Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Andy D Pfister)
Subject: Adept Powers Duration
Date: Sat Sep 29 17:40:01 2001
Hi List,
I read a few SR-novels lately, and I've come over the concept of Adept
Powers beeing called on when needed, not beeing always present (Wolf and
Raven by Michael Stackpole). Our group has been playing it the second way
until now, but I checked in the SR3rd, and I couldn't find any reference
tothe powers beeing permanent or only called upon. Did I miss anything? What
does MitS say?

This is my first post, and I hope this list will turn out as helpful and fun
as it seems to be :)

Gak the Great
26000 BC: Gak Eisenberg invents the first and only
silent mammoth wistle.
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Hahns Shin)
Subject: Adept Powers Duration
Date: Sun Sep 30 12:35:01 2001
Well, Wolf is a special case scenario, one of those unique Awakened
who doesn't fall into an SR "category" per se. I imagined two ways to
make something similar. The first is vanilla SR: Simply make a totemic
adept with a few Geases (I believe Wolf has a talisman geas at the
very least, with possibly a time geas dealing with the cycles of the
moon). The second is a new type of conjuring aspected mage, something
similar to voodoun, possibly called a totemic conjuring aspected mage
(say that 10 times fast!). Basically it is the same as being possessed
by a Loa, only instead you are possessed by the "spirit of animals"
("eyes of the hawk, ears of the wolf, strength of the bear, speed of
the puma"). You could make this a sort of shamanic subspecialty or
you can make it a metamagical ability. I would also restrict
increasing stats to one stat per service (Normally, you increase all
physical attributes by the Force of the summoned Loa), but give the
character a bit more autonomy when he is "possessed". Also, the spirit
powers given to the character would be attenuated and correspond with
the animal summoned ("nose of the dog?"). The character can roleplay
"arguing" with the spirit in order to gain powers until
sunrise/sunset... I like it already.

Hahns Shin, MS II
Budding cybersurgeon
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already
know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be
killed."
-G. K. Chesterton
Message no. 3
From: shadowrn@*********.com (shadowrn@*********.com)
Subject: Adept Powers Duration
Date: Sun Sep 30 13:55:04 2001
In a message dated 9/30/01 12:08:56 PM, shadowrn-request@*********.com writes:
>I read a few SR-novels lately, and I've come over the concept of Adept
>Powers beeing called on when needed, not beeing always present (Wolf and
>Raven by Michael Stackpole). Our group has been playing it the second way
>until now, but I checked in the SR3rd, and I couldn't find any reference
>tothe powers beeing permanent or only called upon. Did I miss anything?
>What does MitS say?

Not much, considering most adept powers are assumed to be permanent duration,
exceptions are generally noted in the power descriptions.

The assumption (at least my assumption when I revised or wrote up the adept
powers) is that most of powers (like Improved Attribute or Improved Ability)
are permanent and require no concentration or effort on the part of the
adept, they're a natural part of the adept's being.

Mike Stackpole's Wolfgang Kies tends to "bend" the rules a little because he
came into being before there even *were* adepts in Shadowrun (acutally Mike
wrote the first Wolf & Raven story in '88 before Shadowrun was even
published). Paul Hume mentioned that Wolf was one of the reasons that
physical adepts were included in the first edition Grimoire.

I'd say that Wolf is an adept who follows the Totem Way (maybe even a
magician adept, if you take into account the healing spell he casts in one
story). His conversations with the Old One and "conjuring" the Wolf's gifts
are just special effects (or maybe geasa of a sort). His shapeshifting
ability is probably a unique power of his, maybe a Knack (see the Knack power
at http://members.aol.com/talonmail/mitsmisc.html).

Hope that helps,

Steve Kenson

Talon Studio
http://members.aol.com/talonmail

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Adept Powers Duration, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

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.

Thwap!