So, any active or inactive focus becomes deadweight while in mana warp conditions (i.e, space, a semiballistic or a suborbital flight). What happens after it comes back to normal conditions? Can they still be activated, are they still bonded with the magic user, or are they gone for good?

These questions come from some of my players, who were a bit nervous to take a suborbital to Berlin, en route to Schloss Munchmaussen (and that's the easy part of the run, of course ).

In my campaign we encountered a situation where the runners' foci were all active, and the team got suddenly and semi-unexpectedly thrown into a void. Since they were active, and encorporated orichalchum, I ruled that they were un-bonded, and on a 1 or 2 on a D6, they were utterly destroyed. But that was a house rule. I don't know the canon rules for that one.

I'll wait to give a definative until I can check my books, but as I recall activating a focus would only be possible if it's rating was greater than the Mana Warp, and then it may well take damage from being astrally active.

Anything that has an effective force of at least 1 will recover completely when it leaves a manawarp/background count. If the effective force is reduced to 0, spirits are disrupted, critters get sick, adepts become powerless, and I don't remember any statement about foci.

[edit]I can't find any mention of foci in the MitS section on background counts and mana warps.[/edit]

The simple rule to give them is that if their foci are inactive when they enter the manawarp, they're perfectly safe and untouched when they come back out. An inactive focus is not astrally active, and manawarps only cause damage to astral forms.

Deliberately activating a focus in a manawarp, I classify under the "too stupid for this toy" rule, and fry it outright.

I'd back Cain on that one. If it ain't switched on it should be OK to reactivate it when the mana level comes back into range. Possibly with a little delay or static (IE: reduced Rating) until it been fully reattuned (GM ruling for plot stuff etc.).

Think of all the magical goodies (and not-so-goodies - anyone ever done Bottled Demon?) that are lying around from the Fourth World. They were all deactivated by the decline in mana-level during the Fifth World but are now powering back up again for the magic's return. Some like the Dragon Heart shouldn't yet be able to function until the mana level increases even higher.

PS> Best of luck with tormenting your runners there JongWK - don't forget to make the most of those elementals!

Kids, take note: BBB's post is the perfect match of content and sig...

Cheers Term. And if you really want to tickle you runners send 'em on over to the UK when SoE hits the shelves.