Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: "THE DIFFICULT WE DO TODAY. THE IMPOSSIBLE IS OVER IN R&D."
Subject: Shapeshifting
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 19:14:04 CET
>>>>>[P. 145 SR2: "Astral perception allows the magician to view the
aura
of any living or magical thing, which will reveal to him the true form or
nature of the being." Sounds to me that if you truly want to see and under-
stand a creature so that you can have a magical spell formula change you
to look like this creature that assencing its aura to determine its
"true form or nature" is the only thing that is nessacary.
The aura reading is more spicific then you think. Infact here is the
list of the information atainable from aura reading, gathered from pages
145 of the SR2 mainbook and pages 90-91 of the SR2 Grimoire.
-true form or nature of the being.
-the genral state of health, wounds, diseases, active drugs in system,
and so on.
-the magic and essence attribute of the subject in relation to your own.
-someones emotions and why they feel that way ex. "I'm angery because of
my boss" or "I'm sad because of my lover."

With the ability to get this spicific about a creature and its
"nature" it would be more than enough relevent information to get the spell
formula to superimpose the other beings aura over your own and change your
physical body to match. It certainly makes more sense the cutting it up
or living with it 24, 7.
Lets take insect spirits as an example. They can assume the form
of humans when they enter the body and they aren't Bio students with B.A.s
so the must use astral perception. Now they are trying to displace another
persons mind and PERMANENTLY change the body for all time so the process
takes a long time. But a magician casting a temporary shape altering spell
doesn't need to take this long because it is only temporary and the mind
isn't altered(in most cases).

Just thought I'd shead some light on the subject using game mechanics.
Now I leave my work to deliver my message which is:
A resounding THWAP to a SR world where only Zoo/Biology majors can cast
shapechange and transform spells.]<<<<<
--BurnouT <10:54:20/11-02-54>
Message no. 2
From: "David M. Girardot" <GIRARDOT@*********.EDU>
Subject: Re: Shapeshifting
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:53:03 CET
I think you are still missing the point. You can learn the same sort
of info from something like MRIs or something. In fact, that's a
pretty good description of aural reading (like a cat-scan). You are
confusing resolution with precision. Yes, you can get a lot of info
from a cat-scan -- but not the same info you can get from, say, a
PhD program in medical science. Do you understand what I mean? On
the hermetic side of things -- the problem in assuming a creature's
form is the specifics of that form. The mage really needs to know
what he's doing and a simple aural scan isn't nearly enuff. Now then,
for the (Critter) Form spell, the form of the critter *is* built
right into the spell -- no one's arguing with that. But with the
other spell that allows multiple forms ... well, then the magician has
to supply all the expertise.

--David
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Girardot@*********.edu Girardot@********.bitnet
dmgirard@***.cs.du.edu
-*-
Prognosticator * Gamer * Scribbler * Reader * Consultant * Sorta Apple Rep

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Shapeshifting, 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!