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Message no. 1
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2 question....
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 17:52:20 -0400 (EDT)
At 10:48 AM 6/20/96 -0500, Brian wrote:

You sure got a lot of questions! *grin*

>>Page 102: About Munds Vs. Spirits
>'Strength enhancements do increase...'
>
>Should this read Willpower? Doesn't that make more sense...

Although Willpower will help, that statement means that someone with, for
example, muscle replacement uses the new value, not the "natural" one.

>and the part about which enhancements work 'spells, bioware, cyberware, or
>other......'
>Is anything excluded from this? As in.. Could this BE more general?

Dicote [tm] definitely doesn't help, but I can't think of anything else at
the moment.

>Page 135. About Enhance aim spell
> Is this intended to mean:
>works with laser sights?, but not smartguns(for sure),
>and works with vision enhancements (Th,LL) or Magnification,
>or does it just apply to one specific thing?

Read the spell description.

>SHADOWTECH
>P.108 Reckless endangerment: 5KY, 100 years ??????

I don't have it here atm, but aren't there rules somewhere for reducing a
sentence using the attorneys's extra successes?

>P.5 Where it says magicians must pay essence for bioware
>
>If a magician gets body cost 2 of bioware, he the drops 2 points of
>magic/essence, AND gets a +1 to magical healing TNs? or just the essence loss?.
>
>Cause the way I read it, you get hit twice for the same thing.
>All mundanes pay only once.

That +1 would apply to whomever is casting heal/treat on him, not if he casts
the spell on someone else. You sure you read this thoroughly?

>And spell lock/ward questions
>
>In S1, spell locks were continuously activated, and Munds couldn't touch
>them since they exist in astral space. Further their hands go right
>through them.
>
>In G2, spell locks can be turned on and off. Can mundanes do this? Can
>the spell lock's owner (the mage who locked it) turn it on/off?

Read the SR rules book, under a chapter coincidentally named "Spell Locks".
Summary: The creator can turn them on/off at will, other mages have to touch
them, mundanes can't do anything.

>If a mundane takes the lock (active) through a ward, do the lock and
>the ward fight? (Generally the Lock dies)

Yes. I always played it this way, but it's in the Wards rules of Awakenings,
in the GM section.

>Can a masked active focus be brought through a ward without fighting the
>ward?

I'd say not, but if the mage tried to "slip through" a ward, I'd allow the
foci to pass too.

--
"I remember my first sexual encounter because I kept the recipe."
- Jeff Dahmer
Message no. 2
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re:[SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2 question....
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 18:07:28 -0400 (EDT)
>>>>>>But Isn't willpower also the Power of the attack?

You're thinking about Astral combat.

> And spell lock/ward questions
>
>>>>>>Are spell locks attuned to a specific spell? Do you have to
>>>>>>specify what spell the lock will be used for when artificing?
>>>>>>meaning if you kill the mage, can their SLs be used again?

Spell locks can be used for any spell, but I'm sure one could make a
single-purpose one to lower the cost of initial bonding, I think. (I never
had a player try to enchant so I only skimmed the rules on artificing).

>SRII, p. 138 "Spell locks, once bonded to a particular
> spell, need not be activated immediately. A magician
>can create the lock and then give it to another magician
>of the same tradition (shamanic or hermetic) for placement and
>activation. [...]

>>>>>Who pays the karma in this case?

Whoever cast the spell has to pay the karma. No, you can't "loan" the necessary
karma, as far as I can tell.

>The magician who creates the spell lock can activate and
>deactivate them at will. " No other person is mentioned
>who can deactivate the lock, and only the one who places
>it can activate it, I think.

No, somewhere it states that other mages have to touch the lock and spend a
free action(?).

>>>>>This is troublesome. [Awa] states spell locks on <W/C/I>

On what?

>>>>>are new fashion, but the mundane can drag this through a ward
unwittingly
>>>>>and Either destroy the lock or the ward. R&D personel esp.
>>>>>A problem. How can a mundane pay so much $ for
>>>>>Something they can break without them knowing it, or even have one?
>>>>>I'm sure all Security types would oppose them (Grounding)
>>>>>And any shadowrunner who was mad could fry [Mr. Johnson] easy.

Yeah, that'd be a problem, wouldn't it?

> Can a masked active focus be brought through a
> ward without fighting the ward?
>
>I'd think so since the lock doesn't appear to be magically active on
>astral plane. And since I have yet to see an initiated ward (that could see
>through the masking) one should be able to bring the lock through the ward.
>
>>>>>>>>>What I really was getting at was an active power/etc.
focus
>>>>>>>>>Shadowrunner fleeing security runs headlong through a
ward
>>>>>>>>>Would masking protect the focus?

I'd say "No", as I think of masking as a way of blending or covering the
magic aura with yours, and wards are mindless; It would sense something magical
trying to pass and fight back.


--
"I remember my first sexual encounter because I kept the recipe."
- Jeff Dahmer
Message no. 3
From: "Sascha Pabst" <Sascha.Pabst@**********.Uni-Oldenburg.DE>
Subject: Re:[SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2 question....
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 18:04:27 +0200
On 21.06.96, Ubiquitous wrote about "Re:[SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2
question....":
> >>>>>>But Isn't willpower also the Power of the attack?
> You're thinking about Astral combat.
Ah... I _knew_ I had read something about Willpower being Power...
Thanx for the hint! :-)

> Spell locks can be used for any spell, but I'm sure one could make a
> single-purpose one to lower the cost of initial bonding, I think. (I never
> had a player try to enchant so I only skimmed the rules on artificing).
Big deal, lower the Karma cost of 1... :-)

> >The magician who creates the spell lock can activate and
> >deactivate them at will. " No other person is mentioned
> >who can deactivate the lock, and only the one who places
> >it can activate it, I think.
>
> No, somewhere it states that other mages have to touch the lock and spend a
> free action(?).
It's SRII, p138, and a simple action. But it does not say anything
about DEactivating the lock, just activating it when placed. In fact
a magician can deactivate a lock by removing it from the target
(physically) - just hope the target isn't resisting :-)

[foci through wards when masked]
> I'd say "No", as I think of masking as a way of blending or covering the
> magic aura with yours, and wards are mindless; It would sense something magical
> trying to pass and fight back.
but when you have covered, err, masked it, only initiates can discover,
err, detect them. And you are not telling me a ward is initiated, now will
you? So how could it "sense something magical" when all magical is masked?

Sascha

--
+---___---------+----------------------------------------+--------------------+
| / / _______ | Jhary-a-Conel aka Sascha Pabst |The one who does not|
| / /_/ ____/ |Sascha.Pabst@**********.Uni-Oldenburg.de| learn from history |
| \___ __/ | | is bound to live |
|==== \_/ ======| *Wearing hats is just a way of life* | through it again. |
|LOGOUT FASCISM!| - Me | |
+------------- http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~jhary -----------------+
Message no. 4
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re:[SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2 question....
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 21:15:06 -0400 (EDT)
At 06:04 PM 6/21/96 +0200, Sascha wrote:
>On 21.06.96, Ubiquitous wrote:

>> Spell locks can be used for any spell, but I'm sure one could make a
>> single-purpose one to lower the cost of initial bonding, I think. (I never
>> had a player try to enchant so I only skimmed the rules on artificing).

>Big deal, lower the Karma cost of 1... :-)

Isn't the initial cost higher though? I think it was in the section that
says that using units of orichalm and "secret ingredients" lowers the cost.

>> >The magician who creates the spell lock can activate and
>> >deactivate them at will. " No other person is mentioned
>> >who can deactivate the lock, and only the one who places
>> >it can activate it, I think.
>>
>> No, somewhere it states that other mages have to touch the lock and spend a
>> free action(?).

>It's SRII, p138, and a simple action. But it does not say anything
>about Deactivating the lock, just activating it when placed. In fact
>a magician can deactivate a lock by removing it from the target
>(physically) - just hope the target isn't resisting :-)

The top of the second paragraph says the mage who created it can activate
and deactivate the spell lock at will, taking a simple action.

>[foci through wards when masked]
>> I'd say "No", as I think of masking as a way of blending or covering
the
>> magic aura with yours, and wards are mindless; It would sense something
>>magical trying to pass and fight back.
>
>but when you have covered, err, masked it, only initiates can discover,
>err, detect them. And you are not telling me a ward is initiated, now will
>you? So how could it "sense something magical" when all magical is masked?

Hmmm...never thought of it that way. I'll have to give this some more thought.
I think that if a astrally projecting mage could mask himself, the ward
would still know.

--
"I remember my first sexual encounter because I kept the recipe."
- Jeff Dahmer
Message no. 5
From: "Damion Milliken" <dam01@***.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2 question....
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 12:08:39 +1000 (EST)
Sascha Pabst writes:

> > I'd say "No", as I think of masking as a way of blending or covering
the
> > magic aura with yours, and wards are mindless; It would sense something
> > magical trying to pass and fight back.
>
> but when you have covered, err, masked it, only initiates can discover,
> err, detect them. And you are not telling me a ward is initiated, now will
> you? So how could it "sense something magical" when all magical is masked?

I tend to think of masking as similar to "astral invisibility". It is the
ability to hide astral presences. Now, a ward is, in effect, an astral
wall. It is described as such, and it functions as such. Now, comparing
this to the physcial world, one could make analogies to a real wall and a
person with an invisbility spell sustained upon them. Sure, nobody realises
that they're there, but does that mean that they can walk through walls?
Nope. A ward doesn't need to detect the focus or astral form. It is an
impermeable barrier that just blocks the astral forms, regardless of their
degree of masking.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au

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Message no. 6
From: "Sascha Pabst" <Sascha.Pabst@**********.Uni-Oldenburg.DE>
Subject: Re:[SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2 question....
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 18:03:55 +0200
On 22.06.96, Ubiquitous wrote about "Re:[SR2]: awakenings/shadowtech/G2
question....":
> At 06:04 PM 6/21/96 +0200, Sascha wrote:
[Karma cost of Spell Locks]
> Isn't the initial cost higher though? I think it was in the section that
> says that using units of orichalm and "secret ingredients" lowers the cost.
See! See what you done! Now I have to read that stuff! *growl*
Ups, you are right. Base Karma Cost is 3, but my be lowered. Hm...
sounds logical to me... NOT!

[(de)activation of locks]
> >It's SRII, p138, and a simple action. But it does not say anything
> >about Deactivating the lock, just activating it when placed. In fact
> >a magician can deactivate a lock by removing it from the target
> >(physically) - just hope the target isn't resisting :-)
>
> The top of the second paragraph says the mage who created it can activate
> and deactivate the spell lock at will, taking a simple action.
...but doesn't say anything about _others_ who want to activate/deactivate
the lock. The creator (and I take it they mean the one who put the spell in
there) doesn't even need to have LOS to (de)activate the lock, but others
can activate it only when placing it, and deactivate it only when tremoving
the lock from the "victim".

[snipped the ward/foci/projecting thing, have to think about it]
Sascha

--
+---___---------+----------------------------------------+--------------------+
| / / _______ | Jhary-a-Conel aka Sascha Pabst |The one who does not|
| / /_/ ____/ |Sascha.Pabst@**********.Uni-Oldenburg.de| learn from history |
| \___ __/ | | is bound to live |
|==== \_/ ======| *Wearing hats is just a way of life* | through it again. |
|LOGOUT FASCISM!| - Me | |
+------------- http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~jhary -----------------+

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