|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 3, 2007 3:32:26 GMT -5
OK the latest update:
As you might have noticed my color has changed to corporate. While I am still available as a History Specialist, I am now also the Moderator for Room 6. That means that I will be bringing character sheets up to date for those who are still participating in the room six scenarios.
Here is the list of characters and sheets I plan to update from Preventive Medicine:
Boombaby Mao Pelch Freddy Henri Widow Quick Pops
It will take me a little time to go through, reread, and tally the outcomes, so you have plenty of time to contact me if you wish to have a say. This updating will include Karma, payments, expenditures, life style changes, new devices gained, history, and items destroyed or lost. This will cover up to the end of the Preventive Medicine Segment only. If you have comments for me, or anything you wish me to consider, I suggest you either send me a post or post your remarks in this thread.
Be seeing you. PS: Since my illness was keeping me awake I went and reread all the Preventive Thread: I took notes as I went. I have now updated Gremlin's/Henri's Character Sheet. If Gremlin, you need to discuss updates with me let me know. I will attempt to work on the others tonight, time and health permitted.
|
|
|
Post by Mao on Jul 3, 2007 17:36:30 GMT -5
Just glad to have ye back Belch!
|
|
|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 4, 2007 4:42:53 GMT -5
OK I updated Widows and Mao's character sheets tonight as well.
My next victim when I get on again will be whoever I find next in the line.
So far I have completed updates to: Henri/Gremlin Mao/Mao (snicker) Xandria/Widow Freddy/wolflet59 Pelch Quick
It appears Pops, and Wheel's sheets are removed. Unfortunately it appears I will not be able to update them unless I hear from the players involved.
|
|
|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on Oct 14, 2009 12:12:17 GMT -5
"On the 3 of October 2009, the Retro's inform me that Mr. Gregg Drassell died from complications of pneumonia. He will be greatly missed."
"Now that I have escaped from God's Waiting Room some other updates. Be merciful I am TRYING to catch up.
Doc Patterson under went triple by-pass surgery this summer. He says he's fine at the moment, but has observed that this year really sucks. I can't disagree with that.
Occasionally, I'm still coughing my lungs out. The part that really honks my horn is the Fatman retired. The guy we thought would be first off the planet and getting a game ready in the netherworld seems to be doing real well on his reduced salary. Which just goes to prove that maybe chocolate is the way.
Ronilion is doing well. The Padre Luddington performed the services for Drassel I'm told and Ronilion was at the funeral. No word at this time on what the rest are up to.
|
|
|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on May 30, 2010 7:55:02 GMT -5
Modern Medicine. BAH!
You see now that the Doctor's have decided I'm a useless case and more trouble than I'm worth. They sent me back to my flat to croak off.
Eventually.
There I was on a huge oxy bottle with loads of feel good meds designed to keep me quiet, brain-dead and out of every ones hair so that I didn't have to wreck any ones day by dieing in front of them.
How rude of me.
It didn't take me long to discover which of the sets of pills seemed to help and which ones were just there to put me in La-La Land.
After a time the Doctors became a might concerned.
I guess I hadn't racked off as fast as they thought I should have.
How rude of me.
They decided that they should install this medical tele-send unit in my flat. It uses my phone line and wakes me up everyday at certain hours to take my blood pressure (Which is high because the rutting thing wakes me up early, which honks me off!) It has this really irritating alarm. Four bells each getting higher pitched and louder than the last the longer you ignore it. Really hoopnks off the neighbors if I happen to be out at the time. (Snicker) There's been complaints. I give them the number of the department that saddled me with the thing. You can't shut the fragging thing off. It keeps ringing until you do what the fragging machine wants. It WILL go all farking day, I know I tested it. You can't unplug it once they come in and install it.
Why?
One, It has no off switch and it has batteries and it's not plugged in but hard wired into your electric. Which mean you have to turn off the electricity to talke the wiring off.
Two, it remembers when you last did send something and it's hard wired into the phone line, not a socket type. Even if you unwire it. The alarms continue. If it misses more than three reports the head office sends someone around at your expense to check it out and make sure you haven't disconnected it on your own. I know I tried that.
Three they level a hefty fine if you rip it out of the wall and toss the annoying thing into the rubbish bin. Or if they have to rewire it up. Gets expensive. I'm still not paying it and man the calls to from the billing staff are a pain. My side? I didn't ask or want the fragging thing. It's garbage to me. I refer to my neighbors complaints. It all goes no where. Now they are talking legal action and garnishment. Garnish what? I smile.
Four then they install a new one at cost +.
So three-four times a day this thing is ringing at me. Blood pressure, Give us your weight. Answer questions on what meds you took in the past few hours. Answer farking questions on how you fragging feel and what you been doing. Usually the same questions you answered in the last 50 annoying sessions. With the same annoying answers. I have to type this all out on a small keypad for midgets. My fingers not agile at my age. It's easy to misspell and make all kinds of typo errors. I don't correct them thus reinforcing their opinion of me that I'm an uneducated idiot.
Sometimes I tell them I'm running Marathons and having sex 24 times a day. Amongst other rude and provacative answers.
Hell, I am sure has just such a device.
Now if I happen to be on-line when the machine decides to do it's thing and send all the accumulated information to Hospital?
Right, it knocks my session offline and won't let me re establish it until it's through, it's business being more important than say me trying to dial Scotland Yard because I suspect that maybe the Muslim next store is bringing in party materials. My life is being controlled like a mindless goverment politician. All for my own good of course. Which means it can tie up my phone line for hours. When I may need it. There advice get BT to install another separate phone line. Yeah right at their rates. I get the bill for that too.
Managed healthcare. The best irritant your taxes can buy.
I wonder if anyone reads those reports the mindless drone sends several times each day? No one as asked me about the sex yet. So, I suspect not.
Remember this fans. If those twit doctors and nurses can't irritate you to death personally, or send you on your way in Hospital, they will finally put this terminator on your hoop in hopes that it will so rack you off that you'll croak just having to deal with it.
I hate these people.
|
|
|
Post by Braddoc on Jun 29, 2010 22:01:51 GMT -5
Well then, 'been a while since I read the thread..Didn't know Drassel went on the big trip too; I saw Pelch's previous post about his medical crapophone using the 'last 10 posts" link on the main page.
My late condolences to his family and friends.
---------------
As this is the most 'recent' soapbox thread I'll use this thread instead of the old one (the one marked "from theshadowrun.net") to bring back the old discussion about Magic. Not really as Pelch and Wolflet spoke (the nature of shamanic and hermetic magic), but more to talk about the 'awakening' of magic in a previously mundane person.
There's a few stories in the SR universe about persons gaining magical powers, generally after being killed and brought to life (à la near death experience or being really dead and brought back thanks to magic or a DocWagon's medical team's timely arrival) or just developing naturally (if you can call it that), like late blooming.
But what of exposure? Like it or not, magic's part of the SR world. It's everywhere, it what caused all the new races, dragons, para-creatures, para-fauna etc etc. If someone who goes to play with the carbon rods in a nuclear reactor without his rad suit or cleaning his body with Rad-X or rad-away, he's gonna get irradiated.
Prof. O'Felix spoke of that in the Redemption Thread: make a zone 'rich' enough with magic that you'll force a reaction, a surge, which will affect the person within the surged zone. In theory at least, as it was not tested, but they seemed to have the info that it CAN be something that's a possibility. That would be artificially made of course, nothing from a 'natural' process. Not to mention a quick one; that idea was to help Quicksilver purged his cyber and bioware, to help him become a full-fledged magician in the space of a ceremony or ritual, like eating down a 5lbs bag of sugar in 3 seconds instead of taking 3 years to reach the bottom.
But what if a mundane gets to hang around Mages, who works at crating powerful (or at least noteworthy) magical items? Constantly working in a magical environment, day after day, if must take a toll on the body or spirit. Or what if you take your street sammy and boost him up with spells every chance you get when it's action station time? Would he get affected by it? Up to the point of developing a magical affinity of some sort?
Like the sugar example, you'll be at the bottom both ways: just that you'll probably end up sick or with diabetes if you down it in 3 seconds. Might not get anything if you take 3 years, but you might: just that'll be more subtle, and slow, change.
And even then, what now? Let's say Joe Mundane wakes up one morning wiht magic that he never had before. Will he fall down to 'basic' Hermetic mage, or will his personality/lifestyle/whatever 'attracts' totem(s) that will then try to wrestle Joe between themselves to gain a new follower? Or any other type of sub-genre of spell casting?
If he's a mundane, will he instead turn Adept, as he was brought up knowing he can't use magic, as a crutch or otherwise, so he had to rely on himself and technology. Making the concept of 'traditional' spell hurling magic too an alien a concept for his mind that he will develop some inner abilities instead of the visible powers generally associated with Magic?
And what of control? We all ('least I do) remember ol' Yoda saying to young Luke "Control, control, you must learn control!" Big power between his fingers, but if each time you yell at someone you drop a fireball, or every time you wish that dingbat idiot that you cut you in traffic ends up in the ditch brought up a spirit that pushed said car in said ditch, you're a menace to others, not to mention yourself; nothing stops you from mana-bolting yourself, even if that serves no purpose for a 'real' magician, that doesn't mean someone with newly acquired magical abilities won't accidentally cast something while shaving or dressing up because something else is on his mind due to lack of control.
Power's another thing: will a recently awaken character have access to raw mana, making him a danger, or will he be only able to lid a match 3 meters away after nose bleeding like a faucet due to the effort? Keeping with the exposition idea, it can take time before the kick-back shows it's ugly head. Would someone who gets regularly cast a spell on him would have the same amount of power as let's say, someone who stand in the Rift in front of the Watergate all day long?
And what will trigger that magical ability to manifest? the old near-death experience? Some mental trauma, stress, pressure? Or just some 1-2 ritual with a mentor and that's that? Or simply accidental due to accumulation that it simply pours out all at once?
Personally, one's awakening depends on one's exposure and the trigger effect that cause the magical powers to manifest itself. Generally speaking most mages develop their powers during puberty, a time where the body grows, not to mention the mentality of an individual goes under a few changes, emotionally, his personality, larger understanding on how things goes...so it's understandable that magic powers manifest themselves during that troubled period.
I know there's readers, even members, that comes around and read. I'd like some opinion on that matter if you may.
|
|
|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 17, 2010 8:35:34 GMT -5
I think I gave everyone enough time to reply. Not that I'm surprised at the result. I gave a hint of one thing in the latest Bank post. I'll take it to the next logical step here.
One thing no one has ever seemed to consider in SR when they were dealing with all the nice tech improvements was the fact that magical improvements and enhancements would probably have developed as well.
The creation and design of magical focus items, weapons, jewelry, potions, and a large variety of other items has always been a part of magic. The surgical techniques are their for grafting and performing surgery on tech items.
Why not do the same with magical items?
You see back when I was dealing with Quicks change to a mage, I offered the idea that the tech would have to be removed from him. The idea was to purge him of the debilitating items and regenerate. In SR that could work, but it takes a lot of resources and effort.
Braddoc wants to change to a mage. He doesn't have to chose the same method or even follow the same trail as Quick. He has many other options, some which he has stated himself. He just has to flesh the method out a bit over time.
We have discussed previously the idea that SR magic is life magic or life based. The Undead drain life force from their victims and use it to perform the things they can do. Some make better use of the power than others. Vampires are able to perform multiple magical enhancements because they drain the life force using blood. Ghouls are partially alive themselves so need less and eat the recently dead for the small amounts of life force they use. This is all part of magical evolution.
In magic much has been made of items that have been made by taking the souls of other and placing them in magical items. The soul;s are living magic and thus constantly keep the item replenished with life force. This creates an intelligent item that always has magic as long as the life force field worldwide is maintained. Dead worlds would slowly cause such a spirit to starve to death.
Now take your ordinary cyberware. Perform a small sacrifice ceremony and imbue it with intelligence. Set it to perform a certain function that is triggered by the use of the cyberware. It becomes a doubly lethal and potent weapon and it is even compatible with mages and can enhance the life force power in them.
My astonishment is that none of the Corps in SR has stumbled on this concept yet. Neither have the mages. It does not go against any SR rules or the rules of magic to do this and the Corp that perfected this relatively easy process? Mega Nuyen dudes.
Hear that lurkers?
When you hit your GM's up with this concept, then you better give me the credit.
Think of the possibilities. Mage Adepts on par with the technological street warriors. Now as you increase the empathy and life force of those who take some enhancements does that mean they will become more magical sensitive and magically experienced?
Of course, if they survive long enough.
Consider this, the longer such intelligent magical devices exist and operate, the more powerful they become, usually over the period of millenia, but it does happen. They become magically powerful artifacts. Now say artifacts were implanted?
The trick to power is the intelligence level of the initial sacrifice, and the magical orientation of said sacrifice. If you are a snake shaman and use a snake sacrifice to power yourself? Snake is going to like you better. Remember Freddy trying to do all the tech stuff and I told him he was going the wrong way? He was going to the tech alone to do things, not magically enhancing the tech so he could do new things that wouldn't drain him or fight him.
Remember the rules of magic do have limitations, but they are not always the same as the rules of technology, they do have some similarities though that can be used.
SR has this concept of walls, but as I pointed out to Quick so long ago, Walls can be destroyed with the right ideas.
Sooner or later in SR people are going to find the connections between magic and tech and make use of them.
This is only the beginning of the possibilities.
|
|
|
Post by Braddoc on Jul 19, 2010 19:02:57 GMT -5
Mechanic wise, it was surely so that no one ended up with a chromed out Street Sammy who can hurl manabolts and call spirits forth and pop out for astral recon.
Game universe-wise I think why it was never though of what for the base description of cyberware: like it or not, magic is life (essence) and cyber removes Essence. Logical to say that cyberware can't be magically affected as itself removes the 'Mana flow' capabilities from an individual. Perhaps also for security reasons: cyber is just an tool, but what if you give that tool conscience? It didn't ended well when a few brooms and buckets were sentient, if your move-by-wire decide to go left when you must go right, tough luck and nice funeral.
And there is also the individual: if your cyberware becomes magic, will that negate the essence loss, as that old lump of metal is now tapping into the life energy? Someone who's heavily cybered might laugh, but it would be more reflex, a memory of his old meat life, as himself having so much chrome, can't really feel emotions or feelings on the same level as you and I, as his own life force is depleted, being nothing more than a sentient machine almost.
But if he gets all that mana flowing through his cyberware, would that make him more conscious, more 'human' again? So that the next time he laughs he's actually doing it, feeling it, instead of provoking some old bioreflex?
|
|
|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 20, 2010 8:12:57 GMT -5
Having a really bad day this morning. Probably won't get a whole lot done today. Spiking fevers and then chills. Stomach is rolling. The meds ain't working. The 'infernal device' is a real pain already.
I was aware when they set up the game why they built the walls. The problem with doing that in any game is you have no room to grow. The only time the game does grow is when someone puts out a rule revision that puts patches on the patches.
Keep the game simple, make the challenges hard.
Why is it that people be it government, gaming, the corp world, think that all things will be improved by adding more rules?
It never works.
Change for the sake of change never works either. Well thought out changes are more desirable. The trick is to make the rules simpler not add levels of complication.
I can understand why they did it, I just don't agree with it. Ever notice that laws and rules tell you what you can't do, not what you can do? Laws are the antithesis of innovation and adaptability.
As for cyber removing essence? Sure that was the way it was set up but no game rule is written and handed down on high like the Ten Commandments. I've dealt with this concept before.
The way games are played and the medium by which you play them changes constantly. We've seen that here. The mechanics of the game do not translate well to this medium. So do we allow a game to die because we refuse to adapt our own methods of playing? Seems bloody likely doesn't it.
As for becoming more human? Or eliminating empathy loss? Yep, it would happen, but....some people will still not want to go the magic route and will play the old cybered up version. Some like to focus on certain types of play characters. Nothing wrong with that. Have you considered the cost of magically enhancing the cyberware you have? Not everyone is going to be able to afford or desire those changes.
|
|
|
Post by Braddoc on Jul 21, 2010 7:26:46 GMT -5
Sorry to hear you're having a bad pass. Hope you manage it all right, and that it's not too humid where you are; that's a killer.
--
Well I did thought of magically enfusing items, I suppose cyber's the same
1- High quality materials and workmanship. Cyberwise, that possibly means Deltaware, while other cyberware might work, I suppose the connection will be stronger with Deltaware, as it is better suited to an individual's need, not to mention the way it is connected to the nervous system of the owner. As for items, easy-does-it for materials, workmanship might be tricky, depending on the item you wish to create.
2-Magic as such. Enchanting a cyberlimb can be done, the question is, can get a Magician to do it? It's not something that seems to be 'in the know' in magic circles, if only a select few. Even then, the Mage might require a generous pay check, Initiation etc etc....Not to mention the old "but Mundanes can't use magical items!" routine might show it's ugly head. But that can be moved around easely in terms of mundane items being magically enfused. Cyberware might have to be magically turned ON before being installed then be fine tuned to the owner's mana...vibration? Emmanation? I'm not too sure of the correct term on that one. But I guess it should be better to get it maged-up before it's installed.
3-Then there's also the matter of which you wish the limb/item be enchanted, and how the magic will "show" itself. You want that pen to light in the darkness when you remove the cap? Maybe that limb being able to lift more it can mechanically? A door that let go a manaball when someone else than those selected open it? Maybe some sort of magic grenades, or magic bullets ? (I got some ideas on those actually, slightly more do-able than getting cyberware magically active I'd say.)
4-Pay for it. You'd better have lots of cash and/or good contacts in the right places to pull it off 'else you'll end up having a damn expensive magical cyberware/item.
Protecting said magical item/cyberware is also a good idea, since everyone will surely want to get a piece of that pie. Maybe a patent could work..hmm.....
Side note: I suppose the fact that the Sammy who gets magical cyber or whatever keeps playing the tough-as-nails sammy image, is because the character was already with that mentality, and that magic will just be another gun in his guncase rather than some mytical power(s).
That and, let's face it, Sammies don't really take magic knowledge as skill, I guess it follows the character-hard to play out a mage when you don't know nothing about magic short of spirits=bad.
|
|
|
Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 22, 2010 6:02:07 GMT -5
I took a couple of days and a lot of strange new pills but I seem to have stabilized again. Still not 100%, but better than I was. I'm supposed to rest more and take it easy. Spent most of yesterday in Hospital.
The place hasn't improved.
The talk around the village idiot by the medical elite was possibly tainted meds, or whether my system had built up some kind of resistence to the drug.
So the village idiot chimed in. I didn't feel I needed an invitation. Idiots are like that you know. I asked, "Why don't you test the medicines and see. I brought the bag of them with me. If nothing else you'll eliminate a possibility and maybe some expense off my bill by not holding consultations with fifty doctors I don't know."
In polite one syllable words, I was told this was not Hospital policy. Like buildings make policy. Humans make policy and if policy is totally cocked up it should be changed. That seemed to simple a concept for the elitist class. I was sent home before I raised any other questions that might actually get to the heart of the matter. At least they didn't dare pat me on the head or hand. I might be contagious. Snicker, I hope I am.
Nothing works these days. Not likely to in the future either. The rest of the world seems to be sliding down that same slippery slope behind me. Your turn will come Omae.
Managed Healthcare.
My dimpled bum.
No brains to 'Manage' it, just flunkies making rules and laws. That sound good but don't work for squat. Who thinks this drek up?
Sort of like SR these days, Eh?
|
|
|
Post by Braddoc on Jul 25, 2010 19:47:12 GMT -5
Heh..just sayin'
|
|
|
Post by wolflet59 on Apr 22, 2022 5:24:14 GMT -5
nice idea to imbue ware with intelligence to create a self aware ware, however... If I remember, the int is just a boost to an already existing int, not the creation of a new identity pumping a spirit or spell into a lifeless block of metal has a massive resist due to the metal or even more if it is highly processed.. though it could possibly be done with billions sunk into research that is why talismans and focii are all carefully prepared out of nice gaia-friendly materials
there are already known methods for slapping on a (very expensive) magical trinket onto mundanes - anti-bullet shields and the like but they tend to be one-shots. they will save your life so your own security can then kick in
freebasing the rule guidelines to create a get rich quick cunning plan that will allow weedy burnt out mages to easily create a philosopher's stone may well work within the rule set but ought not to be used as it will unbalance everything.
I looked at a good discussion on why there are no flying cars nor hover-boards - short answer - these arnt part of the SR canon. Game devs wanted a gritty distopiary. I suppose they could have said that anti-grav tech was available, but they diddnt so it doesnt exist (but 400 ton dragons can flap and fly..)
I wrote a lot on magics and we went on a couple of runs involving a tons of it.. one biggie was creating Meg's workshop as a vehicle for runs, and for me to explore how stuff worked.. as a side product to this you guys helped create quite a bit of orichalchum the wonder metal... however there has been very little game information released on what it is good for... (solely lowering the magic resistance for creating focii and the like.)
That would be a viable method to incorporate magics into 'ware by using the wonder metal in the construction to lower the resistance and therefore more easily embed magics... (look up the cost of the stuff haha!) also you would need a professional alchemist who is also a cyberware development specialist to design the incorporation of the two fields (maybe ask a dragon?)
or you just buy a very expensive magical bangle that performs in a similar way
|
|