Thus Spake Zarataylor/GunzoshaArmourAndExaltation

izzylobo - 02/01/2004 05:31:48

Okay, I actually hadn't considered this - but I'm sure the First-Age Sorcerer-Engineers who designed and built the Gunzosha armor *did* - after all, the process of Exaltation was a known factor, and in the First Age, it happened on a not-utterly infrequent basis. So at some point some Gunzosha must have exalted, and they had to deal with it.

My *first* response would be "the amulets detect the sudden surge in Essence, and shut down automagically, to prevent damaging either the armor, the amulets, or the host." - Exaltation shouldn't be a fuck-you, and while there *are* things (like being a Wyld Mutant) that limit your Exaltation in one way or another, any Exalt can wear Gunzosha armor if they want (without using amulets). You'd want to get the amulets out so you could re-deploy the armor to another mortal, but other than that, they aren't an issue.

If I *were* to assign a downside, it might be as simple as "your total Essence recovery rate is reduced by 1 mote per hour, and you keep on aging faster - possibly at a reduced rate. Oh, and you still have to commit the motes to drive the armor". But I'd be loathe to do that unless the player *really* wanted to play out the "eventually doomed" schtick.

I wouldn't want to do something like "you're going to die" and then make it some hideously insane quest to remove the amulets. It doesn't make sense, technomagically, and it's the sort of thing where, as a Storyteller, I have to play it carefully - deadlines are a lot easier to manage in movies or books, where one can dictate how long the hero is going to waffle over the blue or red wire! :-)

Additionally, that either makes the storyline "how we saved Bob from his armor" or "aren't they cold vicious killers for not helping Bob with his whole armor problem." - your issue will tend to become center stage until it is resolved, just because, well, you could *die*. (This is not a slam - just an acknowledgement of how such things work).

A possible hook for you, though - what about a Gunzosha that is near the end of his decade? You're talking, at that point, about someone who is ten years older - chronologically - than they are physically - so while they might look forty, they've only got ten-twenty years of life left. If he's still wearing the armor (since it's the only way for him to keep up with his allies), he's literally killing himself every day he continues to wear it. On the backside of it, *you* know he's likely to Exalt, but *he* doesn't.

Scott Taylor