A few years ago I had a Gremlin shaman named Glitch. This character had a signature spell "Glitches" which was an area effect manipulation which caused nonliving devices to jam, seize up, flip a bit, and whatnot. The idea was that if the glitches didn't indirectly cause the device in question to become damaged, then when the spell was ended the device would be as good as always.

Recently I ran across a copy of Glitch, and decided that my earlier treatment of the spell was inelegant and not entirely consistent with the spell design philosophy of Magic in the Shadows.

So, starting from a blank slate, how would _you_ design the spell? (single target or area effect)

How would you use: Force, OR rating, size, Drain, Threshold, successes, resistance?

Well, off-hand it would have to be an area effect physical spell. Actually, it would be like a temporary area effect Wreck spell, attuned to everything instead of a single device. But that just flat-out damages equipement. So you would need another are effect fix spell to go off also.

In other words, the drain would kill you and your ancestors.

Well, I didn't look through the books and magic is not my forte, so maybe not. Still, I like the sentence "kill you and your ancestors".

I'm tired. I'll be quiet now.

Well, if it's causing objects to 'jam', meaning wheels quit turning, than it shouldn't be too hard to create a Manip spell for that under telekinetic manip. It'd be a Major Environmental Change for a starting drain of M, Area Spell for S, Physical spell for +1 and sustained for +1. So, +2S.

If however it's suppose to effect solid-state computer type equipment, I can't help there. There's no category for it.

Sphynx

An interesting way to do it would be to make it an illusion spell. Things aren't broken, they just appear to be broken.

You'd probably want the Trideo Phantasm spell. When cast over an area, anything percieving the nonliving defices in the area would have to resist the illusion or become convinced that whatever item it was just malfunctioned. IE: the door didn't just open, the gun just jammed (or ran out of bullets), the car failed to start, the security camera would see nothing but a static blizzard (a small part of the illusion over the lens) ETC.

Everything is still working but it might take the enemy a bit to figure it out. In the best case the enemy decides to look down the end of the barrel to see what the obstruction is and pull the trigger.

Here are two different spells according to the Magic Building Rules:

Glitch (Manipulation Spell): Causes mechanical and electronic objects to cease functioning properly (exact effects are left to you).

Minor physical change: Base Level M
Physical Spell: +1
Sustained Spell: +1
Restricted Target (Doesn't affect Living targets): -1

Total Drain = +1M (+1S for Area Effect)

To further limit its effects, such as Glitch (Guns) or Glitch (Cyberdecks), replace
Restricted Target with Very Restricted Target for a Drain Code: +2L (+2M for Area effect).

Spell #2

Gremlin (Manipulation Spell): Causes target to have difficulty in operatin mechanical or electronic devices. (Exact effects may be as if they are affected by the Gremlins flaw, as if they forget how to use the items, or as if they become to clumsy to use them properly).

Minor mental change: Base Level M
Sustained Spell: +1

Total Drain = +1M (+1S for Area Effect).

Hope this gives you an idea of what you are looking for.

Thanks for the input, folks.

Without going to the spell design, how about for effects the spell adds a difficulty to TN equal to the spells Force, to do anything with the machine in question, or get it to function properly.
Meaning it still works, just in a glitchy, FUBAR, pain in the hoop kinda way.

That's an interesting one. It certainly would _act_ right. It would also have to force a test for those situations where rolling isn't normally required - like using a telecom, for instance. Suddenly that would be an electronics test (for example) at target number = force? or TN=4+Force?

And rule of ones could take care of the occasion permanent malfunction.

This has the advantage of being easy to scale to single target vs area-effect.

The question becomes - resisted by OR? Should there be a theshold?

Thnaks catsnightmare.

Wouldn't the 'Rule of Ones' on a Glitch mean that everything in an area is suddenly working at 4000% efficiency?

...Could always treat it as a version of the Magic Fingers Spell... Forklift slams into gear, gun at rest has it's triggers pulled, all the buttons on a keypad are held down at the same time and can't be released...

Though, yeah the extra target number sounds best

Heh, something like that.

Or your tech at home goes boom? Eh, up to the GM, neh?

Glitch botch would give the caster the Gremlins flaw at level equal to the Force for a number of days equal to the dice rolled.

Threshold of half OR (minimum Force as well). Maximum modifier is Force at +1 for every 2 caster successes.

Objects can not ever resist spells in Shadowrun.

Scratch Magic Fingers... Poltergeist

Not exactly affecting electrical systems, no power surges, but...


Imps (Manipulation Spell)

Target Number 4: Unlike Magic Fingers at 6 - No fine direction on the part of the caster, just set and watch.
Drain Target 1: +1 (Physical) +1 (Sustained) - 1 (RT: Non-living)
Base level S: M (Minor Physical Change) + 1 (Area Affect)

All mechanical (Edit: Non-living) objects in affected area act as if tiny invisible beings are wreaking havoc.
Roll 1d6 for each turn spell is sustained and check following table:
1 - No effect: Imps go on strike.
2 - Shake: Fragile items in boxes break, sodas turn into time bombs.
3 - Push: All buttons in area are either held down or pushed randomly.
4 - Pull: Guns fire as their triggers activate, grenade pins release, stoppers pop.
5 - Untie: Knots unravel, fabric unweaves itself.
6 - Twist: Dials turn, bottle caps fly off, rope and string knot themselves, etc.

That sound about right? (:

(Edited: Drain)

Glitch
Modified version of Chaos with limited target of machines. Affects a single target and each success on the test gives a +1 TN modifier for operation of the device. Drain S

Gremlins
Modified version of Chaotic World with limited target machines. Affects area of targets, and each sucess gives a +1 TN modifier for use of affected device. Drain D.