The eighth session.., .. Spirit summoner and Yakuza bandit Options

[Faelan]

Also, don't forget that blind fire links to Intuition instead of Agility, so, instead of that 24 dice pool to start, he's looking at 17. -3 for wounds, -6 blind modifier, he's actually throwing 8 dice, max.

I forgot about that. So the Zod shoots and the prepared sniper dies is losing ground even quicker unless he burns edge, and even then it is doubtful. Of course this is all assuming the sniper was as foolish about his choice in position as Zod was.

[Kliko]

Just have Zod make composure tests as soon as the bullets start flying. You should have great fun as he cowers behind cover...

Also point out the carrying capacity rules.... and the weight of that Alpha with gyro-stabilization, extended drum, 100 rounds of ammo, the works.

[Traul]

Bod 5 Agi 8 (12) Rea 5 Str 1 Cha 3 Int 5 Log 1 Wil 1 Edg 3 Mag 5 (4)

With WIL 1, he's a dead man walking. A single mana spell or spirit power and he's down. Just put one mage with Magesight goggles in the warehouse and watch him fall to a single Stunbolt.

NegQ: Incompetent Archery, Incompetent Artisan, Incompetent Medicine,

You didn't do your job. You are supposed to refuse that. There is a reason why the book states that all characters must be approved by the GM. The book does not know your table and which skills you use. Incompetent in a skill that will never come up is worth 0BP, not 5.

Uncouth

It is also your job to enforce it. Uncouth + no social skills = the character will screw up every single social encounter. Read it, it's in the book: he must make skill tests for normally trivial tasks and he cannot default on these tests. Unlimited automatic failures, to the point that the other players should lock him in the car before meeting anyone. Enforce it strictly: while Zod is not there, his player is not allowed to talk. And of course, don't let him play 2 characters, maybe after it has been said for the tenth time time you hear it. If the other players are not here and the team needs their skills, YOU play them. Not the players.

Infiltration 0 (+2 Urban)

Can't do that: you need a skill of at least 1 to specialize.

Powers: Improved Combat Ability Automatics 4, Improved Physical Attribute Agi 2

That's 5 points, Zod only has a Magic of 4.

[HunterHerne]

That's 5 points, Zod only has a Magic of 4.

To be fair, he can lose 1 whole point off Improved ability [Automatics], since he can't use it anyway. (Skill 7 +reflex recorder [automatics] +Improved Ability 4 [Automatics]= illegal. Both improved ability and reflex recorder add to the modified skill rating, which can never be more then 1.5 x the skill rating, rounded down. In other words, maximum 10 for the modified rating with aptitude and maxed skill. His is 12.

[Stalag]

Some of your numbers seem a bit off, particularly the idea that he is doing stun, and the fact his AP with APDS would be at least -7,

Doh - you're correct, I forgot to account for an assault rifles base dmg.

But still, we reached the same conclusion that the enemy sniper should not have been insta-killed... especially taking Zod's damage into account

[hyphz]

You didn't do your job. You are supposed to refuse that. There is a reason why the book states that all characters must be approved by the GM. The book does not know your table and which skills you use. Incompetent in a skill that will never come up is worth 0BP, not 5.

I have heard this before, but I always find it tricky to apply. Basically -
* No player would ever take Incompetent in a skill they are going to plan on using, so by putting an Incompetent disadvantage in the game at all, they're implying it's ok to take it for stuff the PC isn't going to use.
* The _sample characters_ are allergic to gold. Obviously, that's because that isn't ever going to come up, so right there is RAW precedent for cashing in on disadvantages.

Can't do that: you need a skill of at least 1 to specialize.

Fair point. We've suffered a bit from the fact that Chummer does get the rules wrong, but maybe 60% of the time it gets it right - so most of the time, if I dig through the books to check, it turns out to have been a waste of time.

[Glyph]

Quick note: Zod's Attribute distribution is cheesy, but he is under the 200 point limit, which is for core Attributes only. He has three 5's (120 points) and an 8 (75 points), with three 1's and a 3 (no cost), for a total of 195 points. But three Attributes of 1, and a Charisma of 3 that is made essentially worthless with the Uncouth quality (which is one of those "trap" options that few experienced players take) should really hurt him. Even Strength, which is normally relatively safe as a dump stat, will hurt him (as others have pointed out how much his gear will encumber him).

[HunterHerne]

I have heard this before, but I always find it tricky to apply. Basically -
* No player would ever take Incompetent in a skill they are going to plan on using, so by putting an Incompetent disadvantage in the game at all, they're implying it's ok to take it for stuff the PC isn't going to use.
* The _sample characters_ are allergic to gold. Obviously, that's because that isn't ever going to come up, so right there is RAW precedent for cashing in on disadvantages.

I both agree and disagree here. It's the job of the GM to make negetive qualities have a potential effect. Allergy is easy to make useful, as all you need to do is use a weapon that incorporates that object, or the Mcguffin could be made of it (say, the PC's are hired to find a stolen, unique piece, one made of gold.) Incompetant is less easy to take advantage of, unless it's a common use skill that the player may not plan to use anyway. I would request Medicine be swapped with First aid, Archery can stay put, as that, like most combat skills is easier to make a problem, though Artisan is not much used anyway, as it is a flavour skill, more often.

That said, my choices to request changes to incompetant is based on the fact I design my own adventures. Where you are using pre-made adventures, I would request more appropriate skills be chosen.

[Yerameyahu]

God, I just weep. There are no words. Three 1s? Etc. Lord.

[AppliedCheese]

"There are ways criminals can get away with murder under the current laws. Legislators write laws. No criminal would want to be found guilty of murder, and will use whatever loopholes they can find. Therefore, legislators must want criminals to murder people"

Gold is almost certainly used in a large number of industrial and research uses, as well as various electronics functions, and magicy bits. All of which your average shadowrunner has a chance of intersecting with. That said, its still stretching it.

Yes, you can be incompetent in skills you won't be using, but the GMs role is determining whether or not there's an actual disadvantage to that. Negative BPs are awarded because they, in some way, disadvantage the character. If there's no disadvantage, no BP.

You could be, for instance, incompetent in (pilot groundcraft), even though you plan on letting your wheelman do all the driving. Fine; that's still a disadvantage that forces a reasonable change in gameplay on the player. "I can't drive." You can see how that would be a problem. Sure, the team is going to make up for it, but by and large that would be something that makes the character less potentially useful.

Medicine is a maybe. Its not all that common, but hey, you know, it can potentially have an in game use...as evidenced with our highly accelerated and probably needs revisiting healing mentioned earlier.

However, "I can't sculpt" , and "I can't shoot people with bows, but I have plentiful ranged combat options" are not, in fact disadvantages under any normal circumstances. (Unless, I suppose, your campaign focuses around archery tournaments and becoming famous artists).

Also, read that stat line. Zod is effectively a kindergartener who is good with a rifle. Any time he tries to act stone cold and professional, that log 1 wil 1 should be biting him in the ass. Especially with uncouth on top. Thats to the point where i would force him to start taking tests to stay in his hide site, remember whats going on, etc. Basically, if the team leaves him alone for more than five minutes, he's chasing an ice cream cone.

[Faelan]

Also, read that stat line. Zod is effectively a kindergartener who is good with a rifle. Any time he tries to act stone cold and professional, that log 1 wil 1 should be biting him in the ass. Especially with uncouth on top. Thats to the point where i would force him to start taking tests to stay in his hide site, remember whats going on, etc. Basically, if the team leaves him alone for more than five minutes, he's chasing an ice cream cone.

Oh that is just too funny.

[Gazzor]

HI all,

It's Dawg here! (The party mage - a Bounty Hunter who communes with the dog spirit).

I've been enjoying the sessions. Nice to not be DMing at least.

I used to DM the previous D&D campaign, that ended up in a horrible broken mess as the whole xp and level system is garbage at epic levels and fights either ended in 2 rounds after the players nuked the bad guys or the fight dragged on for ages as the players got stunned/ dominated and nearly ended up as a TPK.

I've no idea about all the rules and have been reading up on stuff each session. I've kept up pretty much with the spells I selected initially, but have been allowed to swap out a few that weren't going to work out the way I wanted upon further rules reading (Like raising attribute being really really hard to cast if attribute high already).

My biggest concern is how broken Spirits seem to be. I called up a lvl 10 guy. I asked if Hyphz was going to use the edge to resist variant you suggested (Fair enough I think as a player should have some idea how dangerous a summoning attempt is), and he said no. Maybe he misheard my question as apparently he did use edge... Anyway, suffice to say that he only got 6 hits, against my 8 for summoning using edge roll). Had to resist 12 drain. Rolling 13 dice was pretty confident (WP5, drain resist 6, concntration 2) but with edge reroll only got 4 hits. 8 BOD damage! Ouch! Then the hacker medic helaed up 6 points and job was a good' un.

I was however amazed that the Spirit was then able to solo 10 guys with machine guns. I am also somewhat concerned as it won't be that hard for the bad guys to send lvl 10 spirits after us and easily TPK us.
I'll limit myself to lvl 6 guys in future in the hope that the bad guys follow a similar code of honour...

SR is also interesting compared to D&D as a "lvl 1" guy can be about 90 odd percent as powerful as a character playing for a while, especially if you gimp up your prime stat (My char is STR1, CHA1 and INT 1). So my guy, with aid of +2 rod of magic, can roll up to 16 dice (I think, not got details here) on manipulation spells.

And with 5 edge, my mage can afford to go for high risk high casting spells a few times per session as required.

One somewhat silly fact is that my mage is wearing a full riot suit + riot shield + gel packs for about 25/17 armour. Sure, bod is only 5, so take penalties in combat, but my guy just stands behind walls and lets his spirit minions to the work, or buffs Zod to 4 INIT steps per round. Maybe he's like Mako in the Arnie Conan (The old oriental wizzard dude wearing all the armour scraps in the big showdown).

Might be worth house ruling that each stat has to be 3 points minimum, much like minimum D&D stat is 8. Means the characters less gimped and not much less powerful than before.

Mages do seem nails. Zod has agreed to pay the 60k for a lvl 4 sustaining rod that, once I accrue 8 more Karma, will sustain his INIT buff spell without me taking -2 to my dice rolls. I swapped for LOG from CHA, which seems fair anough as CHA seems to cover spirits, which seem horribly broken anyway.

Magic system is very similar to GURPS, in that if you twink your starting mage well enough you can cast pretty much unlimited magic each day. Even without spirit summoning, being able to overcast a lvl 12 powerball (Damage is 12 + result of casting dice up to 12 right?) for armour ignoring 6m radius damage seems pretty fruity to me.

Anyway, the Faceman player should be turning up to sessions again soon as should the hacker player, so we'll be on a 1 for 1 PC to player ratio again.

Anyway, I'm having fun with my very versatile character who is, I suspect, a teensy bit overpowered...


Gaz

[HunterHerne]

HI all,

It's Dawg here! (The party mage - a Bounty Hunter who communes with the dog spirit).

I've been enjoying the sessions. Nice to not be DMing at least.

I used to DM the previous D&D campaign, that ended up in a horrible broken mess as the whole xp and level system is garbage at epic levels and fights either ended in 2 rounds after the players nuked the bad guys or the fight dragged on for ages as the players got stunned/ dominated and nearly ended up as a TPK.

I've no idea about all the rules and have been reading up on stuff each session. I've kept up pretty much with the spells I selected initially, but have been allowed to swap out a few that weren't going to work out the way I wanted upon further rules reading (Like raising attribute being really really hard to cast if attribute high already).

My biggest concern is how broken Spirits seem to be. I called up a lvl 10 guy. I asked if Hyphz was going to use the edge to resist variant you suggested (Fair enough I think as a player should have some idea how dangerous a summoning attempt is), and he said no. Maybe he misheard my question as apparently he did use edge... Anyway, suffice to say that he only got 6 hits, against my 8 for summoning using edge roll). Had to resist 12 drain. Rolling 13 dice was pretty confident (WP5, drain resist 6, concntration 2) but with edge reroll only got 4 hits. 8 BOD damage! Ouch! Then the hacker medic helaed up 6 points and job was a good' un.

I was however amazed that the Spirit was then able to solo 10 guys with machine guns. I am also somewhat concerned as it won't be that hard for the bad guys to send lvl 10 spirits after us and easily TPK us.
I'll limit myself to lvl 6 guys in future in the hope that the bad guys follow a similar code of honour...

SR is also interesting compared to D&D as a "lvl 1" guy can be about 90 odd percent as powerful as a character playing for a while, especially if you gimp up your prime stat (My char is STR1, CHA1 and INT 1). So my guy, with aid of +2 rod of magic, can roll up to 16 dice (I think, not got details here) on manipulation spells.

And with 5 edge, my mage can afford to go for high risk high casting spells a few times per session as required.

One somewhat silly fact is that my mage is wearing a full riot suit + riot shield + gel packs for about 25/17 armour. Sure, bod is only 5, so take penalties in combat, but my guy just stands behind walls and lets his spirit minions to the work, or buffs Zod to 4 INIT steps per round. Maybe he's like Mako in the Arnie Conan (The old oriental wizzard dude wearing all the armour scraps in the big showdown).

Might be worth house ruling that each stat has to be 3 points minimum, much like minimum D&D stat is 8. Means the characters less gimped and not much less powerful than before.

Mages do seem nails. Zod has agreed to pay the 60k for a lvl 4 sustaining rod that, once I accrue 8 more Karma, will sustain his INIT buff spell without me taking -2 to my dice rolls. I swapped for LOG from CHA, which seems fair anough as CHA seems to cover spirits, which seem horribly broken anyway.

Magic system is very similar to GURPS, in that if you twink your starting mage well enough you can cast pretty much unlimited magic each day. Even without spirit summoning, being able to overcast a lvl 12 powerball (Damage is 12 + result of casting dice up to 12 right?) for armour ignoring 6m radius damage seems pretty fruity to me.

Anyway, the Faceman player should be turning up to sessions again soon as should the hacker player, so we'll be on a 1 for 1 PC to player ratio again.

Anyway, I'm having fun with my very versatile character who is, I suspect, a teensy bit overpowered...


Gaz

Those attirbutes could be a problem for you. Especially if you didn't take skills like perception. It affected one of my players recently where she wasn't allowed to roll to see the "guards", and got herself shot, but I toned down the armour for my group, requesting a lower powered campaign.

I agree about the powerbolt and stunbolt line of spells, they are a bit overpowered for my liking, and have found a way to reduce their effectiveness in my game.

On the spirits: Yes, they are very powerful. And typically, the only answer is either another spirit, or a caster, and they are supposed to be rare.

On a thought, what was the hacker/medic rolling for dice on the first aid test? There is a threshold that needs to be reached(2), and lots of penalties that can be brought up (being out on the street, for example, is an automatic -2, as is the subject being awakened), and can only be applied to any set of wounds once. First aid also takes time, a number of rounds equal to the damage the character has.

Also on first aid, the maximum number of boxes that can be healed, is equal to the skill rating of the person doing the test.

[AppliedCheese]

On the "a few edge casts a session", how often is the GM refreshing edge? It seems...generous. Usually your edge is supposed to last you for a full up module-euiqvalent before refreshing. If its re-cocking every session, he's essentially giving every player free wins.

Healing. 1st aid takes one minute in which the healer and the healee are doing it.

Whats your mage's bod score at? Worn armor is limited to Bod x 2 (or bod + STR common house rule). So, if your rocking 25/17, even with the PPP/gel packs spliced in, that's pretty questionable. I believe RAW outright disallows it, but if you want some flexibility, you should be taking the equivalent of extended athletics tests just to move, with stun damage as a failure result.

Also, STR 1 = 20 kg carry weight. Your armor alone is dragging you down.

And yes, Summoning and resisting an f10 is definitely one of those "burn the edge" times. That said, an F10 should always be edging against the player. 20 d6 exploding, or rerolled misses, would have probably have put you in overflow, and broken your summoning to boot.

Plus, f10 spirit summoning = massive astral signature. Jag-fecking-normous. The type that makes the AZT say "hmmm, we might be interested in YOU for various experiments." And god forbid your on camera.

[Faelan]

The extreme ignoring of rules, out right twinkery, the failure of NPC's to be anything but walking dead, makes me wonder if this is all an elaborate ruse. If so congratulations, and excellent job in pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. If this is not the case, well then you need to start applying the rules to your herd of munchkins and lower the boom. How any one of them manages to move with their 1 Str while wearing essentially bomb squad armor is beyond me.

[maeel]

Judge Intentions (INT + CHA)

A character who wants to use her natural empathy to
gauge another character’s emotional state, intentions, or hon-
esty can make an Opposed Intuition + Charisma Test against
the target’s Willpower + Charisma. Note that this sort of
“psychological” evaluation is never a certainty—it’s just a way
for a player to judge what her character “feels” about some-
one else. It should never serve as a lie detector or detailed
psychological analysis. The gamemaster should simply use it
as a way to convey gut feelings the character gets when deal-
ing with another.

you will be remembered as the crazy mage that fried little kids, because he felt threatened by their trick or treat terror.....

[Critias]

As for stats for the characters. Here's the most recent set of stats I have for Zod:
Metatype: Elf
Bod 5 Agi 8 (12) Rea 5 Str 1 Cha 3 Int 5 Log 1 Wil 1 Edg 3 Mag 5 (4)
PosQ: Adept, Aptitude Automatics, Exceptional Attribute Agi
NegQ: Incompetent Archery, Incompetent Artisan, Incompetent Medicine, Uncouth
Skills: Automatics 7 (+2 Assault Rifles), Infiltration 0 (+2 Urban), Perception 1 (+2 Visual), Pilot Groundcraft 4
Powers: Improved Combat Ability Automatics 4, Improved Physical Attribute Agi 2
Ware: Smartlink, Vision Magnification, Vision Enhancement 3, Reflex Recorder Automatics, Muscle Toner 2
Gear: Middle Lifestyle, Form-Fitting Half-Body Suit, Armor Jacket, Ares Alpha (Gyro Stabilization, Gas-Vent 3, Smartgun, Additional Clip, Extended Clip 100 Drum, Personalized Grip, High Velocity, Ex-Ex ammo), Steyr TMP (Concealable Holster, Hidden Arm Slide, Smartgun, Gas-vent 3, Stock, Shock pad, Ceramic Components 1, Chameleon Coating, Personalized Grip, High Velocity, Ex-Ex Ammo), Meta Link running Vector Xim, Fake licenses 4 (Machine Pistol, Assault Rifle, Bioware, Cyberware), Fake SINs 4 (Neil Befor, Admiral Ackbar)
I haven't included the truck because I only have an old version of the character sheet that shows the incorrectly built car.

1) Folks have already pointed out the ridiculousness of those social/mental stats, combined with Uncouth, combined with the fact he only has four skills (generously counting the already-pointed-out error with Infiltration). Zod is a retard. Really. If you, as a GM, let people make characters this shallow, at least make them then role play them accordingly. This is a functional retard that happens to be a virtuoso with a gun; that's it.

2) Someone's already mentioned Improved Combat Ability functionally capping at 3. Even dropping that to 3 (making it cost 1.5 power points), he's over on Power Points. Improved Physical Attribute costs 1.5 power points per level past the natural attribute maximum, so he's sitting at 5 power points spent right now, 4.5 if you give back that last point of Automatics.

[HunterHerne]

1) Folks have already pointed out the ridiculousness of those social/mental stats, combined with Uncouth, combined with the fact he only has four skills (generously counting the already-pointed-out error with Infiltration). Zod is a retard. Really. If you, as a GM, let people make characters this shallow, at least make them then role play them accordingly. This is a functional retard that happens to be a virtuoso with a gun; that's it.

2) Someone's already mentioned Improved Combat Ability functionally capping at 3. Even dropping that to 3 (making it cost 1.5 power points), he's over on Power Points. Improved Physical Attribute costs 1.5 power points per level past the natural attribute maximum, so he's sitting at 5 power points spent right now, 4.5 if you give back that last point of Automatics.

Also, he's got that Reflex Recorder that is useless while he has 3+ Improved ability.

[Stalag]

My biggest concern is how broken Spirits seem to be.

They're not broken - just ridiculously powerful

Had to resist 12 drain. Rolling 13 dice was pretty confident (WP5, drain resist 6, concntration 2) but with edge reroll only got 4 hits. 8 BOD damage! Ouch!

Number of dice/3 = the average number of hits you'll get. You'd need 36 dice to have a decent chance of resisting 12 drain.

I was however amazed that the Spirit was then able to solo 10 guys with machine guns. I am also somewhat concerned as it won't be that hard for the bad guys to send lvl 10 spirits after us and easily TPK us.

Realistically most mages won't regularly almost kill themselves to summon a spirit.

SR is also interesting compared to D&D as a "lvl 1" guy can be about 90 odd percent as powerful as a character playing for a while, especially if you gimp up your prime stat (My char is STR1, CHA1 and INT 1).

Remember that 3 is "average human" so with a 2 you'd be below average... a 1 effectively makes you a cripple. General rule of thumb would be that non-primary stats should be 3 with an occasional 2. You should only have a 1 if you plan to roleplay your character with that deficiency

One somewhat silly fact is that my mage is wearing a full riot suit + riot shield + gel packs for about 25/17 armour. Sure, bod is only 5, so take penalties in combat, but my guy just stands behind walls and lets his spirit minions to the work, or buffs Zod to 4 INIT steps per round. Maybe he's like Mako in the Arnie Conan (The old oriental wizzard dude wearing all the armour scraps in the big showdown).

That is silly given it's R rating. I'd ask if they have to put you on a hand truck and wheel you into position but I suspect all the characters in your group have 1 Str so none of them would be strong enough to anyway.

Might be worth house ruling that each stat has to be 3 points minimum, much like minimum D&D stat is 8. Means the characters less gimped and not much less powerful than before.

If it's not a common sense rule then yes, it should be a house rule.

Magic system is very similar to GURPS, in that if you twink your starting mage well enough you can cast pretty much unlimited magic each day.

Not twinked, just keep the force of your spells within a drain you can reasonably expect to resist

Even without spirit summoning, being able to overcast a lvl 12 powerball (Damage is 12 + result of casting dice up to 12 right?) for armour ignoring 6m radius damage seems pretty fruity to me.

The force of your spell can never be more than twice your magic. A Force 12 Powerball would be 9 drain. - unless you're somehow tossing 27 dice to resist drain you'll be taking some physical damage almost every time you throw that.


I seriously recommend having everyone scrap these characters and then KarmaGen some real characters

[Yerameyahu]

I honestly never saw anyone take Automatics 7 and Agility 8. What a waste of BP for those couple dice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Even just a 2 min stat is a lot better than a 1. They don't have to be 3 (if you're going for the 'D&D 8', that's 2).

[hyphz]

On a thought, what was the hacker/medic rolling for dice on the first aid test? There is a threshold that needs to be reached(2), and lots of penalties that can be brought up (being out on the street, for example, is an automatic -2, as is the subject being awakened), and can only be applied to any set of wounds once. First aid also takes time, a number of rounds equal to the damage the character has. Also on first aid, the maximum number of boxes that can be healed, is equal to the skill rating of the person doing the test.

Ah, I didn't realize he couldn't just keep on healing for max of his skill rating each time.

[Gazzor]

Number of dice/3 = the average number of hits you'll get. You'd need 36 dice to have a decent chance of resisting 12 drain.

1) Didn't know it was using edge, so was expecting circa 8 drain (4/10 successes).

Was planning to use edge myself, makes it 55%, so expecting to roll circa 7 successes, leaving 1 point to be healed up.

But I rolled 4 even with edge reroll.


Also, we were told edge was per session, but if per mission makes it far more precious and make me less prone to high level overcasts.


Cheers,

Gaz

[Glyph]

Personally, I think the GM needs to do whatever combination of house rules or tactics I normally disapprove of (spirits using Edge to resist summoning), to make overcasting and oversummoning what they were intended to be - desperate and risky acts, NOT standard tactics! The rules really fail here, in that certain powergaming builds can overcast/summon with impunity, with first aid taking care of any unresisted Drain.

Personally, my house rule would be to make overcasting/summoning Drain healable only with rest, not by first aid.

On the low stats - if Attributes of 1 were so unrealistic or impractical, Attributes for characters would all start out at a base of 2. An Attribute of 1 is undeveloped, not retarded, crippled, or what have you. You are a piddly 10 karma from an Attribute of 2, and 15 more from an Attribute of 3. Someone with a Strength of 1 is not a wheezing asthmatic with a walker, he's just a couch potato, who can quickly get into better shape when he starts getting regular exercise.

With that said, though - an Attribute of 1 is a weakness, which gives you specific, quantifiable disadvantages in the game. Having several such dump stats makes for a character who is vulnerable in multiple ways.


I think the humongously powerful spirits are the biggest problem - it's good to see that the mage's player sees that, too, and is working to mitigate that on his own. Zod should not be as big a deal. So he has a one-shot kill dice pool. So what? It is a lethal game. Where he should be challenged more is being in a position to USE that dice pool - don't give him a "bye" on the tactical aspects of the game.

[Mayhem_2006]

Just have Zod make composure tests as soon as the bullets start flying. You should have great fun as he cowers behind cover...

Also point out the carrying capacity rules.... and the weight of that Alpha with gyro-stabilization, extended drum, 100 rounds of ammo, the works.

Why bother? "Zod" will only remake his character *again*. Or "accidentally" roll extra dice so that he passes. Or claim that the stats the ref has are old ones and he has more dice in that pool now.

I am still gobsmacked for the same reason as the very first session - a GM who doesn't *know* the characters stats? Who doesn't have up-to-date copies of the character sheets?

[Neraph]

God, I just weep. There are no words. Three 1s? Etc. Lord.

I so verily agree.