So I am sitting in Japan and my fire for Shadowrun are rekindled. The last edition I played was SR3 though I remember Grounding was out *boooh* so I am trying to come up with some rules to reintroduce that concept into SR3. My main problem is however that I do not have access to the original SR2 rules about it to base my ruling on.
I have done some searching on the web and here on the forums, but no quotes from the actual rules was found.
Could any of please copy or describe the rules to me or is that against copyright?
If not could you provide me with the information about where these rules could be found?
Thank you in advance,
A european living in Japan
Full Version: Grounding, what were the SR2 rules again?
SR2, Page 139, without the fluff at the start:
"Attacking through a focus
...manipulations spells cannot be used in this manner...
Attacking through a focus is a two step procedure. First comes tests to attack and resist the spell. If the defender fails to resist, the effects of the attack are resolved.
The attacking magician rolls a number of dice equal to the Force rating of the spell against a target number equal to the rating of the focus. At the same time the defender rolls a number of dice equal to the rating of the focus against a target number equal to the force of the spell. The side that generates more successes defeats the other. If the spell wins, the spell focus bonding is broken. This renders the focus useless, and the spell grounds into the physical material of the focus. If the focus wins, the attacking spell does not ground out, and dissipates.
Remember that the attacking spell must be a physical spell to work in the manner. If the spell is not an area effect spell, it only affects the target that is either in position of the focus or else directly connected to it. Resolve spell effects normally...
If the spell is an area-effect spell, the only difference from the resolving it in the normal manner is that line-of-sight is determined from the spell casters position in astral space..."
From memory it went the way of the dodo because:
a) one extra on one test can render a heavy karmic / nuyen investment useless and
b) it resulted in large numbers of people just not bothering with foci. Such was the imprint a couple of spectacular magical sneak attacks left on our group that it took us all the way till SR4A to get back on the foci horse. And without things like sustaining foci for improved reflexes et al, magicians have a tendency to be sub par these days.
If I was to reintroduce the concept, I would keep the opposed test but I would not burn the focus out unless the force of the incoming spell exceeds, say, the force or double the force of the foci. A rating 6 weapon focus is not something you want to see go up in flames. Literally.
"Attacking through a focus
...manipulations spells cannot be used in this manner...
Attacking through a focus is a two step procedure. First comes tests to attack and resist the spell. If the defender fails to resist, the effects of the attack are resolved.
The attacking magician rolls a number of dice equal to the Force rating of the spell against a target number equal to the rating of the focus. At the same time the defender rolls a number of dice equal to the rating of the focus against a target number equal to the force of the spell. The side that generates more successes defeats the other. If the spell wins, the spell focus bonding is broken. This renders the focus useless, and the spell grounds into the physical material of the focus. If the focus wins, the attacking spell does not ground out, and dissipates.
Remember that the attacking spell must be a physical spell to work in the manner. If the spell is not an area effect spell, it only affects the target that is either in position of the focus or else directly connected to it. Resolve spell effects normally...
If the spell is an area-effect spell, the only difference from the resolving it in the normal manner is that line-of-sight is determined from the spell casters position in astral space..."
From memory it went the way of the dodo because:
a) one extra on one test can render a heavy karmic / nuyen investment useless and
b) it resulted in large numbers of people just not bothering with foci. Such was the imprint a couple of spectacular magical sneak attacks left on our group that it took us all the way till SR4A to get back on the foci horse. And without things like sustaining foci for improved reflexes et al, magicians have a tendency to be sub par these days.
If I was to reintroduce the concept, I would keep the opposed test but I would not burn the focus out unless the force of the incoming spell exceeds, say, the force or double the force of the foci. A rating 6 weapon focus is not something you want to see go up in flames. Literally.
mmm...Good Times, Good Times....
Yes, I liked grounding. It wasn't a common thing, but by god, it made the players twitchy when the Xmas-Tree Mage from the school of Foci walked in.
-Never managed to burn out a focus due to rolls-of-suck.
Was great watching the target they were protecting BBQ himself and his family with the bullet-barrier foci he had. Lotsa fun.
-Tir.
Yes, I liked grounding. It wasn't a common thing, but by god, it made the players twitchy when the Xmas-Tree Mage from the school of Foci walked in.
-Never managed to burn out a focus due to rolls-of-suck.
Was great watching the target they were protecting BBQ himself and his family with the bullet-barrier foci he had. Lotsa fun.
-Tir.
It is indeed awesome. The major problem was mages would materialize their elemental in the room full of mooks and ground manaball through it. It's not that hard to solve though, by limiting what you can ground spells through, or which 'direction' they can go.
I have read a lot about suggested limitations to groundings, such as direction depending on the medium you use, magicians and foci for blasting into Physical, spirits for blasting into Astral and force limitations on spells depending on magic/force of medium as well.
I think one of the reasons why players hate Grounding so much in SR2 was the karma sink in using a foci as a conduit as the bonding was broken in the process. Instead make the focus become disrupted or inert instead for something as a day pr force or a simple reactivation is needed without a karma cost.
I also thought about having the resistance test of the focus/magician matter in how effective the grounded spell would become. Instead of the all or nothing opposed test sr2 used, have a test that would reduce the force of the grounded spell. In this way the force of the ground spell would be controlled both by the magic/force of the conduit as well as how well the spell was resisted. This would be a new mechanism to the system though.
Last we all want to ground fireballs ^^ so elemental manipulations should be allowed
I will twiddle with it a little more then post it here, if people are interested
I think one of the reasons why players hate Grounding so much in SR2 was the karma sink in using a foci as a conduit as the bonding was broken in the process. Instead make the focus become disrupted or inert instead for something as a day pr force or a simple reactivation is needed without a karma cost.
I also thought about having the resistance test of the focus/magician matter in how effective the grounded spell would become. Instead of the all or nothing opposed test sr2 used, have a test that would reduce the force of the grounded spell. In this way the force of the ground spell would be controlled both by the magic/force of the conduit as well as how well the spell was resisted. This would be a new mechanism to the system though.
Last we all want to ground fireballs ^^ so elemental manipulations should be allowed
I will twiddle with it a little more then post it here, if people are interested
We modified the rules for grounding in my campaign and it worked out quite nicely. Simple explination was the spell was limited to the force of the focus. The big issue seemed to be spell locks. And since spell locks were all force 1, the most you could ground would be some warmth, or a fart. On the other hand you had to keep an eye on a powerful weapon focus. The destruction of the focus never made sense to me. If it destoys the fetish, the astral link would be broken.
Astral mages carried the full risk of being duel natured. No limits to grounding. Watch out! I never thought of using spirits as grounding links though. I imagine that they ( the spirit in question) would not be to happy about it. I would probably make using then in such a way a service. Might limit it by force. Or not. Donno..
Astral mages carried the full risk of being duel natured. No limits to grounding. Watch out! I never thought of using spirits as grounding links though. I imagine that they ( the spirit in question) would not be to happy about it. I would probably make using then in such a way a service. Might limit it by force. Or not. Donno..
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