(I think I posted about this once, a long time ago, but I don't remember, so here we go.)

As far as I know, there is no mechanic for the following in Shadowrun, so I made one up. Comments?

My character hates being hit with illusion spells. Confusion, etc. So, he goes to his mage friends, and every day they hit him with confusion, chaotic world, whatever. (Note that I am at work and don't have my sourcebooks, so I'm going by faulty memory for the spell names. I mostly speak of the ones that give you penalties to doing everything because your senses are all warped.) Slowly, he strives to get used to being under their effects, to not make the really bad mistakes that they can cause.

(I know that there is an adept asbility that helps you resist illusions (True Sight), but that doesn't apply to everyone.)

So, having practiced a great deal, he picks up this skill:

Sense of Reality (ok, I don't have a good name for it.) This may be rolled as a complementary test to any test to resist illusion spells that directly affect the person with the skill.

This skill has no specializations.


The other possibility I had considered was that every two ranks in this reduces the force of the spell by 1, to a minimum of half the caster's desired force. So rather than making it easier to resist the Chaos spell, it instead makes it less effective against you, but never totally ineffective on its own.

I actually prefer this mechanic, but there is nothing else in SR (that I know of, anyway?) where ranks in a skill have this kind of effect, so I hesitate to introduce one.

What do y'all think?

It sounds more like an edge. It sounds cool, too.

I second that!

does sound a bit like an edge. seems to me that in cases where adept like abilites are mimiced for mundane it is in edges.

Hmm... well, I'm not saying I'm against it (not yet anyway ), but consider the following: the agony spell induces pain. A person can get used to pain, like if you stick a needle in your hand, after a while, you won't have the same kind of pain you had before. It'll go kinda numb. You'll still feel the needle, but it won't seem as bad. However, Agony is magic. You NEVER get used to the pain from agony. It's always that same, worst-level pain, because it's magic and it messes directly with your brain in a way nothing else can.

So, how can you "get used" to illusions. I'm not sure you can.

Limited Magic Resistance: As Magic Resistance, except the character is resistant to one category of spells, such as Illusion or Manipulation. Cost is half of the cost of the Magic Resistance Edge.

I recall reading somewhere that psychotropic drugs have a lower effect on the schizophrenic because they're already used to the feelings of disorientation and loss of reason. I think it's reasonable for someone to have enough experience with magical disorientation that he can function better because of it.

To give an example from my own personal experience, I can drive pretty well when I'm high as a kite but I didn't always have that ability.

ed- This post is in response to Backgammon

How about just increasing your Intelligence? The higher your Int, the tougher the TN gets for Directed Illusions, and the more dice you get to roll for Indirect Illusions.

[edit] Not to mention the other obvious benefits: perception tests, combat pools, etc.

Backgamon- as far as I know, any of the various "pain tolerance" type abilities will work against an "agony" spell. There is both an edge and an adept ability that grants that effect.

Spookymonster- Yeah, rasing INT was my first thought, and it certainly effective. But it has other benefits that may not fit the character concept, and it has an (admitedly high) limit that a really illusion-resistant person might be immune to.
What he really needs is a specilization of the INT attribute that only works on illusion spells. They have this for resisting dmage- its called the "toughness edge".

But yeah, I think the complementary skill solution is somewhat reasonable. In some other cases it would be an abuse (study of magic to resist combat spells...) but n this case it doesn't seem TO bad...

On the other hand, it seems like a person with such an intense focus on resisting illusion spells would likely have the underlying potential to be awakened. Some minor magial ability (a la SURGE) that helps you resist those spells could be appropriate.

Keep in mind that most Indirect Illusions can be taken at F1 and be just as effective as higher level spells (Invisibility, for instance). To an Illusionist, a character with this kind of immunity would be devastating. If I were going to allow this in my games at all, I'd cap it at a max of 2 levels, with a cost of 2/4, maybe even 3/6.

And yes, Magic Resistance works against both beneficial and harmful spells.

I suppose the line could be between direct and indirect illusions... but I once again don't have a book to look and see that I want all the direct illusions to be a part of this.

Personally I would go with the Limited Magic Resistance. It sounds like Senchae is tying to make this "Sense Realty" thing work only when it is convenient. If a person has spent that much time focusing their mind on being certain of what is real and what is not then I would rule that it would apply to all illusion spells, even the ones that might be beneficial. The mind would have to be completely geared to resisting the magical energy make makes illusion possible otherwise something is likely to slip through the crack. I would also rule if an awakened individual purchased the merit then they would be unable to use that spell category.

I think the way I'm thinking of it is more like this. If you were in zero G, you'd have various penalties, right? Because you didn't know how to move or fight in zero-G.

When you are under the effects of a Confusion spell, you have penalties. Your sense of balance is unpredictable, you can't trust what you see and hear. With practice under both sets of adverse conditions, however, you learn to mitigate the effects. So here we have one divide- some people will and have argued that you can't learn to cope with this because it is magical. If that's so, then we turn to ideas like Limited Magic Resistance or things that help you cope with all illusions.

But if we treat it as just another alien environment to have to work in, it should be something that you can at least get somewhat better in. It is magic, which is why I limited the reduction in TN penalty to half- there's only so much you can do.

The reason I'm trying to come up with something that specifically helps against confusion effects is that that is what I'm practicing against. It doesn't make sense that the practice will raise his Int. It just seems to me that if my character spends an hour a day with Confusion cast on him, and tries to deal with it, eventually he will not be so thrown by it when it is used on him on combat. If you don't accept this fundamental principle, I see where you're coming from, and I won't be able to convince you that this edge (or skill, if we go back to my original idea) has any place in the game. But there is no mechanic built into the game for this kind of thing and it seems to me that it should be possible.

Of course, there are lots of little things that there are no specific rules for, and that's where the GM makes things up. That's what I'm doing here, and I'm thankful for all the feedback I've gotten on it.

(And yes, if someone wanted to practice getting hit with manabolts until pain didn't bother him as much... it seems to me that it should be possible for someone to become so inured to pain that it bumps up by one box where the penalties start being inflicted. Or something like that, I'm just making things up. But all things have their price...)

This seems to be like a slightly dumbed down version of Magical Guard. You have protection have Magic, whether it be harmful or helpful. The same would go for this. Even if it is only against Illusion spells, suddenly your friends can't cast them on you either. Why? You've developed a resistance to them, so even beneficial ones would be averted.

See, I don't consider it just another environment. I consider it magic. You cannot lean to cope with Chaotic World because the magic itself will worm its way into your mind and tweak it so no matter what you think you are trying to do to cope with it, the magic is still altering your preceptions. In my view, the energy of sustained magic is also not some static force that just sits there after it is cast, but will shift and alter itself to continue to fulfill the intent of the casting. This is why maintaining a spell counts as a distracting force to the mage who cast it, they are still channeling they energy.

Even if you were to go with it altering the environment version, if you consider each mage has his or her own style, how do you learn a skill to guard against cartoon animals and voices coming at you when all you've practiced against are blacking lights and bad organ music? And then what happens if you get a version that makes the room twist and spin?

Guys, there is a difference between resisting and being used to the effects. In this case the guy has just spent so much time being fucked up that he can function pretty well while fucked up. It's no more complicated then that. It's not about invisibility or any kind of magic resistance test or mental focusing or anything.

It's just like an experienced drunkard actually pissing in the bowl while the drunk teetotaler next to him can't even hit porcelain.

Actually, drinking thing is a very poor analogy. Chaotic World does not dull or senses or lower your reaction. It creates a series of random, chaotic illusions. A better analogy would be some one taking a hit of some sort of psychotropic drug, such as LSD, or being temporarily schizophrenic. I've had the fortunate opportunity to try one of those 3D hallucination setups some of the pharmaceutical companies that demonstrate what a psychotic episode is like. This is not a condition you can just get used to by having it happen often enough. Have it happen often enough and you begin to question your hold on reality, rather then reaffirm it. If it were a condition one could just get used to we would not have so homeless schizophrenic people out there.

That's cool, but I've never been able to get my hands on acid so I really don't know. My friends joke that it's because all of my dealers are black.

We can use nutmeg as an example instead, then, since I've got experience using that and I feel that I'm more able to function as a result. The first time I did it I could do nothing but lay on the living room floor, but after a few times it became possible to move around and even climb a staircase.

Okay, let me see if I can sort of explain what a psychotic episode reminded me of, since using somethign that makes you stoned or dopey feeling does it cut it. That would be better related to a health spell, such as reduce reaction or intelligence.

First, imagine every possible experience you may have had in your life. Every (tactile) feeling you have felt, person you have meet, sound you have heard, movie or show you have watched, song you have played, what ever. And all of these are all recorded in your brain. Now imagine that sometimes your brain just likes to take random bits of your memory and replay them back for you, but not as memories. It plays them backt just like you were actually experiencing them angain. You would not remember seeing your best friend from kindergarten, but actually your best friend. You would not think you heard some one calling your name off to your right, but actually hear. You brain would process these things as really happening. If you had a brain wave monitor these instances would register as if you were having the real experience, not just thinking or rememberin them.

And these don't have to be real things that actually happened, but can be juxtaposed as well. So the voice calling your name might not be from some one that has actually ever said your name, but the combination of a voice you once heard and your brain it reconstructing it so that is says your name.

Now, generally most people with schizophrenia seem to follow a theme. Maybe you have voices telling you about the how the FBI is watching you, and you hear people around you reporting in. Maybe red stop lights become the eyes of demon faces. Or maybe you feel certain sensations along your skin. Your spatial perceptions might shift and you think you've shrunk, or writing on signs change when you look away and look back, becoming accusing questions or statements. These are just some examples of psychotic episodes.

Now picture magic that can duplicate all this and amp it up a few notches. Imagine walking down the street or riding a bus and having these things happen. Now, imagine trying to control it in the middle of combat with real magic flying around. You really think you can learn to handle a situation like this? How will you tell the difference between a real toxic wave coming at you and one that is constructed of your memories of a toxic wave coming at you? Did your buddy really say look out or did you think he said that? Was that really a door opening over there and some goon with a gun steping out, or was it always just a wall? Did a voice really just say "micro pigglets are stalking your dungoen, beware"?

Now do sort of get what I am picturing here?

wouldnt practicing resisting magic be practicing your willpower?