Voodoo Crafts
The Skills in the Voodoo Crafts section are stemming from techniques and a knowledge which are not in the reach of the commoner. At least the decision to learn them comes not as easy as going out early in the morning to buy some bread. That's a serious business! Even a dangerous one! The Game Master and the Bokorship Apprentices are thus kindly requested to check the sections regarding Encounters in the Dark and the Voodoo in their respective chapters to get to know a bit more about the topic and its accointances. The description of the Skills in Voodoo Crafts remains thus very short at that point of the rules.
Another specific of the Skills in that Section is that they come all in use exclusively with Power.
Brewing the Root Bier
Yes, you read well, it is here all about the worldwide famous beverage of the Milk & Honey Breweries (registered in Teetotallers' Haven, on Hattea), the beverage who made from that little family business a worldwide « success-story » in a few decades! That being said, there exist several possible receipes and, even if all have an effect on Ghosts – a dissolving effect to say it plainly – all of them do not have the same efficacy. The Voodoo priest or sorcerer knows more elaborate receipes which allow for preparing particularly powerful beverages and even other brewed beverages with a great range of various properties.
The use of that Skill requires not only some knowledge but also quite an important facility – it depends of course on the quantity which one intends to produce – as well as row materials: Bier Rooroot, other roots, stalks, leaves and tubers, preservatives, additives, colouring agents, etc., etc.
The creation of one's own Rooroot Beer receipes is not an easy task. Exactly that same Skill is required but several steps are necessary and so much more: the Game Master should think about, if one of the Players intend to create a new receipe, to build a complete Scenario around that idea…
That Skill has no specific Speciality at first sight but we are confident that your imagination will take care of that, dear Friend Game Master…
Level 0 : « Your beer even has no foam. If I were you I wouldn't dr… Blurp! »Level 10 : « Your mini Rooroot Beer sprayer was again a real splash! One liter only was enough to dissolve that ghastly Ghost Crew in its entirety! For the next commando I'll need three liters! Of the same vintage… »
Voodoo Puppets and Talismans
That Skill covers the field of all Voodoo practices consisting in enclosing a part of the power of a Lwa or any magical power in an artifact. Talismans can protect or bring evil on their bearer; Puppets are known - and feared! - in the whole Known World for their frightening power of transmitting the things which are said or done to the Puppet directly to the one they are the representation of.
That Skill consists primarily in the knowledge of the manufacturing techniques of Talismans and Puppets, those techniques by the way being of an extreme diversity according to the targetted properties (see the section on the Voodoo in Wikizebra, however, upon that, do not let your imagination be limited by anything there!), but of course, it can be implemented only if one has gathered the necessary ingredients and row materials (wood, clothes, tacks, wax, nails and hair of the victim, etc.) which are absolutely necessary for the manufacture.
That Skill can also serve to identify the action of such or such Puppet or Talisman, once one is aware of the action of a Voodoo power.
The design of one's own Talismans or Puppets is not an easy task at all, though that same Skill will again be the one to use to perform such an activity. It requires however several steps and often much more than that: the Game Master should even think of making a whole Scenario out of that if one of the Players intends to create a new type of Voodoo objects…
Level 0 : your artifacts bring evil while intended for luck and… while intended for evil… they have no effect!Level 10 : you are the Leonardo of the Voodoo! And do not ask what it means! You really make it rain or shine at will with your Talismans.
Rituals and Maledictions
That Skill covers the performing of Voodoo rites, masses, benedictions and maledictions. To be brought to their intended end, those operations require specific objects for the cult of the Lwa, the knowledge of the rites and formulas as well as a deep understanding of the Lwa and their powers. Indeed, the great majority of the Voodoo Rituals and Maledictions require an invokation (or more) to a Lwa or another (or even more than one) to be performed. And negotiating with those « individualities » is not always an easy thing!
The use of that Skill does not lead to the manufacture either of an object or of a beverage. On the contrary, objects and beverages or quantities of foodstuff are often required for the performance of a Voodoo Ritual, as well as fumigations, incense and all sorts of products for inducing trance, trance itself allowing for the arrival of the Lwa-Rider. (Please refer to the section on the Voodoo in the Wikizebra for more details about that; this notwithstanding, dear friend Game Master, do not hesitate to make the full use of your imagination to make the whole thing more picturesque!)
The design of one's own Rituals or Maledictions goes far beyond that even if it is managed through that same Skill. It requires however several steps and much more than that: the Game Master should even think of making a whole Scenario out of that if one of the Players intends to create a new type of Voodoo Rituals…
Level 0 : you have already been quite a number of times the victim of your own Maledictions. Luckily enough, they were ridiculous! But you should give up the profession or one day you'll have some bad surprise!Level 10 : you master an incredible number of Maledictions and other Rituals: you even have the power to bring back the dead out of the grave - well, in the state of Zombie - even up to several days after they died!
Strange Voodoo Things
That Skill is used for all the rest, everything which is magic or Voodoo in the Known World and does not fit into the field of one of the Voodoo Skills above. Well when it comes to say « serve », it would be more appropriate to understand it as a faculty to « manage » exotic and strange forms of magic rather than to « master » them, mastery being difficult to reach in that field.
Potions, Talismans, Rituals and other Maledictions of the Great Z.'s Voodoo all belong here because, to be honest, nobody really understand anything about it…
That Skills allows for – at least in theory! – developping new Voodoo techniques or also to understand perfectly this or that mysterious source of magic to integrate it to Voodoo Rituals – Voodoo being very open to importing other forms of techniques. However, achieving such objectives is only accessible to Voodoo Masters and the Game Master - himself! - could let play a complete Campaign, for instance amidst fierce competition of Bokor and Mambo in their race to the discovery of a new technique to impose their will to the rest of the Known World…
Level 0 : I tried to read that book about cooking and DIY… I found the mixing of the two topics quite bizarre, a bit macabre and really not so tasty!Level 10 : you have a kind of natural gift to make deals with the Lwa and they give you gadgets which are incredibly powerful! Maybe you are the real Boogy Woogy, already prophetised a long time ago on Hattea?!
