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> Mass market talismongering.
emo samurai
post Mar 11 2006, 05:21 PM
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What does the typical non-black market telesma store look like? Is it anything like a department store, or will it look and smell new-agey? I'm assuming corp mages are issued their own telesma.

Also, how common is orihalcum, market-wise? Do they sell it in stores by the ounce, or is it something you have to special order?
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Grinder
post Mar 11 2006, 05:38 PM
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Did you ever read a sourcebook?
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Herald of Verjig...
post Mar 11 2006, 05:42 PM
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It all depends on the owner, the owners preferences and the crowd that the owner wants to play to. Hippiemart will have all the new age trinkets and a few actual foci and is probably a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Aztechnology or SK.
On the opposite side there are some legal small business enchanters who will have none of the useless decorative content but just a forge in the back, some appearance examples on the shelves, and a safe with the products that have been made but not picked up by the customer.
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emo samurai
post Mar 11 2006, 05:45 PM
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I've actually read about half of them from 2nd edition and so forth; I've just managed to completely avoid the ones about magic.
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Brahm
post Mar 11 2006, 05:47 PM
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First off, if you take a peek into Magic In The Shadows, page 42 you'll see that Orichaicum is sold in 10 gram units.
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emo samurai
post Mar 11 2006, 06:02 PM
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I remember that; :nuyen: 44000 a piece.
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Findar
post Mar 13 2006, 07:45 PM
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Orichalcum is :nuyen: 88,000 per unit.
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emo samurai
post Mar 13 2006, 08:06 PM
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Wow... how much would the block of orihalcum that Dunkelzahn's offering up in exchange for a nonlethal weapon worth?

And does this basically amount to :nuyen: 8800 per Karma saved on bonding foci? That's not a very good deal.
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Ophis
post Mar 14 2006, 12:36 AM
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Millions dude, thats why it's worth it them going for...
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emo samurai
post Mar 14 2006, 12:38 AM
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Huh?
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Kanada Ten
post Mar 14 2006, 12:55 AM
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QUOTE (emo samurai @ Mar 13 2006, 07:38 PM)
Huh?

The chunks are worth millions of nuyen, and the karma is a deal if you don't pay full price for the stuff (aka steal it, make it, or trade for it).
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emo samurai
post Mar 14 2006, 01:10 AM
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That's true... how hard is it to sneak out of a facility? Is it magnetic? Is it astrally active?
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Kanada Ten
post Mar 14 2006, 01:19 AM
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QUOTE (emo samurai)
That's true... how hard is it to sneak out of a facility? Is it magnetic? Is it astrally active?

How though is your GM? It's not magnetic, but something of that value is well guarded. That was why the natural Orichalcum rush was a big deal; it's much easier to hit a transport in the African wilds or on the ocean than tackling a magic heavy security force on their home ground. IIRC, it's not dual natured until part of an active focus.
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emo samurai
post Mar 14 2006, 02:18 AM
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So you could shape earth it into a person's cyberdeck or some other piece of equipment that isn't opened up much. Basically plate it with orihalcum, then remove it for use. Without magical or magnetic detection, there isn't much stopping you.
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Kanada Ten
post Mar 14 2006, 02:21 AM
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QUOTE (emo samurai)
So you could shape earth it into a person's cyberdeck or some other piece of equipment that isn't opened up much. Basically plate it with orihalcum, then remove it for use. Without magical or magnetic detection, there isn't much stopping you.

:rotfl:

So your GM isn't tough, got it. How about ritual tracking, spirit guards, masked trap spells, vaults, decoy pieces, and so on...
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emo samurai
post Mar 14 2006, 02:42 AM
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Never send a mundane to do a mage's job. What do you need to do for ritual tracking? I'm sure that could be masked against relatively easily. Spirit guards can be masked against, too. Masked trap spells can be assensed. And what are vaults? Are they just mundane ones, or is this some new magical term?
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Kanada Ten
post Mar 14 2006, 02:46 AM
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QUOTE (emo samurai @ Mar 13 2006, 09:42 PM)
Never send a mundane to do a mage's job. What do you need to do for ritual tracking? I'm sure that could be masked against relatively easily. Spirit guards can be masked against, too. Masked trap spells can be assensed. And what are vaults? Are they just mundane ones, or is this some new magical term?

If your such a l33t mage then you can win the game. You're talking about societies of magicians funded by megacorporations controlling these assets; they should be at least as hard as any normal run of equal value. Ritual tracking by such a group will not be as easy as all that to mask against. Now if those are all cakewalks for you, then what's the problem? Go steal some Orichalcum.
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emo samurai
post Mar 14 2006, 02:53 AM
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I haven't done any runs yet, but the guy I'm making's an astral chameleon and he has near-maxed-out intuition and assensing.
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Edward
post Mar 14 2006, 04:40 PM
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Oricalcum not only reduces the first bonding cost of a foci it also reduces the target number to create it.

There isn’t anybody alive, including the immortal elves that could make a force 10 power focus without using oricalcum, but with enuf of it a young punk with enchanting 2 could make one.

Edward
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emo samurai
post Mar 14 2006, 09:28 PM
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Seriously? Force 10 powerfoci are that hard to make? I thought that progression for them was pretty much linear. I'm sure an immortal elf could make a target number of 50 after having his mary sue modifiers.
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PBTHHHHT
post Mar 14 2006, 10:11 PM
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QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm)
It all depends on the owner, the owners preferences and the crowd that the owner wants to play to. Hippiemart will have all the new age trinkets and a few actual foci and is probably a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Aztechnology or SK.
On the opposite side there are some legal small business enchanters who will have none of the useless decorative content but just a forge in the back, some appearance examples on the shelves, and a safe with the products that have been made but not picked up by the customer.

I think I read somewhere that MCT has a subsidiary that is big time in the magic talisman market. yeah, a high tech company doing magic stuff, maybe some corruption in their harvesting techniques? :-)
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fistandantilus4....
post Mar 15 2006, 06:25 AM
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Emo: How many 50
s have you rolled off of 1 D6. I don't recall the exact number off the top of my head, but the 3rd edition t# for a power foci starts at IIRC an 8, plus the rank, so a rank 10 power foci would be base t#18, which is not easy to roll , and pretty much imposible to roll wit hany assurance of success every time, now matter how immortal you are. Rules are still rules. Now if you start throwing in a bunch of orichalcum or virgin telesma and the like, it's a hell of a lot easier.

The 44,000 BTW, is the pirce of radical-refined level gold, plus the other required materials in radical form to make Orichalcum. Hell of a profit.
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Crusher Bob
post Mar 15 2006, 08:14 AM
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QUOTE (fistandantilus3.0)
...

The 44,000 BTW, is the pirce of radical-refined level gold, plus the other required materials in radical form to make Orichalcum. Hell of a profit.

Or at least it was until all the retiring enchanter/runners dropped the bottom out of the market.
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emo samurai
post Mar 15 2006, 04:49 PM
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If the bottom's out of the market, then we can buy it cheaply. Win/win.
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NeoJudas
post Mar 18 2006, 11:21 PM
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Hrm ... in the games here, my second eldest character and definitely the biggest/most powerful/diverse was an "Enchanter". It was his thing, and you definitely never gave a character like that any length of time alone. It's the kind of character (right alongside a decker) that if given time can become self-sufficient presuming the resources are available (or can be made available).

I have to agree, more precious materials such as Orichalcum are probably well guarded. In the games here, we simply use Supply/Demand as the ultimate determiner. The PC's often times have learned historically that if they ever encountered a "large quantity of Ori-gold" that they would often sell it off piece-meal in smaller quantities when their own funds/resources were running low. This way the market never flooded (and dropped the value of their own stash) and not as many people had the opportunity to realize they were sitting on a "gold mind of the stuff".

As for detecting it, even simple chemistry can detect the stuff. The "Litmus Test" for instance would work. Once you have the Orichalcum batch completed, you take a litmus test (inexpensive and relatively fast), then archive that information. Whenever Orichalcum comes along later that matches that "litmus test", you have the beginnings of realization that somethings amiss. You also then get to use stuff like "Chemsniffers" which can literally identify the stuff at distance based upon their own database interface to all those "litmus test" results.

And this is before you encounter stuff like "Detect Orichalcum" or "Detect Radical" spellcraft which some of the more ingenious talismongers are likely to have somewhere.

And finally as for enchanting anything of sufficiently high target number (pre-SR4 obviously), with the right volume of radicals, aspected workspaces, and sheer skill ... damn near anything is possible. Getting to the point where it becomes possible however is often the inspiration for some good games.
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