[2018 NOTE: ANOTHER MAGICAL WRITING THAT SHOULD PROBABLY BE SCRAPPED, BUT I'M KEEPING AROUND OUT OF NOSTALGIA.]

When you break down spell casting you are confronted with two individual methods for delivering your spell. The first is the mental, or mana route, and the second is the physical route. Repeatedly, through various rulebooks, the differences or similarities between the two spell schemes never seem rise out of a state of muddled contradiction. This confusion is less intense when dealing with mana spells because, right across the board, there is evidence to say that these spells can only be cast against living objects possessing an aura. Things become much less clear when you start dealing with physical spells.

The following is an rule interpretation of mine which deals with physicals spells and auras. Essentially, I’ve made an attempt to eliminate auras from non-living objects while still creating a semi-valid way to cast physical spells at them. Also, in some cases, I’m merely pulling stuff out of my ass. It is virtually guaranteed that for every argument I make and back up with data from a rulebook, you will find three other quotes which defeat it. In turn, I can pretty much do the same thing to anything you throw at me. So if you plan on sending me E-mail stating: “But on page 7823 of sourcebook Whatever it says that Aura’s DO......” it really won’t do much good. I’ve simply formulated a different opinion based on data from the book. You are more than welcome to stick with the traditional philosophy. If, however, you have something that will debunk my whole theory, feel free to send the explanation along. I’m just trying to save time.

Let’s begin by dealing with a few of the contradictory sourcebook passages which sparked my theory in the first place:

“Upon impact [the spell’s] energies ground out through the aura of the target and affect either the target’s physical component (if it is a physical spell) or spiritual component if the spell is a mana spell and the target is living. Non-living have no spiritual component and so cannot be effected by mana spells.” (SRII, p149)

This quote states that non-living objects have no spiritual component BUT they have an aura. Thus, by this definition, auras are not spiritual. (We all know that they are; I just included this quote to show how screwed up some of these passages are.)

“Inanimate objects are visible [in astral space] because of reflected light, and block the passage of magical energies and emotions, two primary components of the astral form, or aura. Because such objects block the flow of the aura, astral beings cannot assense through them. These objects posses no aura or astral form of their own, however, and so astral beings can freely pass through the astral position corresponding to the object’s physical space. In astral space, one cannot see or assense through a wall, though it is a simple matter to walk right through it.” (SRII, p149)

I interpret the first part of this to mean that inanimate objects can block aural “emissions”, but not the aura itself. Fine by me. BUT this paragraph also states that inanimate objects posses no aura. This presents a fundamental problem: What does the spell ground into?

“The energy of combat spells is channeled directly from astral space through the target’s aura” (SRII, p127)

Again, if the combat spell was physical, and the target was a brick wall, there would be no aura to ground into if you referenced a different passage. To add to the confusion, we also find the following entry:

“Gamemaster are referred to Spells And Astral Space (p149). Keeping that section in mind, vehicle have simple, limited auras that make them vulnerable to physical combat spells. The attempt is difficult; hence the high target number. A vehicle is considered a single, complete entity. Its wheels and windshield, for example, are no directly connected and may be constructed from different materials, but they are interrelated components. Because of a vehicle’s “astral wholeness,” a mage cannot use magic to selectively target an individual portion of the vehicle.” (SRII, p109)

OK, if we went by this statement then we must determine that inanimate objects DO have an aura.

Everybody nice and confused? Good. Now using the above passages you have pretty much equal grounds for deciding for or against inanimate objects possessing auras. Here are a few reasons why I’m against it:

#1. As soon as you give inanimate objects an aura you drum up a whole bunch of problems. If it has an aura, no matter how weak, this aura would have to appear in astral space, simply because that’s where auras are. Then you have to start asking questions like: “Does this aura impede movement in astral space?” and, “If the vehicle has an aura, why don’t you see a vehicle as a spot of magical energy on the normal plain?” Granted, these questions could be answered by simply stating that the aura is too weak to be seen or “touched” in astral space, but I think that’s a cheap way out.

#2. If inanimate objects, such as vehicles, have an aura which represents its “aural wholeness”, what happens when you weld a Ford Americar to the side of the Renraku Archology? Is the car now part of the building or is the building now part of the car? Exactly when and how does the various parts of something enter into “aural wholeness”?

#3. The aura issue also ties in closely with the Object Resistance Table, a chart I’ve despised for a very long time because it makes a Panzer as easy to blow up as a Dodge Scoot. The basis of the Resistance table is, basically, the further you get away from nature and the more complex an object is, the more difficult it is to effect it with magic. I think this theory is swell, but I don’t think it goes far enough. A lawn tractor, containing perhaps 100 various parts, is, in my opinion, a lot less complicated and and is much closer to nature than a fusion powered submarine containing 1,000,000 parts and a nuclear reactor. Similarly, urban renewal would receive the same target number whether it was used on a shack or a 40 bedroom mansion.

OK, so now you know why I hate inanimate auras. While the above reasons may give me grounds for setting a stable “no aura” philosophy for inanimate object there is one big time issue I have to deal with before continuing: Grounding.

If I get rid of auras for inanimate objects I first must come up with a way for the physical spell to get out of astral space so it can beat up a physical target. Normally spells are cast by “synchronizing” the aura of the casting magician with that of the target, thus producing the necessary tosser/target/astral harmony which allows a spell to get out of astral space. Even manipulation spells, which travel primarily in the physical plane, have an astral component. (Although I’m still fuzzy on exactly what the magician is synchronizing with if they just toss the spell into an open clearing. But I’ll leave that to a future article.) In any case, if the magician casts Power Bolt on a toaster oven, from which I have just deleted the aura, what does the spell ground into? And furthermore, what is the magician synchronizing with in the first place?

Finally, we come to my new view on spellcasting:

Casting mana spells and casting physical spells work on completely different principles. Mana spells go after auras; Physical spells go after matter. Mana spells look for an aura; Physical spells look for matter. Mana spells are DESIGNED to look for auras; Physical spells are DESIGNED to look for matter. When casting a Mana spell, the magician synchronizes his aura with that of the target; When casting a Physical spell, the magician synchronizes his MATTER with that of the target.

In the past I’ve always used the same thought process when casting spells, whether they were Physical or Mental. You look at the target, ponder for a moment, and toss it. Little though was ever paid to the differences between physical and mental energies, from the point where they originated in the magician’s mind to the point that they slammed into the target. Most of the time I, and probably a lot of other people, found that the only emotional difference was that mana spells tend to cause less drain. I think this is bad.

While mana spells work off emotion, feelings, aural alignment, and all that fuzzy spiritual crap; physical spells work off of raw power, the manipulation of atoms, and the destruction of molecules. When a magician casting a Mana spell “synchronizes” with a target, they link up with its aural emotions, its place in time and history, its esoteric being and existence and etctera. When a magical casts a Physical spell they are thinking of the hard core substance of the target, its structure, physical cohesiveness, and so on. The castor “synchronizes” by getting very close to the real ‘stuff’ which makes up the target; spirituality and auras don’t even enter the picture. In the same way aural, or mental, syncronicity creates the necessary trinity between caster/astral space/and target, so does physical concentration and alignment.

Now somebody has to be saying to themselves, “But, wait! Magic, by its very nature, is spiritual. Aren’t you taking that away?” I agree that magic is spiritual by nature, but I don’t think I’m taking anything away. If anything, I’m elaborating on the set Shadowrun theme that Physical magic is more difficult to execute than Mental magic. Drain codes are higher for Physical spells and people tend to be harder to hurt with Physical spells because, nine times out of ten, the target’s Body is higher than their Willpower. Magic doesn’t like reality, and by casting a Physical spell you’re forcing it to do something it would rather not be doing.

You see, when you cast a Mental (or, again, Mana) spell, you line up the auras, ponder, shoot, let the thing sail gracefully through and out of astral space, and sometimes get a headache and feel tired as a result. (OK, it’s deeper than that, but just humor me for now.) On the other hand, when you cast a physical spell your heart starts racing, your mind is taken over by images of molecular structures as you probe into the existence of your target, and you tear off a spell which is, by all definitions of spirituality, a freak of ethereal existence, sending the spell, whipping and snarling, through astral space until finally it crashes back into the real world and ravages the target on a primitive, solid level. When it’s over you may find that your heart refuses to slow down and that your nose has started bleeding because of drain. (In fact, in the future, I may give magicians casting Physical spells the option of exchanging Mental damage caused by drain for a certain amount of Physical damage, thus reflecting the physically trying nature of this type of casting.)

OK, enough philosophy. Now it’s time for some rules. Essentially, not much has changed when dealing with Physical spells. Complexity of the target is still important, only now complexity is solely based on physical structure, not the strengthening of weakening of an aura due to this complex structure. Attacks against living beings with Body ratings is still carried out in the same way. The bigger a living target is, the more complex their meat body is. While it may be argued that a human with a Body rating of 1 is still far more complex than a Ford Americar, I believe the fact that the casting magician also possesses a meat body with which they are fairly familiar would reduce the perceived complexity to something that was manageable.

Casting a spell against a non-living object, however, such as a Citymaster, would be rendered a bit more difficult because it is quite difficult to synchronize the caster’s physical being with that of a hunk of metal. The caster can ask himself “What is a Meat Body?”, and come up with a pretty good answer because they’ve had one all of their life. If he asked himself, “What is a Citymaster?’” the answer may be more difficult to come by. Sure, they can see the ‘vehicle’, but that doesn’t do them much good. They have to know what makes up the car, where all of these parts are, what they do, and so on. Sycronizeing their physical being with that of the vehicle is a rather difficult procedure, and hence may produce a fairly high target number.

Since my view of Physical spells doesn’t count a vehicle, or any target for that matter, as being a solid entity (unless that’s how the spell caster wishes to perceive it) the magician also has the option of casting a spell against a single part of the vehicle, such as a window or tire. Since it’s much easier for a magician to synchronize with a plane of glass or ring of rubber, the target number would be significantly lower than if he or she decided to try to blow up the entire vehicle.

This ability to take on objects as a whole OR single out their individual parts creates many new options for Physical spell casting. Theoretically, if the magician wanted to, they could target an entire city block with a Powerbolt spell since they have the ability to perceive it as a single target. Granted, it would never work, because the target number would probably be a three digit number. But they can still TRY to synchronize their physical being with that of the city block. Another thing to keep in mind that the target number difference between trying to blow up a Panzer, and just trying to blow out the windshield of the Panzer, will be large, but it shouldn’t be too large. If the magician is trying to blow up the Panzer, odds are they’re concentrating on disassembling its individual parts (i.e. windows, panels, engines, etc.). When they target the windshield they’re essentially trying to disassemble the molecular structure of the glass. Neither is an easy task, but the window job is made a good bit easier because once you’ve synchronized with one square inch of glass the rest becomes pretty easy to comprehend.

So how do you determine the target numbers for all this crap? For living targets, you still use the Body attribute. For other objects, it’s pretty much up in the air. I, personally, would probably use double or triple the body rating for vehicles, adding or subtracting a few points depending on whether or not it ran on nuclear power or something else exotic. For simple objects, such as bricks and glass, I may still stick with the Object Resistance Table. For buildings, I may use the square meterage of the target. I also may adjust the target numbers of non-living objects downward if the magician has some other skill which helps them understand it. (A person with a Panzer B/R of 13 may have little trouble synchronizing with something he knows so much about.)

Now for some stuff about Area Effect and Restricted Target physical spells:

When casting a good old fashion Powerbolt, or any other basic Physical spell, the magician has little or nothing to assist him when it comes to synchronizing with the target. The spell was formulated to go after physical matter, at that’s it. You have to ‘instruct’ in a calculated and precise matter or it won’t work.

Area Effect spells and Restricted Target Spells are, in a way, ‘pre-programmed’ to function in a specific way. Area Effect spells are designed to work over a large area, thus taking a bit of calculative burden off the magician. They allow the magician to ‘multi-task’ more effectively. Instead of having to view a gigantic target consisting of the combined complexity of everything involved, the spell allows the magician to consider everything on a more individual basis. While it is possible under my system to cast a single Powerbolt at a group of five people (the magician is more than welcome to try to conceive all of the targets as a single object) it would never work because of the intense complexity. When he uses a Powerball, however, it is like casting five Powerbolts. Granted this is still not easy, hence the larger drain, but it produces a smaller target number because the spell allows him to think things through on an individual level.

Restricted Target Spells are also pre-programmed, but instead of working on many targets, it works on a specific brand of target (Unless it is an Area Effect Restricted Spell, in which case it does both). When the individual who created the spell sat down to write the formula they put as much knowledge of the intended target into it as they could. The Wrecker spell formula has all kinds of crap about vehicular structure, the way they run, how they look, and so on, built into it. Casting it is much easier on the magician because they don’t have to think as hard as they normally would; the spell does a lot of that for him.

As a side note, let me quickly explain how Restricted Target spells work in my game. Now, under normal circumstances, you would probably interpret Wrecker’s restricted target of Vehicles to mean that you could only target the vehicle as a whole. This is swell BUT, under my system, the spell would be virtually useless on anything larger than a Westwind 2000 unless you were a really good magician because of the high target number. It would be much more efficient to gradually Powerbolt the target to pieces than try to take it on as a whole. The same goes for Urban Renewal. If all you could do was target an entire building, you’d end up with target numbers so high that the spell would almost always fail unless you were attacking something the size of a beach side snack-shack.

So, in order to alleviate the problem, I’ve determined that Restricted Target spells are permitted to target smaller parts of the whole. I figure the Wrecker spell wouldn’t know what glass was, but it would know what a windshield is. The difference between targeting a windshield with Powerbolt and targeting it with Wrecker is that Powerbolt would shatter the glass, whereas Wrecker would pop the windshield out of the vehicle. Urban Renewal may not know what a brick is, but it would know what a wall is.

The following should tie a few up a few lose ends:

One thing I know somebody is going to try is to Powerbolt somebody’s eyeball or something stupid like that. In defiance of a few of my own arguments I’m simply giving living objects which posses Essence an immunity from such individual attacks. Essence ties together an object in a way that makes it an indivisible whole. I’m not even going to dwell on it.

Finally, since I got rid of the necessity for an aura for physical spells there’s also another problem I have to deal with: Can you cast a Physical spell on somebody who is wearing a full suit of security armor? For Mental spells the answer is easy; the aura extends outwards a few inches and is not blocked by the armor. For Physical spells, now that seeing exactly what your target is has become very important, I’m inclined to say no, meaning you can’t hit somebody in a full suit of heavy armor because you can’t see them. But I think we could all agree that it would suck if you couldn’t toss physical spells at hooded polyclub members. To add more complication I just want to toss in, as I have in past writings, the horrible effects an acidbolt would have if it spewed corrosives all over the insides of somebody’s security armor.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a really good solution to this dilemma at the moment. For now, I’ll probably stick, for no good reason, to the normal rules which let you Powerbolt somebody inside a full suit of security armor even though this violates my non-existent extended aura philosophy. And should somebody firebolt them, I’ll just make them scream real loud as they burn up.

In conclusion, I should mention that there’s tons of stuff I’ve left out, such as dealing with physical manipulations and such. I primarily referenced combat spells because these types of spells are the easiest to deal with when discussing auras, grounding, etc. After looking through the list of other types of physical spells, it doesn’t appear that I’ve screwed with them too badly. All I’ve really done is created a different image of how the spell goes shazam. For the most part, the die rolling remains the same.

It seems that interpreting Shadowrun is sometimes as difficult as deciphering the Bible. But that’s what makes it fun.