Karma Rewards:
Character Survived: +1
Character was severely injured or knocked unconscious: +1
Character completed a long term goal: +1-3
Group completed a short term goal: +1
Group completed a long term goal or major step towards doing so: +1-3
Run was successful: +1-3
Difficulty or Complexity of Run: +1-3
Quick Run or Mission: -2
Standard Run: 0
Long Run: +2
Good Feelings Run: +1
Cold Hearted Run: -1
Player voted best Roleplaying moment: +1
(Each player votes for another player who made the game more fun with some bit of great roleplaying with ties decided by the GM)
Each player should make a list of three to five personal goals that they would like their character to achieve. For a street level campaign a wannabe street sam might have goals of getting his first cyberspur, getting respect from a bartender at the Seamstresses, and beating his sensei in a hand to hand sparring match. A computer nerd in the same street campaign might have the personal goal of building his own cyberdeck, getting a datajack, and hacking his way into a data haven or warez site. A mechanic might have the goal of getting rigged, owning an Ares Roadmaster, and learning to pilot a thunderbird. The bigger and harder the goal the better the reward. As gameplay continues and goals are completed the player is encouraged to make up more personal goals though a max of five different goals at a time is fair.
Each team should make a list of one to three short term goals sometime after it is formed. Why is the team together? Are they a Docwagon medic team that wants some new equipment? A small mercenary force that wants to get on Desert Wars? Are they smugglers who want to reach the big time and get a t-bird? Are they a biker gang? Then taking back a bit of turf and more that they lost to another gang would qualify.
One to three long term goals should emerge during gameplay over time. Did they survive the Universal Brotherhood and seek to fight back against the Insect Spirits? If so did they just clean out an hive? Do they want to clean up the Barrens? Defeating a major gang would be a great step towards doing that.
Most of the time long term goals aren’t fully achieved but points should be awarded after success towards the goal.
Optional Rule for Grunts:
The optional “Mowing Down” rule on page 379 of SR5 has the option of a takedown with a single wound when dealing with Grunts. I thought that was a little too much and modified it for a single wound greater than Body or several wounds equaling Body rating x2. Whether that means death or unconsciousness depends on the weapon, the needs of the story, and how long it would take for medical assistance to arrive.
This rule is for dealing with regular people, mall cops, basic security people, secretaries etc. With the standard rules an elderly woman could take a solid hit from an ork and have a good chance of not going down. Basically this optional rule applies to anyone with a Professional Rating of 0 to 2 who wasn’t a leader or lieutenant.
As far as I am concerned as a GM I really don’t want to spend a lot of time crunching through combat when the pc’s severely outclass their opponents. As a side benefit this rule gives the players an opportunity to shine and feel powerful while also making it easier for combat to involve more low level NPC’s and it makes the professionals that much scarier when they can take a good hit and keep on ticking.
In 5e it is much harder to do a takedown compared to 3e for example. Hitting hard with a decent stunball against a group with 2 or 3 Willpower would almost always work with “Deadly” stun while in 5e it would take two or three decent Stunballs to drop a normal everyday schmo. However to balance it out those Stunballs are more likely to do a little bit of damage to strong characters in 5e which in previous editions could be a little too tough.
An Arcana + Logic [3] Test would be appropriate if the Talismonger is searching for a reagent appropriate for their or a client’s needs. Say a client who is a Mountain shaman wants a Power Focus than the Talismonger would spend some time to consider what kind of specimen or source would provide the best results as a part of a telesma. This is part of the process of tailoring the focus to the client. Net hits above the threshold of this test and successful gathering of the specified reagents to be used should provide tangible benefits to the talismonger like a bonus die per extra hit on a test as well as to the client such as lessening the Karma cost by the extra hits that the shaman would need to bond with the focus. A good talismonger should have a strong sense of how mana and reagents work. This also rewards the PC’s for going along with the GM’s adventure plot.
Talismonger’s Guide to Hunting and Gathering Reagents
Wrote this up for a campaign with a PC as a talismonger with the rest of the team as her employees. The campaign deals with the chaos in the Talismonger community after the casualties of the Dragon Civil War. Since the system in the books is pretty sparse and basic I came up with something more realistic that would make it clear how much of a difference an hot spot makes in the bottom line of a talismonger.
In my next post I will be further explaining the value of the Grade of the reagent which is glossed over in Street Grimoire and just priced in Shadow Spells. I also came up with a new mechanic called Glitch Prone to handle the poor grades of the reagents. I don’t follow the pricing of Reagents shown in Shadow Spells partly because I use an house rule for how reagents work and partly because demand is up and supplies are down these days.
There are two types of search when looking for Reagents. The Hunt and the Gather. When Hunting in order to avoid harming the reagents the Hunter needs to use treated and clean weapons of the bow and arrow or melee type as more high tech weapons harm the quality of the reagents.
First of the Talismonger picks an area to Hunt and/or Gather in and the GM decides the state of the area and rolls for how many reagents it would be possible to harvest in that area if harvesting. If Hunting the GM decides what critters are in the area and their possible qualitative and quantitative value for reagent harvesting. If Gathering the key for the talismonger is to find the reagents, notice their quality and harvest them correctly.
Depending on hazards of the location whether urban or wilderness the PC is likely to need to make a Survival Test or three as most talismongers are going to be covering a lot of ground searching for as many reagents as they can find as quickly as they can find. In many cases this could lead to many days in places far from civilization. As some locales are hidden or out of the way or difficult to travel in and out of the smart talismonger doesn’t want to make many different short trips if one long trip can get the job done.
A smart talismonger has bodyguards or security when traveling in dangerous areas as they will be significantly distracted by the process of assensing an area to gather and harvest reagents or hunting a critter. It is far too easy for a hunter to be on the scent of one critter and get blindsided by the critter they didn’t know was also in the area.
It would be wise to have someone skilled in Outdoors Skills like Navigation to get to the region and go from area to area and Survival to…survive. When Hunting a critter someone with a good Hunting Knowledge and Tracking Skill will make the difference between an happy bottom line and a disgraceful snipe hunt.
Game Mechanics:
An Arcana + Logic [3] Test would be appropriate if the Talismonger is searching for a reagent appropriate for their or a client’s needs. Say a client who is a Mountain shaman wants a Power Focus than the Talismonger would spend some time to consider what kind of specimen or source would provide the best results as a part of a telesma. This is part of the process of tailoring the focus to the client. Net hits above the threshold of this test and successful gathering of the specified reagents to be used should provide tangible benefits to the talismonger like a bonus die per extra hit on a test as well as to the client such as lessening the Karma cost by the extra hits that the shaman would need to bond with the focus. A good talismonger should have a strong sense of how mana and reagents work. This also rewards the PC’s for going along with the GM’s adventure plot.
Hunting:
Tracking Skill and Hunting Knowledge Tests are par for the course once the team has made it to the area.
Once found the critter can be slain but depending on the way it was slain the reagents could be harmed.
The GM will have to decide the Potency of the critter and make some rolls to determine the reward for the team.
Talismongers with control over an area or with ethical reservations about killing the critters can use non-lethal incapacitating weapons and try and harvest what they can from a critter. In many cases this is the smarter choice depending on how the reagents express for that species. For example a talismonger in Wales is famous for making Foci out of the superior reagents made of shorn wool from his awakened black sheep.
Trapping and Fishing are other options that a Survival Test can help with. Non-lethal Trapping simply traps the animal in such a way as to do no physical harm to the animal and thus avoid harm to the reagents prior to harvesting.
The Specimen:
The GM decides on the Potency of the Critter by comparing the power level of the critter to a starting PC with some consideration about how “magical” the critter is, how important the critter is to the talismonger’s tradition, and the nature of the specific critter that is being hunted like if it is an Alpha or an Omega.
Potency:
Superhuman Rating: Prime Quality with 5d6 or more raw reagents
Superior Rating: Prime Quality with 1d6 or more raw reagents
Equal Rating: Superior Quality with 1d6 or more raw reagents
Inferior Rating: Baseline Quality with 1d6 or more raw reagents
Spirit’s Potency:
Of Talismonger’s Summoning Tradition: Superior Quality with Force reagents
Of Different Tradition: Baseline Quality with Force reagents.
If Great Form: Raise Quality by 1 and Force x 2 reagents.
Hunting Techniques:
Best Practices: No Modifier
Non-lethal Trapping techniques, treated traditional fishing equipment, careful harvesting of living animals especially domesticated animals, capture using weapons like bolas or some manipulation magic, or when a critter is killed by melee and archery weapons that are specially treated and cleansed.
Poor Practices: Quality -1
Using melee or archery weapons which have ‘dirty’ mana. The same residue that a Psychometrist can read from an object can harm the integrity of the mana in the critter and thus the reagents. Indirect Combat Spells and some Manipulation spells as well. Methods that cause the critter to endure long term negative emotions or pain prior to harvesting can spoil the reagents as well.
Bad Practices: Quality -1 per box of damage from a bad source
Direct Combat Spells that do physical damage scramble and mutilate a target’s mana on a massive scale as do firearms and demolitions. Direct Combat Spells that do Stun damage may only disrupt its mana temporarily and can be used to capture and then after a sunrise or sunset allow harvesting without penalty.
Harvesting Modifiers:
The Goose who laid the Golden Eggs: Lessen the amount of reagents harvested by at least half but the talismonger is able to harvest reagents without harming the critter. The GM should decide how long of a period is necessary for reagents to renew depending on the form of the reagent. Taking a tail feather from an awakened bird means you have to wait until the tail feather grows back. This also works for domesticated animals.
Fresh: No Modifier.This is when a talismonger harvests the corpse of a critter or any once living matter before the corpse had experienced its first sunset or sunrise which will disrupt the mana in the critter just like dawns and dusks wipe out temporary magical lodges.
Didn’t use an Alchemy Kit to Harvest: Lowers Quality by 1 and makes transportation difficult as a kit enables the talismonger to coax the mana into a few small areas. Instead of reagents weighing less than a dozen grams a piece now have a weight of at least a kilogram per dram.
Mana Level: If the critter had spent most of the latter part of its life in an high or low Background Count or Domain than the GM can add a d6 or subtract a d6.
Not Fresh: Lowers Quality by 1. This could be shed fur or a scale that fell or rubbed off found at the critter’s home or when a critter is slain and brought to a talismonger after a sunset or sunrise has past.
Ancient or High Status Critter: Raises Quality by 1
Final Potency and Quality of the Specimen:
Tally up all the modifiers above until you have a Quality modifer and roll to see how many drams are there. A Quality raised by 1 that was of Baseline starting Potency and Abundancy increased by 1d6 would yield 2d6 Superior raw reagents.
Harvesting the Reagents:
First an Assensing + Intuition [Astral] (# of reagents, minute) Extended Test to locate and understand the mana and its concentration within the specimen. The character can only harvest the reagents that she can find in this process. Thus, if she stops getting six hits than that is how many reagents she can harvest as a maximum.
Then make an Alchemy + Intuition [Astral] (2x # of reagents, hour) Extended Test to concentrate and focus the mana in the specimen and harvest the reagents. Every hit on the Test can be split between concentrating the reagent and harvesting the reagent. A talismonger in a hurry can choose to skip the concentrating part and instead of reagents weighing under 12 grams a piece each reagent weighs at least a kilogram apiece. Once Harvested a reagent can’t be further concentrated without disrupting the mana making bulky reagents less valuable and useful for many endeavors. Superior 5th Generation Alchemy Kits also lower the time interval required in half and provide other benefits.
If attempting to harvest from a critter in a renewable way than an additional hit on the above test can be spent to carefully harvest without harming the critter or its ability to recover its reagents in the future. The GM should decide how much can be harvested safely but no more than half of its total reagents should be available without harm.
An Animal Handling Test may be necessary should the critter be awake and mobile. More reagents can be harvested in a renewable way from a calm, alert, and trusting critter. In many cases this isn’t possible and the critter should be harvested while immobile or unconscious. When a critter is in that sort of state its mana is in flux making it more difficult to concentrate the mana into reagents safe to harvest without harming the critter.
Gathering:
Parabotany, Parageology, Magical Theory, and other knowledge tests can help out with finding good spots to gather reagents.
These are the factors that will determine how many and what quality the reagents might be in the area. It is possible that more than one source of reagents might be in an area and if that is true the grade of the raw reagents may differ between the various sources in the area. The Status of an Area might be excellent but if it is well known it is probably being harvested regularly and thus not as objectively good an area as another. All the pieces connect.
Source:
The Source of the reagents could be a gold vein, a stalactite, a critter nest, ancient bones, moss on a gravestone, feathers discarded by an awakened eagle, petrified shit from a blackberry cat who ate the wrong magical compound, a chess set used in a grandmaster match, the discarded wood shavings leftover from making icons of Cthulu by a lunatic carpenter obsessed with HP Lovecraft, old amusement park coins discovered in a junked automated fortune teller, the smaller piece of a wishbone broken and discarded in tears by a child, and more.
The Abundancy of the Source:
Potent: 3d6 base reagents.
Baseline: 1d6 base reagents.
Poor: no base reagents.
The Purity of the Source:
Pristine: Raise Quality by 1.
Typical: No Modifier.
Poor: Lower Quality by 1.
The Status and Potency of the Area:
Prime: Rare pristine places free of physical and astral pollution and very little interaction with metahumanity. Or places of relatively pure purpose, emotion, and intent. Cathedrals, a memorial, a family graveyard tended lovingly for a dozen generations, an old half forgotten out of the way research library at one of the first universities like Salerno or Oxford, the original historical set of buildings at West Point, or a sept’s castle. Prime base Quality
Superior: Clean or Esoteric locales like a bucolic village or well maintained park with little but good natured traffic. A centuries old graveyard open to the public but off the beaten path, an old bookstore district, a community church where famous abolitionists gathered, a research lab at a quality university. Superior base Quality
Baseline: Mundane like most areas on earth: Baseline base Quality
Subpar: The nicer part of the Barrens. Subpar base Quality
Inferior: The bad part of the Barrens. Inferior base Quality
Tainted: Whole swathes of Tsimshian. Tainted base Quality
Resting State of the Area:
Untouched: Hasn’t ever been harvested. Quality raised by 2 and number of drams is raised by 3d6.
Unspoiled: Hasn’t been harvested in years. Quality raised by 1 and number of drams is raised by 2d6.
Fallow: Hasn’t been harvested in months. Number of drams is raised by 1d6.
Cultivated: Has been harvested this month. No Modifier.
Recently Harvested: Has been harvested this week and most of the reagents were found. Lower Quality by 1 and drams by 1d6.
These two factors can also define the Resting State of the Area and can both impact the above States.
Over Harvested: Area has been Harvested more than once a month for a year. Lowers Quality by 1 and drams by 1d6.
Tapped Out: Talismongers regularly harvest every single reagent in the Area for a year. Lowers Quality by 1 and drams by 3d6.
Harvesting the Reagents:
First an Assensing + Intuition [Astral] (# of reagents, minute) Extended Test to locate and understand the mana and its concentration within the specimen. The character can only harvest the reagents that she can find in this process. Thus, if she stops getting six hits than that is how many reagents she can harvest as a maximum.
Then make an Alchemy + Intuition [Astral] (2x # of reagents, hour) Extended Test to concentrate and focus the mana in the specimen and harvest the reagents. Every hit on the Test can be split between concentrating the reagent and harvesting the reagent. A talismonger in a hurry can choose to skip the concentrating part and instead of reagents weighing under 12 grams a piece each reagent weighs at least a kilogram apiece. Once Harvested a reagent can’t be further concentrated without disrupting the mana making bulky reagents less valuable and useful for many endeavors. Superior 5th Generation Alchemy Kits also lower the time interval required in half and provide other benefits.
Final Potency and Quality of the Source:
Tally up all the modifiers above until you have a Quality modifer and roll to see how many drams are there. A Quality raised by 1 that was of baseline starting Potency and baseline starting Abundancy increased by 1d6 would yield 2d6 Superior raw reagents.
Glitch Prone:
This quality of a reagent is a way for the GM to show the dangers of cheap reagents and gives a mechanic to the story fluff in Street Grimoire that talked about foci made from inferior reagents. It would be easy to apply this mechanic to making new negative qualities for characters, guns, computers et cetera so feel free to do so.
Minor Glitch Prone: Whatever magical test the reagent is used for is modified so any 2’s rolled are counted as a 1 for declaring a glitch or critical glitch.
Major Glitch Prone: Whatever magical test the reagent is used for is modified so any 2 or 3 rolled are counted as a 1 for declaring a glitch or critical glitch.
Critically Glitch Prone: Whatever magical test the reagent is used for is modified so any non hit is counted as a 1 for declaring a glitch or critical glitch.
Grades of Reagents:
The Grade of a refined reagent is determined by the lowest grade of a component. So 9 Prime raw reagents and 1 subpar raw reagent yields 1 subpar refined reagent making accurate discovery of the grade of all reagents important during the refining process especially with Orichalcum as the purity of the Orichalcum becomes a big deal at that level of cost. The benefits of Prime and Superior Grade reagents will be described in my next post.
Prime: 50% higher base cost and 50% faster to refine than baseline reagents.
Superior: 25% higher base cost and 25% faster to refine than baseline reagents.
Baseline: No modifer to base cost or refining time.
Subpar: 25% lower base cost and 25% slower to refine than baseline reagents. Minor Glitch Prone.
Inferior: 50% lower base cost and 50% slower to refine than baseline reagents. Major Glitch Prone.
Tainted: 75% lower base cost and 75% slower to refine than baseline reagents. Critically Glitch Prone.
Unusable: No value and impossible to refine with current alchemical techniques. Can’t be used with magic.
Equipment:
Alchemy kits: are very portable tools for Alchemists and help with harvesting reagents, preserving, and focusing discovered reagents into a smaller more portable raw form. An Alchemist might take a vial and some rare herbs and powders and take a little blood from a slain paracritter and weave the mana from the corpse into the blood mixing into the vial or use a ritual athame to cut a wand from a lightning damaged tree and have the dozen “raw reagents” channeled into just the wand or takes a bucket of awakened berries and weaves the mana into an handful saving space and providing ease of use as no mage wants to carry a bucket of reagents while on a run. A fifth gen kit increases the Astral Limit by 1 and cuts harvesting time in half as well as concentrating the reagents into portable objects. A 4th gen is standard also concentrates reagents and a 3rd gen doubles the normal time.
Alchemy Kit Enhancements: Adding extra features like the Ghostbusters Enhancement that lets Talismongers salvage reagents from Spirits or a kit tailored to a specific Tradition which raises Harvesting Test Limits by 1 if the Talismonger is of that Tradition. Think of a good enhancement and there is probably some doodads the alchemist can buy that will enable that help.
Prices:
Increase the cost of any Magical Compounds in the books by 25% to 50% and increase Availability by 1 to represent supply and demand.
| Item |
Retail Price |
Availability |
| Raw |
50¥ per dram |
– |
| Refined |
900¥ per dram |
7 + 1 per dram |
| Radical |
10,000¥ per dram |
10 + 2 per dram |
| Orichalcum |
325,000¥ per dram |
14 +3 per dram |
| Prime Grade |
+100% Base Cost |
+2 |
| Superior Grade |
+50% Base Cost |
+1 |
| Subpar Grade |
-25% Base Cost |
-3 |
| Inferior Grade |
-50% Base Cost |
-5 |
| Enchanter’s Lab 5th Gen |
75,000¥ |
12 |
| Enchanter’s Lab 4th Gen |
40,000¥ |
10 |
| Enchanter’s Lab 3rd Gen |
25,000¥ |
10 |
| Microlab 5th Gen |
100,000¥ |
12 |
| Microlab 4th Gen |
60,000¥ |
10 |
| Alchemy Kit 5th Gen |
10,000¥ |
12 |
| Alchemy Kit 4th Gen |
4000¥ |
10 |
| Alchemy Kit 3rd Gen |
1000¥ |
8 |
| Alchemy Kit Enhancements |
1000¥ each |
+1 |
| Minor Foci |
(F x 10,000¥) + (F^2 x 1000¥) +Telesma Value |
(F x 2) +2 |
| Major Foci |
(F x 10,000¥) + (F^2 x 2500¥) + Telesma Value |
(F x2) +4 |
| Grand Foci |
(F x 10,000¥) + (F^2 x 10,000¥) + Telesma Value |
(F x 3) + 3 |
| Focus Tailoring |
(Days x 1000¥) + 10,000¥ |
+2 |
Example of a Minor Focus: A Centering Focus of Force 4 in the form of a gold ring worth 1000¥ would cost 57,000¥.
Example of a Major Focus: A Weapon Focus of Force 4 in the form of gem encrusted Rapier worth 10k¥ would cost 90,000¥
Example of a Grand Foci: A Power Focus of Force 4 in the form of a simple locket worth 500¥ would cost 200,500¥
Draconis Awards from the Draco Foundation 2075 CE:
Whenever I want to introduce new technology or magic into the mainstream of my Shadowrun Campaigns I take advantage of a little blurb I read I believe in Dunkelzahn’s will talking about competitions and awards each year for those who push the boundaries of science and magic.
After a few of these happening the players realized they had hit the big time when they figured out that the run they were on was to ruin an university’s research project that was sure to win this year’s competition. I imagine the Draconis Awards (the awards weren’t named in the source material and I thought that Draconis would be perfect as their name) as to be on par with the Nobel Prize in overall importance but for Shadowrunners they would be very important both as a source for runs but also as a resource to gain access to for character improvement.
Draconis Awards from the Draco Foundation 2075 CE:
Astral Projection:
MIT&M wins a Draconis Award for creating a new technique that applies Schwartzkopf’s Grand Unifying Theory of Magic towards the limitation that Mystic Adepts and Adepts have in Astral Projection. So far they haven’t succeeded with helping Aspected Magicians astrally project.
Gene Optimization:
Universal Omnitech wins a Draconis Award after successful clinical trials with its Gene Optimization line of products. The cognitive line fails to be predictable in which areas it enhances because of epigenetics and the complexity of the brain’s neural network but the physical line has made a full success with one treatment enhancing your potential physical performance traits.
Metagene DNA Astral Shadows Assaying:
Celedyr’s personal research team at Neonet has recently uncovered how to detect metagenes for a sizeable portion of the population and give a probability of likelihood of a phenotype expressing its latent metatraits be it Goblinization or Awakening. The test only works on fresh samples so the team and their equipment need to be onsite and old samples can’t be tested because Astral Shadows fade fairly quickly within an hour or two of when the sample is taken.
Game Mechanics:
Astral Projection:
An Adept or Mystic Adept with the Astral Perception Power may Initiate and learn the Metamagic Astral Protrusion to project for Magic Rating + Grade minutes. After learning this the Initiate may purchase the Astral Projection Power for 1 Power Point.
Gene Optimization:
Physical Genetic Optimization: Raises your natural limit by one in Body, Agility, Reaction, and Strength. Compatible with Exceptional Attribute. Further Optimization has no effect.
Treatment time: 6 weeks.
Essence Cost: .5.
Availability: 9
Cost: 150,000 nuyen.
Mental Genetic Optimization: Raises one mental Attribute’s natural limit by one. Usually it is the highest rated attribute but it is somewhat random because of a limited understanding of the brain and variations amongst the neurotypical and the neuro-atypical. A GM can let the player roll a d6 with the highest getting 3 numbers and the other 3 getting 1 number.
Treatment time: 8 weeks.
Essence Cost: .2.
Availabililty: 10
Cost: 50,000 nuyen.
DNA assaying:
Neonet’s technology for magical talent works for around 50% of the human metatype population with a success rate of 95%. For other metatypes it works for about 25% with a success rate of 80%. The remaining half of humans and three quarters of other metatypes can’t be accurately mapped because of certain metagene variants and alleles confusing the issue. What this means is that about half of humans can know with a good sense of security whether they have a latent magical gift that could be awakened. As time goes on it is inevitable that it will become more accurate and rumors say that Neonet is trying to find out how to unmask the riddle of technomancy and if it is genetic or epigenetic as well.
Neonet’s technology for detecting possible Goblinization or Surge related metagenes can detect the likelihood of an human goblinizing or developing SURGE like metatraits works for about 75% of the population with 97% accuracy. So, if you’re an Ork parent wondering if the human baby you have is likely to goblinize in puberty you can find out with reasonable certainty with a DNA test.
It is unknown which Neonet subsidiaries will be carrying the test but rumors of prices suggest under 5000 nuyen for both upon introduction of the product.
It is unknown which Neonet subsidiaries will be carrying the test but rumors of prices suggest under 5000 nuyen for both upon introduction of the product.
2074 Draconis Award for Magical Theory and Application:
The Draconis Award for advances in Magical Theory and Application in 2074 goes to Professor Schwartzkopf the Great Dragon and his research team at Charles University of Prague for their work in applying Professor Schwartzkopf’s Grand Unifying Theory of Magic towards unlocking the full abilities of Adepts and Mystic Adepts. A few decades ago the first Mystic Adepts appeared and until recently they were forced to divide their power between two paths but have now fully Awakened to their power. With these techniques and training around 15% of “normal” Adepts have been found to have the talent to become Mystic Adepts and have begun to learn Magical Skills which by itself would’ve been an advance worthy of a Draconis Award. Some 5% of Magicians have also made the transition to becoming Mystic Adepts by learning how to channel their magic inwards but as of yet none have been able to keep their ability to astrally project as tying their magic to their bodies makes it harder it seems to free the astral body from the physical.
We at the Draco Foundation are amazed and happy to support such magnificent research and applications of research into the real Sixth world we all live in. We are also pleased by the fair and extremely low licensing cost that Professor Schwartzkopf allowed so that magical schools, colleges, and universities all over the world could train their teachers and professors in this advancement and return to their homes and spread this incredibly valuable knowledge to all corners of the globe.
Game Mechanics:
Classes at a magical school or university can range in price and length depending on the training involved and powers that need to be learned. A good lifestyle can alleviate all or part of this cost. A personal instructor can also be hired which will speed the process greatly.
Generally a Mystic Adept/4e can go to an university and in 3 months of 12 hours a week learn how to be a Mystic Adept/5e. The price can range from 5,000 nuyen to 50,000 nuyen. No roll is necessary and missed time can be made up later in the quarter as the pace is slow and explained thoroughly by experts who spend some time one on one with each student. Character must have at least a 2 in Arcana to comprehend the basics of what they are learning. The Mystic Adept must pay the 5 Karma cost for each Power Point he learns. GMs who don’t allow Mystic Adepts to purchase Power Points after character creation should allow 4th to 5th edition converting characters to spend karma for Power Points and should consider allowing karmic debt if the newly converted Mystic Adept has no Karma.
For an Adept of either edition to become a Mystic Adept they must spend 50 Karma and take either four quarters of university or have the personal instruction of a Mystic Adept with at least four in instruction and in all Magical Skills. They must get four training periods with an instructor representing one for basics covering assensing, arcana, and heavy introspection with aural manipulations and three for sorcery, conjury, and enchanting. At the end of training they will need to have at minimum an Arcana 3, Assensing 1 (if the have Astral Perception), Sorcery group 1, Conjury group 1, and Enchanting group 1 to represent the rigorous training and education necessary to overcome the Adept’s previous self-taught limitations and bad habits from learning magic from a flawed theory or cobbled together self taught philosophy.
For a Magician of either edition to become a Mystic Adept requires two quarters of schooling and 25 Karma.
Cost of a personal instructor is between 500 nuyen to 2500 nuyen a day (8 hours) depending on area, contacts, skill of the instructor, and negotiation. The teacher must be a Mystic Adept who has gone through the training process either legally or illegally and as such the price is reflected by that.
Arcana + Intuition [Magical Lodge] Test. The time is equal to 28 days divided by number of successes and is the equivalent of a quarter of education at a school or university. If the full 8 hours is not spent for at least five days in a week or if a roll is failed then Karma is not spent but the training must begin again.
Below is the link for training to learn Power Points for Mystic Adepts as Adepts get their Power Points for free whenever they raise their Magic Rating. A Power Point covers whatever Powers learned equal to that Power Point. If spending 1.5 Power Points simply increase time/costs by 50%.
Training to learn Power Points
Gear:
Run and Gun Addendum:
Monofilament Edge Addon: For Blades +1000 nuyen -1 Acc +1 AP +2 Availability.
Balanced Mono Edge Addon: For Blades +10,000 nuyen +1 AP +4 Availability.
New Qualities:
Custom Built: Weapon has +1 added to Accuracy for the person it is tailored to. Increases Cost of the Weapon by 20 fold and +4 Availability.
Microgravity NanoForged: Weapon has +1 added to its DV and +10 added to its Barrier Rating for the purpose of avoiding being broken because of the lack of flaws in the crystalline structure of the metal when forged in an microgravity environment with a nanoforge using advanced carbon nanotubes. Has an Object Resistance of 16. Increases Cost of the Weapon by 100 fold and +10 Availability if forged for your specifications and +8 if not . If forged for your specs it can include Custom Built at no extra cost.
Lowtech Nanoforging: Crafted usually for weapon foci so as to keep the OR as low as possible it involves using carbon nanotubes and other nanoforging techniques reverse engineered from Damascus or Ulfbehrt blades. Weapon has +1 added to its DV and +4 added to its Barrier Rating for the purpose of avoiding being broken. Has an Object Resistance of 8. Increase Cost of the Weapon 250 fold and +10 Availability if forged for your specifications and +8 if not. If forged for your specs it can include Custom Built at no extra cost.
Magical Gear:
Alchemy Lab: Takes up a large room filled with herbs, spices, minerals, and other oddities. Often reminds people of apothecaries. The brewing apparatus includes a whole range of glass beakers, pipets, strange glassware, mortar and pestles, and bunsen burners. They cost 50,000 nuyen and each Preparation batch costs 10 nuyen x Force in ingredients and energy.
Alchemy Microlab: A pair of suitcases one of which includes the ingredients and the other the equipment. They cost 100,000 nuyen and each Preparation batch costs 25 nuyen x Force in ingredients and energy. The increased cost is partly for the highly concentrated ingredients that make it possible to fit everything into a suitcase which obviously cost more.
Pen and Paper RPG House Rules 