours, if the conjurer gives up force karma to the advisor. The advisor rolls a number of dice equal to its force, to determine how well it does. If no successes are rolled, the advisor did not find the answer. Roll 2d6. If this is less than the advisor's Force minus the conjurer's Charisma, the advisor will make up an answer. The conjurer can cause the advisor to hurry by diverting dice from the answer to the time -- the target number is the same, but add the successes from the 'hurry' roll to 1, and divide the base time by this. If a conjurer has a Force 5 advisor, and uses 2 dice to hurry, for a question that has a target number of 3, the advisor will roll 3 dice for the answer, and 2 dice to hurry. The advisor gets 2 successes on the answer (4,3,1) and 1 success on hurrying (7,2), so the advisor takes 3/2, or 1.5 days to return with the answer. In some cases, the advisor will need clarification, and will return to the reflector to ask for clarification. (Incidentally, while searching for an answer, an advisor will ignore other questions unless the conjurer releases it from its current question. So the conjurer and companions don't need to be as careful here about not asking rhetorical questions.) If the conjurer (or someone else) is not there, the advisor will make a decision itself, based on its Intelligence of Force+3. If the conjurer is not there when the advisor returns with an answer, the advisor will wait 24 hours before un-manifesting. Once an advisor un-manifests, it still knows the answer, but the conjurer will need to ask it a question (using up another service) to get the answer. If the referee rules that a question is one that the advisor already knows the answer to (such as above, or 'How many questions does it have left?'), the advisor will answer immediately. Anyone can cause the advisor to manifest, simply by asking a question within earshot of the reflector. Advisors have an Intelligence of Force+3, a Willpower of Force, and a Charisma of half Force (round down, but no less than 1). FOCI Spirit Foci can be made for Advisors. Hermetic mages cannot use Shamanistic Advisor foci, and Shamans cannot use Hermetic Advisor foci. Hermetic Foci often take the form of a glass object, such as a crystal ball. WAKING TH'DEAD Summoning Ghosts in Shadowrun The Shaman/Mage can summon a number of Ghosts equal to Charisma, and this does count against the number of elementals/nature spirits that can be summoned. Which means Shamans will find this more useful than mages for long term use. TARGET NUMBER The target number for summoning is 10 minus the dead guy's essence at the moment of death (or, just before death, I suppose). Add to this depending on how long the person's been dead (see the first issue of the NAGEE for why, sort of-- the Space Barrier article), on the following table: Dead Up To... Penalty to TN 3 hrs 0 6 hrs 1 12 hrs 2 24 hrs 3 2 days 4 4 days 5 8 days 6 16 days 7 1 month 8 2 months 9 etc. etc. There's a bonus of 3 to the target number if the dead person is being summoned back to their own relatively intact body (see below for body's physical stats). Reduce this bonus for less than intact bodies. Just a skeleton is only a bonus of 1. Anything less ain't no bonus at all. (Although particular DM's can rule that in their world, particular organs -- hearts, brains, testicles, or whatever they decide is the important organ in their system of magic constitute a bonus of 2.) TIME The summoning takes a number of hours equal to the target number. This can be reduced be diverting summoning dice to reducing time. Roll those dice vs. a target number of the Force of the spirit. Divide the time by the number of successes plus one. SHAMANIC LODGES AND MAGIC CIRCLES These give a bonus of the rating to the dice used for summoning. This bonus cannot exceed the mage/shaman's skill in Conjuring. This also requires special materials worth 1,000 Nuyen per rating. The dice can be used for summoning or for reducing drain. Reduce the ghost's Force by the rating of the lodge/circle, if the ghost ever leaves the confines of the lodge/circle. FORCE The Force of the ghost is equal to the number of successes on the roll. The ghost's intelligence, charisma, and willpower are equal to this. Those attributes cannot be greater than when the person was alive. If the person was magically active, magic is equal to that as well, and skills are also equal to that (again, not greater than they were when the person died). The summoner can decide to summon the ghost with a lesser force, in order to reduce drain. You need to summon the ghost into something. You can summon the ghost into yourself, into an item, or into a dead body. The ghost can communicate and act according to what it has been brought back into. Bringing a ghost back into a chair isn't much use. A Ouija board is, however. DRAIN The Drain Code target is Force. The wound level is medium if summoned into yourself, serious if summoned into an item, and deadly if summoned into a dead body. Drain is mental, unless the Force of the ghost is greater than the Charisma of the summoner, in which case it is physical. If you summon it into yourself, you only roll for drain after it leaves (and, fortunately, after the banishing battle if it decides to stay). The staging is half the summoning Target Number. FREEDOM When dismissed, a ghost that wants to stay a ghost can roll Force dice vs. 10 minus Essence. If successful, the ghost is still a ghost, and not dissipated into the astral barrier. The number of successes are the ghost's bonus to its initial Spirit Rating. Spirit Rating is taken to be Force for determining intelligence, skills, charisma, willpower, magic, etc. If the ghost was in the summoner, the summoner has to banish it (or relinquish use of their body). Ghosts cannot leave their initial item/body unless it is destroyed. Then they have to make another roll, Spirit Rating vs. 10 minus Essence. After this, they're free to do whatever free- wheeling ghosts do. They can inhabit other items or dead bodies, prophesy the future (not necessarily accurately -- its not an ability, they're just more believable), or gripe about discrimination against the dead. INHABITING BODIES Ghosts cannot use foci just because they're bonded by a former owner of the body they're inhabiting. They must bond it themselves. Ghosts use their own Essence (as it was when they died), not the essence of the body they're inhabiting, although their base magic cannot exceed the essence of the body they're inhabiting. Ghosts who were magi/shamans in their past life can cast spells now, assuming that they have the right fetishes, if needed. They can even summon spirits. Remember, their magic, sorcery, and conjuring are the lowest of their magic when they died, or their spirit rating. If they're inhabiting a living body, the spirit must allocate Force or Spirit Rating to Quickness. This amount reduces the magic, skills, mental attributes, etc. They cannot allocate more points to quickness than the body's actual quickness. Dead bodies have a quickness of 1, and the ghost must allocate 1 point of Force/Spirit Rating to use it. Dead bodies also lose one point of body for every deadly wound taken. This usually includes the deadly wound that killed the body in the first place, so dead bodies usually have a Body of their original minus 1. If the body a ghost is inhabiting is reduced to a Body of 0, the ghost must make a Spirit Rating test vs. 10 minus Essence, or end up dissipating. Reduce strength of dead bodies by 1 from when they were alive, and by 1 again for every 2 points of lost Body beyond the first. Dead bodies have an automatic Armor of 1 success for every point of lost Body. Against firearms, the armor is doubled. Note that Body will also be lost as the body rots, but this will be left up to the game master, depending on the climate and weather. This Body loss also increases armor and decreases Strength. Cyberwear on dead bodies will not generally work. FOCI Spirit foci can be created for summoning the dead. Different foci are used for summoning into mediums, into items, or into dead bodies. EXAMPLE Jack the Mage dies on a run. For some reason, his buddies pull his dead carcass out of the fracas as they're leaving. They realize, when they get to home base, that Jack is the only one who knew the combination to the safe -- none of the trolls could remember six numbers. Rather than doing the intelligent thing and blowing it up, they go to a woman who has claimed the ability to talk to the dead. Okay, Jan the Medium has a 6 Sorcery, and a 5 Charisma. She tells them to bring the body -- it'll be easier that way, although more expensive. Jack's Essence was 6, being a wizard type, and by the time they get him to Jan, he's been dead for over 12 hours. The target number is 10 minus essence, or 4, plus 3 for the time. Reduce it by three since they've got his body, and it's in reasonably good shape. So, Jan's target is 4. She uses 4 dice to call him back, saving 2 for the drain test. She rolls (1,2,4,5) 2 successes. His Force is 2, and her Drain is 2D2. (Force is 2, Dead Body is deadly, and half 4 is 2.) She rolls (1,1,4,4,4,4,4 - - seriously! I'm using real dice, even!) 5 successes, bringing drain down to medium. Jack's original attributes were Body 2, Quickness 3, Strength 2, Willpower 5, Charisma 5, and Intelligence 5. Now, he's got Body 1, Quickness 0, Strength 1, and Willpower, Charisma, and Intelligence 2. If he gets the presence of mind to put 1 point onto Quickness, his mental attributes are reduced to 1. Jack isn't the bundle of magely erudition he once was. His Magic and skill levels are also 1. Okay, they try to coax the information out of him. I'll let you decide whether they're successful or not. It certainly isn't fun. Then, Jan dismisses him. Well, Jack has got up the presence of mind to decide he'd like to stay, befuddled that he is. He has to roll a force test vs. 10 minus his essence; that's 2 dice vs. 4. He rolls (1,10) 1 success. His Spirit Rating is now +1, and he's free as a bird, although he still may not realize that he can move more than his mouth. His mental attributes are now 3, as are his skills (those that were 3 or above to begin with) and his Magic. If he puts 1 point onto his quickness, they all go back to 2, however. Of course, it will behoove him to up his spirit rating. He can do so in the same manner as any other spirit. Now, while Jack does have an Armor of 1, his Body and Quickness are also only 1, which makes him pretty much a sitting duck. A couple weeks down the line, Jack has increased his Spirit Rating to +3, giving him 5 for all his mental attributes and his skills (4 when using Quickness). But he gets blasted by a howitzer, and that one armor just doesn't help him. Because he's taken a Deadly Wound, his Body goes to 0. He needs to make a Spirit Rating test vs. 10 minus essence. This time it should be a snap -- 5 dice vs. a target of 4. He rolls (1,2,3,4,6) 2 successes. This time, the successes do not add to his rating, but he is free. He's basically an astral body with no where to go. SANITY When brought back from the dead, ghosts must make an Insanity test vs. a target of 10 minus their essence; a wound level of Deadly for brought back into a body, Serious for brought back into an item, and Medium for brought back into a Medium; and a staging of the modifier for time, divided by 4 (round up). Use original Willpower to make this check, but current Charisma to heal any insanity that results. In the example above, Jack would have had to make a Sanity check vs. 4D1. His Willpower was 5. He rolls (9,7,4,4,4) 5 successes, so at least he's not loopy. It's up to the game master whether or not a person who was insane when alive retains this insanity when dead. If so, this is applied as a bonus to the above sanity check.