From:	Sir Philos Nex <philos@****.NET>
Subject:	Re: Area Spells
Date:	Tue, 29 Jul 1997 21:17:10 -0400

David Buehrer wrote:
>
> Mike Elkins wrote:
> |
> | Here's another "thought experiment":
> |
> | A magician casts a physical area-of-effect spell
> | at a point in the middle of a wheat field. Does it
> | only effect the wheat stalks towards the front that
> | he can see well, does it effect a nice neat circle
> | in the crop, or does it effect a few dozen or so
> | stalks that happen to be the ones his mind
> | "noticed"? Substitute a crowd in a passing
> | subway car if you think a field of wheat is too
> | boring...
>
> Thanks Mike :p :)
>
> I'm gonna say that the wheat that the magician can't see isn't
> affected by the combat spell (ditto for the people in the crowd).
>
> This is a rule that I've had to read a lot, cuz one of the players in
> my game keeps trying to use Fireball to affect targets around corners
> (We're playing SR, not AD$D! <sigh>). It doesn't matter what's
> blocking your sight.

Ummm.. I always thought that area effect spells didn't have to be
centered on anything and simply slammed everything inside the effect.
That would mean that the unseen wheat would be blasted just as easily as
the seen ones. I know this is true for physical manipulation spells
(Ice sheet and such) where everything in the area of effect bites. I
would think that fireballing someone around the corner should be quite
acceptable as you don't have to target something specifically. If you
*had* to target, then when your friends are all in melee I'd drop a
fireball in the area and would only target those unfriendly pricks :)
But you can't do that (it is kinda similiar to AD&D in that respect)

--
Andrew Dominas
AKA Sir Philos Nex
3rd Year Honours Business Administration U of Windsor
Jedi Knight

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