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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Hahns Shin)
Subject: Aura Reading
Date: Thu Oct 18 01:25:01 2001
This is the way that I think of an Aura Reading skill:
Without Aura Reading: "Well, the guy is obviously NOT an elf. He's had
some cybersurgery done, and his aura looks kinda green and fuzzy, like
he was poisoned or something? He looks ill and confused, and a bit
angry."

With Aura Reading: "The subject is a male Caucasian human who has had
cosmetic surgery on his ears. He is suffering from the effects of a
hangover, which is being filtered by a piece of bioware or nanites in
the liver. His head shows signs of trauma, probably from an
altercation at a bar. He is shouting words that have anger... no, more
like hatred, perhaps irrational racism... I think our target is going
to try to kill the orks that beat him up."

Without Aura Reading, you'd be able to describe details, maybe make a
few intelligent conclusions from those details, but you would not
necessarily know (from years of experience or professional education)
exactly what details match with what conclusions. With Aura Reading,
you'd be able to take those details and know the precise problems or
conditions that would result from those details in auras.

To put it into perspective, Sherlock Holmes, while possessing a keen
eye and great intelligence, did not have a forensic medical
background, but he was still able to deduce the correct solution to a
case. On the other hand, Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh (of "Crossing Jordon" on
NBC) is a forensic medical examiner who finds clues and uses her
professional knowledge to find conclusions from the details. Both get
the job done... just in different ways.

Aura Reading is a perfect skill for an experienced shadowrunner mage
or a mage that is "classically" or "professionally" trained (note:
This can also include shamanic apprenticeships under a healer or
divination totem). A street mage would be able to do a similar thing,
just not with all the fancy lingo. A trained Aura Reader would say "I
think she is flustered... maybe PMS?" while an untrained street mage
would say "She looks just like my ex-girlfriend did when she hit me
with that tire iron." It's all in the role playing and description

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. 2
From: chris@*******.com (Chris Maxfield)
Subject: Aura Reading
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 01:01:09 +1000
Records show that at 07:11 PM on Thursday 1/04/2004 AEDT, Gurth advised:
>Cyberzombies get to roll just Aura Reading in order to actively try and see
>astral space, without it being complimentary to Perception (p. 57, M&M).

Further, on p21 of MITS it states that successes in an Aura Reading test,
not an assensing test, reveals information about an adept's powers and the
levels of those powers.

There is a third place where Aura Reading is directly referenced as a stand
alone skill like this but I can't remember where.

Chris
Message no. 3
From: tjlanza@************.com (Timothy J. Lanza)
Subject: Aura Reading
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 00:37:27 -0500
At 10:01 AM 4/1/2004, Chris Maxfield wrote:
>Records show that at 07:11 PM on Thursday 1/04/2004 AEDT, Gurth advised:
> >Cyberzombies get to roll just Aura Reading in order to actively try and see
> >astral space, without it being complimentary to Perception (p. 57, M&M).
>
>Further, on p21 of MITS it states that successes in an Aura Reading test,
>not an assensing test, reveals information about an adept's powers and the
>levels of those powers.

You sure that's not a mistake to be erratta'd? Aside from the cyberzombie's
special use, are there any other references to a direct-roll on Aura Reading?

--
Timothy J. Lanza
"When we can't dream any longer, we die." - Emma Goldman
Message no. 4
From: gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject: Aura Reading
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 11:07:59 +0200
According to Timothy J. Lanza, on Friday 02 April 2004 07:37 the word on
the street was...

> >Further, on p21 of MITS it states that successes in an Aura Reading
> > test, not an assensing test, reveals information about an adept's
> > powers and the levels of those powers.
>
> You sure that's not a mistake to be erratta'd?

That's what I thought at first, too, but when I looked at the rules a bit
better, they're too different from the normal assensing rules to make them
easily fit together. The MITS rule says that if you roll two or more
successes on an Aura Reading test, you get information on which powers an
adept has, and/or at what level -- one power or level per success above 2.
This is rather different from normal assensing, where you get information
based on every two full successes you roll. Of course, you could do both
with a single roll if you want.

--
Gurth@******.nl - Stone Age: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Those who ignore history are doomed to keep liking crappy dance
covers of great songs.
-> Probably NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++(---) UL+ 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. 5
From: chris@*******.com (Chris Maxfield)
Subject: Aura Reading
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 20:55:52 +1000
Records show that at 07:07 PM on Friday 2/04/2004 AEDT, Gurth advised:
>According to Timothy J. Lanza, on Friday 02 April 2004 07:37 the word on
>> You sure that's not a mistake to be erratta'd?
>
>That's what I thought at first, too, but when I looked at the rules a bit
>better, they're too different from the normal assensing rules to make them
>easily fit together. The MITS rule says that if you roll two or more
>successes on an Aura Reading test, you get information on which powers an
>adept has, and/or at what level -- one power or level per success above 2.
>This is rather different from normal assensing, where you get information
>based on every two full successes you roll. Of course, you could do both
>with a single roll if you want.

I thought it was a mistake at first as well. But we're up to V3 of the MITS
errata and it hasn't been corrected yet. It seems to be a deliberate quirk
on Steve's part. Anyway, I've grown to like it for giving some more purpose
to the Aura Reading skill.

Chris

Further Reading

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