From: boserj@netcom.com (Jeffrey Boser)
Subject: Re: SRUN: Questions from the Minotaur: The Next Generation
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 09:57:54 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Distribution: usa

pmwg1641@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Peter M. White) writes:
>mancinis@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (steven mancini) writes:
>>1.  How do you other GM's deal with the glut of Magically Actives? It 
>>    seems more and more people are wanting to play magicals and the 
>>    traditional street samurai is losing his appeal. Is this prevalent 
>>    in any other gaming groups?

For the most part, magicians are the worse choices..  they are expensive
as all hell to maintian (will cost individuall about the same as 5 to 6
other characters), hard as hell to play (keep them in roll, with totems
and such).  The spell locks are pretty inexpensive, I multiplied their
cost by 10, and since only initiates can quicken that takes care of
that possibility.  With a magicians problem with healing, this all makes
it hard to play.  With the spell lock lack, and the penalties for
maintaining a spell, reaction adjustment spells are no problem.

>Sigh.  Unfortunately, I have seen this too.  I think with Shadowtech
>stuff available, those sams are a notch up in effectiveness.  It
>is only natural that, in a world with magic in it, players will
>like characters who have a piece of that action.  I think that
>eliminating PAs altogether is a step in the right direction.
>(A massive thread about eliminating PAs has already hit r.g.f this
>summer, so, personally, I think talking about it again is unnecessary.)

A simple fix for Physical adepts is to require all new special abilities
to paid for in karm, with cost similar to attribute adustment.  This means
that it will take a while to make up a hot-shot PA..  and puts him in
more danger in the mean time.

>>2. Do your magically actives assense EVERYTHING? It seems like no matter 
>>   what room, it is assensed, no matter who the person is, as soon as 
>>   he/she/it is introduced, it is assensed, no matter what the object, 
>>   it is assensed. 

No, in order to assense something, the magician has to be astrally
projecting.  And even then, he can only assense living things.  And
even so, the dm can only give info like 'The creature seems kinda weak,
with a diseased life force' for something like a cybered creature.

If your magicians are learning more, tell your dm to place a limit.
When astrally projecting, they cannot see physial details..  they cant
read a book, or interact with anything that has not been indelibly
stamped by a living being.  and even then, the impressions are vague.

>This is my *major* gripe with the SR magic system.  Overall, I really
>like it ascetically, but access to Astral Space is far too easy.
>Except for masked initiates, which should be uncommon, assensing
>someone tells most everything you need to know about a person.  It
>is reasonable to bet the member of the sec team without cyberware
>is a mage, for example.  And a mage without focuses and fetishes has a real
>disadvantage against those who do.  The heart of the matter, as
>I see it, is assensing or projecting is too powerful: being able
>to view all living and inanimate things as they *truly* are
>inhibits good game play.

Yes, but 'truly are' isnt how they look in real life.  An old mage
will appear in astral space to be a powerful, energetic, being...
Although it can be argued that he can hid this, his willpower being
the predominant attribute for effecting astral perceptions.  (i would
do a skill roll between the two, to see who gets to see what)

>  What makes plots interesting is the unexpected.
>Although a good gamemaster can always keep the players on their
>toes, it certainly is a *lot* easier with no one going Astral
>to scout.  Try a game with only sams, PAs, and sorcery adepts and
>I believe you will find that it has a real nice quality to it.

But thats what i like about shadow run..  with all the problems with
running a mage (even simple spells can cause trouble with resisting
fatigue), they are pretty much indispensable.

.....jeff

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