| Part Two : Dealing with Magical Characters Mages and awakened PCs in general are at a bit of a saturation point in Denver, and to a lesser extent, Detroit. They're under strict controls in Seattle, which basically means the 600 karma mages sit in their apts and scream bloody murder when a GM challenges them, happy and content in being the baddest PC on the MUX but never actually testing their mettle, and not opening the slot for another PC. But enough Seattle bashing. Mages, and physads can become a little bit of a problem in a MUX environment. But, before you go an limit mages or start up another SamvMage debate on the boards again, there are numerous ways to deal with magic, physads and whatnot. Listed below are measures both GMs and PCs cant ake to keep mages in check. 1 ) Wards. Wards are absolutely fantastic. They're cheap, any full mage can build them, and they're entirely effective against mages. I personally dont like the houserule on Denver regarding the wards destruction taking time to alert the mage, but this can be easily overcome by making an alarm ward and putting it just inside, or outside, of the normal, standard ward. Wards block astral travellers something fierce. You cant see through them, you cant travel through them, and you cant cast through them. Spirits cant handle them, and foci (and quickening) really hate wards. Placing, and enforcing wards on the grid, or in a run, can limit astral snoopers, shaman spirits, and eat up services for the hermetic mage's elementals. They also substantially restrict the use of that quickened Improved Reflexes spell. There are a number of special wards in MITS. Read them, learn them, love them. 2) Astral patrols. Watchers are cheap as chips, and can seriously restrict a mage's use of magic in open areas, such as corporate grounds or other places you want to keep under magical reconassaince. Take a look at the astral searching/patrolling table. Mages really light up like a christmas tree and their awakened auras can be more of a hindrance than an advantage to a team going in quiet. 3 ) Security Mages. Much like deckers encountering a security sysop, mages geared for intrusions tend to scream and flee like sissies when a security mage comes along. This is often because while the Intruder mage may be equipped with stunball, inmporived invisibility, levitation, and other runner-esque spells that are used to great effect on runs, the security mage is equipped with elementals, manabolts, and other nasties. Also, a security mage that spots a team can notify and put the whole base on alert inside a combat turn. Careful with the use of these guys...its very easy to make a run go south when using security mages. 4 ) Enforce the Astral Signature Rules! Astral signatures occur whenever a mage casts or does something that involves the channeling of mana. Spells, activating foci, and I believe summoning spirits and elementals all leave an astral signature. That signature lasts for force times hours in time. Thats a long time, and a lot can happen in that time. If your mage has just stunball 6'ed a bunch of mundie guards near that secret stash of data after having avoided the magical security, and then a watcher plods along 2 minutes later and finds a big, glaring, force 6 astral signature, not only will the jig be up, but the security mage can memorise and recognise you later. On a judge call, they might even be able to use this segment of your aura (which is sorta what it is, since each astral sig is unique to the caster), to track you via watchers. Unlike samurais, mages can get identified by their 'shell casings'. Samurais, on the other hand, dont light up the astral, dont leave astral footprints, and generally their tools dont identify them immediately. 5) Background Count. In all populated areas, background count is at least 1. Thats +1 to all magic tests. Including drain. In a lot of places a team of PCs might go, the background count is likely to be higher. This substantially hinders a mage as they need to assign more and more dice and karma to drain rolls. 6) Electronic Security. Mages can really suck ass against electronic security. If you've got a mage that is waltzing through your runs, up the anti, and make them rely more on tech than their own powers. Add in Ultrasound, which improved invisibility doesnt affect. Add in audio detectors. Pressure pads. Neck high monowire. Electric fences. Heat sensors. Maglocks are higly effective, especially when combined with wards. A maglock 6 can be unlockable by a PC with some task pool, some time and skill, but a mage doesnt get task pool, and generally they dont invest much in electronics and its B/R Cousin skill. 7) Gaesa . Dont let those mages who take gaesa so they can get 'ware get away with murder. Enforce their gaesa. If a Gaesa requires speaking, or hand gestures, or a special uniform, and they dont RP it in their casting post(or havent told you they're wearing it), then have the spell make no effect. The GM has no responsibility to remind awakened PCs about RPing their Gaesa. The PC should know it well enough. Fetishes are in a similar vein here. Make sure they have them. This is all just the basic stuff, and doesnt touch on magical threats, toxics, advanced magical security, FAB, and all the other stuff in MITS. Most of the above, with the exception of patrol tables, gaesa and special wards, can be found int he core SR3 rulebook. Back to the Tripe Back to the Lair |