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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject: Spirit Movement and Vehicles
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 12:20:48 -0500
>Several list members have also suggested enlisting the aid of an air
elemental
>or a nature spirit. Using its Movement power, a spirit can increase or
>decrease a vehicle's speed by multiplying or dividing its current speed
by the
>spirit's Essence. So a t-bird assisted by a Force 3 air elemental could
triple
>its effective speed, thus tripling the distance covered without
consuming more
>fuel.

While I like the idea of spirts easing ones journey, clearly supersonic
Dodge Scoots or mini-vans full of runners is not what the game
designers intended.

I use the following house rules to contain the situation:
Total the number of people being moved.
For low tech vehicles, add 5*Body (muscle or wind powered)
For mid tech vehicles, add 10*body (cars, motorcycles etc)
For High tech vehicles, add 15*body (jet fighters, for example)
Now divide the movement multiplier (i.e. spirit's force) by this total. Do
not round.

A guy on a motorcycle can get a significant boost (but not break the
sound barrier), but asking a normal spirit to speed up your cruise linner
(with 2000 passengers) is not likely to be noticeable, (unless you
summon force 200 spirits).

I haven't tried this, but maybe great form spirits get to subtract half their
force from the divisor, with a minimum divisor of 1. No effect for a
running shaman, but when it comes to moving the bus, it helps...

Double-Domed Mike
Message no. 2
From: AirWisp <AirWisp@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Spirit Movement and Vehicles
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 15:39:17 EST
In a message dated 98-03-05 12:27:41 EST, you write:

> So a t-bird assisted by a Force 3 air elemental could
> triple
> >its effective speed, thus tripling the distance covered without
> consuming more
> >fuel.
>
> While I like the idea of spirts easing ones journey, clearly supersonic
> Dodge Scoots or mini-vans full of runners is not what the game
> designers intended.
>

Something we do here in the home games is this ... Movement Power enhances the
Fuel Economy by 10% per force of the spirit in question ... if a vehicle is
the Personal Domain of a free spirit then the Movement Power works full
throttle ...

Another thing we also did was that if a spirit was going to be used to provide
Movement or any other power to a vehicle\, the force (for a non-great-form)
had to be at least equal to the Body of the vehicle, before any power could
work on it ... and the Body of the vehicle subtracted from the force gave the
maximum Movement rating that could be applied by that one spirit ...

There is also another way of looking at the application of the Movement power
also, as a limitation ... whenever the vehicle's speed was beyond the normal
maximum stress was incurred, and an additional point of stress for every time
it doubled or trebled, and so on ... and the vehicle also gained a control
modifier equal to the rating of the Movement power (which may also incur
stress) ... and another thing about this is that anyone inside the vehicle is
stil subject to the normal laws of physics when the vehicle is traveling at
such a high movement rate ... imagine trying to pull a normal turn in a Panzer
doing 450 normal but under the effects of 3 points of Movement would be going
at a whopping 1350, and would have gained 2 points of stress and also gives
the rigger a +2 handling modifier ...

At the same time, the signature for the vehicle also drops by the effective
Movement power rating (the 3 for the above panzer), as the panzer is causing
sufficient disturbances to the local environment and is also creating all
sorts of noise and heat foot prints ...

Though there are ways around this however ,,,

Mike
Message no. 3
From: Ereskanti <Ereskanti@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Spirit Movement and Vehicles
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 18:22:39 EST
In a message dated 98-03-05 12:27:39 EST, MikeE@*********.COM writes:

<snipped some nice suggestions on "Spirit Movement of Vehicles"...>

> I haven't tried this, but maybe great form spirits get to subtract half
> their
> force from the divisor, with a minimum divisor of 1. No effect for a
> running shaman, but when it comes to moving the bus, it helps...
>
> Double-Domed Mike

We have a special requirement concerning movement and spirits upon vehicles.
We require a spirit to have a force equal or greater to that of the vehicle's
body in order to effect it at all. Great Form beings are -required- to effect
Naval Class vessels, and cannot use their power upon multiple vessels at one
time. A Great Form Spirit can effect multiple number of craft, IF the craft
are of "standard" categories (non-naval).

Also, please understand that increases in movement -without- Guard Power also
increase the handling modifier in our games by an equal number to that of the
force of the spirit in question. Hence, three services are minimum...Guard,
Movement, and Manifestation.

-K
Message no. 4
From: Mike Buckalew <mike_buckalew@*********.COM>
Subject: Re: Spirit Movement and Vehicles
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 18:11:11 -0700
Mike Elkins said:

>While I like the idea of spirts easing ones journey, clearly supersonic
>Dodge Scoots or mini-vans full of runners is not what the game
>designers intended.

My players once used the movement powers of a water elemental to enable a
frontal assault on a heavily armed yacht. They had a force 5 use it's
movement power on an Aztech Nightrunner. The speed was incredible, not
exactly supersonic, but really fast.

The guards on the yacht only had 1 or 2 actions before the boat pulled
alongside. This gave them no time to man the guns or even form a
boarding defense before the team was onboard. (The team boarded the
yacht by holding onto a steel pole with a levitate item on it.)

I ruled that controlling the boat at that speed was very difficult,
particularly the stop alongside. The team had a competent rigger and a
remaining service on the elemental, which was used to help stop it. A
couple of decent rolls and they were onboard.

The Levitate Item was done beforehand, but I made the magician do the
Levitate with everyone holding on to it, which greatly increased the
target number. But she had as many tries as she wanted to since it
wasn't under any time pressure. She eventually pulled it off.

I didn't really see this as a twisting of any rules, but a creative way
of getting past a potentially nasty obstacle.


Buck (Mike Buckalew)
Test Manager, FileMaker Pro
Email: buck@*********.com

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