From:	Steve Kenson <TalonMail@***.COM>
Subject:	Re: Full of Life
Date:	Wed, 30 Jul 1997 11:17:00 -0400

Max Rible <slothman@*********.ORG> wrote:
>The existing rules work really well as long as you don't worry about FAB.

But I do worry about FAB, and so, I suspect, do many people, given the
discussions I've seen on this list and elsewhere.

>That [making FAB astrally active] makes FAB really impractical: suddenly,
the mage
>that was entrapped by something he couldn't deal with can now cast a trivial
spell to >destroy it and leave.

That's my whole problem with FAB: the character can't do thing one about it.
As both a GM and a player I dislike situations that are: "OK, this happens,
but there's absolutely nothing you can do about it, so don't even try." An
astral form trapped on all sides by FAB is doom and can't do ANYTHING about
it. It's like a perfect death-trap. As a player I would find that incredible
unfair and frustrating.

I'm not saying FAB should be totally worthless, only that there should be a
chance, no matter how small for the trapped character to DO something about
it. Under the new system, FAB would be rated just like a Ward (which is
essentially what it is, an artificial, biological astral wall). So if you
want to make the FAB in a corp facility tough, give it a Rating of 10 or so
and it'll kick ass on the astral. Make it Rating 15 and almost nobody will be
able to get through it. But now the trapped character has the OPTION of
fighting the FAB in astral combat to get out. It might be a very tough fight,
even a near-suicidal one, but I would prefer to have the option rather than
being told I had none.

>Physical security guards wandering through clouds of FAB are
>suddenly vulnerable to area effect spells cast from the astral.

Under the Spell Targeting system I propose (see previous post), an astral
form could ground a spell through the FAB cloud to kill it, but the mundane
guards are completely safe because they are not valid targets and cannot be
affected by any spells cast from the astral. Theoretically, the spellcaster
might be able to transform the FAB into something dangerous or toxic, but for
the drain that would be involved (up in the Serious-Deadly range) why take
the risk?

Steve