Has anyone designed any unique spells? Not like turn to goo or turn to tree but off the wall one of the kind type of spell.

I made "Green Apple Quick Step", just as a joke. It gave the recipient explosive diarrhea. One of the players actually used it, embracing the logic: If their pants are full they don't feel much like fightin'.

The most broken one I saw was when a player abstracted from the rules to make an Increace Reflexes +Infinity spell (with a drain level of infinity(D)) and then cast it into a sustaining focus using a trauma dampener to remove 1 box of stun damage (and stop him from going unconcious, meaning the spell succeeded).

That's why we apply the Deadlier Over-Damage rules to drain nowadays.

Yay Green Apple Quicksteps
"Target runner must return to the safehouse immediately."

~J

I'm working on a few different spells for my current shaman. A cantrip-eque (awaiting the flames for that one) based on the idea of channeling magic to do tiny but interesting things in one spell: making my shamanic mask show to impress onlookers, light a cigarette, turn on a light. That sort of thing.

Then, there's my variation of the Phantasm spell because all I really want is to be able to create a shadow and be able to move it at will. Look, it helps me hide in this corner, then after the guard passes me by, I will it to cover the security camera, once I sneak by it, if I get spotted by a guard, I will it to cover them in shadow giving them plusses to their TNs. Sure, there's the Shadow spell, but I don't like it for various personal reasons.

-fr

no spells, but the player keep coming up with spells that need unique rules. Our call is that if a spell that's been designed requires unique rules to make it work, its a metamagical technique (like possession and foretelling used to have unique spell rules in SR2 and are now techniques, for example).

so someone wanted an astral cameleon type spell to make them harder to spot in astral space, but we decided it just wouldn't work as a spell because the damn spell itself would be visible astrally. However, we found the idea wasn't gamebreaking if you did it as a metamagical technique of Improved Masking. You can use their initiate grade (or half that, in our case) to work out how concealed they are (i.e. 1/2 grade = increased TN to spot) and require them to have masking first, and make a test as per deliberate masking. Not too powerful, but gets better as they increase in power, and they aren't invisible as such, they just blend in better. And of course its one more technique towards their limit (we allow 2 techniques per grade but the second has to be obtained via quest but only if you didn't use one as an ordeal for that grade. Its a house rule, but it works for us. BUt then this whole post is about house rules, so I suppose I shouldn't worry).

There've been a few like that. We require a design test and lengthy base time, and then a test to learn the technique afterwards. There's no rules for doing your own techniques, but we seem to have found one that works. If anyone wants more details say so and I'll post them.

But no, the players rarely come up with totally new spells that aren't variations. For example, Lift. Its a variation on levitate, with a touch requirement. But it will lift a lot more (the TN goes up in larger weight increments) and is actually harder to drain and moves slower. Very useful if you need to load heavy stuff into something, but since you have to be touching it while you do it, it restricts what you can do. You can't throw it because the instant it leaves your hands it falls because you can't move it fast enough to create much inertia unless you have it at high force. The guy has had it designed for months but always found better things to spend his karma on, so i don't even know if it works yet!

And there's the ever popular Force Powers approach. Force Leap, Force Speed, Telekenetic Injure/Kill (that throat squeeze thing), Force Push, Blast, etc etc. All variations on a theme and not difficult to work out, but they work in very specific ways (there's a cone area effect for force push, for example). But since I STILL think that's too corny to require detail, despite having both played and GMd for that dark jedi initiate group and enjoying it thoroughly (just because its corny doesn't mean it wasn't fun)!

A player of mine developed a spell concept but never actually put it together. A kind of combination spell, it combined a major illusion with a physical barrier and physical damage. He called it: the Blender. The spell would first make the image of a blender appear about the target. The blender would have two settings: off and liquify. Then, the target would be encased in a physical barrier above the illusion. The barrier would appear to be made of glass but would have a object resistence equal to 2xForce of the spell. Following that, the blender would appear to turn on and the person in the blender would be --- well --- liquified by a large number of "astral blades" ripping through their body. After the spell is done, the illusion and the physical barriers disappear leaving a large, messy, sticky, redish puddle on the floor.

I'd say that's not one spell. That has to be at least two, or three, seperate spells.
And yeah, he can cast them all at one, using the spell stacking and sustaining rules, but that includes modifiers not worth thinking about, frankly.

I'll concede that the blender illusion could just be a physical manifestation of the barrier rather than a true illusion, but the bit that does damage is definately seperate. Unless he's just learning 'Create Giant Blender', in which case I shudder to think what the target number and drain are.

Personally I wouldn't allow it. You're completely entitled to, I hasten to add, I'm just saying I wouldn't!