What I learned tonight Options

[Beast of Revolut...]

Yes, magic duels tend to be tough. Here are a few ideas for killing mages using magic. You'll need the manabolt spell for astral combat, at force 6 or higher. In physical combat, powerbolt works better, but an elemental manipulation works best of all, because regular spell defense doesn't affect it. Throwing all your dice into spell defense and shooting the mage works, of course, but here's a better strategy: throw all your dice into spell defense, summon a spirit, and have it confuse the mage. The attack him, either with magic or close combat. Finaly, using the possesion metamagic technique to posses the mage is always good for a laugh.

[Wounded Ronin]

I actually didn't like Food Fight. I thought it was a great idea but the threat level is too high for total newbies and the extra dice rolling for exploding food effects puts too much strain on the newbie GM.

When I ran Food Fight for some newbies I had already had some GMing experience and I found that the gangers with SMGs could have killed the party like 5 times over. I had to keep telling the players, "Well, based on what I rolled, he would have killed you now, but since this is our first session, and the point is to teach everyone the basics of the game, we'll just say he missed."

I always thought these random gang members seemed somewhat heavily armed, too. Most robbers carry highly concealable pistols, i.e. light pistols. If the gang is looking for mayhem it would seem a lot more likely they'd find some shotguns, heavy pistols, or street sweepers, but not SMGs.

And why is their skill with some of these weapons 5? That's really high. Shouldn't they be untrained?

All in all I felt that Food Fight was just difficult and confusing for newbies.

[Abstruse]

I had a group of 4 players, two of which were total newbies playing the samurai and the other two semi-experienced players playing the Decker and Face/Shaman, both of whom have very low physical attributes. It took them one and a half turns to decimate the crew, and they would've done it faster than that if the shaman hadn't called off the troll tank so he could finish the last guy off himself with a Force 6 Powerball. Also, the first attack went to the troll tank (who has a very nice reaction) who cold-cocked Zany with a single 15M stun punch (high strength and titanium bone lacing), taking the SMG out of the action.

I think it's funny the decker is the one that took out the katana-toting Sam wanna-be. That guy rolled HORRIBLY for his attack.

The Abstruse One

[Bob the Ninja]

I ran Food Fight once. It was getting hairy for the newbie PCs until the psycho decker found the cleaning products ans started lighting things on fire, and chucking them, well everywhere.

[tisoz]

[Abstruse]

If you want to play flamewar, keep it to the approprate thread. Or just don't bother. Either way.

The Abstruse One

[tisoz]

I thought the smiley would point out how serious the suggestion was. And I do not recall flaming you. I used no profanity. I suggested using the same idea you suggested to counter your suggestion. I simply tried pointing out a flaw in your idea, to which I guess the GM is then supposed to invoke his right to make his own rules.

In short, thanks for trying to come up with a creative solution, but it is a flawed solution. Some others showed how to cope within the existing rules, not resorting to taking a sketchy description a few have about spirits and stretching it into a blanket statement. No flames were intended by me, though I can't say the same for your responses.

I also felt the need to make the joke here because it is a valid, widely used tactic. Not a one trick pony or whatever else you called it. Any magician capable of commanding it and realizing how it works is going to use this potent tactic.

[Roadspike]

I've played Food Fight once, and I've run it once (actually, when I ran it, I didn't have the adventure on hand, so I got a chance to tailor the opposition to my group, which was good). When running the robbery-gone-bad, the most entertaining moment was when the Dwarf combat mage wouldn't look up from his troll-porn magazine, then turned it around to show the centerfold to the ganger yelling at him, shocking the poor gang-banger long enough to blow a hole in him with his heavy pistol. When playing Food Fight, the most entertaining bit was my Dwarf newbie Sam (I'm an experienced player, but the character wasn't an experienced 'Runner) remembering why it's bad to take on someone with a Katana when all you have is a knife.

[Phaeton]

[Abstruse]

Zany (the ganger chick) is now currently sitting in the basement of the troll tank's apartment chained to the wall as part of a harem he's planning to build. MAN did we have a ball with that run. I may do it again later on just for the hell of it :P

The Abstruse One

[Phaeton]

[Arethusa]

That's just fucking sick. I can't believe you find that funny.

[BitBasher]

I concur with arethusa.

[TinkerGnome]

That's pretty twisted... but how is it inherently worse than killing her on the spot? The last time I ran food fight, the gangers pretty much all ended up dead.

I take it you're running an amoral campaign.

[Phaeton]

That's more sickening but slightly less f*cked up than some events from the last group I was with. Trust me. You don't want me to relate the stories.

[BitBasher]

[tisoz]

The gang was probably pimping her out. Isn't that one of the ways gangs make money?

If she'd rather be dead, there's probably ways for her to kill herself. Taking the chain and choking herself.

[Arethusa]

On second thought, tisoz, you barely deserve a response. I can't fucking believe you're rationalizing kidnapping, slavery, and rape.

This post has been edited by Arethusa: Jun 11 2004, 01:10 AM

[Fresno Bob]

...

[Kagetenshi]

It's definitely something that could make for good material in Shadowrun. Dark, gritty, unheroic; of course, it's also necessary to avoid letting the excuses the characters make convince the players.

~J

[Phaeton]

[Arethusa]

There's a line between the character finding this shit amusing and the player finding this shit amusing. It is the latter that I find wholly, deeply, unacceptably, intollerably fucking disgusting, and I imagine the few who have posted in agreement feel about the same way.

[Fresno Bob]

It's like that woman who was kept as a sex slave for seven years under this guy's bed. Right-o, old chap.

Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Maybe he's playing a character so morally bankrupt that even he hates him. I've noticed that most players don't have their characters do things that they themselves would find sick. And that really cramps the style in some amoral games.

[tisoz]

[TinkerGnome]