QUOTE (Zurai @ Mar 29 2009, 01:33 AM)
ALL Awakened beings have Astral Signatures and leave them whenever they use a magical ability. That is explicitly stated in the rules, with no room for wiggling out of it. The rules then go on to state that Astral Signatures last for Force hours. Lasting for 0 hours doesn't mean that Adepts don't leave Astral Signatures -- it just that they don't even last a whole hour. It's certainly a valid interpretation of the rules that Adept signatures evaporate nigh-instantly. It's also a valid interpretation that they last several minutes, maybe even up to a half hour.
Wait, so now you're deciding that 0 hours = some unknown amount of minutes? Couldn't 0 hours just as easily be 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds? The point is, it's a big gap in the rules. There is no way to decide how long they last without creating your own house rule. If you don't use a house rule, then the powers don't leave a signature that lasts for any time at all, because they have no force. Plus, we may be making an unjustified leap, here. We're saying that Signature time = (force)hours. But for something to last 0 hours, we'd need a 0 from somewhere, wouldn't we? Adept powers don't have a force of 0, they have a force of [NULL], they have a force of [N/A] -- they have no Force attribute whatsoever. Those are not valid numbers for us to plug into the equation, if we try to figure out how long they last we are not left with 0, we are left with no number at all.
QUOTE
It's not secretive or hidden. The rules EXPLICITLY say that ALL Awakened beings leave signatures. That's about as bold and up-front as you can get. They also state which powers leave signatures - all of them. The only ambiguity is exactly how long signatures last for powers that aren't measured in Force.
The rules explicitly say that as a matter of flavor text. The very next sentence says that those signatures last for Force hours. For something without a Force, that means they do not even exist, unless you create a house rule that makes them exist. You have to concede, no matter how you slice this, there is a gap that must be filled with a house rule. There is no rule in the book that says how long an Adept's signature would last, even if we agree that they leave signatures. By definition, if you have to make a house rule, it's not RAW. It is perhaps a logical extension of RAW, but making up rules is the antithesis of RAW. What we have is a flaw in the RAW, a gap that the authors left for us. We cannot follow the rules, because they are incomplete. Therefore, they may as well not exist. You can fix them yourself if you want. My concern would be that it's not very cool to make adepts buy astral perception just to erase signatures. They're hampered enough as it is compared to streetsams, especially with the fact that it now costs new rating x 5 to raise magic, raising magic being their primary way of becoming more powerful