Weapon Types versus Barriers, ...or why SR lumberjacks don't use axes Options

[Nim]

[James McMurray]

That's where that handy little rule about GMs changing things to fit situations comes into play.

[Rokur]

Yes.... I usually keep rules Canon for say bustind down a door so the team can walk through it.... this way an axe... can't male a 1by2 Meter hole with one swing... but a fistful of unbreakable bones can....

But for the slashing of tires... I just use house rule of must make a called shot attack at -4 or -armor/2 (High armored carse gots runflats) and we use the barrier rating of a tire to soak.... and if the attack gets a net hit over dam. resistance... then it's punctured....

[stevebugge]

Yeah that's kind of strange. I think the intent behind the rule was to keep people from taking down a wall with a switchblade, but it does have the odd effect of making a night stick better for taking down a door than a fire axe. I agree where this is a case where th GM should overrule on a case by case basis using some common sense*.

*prequisite is that your GM must in fact possess some common sense.

[hobgoblin]

when trying to cut down a tree, your not looking to blow one big hole in it, your looking to weaken the structure of it so that it falls.

its the same deal with taking down a building with explosives. you dont try to blow every last bit of the building up. what you do is place explosives onto the load carrying parts, damage those until they cant do their job, and watch the bulding fall under its own weight.

i think a good houserule is that when a material is below half its structure, it will fail structuraly. so to slash a tire you only need to do is about 1 point of damage.

allso, armor in SR4 isnt straight up damage reduction, its rolled. so you may not do any damage (damn hard patch of wood or something) or you may be able to cut the tree down in one swing (nice work). but if you trade the dice in, both 4 armor and 7 armor will result in -1 overall damage, so the axe will do more damage then the club...

btw, 7? isnt 4 doubled, 8? so make that damage reduction for the axe -2, still thats 5 damage(axe) vs 3 damage(club) if the gm use the dice trade rule ;)

basicly, the barrier rules in SR4 is buildt to do two things. first is to allow you to use it as extra armor (shooting through barriers), the second it to allow you to make your own doors (destroying barriers).

neither of those are realy appliable to cuting down a tree, or slashing a tire...

[Nim]

[PH3NOmenon]

or, you know, be sensible and require an attribute only test for such things...


Heck, throw in a profession(fireman) or profession(lumberjack) skill test in there...

[Shrike30]

Or you could rule that the axe would be treated as a blunt weapon for the purposes of what you're trying to do. I have a feeling that the whole "edged" thing is meant to prevent people from slashing or stabbing doors to pieces with knives, swords, and the like. Axes and other "swung" weapons have a lot more momentum behind them, and the edge mostly serves to apply the blow to a much smaller area. You aren't trying to cut a hole in a wall when you hit it with a fire axe, you're trying to smash a hole.

[Nim]