Although I understand that Ignite is the spell designed for such things, I was wondering whether or not people would allow a (Force 1) Flamethrower spell to act as a 'poor man's' Ignite or if even 1P Fire Damage would be more then enough to burn the entire cig/cigar/ect to ash as well as likely burning off the foolish Mage's facial hair. (Personally I lean towards the latter, but was wondering what other people would do in their games.)

*Edit*

However, I do get slightly conflicted when I think about the extra Drain that the Mage would have to resist from using Flamethrower over Ignite.

*Edit 2.0*

Also on a related note, what about other non-combat uses for Combat Spells? Would a (Force 1) Lightingbolt be able to jump-start a truck, ect?

Well, problem with ignite on your cigar, is the whole cigar bursts into flame, not just the tip.... So, likely, a flamethrower called shot to the tip would be more likely to succeed it getting it lit in a manner similar to a lighter.

Hmm, very good point, even though I'm a huge fan of the entire "can't target parts of objects" Magical Law for some reason I had completely spaced it in this case.

I'll have to blame it on the Style over Substaince theme that runs through Cyberpunk as opposed to my failing memory.

Yeah, but you can called shot with elemental spells, which is why flamethrower trumps ignite

Alternately, you could always just place a small piece of paper on the tip of your cigar, and ignite that.

Odinson, when struck by a lightning bolt, vehicles typically survive ok. With the occasional total wiring harness burnout.

See here

I can't find any rules that say you can't target specific parts of an object with Ignite.

I'm sure if you're short on karma any decent GM would let you scale down your Flamethrower to a blowtorch or zippo sized jet. How else is a wizganger going to scorch his name on the side of someone's eurocar? How else is a mage-chef supposed to make creme brulee? Think of the children!

Well, you target the cigar right? Just as you can't target someones pinky, you can't target just the tip of the cigar.

I'd say flamethrower would work fine. You have to target it at something which defines it's range, so it wouldn't overshoot. And one point of damage will probably blast the front of the cigar but on a called shot I'd rule that the rest of the cigar is ok and just suffers from being on fire.

It's when the dice hate you and you roll up a critical glitch that things will get amusing.

As a general rule in our campaigns whether it be SR or a D20 game when a magic using type has enough power to shoot a gout of damaging flame the GM will assume they can do simple things like light a cigarette.

If it is simply "flavor" magic and doesn't affect anything, like lighting a cigarette, theres no reason you can just put the unlit cigarette in your mouth and have it light when you inhale the first time.

I don't see anything wrong with letting a force 5 mage, capable of charbroiling a room full of troll gangers, wave his hands and light the candles around his summoning circle.

Now we're getting off topic but historically in the SR franchise finesse is harder for mages than hurling out the raw elements. For example it was harder to reduce the blast radius of an AOE spell than it was to enlarge it.

Maybe you can think of it as starting to pee and then trying to stop, the magic wants to be free.

Still easily doable, just not some much the wave of hands and a wik delicatly lights up.

Since it's a pure style non-combat use, I would let them use either spell, and make them witthold 1 die per Trickiness level of the feat in question Lighting a cigar sounds like level 1 or 2 trickiness.

I agree with 2bit. In my games, if the player has flamethrower and needs to lite a torch/cig/campfire, I just let them. They can cast it at force 1/2 or something small and I let them buy a success.

in any event, you can certainly target part of an object with an elemental combat spell, since they work like a ranged attack.

and IMO, 2070 cigarettes shouldn't need magic to ignite... they should be self-igniting

Why would they even have cigs in the future? If real food has been replaced by soy products wouldn't real tobacco have been replaced by something synthetic? Real cigs would be for those with the high life style just like real food. The rest of you chummers would be smoking something else. I'm thinking something with a consistency of styrofoam all the way through and the flavour would be about the same.

Cigarettes have been replaced by convent disposable novacrack pipes, available from any corner vending machine.

That sounds much more plausible and absolutely right.

I'd also imagine that both cigarettes and crack pipes are self-lighting.

I wouldn't, for the record, allow a cigarette to survive a flamethrower. Alternately, I'd assign it either a body or a barrier rating of 1 and use that rating to determine the amount of fire damage it receives.

Incidentally, three cigarettes contain enough tobacco to kill a full-grown adult if ingested. It is a cheap way to poison someone to death, for sure.

Again I would totally agree. The only ones that wouldn't be self lighting would be the really expensive cigars that are hand rolled and smoked by someone who lights them with a platinum credstick.

doing the flame from thumb trick is a old wizard classic.

as long as it as little or no practical game effect, why not allow it?

i just reread the ignite text and here is how i would do it:

have him roll a skill check as usual. if he gets it right he lights it at the end, if he gets a glitch it lights on a side or similar, critical glitch and it "explodes".

one interesting thing. not that its said that it will only wrap a person in flames when the spell becomes permanent. sounds to me like while one sustains it, more and more flames will break out over the target. most likely starting with the easiest parts to ignite and spreading from there.

so maybe he is using special magican cigs that are treated to ignite at the right place first? then he just have to overcome the general object resistance (should not be hard as long as he goes for handrolled cigars or similar) and drop the spell when the right part of the target lights up.

optionally, make a special variant of the ignite spell that has a sustained duration, and that creates a no rating flame at the fingertip of choice

hmm, is the flame aura spell in street magic? if so, allow him to use that to light a cig by touching its tip after casting said spell

The spell isn't a sustained spell it's a permanent spell. For a permanent spell you need to sustain it for a number of combat turns equal to twice it's force for it's effects to become permanent. This would indicate to me that you would sustain it and when it becomes permanent the person is wrapped in flames.

question is; while its being sustained, does the person feel nothing? or does small flames grow bigger and bigger (and as long as they are sustained, impossible to put out)?

if its the latter then one can sustain it until one get the wanted effect, then drop it. thats the interesting thing with a permanent spell. until said time when it becomes permanent, its a ordinary sustained spell. and sustained spells can be dropped to remove the effect.

this can be a interesting liability on heal spells