I think food passes my sense test because it's a common substance that all living things instinctively understand. Creatures have no real conception of gold- that's a created concept. Munitions are the same, only moreso.

Magic does not work on molecular complexity. If it did, toxic wave would be about 24 drain levels higher than an area effect metal manipulation.

Magic does work on conceptual complexity. "Food" is an instinctive concept, APDS is not. Much like how the OR is based not on the molecular complexity, but on a level of how far removed it is from nature. Create APDS could be feasible, but the TN would be at least 12 without any condition to insure it is the proper size for the gun.

BLAST! The horror-lover agrees with me!

RE: Mental Adepts and Psionist rules upgrades, allow me to whore out my shit agian...

Mental Adepts

A stab as improving psionists... and other stuff

Make Psionists Aspected i.e. they only cost 25 BP and get 35 power points at chargen. Let them astrally project though, they really don't need more restrictions. Remember, they can't use any foci and cannot take any "mystical" geasa.

Here's an idea: to make up for the fact that they can't cast some types of spells, give them the Centering metamagic for free and without the need for a linked artistic skill. This is justified by the idea that they can make their powers work better by focusing all the energies of their mind...

But only if they accept the chant geas. Every time they want to focus their psionic powers, they must intone, "Your mind is an open book to me!!!"

Seriously though, "Mind Bullets" should be a new spell made exclusively for Psionists.

I disagree with the idea of buffing up the Psionicist. They are gimped for a reason.

It's time for a new age... the Psion age of Shadowrun. A world of 1-900 faux-Jamaican tarot readers.

Instead of unique spells to classes, SR is rather flexible in allowing players to develop unique spells of their own.

-Siege

maybe give us a official gecko crawl physical adept power or maybe give us the ability to turn some spells into powers (only with touch or self ranges only maybe). that way we can have physical adepts preforming healing hands and wall crawling while avoiding the messy bits of trowing around fireballs and lightning bolts.

i would allso like to see the return of the astral adept.

i would allso do a small rewrite on the workings of the anchoring metamagic. give a item charges so that you can say stack 3-4 armor spells onto a pin, tie in the detection spell and be ready to roll. that or maybe say that instead of it being one time a sustainable spell is in fact triggerd the moment its cast into the item (caster takes drain at that moment) but is then suspended inside the anchor. now a detection spell or other triggering condition will bring it out of suspension or back into suspension (the detection spell not detecting = spell suspended). this should only work on reusable anchors tho. this way it brings back some of the power of old and makeing it something else then a delayed/mundane sustaining foci.

I don't even object to the idea of adepts casting spells, but the cost should be prohibitive enough to keep physical adepts from crossing into Physical Mages.

The pricing should be something like: 1 magic point per rating of spell.

So if the physical adept has an overwhelming urge to throw a Force 6 manabolt, it'll cost him 6 points of Magic.

A one trick pony, but it has some interesting applications.

Or vary the cost depending on factors -- affect self only, .5/rating, affect others 1/rating.

-Siege

knack

Since any combat spell (or heal or treat) must be bought at the max drain level, that restricts a knack adept to mostly support spells. Some spell effects seem too potent for adepts, but GM has the veto right on any player so that is not a real problem.

Shadowrun being inconsistent? <gasp>!

Seriously though, in big flaming letters, it is written "Magic Works This Way."

This way includes Hermetic, Shaman and Adepts schema and variations of that -- including aspected casters.

Anything else is a weakened derivative and doesn't function at full capability. Does it make a lot of sense? Not really.

Like most gamers here, I could rationalize it. One argument is even the most paranoid delusional shares a certain fundamental grasp on reality, albeit tenuous and not necessarily the same rules but there are still consistencies.

Disbelieving in a bullet will still get you shot, no matter delusional you are. Now, apply the concept of physics as a constant to SR which holds magic as a similar constant. Although a better example might be the idiots who watch gangsta movies and hold their pistols horizontally instead of vertically. They can still fire a bullet, but it's not as effective or as effecient as more traditional schools of thought.

Working against the flow of nature and natural magic produces a weakened result -- hence the psionic who creates a schema for his mind to comprehend the forces at work and battles not only self-imposed limitations but also the withered result of insisting something that isn't quite so.

Argument two: That's just the way it is. Why do humans breath oxygen? Why not helium? They're both gases, right?

How's that for spontaneous bull-drekking? The simple fact of the matter is: it's that way because the writers envisioned it thus.

-Siege

Edit: Interesting point Kan -- how many GMs have Totems who interact with their Shamen and provide direction and purpose?

GRRR.

"Why don't humans breathe Xenon or Argon as a substantial portion of their gas intake instead of Oxygen."

-Siege

A neat high-level new adept power I'd like to see would be "disbelieve" (from Deadlands). At high enough levels (I'm thinking like 5-8 power points), the master can make a willpower(8-14) test to disbelieve in anything-- bullets flying towards him, an arrow in flight, that giant ant spirit. If the object is disbelieved in, it cannot harm the adept. Sure, this is game-breaking, but it's a nice mechanic for making a master adept one with the universe.

If you want someone who dislikes magical "belief" systems but hasn't gimped himself with a limited view of what magic is capable of, play a chaos mage.

As far as the "why aren't shamans gimped?" question, I would answer - a lot of Totems are gimped, some of them (like Dove) so much so that you would rarely, if ever, see a player play one. You have ideals to follow (you won't see a Sun or Dragonslayer shaman kidnapping babies from an orphanage for a corporation to experiment on), Willpower tests at inconvenient times (like if your Fenrir shaman needs to run away from overwhelming odds, or your Gator shaman needs to stop trying to open the MagLock and run away), and odd restrictions or codes of conduct. Now, some of them have advantages to offset this, but they still have disadvantages, plus if you don't follow the overall credo of the Totem, you could lose all of your magic permanently.

I don't really see a Totem as an actual entity, more as a concept. When they show up, it is usually in a dream or a vision, and their advice is usually cryptic. GMs who play a Totem as this big being telling the shaman what to do all of the time is railroading in the worst manner possible. Shamans have a code of behavior, within which they have a lot of lattitude - a Dog shaman can be a gentle medic or a hardened fighter, but neither one of them would betray their group for a payoff.

When I asked what the reason was, I thought that they had soem overwhelming power which their limited spell categories made up for. I understand the in-game reason why they're gimped, though.

That said, even if the thought form has no domain restriction and can be summoned anywhere, their very limited abilities and the fact that only one can be active at a time means that they don't make up for the limited spell categories. The thought form balances itself out with limited abilities.

Also, shamans are gimped by their totem restriction, but buffed in other ways to balance this. My idea about giving psionics free centering was an attempt on my part to buff for balance.

about that adept "power" of mine, siege picked up on the one thing i forgot to cover, cost in power points. you will asllo see that i limited spells to touch and self only, so no spellslinging within los (remeber that a adept is focused on his body so its in a way a selflimiting focus). sure he could learn to toss a fireball but that would be a touch spell so maybe its not a good idea

as for cost, siege is right on it, .5 pr level for self only and 1 pr level for touch spells.

if you want a adept that can toss a fireball then make a physical mage (or whatever its called). i just want a way to make spider-man (gecko crawl fits nicely here) without being tempted to take something that can potentialy not fit the image (like above said fireball)...

-double post-