Sniper... or not?, annoying player Options

[Austere Emancipa...]

I'll have to disagree with you there, mfb. It's easy for a Free Spirit to get a few points of Spirit Energy, and even F4 + SE4 makes the Materialized form of the spirit immune to all Sniper Rifles, F4 + SE3 against non-Explosive ammunition. It's not even a stretch to have a Force 6 Free Spirit with 6 points of Spirit Energy and the Personal Domain Power, for a whopping Immunity: Normal Weapons-36, and a slew of other kick-ass abilities.

Unless of course you declare that because of the wording of the Spirit Energy section in mits.114 SE doesn't count as bonus Force for Immunity, in which case it has to be a Force 7/8 Free Spirit.

[Edit]Note: I am not endorsing the use of powerful Free Spirits -- in fact, I rather they be few and far between. I am merely pointing out that they can be plenty powerful, and hard to stop through use of (non-magical) force.[/Edit]

This post has been edited by Austere Emancipator: Feb 23 2005, 08:27 PM

[kerensky]

Or just use magic to make his sniping life a lot harder.

[FrostyNSO]

Cops remedy this problem for me easily.

Have more runs take place in public joints.

[mfb]

i tend to assume that there are a lot more force 3 0SE spirits running around than force 3 3SE spirits, AE--lots of weaker spirits, in other words, and progressively fewer stronger spirits. that's not backed up by anything in the books, though.

[Austere Emancipa...]

Certainly not by the fact that every spirit going free automatically gains 1 point of Spirit Energy, or the fact that it only costs a meager 5 points of Karma for the spirit to gain 3 points of SE. Also, the PCs in my games tend to rarely summon (non-Watcher) spirits of Force lower than 4, so I tend to think that others will generally go for F4+ too.

Although, with only one clear way for Free Spirits to gain karma, and that requiring a lot of interaction with people, I can see how GMs might opt for rather low SEs for most Free Spirits.

This post has been edited by Austere Emancipator: Feb 23 2005, 08:34 PM

[hahnsoo]

A simpler thing would be having a Free Spirit who knew the Bullet Barrier spell.

[Austere Emancipa...]

Since one point of Spirit Energy is very cheap Karma-wise, is the equivalent of 2 points (or 4 points, if the sniper is using APDS) of Bullet Barrier, and is extremely useful for a number of things other than just protection, I rather go with that. But of course not all Free Spirits have choice in the matter, having been given the ability to cast spells before going free.

[Garland]

[Shockwave_IIc]

[mfb]

no. all materialized spirits get 2*force hardened armor against normal weapons; SE is added to force for all force-dependent effects.

[Endgame50]

First, don't use house rules to bring him down. It weakens your position as a source of authority because the players will see you "breaking" the rules to pull down one of their own, and they're going to be more likely to argue with you the next time you need to make a ruling where canon is ambiguous. The players aren't the enemy, but use all caution when dealing with them.

Second, there aren't special rules for sniping per se--it's just using a sniper rifle to pick someone off from a hopefully hidden position. You could apply things like called shots and taking aim (which I hope any good sniper would do) to make it an actual "snipe", but there aren't official rules for it. Nothing really says you can't use it up close, though it'd look damn silly.

Third, the rules are your friend. As someone mentioned, remember to apply all TNs. Lighting is rarely perfect. Remember smartlinks and imaging scopes can't be used together. People move, have cover, concealment, and so on. Raise the target numbers. Make the enemies smarter. If he begins to snipe, maybe one resourceful person will pull out a smoke grenade (and have thermo so he can see through it) or a thermo smoke grenade (and ultrasound vision [which is a crappy penalty, but it'll probably be lower than his]). Don't forget having most firearms without a permit is illegal--and that Star Beat Cop has his intellegence vs the rifle's concealability to notice it. If he does have a permit, what about a valid SIN? if it's fake, it might fail against a verification test. If it's real, what the hell is he doing carrying a sniper rifle down the street anyway?

Fourth, try runs that don't directly involve killing things. I mean, as a twist you can throw in a combat or two, but the original plan wouldn't involve it--a few runs where the one trick pony can't do his silly trick might encourage him to diversify. (Careful with this one though, don't overdo it)

Finally, what's good for the goose is good for the GM. in my old D&D games, my players and I had a kind of "truce" where neither side would use overly deadly / cheesy tricks. They enjoyed it because I didn't through instant death spells at them until one failed a saving through by sheer statistical probability and I enjoyed it because the "boss" fights were interesting and memorable. If your player is willing to be cheesy and snipe all day, try using enemy snipers in your plots. It might get the point across.

[Clyde]

In the excellent Cyberpunk sourcebook "Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads" they suggest the following technique for players who constantly use tactics that are within the letter of the rules but defy common sense:

Use their own tricks against them.

Next time they go on a run, have every guard armed with a sniper rifle and using it in close combat. Then you can say to your player: "All right, you're very smart for figuring out that sniper rifles make powerful weapons even in close combat. But we both know that while it's legal under the rules it's a silly thing to do. Let's both just quit and play the game with an idea toward common sense realism and not just clever rules lawyering."

Whenever you have a rules lawyer munchkin out there, call him on his bluff by using his techniques against him. He'll be quick to realize how dumb he's being.

[Charon]

I just ask my players to please behave, if not realistically, at least in a similar fashion as characters from grounded action movies like Ronin would. Heck, even characters from a Bond Movie or MI. But if, for example, they can't think of a single movie in which a character is using a sniper rifle to storm a building, there's probably a good reason for it...

There are many good reasons for not using a sniper rifle as if it were an assault rifle. I told my PCs that if they forced me to make up tons of pointless houserules just to curb behaviors that everyone know intuitively to be absurd, It would piss me off. And when I'm pissed off, PC die more easily. ;)

[Tarantula]

[mfb]

i like Charon's answer, myself: "stop being stupid."

[toturi]

[mfb]

yeah, but those stat blocks are only suggestions, not The Canon Definition For All Secguards.

[hahnsoo]

It doesn't have to be all the secguards, just the one or two that happen to be close to the sniper in question. *grin*

[Foreigner]

Here's a thought, mfb:

A large-caliber Capsule round filled with a small explosive charge (think of a Gas round) and FAB bacteria.

What would THAT do to a free spirit?

Or, for that matter, any other magically-active or dual-natured lifeform?

--Foreigner

[hahnsoo]

[kevyn668]

[BitBasher]

Still a force of 1. High force takes up meters of space, IIRC.

[mfb]

in open air, yeah. should be able to compress them, though i'm not sure how healthy that'd be for the bacteria.

[Arethusa]

It's fine in most cases, assuming you can sustain them (agar nutrient solution, whatever).

[Kanada Ten]

It's probably cheaper (per effect) to anchor spells to the bullet than get all wonky with FAB.