Testing the water for Shaman.

[JohnG]

Shaman is my idea for a modern fantasy RPG.  Each character is a...brace yourselves...Shaman. 

The basic premise is that the spirits are re-emerging into the world and there are those with the natural latent ability to communicate with them.  Each character has a totem, a spirit that came to them and offered to become their companion and ally.  The characters are normal people, their spirits are able to help them in small ways in exchange for the shaman paying them tribute.

Now when I say small ways I mean small ways, no one's shooting lightning bolts out of their noses in this game.  A Trickster spirit like Raven might tip over a garbage can to distract someone so you can sneak by, a Warrior totem like Wolf might guide your bullet along to help you hit your target.

Shamans are essentially loners, travelling here and there and trying to survive while also trying to keep their totem happy so it doesn't decide to ignore their pleas for help at an important moment.  The only authority the Shamans listen to is the Elders, basically the oldest Shamans in an area who have settled down and decided to guide their younger fellow shaman.

Generally Shamans stay the hell out of each others way, though even they manage to have plenty of politics to deal with.  There are Territorial Shamans and Nomadic Shamans, territorial shamans pick their territory and band together in groups to maintain it.  Nomadic Shamans wander as they please, sometimes banding together but not often for long.  The two don't get along terribly well as Nomadic Shamans like to go where they please, and territorial Shamans at least like to be asked before you wander in their land.

A shamans purpose in the world is to keep the spirits happy, sending away or calming bad spirits like anger and disease, and assisting good spirits like spirits of happiness and fertility.  The trick is that Shamans can only see and speak to spirits, to interact with them in any other way they rely on their Totem to be the go between.

Shamans also have an enemy in the physical world, The Possessed are Shamans whose will was too weak and they were unfortunate enough to be found by a malevolent spirit.  Unable to control their Totem it has taken control of them and freely wreaks havoc on the physical world to its delight.  This very much throws off the balance between the two worlds so Shamans make a point of getting rid of them by any means necessary.

It's just a rough idea, what do you all think?

[Vulpinoid]

Cool Idea.

There are a lot of potential totems out there and the shamainstic cultures has varying aspects in all different parts of the world.

V

[ChrisLane]

Sounds cool!  My only concern is the group dynamic.  If shamans are mostly loners, sometimes forming groups for short periods of time, why will the PCs be hanging out together?  You say shamans are political, would common ideaologies / loyalties tie them together?  Players can make this sort of thing work on their own, I'm just raising the point as something to think about.

[JohnG]

Shamans generally do work solo, sticking to their own business.  There is a common ideology that bands them together, basically to keep the world functioning properly and peacefully they must maintain the harmony between the spirit world and the physical world.  Many Shamans also have loosely connected groups of allies and friends they rely on when a job is beyond them.  So essentially the group dynamic is the same as when you call your buddies up to help you move, you go your seperate ways when they job is done but all it tooks is something big enough to get you all back together.  I added that touch from my own experience as a GM, it drives me nuts sometimes fighting with the players during downtime to do more than shop and stare at me until I give up and fast forward to the next action sequence.  Gives GMs the chance to skip the awkward downtime phase if the group is not up to it.

[lighthouse]

Resident former seminarian here.

When I think about anybody in a leading religious role, such as the shaman, I think in somebody that yes, could be (just could be) a loner, but one who is also very concerned about the community.

[Vulpinoid]

I was introduced to an interesting style of play a few years ago...I must warn you that it takes a mature groups of players to pull it off effectively (not number chunching D-&-D Munchkins).

To put it simply, every player has their primary PC and a stable of 2 or three support PCs. The primary PCs gain the experience, while the support PCs are a part of the gaming background. A players primary PC and their support PCs very rarely encounter one another (and if they do, the GM takes on the role of the support PC, but most interaction results purely come down to die rolls).

The GM weaves an individual tale with each character, and because the focus of the story is on one player at a time, they work in the other players support PCs where necessary (to keep the other players interest alive). Support PCs play the role of traditional NPCs except that they are controlled by the other players.

The primary PCs have stories that weave around certain threads and cause them to come into contact with the other primary PCs and the support PCs, but the group doesn't have to work together as a party or other traditional circle of adventurers.

PCs may form temporary alliances, or may wander off on their own. PCs can even work as antagonists to one another if they have conflicting goals.

The primary purpose of the GM in this style of play is to keep using hooks for the players to stop them heading too far from the rest of the group, and to find interesting ways to tie players back into the group.

The closest popular media example for this concept is the television show "Heroes".

I could see this working for a "Shaman" type game because the players aren't forced to work together, but they have loose agendas which link into one another.

In this type of setting, the support PCs become the prominent members of the community. While the shamans would be the outsiders who hope to shape the community according to the desires of their totem. Standing between the physical and spirit realms the shamans draw powers from both but are truly accepted by neither.

It's not an easy style of game to play, but can be very rewarding if done well.

V

[JohnG]

That's a really cool sounding idea Vulpinoid, might be a cool way to run the downtime actually now that I think of it.  When the group isn't working together one of the PCs could be the central PC with everyone else playing the support PCs.  Players each taking a turn now and then to be the central PC for the downtime side session.  Something simple like the Shaman banishing a wicked spirit or their totem asking them to help prevent some tragedy, whatever.

[Spooky Fanboy]

I think, for a game of Shamans, you need a way to show how they're caught between two worlds all the time.

Solo vs. Community: Yes, you act alone, but you have a community you care for, which forces you together with people you might not like. You want to work solo, but you can't afford to be Wolverine or an extreme version of Batman, either.

Spirit vs. Terrestrial: You have to balance the needs of the World of Man vs. the World of Spirits. Spirits have a right to perform as they have for thousands of years, even the nasty ones. But humanity has rights, too. And you get to try to take both of them into account, even though both sides want to use you.

Just a thought. 

[JohnG]

Largely the idea is based around ordinary people forced to do extraordinary things for the greater good.  Sure your Totem can help, but if the street gang corners you with automatic weaponry then the Wolf Spirit who follows you around can't really do a whole lot.  Why risk your life saving the day?  Why indeed?  There's plenty of Shamans who just putter around or give up and try to live a normal life.  Being a Shaman isn't going to be what makes the characters special.  It's fighting a thankless fight that they can walk away from any time they like.  Obviously this gives plenty of opportunity for a bit of personal internal conflict.

Another fun note is that the Shamans totem will of course have their own personality.  Is it a true friendship or an alliance of convenience?  I was thinking that the Totem's personality should be determined randomly at creation.  Normally a spirit, friendly or not, isn't willing to expend the energy necessary to affect the physical world in more than the subtle way any spirit can.  The Shaman however can give them tribute, essentially something the spirit covets that is ritually prepared to grant the spirit energy to affect the physical world.  Now let's say you're out of tribute, if the spirit is your friend he's more likely to help than one who's just your ally to accomplish his own goals.  Obviously personality is not a set attribute, a spirit who's just there for the ride can be won over, and a stalwart friend can be lost.

I've been thinking of doing something similar to Wraith's Shadow system where each player plays their own character and also controls another players Totem, or perhaps some players play totems and others play shamans.  This allows the spirit realm to be relevant beyond something the Shaman can see but not interact with.  The Shaman players are breaking into the building while Spirit players are keeping a look out, or subduing guardian spirits, whatever.

[ChrisLane]

The Wraith shadow thing can be very, very cool - but you need to consider your target audience.  It's a small subset of RPGers that will try something like that, and not all of them will pull it off to cool effect.

It sounds like the spirits in Shaman could end up mirroring the demons in Sorcerer.  They are essentially a source of power, but with an agenda of their own, and they are 'connected' to the PCs.  The thankless fight feel and spirit world tie-in also reminds me of the Werewolf: the Foresaken setting, minus the shapeshifting.  Neither is necessarily good or bad, just making observations.

On the primary PC / stable of secondary PCs thought - it's not something you have to always do.  I've toyed with the same idea, and like it for sessions where the GM has no prep time, or their prep is rendered useless (key players couldn't make it, time is limited, etc...)

[JohnG]

True it won't be for everyone but I've already got my more broadly appealing games so why the heck not go for one that's a little more of a niche game right? lol

I really just want to make a game where thinking is your biggest weapon, not the +4 vorpal weapon. 

[Bossy]

The characters are normal people, their spirits are able to help them in small ways in exchange for the shaman paying them tribute.

When one takes a look at shamanism practices, animic cults, even at pagan and monotheist religions, one realizes that supernatural favours come with a high price. Spirits, totems and gods are hard bargainers indeed. It is only very recently in human history, and even though in very limited scopes, that emerged the idea of divinities satisfied with only tributes and prayers.

Payback (or even advance pay) can take many forms:

• material (offerings): something hard to acquire, or something that the shaman will miss
• deed (dances, quests): something difficult to do, or that needs training and risk taking, also something that might serve the interests of the spirit in some way
• body (scarification, mutilation): nuff said (just don't require characters to commit suicide, that would be frustrating)

I'm sure we can think of many other prices (temporary possession, the first child, etc.). Of course, the payback should be at the level of the favour.

I'm not pointing this just for the sake of likelihood: I think that payback can add an interesting edge to your idea, also it may even explain why shamans do certain things thourgh deeds. For instance, for reasons that mortals would better ignore, the Thunder, Snake and Willow spirits decide that it would be better to imprison the Raven spirit. But for this they need to kill this particular Raven shaman at full moon, but then he should only killed by this particularily well guarded ancestral spear. These mischievous spirits command ask their respective shamans to accomplish this for them in exchange of favours.
I don't know if that is the tone you want to give to your game, but you get the idea.

[JohnG]

Bossy, that's along the lines of my idea yes.  Basically though when shamans give something shiny to Raven or a strip of jerky to Wolf for their tribute all they're getting is raven tapping a window to distract a guard or wolf tracking their astral trail to help you find the guy.  Now let's move up the scale, if you want Wolf to convince a fire spirit that a certain building really should be burned to the ground, or on the contrary fight the fire spirit and get it to release the building, Wolf's gonna want a hell of a lot more than jerky and a pat on the head.

Also a spirit might make a quid pro quo arrangement, I'll help you stop X if you help me destroy Y.  Scarification or Tattooing could certainly take a place with permanent favors, complete a spirit quest and carve a picture in your own hide and Wolf might let you share his senses on the permanent.  I want the spirits to be hard bargainers but unless you want to explode an entire state no one's gonna have to sacrifice anyone lol.