How would blood magic metamagic work in SR4?

I imagine that it would be one metamagic power available to those who iniciate under the right (erm... wrong) teachers.

Then they could sacrifice helpless sentient beings to increase magic.

But then, how much magic?

For how long?

Would it work differently for blood mages and blood adepts?

I am thinking about iniciated Leopard Guards and Azzie mages.
Looking at the direction the campaign is taking I might need to have this down before Street Magic hits the (erm. )streets.

Have you any ideas?

Cheers,

Max

One thought, you could overcast by one point without drain becoming physical for every one or two boxes of physical damage inflicted.

I think they had you reduce one point of drain for each point of physical damage in the Aztlan sourcebook. That's powerful enough to live up to the legends.

And adepts? (I know it wasn't exactly covered in SR3)

cheers,

Max

PS: Like that idea Steve.

Edited for Capitals and PS.

For twisted adepts you should probably bring back Potency. Have it provide bonus dice (not subject to any cap) to all tests the adept makes equal to the number of people the adept ritually killed that month.

On second thought, that is completely insane. Instead have Potency work like and stack with edge. Any magical with the potency variety of Sacrificing can gain 1 point of Potency for every person sacrificed (mystic adepts and full magicians who want both advantages will have to take th emetamagic twice, once for drain avoidance and once for potency).

Depending on GM taste Potency can be uncapped but would never refresh (essentially any use burns it) or have it capped at 8 and refresh every single combat turn but have the characters suffer from potency loss at regular intervals (1 point a week, 1 point a day, the whole thing every month, whatever feels right) requiring a continual supply of sacrificies to keep it up.

Yuk! That's a clear invitation to mass sacrifices...

... Maybe like I take that idea and limit potency to magic rating or initiate grade.

Very helpful so far, chummers!

Max

Yeah, you'd be able to pretty much take on Superman with mass murders.

Yeah, that is a crazy idea, especially if you let the PCs have it. I edited my earlier post because having potency work for everything all the time was a bad idea.

Capping potency and having it not refresh might work best if you let PCs have it, I don't think you should. The entire point of Potency and Blood Magic was to create NPCs who could simply slaughter even the best PCs if they weren't careful.

Would a grade 10 blood mage with tons of ready human sacrifices be able to take on a group of 6 450 BP, 60 karma runners?

Only if he has his girlfriend hold up a boombox with Eye of the Tiger blaring in the background.

Do not misunderstand me, boys.

I am not allowing it to PCs as a rule because no runner would work with them. Actually, the rest if the team would hunt the blood mages for the reward.

Now, one of the players did ask me about the SR4 blood magic rules because he got hold of an Aztec weapon focus with evil tendencies.

I'm just wondering...

Cheers,

Max

Edited for clarity

Oh my, Eye of the Tiger! It's so eighty's...

Cheers,

Max

Seriously, Max. That's the whole idea. Honestly, I'd give bonuses in situations like boxing matches and Fight Of Your Life stuff if you had a SO with a boombox playing a musical score.

But only if you were losing for the first half.

When was sacrificing ever available to PCs. (in SR3 it strongly recommended not, just like no PC twisted or toxic magicians)

I would say +1 dice to resist drain for every box of damage inflicted, if the victim is awakened then you can add there magic attribute to yours if you kill them. These bonuses only apply to a single spell cast at the time of the sacrifice, each caster in a ritual circle may make there own sacrifice as part of casting ritual magic.

Never give aztechnolagy reason to have 4 blood mages with ritual casting 4 each sacrifice a troll with magic 4 to ritually cast a spell at you. Think force 20 power bolt cast with 56 dice and no risk of drain

Stating up blood spirits would take some time.

Edward

Whee it was described it stated “not normally available to PCs” there where ways they /could/ get it but the GM would need to allow it in spite of said warning.

Edward

Ah yes, the old 'it's ok for PCs to burn down orphanages with the orphans still inside if they get paid enough money, but it's definitely not ok for a PC to sacrifice on of those selfsame orphans to cast a bigger fireball.

I also say blood magic is not for PCs because of balance.

Edward

I would say it is not for PCs because of Vergigorm

And don't forget Verjigorm, his Horror cousin.

Cheers,

Max

Remember, the bounty on blood mages is for them alive and alive only. To all the bounty hunters out there I say good luck with that.

For a WoD comparison, look at Morality. While I'm not the biggest fan of it, considering that sometimes, you just gotta cap a guy, I imagine that it helps curtail a lot of the horrible, horrible stuff you can do.

Because, well. Nothing stomps a big ole boot on your fun like the lingering threat of insanity, followed by unplayability.

And speaking of that particular ruleset? Emo, you might want to look for, like, an Exalted-With-Guns sort of gamebook.

Potency was never added it magic. It was just an extra dice pool that the threat NPC could draw from. It would make more sense for potency to work like edge and stack with edge.

it added to magic for adepts
gave them more powers too

My mistake. It both increases magic and provides a Potency pool. Its just that the extra magic is of limited usefulness in SR3.

Why do say that? I have thought that extra magic was just as useful in SR3 than in SR4. Please clarify...

Cheers,

Max

higher magic only allows you to cast higher-force spells, and slightly increases your spell pool. it doesn't add directly to every roll like in SR4.

OK. I got it, thanks

Cheers!

Max