Wound Penalties don't apply to body rolls to resist damage...

Glad you agree. I wanted to break it down into standard starting limits for ratings on equipment. It also plainly explains why the character didn't need to roll an 18 on an Etiquette test to acquire the materials. Your example would have BitBasher calling for that TN 18 roll.

Considering you can set it up in about the space of a normal size room, and considering that mundane walls are opaque in astral space, no one is likely to notice any shining beacon. Unless you make it a point to pass through every building just to see if it happens to be warded or contain an astral barrier or lodge. Not the smartest thing to do.

Really, if the shaman is worried about attracting astral attention, and my shaman would probably feel more comfortable sleeping and projecting from within a huge astral barrier, he could dismantle the lodge when he is finished using it. The lodge materials are reusable, so he's only out the set-up time.

All in all, I think the shining, astral beacon idea sucks. The benefits outweigh the hazerds, IMO. Saefty from roving spirits/imps/shedim/astral projecting doofus's, a barrier to all those things and ritual sorcery/tracking, a bonus for creating formula, and a few others. I don't think it's illegal to have a high force lodge either, unless I missed something. They are basically immovable astral shelters.

Only if your GM has is a retard with no absolutely no common sense.

The bypass Armor called shot is is vague, and should have been re-worded to say "bypass worn armor."

Otherwise I sink aircraft carriers with my 4L pistol, calling a shot to bypass armor.

If that's the kind of game you want to run, go right ahead.

No you don't, because anything with a Hull rating will negate that even without any armor whatsoever.

~J

I assume, then, you have no objection when I pull out a handgun and inexplicably bypass your full body suit of FFBA or military armor?

Just a quick clarification. The rules for upgrading equipment state that you use the availability and street index for the rating you want and you subtract the orginal cost paid. The availabilty of a force 18 shamic lodge is 18/24 hrs and cost 9000 . The same goes for elemental conjuring materials. You want a force 10 fire elemental? You pay 10000 and the availability is 10/24 hrs. You can't buy 10 units of force one materials to duck the harsh availabilty roll. Unless of course you are trying to summon 10 force one elementals.

Note: This is not my opinion. This was in response to my question at shadowrun info when I was playing a conjurer oh so many moons ago.

my only objection would be geting shot.

It was. The example only mentions cost and thats why I asked. It seemed a glaring hole in the availability rules.

I don't feel that those rules should work against the armor spell, or against a suit of security or military armor.

I have no compunctions using the rule as written against someone who cares little enough about my game to make a troll with a force 18 armor spell.

Note on pg.166 it does say that the shaman can gather the materials himself, and pay a flat rate of 500¥ per rating point for the search. No availability rules apply here, canon wise. It's up to the Gm to decide how long such a search takes, however., or any other details. For a rating 18 lodge, i'd use the exotic materials rules from enchanting I think.

But if he's buying the lodge, then the availability should be 18, even if he's upgrading from a rating 17 lodge. Even without the FAQ it's just common sense - otherwise, there's no need to have the varying availability on things with ratings.

Actually, no. You can't even destroy my unarmored VW Beetle with a 4L pistol, because vehicles automatically reduce the damage level of weapons by 1. But you could destroy a tank with a 6M SMG or a 9MHeavy Pistol.

I agree that the rule sucks, and most GMs will house-rule around it. I was just pointing out that if you wanted to be a literal 'rules lawyer' the rules say that it works this way.

You have heard of staging?

I was being a smartass. To "bypass" something means to avoid it, or go around.

FFBA doesn't protect your face (it has a hood). Therefore, you can bypass it with a called shot to the face, *if* you can see it (i.e. sneaking up from behind - forget a face shot unless they turn around)

Military Armor is full body protection, meaning there's no holes or gaps in the armor to bypass.

Armor spell has no gaps in it, it creates a glowing field around the target of the spell. IMHO, this means you can't bypass it unless you have teleporting bullets.

There are several rules that if you follow 100% literally, make little or no sense. This is why the gamemakers themselves say if you don't like the rules, feel free to change or throw them out.

One case in point - I asked my GM if I could make a called shot to bypass armor AND stage damage DOWN one level, instead of bypass armor, or stage up as per normal rules, for the purposes of disarming an opponent (shooting a gun out of their hand).

It's not "canon" but it makes sense. If they're wearing FFBA and I want to shoot a gun out of their hand, bypassing armor is no longer an option, as FFBA includes gloves.

This whole issue's already been beaten to death in the Called Shots thread. Rather than hijack this thread, if we feel any need to discuss it any more we should go there.

Ignoring the debatable called shots, we've got the following options for bypassing/negating the armor spell:

• crashes
• falling
• gas attacks
• viral and bacterial attacks
• sludge engulf (the toxic power)
• air engulf (the air elemental power)
• narcojets
• DMSO rounds
• the knockdown rules
• critter/spirit powers like confusion, essence drain and fear
• astral attacks

What have I left out?

Ignite - set clothing/armor/character on fire - 6M. 1/2 Impact does protect against this, but the power increases by +1 per turn.
Flamethrower and Fireball - even if the Troll completely negates any damage from the primary attack, the secondary effects can still still cook off ammo and explosives, again completely negating armor.

Flamethrowers - same effects

White Phosphorus grenades - ditto (and burns for 15 combat turns to boot, and has a 15M blast radius, and 14M base damage, against 1/2 impact (even with 25 Impact, they now only have 12 Impact to reduce power). Grenade Launcher with Smartlink 2 - TN to hit is 2s, and fire twice a turn until cremation is complete.

Incediary Grenades. ditto.

Are you thinking of Rudyard Kipling?

"A woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke".

The self-important human was Sigmud Freud, explaining that his cigar smoking did not express an oral fixation and thus latent homosexuality, despite being clearly phallic.

~J

Now this...this is funny. You all could learn from this one.