In our game they have been sources of amusement, have come in handy, and turned the tide many times. Although I prefer to disallow anything that requires a "Save vs Death". I'm wondering who else uses them, and what is dissallowed, and why.

Almost anything is game according to the Unique Enchantment rule in MitS. I suppose that GM discretion (GM being me) is all that I think about. Generally, no magic dealing with teleportation or resurrection (that's all that come to mind at the moment).

...or time travel.

My game, anything the player's get their hands on is Canon, or close to it. NPC's and plot items, however, I pull out all the stops (including the prohibition against 'teleportation' and resurrection, but not time travel). Note that the players NEVER get their hands on these supposed ultra-items (or at least, not for long, and never in a way they can use them fully), since if it's something that powerful, then someONE equally powerful wants it, or wants it destroyed.

The question is therefore why didn't that someone powerful take it from that NPC in the first place? If said powerful person couldn't take it from said NPC, and the PCs were powerful enough to take it away from NPC, then perhaps the PCs should be more powerful than Mr Powerful.

because, usually, the players are working for Mr. Powerful (and by 'working' we mean 'are forced into this by'). Mr. Powerful either wants to stay out of this directly (for whatever reason, usually part of some nasty manipulation plan), or Mr. Powerful is accompanying the PC's and will take/destroy said item the moment the NPC currently holding it has been defeated. And if this item hasn't been worked into the plot with a feasible and intelligent way to keep it from being used and abused by the players, then it doesn't deserve to be in the campaign at all.

Also, by the time the PC's get their hands on the uber-items, they don't want to use them anymore, since they've seen the side-effects first-hand.

Over my time playing SR I have layed my grubby little mitts on 2 artefacts, both where useful to me bothe where in published adventure modules and in both cases I had to pass them on fast to avoid attracting more attention than I could handle, artefact or no.

One was a key that acted as a whopping great spirit focus for all spirit types withpout needing to be bonded, the other was a set of “elemental scrolls” that have a random effect when summoning an elemental or spirit of the elements. Much of that characters thesis is based on what little he could record of them during the short time them where in his position.

As to the prohibition against non canon items that require a “save verses death” what do you think a force 5 specific spell focus “death touch” is.

Edward

Death Touch is just a touch-range Manabolt with a scary name.

Same effect. Lots of pain.

I disallow anything that requires a "Save vs. Death".

Because this is FRAGGING SHADOWRUN, and FRAGGING SHADOWRUN doesn't have FRAGGING SAVING THROWS!

Any magickal item from DnD can be translated into Shadowrun terms. In fact I can translate anything from one system into the terms of another. IMHO Shadowrun does have Saving Throw, It's known as "Roll your Reaction."

Of course there's a save Vs. death:

"You, mr. Mage, have just been shot with a Panther Assault Cannon, roll your 3 Body dice and all your remaining 2 combat pool against a target number of insane."

OR:

"Yes, that is a Mage, yes he can see you, and yes, it is his turn. Now roll your willpower to resist the force 8 manaball set on deadly."

or anything else in that particular vein. hmm. It actually seems now that saves vs. death come up far more in my SR games than they do in D&D...

I've created a couple "unique enchantment" type things throughout my time as a player and GM. Off the top of my head...

A vampire in my campaign has created something called the Essence Matrix, that allows him to drain more Essence than would ordinarily be allowed. However, Essence stored in the Essence Matrix is lost twice as quickly as standard Essence. In order to keep his Essence topped, he is thus forced to feed twice as often.

My signature character has a katana, "Ryuujinhoa" (Fang of the Dragon King) that's essentially a plain vanilla stacked weapon/power focus, with the twist that it is the hidden life source and home to a symbiotic spirit that empowers the blade. Among other things, the sword is almost indestructible, can bind to its wielder to prevent disarm attempts, masks itself and the focus, and knows an assortment of spells.

The Reach Fuilleach adepts and Tir Paladins I've statted employ security and military armor that, through virtue of quickened Astral Armor and Armor, as well as use of high-force Fashion spells, can look like almost anything (usually medieval armor) and can make its wearer virtually invulnerable.

That's all I can think of that I've personally given statistics to There are, of course, the classics, like Teachdaire's Ring, The Idol, The Key, as well as things that appeared only in fiction, like the Dragon Heart.

Save vs death has meant to me make a role or die. In fact since the days of AD&D 2ed no RPG I am aware of has used “save verses death” as a rules logical line.

Damage resistance rolls are in a way saves and when your touched by a mage casting a force 6 death touch with 10 dice on casting or have been hit by a assault rifle with 3 net successes failure on the save (sorry soak roll) is going to result in death. And unlike D&D this will not be unlikely with starting characters.

Edward