bug spirits, those pesky invae... Options

[fourstring_samur...]

I'm about to run bug city in my campaign, and a I've got some questions on combating bug spirits.

scattered throughout the Bug City sourcebook are mentions that the bugs aren't affected by normal weapons the way other physical creatures are (i.e. melee weapons are more effective than a bullet because of the "intent" attached to them).

after scouring the bug sourcebook and sr3 (and sr2, just in case) I didn't find any game mechanics to represent this. I don't think I'm missing them, and on pages 188-189 it states that "against damage causing powers or damage causing weapons the standard damage and combat rules apply"

am i missing something obvious? or is this just flavor for the story?
how have you guys ran bug fights?

thanks!

[Herald of Verjig...]

Bug numbers are in MitS. The immunity to normal weapons is true of all spirit-like spirits(not flesh forms, but nature spirits, elementals, elemental spirits, true form bugs, etc.).

Flesh form bugs can be hit with flying lead just fine, though some have hardened armor.

[Sphynx]

The problem is that Bug City is 2nd Edition, when spirits were immune to mundane weapons almost entirely. You could only fight them using your willpower instead of a combat skill (I think), but the damage of the weapon worked.

Anyhows, my 2nd Ed rules memory is pretty out-dated I'm sure, so I could be wrong on some of that, but I do recall Bugs were ALOT harder to kill in 2nd Edition.

Sphynx

[Backgammon]

Fles forms have no particular armour. True forms have Immunity to normal weapons. Check MitS for complete informaiton on Bug Spirits.

[Jason Farlander]

Check out the section on SR3 about engaging spirits in a contest of wills (pg. 188). Basically, by attacking the spirit with a melee weapon, and rolling your willpower instead of your melee skill, you can make an attack that does a base damage of (CHA)M Stun, ignores any armor the spirits are wearing (it can only be resisted by the spirits force) and prevents the use of combat pool by the spirit. The reach bonus from the weapon *does* apply to the attack, but not the weapon's damage code. This will function against flesh forms (as they are also spirits), and is probably what they were talking about in Bug City (given the reference to "intent").

[BIG BAD BEESTE]

Whhooo-boy. OKI bug spirits have gone through several incarnations from the Universal Brotherhood through the Big Bug Break-Out & the CCZ to where ever they are today...

First up lets differentiate between the two types of bug manifestations.

A True Form bug spirit is a spirit and therefore follows all the normal rules for spirits like nature spirits and elementals. They normally dwell in astral space and are therefore immune to physical attacks unless they manifest into a physical form. Then they can be affected by such attacks but have a resistance to those that are not "persoanlly fuelled by the attacker's will". Yup that means anything non-melee, although I might let off thrown spears and knives (but not grenades!) This is represented by the Immunity to Physical Attacks power, see those rules for more clarification.

As for Flesh Form spirits, those are the ones that have bad merges with the metahuman host and are essentially trapped into a dual-natured existence within a magically mutated metahuman shell. As physical beings shooting bullets at these bugs generally works quite well. although, some of these flesh forms may have mutated Harderned Armour for themselves in the process. It all depends on how evil a GM you wish to become.

Magic in the Shadows covers threats like the bugs quite well as well as having a good section about spirits and the interaction between the physical world and astral space.