Playing a Low Power game sorta, Starting out at the street level and building |
Playing a Low Power game sorta, Starting out at the street level and building |
Dec 29 2009, 05:53 PM
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#1
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Target Group: Members Posts: 4 Joined: 17-January 09 Member No.: 16,783 |
Hi people
I am going to start a new series of adventures for my group. My Goal is to start out the players as a "noob" to the streets and work their way up to pro shadowrunners. If you have seen the movie Goodfellas. Its that sort of story that I want to create. If anyone one has suggestions to this goal I can always use some support GMing especially in terms of character creation. Thanks |
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Dec 29 2009, 06:48 PM
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#2
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Target Group: Members Posts: 29 Joined: 12-April 05 Member No.: 7,325 |
Are your characters starting off middle or lower class? Or are you thinking about having them grow up in the barrens?
If the second, I recommend reading "Gang Leader for a Day" and "Off the Books" both by Sudhir Venkatesh. I have always wanted to do that style of game, its never quite happened. |
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Dec 29 2009, 06:48 PM
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#3
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Street Doc Group: Admin Posts: 3,508 Joined: 2-March 04 From: Neverwhere Member No.: 6,114 |
For a low-powered "noob" game, 300 BP is usually about right. Be very careful about what qualities you allow, as certain qualities can monopolize your time and energy as a GM, and this effect can be magnified in a low-powered game. Another very effective way to limit the power of your game is to lower the availability limit at character gen to about 6, but then you might need to make a few exceptions (like silencers, for example). Also your initial runs will need to be relatively simple, as your fledgling runners will be limited in terms of skills.
Do you have any specific ideas about what types of characters the group wants play or adventure frameworks? |
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Dec 29 2009, 07:27 PM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 765 Joined: 28-December 09 Member No.: 18,001 |
Hi people I am going to start a new series of adventures for my group. My Goal is to start out the players as a "noob" to the streets and work their way up to pro shadowrunners. If you have seen the movie Goodfellas. Its that sort of story that I want to create. If anyone one has suggestions to this goal I can always use some support GMing especially in terms of character creation. Thanks For character creation I would recommend the following: - 400BP - No more than 1 Essence point in Cyberware, total. - No Bioware - No skill above 4 - No lifestyles above low - No Magic attribute above 4 - No Edge attribute above 4 - No foci above rating 2 - At least one street level contact (including Barkeepers) That should provide fairly fleshed out characters, ready to claw their way up the ranks. |
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Dec 29 2009, 08:28 PM
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#5
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,431 Joined: 3-December 03 Member No.: 5,872 |
I'd go weaker than others here.
200 BP Attributes capped at 3(before racial). 1 Stat can go to 4. No skills above 3 Magic/resonance capped at 2 Max 10BP in resources Availability limit of 6. A 3 stat/3 skill makes you professional in your skill so you really can have people who are in that range in there strong suit and IMO the game works better at this level. |
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Dec 29 2009, 08:46 PM
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#6
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 765 Joined: 28-December 09 Member No.: 18,001 |
I'd go weaker than others here. 200 BP Attributes capped at 3(before racial). 1 Stat can go to 4. No skills above 3 Magic/resonance capped at 2 Max 10BP in resources Availability limit of 6. A 3 stat/3 skill makes you professional in your skill so you really can have people who are in that range in there strong suit and IMO the game works better at this level. Your average joe already has 160BP worth of attributes. A 200BP limit is simply not feasible. |
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Dec 29 2009, 09:47 PM
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#7
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,748 Joined: 25-January 05 From: Good ol' Germany Member No.: 7,015 |
First You (and your Group) have to decide if you want to Play LowPower(with fewer Building Points) or Lowstyle(in the Streets )
What You describe looks like Lowstyle and can easily be done with the Standard Rules. It's your Players that have to go Lowstyle. Its no Use to cut/cripple the Characters by allowing only 300 (or 200 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) ) Points and then ,after a session or two, giving them heavy Weapons and heavy Armor, etc But If the Players have competent Characters they're not in dire need of bigger Equipment @Shinobi with only 200 BP the Characters can't do shit /achieve anything if You Play by the Rules with a lowstyle Dance Medicineman |
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Dec 29 2009, 10:55 PM
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#8
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,095 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Seattle Wa, USA Member No.: 1,139 |
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Dec 29 2009, 11:18 PM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 765 Joined: 28-December 09 Member No.: 18,001 |
Depends on if you agree with knasser or not that average attributes should be 2 or the 1-3e idea that 3 is the average Let's see what the rulebook thinks about that: QUOTE ("Shadowrun 2th Anniversary Edition p.67 (relevant parts bolded for emphasis)") Human Attribute Ratings Rating | Description 1 | Weak 2 | Underdeveloped 3 | Typical 4 | Improved 5 | Superior 6 | Max unmodified human Or let's have a look at some Contacts: Bartender: 140 BP Blogger: 140 BP Mechanic: 170 BP Armorer: 140 BP Club Owner: 180 BP Corporate Manager: 140 BP Corporate Secretary: 140 BP Gambler: 150 BP Janitor: 100 BP (considering that 100BP would be the allowed maximum for characters with a 200BP maximum, players would start out on the level of a janitor...) Paramedic: 170 BP Stripper: 160 BP Taxi Driver: 120 BP In other words, pretty much every Joe Average would wipe the floor with a runner made with 200BP total... And those are all non-combat, non-specialist NPCs. They are about as average as they get in SR. |
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Dec 29 2009, 11:27 PM
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#10
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,095 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Seattle Wa, USA Member No.: 1,139 |
Not trying to put words in his mouth (just part of his posted house rules) but I think he derives 2 based on the fact that in older editions average was 3 dice TOTAL. Even with combat pool you were looking at 5 dice (3 skill +1/2 of the average combat pool). Having attributes at 2 with skills at 3 would give you 5 dice again. However with the raise in the target number, 6 dice may be more statistically accurate.
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Dec 29 2009, 11:30 PM
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#11
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,001 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Michigan Member No.: 1,514 |
A lot of how much fun you'll have is in what you mean by low powered. I ran a 3rd Edition Game in which the PC's made 90 build point PC's. When it's all said and done, by specializing you can still build some pretty damned powerful and effective PC's. This assume some team work on the part of the players, which isn't always a given.
What I'd start with is talking to your players. Get a feel for what they want, and expect from a low powered game. Is a hand gun going to be a big deal, or does everyone have one? Is magic a factor? Or is it like Nuclear Weapons? As a GM how do you plan to control their access to things like money-which can pretty quickly stack up and allow the gun bunny to cyber up. Adepts can be real game breakers-be aware of that when making opposition. The IC thread for my low powered game can be found here. It can provide some insights if you're willing to take the time and read it. (Obviously we all have different constraints on our free time, so that may not be realistic.) |
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Dec 30 2009, 12:29 AM
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#12
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 186 Joined: 14-May 05 From: Riverside CA Member No.: 7,394 |
Just get everyone around a Table and spend the next 2-5 hours making the characters.
If they are all suposed to have "Grown Up" tegether they should be famialr wich each other. Encourage Imput form each player on each Character. With you there you can make sure that nothing gets caried away. This may aslo give you some "Story Hooks" that develup during Caracter Creation. |
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Dec 30 2009, 12:59 AM
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#13
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Target Group: Members Posts: 21 Joined: 28-December 09 Member No.: 18,000 |
Interestingly, the game I'm playing in grew out of my desire to make some "low-level" characters on a 300BP budget and then it sort've took over the campaign. The rules we used were:
300BP -1 Level 4 Skill & 2 Level 3 Skills or 5 Level 3 Skills. -Skill groups capped at 2 -Maximum availability of 8 -35 BP maximum spent on resources. 5k¥ per point. We also used the free Charisma x 2 contact points and something ... uh ... very wrong but other players wanted it. You can break skill groups during character creation. |
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Dec 30 2009, 01:51 AM
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#14
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,431 Joined: 3-December 03 Member No.: 5,872 |
First You (and your Group) have to decide if you want to Play LowPower(with fewer Building Points) or Lowstyle(in the Streets ) What You describe looks like Lowstyle and can easily be done with the Standard Rules. It's your Players that have to go Lowstyle. Its no Use to cut/cripple the Characters by allowing only 300 (or 200 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) ) Points and then ,after a session or two, giving them heavy Weapons and heavy Armor, etc But If the Players have competent Characters they're not in dire need of bigger Equipment @Shinobi with only 200 BP the Characters can't do shit /achieve anything if You Play by the Rules with a lowstyle Dance Medicineman Body 3 Agility 3 Reaction 3 Strength 2 Charisma 1 Intuition 2 Logic 2 Willpower 2 Edge 2 Firearms (Group) 3 Close Combat (Group) 3 Pilot Ground Craft 2 Stealth (Group) 2 Influence (Group) 1 10,000 Nuyen for cyber and gear.(maybe some cyber eyes) This is without any flaws to get more points or being particularly efficient with skills. Just taking unarmed combat or pistols for example would save points for other skills. He can get a success or two on tasks fairly reliably, I think that is solid for a low level campaign. Sure the cops will be a huge threat, but if you are a punk gang member a cop should be. Since your skills are combat oriented you should be able to easily handle the taxi driver and shop keepers. You can achieve plenty, you can't just routinely achieve the really lame blind fire, while deaf, being dragged by one leg by a speeding car shots that everyone seems to shoot for. 6-12 dice the system works well IMO, past that and it becomes a game of how many penalty mods can the GM throw on to make it a challenge. |
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Dec 30 2009, 05:04 AM
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#15
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Street Doc Group: Admin Posts: 3,508 Joined: 2-March 04 From: Neverwhere Member No.: 6,114 |
Let's see what the rulebook thinks about that: Yeah, we all know what the rule book says. What tete is referring to is a lengthy debate that occurred around here back when the 4th edition came out. If I recall correctly, the idea was that even if 3 were the mean (average) attribute, the mode (most common) attribute would probably be 2. So if you grabbed 100 average shmucks off the street, most would have attributes of 2, a bunch would have 3s and 4s, and a handful would have 5s and 6s. Its a more realistic distribution, and the 4th edition system works better with lower DPs anyway. There are *numerous* threads on the topic if you want to read more.However, I would agree with you that 200 BP seems a little too low... |
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Dec 30 2009, 05:19 AM
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#16
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
I'd stress thinking in terms of limiting dice pools if you want to keep players relatively evenly powered, not just throwing in arbitrary caps on just things that contribute to dice pools, since such tactics often end up favoring the burly metas to a point that's frankly a bit laughable. One of the few things that keeps trolls relatively balanced, for example, is that as nice as their stat lines are, sinking BPs into nuyen and augmentations instead of raw attributes is often enough to make the less efficient metatypes worth a look thanks to the brute power of 'ware. In an environment where you cannot pursue those options, suddenly attributes and metatype costs are some of the only cost effective uses for bps, and not everyone is really interested in playing a goblinized character. In general, things'll come out a lot better if you just eyeball everything and work closely together on the sheets rather than set down arbitrary limits. The important thing is that nobody gets crazy, out of whack dicepools-- what sources they come from is a secondary concern, at best.
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Dec 30 2009, 08:07 AM
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#17
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,748 Joined: 25-January 05 From: Good ol' Germany Member No.: 7,015 |
Body 3 Agility 3 Reaction 3 Strength 2 Charisma 1 Intuition 2 Logic 2 Willpower 2 Edge 2 Firearms (Group) 3 Close Combat (Group) 3 Pilot Ground Craft 2 Stealth (Group) 2 Influence (Group) 1 10,000 Nuyen for cyber and gear.(maybe some cyber eyes) This is without any flaws to get more points or being particularly efficient with skills. Just taking unarmed combat or pistols for example would save points for other skills. He can get a success or two on tasks fairly reliably, I think that is solid for a low level campaign. Sure the cops will be a huge threat, but if you are a punk gang member a cop should be. Since your skills are combat oriented you should be able to easily handle the taxi driver and shop keepers. You can achieve plenty, you can't just routinely achieve the really lame blind fire, while deaf, being dragged by one leg by a speeding car shots that everyone seems to shoot for. 6-12 dice the system works well IMO, past that and it becomes a game of how many penalty mods can the GM throw on to make it a challenge. OK Social Competence: 2 Dice for Interacting with the World thats a 33% chance of critical Glitch !! Firefight 6D Vs Far Distance -3, bad Visibility -1, (lets assume I-Red or ...(Restlicht ?) Nightvision) and your Enemy is either in cover or running thats 2 Dice Vs your Enemies 5-7 Dice You won't hit Shit(crit Glitch !). even if you add Smartlink (which is ImO not Lowstyle) thats 4 vs 5 or 7 Dice .No "Shithitting" either What you seem to forget is the multiple modifiers ingame especially for Fights 6-12 dice the system works well IMO not with all the negative Modifiers, than it Boils down to 2-3 Dice If you "cut down" the Character abilities you also have to "cut down" the Rules and thats a lot of Work for nothing (imO) He who doesn't want to Dance for nothing Medicineman |
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Dec 30 2009, 11:49 AM
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#18
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 821 Joined: 4-December 09 Member No.: 17,940 |
And he'd better stay well clear of any body of water. With a 2dices pool for anything ahtletic, he's in serious danger of drowning. And if he evers has to leave hastiily from somewhere with peoples shooting at him, he's not a sitting duck but close... He would also better not try to have any sort of look at his gear's innards. If it don't work, bring it to the shop.
Basically anything that doesn't fit directly into his narrow specialty can be forgotten |
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Dec 30 2009, 08:20 PM
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#19
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
I honestly think you guys are kinda reaching here. It's not 2 dice for interacting with the world. It's 2 dice for trying to convince the world to do things it wouldn't otherwise be inclined to do without coaxing. That's a huge difference, and as long as you don't go around trying to sweet talk your way through things, glitches shouldn't be that big of a concern.
So yeah, sure, the character isn't a shadow runner yet. But that's sort of the point of the whole exercise here. Of course, the characters are likely to get killed, but that's kind of the way it goes when you're not a shadow runner and try to do violent crime for a living. The lack of Perception is actually what leaped out at me more than anything. I still kinda hate the idea of just lowering a bunch of caps though. It exaggerates the effects of min-maxing, and like I said earlier, it overemphasizes metatype differences since attributes are more cost effective than skills. Further, humans end up actually having a hard time finding things to spend points on if you don't let them have much in the way of nuyen-- sure, you can branch out into non-specialty skills, but your dice pool will typically end up so pathetically small that you really shouldn't have even bothered. Frankly, I just toss bp costs more or less out the window and work with the players directly to get totals we can all live with. |
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Dec 30 2009, 08:41 PM
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#20
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,095 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Seattle Wa, USA Member No.: 1,139 |
I feel if you really want to go "low level" its best to use karma build. Maybe 400-500 karma. The fact that you have to pay a lot for something high will mitigate high scores by itself.
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Dec 30 2009, 08:47 PM
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#21
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
But it's not having something high that ruins it, actually. It's simply leaving it somewhat low or average and using the fact that those points don't count under attribute caps so that you can concentrate on building synergistic stats without crippling yourself physically. With lowered point totals and attribute caps it's frankly dang near impossible for a human not to have one or two really bad dump stats. Meanwhile, trolls and orks can use body and strength as "dump stats" and still be tougher than the average smoothie. That's nothing to sneeze at, particularly in a low powered game where your character is unlikely to be good enough at his job to avoid taking a few hard knocks.
For example, with just under 400 karma and the limitations suggested by Shinobi, you can get a troll that looks like this: Attribs: Body:5 Agility:4(5) Reaction:3 Strength:5(6) Charisma:2 Intuition:3 Logic:2 Willpower:2 Edge:2 Positive Qualities: Adrenaline Surge Martial Artist 1 (Wrestling, +1 Die For Subdual) Negative Qualities: Mild Addiction to Novacoke Martial Arts Maneuvers: Throw Ground Fighting 'Ware: Muscle Replacement 1 Skills: Unarmed Combat 4 w/ Martial Artist Specialization Pistols 4 w/ Semi-Automatic Specialization Perception 2 Athletics Group 3 Stealth Group 3 Contacts: Pawn Shop Owner, Loyalty 3, Connection 2 5k nuyen leftover for lifestyle and gear. So, yeah, he's no face, but he's basically a pair of used Wired II from being a half-decent young Samurai. Now, of course, you can just put into place suggested minimum attribute spending rules to counter the worst excesses of this sort of thing, but it's another example of how at the end of the day hard and fast chargen rules don't really work all that hot if all you're really trying to do is dictate dice pool sizes and keep players at a relatively even level. |
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Dec 30 2009, 09:37 PM
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#22
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 186 Joined: 14-May 05 From: Riverside CA Member No.: 7,394 |
No, it is the guy playing the Elf with:
QUOTE Agility 5 [7] Reaction 6 [8] Intuition 5 Pistols [Heavy Pistols]-4 [+2] Wired-2 Muscle Toner-2 Packing an Ares Predator IV That’s Initiative 11 [13] Passes 1 [3] Ares Predator [15] That becomes the problem This not bad when the team are the same as him, but if the rest of the team has average stats and no speed upgrades everyone else might as well go for pizza when combat starts. IMOHO if the GM wants a low power game he should restrict what they get. This is why I suggest building the characters as a group from the start. |
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Dec 30 2009, 10:10 PM
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#23
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,883 Joined: 16-December 06 Member No.: 10,386 |
I was just pointing out that some character concepts advantages are exaggerated when you just haphazardly lower a few caps. I'd rather see people just throw some of the rules into the wind and work as a group to make sheets and worry about how the points work out later. I don't honestly feel like the SR4 chargen system scales down all that well, which is why I basically encourage the same approach you seem to be taking. Just saying "Okay, no skills above 3 and only 10k nuyen," is basically the same thing as saying "No functional hackers," for example.
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Dec 31 2009, 02:03 AM
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#24
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,431 Joined: 3-December 03 Member No.: 5,872 |
I honestly think you guys are kinda reaching here. It's not 2 dice for interacting with the world. It's 2 dice for trying to convince the world to do things it wouldn't otherwise be inclined to do without coaxing. That's a huge difference, and as long as you don't go around trying to sweet talk your way through things, glitches shouldn't be that big of a concern. So yeah, sure, the character isn't a shadow runner yet. But that's sort of the point of the whole exercise here. Of course, the characters are likely to get killed, but that's kind of the way it goes when you're not a shadow runner and try to do violent crime for a living. The lack of Perception is actually what leaped out at me more than anything. I still kinda hate the idea of just lowering a bunch of caps though. It exaggerates the effects of min-maxing, and like I said earlier, it overemphasizes metatype differences since attributes are more cost effective than skills. Further, humans end up actually having a hard time finding things to spend points on if you don't let them have much in the way of nuyen-- sure, you can branch out into non-specialty skills, but your dice pool will typically end up so pathetically small that you really shouldn't have even bothered. Frankly, I just toss bp costs more or less out the window and work with the players directly to get totals we can all live with. You are right, no perception is bad. Change close combat to unarmed combat and throw perception at 3 on there. And now he has 6 BP to spare, again without any flaws to boost points. We did a 200 point campaign for a realy short time, the GM just stopped though we were all having fun and being successful. Though it was a gang level campaign so the opponents were much like an average joe. Bod 4 Agil 1 Rea 2 STR 1 Chr 1 Int 1 log 3 will 3 edge 2 Magic 1 Spellcasting 2(manipulation spells) ritual casting 1 Counterspelling 2 Conjuring 2 firearms 1 unarmed combat 1 gymnastics 1 arcana 1 chemistry 3(drugs) Enchanting 3(alchemy) assensing 1 pilot ground 1(bike-i could of done wheeled but it feels so cheesy) perception 1 He had a spirit affinity man, and a spirit pact. A few spells like 5,000 in gear, and 3 low end contacts. I could of built him more effectively but he did the job of being a drug dealer of mundane and awakened drugs for a low rent gang. I think people are to used to having a huge amount of mods being thrown at them in every encounter in order to bring them back down to reality that a low end game isn't feasible. But if you jump the security at a low end place there should be virtually no mods. If the cops pull up and get cover behind there car its time for a low end team to GTFO. At the low end people should be running more often since any mods make it virtually impossible. But that is fairly realistic, usually when people grab cover in real life shoot outs go on for ever. |
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Dec 31 2009, 03:53 AM
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#25
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Prime Runner Ascendant Group: Members Posts: 17,568 Joined: 26-March 09 From: Aurora, Colorado Member No.: 17,022 |
OK Social Competence: 2 Dice for Interacting with the World thats a 33% chance of critical Glitch !! Firefight 6D Vs Far Distance -3, bad Visibility -1, (lets assume I-Red or ...(Restlicht ?) Nightvision) and your Enemy is either in cover or running thats 2 Dice Vs your Enemies 5-7 Dice You won't hit Shit(crit Glitch !). even if you add Smartlink (which is ImO not Lowstyle) thats 4 vs 5 or 7 Dice .No "Shithitting" either What you seem to forget is the multiple modifiers ingame especially for Fights 6-12 dice the system works well IMO not with all the negative Modifiers, than it Boils down to 2-3 Dice If you "cut down" the Character abilities you also have to "cut down" the Rules and thats a lot of Work for nothing (imO) He who doesn't want to Dance for nothing Medicineman One thing that you are forgetting though, Medicineman, is that many of the negative modifiers can be compensated for... Though I do agree that 200 BP is a fairly low expenditure... I do believe that 12 dice is a good dice pool though... it is very effective... Hell, even after almost 300 Karma, many of my dice pools are still in the 9-13 range (with my Perception at 15), and I am still pretty darn effective... but that is probably because I can negate a fair amount of penalty... Keep the Faith (and keep on Dancing) |
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