[RQ-Rules] The Trouble With Shamans

[Gerall Kahla]

Peter Maranci wrote:
[snip]

> So either A) most shamans don't live very long, or B) 
> beings of godlike
> power tend to be fairly easy to deal with.


I played a shaman for a number of years (about 5-6 years, 
real time), and I had my share of chance encounters. 
However, I will admit that the referee didn't expose me to 
this frequency of encounter.

Maybe three random encounters per game year, max.  While I 
am no longer in touch with that particular referee, I will 
say that when the tables and charts didn't suit his 
purposes, he pitched their results out the window.  He had a 
simple test for a neutral encounter (of any sort - wandering 
critter or random spirit):  He would roll 1d10.  High was 
good for the PCs, low was bad.  The higher the better.  The 
lower the worse!

I only ever encountered one divine power - Firshalla from 
the Griffin Mountain setting.  She liked me immediately (and 
wanting followers) granted me a one-shot DI if I would build 
another shrine to her.  I did, and almost changed gender 
permanently when I called in her favor!  My shaman decided 
to spread the word about her, and eventually became a full 
priest of her (very small) cult.

> Apart from that, I remember that GMing a shaman was really 
> pretty
> annoying. We spent a grossly disproportional amount of 
> time resolving his
> frequent random encounters with spirits.

Roll less often for encounters.  As referee, you can decree 
that (due to the lasting peace the area has know before the 
Evil that the characters are here to thwart arrived), 
people's spirits are resting peacefully, 
thank-you-very-much.  Anything of the sort should do.

> What sorts of experiences have other people had 
> roleplaying or GMing
> shamans? I'm curious.


My shaman character originally sought his shamantic training 
to communicate with his family...  He was the last of his 
tribe due to the genocidal tendencies of a particular 
runepriest of Thed.  Even with the gnarly disease spirits 
that constantly beset the party, we never had spirit 
encounters bog down the overall story or pace of the game...

-- 
Gerall Kahla, he who codes --
<http://chromebob.com/>