Gaseous Emissions: Vampires & Knockout Gas Options

[NightRain]

[Riley37]

There's one of the differences between SR4 and, say, D&D. D&D establishes a category for a template or quality such as "undead" so that GMs can consistently apply some core decisions about How Things Work. Are all paracritters magical, or does HMMV work by purely biochemical principles? Are vampires and ghouls alive in the way metahumans are, or walking corpses, or something in between? SR4 does not have that... yet; it just has the stats, without detailed fluff. (Same for the Matrix, really.)

Having characters strip down and get dressed again when using Mist Form or Shapechange or suchlike can be a hassle and some GMs prefer to gloss over it. (Also, it rules out turning into a sparrow and having any gear heavier than a coconut at your destination.) Having characters pick up 100 kilograms of cargo, Mist Form (or Shapeshift), and have their friend carry them in a bottle *as a way to smuggle 100 kilos of APDS over the border*, is also hassle. Cf. Turn to Goo on cyborgs and whether the cyberarm turns to goo, or can be extracted from the goo with, say, a magnet. Also cf. Improved Invisibility... the "your body, not your clothes" ruling was particularly fun for some watchers of the Fantastic Four movie because Jessica Alba was involved. (Also, casting Invisibility on, say, large trucks at intersections at rush hour, if a truck can be the "subject" of ImpInv.)

So, either way, hassles; you get to choose which set of hassles.

[Mercer]

I agree.

For me, I prefer if things like Mist Form only affects the physical form of the creature, although I'd be willing to make a exception for foci and other things bound by karma (as well as thing paid for with Essence, of course).

I would assume that most of the fluff from previous editions would be a good guideline for critters, at least until more detailed stuff comes out for 4e. Making vampires and ghouls walking corpses would be a pretty big change to canon.