| From: | korishinzo@*****.com (Ice Heart) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Lightning Ball vs Vehicle. Uber Spell or How Does It Work? |
| Date: | Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:38:39 -0700 (PDT) |
> >On a somewhat tangental note, why is Ball Lightning force halved?
> Because when the game designers were looking to balance the game,
> it was settled on halving the Force and comparing it to the
> armor... no other reason.
I see. So a spell (Force 8 Lightning Ball, for example) that could
take a person, even an armored person, from healthy to the brink of
death or beyond can't even scratch a paint job on a car because that
is balanced? I understand your answer, but that is IMO a very cheap
caveat. Even a little bit of common sense pokes holes in the game
balance argument.
A LAW is anti-vehiclular. What are the drawback to using it? High
availability. Expensive. Illegal. Obvious to any observer.
A Force 8 manipulation spell is going to be difficult to come by,
probably cost a lot, be highly illegal to use, and after one goes
off, "geek the mage" becomes the rallying cry of every NPC. In
addition, casting the spell will have a good chance to leaving the
caster halfway to unconscious.
Manipulation spells have high drain. That is the game balance right
there. Declaring that the full force of the spell is calculated
against the vehicle does not strike me as more game imbalancing that
the existance of the spell in the first place.
If you do stay with the 1/2 Force against vehicles, you need to apply
another (game balancing?) rule. How much of the vehicle's armor is
conductive, would you guess? Because metallic armor is useless
against Lightning Bolt/Ball. So suddenly, maybe the vehicle only has
a couple of points of armor against the spell.
> Ah... I see what's going on here. You're using your own
> imagination, based on what you've seen and what you know to
> discredit the game effects.
>
> That's backwards. Let me explain:
[SNIP]
I kind of hope you are joking. Game mechanics exist to provide an
abstract method of vicarious interaction with an imaginary world.
Shadowrun's setting happens to be largely based on the real world.
Hence, the laws of physics as we know them still apply. And
metaphysics should be as internally consistant. The best guage of
consistancy is common sense. Common sense, for me, says that the
spell's Force (8) is not enough to penetrate the vehicle's armor
(12). However, the secondary effect of the spell does some
peripheral damage. Tires go bye-bye. Metal warps and some parts get
melted. For the most part the vehicle is fine (not enough structural
damage to warrant even an L wound). However, it is suddenly without
external sensors or functional tires, and it has probably picked up a
Stress point or two.
It is not that I use my imagination to rewrite the game. But I also
don't let the game dictate entirely my imagination. A balance is
needed to assure a modicum of verssimilitude. Suspension of
disbelief for me requires a believable jumping off point. Even
imaginary worlds have to make sense unto themselves.
======Korishinzo
--so, think that about covers this thread for me
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