Magical Flight Options

[Geiger]

So, Levitate allows you to fly. Albeit slowly. Combine with the movement spirit power and you can zip around like a proper superman.... but. A thought occurs. What complications and such would you as a GM see with, or heap upon, a flying sleigh a la santa claus?

Either by using levitate to keep the sleigh level and lashing it to an appropriate flying spirit that then uses movement on itself and pulls the sleigh. Or just levitate + movement on the sleigh? What about similarly constructed magitech flying machines?

[Medicineman]

>>>What complications and such would you as a GM see with, or heap upon, a flying sleigh a la santa claus?

mostly visibility ( Mundane and Astral)
and Concentration
Corpsecurity is trained to "Geek the Mage first" and a flying Sled screams "Mage"
(one of my Chars uses a collapsable Plastik Frame with Ruthenium Polymer down and a Carpet Pattern on Top )

>>>>Or just levitate + movement on the sleigh?

This

with a flying Dance
Medicineman

[Kren Cooper]

You shine like a shniny beacon on the astral, being an obviously magical effect, without any cover, moving through the sky with excellent visibility for miles around. That of course means that everyone can see and target you.
When the magic goes away, you become as aerodynamic as a t-bird - i.e. not at all. With no lifting surfaces / glide ability, you will fall. Probably in an uncontrolled tumble, not just straight down, so that's big + modifiers for your mage to recast the spell before you have an "undesirable air/ground interface incident"
You have no protection against the elements - with movement power and a high force levitate from a strong mage, you will be doing some serious KPH - fly into a hail storm and you're really going to feel it. Best not fall or slide off that slippery levitated surface.
You have no navigation ability - if you fly into a cloud, you are blind and helpless - your ultrasound will only paint the top of that mountain in the last 30 metres, and if you're doing 100kph, that's just not enough time to react before you splat. Likewise, as a silent aircraft, there's no warnings for flocks of small birds, wings of geese or even larger foe - all of which can be a danger when surprised.
If your spirit is using movement, then unless it's a great form, or you've got multiple spirits (both of which are less common) then you're vulnerable to other spirits, as you won't be guarded or protected. A simple spirit "fear" or "confusion" power on the mage can trap the rest of the team on a roller-coaster ride they'll never forget.

My group were forever taking "the tarp" with them, to hide under and use only 1 invisibility spell or to sit on and use 1 levitate to bypass problems - until we tightened things up and said "be reasonable". After the first couple of times of the tarp bulging and rolling people off in flight, or splitting due to the pressure of the heavy troll in full armour and carrying a HMG putting all his weight on one foot - they started to plan things a little better.
Enemy mages casting dispell on the levitate is bad - but they have to overcome successes and such like, and take drain. However, casting a powerbolt on the tarp is very easy - it's got a low object resistance, very low effective body rating - and as an inanimate object, doesn't get to resist - it's automatically affected.

[Jaid]

the movement power should take care of all the complications of going super fast. you only have to deal with the consequences of regular levitate speed, which should be comparatively trivial.

but yeah, you'd be fairly visible on the astral, what with the general lack of magical objects flying around. to physical sensors, you'd probably appear to be a drone to radar and similar.

i doubt it would be particularly superior to just investing in a small flying vehicle, except in cost. you might be able to cross borders i guess, but you're not going to sneak into a secure facility unless your sled is very tricked out... in which case, we're right back to just owning a small flying vehicle, pretty much. as an added advantage, the small flying vehicle will likely have a much faster native speed than levitate, and as such the speed increase will be more significant.

[Tecumseh]

I played in a pink mohawk game 8 or 9 years ago where the GM did exactly this. Santa was a Free Spirit and so were the reindeer. They were also the villains, but that's neither here nor there.

If a player is attempting this, then the only thing I might question is whether the reindeer (presumably an air spirit) has the Strength to pull a sleigh. I'm a little rusty on my physics so I grant that I don't fully understand the implications of inertia on a floating object, like a sleigh, but I'll presume that there's some sort of inertia so that every stray breeze doesn't push a levitating object around like a dry leaf.

The inertia of a floating sleigh might be minimal, and perhaps the air spirit's Movement power overcomes it, but air spirits aren't exactly known for their Strength (Force - 3). Presuming an F6 air spirit, that's some Strength 3 towing. One complication might be the need for multiple spirits, either bound or from different summoners.

If the GM is looking to add wrinkles, the Guard power (optional for air spirits) might be another requirement to prevent any midair mishaps.

[JanessaVR]

So, Levitate allows you to fly. Albeit slowly. Combine with the movement spirit power and you can zip around like a proper superman.... but. A thought occurs. What complications and such would you as a GM see with, or heap upon, a flying sleigh a la santa claus?

I now desperately want to see this in an official book somewhere. Some magician jokers rig up a flying Santa's Sleigh (complete with reindeer!) as a Christmas prank - and get shot down after accidentally crossing into corporate airspace. It'll make the front pages. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Kren Cooper]

I now desperately want to see this in an official book somewhere. Some magician jokers rig up a flying Santa's Sleigh (complete with reindeer!) as a Christmas prank - and get shot down after accidentally crossing into corporate airspace. It'll make the front pages. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And the very definition of long term planning for a great shadowrun. Last year, the team hired a mage, provided the sled, made sure KSAF were ready and had a passerby with a camera ready to catch the incident "as it happened", making sure that the corp got the full on media blitz, pictures of the kids in the local intensive care ward being told that santa had been shot down, generously donated bits of toys blown all over the place - a full on PR disaster. THIS year, the spec ops team are riding under the sled, ready to do a covert insertion into the compound on xmas eve, after making sure the corp saw the re-runs from last year and had requests for interviews from the news desk over the "santa slaying" incident, counting on the fact that they wouldn't dare shoot down twice in a row...

[farothel]

So, Levitate allows you to fly. Albeit slowly. Combine with the movement spirit power and you can zip around like a proper superman.... but. A thought occurs. What complications and such would you as a GM see with, or heap upon, a flying sleigh a la santa claus?

I'm quite sure that some students at some magical faculty have done exactly that.

[JanessaVR]

And the very definition of long term planning for a great shadowrun. Last year, the team hired a mage, provided the sled, made sure KSAF were ready and had a passerby with a camera ready to catch the incident "as it happened", making sure that the corp got the full on media blitz, pictures of the kids in the local intensive care ward being told that santa had been shot down, generously donated bits of toys blown all over the place - a full on PR disaster. THIS year, the spec ops team are riding under the sled, ready to do a covert insertion into the compound on xmas eve, after making sure the corp saw the re-runs from last year and had requests for interviews from the news desk over the "santa slaying" incident, counting on the fact that they wouldn't dare shoot down twice in a row...

Now that's a clever scheme. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)