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Message no. 1
From: Hahns Shin Hahns_Shin@*******.com
Subject: An observation (was Re: Decker Mage)
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 02:36:46 -0500
I've noticed that people who defend having mages with cyberware have
characters or player characters in their campaign who are mages with 'ware.
I also noticed that some people took my melodramatics and beat me over the
head with them. :-) For that, I apologize. I think the SR world was meant
to be verisimilar to the real world (the opening story in SR2 is "Plus ca
change...", the more things change, the more they stay the same), and much
like the real world, there will be different strokes for different folks.
There will be mages who have no problems with cyberware and other mages who
will consider every day a curse for sticking a blasted piece of metal in
their head. Part of roleplaying is bringing your personal attitudes to a
character, and I just happen to think that cyberware would have a vast
effect on a person's psyche, perhaps so much as change that person for the
worse. I'm currently playing a character who is a Physical Mage with a
small amount of Bioware (cheeze factor galore), and he has no problems with
it at all... in fact, he has an unnatural curiosity about tech and gizmos.

As far as specialization goes, who makes more money? The anesthesiologist or
the general practitioner? Or on the flipside, who makes more money? The
actor who can play on the stage, screen, TV, etc. or the actor who is stuck
playing a role in a popular sit com? (Don't look too carefully at these
metaphors, but I just want to point out an example.) The role of
versatility/specialization is highly dependent on context of the situation.
In many professions, being great at one thing is much better than being
mediocre in many things (as any college counselor... when they look at
incoming students, they look for a single special attribute rather than
someone who participated in many activities). But in some professions,
versatility is the rule rather than the exception. Cross-training can
strengthen team interaction and communication.

To get this off-topic rant back to the world of SR, it could be that the
shadows only hire you when you are the best at one thing... for example, you
are hired because of one or two useful skills (mage, rigger, etc.). Or it
could be that you have learned to be versatile by working as part of a team,
learning to cover your teammate's butts, etc. Both views are equally valid,
depending on your campaign. This post is getting way too long, so I'll feed
it to the hellhounds.

<flame barrier spell locked>
Hahns
Message no. 2
From: Alfredo B Alves dghost@****.com
Subject: An observation (was Re: Decker Mage)
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 12:30:25 -0500
On Thu, 1 Jun 2000 02:36:46 -0500 "Hahns Shin" <Hahns_Shin@*******.com>
writes:
<SNIP>
> As far as specialization goes, who makes more money? The
> anesthesiologist or
> the general practitioner?
<SNIP>

An anesthesiologist always has work. How many medical procedures require
anesthesia? On the otherside, does every `run require a decker, or a
rigger? Or even a mage?

> The role of
> versatility/specialization is highly dependent on context of the
> situation.
<SNIP>
> But in some
> professions,
> versatility is the rule rather than the exception. Cross-training
> can
> strengthen team interaction and communication.

Shadowrunning is one of the prefessions where that is the case. Slinging
spells is tough work and when a mage is too pooped to pop off spells, he
is so much dead weight ... he needs an alternative to slinging the mojo
around. You know ... he needs to be versitile. :P~

> To get this off-topic rant back to the world of SR, it could be that
> the
> shadows only hire you when you are the best at one thing... for
> example, you
> are hired because of one or two useful skills (mage, rigger, etc.).
> Or it
> could be that you have learned to be versatile by working as part of
> a team,
> learning to cover your teammate's butts, etc. Both views are
> equally valid,
> depending on your campaign. This post is getting way too long, so
> I'll feed
> it to the hellhounds.

If you are "the best at one thing" you are most likely not good at much
else. Which likely means some teammate is covering your ass in those
other areas ... which means that some teammate is distracted and doesn't
cover his ass so well.

Versitility means not slowing the team down in some areas. It does not
mean being equal in all areas, and it especially does not mean being the
best at everything.

Case in point. I like to have mages with Sorcery and Conjury at 6 but I
will sacrifice a point or two to make sure I have a firearm and stealth
skills of at least 4. I generally have a vehicle skill of 3. Unarmed
combat is generally 3-5. In other words, the character is not likely to
be SOL in most situations. They may not be breezing through the
situation, but they aren't clinging to another character's arm either.

--
D. Ghost
Profanity is the one language all programmers know best
- Troutman's 6th programming postulate.

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