| From: | "Dark Thought Publications." <JEK5313@*****.TAMU.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Essence of the matter. . . |
| Date: | Thu, 25 Feb 93 00:40:27 CET |
responses to your responses:
EXAMPLES:
-- We have a character in the party who is a vampire. Sometimes he
doesn't want to kill his victim - just "borrow" a few points of
essence. According to you (pl.) the poor victim doesn't ever get the
points back, and just has a good block of cost-free cyberware essence
sitting there. I have to laugh with great scorn at this little idea--
it does not hold water in my campaign.
-- In another case, I had one character change from a Sammi to a shaman
due to a religious experience (read: he met Wolf). A complete
reversal of character, joined with the fact the the original GM screwed
the character severely, gave me reason to believe that essence
regaining was possible. This did not do anything for magic.
-- One of the screws which occurred in early game-testing was that a Sammi
had all of his cyber yanked out on the battlefield, healed (essence)
instantly, then one of the mages healed him with a spell in no time
due to the lowered target number.
OPINION:
-- I, personally, rebel at the thought of losing one's humanity forever.
As I understood it (and I may merely be setting myself up for a
correction here) essence is a measure of man's humanity. Losing one's
humanity permanently is a plot device the likes of which one might see
in Star Trek.
-- This is serious stuff, not oops-I-didn't-really-want-this-can-I-get-
rid-of-this-now-please stuff. This is where it no longer makes any
sense to keep what you've got in you, and it has no value as a plot
device to keep it in you. Personal judgment, and _only_ personal
judgment is going to have precedence here. Nothing is ever going
to be "right" or "wrong" on this issue.
GAME MECHANICS:
-- Control is important for a GM, however. I am not proposing (or
allowing) people to become cybered for only one run, then leave the
cyber behind with no problems. (No, Brodie, if you get the
convertible skull to house drones in, you'll have to keep it.)
So, without further ado, here are my rules for essence regain:
-- If you want your essence back, you had better give a DAMN good
reason, including (but not limited to) verbal argument,
written argument, personal character "hook," character
background and history, personal check, etc.
-- For vampire victims and other folks (temporary essence loss),
unless the GM rules for some reason otherwise, we use the
rate that a vampire loses essence as the same rate a person
regains essence.
-- In the cases where the essence loss is supposedly permanent,
use something like the regenerative gene therapy in ShadowTech
to regain full humanity. That is really as "you" as you can
get, after "you" has been lost.
-- Require roleplaying backup to everything.
WRAPUP:
This is not something to be taken lightly, as its potential for
screwing game-balance could be devastating. However, it is not nearly
so bad as other items brought up on the list (i.e. magic-wielding
computers, techno-totems, spells that allow the user to access the
matrix [LGLUMKA!!!], full-auto-firing Panthers, Californium bullets,
Troll-Shamanic-Adept-Vampires, etc. . . )
Remember, this is not a gift. This is something that you and the
player work out together because you both feel it to be interesting,
or in your best interests. The character must be prepared to pay for
it in more ways than one. Not only is the player going to have to
convince you - he has to convince everyone he's ever known.
This should be no more available than magical initiation for Joe Mage
or bioware for beginning characters.
Flames will be laughed at, taken around to show to the other players in the
group, laughed at publicly, then tried and shot at dawn.
Other commentaries are more than welcome, but put on your ethics & morals gear
and prepare yourself.
