Shadowrun Pub
Shadowrun RPG => Magic and the Planes => Topic started by: necessitysslave on September 19, 2006, 06:00:46 AM
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Hi all, I played shadowrun a few years ago and have just gotten the opertunity to GM it. I was hoping that you guys(and gals) would be able to clearup a question or two I have.
Elemental manipulations: Say there is a guy packing lots of heat and my shaman/mage wants to set off his amunition.
The guy is a troll packing two ares preditors and 4 spare clips.
I use either fire or lightning to attempt to set off the ammo.
can someone please go through what would be rolled in what order so as to understand how to make his day a bad one.
also can I create a sustained elemental manipulation so that the secondary effect has multiple chances to go off.
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Well let's see, as I remember (and ROOTless or Retread can correct me here) you get a secondary effect when you cast an elemental manipulation spell at Serious or Deadly Level. The secondary effect kicks in as a damage level 2 Power Levels lower than the primary spell. Therefore a 6 Serious Flamethrower spell would do 6 Light damage to everything the troll is carrying, forcing an object rating test vs. 6L damage. See what I'm saying?
As for creating a sustained E-M spell for causing secondary effects, you could certainly manage that with some spell research (see Maginc in the Shadows) but you may just want to stick to the primary effect of the spell. After all, if you kill the troll outright, why worry about blowing up his ammo? Of course, if you are looking for a kind of "kink" spell, to really mess with people then just give the spell the "sustained" option as well as "limited target" for non-living material.
Just remember, when you set someone on fire like that, you can't loot the body. Credsticks MELT. :-\
Gabriel
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It's Moderate or higher damage. Roll 2d6. If this number is higher than or equal to the Object Resistance rating of the objects in the area of effect (on the target, for example) than the target is affected. Moderate damage spells must add 4 to the OR rating, Serious damage must add 2 to the OR rating. Deadly damage spells have no modifier.
Alternately, as a house rule, you can use the Barrier rating of the object instead for those who don't feel that how natural the object is should affect its fortitude and instead its actual physical nature.
For example, a ganger is hit with a moderate damage Acid Stream spell. 2d6 is rolled, and 7 is the total result. The ganger's baseball bat (OR 3+4= 7) is damaged but his leather jacket (OR 5+4=9) is not. If the spell were deadly damage it would have affected natural objects like trees, water, rocks and simple materials like leather, bricks, and simple plastics and simple metals and alloys. If the roll had been 8 and Deadly, the spell would have also wasted high-tech electronics, advanced plastics (Like credsticks, body armor, etc) and advanced alloys. If 10 or higher had been rolled the Deadly spell would have affected everything.
I recommend that you roll this way for every object to simulate randomness and splash effects but is not really required and you can make a blanket roll to save time.
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Told you Retread would come up with the rule in question. The man is an encyclopedia I tell you. ;)
Gabriel
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Of course, you don't need to roll for inconsequential stuff. The best thing to do is to roll for anything that might seem relevant at the time. So, if the ganger was carrying a bottle of McGrunty's 180 Proof Rum and was hit by a fireball, then you might wanna roll, but you don't need to roll for stuff that players aren't interested in, like the pack of gum in his pocket.
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But what if you want to salvage the gum after you kill him? See, you need to know things like this before hand.
Gabriel
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for shame gabe only you only you as you watch a point of karma float away for the above comment
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You smote me for THAT? You obviously haven't been reading any of my other posts.
Gabriel
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Well, he has been noticably absent.
I thought it was a funny comment. I mean, sometimes runners scavenge bodies for ammo and credsticks, but how often do they search for the old-fashioned football flavor of new NERPS gum?
-kv
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The very first game I ran with this last group, a mage Flamethrowered a guy and did some massive deadly damage. So after the fight, he decides he's going to loot bodies. One of the other guys looks up and says, "Wouldn't a credstick have melted?" The mage looked completely dumbfounded, and I just laughed my hoop off. You gotta love newbie observations.
Gabriel
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acturly thats the frist time have smoted
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Well, I un-smoted him. Worrying about fresh and minty breath after fireballing/flamethrowering a guy is a valid concern, and probably has been addressed by at least one person in the sixth world.
-kv
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Thank you, Kid_Vid. So take that Mercy! You bad-breath troll.
Gabriel
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Hey, I didn't say rational people tried it, just that it had probably been tried.
So here's to Gabe, in touch with the abnormal psyche. ;D
-kv
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That's the thing, it's context sensitive. If a player says, "I wanna check for gum." then you make the roll right there instead of making sure you rolled for the gum beforehand. The same applies for everything else. If a player doesn't ask any questions about their surroundings then the GM is pretty much free to make up whatever they want.
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That's a damn good point, Retread. I like it.
Gabriel
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Thankee!
I have two schools of thought. Most of them depend on whether or not I've done any preparation. When I'm prepared I tend to make my battles like a strategy game, laying out a map with some chess pieces, a pocket tape measure (1cm = 1m sometimes 2m), and a view random tidbits for cover (bottle caps for tables, erasers for cars and trucks and lay out the battlefield precisely.
However, when I'm unprepared I lay out the battlefield randomly, say when the player says "I find some cover." I then just pick something at random and play from there. Players who don't ask questions about their surroundings are treated as "Oblivious" (because they are) and usually end up in hot water.
I prefer to be prepared but sometimes that just doesn't happen. Order is a secondary effect of proper planning, basically; as context is to improv.