Re: The Might of Fetches.

From: Henrix <henrix_at_...>
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 01:48:26 +0200

> Julian Lord wrote:
> > A shaman's magic comes from his Spirit Allies, not from himself.
> > (I *wish* this had been explicitely mentioned in the rules)
>

On Wed, 07 Jun 2000, KYER, JEFFREY wrote:
> But the might of a shamen's fetch DOES come within himself.

Well, HW is very unclear on this point. The idea seems to be that some traditions think that the fetch is a part of the shaman, while others think it is a separate entity. I think that is good, as it decreases the uniformity of animism.
It is even hinted that a fetch may have it's own physical body, or anyhow that is how I interprete the following (p.208): "It may be able to aid him in the mundan plane as well, depending on what, exactly, it is."

However, I think that the rule that the fetch's might is dependent on the best of the shaman's abilities is good fun, and besides, it says so in the rules*. I am not really interested in how I should do it, I can probably wing it, if it comes to that. New players/narrators (which I hope there will be many of) will sometimes want to make shaman characters. I would like there to be some useful guidance.

Jonas Schi�tt wrote:
>A compromise is to give it might equal to the shamans
>best mundane or magical ability. This would exclude relationships and
>personality traits.

As well as flaws and wealth. But it would still, possibly, include talents, described in the glossary as: "A magical abilitiy provided by a spirit...." Otherwise this would probably be the most reasonable interpretation, while conserving some of the fun.

• I am sometimes active on another list, the GZG-list, dedicated to minature SF games, like Full Thrust, produced by Ground Zero Games. The canon there is that first you produce the rule, the fun/exciting effect you want in the game, *then* you produce the Pseudo-Scientific B*llsh*t justifying it. Now, in HW, we have a specific world we want to emulate, but I think that some allowance should be given to the effect the rules have on our playing the game. I can see that sometimes the mgiht of the fetch should be it's own ability, but I think basing it on the shaman's best ability is more fun. And besides, the Spirits are clearly better able to help him if he excels at other things.

 --
Henrix