[Shadowrun]Insect Totems.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:41 am

We remember Termite from Queen Euphoria, and we have the Fly, Wasp, Fire Fly, Ant, Beetle, Cicada, Mosquito, Roach, and Mantis as well-but what else?

Spider I exclude for a variety of reasons, but there are obviously more?

Let your imagination run, and lets see what we come up with.

Maybe even various versions-Army Ant, Carpenter Ant,Fruit Fly, House Fly etc...

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:04 pm

Scarab for those Egyptians. Bee for another flying hive-based. Fire Ant should get it's own nasty-ass category. Stick bugs, maybe.

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 4:31 pm

Maybe even various versions-Army Ant, Carpenter Ant,Fruit Fly, House Fly etc...

Well I would disagree with this, simply because you don't have "Cocker Spaniel" "St. Bernard" "Welsh Corgi", etc. You just have "Dog".

But that's just my call.

For humor your could do "Dung Beetle".

Ghotty · Post by **Ghotty** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:11 pm

Hmm. 8 foot tall, chitenous beetloids, that throw balls of shit at me? The stink? Oh yeah. Fire.

I've always though the insect shamen were left a little...weaker. Insect Spirits are neat, but lacking depth.

lordhellion · Post by **lordhellion** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:45 pm

Scorpion Spirits would be particularly nasty. Pinchers, venom, and a barbed tail that when scaled to human size would be about as thick as an arm and three times as long.

How about Flea Spirits? Suck blood like Mosquitoes, and can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Don't foget Centipede and Millipede Spirits, because a human sized one of those would be just creepy...

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 9:23 pm

MooCow wrote:Well I would disagree with this, simply because you don't have "Cocker Spaniel" "St. Bernard" "Welsh Corgi", etc. You just have "Dog".

But that's just my call.

I agree basically with you-but for some reason I could see cases where St. Bernard would be more appropriate than Dog. Does that make sense at all?

I'm going crazy aren't I?

paladin2019 · Post by **paladin2019** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:50 pm

Serious Paul wrote:Spider I exclude for a variety of reasons, but there are obviously more?

Why? You don't want variant elves with two scimitars and.....

Serious Paul wrote:
MooCow wrote: Well I would disagree with this, simply because you don't have "Cocker Spaniel" "St. Bernard" "Welsh Corgi", etc. You just have "Dog".

But that's just my call.
I agree basically with you-but for some reason I could see cases where St. Bernard would be more appropriate than Dog. Does that make sense at all?

I understand. A guy I knew played a basset hound shaman about 8 years ago. The char was played as a stoned cholo who was more interested in his next score (girls, mainly) than finishing a run. "The basse' houn' sez we should jus' chill out n' have anuther roun', esse."

lordhellion · Post by **lordhellion** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:46 am

Serious Paul wrote:I agree basically with you-but for some reason I could see cases where St. Bernard would be more appropriate than Dog. Does that make sense at all?

Sure, like a Hawai'ian shaman wouldn't have Goose as a totem, he'd have Nene.

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 12:01 pm

I agree basically with you-but for some reason I could see cases where St. Bernard would be more appropriate than Dog. Does that make sense at all?

Oh it makes perfect sense. I guess I should have said "I sorta disagree with you", because you don't have seperate Dog breeds "In canon".

I guess the big question is would there be enough fundamental difference between an army ant, and a carpenter ant to see divergent spirits? In my view, spirits are created around concepts. That's why I don't go much with divergent species, because I just don't see enough conceptual difference in the spirit of a basset hound and the spirit of an irish setter.

Hrm.... I'm actually changing my mind possibly as I type this. Don't you love how typing stuff organizes your brain? Hrm.

Does magic in the Shadowrun universe operate with any degree of consenual reality? IE, could you say that Basset Hound spirits and St. Bernard spirits are different because we perceive that there are differences in the actual animals? Even if this is not neccesarily true. (Basset's are lazy, Bernards rescue trapped skiers, etc)

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:30 pm

Moo: It's all about perception. Consider: in real (SR) life, there is a difference in types of dragons: Western, Eastern, Feathered, etc.

There are also different types of dragon-based totems: Wyrm, Plumed Serpent, Dragon.

Now, the totems do not /exactly/ match the peculiarities of any of the dragon types, because you're not dealing with an actual dragon--you're dealing with a skewed consensual perception of dragon in specific cultural context and magical syntax.

Read: To the layperson, there's no big difference between a druid following Wyrm, an Azzie blood priest following the Plumed Serpent, or a Children of the Dragon recruiter following Dragon.

So yes, you could have a Basset Hound totem--if the totem were sufficiently different than Dog. Consider the Wolf, Dog, Coyote and Fenris totems. Intellectually the base creatures retain a similarity, but in reality their shamans act very different.

Also, Scorpion shamans aren't insect shamans. They get to milk novascorpions for their venom, though.

Moto42 · Post by **Moto42** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:46 am

I was knocking about the idea of gnat spirits. Really weak critters (with the exception of the mothers/queens), but they could get more than one spirit from each host.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 4:06 am

paladin2019 wrote:
Serious Paul wrote:Spider I exclude for a variety of reasons, but there are obviously more?
Why? You don't want variant elves with two scimitars and.....

Serious Paul wrote:
MooCow wrote: Well I would disagree with this, simply because you don't have "Cocker Spaniel" "St. Bernard" "Welsh Corgi", etc. You just have "Dog".

But that's just my call.
I agree basically with you-but for some reason I could see cases where St. Bernard would be more appropriate than Dog. Does that make sense at all?
I understand. A guy I knew played a basset hound shaman about 8 years ago. The char was played as a stoned cholo who was more interested in his next score (girls, mainly) than finishing a run. "The basse' houn' sez we should jus' chill out n' have anuther roun', esse."

And I'll bet that person likes to hump people's legs...

[Shadowrun]Insect Totems.

[Shadowrun]Insect Totems.

Re: [Shadowrun]Insect Totems.

Re: [Shadowrun]Insect Totems.