An Astral Fever
Magic and Madness in the Sixth World

Strange forces have been moving in the sixth world for it's entire existence, but sometimes, some of those forces clash in the shadows. Sometimes, ancient forces awaken for a brief while, and the few in the know rush to get a piece of the cake. Sometimes, strange dooms walk the world and magicians who usually are filled with wonder by their craft shiver in sudden horror.

A collection of magicians and other meet for the first time deep in the Barrens. None of them have been able to fit in the world of steel and glass called Corporation, and now they have been approached for a job, or quest, more fitting to the personality and talents.

This is part playtest and part me wanting to try my hand at online GM'ing. I haven't gamemastered SR4 before, and have no experience with online gamemastering. I know i should perhaps start out with a more normal shadowrun game, but after coming up with the Magical Talent quality, a fire has started in my head to do something with it.

I will try to keep avoid railroading you too much, and allow you some openings to choose the course of the campaign once we're underway. There is gonna be a lot of mystery, and some serious danger. Players should understand, even if their characters do not, that running away is an option, and may be the best option. I will try to reward investigative, social, sneaky and combative types equally, but the focus is likely to change between "runs". You will probably be encouraged to form a magical group during the campaign, but we will see how things work out at that point, and consider our options.

As you can probably guess from my chargen requirements, and the flavor tekst above, this is not an ordinary campaign. Since i don't wanna be ignoring the nature of 4th ed. too much, i will probably be providing a hacker, unless one of you really wants to be one (subject to chargen rules below), or have one as a close contact.

Chargen: 420 points. All characters must have the Magical Talent Quality and a magic rating of at least 1, unless you really want to fit something else in and can talk me into it. You are encouraged to specialize, since everyone will be magical. You are welcome to recommend any houserules you feel are important. Concepts and final characters require approval. I don't think there will be any need to really twink your characters. You get a number of free Contact points equal to twice your Charisma.
Background: No novels, but i like to know some salient details about your characters, including a few weaknesses, vulnerabilities, goals and desires. 20 questions-like things are encouraged, i like the version in Runner's Companion.
Players: am thinking 4 or 5.
Fluff: I am the fluff, but you can ask to use elements from the background, and will probably be obliging. Also, you, to a great degree, are the fluff, concerning the background. Make funky stuff up.
Frequency: Im new at online gamemastering. We will work it out in the OOC thread. I'm thinking posts at least every other day.

Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! RESERVED! NUMBER 1! WHOO!

Interested...

alright, talk to me about what you'd like to play, and what you need to know

I am interested, and will PM you will a concept.

Interested. I'll get to work on a character when I have a bit of time.

Edit: Quick question. How will you be handling magic vs essence loss? For example, if I have a magic of five and six essence, and I then get 1 essence of cyber, my magic goes down to 4. Does it then cost the same amount of karma as usual to adjust it from 4 to 5, or does it cost the same amount as raising it from 5 to 6.

May or may not come up that people try doing the: magic at 2, 1 point of cyber, raise magic back up to 2 for next to nothing, one point of cyber..... and so on. Also figured alot of people are likely to have a point or two of cyber, so it could well make a difference to us for normal considerations as well.

You use the modified rating to figure out karma cost. In your example. If you go from 5 to 4 due to cyber, it costs 15 karma to increase it, not 18. Anyone trying to do the trick you describe are likely to be eaten by a passing dragon, to put it bluntly.

Just an FYI: I've got the face covered.

Sounds good to me. I've always wanted to see a dragon in game...

I would like to join this, if I may. I will PM you with some ideas to make sure things work.

Thanks,
Joel Halpern

Another question: Would Technomancer fall under your advanced magic system thing, or is it still a different thing entierly? And along those lines, will we need a matrix specialist of some kind?

Technomancers don't fall under the system (wouldn't work, given magic/resonance incompability). I had planned to do an NPC matrix specialist, but if you want to be the one, i'd prefer an adept hacker (though technomancers seem very fun, i don't have a very good grip on their rules).

Quick question. For the metaphysic adapt, as he gains levels in initiation, does his initiation grade still count as 0 for the perpose of that 1 metamagic?
Also, can some abilities such as metamagic adept, gift of master, favoured spell, talent manifestation, etc be taken multiple times?

All metamagic techniques use full initiation grade, including those gained at start of play.

The only talent i'm really concerned about being taken multiple times is spell knack, but if anything gets really stinky on reflection, i'll probably smack it down. This is, however, half playtest, so i'm inclined to be lenient

I can't imagine spell knack taken multiple times being a problem. I mean heck, two times and you may as well have taken the sorcery quality. Only possible problem is the adept taking it several times, but if he wants to burn that many BP on getting a handful of spells *Shrug* I'd say let them. Be a good chance to see if it actually unbalancing or not.

What happens if a character is Dual-natured AND takes the 15 point Astral Talent?
Does he get +1 to all attributes always? or just +1 to attributes in regards to astral things. In case of the latter, I could see how that might work with Str and Body, but for reaction and agility... I find it hard to understand how that would work.

Good question, DV. I haven't thought about it. He only gets the bonus to astral things (that includes all skill checks for assensing and astral combat, btw), to reaction for dodging astral attacks. I'd probably rule that he's still limited by his physical body for initiative.
I have to think about how it works for spell resistance too. hum hum.

Or maybe i should just dodge all the problems and rule that you only get the bonus while projecting. That would clear up all the problems.

I didn't think dual natured creatures COULD astral project. I thought their astral form was always tied to their physical body. But I am a bit shaky on my understanding of magic, so I wouldn't be suprised if I was mistaken.

One character concept I had bouncing around invovled taking the Gift of Mastery for snakes. I also noticed that there are not snakes stats in the core book. Would you still be alright with me taking them? If so, would they be treated as small creatures (and thus capable of controlling cha*5), or large creatures (limiting me to control cha*1) because they can be awefully poisonous.

I've been itching to play an adept hacker, actually. I had an odd problem before I start writing, though: the Magical Quality topic mentions the "Magical Power" adept power under Physical Adept. I can't find this power anywhere, but I also don't own Runner's Companion.

I'm afraid you're the sixth player to express interest, and i started out setting a maximum of 5 players. I'll see how things go from here, but i don't wanna get into more than i can handle, tho an adept hacker could probably be very fun to have along. In any case, i'll get back to you if anyone drops out, or if i decide i can handle a sixth player.

Oh, yeah. Magical power is a 3rd edition-ism. I was referring to the part of your Magic attribute invested in Sorcery/Conjuring.

Would depend on how big of a snake(s) you get. You could have like a million asps or a handful of boas. Least that's my take on it.

Ah, so if you take Physical Adept together with either Sorcery or Conjuring, you're a Mystic Adept. Cool. Well, I'll tinker and see what happens.

More questions:

Is the Karma system an option, and are metavariants an option? I suppose I'll also include all the other weird race options like AI and sentient critters in my question, though they are of course individual things to be considered.

Few ideas pinging around in my head and your answers could kill a few of them (Which I don't mind, helps me narrow it down.)

I've decided against the karma system for now, though it has serious advantages, i'm not comfortable with it yet. Metavariants are an option. I've already approved a Naga. I don't want any characters with essence drain, and i prefer, as i said, magical talents, but other than that, knock yourself out.

Darn, was hoping you'd nix some stuff so I'd have an easier time picking. Oh well, three candidates and one more favorable without the karma system.

Other people that have submitted characters mind relating them a bit? Don't want to step on anyone's toes. As little as the guy who said he had face covered would be plenty.

I'm working on an Orc from the Voodoo tradition with the channeling metamagic.
Probably from teh Caribbean, low on funds and low on contacts.
Was looking at just combat and healing magic, but I think instead I will go with 15 pt sorcery.

Joel

Naga face.

Specific magic talents unknown as of yet.


Yes, our face is a giant snake. I found the whole idea so entertaining I had to do it. Only thing more entertaining, in my books, is the idea of a Naga with Shiva arms and Satyr legs. Tell me that mental image isn't awesome.

Do Naga... do naga have legs?

nope

He's not actually doing the shiva arms or satyr legs on his naga, you know. I may be lenient, but there are limits.

I thought naga did have arms though.. could be wrong, and that could just be from another mythos.

With the favored spell quality, can you maintain multipuls of a spell for free, or just one? Ie could I maintain improved strength on the entire party for no penalties, or just one person?

The first is free. second and further versions give the usual penalties. It seems to me (i might be wrong) that it's strong enough without?

Seems fair to me. I've got Spell Knack and Favored Spell for Increased Reflexes, and it's pretty darn cheap.

Was exactly what I was thinking about myself, well, except it won't be spell knack.

Still having a heck of a time picking between a healer dryad and a chaos mage.

Well, I've finally nailed down a character concept. I am going to be taking the Dual Natured negative trait, btw, and I am a bit confused. Is the ability to astrally perceive included in this trait, or do I have to buy it separately?

You're always astrally perceiving, and it doesn't cause distraction in either the physical or spirit world. Hence the confusion over how it should interact with the "normal" astral perception trait.

Right, but since I am effectively getting the benefit of a five point quality, I am wondering if I need to pay for said quality, or if the price of that quality is already taken into account in the bonus from Astral perceiving.

My character is going to be an investigator type. Tracking, assessing, that kind of thing. But he won't really have any spellcasting or summoning- all of said investigation will either be mundane, through the animals he controls, or through assessing.
I think at least one person is the group should have the telepathy talent. I don't have the points for it, though.

Since i personally view being dual-natured as a rather big flaw, due to the commonality of wards, etc, you get astral perception for free.

It will be itneresting to see how bad that flaw turns out to be. I am thinking of using that as well.
Joel

A lot of it is a question of how common the GM takes wards to be.

It's also a bet on my not using mana voids or mana warps too much

If I recall correctly wards can be dropped with counterspelling, yes? I need to review a lot about magic, my understanding of the system was never that great (I am not a spellcaster for a reason!).

They can be broken, but it generally sets off an alarm.

Yeah, wards can be shut down with counterspelling or manabolts or astral combat, but all of those methods draw the attention of the magician who created the wards.

I was sure that it would draw attention, but it is nice to know I have the option in a pinch.
I need a couple more clarifications about being dual natured.
First of all, if I presume that my astral attributes are the same as my corresponding physical attributes, yes?
So if I were to fight a create who is in astral space, would I use the astral combat skill, or my unarmed attack skill, or either?
Would any weapon focus I have also be constantly "dual natured" as well? If so, could I use weapon skills in astral combat?
If I can use my unarmed or weapon skills in astral combat, could I apply martial arts bonuses, and use martial arts maneuvers when attacking astral things? If I were an adept, and took unarmed combat boosting powers, could I use them against astral things normally as well?

As i understand it, you could use unarmed martial arts and *activated* weapon foci with weapon skills to fight astral beings.
But yeah, astral attributes are the same as your physical attributes when you're dual.
As i understand things, you could use both astral combat and unarmed, depending on your preference.
Weapon foci are only dual nature when they are activated.
so go ahead with the martial arts maneuvers, thats part of the fun of being dual. that includes that Critical Strike, yes. I'd probably rule that elemental strike don't work, since all other examples of elemental attacks are physical only

And obviously other adept powers relying on physical anatomy also would not work. I don't know if I am actually going to go the adept route, but I wanted to know what options I had available.

And I am sorry, this is probably a very silly question, but I thought I read somewhere that mystic adepts use their full magic attribute for counterspelling. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any such reference. Do MAs use their undivided magic, or am I just going crazy?
Thanks!
DV

Magic attribute doesn't factor into counterspelling, unless you're dispelling. If you have the Counterspelling adept, you'll get full magic attribute. If you're some form of mystic adept, you'll use the sorcery/conjuring part of your magic attribute

From what I've read they only get whatever amount of magic they have devoted to 'spellcasting' in regards to any skills linked to magic. It does not that in other cases (Maximum adept powers spesificly, and number of spells likely) the full magic attribute counts. Since counterspell is a magic linked skill, I'd say it falls under the same limitation as spellcasting.

new ruling. The counterspelling Magical Talent works for adepts without splitting magic skill. Sounds fair?