From: | Jai Tao <jdfalk@****.CAIS.COM> |
---|---|
Subject: | PSI: Pure of mind and body. |
Date: | Fri, 15 Jul 1994 09:12:19 -0400 |
> Essentially, as long as you are pure of mind and body, you have PSI
> power. If your corrupt it (by cyberware or bioware), you can invade that
> purity and decrease your power.
> (I think it is too much of a pain to try to calculate what form
> of what cyber gives you what kind of losses. just use straight
> essence.)
Here we get into that question of where the power of the mind
comes from. For example, could a quadruple-amputee with whatever's left
below the next totally paralyzed muster up the same amount of brainpower
as a totally healthy, unmodified person with similar original
characteristics?
It seems to me that the creators of Shadowrun, probably just for
ease of gaming, decided to go with the whole-body idea. Though this puts
the few seriously crippled but non-cyber-enhanced people at a major
disadvanage in the game, it seems to make enough sense that it ain'
treally worth arguing about, _and_ it is so firmly entrenched in the
system that we should just follow it as-is.
(That's my long-winded way of saying you're right.)
> PSI POOL = WILLPOWER + MASTERY LEVEL
> The pure power of your mind give your the ability to psh extra power into
> your psionic ability. Tempered with a shake of expierience and training,
> it can make one a formidable foe.
Though this sounds like a lighly skewed English mistranslation
from one of the better Japanese Kung-Fu movies so popular in the
seventies, it needs -- NEEDS, I say! -- to be put in the rules
description. I didn't totally understand _any_ pool until I'd read the
story in the back of VR, wherein somebody had "put all of their talent
and experience" into an action.
> METAPSIONIC POWER (you can get it at initiation)
> FORCE OF WILL
> A Master with this power frees his mind totally from the confines
> of his body, no longer relying on it as a source of power. A Psi
> with this skill has a PSI RATING equal to his WILLPOWER (ie,
> ignores ESSENCE totally).
>
> (essentially, this is Darth Vader, who had lots of cords in him
> and can still whoop some ass)
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Now, FORCE OF WILL is put up as a ROLE-PLAYING and realistic device, not
> so much as a munchkin device, and I would appreciate it if you would
> apprach it as such (ie, don't thwap me too hard).
*light THWAP with gummy bears afterwards*
I like the idea, though I see major potential for abuse here. We
need to make sure that this is the _most_ powerful Initiate-type
thingamajigger avaliable, and can only be taken by those who've put
themselves at a major disadvantage in other areas (like attributes, which
would make sense.) That way, if the GM gives the person a "break" and
twists things to make a Munchkin character, it ain't totally the fault of
the player _or_ the system.