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Reverse Essence...?, Implications of essence rules

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cetiah

Jan 28 2007, 05:14 AM

Post #1

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QUOTE

Eventually, the Street Ninja accepted the deal, but got them to offer some payment up front. The payment was a used cyberhand with built-in recoil compensation. I thought this would be awesome prize for a street sam since he didn't have one, but my player just got this disgusted look on his face, looked at his record sheet, and said "I don't have enough essence for that." Which sucks! I was going to use that to make use of his other contact, one of those funny medics that install illegal cyberwear in people. I had some ideas for that encounter, too. But he was like, "eh, maybe I can sell it." The idea that a cool piece of cyberwear made a lousy gift to a cybercombatant really sucks and has made me hate the essence rules.

Yeah. That does kinda suck - in fact, it blows big chunks, but them's the breaks. If you want to upgrade a Shadowrunner's cyber, you need to give him enough Alpha, Beta, or Deltaware to replace the cyber he has that it frees up an essense hole for the new item.

Or you could institute a method for the gaining of additional Essense. Since this has both Cyberware reprecussions for sammies and Magical implications for Adepts/Magicians, nobody should mind overmuch. Sure, Initiation can raise your Magic, but if you can buy additional Essense, you can drop Karma on additional Magic, too. They would naturally stack.

Or, of course, they could use the essense surplus to install up to and including as much Essense's worth of cyber as they have Essense above six.

I thought I'd start a new thread to discuss this.

The idea of having to give my players an upgrade of the exact piece of cyberwear they already have in order to be useful just seems to be a little trite. I think there needs to be a way to add Essence after character generation. You guys have way more experience with Shadowrun, though. What do you think of this?

I have three ideas...

1) Allow Karma to be spent to increase Essence. It would be expensive, but kind of worth it.

2) All characters get an additional 4 Essence once the game starts.

3) Do away with Essence altogether and replace it with "cybermancy". Rather than cyberwear lowering your essence, it will raise your cybermancy (which starts at 0). I'd have to come up with rules for this, but if there is no upper limit, this allows infinite upgrade if you're willing to pay the price. I could see Cybermancy being used as a threshold for some tasks, or maybe there might even be some things where you can roll a Cybermany test to help you. I could see riggers, for example, benefiting from being more machine than man.

What do you think? Does this have any dramatic repercussions? Are there any mechanics (beyond magical healing) that use the essence score right now?

Posts in this topic

cetiah Reverse Essence...? Jan 28 2007, 05:14 AM

Kagetenshi There's another option the person you quoted t... Jan 28 2007, 05:22 AM

Jack Kain That is often forgotten when ware is removed essen... Jan 28 2007, 05:30 AM

Crusher Bob One possibility is to simply increase starting ess... Jan 28 2007, 05:38 AM

Thane36425 QUOTE (Jack Kain) That is often forgotten when war... Jan 28 2007, 05:39 AM

cetiah QUOTE One possibility is to simply increase starti... Jan 28 2007, 06:37 AM

Crusher Bob The follow-on effects are very difficult to show b... Jan 28 2007, 06:52 AM

ShadowDragon8685 Fat wads of are the industry standard. Me, I lik... Jan 28 2007, 08:08 AM

hyzmarca It costs an Adept 20 karma to buy PP under the bas... Jan 28 2007, 10:06 AM

Moirdryd Erm... taking lots of Damage, towhit the forcible ... Jan 29 2007, 02:02 AM

Wounded Ronin QUOTE (Kagetenshi) FWIW, while I'd like to s... Jan 29 2007, 05:32 AM

Kagetenshi It doesn't regenerate, but as mentioned it lea... Jan 29 2007, 05:49 AM

Sir_Psycho If you want to give your Sammy an archetype specif... Jan 29 2007, 06:00 AM

cetiah Cyber attribute (replaces the Essence attribute) ... Jan 29 2007, 06:07 AM

ShadowDragon8685 As I understand it, this DM is running for SR4. No... Jan 29 2007, 06:09 AM

Kagetenshi QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)Kage, maybe not everyone s... Jan 29 2007, 06:25 AM

Calvin Hobbes The idea of expanding the initiation system is my ... Jan 29 2007, 06:51 AM

De Badd Ass If you got rid of essense, then you would just end... Jan 29 2007, 07:05 AM

Thanee QUOTE (Wounded Ronin)Therefore, a character who ge... Jan 29 2007, 08:19 AM

hyzmarca If you want to mess up high-grade magicians, how a... Jan 29 2007, 09:40 AM

Sir_Psycho I'm just going to put this out there: You guys... Jan 29 2007, 10:18 AM

nezumi Don't give free essence after chargen, that... Jan 29 2007, 02:32 PM

lorechaser QUOTE (hyzmarca @ Jan 28 2007, 04:06 AM) At t... Jan 29 2007, 05:29 PM

Kagetenshi QUOTE (lorechaser) I'm pretty sure logrythmic ... Jan 29 2007, 06:05 PM

Ravor Are you sure that Magic is bought based of the ... Jan 29 2007, 06:26 PM

lorechaser QUOTE (Ravor @ Jan 29 2007, 12:26 PM) Are you... Jan 29 2007, 07:02 PM

Casazil Ok the way I understand it is this essance = soul.... Jan 29 2007, 07:55 PM

Herald of Verjigorm Shifters have essense of 8 and Harlequin at least ... Jan 29 2007, 10:53 PM

Wounded Ronin Well, I returned to this thread after sleeping one... Jan 29 2007, 11:02 PM

cetiah QUOTE Well, I returned to this thread after sleepi... Jan 29 2007, 11:14 PM

Herald of Verjigorm It sounds like you want the "Cyber makes ever... Jan 29 2007, 11:20 PM

Wounded Ronin QUOTE (cetiah) QUOTE Well, I returned to this thre... Jan 29 2007, 11:21 PM

cetiah QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm) It sounds like you wan... Jan 29 2007, 11:25 PM

Wounded Ronin QUOTE (cetiah) What I want is to allow players to... Jan 29 2007, 11:30 PM

Ravor lorechaser Really? In that case why even have a r... Jan 30 2007, 02:28 AM

ShadowDragon8685 QUOTE (Wounded Ronin) QUOTE (cetiah @ Jan 29 ... Jan 30 2007, 04:06 PM

De Badd Ass QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) QUOTE (Wounded Ronin ... Jan 30 2007, 05:24 PM

Kagetenshi Because if a samurai is sufficiently weaker than h... Jan 30 2007, 05:28 PM

ShadowDragon8685 QUOTE (Kagetenshi) Because if a samurai is suffici... Jan 30 2007, 05:42 PM

De Badd Ass QUOTE (Kagetenshi) Because if a samurai is suffici... Jan 31 2007, 03:40 AM

hyzmarca You mean the ability to fight enemies and perform ... Jan 31 2007, 04:12 AM

ShadowDragon8685 Or, for that matter, doing mortal (cyber)combat wi... Jan 31 2007, 04:19 AM

tisoz When I first started playing, I think we overlooke... Jan 31 2007, 01:13 PM

ShadowDragon8685 A Dragon, a free spirit, and a cybersammie. That ... Jan 31 2007, 01:52 PM

NightmareX QUOTE (cetiah)Cyber attribute (replaces the Essenc... Jan 31 2007, 04:06 PM

ShadowDragon8685 QUOTE (NightmareX) QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)But the... Jan 31 2007, 04:10 PM

NightmareX QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)Actually, no they can... Jan 31 2007, 04:34 PM

De Badd Ass QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685) "I'll play a Sam... Jan 31 2007, 04:42 PM

hyzmarca After six initiations, a magician can afford to sp... Jan 31 2007, 04:48 PM

cetiah QUOTE (NightmareX @ Jan 31 2007, 11:06 AM) Fi... Jan 31 2007, 08:30 PM

Herald of Verjigorm I was about to post something with a page number f... Jan 31 2007, 08:58 PM

NightmareX QUOTE (cetiah)Ideally, he shouldn't. A m... Feb 2 2007, 09:17 AM

hyzmarca QUOTE (cetiah @ Jan 31 2007, 03:30 PM) QUOTE ... Feb 2 2007, 09:55 AM

Moon-Hawk QUOTE (hyzmarca) And since I should be constructiv... Feb 2 2007, 03:31 PM

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