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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: JOHN SPAIN <93135653@****.DCU.IE>
Subject: Rules ahoy!
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 21:45:40 +0000
>If my rules-layering was somewhat strident, I suppose it was because the
>character was posited and then explained after the fact. If someone had asked
>"Does anyone have problems if I introduce X?" then the whole issue can be
>discussed in a (hopefully) rational manner. But once things are already
>rolling, they can be a lot more difficult to handle objectively.

Well, since that someone is me, I guess I better answer that. I did, in fact
announce exactly who and what Disbeliever was when the character made his
first brief appearance before summer. No one objected then, and since
references had been made to nega-mages on the list before (See the kidnapping
of Joseph Yoshida waaay back) I assumed it was a-ok.

Just wanted to make the point that I _did_ follow procedure.

J.S.
Message no. 2
From: "Mark L. Neidengard" <mneideng@****.CALTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Rules ahoy!
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 14:09:06 -0700
According to JOHN SPAIN:
>
> Well, since that someone is me, I guess I better answer that. I did, in fact
> announce exactly who and what Disbeliever was when the character made his
> first brief appearance before summer. No one objected then, and since
> references had been made to nega-mages on the list before (See the kidnapping
> of Joseph Yoshida waaay back) I assumed it was a-ok.

DOH! *whacks forehead* I guess that's what I get for tuning in late and not
having enough endurance to wade through the collected plot-d logs.

Well, for my own edification then, how exactly are nega-mages supposed to
work? I'd look up the mechanics myself, but noone's been able to furnish
me a reference. Is it like intrinsic Shielding or what?
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 3
From: JOHN SPAIN <93135653@****.DCU.IE>
Subject: Re: Rules ahoy!
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 22:35:17 +0000
>Well, for my own edification then, how exactly are nega-mages supposed to
>work? I'd look up the mechanics myself, but noone's been able to furnish
>me a reference. Is it like intrinsic Shielding or what?

I saw the nega-mage in a british rpg magazine. I don't have it, but I remember
well enough the salient points:

A nega mage invests his 3 priority to magic, something like an adept, but instead of
getting partial magical powers, he gets a complete lack of magic. I assume
this is something the character has since he is born. The character is basically a wlking
magic-free zone. He is invisible in astral space, spirits cannot see
him or react to his presence (Although they will avoid walking into him)
and magic simply has no effect. Every time the character implants cyberware,
he runs the risk (Can't remember the exact dice rolls) of losing his power
completely. That's about it.

Not an overly powerful character really. He is lunchmeat in front of a Samurai,
no matter how good he is, and a mage can take him fairly easy once he knows
what he is by using spells with elemental effects (He might be immune to magic,
but he'd be pretty vulnerable to a rock thrown by telekinesis, for example)

-J.S.
Message no. 4
From: "Mark L. Neidengard" <mneideng@****.CALTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Rules ahoy!
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 15:51:32 -0700
According to JOHN SPAIN:
>
> I saw the nega-mage in a british rpg magazine. I don't have it, but I remember
> well enough the salient points:

Is that KaGe?

> A nega mage invests his 3 priority to magic, something like an adept, but instead of
getting partial magical powers, he gets a complete lack of magic. I assume
> this is something the character has since he is born. The character is basically a
wlking magic-free zone. He is invisible in astral space, spirits cannot see
> him or react to his presence (Although they will avoid walking into him)
> and magic simply has no effect. Every time the character implants cyberware,
> he runs the risk (Can't remember the exact dice rolls) of losing his power
> completely. That's about it.

Hmm...well, pedantically speaking, adepts must allocate Magic to be priority
B and full mages must put it as A (unless they're metahumans and the Less
Metahumans rule is in effect).

> Not an overly powerful character really. He is lunchmeat in front of a
> Samurai, no matter how good he is, and a mage can take him fairly easy once
> he knows what he is by using spells with elemental effects (He might be
> immune to magic, but he'd be pretty vulnerable to a rock thrown by
> telekinesis, for example)

Hmm. An interesting situation: the nega-mage is really hard to hose with
spells and can evade nearly all sorts of magical security, but is worse on
average than other characters in terms of physical performance. Perhaps
troublesome to reconcile with some views of magic, but certainly not
unreasonable. As far as attack by elemental-effect spells, only some such
effects would be effective. An area-effect spell like Hellblast would not
catch him in the initial fireball (since Shielding is effective in such
instances, and I presume that nega-magic works similarly to personal Shielding)
but would certainly stick him in the middle of whatever caught fire in that
blast. =)

Well, I guess I can shut up about the topic now =) Thanks for the info.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.