I saw a post on this thread recently about making astral projection for aspected mages a metamagic, and when I was writing my reply for the Spiritblind flaw thread I started thinking... Flavor-wise, astral projection is something that needs to be taught, and so it would be natural that some mages can’t do it.

Anmyway, to get to the point, I was thinking along the lines of making astral projection a metamagic for ALL magicians. This is only in the early stages, but I’d like some input on it.

Basically, this would mean that every starting magician knows a metamagic - most commonly Astral Projection - but in theory you could subsitute the Projecting technique for any other you have had the chance to learn (depending on GM discretion, contacts, etc). This would add more flexibility.

Full mage (30 BPs, Priority A) - Full use of all magical skills, knows one metamagic

However, I see no reason why aspected mages shouldn’t have a metamagic to start with, but doing this would make them more powerful...
One way to balance it would be to make Astral Perception a pre-requisite metamagic, and simply give Full mages two metamagics to start with, but that causes problems for Adepts, who buy Perception as a power...

So, what do you guys think?

Uh... I do not agree. I think your idea is akin to my trying to change my blood type or some genotypical feature. For instance, it depends on genetics, as I understand it, to be able to manipulate the tongue in a tongue lolling motion. By extention, one has to try it, but the capability is a genetic given, either you can or you can't.

Astral project, in my opinion, is the same way. Yes, you've got to train a bit at it, but it's a genetic question whether you even have the aptitude for it or not.

Trying to break down full-magician into portions just doesn't jive with the hard and fast divide betweens full and aspected magicians. I'd be okay with a meta-technique for reaching the metaplanes, but that's something gained through initiation. The fact is, however, that the aspected magician will never project onto the astral; ain't happening.

OTOH, YMMV.

Don

If you want to reflect that training is needed for astral projection, I'd simply make the base essence drain higher (3 essence per hour or something) and have it be a side-effect of initiation that you get better at it (essence drain per hour = 3-grade to a minimum of 1 per hour).

shadd4d, never say never. Read the introduction to Spirits and Dragons, page 260, SR3.

Should an aspected mage attain dual nature (through SURGE, Ghouldom, or whatever), they can project just fine under the current canon, so long as they have a magical skill.

I assume Aura Reading doesn't count since characters don't need a magic attribute to use the skill, unlike the other magical skills (and since we haven't heard anything about swarms of astral projecting ghouls who have Aura Reading ).

yeah but that's a very specific exception. a major change to the person's physiology allows them to project, not a function of training.

Genetics in all honor, but considering that at the mana peak in the last age of magic, everyone could use magic, I don't think it is a strictly 'do or don't' issue. Besides, anyone can astrally project with the help of a spirit with Astral Gateway power. So in theory it is possible for anyone to astrally project, though some people need more help than others to actually do so.

That's only a small part of it though - it is easy to prevent aspected mages from ever learning that metamagic, since there are other skills/spells/powers that they simply cannot learn. I do agree that it is not really a good idea to give aspected mages access to projection - not sure that will ever happen in my games.

I am more interested in opinions on the system of giving starting mages a metamagic instead of automatically giving them astral projection.