Making damage spikier?, or how to make that 9mm scary again Options

[Warlordtheft]

Or even a well-tailored suit (with PPP and FFBA).

Question for the GM is if the PPP and FFBA being stacked together impacts/reduces the concealibility and if noticed would it raise suspicion. YMMV depending on the GM.

[Chainsaw Samurai]

Question for the GM is if the PPP and FFBA being stacked together impacts/reduces the concealibility and if noticed would it raise suspicion. YMMV depending on the GM.

Eh, The FFBA is specifically form fitting and the PPP says it comes in discreet options. Not to mention it says the PPP is available in practically any setup you could desire, to include sports packages. But screw discreet, hear me out for a minute...

So, bulky obvious external PPP in the form of sports pads, FFBA underneath the clothing, a basic Armor Vest. This gives you 14/12.

Add on a simple jersey (not a national team. Perhaps the Seattle Runners) that preferably has some dirt and grass stains, a hockey stick or baseball bat (If packing a hockey stick/jersey, replace the mud stains with minor blood stains. MINOR), and a sports bag full of uzis.

Congratulations. You've created a "uniform" that the entire team can wear and not have questions asked about them being in most places. They'll just look like some Farm league or adult Slow Pitch jackasses. Maybe the best part is that no one will approach or try to talk to them, because no one wants to hear a bunch of 30-somethings talk about how they're staying in shape and being healthy and go on and on and on about their practices and games.

Its the perfect cover.

[VykosDarkSoul]

Eh, The FFBA is specifically form fitting and the PPP says it comes in discreet options. Not to mention it says the PPP is available in practically any setup you could desire, to include sports packages. But screw discreet, hear me out for a minute...

So, bulky obvious external PPP in the form of sports pads, FFBA underneath the clothing, a basic Armor Vest. This gives you 14/12.

Add on a simple jersey (not a national team. Perhaps the Seattle Runners) that preferably has some dirt and grass stains, a hockey stick or baseball bat (If packing a hockey stick/jersey, replace the mud stains with minor blood stains. MINOR), and a sports bag full of uzis.

Congratulations. You've created a "uniform" that the entire team can wear and not have questions asked about them being in most places. They'll just look like some Farm league or adult Slow Pitch jackasses. Maybe the best part is that no one will approach or try to talk to them, because no one wants to hear a bunch of 30-somethings talk about how they're staying in shape and being healthy and go on and on and on about their practices and games.

Its the perfect cover.

.........
MUAHAHAHAHAHAH.....

I have found my new hit squad!

[Halinn]

Don't forget to change which type of sport you're fans of depending on the neighborhood. Urban Brawl is good for the lower income 'hoods, but you might want to appear to be football or baseball fans in a more classy neighborhood.

[Psikerlord]

We have banned PPP and Form fitting armour in our game. That stuff is just bonus armour for very cheap, concealable,... basically very little downside. If a pc wants lots of armour in our game, they pay for it via essence, nuyen or magic. No free tanks!

[Warlordtheft]

Eh, The FFBA is specifically form fitting and the PPP says it comes in discreet options. Not to mention it says the PPP is available in practically any setup you could desire, to include sports packages. But screw discreet, hear me out for a minute...

So, bulky obvious external PPP in the form of sports pads, FFBA underneath the clothing, a basic Armor Vest. This gives you 14/12.

Add on a simple jersey (not a national team. Perhaps the Seattle Runners) that preferably has some dirt and grass stains, a hockey stick or baseball bat (If packing a hockey stick/jersey, replace the mud stains with minor blood stains. MINOR), and a sports bag full of uzis.

Congratulations. You've created a "uniform" that the entire team can wear and not have questions asked about them being in most places. They'll just look like some Farm league or adult Slow Pitch jackasses. Maybe the best part is that no one will approach or try to talk to them, because no one wants to hear a bunch of 30-somethings talk about how they're staying in shape and being healthy and go on and on and on about their practices and games.

Its the perfect cover.

Again, YMMV. IMHO as GM (Trenchcoat in shades mostly): Things like this are not foolproof. You're looking like that and going to some swank place you won't be let in the door. You and your team walking around Bellvue you will get harrassed or even arrested (Hmm uzis in a bag-weapon recognition software on a drone may pose problems). In the barrens you'll probably be mistaken for a some gang and attacked. Renton and Auburn and other middle class mid security areas you would probably blend in better. Also a full suit of FFBA has gloves and a hoodie so that level of protection (in terms of concealibility) is right out. I think your idea would be perfect if they were infiltrating a sports event/bar though.

Pinkmohawk game style--yeah this would work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[Udoshi]

If you wanted a 'punchier guns' type thing, there's a fairly basic rule you can impliment.

Kind of like how Hollowpoint rounds (at least around the US) are the most common civilian ammunition you can pick up at the stores, but much more lethal or specialist rounds tend to be restricted to keep them out of citizen's hands, and the military tends to use FMJ rounds for convention/treaty sake.

Remove the 'basic bullet' entry from the core book. Just don't play with them.
Substitute Hollowpoints (+1/+2) in its place, and substitute prices to match.

This should make guns punchier, while body armor is a bit more swingy(you generally) only reduce a damage 1 out of 3 times. It also makes Flechette seem less bad by comparison, and makes more better/restricted ammo types more desirable for your players to try and find.

[thorya]

Another idea, it adds more rolling to combat which already has an average of 3 rolls per action anyway, make the top point of damage from a weapon a 3 dice damage pool. On average the damage is the same, but 3-4% of the time it does an extra 2 damage, 20% of the time it does 1 extra damage, and 30% of the time it does one less damage. If that doesn't make it spiky enough, you could roll the top 2 damage as a 6 dice damage pool. Then you have a 10% chance of doing an extra 2 or more damage and a 22% chance of doing an extra 1 damage and 26% chance of doing 1 less damage and 9% chance of doing 2 less damage.

A damage pool also allows finer granulation on differences between ammunition if you want to make weapons a little more diverse. But it does make things take even longer to resolve combat and more diversity might not be attractive.

So your Colt America does (with a 3 dice damage pool)-
3P + (net successes on attack roll) + successes from your damage pool
Minimum Damage 3P+net successes - Maximum Damage 6P+net successes

[Chainsaw Samurai]

We have banned PPP and Form fitting armour in our game. That stuff is just bonus armour for very cheap, concealable,... basically very little downside. If a pc wants lots of armour in our game, they pay for it via essence, nuyen or magic. No free tanks!

Eh, PPP is fine. It adds encumberance just the way you'd think it would and allows people to customize a piece of armor to have more Impact than Ballistic armor (which is pretty rare and one of the only ways to have 'riot gear' without flat out purchasing Riot Gear).

Perhaps most importantly, it allows me to wear shin guards and arm guards to bring my Ballistic and Impact Armor up to the same number. Having that stuff be uneven drives me crazy, yo.


Also, in case some people missed it, the sports team thing was kind of a joke. I say "kind of," because it really is probably one of the better ways to pack a ridiculous amount of armor in moderate security neighborhoods. A combination of plausible deniability and being someone no one wants to talk to is probably the best way to do most things in Shadowrun, regardless of how you pull it off. This is also why I dislike the concept of The Face as an archetype and prefer a Burn Notice "everyone can kinda Face" approach, but we're not really here to discuss my Shadowrun preferences.

[snowRaven]

Pg. 75 in SR4A has optional rules - these may be of interest to you:

- The beforementioned +2 DV to all weapons
- Refresh Edge rarely
- Ranged Combat as a non-opposed test; w/ threshold based on range. (This will prevent the high reaction crowd from dodging bullets and mitigating damage).
- severe wounds on damage resistance glitches (see below)

Pg.120-121 in Augmentation has optional rules for severe wounds on glitches, heavy damage on attacks doing 7 or more boxes, and further effects for critical glitches.

I use these, with a certain modification: any injury resulting from Heavy Damage (7+ boxes) automatically gets the Blood Loss effect, and I roll a D6 to see which other effect it has from the list of suggestions. I only let PCs and important NPCs make the edge test to avoid this 'extra' damage - Grunts etc always gets Heavy Damage from attacks inflicting 7 or more boxes. If you want, reduce the threshold for this to 6 or even 5 boxes of damage.

You may also want to increase the chance of glitches to 1s and 2s on some (or all) damage resistance tests - suggestions:
- if the DV exceeds Armor
- if the DV exceeds Body
- for Heavy Weapons and Explosives