From:	Damion Milliken <adm82@***.EDU.AU>
Subject:	Re: Essence and body-index
Date:	Sun, 6 Aug 1995 20:39:20 +1000

Jason Ustica writes:

> So are you saying that a character who has .1 essence is totally normal,
> and if he/she loses that .1 essence, they suddonly fall over dead?? Come
> on! There has to be something happening to the body or mind in between 6
> essence and 0 essence!

Yeah, there is. The character becomes more difficult to affect with certain
spells. He becomes more prone to the paranormal attacks of certain
creatures. His aura changes to reflect the degree of enhancement. If he is
magical, then his ability to work magic is reduced.

> While it might not be so dramatic as the Cyberpunk system, there would at
> least be an attitude change. Also, the Cyberpunk system injects some gritty
> darkness into the experience, something which Shadowrun definitely lacks.
> Shadowrun's atmosphere is a carload of circus clowns compared to Cyberpunk.
> Don't get me wrong, I think SR is superior to CP, but I think it could use
> some of CP's dark atmosphere.

My answer to this is that the atmosphere of a game is what _you_ make it.
My other suggestion is that if you're so taken with CP2020's humanity rules,
then use 'em in SR.

Sascha Pabst writes:

> IMHO it's more a kind of scale to measure how much people still _feel_
> human. When a person stuffs so much c'ware into himself that he starts
> defining himself by the "machine parts" and no longer by "human"
standarts,
> he's well over the edge.
>
> On the other hand today's "cyberware" is still just a (worse) replacement
> for malfunctioning body parts. Considering this, the essence cost of
> -say- the "normal" cyberlimb _without_further_modification_ should be
> much lower, and only the modifications count on Essence really hard...

Yeah, that's inline with the aura theory. The more the cyber deviates from
the standard human, the more essence it costs. So therefore a regular,
non-enhanced cyberlimb would be cheap. While an enhanced to the max
cyberlimb, complete with cyber toaster and steak grille, would be a lot more
essence unfriendly. Unfortunately, this is not the case. So therefore the
aura theory is flawed. However, I still think it has quite a reasonable
grasp of the SR situation, and explains a game balancing rule with decent
enough reasoning (better than humanity in CP2020 thats for sure). With a bit
of fiddling, comprosmising, and adjusting, it covers essense quite ok I
think.

Jason Ustica writes:

> Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because the real life stuff above is nothing
> compared the caliber of cyberware in the SR universe. Pacemakers,
> artificial hearts, all that is _nothing_ compared to virtually replacing
> your nervous system (wired reflexes), converting your muscles and ...

Well, even so, a complete hip replacement still doesn't cost a scaric of
essence, and one could compare that to a minor portion of one's body
getting bone lacing or similar.

> > It is obvious that cyberpsychosis (and essences) is an artificial game
> > balance mechanism to prevent people from making unkillable Gun Bunnies.
>
> Yes, but why have it only represent some arbitrary number, when it can be
> another aspect of roleplaying? Shadowrun is a roleplaying game last I
> checked.

"Even 0 Essence is tough to handle, promoting despair and melancholy. Folks
of such low Essence walk the thin edge of sanity." pg 246 SRII.

I'd think this gives people ample opportunity for introducing role-playing
aspects to having low essence should they desire to.

Gurth writes:

> But note that this only makes sense in an SR-like game. If you did the same
> in CP2020 (like, create a new stat called "Aura" :), and say you die when
> your aura reaches 0 it makes just as little sense as the current Humanity.
> All IMHO, naturally :)

That's right. That's also why cyberphychosis in CP202 makes very little
sense. Essence, with it's magical explanation, has some spine in SR, unlike
cyberpsychosis.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong E-mail: adm82@***.edu.au

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