From:	Bob Ooton <topcat@**.CENCOM.NET>
Subject:	Re: potential ...
Date:	Wed, 19 Apr 1995 17:14:39 -0500

>Never, in all my years playing SR (since thta glorious day the Blue Book
>arrived in stores) have I ever heard anyone complain about how SR is mage
>biased. Sure, they get the spellls. But in Character Creation, they
>suck! I've had so street smmies get jealous of some of the spells they
>had, but once the mage offered to share, they were quite happy. Besides,
>the sammies were already protecting the mage's butt because the mage was
>slow, had no skill points, was weak, and couldn't afford an Ares
>Assault. It's a bitch making a mage and very rarely does it turn out the
>way you want it.

How long you been on this list, Mark? (I ask because we had a hell of an
argument over mage-bias not long ago)

The game is mage-biased (at least power-wise) in a HUGE way (author of the
post would like to point out that he said GAME not SHADOWRN LISTMEMBERS).
Re-read the rules concerning magicians and see if you can't see that
yourself. I, personally, have fought a strict mage-vs-samurai fight. I
won. I was the mage. I was invisible (improved, no less... and locked) and
I cast control actions (fetish exclusive, expendable fetish... plus a
manipulation focus 2) from a range of 1 kilometer (goggles with x20 mag).
Drain threw me for a little loop, but the sight of the opponent putting his
LMG's barrel between his lips made the effort worth every bit...

In case you thought that was munchkinous... it is. It was a battle of
munchkins and the mage is better at it. So are they weaker? Nope, they're
quite a bit stronger if played within their limits. If your campaign is a
John Woo film in the making, then the mage will probably be at a
disadvantage. Otherwise they'll be pretty impressive.


-- Bob Ooton <topcat@******.net>
"Founder of the Mohicans/Street Samurai... formerly Last of the
Mohicans/Street Samurai... One of the few fighters for samurai rights!"