| From: | Stuart M. Willis hbiki@****.geocities.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Astral Shockwave Rules v0.02b and comments |
| Date: | Sun, 21 Feb 1999 12:45:40 +1100 |
Thanks to those who have taken the time to reply with suggestions and/or
praise. :-)
Personally, I prefer role-playing to rules, especially tediously
complicated calculations... the ASW rules were designed less for PC to use,
and more for NPCs (just to piss off characters when they finally kill that
8th Grade Initate Mage), though they're open ended enough for both.
I designed them in such a way so that new/younger characters won't be able
to save the world from astral threat, or wipe out that nest of bugs, or
whatever. I felt that that would be stupid - but if you want characters to
be able to do that, that's fine by me (I resigned four years ago from FASAs
rule police). In fact, I've designed the rules in such a way that you can
easily increase the potency of the effect (remove some if not all of the
divisions).
Futhermore, others suggested that it should be a release of a huge
uncontrollable force rather than something controllable... well thats why I
used the point system. It requires *effort* on the dying magician's behalf
to try and control the energy of his Shockwave. It would be very for her to
pump all their Shock Points into the success test, and/or the power level -
and the effect would be devestating.
I think that any 'traumatic' death should qualify the use of the ASW. But
it is up to the individual GM.
Regardless, I did make some modifications. I'm not going to repost the
rules complete (but if you want a copy, e-mail me), so here are the
modifications:
Shock Points are now calculated as follows:
Base 'Shock Points': (Sorcery Skill + Conjuring Skill + Spell Pool + Karma
Pool + Magic Attribute ) / 2 + Good Karma
One shock point now increase the area of effect by *two* meters.
One shock point now buys *two* ASW defense dice.
You automatically recieve dice for the ASW success test equal to half your
willpower.
I've left the damage level increase at 10 points per level, but depending
on the lethality of your game, you may wish to increase or decrease that
cost.
Anyways, here is a quite example of the power of the ASW I typed up:
Let us consider what the average 'experienced' magician in a campaign will
have of importance to the ASW.
An Intelligence of 6; Willpower of 6; Sorcery and Conjuring Skills of 8; a
Force 5 Power Focus; two Sustaining Foci; Unaugmented Magic Rating of 10
(4th level Initatie); a Karma pool of 10; and a Good Karma of 15.
This would make the base damage rating: 7L [(4 + (6/2)L]
Base Area of Effect: 13 meters (radius) [10 + (6/2)]
Base Shock Points: 36 [(8 + 8 + 7 + 10 + 10)/2 + 15]
Bonus Shock points: [assuming all foci are active] 7.
Total Shock Points: 43.
What does he buy?
43 Success Test Die :-) That means she would roll 46 for the success test.
Do you reckon anyone has a hope in hell of achieving more successes?
Or, alternatively:
10 Success die (10 Points); Stages the Damage up 1 Level (10); increase the
power level by 10 (10); expand the area of effect by 10 (5 points); and
allocates the rest to Spell Defense to his two runner friends (8 dice each,
8 points).
That means she causes an astral shockwave of 17M damage (mana based,
remember - most street sams wouldn't have willpowers over like 4), hitting
an area of 26 meters (radius), rolling 13 dice for her success test; with
her two friends each receiving an additional 8 dice to resist the effects
of the ASW.
I consider that quite powerful.
But remember, there is the option of dropping the divisions.
:-)
care,
s.
---------------------------------------------------------
to err is human. to forgive is not company policy.
egoshrine: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/8905/
ICQ: 4340513
Dangermedia Guild Assassin: http://dangermedia.com
The Net is Not a TV: http://dangermedia.com/nntv/
---------------------------------------------------------
