My Life: The Readers’ Digest Condensed Version.
ChildhoodI was born and raised in a rural area of Nicholas County, West Virginia, where I spent my childhood in the deep woods and cool streams surrounding my home. I fought with my three younger brothers more often than I got along with them, and I lived miles from the nearest school buddy, so I spent many hours alone with only my dog for companionship. These hours were spent in faraway worlds doing amazing deeds. Dad gave me an old stripped-out Voltswagon Bug, which I used as my spaceship. If I grew tired of exploring the stars, I removed the seat (the mounting brackets were rusted free of the floorboard, so it just came out.) Then I flipped the car upside down, put the seat back in it, and pretended it was a subterranean tunneling machine. My imagination knew no boundaries. I began writing down my adventures when I was in the seventh grade, and I became a steady winner in the county-wide Young Writer’s contest until I stopped competing in 1992. School & College Part 1Public school bored me, and I did not enjoy the social opportunities school presented. The archetypical outsider, I kept a small core of close friends and generally disdained the rest of my peers. I didn’t think I was better than them; I just didn’t like them. I graduated from Richwood high school in the spring of 1993 and attended West Virginia Wesleyan College in the fall. At Wesleyan, I tried unsuccessfully to become a more sociable creature and fall into step with the rest of the human race. I planned to get a degree in an area that would pay my bills while giving me time to develop a writing career. Originally a double major in computer science and engineering-physics, I changed my major to English after the first year and then dropped out of school entirely at the conclusion of my fall semester in 1995. Wives & GunsI joined the US Army on January 1, 1996 where I made my way through basic training, airborne school, and the Ranger Indoctrination Program in order to become a member of the 1/75th Ranger Battalion at Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Georgia. Over the next four years I served with one of the most elite infantry combat units in the world. I traveled to Germany, Panama, Thailand, and many states within the USA. I jumped out of airplanes, flew along the nap of the earth in helicopters, shot rocket launchers, detonated mines, and learned how to channel and direct the endless deluge of aggression that erupted out of me. I married in November, 1996 and nearly died from hypothermia in late 1997 while in Pre-Ranger School. It was in the Army that I picked up the nickname “Tommy,” a name I prefer to this day. I wrote very little and published nothing during my Army career, because my mind was often occupied with more important matters (like staying alive,) but I did write a few poems that became very popular among my fellow soldiers, and my words started showing up on plaques awarded to soldiers in Charlie Company. Divorce & CollegeI left the Army in April, 2000 and moved to join my wife who already had a job and an apartment in Marietta, Ohio. After a number of failed attempts to join law enforcement agencies, I signed into the Computer Information Technology program at West Virginia University at Parkersburg. I spent my days immersed in Windows, Cisco, Java, Visual Basic, and all things computer-related. I spent my free time writing short stories, source material for pen-and-paper role playing games, and I finally started the novel I’d always wanted to write. My wife asked for a divorce in February, 2002. I refused at first, but she persisted until she convinced me we really had grown too far apart, and it was the best move for both of us. A judge finalized the matter in July of the same year. I lived at first with a friend from college until I could get on my feet and get an apartment of my own. The novel was forgotten as I devoted all of my time to school and work. I attended college as a full time student, worked thirty-five hours a week as the senior computer technician for the CIT program, and taught lower-division Cisco classes twelve hours a week. I also trained with a local National Guard unit and attempted to keep a steady girlfriend. Man of Many HatsThe pace only increased after I graduated in 2004. I got a full-time job as a salesman with a local telephone and security camera company. At the same time, I continued to teach at WVU-P and taught a few classes online for ECPI, a college based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In January, 2005, I quit the salesman job and moved to teaching online full-time. I taught two more classes in the spring for WVU-P and then packed my belongings and moved to Christiansburg, Virginia. Initially a stellar success in the realm of online teaching, I looked forward to doing great things with my teaching career, but it was not to be. The work schedule combined with reoccurring technical issues and personality conflicts soon burnt me completely out. I tried to switch to course development, but I finally left the company after a few failed attempts to revitalize my interest in the work. To this day, I am unsure if I quit or if I was fired, but either way, the paychecks stopped coming. Hobo WriterIn this same time period, I discovered the realm of Internet blogging. I quickly rose to prominence in my blogging community, where I was ranked in the top four of nearly 300,000 bloggers. It was the first time I’d written in ages, and it reminded me how much I loved it and missed it. After I lost my teaching job, I looked at my future in IT - full of ever-changing technology and the never-ending race to keep up with the learning curve - and I decided to leave it behind. In October, 2005, I sold some things, gave some things away, and put the rest into storage. I packed my car and hit the road. My path led me through the south-east, and I eventually wound up in Tennessee, where I met a woman I knew from the blogs, a person who promised to help me get published with Double Day. This woman proved to be a liar and a fraud, and after it all fell apart, I spent the remainder of the winter with my parents in South Carolina. I spent many hours working on my novel while watching the reflection of the sun glide across Greenwood Lake. More Hats Than Last TimeI returned to Parkersburg, West Virginia, in February, 2006. Determined to avoid full-time computer work, I took on a number of jobs at the same time. I worked for Value City as a furniture assembler/mover. I reactivated my status with the National Guard. I worked as a fiction editor and writing coach. I worked as a bouncer at the Nip 'N' Cue. I taught two Cisco classes for WVU-P. I built a number of personal websites and launched an online forum for writers. I also worked as a contractor to teach county governments and poll worked how to operate the touch-screen voting machines that West Virginia deployed that year. (That was a crazy job. I worked 120 hours in the seven days prior to the Primary election. There’ s only 168 hours in seven days.) Sometime amid all that chaos, I decided I was tired of working five jobs and barely making ends meet. I decided to go back to IT if I could find a job that paid well enough. Subsequently, I was recruited by General Dynamics to do all manner of clandestine IT contractor work for unspecified clientele, but I couldn’t get started until they conducted an extensive background investigation. While that was in the works, I started building contacts with the IT department at Camden Clark Memorial Hospital, where they were talking about hiring an assistant network administrator. I also opened a dialogue with a recruiter for Black Water USA. I finished the rough draft of my first novel in September, 2006. In the following months I sent it to test readers and refined the draft while I submitted it to contests and literary agents. Return to ComputersBy June, 2007, it was clear that some aspects of my life needed to change. The book was being ignored by everyone. My bank account was empty. I was working myself into an early grave, and had nothing to show for it. I withdrew from all online endeavors, stopped the fiction editing job, and stopped querying agents. I quit bouncing at the bar and working at Value City. I decided to teach one class (instead of two) for the Fall 2007 term at WVU-P. In July, I took the position of network administrator at CCMH. I was very reluctant to return to IT work, but I was tired of being broke. Dad threatened to kill me if I joined Black Water, and General Dynamics continued to drag out the security investigation, so I took the network admin job. It paid the least and was the least sexy of the three choices, but it was a sure-thing and was the only choice that didn’t involve significant risk to life and limb. I joined the hospital's chemical response team and tried to visit the gym enough to keep my weight under control. I failed in that endeavor, thanks in part to the many colds and infections I caught while working around patients in the ER. At one point I returned to the Nip N Cue as a bouncer, but I had to quit again because I caught the flu and coughed so hard that I tore something lose in my ribs. Then I developed pneumonia on top of the flu when the pain in my side prevented me from breathing deeply enough to clear my lungs. Despite the illnesses, my quality of life improved overall during my time at the hospital. The bills were paid every month, with some left over. I had been living with my girlfriend, but we had very different ideas when it came to a comfortable living space. I had wanted to move out for months, but I was in a situation where I made too much money to qualify for assistance, but not enough money to pay for everything on my own. The hospital job changed that, and I got my own place. It took time, but I eventually furnished my apartment with furniture and decorations according to my own tastes, and I repurchased all of the firearms I'd been forced to sell in 2005. The hospital salary allowed me to stop all other jobs, and I left the National Guard as soon as my service contract expired. I broke up with my girlfriend too; she wasn’t happy when I moved out, and things fell apart pretty quickly after I left. I used my new-found free time to separate Heretic into two books. The first book is now titled Warlock's Wake. The second retains the original title, Heretic. I improved my websites, researched literary agents, and laid the groundwork for self-publication. |
2009I left Camden Clark in January, 2009 and accepted an offer with the Federal government, where I still worked in IT, but I enjoyed the job more because it focused on the types of devices I preferred (firewalls, routers, and packet captures.) The new position paid better, offered more flexible hours, and more time off. I hoped to publish the novel in 2009, but it proved to be a chaotic year. The new job required much more energy than I'd anticipated, and numerous upheavals in my personal life kept me busy. Just to complicate life further, I bought my first house. The year passed so quickly that I didn't realize it was over until a cashier teased me for dating a check "2009" instead of "2010." 20102010 proved to be even more taxing than 2009. Work increased in pace until overtime was required almost every week. The job branched out into many other disciplines, until it was almost as diverse as the hospital job I had left in order to take a more focused job with Uncle Sam. Before work became insane, I agreed to teach a class for WVU-P again, only to discover the curriculum had changed and all of my previous course preparations were virtually useless. At the same time, failing health of family members and other family business added fuel to the fires. I accomplished none of the plans I had made for my book or my house. My life slowed to a standstill, held in place by the crushing weight of personal and professional stress. Late in the year, an opportunity arose for me to leave IT and change careers into Human Resources. After careful deliberation, I took the opportunity. 2011-Present2011 started on a positive note. The HR job represented a drastic change in careers and entailed a steep learning curve, but I learned fast, leveraging my writing skills and IT background wherever I could. Just as I was starting to figure out the basics well enough to feel comfortable, my department underwent a reorganization, and I was assigned from one special project to another. I enjoyed the work, but it made the rest of the year a very uncertain (and often very frustrating) time. I made the best of it by going to work and doing the best job I knew how to do. Everything I did seemed to advance me to better opportunities, and work in general was going very well…until September. My publishing endeavors also started on a positive note, building in momentum until I published Warlock’s Wake in June. It was very well received on Amazon Kindle, and rose rapidly in customer reviews. Paperback sales were not as successful, but were improving as I planned signing events and other promotions. I began a project to launch a new website and create a specific brand name for myself. It wasn’t an overnight success story, but I was well on my way and building up steam… until September. My personal life had been a bag of mixed blessings. In January I dedicated myself to weight loss and exercise, and lost 60 pounds (from 315 to 255.) I looked and felt great! I had been in a tumulus relationship with a woman I met at work in February, 2009. We’d had our problems, made amends, and tried to keep the relationship viable, but we broke up in June shortly after Warlock’s Wake was published. In the months that followed, I continued to lose weight, go to work, and promote the novel. I eventually started dating again and started to deal with the reality of the breakup; she had been my soulmate and future, and it took me awhile to face the fact that my future had to be re-written whether I liked it or not. I was doing well. I had met a few great ladies and was starting to learn how to enjoy life again, until…. On September 15th, 2011, my father was shot and killed. He was murdered by John Lever, the lecherous pedophile who lived two houses down from my parents. I was on a date with this great lady I’d met in college. We were going to dinner, but she had stopped at her brother’s house to give him back his camera. We were both having a hard time keeping our hands off each other, and I knew it was going to be a great start to an excellent weekend. Mom called. My life stopped. In the weeks and months that followed, chaos engulfed my family, consuming every other aspect of my life. I was focused on holding my family together and helping my mother, who had legal issues of her own and insisted on living nine hours from me - but only 150 feet from the sociopathic piece of shit who murdered Dad. Nothing else mattered, and consequently, everything else crumbled. I regained weight. Book sales stopped. The website became a cyber ghost town. I burned bridges with all the women I had been dating. My erratic behavior threatened my Federal career. I reconciled with my ex-girlfriend during this time, but even that proved to be a disaster, because all our old problems were resurrected with the relationship. They just took a while to resurface, and being committed to her forced me to sever ties with friends who would have supported me if I had allowed them to remain close. The legal and emotional madness continued through the winter and into January, 2012. My situation at work deteriorated further until I found myself in danger of being fired. My girlfriend and I had argued at work, one of her nosy coworkers reported me to Security. The Security personnel convinced my girlfriend to file a restraining order against me as a way to cover her ass at the office, in case her role in the matter came under scrutiny. The order would have scarred my record and removed my right to purchase or own firearms for life, but I challenged it in court and defeated it. I gave her a second chance because I loved her and because she’d given me a second chance when I really needed it. Even though we were not allowed to communicate or associate at work, we continued our relationship on our own time. I continued to regain weight while my life went to hell. I fell ill and blamed it on the stomach flu, not realizing my gall bladder had utterly failed. I finally went to the doctor, discovered the real issue, and underwent corrective surge,ry. My girlfriend had promised to take care of me after the surgery, but I overreacted when I realized that she had removed her house keys from my key ring. We broke up the following day. I survived the weekend without her help, returned to work, and was told a severe disciplinary action was being proposed in response to the argument I’d had with her two months prior. That was March 28th, 2012. Not even a month has passed, and life is already looking brighter. My family has settled most of the affairs with Dad. Some unpleasant business remains, and Mom is still nine hours away, but we’re working on it, and I feel I have reached a point of closure. None of us are fine, but we’re all going to make it. I’m to a point where I can say “It’s going to get better, with time,” and I actually believe it. I submitted an appeal at work and convinced management to reconsider my disciplinary action. I’m still being punished, but the future ramifications (in terms of promotions, reassignments, new jobs with other agencies, etc.) are much less severe than they would have been otherwise. I’m still dealing with the rumor mill; folks are whispering about how I’m a woman beater, I threatened to kill her, and such-and-such saw the text messages that prove it. None of that is true, but women who used to smile at me now cross the hall to avoid passing near me, and men who used to joke with me just walk by with furrowed brows or stand back with crossed arms. I don’t care what they think, but the principle of the matter annoys me. I have started very light workouts and made (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to get my diet under control again. I’ve regained 40 of the 60 I lost, and I’m not re-losing it yet, but at least I’m not regaining it as fast. It’s depressing to see how far I’ve backslid, but I will get back to 255 pounds. I lost it once, and I can lose it again. I am back in high gear with my publication endeavors. I am planning promotion events, working on publication of the second novel, and writing two more. I am switching to a better web host and redesigning my webpages and brand name. Additionally, I have joined forces with a few other people to launch a new company that will provide various web-based services to our local area. I don’t know how successful it will be, but I have high hopes and am committed to doing my part to make it succeed. I have reconnected with a few people who were good enough to forgive me for being an idiot and an asshole these past few months. I’ve also had some people spit in my face, but that’s OK. I had it coming. I am not dating right now, and I will NEVER date someone from work ever again. At this point I see dating as a waste of time that I can devote to working on me. I don’t think I deserved to be abandoned, but I also acknowledge that I am not perfect. I have a lot of room for improvement, so I am taking time to make me stronger and better. Once I feel better about myself and my plans are rolling forward on their own steam again, I’ll see how I feel about subjecting myself to the trials and tribulations of dating again. If you've never read this post before, you couldn't know this, but every year, when I update this biography with the events of the previous year, I always end it with some sort of positive, optimistic note that pledges the following twelve months to finally be the age of milk and honey, when all troubles dissolve and all dreams come true. And every year, when it comes time to append the article with what actually happened, that sun-shiny statement is sitting there on the page, laughing its ass off at me and how stupid I was to actually believe it when I wrote it a year ago. And in this particular case, I’m almost four months into the year already, so I only have eight left to find that milk and honey. So this year there will be no lofty promises or clauses over-brimming with pledges of optimistic sun shine for the coming months. I offer this prediction instead: I will survive this year, and I’ll do my best to truly live as much as I can along the way. I will publish at least one book, maybe two. I will keep my Federal job. I will help my new company succeed. I will lose some weight. I will promote my novels and rebuild my online presence. Every day I will look for a reason to smile and laugh. Every day I will look for rational, conclusive evidence that I am on the right path. And on the days when I cannot find any reasons or any evidence, I’m going to laugh as loud as I can, smile as big as I can, and take the biggest step forward that I can – simply because I can. |
New Book & New Site Are Coming
I’ve been dragging my ass since September, 2011. I’ve had good reasons, but regardless of their nature or validity, I have let my writing endeavors and website languish away into obscurity.
This entropic trend stops today. I’ve secured sufficient funding to restart my publication plans, beginning with a freelance artist to help me move forward with the publication of Heretic. I also have another unrelated book in the works that will be ready later this year. I am researching how to get my material onto the Nook for fans who cater to Barnes & Noble instead of Amazon. I have started writing the third novel in the Heretic’s Quest series.
As far as the websites go, I am switching to a new webhost this month because I am completely disgusted with 1and1.com. I tried to switch last year, but the content migration was beyond my capabilities, and I couldn’t afford to pay someone else to do it.
This time I am tackling it from a different angle. Instead of migrating everything, I am going to build a new version of hereticscribe.com with the new webhost. Then I am going to take all pertinent content from shannonthomas.org and schedule it to post regularly on the new hereticscribe.com. I will be writing brand new content at the same time and expanding the categories to include new things I have never posted before. I won’t have a separate logon required for the site; it will fall back on facebook, twitter, and/or other established services for authentication. I don’t know when I will have the site up to 100%, but I intend to have it functional enough to use within the next two weeks. When it comes live, this site, along with all others I’ve ran in the past, will be permanently retired.
Stay tuned, folks. I don’t know where this roller coaster will stop, but I can promise you that it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
Logical & Historical Reasons to Legalize Drugs
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I do not use any illegal drugs. I don’t even like to use legal ones unless it’s a matter of life and death. I don’t smoke cigarettes. I do not condone the use of recreational drugs, except for alcohol, and even that should be in moderation. I drank excessively in my youth, but these days a six pack of beer will last me two weeks. Despite the fact that I am not a drug user, I fully endorse and condone the legalization of drugs. I base my decision on consideration of historical trends and our present reality. I don’t think anyone can deny America is in a drug crisis, but we’ve been here before, with alcohol. Prior to Prohibition, alcohol production was taxed, but its sale was mostly unregulated. Underage drinking, domestic violence, poverty, and alcohol related deaths were daily realities that touched Americans everywhere. Prohibitionists tried for years to outlaw alcohol, but the laws never had a chance because a massive chunk of the Federal budget came from alcohol taxes. Then the Sixteenth Amendment passed - due in part to Prohibitionist support and action. In case you’re rusty on your Constitutional history, that’s the amendment that legalized the income tax. That’s right, hatred of alcohol helped pave the way and push through legislation that is responsible for leeching away your hard-earned money every pay day. Once Uncle Sam was assured that his budget wouldn’t take a hit, Prohibition passed a few years later. Proponents heralded it as a victory of modern civilization and the beginning of a new golden age. These people did not understand that you cannot save people from themselves. Simply illegalizing alcohol did not make people stop drinking. It just made it harder to get. Since it was harder to get, it got more expensive. Since it was expensive and illegal, it was natural that criminals would step in. Bootleggers like Al Capone made fortunes from illegal booze while cops and innocent civilians died in the gang wars, power struggles, and general violence that surrounded the illegal production and distribution of alcohol. People tried to cash in on the craze or avoid paying bootlegger prices by making their own booze. Most of them didn’t know what they were doing, and since there was no quality control, people died by the hundreds from poison that they thought was whiskey or moon shine. (Does any of this sound familiar? The violence? The corruption? The dangerous drugs made in someone’s basement? ) When prohibition was appealed, and alcohol became legal again, the bootleggers had to abandon booze and look for other vices to peddle because there wasn’t any money in it for them anymore. Laws were passed to regulate drinking age, when alcohol could be sold, hours of operation for saloons, and what alcohol content a beverage could have. Quality control and safety standards were implemented. Were there still alcoholics? Sure. Were lives still ruined by alcohol? Sure. But the situation was an improvement over the unregulated pre-Prohibition days and also better than Prohibition. America went from a period of no regulation to a period of total regulation, and found that neither worked as well as a compromise in the middle, where alcohol was legal, but regulated and monitored. On a side note, since the production and sale of alcohol was no longer on the black market, the government was able to tax it again and use the revenue to help pull the country out of the Great Depression. OK, enough history. Even if none of that ever happened, our present circumstances speak loudly enough for the legalization of recreational drugs. Simply put: We’ve tried to make them go away by making them illegal, and the effort isn’t working. The so-called "War on Drugs" is the biggest farce since Prohibition. If people want to use drugs, they are going to get them and use them, and modern-day Al Capone’s are going to provide them. You can outlaw a drug, but you can’t outlaw basic human nature or basic economics. If people are willing to pay any price to get something, someone else will ALWAYS be willing to provide it. Some estimates put the current cost of the War on Drugs over 11 billion dollars. I couldn’t find a way to tabulate the number of casualties caused by this "war" because there is no way to track all of the people who have died from poisonous homemade drugs, innocents killed during drug turf violence, innocents killed in crimes committed to get money to buy drugs, cops killed in the line of duty, STD related deaths from sharing needles, and drug overdoses. And don’t forget the cost of imprisoning all the drug offenders. Our prisons are over populated, and tax payer money goes to the upkeep of every prisoner behind bars, even if his only offense was owning an ounce of marijuana. The laws don’t work. The penalties don’t work. The drug war is a failure. It simply does not work, no matter how you try to measure it - unless you count all the ways Congressmen can use the funds in their voting districts to help constituents with extra cash and make it look like they are tough on drugs while not actually doing anything at all. If it doesn’t work, then it’s time to admit it and try something else. We’ve tried banning them, and it seems obvious that totally eliminating all regulation is a bad idea. That only leaves one option left to try: Legalization and regulation. People use drugs as a recreation and an escape. Most of them do not want to die, and most of them do not want to hurt people or commit crimes to support their addiction. But drugs are illegal, and therefore can get very expensive. The user is addicted, and therefore does whatever he must to feed the monkey on his back, even if that means he has to break into someone’s home, mug someone, rob a pharmacy, buy drugs cooked in someone’s basement, or give blow jobs in the alley. Most people don’t want to do those things. If they could go to Rite-Aid or CVS or Walgreens and buy the drugs they wanted off the shelf, they would be less expensive, would not require a life of crime or sordid sex acts to procure, and would be a guaranteed, consistent dosage with no fear of additives. When the big money dried up from the previously illegal drug trade, drug related crime and violence would likely diminish. The government could tax the sales the same way they tax every other thing under the sun, which would help get us out of this recession and balance the budget.
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Let’s also look at why people start using drugs to begin with. Reasons vary, but in most cases it’s a combination of ignorance and lack of options. I grew up in a rural area that has been in economic decline for decades. As futures became bleaker and options for local employment or entertainment dwindled, drug use increased. We could take the billions of dollars that are currently wasted on the War on Drugs, plus some of the revenue from drug taxes, and invest in communities – revitalize areas with jobs, entertainment, education, and rehabilitation options. Some people will always choose to take drugs. No law, no amount of money, no number of policemen, and no mortal power will ever change that fact. However, if people felt they had other options, and if they received valid and pertinent education, fewer people would turn to drugs as a means of escape. What would change if we offered people a reward instead of a punishment? We now tell kids, "If you do drugs, you’re going to jail." What if we instead told them "As long as you test clean, you can hang out in this brand new rec center, eat good food twice a day for free, and participate in programs that will make you eligible for college scholarships so you can get out of this terrible neighborhood and do something with your life"? If we legalized drugs, I firmly believe that, in time, we would reach a point where fewer people would use the drugs due to the availability of better options and education. The numbers of hard corps users would dwindle as they either rehabilitated or died off. Drug related violence and crime would sharply decrease. Prisons would get some breathing room. Cops could focus their time and resources on other issues. The government would get a cash infusion. The problem would not go away entirely, but it would be less of an issue and would be easier to monitor and control. Still not convinced? Well, I wasn’t either, at first. But then I studied the primary arguments of the folks who think drugs should remain illegal: 1) Drugs should be illegal because they are bad. 2) Drug violence won’t decrease, because drugs make people violent. 3) But some drugs are so addictive and so powerful that they cannot be used responsibly. 4) Drugs are evil, so they should be illegal. As near as I can tell, everyone who is fighting to keep drugs illegal are doing so
In summary, I think it is clear that past experience with Prohibition shows us that the War on Drugs will never succeed, and legalizing drugs is the only way we will ever mitigate the negative ramifications that are created by drug use. This hypothesis is strengthened by current trends that clearly show the War on Drugs has not stopped drug production, use, or violence. And finally, I have been unable to find any logically sound argument in favor of drug illegalization. If one removes the emotional and political static and looks at the problem from a purely logical standpoint, it distills down to three choices.
We didn’t try Option 1 because no one thinks it will work. We’ve been trying Option 2, and time has proven that it doesn’t work either. It is past time that we tried Option 3. |
Belated 2011 Year in Review
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It is customary for me to write a “year in review” article when the New Year comes ‘round. I missed it this year, and a lot of people are wondering where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. I suppose it’s time to account for the months of silence. As always, my internal censors struggle with what I want to say and what I feel is appropriate for an unregulated public audience to read, but I’m finally ready to give it a shot.
In January2011 I abandoned an eleven-year career in information technology to become a human resources staffing specialist. It was an abrupt and drastic change, but I had long chafed in the IT field and seized the chance to do something different for the same pay. January was also the month I finally got serious about my weight loss and fitness goals and began dropping pounds. Over the course of the next few months, I continued to lose weight and tackled the learning curves at work. I had to learn new skills, new policies, new procedures, new office politics, and get acclimatized to a new office culture. I worked for the same company, but in a different building down the street, and I was amazed at how much differed in the way people relate and react. In May I was diagnosed with severe insulin resistance. The doctor told me I was one candy bar away from developing diabetes. Luckily, the previous months of diet and exercise had prepared me for the treatments he suggested, and I only had to make minor adjustments to the way I as already eating and exercising. It was still very scary, and I was very depressed. I felt like my body had failed me, until I realized that it was I who had failed my body. I didn’t let it get me down for long, and I committed even harder to my diet and exercise program. In June I published Warlock’s Wake, my debut novel, in paperback. It was followed shortly by a Kindle version. This marked a huge milestone in my life, the realization of a lifelong dream. Words cannot describe how I felt when I held the first copy in my hand. I imagine it’s akin to the feeling a father would feel when holding his firstborn son, without the worry of him puking or pooping on you. I also took a break to spend a week with my parents in June, and it was so good to see them and hang out with them. I know many people have strained relations with their parents, and I’ve always considered myself to be very fortunate to have parents who treat me as an equal and a friend now that I am an adult. I spent a few days in Cranberry Glades, camping with two of my three best friends in the world. John, Jay, and I had a royal blast in the deep woods, and we sorely missed Aubrey. We went crazy with the gear this year: John and I loaded down two heavy-duty appliance dollies with all sorts of camping extravagances and wheeled them six miles into the Glades. We feasted like kings the entire trip – steaks, lasagna, fried potatoes, eggs, fried apples, and lots of beer! I broke up with my girlfriend in June. We’d be on-again-off-again for awhile. We fiercely loved each other, but we had mismatched emotional baggage and just couldn’t seem to keep it together, and we finally split up. The months that followed were a confusing time as I tried to remember how to be single and how to meet women. I’d had an entire future planned with Natasha, and now that it was gone, I spent the entire summer bouncing around like a neurotic pinball, just trying to figure out what came next. I remember a lot of mountain biking, swimming, weight lifting, and drinking. I played a lot of Fallout: New Vegas and Prototype, and I spent a lot of time in places I shouldn’t have been, doing things I shouldn’t have. I had some romantic misadventures, which all ended poorly. (Sorry, no details on these!) My entire life stopped and everything changed when my father was murdered in September. It’s a deeply private matter which I am unwilling to discuss in detail, but everything that’s happened since has been a blur of movement and emotion. It’s been over five months, and I’m just now getting to a point where I feel like I have the weakest grip on my sanity or reality. Do me a favor and don’t ask me about Dad or what happened. I don’t want to talk about it, and none of my family does either. I’m only mentioning it because it happened, and I can’t talk around it anymore as if it didn’t. |
Since he died, I have been in limbo. I abandoned my website projects, forgot about promoting Warlock’s Wake and forgot about finishing the sequel. I was a ghost on Face Book and Twitter. I regained twenty pounds and barely managed to hold down my job. My house got so messy that I could barely stand to live in it. My bank account was decimated by all the traveling and other expenses that I accrued with multiple trips to South Carolina (where my parents lived.) Everything just stopped and fell apart, and I couldn’t find the strength required to care.
Natasha and I reconciled during this time. She was a lighthouse in the storm and a source of strength and stability that I desperately needed, but our problems weren’t solved; they were just postponed. When our issues boiled up again, I allowed them to affect us at work (we work for the same company,) and I consequently nearly lost my job. In the aftermath of that mess, she and I are on amicable terms, but I can’t spend time with her or try to fix things with us if I want to keep my job. So I’m leaving that alone. Time will tell what (if anything) happens next. So that’s the year (plus some) in review. That’s where I’ve been. The questions now are: Where am I now, and where am I going? Right now I am in poor health again. I’ve fattened up from 257 back to 277, and I can’t get it off again. My gall bladder causes constant pain and must be surgically removed in the near future. I’m hoping once I heal from the surgery I will be able to get back on my nutrition and exercise plan to start losing weight again. My house is clean and organized, and I’ve managed to fix nearly everything that wasn’t working when I bought it two years ago. I have plans drawn up to build Luke (Natasha’s son) a crazy-cool castle/bed in my spare bedroom, complete with draw bridge, crane, secret escape tunnel, and an armory, but that plan is on hold until I see if he’s even going to be part of my life anymore. Warlock’s Wake sells a few Kindle copies a month despite my neglect. It has fallen far in the ratings, but I’ve completed the animated trailer I commissioned for it, so hopefully I can use it to help get sales kickstarted. I have run the sequel through one last round of edits and need to apply them to make it ready for publication. Work is going well, despite the bullshit that could have gotten me fired. I received my first performance appraisal the other day, and I got better-than-average marks across the board. I’ve landed in one special projects team after another, and I’m getting to help a lot of people in my department. I’m enjoying the work and most mornings I actually look forward to going to the office. My bank account is starting to show signs of recovery, but it’s still in ICU. My family is coping with … what we’re coping with. I don’t want to get into those details, but we’re surviving and getting by one day at a time. I miss my Dad. What comes next? I don’t really know. I can’t lie and say I have a plan. I don’t. I want to finish losing weight and get in good shape again. I want to promote Warlock’s Wake, publish the sequel, start the third novel, and get my websites in tip-top shape. I want to go to some concerts and enjoy some mini vacations this year. I want to get a loan and rebuild the deck on my house. I want to make peace with Tasha and continue our future together. I want to continue working, enjoying the work, and getting paid. I want to get my gall bladder removed and start feeling like something other than a walking bag of biohazardous gas. I’d like to get lasik surgery on my eyes. I’d like to be in good enough shape to try the Warrior Dashes I’ve read about. I’d like to start up another shadowrun campaign with my buddies. How much of it will I get done? Hell, maybe none of it. We’ll see. The past year had some high points, but was very tough overall, and this year hasn't gotten off to a very good start. All I know for sure is that I am alive and not ready to try the alternative. So I'm taking life in stride, one day at a time. At the time of this writing, I've just about whipped Monday, March 5th and put it behind me. I'll worry about Tuesday, March 6th when it gets here. |
Bobaflex: Rock’n'Roll Saviors
I was born and raised in rock’n’roll. My father couldn’t remember any nursery rhymes, but he knew Kiss and Led Zeppelin lyrics, which he sang to me until I was old enough ride around with him and listen to them on his old cassette deck.
Since that time, I’ve seen many bands and many shows, from AC/DC to ZZ Top, and dozens of heavy hitters in between. I know solid, ass-kicking rock’n’roll when I hear it, and unfortunately nowadays I don’t hear it nearly as often as I’d like.
We live in an age when the radio stations are flooded with pussified watered-down “music” that thrives in the mediocre limbo between rock and pop. It has too much guitar and bass to be pop or hip-hop, but the limp-wristed lead singers and lame-ass lyrics keeps it from being true rock’n’roll. (I won't call out any bands in particular, because I wouldn't want to seem cold, and I certainly wouldn't want to hinder anyone.)
Then there are bands like Bobaflex.
I’ve seen them numerous times, and they rock hard enough to go up against any other band I’ve ever heard. I'd put them on the main stage at Ozzfest any day, and laugh when they rocked harder than the rest of the lineup. Their lyrics make sense have meaning. Their music finds that primal, instinctual, reptilian brain and strums your brainstem like a string on a bass guitar. Their songs make you want to scream, stomp, dance, fuck, fight, explode, and implode all at once.
These guys have their shit together, and they're the real deal. If you want to hear true all-American rock’n’roll, then pick a show, buy a ticket, and meet me in the mosh pit.
Shaun, Marti, Chris, Jerod, and Tommy: thanks for keeping rock alive and showing people what it's really about. I'll see you at Bearfest, if not before.
Big Changes Are Coming!
In the near future, shannonthomas.org will be shut down, and will be re-launched as http://HereticScribe.com. I am doing this for a number of technical and marketing reasons, and I expect the change to be the best move I've made since moving to WordPress four years ago. You may expect the following:
Content on the new site will be written for entertainment and educational purposes only. There will be no personal daily updates about my life, or blatant propaganda for my book. All articles will pertain to one hobby/interest or another. The poetry and short stories that were featured on this site have been removed on the new site and will soon be released in a compilation on Kindle.
Personal updates and photos will be available on my facebook page. Short updates and random headtrips will be available on my twitter feed. Book news will be posted on the Warlock's Wake facebook page.
I’m NOT a Loser 07.15.11
Weight Loss
Weight: 265.0
Weight: 265.5
Net Weight Change : +0.5
Total Weight Loss : 46.0
Notes:
Debauchery finally caught up to me this week, but a half pound is a small price to pay for the excellent weekend and week I've had. I'll lose it plus some more next week. I doubt I'll get down to 260 even, which means I'll miss the goal I had set earlier, but I'm not too worried about it anymore. As long as I maintain net losses for the month, I'm happy.
I’m a Loser 07.08.11
Weight Loss
Weight: 267.5
Weight: 265.0
Net Weight Change : -2.5
Total Weight Loss : 46.5
Notes:
This week I discovered two facts: A Bud Light is worth fewer points than a Killian's Irish Red, but regardless of which you drink, it's hard to keep count and even harder to do the math after you've emptied thirteen or fourteen of them into your belly. So... I lost track of my points and just gave up trying to count them sometime around 10PM Saturday night.
I'm not sure how I managed to lose 2.5 pounds considering the insane amount of food and beer I ingested over the last week, but maybe the equally insane amounts of exercise had something to do with it. I fully intend to be very bad this weekend as well, so I'm guessing my debauchery will catch up to me at the scales next week, but I'm thinking it doesn't matter much. I wanted to be down to 260 in time for a book signing on Jully 23rd, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get it lined out in time. I've lost 8.5 pounds in three weeks. It won't kill me to back off and enjoy life just a little bit. And who knows? If I keep swimming, lifting, and biking like I have been, maybe I won't gain a pound. We'll soon see.
I don't want to buy more clothes now, because I still have about 25 pounds I intend to lose, and any clothes I buy today are going to be too big in three months. But the clothes I bought three months ago are falling off of me now.
I've never been much of a clothes horse. I never enjoyed shopping for new things to wear. But when I get down to 240, I'm going to donate all of my current clothes (except for one set, which I'll be wearing) to the Salvation Army. Then I'm buying new stuff all around - shirts, jeans, underwear, socks, slacks, shoes, and a few tailored suits. It may be the the first time I will enjoy clothes shopping in my entire life.
Along similar lines, I have two tattoos I've been designing for years, one for my back and one for my belly and chest. I'm going to get them when I'm finally back in good shape.
Anticipation of these things keeps me motivated.
I’m a Loser 07.01.11
Weight Loss
Weight: 270.5
Weight: 267.5
Net Weight Change : -3.0
Total Weight Loss : 44.5
Notes:
I used all of my weight watchers points this week, and then some. But I also exercised my ass off (literally.)
I probably would have lost more, but I haven't slept well; I skipped a gym day, and I've been in class all week which forced me to shorten all of my workouts (and it's so easy to hit the vending machines right outside the classroom while we're on break!) I was hungry all week long no matter how much I ate. I think it was because I increased my exercise.
But even with all that, I still lost three pounds, which puts me firmly below 270 pounds for the first time in nearly a decade. When I first started losing weight, I had to buy new shirts and pants because the old stuff was just too big. Since then, I've been washing them in cold water and letting them air-dry because I was worried they'd shrink and I wouldn't fit in them anymore. However, this past week I've been washing with hot water and drying on high heat, trying to get them to shrink a little bit so they'll fit me better. I don't want to buy new clothes again already!
One final note: I shaved my 1-mile swim time down to 37:06. I'm hoping to finally get under 37:00 next week. I tried to get there today, and I really thought I had it, but I came in at 37:18.
Magic/Gear: Augmentation Spirits (DRAFT)
Augmentation spirits are in a class all of their own, another mystery of the metaplanes that have only recently been discovered by a select few conjurers and enchanters. Some theorize that these spirits are freed ally spirits, but no one really knows for sure. For game purposes, assume that an augmentation spirit is a unique free spirit that is molded and changed by the summoning ritual so that it meets the summoner’s requirements. Augmentation spirits are summoned and bound into mundane items to make them more powerful and to potentially give unawakened people access to magical abilities.
Conjuring Requirements
To conjure an augmentation spirit, a conjurer must have the augmentation meta magic, the spirit’s formula, spirit’s true name, binding materials equal to the force of the spirit, and a previously prepared item for the spirit to inhabit (see "Physical Form - Vessels," below.)
Spirit Formula
As with ally spirits, an augmentation spirit’s formula may be written from scratch by making a Logic + Arcana (Force x 5, 1 day) Extended Test, or it may be granted by a metaplanar quest. This formula must have a physical representation which must be the actual vessel the spirit will inhabit. This means that every vessel must be custom-made, and unless a duplicate item is made, if the vessel is destroyed, the formula is destroyed, which means the spirit is destroyed.
Creating an Augmentation Spirit
The augmentation spirit’s formula incorporates a free spirit’s true name and modifies the spirit’s unique essence, statistics, abilities, and powers to meet the conjurer’s intentions. This formula also dictates how much Karma the conjurer must sacrifice during the summoning ritual before the spirit is invested with these abilities. The following steps will help you calculate the spirit’s Karma cost (as well as its powers and skills).
Choose Force: An augmentation spirit’s base cost equals 8 Karma times the desired rating.
Learn the spirit’s true name (page 107, Street Magic.) This doesn’t affect Karma cost, but the task may be based on the spirit’s Force, and is a requirement for the ritual.
Choose Powers: All augmentation spirits start with the Dual Natured, Sentience, Realistic Form, Aura Masking, Inhabitation, Spirit Pact (Command,) Immunity (Natural Weapons,) and Mind Link (Touch) powers (The Mind Link power requires the spirit’s vessel to be touching the person with whom it wants to establish a mind link.) They also have one additional power per 3 full points of Force, chosen from the list below. Additional powers may be added for 5 Karma each.
Animal Control
Personal domain
Regeneration
Concealment
Guard
Movement
Psychokinesis
Search
Elemental attack (specify type)
Elemental Immunity (specify type)
Enhanced Senses (choose sense)
Magic Guard (counterspelling skill required)
Choose Skills: All skill ratings equal the spirit’s Force. Augmentation spirits start with the Assensing and Spellcasting skills. They may have one additional skill per 3 points of force, chosen from the list below. Additional skills may be purchased for 5 Karma each.
Archery
Blades
Clubs
Exotic Melee Weapon
Exotic Ranged Weapon (elemental attack)
Throwing Weapons
Any Charisma-based Skill
Perception
Tracking
Arcana
Astral Combat
Armorer
First Aid
Counterspelling
Choose Spells: Augmentation spirits start with the Physical Mask (Vessel,) Fix (Vessel,) Fashion (Vessel,) Fashion(Vessel,) and Custom Fit (Vessel) spells (see below for descriptions.) The conjurer may teach the spirit any spell he knows for 3 Karma per spell. If the conjurer doesn’t know the spell, the spirit can still be taught with a spell formula for 5 Karma per spell. Augmentation spirits can only cast spells with a range of "Self" or "Touch," but are very adept at casting these spells, receiving +2 die to resist drain. They may not learn or cast fetish based spells.
Calculate Rating: the spirit’s rating equals its Force+extra powers+extra skills+extra spells. This rating multiplied by two dictates how much Karma is required for some one other than the summoner to enter into a Command pact with the spirit.
Summoning Ritual
Augmentation spirits are summoned as if they were ally spirits, as described on page 104, Street Magic. Once it is successfully summoned and inhabited into its vessel, the summoner has full command of the spirit as if it were in a Command Pact (see below) until the summoner dies or releases the spirit from service.
Personality
As a free spirit, augmentation spirits may have any personality described on pages 92-93, Street Magic, or any other personality the gamemaster desires. As a guideline, these spirits tend to be animus/animae, shadows, or wardens. The conjurer dictates the spirit’s basic personality with the spirit formula. Once freed of the original conjurer, an augmentation spirit will seek to enter Command pacts with individuals that match its personality and goals.
The augmented vessel will usually have a unique name which is never the true name of the spirit, but the spirit may refer to it’s self by a nickname, often based on the item’s name. For instance, if a dagger were named “Diablo’s Toothpick,” the spirit may call itself “Pick.”
Ideally, the spirit and the controller are like-minded and have similar goals, but this is not essential. The spirit should be treated like a contact and should have a well-defined personality of its own. Relationships can evolve and change over time, such that the spirit and controller may become close friends and confidants where the spirit is respected and treated like an equal despite the inherent servitude implied by the Command Pact. Alternately, they may remain purely professional counterparts, or even devolve into a true master/slave relationship where the spirit seeks to be free of its controller by any means available to it.
Attributes
Regardless of the physical form inhabited by the spirit, its mental attributes and Magic are equal to its Force. Its physical attributes will be based on its Force and will be modified according to the composition of the vessel (GM Discretion.) If in doubt, GMs should simply use the spirit's Force for physical attributes as well. In most cases, Body and Reaction will be the only two physical attributes that matter, since Reaction is linked to Initiative and Body is used to determine the physical condition monitor and to resist damage. If the physical form has a barrier rating, it should be increased by half of the spirit’s Force.
The spirit begins play with an Edge attribute equal to the conjuring character’s Edge, rather than its Force.
Astral Form
The spirit can use its aura masking power to make its vessel look like a mundane item when viewed from Astral space. If the masking is penetrated, it will be revealed as a spirit inhabiting a physical form. Its true astral form is up to GM discretion.
Physical Form - Vessels
An augmentation spirit’s vessel is a very special thing. It is the physical representation of the spirit’s formula and incorporates the spirit’s true name. It serves as a true vessel for the spirit. Copies of a spirit’s vessel are rarely made due to construction costs and also due to the power the vessel has over the spirit. This means that destruction of the vessel usually results in the utter destruction of the spirit as well.
Vessels for augmentation spirits must be an item that an be worn or carried by the person in command of the spirit. Melee weapons and armor are the most common forms, but rings, bracelets, clothing, boots, gloves, belts, and even skate boards have been used as vessels. The GM has final authority to decide if a vessel is appropriate, but in general, it must be something that can be worn or easily carried by a metahuman of with average physical attributes.
Due to their unique requirements and nature, vessels for augmentation spirits must be custom made and may not incorporate any electronic or electrical components. Firearms do exist as vessels, but they are very rare and do not incorporate any internal smart links, range finders, laser sights, or other electronics. There are no suits of military armor with spirits inside them, and while one might try to build a vibroblade from scratch, the inhabiting process would short-circuit the electronics required to make the blade function.
Vessels must be purely mechanical in nature. For instance, armor could be built with a retractable blade in the forearm, but it would only work if the mechanism employed mechanical manual controls. Neural links will not work. Firearms will only work if they can be mechanically fired (no electronic or remote-control firing.)
Armor must be constructed as a single suit, with all pieces connected. For instance, a character could have a shield or a helmet augmented by a spirit, since they are single pieces, but for an entire suit of armor to be augmented, every single piece must be connected. Armor made of metal plates must use leather, chain mail, or some other flexible material at the joints to connect the pieces into one suit.
Construction: Vessel construction requires the base cost of the mundane counterpart, plus modification costs, multiplied by 2. It also requires one unit of radical reagents per point of spirit Force, and one exotic reagent per 3 points (or portion thereof) of spirit Force. The construction test is an Extended test that will vary based on the vessel’s form and is up to GM discretion.
Once the form is constructed, it must be prepared for inhabitation, requiring an Enchanting + Magic (Object Resistance x 3, 1 day) Extended Test.
An augmentation spirit may not inhabit any sort of magical focus without destroying the enchantment that gives the focus its power.
Spirit Abilities
Augmentation: depending on the form of the physical vessel, an augmentation spirit grants various bonuses.
Melee/Thrown/Projectile Weapons gain half the spirit’s Force (round up) to damage values, and may strike astral targets or other creatures immune to natural weapons. (An augmented bow can hit a spirit, but its mundane arrows cannot. An augmented arrow could hit a spirit even if it were shot from a mundane bow.)
Firearms gain recoil compensation equal to the spirits Force, and if the actual firearm (not its bullets) is used as a weapon, it gains the same benefits as described above.
Armor gains half the spirit’s Force (round up) to both ballistic and impact armor. The armor becomes hardened against normal weapons with a rating equal to twice the spirit’s Force, but this does not stack. If a Force 3 augmentation spirit were to inhabit a custom designed armored jacket (ballistic 8, Impact 6,) the new armor rating would be 10/8 (3/2, rounded up, added to each rating.) The first 6 points of the this rating would count as hardened armor due to the spirit’s Immunity to normal weapons. If a leather jacket were augmented with a Force 3 spirit, the new rating would be 4/4, but since this is less that the hardened armor bestowed by the immunity, the new armor rating is 6/6, all of which counts as hardened armor. Unarmed damage or any melee weapon that is an integral part of the armor gains the weapon benefits as described above.
Other items may gain other bonuses as the GM sees fit.
Tireless guardian: The spirit can be ordered to continually be on the lookout for astral or mundane activity. Regardless of its vessel’s shape, it may perceive the physical world with the standard five meta-human senses, plus any extras senses it may have due to powers or spells. It is also able to perceive Astral space as a dual natured creature.
Unlimited service: The spirits’ controller (The summoner, or anyone who has entered into a Command Pact with the spirit,) may command it to use any of its powers or spells an unlimited number of times. Commanding the spirit is a simple action. The spirit may only use powers or spells it possesses as services. It cannot use any of the other services normally attributed to spirits (aid study, sustain spell, resist drain, etc.)
Vessel Animation: If the physical form has moving mechanical parts (hinges, wheels, pulleys, gears, springs, etc.) the spirit may move them with its own power as long as the vessel is in physical contact with its controller. A suit of augmented armor could put itself onto its commander or even walk around with its unconscious controller inside it. An augmented gun could fire itself or eject a clip, but couldn't aim itself without the use of a levitation or psychokinesis spell. An augmented skateboard could make its wheels roll and steer itself. If a augmentation spirit is not currently bound by a Command Pact, it may move even though it is not in physical contact with a controller. (See any empty suits of armor walking around, lately?)
Modern vehicles cannot be inhabited by augmentation spirits. However, it is conceivable that a vessel could be custom built to allow movement on ground or water. If this movement is accomplished in a similar fashion to an existing animal (humanoid walking, dog running, snake slithering, dolphin swimming, etc,) the GM should consult the movement rates of similar creatures and increase them by 5% per point of spirit Force (or more, if the form is large enough to warrant faster movement than its animal counterpart.) These rates may be increased if the spirit has the Movement power.
If the movement is accomplished via spirit animation of purely mechanical means, such as a bicycle, its maximum “walking” rate should equal it’s Force x 5 meters per turn. Its maximum “running” rate should equal its Force x 10 meters per turn. These rates may be increased if the spirit has the Movement power. Note that, regardless of the nature of the physical form, the controlling metahuman may not steer or otherwise manually "drive" the form, but he may ride it. For instance, even if a bicycle is augmented, the controller may not steer it. The spirit must navigate its own body with its own attributes and needs no piloting skill to do this, since it is its natural form of movement. The controller can tell it, "Turn left here," or "Take me to Helga's House of Pain," and the spirit will comply to the best of its ability, but the controller can't say "Move forward as fast as you can," and then steer the vehicular form himself.
Spellcasting: On command, an augmentation spirit can cast any spell it knows, and may sustain spells that it casts for as long as needed, inferring the standard -2 universal penalty per spell sustained.
Skill use: On command, an augmentation spirit may use any skill it knows on it's commander's behalf, assuming it has the physical means to accomplish the task. For instance, an augmented sword with the Blades skill cannot swing itself unless it uses a psychokinesis or similar spell.
Commanding an Augmentation Spirit
Once summoned and bound to a vessel, an augmentation spirit is obligated to follow commands issued by the conjurer and to serve him to the best of the spirit’s ability until the conjurer dies or relinquishes control of the spirit. Once the spirit is free of its original conjurer, it may enter into a Command Pact with anyone else it chooses, effectively making the new person its controller. The spirit can make no other pacts. The Command Pact involves the following conditions:
The controller may not be in any other pacts with any other spirit and may not make another pact while controlling the augmentation spirit, or the Command Pact is broken.
The controller may summon and bind other spirits, including ally spirits, but may not be willingly possessed by any spirit, (and gains dice equal to the augmentation spirit's force to resist unwilling possession or inhabitation.)
The controller must pay the spirit Karma equal to 2 times its Rating: 2x(Force+extra powers+extra skills+extra spells,) with the expectation that extra Karma will be paid from time to time to ensure the spirit remains happy (game master’s discretion.)
The pact lasts for the lifetime of the controller, or 75 years, whichever is sooner.
The spirit may not use any skill, power, or spell to directly or intentionally harm the controller for the duration of the pact.
The controller cannot command the spirit to use Edge or commit suicide.
The spirit may choose to enter perilous situations or to use Edge on its controller's behalf, but it doesn’t have to. Along the same lines, while an augmentation spirit is bound to follow nearly any command, it can choose to do so in a very literal fashion, or to interpret the command in an unfavorable way. It is not required to intervene on the controller's behalf unless commanded to do so. If the relationship between controller and spirit is amicable and mutually respectful, an augmentation spirit can be a powerful ally. If the relationship is strained or more akin to a master/slave relationship, the spirit can cause a great deal of trouble and harm while still abiding by the terms of the Command Pact. For instance, if a street samurai is knocked unconscious by a blast, but his augmented armor is still conscious, the spirit could choose to retreat on its own power, carrying its unconscious controller inside it. It couldn't choose to abandon the controller, since that action could obviously lead to his harm and would prevent the armor form moving once it was out of physical contact with its controller. But it could choose to remain in the area since it was not specifically commanded to leave, allowing the character to be captured. Even if the character had previously said "If I get knocked out, get me to my safe house," it is entirely up to the spirit to decide what route to take to get to the safe house, which could lead through gang territory, or a Knight Errant check point…
The controller may command the spirit to use any of its abilities, spells, or skills in any way the controller sees fit. These may be short term commands such as "Cast death touch when I shake this man's hand" or longer term commands such as "Alert me anytime you see an astral form that is not summoned by Alex" or "use counterspelling on me and all of my team members that you can see." Commands can be given so that they are repeated under established conditions, such as "Cast and sustain levitation on yourself. When I throw you at something, use the spell to return to my hand,” or “Cast deathtouch on anyone except me who tries to pick you up.” The GM decides how the spirit interprets commands and conditions, based on the spirit's Logic and Intuition, the situation, and its relationship with its controller.
Regardless of what the controller commands the spirit to do, the act of commanding is a simple action, and can be done only via the mental link, which requires touch to establish. The spirit may require a free, simple, complex, or multiple actions to complete the command, depending on what it is told. Even though the spirit is an NPC, its dice rolls can be handled by the player, if the GM wants to free up his brain a little bit.
Damage
Regardless of the shape or dimensions of the spirit's physical form, it has Immunity to normal weapons, which grants the form hardened armor equal to twice the spirit's force. The form's barrier rating is also increased by half of the spirit's force. This is most advantageous to armor forms, but makes any vessel more difficult to damage. They are susceptible to magical damage of all types and also to drain damage they may incur from drain. Weapon foci and dual-natured creatures can bypass the weapon immunity, but some additional protection is still conveyed by the increase in barrier rating.
Targeting
When trying to damage an augmented form, a number of considerations may apply, depending on the circumstances. If the vessel is alone and separate – a jar on a shelf, or a shield on a stand, for example, regular combat rules are used, and the spirit may attempt to dodge (if movement is possible) and resist damage normally (assuming the attack defeats the hardened armor.) Modifiers may apply for the size of the object; a class ring is harder to hit than a ballistic shield.
If the vessel – other than armor/clothing - is held or worn by a character, the attacker must make a called shot, and the character holding or wearing the vessel may attempt to dodge normally. If they fail, the vessel, and possibly the character, are hit and must resist damage.
If the vessel is a set of armor or clothing that covers half or more of the character’s body, a called shot can be used to target a specific part, but in general, it's assumed that the attacker is targeting the character in the armor normally. The target of the attack rolls to dodge normally, and if he fails, he and the spirit rolls to resist damage individually
Astral/spell Damage
Since augmented forms are dual natured, they can be targeted from astral space by spells or astral combat. The same rules apply as specified above, with one exception for full suits of armor/clothing. If a character is wearing a full suit of augmented armor, they are entirely encompassed by the spirit's astral form, granting them astral armor equal to the spirit's force. This protects them against all spells cast against them on the astral plane. On the physical plane, mana spells, single target spells, and touch-based spells receive a negative spellcasting modifier equal to the spirit's force if they are cast at the controller. Physical AOE spells or spells that use a damaging elemental effect function normally.
Mages and augmented items
While wearing any augmented item , a mage cannot astrally project since his astral form cannot escape the spirit's aura, and attempts to astrally perceive receive negative dice modifiers equal to the spirit's force if he is wearing an augmented helmet. A mage in full suit armor reduces his conjuring, binding, banishing, spellcasting, ritual spellcasting, and counterspelling pools by the force of the spirit.
Combat Sequence
Initiative can get a little tricky. All augmentation spirits, regardless of their physical form, get Initiative calculated normally and receive two initiative passes. If it is working on "standing orders" such as "cast heal on me anytime I am wounded," or "cast mana bolt at anyone who walks through that door," it will follow the orders without further intervention from the controller in accordance with its initiative. However, this may mean it has no actions available later in the pass or turn when the controller needs it.
If the spirit has actions available and no orders to use them, it holds its action, waits for a command from its controller and then uses its action as appropriate, and may use it as an interrupt action to execute its orders as soon as it receives them. If the controller is significantly faster than the spirit, he may issue orders that the spirit can't execute until later in the combat phase. This can cause issues in a fast-paced and rapidly changing combat situation, so a super-faster controller may wish to hold his action as well to ensure the orders he gives the spirit are still pertinent when the spirit has a chance to follow them.
It is possible to time attacks in such a way that the character attacks someone, and the spirit uses touch-based spell when the strike hits. In this case, the attacker doesn’t get the +2 bonus for “touch only attacks.” Because the spirit is not in control of its vessel and must try to time the spell casting by anticipating the moment it will hit its target, the spell casting attempt receives a -3 dice penalty.
Armor
Armor inhabited by an augmentation spirit is commonly called “ghost armor.” It is often constructed as a full suit of interconnected pieces, which does not usually include a helmet so that a separate mundane helmet (full of electronics and gadgets) can be used instead. A suit may be made to interface with a specific helmet type so that the suit can be sealed against chemical or airborne attack vectors. A suit may also be built with any armor modification that does not require the use of electronics, but these modifications cannot be added or removed later.
Even if modern materials and fabrication techniques are used, ghost armor is often crafted to resemble medieval armors. Even when it is made in a more contemporary style, it is often difficult to disguise as mundane armor due to the runes and other archaic writings that must be inscribed on the armor, although these inscriptions can be made on the underside of the armor if desired. Ultimately, the final appearance and modification of the armor is up to the designer of the spirit formula.
Weapons
Weapons inhabited by an augmentation spirit are often called “rune sword/hammers/daggers/pistols/monofilament whips,” due to the arcane writings that typically cover the weapon’s exterior. Melee weapons are the most common, but thrown weapons, projectile weapons (i.e. crossbows, compound bows, etc,) and even firearms have been made as vessels for augmentation spirits.
A weapon may serve as a vessel for any Force of spirit and use the stats for the given weapon type. The weapon type and final appearance of the weapon are determined by the designer of the spirit formula.
Weapons Built into Armor
A suit of armor may have weapons built into it. Forearm spurs, finger razors, and bolt launchers are popular choices, but other options exist. These weapons may or may not require an Exotic Weapon skill for the controller or spirit to use the weapon (game master discretion,) and the spirit may or may not have the appropriate skill to use the weapons if it is acting autonomously. The presence of the weapon in the armor does not guarantee the spirit knows how to use it.
Spells
Augmentation Spirits always know the Physical Mask (Vessel,) Custom Fit (Vessel,) Fashion (Vessel,) and Fix (Vessel) spells. They will often know Levitate, Magic Fingers, or Psychokenesis as well, since these spells will allow them to move even if they are not touching their controller.
Custom Fit (Vessel)
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)+2
Part Shapechange, part Fashion, and part Shape spell, this spell allows the spirit to make it’s vessel change in shape to accommodate its current controller. This removes penalties for using weapons of the wrong size, and ensures armor and apparel are custom-fitted to the user. A threshold must be met, equal to 2 for every size category between the current size and the desired size. So a custom fit from micro to giant would require a threshold of 10! (It may be easier to cast the spell multiple times, staging the size a little at a time.) This is not a fast process, requiring the spirit to maintain the spell for a full hour before it becomes permanent. It cannot be used to change the overall shape or form of the weapon or armor, as these are dictated by the spirit formula.
Sizes: Micro / Small / Dwarf / Human, Elf, Orc / Troll / Giant
Fix (Vessel)
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)-1
A special version of the Fix spell, this magic allows the spirit to repair damage to its vessel. Any damage not repaired in this way must be fixed by an armorer or artisan and an enchanter (triple the repair costs and double the time required.)
Physical Mask (Vessel)
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)-1
A special version of the Physical Mask spell, this magic allows the spirit to make its form appear in any shape/color/style that it or its controller desires. Combined with its aura masking ability, this spell can allow a controller to be protected by substantial armor while appearing to wear only a business suit or a bikini.
Fashion (Vessel)
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)-2
A special version of the Fashion spell, this magic allows the spirit to permanently make minor changes to its vessel to suit its controller. The overall shape cannot be changed, but color, texture, and other similar superficial details can be changed.
Karma
Besides the initial Karma that’s invested in the binding or Command Pact, a controller would be wise to supply the spirit with additional Karma as often as possible. This may be Karma the controller contributes personally, or may be Karma that’s negotiated as payment for a run or other service.
Gamemasters should be careful if they allow characters to negotiate for Karma “payments” to be made to the spirit. As a general guide, the Karma should still be factored as part of the character’s cut of the profits, with one point of Karma equaling at least 25,000 nuyen. This Karma can come from any source that the Mr. Johnson arranges, but will often entail some poor slob “willingly” sacrificing some of his life force to avoid more dire repercussions at the hands of Johnson’s employers. Additionally, considering how rare and valuable these items are, it may not be in the PC’s best interest to let a Johnson know that they possess augmented weapons or armor.
Also note that the spirit may have principles or ethics that dictate when, where, how, and from whom it may receive Karma. A shadow spirit may be fine with beating a bum within a millimeter of his life and bargaining for Karma to refrain from killing him. A trickster may barter with the bum and exchange booze for Karma, laughing at the irony of it. An animus may save the bum’s life from gangers and not even accept Karma if it was offered as a reward.
Regardless of the Karma source, the spirit controller cannot dictate how a spirit uses its Karma. Those choices are entirely up to the spirit, but it may choose any improvement options available to a PC, at the listed costs (page 270, SR4):
1.It may raise its attributes separately (which all begin at the Force it had when it went free).
2.It may raise or purchase additional skills.
3.It may initiate as a magician does, though the process grants one additional free spirit power per grade rather than a metamagic technique.
4.It may raise its Force by 1 point at a time at the cost of new Force rating x 10. Raising Force raises all of the spirit’s attributes, skills, and powers that are based on Force.
Acquiring Ghost Armor and Rune Weaponry
Augmented items are extremely rare. The availability and cost is designed to make less powerful items available at character creation, but if a character starts the game with such an item, there should be a good reason within the backstory to explain where the item came from and why the character has it.
Once the game has begun, augmented items should always entail a significant effort and cost for the characters, and should never be obtained by simply calling a fixer, paying some cash, and waiting for the item to fall off a truck. Finding or creating the items should be the subject of a run (or series of runs) and the danger involved should equal the reward. At the very minimum, a PC must find an NPC with the resources to craft the items and summon/bind the spirit. The PC may be required to aid in any aspect of the process (gathering reagents, learning the spirit’s true name, acquiring spell formulae, etc.) The following cost and availability listing are intended to be guidelines only. Individual games may allow for less (or more) restrictive access to these powerful items.
GMs have the final say as to whether an augmented item can be purchased, but as a general guideline, find a comparable item in the equipment listing and increase it’s availability by the Rating of the augmentation spirit (or Rating x 2 after the game starts.) Multiply the base cost by the Ratingx2. At character creation, players must spend BP equal to the Rating of the spirit to enter into the Command Pact with the spirit.
I’m a Loser 06.24.11
Weight Loss
Weight: 274.0
Weight: 270.5
Net Weight Change : -3.5
Total Weight Loss : 41.5
Notes:
It was a good week for me. I tracked my points all week, and despite the goody day on Tueday and the employee appreciation day on Wednesday, I lost all of the vacation poundage plus a half pound more. If I can maintain that rate for the next couple of weeks, I will reach my 260 pound goal by July 23. Hell, I might even beat it.
This next week is going to be very significant for me. If all goes as planned, it will the the week I FINALLY drop under 270 pounds. I've been working towards this for a long time, and I am excited to surpass this personal obstacle.
Magic: Tradition: Life Hackers
Like Chaos mages, life hackers believe that mana and the Astral plane comprise the "machine code" that is the "program of reality." They also believe that magic is a force that can be used to alter or hack the code. Unlike Chaos mages, life hackers believe that reality has a master programmer, a mentor spirit they call the "Source."
The Source is the ultimate coder, the master programmer that writes all of the "scripts" that define reality. Communion and contact with the Source allows life hackers to perceive, decipher, and alter this underlying "machine" code, creating alternate effects in reality in the forms of spells and spirits. The Source requires little of its followers. It expects them to learn at every opportunity, to constantly use their skills to test the strength and validity of its code. Every time a life hacker casts a spell or conjures a spirit, he is using hermetic techniques to hack the Source's work. This does not anger the Source, who actually takes pride in those followers who are able to devise new ways to hack (new spells, metamagic, spirits, foci, ect,) or those who can pull off more extravagant hacks to achieve greater effects (more powerful spells, spirts, foci, etc.) without succumbing to "biofeedback" (drain) that always accompanies any hack attempt.
Since the Source is responsible for everything in existence, his followers must focus their time and skills in some areas while neglecting others, but it is up to an individual to decide how to direct their own studies. In game terms, at character creation, a life hacker chooses to get 2 points of bonuses to spell casting and to conjuring, and 2 points of penalties to each. One character may have +2 to combat spells, -2 to illusion spells, +2 to task spirts, and -2 to Guidance spirits. Another character may have +1 to combat spells, +1 to health spells, -1 to illusion spells, -1 to manipulation spells, +1 to guardian spirits, +1 to water spirits, -1 to guidance spirits and -1 to task spirits. Yet another character may have +1 bonus to two types or spells and -2 penalty to one other while having +2 bonus to one spirit type and -1 to 2 others. The only restrictions are that the points must balance out, they cannot be changed after character creation, and penalties cannot be assigned to spirits outside of the tradition (such as fire spirits.)
Life hackers consider Astral Space and metaplanes to be the natural equivalent to the Matrix virtual reality. They use hermetic symbols and equations as the “programming language” that allows them to “hack” the underlying code that comprises all life and reality. If one were to listen to two life hackers discussing their magic, it would sound like a haphazard compilation of arcane magical terms and tech-speak jargon. “I used Gargnak runes and a destiny table to hack his central processor and install my own persona program” is life hacker jargon for “I cast a control thoughts spell on him.”
This perception extends to spirits as well. A life hacker recognizes a free spirit as an independent sentient entity akin to an artificial intelligence in the Matrix. However, they regard the spirits they summon and bind to be more akin to semi-autonomous software like an agent or IC which they can use to augment their own bodies or to change/control the world around them. To a life hacker, a summoned spirit is a deep hack, a persistent rift in the Source Code which the hacker may direct and utilize for a time to indirectly affect the world around him. In practice, this means that life hacker spirits use Possession instead of Materialization.
Since these “spirit programs” are “written” to affect certain types of objects, spirits summoned by life hackers can only possess certain types of objects. In the mind of a life hacker, “code” that is written to “hack” a metahuman will not work to “hack” a dog or a car. There is one exception to this rule: a life hacker may possess himself with any spirit he summons, regardless of its type.
Items or beings possessed by a life hacker spirit may display lines of arcane runes running over their bodies, and their eyes may glow, depending on the force of the possessing spirit. (See "Spotting Spirits, pg 95, Street Magic.)
Combat: Guardian – living or dead metahumans, weapons, armor, homunculi
Detection: Guidance – vehicles, scrying homunculi (crystal balls, ouija boards, mirrors, etc.)
Health: Plants – plants, alive or dead
Illusion: Beasts – Animals, alive or dead, animal homunculi
Manipulation: Task – living metahumans, drones, homunculi
Watchers – dead animals or metahumans, homunculi
Drain: Willpower + Logic
Initiation Rites (details are coming)
Initiate Grades/Titles
Grade 1: Whistler
Grade 2: Mana Scripter
Grade 3: Assembler
Grade 4: Ley Weaver
Grade 5: Leet Haxor
Grade 6: Reality Hacker
Grade 7: Fate Forger
Grade 8: Master Fate Forger
Grade 9: Grandmaster Fate Forger
Grade 10: Source Forger
Gear: Injection Spur
Essence: 0.3
Capacity: [4]
Availability: 12F
Cost: 2200
This is a specialized version of the classic cyberspur that resembles a flanged spike more than the typical blade design. The weapon incorporates low-profile barbed blades affixed around a conical spine and can be used to cut or slice, but it is intended primarily as a puncturing weapon. The spike is hollow, like a giant hypodermic needle, and the spur can be connected to a chemical reservoir or chemical gland. The weapon is used with the Blades skill, and with a successful Called Shot, the wielder may inflict regular damage, and also inject the victim of his attack with one dose of whatever compound is in the chemical reservoir, requiring the victim to resist both the attack and the toxin’s affects.
A glitch with this weapon indicates that the blade has become clogged or jammed in such a way that it cannot inject anything until it is cleared, requiring a Logic+Armorer (4,1 Turn) test. A critical glitch indicates the attacker has managed to inject himself with the toxin and must resist its effects.
I’m NOT a Loser 06.07.11
I gained three pounds since my last weigh-in two weeks ago. Considering that I haven't tracked my diet, have barely exercised, and ate/drank like a man scheduled for execution, I guess a three pound gain isn't too bad.
It was this time last year – right after a week down south with my parents – that I got off track and regained all the weight I'd lost (plus some.)
I cannot let that happen this time. I was committed to getting right back into the swing of things when I returned, but I got swimmer's ear from the lake water and had to stay out of the pool all week, and I was up late working on the novel, which meant I woke early enough to get the gym only twice.
I have the swimmer's ear whipped, and I'm tracking my diet again. More importantly, I intend to keep my chunky ass at home for the next few weekends, which means I won't have as many opportunities to break my diet and I should be able to get back into the habit of eating correctly.
I'm behind schedule as far as where I wanted to be in terms of overall weight loss, but I won’t let that discourage me. I have roughly five weeks until my first book signing event, and if I can get down to 260 by then, I'll still have 20 pounds to go before I reach my goal, but I'll also be content with the progress I've made.
I’m a Loser 05.27.11
I had another stagnant week where I didn't track my diet or exercise. I lifted weights and swam a mile every day, but I ate pretty much whatever I wanted. The end result? I lost one pound. Memorial Day weekend is another eating/drinking holiday, and my mouth waters at the mere thought of grilled steaks, juicy brats and hotdogs, strawberry shortcake, and BEER. However, I am trying to kick out of my funk and have been tracking my diet and exercise again since yesterday. I hope to be relatively good this weekend. I'm going to try to lose 4.5 this week so I can hit 270 and have lost 10 pounds for the month of May. I think I can do it, but we'll just have to see. A few months ago, a 4.5 pound loss would have been easy, but it's getting harder now that I have less to lose and I'm getting tired of denying myself the foods I want.
I’m NOT a Loser 05.20.11
I didn't do enough exercise this week to bother tracking it. I totally blew out my left calf either Monday or Tuesday morning, and I've been limping around ever since.
I also didn't track my diet.
I broke even for the week, neither gaining nor losing.
I've had a rough week. My calf has hurt all week, and I've gotten soaked while limping to or from work every day this week. If this goddamned rain doesn't dry up soon I'm going to lose my mind.
The breakup with Tasha hit me harder this week too. I'm doing OK, I guess, but I haven't been sleeping well, and I've been drinking much more than usual, and I think I'm depressed because I can't seem to give a fuck about much of anything.
My tattoo is healed enough for me to return to the pool, and I can barely wait. Next week will be better in every respect.
I’m a Loser 05.13.11
Weight Loss
04.05.11 Weight: 278
05.12.11 Weight: 275.5
Net Weight Change : 2.5
Total Weight Loss : 36.5
Stats, 05.05.11 - 05.011.11
Allowed WW Food Points: 448
Earned WW Activity Pts: 26
WW Food Points Eaten: 349
WW Points Remaining: 125
Daily Calorie Target: 1780
Average Daily Calories*:2076
Notes:
If you've been tracking my progress, you'll see my activity points are low this week when compared to past weeks. This is due mostly to the fresh tattoo which limits the ranges of exercises available, but also because I've stopped counting points for walking at work and stretching after workouts. WW says these activities are worth the points, but I can't justify counting them when such activities are as easy as breathing.
I ran or walked almost every day this week, with some pushups, crunches, pull-ups, jump rope, and mountain climbers thrown in for good measure, but I injured my left calf Wednesday night, and that forced me to switch to mountain biking until the bad weather put an end to that too. I'm trying to maintain a healthy level of exercise, in spite of circumstances arrayed against me, but I am getting frustrated. I will be glad when I can get back into the pool and weight room becasue at this rate, by the time the tattoo heals, I'll be too lamed up do anything except finger flutterkicks and face crunches.
I have one more week before this tattoo is healed enough for me to return to my regulary scheduled exercise. My bitching notwithstanding, I'm glad for the break and also for the chance to devise a decent workout that I can use when I go on vacation this summer. I was doing pretty well last year until I took a week away from my regular life, after which I didn't get back into fitness and exercise for six months. I regained every damned pound, plus some. This year I will not let that happen.
Even without exercising as much, I lost 2.5 pounds. I did really, really well with my diet this week. My doctor has asked me to use MyFitnessPal on my phone because it tracks calorie and nutrient intake. It means that I have to put my diet into two trackers (MFP and Weight Watcher's,) but I don't mind, because the MFP has awesome search capabilities to find food nutrition values, which I can use to calculate Points for foods that are not in WW's database (which is not very comprehensive at all.) Also, WW counts zero points for most fruits and veggies, but MFP still counts those calories, so if I try to meet the calorie goals in MFP, I come in 14-20 points under my allowed daily WW points. I'm pleased with the results so far, but I know that I'll have to abandon the calorie counting when I get back into the gym heavily, because I can't lift weights and also subsist on the pittance of food I eat when I try to hit my calorie goals.
*Adjusted for deductions earned for aerobic exercise.
Rules: New Initiation Costs & Options
In previous editions of Shadowrun rules, a magician or adept automatically gained a point of Magic when they initiated. In SR4 rules, Initiation grants the character the option of increasing their Magic at a rate of the new rating x 5 Karma - which is on top of the Initiation costs of 10+(grade x 3) Karma. Considering mages, especially initiated mages, can burn through Karma like a kid eating cotton candy, I feel this rule and these formulas are utter bullshit.
However, I concede that an increase in the Magic attribute represents a substantial bonus to a magician's power, and when one factors metamagic into the mix, it is clear that Initiation cannot be easy or cheap. However, a player may want to gain access to metamagic, or improve current metamagic without increasing his Magic attribute. Therefore I am altering the Initiation rules to allow cheaper advancement and more flexibility in the options.
Full Initiation: The character pays Karma equal to (Current Magic + New Initiate Grade) x 3 Karma to gain a new point of Magic, access to the metaplanes, a metamagical technique, and an Intitiate grade. Ordeals and initiatory groups may be used to reduce the Karma costs per the normal rules. Grade 1 Initiation must be a full initiation.
Once a character is a Grade 1 initiate, he may opt to continue with full initiations, or he may decide to do some full initiations after mixing in some of the following options:
Grade Initiation: A Character pays 10+(New Initate Grade) Karma to learn a new metamagical technique and increase his initiate grade (thus improving any metamagic that is linked to Grade.) No Magic attribute is earned, but the grade increase does factor into future Full Initiations. Ordeals and initiatory groups may be used to reduce the Karma costs per the normal rules. Also, per the normal rules, an initiate's grade cannot exceed his Magic attribute.
Metamagical Technique: An initiate may learn a new metamagical technique without initiating, as discussed on page 52 of Street magic. These techniques cost 10 Karma per technique, which may NOT be decreased by ordeals and initiatory groups. An initiate's metamagical techniques cannot exceed his Magic+Initiatory Grade in number.
Magic: Spell: Weapon Aura
Type: P Range: Caster Duration: S DV:(F/2)-1
This spell is identical to the Elemental Aura spell (pg 173, Street Magic,) except it affects only a melee weapon that is touching the caster.
Gear: Armor Mod: Anti-laser Field
This is modification for military armor. While active, the user is encased in a powerful electromagnetic field that is calibrated to disperse light. While the shield is active, when the wearer is hit with a damaging light effect (including elemental manipulations,) he may use full impact armor instead of half.
The shield uses the same power packs as Ares laser weapons, and it may not be attached to external power sources, as a failsafe to prevent the unit from burning out. Activating/deactivating the shield is a free action as long as the wearer is linked to the suit via a datajack or commlink. Manual activation/deactivation requires a simple action. The shield burns two charges per combat turn. Swapping energy cells requires a full combat turn.
Capacity: [8]
Availability: 16R
Cost: 10,000
Gear: Rapid-fire Laser Arm
This full cyberarm has a shoulder and elbow joint, but no wrist or hand. Instead, it terminates in a three-barreled laser cannon that is based on the Ares line of laser weaponry. This model combines numerous laser emitters and capacitor arrays to achieve a higher rate of fire. However, the technology is immature and not as efficient as the models on which it is based.
As long as the unit is fired in semi automatic mode, it functions just like an Ares Redline laser pistol, with no adverse effects. It can also fire a three-round burst as a simple action or a six-round burst as a complex action (using standard burst-fire rules) These bursts generate no recoil. However, a three-round burst uses four charges, and a six-round burst uses ten charges. The arm is equipped with internal charge packs, resulting in a total charge capacity of 50. The arm may not be attached to an exterior battery pack, but if equipped on a drone, power may be diverted from the drone's internal power source. Every ten charges expended in this fashion reduces the drone operation time by 1 hour. The internal batteries recharge at a rate of 1 charge per minute when attached to their charging unit.
When firing in burst mode, a minor glitch results in the unit grounding out and dissipating any remaining charges (this also applies to the drone's power if charges are being drawn from it.) The weapon (or possibly the drone) will be inoperable until it is recharged. If a critical glitch is rolled while using bursts, the power still grounds out, but instead of harmlessly dissipating, it grounds out through the unit that the arm is attached to, causing electrical damage equal to the (remaining charges/5)P damage (round up.) This damage is resisted with Body only.
Damage: 5P
AP: -half
Mode: SA/BF
Ammo: 50 charges
Availability: 36F
Cost: 50,000
Magic: Adept Ability: Push
Adept Ability: 0.5 Push (adept power, requires distance strike)
A variant of Distance Strike, this power allows an adept to throw out a telekinetic push that is very effective at knocking people down or knocking objects over. It requires a free action to for the adept to focus his will. Afterward, the adept uses distance strike normally, but adds half of his strength (round up) for the purpose of calculating knockdown.
I’m a Loser 05.06.11
Weight Loss
04.28.11 Weight: 280
05.05.11 Weight: 278
Net Weight Change : -2
Total Weight Loss : -34
Weight Watcher Stats, 04.28.11 – 05.04.11
Allowed Food Points: 448
Earned Activity Pts: 80
Food Points Eaten: 386
Points Remaining: 142
Notes:
After a month of being in a rut, slightly depressed, not exercising, and eating pretty much whatever I wanted, I am finally back on track. I exercised every day, even if it wasn't the hard workouts in the morning. I did something every day. I even jogged twice. I haven't ran in so long that I can't remember the last time I did it. It's been at least four or five years ago. I hurt all over as a result, but it feels great!
I was also very good with my diet, and when it was all said and done, I lost two pounds. I was hoping for a bigger loss, but it is my first week back on track, so if I can keep it up, maybe it will catch up with me next week, and I'll drop four or five.
I have even more incentive to stick to my diet and exercise regiment, because this week I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 Diabetes. The doctor says we've caught it early enough that there's a very good chance that I can turn the tide and avoid diabetes. Better yet, I am already doing almost everything text-book perfect to help myself. He told me to extend my aerobic workouts from 30 to 40 minutes, eat more complex carbohydrates, and stay away from simple carbs as if they were cyanide.
I'm not worried. I just need to make minor adjustments to my workouts and diet, and I should be fine. One of the reasons I started running again was that after this weekend I will be out of the pool for a few weeks due to a tattoo that I'm getting altered. So I need to fall back onto something else for a little while, but I think I have all the bases covered.
Gear: Shield Gauntlet
This gauntlet uses a collapsible fan design constructed of high-strength platisteel alloys to create a medium sized shield that can fold up and lay along the forearm when not in use. It requires a simple action to deploy and may be used with weapon/shield fighting styles and maneuvers. If worn as a standalone gauntlet, it comes with a matching armored forearm guard for the other arm, and the two combined act as Secure tech Forearm guards. If it is installed into suit armor or a cyber arm (requires a lower or full cyber arm,), the system requires 4 points of capacity.
Standalone Gauntlets
Ballistic/Impact: 2/5
Availability: 6R
Cost: 1000
Armor/cyber Modification
Ballistic/Impact: 2/4
Capacity: 4
Availability: 6R
Cost: 2000
Shield Modifications
For an additional fee, either type of shield gauntlet may be built with the following modification. Each mod increases the cost by the listed amount and increases the availability by 2.
Chemical protection, fire resistance, nonconductivity: a shield gauntlet may receive one these armor modifications, up to Rating (3) per the prices and rules on SR4 pg 327.
Taser: 500 nuyen; the deployed shield functions just like a taser shield as described in SR4 pg 327.
Serrated edge: 500 nuyen; the outer edge of the shield is a laser-sharpened serrated edge. This allows a properly trained character to perform a slice attack with the shield.
Vibro: 1000 nuyen; used in conjunction with the serrated edge modification, this mod allows the entire shield to vibrate as a vibrosword does, increasing damage +1 by and granting armor penetration of -2.
I’m NOT a Loser 04.29.11
I'm posting this late, but back dating it in the title just to keep my naming convention clean.
I didn't t rack my points last week, and I gained a pound. In the bigger scheme of things, I broke even for the month of April. I was 280 pounds when the month started, and I was 280 pounds when it ended. It was a tough month, with visiting friends, a big eating holiday, a bout of pretty severe depression, and terrible weather. I could get all pissed off because I should be at 270 now, but instead I will keep my head up, keep my mood light and positive, and focus on getting back on track this week. There's no sense in being angry about not losing when I can be happy about not gaining.
Magic: Quality: Spell/Spirit Knack
Spell/Spirit Knack
(replaces the quality descibed on pg 26, Street Magic)
Cost: 5 BP
Characters with spell or spirit knacks have an extremely limited magical ability: the ability to cast only one spell, or summon one type of spirit. This quality may not be taken by characters who also possess the Adept, Latent Awakening, Magician, Mystic Adept, or Technomancer quality. This quality may only be taken during character creation and cannot be obtained using Karma.When a character takes this quality, he gains a Magic attribute of 1 that may be increased at character creation or raised with Karma. It is subject to normal rules for the impact of Essence loss on Magic. The player must declare whether this knack is a spell knack or a spirit knack, and the one specific spell or spirit the character can affect.
The character may learn and use either the Sorcery or Conjuring skills (as appropriate) as normal, but may not learn other skills in the sorcery or conjuring groups. Alternately, because the ability in innate, characters may opt to not learn the sorcery or conjuring skills, choosing instead to default to their Magic attribute, in which case they will roll Magic+(Magic-1) dice to cast or conjure.
Regardless of the method used, characters resist Drain by rolling Willpower+Intuition. However, because the character is genetically geared to innately channel this one specific type of magic, the Drain Value is reduced by 1. Characters may over-cast or over-conjure, up to twice their Magic in Force, but Drain will cause physical damage instead of stun.
Characters with knacks may initiate and learn Centering, Quickening, or Invoking metamagic, but considering how rare knacks are to begin with, a knack initiate is practically unheard of. Characters with knacks cannot interact with astral space (unless the character also has the Astral Sight quality.) A character may only take the Knack quality once, and may not have both a spell and spirit knack. Characters may sustain their spell, incurring only a -1 die penalty, due to the fact that the ability is innate and they are genetically geared to better handle the mental strain of sustaining the spell. They may bond a sorcery, sustaining, or conjuring foci, and may choose a mentor spirit if desired. Spells cannot be cast as festish-based.
If a spell knack is chosen, unless it is a spell that is designed specifically to target another (such as a combat spell, mental manipulation, or a detrimental health spell,) the spell is considered to be a personal use spell, affecting only the caster. It may not be used on anyone else, which limits the usefulness of the knack, but also reduces the Drain Value of most spells by -2 (subject to gamemaster approval.) For Instance, an Elemetal Aura spell normally has a Drain Code of (F/2)-3. As a spirit knack, the Drain Code is reduced to (F/2), (-1 DV due to the innate drain resistance, -2 more because it is a caster-only version of the spell.)
If this quality is taken with Astral Sight, the character still starts with a Magic of 1 (the qualities don't cumulate for a Magic of 2.)
If properly used, these knacks can be game changers. Astral sight combined with an elemental arua spell knack could allow a cybered street samurai to track spirits and fight them with a mundane melee weapon. An infilration specialist could really benefit from a levitate or improved invisibility knack. A rigger or a hacker could have their own personal spirit to watch over thier bodies while they're jacked in, Concealling them from hostiles. Any character could benefit from an Armor,Heal, or Mana Barrier knack. A martial arts specialist could overcast a Knockout spell as a way of having an ace up his sleeve, forcing his opponent to resist will Willpower and no armor, instead of with Body and full armor. Even if it didn't do enough stun damage to knock him out, it could easily do enough damage to slow him down and soften him up for subsequent attacks. Imagine how beneficial it could be for a street samurai to have his own spirit when he's pinned down by a sniper with little cover or concealment. The spirit could flush out the sniper, mayeb even kill him, while the street sam keeps his head down and conserves ammo. Who needs a survial or tracking skill when they can have a spirit with the Search power? Just conjure it and tell it to find you something to eat. Before you know it, it's returned with a rabbit, squirrel, rat, cat, dog, or something else just as tasty! Why worry about posting guards when you could conjure a spirit, have it use its Concealment power on you, and command it to keep watch and wake you if anything dangerous approaches.
Magic: Quality: Astral Sight
Astral Sight
(replaces Quality described on pg 24, Street Magic.)
Cost: 5 BP
Astral Sight grants mundane characters the ability to perceive into the astral plane. This quality is not available to characters who possess the Adept, Latent Awakening, Magician, Mystic Adept, or Technomancer qualities. This quality may only be taken during character creation and cannot be obtained using Karma.
Characters taking this quality acquire a Magic attribute of 1 that may be increased during character creation or raised with Karma. This Magic point is subject to normal rules for the impact of Essence loss on Magic. Characters with Astral Sight may perceive into the astral plane just like magicians (see p. 182, SR4) and may also learn the Assensing and Astral Combat skills. They are unable to use any other aspect of magical talent besides astral perception. Characters with this quality may undergo initiation for the purposes of learning metamagics related to astral assensing or combat, such as Flexible Signature, Masking, Psychometry, and Sensing (see Metamagic, p. 52). Characters may bond with weapon foci, but bonus dice from these foci only apply during astral combat.
Characters with this ability are assumed to have had it from birth, and are naturally attuned to perceiving Astrally. Therefore, they only receive -1 die to any action taken in the Physical world while astrally perceiving.
I’m a Loser 04.22.11
Weight Loss Results.
04.14.11 WW Weight: 280.5
04.21.11 WW Weight: 279
Net Weight Change : -1.5
Total Weight Loss : 32
Weight Watcher Stats, 04.14.11 – 04.20.11
Allowed Food Points: 448
Earned Activity Pts: 19
Food Points Eaten: 401
Points Remaining: 66
Notes:
I gained two pounds last week and didn't even bother to post an update. I meant to, but I got busy, and never got around to it. This week was tough for exercise, due to allergies, and very poor sleep most of the week. I only made it one day. I plan to make this week better, but that's what I said last week after I gained two pounds. I think I'm in a little bit of a slump.
But I may have a way to get kicked out of it. I read a fitness article recently that reminded me of some fundamental weight lifting axioms that I had either forgotten or talked myself out of following, and I learned some new things too. So I'm going back to basics, and I'm excited to get started.
I'm also switching my schedule. These past few months I've been working out three days, taking a day off, and working out three more days. It meant that I had to lift one, sometimes two, days every weekend, but it wasn't an issue because the weather was shitty and I was staying off the roads most of the time. However, now that the weather is improving and my endurance is built up more, I'm swapping back to working out five days straight and taking the weekends off. This last week was supposed to be the first week of the new schedule, but I fooled around and let it go to hell. So next week is the new First Week. Hopefully it will go better than the last two.
I’m a Loser 04.08.11
Weight Loss Results.
3-21-11 Gym Weight : 284.8
4-04-11 Gym Weight : not measured (got my weeks mixed up)
Net Weight Change: N/A
3-31-11 WW Weight: 280.0
4-07-11 WW Weight: 278.5
Net Weight Change : -1.5
Total Weight Loss : 33.5
Weight Watcher Stats, 3.24.11 - 3.30.11
Allowed Food Points: 448
Earned Activity Pts: 32
Food Points Eaten: 490
Points Remaining: -10
Notes:
I think I got my weeks mixed up and forgot to weigh in at the gym this week, thinking it was next week. Oh well, I guess they could have and should have called, if they cared.
The boxing class finished last night, and I'm sad that it's over. I really enjoyed the class, and I hope to continue training with that coach at his gym. I've tried many styles of martial arts and fighting over the years, but there is something about boxing that really appeals to me. I can't explain it other than to say it feels... pure.
I have no idea how I lost 1.5 pounds this week. Training at work forced a change in my morning schedule and screwed up my workout plans. Candy abounded in the class, and I ate my fill of it. I experienced a tremendous amount of emotional stress and duress this week, and I had NO WILLPOWER to be healthy. On the plus side, I didn't drink myself into a stupor or get put in jail for fighting, but I could not make myself go to bed on time, get up on time, or refuse the siren call of junk food. If it was in front of me and I wanted a bite, I took it. I'm hoping, if I am very good this next week, last week's indiscretions won't catch up to me, because I am under 280 pounds for the first time in years, and I don't want to slide back into that bracket.
I really must be mellowing in my middle age. In times past, when I was really upset, I drank like a fish, fought like a pitbull, and fucked like a stallion. Now I just stay up late, skip the gym in favor of sleeping, and pig out on junk food. I'd be disgusted with myself if I didn't find it so funny.
I’m a Loser 04.01.11
Weight Loss Results.
3-21-11 Gym Weight : 284.8
3-28-11 Gym Weight : not measured
Net Weight Change: N/A
3-24-11 WW Weight: 287.0
3-31-11 WW Weight: 280.0
Net Weight Change : -7
Total Weight Loss : 32
Weight Watcher Stats, 3.24.11 - 3.30.11
Allowed Food Points: 462
Earned Activity Pts: 97
Food Points Eaten: 414
Points Remaining: 145
Notes:
It was a tough time, following a week of eating whatever I wanted, but I did all right. Not great - but all right. To my credit, it has been a very stressfull week, which usually leads to more eating, less sleep, and less exercise. I have also struggled with allergies and clogged sinuses, which has made exercise difficult. Despite all that, I lost the 2.5 pounds I regained last week, plus 4.5 more.
Despite my breathing problems, I beat my swim time again on Saturday, getting my 3/4 mile time down to 27:30! The rest of the week I did well to get it all done in under 33:00, and the last day I swam I could only do a half mile, but I stuck with is as best as I could. If I can get my lungs cleared up, maybe I can start swimming a mile again.
I'm to the ten percent weight loss mark, which is also roughly analogous to my half-way mark (I want to lose 72 pounds, half of which is 36. A ten percent loss equals 31 pounds.) I really want to do something to celebrate, but I don't know what I want to do. If the weather was warmer I'd go camping. If it wasn'tcounter productive to my goals, I'd have a party. If I had a girlfriend, we'd celebrate in bed all weekend. I guess I'll just work on various projects and maybe allow myself time to play some video games. Wow, what a party animal I have become. : (
I’m NOT a Loser 03.25.11
Weight Loss Results.
3-07-11 Gym Weight : 284.7
3-21-11 Gym Weight : 284.8
Net Weight Change: +0.1
3-17-11 WW Weight: 284.5
3-25-11 WW Weight: 287.0
Net Weight Change : +2.5
Total Weight Loss : 25
I didn't track points this week.
Notes:
It's been a tough week for physical fitness and weight loss. It started last Thursday when we had a "goody day" at work, and I did not restrain my appetite. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted. The pig-out trend continued through Friday and the weekend. I ate and drank as much as I wanted, and I stopped tracking my points.
I pulled a muscle in my neck during a concert Saturday night, which severely hampered my gym activities. (That will teach me to headbang like I'm 16 instead of 36.) The pool shut down due to malfunctioning pumps, which also reduced the exercise I intended to do. I had Monday and Tuesday off from work, and my sleeping and eating patterns suffered without the structure supplied by the work environment. The weather sucked, and something in the air has my eyes and sinuses on fire, so I stayed inside, plopped down on my butt for most of my mini vacation.
So, to summarize this past week: I ate WAY, WAY too much, and exercised WAY, WAY too little.
I'm not being too hard on myself; I've been doing really well these past few weeks, and it's not going to kill me if I take one week to eat what I want and not go to bed with a rumbling belly every night. The results from the weigh-in prove that I can't allow myself to do it very often or for very long. I think I've also proven that when I have time off from work, I need to try to stick to my regular schedule as closely as possible to keep from throwing everything out of whack. It was also bothering the bejeezus out of me to have that .5 pounds dangling on the weight every week. I had hoped to lose X.5 pounds to even it out, but gaining 2.5 works too, I guess. My OCD is satisfied.
I'm back to doing what I'm supposed to do, tracking my points and exercising as much as my injuries will allow. I'll make up for these gains next week, and be under 280 pounds before I know it! If I am very good and lose 5 pounds next week, I'll clear 30 pounds for three months, which averages to 10 pounds per month or 2.5 pounds per week. That's not too shabby.
Despite my poor performance last week, the new jeans I bought are already so lose that I need the smaller belt I purchased. When I bought the jeans, they were so snug that I worried they would shrink in the wash and I wouldn't be able to wear them. I also increased weight on a couple of lifts this week, and I may try to increase my shoulder lifts to 35 pounders next week. If I can do it, it will be the first time EVER that I've been able to lift that much with my shoulders. Also, even though it's technically not part of last week's performance, I'm going to steal some thunder from the current week to say that I beat my 3/4 mile swim time today with 27:01 as the new time to beat!
I’m a loser 03.18.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
3-07-11 Gym Weight : 284.7
3-14-11 Gym Weight : Not Measured
Net Weight Change: N/A
3-10-11 WW Weight: 288.5
3-17-11 WW Weight: 284.5
Net Weight Change : -4
Total Weight Loss : -27.5
Weight Watcher Stats, 3.10.11 - 3.16.11
Allowed Food Points: 462
Earned Activity Pts: 107
Food Points Eaten: 398
Points Remaining: 171
Notes:
I think this was the best week I've had so far, in terms of diet compliance and exercise. I ate less than my allowed daily points on every day except Saturday and Wednesday. Saturday was the night I went to the concert, and dinner at IHOP consumed the rest of my daily points and 20-some of my extra weekly points. On Wednesday I had to get to work early and overslept too late to pack a lunch. I also had appointments in town after work and had to eat out for dinner as well, so I dipped back into the extra weekly points before the day was over.
As for exercise - well, the points speak for themselves. I totally busted my ass this week and did not slack off a single day. As a result, I'm sore, stiff, and cranky. My house is a mess and all my other projects are behind schedule too, but I don't care because I am stronger and leaner than I was a week ago. I increased weights on every lift that I do. It's taken me months, but I finally have my shoulders built up to where I can lift with 30 pounders again. Before the summer is over, I'll be using 50 pounders and my shoulders will be the size of soccer balls.
I already had a bad day in my new week. Thursday was "goodie day" at work, and I ate enough for three people. I ate all my daily points by lunch and had to tap into the extra weekly points in order to eat what I wanted for dinner. At that rate, I'll not do nearly so well in this mext week. But I'm not worried. I've been working really hard, and it's not going to kill me to take it a little easier and eat a little more once in awhile. If I don't indulge once in awhile, I'll get pissed off and quit. The trick is to not let one bad day set a precedent or be a justifaction for having a bad week.
I worry also that I'm losing the weight too fast. On the other hand, I know I'm eating enough and not exercising too excessively. Also, I suspect the big losses will not be as common once I get down to a certain body fat percentage. Right now the weight is just melting off because it takes so much energy to move all this mass from point A to pint B. In a month or two I'll probably have to work even harder to get half as much lost simply because I'll weigh less and I'll not be working as hard to haul my ass around on a daily basis. If it was easy to have six-pack abs and huge pectorial muscles, everyone would have them.
(Bonus points to anyone who caught the Ren and Stimpy reference.)
I’m a Loser 03.11.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
2-21-11 Gym Body Fat: 29.5
3-07-11 Gym Body Fat: Not Measured (they stopped measuring this when they changed the scoring system)
Net Body Fat% Change: N/A
2-21-11 Gym Weight : 289.8
3-07-11 Gym Weight : 284.7
Net Weight Change: -5.1
3-03-11 WW Weight: 290.5
3-10-11 WW Weight: 288.5
Net Weight Change : -2
Total Weight Loss : -23.5
Weight Watcher Stats, 3.03.11 - 3.09.11
Allowed Food Points: 462
Earned Activity Pts: 39
Food Points Eaten: 479
Points Remaining: 22
Notes:
Looking at the points surplus, it seems I did worse on my diet and exercised less this week than last. I did eat a lot; I had an old friend come into town last weekend, and I was not inclined to damper our fun with stingy eating habits. I ensured that we ate very, very well, and I don't feel a bit guilty about it!
I also made the mistake of going to work on Wednesday with lots of change in my pockets, and I fell victim to the vending machine's siren song not once, no twice, but thrice... I also did not get into the gym as much as I planned, due mostly to bad sleep and extreme difficulty getting out of bed in the morning.
However, on the plus side, I started a boxing class to get a little more aerobic exercise and conditioning, and while I ate a lot this week, I had a much more stable diet. There were no binge days like last week.
I forgot to pack my breakfast this morning and ate a big breakfast in the cafeteria at work – nearly twice as many points as usual. Looking ahead to coming days, I foresee dinner out on the town Saturday night . If I can get watch my food choices closely today and get through Saturday night without breaking the diet, I believe next week will be the week I finally have the "perfect" diet week, barring unforeseen stressors, complications, or surprise attacks by rabid Reese's Cup monsters (in the event of Reese's Cup attacks, I MUST defend myself, right? It's too bad that human saliva is the only known weakness of these dangerous creatures…)
I’m a Loser 02.25.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
1-07-11 Gym Body Fat: 28.0
2-21-11 Gym Body Fat: 29.5
Net Body Fat% Change: +1.5
1-07-11 Gym Weight : 290
2-21-11 Gym Weight : 289.8
Net Weight Change: -0.2
2-17-11 WW Weight: 296.5
2-24-11 WW Weight: 293.5
Net Weight Change : -3
Weight Watcher Stats, 2.17.11 - 2.23.11
Allowed Food Points: 469
Earned Activity Pts: 36
Food Points Eaten: 423
Points Remaining: 82
Notes:
I wasn't expecting excellent news when I weighed in at the gym on Monday, not after the gain I had at weight watcher's last week, but I sure as hell didn't expect only a 0.2 pound loss and a 1.5% body fat gain. The trainers at the gym say I shouldn't get discouraged, because this is going to happen from time to time, but ... well... damn it!
On the plus side, I lost three pounds since last Thursday. So that's something.
I hit the gym hard last week, and as result, my aching and sniveling body convinced me to take it easier this week, but I also cut my food intake back to the lowest levels since I started Weight Watchers. The folks at WW say I should eat the full allowance of points every day, but my body has this crazy notion that it can do what it wants instead of what I want, and it needs to get back with the fucking program. Now.
So, that means I will not be using any more of my "extra" points; I will not be using any of my Activity points, and I will use 50-55 of my 60 daily points until my body figures out that I am not screwing around. I am sick of this shit, sick of not being able to move. I should be able to control one thing, it should be my own boby, but even it thinks it can tell me to fuck off while it does its own thing. I will not stand for it.
I’m a Loser 02.18.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
1-07-11 Gym Body Fat: 28.0
2-14-11 Gym Body Fat: not measured this week
Net Body Fat% Change: N/A
1-07-11 Gym Weight : 290
2-14-11 Gym Weight : not measured this week
Net Weight Change: N/A
2-10-11 WW Weight: 294.5
2-17-11 WW Weight:296.5
Net Weight Change : +2
Weight Watcher Stats, 2.10.11 - 2.16.11
Allowed Food Points: 469
Earned Activity Pts: 87
Food Points Eaten: 501
Points Remaining: 55
Notes:
I don't understand why I gained two pounds this week. I ate a little more than usual, but I worked out ALOT more. I wasn't expecting an avalanche of fat to be gone, but I thought I'd lose at least a pound. It makes me feel like the entire last week of aching muscles, ignored cravings, and growling belly were all for nothing, and even though I'm trying to be cool about it, I am really so pissed off that I can barely see straight.
Still no word on the rankings for the gym weight loss contest. I'll have the second weigh in next Monday.
In other news, I've changed up my workout routine a little bit. I was working out five days a week, without interruptions, and taking the weekend off, but it was wearing me out. So I started working out three days and taking a day off, and then working three more. That was an improvement, but swimming three days straight was not giving my upper body time to fully recover, so I've started doing the elliptical machine on the days I do lower body lifts. That means I only swim every other day, and so far it's working really well.
I've been thinking about the two pound gain, trying to make sense of it. I compared last week's exercise and diet numbers to the ones I have for the entire year, and all the numbers line up. There's nothing out of the ordinary. According to the numbers, I should have lost weight, or at least broke even. I definitely should not have gained.
I think some of it was due to muscle mass increase (I lifted often and very hard last week.) I think some of it was water weight as well. I didn’t work out or go to the steam room Thursday morning because it was a day off in my new workout rotation. I also ate a heavy lunch (pizza subs) with friends. I also used the elliptical last week, and I know it didn't burn like swimming does. There's also a good possibility that my big loss to weeks ago was due in part to dehydration, so I didn't really lose a full five pounds, and some of the weight I gained this week was due to rehydration since the previous weigh-in.
So I suppose it makes some sense. I'm not going to let it get me down. As Natasha pointed out, I've gone down another hole in my belt, and my watch will soon need another link taken out of the band to keep it from banging against my wrist bones, so I must be doing something right, no matter what the scales say.
I’m a Loser 02.11.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
1-24-11 Gym Body Fat: 29.1 (I thought he said "29.9" but I was wrong.)
2-07-11 Gym Body Fat: 28.0
Net Body Fat% Change: -1.1%
1-24-11 Gym Weight : 297
2-07-11 Gym Weight : 290
Net Weight Change: -7
2-03-11 WW Weight: 299.5
2-10-11 WW Weight: 294.5
Net Weight Change : -5
Weight Watcher Stats, 2.03.11 - 2.09.11
Allowed Food Points: 476
Earned Activity Pts: 60
Food Points Eaten: 503
Points Remaining: 24
Notes:
I'm doing well, staying on (or a little ahead) of my projected weight loss schedule, and I am happy with the results thus far. I feel an awesome difference in my energy levels, flexibility, and mobility. My arms and legs are hard as rocks. My chest and back are filling out and firming up again. My love handles are shrinking, and my Dunlap belly is receding. I'm no longer ashamed to tuck in my shirt tails, and the other day I used hand rails to swing and "vault" down a set of stairs - a move I used to do all the time but hadn’t done in so long that I'd forgotten that I used to do it.
I had two days where I succumbed to old habits and ate entirely too much due to emotional/stress overeating, and it will catch up to me, but I don't think it will hurt my momentum too much.
I have no idea where I've placed so far in the weight loss contest at the gym. I don't know the man who's running it, but as near as I can tell, he's just a few IQ points on the smart side of retarded. I guess I shouldn't expect much from the muscle head. I guess there's a reason he's working in a gym rather than an astrophysics lab, but I'd think even the most brain-dead jock would understand that it makes people more competitive to know where they rank in the contest, and it doesn't do any good if the rankings are released too late. I could also understand if the contest involved a hundred people, but there's only nine of us.
I’m a Loser 02.04.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
1-24-11 Gym Body Fat: 29.9
1-31-11 Gym Body Fat: Not measured
Net Body Fat% Change: N/A
1-24-11 Gym Weight : none
1-31-11 Gym Weight : Not measured
Net Weight Change: N/A
1-27-11 WW Weight: 301.5
2-03-11 WW Weight:299.5
Net Weight Change : -2 pounds
Weight Watcher Stats, 1.27.11 - 2.02.11
Allowed Food Points: 476
Earned Activity Pts: 37
Food Points Eaten: 461
Points Remaining: 52
Notes:
Two weeks ago I got to the gym almost as much as I wanted, but I ate much more than I should have. This week I did really well with my diet (no gorging on Guys' Night helped a lot,) but I didn't make it to the gym as often as I planned. I'm happy with what I've accomplished, though. I increased all my lifts by 5-10 pounds, and I got my half-mile swim time down to 18:00 even! I don't remember ever being that fast before. This next week I am going to try to bring it all together. I'm going to do every thing I can to stick to the diet AND make it to the gyms five days of the week. Then we'll see what kind of results I get!
I've done some looking ahead. When I get down to 240 pounds, I will be allowed 50 weight watcher's points a day (I get 60 per day now.) A ten point difference may not sound like much, but when that equates to food that doesn't go into my rumbling belly, trust me, it is very significant! So I looked at how I'm eating now, and realized that I could make that goal now if I could make some minor changes.
If I could force myself to drink green tea without putting honey in it, I would shave off 4 points per day
If I switch to using regular milk instead of chocolate milk, I would shave 1-3 points per day.
If I ate one less fiber granola bar per day, I would shave 3 points per day.
It doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice, but my concern is that I really look forward to those cups of chocolate milk and those granola bars, and I worry that I'll have bigger issues sticking with the diet if I can't have those little bits of sweetness throughout the day. I'm not worried about the green tea; I'll just stop drinking that nasty stuff all together if I have to cut the honey out 
Palmroy
Palmroy is Alexi's nephew and squire. After the boy's father died in Alexi's service, the House Father took Palmroy under his wing in an attempt to undo the pampering his sister had rendered. However, Palmroy's taste for luxury and soft living could not be rooted out. When the story begins, Alexi can barely tolerate his nephew, and Palmroy hates his uncle. Both would gladly be rid of the other, but the Fates have something else in mind.
I’m a Loser 01.28.11
Bodyfat & Weight Loss Results.
1-17-11 Gym Body Fat: none
1-24-11 Gym Body Fat: 29.9%
Net Body Fat% Change: N/A
1-17-11 Gym Weight : none
1-24-11 Gym Weight : 297.4
Net Weight Change: N/A
1-20-11 WW Weight: 305.5
1-27-11 WW Weight: 301.5
Net Weight Change : -4 pounds
Weight Watcher Stats, 1.20.11 - 1.26.11
Allowed Food Points: 483
Earned Activity Pts: 43
Food Points Eaten: 515
Points Remaining: 11
Notes:
My weight has been on rollercoaster since I left the Army in 2000. I weighed 230 at that time. Since then I have gained, lost, regained, re-lost, regained, re-lost - so many times that I've lost exact count, but I think I've lost a total of 450 pounds or so.
I thought I was finally on the right path back in February of 2009. By May of that year I was down to 275 pounds and was going strong. But then the rollercoaster took over again, such that in January of 2011 I was at 312 pounds - the heaviest I have ever been in my life.
I'm sick of it, and I'm going to make it work this time. I'm in Weight Watchers, and I'm going to the gym again, where I've entered a three-month weight loss contest. I am going to lose this weight, and this time I am changing my lifestyle so that I keep it off.
Part of my plan involves posting reports here, but I have a small problem. I weigh-in at two different places, on two different days, and I'm fairly certain the scales don't match. I say this because I weighed-in at Weight Watchers last Thursday and it said I weighed 305.5 pounds. This morning I did the initial weigh-in for the gym contest, and it said I weighed 297 pounds. I find it unlikely that I lost 8.5 pounds in three days. I would go with only the gym measurements, but the contest last only three months, at which time I'll have only the Weight Watcher's scales. I guess I'll track and report both. I plan to post one of these updates every Thursday, the night I go to Weight Watchers, but I only weigh-in at the gym every two weeks. It will get confusing when one set of scales says I lost two pounds, and the other says I lost three, but my weight can easily fluctuate four pounds over the course of a day. Regardless of the numbers, I'll be glad as long as the general trend is to lose!
Weight Watchers Points
WW uses a proprietary formula that considers the fat, protien, total carbohydrates, fiber, and portion size of a given food to calculate a point value for the food. They use another formula that factors a person's height, weight, and age to calculate how many points of food they should eat per day and still lose weight. In addition to these points, everyone gets another 49 points worth of food that they can eat whenever they want throughout the week. However, daily points don't roll over to the next day, and weekly point don't roll over to the next week. If you don't use them, you lose them. Last of all, another formula factors a person's weight, the intensity of an extercise, and its duration to calculate an "Activity Point" value for a given exercise. These points can use used as if they were extra weekly points within the week they are earned, allowing a person to eat more food if they want.
I'm including my point totals per week because it's an easy and fast way for me to report and track both my diet and exercise. I try to never use any of my Activity Points and use as few of my Weekly Points as possible, but a good week is any week when the "remaining points" value is greater than zero.
The PLAN – Fitness
I had high hopes for physical fitness last year, and it all fizzled out. I am going to do better this year, and I have a plan for doing it.
I currently weigh 305 pounds. My goal is to reach 240 pounds as fast as I safely can, but no later than October 1, 2011. That means I have roughly 8.5 months to lose 65 pounds, which equates to 7.6 pounds per month or 1.8 pounds per week.
I've never had trouble with exercise or physical activity, and I generally eat healthy foods. This is why my blood pressure, cholesterol, and cardiovascular health have always been good, despite my weight. However, I tend to eat enough for at least three people. I've tried diets and solo nutrition plans, but nothing ever worked for long.
Therefore, I recently joined Weight Watchers. The program is working so far; I've lost about seven pounds. I've also returned to the gym. I am slowly increasing the duration and intensity of my workouts, and I hope to supplement them with additional exercise a few days a week in the gym at work. I've joined a weight loss competition at my gym, and the winner gets a full year membership for free! Natasha is also providing some very compelling motivation, the details of which I will not be sharing here ; )
So the general plan goes like this:
- Use Weight Watchers to keep my diet within reasonable limits and track my weight.
- Use the gym weight loss contest to track my body-fat loss.
- Go to the private gym at least four days a week.
- Go to the work gym at least three days a week.
- When the weather improves, get outside as often as possible.
- Use my bi-pap machine as often as possible so I can get the most benefit from my sleep.
- Post all my weekly stats on here once a week, probably on Saturdays.
- Lose at least two pounds per week (more, if safely possible.)
I think I can do it because last week I didn't go to the gym as much as I intended, and I ate more than I should have, and I still lost 2.5 pounds. If I can get my gym schedule set in stone, I should be good to go, even if I stray a little on the diet here or there.
Problem: Weekends, holidays, and the weekly Shadowrun Session (aka "Guys' Night") throw wrenches into my dietary plans. Week days are easy because I pack my lunch and eat only what I take. It is very structured and simple to adhere to my diet. On weekends and holidays, I am home where I can eat whatever I want whenever I want, or I am on the road and relying on McWendy King or Kentaco Hut to feed me. Guys' Night often involves copious amounts of food and drink. I can resist the temptation most of the time, but if I am tired or depressed (or both) I tend to pig out.
Solution: If traveling, pack a lunch to take with me. If I get the munchies at the house, I need to get outside and do something. If I am going into town, I need to eat before I leave, or decide on a healthy meal to purchase before I set out. I should never go to the grocery store when I'm hungry.
Problem: Exercise will suffer if I get injured, and I often find it very difficult to get out of bed at 5:00 AM, just so I can go the gym and wear myself out before the day even starts. I also tend to cut my workouts short if I'm running late or need extra time to prepare for the work day.
Solutions: Take exercise slow and steady, and stretch, to prevent injury. I must resist the urge to increase weight prematurely. I need to get to bed no later than 10:00 PM and use my bi-pap machine every night. I can make a little more time in the mornings if I pack my lunch and clothes the night before. I can also make time three days a week by pushing my ab workout up to an afternoon gym session at work.
Problem: Cravings. Sometimes I get a hankering for unhealthy things like pickled hot sausages wrapped in cheese or double chocolate fudge icecream covered in double chocolate fudge sauce, or chicken wings dipped in cheese sauce. These things are diet killers.
Solution: indulge the cravings, in moderation. Either ignore the craving every other time it hits, or give in every time, but only half of it and throw the rest away.
Problem: Too tired or otherwise too unmotivated to go to the gym.
Solution: Take a day off, (as long as it isn't more than twice a month,) or spend the morning watching TV while doing calisthenics at home. Sleep in late, flex the work schedule so I can leave an hour early, and mow the grass/clean the garage/organize the basement.
Rules: Essence, Cyber/Bioware, & Magic Loss
Magic & Essence Loss
A magical character does not lose any of his Magic attribute due to Essence loss until his Essence drops below his Magic. Once Magic has been reduced by Essence loss, the new attribute rating becomes the racial maximum for the character and cannot be raised except through Initiation or bonding a power focus. This means that a character could start the game with a Magic attribute of 5 and could receive up to a full Essence point worth of augmentations without losing any Magic, but he would not be able to raise the Magic to 5 by expending Karma. He would have to Initiate.
Essence Holes
Augmentations 4th Ed. discusses the concept of an Essence hole and how it affects cybernetic or bioware replacements. While I agree with the concept in theory, I prefer the old ways of doing things. Therefore, when a character loses Essence due to implantation, they can have it removed and replaced with other implants without affecting their current Essence, unless the new implants reduce them further.
For instance, if Fenris has standard grade cyber eyes (4) and ears (4) installed he would lose 1 point of Essence (.5 for the eyes, and .5 for the ears,) reducing his total from 6 to 5. If he later decided to change them out for delta grade versions of the same implants, his Essence would still be 5, but since delta grade cyber requires half as much Essence, they would only require a total of .5 Essence, leaving a .5 "Essence deficit" that he could use to implant additional augmentations with no further reduction to his Essence. For instance, he could get a standard grade Plastic bone lacing (.5 Essence) and still have a total attribute of 5 Essence. However, if he got a cyber arm instead (1 Essence,) he would use up the .5 Essence deficit plus another .5, reducing his Essence Attribute to 4.5.
Rules: Cash for Karma (Uncertified Draft)
Cash for Karma Program
In Shadowrun, characters receive rewards in three primary ways: gear, nuyen, and Karma. Since nuyen is used to buy gear, or gear is sold to acquire nuyen, one could say that rewards basically come down to nuyen and Karma. These two rewards are important because they directly influence how powerful and effective a character can become. More money allows one to buy more/better gear. More Karma allows one to increase skills, attributes, and other abilities.
Not all character types value nuyen and Karma the same. In general terms, a street samurai will have much more need for nuyen than Karma, because it is easier for them to increase skills and attributes artificially through cyber and bioware, assuming they have the finances to afford it. A mage will need some money; foci and magical materials aren't cheap, but they rarely need the millions of dollars that a street samurai can easily invest in delta-grade cyber and bioware. However, a mage has many more opportunities to invest Karma: increasing skills and attributes the hard way, learning spells, initiating, bonding foci, enchanting, creating ally spirits, and quickening spells (just to name a few.)
If a shadowrunning team has a mix of mundane and Awakened characters, and they are lucky enough to survive the shadows for long, a trend will often develop where the mundanes are always strapped for cash, but have Karma reserved for which they have no use. Awakened characters will have all the gear they could ever possibly need, with small fortunes to spare, but they'll ravenously hoard every single point of Karma they can acquire. The team would be more effective, the characters would be more powerful, and the players would be happier if there were a way for team mates to swap Karma for nuyen.
While there are already rules that technically allow this to happen, it is a system that must be handled with care t o avoid game-breaking imbalances. Remember: whatever applies to the player characters also applies to the world at large. If a system for exchange existed, what would keep the megacorporations from dumping billions of nuyen into super-powering their mages? Who wants to fight an Aztechnology blood mage who is a level 30 initiate (with a force 20 spellcasting focus?) The system must have checks and balances to ensure it doesn't break the game by allowing players or NPCs to become too powerful.
Existing Rules
The mechanics of the Karma transfer are technically feasible thanks to existing rules concerning free spirit powers and free spirit pacts. Free spirits may have an Essence Drain power that allows them to siphon off Karma from a willing (or helpless) victim. They also may have an Endowment power that allows them to grant one of their other powers to a metahuman who has entered into a Power pact with the spirit. Therefore, in theory, under specific circumstances, a metahuman could siphon Karma from another metahuman, whether they were a fellow PC or a NPC, if they could find a free spirit to help them accomplish the task.
Without tweaks to the rules, there is great potential for abuse. The only roadblocks to unlimited Karma would be finding a free spirit with the requisite abilities, the time required to perform the transfer, and sources of Karma. Lax game masters and unscrupulous players will quickly find their games broken under the current system. (PCs could resort to kidnapping NPCs, or bartering with Johnsons to provide Karma "donors" instead of cash compensation.) Therefore, the following rationale and system of checks and balances are suggested.
Rationale
Karma is a cosmic force, an abstract measurement of a person's potential for change and improvement. As such, the Universe, Fate, the Natural Order, God – whatever a person decides to call it – never intended for metahumans to have the ability to transfer Karma between each other. It is an unnatural act that metahumans are not designed to do. Our minds and souls can resist the infusion in much the same way that our bodies can refuse organ transplants. Because of this, Karma transfer is a dangerous process that can have dire consequences if abused.
Requirements
To accomplish a Karma transfer between two metahumans, the following conditions must be met:
- The recipient of the Karma must be in a spirit pact with a free spirit that can Endow the character with the Karma Drain power. The recipient must have one point of his own Earned Karma to pay the spirit up front in order to establish this pact. This also buys the recipient a 24-hour reprieve from any harm the spirit may otherwise wish to inflict on the recipient (many spirits with the Karma Drain power aren't very pleasant.) The donor is granted no such guarantee. During the course of a single transfer, the spirit cannot facilitate the transfer of more Karma than its Force rating.
- There must be a Karma donor who is completely willing to the terms of the transfer. The donor cannot be magically controlled or entrapped in any fashion. The donor needn't completely understand what they're agreeing to do – there's no need to spend hours tutoring a troll (with a Logic of 2) on the finer points of spiritual metaphysics. The donor must simply be open and willing to release his Karma (usually in exchange for something else of a more tangible nature. Payment is discussed below.)
- The donor and recipient must touch for the entire amount of required time and may not be disturbed or allowed to sleep, eat, or any conduct any other activity until the transfer is complete. Any interference or distraction will end the transfer, and no Karma will be exchanged.
Limitations
Characters must track the total Karma they have earned on their own via shadowrunning or other activities (called "Earned Karma,") the total Karma they have siphoned from others (called "Siphoned Karma,") and their current available Karma (the sum of unused Earned and unused Siphoned Karma.) A character will incur no penalties as long as his total Siphoned Karma does not exceed his total Earned Karma. If the character exceeds this limit, Fate turns against him, and for every five points the Siphoned Karma exceeds the Earned Karma, the character's Edge is permanently reduced by one point. If the character continues to siphon Karma after his Edge is reduced to zero, each five points of siphoned Karma will cause the character to glitch more often. A character with zero Edge who siphons five more points of Karma will glitch if the dice roll ones or twos. A character who siphons ten points of Karma will glitch on dice rolls of ones, twos, or threes.
Karma must be acquired slowly, to give a character's soul time to assimilate the foreign force. If it is transferred too often or too fast, the character will suffer from side effects that manifest as negative qualities (usually mental disorders.) The amount of Karma to be siphoned is agreed on prior to the ritual, but it will always be at least two points (since the recipient must pay the spirit one point to make the pact, two points must be transferred to achieve any gain.) After the Karma has been siphoned, the recipient rolls a single die. As long as the result is greater than or equal to the points of Karma siphoned, nothing bad happens. If the result is less than the points siphoned, the character manifests a negative quality (or qualties) with a build-point value equal to the Karma siphoned. (This quality or qualities is chosen by the GM.) Edge may be used to re-roll this test, but points used in this way do not replenish until the character earns more Karma (until the end of the next shadowrun he undertakes.) If more than six points of Karma are transferred in a single session, the character automatically receives a negative quality. If Karma is siphoned more than once within 30 days, add 3 to the Siphoned Karma total for purposes of the test.
Siphoned Karma can be used for any purpose that normally requires Earned Karma, except it cannot be used to increase Edge.
Payment
Payment for Karma will depend on the donor. If the donor is another PC in the team, then payment will probably be rendered in the form of nuyen. Gamemasters are free to set a rate of exchange, but are encouraged to not use less than 10,000 nuyen per Karma point. If the donor is an NPC, money may also be used, but services (shadowruns) may also be a fair medium of exchange. If a service is requested instead of nuyen, the shadowrun should not earn the PC less Karma than the negotiated "Karma fee" agreed upon for the service. (Runners shouldn't be able to receive 10 points of Siphoned Karma for a cake-walk run that nets them 2 points of Earned Karma.) Entering into any kind of agreement that uses Karma as payment is akin to a spirit pact between the two individuals. If either side tries to break the agreement, the pact is voided, the intended recipient receives no Karma, and the intended donor loses the negotiated amount.
Donors
Unscrupulous players may see a loophole, thinking they can barter with Johnsons, who have access to legions of wageslaves that can be coerced into giving up Karma, or perhaps the players will try to directly extort Karma from other people. There are two ways that gamemasters can limit this potentially game breaking behavior.
- Karma is not easy for anyone to get. Karma is gained by characters when they pit their own wits and abilities against the odds and manage to cheat death, cheat the system, survive (and learn from) mistakes, and live to shadowrun another day. The vast majority of the population never acquires more than a few points of Karma in their entire lives because they do little to earn it. Alternately, one could rule that most NPCs don't have much extra Earned Karma because they use it just like PCs do – to improve themselves. It may be impossible to find a NPC donor that has more than four points to spare.
- If PCs try to abuse the system, have the free spirit increase its cut from one Karma point to two (or three, if the players are being real bastards.)
Free Spirits
Free spirits that facilitate these transfers are sometimes called "Karma Cashers" or "Fate Brokers." They should be rare, and their services should not be acquired easily. Reserving such services should be the subject of one or more shadowruns and should be role-played out. Each spirit should be treated as a full-fledged NPC with abilities, personality, and an agenda all of its own.
The system and rationale detailed in this document should be sufficient to allow PC teammates to swap Karma back and forth without allowing them to become too powerful. It should not create a scenario where NPCs could become overpowered either.
However, even at the modest fee of one Karma point per transaction, a free spirit could become rather powerful in a a short amount of time. Word of it's services would spread through the shadow markets, and would be in high demand by mages – both freelance and corporate. Depending on the spirit's goals and power, it may waive the 1-point Karma fee in favor of other currency, as dictated by its agenda. Game Masters should be wary of letting the spirits become too powerful, and if they allow PC free spirits in their games, these characters should NOT be allowed to have the Karma Drain power.
Magic: Spirits: Augmentation Spirits
Augmentation spirits are in a class all of their own, another mystery of the metaplanes that have only recently been discovered by a select few conjurers and enchanters. Some theorize that these spirits are freed ally spirits, but no one really knows for sure. For game purposes, assume that an augmentation spirit is a unique free spirit that is molded and changed by the summoning ritual so that it meets the summoner’s requirements. Augmentation spirits are summoned and bound into weapons or armor to make the items more powerful.
Conjuring Requirements
To conjure an augmentation spirit, a conjurer must have the augmentation meta magic, the spirit’s formula, spirit’s true name, binding materials equal to the force of the spirit, and a previously prepared weapon or armor for the spirit to inhabit (see “Vessels,” below.)
Spirit Formula
As with ally spirits, an augmentation spirit’s formula may be written from scratch by making a Logic + Arcana (Force x 5, 1 day) Extended Test, or it may be granted by a metaplanar quest. This formula must have a physical representation which must be the actual weapon or armor the spirit will be bound too. This means that every weapon and armor must be custom-made, and unless a duplicate item is made, if the physical form is destroyed, the formula is destroyed, which means the spirit is destroyed.
Creating an Augmentation Spirit
The augmentation spirit’s formula incorporates a free spirit’s true name and modifies the spirit’s unique essence, statistics, abilities, and powers to meet the conjurer’s intentions. This formula also dictates how much Karma the conjurer must sacrifice during the binding ritual before the spirit is invested with these abilities. The following steps will help you calculate the spirit’s Karma cost (as well as its powers and skills).
1) Choose Force: An augmentation spirit’s base cost equals 8 Karma times the desired rating.
2) Learn the spirit’s true name (page 107, Street Magic.) This doesn’t affect Karma cost, but may be based on the spirit’s Force, and is a requirement for the ritual.
3) Choose Powers: All augmentation spirits start with the Dual Natured, Banishing Resistance, Sentience, Inhabitation, Spirit Pact (Command,) Aura Masking, and Mind Link powers. They also have one additional power per 3 full points of Force, chosen from the list below. Conjurers may grant them additional powers from the list for 5 Karma per power.
- Animal Control
- Personal domain
- Regeneration
- Spirit Pact (other pacts)
- Concealment
- Guard
- Movement
- Mystic Armor
- Psychokinesis
- Search
- Elemental attack (specify type)
- energy aura (specify type)
- elemental immunity (specify type)
- endowment
- enhanced senses (choose sense)
- magic guard (counterspelling skill required)
- shadow cloak
4) Choose Skills: augmentation spirits start with the Assensing and Spellcasting skills. The conjurer may give the spirit additional skills for 5 Karma each. All spirit skill ratings equal their Force.
5) Choose Spells: Augmentation spirits start with the Physical Mask (Vessel,) Fix (Vessel) and Custom Fit spells (see below for descriptions.) The conjurer may teach the spirit any spell he knows for 3 Karma per spell. If the conjurer doesn’t know the spell, it can still be taught with a spell formula for 5 Karma per spell.
6) Calculate Rating: the spirit’s rating equals its Force+extra powers+extra skills+extra spells. This rating multiplied by two dictates how much Karma is required for some one other than the summoner to enter into a Command pact with the spirit.
Summoning Ritual
Augmentation spirits are summoned as if they were ally spirits, as described on page 104, Street Magic. Once it is successfully summoned and inhabited into its vessel, the summoner has full command of the spirit and its services until the summoner dies or releases the spirit from service.
Personality
As a free spirit, augmentation spirits may have any personality described on pages 92-93, Street Magic, or any other personality the gamemaster desires. As a guideline, these spirits tend to be animus/animae, shadows, or wardens. The conjurer cannot dictate the spirit’s personality with the spirit formula. Once freed of the original conjurer, an augmentation spirit will seek to enter Command pacts with individuals that match it’s personality and goals.
Augmentation Spirit Abilities
Armor/Weapon Augmentation: depending on the form of the physical vessel, an augmentation spirit grants various bonuses.
- Melee/Thrown/Projectile Weapons gain half the spirit’s Force (round up) to damage values, and may strike astral targets or other creatures immune to natural weapons.
- Firearms gain recoil compensation equal to the spirits Force, and if the actual firearm (not its bullets) is used as a weapon, it gains the same benefits as described above.
- Armor gains half the spirit’s Force (round up) to both ballistic and impact armor. The armor becomes hardened with a rating equal to the spirit’s Force. Unarmed damage or any melee weapon that is part of the armor gains the weapon benefits as described above.
Attributes: An augmentation spirit’s astral and physical attributes equal its Force. The spirit begins play with an Edge attribute equal to the conjuring character’s Edge, rather than its Force as normal for spirits.
Tireless guardian: The spirit can be ordered to continually be on the lookout for astral mundane activity. Regardless of its vessel’s shape, it may perceive the physical world with the standard five meta-human senses, plus any extras senses it may have due to powers or spells.
Unlimited service: The spirits’ controller (The summoner, or anyone who has entered into a Command Pact with the spirit,) may command it to use any of its powers or spells an unlimited number of times. Via the mind link, commanding the spirit is a free action. The spirit may only use powers or spells it possesses as services. It cannot use any of the other services normally attributed to spirits (aid study, sustain spell, resist drain, etc.) Note that, if the spirit has the Endow power, it cannot be commanded to grant one of its abilities to it’s controller unless another pact is struck.
Vessel Autonomy: As described under “Vessels,” below, augmented armor is always a full suit of connected pieces. This allows the spirit to move about on its own as a homunculus and acting on its controller’s wishes. Similarly, an augmented weapon may also move about, assuming the spirit has psychokinesis, a levitation spell, or other means of magical movement.
Commanding an Augmentation Spirit
Once summoned and bound to a vessel, an augmentation spirit is obligated to follow all commands issued by the conjurer and to serve him to the best of the spirit’s ability until the conjurer dies or relinquishes control of the spirit. Once the spirit is free of its original conjurer, it may enter into a Command Pact with anyone else it chooses, effectively making the new person its controller. The spirit can make no other pacts, unless it has the Spirit Pact power twice, in which case it may make other pacts, but only with its controller. The Command Pact involves the following conditions:
- The controller may not be in any other pacts with any other spirit and may not make another pact while controlling the augmentation spirit.
- The controller summon and bind other spirits, but may not be willingly possessed by any spirit, (and gains dice equal to the augmentation spirit's force to resist unwilling possession or inhabitation.)
- The controller must pay the spirit Karma equal to 2 times its Rating: 2x(Force+extra powers+extra skills+extra spells,) with the expectation that extra Karma will be paid from time to time to ensure the spirit remains happy (game master’s discretion.)
- The pact lasts for the lifetime of the controller, or 50 years, whichever is sooner.
- The spirit must obey the controller’s commands and may not use any skill, power, or spell to directly or intentionally harm the controller for the duration of the pact.
Ideally, the spirit and the controller are like-minded and have similar goals, but this is not essential. The spirit should be treated like a contact and should have a well-defined personality of its own. Relationships can evolve and change over time, such that the spirit and controller may become close friends and confidants where the spirit is respected and treated like an equal despite the inherent servitude implied by the Command Pact. Alternately, they may remain purely professional counterparts, or even devolve into a true master/slave relationship where the spirit seeks to be free of its controller by any means available to it.
The weapon or armor will have a unique name which is never the true name of the spirit, but the spirit may refer to it’s self by a nickname, often based on the weapon/armor’s name. For instance, if a dagger were named “Diablo’s Toothpick,” the spirit may call itself “Pick” or “Devil.”
Vessels
Whether it’s a weapon or armor, an augmentation spirit’s vessel is a very special thing. It is the physical representation of the spirit’s formula and incorporates the spirit’s true name. It serves as a true vessel for the spirit. Copies of a spirit’s vessel are rarely made due to construction cost and also due to the power the vessel has over the spirit. This means that destruction of the vessel usually results in the utter destruction of the spirit as well.
Due to their unique requirements and nature, vessels for augmentation spirits must be custom made and may not incorporate any electronic or electrical components. Firearms do exist as vessels, but they are very rare and do not incorporate any smart links, range finders, laser sights, or other electronics. There are no suits of military armor with spirits inside them, and while one might try to build a vibroblade from scratch, the binding process would short-circuit the electronics required to make the blade function.
Vessels must be purely mechanical in nature. For instance, armor could be built with a retractable blade in the forearm, but it would only work if the mechanism employed springs and mechanical manual controls. Firearms will only work if they can be mechanically fired (no electronic or remote-control firing.)
Construction: Vessel construction requires the base cost of the mundane counterpart, plus modification costs, multiplied by 2. It also requires one unit of radical reagents per point of spirit Force, and one exotic reagent per 3 points (or portion thereof) of spirit Force. The construction test is an Extended (Armorer+Intuition, Force, 1 week) test.
Armor
Armor inhabited by an augmentation spirit is commonly called “ghost armor.” It is always constructed as a full suit of interconnected pieces, which does not usually include a helmet so that a separate mundane helmet (full of electronics and gadgets) can be used instead. A suit may be made to interface with a specific helmet type so that the suit can be sealed against chemical or airborne attack vectors. A suit may also be built with any armor modification that does not require the use of electronics, but these modifications cannot be added or removed later.
Even if modern materials and fabrication techniques are used, ghost armor is often crafted to resemble medieval armors. Even when it is made in a more contemporary style, it is often difficult to disguise as mundane armor due to the runes and other archaic writings that must be inscribed on the armor, although these inscriptions can be made on the underside of the armor if desired. Ultimately, the final appearance and modification of the armor is up to the designer of the spirit formula.
The type of armor dictates the initial Force of the spirit that may inhabit it, but these limits may be ignored once the spirit is in play and gaining Karma on its own.
- Grade 1 Ghost Armor uses bike racing armor stats. It can accommodate a Force 1 or 2 spirit and may appear as a modern custom leather outfit, medieval leather armor, or actual bike racing armor (or the equivalent.)
- Grade 2 Ghost Armor uses riot control armor stats. It can accommodate a Force 3 or 4 spirit and may appear as a modern leather suit with metal strips and spikes, chain mail, or actual riot control armor (or the equivalent.)
- Grade 3 Ghost Armor uses swat armor stats. It can accommodate a Force 5 or 6 spirit and may appear as dragon-scale armor, a composite of chain mail and steel plates, samurai armor, or actual swat armor (or the equivalent. Think of Halo or Gears of War.)
- Grade 4 Ghost Armor uses medium military armor stats. It can accommodate a Force 7 or 8 spirit and may appear as a full suit of medieval plate armor, or a modern equivalent (Think of the heavy armors used in Warhammer 40K.)
Regardless of grade, ghost armor is animated, and controllers will soon learn to appreciate the armor that puts itself on. The wearer needs only to stand still and let the armor fasten itself to his body.
Weapons
Weapons inhabited by an augmentation spirit are often called “rune sword/hammers/daggers/pistols/monofilament whips,” due to the arcane writings that typically cover the weapon’s exterior. Melee weapons are the most common, but thrown weapons, projectile weapons (i.e. crossbows, compound bows, etc,) and even firearms have been made as vessels for augmentation spirits.
A weapon may serve as a vessel for any Force of spirit and use the stats for the given weapon type. The weapon type and final appearance of the weapon are determined by the designer of the spell formula.
Weapons Built into Armor
A suit of armor may have weapons built into it. Forearm spurs, finger razors, and bolt launchers are popular choices, but other options exist. These weapons may or may not require an Exotic Weapon skill for the controller or spirit to use the weapon (game master discretion,) and the spirit may or may not have the appropriate skill to use the weapons if it is acting autonomously. The presence of the weapon in the armor does not guarantee the spirit knows how to use it.
Custom Spells
Augmentation Spirits always know the Physical Mask (Vessel,) Custom Fit and Fix (Vessel) spells. Both are manipulation spells.
Custom Fit
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)+2
A variation of the shapechange spell, this spell allows the spirit to make it’s vessel change in shape to accommodate its current controller. This removes penalties for using weapons of the wrong size, and ensures armor is custom-fitted to the user. A threshold must be met, equal to 2 for every size category between the current size and the desired size. So a custom fit from micro to giant would require a threshold of 10! (it may be easier to cast the spell multiple times, staging the size a little at a time.) This is not a fast process, requiring the spirit to maintain the spell for a full hour before it becomes permanent. It cannot be used to change the overall shape or form of the weapon or armor, as these are dictated by the spirit formula.
Micro / Small / Dwarf / Human, Elf, Orc / Troll / Giant
Fix (Vessel)
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)-1
A special version of the Fix spell, this magic allows the spirit to “heal” damage to itself. Any damage not repaired in this way must be fixed by an armorer and an enchanter (triple the repair costs and double the time required.)
Physical Mask (Vessel)
Type: P Range: Self Duration: P Drain: (F/2)-1
A special version of the Physical Mask spell, this magic allows the spirit to make it's form appear in any shape/color/style that it or its controller desires. Combined with it's aura masking ability, this spell can allow a controller to be protected by substantial armor while appearing to wear only a business suit or a bikini.
Karma
Besides the initial Karma that’s invested in the binding or Command Pact, a controller would be wise to supply the spirit with additional Karma as often as possible. This may be Karma the controller contributes personally, or may be Karma that’s negotiated as payment for a run or other service.
Gamemasters should be careful if they allow characters to negotiate for Karma “payments” to be made to the spirit. As a general guide, the Karma should still be factored as part of the character’s cut of the profits, with one point of Karma equaling at least 25,000 nuyen. This Karma can come from any source that the Mr. Johnson arranges, but will often entail some poor slob “willingly” sacrificing some of his life force to avoid more dire repercussions at the hands of Johnson’s employers. Additionally, considering how rare and valuable these items are, it may not be in the PC’s best interest to let a Johnson know that they possess augmented weapons or armor.
Also note that the spirit may have principles or ethics that dictate when, where, how, and from whom it may receive Karma. A shadow spirit may be fine with beating a bum within a millimeter of his life and bargaining for Karma to refrain from killing him. A trickster may barter with the bum and exchange booze for Karma, laughing at the irony of it. An animus may save the bum’s life from gangers and not even accept Karma if it was offered as a reward.
Regardless of the Karma source, the spirit controller cannot dictate how a spirit uses its Karma. Those choices are entirely up to the spirit, but it may choose any improvement options available to a PC, at the listed costs (page 270, SR4):
- It may raise its attributes separately (which all begin at the Force it had when it went free).
- It may raise or purchase additional skills.
- It may initiate as a magician does, though the process grants one additional free spirit power per grade rather than a metamagic technique.
- It may raise its Force by 1 point at a time at the cost of new Force rating x 10. Raising Force raises all of the spirit’s attributes and powers that are based on Force.
Magical Nuances
Game masters and players should keep in mind that there are subtle differences in the way certain spells and powers affect the game world, based on the target and effect of the magic. For instance, if a spirit inhabiting armor were to use an energy aura (fire) power while it was being worn, the controller would have no protection from the spell and would need to resist damage every combat turn. Likewise, if the spirit or another magician cast an elemental aura (fire) spell on the armor, the wearer would likewise be subject to damage. However, if the spell were cast on the controller while he was wearing the armor, the controller, the armor, and anything in his hands would be enshrouded by the spell and protected from its effects.
Suppose a set of ghost armor can cast levitate on itself or its controller. Regardless of the target, the spirit will direct the movement, as commanded by the controller, but, by the nature of the way the spell works, the controller will not be able to directly control the levitation spell unless he casts it himself.
As a general rule, it will work out better for the controller if the spell or ability is used on him instead of the spirit’s vessel, whenever possible.
Game masters and players must remember that augmented weapons and armor are dual natured, and while the armor/weapon is equipped, the player is subject to all rules and limitations of dual natured creatures.
Augmented weapons and armor may not be enchanted to serve as any kind of focus.
Acquiring Ghost Armor and Rune Weaponry
Spirit augmented armor and weaponry are extremely rare. The availability and cost is designed to make less powerful items available at character creation, but if a character starts the game with such an item, there should be a good reason within the backstory to explain where the item came from and why the character has it.
Once the game has begun, augmented items should always entail a significant effort and cost for the characters, and should never be obtained by simply calling a fixer, paying some cash, and waiting for the item to fall off a truck. Finding or creating the items should be the subject of a run (or series of runs) and the danger involved should equal the reward. At the very minimum, a PC must find an NPC with the resources to craft the items and summon/bind the spirit. The PC may be required to aid in any aspect of the process (gathering reagents, learning the spirit’s true name, acquiring spell formulae, etc.) The following cost and availability listing are intended to be guidelines only. Individual games may allow for less (or more) restrictive access to these powerful items.
Melee/Thrown/Projectile Weapons
Availability: (Spirit Ratingx3)F Cost: Spirit Rating x 25,000
Firearms
Availability: (Spirit Ratingx6)F Cost: Spirit Rating x 50,000
Armor
Availability: (Spirit Rating+Armor Grade) x 2 F
Cost: (Spirit Rating+Armor Grade) x 30,000
Gear: Gauss Assault Rifle
This assault rifle is based on the Ares Thunderstruck assault cannon. It sacrifices rate of fire for damage, armor penetration, and range. It uses ammo and charge packs, just like a Thunderstruck, uses sports rifle ranges, does 8P damage, has -3 AP, and uses the assault rifle skill. It is equipped with a smartlink, a heavy barrel, a vibro-bayonet, and can use one of three interchangeable under barrel accessories: a shotgun, flamer, or grenade launcher.
Gear: EM Laser Shield
This is modification for suit armor, requiring a capacity of Ratingx2. While active, the user is encased in a powerful electromagnetic field that is calibrated to disperse light. While the shield is active, the DV of all lasers or damaging light effects is reduced by 1, and damage resistance dice pools are increased by the rating of the shield.
The shield uses the same power packs as Ares laser weapons, and it may not be attached to external power sources, as a failsafe to prevent the unit from burning out. Activating/deactivating the shield is a free action. The shield burns two charges per combat turn. Swapping energy cells requires a full combat turn.
Gear: Rapid Fire Laser (full modular cyber arm)
This full cyberarm has a shoulder and elbow joint, but no wrist or hand. Instead, it terminates in a three-barreled laser cannon that is based on the Ares line of laser weaponry. This model combines numerous laser emitters and capacitor arrays to achieve a higher rate of fire. However, the technology is immature and not as efficient as the models on which it is based.
As long as the unit is fired in semi automatic mode, it functions just like an Ares Redline laser pistol, with no adverse effects. It can also fire a three-round burst as a simple action or a six-round burst as a complex action (using standard burst-fire rules) These bursts generate no recoil. However, a three-round burst uses four charges, and a six-round burst uses ten charges. The arm is equipped with internal charge packs, resulting in a total charge capacity of 50. The arm may not be attached to an exterior battery pack, but if equipped on a drone, power may be diverted from the drone's internal power source. Every ten charges expended in this fashion reduces the drone operation time by 1 hour. The internal batteries recharge at a rate of 1 charge per minute when attached to their charging unit.
Additionally, when firing in burst mode, a minor glitch results in the unit grounding out and dissipating any remaining charges (this also applies to the drone's power if charges are being drawn from it.) The weapon (or possibly the drone) will be inoperable until it is recharged. If a critical glitch is rolled while using bursts, the power still grounds out, but instead of harmlessly dissipating, it grounds out through the unit that the arm is attached to, causing electrical damage equal to the (remaining charges/5)P damage (round up.) This damage is resisted with Body only.
Rules: AI Rigging & Drone Notes
Rigging Notes for an AI
“Jumping in” requires a subscription to the drone and a simple action, unless the AI is using autosofts in conjunction with the Piloting Origins quality, in which case it is a complex action (Takes longer because more code must be copied to the drone.)
When using the Piloting Origins Quality, tests are made with the AI autosofts’ ratings and the drone’s attributes, as follows:
- Body = body
- Strength = body
- Agility = response (of the drone, not the AI)
- Reaction = response (of the drone, not the AI)
- Intuition = Sensor (of the drone, not the AI)
- Initiative = the AI’s
Test = Drone Attribute + Autosoft rating
- Perception = sensor + clearsight
- *Defend against ranged attack = Response (of the drone, not the AI)
- Defend against a melee attack = Response + Defense
- *Damage Resistance = Drone Body + Drone Armor
- Piloting = Response + Maneuver
- Firing a Weapon = Response + Targeting
- Tailing = Sensor + Chaser
- Infiltration = Response + Covert Ops
- Technical Skills = Response + Profession auto soft
- Tracking = Sensor + Trailblazing
- At character creation, no autosoft may be higher than 4
- The number of autosofts, the AI itself, and any non-inherent AI programs all count against the drone’s system rating
- An AI may not leave copies of its autosofts in drones for them to use while the AI is not jumped in. If the drone is to have autosofts of its own, they must be purchased separately.
Accessing the Matrix from a Drone
- Because all drones have a built in commlink, an AI may access the AR or VR Matrix while in a drone. While in VR, all actions attempted in the real world suffer -3 dice. While in AR, no penalties are applied, unless the drone is in a spam or static zone.
- By default, all commercial drones have an average device rating, meaning their Firewall, Response, System, and Signal attributes are all 3. These can be modified on a drone-by-drone basis by upgrading hardware and software components, or by making the drone its home node (see page 90, RC.)
Drone Modification
- Until better rules are devised or released, assume a drone can be modified per the rules in Arsenal.
- A drone’s modification capacity equals its Body+2.
- Commlink modifications do not apply to this capacity calculation.
Drone Initiative
- If an AI jumps into a drone during a combat phase, the drone’s initiative is used for the remainder of the combat turn.
- If an AI jumps out of a drone during a combat phase, the AI’s initiative is used for the remainder of the combat turn.
Drone Recoil Modifier
Drones have recoil compensation equal to their Body attribute.
Magic: Adept Ability: Push 0.5
A variant of Distance Strike, this power allows an adept to throw out a telekinetic push that is very effective at knocking people down or knocking objects over. It requires a free action to for the adept to focus his will. Afterwards, the adept uses distance strike normally, but adds half of his strength (round up) for the purpose of calculating knockdown. An Adept must have Distance Strike before purchasing this power.
Magic: Spell: Weapon Aura
Type: P Range: Touch Duration: S DV:(F/2)-1
This spell is identical to the Elemental Aura spell (pg 173, Street Magic,) except it affects only a melee weapon that is touching the caster.
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