| From: | Wordman wordman@*******.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Mana Battery |
| Date: | Tue, 24 Oct 2000 18:37:24 -0400 |
ago while playing Magic: the Gathering. M:tG had several Mana Battery cards
and I was thinking about how such an idea could be integrated into SR. Most
of the ideas I had for this were pretty munchie, but I this one isn't all
that bad...
Mana Batteries For Shadowrun - Abstract
Basic Concept: A mana battery is a magical device into which magical energy
can be stored and later used to cast spells.
Game Mechanics Concept: A mana battery is a focus that can give up rating
points to eat drain. Karma can be used to restore lost rating points.
The game mechanics are not an exact representation of the basic concept, but
they are close enough. One way to look at it is to imagine the mage as a
vessel of water. When that vessel takes drain, water is drained out. The
mana battery immediately drains _into_ the vessel (the mage), so the vessel
never noticed that any water was missing (i.e. the mage takes no damage).
Mana Batteries For Shadowrun - Details
A mana battery is a focus. It has a rating. Unlike most foci, it also has an
"effective rating". The effective rating defines how much drain the focus
can soak. It costs 2 karma to bond, regardless of rating, but when bonded,
it's effective rating is one. A mage can spend a complex action and a karma
point to increase the effective rating of the battery by 1 point. The
effective rating of a mana battery can never exceed is actual rating.
If the effective rating of the battery ever reaches zero, the focus is
automatically unbound. It can be rebound by any magician.
To use the battery, the magician must declare so when casting a spell. The
battery has no effect at all on the casting itself. When the time comes to
make a drain resistance roll, no roll is actually made. Instead, determine
how many boxes of damage the magician would take assuming no successes on
the drain test. (This is, basically, the drain code of the spell). Before
this damage is done to the mage; however, it gets reduced by the mana
battery. The effective rating of the mana battery may, at the magician's
option, be reduced by one point to eliminate some boxes of damage. If any
boxes are left over, they are then applied to the magician.
How many boxes per point of effective rating? That is the real question, and
can be manipulated by house rule to make the battery more or less effective.
I'd suggest the following:
If the magician would take mental drain, one effective rating point will
cancel three boxes of damage (or fraction thereof).
If the magician would take physical drain, one effective rating point will
cancel two boxes of damage (or fraction thereof).
Mana Batteries For Shadowrun - Alternatives
High power campaigns might wish to allow both the battery _and_ a drain
resistance test on the same spell.
Some campaigns might want aspected batteries. That is, the battery could
only be used for a certain sphere of magic (health, combat, etc.) M:tG
purists could give these aspects colors, though the Magic: the Gathering
colors don't map that well to the SR divisions. It'd probably be something
like this:
Combat: Red (or Black)
Health: Green (or White)
Illusion: Blue
Detection: White(or Blue or Green)
Manipulation: Black (or Red)
Another idea would be stealing mana batteries. If a battery was charged, you
might want to have rule where someone could re-bond it.
There might also be some possibilities for using a battery to power effects
similar to anchoring, without using metamagic.
