Awareness of Voodoo power, protections and counter-attacks
Awareness of Voodoo power and modification of Effects
In any case, the first - essential - thing is that the victim become aware that a Voodoo power is trying to act on him or her. Without that awareness, the victim's defensive powers are much reduced…
The chance to become aware of such can happen each time that the Voodoo power acts, at the time of the Roll for resistance against it, that is of an Opposition Roll with Power x 2 + 10 for the potential Victim versus the Level of the used Voodoo power (see below on that page in function of the type of Voodoo Craft utilised). The Roll is effected by the Game Master sice the Character is not yet aware of anything. At the first successful Roll, the aimed victim becomes aware that a surnatural Power acts on him or her, reducing its Effects at the same time temporarily (to which extent we leave up to the Game Master in whom we have all confidence) or even totally in case of a Critical Success. From the first successful Roll on, the Player can roll the dice him or herself if following attempts are again necessary.
In case of Failure at the first attempt, all the following Rolls should further be done by the Game Master while additionally applying a Malus of 3 (5 in case of Critical Failure) until one of them is a Success. For the story-telling scheme, that means that the Voodoo power apply its full Effects – or even additional ones in case of Critical Filure - without that the concerned Character even starts to understand that something is happening to him of her. If the victim is subjected to a Malediction or the workings of a Talisman with a longer action duration, the test for Awareness has to be rolled again at each time when the Voodoo power acts since that is the moment when the victim can become aware of anything. That process has in fact nothing to do with intellect: Power is at work here, not Cleverness! That means that simply knowing that one is victim of the action of Voodoo helps nothing in what regards the Awareness which we are currently discussing and which determines the degree of resistance that one can naturally oppose to a Voodoo Power…
Please note also – it is logical but not useless to remind – that the Mali are not cumulative and that as soon as one of the Rolls is successful, a Failure to one of the possible next Rolls has no more effect on the acquired Awareness of the Voodoo itself: in other words, once one has become aware of the action of an occult power, that awareness does not disappear as long as the same power is continuing to act !
The process of becoming aware of the action of a Voodoo power can be extremely important for the victim since some Talismans or Rituals will start having their effects only some time after they were enacted, which can be sufficient to find a parry or even, if the victim has sufficient accointances to the Voodoo, to prepare a counter-attack…
Protections
There exists means to protect oneself, at least partly, against the action of Voodoo, whatever their form. However, the most common ones are Talismans.
Most of the Talismans have a precise protecting effect, relatively specific, but there exists also very powerful Talismans (difficult to create or to procure) the action of which is much more general and can even encompass an entire region and not only a bearer… There also exist Talismans the sole effect of which – or one of the effects – is simply to warn the bearer that a Voodoo power acts upon him or her: in its most encompassing version, such a Talisman is already a very powerful artifact because it detects all possible forms of the action of the Lwa!
In general, a protecting Talisman works by giving a Bonus to ist bearer for the Rolls of Dices to be done against a Voodoo power corresponding to its scope of protection. That Bonus is generally valued between 1 and 5, sometimes more in the case of very powerful artifacts. The Talisman can in some cases undergo a change of state when it is working, for instance become warm, but it is in no case a property which is systematically built in.
Less frequently, a Talisman can work by limiting an amount of Damages resulting from the action of Voodoo power. Some Talismans, extremely powerful, combine all those protection modes and are therefore most searched for!
Counter-Attack
The natural resistance againt Voodoo power generally cannot really cancel its Effects or that is in a very partial way. Moreover, if it is conceivable to try to find and destroy a Voodoo Puppet or a Talisman to avoid a further use, that approach is totally ineffective in the Case of a Ritual or a Malediction, except if one can get the chance to break in right in the middle of the Ceremony, which assumes that one is already very well informed about its performers or orderers…
We also showed that some Talismans could help resisting the action of a Voodoo power, either that one would have by chance inherited or found such a Talisman or that one would have to procure it from a specialised dealer or even from a Voodoo Priest or a Sorcerer who would be able to analyse the problem and solve it… It can also be that one wouldn't be as well served as by oneself and we shall come to that!
And while we are at making fire from any possible Ol'Mam'o worn-out advice, let's go heartily, a great deal of the Voodoo stuff is a question of common-place sense: one will soon understand that it is of the first importance to know one's ennemy and that in most cases it is by using his or her own weapons that the chances of success are the highest. So what's that to say?!
We just discussed about the Roll for Awareness of the victiom of a Voodoo power.
In case of a Critical Failure, we already saw that the victim's resistance is much reduced; besides, the victim does not become aware at all that a Voodoo power is working and thus he or she is not in a position to undertake any kind of counter-measure by him or herself.
The same happens in the case of a Normal Success but if the victim acquires the certitude (which is not yet Awareness in the true sense as we saw it) that something unusual is happening, he or she will be in a position to roughly explain the problem to a Bokor or a Priest in order to get some help: however, the said Bokor or Priest will suffer a Malus of 5 for the related actions because of the rough Awareness of the victim regarding what is happening. One can even think of solving the problem by oneself if one is capable of it… or at least thinks it! In that case, the applicable Mali are also of 5.
In case of a Normal Success, the Awareness is sufficient to more or less determine the origin and type of involved Voodoo power. Countermeasures can reasonably be planed and resulting actions have now only a Malus of 3, whatever the means employed are of a Voodoo Sorcerer or Priest or one's own ones. That Malus can even be reduced according to the quantity and quality of the complementary information which could be gathered: for instance the location where the ceremony happened for a Malediction (reduction to 2) or, even better, the identity of the one or several leaders of the ceremony (reduction to 1)…
In case of a Critical Success, the Awareness becomes exceptionally clear and allows for a precise determination of the origin and type of involved Voodoo power with one (useful!) precision; it can take in some cases the form of dreams, visions or voices which very precisely reveal elements of what happened or still is happening!
As a consequence, the planed counter-measures suffer no Malus and can even benefit from a Bonus if useful additional pieces of information are gathered. The Bonus will usually be of 1 but can also in some cases reach even 3, according to the Game Master's judgement.
Now: what are the possible counter-measures? As already mentioned, it is on the ground of the ennemy that one has the best chances to beat him or her (Here is only meant the one who activated the Voodoo power who is not necessarilly the one who ordered the operation, who may as well have no link to the Voodoo at all!): a Talisman or a Ritual to counter the initially invoked power, yet also a Puppet, a Malediction of anything more unusual for vengeance… or else both of them! Then, it depends if the victim can act by him or herself or has to call on a specialist, which will be in the best cases negociated against a lot of cash (A Bokor rarely make credit…)and in the worst against the signature of servitude contacts or other dangerous or dreadful drudgery…
There is at that point not much more to add: the follow-up can be the object of a Scenario, even of a full-fledged campaign! (We think about it for a further opus, dear Friend leisy Game Master, have no fear… That is just why we are here!)