BTW, just out of curiosity, who comes up with these plots?  I mean, that's a pretty cool job to have if you are getting paid for it too!  And have these been stories been created before the 1990s?

I should have the bulk of my new character completed for you today or tomorrow so you can look it over.  I'm mostly just deciding how to spend money at this point.  Lots of things to consider, so it's slow going.  I'm excited to play him though!

@Noruas - lots of different people over time.  Full list of publications are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shadowrun_books

Even our esteemed GM has done some writing (though for Eclipse Phase, not Shadowrun - to my knowledge).  Hard gig to make a living at though.

Thanks Copperhead!  BTW, who does your vehicle repair/upgrade/maintenance?  Is it possible to get an introduction?

Me.  I'm a pretty talented jack of all trades when it comes to fixing things - mechanical or  electronic and am not too bad with weapons either.  (Not a great seamstress though)  I do have a good friend who owns a junk-yard which can be a source for parts.  I've got a full vehicle and electronics repair shop, so can fabricate anything not too complex.  If your deck gets a bullet hole or two, I can probably fix it.  If it gets melted into a pool of goo, I'm afraid you're going to have to buy a new one. :>

I thought this was once in the game intro but it doesn't seem to be there anymore.  Anyhow, I remember seeing it somewhere and thought it might be worth bringing up.

Posts read the best when expressed in past tense ("He drove", "She fired") rather than present tense ("He drives", "She fires").

I'm not making this statement because I'm good at this - I often find myself editing posts at the last moment when I find I've used present tense or even mixed tenses.  When I think about what my character is doing, I'm thinking "present tense", so it's intuitive that way.  However, when written, "present tense" is somewhat awkward while past tense increases the flow of the thread and makes it more like a novel or story.

(Exception is when you're doing dream sequences or recollections or something like that when shifting to present tense can be a useful tool to re-enforce that something different is happening here.)

This isn't critical, so don't stress over it, just something to keep in mind as you write.

Oh, and pleased to meet you White Duck and Caduceus :>

(@White Duck - nice mask.  @Caduceus - nice name.  Having a protector of thieves among us seems appropriate somehow . . .)

Good to know, Copperhead.  I also end up editing my posts last-second if I find I wrote in the incorrect tense or mixed tenses.  (I have a feeling I should go proofread my last post too. :P )  Edit: Yeah, I completely switched tenses halfway through there and didn't even realize it...

By the way, I am the player formerly known as St. Velveteen.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Sat 03 Oct 2015.

One other thing that I thought used to be written down, but can't find anymore.

If you edit a post, include a little note in orange (OOC) that says what you changed.  (Helps those of us who may not remember what you'd said before and helps us figure out whether we need to change any of our stuff too.)  Not necessary in this circumstance :>

So, since this is my first time playing a magic user in the shadowrun system, I was hoping to get your guys' help to make sure I understand the basics of the magic system.  Especially how to cast spells and conjure spirits.  I am having a tough time wrapping my head around it all at once, so I think that writing up a test scenario will be helpful.  Please point out any mistakes I make.

---

Caduceus was bored one fine autumn day, so he decided to take a trip to a local corn maze.  It must not have been a very popular one because he was the only person there.  When he was smack dab in the middle of the maize maze, a Wild Minotaur appeared!  As it snorts and stares him down, Caduceus calls to the spirits of the field to come to his aid.  He is shaking in his boots and nearly peeing himself, so he tries to summon a really powerful one.

Caduceus has Conjuring 6.  He uses all Conjuring dice for the test.  Not saving any for the drain test.  (Snake shamans get -1 for spells cast in combat, but this isn't a spell, correct?  Probably not even combat yet either.)
10:59, Today: Caduceus failed (no successes) using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 6 ((4,3,4,1,5,1)).

No spirit was willing to heed his call, but the effort of his attempt still wears him down.

Resisting Medium Stun damage from drain using charisma.  No Conjuring dice added because none were saved.  Target number is 6 because that is the force of the spirit he attempted to summon.
11:04, Today: Caduceus failed (no successes) using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 6 with rolls of 5,2,1,2,5,5.  Test run - resist drain.

Ouch!  His fear must be really getting in the way of his concentration right now.  Caduceus cringes at the mental backlash he is experiencing.

He takes Moderate stun damage!  Three boxes get ticked in his stun column which will add +2 to the target number of future tests for a while.
11:24, Today: Caduceus rolled 6 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 2 with rolls of 3,4,2,4,5,(6+1)7.  Test run - stun recovery.

Because of his strong will, it will only take Caduceus half an hour to fully recover.  He bravely cowers away to a nearby trailer house to recuperate in.  Luckily the Wild Minotaur is too busy eating the corn maze to bother following.

After he watches an ancient VHS copy of a Barney episode, the trailer's owner comes roaring up the driveway in an old beat up pickup truck.  The woman who gets out is carrying a shotgun and probably wouldn't like to find someone messing with her antiques.  Caduceus decides to distract her with a Trid Phantasm spell while he sneaks out.  He decides on having the Minotaur from earlier walking down the hall of her trailer in the opposite direction while he hides behind the armchair, peeking over the armrest.

Force 5 Trid Phantasm. Also allocating 7 Sorcery Dice and saving all spell pool dice for the drain test. (saving an extra dice because of earlier lessons.  Caduceus gets +2 dice because it is an illusion spell and -2 to the force for drain purposes because it is an exclusive spell of that type.)  Target number is 4 because that is what the spell says.
12:15, Today: Caduceus rolled 3 successes using 7d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 2,(6+4)10,3,5,5,1,1.  Test run - Cast Trid Phantasm Wild Minotaur.
I believe that means Ms. Shotgun will need three successes vs. target number of 5 to see through the phantasm?

Now to resist stun. +1(D) Stun.  So Force 5 spell divided by two rounded down, +1, but -2 for its exclusive properties, so a total of 1 difficulty for the stun test. (gotta bump it up to 2 though, since that is the minimum for any test.)  I'll add my remaining sorcery dice,(can I add that one?) all spell pool dice, and my willpower dice for a total of 13 dice.
12:27, Today: Caduceus rolled 10 successes using 13d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 2 with rolls of 4,1,1,3,2,1,5,5,5,2,4,(6+6+4)16,5.  Test run - resist drain, Force 5 Trid Phantasm.

Ten successes means the damage code is reduced from Deadly to Serious to moderate to light to nothing to less-than-the-minimum-somehow-because-why-not?

Caduceus sneaks out the door while the lady tries to figure out why there is a Wild Minotaur headed for her bathroom.

Pretty close.  Only thing I noticed is the stun damage recovery.

The base TN is 2, but you add 2 to that because you have moderate stun, so your TN is actually 4.  That's 4 successes rather than 6.  So that means you need 15 minutes to clear your first box of stun.  Then you roll *again* to clear your second box - this time with a TN of 3.  Then again with a TN of 3.  That means the time to recover will tend to average out.  A good roll for one box will typically be cancelled out by a bad roll for another box.  Average time to recover from medium stun with willpower or body 6 is about 1 hour.  So you might still have been dozing in the chair when the friendly shotgun-wielding home-owner returned . . . :>

A force 3 spirit would have been a better bet.  You'd have gotten a lot more services (4 on average) and no drain.  You could then have had the spirit slow the minotaur, speed you and hide you.  Shouldn't have taken too long before your were a good long way away from the minotaur and he'd have no way to find you.  Maybe throw in an accident or confusion for good measure.  And once you were far enough away, you could pause to try again and build up additional services from the field spirit.  The biggest challenge is that you'd have needed the full combat turn to summon the spirit without interruption and then another combat turn to invoke the two services.  If the minotaur is only a few meters from you, your odds wouldn't have been good :>

As for whether you were in combat, I'd say probably yes given that it snorting at you and staring you down as well as the fact you're feeling a need to take defensive action.  However, Papa might disagree.

Ah, good point about the stun TN.  I even wrote that it adds +2 to tests and still forgot to add the +2.  Oops.  I did not realize that each box gets a separate test though.  That is good to know.

I realized that a force 6 spirit was probably not a very good choice and that force 3 or 4 would be better, but I wanted to try for the big guns since this scenario was just for fun and I didn't really have anything to loose.  (Should have tried for Force 12!)  The main purpose of the scenario was to test out the mechanics, and also to learn a lesson or two.  And, well, I certainly learned my lesson about the dangers of trying to tackle more than I could handle. :P

Thanks for the help, Copperhead!

P.S. Caduceus approves of you snake-related street name.

You may want to make it modus-operandi to summon a force 3 spirit each time you switch domains (except when doing so would look weird).  That way if there's unexpected combat, the spirit's already present, you don't have to worry about modifiers and don't have to spend the time to summon them.  Especially whenever combat or other conflict seems like a possibility.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea.  That is actually a big reason Caduceus is headed to the Banshee early right now.  So he can scope out the place and have a spirit or two ready to help if needed.  There is a maximum number of spirits you can have in service to you at one time, correct?  I can't find the number right now, but I know you can use spell points to have up to 6 at character creation. (which is a horrible use of spell points for a shaman...)

Shamans (Shami?) have it a bit tricky.  They can only control one at a time.  Once instructed, a spirit will follow the instruction until the task is complete or sunrise/sunset.  However, the second you switch domains (physically or mentally - which includes summoning a spirit from another domain), you can't command a previously summoned spirit - all remaining favors are automatically lost.

So what you'd typically do is summon a spirit and give them a bunch of orders (conceal my friends and I, speed my friends and I, slow those who are trying to harm me).  Then summon another spirit to have on hand to give spur-of-the-moment orders to (could be the same domain, could be another domain).  Note that the "conceal me" order would apply when you're in the spirit's domain, but would carry over even if you leave and come back.  So you could get a city spirit and a sky spirit and a forest spirit to provide concealment on the way in and they'd still conceal you when you're hoofing it out.

That's different from how elementals work.  Elementals are on call until their services are fulfilled.  The difference is it takes a long time (and a lot of money) to summon them - so it has to be done in advance.  Plus they hate your guts (usually) and will therefore try to screw you over given half a chance.  Spirits, on the other hand, generally like you and may even voluntarily do things to help you out if your objectives are in alignment with their own.

Ok, cool.  Sounds like most of that works the way I thought it did.  I didn't know you could only have one nature spirit under your command with services though (even within a single domain.)  Glad I asked.  I also didn't know you could leave a domain and come back again and still have the spirit providing it's past services.  I was thinking that "conceal me when I walk to the building," and, "conceal me when I come back out of the building" would be two separate services.  It's good to know that the service can be phrased, "conceal me whenever I am in your domain until sunrise/sunset."  Now that I phrase it like that, it seems a lot more intuitive to me that it would only require a single service.  Neat!

If you leave and come back, all of the "outstanding" services would be gone.  But all current orders would still be in place.  For a really low-level spirit (read "stupid"), a GM might rule that the spirit has forgotten by the time you get back (particularly if it would be entertaining :>), but in general a spirit will fulfill its orders until sunrise/set.  Certainly being explicit is useful.

Sorry for the delayed reaction- internet issues this weekend that should be resolved tomorrow or Monday. Router issue. Will get a post in as soon as I'm up and running.

So........what's up guys?

I'm getting :P

If I don't post on Tuesday, I'm definitely late. But with a holiday yesterday and a camp-out over the weekend, my mind was everywhere BUT online.

So who's in the room with White Duck?  Is Caduceus there?  What about Roxanne?

Caduceus, White Duck, the Johnson (Roxanne), and Urian Manes.

Copperhead's in her van in the parking lot.  Caduceus is in the outer part of the bar (where he actually has radio contact).  If you wish, you can be around 3km away at a Stuffer Shack or something jacked in.  Alternatively, you can be somewhere else.  Roxanne, White Duck and Urian are all in a back room in a shielded part of the bar with a white noise generator running.

Ah, thank you.  I guess there would be little point to have me soooo far away from where the action is.  I hope you wouldn't mind if I joined you in the van Copperhead?

Wait.  I thought Caduceus was in the room with White Duck, without radio contact.  It would be rather difficult to provide overwatch on him if he can't watch over him...

I was assuming you were in the part of the bar with radio contact, keeping an eye on those who were already in the bar and able to relay a message if trouble shows up.  But if you want to be in the no-radio area, you certainly can.