A Time For Secrets OOC

Thanks Ghostmaker, right back atcha! I'm lovin the teammate reaction to Seig's use of terminology. And the scene is definitely getting intense!


So is it strange that I am imagining the theme music from Call of Duty about now?

Thank you Gala and all. I am glad to be able to give back the compliment right at you all. Your posts are wonderful. It's fun to play with you.

Specter is still rather young for a runner. And not as aloof as she pretends to be in a long way.

@Ghost: You did not see anything in Astral previously. Sorry for not posting. You were in the wrong position. Now that you know where you're looking, you do see something in your normal vision, though it's easy enough to tell why you might have missed it before. They are pretty far away, and thermal-vision is quite imprecise over longer distances. Particularly with moving targets.
As a note: Thermal Vision is always active. You can't turn it on or off; so whenever you're viewing in physical, you have a thermal overlay at all times, whether you like it or not. Most of the time that's a good thing. Occasionally it can be a bad thing.

I was fairly sure one could turn it off/on but that must be dnd 3.5 sorry and will edit question can is still use ultra sound to get a clearer pic. through the site on my berrett ? idid say i was using it kinda confused now because im not sure anymore how i view the world

Your eyes are still natural, right? A troll has natural thermalvision. Just like Elves have natural low-light. It's just there. You think it's normal. When people say they don't see Thermal Vision, you're not familiar enough with not seeing thermal signatures to be able to relate. Similarly, when an elf can see something at night that a normal Human cannot, they're like: "Oh... You can't see that." At least, the first hundred times or so. After that they just get used to it. And that's true for you too - you're used to Humans not being able to see things like you do. And you're used to Elves being able to see further in the dark than you - you can sometimes see a heat signature, and sorta make out the shape of their body, but it's far enough away, and dark, that you see their heat better than the rest of them.
Again, it's natural. You don't think about it; it's just there. It's part of how you see the world, all the time. It's part of what was so freaky, at first, about Watashi - he didn't have a heat signature. It was messing with your mind. But the Elves all seemed fine with it; so did the Humans. But you, you knew something was strange.

Erm: Nice roll Darkon!! I concur - A dozen feathered serpents, fertility ritual, and a truck sacrifice. I can't wait to see Specter's reaction to this!!

@Darkon
That crit-glitch was hysterical!


...now I have to clean the mouthful of soda I spewed all over my keyboard, thank you very much

That was more meant as a witty description of how bad the roll was. But yes, I am afraid, some kind of negative reaction should occur. I will edit my post. And I apologize in advance to the team.

Oh and Jagger, sorry. I heard those little wet handkerchiefs you get when ordering chicken legs clean up that mess pretty well.

As a minor note - not that it matters when dealing with that kind of Critical Glitch - Windows are opaque in Astral. They may as well be solid walls; you can't see through them. At least, not without the Astral Window spell (which is quite handy, I might add!).

Ah well, one might assume the window was opened just a fraction to allow a free line of sight.

I edited my post with a likely vision and reaction. Dragons wouldn't have fazed Specter that much as more excited her. She's a dragon shamaness after all. And as her action might be kind of benefitial on some level, it will certainly give away the team.

Well anyway, here goes Specters reputation of a pro runner.

Again, my apologies for dragging in the whole team, but I think it is an appropriate reaction to such a glitch. And as a GM myself I would have called for something similar. At least, I tried to be creative with it. Hope you enjoy the how, if not the fact itself.

Lol kess i always thought aztec was spanish and stuff not stuff and spanish lol sorry dude i thought you would be the only one to understand lol ok sorry

Ha! That was amazing!! First you shouted out some commands in Sperethial - awesome! Then you summoned a fairly powerful spirit, to protect us from an imagined enemy... Right in the middle of a potential real threat!
I'm trying not to laugh too loud, because that would be rude to the neighbors. But that was genuinely funny! Great post Darkon!

@Jagger: Awesome response! You guys are making it quite difficult for me to control my maniacal cackling, at 1:04 AM!

@Kesslan: I love "Boost Attribute" - it's one of my favorite adept powers. I have built entire character concepts around the use of that power, and have had fun doing it! You should find reasons to use it more often.

@Ghost: You've got a lot of good material to take advantage of here... Make sure you make good use of it! One piece of advice: there's so much potential at the moment... You should try and focus on only one event (if you've got a great idea that uses two, maybe that will work too) - that way you can really channel your creative energies in to a stunningly amazing post!
Things to work with: Specter just crawled over Ashe... Specter reprimanded you for using Spanish, and then she used Sperethial. There's a water elemental protecting the car from... umm... We're not sure what from. And finally - the serious stuff that's really going on.

True except that boost attribute is actually fairly uncontrollable and you resist drain based on rating, so if you happen to get a string of hits, while your attribute in question sky rockets (possibly right to the max) and has a wonderfully long duration, the drain at the end of it is pure murder as drain seems to be based on the rating you achieve under SR4A not the rating of the ability.

I just finished reading darkon and jaggers post Wow good stuff good stuff i want to but im tired its been a heck of a night for me i need rest tomorrow first thing though well coffee then posting perhaps both at the same no really great stuff all of you!!! anyway can barly think strait night all

@Kesslan: Drain is for the adept power rating, not for the hits generated. So if you have an Attribute Boost power of 2, regardless of whether you generate 5 hits, or 1, you're still resisting 2 Drain. And resisting 2 Drain is really not that big a deal (and it's stun, not physical)! Now, obviously, we all hope that when you roll, you get the 5 hits, rather than the 1. But there's no effect on Drain either way - you're resisting drain based on the power, not based on the results.

wrote a cool post today this morning infact not very long as like but it was good then the loner pc died i see now why its a loner oh well ill start again now if i can just remember all the good stuff i wrote

man I hate that. happens far too often.
you'll come up with a good post, I'm sure, even if its not quite the same as the one you lost

Jagger thanks for the vote of confidence its not as good or as long and drawn out which is more my style but I'm Satisfied hope you guys like gonna go into professional mode now next but i wanted to join the goofy fun

@Ghostmaker
Like LT's reaction to the water spirit, good stuff!

And yeah, after a little filler about Seij's thoughts on the spirit, he's focusing on the intruders too.

Gala wrote:

@Kesslan: Drain is for the adept power rating, not for the hits generated. So if you have an Attribute Boost power of 2, regardless of whether you generate 5 hits, or 1, you're still resisting 2 Drain. And resisting 2 Drain is really not that big a deal (and it's stun, not physical)! Now, obviously, we all hope that when you roll, you get the 5 hits, rather than the 1. But there's no effect on Drain either way - you're resisting drain based on the power, not based on the results.

That's certainly how it worked under SR4 but it looks under SR4A it's intended to be based on the rating of the boost not the ability, though I could be wrong certainly (And wont complain of it still being based on needing only 1 hit at R1) it's just that it also seems to make little sense because then why would you ever have more than R1 in a boost? Yes it gives you extra dice at that point but then your paying 1 hit per dice with little to no actual gain in the ability itself when it's used. Makes far more sense to base it on the rating you boost to as you super charger your body with magical energy

@Jagger glad you like

I don't have SR4 - I only have SR4A. I can't go back and review the rules in the old book, because I got rid of it as soon as the new one came out (well, after evaluating a bit to make sure I was comfortable with the changes). And in the description, when it talks about drain it uses the capital-letters letting us know that it's talking about the power, not the effect.
Similarly, it works the same with spellcasting: You pay for the force of your spell, not for the number of hits you generate. The writers are far from perfect; but they typically make a valiant attempt at remaining consistent. If there is Drain, it's going to be dealt with under the same rules, generally.

SR4A wrote:

When the boost runs out, you must resist Drain equal to the Attribute Boost rating using Willpower + Body; each hit reduces the Drain Value by one. Attribute Boost Drain is Stun damage.

I just don't see any possible way the above could be read to indicate Drain is based on hits, and not the power. "you must resist Drain equal to the Attribute Boost rating" seems quite determinate to me. And that's before realizing that the drain rules for this power are perfectly in line with spellcasting in general (Power Level = Spell Force).

As for why you may want more than R1: more dice means more potential hits. The power is fairly cheap. And resisting a monster of Drain is really not that important, IF it's some time in the future (which it is - Drain is resisted when the power runs out, not when it's used), and the headache will go away in a day. And the benefits can be huge. Think: Troll, with Attribute Boost on Body... Or on Strength. Think Basher-Adept with Attribute Boost on Strength. Think Sniper Adept with Attribute Boost on Agility. Oh, wait - you clearly did think of that one, didn't you? Ok, think Thrower Adept with Attribute boost for both Agility and Strength. Eh? Like that one?
You take care of business, and deal with the headache later. At .25/level, you can load up on dice, and give yourself a fairly reasonable chance of loading up on hits with a power level of 4 or 5...

The problem gala is that say you get r6 boost but only get 1 hit. That's still 6s you now have to resist for only 1 point of boost that only lasts 2 combat turns. Now take someone theoretically with 11 magic and only r1 boost. They throw the same number of dice but only ever have to resist 1s which is laughable even if you take it.

It's a huge loophole I don't think is supposed to be there if you look at the hits being the rating of the boost. Other flip side is let's say you get 12 hits. Done one way you have a 12 point boost (guaranteed to cap you out at racial moded max) that will last 24 combat turns. One resists only 1 stun the other 6 stun. Doenst really make sense.

My phone was stolen today it had all my shadowrun source material this sucks so i will keep posting from the library but as i know most of you or all of you are GM's and will be watching for cheaters please understand if i miss some of the finer points tell me i will correct without argument thank you in advance for all help i stilll wanna play... arg! life as an adult sucks yeesh

Ghostmaker

I understand the strengths and weaknesses of the power, Kesslan, trust me. But they're no more than strengths and weaknesses. If you get 12 hits, that's great! If you don't, that's ok. But the hits are quite irrelevant, and the description is quite explicit and without the least bit of poor wording or confusion. It's clear cut. If someone takes that power and gets incredible benefits from it, more power to them. Err... Literally. If they don't get huge benefits from it; well, better luck next time. Ahm... Again, literally.

On your last roll, you didn't get much of a benefit. Next time maybe you will. It makes no difference how well you roll though. If you, rolling your 7 dice, manage to put together 6 hits; you're still only going to be resisting 1 stun. That's it. My advice to you: work this power for all it's worth! It's a great power; use it! Heck, next time you increase your magic, get it for Body and Strength too (it doesn't help with Reaction since Improved Reflexes is not stackable)!
I don't use it all that often on my own characters, but not because it's not an awesome power! More because I rarely have the points to spare from my absolute necessities to throw in nice-to-have stuff; even the amazing nice-to-have stuff like this.