Magic Legality Options

[Sphynx]

And what I'm saying is that you don't know that. Once that signature is gone, you don't know if you're just getting 2 or fewer successes or the signature has disappeared. The fact that you can get 2 or fewer successes supports this, after all, if the signature was that visible, it would only need a single, not 3, successes to even see it.

[Kagetenshi]

Right, you don't know that. But with a few people who should be getting 3 successes, it's pretty easy to cut the chance down pretty dramatically.

~J

[Sphynx]

Or, dependant on how the game is run, run into false positives instead. However this is turning into a "yeah it is" "no it ain't" conversation. I'm pretty sure it was never intended that investigators know the force of a spell based on the game-mechanic of how fast a force dissipates. If you wanna play that way, great, but it still doesn't change the fact that 5 successes (pretty much the best you're gonna get) won't get you enough information on a signature to be useful, and if 5 successes don't do it, cheesing it by a dissipation mechanic surely isn't suppose to give you the info either.

[Ancient History]

[Lazarus]

[Lazarus]

Ancient is pretty dead on here. I can tell you as a GM I've never really worried about players casting magic and getting busted. Sure you can't just walk into Merlin's Lore in the Arc and buy a Hellblast Force 6 or pretty much any spell that will do physical damage beyond a Force 2 without a permit. Hell I don't think you can buy much legally, magic wise, without a permit.

Really it's just a method for the government to keep track of mages and people who deal in magic because it’s something really powerful that they can totally control. So they try to monitor it.

Honestly if you're doing something that requires a LS cop to assense you if he sees you doing it then it was probably pretty bad anyway. If you kill a guy with a spell the murder rap will be much worse then casting without a license.

[Omar the Falcon]

I guess my whole point was just the non-lethal DocWagon restriction, and magic users being on a HTR team using spells that could possibly be of a lethal (and illegal) nature.

Then again, if DocWagon doesnt ask too many questions about the level 2 wired reflexes and the light machine gun being carried (as long as they are gel rounds!), I cant see them being too concerned about magic. Just wanted to see what resources might be available to an internal investigator should our mage friend decide to take the kid gloves off and mind-nuke someone that had gotten on his nerves (rather than a stun spell).


Thanks!

[Lazarus]

Just look at magic when it comes to lethality like you would any other weapon.

If you're a DocWagon employee and you toss a HellBlast in the center of Downtown Seattle Financial District and cook a few bystanders along with the guy you wanted to kill then you just committed murder and LoneStar is going to be pissed, as will the Governor, and any Corp people with influence.

Now you toast five ork gangers in a Z zone in Redmond. I don't think LS would even get a dispatch call on that one. Of course you might have a pissed boss when you get back to HQ because the mage has to rest 24 hours after casting so many spells and it's the middle of his shift.