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Message no. 1
From: "St. Jean, Ricky" <stjeanr@*******.CANADOREC.ON.CA>
Subject: Essence: More is better
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 11:30:00 PDT
What about being able to purchase more essence. Something like new rating
x10. 70 is quite a price to pay for 1 point of essence. So now the
metaphysical aspects. Can't someone be more whole and complete than someone
else. What is essence besides a game balance. Is it your morale character?
Do insane people have less essence than the rest of us?

The tougher they are, the faster I run.
Ricky
Message no. 2
From: Damion Milliken <adm82@***.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Essence: More is better
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 21:19:55 +1000
St. Jean, Ricky writes:

> What about being able to purchase more essence. Something like new rating
> x10. 70 is quite a price to pay for 1 point of essence.

Essence is just a Game Balance thing. I, personally, feel that being able to
purchase more Essence (whatever the cost might be) is munchkinous. But,
OTOH, if you can handle a game with some real cyborg types in it, then it'd
probably be ok to have higher Essences, but I don't think it should be able
to be "bought" like a skill or stat. Just give everyone an Essence of 10 or
something, make it even across the board (mind you, you'll have to alter a
few other things in the game too, like Treat spell TNs and so on).

> So now the metaphysical aspects. Can't someone be more whole and complete
> than someone else. What is essence besides a game balance. Is it your
> morale character? Do insane people have less essence than the rest of us?

Well, Essence is, as I said, purely there for Game Balance. But, it has been
justified within the context of the SR universe. The reasoning goes
something like this: (Meta)humans as a species have a set astral "template"
which their auras will conform too. If the template is altereed or mangled,
then their life energies will begin to drian away, and if it is mauled
enough, then they'll die. Hence we have the Attribute Essence. So, unless
you have a radically different genetic structure, then you're stuck with the
(meta)human template, and hence with the Essence limit of 6. Shapeshifters
get an Essecne of 8 - they have different templates than (meta)humans.

--
Damion Milliken Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: adm82@***.edu.au

(GEEK CODE 2.1) GE -d+@ H s++:-- !g p0 !au a19 w+ v(?) C++ US++>+++ P+ L !3
E? N K- W M@ !V po@ Y+ t+ 5 !j R+(++) G(+)('''') !tv(--@)
b++ D B? e+$ u@ h* f+ !r n----(--)@ !y+

Further Reading

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