Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: New Physad Power Manasynthesis
Dumpshock Forums > Discussion > Shadowrun
RedSunOfKrypton
Manasynthesis
Cost: 6
The adept's aura acts with ambient mana the same way chloroplasts act with sunlight only much more effectively and all the time as opposed to just daytime. This eliminates any rolls, and penalties for not eating/drinking and you never have to eat or drink, although you still can. The passive absorbtion of ambient mana in no way interferes with asensing, detection spells, combat spells, or any other spell types for that matter.


Thoughts, queries, and suggestions welcome.
Lilt
Make it cheaper and we'll talk. Mages can do virtually the same thing for 2 karma and a sorcery roll once in a while.
Moon-Hawk
Way too expensive. Compare to the nutrition spell (MitS)
It's essentially the ability to cast a low force version of this on yourself only once per day. Game-mechanically equivalent, for an ongoing power your explanation is great. Oh, and I guess you'd have to add the alleviate hunger spell, or whatever it's called in there, too.
I'd say it's worth more like 1 power point.
Smiley
Just 1 power point might be a little to cheap... it really depends on how often something like this would save the character's life in your campaign. If they're constantly lost in the woods, 1 pp is a small price to pay to not DIE.
Drain Brain
That other spell is called "Fast" and I'd reckon the powere could easily be worth 2PP... Handy for all those wilderness wandering David Caradine Adepts! wink.gif
Smiley
Handy indeed... still, give THIS adept a Barca lounger and the trid remote anytime.
Sphynx
I'd recommend it at 0.5 to not need to eat (but still have hunger pains) and 1.0 to not need to eat, and not be hungry. Add 0.5 to include thirst to it, so you could go without eating or drinking for 1.0 (but still get hungry and thirsty) or for 1.5 you don't even get hungry or thirsty.

6.0 is a bit too much. wink.gif

Sphynx
Smiley
With the appropriate TN modifiers for being hungry and thirsty, of course. That's the best interpretation so far, i'd say. Although i still think not being required to eat should cost more. 1pp to not need food, another .5 to not feel the hunger, maybe.
RedSunOfKrypton
This is actually a power I came up with awhile ago when I was playing in a friend's game, he was a harsh GM, always intensely adhereing to every rule, especially food. So I came up with this to take some of the load off, he said he'd allow it but only if it cost so much because of the importance of eating in his game. His campaigns were a lot of work but a lot of fun as well.
TinkerGnome
Charge a half point, require a roll every day (will roll, TN days without eating food), and make it so that this power breaks a fasting geasa. Sounds about right to me.
A Clockwork Lime
0.5 Power Points gives you the power to move undetected over pressure pads and similiar items. 0.5 Power Points gives you the power to draw a melee weapon as if it were a pistol. 0.5 Power Points gives you the ability to halve darkness penalties.

So yeah, 1 or 2 points for the power to not have to eat is just right, and 6 is in no way extreme. <blank stare>

Here's a better starting place...

Manasynthesis
Cost: 0.5 Power Points

Game Effects: Manasynthesis allows the adept to reduce his monthly lifestyle cost by -20% and he can go (Magic) days without eating or drinking anything at all. If more than this amount of time goes by and the adept is still unable to acquire food, he must make a Magic Test with a TN equal to half his Body rating plus one-half his Bio Index rounded up. Each success allows him to gain one additional day before having to make another test. Each consecutive test increases the target number by +1.

Use of this power automatically counts as breaking a Fasting geas.
Moon-Hawk
Except in the extremely unusual campaign where your GM makes you keep track of how many candy bars you have on you, or a SR campaign set entirely in the jungles of Borneo, this will offer a minimal game mechanical advantage, and as such is a primarily RPing device.
I still vote 1 power point, at most, because of those situations where it is useful.

But even if your campaign is set in the jungles of Borneo, does it really matter if you survive but the rest of your team dies of starvation?

p.s. I know nothing about Borneo, its jungles, or the existance or nonexistance thereof. As I am already aware that I have no idea what I'm talking about, feel free to inform me of this only for your own edification.
Lilt
0.5 power points sounds just fine. Maybe 1 point if we're being particularily stingy. I've never really known powers to become more expencive/cheaper for people who need them more or less. If that's too little for your tastes then I'd say 1 point was OK, but no more.

[edit] 1 more thing, the power probably would have an effect on the asept's aura, but only to the extent that the power could be detected through assensing by the normal means [/edit]
TinkerGnome
Interesting question... would a background count cause indigestion?
Frag-o Delux
Would it cause a mana warping around the character to let people looking know he was magically active? Would he become dual nature while using that power? Would Strain-III attach to him while "eating" causeing him to starve? If he is hit with Powerball while using this power would he gain 10 pounds? The last one is a joke, but the first couple could be IMO could be RP hooks.
Lilt
The answer to all of those, even the joke, is that it depends how evil the GM is.
Frag-o Delux
The first couple should be a standard I think because that would also determine the cost of a power in my opinion. IF the power only offered bonuses then a higher cost is in order, but if it made you dual natured or made you an obvious magic user it will balance out. THat is just my opinion though.
A Clockwork Lime
Why on earth should it cost more? It basically does nothing of significant value. You can do a lot more things with just 0.5 Power Points that have actual benefits with no side-effects such as the previous examples of Quick-Draw, Traceless Walk, and Blind Fighting.

You guys are insane. biggrin.gif
TinkerGnome
It depends on the game Lime. It probably should offer a lifestyle cost reduction (digestive expansion does, I think), which would make it worth the points. That, and the rare times you are in danger of starvation it improves in usefulness.
A Clockwork Lime
No, it doesn't depend on the game. Adept powers, like everything else in the game, should be designed based upon what they do, not how they're going to be used in niche scenarios. In some games, some powers are more useful than others while in other games they're next to worthless.

Otherwise, you're advocating that because somewhere someone is running an all-Matrix game with no real-world interaction, Wired Reflexes should only cost 0.25 Essence and a buck-fifty in all games. Or that because in the same scenario where such a power as this one would be useful, the spells Nutrition and Fast should have their Spell Point cost increased ten fold in the core rules since they would be equally useful in the same scenario?
TinkerGnome
It depends on the context. If the power is being used as a home-brew power, I'd fully expect the cost to be placed by the indivual GM. Maybe in someone's game, it's considered nothing (.25 points). Maybe in someone else's game, it's worth a lot more (2 points). The same is true for everything. If a GM wants to change a price, he can.

That said, a lifestyle cost reduction along with the other beneifts probably make it worth half a point. However, the difference between .25 points and .5 points is sufficiently small that it could go either way. I wouldn't argue for a base price over .5 points, but I might argue for .25 if I wanted to use it.

If you wanted to make it definitely worth .5 points, say that it can provide some of the oxygen necessary for life, lowering the power of inhaled toxins and suffocation damage by 1.
Wireknight
I know that Kenson wrote up an adept power called Knack, which gives the adept the ability to cast an innate spell. This effect could be achieved via acquiring Knack(Fast) and Knack(Nutrition). Check out how much that'd cost, and up it by 0.5(since the adept isn't actually casting the spells, but instead permanently benefitting from their presence), that's about how much I'd say it should cost to have Manasynthesis.

On a sidenote, this power could be exemplified by certain Indian ascetic mystics, who subsist on little or no food or water.
A Clockwork Lime
Nothing personal, but that's a really crappy way to judge the cost of any power, let alone one like this. Especially since using that logic, Improved Sense (Low-Light Vision) [Night Vision Force 1] would cost a full power point.
gknoy
I gotta admit, spending more than 1 (or even 0.5-0.75) power points for this seems silly. Hell, most wilderness-wandering adepts would probably have normal adept-fu powers, and then have a wilderness survival skill in the 5-6 rating (since they use it all the time), coupled with a few knowlede skills in the same vein.

Seriously ... I'd rather have my 1 point of combat sense more than this wink.gif
Though, I do also freely admit that the concept is way cool, and I can see why some might want to take it.

Just imagine tho their surprisewhen they discover (too late) that they are in a mana warp or high-background-count area, and they suddenly are hungry, andhave no food....
Herald of Verjigorm
Throw in a few deatils:
background count counts as a (count)S toxin to an adept using this power. The damage level goes to deadly in mana warps. This is in addition to any other effects the adept must face.
The adept can turn off the power as with any other, but then will immediately face the effects of 1 day without food and biology works normally from there.

With those in place, .5 seems like a fine cost. With those not in place, .5 seems like a reasonable cost, but the method implies similar consequences.
Kanada Ten
I would eliminate the methodology and just call the power Fasting. It could cost .25 points per level with each level adding a week to the period the adept can go without food or drink and a single dice towards the appropriate test. Background count and mana warps do not affect the character differently than any other adept.

Similar to Great Leap and Freefall mechanics.
Herald of Verjigorm
That works too.
A Clockwork Lime
QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm)
Throw in a few deatils:
background count counts as a (count)S toxin to an adept using this power. The damage level goes to deadly in mana warps. This is in addition to any other effects the adept must face.
The adept can turn off the power as with any other, but then will immediately face the effects of 1 day without food and biology works normally from there.

With those in place, .5 seems like a fine cost. With those not in place, .5 seems like a reasonable cost, but the method implies similar consequences.

eek.gif You're joking, right? smile.gif With those in place, it should count as a Flaw that grants points rather than costing anything. Having to resist a Serious toxin every time you get into a heated argument, have passionate sex, hang out with your Magic Group, visit a hospital, or perform a heroic action (since all of those things can often generate a Background Count of 1) is... not a good thing.
Herald of Verjigorm
If you would want it easier, scale the damage level to start at L and go up every 2 points of background maxing at deadly.

[edit]besides, it's an option. All adept powers can be deactivated at will. The adept doesn't need to be scarfing on mana, and if he does down harsh mana, he should get sick.
Sahandrian
Mix in some bioware with adept powers and this could get interesting. Suprathyroid gland with this power and you ignore the lifestyle cost increase? What effect would needing more food have on the power?

Though if you went with Kanada Ten's version, you might just lower the rating of the power a point or two.
Zazen
It should cost .5 points, .25 if the adept has Suspended State (because I'm a sucker for synergistic adept powers like that). It should also just work, without rolls or special hunger pangs or anything else. It's cheap because, frankly, normal bodily functions are pretty boring to GMs. They rarely care that you've been running through a corporate compound for 6 hours and not once stopped to piss.

Just my opinion smile.gif
John Campbell
QUOTE (Zazen)
It's cheap because, frankly, normal bodily functions are pretty boring to GMs. They rarely care that you've been running through a corporate compound for 6 hours and not once stopped to piss.

It can be amusing, though. We had a dwarf rigger in one game I was in who suffered from Vincent Vega Effect... whenever it hit the fan unexpectedly, he was in the bathroom.
Lilt
I wouldn't write flaws (toxins from background count ETC) into the power. EvilGMs may do it themselves, but no other powers have that form of penalty written-in so why should this one? Is it written into the power that a character with Improved Body could mutate when he enters a background count? Lickwise is it canon that a character with improved senses hallucenates in a background count?

Well: No, but it's still fuel for the EvilGM's fire vegm.gif
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Dumpshock Forums © 2001-2012