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From:	Justin Elliott <justin.elliott@********.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:	Astral combat question.
Date:	Mon, 7 Dec 1998 17:06:09 +1300

Message no. 1 Ok, I have a question that came up during our last session.

A druid was in astral combat with a security mage, now at first the
Security Mage was doing physical damage (you can choose in SR3 as to
whether the damage is stun or not). However it quickly became evident that
the Druids body was being healed ( which it was, by a sorcery adept
standing guard) so he switched to doing Stun (this resulted in the Druid
having many Stim Patches slapped on him to his horror!). Anyway eventually
the "fight" was broken off.

My question is this: what happens to a mage if they are forced unconcious
while astral. As far as I can remember the rules don't mention this, and it
wasn't a concern in SR2 where all astral damage was physical.

My guess is that the mage snaps back to his body and feels very sick when
he wakes. But what do you guys rule on this?

Justin

From:	Starjammer <starjammer@**********.COM>
Subject:	Re: Astral combat question.
Date:	Sun, 6 Dec 1998 23:32:22 -0500

Message no. 2 At 05:06 PM 12/7/98 +1300, Justin wrote:

<snip astral combat description>

>My question is this: what happens to a mage if they are forced unconcious
>while astral. As far as I can remember the rules don't mention this, and it
>wasn't a concern in SR2 where all astral damage was physical.
>
>My guess is that the mage snaps back to his body and feels very sick when
>he wakes. But what do you guys rule on this?

Close, there's a rule somewhere in SR3 which discusses the "disruption" of
a magician's astral form when they're knocked out. Let's see...

[Pause while I look for the rule...]

Here it is, SR3, p. 175-6, the last paragraph of the Astral Damage section.
An astrally projecting magician who's knocked out is disrupted. His
astral form immediately returns to his body, regardless of distance or
intervening barriers, he's knocked out with Deadly Stun damage and must
recover normally, and must also check for Magic loss. Spirits are
disrupted, vanish from the astral plane altogether, and can't return for
28-Force days. Presumably, the rules in the Grimoire for recalling a
disrupted spirit with an astral quest would apply.

Starjammer | Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem.
starjammer@**********.com | "The one hope of the doomed is not to hope
Marietta, GA | for safety." --Virgil, The Aeneid

From:	Jared Leisner <leisnj48@****.CIS.UWOSH.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Astral combat question.
Date:	Sun, 6 Dec 1998 23:01:31 -0600

Message no. 3 [lets scissors run wild]

>Here it is, SR3, p. 175-6, the last paragraph of the Astral Damage section.
> An astrally projecting magician who's knocked out is disrupted. His
>astral form immediately returns to his body, regardless of distance or
>intervening barriers, he's knocked out with Deadly Stun damage and must
>recover normally, and must also check for Magic loss.

So, as a last ditch effort, instead of getting killed, a magician can
disrupt himself and chance the Magic loss?

-Jared

From:	Starjammer <starjammer@**********.COM>
Subject:	Re: Astral combat question.
Date:	Mon, 7 Dec 1998 00:18:50 -0500

Message no. 4 At 11:01 PM 12/6/98 -0600, Jared wrote:

<snip summary of disruption rule>

>So, as a last ditch effort, instead of getting killed, a magician can
>disrupt himself and chance the Magic loss?

Guess so. There's a small hole in the rule, though. The disruption rule
specifically refers to Deadly Stun damage, and of course killed is killed.
It doesn't say what happens if someone's knocked out by taking Deadly
Physical damage but doesn't die from overflow. I'd guess the disruption
rule would apply. One for the errata?

Starjammer | Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem.
starjammer@**********.com | "The one hope of the doomed is not to hope
Marietta, GA | for safety." --Virgil, The Aeneid

From:	Bob Tockley <zzdeden@*******.COM.AU>
Subject:	Re: Astral combat question.
Date:	Mon, 7 Dec 1998 16:46:01 +1100

Message no. 5 When I first saw the topic, I thought it was "Astral/Combat question" and
was about cats... \=)

[>]ARKHAM
"I used to think that the mind was the most fascinating part of a
human being - until I realized what was telling me that..."

From:	Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject:	Re: Astral combat question.
Date:	Mon, 7 Dec 1998 11:31:40 +0100

Message no. 6 According to Justin Elliott, at 17:06 on 7 Dec 98, the word on
the street was...

> My question is this: what happens to a mage if they are forced unconcious
> while astral. As far as I can remember the rules don't mention this, and it
> wasn't a concern in SR2 where all astral damage was physical.

It has always been possible to choose whether to do physical or stun
damage in astral combat; only things like wards and foci always did
physical damage because they didn't "know" any better, being dumb objects
rather than truly alive.

> My guess is that the mage snaps back to his body and feels very sick when
> he wakes. But what do you guys rule on this?

The magician goes unconscious and is returned to his or her body
automatically. Then check normally for when the character wakes up again
(which should take several hours, on average). A check for magic loss is
also needed in SR3, but not in SRII.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
If I had green hair, I'd dye it.
-> 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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