Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Arcady arcady@***.net
Subject: Mage vs. Samurai as beginning characters using only SR3 books
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 01:17:40 -0700
Using only the following books:

Shadowrun 3rd
Magic in the Shadows
Shadowrun Companion

Is a Samurai inherently weaker than a mage?

Is it possible to build a samurai who is equivalent in power level to mages.

As Beginning characters only in both cases.

So this is not a general question but only for that specific case.

After my ruling against beta and delta ware one player is complaining that I
am thus making it impossible for a samurai to be equal in power level.
I disagree but am curious to know if I am alone in that opinion.


Arcady http://www.jps.net/arcady/ <0){{{{><
The Revolution will not be televised; it'll be emailed.
/.)\ Stop making sense. Be an Anti Intellectual
\(@/ Be Tao. Live Tao. Feel Tao. But don't do Tao.
Message no. 2
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: Mage vs. Samurai as beginning characters using only SR3 books
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 11:33:06 +0200
According to Arcady, at 1:17 on 2 Jul 99, the word on
the street was...

> Using only the following books:
>
> Shadowrun 3rd
> Magic in the Shadows
> Shadowrun Companion
>
> Is a Samurai inherently weaker than a mage?

"Depends" is the best answer I can give you. The reason I say that is
because it depends very much on how well the players know and understand
the rules, and how well they can apply (abuse?) them. Both street sams and
magicians can get all the basic tools of their trade with SR3 alone; MITS
adds options for the magician, but for the most part these cost plenty of
Karma, so for beginning characters it won't make much of a difference. The
Companion is equally use{ful|less} for both.

> Is it possible to build a samurai who is equivalent in power level to mages.

Yes.

> After my ruling against beta and delta ware one player is complaining that I
> am thus making it impossible for a samurai to be equal in power level.
> I disagree but am curious to know if I am alone in that opinion.

If that's what he thinks, he needs to re-read the rules, IMHO. Sure, a
magician can get the same attribtes, skills, and equipment as a sam, _and_
do magic on top of that. But the sam will have all the cyberware that
compensates for the lack of magical ability.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
E-mails uit het verleden bieden geen garantie voor de toekomst.
-> ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 3
From: Mockingbird mockingbird@*********.com
Subject: Mage vs. Samurai as beginning characters using only SR3 books
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 11:19:53 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: Arcady <arcady@***.net>
To: Shadowrn <shadowrn@*********.org>
Sent: Friday, July 02, 1999 3:17 AM
Subject: Mage vs. Samurai as beginning characters using only SR3 books


> Using only the following books:
>
> Shadowrun 3rd
> Magic in the Shadows
> Shadowrun Companion
>
> Is a Samurai inherently weaker than a mage?
>
> Is it possible to build a samurai who is equivalent in power level to
mages.
>
> As Beginning characters only in both cases.
>
> So this is not a general question but only for that specific case.
>
> After my ruling against beta and delta ware one player is complaining that
I
> am thus making it impossible for a samurai to be equal in power level.
> I disagree but am curious to know if I am alone in that opinion.
>

Though I have not completely read all three of those books, I would have
to say no. If your player feels they are, ask for concrete examples (i.e. I
can only kill one person at a time, but the mage gets an area effect spell
off and kills twenty.) It sounds to me like a case of a player trying to
twist your email (specifically the part about a Sam on Shadowtech is
equivilent to an initiate) to covince you to let them use that book. Sams
and mages are different, not less powerful, not more powerful, but
different. It's like comparing oranges to lemons. They're both fruit,
they're both made into juice, but which is better?

Hope this helps,
Mockingbird

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Mage vs. Samurai as beginning characters using only SR3 books, 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!