City Geas, as seen in "Street Magic" Options

[CircuitBoyBlue]

There's an example geas in Street Magic where you can only use magic in "the city." I don't have my book on me right now, so I can't quote the exact wording, but I do know it's vague about whether this means one particular city, or cities in general (as opposed to "the countryside"). This is about to come up in a big way, because my group is relocating from Seattle to Denver, and my character is an urban shaman.

What does Dumpshock think? Will I be breaking the geas by being in Denver? My group seems to think not, but I have two sticking points with that: a) I'm not sure I'm convinced, and at the very least my character would assume his powers are Seattle-centric, just because that's where he's been since he developed them, and b) I can't say for certain that the other players aren't just letting my powers work so I'll go along with the move (I'm not sure they realize that I'm perfectly willing to forego my magic and start focusing more on non-magical street skills while still maintaining a "shamanic" view of the world).

This post has been edited by Redjack: Feb 2 2008, 08:55 PM

Reason for edit: Add sr4 icon

[Kyoto Kid]

...well sounds a bit too broad considering most runs I've seen take place in a city. Now with a GM like myself who has the runners gallivanting all over the world sometimes, it would come into play more often.

[Magus]

You only break the geas when you are in the wilderness and not in an "Urban" setting.
Would your Mentor Spirit happen to be Rat?

[CircuitBoyBlue]

No. My mentor spirit's messed up. Did you ever watch Northern Exposure?

[Mugzug]

Sounds like you are ok.

It is similar to a ninja adept whose power only works at 'night.' When day occurs it does not prevent a future night of powers from occurring.

See the logical consistency?

[CircuitBoyBlue]

True. I'm just worried that like Kyoto Kid said, if it works in any city, it might be too broad. Night is only going to be there half the time (barring any weird arctic circle type situations). That said, of the 4 missions I've participated in so far, 3 have been in actual non-urban settings, so maybe I don't need to slap myself with any further restrictions.

[Kanada Ten]

[Stahlseele]

or you could say that the magic DOES work in other cities but not as good as it should and would in denver maybe a -something dice pool modifier to magical tests?. . while it doesn't work at all outside of cities O.o

[Moon-Hawk]

[ixombie]

Any city might be pretty broad, but one particular city is also too narrow. Just because some gaesa migh screw you over does not mean they all have to. And city limitation can be pretty harsh. Most runs stay in the city, but some force you to travel. You'd be without your powers when moving between cities, whether by train, plane, or car. Probably the most common scenario of a run taking place outside a city would be a job breaking into a complex out in the wilderness.

I would say that, on balance, any city is not excessively broad. While most runs will not break your geas, it's not outside the realm of possibility. It's not required that a geas totally screw you over, only that it places a limit on your powers. Talismans are the best example of that - you will probably not be placed in a situation where you lose your talismans, but in case you do, you're in big trouble. Same goes for a location(city) geas.

[Kanada Ten]

Manus, the Amazonian capital, might be one of those cities where the geas is broken, or perhaps a submarine/space based arcology - depending on development.

[Stahlseele]

also if you wanna rules lawyer on the definition of city

[CircuitBoyBlue]

These are some good suggestions (even the 7 headware radios from 2052--when I think Denver, I think Tom Waits, and being a burnout shaman somehow seems like a song he'd write...).

I guess I'll go at it from the standpoint that any city will work, after I've had some time to get the feel of Denver, and do some crazy shaman thing like try to talk to the local spirits without actually using the summoning skill. Without going too into it and getting off topic, my character (StreetGod) has some magical illness that's temporarily left him without a MAG attribute anyway, and I need to address some spiritual issues there before worrying about the geas (well, I hope--if the only possible solution ends up being medical science, I might be boned, because I'm not sure my shaman would think to go that route). In the meantime, I'm looking forward to playing a non-magical shaman for a while. This should be fun.

[mfb]

the city geas has always been a bit of a freebie. i don't have a problem with it, because it's easy enough for the GM to make it an issue, but i also wouldn't have a problem making it more restrictive.

[Ravor]

Personally I would rule that it would work in any city after the Mage become accustomed to that city, which woudl take about a week or so, just enough time to throw them into a run with the broken geas. (And of course, I would only allow it to apply to one city at a time so the Mage has to endure the pain all over again upon returning "home".)

[toturi]

Perhaps a city needs to be of a certain population size before it can be considered to be a city - see Jack Hawksmoor of Stormwatch.

[deek]

I don't know, several of my runs have required some decent travel...not like jetsetting, but creating an ambush in the mountains, traveling to a nearby town for information, or simply traveling a couple hours to get to the location of the run.

In all those scenarios, the mage would lose all magic and astral recon, right? I suppose if your game never leaves the confines of a city, then this is a freebie, but I know that our resident mage would be a lot less useful with this restriction.

[BFaolan]

I thought you only lost the points of magic attached to the geases when they were broken?

(ie, if you had three geases and broke one of them, you temporarily lost all three points until all three of your geased were fulfilled again)

[Ravor]

Correct, and if a Mage has enough geas that she is going to lose all of her magical abilitity when one is broken then she had better have a backup plan. :cyber:

[stevebugge]

Slightly off topic, but what do you guys think of Kosher Diet and Sabbath for Gaesa. I'm building a character and I'm thinking of using those two.

[djinni]

[hyzmarca]

Both are potentially debilitating in certain situations. Obtaining kosher food can be difficult in extreme circumstance such as captivity and wilderness survival. The Sabbath geas makes a character extraordinary vulnerable on Saturday, since he'd be unable to so much drive a vehicle, turn on a comlink, pull a trigger, or cast a spell. Unless, of course, you mean the other Sabbath ... Dun dun dun dun dun dundundundundun dun dun dun dun Has he lose his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Can he walk at all or if he moo-ooves will he fall?

[CircuitBoyBlue]

For extra badassery, take the Sabbath geas, and an allergy to soy.

I've got a friend who is gluton-intolerant (I can't remember the name of the disease at the moment), lactose-intolerant, has a few food allergies, AND chooses to abide by kosher dietary restrictions.

And both those geasa sound great. You didn't say where you're going with that character, exactly, but I think I get the idea. Which is the great thing about geasa that makes me love them so much: they go a long way toward making magical traditions distinct from each other, and add a ton of flavor to the game.

Just be careful with the Sabbath geas. I don't know exactly how it would work, but the only way I can really think of would be that if you break the Sabbath, your geas counts as broken until the next Sabbath that you keep. Which could suck, because you need to be down for a whole day, and if you aren't, it's a whole week of being penalized. That's doubly bad if you've got a second geas, because it also counts as being broken, even if you've been staying kosher.

[ThreeGee]

It's seems to me you could take these geasa a long way depending on how Frum you want the character to be. Heavily orthodox jews might refuse to use Trid and Commlinks, they might even refuse to talk to other PC's unless absolutely necessary, there are so many mitzvahs that could be converted to geasa.

[stevebugge]