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Message no. 1
From: arcady@***.net arcady@***.net
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 99 10:13:54 +700
Hello;

I've got a group of 5 magical PCs.

Two mages, one shaman, one adept and one who's revising his character and hasn't
yet sent in the revision (but has told me it will also follow the magical theme
as some kind of doctor in the mundane aspects).

One thing these guys are fond of doing is scouting ahead astrally. How can I
best deal with this? What are things that restrict it or make it more interesting?
Can they see as well astrally as they do physically or is perception there totally
different? I gather they can't read when astral; correct?

On the other topic; has anyone run an all magical group before? What are good
ways to do this in Shadowrun? Good challenges that take advantage of this format
and things that are ill advised to try?

Thank you.

Arcady WebRPG Magistrate http://townhall.webrpg.com <0){{{{><
Artwork: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/lothlorien/artists/brianfw/brianfw.html
/.)\ The revolution will not be telivised. It'll be emailed.
\(@/ Homepage: http://www.jps.net/arcady/
Message no. 2
From: lomion lomion@*********.escnd1.sdca.home.com
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 10:56:13 -0700
>One thing these guys are fond of doing is scouting ahead astrally. How can I
>best deal with this? What are things that restrict it or make it more
>interesting?


Well living things can restrict it, those walls covered in ivy are great
blockers. Also use of dual-natured creatures, wards, patrolling
spirits/elementals/watchers or the mage floating around can all turn into
nasty surprises.


>Can they see as well astrally as they do physically or is perception there
>totally
>different? I gather they can't read when astral; correct?


Your correct, they cannot read really, they can get impressions from books
and written material but monitors are just dead to them. Also a book on
computer science would be as dead as the monitor.
Message no. 3
From: Marc Renouf renouf@********.com
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 14:11:43 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, lomion wrote:

> Your correct, they cannot read really, they can get impressions from books
> and written material but monitors are just dead to them. Also a book on
> computer science would be as dead as the monitor.

...unless it was a really expressive, exciting, and emotional book
on computer science. But how likely is that? :)

Marc
Message no. 4
From: kawaii kawaii@********.org
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 14:08:58 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Marc Renouf wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, lomion wrote:
>
> > Your correct, they cannot read really, they can get impressions from books
> > and written material but monitors are just dead to them. Also a book on
> > computer science would be as dead as the monitor.
>
> ...unless it was a really expressive, exciting, and emotional book
> on computer science. But how likely is that? :)
>
> Marc
>
>

Have you read one of Borlunds Turbo Pascal books? Exciting stuff, man! One
of the best reads in my life! I couldn't put thew thing down. ;)

Astrally, a book has the emotional value that the person who owns it
imparts, moreso than the author, since most books are printed via machines
nowadays. =)

Ever lovable and always scrappy,
kawaii
Message no. 5
From: 00DNA mcmanus@******.albany.edu
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 15:28:01 -0400
At 10:13 AM 7/19/99 +0700, arcady@***.net wrote:
<snip>
>One thing these guys are fond of doing is scouting ahead astrally. How can I
>best deal with this? What are things that restrict it or make it more
interesting?
>Can they see as well astrally as they do physically or is perception there
totally
>different? I gather they can't read when astral; correct?

The range of perception is the same in real life. Well except for light
levels, I believe the Astral plane has a continuos light from the glow of
all living things and the soft glow of the Earth itself. You can't see
through things, be they living or non-living. You can travel through
non-living and (SR3) living things as well. So those ivy plants on the
wall do not work any more.
Are you using SR3 or SR2? Either way you should read over the Astral
section of whatever system you are using, it sounds like you could get some
of your answers right from there. In SR3 you'll run into Warding. They
won't be able to travel through a warded area unless they combat the ward
(I believe that's what they have to do)

Most places will also have magical scouts, generally a patrolling Elemental
of some kind. Or if you have The Grim for SR2 or MITS for SR3 then you'll
want to use Watcher spirits liberally. (:
Also dual-natured beings on patrol can be fun...first because they can be
pretty tough, and second because the mage will have a great advantage of
being able to go through walls and such...but when the hell hound starts
barking like crazy, the guards are going to know that someone is around
astrally. And they should be able to call in a magician of their own to
investigate...he doesn't have to be near by since they can travel so fast
in Astral.

Also if it's a big facility then they are likely to have astral patrols of
mages as well.

>On the other topic; has anyone run an all magical group before? What are good
>ways to do this in Shadowrun? Good challenges that take advantage of this
format
>and things that are ill advised to try?

I've ran one before and might run one again with a twist. The thing to
remember here is that this group would be extremely rare...mages are only
like 1% of the population...so they would probably be in high demand as
well and the jobs would be of a higher level. This type of campaign can be
hard to do and can crash on you if you're not careful or creative
enough...I knew mine were going to be short lived so that's why I went for
it. A setting of Chicago is always nice...lingering bugs and lingering
Strain-III FAT bacteria.


--00DNA
"...user connection terminated."
Message no. 6
From: Lloyd Vance ljvance@*******.edu
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 11:21:36
At 10:13 AM 7/19/99 +700, you wrote:
>Hello;
>
>I've got a group of 5 magical PCs.
>
>Two mages, one shaman, one adept and one who's revising his character and
hasn't
>yet sent in the revision (but has told me it will also follow the magical
theme
>as some kind of doctor in the mundane aspects).
>
>One thing these guys are fond of doing is scouting ahead astrally. How can I
>best deal with this? What are things that restrict it or make it more
interesting?
>Can they see as well astrally as they do physically or is perception there
totally
>different? I gather they can't read when astral; correct?
>
>On the other topic; has anyone run an all magical group before? What are good
>ways to do this in Shadowrun? Good challenges that take advantage of this
format
>and things that are ill advised to try?
>
>Thank you.
>
>Arcady WebRPG Magistrate http://townhall.webrpg.com <0){{{{><

Well. I can't say I haven't seen it before. One thing that you can do is
make magic much more common (which it should be if there are 5 together) in
your game than one would see normally. Magical threats should be right
'round the corner at all times. Make astral space dangerous. Think about
toxicity (one GM I played with ruled that if you were in a toxic
environment and conjured, it was a toxic spirit. No matter what. Let me
tell you, they are hard to kill. :)), background count, free spirits, UB,
Chicago, dual natured's, corpselights, vampires, or any other essence
sucker (watch them scramble), Amazonia (I know there isn't much on it, but
you could piece something together), wards, circles, lodges, allys,
metaplanes (very free-ing. you can do anything to them. Also, I don't
know if it still applies, but in GR2, you could stop someone from tracking
you by 'hiding' your trail on a metaplane.) Also, if you have them go up
against some heavily cybered guys in 6-9" thick mil-spec armor (so no flesh
nor astral sig is visible) it makes it _very_ hard to cast spells on them.

Just a couple of ideas.

The Hamm
Message no. 7
From: Michael & Linda Frankl mlfrankl@*****.msn.com
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 17:22:43 -0400
00DNA wrote:
>The range of perception is the same in real life. Well except for light
l>evels, I believe the Astral plane has a continuos light from the glow of
>all living things and the soft glow of the Earth itself. You can't see
>through things, be they living or non-living. You can travel through
>non-living and (SR3) living things as well. So those ivy plants on the
>wall do not work any more.

Actually if it is an awakened version that has an astral presence they will
still work.

;)

Smilin' Jack
Message no. 8
From: Da Twink Daddy datwinkdaddy@*********.com
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 21:43:01 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: Lloyd Vance <ljvance@*******.edu>

> you by 'hiding' your trail on a metaplane.) Also, if you have them
go up
> against some heavily cybered guys in 6-9" thick mil-spec armor (so
no flesh
> nor astral sig is visible) it makes it _very_ hard to cast spells on
them.

You know, I read this and immediately thought of what all my players
would do. They would simply 'go astral' and walk right up _inside_ the
armor to cast spells at the person.

Although, I'm not sure if you can do that in SR3, since they aren't
dual-natured/completely astral and a projecting mage is considered to
be completely astral.

Da Twink Daddy
bss03@*******.uark.edu
ICQ# 514984
Message no. 9
From: The Hamm ljvance@*******.edu
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 20:00:04 -0700
At 09:43 PM 7/19/99 -0500, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Lloyd Vance <ljvance@*******.edu>
>
>> you by 'hiding' your trail on a metaplane.) Also, if you have them
>go up
>> against some heavily cybered guys in 6-9" thick mil-spec armor (so
>no flesh
>> nor astral sig is visible) it makes it _very_ hard to cast spells on
>them.
>
>You know, I read this and immediately thought of what all my players
>would do. They would simply 'go astral' and walk right up _inside_ the
>armor to cast spells at the person.
>
>Although, I'm not sure if you can do that in SR3, since they aren't
>dual-natured/completely astral and a projecting mage is considered to
>be completely astral.
>
>Da Twink Daddy
>bss03@*******.uark.edu
>ICQ# 514984


Yeah, actually Twinkie (or should I just call you Daddy?), I don't think in
any version of SR that would have worked, definately not SR2 or SR3.
Nothing in astral space to lock on. Now, you could send spirits off after
them. Imagine having a force 8 fire elemental inside your armor. Ow.


The Hamm
Message no. 10
From: Geoffrey Haacke knight_errant30@*******.com
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 21:27:13 CST
>From: kawaii <kawaii@********.org>
>
>Have you read one of Borlunds Turbo Pascal books? Exciting stuff, man! One
>of the best reads in my life! I couldn't put thew thing down. ;)

Don't laugh, my roommate believes that the C++ book I lent him is the most
interesting thing he's read in ages. Scary.

>
>Astrally, a book has the emotional value that the person who owns it
>imparts, moreso than the author, since most books are printed via machines
>nowadays. =)
>
>Ever lovable and always scrappy,
>kawaii
>
>


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Message no. 11
From: Sebastian Wiers m0ng005e@*********.com
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 01:05:03 -0500
:> you by 'hiding' your trail on a metaplane.) Also, if you have them
:go up
:> against some heavily cybered guys in 6-9" thick mil-spec armor (so
:no flesh
:> nor astral sig is visible) it makes it _very_ hard to cast spells on
:them.
:
:You know, I read this and immediately thought of what all my players
:would do. They would simply 'go astral' and walk right up _inside_ the
:armor to cast spells at the person.
:
:Although, I'm not sure if you can do that in SR3, since they aren't
:dual-natured/completely astral and a projecting mage is considered to
:be completely astral.


You never could do that, unless they were somehow astrally targetable.
On the other hand, how mucha of a threat (or how common) Is a guy in a
Michelan Man costume? He's not going to be moving very fast. Even if you
rule the costume eliminates LOS for spellcasting, a lot of spells would
still affect him- Chaotic World, Phantasm, Ice sheet, Levitate, and (afaik)
most spirit powers.

Mongoose
Message no. 12
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: Astral Detectives and challenging a magical group
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 11:17:13 +0200
According to arcady@***.net, at 10:13 on 19 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> One thing these guys are fond of doing is scouting ahead astrally.

Makes sense -- it's one of the best uses for a magician in a shadowrun (or
security) team.

> How can I best deal with this? What are things that restrict it or make
> it more interesting?

They can't move through the earth, and astral barriers (such as wards)
also block their passage. (They can actually go through both, but with
some difficulty -- see the relevant sections of SR3 and MITS for details.)

As for making things more interesting, spirits and opposing magicians are
good for that.

> Can they see as well astrally as they do physically or is perception
> there totally different? I gather they can't read when astral; correct?

It is totally different -- as has been said before, it's not even sight,
but we usually describe astral perception as if it were sight for
simplicity. The basic shapes are the same, but they can clearly
differentiate between living and non-living things, for example. Reading
text is impossible, though the magician can get an impression of the
contents (especially emotional) of the text.

Also, non-natural sounds can't be heard. That means that if someone is
playing an electric guitar, for example, the only sound audible on the
astral plane is that which is actually being made by the strings, not the
sound coming out of the speakers.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Cooking with the devil, frying down in hell.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
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