[skullleader856]

Ok i am running a game for some friends and wanted to make some stuff 1st one is the caster gun from outlaw star this one fit well into shadowrun i think just dont know how strong to make the bullets the 2nd is thw sword hilt from Tenchi Muyo not sure how strong to make this one  do you all have any advice

[Reaver]

Ok first off:

Foci on shadowrun are tied to the aura of the user, if they leave the aura, they become non-awakened. And thus non-magical....

This means there are NO ranged weapon foci at all. No bows, no guns, no arrowss, no bullets, no rocket launchers....

As for the sword, that's a simple weapon focus. No issue there....


I have no idea about your references as I don't watch many modern manga, but you may want to read up on Foci in the CRB and Street Grimoire.... I have a feeling foci don't do what you think they do....

[Sendaz]

@ Reaver, Outlaw Star is a classic and worth watching if you get the chance.

@Skull, While there are no Ranged Foci, you may want to look at alchemical preparations. This is where you basically infuse a magical spell effect into an object to be discharged later on.

While normal bullets can not be done as preparations due to a number of issues including the distortion of the round destroying the lynchpin to the spell, the fluff in Hard Targets did talk about using a basic steel ball round with etched runes working for this, though it was supposed to have crap accuracy and severely limits what kind of weapon you could load this into.
The problem is there was no accompanying crunch to support it, so it's left to the GM to decide for themselves and preparations have a short shelf life to boot, though there is a potency extending spell in Hard Targets as well to help this a little bit.

An alternative you might want is just have a Focus shaped like a gun that your caster uses for his combat spells and for special effects it looks like the spell leaps from the 'gun' to the target.

[Kiirnodel]

Caster: Spellcasting focus (Combat)
 Reaver is correct, you can't make ranged weapon foci. But since the caster really just shoots a spell, you could play it off that way. Using it as a spellcasting focus you could play up that it does a big visual when you channel a spell through it.

Sword Hilt: Sustaining Focus.
You could make a normal weapon focus, but I think you want to play up that it is just the hilt until you activate it. Assuming your GM is willing to use the Spellblade spells, you could make a dedicated focus to sustaining that spell when you cast it.

Sendaz sort of beat me to it for a bit of this, but we're on about the same page.

[skullleader856]

Cool thank you all for the advice on it

[Blue Rose]

To use the caster, alchemy is probably the better model, but unfortunately, alchemy shelf lives are so ungodly terrible as to make it highly impractical.  In this case, the gun is more or less irrelevant; it's just an aesthetic means of conveying a spell effect.  Instead of loading bullets, you load alchemically prepared spells.

Note: Actually preparing bullets alchemically to hit with both bullet damage and spell damage, possibly multiple cases of spell damage, doesn't really work, cool as the idea is.  Firing the gun ruins the spell.  The official ruling from Street Grimoire is that while a lot of folks have tried it, no one's gotten it to work past ball musket, and even then not very well.  So these would be caster shells, not magic bullets.

[Whiskeyjack]

You can always make a gun into a fetish for your combat spells, where you have to use the gun to cast the spell (and get the benefit of lower Drain).

That said, Artificing is a pretty crappy niche skill that really is not designed for PCs to get much mileage out of it. Making foci is more an NPC thing and this is a system that insists on representing NPCs like PCs despite such mechanics being incredibly low-value.

[Imladir]

It's true only if you only take into account karma/nuyens investments and don't consider the interest of artificing as a story driver, roleplay opportunities and so on.

The rules can work (especially if you put your lodge in some background zone) or if you make some small tweaks (replace the karma cost for production with a reagents cost and allow the special work area lifestyle option to be used for the lodge for example).

[Thanael]

Check out Steve Kensons SR2/SR3? Homunculus familiar spirit Loud Boy here : https://stevekenson.com/2005/08/05/more-familiar/

[gilga]

I find Artificising very good, the extra karma cost of the focus is not that bad, prevents you from spamming them - but it does save a lot of money. You create an item that is worth a of money almost for free and you can have it look like anything you want.

I think it is a very nice skill, and it allows you to continuously upgrade your work as you gain more experience in the art. The extra karma are not so bad, as you are not actually crafting that many foci. How many do you use? (I'd say a power focus and a counterspelling focus for a mage, perhaps a centering one once you initiate. )