After running 4th edition for a while, there is something that has been bothering me a bit. The drain codes for magic.

The impression I get from the Shadowrun fiction is that casting a spell has consequences to the mage (in the form of drain). So magic is something that is used when things are getting tight/desperate. This seems to be specially true for overcasting of spells.

In practise, I see my players routinely (ie. almost every time) casting spells with no drain.

For example. Lets say a mage has 12 dice in drain resistance, so they can buy 3 successes on the drain roll.

They will automatically soak:
- Force 7 manabolts.
- Force 9 stunbolts.
- Force 3 increase reflexes.
- Force 5 Heal.
etc

There are three alternatives around this that I can see:

1) increase drain codes of spells: too complicated, potentially very problematic and unbalancing.
2) no more buying successes for drain rolls: mages will still be overcasting spells without hesistation, but every once in a while they will be taking some drain.
3) every casting of a spell incurs a minimum of one point of stun or physical drain: mages will be very hesitant to overcast spells, and will want to rest after casting a few spells.


I don't like option 1. Option 2 is alright and easy to implement. Option 3 is also alright and easy to implement.

Which one do you think is the most appropriate? Do you have any other recommendations?

Right now I'm leaning more towards option 3, since I get the feeling like it will help simulate the fiction better. Of course, its also the one that players will hate the most.

Any thoughts?



The Horror

I'd most definitely use option 2). In fact, I wouldn't even think about allowing players to buy hits in stressful situations. I see this rule for routine tasks. Resisting Drain should never be a routine task, so it should always be rolled, and if you roll, then you will occasionally get damage, even if you soak it all up on average.

Bye
Thanee

none of my players play a magic user. there a bunch of chrome junkies... so i really cant answer that..

Our mage soaks the drain quite easily from spells - she doesn't really take it into consideration when casting. We use a lot of magic (force 4 & 5 spells) in game... but those *^$* spirits... she takes drain from almost every summoning and has even been knocked unconscious during a binding. We had to move after that mishap.

Friends dont let friends Bind.

I personally think that increasing drain a bit could be a good option, and there's one simple way to do it: stop halving the Force when determining drain. So it'd be just Force +/- modifier. Mages would start suffering a bit when casting, but that's ok to me. It would need some testing to see if it's too much (or someone who's better with statistics than I), but I don't think it would mess stuff up much. There'd be a motive to vary the Force of your spells a little, and that Force 10 stunbolt would have some actual kick on the caster, which it should.

Bah. Magic is 73|-| 4vv350|\/|3. It shouldn't be gimped at all.

I have no idea what you just said.

I've done drain both ways, 1/2 and full drain. What I've found is that both can be coped with. The result is usually ending uo with a few more boxes of stun, more liberal use of stim patches, a lot less fireballing, and a less heavy magic campaign. It seems to feel a bit more gritty, when you're worrying as much or more about what you're going to do to yourself as you are the other guy. A lot more consideration goes in to what spells are cast. And Centering is always learned first. IMO, it's really just a matter of feel. Nothing stops a mage from picking up a gun after he's got some drain on him after all , even if he is a lousy shot. Just don't up spirit drain any, or you'll have a lot more dead mages.

Oh, and yeah, don't let them buy successes on drain tests. One of my players fried her self by summoning and channeling a massive spirit. The biggest thing she could summon (magicx2) and used what she had really well. Since there are no rules for channeling ,we just did it as a binding. She kicked a lot of ass until she got hit by the drain and died. She knew it would happen, so it wasn't really a bad call on her part. The whole team probably would have died if she didn't. Hell of a run. THey had to extract a blood mage from the Aztlan sector of Denver while Ghostwalker was taking over. They only had 8 hours from the meet to do it. Finished with 45 minutes left.

Actually, the easiest way I've found to make magic less effective is to have counterspelling types on the oposition's forces. Even if they counterspell the caster's magic, the caster still resists drain. Mana Barrier is a handy spell to help "block" magic, too.