Custom Advanced Metamagic, Yay Dune Options

[Manunancy]

What I have above does not result in instantaneous travel (merely very fast; sub orbitals & semi ballistics are still faster, but generally only used for intercontinental travel). It also does not result in movement from one location to another without traversing the intervening distance - it uses an unusual method of covering the distance (compare land vs air travel). Characters using it are also still subject to any astral barriers, most notably wards. And finally, this form of magic has cannon precedence. I would strongly suggest not making it a "public" metamagic; either you acquire a teacher (very few outside of great dragons, immortals, & high force free spirits are likely to know it), or the character decides to research the metamagic on their own, which would take a good deal of time & resources (I think there are rules for it in Street Magic, but cannot remember for certain).

Also of importance, all of my playtesting of Astral Shift was using a hard maximum of Initiate Grade 5; While most characters of that strength will shrug off 5 Drain, it will still frequently cause some damage.

Another limiting factor is that you're taking your body along for the travel and that's it (well, bonded foci will probably follow through, especially if they're active since an active focus take it's astral form along the mage's in astral projection). While this isn't much of a concern for a great dragon, a metahuman may need to exercise some discretion. And maybe do a terminator-style run for clothes...

[Hagga]

If you must have teleportation.. turn the Bone Circle nethermancer spell into a metamagical technique. It's quite well done.

[Elfenlied]

Isn't there at least one character in the SR canon that can actually teleport? I vaguely remember Harlequin being able to do it.

[hermit]

Given that spirits have the metaplanar shortcut available, i could see an advanced metamagic that allows an astrally projecting mage the same.
With his astral body alone, though.
He would have to get Materialization somehow to physically transfer, and getting access to Materialization has been clearly ruled out by the errata for the Imbuing power.
So this would still work out differently than described in the OP.

What sense would this make? It's cutting what, a few seconds of travel time?

Isn't there at least one character in the SR canon that can actually teleport? I vaguely remember Harlequin being able to do it.

He can take metaplanar shortcuts, because, like all immortal elves, he is part dragon.

[Mr. Smileys]

Thanks for all the input. I agree with all of you that teleportation is a very powerful ability and should be allowed only under specific circumstances. This is why i gave it such a high cost (temporarily loosing a portion of your magical ability can hurt almost any magi) and made it so you have to have assensed the destination and scored well on that test, thus you would not be able to get into places that are protected by magical wards.

I have not decided yet if I will bring this ability into my campaign or not. But as a couple of you pointed out I could use this ability as a plot device for several sessions.

As for prerequisite metamagics, I'd recommend Divining to reflect prescience and Psychometry and/or Sensing to reflect the degree to which the magician might have to know the astral signatures at the destination. You might further require Cleansing and/or Filtering for bends in which either the origin or destination lie within a background count. If you want to restrict the power to higher-grade initiates (as it might be when first discovered), require all of the above. If you want it to be more accessible, require fewer prerequisite metamagics.

I agree that this should require multiple metamagic (and maybe advanced metamagic) techniques in order to be able to learn this.

[KarmaInferno]

The biggest problem with teleportation isn't the lore.

It represents the ability to bypass most obstacles. Much of the game is built around runners having to figure out how to defeat or negotiate obstacles. With teleportation, some runs might be reduced to the runners delivering a package before the initial meeting with the Johnson is even over.



-k

[Manunancy]

Though if you factor in the need to assense the target location first, it's less of a problem - though unless the place is warded, a quick astral recon might do the trick. It's also a great 'get out of a sticky spot card', though one that will leave the rest of the party to die (free sprirts PCs have the same problem).

Which can cause some grumbling from the other players if the magician keep getting away and developing his character when they need to make new ones. Especially if hte mage gets cocky from his ability to escape at a snap of the fingers and is the one gettigng the party in the pot.

[jakephillips]

Given that spirits have the metaplanar shortcut available, i could see an advanced metamagic that allows an astrally projecting mage the same.
With his astral body alone, though.
He would have to get Materialization somehow to physically transfer, and getting access to Materialization has been clearly ruled out by the errata for the Imbuing power.
So this would still work out differently than described in the OP.

I agree a Mage could use this techinique to teleport anywhere in the astral plane of the earth. I know people in astral are fast 6k an hour but even at those speeds it would take an hour and a half to cross the US and about the same to reach the UK. Some kind of metamagic that let you travel much faster or circumvent wards or barriers like earth could be useful and not against cannon.