Teleportation, Is it possible Options

[Tsithlis]

Why is it that there is no Teleportation in the game? Is it even possible to create such a spell?

[Tarantula]

Its that way because that is how the game was designed.

No.
SM, 159, "Sorcery Cannot Alter the Fabric of the Space/Time Continuum.
Spells cannot directly change distance or the passage of time. Teleportation and time travel are the holy grails of magical R&D departments the world over, but no one has been able to unravel the knotty problem of affecting space or time with magic. Spells can speed up or slow down processes, such as healing or chemical reactions, and allow subjects to move quickly, but they cannot directly alter time or space."

[paws2sky]

According to canon, there are a few limitations to magic that no one has been able to overcome.

The two biggest ones, IMHO, are teleportation and resurrection.

-paws

[Fortune]

One of the cornerstones of Sixth World magic is that teleportation is not possible via Sorcery. That doesn't mean that the Corps don't spend millions each year in research trying to achieve that very thing.

[Gast]

IEs and GDs can do it but you can't!

I base my ranty answer on the Earthdawn Gate spells available for high-ranking Mages.
At least I think it was Mages.
And maybe it wasn't Teleportation.

[Lionhearted]

Oh I dont know about that.. Who knows what magical mysteries the GD's and IE's hide from us..
(I for one is convinced that Harlequinn possesses teleportation magic and have long since mastered Stealth Hi bye )

[Tarantula]

Shortcuting to the metaplanes and back, or to the astral plane and back != teleportation. Though its similar in appearance.

[MaxMahem]

By canon no. Magic cannot teleport something. Or at least a spell can't do it.

But I have often wondered why this is such an absolute. Obviously introducing cheap and easy teleportion into the game has far reaching effects and is probably a bad idea.

But would allow highly expensive and/or restricted teleporting into the game necessarily be a bad thing? It wouldn't be something I would regularly want to put in the hands of players, but as a primarily GM mechanic I think it could work.

Consider this. The runners need to get to some highly magically protected and isolated location to do some dirty work. Tibet immediatly springs to mind but I imagine a variety of other location could qualify. Getting in is nigh impossible without some magical artifact/connections/whatever that the players are unlikely to get. So they look for an alternative route, one of there contacts (probably a pretty odd one with magical connections) informs them that he may know of a way, but its risky and never has been tried before. The runners (having no other options) go for it. The contact proposes that the runners go to some other highly magical location they could (possibly with some difficulty) get to. There, the contact (possibly a free-spirit) undergoes a complex ritual that allows them to travel physically to the meta-planes. After a difficult spiritual quest on the planes the runners succeded in opening another gateway at their destination. There, the REAL fun can start. You could further limit the ritual by saying its only possible when the stars and moon are in the alignment or some such.

I wouldn't do it every game, but I see no reason to totally disallow teleporation just because.

----

I would also note that free-spirits CAN teleport in just this manner, via the metaplanes. I don't have runners companion, but since PC's can be Free Spirits (with the GM's permission) isn't this an option for them?

[Tarantula]

Max, like I just said, that is not teleportation. That is going from here, to the metaplanes, then back to here.

Teleportation would be, going from here, to somewhere else here, with nothing at all in between, just *poof*.

[MaxMahem]

Max, like I just said, that is not teleportation. That is going from here, to the metaplanes, then back to here.

Teleportation would be, going from here, to somewhere else here, with nothing at all in between, just *poof*.

Not going to get into semantics with you.

But to me, if I travel from point-A to point-B without going through all the points that would normally be in between, that is teleportation. I mean after all there really isn't any form of teleportation that doesn't imply the transport of a though some other medium somehow, somewhere.

I should also point out to an outside observer, the runners travel through the metaplanes might well be instantaneous, after all time there does not have to mean the same thing it does here. Certianly when a free-spirit does it any outside observer who saw what happened and ignorant to the underling mechanics (which would still probably still be the majority of the people in the 6th world) would call it such.

But hey, call it whatever you like. Like I said, arguing the meaning of words really isn't my thing.

[Ancient History]

By your definition, a plane ride is teleportation because you didn't walk all that way.

[HappyDaze]

I mean after all there really isn't any form of teleportation that doesn't imply the transport of a though some other medium somehow, somewhere.

True teleportation does just that - there is no travel medium involved whatsoever.

[ShadeRavnos]

In my thinking the reason that teleportaion doesn't work is be cause the laws of magic say that you must physically see your intended target in order to perform the said spell... ergo, to be able to teleport at all you'd have to see the target area making the spell next to useless. Not saying completely useless cause we all know players have ways of taking something that should have no use at all and ruining your best laid plans.

Not to mention just imagine the drain the spell would have on said mage just by himself. That's a lot of mana to be channeling thru you just to get a few feet, and if he was taking a whole team with him!

As a GM I perfer that there are no teleporting/time altering spells... I really don't even like clarvoyence like spells for that matter, but that goes into a whole other arguement.

[Muspellsheimr]

Going from Location A to Location B with no inbetween is teleportation. What you are describing (metaplanar travel) is not going from one place to another without the inbetween, it is going to one place from another without the normal inbetween, and is not teleportation.

[HappyDaze]

In my thinking the reason that teleportaion doesn't work is be cause the laws of magic say that you must physically see your intended target in order to perform the said spell... ergo, to be able to teleport at all you'd have to see the target area making the spell next to useless.

You wouldn't need LOS for ritual magic. How about a ritual sending that allows you to teleport to the location of the target character/creature/object?

[HappyDaze]

Not to mention just imagine the drain the spell would have on said mage just by himself.

This is entirely subjective. I could just as easily imagine this effect as having only moderate Drain.

[Ol' Scratch]

Teleportation isn't supported in the rules because it would trivialize several types of runs. Extractions and theft being the two big ones. Yes, sometimes the rules really are that fundamental to gameplay.

[HappyDaze]

Sometimes I feel that existing magical options - such as healing and spirit hordes - trivialize some aspects of runs. However, just as those can be countered, so too could teleportation be blocked. In fact, the same things that prevent a ritual sending assassination could prevent telportation.

[Ol' Scratch]

I'm not saying I agree with it. But that's the real reason teleportation isn't an option. Doesn't have anything to do with any real in-game magical theories and, in fact, was only confusing if you look at some of the older spells. Like the one that conjured food and water (with conjuration just being teleportation to you rather than taking you somewhere).

[HappyDaze]

But that's the real reason teleportation isn't an option.

True enough. Not that some of us settle for totally metagame reasons or the clasic 'the writers made it that way - so even if it doesn't make sense, that's how it's going to be' crap, right?
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Alieth]

I'm glad there isn't teleportation in Shadowrun, it would just make it another game with magic.

Teleportation is going from one place to another without anything inbetween. The talk about going from here, to the metaplanes, and then back here in a difference place is transportation, not teleportation. It is just another means of travel, because it still takes time.

Teleportation: A hypothetical method of transportation in which matter or information is dematerialized, usually instantaneously, at one point and recreated at another. -Dictionary.com

Teleportation is not possible in Shadowrun, because like someone said earlier, it would defeat the purpose of a lot of mission types. If you could just teleport in, grab the item\person, and teleport out, why even do it?

[sunnyside]

I like how it is. There isn't any teleportation yet. Though they try.

But you can get similarish effects if you really want to for the plot through various metaplanar schenanigans. But those carry their own distinct risks.

[HappyDaze]

Teleportation is not possible in Shadowrun

IIRC, teleportation is possible in the Shadowrun videogame, right?

[sunnyside]

IIRC, teleportation is possible in the Shadowrun videogame, right?

Hisssssssss

*gets out the hardliners.

[Ancient History]

ShINO: Shadowrun In Name Only