Guys i was wondering, does anybody have any rules of thumb for designing new metamagical abilities.

How do you make sure they are balanced???

How long would it take to design/research new metamagic???

Ideas for new metamagic are also welcome.

Well, it hasnae been discussed in any of the sourcebooks, obviously, but I suppose it would be possible for a solo researcher to come up with a new metamagic,or an improvement on an old one. I'd make it cost a fair bit in time and karma, though.

No rules per se, but some guidelines would be that it not be game-breaking or counter to the Big No-Nos, i.e. no teleportation, no regenerating Essence, no magic in space, etc. Keep it useful but not over-powerful.

speaking of which, why is teleportation a big no-no? specially if you put big limitations on it like only line of site things like that.

Also it should somehow be different from a spell, skill, or physad power.

Something sort of ohh... metamagical

Since that is entirely circular I shall elaborate: it should affect how you use other magics, rather than standing alone.


I have a half formed one bouncing around in my head about physical adepts with weapon foci and astral attacks. Some way for the physad to use thier skill to defend thier focus from astral attack without the adept projecting, or perceiving. Enhanced focus bonding, or something.


Oh yea! A really good one people have mentioned is an anti-background count ability. It helps a mage use thier abilities where they usually would have problems, but doesn't do much(if anything) on its own.

Filtering can (theoretically) allow magic in even the strongest background count areas, such as space. MitS page 86: space is a background count of 10.

[edit]404 posted while I was checking page numbers.[/edit]

Teleportation is a big no-no because it bends the rules of physics very badly. Technically speaking, magic is just a psychosensitive force from another dimension which translates to kinetic energy in our world: no problem there physics-wise. But for teleportation, you'd have to move all the particles in group A (your chummer Joey the Ork) from place B (right in front of a speeding phaeton) to place C (in the lap of the elven chica with the breast-job); all without adding any energy to Joey so he doesn't spontaneously combust (hopefully).

Now, later on when the mana level's higher, there are some alternatives that may resemble teleportation to the uninitiated (pun intended), but as of yet it's a big no-no.

Time manipulation is much the same: Time is a dimension like space, and like space it curves. And twists. The amount of energy to send anything back or forward in time would be greater than all the energy put out by the Great Ghost Dance. Now, Divining and Detection spells may allow one some insight into the future...mapping out probabilities, maybe. But not perfect knowledge, not travel, not time freezes, nada.

Any ideas on how long it should take, and if it should cost karma, then how much?

Does a year sound like too much or too little.

Also i have been playing with a couple of ideas.

Weaving: an initiated version of spell design, which would let the mage attach any of the spell modifications ( only the feasible ones ofcourse ) from the design rules to modify a Known spell on the fly. fx. changing manabolt to manaball and reversed. The down sides should be: use of the drain modifiers from the design rules, some sort of test like force x 2 - grade and it should take at least a full combat turn.

Reduce drain: this one is quite Earthdawnish. The initiate reduces drain by building the energies up slowly but safely, say force of spell for drain purposes counts as minus 1 per full combat turn used to cast spell.

Please post feedback. If it's broken say so.

wireknight has already developed this as a metamagical power. i'll ask him about it.

Actually, that should be a spell (well, it was in ED...I suppose one could make it a metamagic.) There would be certain problems though; like translating firearms, advanced tech, and damage (an unconscious mage zips back to their body, an unconscious mage whose body is on the astral already...)

Is it just me or does the IE's seem to be able to enter astral space fully. If you could do that then you would be able to move at incredible speeds, damn close to teleportation. BTW the idea has its roots in real life hermetic occultism, ie. de-materilization and re-materilization ( usually objects though ).

Does anybody know what a room full of monkeys would know of such a topic btw.

BTW Ancient was it a spell for physically entering astral space or the netherworlds.

Okay, there are spells that allow one to enter astral space, travel, and leave; all in the physical. There are also talents that allow you to do pretty much the same thing, except they're exclusive to the Bightbearers, a group of Horror-hunters.

Harlequin's use of this during the end of Harlequin's back is seen as proof that he's a Lightbearer, beyond of course his willingness to hunt Horrors. Me, I think he just cast the damn spell.

well i think i would go with the spell version for that one, one people that know it doesn't want known to the world at large, though, i would also make it dependent on a willing target and i would give it a drain code + something D ( or S maybe ), the drain would problaly be physical since it should be considered astral spellcasting and i would problaly reduce the movement speed to say force x 1000 kph instead of magic x 1000 kph.

The spell is the equivalent of the Astral Gateway spirit power, with the minor caveat that you're physically translated into the astral: no meat body, things can hurt/kill you, people can summon you as if you were a spirit, etc.

Smacks of the abilities represented by Ehran and Harlequin at the end of Harlequin?

Kage

I have translated the Lightbearer ability to enter astral space physically into a metamagic I call 'Shifting' - I am still working out the details (Drain, TNs, etc) but it limits your movement speed severely in comparison to other astral beings (just as it did back in ED days) and so it isn't all that useful for teleportation - except, of course, walking through walls, 'disappearing', and such feats.

While alot of them aren't fully developed or playtested, and I don't have the time right now to type all of the info on them out, I'll make a quick list of new metamagics I'm using/working on in my game:

Awakening - metamagic used by dragons/IEs/possibly some magical orders to awaken latent magical genes. this causes the recipåient to develop any latent magic - including goblinization, SURGE, drake form.

Blending - the ability to blend your aura into the astral background, making you harder to spot astrally.

Blocking - the ability to temporarily sever the link between a magician and his bonded foci. (adapted from SR2 Awakenings)

Calling - summoning the Wild Hunt (similar to invoking, taken from canon hints)

Cloaking - grants use of the Shadow Cloak critter power.

Concealing - grants limited use of the Concealment critter power (Unseen ability, inspired by hints of their unknown metamagics)

Concocting - grants the ability to create magical cxompounds (inspired by canon hints)

Constructing - the ability to create and alter purely astral terrain (dragon metamagic, inspired by canon suggestions)

Copying - conscious masking which allow the exact copying of another beings aura.

Cursing - quickening which is harder to dispel, but has a triggering condition which, if fulfilled, automatically breaks the spell.

Draining - the ability to drain life force from others to acheive a form of immortality (see Steven Kensons page)

Dreaming - the ability to enter someones dreams as if they were a metaplane (see Steven Kensons page)

Embodying - the ability to channel your totem modifiers into actual physical benefits (from VOLKOV9) (thanks for the reminder Talia!)

Empowering - the ability to grant additional powers to an ally spirit (as per the T:AL mentionings)

Focusing - enhanced centering to increase spell force and reduce area (inspired by another dumpshocker I forgot the name of )

Forcing - the ability to cast spells with a simple action, with increased drain. (from ED)

Materializing - like the spirit power Materialization, with limits (see Mr.Kensons page, again)

Opening - sort of like the Astral Gateway power. (ED inspired)

Passing - the ability to physically pass through Natural Earth (as Celedyr and the koradji)

Piercing - the ability to penetrate the shielding or spell defense of another magician more effectively (again, inspired by dumpshocker - same as did Focusing)

Projecting - the ability to project a copy of your psyche into the astral, creating a kind of 'thought form' that is intimately linked to you (Unseen ability, inspired by their hinted at abilities)

Pushing - using blood magic to increase the effectiveness of adept powers (ED inspired)

Shifting - as mentioned, the ability to bodily enter astral space.

Shrouding - the ability to 'mask' your aura from detection spells and magical means of detection - similar to the Spell Shroud adept power (Unseen ability, inspired by their hinted at abilities)

Storing - creating an astral pocket where you can store items. (Inspired by ED, details tossed about between myself and dumpshocker Talia, with added input)

Suppressing - the ability to temporarily supress another magician's magical abilities.

Tapping - the ability to tap mana from a nearby power site or mana line without actually being in contact with it.

Transcending - the ability to learn to summon spirits from another tradition.

Unmasking - the ability to forcibly 'rob' another initate of their masking, revealing his or her true aura.

Weaving - the ability to give sustained spells a limited lifespan in astral space, sustaining themselves. (This one was taken from the Shadowrun Archive many years ago, and it's author has sadly been lost in the folds of time...)

Withholding - the ability to temporarily suppress ones shamanic mask for more subtle spellcasting/conjuring. (mostly from a forum topic, and also inspired by the Unseen's abilities)

Phew - there, those are it. More details can be had at request, but please don't request it for 'all of them' - it'd take too long for me to gather my notes together and type/copy-paste everything in...

Pushing
To use Pushing, the adept inflicts a physical wound on himself. For symbolic purposes, the damage must be inflicted with a melee weapon weileded by the initiate and it must draw blood.

The adept can choose the level of damage he wishes to inflict on himself. The adept must already possess the power he is attempting to push, and he cannot increase it’s level to more than twice the level he possesses it at. Depending on the wound inflicted, the adept gets a temporary boost to his magic rating for the purposes of using that power.

Light wound 1 Magic Point
Moderate wound 2 Magic Points
Serious Wound 4 Magic Points
Deadly Wound 8 Magic Points

Pushing has no effect on magic powers with a fixed cost; only those counted in levels can be improved by pushing, and the power operates under any normal geasa the adept may have (note that the geasa does NOT reduce the cost for purposes of buying the pushed power). The push lasts for one full combat turn, and the power pushed cannot be pushed again until the wound has been healed.

Example - A Blood Adept with Improved Quickness 4, Strength Boost 5, Improved Brawling 6, and Increased Reflexes 1 can deal himself a Serious wound to increase one of his powers - and either push his quickness up by 4 points (still not exceeding racial maximum), his strength boost to 10 (no more than doubling his power), his Improved Brawling to 12 or his Increased Reflexes to 2. Nothing costs more than 4 magic points extra, and no power is more than doubled in effect.

Those are the rules I worked out for pushing - a requirement for learning the Pushing technique is to first learn the Sacrificing metamagical technique (to learn the 'basics' of blood magic - even if you cannot use the knowledge for much if you're a regular adept). Hope that helps or gives ideas

you could look Here

Or here (for VOLKOV9's physad version of channelling). Or here (for something a bit more general).

snowRaven: I'm so glad you posted that list in more fullness! There were some ingenious interpretations and innovations there - I would have hated for them to be lost. But maybe we can convert this thread into a complete and comprehensive list of created metamagics among all Dumpshockers?

Ah yes, I hope so! MORE metamagic to the people!!! MORE metamagic for ME!!!

I am trying to put names to all the metamagics I gather that aren't canon, so if you see one in the above list that you feel you created (or even just gave me the idea for) let me know

Unchaining
The ability to enter in a fight for control over a spirit not usually controllable by one's own tradition, specifically and only for the purpose of wresting away control from another. Should the initiate using Unchaining win, the spirit still cannot be controlled by them, so it goes free.

Here are some ideas, not play tested by any means. Just some ideas.

Pausing
Setting a spell to go off after a certain amount of time. Balance it by increasing the target number for the spell (and/or the drain) based on the delay time (+1 for 1 combat round, +2 for 1 minute, etc.).

Over-Burning
The caster of a spell reduces the target number for the spell, increasing the target number for the drain. Each -1 stages the drain up, or something similar.

- Runner Smurf