Re: [DL] A cut above the rest

[Munch Wolf <munchwolf@yahoo.com>]

--- Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com> wrote:
>  >Quick question:  I'm note sure if anyuone
> mentioned
>  >this when the topic of Greater Manitous was
> debated a
>  >few months back, but is the backlash given instead
> of
>  >the normal backlash, or in addition to the normal
>  >backlash?
> 
> For the ones I tossed in, the backlash for the
> manitou replaced the normal 
> chart one.

Other random questions:  How many Greater Manitous can
a huckster be in league with?  Does he call on them
each time, and does he have a choice on whether to use
them or not?

On a similar note, here's some more ideas for
manitous:


Idle Hands - 
TN 5, TN 9 for MS
Appearance: A pair of disembodied hands
Motivation: Idle Hands lives to create cursed magical
objects.  Mostly he helps hucksters, but on occasion
will assist a MS in building a device.
Boost: Hucksters draw 4 extra cards in an hex used to
create magic items or enchant normal items.  Mad
Scientists draw 2 extra cards when designing new
inventions.  
Cost: All items that Idle Hands helps influence gain a
permanent minor taint, even if the item is only
temporarily enchanted.
Backlash: The item in question is designed or
enchanted but the Huckster or MS have no clue as to
what the enchantment is.  Give the item a power of
your choice, plus several major taints.


Now I thought I saw Greater Manitous designed for Mad
Scientists, but I'm not sure what happened to them. 
Well here's a generic catagory of such Manitous:


Inspirations - Inspirations are device specific
manitous (probably the equivalent of tech spirits, but
then I've never read HoE).  These manitous are drawn
to MS and try to influence the particular Mad into
creating their specific device.  Each inspiritation
has their own personal Motivation, Cost, and Backlash,
but ideas are listed below.  Their boosts tend to be
similar to each other though, and are only specific in
the type of device they want created.  Each
Inspiration is identified by a general, specific, and
unique field.  Example: A unique field could be
flamethrower or ornothopter.  Their specific fields
would be heavy guns and flying machines respectively. 
Their general fields would then be weaponry or
vehicals. 

TN: Since MS's don't realize their devices are aided
by manitou intervention they normally won't go looking
for an Inspiration.  If they did though, it would be a
tn 5 to find an Inspiration which matches the general
field of what they are looking for (specific and
unique fields decided by Marshal).  For a raise they
can instead identify an Inspiration which matches
their specific field, and with an additional raise
they can find the precise Inspiritation they are
looking for.  Occasionally though an Inspiration will
choose a Mad Scientist and be difficult to get rid of.

Appearance: Each Inspiration appears as their unique
device, and may choose to show themselves to Mad
Scientists during dreams.
Motivation: Mostly they want to have more Mad
Scientist gizmos built, but some have allied
themselves with Gremlins and want to smash all MS
items.
Boost: The most common boost is if a MS designs a
device shared in their general field he draws 1 extra
card.  If he designs a device in a shared specific
field he draws 2 extra cards.  If he designs the
unique device he draws 3 extra cards.  Some
Inspirations are fickle and only give bonuses for
devices in specific and unique fields, and then at
only 1 or 2 cards.
Cost: The one common trait shared by these manitous is
that a Mad Scientist can only have ONE Inspiration at
a time, and he does not control (short of maybe an
exorcism) when that Inspiration leaves him.  Besides
that they will try to penalize the Mad Scientist if he
tries to make a device outside their general catagory.
 This penalty could be a loss of a card, a taint built
into the device, lower reliability, lower
effectiveness, higher hand size required, or complete
failure.  
Backlash:  Most Inspirations stick to regular madness.
 Some have specific insanities they like to inflict
(ex: A flamethrower manitou turns scientists into
pyromaniacs).  Some allow the devices to be made and
then posses them.  Mostly it depends on the
individuals montivation.

How to get rid of an Inspiration:  One of the biggest
problems of having an Inspiration is they may not
agree on what the MS should be making, yet the MS most
likely won't know what kind of Inspiration he has.  If
you're an alchemist and you have an ornothopter
Inspiration banging around your noggin, you're not
going to get any potions made.  Luckily most
inspirations will leave on their own.  Some will leave
when the MS creates their unique device.  Others will
get fed up and bail the first time a MS backlashs. 
Again it follows along with their motivation for how
long they stay around.  No Inspiration will choose to
torment a single MS forever, they want to share their
devices throughout the west.

Sample Inspiration:

The Light Armored Hat
TN 7 (he's shyer than most Inspirations), on a botch
you may find his bullying older brother, The Heavy
Armored Hat
General: Clothing
Specific: Armored Clothing
Unique: Light Armored Hat
Appearance: He appears to be a purple velvet derby
with a lining of ghost steel around the inside.
Motivation: This manitou prefers the fancier things in
life.  He normally won't seek out Mad Scientists
unless he sees them designing clothing devices which
are more aestetically pleasing than practical.  This
manitou is also extremely skittish.  If the MS
backlashs or botches while designing/building devices
he will bolt.  He will also flee if the MS sucessfully
designs any form of body armor as he fears this may
attract a bigger Inspiration.
Boost: A MS building a fashionable clothing device
gains 1 extra card draw.  A MS building a fashionable
clothing device which includes some form of headpiece
gains 2 extra card draws.  A MS designing a Light
Armored Hat (Armor 2, Durability 5/1) gains 3 extra
card draws.  To make a device appear more
'fashonabile' increase it's base price by 25% to 50%
Cost: While the LAH Inspiration is around any device
the MS tries to make which is ordinary looking suffers
a minus one from the card draw.  Any device that is
ugly or cheap suffers a minus two from the card draw.
Backlash: Normal backlash applies.



Finally I was thinking about hexes.  My take is that
specific manitous know specific hexes.  Now I can see
a Greater manitou being well versed in several hexes
and able to accomidate a hucksters demands, but what
about a lesser manitou?  Similar to Inspirations
above, there should be hex specific lesser manitous.

Example:

Soul Blast
TN 5 if the huckster knows SoulBlast, TN 9 otherwise
Appearance: A glowing playing card
Motivation: Soulblast is a greed sot who wants to
collect as many souls as he can.
Boost: He grants 3 additional cards when casting Soul
Blast.  Any person killed by such a soul blast draws
one less card for the purposes of coming back
harrowed.
Cost: The huckster loses 1d6 wind which will not get
back for 24 hours.  He also loses 1 additional
permanent point of wind from Soul Blast claiming a
piece of his soul.
Backlash:  The Soul Blast affects the huckster as
though he were the target.  Apply the cost as normal.


-Munch Wolf

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