So...about some of those published books..., What the HELL were they smoking? Options

[Striker]

I've dug out some old books...you know, 1st and 2nd-edition stuff. The classics. I thumbed through them, thinking about how I might update them to work with my current group...

When it hit me that the scenario I was looking at was pretty much impossible to beat.

It was 'Double Exposure'.
Every enemy in that is super-armored, super-tough, has unbelievably high combat skills, incredible initiative...and there's dozens of them. And at one point, fighting them is pretty much inevitable.

Then I checked some other books. Sure enough, the trend continues. All of those 'classics' seem to have been designed with the utter munchkin in mind...only an advanced-level powergamer group would have a shot at making it through.

Not that the 'modern' books lack their share of ridiculousness...case in point, 'First Run', second scenario. The Renraku mages in that each have a force 4 power focus. Not only is that seriously powerful (especially considering that most teams only have one mage), it's also way more money than any starting team should have if they manage to loot these things (420k :nuyen: each, I believe).

Now I wonder...is it just me, or are the power levels in official scenarios rather skewed?