From:	Jeremy DeVore jmortir@*****.net
Subject:	Early Brainstorming: The Advantages to Being a Magic User
Date:	Tue, 23 Feb 1999 15:12:49 -0600

>Considering who
>and what mages are, I'm not sure I like these rules. Players love
>magicaly
>active charecters, yet just slinging their mojo means they risk >infection.
>And then you sy they can only "PURGE" their aura once. Is that once
>per
>infection, or once period? The first I could believe, the second makes >no
>sense.

That is one chance to purge per Infection. That means a Mage can heal
themselves of an Infection become Infected again and Purge again. The toll
it would take on their bodies however would make a Mage think twice before
going off on a "I'm Invulnerable" kick.

>In the area of purging period, If a mage can clear their own aura of >the
>infection, why cant they clear anyone elses? At this rate, only mages
>have
>any real reason to be in the fight agains these beasies since non mages
>are
>pretty much just cannon fodder.

I figured that someone's Aura was a very personal thing and it had to be
purged from within. Mages have experience with Astral Space and thus would
be able to mount such an offensive. Adepts of all sorts and any magic user
would be able to do this because even if they cannot Astrally Perceive or
Project they deal with Astral Energies all the time (whether they are
conscious of it or not). But... there are some theories I haven't gotten
onto this list yet that I had about instinct. About how a magic user knew
how to do this. I theorized that the constant Astral contact awakened
instincts within the magic user that knew how to protect their Auras. Now if
a mage could awaken a non magic user's instincts... now that's something I
can think about...

And remember the setting on this game sorta makes using cannon fodder
strategies a BAD thing. Giving the Enemy troops is not exactly a good thing.

>And last but not least: as the problem spreads, what's to keep the
>governments from just sterilizing the area with nukes and then laying >down
a
>layer of FAB to keep the thing contained like it originally was?

The stuff I have been outlining here is GM info. None of the players know
any of this except what they have seen in the movies. None of the
inhabitants of Shadowrun of even heard of it (other than what they used to
see on those ancient cheesy B-Movies). The oldest elf couldn't tell you
anything about this at the start. As the timeline ticks along mages and
scientists will make some discoveries about the world. But by that time it
would be too late for mass nuclear bombardment. At least pockets of Infected
Areas would be all over the globe and great portions of the more populated
areas too.

The methods of containing the Infection will be discovered eventually.

Later
 
J
http://www.prysm.net/~jmortir/AWINS
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