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Message no. 1
From: Lars M Ericson <lericson@***.edu>
Subject: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 15:04:29 -0600
I just finished reading one of the newer Shadowrun novels, Burning
Bright by Tom Dowd. First off, I think this was an excellent
Shadowrun novel in terms of atmosphere and plot. After reading Bug
City, this novel fills in a lot of gaps in the events of that city's
disaster. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone, but I highly
recommend it.

The point of this post is that the main character, Kyle, did some
things that seemed to contradict canonical Shadowrun lore. The first
thing that grabbed my attention was the way he handled his
elementals.
Kyle commands his air elemental, Charlotte, to guard an area
against intruders and if an astral presence appears, to send a
watcher (also left by Kyle) to notify Kyle. This definitely qualifies
as a remote service, as defined on p. 142 of the main book. The
problem is, Kyle did not just summon the air elemental, but seemed to
be using a bound service for this protection. Latter on, Kyle does
the same thing with a pair of water elementals. He leaves them at a
hospital to guard against harmful spirits. Both times, he goes off
and does other stuff. Was Tom Dowd in error? Or is there some other
explanation?
The second thing that I noticed was that while in astral space,
Kyle was not able to travel through wooden boards used in the
construction of a house, because they were at one time living. The
wooden boards are obviously not alive, and this means that they do
not have an astral aura. Or do they? Does the fact that the wall
(which the boards made up) is made up of former living materials
create a barrier. If so then this makes wood panelling a very
valuable corporate asset. All a corporation wood have to do to
protect from astral intruders is line the walls of the building with
thin wood panelling, or if only the R&D department was valuable, line
the labs with wood. Not only would it protect, but it would look
nice.

Any one have an answer?

--
Lars M Ericson: Professional Vagabond <lericson@***.edu>
The Lor, The Law, The Lars <http://www.gac.edu/~lericson>;
Team Garotte, Founding Member
Registered Member of a Decadent Society

Life is like a Wankel Engine. In between the emptiness of boredom and
despair, and the compression of stress in one's life, there's that
one spark of enjoyment that keeps you going.

QUOTE(s) OF THE WEEK:
"People scare easier when they're dying."
- Henry Fonda, _Once Upon a Time in the West_
--
Message no. 2
From: Justin Thomas <Justin.C.Thomas-1@**.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 95 15:26:51 -0600
At 04:03 PM 11/29/95 -0500, you wrote:
> I just finished reading one of the newer Shadowrun novels, Burning
>Bright by Tom Dowd. First off, I think this was an excellent
>Shadowrun novel in terms of atmosphere and plot. After reading Bug
>City, this novel fills in a lot of gaps in the events of that city's
>disaster. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone, but I highly
>recommend it.
>
> The point of this post is that the main character, Kyle, did some
>things that seemed to contradict canonical Shadowrun lore. The first
>thing that grabbed my attention was the way he handled his
>elementals.
> Kyle commands his air elemental, Charlotte, to guard an area
>against intruders and if an astral presence appears, to send a
>watcher (also left by Kyle) to notify Kyle. This definitely qualifies
>as a remote service, as defined on p. 142 of the main book. The
>problem is, Kyle did not just summon the air elemental, but seemed to
>be using a bound service for this protection. Latter on, Kyle does
>the same thing with a pair of water elementals. He leaves them at a
>hospital to guard against harmful spirits. Both times, he goes off
>and does other stuff. Was Tom Dowd in error? Or is there some other
>explanation?
> The second thing that I noticed was that while in astral space,
>Kyle was not able to travel through wooden boards used in the
>construction of a house, because they were at one time living. The
>wooden boards are obviously not alive, and this means that they do
>not have an astral aura. Or do they? Does the fact that the wall
>(which the boards made up) is made up of former living materials
>create a barrier. If so then this makes wood panelling a very
>valuable corporate asset. All a corporation wood have to do to
>protect from astral intruders is line the walls of the building with
>thin wood panelling, or if only the R&D department was valuable, line
>the labs with wood. Not only would it protect, but it would look
>nice.
>
>Any one have an answer?
>


Hmmm, I looked through my books and it seems that you are right... I don't
know what the answer is...
******************************
Justin Thomas
"Farr"
Email:
thom0767@****.tc.umn.edu
or if that doesn't work
Justin.C.Thomas-1@**.umn.edu
or
justin.thomas@*********.mn.org
Message no. 3
From: "Damion Milliken" <adm82@***.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 17:24:42 +1100 (EST)
Lars M Ericson writes:

> [Perceptive notes on Tom's cpntradictions to the SRII rules in his novel
> 'Burning Bright']

Good detective work - but you missed one ;-) (Kyle uses Magic Fingers to
affect physical space while he is astrally projecting - to cover the
surveilance camera looking at the UB warehouse.)

As for an explanation, there is only one: "Artistic Licence"

You are correct - the things Kyle did and some of the other phenomena
observed in the novel are in fact contradictions to the basic SRII rules,
and AFAIK there is no reconciliation for this.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong E-mail: adm82@***.edu.au
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Message no. 4
From: "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl>
Subject: Re: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 11:15:10 +0100
Lars M Ericson said on29 Nov 95...

> I just finished reading one of the newer Shadowrun novels, Burning
> Bright by Tom Dowd. First off, I think this was an excellent
> Shadowrun novel in terms of atmosphere and plot. After reading Bug
> City, this novel fills in a lot of gaps in the events of that city's
> disaster. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone, but I highly
> recommend it.

I don't, except if you plan to put your players in Chicago and need some more
info about how it all happened... The ideas were good, but the way they were
written down, well, it could have been done a lot better IMHO.

> The point of this post is that the main character, Kyle, did some
> things that seemed to contradict canonical Shadowrun lore. The first
> thing that grabbed my attention was the way he handled his
> elementals.

What you need to bear in mind when reading SR novels is that they don't follow
the game mechanics to the letter. FASA has admitted to this, and for that
reason you shouldn't use the novels as source material. People in the books do
things that characters can never do, and the other way around as well.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Isn't that what life's about? Doing stupid things because we haven't got
anything better to do?
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Character Mortuary: http://huizen.dds.nl/~mortuary/mortuary.html <-

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Message no. 5
From: "A Halliwell" <u5a77@**.keele.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 13:28:17 +0000 (GMT)
>
> At 04:03 PM 11/29/95 -0500, you wrote:
> > I just finished reading one of the newer Shadowrun novels, Burning
> >Bright by Tom Dowd. First off, I think this was an excellent
> >Shadowrun novel in terms of atmosphere and plot. After reading Bug
> >City, this novel fills in a lot of gaps in the events of that city's
> >disaster. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone, but I highly
> >recommend it.
> >
> > The point of this post is that the main character, Kyle, did some
> >things that seemed to contradict canonical Shadowrun lore. The first
> >thing that grabbed my attention was the way he handled his
> >elementals.
> > Kyle commands his air elemental, Charlotte, to guard an area
> >against intruders and if an astral presence appears, to send a
> >watcher (also left by Kyle) to notify Kyle. This definitely qualifies
> >as a remote service, as defined on p. 142 of the main book. The
> >problem is, Kyle did not just summon the air elemental, but seemed to
> >be using a bound service for this protection. Latter on, Kyle does
> >the same thing with a pair of water elementals. He leaves them at a
> >hospital to guard against harmful spirits. Both times, he goes off
> >and does other stuff. Was Tom Dowd in error? Or is there some other
> >explanation?

Personally, I'm a bit confused by that as well. Maybe he's found a way to
perform the summoning ritual, but not seal it.
That way, when he sealed the ritual at a later time the elemental would seem
to appear instantly???
It's possible to create your own spells, why not you're own ritual variants?

> > The second thing that I noticed was that while in astral space,
> >Kyle was not able to travel through wooden boards used in the
> >construction of a house, because they were at one time living. The
> >wooden boards are obviously not alive, and this means that they do
> >not have an astral aura. Or do they? Does the fact that the wall
> >(which the boards made up) is made up of former living materials
> >create a barrier. If so then this makes wood panelling a very
> >valuable corporate asset. All a corporation wood have to do to
> >protect from astral intruders is line the walls of the building with
> >thin wood panelling, or if only the R&D department was valuable, line
> >the labs with wood. Not only would it protect, but it would look
> >nice.
> >
> >Any one have an answer?
> >
Hmmmmmm. This could be going back to Earthdawn again. Maybe the magic
reached another threshold and the wood's becoming empowered?
(In Earthdawn there are five elements... Earth, Air, Fire, Water and WOOD!

---
______________________________________________________________________________
| |What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crackin |
|u5a77@**.keele.ac.uk |the ground beneath a giant bolder, which you can't |
| |move, with no hope of rescue. |
|Andrew Halliwell |Consider how lucky you are that life has been good |
|Principal in:- |to you so far... |
|Comp Sci & Visual Arts | -The BOOK, Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 6
From: Nathan Walker <NTWALKER@******.SUNYGENESEE.CC.NY.US>
Subject: Re: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 1995 09:00:27 -0500 (EST)
Klingon Name: Captain K'vort, Commander, DSF C7 "Victory"
MIME: We shoot them here.

From: "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl>
>What you need to bear in mind when reading SR novels is that they don't follow
>the game mechanics to the letter. FASA has admitted to this, and for that
>reason you shouldn't use the novels as source material. People in the books do
>things that characters can never do, and the other way around as well.

OTOH, things in real life are not always the same from one person to another.
Maybe there could be a person who can cast a physical spell while in astral
space, just because he doesn't know any better. Or maybe he just has some
special way of doing it that no-one knows about. Or maybe it was just
something the author needed to do and couldn't think of a better way to
go about it. :)

Probably the last is closest. :)

>>>>>>>>>> Nate
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| NTWalker@******.SUNYGENESEE.CC.NY.US |
| |
| I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. |
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Message no. 7
From: "k.lin-student-civ-ghostgum-93087284" <kwlin@***.itd.uts.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 11:33:52 +1100 (EST)
> From listproc@********.itribe.net Thu Nov 30 08:12 EST 1995
> Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 16:03:49 -0500
> Originator: shadowrn@********.itribe.net
> From: Lars M Ericson <lericson@***.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <shadowrn@********.itribe.net>
> Subject: Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright)
> X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
> X-Comment: Shadowrun List
>
> I just finished reading one of the newer Shadowrun novels, Burning
> Bright by Tom Dowd. First off, I think this was an excellent
> Shadowrun novel in terms of atmosphere and plot. After reading Bug
> City, this novel fills in a lot of gaps in the events of that city's
> disaster. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone, but I highly
> recommend it.
>
> The point of this post is that the main character, Kyle, did some
> things that seemed to contradict canonical Shadowrun lore. The first
> thing that grabbed my attention was the way he handled his
> elementals.
> Kyle commands his air elemental, Charlotte, to guard an area
> against intruders and if an astral presence appears, to send a
> watcher (also left by Kyle) to notify Kyle. This definitely qualifies
> as a remote service, as defined on p. 142 of the main book. The
> problem is, Kyle did not just summon the air elemental, but seemed to
> be using a bound service for this protection. Latter on, Kyle does
> the same thing with a pair of water elementals. He leaves them at a
> hospital to guard against harmful spirits. Both times, he goes off
> and does other stuff. Was Tom Dowd in error? Or is there some other
> explanation?
> The second thing that I noticed was that while in astral space,
> Kyle was not able to travel through wooden boards used in the
> construction of a house, because they were at one time living. The
> wooden boards are obviously not alive, and this means that they do
> not have an astral aura. Or do they? Does the fact that the wall
> (which the boards made up) is made up of former living materials
> create a barrier. If so then this makes wood panelling a very
> valuable corporate asset. All a corporation wood have to do to
> protect from astral intruders is line the walls of the building with
> thin wood panelling, or if only the R&D department was valuable, line
> the labs with wood. Not only would it protect, but it would look
> nice.
>
> Any one have an answer?

Oh my God (or insert appropriate spiritual entity)... Oh my God...

The sky is falling, the sky is falling. [Run arround like a panicked
chicken].

Fade to the Black...

Kin

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Magic Questions (c/o Burning Bright), you may also be interested in:

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Thwap!