Message no. 1

From:	David Buehrer <dbuehrer@****.ORG>
Subject:	Re: [SR3] Staging and Drain
Date:	Fri, 11 Jul 1997 08:03:28 -0600

Bruce H. Nagel wrote:
|
| You wrote:
| > And again, the Power and the Damage Level combine to accurately
| > affect the ease with which a character can resist damage from an
| > Attack/Drain/Whatever.
|
| And my way of doing things does something similar, it's just a
different | approach. I've run into this same thing looking at
modifying the Mage system, | deciding whether more successes required
or higher difficulty numbers should be | the way to make something more
difficult. A little of each gives greater | flexibility, imo.

Okay, I have been thinking about this and I do think there is a place for
this concerning Drain Resistance. I don't know how it fits in with
the philosophy of SR's Magic though. If magic "flows" differently,
depending on what you're trying to do, then variable staging works
for me. For example: 5S2 and 5M3 both require 6 successes to counter
the drain. But that 5S2 could be seen as a quick flow of magic (kind
of like tearing the mage's aura/spirit), while the 5M3 could be seen
as a steady flow of the same ammount of magic (like a nice clean
cut). So if you've got a spell that could be cast with a simple
action the magic flows fast and furious so you've got a higher base
damage level with a staging of 2. If your casting a spell that
requires a complex action the magic's flow is strong and steady and
has a lower base damage level. Ritual spells which take a round or
more to cast could have a staging of 4 or more, with a lower base
damage level with respect to what you're trying to accomplish.

I still don't think that staging is appropriate for combat however.
There is just to much going on in SR's abstract system (attacking,
dodging, resisting, armor, etc) that I feel that changing the staging
of attacks will throw it out of balance.

-David
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm
--
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing
which ones to keep."