From [flashlife request] at [kpc.com] Mon Apr 26 20:21:30 1993 Received: by mailbox.kpc.com (4.1/kpc-930422) id AA02641; Mon, 26 Apr 93 20:21:24 PDT Date: Mon, 26 Apr 93 20:21:24 PDT Message-Id: <[9304270321 AA 02641] at [mailbox.kpc.com]> Errors-To: [c d r] at [kpc.com] From: [f--h--e] at [kpc.com] Reply-To: [f--h--e] at [kpc.com] Errors-To: [flashlife request] at [kpc.com] Subject: Flashlife V3 #11 To: [f--h--e] at [kpc.com] Status: R From: Carl Rigney (moderator) <[flashlife request] at [kpc.com]> Flashlife Mon, 26 Apr, 1993 Volume 3 : Issue 11 Today's topics: Comment on Street Index/Avalability for Spells (York H. Dobyns) Martial Arts in Shadowrun II (Carl Rigney) Ideas on fixing the Shadowrun magic system (Chris Siebenmann) Fletchette ammo... (Steve McClaire) Re: Fletchette ammo... (Carl Rigney) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 11:23:29 -0500 From: "York H. Dobyns" <[y--b--s] at [phoenix.Princeton.EDU]> Subject: Comment on Street Index/Avalability for Spells Attaching a Street Index and Availability rating won't keep spells out of the players' hands, because it's easy--almost trivial, at low Force ratings-- to design your own. For 3 initial skill points a character can start out knowing Magic Theory 1/Hermetic(or Shamanic) 3/Spell Design 5. (It seems completely obscure to me, by the way, why any active magician would learn Magic Theory in any form other than the Concentration appropriate to her particular Path, and almost as obscure why a PC-type adventuring magician would not take the specialization in Spell Design; there seems precious little use for more general varieties of the skill, unless one is an academic or a researcher. The above paragraph applies the concentration/specialization tree for Magic Theory as described in SRII: I don't recall if that has changed from the original rules. Worse (at least from the standpoint of someone who is concerned about keeping spell availability under tight control) is the fact that Magic Theory, not being itself a magical skill, can be made into a skillsoft; and, not being an Active skill, you don't even need skillwires to use it. A mage with minimal headware and lots of cash can get as high a rating as the market can offer. Magicians who don't know how to design their own spells could still suffer from restrictions, but why bother when it's so easy for them to learn to design their own? Personal to Carl Rigney: I have SR II now and am working on the promised review. My work schedule is such that the only date I can commit to is Real Soon Now. -------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 02:50:48 PST From: [c d r] at [kpc.com] (Carl Rigney) Subject: Martial Arts in Shadowrun II Remember our discussions a couple of years ago on Martial Arts in Shadowrun? Nope, I don't either. But I have been thinking some more about it because I have a new character with Aikido. I was thinking of: Throw: One damage level less but net successes means the target is on the ground. Hold: One damage level less (or at the attacker's option, two) but the target must roll unarmed combat vs. twice the number of net successes to break free. (Or perhaps it should be an unarmed combat vs. unarmed combat resisted test with the holder getting -1 per original success and the attacker getting +1.) Killing Strike: One damage level less and/or half power, but does physical instead of stun damage. (Not appropriate for Aikido, mind you.) The other part to simulating Aikido is that you can concentrate in it for the purposes of defense, so for example you'd have Unarmed Combat 3, Aikido 5, and roll 5 dice on defense but only 3 dice when attacking. (More properly, you'd never attack.) Comments? -- Carl Rigney [c d r] at [kpc.com] -------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 13:46:47 -0500 From: Chris Siebenmann <[c k s] at [hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu]> Subject: Ideas on fixing the Shadowrun magic system Let's talk about radical changes to the stock Shadowrun magic system (I can't call it a reform by this point). I recently realized what bothered me most about SR magic, and why it felt so wrong: all those instant spells, aka the 'just like AD&D' phenomenon. My cure is simple: delete normal magic. Entirely. Ritual magic remains, as do spirits and elementals, although all should be changed somewhat (note that all these are currently ideas, and haven't been playtested). Spirits are probably the least changed; I don't think they need any big changes. You may want to make normal spirits a bit more powerful, but probably not. Elementals need to be fiddled a bit; you should probably cheapen elemental summoning, at least for low-force elementals, and make it faster. I can also see improvised elemental summonings, depending on circumstances. A lot of this depends on how much you want hermetic mages throwing their weight around; if you keep all the costs stock, hermetics are going to be very cautious about when and where they summon and use up elementals. I'd delete watchers entirely, if you even play with them (I don't; I consider them a loathsome invention designed expressly for munchkin uses). If you want more active mages, feel free to keep them; I'd consider some penalty for summoning them (besides having to put up with the stupid things nattering at you). Maybe they should be something only initiates can summon. It's probably necessary to invent a 'fast' version of rituals; this should definitely require materials and obvious happenings. My personal inclination is to restrict it fairly heavily. For shamans I would say that you can only do fast rituals with spells you would normally get totem bonuses for (and you loose the bonus dice); for hermetics, you should have to completely burn at least one elemental, plus materials. You should probably take a +2 or more target modifier. People should (under restricted situations) be able to buy spells as 'innate abilities', gifts from their magic; restrict this carefully (perhaps enough of a restriction is that if you are gifted with a spell, you can never cast it ritually, but I suspect more is needed). Shamans should only be gifted from spells that they get bonuses on and that are appropriate to the totem and character. Hermetics are more difficult to handle; a hermetic who wants to be gifted should be required to specialize somehow, either in field or elemental type or both, and then be giftable only from spells covered by that. Perhaps a reasonable further restriction is that you can only have your Magic Rating in total force of gifts, but I'd have to play with this to test it out. Thoughts? Comments? --- "Tikki has a number of things in her favor, things which make a run on the Park likely to succeed -- determination, skill, experience, the right equipment, and a complete fold-out survey of all security systems currently on-site." [c k s] at [hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu] ...!{utgpu,utzoo,watmath}!utgpu!cks -------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 14:50:52 PST From: Steve McClaire <[stevem c c] at [microsoft.com]> Subject: Fletchette ammo... Anyone hear an 'offical' clarification on how armor affects fletchette ammo? If I remeber the rules correctly, it says something like "...double impact or ballistic, whichever is higher..." armor is used. You could read this as either 1) use higher of 2x impact or 2x ballistic, or 2) us higher of 2x impact or 1x ballistic. Option 2 makes fletchette ammo pretty effective against anything but heavy armor, whereas option 1 makes it nearly useless. Comments? Steve -------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 93 16:41:51 PST From: cdr (Carl Rigney) Subject: Re: Fletchette ammo... I'd always seen it interpreted as option 2. Option 1 would be phrased as "double the higher of impact or ballistic." -- Carl Rigney [c d r] at [kpc.com] -------------------------- End of Flashlife **************************