"I wanna cast a spell."

Ok now that I've got that out of my system.

It seems that the discussion concerning Home Rules of the SR magic system is hijacking a number of other threads so I think it's time for a new thread. So here's a thread dedicated exclusively to house rules for the magic system. Some ideas I've read on hijacked threads so far:

#1. Increase the drain codes on spells by removing the divisor.

#2. Increase the drain codes on spells by removing the divisor and reducing the add by three.

#3. Make spellcasting drain inflict BOTH stun AND physical damage when overcasting.

#4. Increase the Drain by the number of hits the Opponent rolls on their resistance test.

#5. For every point of force of a spell or spirit beyond the magician's magic rating, lose 1 die from the magician's dice pool for spellcasting or summoning.

#6. For every point of force of a spell or spirit beyond the magician's magic rating, lose 1 die from the magician's dice pool for drain.

#7. Give targets of a spell a "dodge" test using intuition.

#8. Simply do away with Direct Combat Spells entirely and be done with it.

#9. Do away with the +1 drain modifier of the physical spells and reduce from +2 to +1 the modifier of elemental effects on spells.

How many did I miss?

It would be cool if advocates for the different house rules would present the idea and show the pros and cons of it.

Someone recommended making Direct spells a +2 Drain modifer and removing this modifier from Indirect spells but otherwise working Drain as with the non-A mechanics. IOW, Direct spells are more draining than throwing fire or lightning and in return they benefit from being harder to resist.

Unfortunately that goes against the principles of all magic in the entire system.

Which is to say, magic affects things that are "alive" (including spirits) and part of the natural world more easily than they affect things that are processed/man made/unnatural.

This is why the drain values for all illusion spells that affect technological devices are higher than their meat affecting counterparts.


And for the record "...in return they benefit from being harder to resist." only applies to living targets. The new OR table makes direct combat spells nearly useless against the top end of the category.

So basically direct combat spells are useless versus drones, and if you generate significant successes against their intended targets - you get punished.