Swift and Terrible, or is it just terrible? Options

[fistandantilus4....]

4) What does "beat" actually mean? Hit? Damage? Incapacitate?

To successfully hit someone in close combat...

Now this I like. At my first reading, I got the impression it was talking about incapacitating, and that made it seem useful only for someone who was already going to be overwhelming in combat already. This looks better, adding something more like momentum to the fight. Might want to get that clarified in later.

[Critias]

Well, it's in my FAQata, which is a start. I'm going to try and get a few clarifications snuck in there if/when it gets bundled with other little e-books and put out in hardcopy form...but in the meantime, I've just got the little file in my sig to try and clarify/explain.

[fistandantilus4....]

Good stuff. Glad to see you're writing being put out there.

[Critias]

Good stuff. Glad to see you're writing being put out there.

Danke. Two CMP adventures (about the Ancients and Urban Brawl, two of my favorite slices of Shadowrun lore), my very own e-book, and at least a chapter apiece in three sourcebooks now (counting Street Legends, which is due out pretty soon). I'm not sure if I'll be able to tackle as much in the upcoming academic year, but it's fun to get a few of my ideas published and see my name in the front of a book or two. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[Critias]

Sorry. I remembered wanting to hit up this thread for some reason but I forgot why I had the urge to do so. Then when I came here to check it out, it had rolled over to the second page and I'd missed the question, and got all distracted by Fisty's avatar, and blah blah blah...sorry it took me longer than it should have to get back to you on this. I felt like the old man that hauled himself up off the couch, back creaking, feet shuffling as he dragged himself across the house to another room...and then forgot why he'd gotten up off the couch in the first place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I think it has something to do with the wording of how it interacts with Metamagic in relation to another another Way.

Magician's Way lets a Mystic Adept character choose the discounted powers of another Way, first and foremost. If your characters focuses on illusion magic, use Charisma as part of your Tradition, and thinks like a Trickster, maybe you go Speaker's Way, for instance. If you're a rough-and-tumble Combat Mage, maybe Warrior. Whatever. You pay the points for Magician's Way Quality, and get to pick the discounted powers from some other Way (whichever fits your mindset and/or power quite the best), right? Blammo, power discount.

Then you've got to make a choice, though. You can either take the metamagic bonuses of that other Way, also (+1 to Flexible Signature and Cognition, if you're a Speaker, or +1 for Combat Skill Adept Centering, etc, as a Warrior). That'll make you that much more of an "Adept" and less of a "Magician," if that's the road you want to walk, giving you the discounted powers and metamagical bonuses of another Way, so that (except for the fact you don't get access to their Way-specific powers) you're basically a Speaker that happens to cast spells, or a Warrior that happens to cast spells, or whatever. Still with me?

Or, instead of getting those metamagical bonuses from another way (which are normally two +1's), you get a single +1...to your (non Adept) Centering metamagic. This makes you more capable of slinging mojo and focusing on the magical side of your character (more "Mystic" and less "Adept," in other words), while still letting you get some discounted powers.

So you pick another Way, and get their power discounts. Then you choose to either be a little bit more on that Way (by getting the metamagic boosts listed for them), or a little more of a magician (by getting a boost to Centering).

Does that answer your question? If I'm still somehow being unclear, please just holler, and if you've got an idea for a better way to word it (for me to put into the FAQata), let me know, okay?

[sqir666]

Sorry. I remembered wanting to hit up this thread for some reason but I forgot why I had the urge to do so. Then when I came here to check it out, it had rolled over to the second page and I'd missed the question, and got all distracted by Fisty's avatar, and blah blah blah...sorry it took me longer than it should have to get back to you on this. I felt like the old man that hauled himself up off the couch, back creaking, feet shuffling as he dragged himself across the house to another room...and then forgot why he'd gotten up off the couch in the first place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Don't we all have days like that? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/embarrassed.gif)


Wow, that's a some nice clarification. Thank you for clearing that all up for me.