[Writerski7]

Alright, suppose a Mage made a long-term deal with a F8 spirit. In exchange for 8 karma of more, the spirit would be bound to a GMC Bulldog for a year and a day (which is, to my understanding, not long at all for a spirit). How would the possession affect the vehicle, it's autopilot, and the spirit in general?

- assume agreed terms are to "bolster, protect and enhance vehicle operation"
- character in question is on good terms with the spirit world, and has a reputation for being fair to spirits

[Logarion]

the spirit would add half its force to the armor rating of the car (and possibly to the body as well) and could control the car (drive it). However the spirit has no control over any electronic functions. the Autopilot does not change and the car would still be controlable via wifi or rigging etc.
BUT a force 8 possession spirit would be very easy to spot... very very easy... so everyone could see you driving a possessed vehicle.

[Reaver]

Agreed.

Even though the spirit can control the car - and anything physically hooked it it. It CAN NOT use the electronic enhancements of the car, such as grideguide, autopilot, navigation software, etc.

Also keep in mind, the spirit loses a lot of its movement abilities. Its boind to a car and can ONLY move in the manner of a car.... so no flying car for you!

See Street Grimoire for how possession works.

( while it sounds nifty and all that, one has to wonder: why? Karma is a valuable resource for mages, is having a dual natured car worth giving up what 8 karma could buy a mage..... all essentially for a self driving <auto pilot>, talking <persona chip>, armored <armor mods> car?)

[Writerski7]

Mmk I did some digging and found out exactly what has been posted XD silly me. I need to get in the habit of doing thorough research prior to posting.

Our team has no decker, so all our equipment is throwback, including the van (minus the RFID, which is seperated from the vehicle's hardware).

I'm a little lost on what a possessed object looks like, but I'm guessing it should be covered under a max rating magic license. Would abilities like concealment or spells like vehicle mask hide the spirit?

[Reaver]

Maybe from casual onlookers... depends.... concealment could make the vehicle just hard to see...which leaves you in a bigger problem if your using concealment while trying to move...

Guide guided cars (and cars driven by people for that matter) would try to occupy the same spot as you.... (Crash!!)

Vehicle mask (as I recall) just change the appearence of the car. So your bulldog becomes a scooter for example.

But mone of those stops it ftom being seen from the astral by both dual natured and asyrally percieving mages.... on the Astral your possessed car lights up like a christmas tree cause it mow has an aura of its own thanks to the spirit possessing it. (Mundane items are normally greyed out on the astral)

There are very few abilities that hide things on the astral, and you also have the physical/astral seperation to deal with.....

All in all its a headache, would require initiation and quickening metamagics, more karma, and even then is not 100% gauranteed...

[CitizenJoe]

Unless the spirit had the special power to look normal, it would always look otherworldly.  Something would look off about the van, and the more powerful the spirit the more obvious the effect.  While you could change the appearance of the van, the spirit based other worldly effect would still be present. 

As to being visible to other cars or the grid, there are two basic sensors that detect vehicles.  One is the vehicle announcing to the system that it is present.  That is the matrix connection.  The second is all the other cars in the system looking at it.  I believe most of those cars have like a 3+ sensor rating which means that any nearby cars will be reporting a moving unregistered vehicle nearby and signal a warning for all vehicles connected to the system.  Generally speaking, that means traffic cops will be sent to analyze the threat.  It is feasible to have some sort of connection to the grid to "play nice" with the other cars, a spoof chip will do it I  elieve.  It will still look like a demonic truck to other drivers though.

[Writerski7]

Alright found a solution in Street Grimoire. It's called a Masking Ward, which conceals everything inside it (yet more time and Nuyen needed T_T). With this new information, would it be possible to pay someone to ward the vehicle with this spell? How much would it cost, and can it be made permanent?

[Reaver]

not really no....

1:  its a ritual, so you need to ritual casting to set it up. (doable, but a different skill then sorcery. It require Ritual spellcasting skill)
2: Rituals can only be cast in a lodge
3: it's anchored, so the Masking ward can not be moved. (so you couldn't drive around)
4: Requires the Masking meta-magic feat - means you have to initiate at least once in or order to even cast it.


 

[living]

The spirit needs the apropriate skills (ground vehicle). without he can drive the car but with reaction -1.

[Writerski7]

@reaver Hope this link works . Basically it's RAI that wards can be anchored to vehicles and move without issue.

@living I need to dig up the link to the discussion on Possession and Rigging for the debate as to if you need a skill to control your own body. Suffice to say if the spirit doesn't know how to drive he can turn control over to the vehicle autopilot, which is fine by me. His contract doesn't necessitate him driving so it's his choice if he wants to.

[living]

its the same that a sam needs an gymnastik skill or stealth todo specific actions. a force 8 spirit got about reaction 8 so he got 7 dices. thats enough for driving, but not for stealthing, performing stunts etc. a rigger, who feels the car as his body, needs the skills too. and spirits arent very familiar with techstuff (like cars). so they shouldnt get the advantages a rigger gets.

[DigitalZombie]

You can get the vehicle made into a prepared vessel, that would give the spirit a +6 modifier on the possession roll. (its pretty  expensive though both karma/time wise but it also costs a few nuyen) which would either make it more easy for your F8 spirit or possible for your lower F spirits

Maybe talk to the GM about making a run to track a skilled enchanter that would do it for ya:)

Or look into inhabitation, or alternatively other spirits? some spirits gets extra skills as a bonus power, might be useful with some gunnery or other vehicle related skills.

Im all for your idea, as long as you pay a fair price

[Reaver]

@reaver Hope this link works . Basically it's RAI that wards can be anchored to vehicles and move without issue.

@living I need to dig up the link to the discussion on Possession and Rigging for the debate as to if you need a skill to control your own body. Suffice to say if the spirit doesn't know how to drive he can turn control over to the vehicle autopilot, which is fine by me. His contract doesn't necessitate him driving so it's his choice if he wants to.

Sadly, that post is for 4e rules.

(The date of the posts is Feb. 2012. SR5 came out in 2013)

Since then, a host of new mechanics of wards have been introduced. And, while some wards are easy to set up (such as mana barrier) other wards have much more stringent requirements. (Like masking wards - which must be anchored, set up through ritual casting, etc)

Most of these changes were for game mechanic balance as the largest overall complaint of shadowrun 4e was that magic was TOO versitile, causing the game to haveva nickname: MagicRun.

So in 5e, there has been a lot of changes to the way things work. (Direct combat spell damage, wards, drain, etc)


So, in 5e while magic is still very potent, it's not as versitile as it was in 4e, and there is a new range of limitations on just what can be done.
●●●

An other issue you have to remember too is you are setting up yourself for astral intersections with a possessed car.

An astral intersection happens when something with an awakened aura (foci, spirits, all dual natured entities, sustained spells, etc) are forced into contact with a ward.... like you driving your car onto corp property where there is a ward! - best case outcome for you there is that the ward breaks (and instantly alerts the mage that created it). Worst case is that the spirit in your car is disrupted, ending it possession.

However, its not like you are going to gind wards in the middle of the street of public domain. But you COULD find them on Corporate controlled parking garages that are tied to important corporate buildings, on corporate controled/owned lands.


Remember the tagline of 5e. "Everything has a price". For somethings players want, there is always a price or a counter.....

No one is saying you can't have a spirit possess a car. Just realize that you probably can't effectively hide the fact that you have a spirit possessed car from all forms of detection. (Physical, astral, visual, wards)

[Reaver]

You can get the vehicle made into a prepared vessel, that would give the spirit a +6 modifier on the possession roll. (its pretty  expensive though both karma/time wise but it also costs a few nuyen) which would either make it more easy for your F8 spirit or possible for your lower F spirits

Maybe talk to the GM about making a run to track a skilled enchanter that would do it for ya:)

Or look into inhabitation, or alternatively other spirits? some spirits gets extra skills as a bonus power, might be useful with some gunnery or other vehicle related skills.

Im all for your idea, as long as you pay a fair price

Without looking, I think inhabitation only works on living vessels....

And if you are dealing with a spirit with inhabitation (IF I am right) you have much, much bigger issues at hand.....
 

[Sendaz]

Without looking, I think inhabitation only works on living vessels....

And if you are dealing with a spirit with inhabitation (IF I am right) you have much, much bigger issues at hand.....
 

Nope, a spirit can Inhabit a non-living object.

If the spirit is attempting to inhabit a nonliving vessel, the spirit rolls Force x 2 against the vessel’s Object Resistance dice pool (p. 295, SR5).

It does have to be a prepared vessal, not just any car off the lot, but the advantage is an Inhabited item/spirit blend can not be Banished like Possession can since they are now attached to the object and can not voluntarily part ways. Destroying the item is the only way to get rid of it.

Have toyed with the idea of Insect Spirit Inhabited Humanoid Drones to make my very own Insecticons, but testing to date seems to show bugs prefer only live hosts.

Till all are One