From:	Jani Fikouras <feanor@**********.UNI-BREMEN.DE>
Subject:	Re: Blood Mages
Date:	Fri, 29 Sep 1995 14:45:42 +0100

Cugel the Clever said:
>
> On 27 Sep 95 at 12:44, Gurth wrote:
>
> > Actually what I mean are things like blood magic, or sacrifice
> > geasa. If a player wants to do those things, let them -- I think
> > FASA sees the players way too much as the heroic (LG *duck* :)
> > shadowrunners who save the day for the rest of the city.
>
> What do you mean by (LG *duck* :) <innocent look on his face> ;)
> I completely agree. The rules for blood magic can be (more or less)
> deducted from HB's first adventure (forgot the name), and to be
> honest it didn't look to munchkinous to me.

Well Blood Magic in Aftermath is more than a tad different than
the version the Azzie mages use. Aftermath blood magic gives you
more force, Azzie magic takes care of the drain. I suppose its a
question of WYTIWYG and that both is possible, however thats what
the rules say.

> To be reasonable
> effective you need sacrifices and a steady supply of those are a
> definite weakness. You can say that the mage needs blood for
> everything magical he/she tries, so either he suffers physical drain,
> or cuts someone else. And people cutting up other people suffer
> serious social drawbacks :).

Yes, but inflicting physical wounds on yourself in not as bad
as it sounds. First of all a physical wound is "worth" much more
that its equivalent in stun damage. That means that a mage that
would take a serious stun can probably (dont quote me on that)
get away with a moderate physical (using blood magic). No to
mention the fact that you can heal physical, and even with the
+2 penalty healing a moderate wound on a mage is a piece of cake.

> If they want, let them, only make sure that there are enough
> negative aspects that balance the blood magic vs normal magic.

I dont think that leting your players use blood magic is such
a good idea. I have this bad feeling that the game will pretty
soon degenerate into some form of Vampire were every player
goes out looking for yet more victims for his crazy rituals.

--
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"In my mind I see the matrix, and in the matrix is held the power. The lock
to the matrix is my will, and in the matrix my will becomes the power."