On page 180 in the core book, it states:

"The spellcaster makes a drain resistence test using Willpower against the Power of the drain, which is based on the Force of the spell cast."

Now, On page 183 (same book) it says: " Drain resistence test: Roll the casters Willpower dice, plus any Spell Pool dice allocated to the drain resistence test. The target number is the Force of the spell, divided by 2 (rounded down)"

Which one is it? Divided by 2 (rounded down), or the full force?

Hep hey

Topper

It's divided by two.

But those are both correct. Force/2 is still based on Force. Dig?

Notice the words "based on" in the first description. It doesn't say "equal to".

In other words, the base power of a drain is one half of the spell's Force. This may be further modified by other factors, e.g. spell's drain code, fetish, or sustained spells. So Force 6 Improved Invisibility (drain code +1(M)) causes 4M drain.

Thanx, (yeah, I dig it now)

(Feeling rather naive at the moment)



Topper

Don't worry about it. I don't know very many people who weren't confused by the magic rules at least a little when they first started.

Additionally, later in the book (not sure of the page # since I'm at work) it mentions that you can adjust Drain to be equal to Force if you want to make magic less powerful.

Make no mistake about it. I´m not just a little confused. I´m borderline confused. Been reading for 5 hours straight now, and I haven´t even looked at Astral Perception or Projection yet.

It´s kinda getting a bit mind blowing. Someone told me Magic would be the easy part. (Compared to Matrix) My goal is to know the basics in each category. If Matrix is a lot harder, I don´t think I´ll be able to grasp it. (Being Danish, English isn´t a big problem, untill you buy a book like SR3,....Dang it, there´s alot of silly words in this book!!)

Got Spells covered (I think)
Got Foci down too
Been reading about Conjuring, but haven´t put it to the test yet.
Been reading about libraries too, but they confuse me big time, so I´ve dropped that for now. I guess I concentrate on the bigger picture: Casting spells, using skills, resisting drain, buying Magic equipment (Foci, Fetish´s, formulas etc.) Other stuff can come later.

I am a little reluctant to start reading about The Matrix though. Started doing that in 2nd. edition, but never finished it due to my lack of English skills. I simply couldn´t understand how decking is resolved.
Now, with further improvement, I foresee lots of hours on the couch reading something I might never get.

...but have no fear,...I ain´t the quitting type!!! I´ll get it done eventually!

I've been playing for years and only delved into the Matrix a few months back. It's not that difficult to grasp, but it is harder than most of the rest of the system.

If you have any other questions about magic, feel free to ask 'em. Once you get to a certain point of understanding, it all clicks together. From there, picking up everything else is pretty easy.

I´m not a total newbie in the SR world. Been playing 1st and 2nd editions for a number of years, although the group and I have been on a Middle Earth Roleplaying break for a couple of years. We´ve decided to pick SR up again, but this time we do it right. This means I have a lot of reading to do. I´ve split the rules up into small section, and given each group member a section to fully understand. That way I won´t be overwhelmed with rules. I understand that I have to know the basics of every category, and I do try, but it will be impossible for me to really know all the rules. This way, one guy gets to fully enlighten the others in his specific area of expertise.

The guy playing Hermetic Mage is joined by the guy playing the Shaman. Those two are responsible for reading and understanding the Magic rules section of the core book.

The guy playing Rigger, is responsible for the vehicle combat section etc.

Decker player reads the matrix sections

and so on!

Hopefully we´ll be able to include a larger number of rules to our games.

(Hmm!!, I´m probably gonna get a lot of heat for this rules section thingy!!)

Topper

It should work fine, Topper28, as long as your group is fairly mature and filled with reasonable people.

It does help to have at least a passing familiarity with all sections if you are the GM, as it makes planning to challenge your players easier. Otherwise, you end up with situations where the rigger or mage or decker runs all over your adventure because you didn't understand the strengths and weaknesses inherent in your NPCs approach and tactics.

It'd be sort of like dealing with a street sam when your NPCs never seek cover and never think to try anything but "stand there and shoot him."

Heh. As long as your not the GM. Then its your JOB to know everything.

I´ve actually never player a RPG without them. We´ve played for nearly 15 years now. I trust all of them, and I surely know they wouldn´t screw me over rules wise. But as said before, I as a GM should know all the basics in each category, and then fill my "knowledge cup" with info they provide. In time I should be a fully functional professional GM!! Bah!!

We´ve made our own little organization. There are 8 of us total. I am always the GM. All 8 of us is on the board of trusties, and we have a board meeting everytime we play, with news from the Cassier, Chairman of the board (me) and so on. We play 8 times a year. (Not much I suppose, but with families, jobs, kids etc., it´s getting tougher to find dates we all can play) During a board meeting we decide on the next date to play. Not all 7 can every time, (would be a bit too much we believe), so we just change the Runners as Runners would in real life too I suppose. Minimum is 4 players and max is 6. We have a pool, into which we deposit money every game date. This money is used to supplement train ticket prices or fuel prices. Denmark is a small country, but the 8 of us is scattered all over the nation. So, the pool helps people out financially. We have a pizza pool and coffee pool too. We always start playing saturday at around 4 PM (14.00 CET), and we only take 1 break. PIZZA at 9 PM. The game usually ends around 6 or 7 AM sunday, where we have breakfast and make cracks about the game. It´s so much fun, and even though some of us are in our thirties, we still become 16 year old school boys when we get together.

.....hmm!!!, I have no idea why I writing this stuff!! I guess it´s just a really, really good concept and I just thought I would share it with you guys.

Topper

I found the Matrix Section to be the easiest for me to fathom, course I'm a network engineer by trade, so it makes it a bit easier, as I can form mental relationships between LTGs/RTG/PLGs and networks, and Hosts with servers...

The magic section has proved to be the hardest for me to get down... even with all the past-hermetic/wiccan stuff I've read about. Though I do find the magic system very complete.

What modifiers apply to the drain test?

Sustained spell, injury, background count, simultaneous spell (stacked spells)?

Sustained spell and simultaneous spell cause penalties on drain target number.

Half background count (round down) is a penalty on drain target number.

No penalty for injury, movement, vision, etc.

The spell's drain code can change the drain TN.

A mage can learn a spell as exclusive or requiring fetish, and one of these options can be used to subtract from the spell's force for the purpose of calculating drain, i.e. exclusive force 6 spell has drain as if it was force 4, with fetish force 6 "drops" to force 5 when calculating drain. Useful for uninitiated mildly cybered mages, as this allows them to cast force 6 spells with Stun drain, and for some less important utility spells or spells with high drain codes.