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> Dealing with Ruthenium
Narmio
post Feb 5 2005, 05:38 AM
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I'm hoping someone can help me out with this most irritating substance.

I've got nothing against stealth characters getting huge bonuses from a burglar's tux, but frankly, ruthenium polymer bodysuits and cloaks are just abusable.

Hitting a character who constantly uses a ruthi-suit is nigh-on-impossible, and actually tailoring an encounter to challenge him or her seriously restricts a GM's options. While the cost is not negligable, there is a horrible possibility that every Resource A streetsam can show up to a new game completely invisible, there's no way to stop them, they throw their entire combat pools into shots, and are untouchably broken.

There is one particular character (Hi Ranneko!), a sniper/infiltrator who greatly irritates me in that he cannot be seen by most enemies, and happily snipes away even when in the middle of a combat, taking aim and making fifteen dice sport rifle shots with a TN of 2, killing ANYTHING thrown against him. That thing took out a boat in one shot, he staged the damage up so high with successes it took way-more-than-Deadly damage despite having TN2 to soak (I bet they'd be regretting not having *slightly* heavier armour, if they weren't so dead).

Even mooks with thermo or ultrasound get +4 against him, seriously reducing the number of successes from any attack. Only astrally perceiving foes can really do much, and manaballing the team and killing half of them falls under what I would consider "Bad GM form" just as far as "grenading all the runners".

I have already said they can't have visibility TN modifiers above +8 (M&M says +12 from the suit), as that's the amount from total invisibility or blind fire. Of course, the more scanners, the faster you can go without dropping below that +8. Arguments then arise over whether this makes the thermographic and ultrasound TNs +6 or +4.

So, what methods can people think of for handling this character and other transparent abuses (pun very intended)? I have a few ideas, most of which my players probably will not like, but they're logical enough, they should get the idea...

1) Simply boosting the availability of ruthenium and/or the image scanners to 12-15. This is, of course, a bandaid option, they'll acquire them eventually, but it may stave off the worst abuses.

2) Ruling that the modifiers, as a particularly pedantic look at the book may reveal, apply to perception tests only, not firearms tests, but this flies in the face of the logic that it is HARD to hit someone who you can't really see.

3) Houseruling out the image scanners and replacing them with a rating-based scanner package, limiting starting characters to +6 in any case, again a mostly bandaid measure.

4) "No, you buggers just can't have the bloody stuff. Go abuse Dikote instead!"

5) Hard-capping the bonus at +4, IE: No additional scanners.

6) Tailoring all my runs to have some method of defeating ruthenium (Drones, loads of magically active foes, hell, even ink grenades), thus devaluing it and having players dislike me (Although the ink grenades thing is a cool idea. *ponder*).

I'm still trying to think of a better way of handling this, what do people use in their games? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Posts in this topic
- Narmio   Dealing with Ruthenium   Feb 5 2005, 05:38 AM
- - Arethusa   QUOTE (Narmio)I've got nothing against stealth...   Feb 5 2005, 05:47 AM
- - FrostyNSO   QUOTE (Narmio) Only astrally perceiving foes can r...   Feb 5 2005, 05:56 AM
- - FrostyNSO   Arethusa makes a lot of good points. Also, I agre...   Feb 5 2005, 05:58 AM
- - Narmio   QUOTE Ruth suits really are not that great. They a...   Feb 5 2005, 06:02 AM
- - FrostyNSO   If you have an extraordinary problem with mages ge...   Feb 5 2005, 06:05 AM
- - Necro Tech   Its VERY important to remember that ruthenium is n...   Feb 5 2005, 06:16 AM
- - Brazila   This has been a bit annoying in some of the games ...   Feb 5 2005, 06:30 AM
- - Arethusa   QUOTE (Narmio)How is a suit high maintenance? The ...   Feb 5 2005, 06:33 AM
- - Crusher Bob   There are several 'mundane' things that wi...   Feb 5 2005, 07:59 AM
- - Necro Tech   QUOTE (Arethusa) Where the hell are you getting t...   Feb 5 2005, 08:21 AM
- - hahnsoo   Regular Camo gives a +2 TN Modifier vs. Ranged att...   Feb 5 2005, 01:19 PM
- - hahnsoo   Oh, and three more ways to deal with Ruthenium Pol...   Feb 5 2005, 01:27 PM
- - Ranneko   QUOTE (hahnsoo)I'd like to know how a Sport Ri...   Feb 5 2005, 02:21 PM
- - hahnsoo   QUOTE (Ranneko) QUOTE (hahnsoo)I'd like to kno...   Feb 5 2005, 02:37 PM
- - durthang   I also believe we had a thread about how to deal w...   Feb 5 2005, 02:41 PM
- - tisoz   QUOTE (Ranneko) because the other people were too ...   Feb 5 2005, 02:43 PM
- - Kagetenshi   QUOTE (hahnsoo) I'd like to know how a Sport R...   Feb 5 2005, 03:23 PM
- - Fortune   So Submarines, which most definitely are classifie...   Feb 5 2005, 04:46 PM
- - Kagetenshi   The only two Naval-rules using subs are nuclear su...   Feb 5 2005, 05:02 PM
- - Fortune   Seriously? (It really was an honest question, as I...   Feb 5 2005, 05:06 PM
- - Kagetenshi   No, because all other subs are underwater where th...   Feb 5 2005, 05:09 PM
- - Fortune   I admit I was being a little facetious. Per cano...   Feb 5 2005, 05:15 PM
- - Kagetenshi   Ok, I'm going to check the errata, because who...   Feb 5 2005, 05:23 PM
- - HMHVV Hunter   QUOTE (Fortune) Per canon though, a light pistol...   Feb 5 2005, 05:30 PM
- - FlakJacket   Bull covered dealing with ruthnium in one of his D...   Feb 5 2005, 05:31 PM
- - Kagetenshi   QUOTE (HMHVV Hunter) However, in Star Wars D20 the...   Feb 5 2005, 05:33 PM
- - Narmio   The vehicle damaging system is somewhat strange in...   Feb 6 2005, 01:12 AM
- - FrostyNSO   In RL, the best way to stop a vehicle with small a...   Feb 6 2005, 01:23 AM
- - Kanada Ten   On the issue of AV ammo, a careful reading of Rigg...   Feb 6 2005, 01:31 AM
- - Austere Emancipator   Just a few past discussions on how SR3 handles veh...   Feb 6 2005, 02:02 AM
- - Vlad the Bad   Back to the topic ... I ran for a player whose cha...   Feb 6 2005, 05:03 AM
- - Necro Tech   QUOTE (Kanada Ten) On the issue of AV ammo, a care...   Feb 6 2005, 05:34 AM
- - Sandoval Smith   Re: Ruthenium in combat, how is he rolling TN 2s a...   Feb 7 2005, 12:33 AM
- - Teulisch   a couple points here. First, Ultrasound very spe...   Feb 7 2005, 01:22 AM
- - Cochise   QUOTE (Teulisch)First, Ultrasound very specificaly...   Feb 7 2005, 02:08 AM
- - Buck Satan   Yeah my players tried to abuse the Ruthenium polym...   Feb 7 2005, 04:51 AM
- - Kagetenshi   No light is being bent. A high-res picture of what...   Feb 7 2005, 04:53 AM
- - durthang   QUOTE Where is the thermographic penalty coming fr...   Feb 7 2005, 04:54 AM
- - Arethusa   QUOTE (Buck Satan) Yeah my players tried to abuse ...   Feb 7 2005, 05:29 AM
- - Ranneko   QUOTE (Buck Satan) Yeah my players tried to abuse ...   Feb 7 2005, 06:04 AM
- - Fortune   QUOTE (Arethusa) Uh, what the fuck? Sounds more l...   Feb 7 2005, 06:44 AM
- - toturi   There is no real way to counter-balance a bad GM, ...   Feb 7 2005, 06:52 AM
- - Sandoval Smith   Play with a new one? Okay, the above example is a...   Feb 7 2005, 07:59 AM
- - Deacon   Players I've known are fond of fiddling with t...   Feb 7 2005, 12:54 PM
- - Large Mike   Just a note on ruthenium in a non-rules fashion. ...   Feb 7 2005, 01:30 PM
- - hahnsoo   We've actually come up with a home-grown secur...   Feb 7 2005, 03:10 PM
- - Garland   Wow, I really like that idea. Though I bet the co...   Feb 7 2005, 03:25 PM
- - Sandoval Smith   Adding Ruthenium to the outside of armor doesn...   Feb 7 2005, 03:26 PM
- - hahnsoo   QUOTE (Garland) Wow, I really like that idea. Tho...   Feb 7 2005, 03:57 PM
- - =Spectre=   My two cents on the Ruthie Suits. I've playe...   Feb 7 2005, 04:02 PM
- - James McMurray   Re dikote and ruthenium: if you coat your clothing...   Feb 7 2005, 04:33 PM
- - mfb   you can't dikote clothes. even assuming your c...   Feb 7 2005, 05:28 PM
- - Toshiaki   Don't forget about the security riggers. As so...   Feb 7 2005, 06:09 PM
- - Jrayjoker   There are so many ways to hinder an "invisibl...   Feb 7 2005, 06:34 PM
- - BitBasher   It has been stated above, but it bears repeating. ...   Feb 7 2005, 06:57 PM
- - Kagetenshi   Even assuming you could dikote it, a clear coverin...   Feb 7 2005, 07:01 PM
- - mfb   a few millimeters of clear coating aren't goin...   Feb 7 2005, 07:22 PM
- - hahnsoo   QUOTE (mfb) a few millimeters of clear coating are...   Feb 7 2005, 07:28 PM
- - Arethusa   Erm, a few milimeters of diamond is quite a bit.   Feb 7 2005, 07:28 PM
- - shadow_scholar   I see a few easy ways of defeating a Ruthie suit: ...   Feb 8 2005, 09:51 PM
- - tisoz   Use a Superflash grenade to burn out the cameras.   Feb 8 2005, 10:11 PM
- - Austere Emancipator   QUOTE (shadow_scholar)I just think that personal a...   Feb 8 2005, 10:14 PM
- - hobgoblin   i dont recall if this have come up, but how about ...   Feb 8 2005, 11:11 PM
- - BitBasher   Just use a splash grenade full of paint. Or heck, ...   Feb 8 2005, 11:15 PM
- - hobgoblin   damn, i knew i had seen a grenade delivering spray...   Feb 8 2005, 11:21 PM
- - BitBasher   You know, if you fill the splash grenade with Gamm...   Feb 8 2005, 11:34 PM
- - hobgoblin   nasty, i like   Feb 8 2005, 11:41 PM
- - Edward   My stealth suite combined 8 scanner ruthenium leve...   Feb 9 2005, 02:09 AM
- - hobgoblin   want a simple way to detect a ruth suit in a porta...   Feb 9 2005, 02:18 AM
- - BitBasher   Well that and it'd be brutally obvious someone...   Feb 9 2005, 02:38 AM
- - Large Mike   If I read it correctly (and even if I didn't, ...   Feb 9 2005, 01:07 PM
- - hahnsoo   QUOTE (Large Mike) If I read it correctly (and eve...   Feb 9 2005, 02:24 PM
- - Sketchy   Well, if your super "OMG I can't see him...   Feb 9 2005, 05:58 PM
- - Lindt   Yeah, shotguns and/or flechette ammo. Eventually ...   Feb 9 2005, 06:12 PM
- - Weredigo   It is now Modern Technology. The Japanese (or it ...   Feb 12 2005, 12:38 PM
- - Kagetenshi   Japanese. It doesn't do it very well, and does...   Feb 12 2005, 01:34 PM
- - hobgoblin   that japanese cloak was nothing more then a wearab...   Feb 12 2005, 05:24 PM
- - BitBasher   Yeah, if you read the white paper on that cloak it...   Feb 12 2005, 07:23 PM


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