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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Mike Buckalew <mike_buckalew@**.CLARIS.COM>
Subject: Encephalons and Magic
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 11:20:44 -0800
Arnold Mail: Encephalons and Magic
With regards to the discussion about whether encephalons work in Astral
Space:

Back in December I was reading the Usenet group r.g.f.cyber (before I found
this list), and there was a similar discussion. Some people had Shadowtech
books that said it did work for Magic and some people had Shadowtech books
that said it didn't.

Someone sent a message to Tom Dowd (who is not known as the DLOH there) and
recieved a reply. The reply was something along the lines of there were two
printings of the book, the second and correct printing states that the
encephalon does not help Magic stuff.

Now, at the time, I didn't own Shadowtech, and had no idea what an encephalon
was, but I do remember the thread. And it being Usenet, I don't have an
archive of the messages.

Buck
buck@******.com
Message no. 2
From: Andy Butcher <Fiend@*********.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Encephalons and Magic
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 10:40:11 GMT
Buck wrote:
>
>With regards to the discussion about whether encephalons work in Astral
>Space:
>
>Back in December I was reading the Usenet group r.g.f.cyber (before I found
>this list), and there was a similar discussion. Some people had Shadowtech
>books that said it did work for Magic and some people had Shadowtech books
>that said it didn't.
>
>Someone sent a message to Tom Dowd (who is not known as the DLOH there) and
>recieved a reply. The reply was something along the lines of there were two
>printings of the book, the second and correct printing states that the
>encephalon does not help Magic stuff.
>
>Now, at the time, I didn't own Shadowtech, and had no idea what an encephalon
>was, but I do remember the thread. And it being Usenet, I don't have an
>archive of the messages.
>

That's right, I was alos reading the newsgroup back then, and I remember
somebody reposting the message from the ex-DLoH. What he basically said was
that cyberware does _not_ help magical ability, whereas bioware can and does.

Obviously, this requires a few judgement calls on a case-by-case basis,
mainly because of the already stated fact that once you've paid essence for
cyberware it counts as part of 'you'.

The way I deal with it is to say that on the astral plane cyberware can't
_add_ functionality that wasn't there before, but will provide 'normal'
functions. (Confused yet?)

For example, say a mage gets cybereyes with thermographic vision. On the
astral plane he/she can still 'see', but won't have thermographic vision
(not that it'd do a lot of good, but you get the idea). Maybe a better
example is if the mage gets a cyberarm with spurs. On the astral he/she will
still have an arm, but without the sharp pointy bits.

Basically, paying essence makes the cyberware 'part' of you, but only the
'part that you already had. Thus, things like encephalons (which add totally
new functions and don't replace anything already there) are astral/aural
'dead weight' and perform no function.

Bioware, on the other hand, is biological in nature and paying essence for
it (as mages have to) integrates it fully both physically and
astrally/aurally - magical energy can 'flow through' meat, but not metal. So
it works.

Phew, I'm glad I got that off my chest ;)
Sorry about the length of this post...

Andy Butcher | "Whether you think you will succeed or not,
PC Gamer Magazine | you are right."
Fiend@*********.co.uk | Henry Ford

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Encephalons and Magic, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!