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Message no. 1
From: "St. Jean, Ricky" <stjeanr@*******.CANADOREC.ON.CA>
Subject: Awakening Errata
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 96 12:52:00 PST
Has anyone hear of the errata sheet yet for awakenings. There seems to be a
few errors here and there.

Gm's Don't let your players see the Physical mages. Every player I have
that has seen them wants to play one. a gm friend of mine has solved this
problem. He makes you roll a d6 If your get a 1 or 2 your can be a mage.
anything else is tough luck. He says it is to reflect the rarity of magic
in the world.



Ricky

<<<<<stjeanr@*******.CANADORE.ON.CA>>>>>
You have the right to your wrong opinion.

-some calendar
Message no. 2
From: "A Halliwell" <u5a77@**.keele.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 19:59:14 +0000 (GMT)
|
|
|Has anyone hear of the errata sheet yet for awakenings. There seems to be a
|few errors here and there.
|
|Gm's Don't let your players see the Physical mages. Every player I have
|that has seen them wants to play one. a gm friend of mine has solved this
|problem. He makes you roll a d6 If your get a 1 or 2 your can be a mage.
| anything else is tough luck. He says it is to reflect the rarity of magic
|in the world.
|
Shouldn't it be roll a d6. Target No 8 or something like that, to stay with
the high is good system of shadowrun?
--
______________________________________________________________________________
| |What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crackin |
|u5a77@**.keele.ac.uk |the ground beneath a giant bolder, which you can't |
| |move, with no hope of rescue. |
|Andrew Halliwell |Consider how lucky you are that life has been good |
|Principal in:- |to you so far... |
|Comp Sci & Visual Arts | -The BOOK, Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 3
From: John IV <John.Moeller@*.cc.utah.edu>
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 15:58:36 -0700 (MST)
On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, St. Jean, Ricky wrote:

> Has anyone hear of the errata sheet yet for awakenings. There seems to be a
> few errors here and there.

Nope. Sorry.

> Gm's Don't let your players see the Physical mages. Every player I have
> that has seen them wants to play one. a gm friend of mine has solved this
> problem. He makes you roll a d6 If your get a 1 or 2 your can be a mage.
> anything else is tough luck. He says it is to reflect the rarity of magic
> in the world.

Well, you can also just say "no," and be firm about it. :)

John IV <John.Moeller@*.cc.utah.edu>
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"Sometimes after an electrical storm I see in 5 dimensions. Why are the
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--Cornfed, from _Duckman_

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Message no. 4
From: TopCat <topcat@******.net>
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 1996 19:08:29 -0600
At 01:07 PM 1/3/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Has anyone hear of the errata sheet yet for awakenings. There seems to be a
>few errors here and there.

Nope, but there should be one around somewhere. All us rules lawyers
haven't had a chance to find every bug yet ;)

>Gm's Don't let your players see the Physical mages. Every player I have
>that has seen them wants to play one. a gm friend of mine has solved this
>problem. He makes you roll a d6 If your get a 1 or 2 your can be a mage.
> anything else is tough luck. He says it is to reflect the rarity of magic
>in the world.

Physical Magicians aren't really all that great. If you want any astral
ability at all it costs you two magic points (and a geasa) and all you get
is astral perception. Without that you are very limited in what you can do
(especially with metamagic). That lower magic rating means physical damage
from casting decent spells or reliance on foci, something that I've vowed
never to do as long as I play. I don't mind the physical damage from spells
(can always heal that *grin*) but foci are just too much cost and too much
danger for me to deal with. Also, don't let that mage side get too low...
one decent wound can turn you into a phys ad as assuredly as any cybered
magician. All in all PhysMags are a solid compromise and I feel all players
should have access to them should they wish.


-- TopCat
Message no. 5
From: westec@******.COM (Neon Sihn)
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 23:57:18 -0600
>On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, St. Jean, Ricky wrote:
>
>> Has anyone hear of the errata sheet yet for awakenings. There seems to be a
>> few errors here and there.

as in.....????? I got one coming this week... Awakenings that is....






---------construction in progress-------------------
westec@******.com
TIP #1323
IPPA #A-0117
Lively #F188
---------construction in progress-------------------
Message no. 6
From: t_little@**********.utas.edu.au (Timothy Little)
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 08:36:12 +1100
>>On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, St. Jean, Ricky wrote:
>>
>>> Has anyone hear of the errata sheet yet for awakenings. There seems to
be a
>>> few errors here and there.
>
> as in.....????? I got one coming this week... Awakenings that is....

Focus addiction is obviously a big error from start to finish. :-)

I'm not entirely joking - their description of how focus addiction works is
completely different from what their mechanics say will happen in play.

Let's say you're playing a grade 5 initiate who has a Power (6) focus and a
Centering (5) focus. He can use both of these every minute of the day for
20 years and not risk focus addiction. Let's say he instead decides to
plant a spell lock on someone or something. (a normal spell-lock that is,
not a rating 3 spell lock as described in the Masking Ward section or a
Manabolt spell-lock as described in the Focus Addiction section)

Oops! He now has 12 points of foci active, and his Magic Attribute is only 11.
He instantly has to make a Magic Test against a target number of 12 to avoid
focus addiction. If he fails (quite likely!), he makes a Magic Loss test
(which will almost certainly result in magic loss). If uses those foci
together ever again, he makes another such test, and if he loses a second
magic point, he takes a geas (Focus Addiction).

This geas means that any magic performed without the use of one of the foci
active at the time the geas was forced upon him is at a +2 modifier. Of
course, now that he must use those foci (and with reduced magic rating) he
slides downhill very quickly toward burn-out.


This rule does not encourage players to make sparing use of foci - as you
can see, if you're powerful enough you can make free use of them
continuously, whereas a single use of a focus 1 point too high in rating
means virtually certain burnout. What it does is give an even better reason
for magicians to initiate to insane levels and freely use just as many foci
as before.

The magicians it really screws up are physical magicians - if you have 3
points of phys-ad powers then your magic rating is only 3 for purposes of
other magic. Hence, using a total of rating 4 foci (say 2 spell locks and a
rating 2 fetish focus) means making the addiction test and possibly losing
further magic points.


An interesting omission is any figures at all for obtaining the new
Centering Focus. There is nothing listed - no bonding cost, target numbers
or times for designing and enchanting, no availability, price or street index.

--
Tim Little
Message no. 7
From: Robert Watkins <robertdw@*******.com.au>
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 19:02:47 +1100 (EST)
>This rule does not encourage players to make sparing use of foci - as you
>can see, if you're powerful enough you can make free use of them
>continuously, whereas a single use of a focus 1 point too high in rating
>means virtually certain burnout. What it does is give an even better reason
>for magicians to initiate to insane levels and freely use just as many foci
>as before.
>

Actually, the description of how it works almost exactly matches the
mechanics... if you're too dependant of foci (ie, you've got lots of them
active), you get addicted. And yes, it gives you an incentive to initiate
higher. So what?

>The magicians it really screws up are physical magicians - if you have 3
>points of phys-ad powers then your magic rating is only 3 for purposes of
>other magic. Hence, using a total of rating 4 foci (say 2 spell locks and a
>rating 2 fetish focus) means making the addiction test and possibly losing
>further magic points.

Gee... how can a new rule screw up a character type that wasn't there
before?

Don't like the rule? Don't use it. Me, I see it as a chance to let Grade
4 initiates actually be more powerful than Grade 3.

In case you didn't notice, it also screwed up the munchkin mage... the
mage who gets lots and lots of foci, and lots and lots of cyber.


--
*************************************************************************
* .--_ # "My opinions may have changed, but not the fact *
* _-0(#)) # that I'm right." -- Old Fortune Saying *
* @__ )/ # *
* )=(===__==,= # Robert Watkins <---> robertdw@*******.com.au *
* {}== \--==--`= # *
* ,_) \ # "A friend is someone who watches the same *
* L_===__)=, # TV programs as you" *
*************************************************************************
Message no. 8
From: ftmck@**.netcom.com (Frank McKinney )
Subject: Re: Awakening Errata
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 18:07:24 -0800
You wrote:

>>The magicians it really screws up are physical magicians - if you
>>have 3 points of phys-ad powers then your magic rating is only 3 for
>>purposes of other magic. Hence, using a total of rating 4 foci (say 2
>>spell locks and a rating 2 fetish focus) means making the addiction
>>test and possibly losing
>>further magic points.
>
>Gee... how can a new rule screw up a character type that wasn't there
>before?
>
>Don't like the rule? Don't use it. Me, I see it as a chance to let
Grade
>4 initiates actually be more powerful than Grade 3.
>
>In case you didn't notice, it also screwed up the munchkin mage... the

>mage who gets lots and lots of foci, and lots and lots of cyber.
>

Yes! If you only want to dabble, then an old adage applies:

"A little bit of knowledge is dangerous."

Frank

Further Reading

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