Re: [HOE] Junkman Cometh

[Bryce Perry <sandchigger@yahoo.com>]

--- Jeff Shoffner <shoffner@usit.net> wrote:
> First off, when you make a complex gadget, do you call up one tech
> spirit or
> several depending on what powers you use?  Like sya you got ambitious
> & made
> a fighter aircraft; is that a gun spirit, car spirit, or a whole
> bunch of
> spirits that make the complex whole?

Whichever you prefer.  In your example, though, I'd probably make
several gadgets.  A plane, a gun or two, some missiles, etc. rather
than one.  It's a little more complex, but it's more energy efficient
and a touch more realistic.

> Reading up on the tech spirit story made me wonder about a few
> things.  It
> states when a gadget is destroyed, the machine "gives up the ghost"
> so to
> speak.  So when is the gadget broken?  I mean, they show pics of cars
> rusting in a junk yard with the tech spirits hovering around, & some
> dude
> who crashed his car with its spirit floating away, so when does the
> spirit
> go completely away & you have to start over again?  Would a rusted
> out
> junker somewhere on an interstate still have its spirit, just looking
> for
> someone to fix it up?

I *think* that a gadget's broken beyond repair it's "given up the
ghost."  When a Junker makes a gadget (a car for example), he's shoving
the ghost of a previous car into it.  Which is why one example from the
book states something like "You could put a bus spirit in a motorcycle,
but..."
 
> These spirits strike me as being ,well, vain.  I saw the Finish trick
> in
> there; is there a bonus given to a gadget that has been spiffed up? 
> I mean,
> what tech spirit would allow its face to be seen in a piece of junk
> that
> looks like someone welded a bunch of rusted sheet metal together when
> it
> could be racing around in fully restored '65 'stang?
 
No bonuses that I know of for looking pretty.  But yeah, technology is
always looking for "Newer, Faster, Better" so it's spirits are gonna be
a teensy weensy bit on the vain side. 
 
> All of this gives me an idea to rip off Steven King.  How about an
> adventure
> that revolves around a Christine clone?  Come to think of it, just
> what kind
> of spirit would Christine be?  Off the bat, I'd say gun, but she's a
> car--does that mean she'd be a damaged car spirit?  I can just see it
> now--
> the posse goes after the driver, thinking he's the one doing all the
> killing, trash his car, & then horror of horrors, the thing starts to
> REPAIR
> itself!!  Talk about an abomination!!  ooooohhh!!!  Instead of a '57
> Plymouth Fury (too obvious), say the Christine spirit went on to
> inhabit a
> new car body-- a 2091 Cadillac El Diablo!  Complete with El Diablo
> horns on
> the hood. (there's a relic out there of having El Diablo horns on a
> car)

*MINOR SPOILER*


Christine would be an abomination.  Maybe a twisted tech spirit like it
talks about in the Vegas book.  Or she might be the Junker version of
an El Diablo.  Who says it always has to be a bull?  Actually, I like
that idea.  Instead of a big, bad bull trying to run down the Junker
with 5 grit, you have a big, bad car trying to run him down.  Hmm.....



=====
Be Seeing You,
Bryce

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