Archetypes

[Steve]

[Steve]

[Tesla]

Ok, now that all the Headers, Speciaizations, and Races are posted, It's question time

The Shaman Skill "Spirit Talker" allows a person to "Speak with Spirit." The skill description makes it very clear that these are not Shades of the dead.
The Changeling skill "Whispers in the Air" allows that person to "Speak with Spirit".
The Psychic/Esper skill "Medium" allows the person to "Speak to Shade."

1)I just want to be clear that the Shaman Skill and the Changeling skill are for Spirits and only the Esper skill lets you speak with shades? Dead PC's , "The Ridden PC's in shade form and possibly dead NPC's
(I already made an assumption once when the Shaman header was first posted, and boy was I wrong)

2) The Ridden' "Ghost in the Shell" skill says that they must call no effect to all effect that do not include "to Shade" or "to Spirit" or "to Unseen." That makes Shade and Spirit seem similar, but not exactly the same?

3) Then that would make "Spirits'" more like nature spirits, home and hearth spirits, fey spirits, elementals, etc, correct?


Reason I ask, is my character concept has a taste of "The Sixth Sense" and "Night at the Museum". My character would be able to see either ghosts or spirits. Raised on a university campus, he grew up learning from the ghost of ancient Mayas that still hung around their burial remains. He had conversations with Lincoln through artifacts of his at the University. As a young child, he ran and played with dinosaurs and tigers only he could see from the natural history exhibits Long dead deans and teachers would tutor him in their timeless boredom (Also a touch of Harry Potter and the History Teacher at Hogwort's)

Would that mean I should have a skill in "Speak with Spirit" or the skill "Speak with Shade", which one makes more sense in this world?

[liahgeron]

So backtracking a bit as I've been lurking without posting:

General:
1. So, as it’s not explicitly stated for OR, are you considered to have the “hand free” for the situation of casting with claw(s) in hand? The particular situation I’m thinking of is the Imbues that give you a stack of packets to throw and being able to keep throwing if you have a claw in your other hand. You have to tuck one anyway to throw a packet, but can you have the other one still ready and waiting? It’s not explicit in the 5.3 rules what happens, so I wanted to ask your view on it.

2. Do you intend for packet disarms to work on guns? It’s another one of those things not specified in the 5.3 rules. Shields require a “Disarm Shield,” hence my question.

3. Is “bleeding” meant to be a new status effect? It’s mentioned under diagnose and Wrap Star and I was trying to determine if it’s meant to be an improved stabilize or not.

4. Do the Imbue shields from Wizard and Bound stack? Ie, can you have both active and shield the first 2 ranged effects that strike you, spend 4 minutes meditating and do it all again?

5. Is "by Hex" meant to work like in 7v or is it just a delivery trait?

Bound-
1. Are they required to follow orders of their keeper? Is it more of a "letter of the law" sort of thing? Or is it left up to the PC how they'd like to play it?

2. Are Bound meant to have bindings undone in the middle of a fight? Or is it more expected for their Keepers to know enough about a battle in advance to predict if they need it? Or are they just meant to go around partially unsealed at all times? And is the full Unbound meant to be a perm condition if they don’t rebind you?

3. If it's the former, can the keeper's get an option to "fast unlock" the bindings in exchange for a stat expenditure? 5 minutes can be hard to manage in a fight tough enough to need an Unbound. 2 Minutes might be easier to manage uninterrupted and allow for a more dramatic moment in a fight. I understand costuming elements are required, but I'm sure a crafty Bound-PC can have the individual pieces ready for a fast change on the field (contacts behind glasses, hand prosthetics on a glove, wings folded under a cloak, etc). I"m fine with the rebinding to take the full 5 (or longer, though that gets difficult), but it seems anticlimactic to have a demon offer to "Take care of it" then having to go back to a cabin to spend 5 minutes unbinding plus more time for changing while the situation they are supposed to take care of either resolves or even wanders away.

4. Are Bound expected to go around primarily with all 3 of their seals up at all times? If so, the linear stat increase seems a bit harsh. Also a bit strange given the power jump between 2 and 3 seals undone.

Maybe have no increase for just 1 seal undone (just the drain+increased reset penalty (15 minutes total plus rebinding rituals, which makes midfight refreshes next to impossible and can make it hard to take part in modules) which I do challenge would be sufficient if you are expecting to have regular access to at least some of your demon abilities during the course of game, such as the resettable spells or claws which seem crucial for the whole "bodyguard" function they seem to be used for in many settings), the 2 stat increase for 2 seals (which I could see as being reasonable for needing in a big fight once an event), and 5 for the full Unbound, which I imagine you intend to only break out once anyway as the risk seems to be perming when your former Keeper and Friends can't put you down for rebinding after a major battle. Maybe instead make the increase only on Bound abilities rather than all?

5. Are Fury's effects meant only to be for the full Unbound? It's a little off for me to see all of its effects as something you just buy for your last stand. The damage increase I can see, the weapon style a little less so as Shaman and Protean can get double long also. Plus, it would be a little strange to keep a second long claw around at all times just in case. The Arcane for only your last stand is nice, but as there is enough on Bound for someone to focus on it as their character (and might be particularly appropriate to do so as a bound demon), it might be nice to break that off and make it accessible when you're not fully unbound (at a higher cost to bring it inline with the Psychics perhaps) as they are already paying stats to use Fury with the increase to stat cost for having 3 seals off.

6. As to Keepers, are they meant to be established by the Bound or the former Keeper? Is it an actual change to their contract, or it is a “obey this guy for awhile” command? This is mostly a thematic question on how contracts are meant to work.


Strain 117

1. In the cases where multiple Xenos respond, how much choice do they have in pairing off to battle? Is it an immediate free for all? Must a latecomer jump into a duel midfight having identified the other two participants as Xenos by their combat?

2. Is there a rule of thumb on “appropriate” challenge fights? Namely, I suspect they’re supposed to duel with swords? Are Guns considered gauche? Or do we just not care?

3. If you die and aren’t revived, “Speak to Shade” won’t work, but will “Speak to Spirit?”

[Mike Natale]

I asked most of those strain 117 questions earlier in this thread.

There is no pairing off to battle, if you hear the challenge and you don't spend sanity you're essentially frenzied against the other xenos no mater how many or who they are. If you didn't hear the sense and challenge you're not required to do anything. In theory you can challenge another known xenos without using the sense skill. You can stumble upon one you know is dead and just cut his head off but that might have other consequences. There is no real structure to the challenges. I'm sure if there were multiple xenos in game they could come to some sort of agreement once they knew whom they all were.

While it's inspired by highlander it's not highlander. If i'm part of a challenge and i'm a heavy weapons specialist you better believe i'm bringing a giant gun to that fight.

[Wolfman2006]

I am not staff and therefore can't speak for them. That said as one of the Future Bound I thought I might lay a few of my own insights to a few of your points.

I think that unbinding is not meant to be a mid fight activity. I am sure staff will give us warning before some big fights (like most larps), in which any Keepers who want to take a binding off of their Bound will have their opportunity. As for me? That the 5 minute ritual requirement to do the unbinding will be very necessary time wise just to get my Demonic costuming on lol . I don't know about what kind of costuming or phys reps you were thinking of, but there is NO way I could fit even my single binding removed costuming under my normal costume.

I am very sure that it will be a bad idea to go around partially unbound all the time... nearly ever race the costuming differences are subtle, they are discrete. Except for maybe Cyborgs none of them would stand out in a crowd as not human. I am sure that it will be a bad idea for any race to be noticeably not human and stand out to the "general public".

And yeah I read being completely unbound and not Re-bound as a Perm condition too... Do I escape back to Hell? Am I a free willed demon loose in the world? Regardless I am pretty sure it translates to no longer a playable character.

[liahgeron]

I was mostly wondering about the "wander in" xenon if that wasn't clear, but yea, that would make sense. And the gun question was more for RP than in practice. Just as "unknown consequences" would occur if you started spiking folks without the challenge, would the same occur if you started sniping off folks rather than fighting them straight out, something very much possible at the start of game with a heavy weapon.

As for the Bound stuff, I was thinking it more dramatic for Bound to make an offer in a fight that is going badly rather than having to predict the strength of a foe vs town strength beforehand, hence my question. I think a number of the costuming suggestions are quick to put on depending on how you do them, particularly for opening just 1 seal. For example, red contacts behind shades you never take off. Or a red glove with glow in the dark runes down the side and nails, scales and other details glued on that you store in a pouch to pull on or even under other gloves. For wings, I was thinking cloth wings running from the back to the fingers normally bound up under a cloak or other covering, possibly with EL wire stitched along the edges for added dramatic effect. Requires more prep time and staying prepped for a situation by potentially doing things like shades at night, long gloves and cloak in summer, but some might want that dramatic moment and I was wondering if it could be made possible.

I like the idea of being able to taunt your keeper with the "I can fix it" so that they might actually make the split decision to do it, rather than having time to reconsider during a 5 minute ritual. The level of tension for freeing the demon is higher, making the relationship between keeper and demon more interesting. This is again, more for the last seal and providing that dramatic moment of "do I or don't I" without getting the chance to second guess and shut it down. Does this make sense?

[Wolfman2006]

Actually yes, your logic is very sound. I also like the idea of the mid fight temptation, when all seems lost dare I free the demon? Accept the raw power of his help and risk the consiquences to boot? It does make for a very interesting and appealing idea. That said I wonder about the practicality of the ideas, its something to consider either way.

Partially it is dependent on how extensive the costuming is, the ideas you gave are all great for very small scale or subtle changes. Makes it irrelevant for me, as all of my Demon costuming is large/bulky/complex, and therefore not easily concealable (I am talking large wings/tail/un-concealable clothing/large arm prosthetics and the like), therefore I will need to go get my costuming and will likely need help putting it on properly.

[Madrigus]

I think an unbound demon is going to hell to grab a few buddies of his and come back and kick the everloving shitake shrooms outta the puny mortal that thought they could keep the demon under their control, rather than a perm.

After thinking it over, i think that the way the Bound have been balanced makes it better than other things that could be done.

I think Fury is wonderful BECAUSE it's for a fully unbound. And you know it's for the fully unbound since it's a Torquis skill. But since i'm play a mage, when I go full demon, I'm popping five packets for 6 damage and as much fire as I can spend as 8 damage packets. That's why it's for fully unbound.

I am wondering, however, the difference between Spirits and Shades.

[Aaron]

Like any good PC, I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.