"Magic is reduced by the character's Bio Index divided by 2 (round down)."

Uhm. So, my reading of this is that a mage with 1.9999999999999 bio index doesn't take any magic loss. Now, I think this makes more sense, personally, but...I can't be reading this right, can I?

No, I can't, not quite. But the rules here are...much much nicer than they were before. Have people houseruled it back, or anything?

You are, IIRC. On the other hand, there's no way to get that partcular fraction of Essence

~J

I think it's worded badly in the first paragraph

I did the same "what the hell" doubletake when I read that too. Luckily the rest of the section and the example make it clear that you round Magic Rating.

Yeah...but the nice thing...unless I'm double-reading-it-wrong, is that now essence and bio index combine to determine magic loss. Before, you could have a datajack and a sleep regulator and be down 2 points of magic.

That's true. Also you no longer have that wierd lost-for-all-mechanical-purposes-but-isn't-quite-the-same "virtual magic loss" with bioware, which really sucked when MitS let you take geasea for Essence-loss but bioware "virtual loss".

it's a better time to be a physad.

No kiddin' . I'm thinking about making my next char a physad.

all my chars start out as physads. halfway through the chargen process, i'll think "hm, this'd work better as a sam/rigger/decker/whatever". me likey the physads.

*sigh* yeah, mainly because they have so far to go.

Gimme gimme Gun Adept. 12 dice before combat pool...

Shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, Power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command, we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine patris, et filii... <cocks gun> ...et spiritus sancti...

The Abstruse One

So, to confim in a nice easy formula that I'll be sticking in an excel sheet used for chargen it's : INT(ESS-(BI/2)) - correct?

Not familiar with Excel anymore (haven't used it in years), but that looks about right...unless INT = integer = rounding to the nearest whole number, instead of automatically rounding down all fractions...

The Abstruse One

The INT function in excel just truncates the number, or always rounds down. Same difference in the end.

@Xirces, yes, your formula is correct except for Shapeshifters (Starting Essence 8, Magic 6).

But yo can't do bioware for shapeshifters
non-sentient being = shoot on sight dangerous animal (bounty on body)

Personally as a GM I don't allow shapeshifters to get bioware so for me it would be a moot point. I've allowed a shapeshifter to have cyberware once, but that's only because I had a player who really, really, really wanted to be Wolverine.

Too bad the sequel will never be made because the writer/director is a dick and pissed off the whole of Hollywood...but it's a very Shadowrun-styled film and the brothers are DEFINATELY gun adepts...

The Abstruse One

the newsletter i get every (other... okay, third, maybe fourth) month says otherwise. he's got enough private backers that he doesn't need 'hollywood'. granted, it'll be direct-to-video like the first one was, but that's to be expected when a guy decides to stick to his guns instead of kowtowing to the Man.

i think the success of the first one speaks to who was right and who was the dick, though.

He seemed like a cool guy when I met him and his band. His brother seemed like the dick.

Of course, if you mean pissed off the whole of hollywood by not wanting to play by their rules and retain control of his film... Plus, having Columbine happen right as you're trying to get a distributor... well, I can see that.

That aside, I had heard they were already filming the sequel. There's some info out and about on the internet, I probably stumbled on it through imdb at some point. Although I think Dafoe had a conflict and had to pass on the sequel, Sean Patrick Flannery, Normon Reedus, and Billy Connelly are still onboard.

I was going to say, it wasn't because HE was a dick, it's because Hollywood was the dick. He just wasn't willing to accept the cast that the studio(s) wanted him to use (I think it was, what, Tom Cruise and someone on the same lines as the leads, with Robert DeNiro as El Duce). At least that's what I remember reading.

I love DeNiro, but he soooo wouldn't have fit that role.

That's awful. Cruise? DeNiro? I feel ill.
(good actors, DeNiro, anway, but not in Boondock Saints)

Yeah...that would be wrong. But Boondock Saints is an AWESOME movie. Heh...good times.

I dare say it's my favorite movie.

Excellent Film.....

"There was A Firefight!!!" BANG!

Or better yet.. the poor cat.

And here I didn't even know they were working on sequal.

Okay, I had some of the names wrong.

It was supposed to be Patrick Swayze (!), Stephen Dorff (I can almost see him), and Robert DeNiro as the leads. Swayze was supposed to be Agent Smecker (UGH!!!!), and even worse, Duffy himself said he had Jim Carry in mind for the role... so it's not exactly just a Hollywood producer thing afterall.

Just ugh all around.

After seeing Swayze in Donnie Darko and Too Wong Foo, I can say in all honesty that he probably would not have been that bad as Agent Smecker... but don't get me wrong... Willem Dafoe he is not.

To continue OT - I watched Boondock Saints last night for the first time. I'd been meaning to watch it for a while and when I saw it on TV last night managed to persuade my wife to watch it. Can honestly say that I was very impressed.

It's a very good movie, don't get me wrong...the guy just has an ego the size of a medium-sized galaxy. I have this on good authority from a friend of mine who's a writer in the film industry (try not to trip over the names I'm dropping )the guy's got a huge chip on his shoulder now (the director of BOONDOCK SAINTS, not my friend). And I've met some big filmmakers and almost all the ones still working are some of the coolest people you'd ever meet (Rodriguez, Tarantino, Gibson (though he is a bit of a religious kook), Peter Jackson), totally down to earth. This guy apparently has the whole "I'm better than you because I make movies" thing going, and even moreso because he has a cult following.

But that's enough of that...let's try not to hijack this thread anymore

The Abstruse One

Yeah. What were we talking about?