Renaming Fantasy Shamans/Shamanism (+)

[ART!]

Spirit Warden?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Okay y'all presented some excellent ideas, so this is what I've got so far.

First, more of the system, for reference. THere are two "holy person" skills (three if you count divination), that the "shaman" currently specialises in. Shamanism contains communion, restoration, and astral projection, while Sacramancy contains blessing, cleansing, and rebuking. I wouldn't be opposed to combining them into one skill, as long as nothing was lost, but it also fits the system to have the holy person need 2-3 skills to be a holy person, before we even get into Influence and Perception. The action resolution of the system is very simple, and part of that simplicity is underpinned by characters having a broad skillset to draw upon, and generous latitude in how to interpret their use.

Anyway, what I'm thinking at the moment, though I'm still open to other ideas, is;

Bridger

Inherent Skills: (the game term for an archetype's main skills that they get a special bonus with) Animism, Sacramancy.

Ya know...binding spirits falls under Hex magic, which makes a classic animist priest need like 6 skills to do the job. I'm gonna review Animism and Sacramancy to see if Sacramancy can be made part of Animism.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Okay, so Hex has Binding, Curses, and Invocation. Invocation is kinda loosely defined as yet, but it's kinda has to do with bring the power of things into yourself, or into someone else.

Sacramancy has Blessing, Cleansing, and Rebuking.

Animism has Communion, Restoration, and Spirit Walking/Astral Projection.

Putting them all together like this makes it pretty clear that Sacramancy is not needed, and it's presence kinda implies that Animism isn't proper sacred magic, which isn't right. So, even if it means eventually changing the name of Hex, I think that Rebuking can live in Binding, and Blessing and Cleansing are redundant with Restoration.


So, new question:

What are some good names for Hex, and the "go into the spirit world or project your spirit out into the world without your body" skill. Astral Projection is too long to fit in the space skill names fit into on the character sheet, and also feels very New Age woo, to me, no matter how much I tell myself it isn't.

Spirit Walker is...well, I don't know that it is actually appropriation, but it doesn't come across well.

I'd perhaps use something like Loquitur Manes/Lares/Spirites

I thought about Vox, and I think that some common titles for Animists will be Vox, Loquitur, Venerator, Keeper, and some others suggested in this thread.

Trance is used to travel to and navigate the spirit world

Trance would probably work, especially with the goal of skills giving generous freedom for interpretation by the player.

 

[Esau Cairn]

So "shaman" isn't to be used for indigenous people of another continent because of ethnolinguistics, but re-titling a collective word by use of Greek and Latin terms is okay...?

Our long-term play group member and close friend is res-born and as full-blooded as such people are, and his word-choice has always been "medicine man/woman" for specific individuals and (gasp! eek!) shamanism for the collective healer experience. But cutesy re-naming that is deemed appropriate by folks not of the culture nor belief-system is quite an internet past time.

 

[MGibster]

Our long-term play group member and close friend is res-born and as full-blooded as such people are, and his word-choice has always been "medicine man/woman" for specific individuals and (gasp! eek!) shamanism for the collective healer experience. But cutesy re-naming that is deemed appropriate by folks not of the culture nor belief-system is quite an internet past time.

Eh, it's a + page. Personally, I can't think of any game where any type of magic using character was referred to as a shaman other than World of Warcraft. I know D&D has used the term for NPCs, though maybe at some point they had a PC class called a Shaman, but I don't think I've played any other game with a shaman class or character type in it.

Personally, I prefer that a game doesn't invent whole cloth an interesting or cutesy name that either I or my players will have trouble remembering. But there are plenty of other words one might use in place of shaman. Shadowrun has magicians and adepts, and there's old classics including sorcerer, wizard, seer, and enchanter.

I take it back about the whole cloth thing. Sort of. If this new and interesting word is tied into the setting I don't mind so much. It worked for Dune. But if the author is just inventing a new word for the sake of inventing a new word I find it annoying. Like reading a fantasy novel where they start adding unnecessary apostrophes and vowels to character's names just to make it seem more fantastic I guess.

 

[Tonguez]

Eh, it's a + page. Personally, I can't think of any game where any type of magic using character was referred to as a shaman other than World of Warcraft. I know D&D has used the term for NPCs, though maybe at some point they had a PC class called a Shaman, but I don't think I've played any other game with a shaman class or character type in it.

ADnD and 3e both used the term Shaman in Mystaras Atruaghin Clans, in Oriental Adventures and in Complete Divine. Shadowrun has Street Shaman, and RIFTS had a Shaman OOC.

 

[MGibster]

ADnD and 3e both used the term Shaman in Mystaras Atruaghin Clans, in Oriental Adventures and in Complete Divine. Shadowrun has Street Shaman, and RIFTS had a Shaman OOC.

I don't know how I could have forgotten about Shadowrun. For Rifts, well, they had about a million OCCs and RCCs to choose from. And for Oriental Adventures, it's been more than 30 years since I've read through that. But you've confirmed it's been used more than I thought in some games I've actually played. So thanks for that.

 

[niklinna]

Eh, it's a + page. Personally, I can't think of any game where any type of magic using character was referred to as a shaman other than World of Warcraft. I know D&D has used the term for NPCs, though maybe at some point they had a PC class called a Shaman, but I don't think I've played any other game with a shaman class or character type in it.

4E has a shaman class.

 

[niklinna]

Recently I put out the animist class, as when I was doing my research, animism was the best term that covers shamanism but without the regional/cultural identifiers. Stay away from spirit talkers or spirit animal terms (indigenous appropriation)

Where is your animist class? I saw your thread here developing it but it's a couple months old.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So "shaman" isn't to be used for indigenous people of another continent because of ethnolinguistics, but re-titling a collective word by use of Greek and Latin terms is okay...?

Yes.