Shadowrun Play > Gamemasters' Lounge

If you need a magical opponet for your players, which would you choose ?

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Marcus:
I like a logical progression, start simple and work your way up. When in doubt Spirits are always a good option. A nice Toxic mage is a good starting point, being sure to give them some background, be sure to introduce them to the idea of maybe he/she went crazy for a good reason. From there options open up. Bug spirits, Vampires, something appropriate to your city or the character's backgrounds. As note i would not push to much magical threat if your group is  not magical primary.

I would be careful to leave the more arcane magic threats for later on. Messing around with Shediem is not a good place to start, you need a good web of NPC for them to take full effect. Ghouls are fairly punkie sure a ghoul hunt can be a good run, but generally it's more useful to use them as moral lesson of the shadow and developed as contacts.

If you're feeling really froggie, you can add drakes and dragons. Explosing players to great dragons is almost never a good idea, similar to having gods show up D&D, it rarely ends well.  But normal dragons are plenty scary.

Reaver:
Always remembee too, a mage doesn't need to be toxic or twisted, or follow an insect mentor to be evil, or dangerous!

A good old fashioned 'bad guy' mage can do just fine when other options feel contrived..

cantrip:
Option C

Though I'd have a great form free spirit pulling the strings behind the scenes.  ;D

Tarislar:
I like the idea of finding out that a previous/current Johnson is actually a Vampire-Magician.

neomerlin:
I realise this thread is a little old and odds are you made a decision already, but far be it from me to let slide by a chance to talk up how great bug spirits are.

You can't go wrong with bug spirits. Bug spirits always make excellent villains. They have the other-worldly invader feel of horrors, the body snatching potential for subtle infiltration of vampires and shedim, the unfathomable alien intellect of dragons, plus their hybrid forms are a visceral terrifying body horror show. You can do so much with bug spirits. And depending on when your game is set and how familiar players are with Shadowrun canon history, everybody in the world knows what an infestation of bug spirits can mean for a sprawl even if they don't know the exact events that caused the whole Chicago mess.

Plus, insect shamans provide a convenient face for your villain that are menacing and powerful if you need them to be, or disposable because the queen can always find another. And the spirits themselves, being immune to normal weapons, pose the same threat all spirits do to an unprepared group, but individually are not unstopable so you can fill your big action set pieces with them without really reducing the looming threat of the hive.

Insect spirits are great.

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