Those are my findings too. Many forget that a good proportion of people who
play aren't holding the esoteric gloranthan knowledge that doesn't even
serve *us* when it comes to these areas.
I'm running a scenario set in prax for praxian heroes and I asked the
players to come up with taboos for their spirits. Three out of 4 are
experienced gloranthaphiles and *none* of the 4 knew could come up with the
goods.
-----Original Message-----
From: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
[mailto:WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen McGinness
Sent: 02 June 2008 10:02
To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re:Spirits
Thank you.
I may simply have to start here myself. I find players more willing to do
stuff when they can work a list to begin with and then branch out for
themselves when they decide that they like the system and want something
other than the vanilla they've been working with.
It's good to have a toolkit of some kind to help them on their way.
Stephen
wrote:
>
> > OK. One of the things that distinguishes animists from other kinds
> > of magic using people are the strange things that they do, wear and
> > say.
>
> Well, they aren't strange to them. They might not even have been
> strange to medieval European peasants let alone American Indians,
> Afro-Caribbeans, or any other RW animists that you can might know
> about.
>
> > So. Anyone got any classic spirit likes/dislikes that they have used
> > with animist adventurers?
>
> Simple place to start:
> Spirits are analogs of RW objects. Some are animal spirits like
> mundane animals, some plant spirits like mundane plants, some rock
> spirits, etc. There are spirits that are not analogs, but they
tend to
> be too difficult for non-shamans to handle (and tend to be labeled
> "hostile" or "enemy" because of the difficulty involved).
>
> Animal spirits will like and dislike what the RW animal would like
if
> it could talk. Frex, rabbit spirits will not like it if you also
deal
> with wolf spirits, frog spirits like occasional offerings of
insects,
> etc.
>
> Rock spirits might insist that you include a small shard in their
> fetish (eg, as eyes, so they can see beyond their own locale). Sea
> spirits might like offerings of rum or singing chanties (or Jimmy
> Buffett), etc.
>
> Plant spirits might want the spiritist to cultivate a small patch of
> their particular type of plant, or include sprig in their charms, or
> drink an infusion made from the plant before contacting it.
>
> The trick for you as Narrator will be to see that the spirit types
> offer certain "spells" appropriate to their type, rather than
certain
> "spells" can be available, and you attach weird taboos to them for
cool
> gaming. The next trick will be to teach your spiritist-playing
players
> to think the same way, and ideally start giving you the spirit and
its
> spells and its rituals all in the same package.
>
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