Hello everyone, wanted to share a new item I'm house-ruling into my game. First, a little background. My players were recently hired to kidnap a young magician/graffiti artist who had developed a unique talent-- his street artwork was showing up in the astral plane, in perfect replication, and completely solid. Astral forms could not pass through his graffiti. The group was successful, and Johnson put the young magician to work. It's been a few months now, and Miss Johnson and her team have been able to produce the following item, in limited quantities. The players are probably going to be lucky enough to get their hands on some, if they don't screw it up.

Tactical Mana Barrier spray (Rating 1-6)-- This aerosol spray comes in nondescript cans, although dummy deodorant or cleaner cans can be used. Each can typically contains 3 applications of the spray. One application covers 4 points of Body (ex. a Troll with body 7 requires two applications). Once sprayed upon oneself (or on a drone, vehicle, anything that's not a barrier rules-wise) the user adds dice to any Resistance Tests vs spells, equal to the spray's rating. The spray's rating degrades overtime, at one point of rating per spell cast upon the subject (ex. said Troll has a fresh coat of Rating 4 TMB spray. After being zapped by a stunball, which he received a +4 bonus to resisting, his TMB spray has degraded to rating 3).
While under the effects of TMB spray, the user or object is highly visible in the astral plain, appearing as an anomaly similar to foci or true Mana Barrier spells.

I only plan on letting the players find a few cans of the spray. I have no idea what this item may cost, but it should be rather ridiculous to obtain. Any thoughts?

I kind of like it. But, like you said, it is a rare item, so I would say if someone were to search for it, it would be an availablity above 20 (my first thought is 24, for some reason), and likely cost something like 5000 nuyen x rating. But that's just my first thought. It may change over time if the item becomes increasingly available, or more dangerously involved.

Edit: Especially in this case, enforce the deminishing threshold optional rule, too. If the players feel they'll be able to get it without too much trouble, then it may become far too annoying when they want to get more after every run. Of course, that has it's own responses you can use, anyway, including "Just say no".

Seems reasonable enough to me. It's artifact level stuff, and rightly so. But it degrades and eventually they won't have any more. I'd drop the hint that maybe they should conserve it until they really need it, then sometime around two months from now (give them a few runs and time for you to build this), throw a job their way. One that's clear that they're going to face heavy magical opposition. Be subtle about it and hopefully they'll remember on their own the cans of antimagic spray and feel accomplished.

To clarify, it only works on *direct* combat spells, right? (It can work on other direct spells, I don't care, but it shouldn't work on indirect combat spells; those are bad enough. : ( )

I would have it cost ~6,000 Nuyen x Rating OR reduce it to one dose per can and have it cost ~2,000 Nuyen x Rating. I'd also have one dose cover any character with Body 6 or less, especially if I did the latter. Minimum Avail 20F, honestly probably not even something they can realistically buy.

Cool idea!

Honestly, I wouldn't put a price on it. Have them happen across it during a run. They don't know how it's made, or if they can ever get it anymore. Folks will be after them if it gets noised around they have this stuff. The spray can appear in future engagements already applied to opponents.

Putting a price on the spray just turns it into a commodity, when it's much more valuable to the campaign as a plot hook.




-k

Fair enough. But having an idea of price may be good *if* the PC's decide selling it is better then keeping it around.

Eh, work up a price in your head, but don't tell the players. Have them work to find a buyer and figure out what it's worth.

I would not put it at less than 10000 nuyen per point of rating, though. ANYTHING that lets a mundane fight the Awakened will be majorly valued by any corporation. Or Shadowrunner.

If they end up using it a lot, perhaps they develop this odd rash...





-k

I've already planned out a couple of warnings to stick on the side of the can. "Exposure for longer than 4 hours can lead to slight irritation and blood loss from the eyes." "Should death occur, discontinue use immediately."

I may exclude indirect combat spells and similar manipulations, but right now it works against all spells. I'm most excited about using this item against the players- once they know what it's capable of and how it appears in the astral, it should give the players a good scare once it pops up on High Threat Response teams.

I don't know about having it as a staple in the world. I figure they get their hands on some, go on a big adventure that needs it, maybe throw it at them once or twice, but it should be so rare and hard to get as to require a run just to go get some.

Yeah, this is a cool idea, and at the same time it would be used by everybody if it were generally available.

If you're wanting to make it somewhat available,but not a constant use item, you could also have it degrade, either over time, or as a force absorption rate

Don't let Longbow see this. . .

Side effects read: "Prolonged exposure may drain essence."

Huh. What if it turned out to be a modified HMHVV strain in the spray?






-k

Whatever it is, I doubt anything that deflects magic is entirely healthy for living beings.

What if it shut you off from mana entirely? Spray it on the Awakened for cool effects.

It's very similar to something i've been working on although I envisioned something like a manacapacitor or even a highly spell resistant symbiote or parasite. Honestly if your going with the spray option i would just give it the loss of a rating point per hour instead of per spell, nothing else in the game off the top of my head degrades per shot.

Depending on the composition of the spray in question you could impose a slight penalty to athletics tests or otehr things involving stamina to reflect the spray is having to drain from the wearer to keep itself going.

Something like a living spray that feeds off the user? That would do two cool things, limit it with fluff to only living people, and tie it in with fluorescent astral bacteria. Will do.

Glad to help, let us know how it turns out.