New FAQ!, 'bout time Options

[Fatum]

The only way to deal w/ that is to give everyone 4 passes of sorts. Which can get a little unwieldy though it would play better IMO. But that's not really germaine to a FAQ thread.

IE: EVERYONE breaks their movement up into 4 passes... someone w/ a single IP only gets 1 complex or 2 simple actions spread out across those IP's.

The more I think about this idea, the more I like it, actually.

[AngelisStorm]

Forgive me if these were brought up earlier and I missed them. However, these are the 3 big concerns I see from the new FAQ:

1.

In situations where the player wishes for their character to use another sense (hearing, smell, echolocation, etc.) to cast a spell, it's up to the gamemaster to decide if that is possible. At the very least, a Perception Test involving the sense in question is called for, with appropriate modifiers (Using Perception, pp.135-136, SR4A). In the case of enhanced senses, the enhanced sense must be integral to the character (i.e., cyberears with audio enhancement would work, but earplugs with audio enhancement would not). Naturally, this works better for Indirect Combat Spells than others.

This seems to open the door for spellcasting with implanted (paid for with Essence) radar. While I think it's really cool that you can -finally- cast spells if you know where your opponent is (for example, a Wolf shifter's sense of smell), it will be interesting to see what happens now that the "must have sight between you and your opponent" is potentially not in effect.

2.

When a spirit uses Possession or Inhabitation on a character, are the dual entity's attributes limited by the character's maximum augmented attribute values?
Yes. The dual entity's Physical attribute + Force of the spirit cannot be greater than the vessel's maximum augmented attribute. Inanimate vessels have no maximum limits.

While I'm sure it closes the door for some abuses, I think it's kinda lame that a Street Sam and someone possessed by SATAN!! are on the same page now. Now there is no reason to have the Troll Sam (or most Sams, actually) be possessed: they generally have close to maxed out attributes anyway. (Trolls and Body being an exception, since it's hard to raise that stat.)

3. The Mystic Adept thing (which hs already been brought up).

... so the solution to Mystic Adepts -not- being overpowered was to... nerf them some more? Not only do they have all the same restrictions as before, but now they also have -another- cap on the number of ranks they can put into their powers?

[KCKitsune]

I think the idea of using Mana spells through walls should still be off limits. The reason I say this is because if the PCs can do this, then the security mages can do this too (if they have the 'ware). You know if the corps can have mages do this then they WILL have those mages getting the 'ware... completely stupid if they don't.

I still would like to know if a hacker can program an emulator for his smartgun system so he doesn't need to have the smartgun eyeware or contact lenses. If the Technomancers can do it with a complex form, then why can't hackers do it with a program.

[pbangarth]

So, with the clarification of the Endowment Power, it would appear that a projecting magician capable of Invoking could have his friendly Invoked Guardian spirit Endow him with Materialization/Possession.

A Materialization tradition magician could then Materialize into the Physical plane (taking care not to go beyond her 6 hours of Astral Projection) right by her body, put on her armor, and be armored and ItNWed for some kick-ass fun. The Possession tradition magician could Possess his own homunculus (8/8 + ItNW).

Here's a thought: Given that an Endowed Power is at the Force of the Endowing spirit, the Materialization/Possession would then be at that Force. A Materialized or Possessing entity has Attributes at its Force. So, the astrally projecting magician who enters the Physical Plane would have Attributes equal to the Force of the Endowing spirit. Not only the core Attributes, but things like Edge, Essence and Magic.

This would appear to be a way that a clever and lucky magician could temporarily increase her special Attributes. A magician with Magic 4 who survives Invoking a Force 8 spirit could temporarily bump her Edge, Essence and Magic to 8. Cool, eh?

[Draco18s]

This would appear to be a way that a clever and lucky magician could temporarily increase her special Attributes. A magician with Magic 4 who survives Invoking a Force 8 spirit could temporarily bump her Edge, Essence and Magic to 8. Cool, eh?

Not only that, but the spirit could endow the mage with Endowment!

The mage then could endow the entire party with Innate Spell (spirit endows it to the mage first) and give the entire party spellcasting, magic, edge, astral projection, possession....Endowment...

It's a giant magical circle jerk.

(Quick, exit thread before succumbing to the desire to make a sexual joke!)

[pbangarth]

Not only that, but the spirit could endow the mage with Endowment!

The mage then could endow the entire party with Innate Spell (spirit endows it to the mage first) and give the entire party spellcasting, magic, edge, astral projection, possession....Endowment...

You can't be Endowed with more than one Power at a time. So, if the mage has Endowment, that's all he can give. (SM, p. 99)

They could all be well Endowed, though.

[KCKitsune]

(Quick, exit thread before succumbing to the desire to make a sexual joke!)

too late... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[dirkformica]

You can't be Endowed with more than one Power at a time. So, if the mage has Endowment, that's all he can give. (SM, p. 99)

They could all be well Endowed, though.

Actually the limitation is that a character can only have one Endowment from a particular spirit. Multiple spirits can grant Endowment to a single character who could be well and multiply Endowed.

"No character may gain more than one power from a spirit in this way at a time."

[FriendoftheDork]

The only way to deal w/ that is to give everyone 4 passes of sorts. Which can get a little unwieldy though it would play better IMO. But that's not really germaine to a FAQ thread.

IE: EVERYONE breaks their movement up into 4 passes... someone w/ a single IP only gets 1 complex or 2 simple actions spread out across those IP's.

IP1: decker moves behind cover
IP2: decker stays behind cover
IP3: decker fires 2 shots from his pistol (2 simple action) or lays down one pass if covering fire.
IP3: decker out of actions but moves his final quarter movement.

This is pretty much how I interpret the rules already. Although the rules seem to indicate that said decker can't change his mode of movement on subsequent passes unless he spends an action.
Delaying an action is already covered by RAW:

"A character can also delay his action until the next
Initiative Pass."

In this example, the decker first declares walking movement rate (get to cover) but taking no action. Then he remains stationary, then takes his main action(s), and in the last pass uses a free action to resume movement again (potentially a sprint action).



Oh btw about the suppressive fire part, it seems the enemy CAN drop prone when they are fired upon:

"Drop Prone
A character may kneel or drop prone at any time, as long
as he is not surprised (see Surprise, p. 155). A character who is
surprised may not drop prone."

Notice it says: At any time. The same words are used on the Full Defense action.

[HappyDaze]

a little bit of practical research with a similarly sized doll suggests that anything bigger than a knife or hold-out pistol is unwieldy.

Who did this, I wonder?

Perhaps the guy that did the "art" for Cyberpunk 3 toyed with this for a time...

[Serian]

@ Mystic Adept

So, I have now de facto two seperate magic attributes, magic (spellcasting) and magic (adept powers), which have no synergy effects except how bright I am on the astral plane, how strong I am when punching through wards ... and when paying karma to increase the magic (spellcasting + adept powers) attribute?

Is it just me, or is a cyber/bio-mage (or in other words: some magical guy using magic-hurting stuff) not just cheaper in karma than a mystic adept (or in other words: some magical guy using magical stuff) even when paying twice for a point of Magic lost via essence-loss, while he can in addition increase his other powers, i.e. ware with money instead of karma, which a mystic adept isn't able too?

Some playing with numbers shows also that a mystic adept which splits his magic 50/50 loses around 3/7 of all the karma he puts in the attribute (compared to a fictional character who really uses two magic attributes), while some guy splitting it 5/1 doesn't. Which means, the mystic adept which opts for versatility instead of specialization and hugh dice-pools ... pays even more for mediocre abilities, while mystic adepts which specialize and so have higher pool gets a less immense price-up.

Weird.

[ravensmuse]

Kind of OT, but does Draco's Zardoz or whatever post screw up the thread for anyone else?

[Fatum]

If only by its stupidity.
Technically, the whole topic is displayed just fine for me.

[Saint Sithney]

Oh btw about the suppressive fire part, it seems the enemy CAN drop prone when they are fired upon:

"Drop Prone
A character may kneel or drop prone at any time, as long
as he is not surprised (see Surprise, p. 155). A character who is
surprised may not drop prone."

Notice it says: At any time. The same words are used on the Full Defense action.

Yeah, defensive options are all interrupt actions as far as I recall.

[fistandantilus4....]

He is always like that, he must be an angry person in real life, or an extreme know-it-all control freak. Maybe he is just an extreme asshat, I suspect its a lot of all of it.

What, we're seriously doing name calling now? Name calling and other general personal attacks violate the Terms of Service. Consider this your warning.

In the future, if you feel frustrated with someone adding a post you feel to be less than worthy, don't contribute to the unworthiness in kind.
-F4.0

[Draco18s]

Kind of OT, but does Draco's Zardoz or whatever post screw up the thread for anyone else?

It's "ZALGO" and entirely depends on if you a) have the right language fonts installed and b) have your browser set to display in UTF-8.

Otherwise you get a bunch of garbage characters (diamonds, hex values in boxes, and question marks). Even then it depends on your browser. I did a test and IE8 doesn't render the same UTF-8 string the same way as FireFox 3.5 does.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

What gives?

That question was discussed a long time ago, positively answered by Rob Boyle and subsequently made it's way into FAQ and Augmentation, p. 127: "Cultured bioware may also be alpha, beta, or delta grade."

There's nothing to discuss there anymore.

[ravensmuse]

It's "ZALGO" and entirely depends on if you a) have the right language fonts installed and b) have your browser set to display in UTF-8.

Otherwise you get a bunch of garbage characters (diamonds, hex values in boxes, and question marks). Even then it depends on your browser. I did a test and IE8 doesn't render the same UTF-8 string the same way as FireFox 3.5 does.

Yep, that's what I'm getting. That's a little annoying, but thankfully your sig doesn't seem to off-set it. So..

[Doc Byte]

I still don't like that ruling on Hardened Armor + Normal Armor, as it means drakes in dracoform having hardened armor 4 is still neigh useless (how often do you see attack DVs at 4 and less? Only if an unaugmented human is punching you). But it is the most reasonable method.

Don't forget that mystical armor's astral armor as well! That protects you from most spirits up to force 8 in astral space / astral combat.

[Draco18s]

Yep, that's what I'm getting. That's a little annoying, but thankfully your sig doesn't seem to off-set it. So..

Likely due to which extended characters are in use. They were pretty much generated at random (both are "mini fuckups" it gets crazy sometimes, though my signature was edited by hand to give an increasing level of corruption from one end to the other, though this one is still my favorite).

[pbangarth]

Actually the limitation is that a character can only have one Endowment from a particular spirit. Multiple spirits can grant Endowment to a single character who could be well and multiply Endowed.

"No character may gain more than one power from a spirit in this way at a time."

Ah... so one way to read "a spirit" is "a single spirit" as opposed to the way I had read it, "a source which is a spirit". Am I in the minority here?

[Draco18s]

Ah... so one way to read "a spirit" is "a single spirit" as opposed to the way I had read it, "a source which is a spirit". Am I in the minority here?

The original wording is just ambiguous enough to be interpretable both ways equally validly.

[ravensmuse]

Likely due to which extended characters are in use. They were pretty much generated at random (both are "mini fuckups" it gets crazy sometimes, though my signature was edited by hand to give an increasing level of corruption from one end to the other, though this one is still my favorite).

See, I know that it's because I browse at work and they still only use IE6 with no additonal languages attached. So.

Just making sure it wasn't something else.

[Draco18s]

See, I know that it's because I browse at work and they still only use IE6 with no additonal languages attached. So.

Just making sure it wasn't something else.

Hehehe.

[Sponge]

suddenly driveby with random spraying into crowds is mostly harmless.

I'm certainly no expert on guns, but it seems most instances of "firing into a crowd" in the news cause remarkably few casualties, so I don't have a problem with this being "mostly harmless".

my signature was edited by hand to give an increasing level of corruption

So you're purposely including stuff in your sig to give people a hard time while reading Dumpshock, then?