SR1:
Turn to Goo, a party favorite there is nothing like scraping all the pieces parts from the poor individuals and hocking the loot. The ultimate in loot whoring!
Now I do not exactly recall the spell, nor do I have an SR1 book (I do have most everything else). So I don't know if the spell worked that way.

SR4:
Turn to Goo is back! That casting masses are overjoyed. So now on the GM side again, is there something that doesn't allow this to be a cash cow?

Does cyberware Turn to Goo also? Does it not?

em/ imagines 2070's cyberware version of the 'wake up in a bathtub full of ice missing your kidney' scenario.
hang out and run a night of Turn to Goo collecting wage slave datajacks and internal commlinks...

The 'goo' still has a hardness rating equal to the body of the target, which means you still have to cut it free with a knive in a very bloody fashion, which in the end doesn't change anything, if you want to have the cyberware from the other guy. Turn to goo won't make it easier to get the cyberware out.

Ah hah!

Ok, I missed that in my understanding. I blame it on alot of reading...

It is goo in consistancy but the density of the goo is body. Righto!

I think the main factor to consider, though, is that a pile of goo with cyberware attached is going to be less likely to fight back while cutting out the goodies than a living, breathing body with cyberware attached

Would be an interesting way of playing out a serial killer. Turn to go on target, remove cyberware, then release spell, unlucky fellow bleeds to death from missing ware and no external wounds present. Cops would have a field day figuring that out.

IIRC the cyberware turns to goo aswell.

The reason is that since you have paid essence for the cyberware it is essential a part of your body, and it is your body that turns to goo.

I can't find a page reference for it though, but that is how I would play it.

Lars

I'm not at home, so I can't nab the reference from the book, but unless I'm misremembering, it only turns organic material to goo, so no metals/plastics/etc, meaning no ware, clothing, weapons or the like.

Pg 204 Turn to Goo Spell descrip
I'm just gonna post the relevant parts, I dont't wanna get in trouble for posting too much.

Ah, yes, this means the 'goo' becomes even more harder to cut it off, as you do need at least 1 net hit to turn the target into goo. Really, if you just want to hack the cyberware out from somebody, simply knock him down/stun him, and immobilize him. It's way easier then to turn somebody into goo and then to try to hack out the cyberware. The spell's basically useless, as manabolt/stunbolt can easily down any target, and you will get your cyberware anyway.

The only utility that I could see would that you might not need skill in cyber technology to harvest the 'ware. Scrapping some ballistic jell off some metal seems a lot easier than uninstalling proper.

I seem to recall a fun use someone around here had for Turn To Goo... Hang on... Dang, can't find it. Anyway, I seem to recall it being used as an interrogation technique; have a bunch of mooks in a room, the troll mage comes in, turns one of them into goo and then... breaks out a straw.

nice
I seem to remember it working a lil differently in SR1, like it targeted an area or body part. I remember an example of someones arm turning to goo and them screaming.

Ok... from my reading somebody turned to goo... the cyberware didn't... leaving a pile of cyberwear on top of the goo... Where in the description does it say that the cyberware is still part of the goo? Because of that reading I had actually house ruled that the cyberware turns to goo because you paid essence for it.

where does it say their cyberware *doesn't* stay inside them? it says they turn to goo, not that they become liquid, and it doesn't say that their cyber suddenly gets pushed to the outside of the pile of goo either.

on a side note, your house rule makes more sense than the regular rule in terms of the world working consistently, and is fairly common... i would encourage you to keep it.

I think that comes into play regarding persons perceptions of what "Goo" is.

Is Goo the kids play slime that is marketed as snot?
If it is then cryptoknights assertions can be easily valid.

Is Goo basically a humanoid Gummi Bear?
If so, they still resemble a human shape with ware in the proper places, just boneless.

I suppose that is the critical point: definition.

Though the line regarding the toughness = Body + hits seems to make it lean towards the second definition. ie: Gummibear.

To add a side question!

Is the Goo opaque, translucent, transparent?
Is the Goo colored as it was pre Goo form? a mono color? or a swirl?


Opaque means that removing of ware is even more difficult as you cant actually see it inside.
Transparent means... Can you see well enough to cast spells through the goo?

I personally always imagined it as a nice translucent olive green. But who am I to decide... Maybe your goo can be tacked over a doorway and used as a swirly tapestry.

Considering the cost of either hiring a mage or leaning the spell, why would you bother for something as cheap and readily available as a datajack? As cheap (and largely unnecessary) as datajacks are in 2070, who would be in the market for a used datajack? Nobody who needs one is that poor. I guess I could see the benefit of stealing the internal commlink that way, but if you're making a business out of it, isn't there a pretty high risk of cops tracking you by your signature? Yes there's metamagic to counteract that, but if I was an initiate, I'd have better things to do for cash than liquefying wageslaves for their cheap-ass headware.

That was an example regarding some very common hardware among the legit populace.

It could just as easily be targeted at cyber limb vets or any other demographic.

Think outside the given example man!

This one hasn't come up with us since SR1, but I remember that we allowed it for cyber removal, although I think we house ruled that for cyber removal it had to be a dead body.... I dont really remember. We havent played that kind of campain for years.

My view would be that the barrier rating would be for damaging it... kind of like that science trick with cornstarch and water? If you applied pressure to it, it would get solid, but if you held it in your hand without pressure it oozed.

I think the reason cyberware is not changed by Turn to Goo, is to make it harder to smuggle the razor onto a plane.

Hell, when I was in High School someone stole socks for the homeless. Datajacks are also 500 a piece. NOT CHEAP. Sure it is the most standard cyberware, but that doesn't mean that everyone has it or that it comes cheap. Personally, if Turn to Goo allowed for easy cyber removal, I would totally abuse it, hands down. Id be making so much bank off cyber removal that there would be no need to run.


I love the idea. Even then, you just have a bundle of wires and maybe a cyberarm

by the description of the spell I would assume a (meta)human gummibear, since there is the whole barrier rating thing it would indicate it has some sort of shape/strength so I would think it would still be cohesive and attached to the ware.

I also figure it's somewhat green in color, somewhat clear and would have some give like gummi stuff does. But that's just me

also you might notice that petrify, another SR1 throwback has almost the exact same wording as Goo, and the same basic effect as far as mechanics, just a different substance.

My goo spell would turn them into a redish or orange color, simply becouse I hate the green gummy bears..blah

I think green because during SR1 all of the toxic-esque effects (and in movies and games) they were always greenish. Often neon green.

Same here on the green.

Though I am always pushing the players to come up with visual spell descriptions. So if they want Bright Pink so be it.

you know, being a sick, sadistic bastard is one thing . . being able to build on that is worse . . i am soo much worse i am afraid *g*
Since you wrote that, i have been thinking about the spell, a body, a funnel and the ass of somebody else being used together . .

"Chummer-Enema" anyone?

Well, SR1 described the result of the spell as the target turning into a "thick sludge, all molecular cohesion broken down". That sounds rather more liquid than what I gathered from the descriptions of the SR4 version. It lasts as long as it is sustained, so as soon as the caster drops the spell, the body reassembles again.

And yeah, the vague description (4 short lines) gave way to plenty of creative use in its days.

I houseruled that both Petrify and Turn to Goo would affect anything paid for with essence, after all they're both physical manipulation spells. I did it because the player playing the Cyber-Doc/Healing Focused Mage would have been more then willing to cut the cyber out of the Goo no matter what its consistancy was. Besides, why do just these spells not affect cyber? That is the more important question. Any word from the Devs or Writers who read these boards on why this is so?

Which flavor? I've had bad green gummy bears... but the sour apple ones are good