Message no. 1

From:	Mongoose m0ng005e@*********.com
Subject:	Detect Enemy [oops, I looked]
Date:	Sat, 17 Apr 1999 23:48:49 -0500

:> I just looked it up. It gets Superficial Mind Interaction. It doesn't
:> say why. Now what I don't get is why it qualifies for Voluntary Subject
:> ... I guess if your "enemy" doesn't want to be detected, S/he won't
be...
:> Gee, what a useful spell ...
:
:This might be part of the reason Mongoose has a problem with it? (doubt
it,
:but who knows...) I suppose in this spell's case that the center of the
:spell, the person who gains from it's benefits, must be voluntary. Not
:everyone wants to know that kind of information after all.


Actually, that was a generic problem with detection spells, but SR3
"fixes" that, by explaining detection spells as spells that create a sense
that the target (subject) then gains a benfit of, and that the sense effect
can (usually) be resisted. In Sr2, the sensed person / target were
sometimes interchangable, or at least changed from spell to spell. In SR3,
the"subjet" (IE, target of the spell) is always the one who gains the
information the spell gathers, but the effect of the spell (the sorcery
roll) can be resisted by the target, or even interfered with via spell
defense.
And yes, that clarification / change may be there partly due to my
bitching, I'm happy to say. It has some minor implications for ritual
sorcery as well... :)
Maybe "Detect Enemies" just requires to much interpretation for my
taste. If I eventually plan on screwing you over, and am willing to use
violence to do it, and have that though in my mind when I see you, am I your
enemy? If I don't know you, have never seen you, and don't know you exist,
but its my job to kill anybody in a zero zone, am I your enemy? What if I
know you exist, but have no idea what you look like / who you are? What if
I'm killing all your friends, but don't know you exist?
IMO, it requires to deep an analysis of sombodies motives and knowledge
to be considered a "surface mind interaction". Not only does it
(potentially) detect all life forms in an area, but it figures out what they
are thinking, who they are thinking it about, and what the likely outcome of
those thougts are.
Saying detect enmies is more simple than mindprobe is like saying a
database with a search function is SIMPLER than one that just scrolls the
data past you- sure, its easier to use, but its much harder to make, and
requires more power.
But hey, its only a spell, and I use it as much as anybody else. It
only bothers me in a back of the brain / thoertical sense, actually. The
drain COULD be higher, but stuff happens. Like I said, I just would not
expect other spells to work in a similar manner- for one thing, evolution
has gifted us with a very accurate "6th sense" as to who potential enemies
might be, and augmenting that sense with a simple spell is not beyond the
reasonable- but its also not, officially, how the spell works, afaik.

Mongoose