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Message no. 1
From: Steve Lusk <hunter@*****.CA>
Subject: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 16:44:31 -0500
Stephen Delear wrote:
>
> On Sun, 1 Dec 1996, NightLife wrote:
>
> > At 09:04 PM 12/2/96 -0500, Midn Daniel O Fredrikson wrote:
> > >>
> > >> (I disagree - I never used Gradual Initiation...)
> > >>
> > >Could someone please inform me what gradual initiation is?
> > >
> >
> > Gradual initiation is the process of selecting the metamagic abilities one
> > at a time with each level in initation instead of them all coming as soon as
> > a mage or shaman initiates at level 0. So at level one say the mage would
> > have to choose one of the six(?) say masking and at the next grade say
> > centering or what ever.
>
> Basically the result is that players race to get grade 6 initiation.
> Keep in mind that the only initiate power that isn't hugely powerfull is
> anchoring (and maybe masking). Everything else is so usefull that it
> isn't even funny.
>
> SteveD
>
> >

We use more of a point based system for gradual initiation, to off set
some of the more powerful metamagicks. At each initiation, the mage gets
one "point". Each ability is rated to require a certain number of
points (for example, dispelling requires 1, and centering another one,
etc.). This allows players to decide which powers they want, while
still balancing the power of initiation. I also require certain
prerequistes to some abilities (such as sheilding to get reflective
sheilding).

I know this is a little off topic (but it is definetly SR related), but
the mention of anchoring reminded me of an old problem in my game.
One of my players got a trauma damper for his magician (i have to give
him that the magic loss was well worth it). This made it totally
impossible for him to be knocked unconcious from a single D drain spell,
and he began making outrageous anchorings (such as a detect
enemies/personal barrier/armour/combat sense/you get the idea) that
should have killed him, not knocked him out.
I decided to give him a -2 to the power of the drain once he passed D
drain level. He whined that it wasnt adecuate compensation (which just
strengthened my resolve not to back down)
How would others have handled this situation?

--
Thus endeth the sermon

--William Hunter
Message no. 2
From: Mark Steedman <M.J.Steedman@***.RGU.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 11:27:52 GMT
Steve Lusk writes

> One of my players got a trauma damper for his magician (i have to give
> him that the magic loss was well worth it). This made it totally
> impossible for him to be knocked unconcious from a single D drain spell,
> and he began making outrageous anchorings (such as a detect
> enemies/personal barrier/armour/combat sense/you get the idea) that
> should have killed him, not knocked him out.
ok he takes EACH drain in sequence with one magic pool!, each spell
drain modified by links as appropriate, so 4 D drain spells could (in
theory) hand out 40 boxes of damage, you don't just keep adding
different spells drain levels together which it sounds like you've
been doing.
Yeah, it means 9 boxes from 100D, but some 36 off 4 * 25D!

happy brain explosions :)

Mark
Message no. 3
From: Stephen Delear <shadow@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 00:38:39 -0600
On Wed, 4 Dec 1996, Steve Lusk wrote:

>
> I know this is a little off topic (but it is definetly SR related), but
> the mention of anchoring reminded me of an old problem in my game.
> One of my players got a trauma damper for his magician (i have to give
> him that the magic loss was well worth it). This made it totally
> impossible for him to be knocked unconcious from a single D drain spell,
> and he began making outrageous anchorings (such as a detect
> enemies/personal barrier/armour/combat sense/you get the idea) that
> should have killed him, not knocked him out.
> I decided to give him a -2 to the power of the drain once he passed D
> drain level. He whined that it wasnt adecuate compensation (which just
> strengthened my resolve not to back down)
> How would others have handled this situation?
>
> --
> Thus endeth the sermon
>
> --William Hunter
>
Actually I was having a simmular problem. I was contemplating feeding
the PC to organ leggers but then awakenings came out. The official
ruling from FASA Mike is that a Trauma dampener acts just like Stim
Patches only with some form of modifier making it a tad bit harder to
lose magic (I think there was a 1 or 2 point bonus on the die roll).
Takes care of the problem quite well.


SteveD
Message no. 4
From: "Robert Pendergrast (Tom)" <3011_3@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 23:35:14 -0700
>> I know this is a little off topic (but it is definetly SR related), but
>> the mention of anchoring reminded me of an old problem in my game.
>> One of my players got a trauma damper for his magician (i have to give
>> him that the magic loss was well worth it). This made it totally
>> impossible for him to be knocked unconcious from a single D drain spell,
>> and he began making outrageous anchorings (such as a detect
>> enemies/personal barrier/armour/combat sense/you get the idea) that
>> should have killed him, not knocked him out.
>> I decided to give him a -2 to the power of the drain once he passed D
>> drain level. He whined that it wasnt adecuate compensation (which just
>> strengthened my resolve not to back down)
>> How would others have handled this situation?

> Actually I was having a simmular problem. I was contemplating feeding
> the PC to organ leggers but then awakenings came out. The official
> ruling from FASA Mike is that a Trauma dampener acts just like Stim
> Patches only with some form of modifier making it a tad bit harder to
> lose magic (I think there was a 1 or 2 point bonus on the die roll).
> Takes care of the problem quite well.

The way we fixed that in my group, is we just made the ruling (HOUSE RULE
HERE!) that trauma dampers did NOT reduce damage from deadly wounds.
Otherwise a sammy or mage or whoever, couldn't be taken down by a single
shot. A 'D' wound, whether from drain, a punch, or from a gunshot,
wouldn't take a trauma'd guy down. Now it works just fine in the case of
a L M or S wound, just not a 'D'.

-Tom-
Message no. 5
From: Jonathan Hurley <jhurley1@******.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 11:31:38 -0500
Stephen Delear[SMTP:shadow@***.COM] wrote:

>Actually I was having a simmular problem. I was contemplating feeding
>the PC to organ leggers but then awakenings came out. The official
>ruling from FASA Mike is that a Trauma dampener acts just like Stim
>Patches only with some form of modifier making it a tad bit harder to
>lose magic (I think there was a 1 or 2 point bonus on the die roll).
>Takes care of the problem quite well.


Reference Please? I'd be interested in finding this ruling
Message no. 6
From: Stephen Delear <shadow@***.COM>
Subject: Re: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 20:39:22 -0600
On Fri, 6 Dec 1996, Jonathan Hurley wrote:

> Stephen Delear[SMTP:shadow@***.COM] wrote:
>
> >Actually I was having a simmular problem. I was contemplating feeding
> >the PC to organ leggers but then awakenings came out. The official
> >ruling from FASA Mike is that a Trauma dampener acts just like Stim
> >Patches only with some form of modifier making it a tad bit harder to
> >lose magic (I think there was a 1 or 2 point bonus on the die roll).
> >Takes care of the problem quite well.
>
>
> Reference Please? I'd be interested in finding this ruling
>
I asked FASAMike about it over E-mail once awakenings came out. I don't
know if I posted his response to the list or not (if you want to try and
dig through the archives the subject line was Mageware). Basically I
asked him if a truama dampener worked like a stim patch and his answer
was yes.

SteveD
Message no. 7
From: Jonathan Hurley <jhurley1@******.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re; SR comp (gradual initiation) & question?
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 12:37:09 -0500
Stephen Delear[SMTP:shadow@***.COM] wrote:
>On Fri, 6 Dec 1996, Jonathan Hurley wrote:
>
>> Stephen Delear[SMTP:shadow@***.COM] wrote:
>>
>> >Actually I was having a simmular problem. I was contemplating feeding
>> >the PC to organ leggers but then awakenings came out. The official
>> >ruling from FASA Mike is that a Trauma dampener acts just like Stim
>> >Patches only with some form of modifier making it a tad bit harder to
>> >lose magic (I think there was a 1 or 2 point bonus on the die roll).
>> >Takes care of the problem quite well.
>>
>>
>> Reference Please? I'd be interested in finding this ruling
>>
>I asked FASAMike about it over E-mail once awakenings came out. I don't
>know if I posted his response to the list or not (if you want to try and
>dig through the archives the subject line was Mageware). Basically I
>asked him if a truama dampener worked like a stim patch and his answer
>was yes.

It doesn't matter much. I allowed this (hermetic) mage to implant it
knowing the results. I have since decided that if he wants to anchor, it
will essentiall have no effect. (Atually, instead of adding 2 to the power
for every Step over deadly, I will let the Drain code go to Deadly+1.
Therefore, if he scores no successes, he still takes 10 boxes stun


From a Gateway 2000 manual:
Sucking all the chips off your system board with an industrial strength
wet/dry vac is not covered by your warranty
mailto:jhurley1@******.stevens-tech.edu

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