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Message no. 1
From: Pepe Barbe a19960615@****.edu.pe
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2001 18:55:18 -0500
Questions:

After an initiate has linked a spell to the focus and is holding his bonded
focus, he can override the "triggers" and turn on and off the focus at
will. If he turns on the focus without any trigger. Does he still make a
drain test?

After the focus has been triggered/turned on, the focus "casts" the spell
with the allocated sorcery dice. If it is turned off and then on again. The
Anchor recasts the spell? Or uses the same successes achieved before? The
initiate takes additional drain? ... I am just thinking of an smoking
initiate who has a lighter as an anchoring focus and it is hitting it until
he gets the needed amount of successes ... :)

And finally, does the anchoring focus still have astral trail leading to
the owner? What if he has masking?

Pepe
Message no. 2
From: Keith Duthie psycho@*********.co.nz
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 23:33:34 +1300 (NZDT)
On Wed, 3 Jan 2001, Pepe Barbe wrote:

> And finally, does the anchoring focus still have astral trail leading to
> the owner? What if he has masking?

The only way to hide the astral trail leading to the owner is, AFAIK, to
do an Astral Concealment astral quest. See page 94 of MiTS.

--
Understanding is a three edged sword. Do you *want* to get the point?
http://www.albatross.co.nz/~psycho/ O- -><-
Standard disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this message are unlikely to
be mine, let alone anybody elses...
Message no. 3
From: Damian Sharp zadoc@***.neu.edu
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 05:38:02 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 3 Jan 2001, Pepe Barbe wrote:

> Questions:
>
> After an initiate has linked a spell to the focus and is holding his bonded
> focus, he can override the "triggers" and turn on and off the focus at
> will. If he turns on the focus without any trigger. Does he still make a
> drain test?
>
> After the focus has been triggered/turned on, the focus "casts" the spell
> with the allocated sorcery dice. If it is turned off and then on again. The
> Anchor recasts the spell? Or uses the same successes achieved before? The
> initiate takes additional drain? ... I am just thinking of an smoking
> initiate who has a lighter as an anchoring focus and it is hitting it until
> he gets the needed amount of successes ... :)

As I understood, the number of successes was pretty much set, when you put
the spell in, and you'd soak the drain for the spell, every time it's
activated.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Damian Sharp of Real Life, College Graduate |
| Zauviir Seldszar of Wildlands, Scribe of House Maritym |
| Xavier Kindric of Shandlin's Ferry, member of Valindar |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Don't speak Latin in front of the books"
Message no. 4
From: Tobias Diekershoff Tobias.D@********.de
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 15:19:43 +0100
On 3 Jan 01 at 18:55, Pepe Barbe wrote:

> Questions:
>
> After an initiate has linked a spell to the focus and is holding his bonded
> focus, he can override the "triggers" and turn on and off the focus at
> will. If he turns on the focus without any trigger. Does he still make a
> drain test?

Yes I would say, that he have to make the drain test.

> After the focus has been triggered/turned on, the focus "casts" the spell
> with the allocated sorcery dice. If it is turned off and then on again. The
> Anchor recasts the spell? Or uses the same successes achieved before? The
> initiate takes additional drain? ... I am just thinking of an smoking
> initiate who has a lighter as an anchoring focus and it is hitting it until
> he gets the needed amount of successes ... :)

As the focus can only cast the spell one time and then have to be
reload the initat can only use his lighter once.

> And finally, does the anchoring focus still have astral trail leading to
> the owner? What if he has masking?

Again, yes thee focus will still have a trail to the owner. And with
the masking, he have to mask the focus separately and intentionally.

> Pepe

I hope that helps, but as I don't often handle with Initates I could
be totally wrong ;)

- Tobias

---------
http://home.t-online.de/home/tobias.d
Message no. 5
From: Pepe Barbe a19960615@****.edu.pe
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 09:41:21 -0500
At 09:19 a.m. 04/01/01, Tobias Diekershoff wrote:
>As the focus can only cast the spell one time and then have to be
>reload the initat can only use his lighter once.

An anchoring Focus is reusable.

Pepe
Message no. 6
From: Pepe Barbe a19960615@****.edu.pe
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 09:40:39 -0500
At 05:38 a.m. 04/01/01, Damian Sharp wrote:
> > After the focus has been triggered/turned on, the focus "casts" the
spell
> > with the allocated sorcery dice. If it is turned off and then on again.
> The
> > Anchor recasts the spell? Or uses the same successes achieved before? The
> > initiate takes additional drain?
>
>As I understood, the number of successes was pretty much set, when you put
>the spell in, and you'd soak the drain for the spell, every time it's
>activated.

Check MITS page 70, Linking the Spell -> Spell Casting. It says basically
that you have to take note of the number of dice the Anchor will roll when
activated.

Pepe
Message no. 7
From: Travis Heldibridle antithesis@**********.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 12:19:34 -0500
-----Original Message-----
From: shadowrn-admin@*********.com
[mailto:shadowrn-admin@*********.com]On Behalf Of Pepe Barbe
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 9:41 AM
To: shadowrn@*********.com
Subject: Re: Anchoring Focus


At 09:19 a.m. 04/01/01, Tobias Diekershoff wrote:
>>As the focus can only cast the spell one time and then have to be
>>reload the initat can only use his lighter once.

Pepe Barbe wrote:
>An anchoring Focus is reusable.


Well not all are reusable, and even the reusable ones are only good for one
casting. Then you have to re-link the spell (it is in MiTS). The only
difference between a reusuable one and a one shot is that you don't have to
go through the time to prepair new foci. You just re-link the spell to the
same focus.

This is, in my opinion, not all that great. I've considered house rules to
remedy the situation somewhat without hitting the checks and balances of the
game to hard. one idea I had was to allow a mage to link an additional
casting of the spell by spending a point of Karma... but I doubt that would
work.



Thankya,
Travis Heldibridle
Message no. 8
From: Sebastian Wiers m0ng005e@*****.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 17:34:26 -0600
>Well not all are reusable, and even the reusable ones are only good for one
>casting. Then you have to re-link the spell (it is in MiTS). The only
>difference between a reusuable one and a one shot is that you don't have to
>go through the time to prepair new foci. You just re-link the spell to the
>same focus.
>
>This is, in my opinion, not all that great.

How so? It makes casting spells faster AND more effective. Faster,
because you can trigger the focus as a free action, and it then casts a
spell! More effective, because you can allocate every die you have to the
casting of the spell- when it goes off, it uses all those dice, but your
pool is refreshed and can still be used for resiting drain, maintaing
defense, or whatever. This is the BOMB for casting healing spells on the
fly, and not to shabby for popping up a nice beafy barrier, armor spell,
invisability spell, levitate spell, or similar right in the middle of
combat.

-Mongoose
Message no. 9
From: Sebastian Wiers m0ng005e@*****.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 17:28:06 -0600
>>As the focus can only cast the spell one time and then have to be
>>reload the initat can only use his lighter once.
>
>An anchoring Focus is reusable.
>
>Pepe

Those two statements are not incompatible.
Yes, its re-usable. The way you "use" an anchoring focus is to allocate
dice to the casting of a spell. It then essentially delays that casting,
doing the actual casting for you when it is triggered- but you still resist
drain.
The anchoring focus (if it is not an expendable one) can then be used to
repeat this process, but it can not re-cast the spell until that process is
repeated.

-Mongoose
Message no. 10
From: Rand Ratinac docwagon101@*****.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 16:14:27 -0800 (PST)
> At 09:19 a.m. 04/01/01, Tobias Diekershoff wrote:
> >>As the focus can only cast the spell one time and
then have to be reload the initat can only use his
lighter once.
>
> Pepe Barbe wrote:
> >An anchoring Focus is reusable.
>
> Well not all are reusable, and even the reusable
ones are only good for one casting. Then you have to
re-link the spell (it is in MiTS). The only difference
between a reusuable one and a one shot is that you
don't have to go through the time to prepair new foci.
You just re-link the spell to the same focus.
>
> This is, in my opinion, not all that great. I've
considered house rules to remedy the situation
somewhat without hitting the checks and balances of
the game to hard. one idea I had was to allow a mage
to link an additional casting of the spell by spending
a point of Karma... but I doubt that would work.
> Travis Heldibridle

This is why, IMNSHO, anchoring foci (and the anchoring
metamagic) suck. The only thing they're of any use for
is contingencies (IF shot at THEN activate barrier).
Well, that and giving mundanes weapons against spirits
etc. (remember the magical "bomb" example from MitS?)
- but even then just sending along a mage with the
mundanes would be a lot more efficient. For all other
things, sustaining foci are MUCH better.

That's what you want, Pepe. A force 1 sustaining focus
(which you can buy for 15k) linked to an ignite spell.
That way you can (if you really want to) have your
"flick the Bic" effect - just cast the spell multiple
times, dropping it immediately after casting it and
the last time you DON'T drop it. If your mage can't do
that without taking drain, then he doesn't really
deserve to be called a mage. :)

Personally, I don't see the point. I think it'd be
more impressive to have a lighter that catches first
time, every time. But each to their own...:)

*Doc' wanders around, casting ignite spells at
people's butts whenever they fart...*

====Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow, aka Doc'booner, aka Doc' Vader)

.sig Sauer

Can you SMELL what THE DOC' is COOKIN'!!!

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Message no. 11
From: Pepe Barbe a19960615@****.edu.pe
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 21:37:29 -0500
At 07:14 p.m. 04/01/01, Rand Ratinac wrote:
>This is why, IMNSHO, anchoring foci (and the anchoring
>metamagic) suck.

So, what would you propose to remedy this? What changes do you think the
rules need? I would say, as I understood first, when the Anchoring Focus is
not remotely activated, that is activated by the owner when holding it, no
need of re-linking needed. Drain would still apply, and I'd say that the
sorcery dice should be rolled at the moment of the linking and all the
successes be annotated. Maybe this would need to increase the bonding price
a bit, but would make this foci worth it, don't you think?

>If your mage can't do that without taking drain, then he doesn't really
>deserve to be called a mage. :)

Well, I was thinking of more powerful spells ... And after all smoking
kills ... :)

>Personally, I don't see the point. I think it'd be more impressive to have
>a lighter that catches first time, every time. But each to their own...:)

Its called Napalm I think ... :)

Pepe
Message no. 12
From: Sebastian Wiers m0ng005e@*****.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 21:38:43 -0600
>So, what would you propose to remedy this? What changes do you think the
>rules need? I would say, as I understood first, when the Anchoring Focus is
>not remotely activated, that is activated by the owner when holding it, no
>need of re-linking needed. Drain would still apply, and I'd say that the
>sorcery dice should be rolled at the moment of the linking and all the
>successes be annotated. Maybe this would need to increase the bonding price
>a bit, but would make this foci worth it, don't you think?

More than. That is essentially just what the old SR2 spell lock did.
It didn;t cause drain, this would, but lets face it, drain is a blowoff for
most mages whose players know what they are doing. Especially since they
would have thier pool to use on drain.
The SR2 spell lock got the ax for good reasons, both balance and "game
world logic" wise.

-Sebastian
Message no. 13
From: Rand Ratinac docwagon101@*****.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 20:35:12 -0800 (PST)
> So, what would you propose to remedy this? What
changes do you think the rules need?
<snipt(TM)!>
> Pepe

Don't know and honestly, don't care. I think the way
anchoring is done really sucks - oh, you know what I
think is the real indicator of anchoring's suckiness?
That not a single player I've been in a game with, or
had play in a game of mine has taken anchoring since
SR3 came out. Anyway, as I was about to say, you pay
through the nose in money and/or karma and then you
get something that only works once before requiring
another casting (then again, I am a fan of the
original spell locks) and - and this is the killer to
my mind - the caster takes the drain WHEN the focus is
activated. IMO, if you're a mage that totally defeats
the purpose of the focus, unless you're going to hire
OTHER mages to make them for you.

I suppose that's the one thing I'd change, really, to
make it worthwhile. I could live with the recasting
and the cost etc., IF the drain was taken at the time
of casting. That way you could ready a bunch of foci
(within reason), take the drain then, then head on in
to do your job (over?)confident that they'll take care
of you, instead of draining your ass.

====Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow, aka Doc'booner, aka Doc' Vader)

.sig Sauer

Can you SMELL what THE DOC' is COOKIN'!!!

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Message no. 14
From: Sebastian Wiers m0ng005e@*****.com
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 07:14:38 -0600
>Don't know and honestly, don't care. I think the way
>anchoring is done really sucks - oh, you know what I
>think is the real indicator of anchoring's suckiness?
>That not a single player I've been in a game with, or
>had play in a game of mine has taken anchoring since
>SR3 came out.

Did any of them use anchoring BEFORE SR3 came out? Hell, you didn't even
need to make the special effort to LEARN it back then- you got it FREE.
Still wasn't that popular- most people never got past trying to figure out
the rules.

It was used by PC's a grand total of one time in our game, and that one time
was to make a "makeover" anchor for or snotty elf (as opposed to the 4
non-snotty elves the group also had).

-Mongoose
Message no. 15
From: Pepe Barbe a19960615@****.edu.pe
Subject: Anchoring Focus
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 10:25:32 -0500
At 10:38 p.m. 04/01/01, Sebastian Wiers wrote:
> >So, what would you propose to remedy this? What changes do you think the
> >rules need? I would say, as I understood first, when the Anchoring Focus is
> >not remotely activated, that is activated by the owner when holding it, no
> >need of re-linking needed. Drain would still apply, and I'd say that the
> >sorcery dice should be rolled at the moment of the linking and all the
> >successes be annotated. Maybe this would need to increase the bonding price
> >a bit, but would make this foci worth it, don't you think?
>
> More than. That is essentially just what the old SR2 spell lock did.
>It didn;t cause drain, this would, but lets face it, drain is a blowoff for
>most mages whose players know what they are doing. Especially since they
>would have thier pool to use on drain.
> The SR2 spell lock got the ax for good reasons, both balance and "game
>world logic" wise.

I don't have much time playing SR, and even less playing SR3 especifically,
so I can't say for sure; but will all the karma invested in initiation and
bonding I would think that anchors aren't that balanced.

Pepe

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