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6e - Spirit Economy

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Wu Jen:
Just wanted to get a quick idea on how most tables handle spirit services.(Mission games as well)

I recently started playing at a table using 6e rules. I found the use of spirits to be more of a chore to even bother summoning and using.

If you summoned more than 2 spirits then the GM would group them together for convenience and they could not act independently.

Any summons over force 3 the spirit would get edge and always use it against the summoner to reduce services.

If you only had 1 service for a spirit it was useless to get the spirit to do anything in the material world. I.e. the GM would always count the spirit 'manifesting' as a full service. So if you wanted it to attack someone it would always use 2 services - 1 to materialize and 1 to attack.

For attacks the GM ruled that each service was = to one attack. You have 4 services then the spirit would materialize and attack the target 3 times.

If you ordered the spirit to guard an area and report if anyone came into the area each report would count as a service and every hour the spirit guarded the area was a service.

If the spirit got hurt during any service it also counted against the mage who summoned it as a negative as you were causing the spirit to experience harm. Your rep with spirits would get negatives and the spirits would not come when called.

My previous games I've played (2nd edition) we played way more loosely with spirit services, order it to attack a group of thugs and it fought all of them till the thugs were down or it was defeated.

How do most 6e tables handle spirit services?

Michael Chandra:
- Grouping spirits should only be done in combat, as a grunt group for convenience

- SRM uses 'F>M-2' for spirit Edge, so Magic 6 Force 5+ would use Edge. Given Immunity being a bit OP, it is a fair cop.

- SR6 CRB defines Service as a 'single, discrete, clearly defined action'. Street Wyrd p64 is more explicit.

--- Quote ---Combat: “Fight on my side.”
You can have a spirit fight on your side in combat. The entire combat encounter counts as only a single service.

Power Use: “Use your power of [power name] on [targets].”
You can have a spirit use one of its powers on a target or targets of your choosing. If the power is sustained, it counts as one service no matter how long it’s sustained. If the spirit is given an order for another sustained power, this service must be used again to reactivate a power. If the spirit uses the identified power as part of another task (often in combat), then the power use doesn’t count as a separate service.
--- End quote ---
In other words, your GM is WAY too limiting and is even explicitly ignoring both SR5 and SR6 rules.

- A spirit getting hurt should NOT automatically get you into astral rep trouble. It's about ABUSING spirits, not USING them. If you make a Fire Spirit jump into a lake, or make a Spirit straight-up throw itself into danger, that counts. But merely getting scratched doesn't count.


So in short, your GM is not only overly restrictive, but is even explicitly ignoring SR5 and SR6 rules. If I were a nice person, I'd say 'talk to your GM and discuss that they're going overboard with their attempts to keep summoners balanced'.

I am not a nice person. I consider your GM a coward. If they don't want summoning in their games, they should have the guts to explicitly say 'I don't want summoners'. Not deliberately make up fake rules to overcompensate and make summoners impossible to play.

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