Implanted Foci? Options

[The Stainless St...]

So I take it you don't enforce the legality ratings for magical gear? Come on Frank - it's illegal. Maybe with the right bribe the guard(s) will look the other way, but as a general airline/FAA policy? No way.

[Deamon_Knight]

Again, though, don't you require LOS to cast a spell into the focus? (assuming its sustaining) other foci need LOS (I'd assume) to activate. A Focus activated and then implanted would continue to function, but there would have no other control over it.

[Herald of Verjig...]

If it's in your gut, there is a line of sight, just not from your eyes.
There is not actually any statement (in SR3) that you must even meet the requirements for casting a spell at a sustaining focus to cast it into one. The closest is

[tisoz]

Let me see if I understand what some of you are saying.

1. A magician with a bonded sustaining focus implanted in him can not cast a spell into the focus because he has no LOS.

2. An assensing or projecting enemy magician can target this same focus.

Could the enemy mage detect the same focus stuffed in a thanksgiving turkey, or how about in a safe which roughly occupies the same volume as an adult human? How about FAB in walls?

I play that things that are opaque on the physical are opaque on the astral, so even if the mage had an active focus concealed totally within his hand (or a tooth compartment) you are not going to discover it just by looking or assesnsing. Same as a foci in a persons pocket, it is not going to be a target for LOS spells. If someone had a slay virus spell and cast it at a person with a cold, the cold isn't going to get cured, because the caster does not have LOS to the virus, or are you going to claim their aura should show?

[Brahm]

So in your game you don't need to worry about LOS spells as long as you are dressed like this? http://www.siue.edu/~jvotsmi/votspicts/mot...ts/00_rider.jpg

Or to become immune to spells do you have to stick a dead chicken on each hand and then dress like this?

[eidolon]

I'm pretty sure he meant "inherently magical things".

[Deamon_Knight]

I think its stated in SR3 that auras extend somewhat beyond the physical bounds of their source. The active focus in a pocket should be visible (astrally), though cover modifiers logically should apply. Thus, I think mages with many foci should watch out for that mana ball, and other AOE effects.

I say a sustaining focus must be seen. If you must cast a spell into it, it is a target of magic. Magical targeting almost univerally requires LOS. Other foci perhaps not, but I don't buy that you can swallow your power focus marble and activate/deactivate it at will. I'd rule some tactile interaction is required, YMMV.

[tisoz]

[The Stainless St...]

[Brahm]

[Herald of Verjig...]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Remember kiddies, this is why billowing smoke, showers of sparks, and other such fun nicities are essential to protect you from mages. :)

[KarmaInferno]

My first try at a Shadowrun Missions character featured a cyber-armed mage that had a weapon/power focus as a retractable forearm spur.

...

What?


-karma

[Beaumis]

Well hi first, been readinf for a while, but this is my first post. yay. :D

We've been playing with implanted foci since 2nd edition. Of course, back then implanting a focus was quite a bit more of a risk because of the grounding rules, but some of us, including me, were willing to take that risk because of the simply huge cost of foci. Loosing your powerfokus really kicked you back.
Not to mention the fact that a focus worked just as nice as blood when it came to ritual magic.

As for traveling via plane, beside the fact that most runners are unlikely to use these methods of transportation (kind of a sin problem... ), even if they did an implanted focus wouldnt be much of a problem. Just travel sub orbital and the company wont worry about mages that much. No astral space up there, so no spells.
As it was said before, there arent that much options to prevent a mage from causing havoc in a plane when he wants to. Airlines rely mostly on the idea that most dangerous mages want to get away with what they did, which is kinda hard on a plane barring parachutes.

For rules, we basically considered implanted foci to be a different type of fingertip compartment, which is 0.1 essence. This coupled with the fact that your going to loose magic along with it balanced things out in our opinion. And as mentioned above, there was the risk of having a useless piece of whatever implanted when the focus was destroyed. You did have to buy a focus specifically designed for that though. This also provided the GM with a simple option to beef up enemy mages without handing us a couple of hundred thousand whenever we killed one.

Weapon focus spurs, razors and similar things were also pretty common for us, though, in these cases we figured it's just the blade that's enchanted, not the actual cyberware that is connected to your nerves. Kinda like a switchblade. Again, the loss of magic balanced things out.

As for decompression, even today there are bullets specifically designed to enter but not leave the target. Basically the bullet enters and splinters inside the target, so airline security can take down threats without having to worry about blasting the walls (As long as they hit that is). Im pretty sure that 50+ years later these bullets would be refined and perfected. And besides, where does it say that security actually has to use bullets? If I had to design airline security, I'd equip everyone on a plane with a Superquirt instead of a real gun. That way you wont even have to worry about hitting innocent bystanders. A few hours of sleep never hurt nobody.

[Brahm]

[stevebugge]

I believe that for the most part that that is the actual written rule, for things that are opaque on the physical world, thier astral shadows are opaque as well.

[Brahm]

[Findar]

Storage tooth. Shape the foci to fit in the tooth and make it out of orichalcum so it will look like a filling in the tooth. No essence loss per the rules for a storage tooth.