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MagicRun: New Thread For SSDR

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Banshee

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« Reply #30 on: <05-28-20/1340:38> »
Yes and if permanent magic buffs cost the same as tech buffs that would be OK too, but they don't as it is.

Magic buffs have practically zero opportunity cost (i.e. cyber uses up essence preventing other options), zero monetary cost, and minimal karma cost
Robert "Banshee" Volbrecht
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Lormyr

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« Reply #31 on: <05-28-20/1349:14> »
In SR5, no contest, I fully agree.

SR6, I do agree they are arguably better, but there is a pro and con. Pro: cheap as hell in all regards. Con: can be taken away at a moments notice leaving you totally boned since dispelling is significantly easier than it was previously.

I expect that this balance will not remain for long though, because it is only a matter of time before power creep on spells available make the god buffed mage a thing again.
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BeCareful

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« Reply #32 on: <05-28-20/1926:19> »
What would be a good encouragement for magicians to cast spells on allies? I mean, wasn't the original rationale of the -2 per sustained spell something like the magician can make you faster, you hotter, and the magician invisible, then hangs around until it's time to drop all those spells and fling Ball Lightning around?

Also, how about this for a house rule in 5th: No Power Foci, but a Spell Focus can work on Spellcasting, Counterspelling, or Sustaining, just not all at the same time?
So you won't need a bunch of foci and risk developing a dependency on them, and your Combat Focus would never get used for sustaining anything, but you could, say, use your Illusion Focus to help you cast your illusion, counter another illusion, or sustain an illusion you didn't use it to help you cast in the first place, but once it's sustaining something you can't use it for anything else.

As for spirits, what about spirits disliking hanging around places that aren't for them? Like, air spirits won't like it if you summon them indoors, People Spirits hate it if someone brings them to the wilderness, stuff like that? Though this would mean that water spirits might see the least use, there might not be any problem with Task Spirits,  and this is still a fluff solution to crunch problems, which rarely goes over well.
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DeathStrobe

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« Reply #33 on: <05-29-20/0138:34> »
Well, folks in opposing camps on whether limited or unlimited progression is best will likely never see eye to eye on the matter because the core philosophy is in direct opposition. I prefer my god mages to be confined to only high fantasy settings myself.

Likewise, for me, narrative penalties are a terrible way to attempt to balance game mechanics. Enhancement to game mechanics, though? Sure.

I think having some game mechanics to explain why IEs are so esoteric would be narratively beneficial.

These aren't soft mechanics, like "spirit reputation" or "how patrol IC work." It'd be more like addiction rules.

Once you hit a certain power level, bad things should happen, explaining why these people are so rare.

If a Street Sam's end endgame is cybermancy and needing to remember to not die. Then there should be something similar for mages. The cost of untold power should be your proverbial humanity.

We can do this with all the archetypes. Deckers become AI. Riggers become brains in jars. Technomancers suffer the same fate as the awakened, (or brains in jars too, as that's a MCT thing that sounded cool). The Face becomes a CEO of a mega...I don't know...

The idea is at a certain power level the PC is forced to become a NPC or dies. SR get's pretty broken at extremely high karma. You either retire to live off your last big score or you stop being metahuman.

Just my 2 nuyen.

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #34 on: <05-29-20/0231:31> »
To quote one NPC about another NPC of mine that retired from retirement: "He gave up being human." There's a perfect six word story for that concept: "It cost too much, staying human."
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Lormyr

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« Reply #35 on: <05-29-20/0616:46> »
See, where as I feel those are all excellent story, narrative, and character ideas that are role-play based and require no game mechanics. Mechanically speaking, essence does sort of cover that for the non-awakaned.
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Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #36 on: <05-29-20/0940:14> »
This is a neat concept.

Your Magic goes DOWN during game play just like essence, instead of going up.  0 is your hard cap for learning spells, gaining metamagics and so on...
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.