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Message no. 1
From: Craig S Dohmen <dohmen@*******.CSE.PSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Grounding Spells (AKA The Neverending Story)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 11:35:07 -0400
On Wed, 11 Oct 1995, Georg Greve wrote:

> P.S. So you are one of the people who think that intiation is a
> punishment ? If grounding through quickened spells were possible,
> spell locks would be TONS better. Grounding through quickenings just
> makes no sense at all.

Eh?

Advantages to quickenings:
--------------------------
Higher target number to ground
Can be made even tougher with extra karma
Cheaper
Can't be stolen

> again and again - it doesn't say "You may ground through a quickened
> spell" anywhere, right ? But it DOES say "you can ground through an
> ACTIVE focus and an anchored item", right ? Did you ever think about

Yeah, well, it doesn't specifically say I can run over someone with my
Harley, either. Can I? Logically, I should be able to.

--Craig
Message no. 2
From: Georg Greve <ggreve@*******.HANSE.DE>
Subject: Re: Grounding Spells (AKA The Neverending Story)
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:26:51 +0100
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:26:48 +0100 (MET)

> > P.S. So you are one of the people who think that intiation is a
> > punishment ? If grounding through quickened spells were possible,
> > spell locks would be TONS better. Grounding through quickenings just
> > makes no sense at all.
> Eh?
> Advantages to quickenings:
> --------------------------
> Higher target number to ground

Cannot be turned off - the TN for grounding through a turned off spell
lock is MUCH higher, I think and you cannot turn quickenings off,
which means you have to watch the quickening all the time, but you
only have to take care of you spell lock while it's active.

> Can be made even tougher with extra karma

Spell Locks can be masked easily - that makes toughening obsolete and
you can always have a spirit hanging around to guard your
lock. Quickenings can be attacked in astral space like usual spells
which means you can "kick it down" and the ground through it before
it's rating refreshes - so it's a waste of karma.

> Cheaper

Huh ? Karma is MUCH mor valuable to a mage than Money - I'd rather pay
the nuyen instead of the Karma, so for every mage/shaman a spell lock
is cheaper.

> Can't be stolen

Spell locks become invisible and intagible when placed - this makes
theft difficult, I think.

Quickenings have the additional problem that you have to think about
wards all the time... so the only REAL advantage quickenings have is
that you cannot ground through them - and you are going to kill that
advantage...

> Yeah, well, it doesn't specifically say I can run over someone with my
> Harley, either. Can I? Logically, I should be able to.

This is nonsense. You don't claim: "You can only ground through the
'detect enemies' spell", you claim "You can ground through
sustained/quickened spells" which would turn your example into "It
doesn't say I can run over someone with a vehicle" which is wrong,
because it DOES say you can run over people with vehicles.

Bye...
Georg
Message no. 3
From: Craig S Dohmen <dohmen@*******.CSE.PSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Grounding Spells (AKA The Neverending Story)
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 10:53:23 -0400
On Fri, 13 Oct 1995, Georg Greve wrote:

> Cannot be turned off - the TN for grounding through a turned off spell

Yes, that's a disadvantage. You makes your choices.

> Spell Locks can be masked easily - that makes toughening obsolete and
> you can always have a spirit hanging around to guard your

Piffle. Masking is trivial to penetrate if you're even a little
better than the lock's owner.

> Huh ? Karma is MUCH mor valuable to a mage than Money - I'd rather pay
> the nuyen instead of the Karma, so for every mage/shaman a spell lock
> is cheaper.

Maybe, but may character never had that kind of money. (I never had that
kind of karma, either, but that's another story. :)

> Spell locks become invisible and intagible when placed - this makes
> theft difficult, I think.

Not to another mage.

--Craig
Message no. 4
From: The Digital Mage <mn3rge@****.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Grounding Spells (AKA The Neverending Story)
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 16:40:49 +0000
On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Craig S Dohmen wrote:

> > Spell Locks can be masked easily - that makes toughening obsolete and
> > you can always have a spirit hanging around to guard your
>
> Piffle. Masking is trivial to penetrate if you're even a little
> better than the lock's owner.

Piffle?!!!! Masking is IMPOSSIBLE to penetrate if you're not an initiate.
And unless you allow practically everyone be initiates just by spending
karma then okay, but in my game I rule that few beginnning mages have
even heard of initiation and becoming one reqires some serious
roleplaying, not just the karma.



The Digital Mage : mn3rge@****.ac.uk
Shadowrun Web Site under construction at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~mn3rge/Shadowrun.html
Message no. 5
From: Craig S Dohmen <dohmen@*******.CSE.PSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Grounding Spells (AKA The Neverending Story)
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 14:53:46 -0400
On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, The Digital Mage wrote:

> Piffle?!!!! Masking is IMPOSSIBLE to penetrate if you're not an initiate.

Notice I _did_ say you had to be better than the other guy.

> even heard of initiation and becoming one reqires some serious
> roleplaying, not just the karma.

I think my GM let me initiate because he wanted me to blow my karma. :)
I joined the Children of Sophocles. Great fun, though, cos I never
told my teammates that I was a member. I love to create suspicion.

--Craig
Message no. 6
From: The Digital Mage <mn3rge@****.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Grounding Spells (AKA The Neverending Story)
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 19:37:48 +0000
On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Craig S Dohmen wrote:

> > Piffle?!!!! Masking is IMPOSSIBLE to penetrate if you're not an initiate.
>
> Notice I _did_ say you had to be better than the other guy.
I noticed, its just that you seemed to be dismissing Masking out of hand
as a defence for spell locks etc. Against non-initiates it is an
impenetrable defence.

> I think my GM let me initiate because he wanted me to blow my karma. :)
> I joined the Children of Sophocles. Great fun, though, cos I never
> told my teammates that I was a member. I love to create suspicion.
Heh! I made my Wolf shaman join a group too. It was so cool, on his
initiation he was conversing with Wolf (as played by me!) and they had a
long conversation and Wolf talked about various stuff. The whole
conversation lasted about 15 minutes. But when the shaman came out of his
trance he was weak as hell, and his whole group were worried. It was only
then that they said he'd been in his trance for 2 days!

The Digital Mage : mn3rge@****.ac.uk
Shadowrun Web Site under construction at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~mn3rge/Shadowrun.html

Further Reading

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