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Banaticus
How well can characters in game measure Essence? I've made a couple of posts recently about how adept street sams get the best of both worlds and can look forward to spending both karma and nuyen (instead of one or the other being relatively useless) and about how it's cheaper to get things that way.

But can characters in game measure Essence? Is it well known? How feasible is it that characters can measure down to the .01 how close to the line they can get before their body breaks down completely? Low Essence characters already suffer penalties to all healing tests, so they can already see that their body just isn't working quite right anymore, that they're in a state akin to a person in advanced chemotherapy -- parts of their body just aren't working anymore.

So we know that they can qualitiatively state that their bodies just aren't working very well anymore. But can they quantitatively state this? Can characters in game measure exactly how much Essence they've lost and see exactly how much they have left?
Moon-Hawk
I generally assume that there are lots of different scales, metrics, etc, and taken all together can give the character a pretty accurate idea of how they're doing.
So I'd generally say 'yes', but not in as simple of terms as we can discuss it using game mechanics.
Thane36425
In SR2's Cybertechnology, it is stated that even though there is debate in the Sixth World as to just what Essence is and how it works, they do know how much of it a person has. They make the point that if a dwarf and a troll both get a cyber arm, that they will both lose the same amount of Essence in spite of their size difference. It goes on to state that essence levels can be measured.

So, while the character might not be able to look at themselves and see how much essence they have left, the medical establishment has the ability to do so. Just how this works isn't stated, however. It would be reasonable to assume that they know from experience how much essence each type of cyberware costs, so they can look at what the character has implanted and work from that.

A mage skilled in Assensing could also tell just how much essence a character has. the chart on P 183 of the SR4 rulebook states that with 4 hits, the character knows exactly how much essence the subject has. That would probably be the most exact way to track essence.
Butterblume
QUOTE (Banaticus)
How well can characters in game measure Essence?

Good enough that you don't die accidently by implanting to much ware, I think wink.gif.

QUOTE
I've made a couple of posts recently about how adept street sams get the best of both worlds and can look forward to spending both karma and nuyen (instead of one or the other being relatively useless) and about how it's cheaper to get things that way.

And along the way you ignored that you have to break the rules to do so, as at least one Dumpshocker pointed out.
RunnerPaul
Four hits on an assensing test.
eidolon
In my games, no. Much for the same reasons that characters in my AD&D games don't talk about their experience or hit points.
Banaticus
QUOTE (Butterblume)
QUOTE
I've made a couple of posts recently about how adept street sams get the best of both worlds and can look forward to spending both karma and nuyen (instead of one or the other being relatively useless) and about how it's cheaper to get things that way.

And along the way you ignored that you have to break the rules to do so, as at least one Dumpshocker pointed out.

I made posts like that in two threads. In one thread, only one person has so far posted after I did and that post was in response to a different person. In the other thread, several people have chimed in that my interpretation is what the book says. One person even sent a message to "the man upstairs" who confirmed that my interpretation is correct. So I really don't know what you're referring to.
Butterblume
To make it short, if your magic rating is 0, you are mundane. No more mojo.

QUOTE (BBB @ p.164)
In Shadowrun, an Awakened character is one with a Magic attribute of 1 or greater. Characters with a Magic of 0 are known as mundanes.
Serbitar
QUOTE (eidolon @ Jan 9 2007, 10:53 PM)
In my games, no.  Much for the same reasons that characters in my AD&D games don't talk about their experience or hit points.

How do your characters know when exactly to stop getting implants? Accurate to 0.01 points.
ornot
I happen to think that a street sam adept is a collosal waste of karma. To keep the magic end up you're going to be burning karma to offset the 'ware reducing your essence and thus your magic cap. You're not going to be as good an adept as a straight out adept that has avoided the 'ware, especially since the majority of adept powers don't seem to stack with 'ware. In many cases cyber and bio don't stack.

Basically if you have enough yen and karma to do this you should be pulling some pretty impressive jobs, and you won't be as good at carrying them out as someone with the same amount of yen and karma who hasn't gone the 'ware + magic route.
Butterblume
No, Mr. Patient. Our tests have shown, implanting that fingertip compartment will almost certainly kill you. We won't do it unless you sign these papers first.

rotfl.gif
Serbitar
Mr. Sam: Dr. Dr. I accidentally hammered this nail into my finger.
Dr.: Looks in a book Don't worry, that does not count as an implant.
Mr. Sam: So I wont die instantly?
Dr.: Not untill you kill somebody with the nail. In this case it counts as a combat implant.
hyzmarca
QUOTE (ornot)
I happen to think that a street sam adept is a collosal waste of karma. To keep the magic end up you're going to be burning karma to offset the 'ware reducing your essence and thus your magic cap. You're not going to be as good an adept as a straight out adept that has avoided the 'ware, especially since the majority of adept powers don't seem to stack with 'ware. In many cases cyber and bio don't stack.

Basically if you have enough yen and karma to do this you should be pulling some pretty impressive jobs, and you won't be as good at carrying them out as someone with the same amount of yen and karma who hasn't gone the 'ware + magic route.

Some things are cheaper on essence as 'ware than they are on power points as adept powers and vice versa. The cybered adept is not a bad idea if built for a specific purpose but will suck as a generalist.
Jack Kain
When you lose an adepts essence for ware. (and thus magic) its little different then having spent it.
An adept could get rating 3 alphaware muscle aug and toner for a single point of essence and magic.
(not at creation mind you)


Its not anyware near the waste of karma as you'd have to increase those stats with magic permantly.

As long as you use a light touch, its a good idea
WhiskeyMac
But a cybered adept who uses the costs less in essence than power points argument is obviously a min-maxed character and the GM shouldn't let them be made. Cyber Adepts are cheap anyways. nyahnyah.gif

I think essence can be measured since the book gives guidelines on how to measure it.
Draug
Cyber adepts rock. They are the true evidence that magic and machine can work together.
Garrowolf
Doctors in my games have a broad idea of how much they can put into a person but when it gets closer to the edge it becomes harder and harder.
Basically what I do is say that you can get basic cyberware and spend up to 4 pts of essence with a street doc. Higher grades and getting closer to the edge require better and better doctors. Basically I assigned different levels as connection ratings for doctors and you have to have a higher rating contact to have higher rating cyberware implanted.

I am also fairly mean to characters that want to mix magic and tech. You loose all magic when you go below 3 essence and each point of essence loss counts as a threshold to using magic (the magic won't flow through the artificial material well).

I want various character types to stay descreate from each other. I have noticed that the players that want the character that can do it all are also the ones that cause the most problems in my games. I don't have a problem with powerful characters but I hate characters that want to take over everyone else's roles.

cetiah

Essence (and hitpoints) should be measurable on any standard biomonitor. In fact, just about everything on your record sheet is probably measurable in the sixth world and built into your SIN somewhere or somehow.

Furthermore, when we eventually get rules for cyberpsychosis, I imagine medical psychology will be caught up with that science too.

And yes, I could see someone denying surgery on the grounds that a person's essnece isn't high enough. I don't think they'd actually call it essence, but I don't see why not. Especially if the connection between magic and essence loss is widely known (and I don't see why it wouldn't be).

For D&D and the like, I don't like characters knowing their stats (because that's just silly), but in a Shadowrun game it seems to make sense. Especially in the new SR4, which gives the characters technology that allows them to communicate with each other, instantly look up information from whereever they are, and otherwise blur the line between player and character.

---

Street Sam: "You'll like it here. They have a house special, but you have to know how to ask just right. I've known the waitress here for years, so I'll hook you up. She's the chummett who gave us that tip about the thing in the place that one time... you remember? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Hacker: "You shouldn't eat that; you have too much drek in your bloodstream as it is."

Street Sam: "What?!"

Hacker: "Seriously, I'm subscribed into your biomonitor feed and its not pretty."

Street Sam: "I told you to stop doing that."

Hacker: "You know, you're fatigue ratio is almost 400% above normal? 386.98%. Didn't you sleep last night? What were you doing?"

Street Sam: "I told you to stop that!!!"

Hacker: "Wow, you're stress levels are spiking. Hold on, I'm downloading a nutrient guide for you."

Street Sam: "I don't want to have to kill you. It spoils my appetite, and the food's real good here."

Hacker: "Am I going to have to edit your personafix chip again?"


ShadowDragon8685
I think we've invented a new product: AR-inhibiting clothes.
mfb
in SR3, essence isn't precisely measurable in-game because of the essence cost and essence reduction surgery options, unless surgical skill (and other factors) are also precisely measurable. which, technically, they are, but we ignore that. anyway, those options increase and decrease the essence cost of implants according to factors that can't be precisely measured, but can be guestimated (really good surgeons generally reduce essence costs, poor surgeons increase them).

that means that the essence cost of an implant can be measured closely but not exactly. surgeons know that you can't fit a standard grade VCR-1 and wired reflexes-2 into one body.
ShadowDragon8685
I do know that they (used to be able to) measure Matrix security along the same scale as we used to measure in-game stats. Extrapolating from that, I'd say that they can measure Essense.

If only because it generates a little 4th-wall touching, but generally not breaking, humor.
RunnerPaul
QUOTE (mfb)
in SR3, essence isn't precisely measurable in-game

Five or more successes on a SR3 assensing test.
kigmatzomat
I seem to recall that there is an Essence Index in-game. I want to say the folks who did the early thaumaturgy-as-physics research (Kano - Whiteagle?) went on to quantify the astral damage to living things due to cyber and/or essence draining creatures.

I'm not 100% where this would be from, possibly the 1st ed BBB or Grimoire, neither of which I have touched in ten years.
eidolon
QUOTE (Serbitar)
QUOTE (eidolon @ Jan 9 2007, 10:53 PM)
In my games, no.  Much for the same reasons that characters in my AD&D games don't talk about their experience or hit points.

How do your characters know when exactly to stop getting implants? Accurate to 0.01 points.

Fair question. In my games (well, actually in all games), implantation of cyber is a medical science. Vast amounts of research have obviously gone into the subject. I don't feel the need to explain it any farther than that, because Essence is an abstraction.

In the game world, the docs (and consequently the characters) "know when to stop". It doesn't matter how they know. OOC, the players use Essence the same way they use attributes; as numerical representations of their character. IC, they are advised by a qualified physician that getting any more implants would have drastic and negative health effects, such as etc etc blah blah.

I don't (and never have) liked forcing OOC numerical abstractions into the game world. It ruins (or at least has a detrimental effect on) the suspension of disbelief for the characters to be sitting around saying things like

Sam: "I was going to get cyber legs, but I'm down to .02 Essence so I can't."

Mage: "I know how you feel. Just the other day I almost lost a point of Magic because I tried to cast way over my rating."

Adept: "Tell me about it. I was going to buy Astral Perception, but I need more Karma before I can pull it off."

[ Spoiler ]


As far as canon references to measuring it and quantifying it etc, I see those as attempts (good and bad, depending) of the game designers to give "in game" qualities to abstractions. That's fine and good as a reference, but I just remove the attempt at making it "in the game world". They're just more abstractions. Abstractions of abstractions etc etc. wink.gif
Serbitar
Well we never use these terms in game, too. But my point is, that a doctor might know the "essence rating" or whatever he calls it.

So the answer to the question: Is essence measureable in game? is still: yes. And I think it is in your game, too.
RunnerPaul
QUOTE (Serbitar)
Is essence measureable in game? is still: yes. And I think it is in your game, too.

Especially if you happen to have a mage who scores four hits on an Assensing Test.

But I've said that already.
celegar
you know, a similar question killed my d+d campaign a few months ago(it was a well along game to, we were 9th lvl). the question in my campaign was that whether or not the "characters" have knowledge of their injuries on a numeric scale, meaning whether characters know their own hit point values. the gm was trying to tell us that he would just tell us how we felt and we would just have to guess at what our hit points are.

well my chummer veteran kamakazi described the counter argument best, and i quote "well as the gm i know your hitpoints but your characters dont really know how bad they are hurt so ill handle your hit points, and well your characters dont really know how well they can defend themselves against any situation so ill handle your AC to, and your characters dont really know how well they can hit either so ill handle your BAB as well, you know what just give me your character sheets and ill just hold on to them while we are playing".

as you can see it kinda got outragous in the end. but the point is that altho the characters dont have a little ticker on their forehead that shows the numeric value of their essense, the rules use a numeric value to make the game easyer to handle. its and abstract number, not an internal clock. however if a character did want to have a little number pad put in that showed what the numeric value of his essence was it should be possible, i mean common. its freaking 2070, you get to work on the flying shuttle. techonology has come a long way and im sure that using a combination of constant assesing and medical tech(a combination that is found regularly) you could do it.
mfb
QUOTE (RunnerPaul @ Jan 9 2007, 11:56 PM)
QUOTE (mfb @ Jan 9 2007, 11:31 PM)
in SR3, essence isn't precisely measurable in-game

Five or more successes on a SR3 assensing test.

damn your vulcan logic!

that still doesn't allow you to actually measure the essence cost of an implant, because of the surgery rules. you'll know the implantee's essence before the implant and after the implant, but that can vary depending on the surgeon and the conditions. you'd be able to make a really accurate estimate, though.

that's one 'problem' with using a ruleset--any ruleset--to describe a world, especially a modern/future world where scientific study is common: it would be easy for characters in the game to determine the rules that govern their world, using in-character information. for instance, it'd be really easy for an SR character to figure out how the magic rules work, including skill ratings, force (spirit and magic), spell pool, attributes, etcetera. you'd just have to set up some standardized test and compare the results from a wide variety of subjects. you'd be approaching it from the inside, of course, so rather than trying to determine the skill level of a given individual, you'd be assigning individuals to skill level categories according to how well they perform. you'd eventually come up with categories like "really bad" (skill 1), "pretty bad" (skill 2), "about average" (skill 3), and so on.

another for-instance: when i said, earlier, that you can't determine the skill of a surgeon? not true. with VR technology, you can give a whole lot of surgeons the same surgical problem, and compare their results. voila, you know the skill level of a bunch of surgeons.
ornot
I know they had it in SR3, but I don't recall seeing any rules in SR4 for modifying the essence cost of implants based on surgeon skill.

Still, I tend to just discourage the players from talking about character stats in game, and won't ever describe an NPC as having "about 0.5 essence", instead of "heavily augmented". It's pretty moot anyway, since the only reason they might want to know an NPC's essence is to determine how heavily augmented it is.
eidolon
QUOTE (Serbitar @ Jan 10 2007, 11:13 AM)
Well we never use these terms in game, too. But my point is, that a doctor might know the "essence rating" or whatever he calls it.

So the answer to the question: Is essence measureable in game? is still: yes. And I think it is in your game, too.

I see your point, that a rose is a rose. It's just that I go a bit further, such that no person in my game world sits around thinking about their "essence (the game term; the abstraction). They might contemplate their soul, their being, or heck, even their "essence", but essence is not common parlance (nor scientific terminology) for "the remaining amount of <rose> that a person has", and you can't just call up your doctor and ask what your essence rating is.

So that's where I was giving my answer from. The fact that in my games a doctor or a mage can use some method to figure out your Exact Essence(game term) to me is not nearly the same as them knowing, in the fictional game world, that your body can't accept a new implant without you dying, or that by your aura you obviously have a lot of cyber.

Call it pedantic, but it makes my games better for me.
DireRadiant
Essence measuring 101

Is it alive? Then it has Essence

Is it dead? Then it doesn't have essence!

Relative quantity and quality of essence requires the grad level course.
Thane36425
QUOTE (mfb)
that still doesn't allow you to actually measure the essence cost of an implant, because of the surgery rules. you'll know the implantee's essence before the implant and after the implant, but that can vary depending on the surgeon and the conditions. you'd be able to make a really accurate estimate, though.

that's one 'problem' with using a ruleset--any ruleset--to describe a world, especially a modern/future world where scientific study is common: it would be easy for characters in the game to determine the rules that govern their world, using in-character information. for instance, it'd be really easy for an SR character to figure out how the magic rules work, including skill ratings, force (spirit and magic), spell pool, attributes, etcetera. you'd just have to set up some standardized test and compare the results from a wide variety of subjects. you'd be approaching it from the inside, of course, so rather than trying to determine the skill level of a given individual, you'd be assigning individuals to skill level categories according to how well they perform. you'd eventually come up with categories like "really bad" (skill 1), "pretty bad" (skill 2), "about average" (skill 3), and so on.

another for-instance: when i said, earlier, that you can't determine the skill of a surgeon? not true. with VR technology, you can give a whole lot of surgeons the same surgical problem, and compare their results. voila, you know the skill level of a bunch of surgeons.

As I said in an earlier post, doctors figured out that putting cyberware inthe body "cost" a certain amount of essence, regardless of the physical size of the person getting the cyber. Since they knew there was a finite amount of essence, they could built up a system, probably through observation, that a given piece of cyberware would displace so much essence. In this way they could say that a cyberwarm would cost a given percentage of a person's essence.


With enough surgeries and implantations, they should get it down pat. It might not be exact, but it would be close. This would also provide the basis behind higher grade cyber. How else would they know to reduce the essence cost unless they knew how much it cost in the first place?
ShadowDragon8685
QUOTE (DireRadiant)
Essence measuring 101

Is it alive? Then it has Essence

Is it dead? Then it doesn't have essence!

Relative quantity and quality of essence requires the grad level course.

Don't Shedim have essense?
DireRadiant
QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685)
QUOTE (DireRadiant @ Jan 10 2007, 02:49 PM)
Essence measuring 101

Is it alive? Then it has Essence

Is it dead? Then it doesn't have essence!

Relative quantity and quality of essence requires the grad level course.

Don't Shedim have essense?

Grad level course explains all, or send me only 50 nuyen and I will give you my special knowsoft on Measuring Essence.

But's that not all, you get your very own Shedim to experiment with!
Konsaki
QUOTE (DireRadiant)
QUOTE (ShadowDragon8685 @ Jan 10 2007, 03:02 PM)
QUOTE (DireRadiant @ Jan 10 2007, 02:49 PM)
Essence measuring 101

Is it alive? Then it has Essence

Is it dead? Then it doesn't have essence!

Relative quantity and quality of essence requires the grad level course.

Don't Shedim have essense?

Grad level course explains all, or send me only 50 nuyen and I will give you my special knowsoft on Measuring Essence.

But's that not all, you get your very own Shedim to experiment with!

Isnt that BlueRondo's schtick right now, DR? silly.gif
Banaticus
QUOTE (mfb)
with VR technology, you can give a whole lot of surgeons the same surgical problem, and compare their results. voila, you know the skill level of a bunch of surgeons.

But one surgeon might be having a really good day or a really bad day. You have to compare how well a given surgeon does over at least a hundred surgeries to really get an average. If you just have him do the same operation over and over, then you'll really be measuring how well he learns from his mistakes when he completes the same task over and over. So you'll have to create hundreds of different surgeries to give to these hundreds of surgeons in order to compare their abilities.

And that's what I assume the medical schools are doing -- I'm assuming that with immersive VR available, such would factor heavily into a person's grades. So, to see how good a surgeon someone is, you should really go look at how he graduated from his medical school -- what place he was amongst his classmates.
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