[Mythras] Sixth World Scry and Die

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Raleel

The Lemon LeCroix of Mythras
Moderator
Joined
May 15, 2017
Messages
7,518
Reaction score
19,297
As some of you know, I've been tinkering with a Shadowrun hack using Mythras. It's going pretty well, though there is a lot going on in the Sixth World. As I go through and make my own version, I'm breaking some of the assumptions. In my group, i have an old time SR3 GM and player, and there have been some Discussions :smile:

Anyhow, I have another person GM, and I have started to play. One thing that came up was Scry and Die, as my character took Project (Sight) (and Holdfast, so it's more Scry and Stick) and you can cast spells at anything in Sight. Thus, you can cast project sight at some distance (you pay for distance*), then come in later with another spell at things you can see. Caveats
  • You can't see through your regular eyes while this is active
  • If they can detect your magic eye ball, they can hit it with magic things and it will hit your head.
However, the notion of potential scry and die didn't sit well. SR explicitly disallows it (you can't cast spells through clairvoyance. No explanation as to why that I've found, and I have some real questions about their model), but I am not interested in house ruling every little damn thing so it is just the same. I already broke apart conjuring and sorcery into sorcery and animism and being a Priority A Full Mage is going to make you not have many spells. And the argument was brought up that the mundane cannot do anything.

Anyhow, what I am interested in hearing is interesting ways more mundane folks deal with magic in SR, without going all "get a magic item" or "get an anti-magic item" or "hire a caster". For this particular case I (with some assistance) came up with
  • Smoke bomb
  • Flipping off a light switch
  • Strobe light
  • Environmental barriers (walls, etc)
Essentially, just try and break LOS against an invisible eyeball.

One thing I had considered was most all spells have visible effects, so while the scry itself may not be visible, casting through it definitely will highlight the oculus. While that doesn't mean they have magic bullets, it does mean they have an idea of where to hide from it from.

* My character can pretty easily pull an 15+ minute scry at 100 miles, though that required some extra training I'm thinking I might leave out. Without that, I can do it at more like 10 miles. This is the most tenuous, non-resistant version, and for 2 (out of 18) magic points. I can then toss another spell at that range with otherwise the same parameters. Get up closer, I can make it last longer, hit more targets, and/or make it more resistant to dispels.
 
I have willed away what little detailed mechanical knowledge I had of Shadowrun, but I do seem to remember that doing magic requires you to waffle with astral space. The concept of a player having an active magical beacon in astral space and making it flare up by channeling more magic through it stirs the darker parts of my GM-brain.
Which is not an answer to your question here, but really, what did you expect?
 
I have willed away what little detailed mechanical knowledge I had of Shadowrun, but I do seem to remember that doing magic requires you to waffle with astral space. The concept of a player having an active magical beacon in astral space and making it flare up by channeling more magic through it stirs the darker parts of my GM-brain.
Which is not an answer to your question here, but really, what did you expect?

absolutely, and I sort of broke the sorcery/astral connection by moving astral interactions pretty well exclusively to animism. It has given me an idea for a new shaping component that I have dubbed Masking to make it extra confusing - I have invoked the assumption that unless the book says it's invisible, or it doesn't make sense for it to be invisible, the spell effect is visible by default, no perception roll necessary most of the time. And thus, you can spend a shaping point to Impose a Very Easy roll, then additional points to step up the difficulty.
 
In Shadowrun the caster has to physically see the target in real space with their own eyes, so they can also see them in astral space and channel the astral magic into their physical form.

That’s why optical magnification works, or cybereyes with optic lenses, anything that puts real light on the retina, but electronic optical magnification or electronic cyber eyes that use projected image do not. Magical Clairvoyance counts as projected image.
 
I am aware. Clairvoyance just says you can’t cast spells through it. The justification is exceptionally flimsy, but it is what it is. “You just have to be able to see the target, and the magic doesn’t pass through the glass, but the light is somehow important because you can’t have anything interposing that is not transparent to light or that modifies the light, except if you have thermographic vision then It can be seen because of heat, and of course cybernetics because they are essence paid and now a part of your aura, and spells wont help you get line of sight because they are magic even though it says nothing about how the light gets back to you it could be a literal window into the space” or something :smile: I’m not going to argue SR from more than 20 years ago. I’m tossing that out because it is inconsistent.

Instead, you must have line of sight to the target. Line of sight from the oculus counts. this makes scry and die a possibility, but little different than having elementals show up or whatever else. So the question really becomes what happens now? What defenses are there? why doesn’t a mage dominate? Or did he already?

The first question I was asked was why doesn’t he just gack people. The first answer is resistances and the spells being less deadly, but also that snipers exist and can just kill people from long range. The real question is what can the mundane person do against magic. How can they defend themselves. so, the answer is that they need to perceive the threat first.
 
I am aware. Clairvoyance just says you can’t cast spells through it. The justification is exceptionally flimsy, but it is what it is. “You just have to be able to see the target, and the magic doesn’t pass through the glass, but the light is somehow important because you can’t have anything interposing that is not transparent to light or that modifies the light, except if you have thermographic vision then It can be seen because of heat, and of course cybernetics because they are essence paid and now a part of your aura, and spells wont help you get line of sight because they are magic even though it says nothing about how the light gets back to you it could be a literal window into the space” or something :smile: I’m not going to argue SR from more than 20 years ago. I’m tossing that out because it is inconsistent.

Instead, you must have line of sight to the target. Line of sight from the oculus counts. this makes scry and die a possibility, but little different than having elementals show up or whatever else. So the question really becomes what happens now? What defenses are there? why doesn’t a mage dominate? Or did he already?

The first question I was asked was why doesn’t he just gack people. The first answer is resistances and the spells being less deadly, but also that snipers exist and can just kill people from long range. The real question is what can the mundane person do against magic. How can they defend themselves. so, the answer is that they need to perceive the threat first.
Heh SR from 20 years ago is a hundred times more consistent than that worthless Catalyst mumbo-jumbo. :devil:
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top