[wepv]

I will say that a few times already I've run into situations where having ANYTHING magially active, including quickened spells, would have been a major liability due to astral patrols.

Also, some of the CMPs assume you are arriving via airports.

Have you found this to be written into the mods or DMs creating conficts for the players when it comes to astral patrols? For the mods I have run so far, I have not found anything to challenge magically active players except mages on response teams and they are not going to spend their actions assensing and dispeling. They MIGHT remove 1 spell and in exchange they take drain. Or they could drop an aoe or summon a spirit.
The number of buildings that are not warded but supposedly important seems odd but I do like the use of conditional spirits (if the group has an awakened character add a X spirits at force Y).

[Michael Chandra]

I am capable of scoring Force 14 Quickened Spells by the way, so that's 22 dice vs dispelling and mana barriers. And yes, that is using Missions rules where all hits in downtime must be bought. Sure I might only be able to score 4 hits without and 6 hits with Spirit help (costing 1.200 nuyen per service... ;_;), but I can handle the Force.

[wepv]

I am capable of scoring Force 14 Quickened Spells by the way, so that's 22 dice vs dispelling and mana barriers. And yes, that is using Missions rules where all hits in downtime must be bought. Sure I might only be able to score 4 hits without and 6 hits with Spirit help (costing 1.200 nuyen per service... ;_;), but I can handle the Force.

I'm not following what this is in regards to?

[Michael Chandra]

A minor note on the dispelling, to support your opinion that enemy mages will not likely waste their time dispelling.

[Dr. Meatgrinder]

A note on quickened spells:  You can't Mask them--Masking metamagic works on your aura and "bonded foci" (which does not include quickened spells).

If you're walking down the street with a Force 14 quickened spell, you're going to draw a lot of astral attention.  Even if you can walk right through mana barriers and ignore most dispelling attempts, you will be noticed...and remembered.

[wepv]

If you're walking down the street with a Force 14 quickened spell, you're going to draw a lot of astral attention.  Even if you can walk right through mana barriers and ignore most dispelling attempts, you will be noticed...and remembered.

I wish that mattered in SR Missions. What rules are there for dealing with players who are remembered(by mages and spirits) beyond the mission you are playing in? It's really a matter of a player letting their GM know that they should be disadvantaged in certain situations...and I don't foresee that happening much.

outside of missions quickened spells are a non issue as they do have valid drawbacks. My issue wit them is that IN SR MISSIONS you don't pay a price for you power. Not everything has a price it seems.

[The Masked Ferret]

If you're walking down the street with a Force 14 quickened spell, you're going to draw a lot of astral attention.  Even if you can walk right through mana barriers and ignore most dispelling attempts, you will be noticed...and remembered.

I wish that mattered in SR Missions. What rules are there for dealing with players who are remembered(by mages and spirits) beyond the mission you are playing in? It's really a matter of a player letting their GM know that they should be disadvantaged in certain situations...and I don't foresee that happening much.

outside of missions quickened spells are a non issue as they do have valid drawbacks. My issue wit them is that IN SR MISSIONS you don't pay a price for you power. Not everything has a price it seems.

If the GM determines that you have quickened spells and that it attracts...attention, it it totally possible for them to give you a point of Notoriety, or maybe public awareness. A good GM will ask at the beginning of the module about your character - and expects you to tell him if you might have issues that cause trouble. I just missed some notoriety in a game Sunday evening after I took a set of 12 clones out for pizza - the GM Rolled some dice, and said that I didn't gain any notoriety that time because the public was too confused seeing the same face 12 times. Yes, this was a missions game.

[Michael Chandra]

A note on quickened spells:  You can't Mask them--Masking metamagic works on your aura and "bonded foci" (which does not include quickened spells).

If you're walking down the street with a Force 14 quickened spell, you're going to draw a lot of astral attention.  Even if you can walk right through mana barriers and ignore most dispelling attempts, you will be noticed...and remembered.

I tried pointing that out to someone in a debate where he said Quickened spells were overkill, but he heavily disagreed. Saw no reason for Assensers (and they need to Assense a few hits to note it's a high-power spell and to identify the type) to be checking out the crowds. I, on the other hand, considered capturing the character and tossing them through Force 7 Mana Barriers until the spells break a fine approach before the cops wake you up for questioning.

But yes: In SR Missions they are a tad problematic since it's something that takes time and effort to counter. And not everything involves a lot of astral activity.

[wepv]

Masked Ferret, I don't see the logic behind gaining notoriety for having quickened spells. Notoriety is for dealing with dragons, killing people when you shouldn't  etc.  nothing on the list of things that gain you notoriety is even close to being related to being seen astrally with quickened spells on.
As far as public awareness goes, I can see more of an argument there. My concern is how would you gain public awareness for being seen astrally unless you are taken into custody? If you aren't, they see you have a bunch of spells on you......and......then what? .how does that translate to every Johnson you talk to knowing who you are? My issue with it is the only way it would gain you public awareness is if you we're doing something that would already be getting you public awareness.

I truly want there to be a price to quickened spells in missions, but I want it to make sense and not be reliant on gms arbitrarily punishing players.

[Michael Chandra]

Keep in mind only 1% of the population is Awakened, of those only Rating 3+ really matter to Authority and of those only a small amount will be walking around with Spells active. So walking around with multiple spells active, Quickened or Sustained, risks drawing a lot of attention.

[The Masked Ferret]

Masked Ferret, I don't see the logic behind gaining notoriety for having quickened spells. Notoriety is for dealing with dragons, killing people when you shouldn't  etc.  nothing on the list of things that gain you notoriety is even close to being related to being seen astrally with quickened spells on.
As far as public awareness goes, I can see more of an argument there. My concern is how would you gain public awareness for being seen astrally unless you are taken into custody? If you aren't, they see you have a bunch of spells on you......and......then what? .how does that translate to every Johnson you talk to knowing who you are? My issue with it is the only way it would gain you public awareness is if you we're doing something that would already be getting you public awareness.

I truly want there to be a price to quickened spells in missions, but I want it to make sense and not be reliant on gms arbitrarily punishing players.

The cost might be that police harass them more. Walking while awakened could be considered a crime on the level of walking while troll. if they resist, well, there's your notoriety.

[wepv]

So the solution is for GMs to add Mage-cops to randomly pop up and harass the awakened player? That isn't an actual solution or cost as most GMs won't do that. Not only does it require stat blocks that the gm might not have ready but most GMs are not going to take time away from the mod to do what will most likely completely derail the entire mod.

[Michael Chandra]

Doesn't have to be random. If the players already run into a hostile group or cops, being Assensed could risk worse paranoia. But we'll see eventually what the details are. Extended Masking will be really important though. ^_^

[PittsburghRPGA]

"Hi, I'm Joe Martin, NewsNet Seattle with an important news story developing at SeaTac International Airport.  Knight Errant Security is looking for the man pictured in this trideo footage (AR Feed switches to long distance shot of Dangerous Mage(tm)).  He was seen leaving the airport after debarking from a privately owned aircraft.  He set off the astral wards at the airport but was gone by the time Knight Errant's patrol arrived on the scene.  The Knight Errant mage on duty, who declined to be interviewed on camera, told this reporter that the man had a left an astral trace at the scene showing very powerful spell use. Upon doing a more through check of the unknown mage's creditials, he was found to be using a fake identification. Amusingly enough, he was broadcasting the System Identification Number (567-68-0515) of 37th President of the old United States, Richard Milhouse Nixon who died in 1994. Citizens are warned to not approach this man if they see him, but instead to leave the area and then immeadiately call Knight Errant's magical task force to report his location. Do not attempt to apprehend this individual yourself as he is magically active and considered armed and extremely dangerous. Again this is Joe Martin, NewsNet Seattle.  And over to Ollie at the sports desk to tell us if the Seadog's playoff hopes are still alive."

And then, as GM, I give you a point of Public Awareness and a point of Noteriety.

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the shrimp special. Tip your waitress.

Eric

[wepv]

I love the flavor of that. Unfortunately that wouldn't be how it worked. If there are mana barriers at the airport (not sure how each mod does it, but the last one I played that involved the airport didnt have any) either he is physically stopped for going through or he sneaks past them. Both of those results don't seem to alert the creator of the ward. Only attacking the ward seems to alert anyone. So Mr. President would actually have to be spotted by the mage on duty, who would be looking at a sea of auras as people wander the crowded airport, all of which have vibrant auras, its just his a a bit more vibrant but no more vibrant then any other awakened person. That mage would need to make an assensing test and score 4 hits (very unlikely for a random airport mage) to know how powerful the spells are. It still takes three hits to even know how strong they are in relation to the mage, not to mention that each spell would be it's own test, as would assening the mage. What ranks in assening do you think an airport mage would have? What would his magic be?