[Mirikon]

Another thread on the board got me thinking. While it is true that there are no ways to do ranged weapon foci, I was wondering how hard it would be to make an item that contained knowledge of a spell, and allowed its wielder to use spellcasting with this particular item providing the knowledge of the spell, at a certain (predetermined) Force. The user would still take Drain as normal, of course, and any penalties for sustaining spells, but this would be an interesting way to add some fun things for mages and mystic adepts, without too much balance issues.

For instance, a revolver that shot Flamethrower spells, or a pin that gave access to Physical Mask, or a sword that casts Slaughter Orks, or a ring of Invisibility. You'd still be casting the spell, and taking drain, but at a preset force, and the item would provide knowledge of the spell. Meaning that if you lost the item, you'd lose the spell. I'm not talking about anything so involved as anchoring or quickening, but more along the lines of something like a Wand or Staff from D&D. Something that would allow access to the spell, and then you cast it at the set force, using your normal number of dice, and resisting drain as normal.

Honestly, I don't know if it is possible under the current rules, but it would be fun. Just a bit of brainstorming.

[ArkangelWinter]

I don't see why you couldn't; make it follow Enchanting rules, require a copy of the Spell Formulae, and as you already said, make it pull mana through the mage so he still gets Drain. Another way would be to have a spirit trapped in a restricted version of Inhabiting the item, only able to use a certain 1 or 2 of its powers/spells but in return not taking up services. That also balances the item, as all spirits would hate the user for keeping one of their kind eternally trapped and weakened.

[Lethe]

Everyone can have the Knowledge of a spell . Everyone can create a spell formular, which includes the knowledge of how to cast the spell. But only mages are able to gather and manipulate the surrounding mana to create any effect.

Foci are able to strengthen magic effects in a specific way when channeled through them, or able to sustain gathered mana until triggered, but none is able to draw mana into an effect by itself.

That said, the mana must still be gathered by a mage, therefore cause drain. But at no limited force, he could channel through it any amount of mana he wants. The effect could be created by a new kind of focus. That's what i could see possible.

But learning the spell himself might be easier than binding the focus. Also one could reintroduce SR2 rules to spontaneously cast spells you don't know, similar to the threading of CFs a TM doesn't know.

[Mirikon]

I dislike the spirit version, myself.

The problem is I don't see anything in the Enchanting rules to give a clear line on how to do it other than just handwaving it as a unique enchantment. A bonded focus isn't quite what I'm looking for. More like a tool that channels the mana in such a way that someone with the Spellcasting skill can use it to cast the spell inside. Anyone with the skill (which means mages and mystic adepts) could pick up the item, and use it.

[raggedhalo]

You can do exactly that with Anchoring, can't you?

[Lethe]

You can do exactly that with Anchoring, can't you?

Casting a spell you don't know? Not really.
Also that focus shouldn't need to be bound, and anchoring wastes lots of karma you could just use for learning the spell.

[tzizimine]

Anchoring can be used to make 'magical items' that mundanes can use. Sadly, it's expensive (at least in Karma) and usually a one-shot item. That said, having a mage prepare a "Potion of Healing" which is designed to heal 3 boxes of damage at the end of 3 combat turns can be enough to save said mage when he's unconscious from blood loss.

[Mason]

Casting a spell you don't know...
Sometimes it just makes sense that a mage can spontaneously cast a spell he does not know. I have thought of a couple ways to pull this off, making it feasible but limited (so that spell learning is still necessary). So far, I have two versions.
1: You cast the spell as normal, as though you know it, but you must spend one Edge and you cannot Edge the spell or the Drain test.
2: You default to Magic to cast said spells, as Spellcasting skill is your ability to shape mana in ways which you have familiarized yourself with. You may Edge the casting test and the spell otherwise works normally.

More on topic, I have come up with a metamagic technique that allows a mage to do exactly what the OP wants.

Advanced Anchoring (Requires Quickening, Anchoring)
Advanced Anchoring allows a one use Anchored spell to re-anchor itself upon completion of its triggering, essentially creating a permanent reusable enchantment that anyone can use if they know how. Use of this enchanted item inflicts the Drain of the spell in question on the user, minus 1 (minimum 1). The Anchored spell is usable by anyone, so long as the trigger is met. Due to limitations within this ability, the trigger must be feasible for a mundane to do. This metamagic can be used to create mundane-usable Foci or other items, and is normally not usable with Combat spells for balance purposes. This is, of course, up to individual Gamemasters. Note the enchanted item is usable by ANYONE, so guard it carefully.

[Inconnu]

There WAS a focus that you do some predetermined thing and then the enchanter has the spell essentially yanked out of their astral bodies. Nothing a char wants to make, because on ANY glitch, a gm could say, "Resist drain. Take 5s."

[JustADude]

Casting a spell you don't know...
Sometimes it just makes sense that a mage can spontaneously cast a spell he does not know. I have thought of a couple ways to pull this off, making it feasible but limited (so that spell learning is still necessary). So far, I have two versions.
1: You cast the spell as normal, as though you know it, but you must spend one Edge and you cannot Edge the spell or the Drain test.
2: You default to Magic to cast said spells, as Spellcasting skill is your ability to shape mana in ways which you have familiarized yourself with. You may Edge the casting test and the spell otherwise works normally.

My suggestion would be rolling Arcana + Intuition, with a threshold equal to the spell's DV modifier, to see if you can ass-pull the effect you need, with the following effects:

• If you succeed in beating the threshold you successfully cast the intended spell. You then have the option of immediately paying karma to acquire the spell... if you can't (or just chose not to) pay the karma right at that moment, you simply don't remember how you did it clearly enough to do it consistently.
• On a critical success, you either get the spell for free or figure out a version that's extra-special in some way... reduced drain, perhaps, or a greater level of effect for the same level of drain. GM's choice, of course.
• If you miss the threshold but acquire at least one hit, or succeed on a glitched roll, you end up casting a similar spell (as in the same School, with a roughly equivalent resulting effect) of the GM's choosing with a DV modifier equal to the hits achieved on the roll... however, you still get the chance to buy the new spell.
• On a critical glitch, the spell goes horribly wrong; you drain someone you were trying to buff, or your Turn to Stone actually gives them Hardened Armor, etc. Take drain as normal; effects from sustained spells last until your next action.
• On a straight failure you lose your action as you fumble around doing nothing effective.

And, yes, that means that on 3 hits you can just randomly learn Stunbolt for free. However, that spell is so freakin' universal it should practically be a freebie bundled into the cost of buying Magician anyway.

[All4BigGuns]

Casting a spell you don't know...
Sometimes it just makes sense that a mage can spontaneously cast a spell he does not know. I have thought of a couple ways to pull this off, making it feasible but limited (so that spell learning is still necessary). So far, I have two versions.
1: You cast the spell as normal, as though you know it, but you must spend one Edge and you cannot Edge the spell or the Drain test.
2: You default to Magic to cast said spells, as Spellcasting skill is your ability to shape mana in ways which you have familiarized yourself with. You may Edge the casting test and the spell otherwise works normally.

My suggestion would be rolling Arcana + Intuition, with a threshold equal to the spell's DV modifier, to see if you can ass-pull the effect you need, with the following effects:

• If you succeed in beating the threshold you successfully cast the intended spell. You then have the option of immediately paying karma to acquire the spell... if you can't (or just chose not to) pay the karma right at that moment, you simply don't remember how you did it clearly enough to do it consistently.
• On a critical success, you either get the spell for free or figure out a version that's extra-special in some way... reduced drain, perhaps, or a greater level of effect for the same level of drain. GM's choice, of course.
• If you miss the threshold but acquire at least one hit, or succeed on a glitched roll, you end up casting a similar spell (as in the same School, with a roughly equivalent resulting effect) of the GM's choosing with a DV modifier equal to the hits achieved on the roll... however, you still get the chance to buy the new spell.
• On a critical glitch, the spell goes horribly wrong; you drain someone you were trying to buff, or your Turn to Stone actually gives them Hardened Armor, etc. Take drain as normal; sustained effects last until your next action.
• On a straight failure you lose your action as you fumble around doing nothing effective.

And, yes, that means that on 3 hits you can just randomly learn Stunbolt for free. However, that spell is so freakin' universal it should practically be a freebie bundled into the cost of buying Magician anyway.

I like this, but with one caveat added--the ability to go into "karma debt" for remembering how you did it. While to some it may seem a no-brainer to always do that, sometimes it just isn't in best interest to "debt" yourself like that, and sometimes it is.

[shrike]

Mirikon, i found this site while rummaging through some of my old bookmarks. It is an Earthdawn/Shadowrun comparison site and at the bottom of the page has a reference to something similar to what you propose. You will need access to some of the ED books, but they are available on RPGNOW and DriveThruRPG. Enjoy. Or not.

[spoiler]http://www.amurgsval.org/shadowrun/earthdawn.html[/spoiler]

[Mirikon]

Yeah, I checked out the Magic - A Manual of Mystic Secrets book, and physical Spell Matrices are definitely the kind of thing I was thinking about. And the discovery of the Deep Lacuna gives me an idea on how to link it in...

[Mirikon]

So here are the rules I wrote up for this, though note it is a very rough draft at the moment. And here is a story where a character finds such a device as a possible way to introduce them to the Sixth World.

[Mason]

Yeah, I checked out the Magic - A Manual of Mystic Secrets book, and physical Spell Matrices are definitely the kind of thing I was thinking about. And the discovery of the Deep Lacuna gives me an idea on how to link it in...

what what what? What book is that? Is it SR??? I don't see it on the book lists, am I missing a book!? *panics as he stares at his almost totally complete book collection*