Essence affects healing for everyone, which is something, but probably not enough. They can't increase the healing penalty, though, because too many people ignore those rules anyway.I would like it if they made it matter more to none mages though. Maybe roll Edge and Essence together (with the required balance adjustments)?
I was aware. Hence my cheeky little quote at the end. Somehow, I don't think the US would cede half it's territory over volcanoes overnight. It has one of the largest militaries in the world... yes, magic was brand new at the time, and that might make the US capitulate to some of the Ghost Dance's demands, but it wasn't long before US colleges discovered their own kind of magic (based on hermeticism for some reason?) which would probably reignite the conflict. Not to mention the Native American population is quite small. It's a little too cut and dry. Same with the secession of the south and the merging with Canada. It's way too quick, nice and neat. The civil war was long, and bloody, and complicated, and we are still carrying around the scars of it today. That said, the ascent of native american culture is really important to the game, I just think the volcanoes thing isn't all that.Yes... Um... maybe you need to refresh yourself up on the canon?
The Ghost Dance War started in Shadowrun's 2014, as a guerrilla conflict, with the Native American side increasingly using magic as those powers returned to the world. It ended when Daniel Howling Coyote led the Great Ghost Dance, a magical ritual that caused Mounts Rainier, Hood, St. Helens, and Adams to all volcanically erupt simultaneously in 2017.
So, yeah, there was a war, until one side showed that it was willing to drop the equivalent of small nuclear devices, and the other side gave in. Go figure!
The balkanization is pretty necessary for the setting to work - it needs divided powers that don't cooperate for the PCs to have a plausible chance of doing what they do without getting pasted by united authorities.
It does, if you can pay for it (most can't), but thats pretty much the case for everything in SR.Basic bioware agumentation (that essentially just restores basic human functionality) should cost zero Essence. Maybe it already does, it's been a while since I've looked at the mechanics.
As much as I love transhumanist settings, I have to agree that SR is not one of them. Inhumanity in its various forms is a large part of the experience to me.Imo essence and that regular humans without cyber or awakened abilities are left behind are important aspects of SR/Cyberpunk.
No, in all SR editions so far essence was lost permanently even when you removed the cyber later. There was no turning back.As much as I love transhumanist settings, I have to agree that SR is not one of them. Inhumanity in its various forms is a large part of the experience to me.
Does upgrading from a cyber-arm to a bio-arm restore the difference in Essence, or is Essence permanently lost once it's gone? I'd much prefer the former, because it could lead to some great stories where someone heavily cyborged fights to restore their connection to magic by replacing their Essence-draining cyberware with equivolent bioware. And I feel like the ability to get back what you lost is also an important part of the setting.
As much as I love transhumanist settings, I have to agree that SR is not one of them.