Are there any canon rules that explain how some spells don't make it to the current incarnations of Shadowrun? For instance, Turn to Goo disappeared. Does this mean that characters who possessed the knowledge of the spell suddenly don't any longer? I can understand why rules are changed, but does that also balefire the original spell completely from existence?

Just up and vanished. Same as decking naked from 1st ed.

~J

Turn to Goo disappeared over a decade ago. Every cyber-dude thought it was a very unfair spell. They'd rather be blasted into thousands of pieces than lose their cyberware.

Each GM gets to decide whether he'll accept characters that still know spells from earlier editions of Shadowrun, and if so how they'll work in his game.

In our gaming group, we wanted to keep playing the same characters when we upgraded from SR2 to SR3, so we converted to SR3 spells and skills without penalty to the character.

P.S. "decking naked" in 1st edition didn't refer to your clothes. It meant going into the matrix without a cyberdeck. The physical connection was made with a "Program Carrier" implanted cyberware device, but it left your mind wide open to damage from opponents.

Technically, you can still "deck naked," only without the benefit of program carriers.

You can? I thought they removed that entirely before they introduced Otaku in the Denver sourcebook. The revelation that Otaku don't need decks is certainly a lot less special if decking naked is still allowable...

~J

Allowable, not reccomended. Basically, you, with a bare minimum of equipment, pit your Computer skill, unaided, against the IC. I'll look up the exact rules in a bit.

Hrm, I cannae find the exact reference, but for those who want to "deck naked":

You basically need a datajack with an ASIST converter, and a small terminal, or the equivalent implanted cybergear: MPCP 1, Bod 1, Sensors 1, Icon 1.

That appers to be the bare minimum necessary gear (yes, I know it doesn't sound like "decking naked," but those are the essential elements that the program carriers emulated back in the day).

I just had a toxic shaman use it against my team in a run against some glowpunks. Surprised the hell out of two of the veteran SR players. hehe

In theory you could bring Turn to Goo back, simply using the Spell Creation rules. It is your game after all.

Besides the Gaming Police were disbanded at least a week ago. Really.

*comes out from the rock I was hiding under, looking sheepishly about*

In regard to Program Carriers, the removal of them from the game was given a brief in-game explanation - it was in the Denver Sourcebook where they ar etalking about Otaku and Fastjack mentions that their powers aren't like decking naked and then proceeds to allude to teh fact that no one decks naked any longer as Program Carriers caused cancer or some other terrible condition!

Heh spell deletion is nothing. I had a shamanist charachter under shadowrun 2 and when we switched to sr3 he lost the ability to astrally project, and gained the ability to astrally perceive (hmm... or maybe just gained totem advantage dice)

If I recall, Turn to Goo is gone because it was a permanent transformation. All other transformations are sustained or degrading.

To be really nasty, have magicians follow deckers SOTA for programs. That'll chew through there spare change.

DigitalMage: turns out you're right. Cellular damage of some variety.

~J