I’m a little confused. On page 170. in the section on ‘the shamanic tradition’ it says “This phenomenon is called a shamanic mask. A player can choose whether or not this effect is apparent for her character:”

First of all. Do you think the means that you can choose that is always the case that there’s no mask og can you choose from situation to situation?

Second. Is there an advantage to the shamanic mask or do you only choose it if you thinks it’s cool/fun roleplaying?

Hope you can help.

Who knows? It's one of those rules that isn't really detailed yet; I hope they put it in Street Magiv.

At this point I'd rule that any mage of any tradition can choose to display such a mask or not each time they cast, as sort of a flavor thing. Maybe if geasea are implemented later (doubt it, as the only way to lose Magic now is to lose Essence) then a Mask geas would be an interesting one to have.

I think it means you can determine how strong it affects your character before you make it or as you make it.

You can't however decide mid game it doesn't impact you.

i seem to vaguely recall shamanic masks having 2 effects:

1) it's easier to tell the person is casting something (although, in SR4, as soon as you get to a decent force rating, it becomes pretty much obvious to anyone. i believe at 6, it's a threshold 0 test anyways).

2) i believe it gives a bonus to intimidate... or something like that... i'll see if i can find any text to back this up, until then you should probably assume i'm delusional on this one

[edit] ok, think this may have been what i was thinking... the use of "obvious magic" can give a modifier to intimidate checks. with a mask, the probability of magic becoming more obvious increases, so in that sense it could potentially add a modifier.

also, the mask adds dice to the person's perception test, instead of reducing the htreshold further, so it has an effect even if the spell is already force 6.

personally, i would say shamanic masks are more of a penalty than a benefit, unless you can choose whether or not to manifest one. [/edit]

in sr3, the mask came into effect everytime a shaman cast a spell, the higher the force the more obvious the mask.

the example I think they gave was a hawk shaman, force 1, his features may become a little sharper, force 9 his face looks like a fullblown hawk.

Masks are great for intimidation and stylistic purposes, but not for subtle castings. That's pretty much the long and short of it.

I agree with Eyeless and Feshy. They probably just left it in for flavor purposes since it doesn't have a whole lot of game mechanic impact and it allows for more (mostly cosmetic) character customization.

Thre's no real game effect to it. I've decided that if you have a mentor spirit, you have a shamantic mask. if not, then you don't.

if you are casting a spell of force 6 or higher, it's threshold 0 to notice anyways. if you are in a social situation with someone who has the perception skill, you are extremely likely to get noticed anyways. if you are in a situation with several people, you are also very likely to be noticed anyways...

Maybe make it a flaw? I mean, shamans were generally considered equal in cost to mages previously when they had totem modifiers + mask thrown in. Why not say that you can get the modifiers without the mask (by spending the 5BP more) or accepting the mask to pay for the mentor spirit?

You could also get a mask for people without mentor spirits, in which case it'd be player-defined like the digital chaos mage who's magic manifests as snowy static over his eyes ETC. Very flavourful IMHO.

I'm going to take a moment to plug my other favorite RPG: the HERO system, a.k.a. Champions, the Superhero RPG.

In HERO, ever "power" your character takes that costs "endurance" (something very similar to drain, but nearly every physical action costs some endurance) is supposed to be perceivable by 3 senses. That is, when you let loose a spell or superpower, people can usually see it, hear it, and either feel, smell, or taste it as well (most players are a bit loose on the third sense). These are called "special effects." The blast that cyclops shoots out of his eyes, and the one one a wizard fires off when casting Magic Missile are both "energy blasts," but their "special effects" define exactly how they work. This will determine whether covering their eyes or binding their hands will stop them, or whether a mutant-power nullifier or a dispel magic want will work against them, but it's all the same rules. The reason powers need special effects is so that people know what's hitting them, and how to deal with it.

The reason I go through the trouble of mentioning all of this is because I think of the Shamanic Mask as a "Special effect." 99% of the time, your mask is only flavor text. When my bear casts Death Touch on you, he claws at you like a bear, and you can hear him growling. I run him this way because it's cool. According to the rules, if he casts Calm Emotions at Force 6, his shamanic mask should be pretty apparent, and I don't imagine seeing an ork turn into a giant grizzly bear would be very calming. Now, maybe a giant teddy bear...

But, the point is that's when you have to bend the rules a bit. Knowing someone is a shaman, and what his mentor spirit is can be a benefit to the perceiver, and it can be a bonus to intimidation for the caster. It says that the player can choose, so I think it's appropriate to suppress the mask when needed, but to let it shine when appropriate.

Dread Polack