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Message no. 1
From: Ivan Cappiello <conan@**.COM.AU>
Subject: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 17:23:18 -0000
If a character were to take a severe allergy to gold would you be affected
if you were to use orichalcum? I am not sure which way to go on this one as
even though the gold may be changed during the process it is still magic.
And with magic anything goes.
Message no. 2
From: "Ratinac, Rand (NSW)" <RRatinac@*****.REDCROSS.ORG.AU>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 17:32:40 +1000
> If a character were to take a severe allergy to gold would you be
> affected
> if you were to use orichalcum? I am not sure which way to go on this
> one as
> even though the gold may be changed during the process it is still
> magic.
> And with magic anything goes.
(Ivan)

As I was discussing with Ivan, this question actually has other
ramifications, especially in the area of metallurgy. For example, say
you're allergic to iron. Does that mean you're also allergic to steel,
which has processed iron in it? And what about other allergies to things
once they are processed?

The answer could actually differ between the gold-orichalcum
relationship and the iron-steel and other similar relationships,
because, as Ivan pointed out so succinctly, the gold to orichalcum
process is magical - and orichalcum is a magical metal - whereas neither
iron nor steel are.

*Doc' explodes because of his allergic reaction to the plastic in the
plastic explosives.*

Doc'

.sig Sauer
Message no. 3
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 12:36:05 +0200
According to Ivan Cappiello, at 17:23 on 14 Oct 98, the word on the street was...

> If a character were to take a severe allergy to gold would you be affected
> if you were to use orichalcum? I am not sure which way to go on this one as
> even though the gold may be changed during the process it is still magic.
> And with magic anything goes.

I've always ruled that allergies are triggered by the actual substance,
not by the individual atoms. Orichalcum contains gold atoms, but not pure
gold, so it wouldn't affect a character allergic to gold.

However, I must say I always consider taking allergies to gold a rather
munchkinous thing to do, especially because it's almost always the result
of an "I won't wear jewelry so the allergy won't bother me" reasoning. (Oh
yeah, and if you're a GM with a player who decides to use this, read the
section about cyberware implementation in Shadowtech. EGMLOL...)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Warning! Choking hazard -- small letters.
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

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Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 4
From: Fixer <fixer@*******.TLH.FL.US>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 07:11:47 -0400
On Wed, 14 Oct 1998, Ivan Cappiello wrote:

->If a character were to take a severe allergy to gold would you be affected
->if you were to use orichalcum? I am not sure which way to go on this one as
->even though the gold may be changed during the process it is still magic.
->And with magic anything goes.

I vote yes, because of the gold still being present (it is
described as being orange-colored, right?) plus the game balance effect of
never seeming to run into the stuff.....

Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,
the difficult I do all day long,
the impossible only during the week,
and miracles performed on an as-needed basis....

Now tell me, what was your problem?
Message no. 5
From: Steve Eley <sfeley@***.NET>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 09:48:14 -0400
Gurth wrote:
>
> However, I must say I always consider taking allergies to gold a rather
> munchkinous thing to do, especially because it's almost always the result
> of an "I won't wear jewelry so the allergy won't bother me" reasoning.

And in a revival of the Dumb Things thread... >8->

Summer, 1995. Steve Eley, Newbie Shadowrun GM, is preparing his first
campaign. One of the players finishes character creation on his troll,
and tells me with munchkin smugness that he's taken a Severe Allergy for
the extra points -- but doesn't want to tell me WHICH allergy, because
"it'll never come up in the game anyway." I shrug and move on.
(Remember, I was a Newbie GM.)

First shadowrun. Mr. Johnson turns out to be a Free Hearth Spirit, and he
wants the runners to make trouble for a development company so they won't
kick the squatters out of a condemned building the spirit likes. The PC's
like the job, and don't even negotiate on the terms, but then one of them
asks: "But you're a spirit. How do we know you can even pay us?" The
spirit responds by manifesting his Wealth power. Gold coins shower down
upon the runners.

And the munchkin troll, of course, screams and runs for his life... >8->


Have Fun,
- Steve Eley
sfeley@***.net
Message no. 6
From: Brian Wong <rook@*****.INFINEX.COM>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 07:48:50 -0700
> > However, I must say I always consider taking allergies to gold a rather
> > munchkinous thing to do, especially because it's almost always the result
> > of an "I won't wear jewelry so the allergy won't bother me" reasoning.
>
> First shadowrun. Mr. Johnson turns out to be a Free Hearth Spirit, and he
> wants the runners to make trouble for a development company so they won't
> kick the squatters out of a condemned building the spirit likes. The PC's
> like the job, and don't even negotiate on the terms, but then one of them
> asks: "But you're a spirit. How do we know you can even pay us?" The
> spirit responds by manifesting his Wealth power. Gold coins shower down
> upon the runners.
>
> And the munchkin troll, of course, screams and runs for his life... >8->

Heh. I just made my first SR3 character. A Korean buddhist Nun who's
into rare book collecting. Her order is somewhat militant since the war of
reunification. As such she's a physical Adept specializing in pistols.
She has a hangup: She always uses a golden gun. If she can get them; she'd
also use gold plated bullets anytime she makes a hit (but not against those who
just get in the way).

The idea was inspired by the Seven Samurai movie (a person who'se whole
life is their skill in their weapon), the James Bond "Man with a golden gun"
movie, and the Anime Lupin III (Some elements of her code of honor come from
tweaks on one of the main characters there).
And the nun concept came from the absurd miniature that got me moving
on making a character.

But this just goes to show that you never know what personal
fetishes of others could get you into trouble.

JinJu to her Troll associate: "Here, hold this for a sec while I
get out my special clips" Hands golden gun to troll; who begins frothing
at the mouth.

--
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Message no. 7
From: Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 12:28:47 -0400
At 05:23 PM 10/14/98 -0000, you wrote:
>If a character were to take a severe allergy to gold would you be affected
>if you were to use orichalcum? I am not sure which way to go on this one as
>even though the gold may be changed during the process it is still magic.
>And with magic anything goes.

Not likely.

This goes back to the discussion, I think a few months ago, regarding the
mercury in orichalcum and if it's toxicity would affect people. According
to all the SR literature, SBs and novels, the answer to that question is no.

So I fail to see why an allergy would significantly different enough to
warrant a different answer.

Now if the allergy were to orichalcum, that would be one hell of a way to
limit the magician's potential power...

Erik J.
Message no. 8
From: David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.CARL.ORG>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 11:35:59 -0600
For the mere cost of a Thaum, Erik Jameson wrote:
/
/ At 05:23 PM 10/14/98 -0000, you wrote:
/ >If a character were to take a severe allergy to gold would you be affected
/ >if you were to use orichalcum?
/
/ Not likely.

Or, at a much lower severity. If someone has a severe allergy to pure
gold, they might have a nuisance allergy to an alloy containing gold.

Just a thought.

-David
--
"Earn what you have been given."
--
email: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm
Message no. 9
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 20:11:38 +0200
According to Steve Eley, at 9:48 on 14 Oct 98, the word on the street
was...

> And in a revival of the Dumb Things thread... >8->
[snip]
> "But you're a spirit. How do we know you can even pay us?" The
> spirit responds by manifesting his Wealth power. Gold coins shower down
> upon the runners.
>
> And the munchkin troll, of course, screams and runs for his life... >8->

I have a player who constantly did these same things -- allergies to gold
were probably his favorite tactic for getting a few extra points. Until he
made a character with a mild allergy to gold and about 5.5 Essence worth
of cyberware. When talking about this character with another player before
the character actually got into the game, I suddenly remembered that
passage from Shadowtech.

The next game session, the character turned out to have an itching rash
all over his body, concentrated especially in the areas with a lot of
cyberware (like his right arm). Beforehand we'd told everybody what the
cause was, except for the player who made that character, and he spent
about 3/4 of the evening wondering _why_ his char had that rash... When he
finally caught on (he said something like "No, it can't be my
cyberware..." and the rest of us couldn't really keep straight faces
anymore :) he wanted to trash the character and make a new one.

Luckil, he learned his lesson from that and AFAICR he hasn't made a
character with an allergy like that since.

Now he takes 6 to 10 contacts instead, half of them level 2... :/

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Warning! Choking hazard -- small letters.
-> NERPS Project Leader * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 10
From: K in the Shadows <Ereskanti@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Allergy
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 14:19:02 EDT
In a message dated 10/14/1998 6:03:15 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
fixer@*******.TLH.FL.US writes:

<snipped commentary about does Oricalcum set off an Allergy to Gold?>

> I vote yes, because of the gold still being present (it is
> described as being orange-colored, right?) plus the game balance effect of
> never seeming to run into the stuff.....
>
I also seem to recall that Orichalcum, when used in a weapon foci at least,
and striking a target with a vulnerability to a particular substance, whatever
the substance is, counts against the creature as if they had come into contact
with said substance.

Now I admit that a weapon foci is more than just a collection of orichalcum,
but using this precedent, the GM could readily say that Orichalcum *could*
create the allergic reaction to someone who was allergic to any of it's
component elements (though I seem to remember everyone being allergic to
Mercury ;).

-K

Further Reading

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