From: flashlife@netcom.com
Reply-To: flashlife@netcom.com
Errors-To: flashlife-request@netcom.com
Subject: Flashlife   V3 #2
To: flashlife@netcom.com

From: Carl Rigney (moderator) <flashlife-request@netcom.com>


Flashlife  Wed, 13 Nov, 1991   Volume 3 : Issue 2

Today's topics:

  Two questions			(Reinlieb)
  Shamanism			(Scratch)
  Seattle's Shadows		(Jester)
  Ow, my brain _HURTS_		(Jaycee)

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Date: Sat, 6 Jul 91 00:52 EDT
From: <REINLIEB%CTSTATEU.bitnet@VM.ITS.RPI.EDU>
Subject: Two questions

How are physical skills used, they are mentioned in the text, you can
buy auto-successes with them, but no guidelines are anywhere
presented. There is a conc.  in running , but running is detailed in
the combat section and has nothing to do with a skill roll. In the
grimore we discover that picking pockets is a stealth activity,
something not mentioned under stealth.

What attack codes do physicaly manifested spirits use in melee combat?
In the main book desert spirits only can attack but no code in listed.
The Grimore removes the attack 'power' from the description of desert
spirits and implies (gives details of how humans can hit in melee
combat) that any spirit can manifest and physically slug somebody.

-Andrew Shadowalker

	[Look in the chapters for "Behind the Scenes" or "After the
	 Shadowrun" for more on skill use.  I don't allow spirits to
	 melee, but if you want to allow them then FASA probably expects
	 you to use the corresponding elemental type. --CDR]



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Date: Sat, 5 Oct 91 03:52:28 -0400
From: scratch@hpb.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: Shamanism

[Note:  I am sending this to Carl Rigney for inclusion in the Flashlife
 digest, wherein lots of Shadowrunners hang out, and to the Cyberrpg
 mailing list]

	I stopped by a used bookstore a few days ago and stumbled upon
an interesting book.  Why post about it here?  Well, it may be quite
useful to players and GMs in Shadowrun games that make extensive use of
the Shaman archetype.

	The title of the book is _Shamanism_, compiled by Shirley
Nicholson.  It's a compilation of interviews, essays, etc, about the
general subject of shamanism.  The cover is black with red trim
and the title and author in light blue.  A color picture of a Kwakiutl
transformational mask is on the cover.  Amusingly enough, the
appearance of the book gave me the brief impression that it was some
sort of FASA supplement - the same perfect-bound, slick production
values, and color.

	Despite the fact that it has new-agish overtones, the book is
chock full o' interesting information about various shamanic cultures
and theories about shamanism that the enterprising Shadowrun GM could
use to enhance the game and complicate the shaman player's life, or
the player could use to expand the role-playing potential of his
character.

	I found it in the New Age section of a used bookstore for $4,
nearly new.  It's an oversized paperback, about 8" x 5", 300 pages.
The cover price is $7.50, ISBN: 0-8356-0617-1.  The publishers are:

	The Theosophical Publishing House
	Wheaton, Illinois, USA
	Madras, India/London, England

	and you can order from:

	QUEST BOOKS
	306 West Geneva Road
	Wheaton, Illinois, 60187

The books contents include:

Foreword:  The Mind and Soul of the Shaman [Jean Houston]
The Shaman's Alternate Reality
  The Ancient Wisdom in Shamanic Cultures [Michael Harner/Gary Doore]
  Shamanism and Cosmology [Mircea Eliade]
  The Presence of Spirits in Magic and Madness [Richard Noll]
  Crazy Wisdom:  The Shaman as Mediator of Realities [Mary Schmidt]
  Shamanism:  An Archaic and/or Recent Belief System [Mihaly Hoppal]
Shamanic States of Consciousness
  The Shaman:  Master Healer in the Imaginary Realm [Jeanne Achterberg]
  Dreams and Shamanism [Stanley Krippner]
  Shamanism, ESP and the Paranormal [D. Scott Rogo]
  Rolling Thunder at Work [Jim Swan]
Shamanic Traditions
  The Tamang Shamanism of Nepal [Larry G. Peters]
  Shamanism in the Jewish Tradition [Rabbi Yonassan Gershom]
  The Way of the Adventurer [Serge King]
  The Native American Prayer Pipe [John Redtail Freesoul]
Shamanism and the Perennial Philosophy
  Shamanism, Mind, and No-Self [Joan Halifax]
  The Dreamtime, Mysticism and Liberation:  Shamanism in Australia
	[Ven. E. Nandisvara Nayake Thero]
  Transformation Process in Shamanism, Alchemy, and Yoga [Ralph Metzner]
  Shamanism and Theosophy [Robert Ellwood]
Shamanism in a Changing World
  The Shaman WIthin [David Feinstein]
  Lineage of the Sun [Brooke Medicine Eagle]
  Black Elk:  Then and Now [William Lyon]

Steven J. Owens
scratch@hpb.cis.pitt.edu



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Date: Thu, 24 Oct 91 11:21:07 EDT
From: The Jester <rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu>
Subject: Seattle's Shadows...

I was thinking the other day about all of the wonderful sourcebooks that
FASA has heaped upon us, and all the ones that they plan to give us as
well.  But then something occurred to me: not once have they REALLY given
any detail to the shadows of the world.  Sure, the Seattle and London
Sourcebooks give some blurbs about the shadows, but there is no real
hard source material about, say, the Fixers, important personalities, and
whatnot of Seattle's underworld, the world of the shadowrunner.

Thoughts?  Or does it seem like I'm just whining? 

Brett Cashman (The Jester)			    rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu



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Date: Fri, 25 Oct 91 14:30:22 BST
From: Jaycee <D.T.M.Gladding@loughborough.ac.uk>
Subject: Ow, my brain _HURTS_

Having been reading up on my copy of VR, it comes to mind that riggers
and deckers both work in a similar manner - a simsense link, with the
autocutoffs either removed totally, or shifted to allow a better 'feel'
of what's coming through on the link.

This is then said to be the cause of deckers getting headaches (ie: the
willpoer test against damage taken) when thier MPCP's get burned.  So
why not apply the same to riggers ?

One guy, Shield, got a PV blown to bits by several highly armoured
pillboxes that it drove in between - other than fiancial worries this
caused no problems.  However - if a decker goes in and has his MPCP
fried, he then probably has several light stuns - depending on
willpower of course.  If this principle had been applied in last nights
firefight, the poor rigger wouldn't have been quite so happy about
firing missiles into the area...


On a lighter side point, the GM has to be applauded for a brilliant
trick he used - a dummy ultrasound sight, left in the rubble.  I _knew_
that there was someone in there - I couldn't see him on lowlight, and
as we were currently in Hell's Kitchen, Thermo wasn't very hot either.
The burning PV and pillboxes didn't help.  So, I switched on my
ultrasound sight, and started scanning.  Picking up the emmision of the
other sight, I fired several bursts down the line at it - the other
guys going to be just behind there...  The mage who was hunting me said
somehing along the lines of "there she is" and hit me with a stunbolt.
I bounced it, but that's another story.  The moral of this is - even
clever chrome guys (and gals) can be confused easily if you think about
it.  Just wait till i get my revenge....

Bye for now, 
	Razors.

d.t.m.gladding@uk.ac.lut

"Listen... is there any rule which says Shadowrunners can't go on
holiday?  So don't complain - I'll be back. " - JayCee


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End of Flashlife
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