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Message no. 1
From: Jolly Roger <taz@*****.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Phys Adepts & Mages
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 16:49:52 -0500
Here are some ideas for giving mages Physical Adept powers and for
making Physical Adepts more flexible. These may be unbalancing to
gameplay, so I've included some suggestions to limit them. Please
respond to the list or me. Flames/Raves/Comments welcome. Oh, and
beware the munchkin -- these rules/ideas are right up their alley.
--------------------------------------------

Mages have all the powers of adepts, except Physical Adepts, right?
They can do sorcery, conjuring, enchanting, and all that jazz. By the
very concept of Magical Adepts, full magicians should be able to do
everything that any kind of adept would be able to do. So why can't
full mages do the same kind of things as Physical Adepts?

Picture this,

Your mage (or shaman), can spend his magic points just like any P.A.
would. These points are then not available for spellcasting and the
like. Of course, round down the magic attribute after buying the
mods.

So, you could have your Wolf shaman with some Increased Reflexes,
Moderate Hands, and Low-light Vision, and still have 3 points of magic
to cast spells with. (Or however it adds up.)

Unbalancing? Perhaps, but interesting. We've all seen the Mortal
Kombat/Streetfighter characters that jump and kick and also throw
fireballs or bolt of energy or whatnot.

Maybe one way to balance would be to subtract the number of points of
modification from the character's magic pool. I think this would go
far in balancing things. Maybe some kind of restriction on Conjuring,
as well. Perhaps the same subtraction to the character's Charisma
rating. So, the mage could conjure spirits, but suffer physical drain
most, if not all, of the time.

I haven't tried playing with any of these changes, but I like the
concept and think the character's would be playable with these limits.
'Course, after a few levels of initiation these Physical Mages would be
pretty kick-ass. But then again, shouldn't they be if they're 3rd or
4th level initiates? (BTW, any better name than Physical Mage?)

----

And here's another idea. Let a Physical Adept choose the
modifications he wants for the next day when he goes to sleep, keeping
to his magic attribute, of course. Then, if he gets a sufficient
amount of sleep (8 hours or so), he will wake up with the chosen
powers. If he is woken prematurely, the powers are the same as when
he went to sleep. Makes for a more flexible character. Again, this
may unbalance things.

One way to control things would be that you must sleep, or meditate, a
number of hours equal to your magic attribute plus one. After the
first hour, all of the old skills are 'erased.' Then, the most
expensive modification starts to develop, taking a number of hours
equal to its magic cost. This continues until all of the skills have
had time to accumulate. If the physical adept is woken up or his
meditation is interrupted for longer than a number of minutes equal to
his magic attribute, the process aborts and he is left with whatever
modifications had time to fully develop. Any activity requiring a
success test automatically aborts the process. The Physical Adept
will also know when this process is completely over. So, when he
wakes up he can then start to meditate to continue the process.

If the process aborts, the whole thing must be repeated, it can't be
picked up from where it left off. Also, everything must be changed if
anything is changed. Even if you prefer to have thermo vision
tomorrow instead of low-light, all of the mods need to be changed.
This is because the pattern of magic within the body is intricate and
must be completely reformed for any change, no matter how minor.

For example, Jobu the Physical Adept picks Increased Reflexes 4, and
Deadly Hands (Serious) in preparation of a daylight run for the next
day. His Magic is 6, so he needs to sleep/meditate for 7 hours. Oh,
and he's a light sleeper. He goes to sleep, and after one hour, the
mods from the previous day go away, the magic having to reform for his
new mods. The Increased Reflexes cost 4 vs the Serious Hands cost of
2, so they are worked on first. After 2 hours, his roomie comes home
and wakes him up. After a bit of cursing and yelling, nothing that
really takes any effort on Jobu's part, he decideds to meditate for
the rest of the time. After 2 hours of meditation, Jobu's magic had
developed enough that the Increased Reflexes are in effect. It has
now been five hours, two more hours of meditation before the Serious
Hands and fully developed. Unfortunately, his wife comes home and
finds the roomie (read mistress) naked in bed. She tries to hit Jobu
with a frying pan. Even though she misses, Jobu had to dodge, and the
process is aborted. He will have to start to whole thing over if he
wants to utilize those last 2 magic points.

To further restrict things, you may require that the Physical Adept go
through the whole thing every 24 hours, whether or not something has
changed, in order to refresh the magic. Or change this to 48 hours or
whatever.

-----

Finally, what do you do if you want to use both of the above rules?
Well, first of all, be careful. Imagine what a high level initiate
could do with 12 magic points to spend every day. Either rule could
potentially unbalance a game, together would only be worse.

Anyway, the Physical Mage would choose the modifications he would
want. The leftover would then go towards spellcasting and the like.
The development process would then be used with one addition. If the
process is interrupted, the wasted magic points can't be used until
the process is repeated. I.e., these points wouldn't be available for
spellcasting.

----

Well, there is the rough idea, send me or the list mail.

Jolly Roger
taz@*****.mit.edu

Death to the Munchkins!
Message no. 2
From: The Deb Decker <RJR96326@****.UTULSA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Phys Adepts & Mages
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 12:27:10 -0600
Regarding Ninja Mages:

>Unbalancing? Perhaps, but interesting. We've all seen the Mortal
>Kombat/Streetfighter characters that jump and kick and also throw
>fireballs or bolt of energy or whatnot.

True, but I hesitate to use Mortal Kombat as a referent for what should
or should not be implemented through the Shadowrun rules.

>'Course, after a few levels of initiation these Physical Mages would be
>pretty kick-ass. But then again, shouldn't they be if they're 3rd or
>4th level initiates? (BTW, any better name than Physical Mage?)

That effectively allows a character to "switch classes" at higher levels of
Initiation. Starting out as a normal mage but spending all my Initiation
Magic Attributes on Physad abilities, by the time I am 6th grade (which
would admittedly take a considerable amount of time) I am suddenly a physical
adept as well. I can also use all those neat Initiation abilites.

IMO the upper boundaries are extremely powerful, and unfortunately that is
where most Munchkins play. I for one don't see any magic flaws from a pure
game-balance standpoint, but I reccommend that GMs think about the two
proposed options carefully.


J Roberson
Message no. 3
From: Legion <mloseke@*****.COLOSTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Phys Adepts & Mages
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 14:35:40 -0700
> Regarding Ninja Mages:
>
> That effectively allows a character to "switch classes" at higher levels of
> Initiation. Starting out as a normal mage but spending all my Initiation
> Magic Attributes on Physad abilities, by the time I am 6th grade (which
> would admittedly take a considerable amount of time) I am suddenly a physical
> adept as well. I can also use all those neat Initiation abilites.

Screw that. If I'm going to spend the karma to make it to the 6th grade
(IF I live that long) I'm going to BE a 6th level initiate. I wouldn't
want to get physically involved with another combatant on that level.
Remember, the better your character is, the better the enemies will be.

> IMO the upper boundaries are extremely powerful, and unfortunately that is
> where most Munchkins play.
>
> J Roberson

Too true.

Legion

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