Racial Cost at Creation, Lack of Balance? |
Racial Cost at Creation, Lack of Balance? |
Jul 30 2004, 06:44 PM
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#1
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Target Group: Members Posts: 26 Joined: 28-October 02 Member No.: 3,527 |
Ok I've been pondering this a bit and wanted to get some third party input. The specifics I use are with the point based generation but they could apply just as well to the priority system.
There seems to me to be a bit of inequity in the racial point costs at creation. Specifically the penalty for being an Elf seems to be too large for the benefit the player gains by being an elf. Elves gain minimal bonuses for being an elf and the cost seems to outweigh the benefit. Here is a break down of the base races: Elf +1 Quick, + 2 Charisma, Low Light. Net bonus attributes 3. Bonus ability 1 Ork +3 Body, +2 Strength, -1 Charisma, -1 Intelligence, Low Light. Net 3 Bonus 1 Dwarf +1 Body, +2 Strength, +1 Willpower, thermographic, Resist Disease/Toxin. Net 4 Bonus 2 Troll +5 Body, -1 quickness, +4 strength, -2 Charisma, -2 Int, Thermo, Dermal Armor, Reach. Net 4 Bonus 3. Now obviously Troll should be the most expensive. But from this Dwarf should fall in line as the second most or the secondary most expensive alternative. I guess it seems like the Elf gets penalized for no particular good reason. I know they have longer lives but when has that ever really come into play in Shadowrun? I imagine it is to keep them rare but they don't seem like a slightly gimped up version of what a human could do with the same points in the books... |
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Aug 1 2004, 06:14 PM
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#2
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,028 Joined: 9-November 02 From: The Republic of Vermont Member No.: 3,581 |
That pretty much sums it up. IME, for whatever reason, about 90% of first SR characters are elves (and this is even from before the Legolas Effect kicked in). People just think they're cool, and I think their high Priority is simply to combat that effect. Of course, my last couple of groups have had no elves at all... not because of their mechanical disadvantages, but just because none of us like elves. One group had three humans, an ork (a first character, one of the few exceptions I've seen to that rule, whose player kept waffling on what race he wanted, but was definite on Not A Fragging Keebler), and a minotaur, and the other had three humans and two dwarves. The latter group started out with an elf decker, who was, in fact, someone's first SR character, but he dropped out after a couple of sessions. edit: Oh, and the latter group had dwarves set to C priority. Two of us took them anyway, not because of any game-mechanical advantage, but because it was integral to our character concepts (and by that I don't mean "high-Willpower sorcerer", but "dwarven warrior-smith-enchanter as per Norse legend"). |
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