Racial Cost at Creation, Lack of Balance? |
Racial Cost at Creation, Lack of Balance? |
Jul 30 2004, 06:44 PM
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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 2 2004, 09:02 PM
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 637 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,528 |
Nope, didn't forget them smileys. Just wanted to make the old joke and your comment seemed right for it ;-) [2] Given that 8 out of 10 rounds I got to play in look like a cross-breed between "Elfquest" and "Magic-the Gathering" Elf characters are IMHO too cheap. More often than not they are played as "Humans with an ear-problem" and they get away with it since it's hard to argue racism with them (SR elfes obviously being Vulkan infiltrators [Small ear elfes] and not Manga infiltrators [large ear elfes]) since they have few (if any) visible hints. I have heard the "take an elf they get a lot of benefits" all too often. So maybe giving them a few negative side effects (Iron is rare, not non-existing) and raising their costs will return to the "Humans with Quota Meta" group composition. As for Trolls: Basically the costs are there to kill them off as characters through a "soft kill". All I had the dis-pleasure to "meet" where monsters that where used as a weapon by the player to intimidate (Through tread of constant combat) the GM and group to do it "their way". Got my Sammy a few marks on his grenade launcher...[1] It's a matter of taste and the tainted by the groups I played with. The current group suffered similar and won't touch SR with the famous 10ft pole. And IMHO the SR elfes (at least in the style commonly encountered by me) are massively Tolkien infected. Birdy [1] Troll player: I want to shoot something! GM: There's nothing to shoot. S3 (our mage - stun ball) and S1 (me using Tranc ammo) disabled two soldiers on patrol and you can escape [Alpen Interdiction Zone] TP: But my character needs to shed <Adrenalien> I seek out and eliminate the guards. Got himself in big trouble since we left him alone at that. Nearly got killed (Nice GM) Turned a nice "City slickes in the Alps" into a "I search somethink to belittle/trash/anger/kill" scenario. [2] Original was an Artillery officer(German) to a US infantry guy during a Reforger/Free Running exercise. |
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