Spawn Question

[Ian Christiansen]

OK, maybe this has been gone over before, but I didn't see it in the first dozen pages so I thought I'd make a new topic.  Two players in my current game want to summon a nasty Power 8 Possessor.  Honestly, I think they may be in for loads of trouble with it, but that would be fun anyway, right?

Here's my issue though.  They want it to be able to Spawn additional little Possessor's.  I read in the book that Spawn are essentially Inconspicuous demons, but is that always the case?  In one of my earliest games I had a huge Imminent Passing demon that could Spawn other nasty little Passers... it was actually a pretty nasty critter for the party to put down, but I digress.

Anyway, they want this Possessor to make other Possessors to occupy other hosts, and they want it to be able to see and hear around these Spawn (Perception), and they want it to be able to walk through a portal to its Spawn (Travel), carrying anyone it touches with it (Transport).  It also has Link, Armor, and Psychic Force in its current conception mode.  They described it as using Psychic Force on potential Spawn-hosts to soften them up, making it easier for the little Spawn(they're so cute) to take over the host.

I think it's a wicked concept, but is it too much?  Are we breaking any major rules here?  Are there major complications that I'm not noticing here?  What do you all think?  Sorry about all the questions, but they are completely new to this game and I must confess I don't have a very strong understanding of a lot of the rules presented in the books.  Thanks in advance...

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

It's sounding pretty good, actually. A real motherfucker of a demon, and certain to be the central source of adversity during play unless someone comes up with something even more heinous, but as you say, that's the good news! Be ready to GM the hell out of the thing.

Link, Spawn, Psychic Force, Armor, Travel, Transport, Perception = 7 abilities, so yeah, Power 8.

(The Link is a good idea - it means the host of the Possessor can see what his Possessor is seeing, and thus via the Perception, what the Spawn are seeing.)

At the moment, I don't see any reason not to let the Spawn-lings be Possessors. Seems to make sense.

You might want to look over the discussion of Possessors in The Sorcerer's Soul in some detail. Players often forget that Possessor demons are incredibly difficult to rely upon, and for no apparent reason, tend to forget that the Possessor takes over the host's body]/i]. They also tend to assign them the Hop ability, mentally, without paying for it. If the player hadn't quite processed just what a Possessor is and does, then consider letting the demon be a Parasite, and the Spawn be Possessors, if that fits the player's concept better.

References! See My/JL's game ("The Abyss Chronicles") for my comments on the player-character Nancy and her awful-big demon. Definitely see all references to the demon Veniamin in My current Sorcerer game - modern necromancy, The necromancy game continued. And How did I miss this? and Very very powerful demons (and how to keep them) have some good stuff in them generally about GMing big demons bound to player-characters.

Best,
Ron

[Ian Christiansen]

Ron,

Thanks for the response and the references, they were great!  My friend ended up dropping the Spawn power and replaced it with Mark, with all of the abilities affecting the "Marked" instead.  Yes, the Perception and Travel with Transport... it's still a really wicked demon!  A couple other powers were changed as well.  He wanted to have a cool spy demon, and I gave it to him... along with a Desire for Corruption.  MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now it's causing all kinds of Hell... including a direct competition for attention with its master's lesbian lover.  Chaos abounds, and the tension is thick!  I can't wait to see what happens in the next session!

Ian

P.S.  That Necromancy game of yours looks like it was awesome, and I want to read the whole thread soon... with all the details of what happened in game... not just the Veniamin bits.