Passers & Abilities

[jburneko]

Hello Again,

Okay, so I just noticed something while preping for Monday's game.  Passer Demons can not have Boost but more interestingly they can not confer their abilities onto others.  Erm... Why?

This is particularly problematic for something like the Ability Vitality.  Vitality says, "Dice of lasting damage up to the demon's Power are removed when the USER takes a rest folowing combat..." It also says, "Vitality also confers resistance to aging, but not total immunity."

What happens if you want to create a Passer whom you're dependent on for survival to push back the effects of aging.  It seems like this would create a great opportunity for co-dependent demon relationships.  This wouldn't be a problem if Vitality said the TARGET, but it says the USER and since Passers can't confer abilities that won't work.

I'm just curious as to what the rational behind the limits on Passers were as it seems to throw out certain kinds of Demon-Master relationships as well as certain Aesthetic choices.  In my game, Christopher's character is most affected by these limitations, so see his character for an example.

Jesse

[Christopher Kubasik]

Yeah,

What the hell's going on?

Christopher

*harumph*

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Oh, you guys are makin' me tired. Not that it isn't a good question; it is.

Okay, here we go.

PART ONE
"Hey! Why can't Passers confer their abilities?" Because in most cases it violates some key aesthetic issues of sorcerer-demon relationships. Either the demon can run around and "be itself" as a primary aspect of its nature - which is what a Passer is - or it can't, and hence would be a lousy Passer for Passer-story purposes.

Parasites and Possessors are at the far end of the autonomy spectrum - they are necessarily part of the host, and host-demon relationships are a big deal with special identity-based implications. At the other end is the Passer, entirely autonomous, presenting entirely different relationship-issues. The host of a Parasite essentially shares the demon's Need. The "partner" of a Passer does not.

The abilities-issue is intended to enforce the cleanliness of that spectrum. Clearly, Objects are "toward the Passer end," and Inconspicuous demons are kind of in the middle, spread across various possibilities.

[Ignore for the moment the fact that the host of a Parasite/Possessor might not be its sorcerous master. Not relevant to the issue.]

PART TWO
Above, I wrote, "in most cases." As long as you tie the conferral of the ability to a specific interaction between the Passer demon and the ability's user, then go for it.

That ought to do fine for the little-kid demon that Christopher's character has.

Best,
Ron