Teleportation in Magic, Does it have a place in Shadowrun...??? Options

[Kyuhan]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I found nothing through my admittedly light topic searching. Thoughts on the topic?

[Herald of Verjig...]

The books say no.

If you want something close, befriend a free spirit who has the rare physical variant of the astral gateway power.

[Sabosect]

I would say no. Teleportation is powerful, powerful magic that goes far beyond what Shadowrun offers. Plus, the drain alone would kill any magician who tried it.

Teleportation is best used in high-magic games, such as DnD. In what I call mid-magic games, such as Shadowrun, it doesn't quite match up with the power level of the spells. I mean, fireball is considered a powerful and dangerous spell in this game, while in DnD I bet the majority of the wizards have it and at higher levels even they can shrug it off. Also, DnD has teleportation-effects as being more powerful than fireball, which I must agree with due to the potential abuses and uses.

So, I would say it does not have a place, just due to how the spells are treated.

[Kagetenshi]

Definitely not, IMO. It would essentially make either security or running against high-security targets obsolete, depending on how exactly it worked. Either that, or it would be essentially useless.

~J

[BitBasher]

Teleportation is one of the few thigs completely and explicitly banned in SR. So no.

[Dashifen]

The closest thing might be the Fading critter power which allows critters (and spirits, et. al.) to jump into the metaplanes. Then, it's arguable that they could jump back out of the metaplanes in a different location, assuming the metaplanes allow that sort of things. I bring this up because that was my reasoning behind prducing a blink dog like critter that I haven't had the opporunity to use yet. But if I do, damn will it be a nuisance ;)

[Kagetenshi]

Mmm, netherwalking.

~J

[Ancient History]

Teleportation and time travel are just no-nos. Too many questions.

[GrinderTheTroll]

We found our how bad this type of spell can be back in SR1. It's a game-breaker, just let your mind wander about the possibilities a bit, you'll see.

[Fygg Nuuton]

closest thing you can get is an illusion spell to make people think you have teleported. very nice for those movie vampire wannabes

[Dashifen]

What a great idea, Fygg. Note to self .....

[Nikoli]

Combine that with clout and you have the makings of some serious player twitching

[Tanka]

I actually heard this idea from a friend...

Design a spell that shifts your presence to the Astral Plane. Crazy, huh? Drain is atrocious, but if you succeed and stay conscious, you can move as per Astral Space rules of Fast Movement.

[lorthazar]

Of course, he forgot to metion that there is no shift your body back to physical plane spell MUAHAHAHAHAHA :eek:

[Fortune]

[Tanka]

lorthazar: It's called "Drop Sustained Spell." That's an Action. Hey, look, you're Physical again!

[Fortune]

More fun our way! :P :D

[Tanka]

[The Jopp]

Well, it could probably designed but I would not allow TELEPORTATION but I could allow PHASING.

Phasing would be an elemental manipulation spell of "Light" since you break up the bodys physical form into energy.

Drain would be at least (S) and the TN would be Range in meters travelled plus the barrier rating of the obstructions in the way.

So, if the character wants to phase through a wall he would at least have to travel 1 meter and go through a wall with a BR of 5 it would become a TN of 6. If he would like to phase away from lets say a troll holding him down it would be a minimum of 1 plus the trolls body (lets say 10) which would become a TN of 11 and the troll would get to use strenght to keep him there (breaks his concentration)

Always use the highest barrier rating of an obstruction they try to phase through (a wooden door (5, wood) with a maglock (10, highly processed material) this would become 11.


Lets see.

Physical manipulation spell (Major Physical Change) Serious Drain
Elemental Manipulation Effect (Transforms into Light) +1 Level
Physical Spell (Physical form changes shape) +1 Power
Voluntary Target (No combat abuse) -1 Level
Touch Range (No combat abuse or teleporting objects) -1 Level

This brings us to a total of +1 Moderate. Can it be abused, yes, but so can everything. Could we add normal problems and limitations for this spell, sure. The caster uses this spell as an instant spell and moves at the speed of light in an energy form, spirits moves faster on the astral plane and can actually intercept him before he gets there. Wards will still stop him, and high TN will do it otherwise.

Something else might be useful here. If the caster becomes light/energy it is highly possible that he7she will short out and/or activate alarms who go haywire when they pass through it (AKA Kitty Pryde, X-Men).

Remember one thing more, a LOS is required for the target location otherwise the caster could end up within an object or another person, thus killing them.

It is not really teleportation since it requires a path where the energyform can travel. A glass window is no problem but I don't think it would be possible to phase inside a faraday cage...(i might be wrong)

Impossible?

[Zeel De Mort]

Astral Gateway is probably your best bet if you want to approximate teleportation. Or conjure a REALLY high force spirit and get it to use the movement power on you while you levitate around with your gigantic magic attribute at incredible speed, thus giving the impression you're travelling instantaneously. You might want a high force barrier as well to stop your skin getting flayed when you fly around that fast...

Alternatively you could forget the whole teleportation thing since it's really not going to happen in SR.

I do, however, have some recollection that folk like the Black Lodge had access to higher and more powerful magic than was normally possible. Alas I don't own Threats, although I don't think it was mentioned there anyway. I'm sure I heard them being linked to teleportation somewhere. Hmm, maybe it was just on dumpshock!


Another book I don't own is Dragons of the Sixth World, although I doubt it's mentioned there either. But if lowly mortals could achieve (somewhat laborious) teleportation in Earthdawn times, then maybe dragons, and eventually metahumans, will be able to in SR. One day. One day very far in the future.

[GrinderTheTroll]

[DrJest]

Teleportation, yep, definitely exists in some form in my game. The players have seen it done.

Of course, it was done by your friend and mine The Laughing Man to set an example of just how far out of everybody's league those people are. The mage in the party tried for weeks to cobble together a theory on how it was done (best of luck old son) before deciding that all he was getting out of it was a Induce Migraine spell (Self only, Sustained ;) )

As for time travel, I did actually play in a game where time travel appeared. It was the whole point of the run, to steal some weird prototype that we instead wound up being affected by. The whole thing was very subtle, it took us ages to work out we'd been moved back one day in time. Naturally the device was trashed at the end of the run, and the inventor disappeared completely (very X-Files). Kudos to the GM, it was well-handled and gave us that real "there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy" feeling (the run was later linked indirectly to the technoshamen, an invention of that GM predating otaku; magical types that affected technology. I still have the Browning Ultra-Power that has a TN mod of -1 and half as much range again that was part of my reward for the run...)

[BitBasher]

Harlequin can't teleport, his power was somewhat explained, and teleportation wasn't it.

[Crimson Jack]

I made a device in a game once that was being developed by Texas Tech using quantum mechanics. A lot of the quantum theory is extremely hard to follow, but there are theories on how it could be applied to a form of teleportation. In any event, I had the runners making a data steal on the lab with the room-size machine. Almost had one of the power hungry players try to use it. :please:

Would've been a bad idea as I'm down with the "No Teleportation Allowed" crowd here. Too much power. Should my power hungry friend have tried the machine out, it would've been one of those no-rolls deaths. Owie.

[lacemaker]

I posted this question years ago on the old forums - I think you have to think pretty carefully about its effects, and make it tough to use, but I'm not convinced it's a game breaker.

The first thing you need is to have a reasonably common set of barriers to teleportation - ideally not just wards, but a number of mundane methods as well - living tissue maybe, 1st and 2nd Ed style, or a magnetic field at a certain frequency, some kind of special alloy etc, etc - that answers a lot of the "how do we make our high security area proof against teleporters" questions.

A second, compatible option is to make it line of sight only, and/or to make the range quite limited unless it's cast as a powerful ritual. If teleportations are draining and take you less than a hundred meters in most normal cases then they lose the "we can never track down the bad guy because he just teleports away" problem - the teleporter will need to have a nearby hidey hole scouted out and will need to be able to complete their escape after resisting drain.

Showing my RM roots, how about:
Leaving: Caster may teleport to any point within their line of sight, maximum distance is the number of successes on casting test (TN 4) x 20 meters. Target location must be specified before attempting to teleport and if insufficient successes are generated spell fails without causing drain. Drain is f/2+2/S

Teleport: As leaving but travel need not be LOS and range is halved. Drain is f/2+3/D. For travel to areas not within line of sight the caster must have a mental image of the area and make an intelligence test (aided by mneumonic enhancer) to accurately place themselves in it. On a failed role the teleport does not occur and drain is suffered, on a rule of 1 the cater teleports into a solid object and dies.