1001 Ideas, Craziness and more of it. Options

[Toptomcat]

I made some notes while perusing Cannon Companion and SOTA 2063, mainly about handy things a character could do, munchkinnny things a character could do, an idea or two about character concepts and new items. Take a look, and comment on any one of these.

Could the various arrow types be stacked, within reasonable limits? Nothing indicates that they can't...it's already the one place in the game where EXEX and Dikote can feasably interact. EXEX+Dikote+Barbed+Incindiary? Sounds like a Cow From Space invitation with the wrong GM, though.

Troll+Telescoping cyberlimb + Monowhip or Kusurigama = Reach 4 monster

Dikoted, poisoned caltrops: better than land mines?

Air-timed grenades with Smartlink-2, grenade link, and grenade launcher: happy area suppression? Better than standard weapons?

Capsule rounds + crazy compounds = cool, effective weapon. Burst Fire or Full-Auto with mixed clips will do some really crazy things.

Incindiary rounds + spirits or elementals = good

Tracker rounds = missile lock?

Could the shotgun round options be used in an Assault Cannon? Why or why not?

Dual-charge IPE Concussion/Superflash= good nonlethal

Mines are light, have Avail as grenades, and have all kinds of happy options. Cool slowdown tactic?
Taken to extreme: IPE Offensive Mine, HE, Bouncing, Directional, super-Disguised, Sensor rating = 18S damage craziness

Stacking armor: how much can you stack before Combat Pool simply becomes irrelevant?

A milgrade helmet is a light, concealable and considerable agumentation to armor, its vision enhancements can substitute for cybereyes, and it can be used as a gas mask... Have contacts find one early in the game.

Mounting a Ballista missile launcher in a vehicle a la Rigger 3, if I remember the mechanic properly, allows for a vastly superior ammo capacity- 4:1 better.

Gyrojet rockets w/seekers are extremely light, cheap homing missiles. 10 of them weigh 2 lb with the seeker heads: so if an array of 40-50 were set up in a hemispherical array or a vehicle mount...With gyrojet-plus rockets, this becomes genuinely evil. Pity they're so hard to get.

Could a mortar be fired by a troll without setting up, just like other heavy weapons? The ammo would be a problem, at a universal Avail 18, but it would be cool.

Stacking armor stacks armor-mod special properties, even if the stacked armor doesn't add much to the actual B/I value.

Modelling some power armor off of the JIM diving exoskeleton would be cool.

A PAB unit could be an interesting PC tool.

Could investing ludicrous amounts of Karma into martial-arts maneuvers combined with the Ambi 8 Edge among others make for a viable mundane, non-ware character? Kung Fu + Full Offense + Multi-Strike + Whirling...use the addl. maneuvers to buy it with Edged Weapons or Pole Arm.

Aptitude(athletics) + Athletics and Dodging rule + 6 Athletics dice = 3 extra Dodge dice. Again with the mundane non-cyber non-bio?

Burning melee weapons get +1 Power. Heating coils in a sword? Coating w/White Phosphorous? Come to think of it, elemental effects in melee weapons might be interesting to expiriment with. Possibilities: taser-charged sword, heating-coil sword, vibration-cell sword, laser sword a la Crescent Axe...or ALL OF THEM AT ONCE!

Super-high Body, Strength troll + Max-Gyro = vehicle weapons on a character scale?

Uberstrength troll can propel a bowshot to a range longer than a sniper rifle.

Phenotypic alteration + calcitonin + bioware = VERY low-profile, high-lethality sammy

Idea: polearm with a slot for a tiny, contact-fused C12 charge on the end. Or just a pressure-fuzed shotgun shell. Maybe use it with the Super-Reach troll.

LOS means anything you can see, with a magician, using optics and not electronic mag. Mage + telescope = sniper.

[Ol' Scratch]

Double spacing is your friend.

I tried to read through your post, I really did, but all that text jumbled up together like that caused me to keep losing track half-way through... and half of what I read made little sense whatosever beyond being simple rhetoric. What are you looking for?

[John Campbell]

[Arethusa]

[Glyph]

I'll reply to a few of them:

>On the troll with telescoping cyberarms and a Reach: 2 weapon - yeah, very advantageous in melee combat, but who will want to close in with someone who's so obviously dangerous in melee? Plus, the Close Combat maneuver can completely negate reach. Plus, you would be in trouble in close quarters (try extending a massive troll's cyberarms out and swinging a monowhip when you are in a 5-foot wide corridor). Don't get me wrong, though. For all of the potential disadvantages, it's still a potent combo. But there are plenty of ways for a GM to counter it.


>On how much armor you can stack until Combat Pool becomes irrelevant: according to the prevailing interpretation of the rules, only the highest two ratings stack. Even if you are like me, and say that you add the first, then half the value of the second and each additional piece of armor... you still reach a point of diminishing returns very quickly.

Combat Pool is vitally important, because you compare all of your successes with the attacker's, then stage the damage. In other words, the enemy's skill and Combat Pool are pitted against your Body and Combat Pool. Not using (or having) any Combat Pool dice means you can't dodge (which gives you a chance to avoid damage altogether) and you have less dice to reduce your opponent's net successes with.

Keep in mind that unless you are wearing mil-grade armor, it is not hardened. So if you somehow get 15 points of ballistic armor, you'll still only reduce that holdout pistol shot from 4L to 2L for purposes of soaking damage. Your best bet if you don't have hardened armor is a composite approach of layering armor to keep your TN's down against attacks, while having a decent Body and Combat Pool to counter your opponent's successes.


>On using ambidexterity and/or athletics(dodging) to create super-mundane characters: You can create mundane characters who are not pushovers. However, keep in mind that you can also create an adept or sammie with those same exact abilities in addition to their own. Generally, mundanes do better when they are subtler, and avoid direct confrontations.

[Toptomcat]

Spacing AWAAAAAY!

[Kagetenshi]

[Ombre]

[toturi]

[Ombre]

How come I'm always mistaken? :D
So if you have Close Combat, you can take on that nasty troll with his no-dachi?
My girlfriend, who plays an adept specializing in hand-to-hand combat, is going to be happy

[Ol' Scratch]

[Blaze]

On the Trolls-with-bows idea, I remember one of my friends playing a Troll shaman with a Ranger-X bow. He could put an arrow out to near-sniper-rifle ranges, and had the Enhance Aim spell and Focussed Concentration edges. That and it's surprising how little Impact armour most goons wear as standard...

Gyrojet Pistols- put one on a DNI Tracking mount, load it with Seeker-Plus ammo and fit a laser designator into one of your eyes. You may also want a Dermal Sheath with Ruthenium coating and a Forearm Snap Blade to complete the ensemble.

Melee Weapon Customisation: One of my players once wrote up a set of rules for building custom melee weapons based on the firearm system in CC, including Dikoting, ceramic or glass blades, vibration modules, biometric locks and mono-edges. Dikoted Vibro-Nodachis are sicksicksick.

Nasty Troll #629: Take one large ambidextrous Troll. Give him maxed-out Muscle Toners and Muscle Augmentation, Enhanced Articulation and Boosted Reflexes/Synaptic Accelerators, plus a pair of dikoted claymores or similar zweihanders (assuming you allow trolls to use two-handed weapons in a single hand). Stand well back (say, at least four metres).

Combining R2 Synthacardium with Erythropoietin and Glucagon Synthesis, as well as Digestive Expansion, Suprathyroid Gland and Sleep Regulator = The Man Who Never Stops (except to eat).

Heavy Machine Gun with Smartlink-II, Rangefinder, Max-Gyro and Gas Vent 4- for all your suppressive fire needs.

-JH.

[Kagetenshi]

Blaze: your suppressive fire needs are not adequately met by your recipe. Drop all the recoil comp and the smartlink, make the gun HV.

~J

[Blaze]

HV is good, but lacks stopping power and, when in FA, accuracy. I'll take a 20D strike at extreme range for TN5 (with the option to call a shot at +2) over more low-calibre ammo in the air any day. :D

-JH.

[Kagetenshi]

But that isn't suppressive fire. SF has no recoil mods.

~J

[Ol' Scratch]

Technically, it doesn't even have defaulting penalties. Anyone can pick up a high-velocity HMG and go to town mowing down the competition. The only thing that applies is cover, wounds, and the +2 for suppressive fire -- all other penalties are ignored.

[Austere Emancipa...]

You're one printing behind, Doctor Funkenstein. :)

[Ol' Scratch]

Oh, that's right... I remember that now. There's just too many changes and rules to keep track of... but God help me, I still love it all. <cries>

[Cable]

[Fix-it]

[Apathy]

[Thistledown]

[kevyn668]

[Herald of Verjig...]

Well, it's hard to put your cyber-blades on the nightstand when you go to bed, and some paranoid types can only sleep with their security sword in hand (others prefer a security uzi).