Advice on a Catch

[Wordmaker]

My wife's character for our new game is going to be a Native American shapeshifter. She's a member of a specific group that acts as a messenger between the living and the dead, and her alternate form is that of a bird (raven, eagle or owl, most likely).

She'd like to take a Recovery power to compliment her shapeshifting, and we were wondering how much Refresh "bones" would be worth as a Catch? I would think about 3, since you could stop by a butcher or dig up a grave to get them, and the character's people aren't likely to reveal this weakness to a lot of outsiders.

[Haru]

How far would it go? Is any old bone enough to satisfy the catch or would it have to be crafted into a weapon? How about if she breaks her own bones and the bone causes additional damage to her soft tissue, does that satisfy the catch, and does it incapacitate her even more than a broken bone would do to someone without the catch? If I scraped the skin of my knuckles in a fight, does that satisfy the catch? Is she incapacitated by touching bones? Could a birds cage made of bones make it impossible for her to escape on her own?

Mostly depends on how you would answer those questions. If she has to be hurt by a weapon crafted from bones, that would be far less than if she was incapacitated merely by being touched by bones.

Though it sounds weird, someone who frequently converses with the dead should not be vulnerable to something that so much symbolizes death. On the other hand, as a messenger she is in between both worlds, sort of belonging to neither. So it would make sense, that the embodiment of one end of that spectrum would be hurtful to her. And since it is sort of a one way street life -> death, it fits.
(Just had to think this out loud )

For all intents and purposes, 3 is probably a good number to go with. Though I would not just give someone the biggest recovery power they can afford due to their catch. Inhuman recovery is already pretty powerful, and I feel there should be a very good reason for someone to take supernatural and higher (this goes for the other powers as well, of course).

She could also simply take inhuman recovery without a catch. At the inhuman levels it is not really that powerful as to break the game. As a raven shapeshifter, she can already be nigh untouchable, if she so chooses (speed + diminutive size).

[Quantus]

Random Idea:  How about "Cats" instead of bones.  They too are psychopomps in mythology, are of Both worlds in the DV just like her (which would explain why they have a special immunity to her power), and it could be played as essentially an particularly strong allergy.  But then if there is a weapon made of Cat claws or bones, or coated in cat blood, or if you were fighting a lion in the zoo or a were-tiger or some such, the catch would also come into play.  Or if she busts in to stop a ritual and finds out that the entire circle was painted in the blood of the stray cats used as sacrifices, it would cause her extra difficulty to cross the circle.  Its common enough to come into play in lots of different circumstances, but uncommon enough that it wouldnt invalidate the ability regularly.

[Haru]

But then if there is a weapon made of Cat [...]

I know you said claws, but when I read this, my mind went straight to this :

(click to show/hide)

I like the idea of a cat as a rival psychopomp. Would that mean that cat's (or at least shapeshifter cats) are vulnerable to her kind as well? You could have a witch with her cat guarding a ritual against the raven shapeshifter. Might go a bit into roadrunner or Tweety territory, but why not? 

[Taran]

There's a First Nations story that I read recently about two divine beings who had fought each other.  They were brother and sister.  One had to be beat using a bone and the other was a deer antler.  When the brother was beaten, he left to go "west" which symbolized the "land of the dead".  I'll try to find you the story.

[Taran]

Found it!

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Huron-Creation-Myth-Wyandot.html

The catches are the horn of a wild animal and a bag of corn or beans.

[Wordmaker]

Thanks for the link, my wife will love that! She loves studying any kind of mythology, especially when it can relate to a game character.

The idea was that if she's cut, stabbed, or hit with a bone (or a weapon crafted from bone) then that triggers the Catch. Unfortunately, at the Up To Your Waist level, there isn't enough Refresh available to have both the ability to turn into a bird and Inhuman Recovery with a 0-point Catch unless she loses Echoes of the Beast.

I like the cat idea, but I might actually make that a potential antagonistic faction, rather than just a Catch.

I think including antlers as Catch triggers would also be good.

[Wordmaker]

Thought you might like to know, Taran, my wife has started looking at the rest of that site and absolutely loves it. Thanks!

[Taran]

That's great!  Glad I could help.