From: kucloak@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bryan Kennedy Reed)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII: Some questions and Comments.
Date: 30 Sep 92 18:36:01 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <BvEovo.H0E@ecf.toronto.edu>, elder@ecf.toronto.edu (ELDER J David) writes:
> 
> Hi all! I have purchased SRII and read most of the rules. I have a few
> questions and comments. Since I have never played SR I hope you 
> will bear with me :-).

Welcome to the game.  If you enjoy this game a third as much as we
have, you money was well spent.

> 
> First, the rules seem reasonably well written and quite well thought out
> for the most part. However, some recent posts about SRII have placed
> the race priority somewhere other than A or E and I don't see why. It 
> says in the rules that a Metahuman must have the race priority at 
> level A - otherwise the character will be human. 
>

Look on page 46 (opposite of the Priority Chart) at the More
Metahumans rule.  It is optional, but I think it brings a little more
character to our game.
 
> Here are my questions.
>
Most of you questions will be answered in the Grimoire, 2nd edition.
This stuff is explained in the first edition of the Grimoire.  I'm not
sure how much it is going to change, so I don't recomend bying the old
one. 
 
> 1) Phys Ads can increase their abilities at a later time by expending
>    points later on ... if they have purchased the ability at the 
>    beginning of the game. However, where do these points come from?
>    Magic Rating is fixed at 6 and is decreased by Essence loss. 
>    Karma cannot be used to increase the Magic Rating. Does this
>    mean that Adepts can use Power foci to increase their abilities?
>    Can spells be cast upon adepts which would increase their magic 
>    rating? 
>
The process of raising a Magicians magic rating is called initiation.
It requires lots of karma for every point raised as well as some other
complications and some new benefits.  This will be explained in the
Grimoire.
 
> 2) Targetting of area of effect spells. It repeatedly says that a 
>    mage must see the target for him to be affected by a spell. And
>    so - targets out of his line of sight are not affected. This
>    doesn't seem to make sense in conjunction with the descriptions
>    of how the spells work. Mana spells discharge energy into the 
>    target's aura which then radiates outward... what would stop this
>    from affecting bystanders that the mage can't see. Similarly,
>    manipulation spells cause a real energy discharge ... wouldn't
>    this affect an invisible target between the mage and the designated
>    target? Even if the mage can't see him? If as in their example
>    it can be stopped by a wall ... then it should be stopped by
>    any other physical prescence. (See the example about firing
>    spells with mirrors.) 
> 
This was explained in the first edition Grimoire.  When thinking of a
combat spell, the use of the term ball is really a misnomer.  Think of
it more as a web.  The spell originates (in real space) at the target.
Energy then flows out to other targets that the mage can see.  If the
mage can see something, the spell is told to attack it.   

So, what do you do if you can't see all the targets, but you know
they're there?  Use a damaging manipulation.  These are true area
effect spells.  The will hit everything in the spell's radius whether
it is visible or not.  It can really ruin their day, unless it is a
Friday.  then it ruins their whole weekend.

> 3) Possible misprint. Mana combat spells ... three of the four 
>    Manabolt, ManaMissile ... are listed as physical and I think 
>    they should be Mana spells - otherwise what real difference is there
>    between these and the Power series of spells?
> 
Yes, I belive it is a misprint.

> 4) How can a sleep spell ever actually sleep someone. It appears that
>    the caster would need 4 more successes than the target to cause 
>    a deadly stun and thus put the target uncounscious. However, a
>    manabolt would only need 2 more successes to stage it to deadly
>    physical (The drain in the two cases would be about the same 
>    F/2 vs F/2 -1 ) and the spells are resisted by the same characteristic.
>    So, moral of the story is that it is easier to blast someone than sleep
>    someone? And if it isn't too easy to blast someone - it must be damn 
>    hard to make them go to sleep. 
>
Remeber, you are comparing an area effect spell (Sleep) with a spell
that affects a single target (Manabolt.)  If you compare it with
Manaball, you will notice that both have the same initial damage
level, and the drain is actually less on stun.  It is slightly less
dificult to stun than do physical damage.
 
> 5) Increase reflexes or Wired reflexes at a +3 dice level ...
>    does this give (Reaction) + 4d6 for initiative?
>
Yes, this is correct.  Notice that wired refelxes also give you a
bonus of +2 to you reaction for every level.  This means that at level
3 you get +6 to your reaction as well as the 3 extra dice.  Slight
advantage over the spell or physical adept power.
 
> 6) Telekinetic manipulations... they list a value of 50kg/point of body
>    for mass and this seems unrealistically high would 50 lbs + 50 lbs/point 
>    be more realistic? 
>    i.e. 100 to 350 lbs (Could be ~50kgs to ~175kgs) instead of
>         110 to 660 lbs 
>      as the normal human range.
>    (P.S. I know 1kg = 2.2 lbs ... no flames please.)
>
Yeah, I think that sounds a lot better.   Maybe make it 25kg/point?
 
> I am planning on running a session this weekend as an intro to the
> game for some friends. Does anyone have any simple introductory
> runs that I could borrow ... I can make up my own but I'd like to see
> what ideas are out there.

<<<<<Simple run?  I would love to go on a simple run!!!  But things
just don't seem to happen that way.  Just last night I got hired to do
a little delivery.  Simple, just go downtown and drop off a certain
item.  So what happens?  We get hit right after we get the job, we
didn't even get to clear the scene.  Just wham, bamn and Theseus is
lying there on the ground with the drek shot out of him.  I played
dead till the rest of the team got there.  But then those sammies were
sorry that the fragged with us.  Unfortunately, we spent more on ammo
than we were supposed to get paid for this job.  And we haven't even
gone downtown yet.>>>>>>>
	--Jake<18:41:23/09-30-53>

> 
> Thanks
> 
> David
> 
> 
> -- 
> David Elder                                University of Toronto
>                                            Institute for Aerospace Studies
> elder@bullet.ecf.toronto.edu               Fusion Research Group 
> stange@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca 
-- 
		
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Invincibility depends on one's self;	   kucloak@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
  The enemy's vulnerability on him.	    bkreed@oread.cc.ukans.edu
 		  --Sun Tzu 		      Bryan Kennedy Reed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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