| From: | l-hansen@*****.tele.dk (Lars Wagner Hansen) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Street Magic (Was: Enhanced articulation and skillwires) |
| Date: | Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:13:16 +0200 |
>
> Does Street Magic add anything really necessary to the game? Seeing as
> they included initiation rules in the corebook, I can't see any
> compelling reason for getting that particular supplement. Sure, it
> probably has some neat stuff, but does it have anything a group just
> can't do without?
Street Magic adds the following:
Each section starts with a page of fictional material and a full page
drawing. You either like this or you think it's a waste, but SR4 did, and so
does SM.
The Awakened World: 14 pages of background, not really necessary but just
like Buzzkill, Welcom to the Shadows, A History Lesson for the Reality
Impaired and Life on the Edge from the SR4 book, it's nice and helps you
define how magic works, what it can do and can't do, and generally helps me
to use magic in a more SR way.
The Awakened Character: 12 pages with extra advice and rules for creating
magical characters. Everyting from discussing what metatypes to choose, what
skills to take and what attributes to boost, to new skills, new qualities
and some advanced rules. Not really necessary, and I have not yet used any
part of this.
Paths of Magic: 16 pages of new traditions and a bit more about designing
your own tradition. Nothing you couldn't do with the rules found in SR4. You
might agree or disagree with the choises for a particular tradition, but
overall I think they are done well. I have yet only used one of the
traditions (Christian Theurgy), and it worked well, and was just as balanced
as Shamans and Mages.
Initiation and Metamagic: 14 pages with expanded rules for initiation and
more metamagic abilities. Many of these new abilities are nice and
interesting, but I'm sure I could play Shadorwun for a very long time
without missing these.
Magical Groups: 13 pages of rules of purposes, customs, strictures and
benefits, including 14 sample groups. Nothing I have ever used in any
edition of SR.
Magical Goods: 14 pages of background and rules for making your own focuses
as well as new focuses. Nothing you couldn't do without in SR4.
Spirits of the Sixth World: 22 pages of new spirits and their powers,
including free spirits, wild and aberrant spirits, new spirits for the new
traditions, ally spirits and wild spirits. Very interesting and some of the
best part of the book.
Astral Space and the Metaplanes: 23 pages of rules about how to handle the
astral plane and teh metaplanes. If you are going to run quests on the
metaplanes this is the chapter for you. If you are having troubles with
astral projecting mages ruining your plans this is the chapter for you. Very
nice but not something everybody will need.
Magical Threats: 22 pages of nastiness, ready to thrown at your players.
This is the section I use and like the most. Ther are suggestions on how to
use the threats, including the dark paths, blood magic, toxic magic (with
toxic mentor spirits, toxic metamagic and toxic spirits), shadow spirits,
inscet spirits (my favourite) and the shedim. This chapter makes the whole
book worth ever penny it cost.
Grimoire: 34 pages. It starts off with spell design, which can be very
usefull, if you need to design a new spell, this takes up 7 pages and i
fairly usefull. The comes 10 pages of new spells, which you could make
yourself, especially now that you have the spell design rules. Personally
I've always found lists of spells, guns, powers, cars, armour etc. boring,
so this part is equally boring. The same gose for the next 6 pages, which
are new adept powers. Nothing I couldn't have made myself. The next 4 pages
are new mentor spirits, and some suggestions for how to use the old ones
under new names for different magical traditions. Again fairly boring. The
chapter finishes off with 5 pages of tables with magical gear, adept powers
and spell tables.
The book finishes off with a 3 page index.
On a personal level I would say that:
Worth the money (74 pages):
The Awakened World: 14 pages
Paths of Magic: 16 pages
Spirits of the Sixth World: 22 pages
Magical Threats: 22 pages
Waste of paper (110 pages):
The Awakened Character: 12 page
Initiation and Metamagic: 14 pages
Magical Groups: 13 pages
Magical Goods: 14 pages
Astral Space and the Metaplanes: 23 pages
Grimoire: 34 pages
Although some of this might change, for example if my players goes on a
metaplanar quest, or starts to design their own spells.
I still wouldn't live without, but think that SM isn't necessary to play
SR4.
Lars
