Magic In Shadowrun Options

[maneius]

What do you guys think about the level of magic in the Shadowrun universe, opinions and reasons please.

[Omega Skip]

Well, I think it's nice to have Trolls to hide behind and Elves to cast healing spells on you, or dwarves to fix your car, or Orcs to... well, I'm sure there's a good reason why there are Orcs, I just can't think of one right now. At any rate, all these wouldn't be there without magic, so yeah, I like the amount of magic in my game, thank you very much.

[Sahandrian]

I voted too much, because I've always thought mages should be a rarity, but I've always found that my group always winds up with a lot more magic going on than we should.

That and it tends to be far easier to write up magic plots than CP plots...

[kuroko]

I've found that it really depends on the gm. The first guy I played under had too much, another too little, and one just right (WOW - goldie-pc and the three gm's). When gm'ing myself I tend to have my plots center around technology (hey it's what I know) but the opposition may have magic. There are some runs (inspired by the various draconic metaplots) that feature magic heavily, but I view things like astral quests on the same line as decking - pizza time for those not involved.

[Cirenya]

I like the level of magic as it is. In the group I'm gaming with, there are both too much and less. Besides my character there is too adepts (out of 5 = too much), both on the other hand we got no mage or shaman, so I have to fill that role with my physad-shaman, who is mostly build as physad. Both among the NPC's magic is relative rare, but every corporate security team still have a mage.

So I think the level of magic is, maybe to high, but I like it

[Reaver]

The books have stated that even though magically active total is a minority, the magical community is mostly found in either the runner camps or the corporate camps. So, as a shadowrunner, you should see a higher number.

[Moonstone Spider]

Unless it's been changed by an update, MitS says that there are fewer awakened Shadowrunners than awakened anything else, there are even more wise-women and street mages who just sell telesma than there are shadowrunner magicians.

[northern lights]

i like the amount, but i dislike the amount of confines placed upon it. too many damned rules all around. why such limitation when it is magic after all. well, okay so it's for mechanics, but i don't like a lot of stuff about it. but the amount seems about right.

[maneius]

I was talking about in-game focus more than just general magic in the shadowrun universe because sometimes it seems as if there are mages and adepts around every corner waiting for some unwary sam to poke his head out.

another thing, which do you think is more powerful/useful for Joe Runner, magic or cyber?

[Reaver]

[Phaeton]

I say it depends on whose game you're in.

*nods at Sahandrian*

[Snow_Fox]

It goes with the GM but in general it's prety even. Line designers have to be careful not too put out too many magic heavy sources though, for a hwile everything was Bugs, then Aztechs and the Horror, then Dragons. They need to be careful and keep focus on corps too or it will tip over

[Nikoli]

Personally, I think the magic system needs a change, with rules similair to the Otaku (something akin to channels for each type of spell or spirit/elemental, base TN on situation, like [WILL+INT of target]- caster's 'channel' for sorcery test, player decides what spell. No more force this and DL that. Make it more like the ad hoc combast programming. This makes it far more organic and can open up the door for any type of magic imaginable for the GM and the players)

[RangerJoe]

Magic rules aside (I like the magic rules), the amount of magic in the game is about right. I have my runners worry more about sentry guns and monowire than about giant elementals or watcher spirits. Given the nature of magic is SR, most teams should expect wards almost everywhere important, but actual on-site mages as a rarity.

[John Campbell]

The magic level in Shadowrun is highly tunable. I've played in games where 80% of the group was Awakened of one sort or another, and I've played in games where the entire group was mundane. I've played in games where we spent a significant amount of time countering magical threats, and I've played in games where the only way you could tell that it was Shadowrun and not CP:2020 was that the gunbunny was four feet tall and the decker had tusks. And that was all over the course of one campaign.

The game's magic level is only a problem when the GM's opinion as to what it should be disagrees with that of some or all of the players.