RE: Re:Spirits from Matthew Cole on 2008-06-02 (World of Glorantha)

From: Matthew Cole <matthew.cole_at_ailF-5x1r3MYWRnkat_Cbc7oOGom-faECVhDnmIavxjLhLrSkjxgTsh9CwIvfza>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 09:29:29 +0100

Heya. This advice is very good when you are only thinking about these generic nature spirits but I'd like to hear what treatment you'd give to spirits from the Praxian Sword Man (you can find the heroband and practise in the Masters of Luck and Death book).

I see exactly what Stephen is looking for and I'd really like something like that myself. I'm gonna research animist taboos online and see what I get.

Cheers

-----Original Message-----
From: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com [mailto:WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of David Weihe Sent: 02 June 2008 06:42
To: WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re:Spirits

> 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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