 DAQ: SR4 attempted summary, Dumpshock asked/answered questions v.2.0 |
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 Aug 25 2005, 03:39 PM
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#1
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Shooting Target  Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689  |
CHARGEN
Q. How's the BP cost for the different races now? 25 dwarf, 20 ork, 30 elf, 40 troll. Metatype abilities look unchanged (vision, etc.) Human: +1Edge Ork: +3B, +2S, -1C, -1L Dwarf: +1B, -1R, +2S, +1W, -1Initiative Elf: +1A, +2C Troll: +4B, -1A, +4S, -2C, -1I, -1L, -1Initiative Q. What is the chargen structure? 400 Build Points (bp) Attributes
Active Skills
Start with only one skill at 6 with the rest 4 or lower, or two at 5 with the rest 4 or lower. No starting with a 5 and a 6. Maximum group rating at chargen is 4. Knowledge skills: 1/2 active price. Resources: 5000 per BP max 50 BP, but looks like a lot of stuff is reduced in price. Spells: 3 BP per spell, 5 karma during play. Contacts: 1 BP per rating point. Q. How can a PC become Awakened? Buy the positive quality of Magician (15 bp). (Presumably there is also an adept positive quality, but I haven't seen it yet.) Q. How can a PC become a Technomancer? Buy the positive quality of Technomancer (5 bp). Q. Is there a different cost for the Mystic Adept quality, or is it the same as the garden variety adept? They have different costs. (Unspecified to date.) Q. Okay, cutting to the chase: which qualities made it? Infirm made it, but the mechanics are totally different. Ambidextrous, animal empathy, aptitude, astral chameleon, blandness, codeslinger, double jointed, exceptional attribute, first impression was friendly face, focused concentration, guts, high pain tolerance, home ground, human looking, lucky, magic resistance, murky link was poor astral link, natural hardenning, natural immunity, photographic memory, quick healer, resistance to pathogens/toxins, toughness, will to live, allergy, astral beacon was astral impressions, bad luck is like cursed karma, codeblock, combat paralysis, elf poser, gremlins, incompetant, low pain tolerance, scorched, sensitive neural structure, sensitive system, simsense vertigo, spirit bane, uncouth, uneducated, weqk immune system. New: addiction, ork poser. No phobias, flashbacks, bad karma, dark secret, mysterious cyberware, amnesia, or day job. Q. What about Friends-in-high places and Friends abroad? Friends in High Places can be simulated by a Connections 6 Contact (i.e. it doesn't exist as a Quality, but it can still be used in the game). The special effect of Friends Abroad (being able to make new contacts easily in other places) isn't on the Qualities list. Sorry, but you're just going to have to RP your contacts. Q. How do contacts work? Contacts are bought at a cost equal to their Connections + Loyalty level (a Connection 2/Loyalty 3 contact costs 5 BP). The old "Buddy" designation is about Loyalty level 3-4, while the old Friend For Life designation is about Loyalty level 5-6. Connection is how "uber" your contact is on the food chain. Level 1 means they only have access to their own skills and equipment attached to their profession (which isn't so bad if you're only asking for a beer from a Bartender, but don't try to ask for a Shotgun or a new Hacker program). Higher levels of Connections means either they have access to more and better equipment (Corporate Scientist with access to a particle accelerator) or they are willing to introduce you to their own contacts (Fixers with a low Connection rating do not necessarily have few connections... they just aren't willing to introduce you to them), or perhaps they are higher up on the food chain (Corporate Executive rather than Middle Management/Grunt). Q. I've got a face character with an insane amount of contacts. Under a system like that it would probably cost 100 BP just in contacts. Do you at least start with any for free? Nope. No free contacts. The thing is, you can probably "lump" a lot of your contacts together under a Connections 6/Loyalty 3 Fixer, someone who can easily introduce you to friend-of-a-friend type contacts. Q. Are shapeshifters, vampires or the regeneration power listed for NPCs/critters? How does Regeneration work now? Does it heal stun damage? The main book has no provision for PCs to be shapeshifters. Regeneration rapidly heals any damage. A Magic + Body test is made at the end of the combat turn, and any hits on this test regenerates 1 point of Physical OR Stun damage (I don't know how one would decide, other than picking the "best" configuration based on wound penalties). If a critter takes Physical damage into Overflow, they still get to make a Regeneration test at the end of the combat turn. After the Regeneration test is made, if the overflow is greater than the Body attribute, the critter dies (this is the same as any PC, NPC, or critter). |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:41 PM
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
SKILLS and ATTRIBUTES Q. I was looking at the sample character sheets and I noticed a lot more stats than normal. What exactly do they do, and have they changed the regular stats at all, like what they affect, and what do the new stats affect? The new attributes are Agility, Reaction, Intuition, Logic, and Edge. The only differences are that Quickness was split into Agility and Reaction, Intelligence into Intuition and Logic, and an Edge stat was added. The division of Intelligence was to delink Perception from Intelligence. Agility is your hand-eye coordination, while reaction is your speed. Edge is effectively a Karma pool - you can add a # of dice equal to your Edge to a number of rolls equal to your Edge attribute (IIRC), and also use it to still try to roll on tests where the modifiers reduced your die pool to 0 or less. (See "Edge" in the next section.) Q. What about initiative? Initiative is now a derived attribute, Reaction + Intuition. Q. And dodge? Dodge is now an active skill. Q. Some PCs have to buy special attributes? Technomancers have to buy Resonance attribute. Magician, Adept, and Mystic Adepts have to buy Magic attribute. Q. Do they get the first point free with that? Resonance and Magic attribute begin at 1. Both Resonance and Magic go down with loss of essence. Q. Does that mean you have to put points into magic just like any other attribute or is it the same as in sr3 where you start at 6 then go up from there with initiations? Yes, Magic is now an attribute just like any other. Magic no longer starts equal to Essence, it needs to be bought up like anything else. Q. What do the attribute ratings mean? 1 - weak 2 - underdeveloped 3 - typical 4 - improved 5 - superior 6 - maximum unmodified human Q. What do the skill ratings mean?
Archery, Armorer, Artisan, Assensing, Astral Combat, Demolitions, Diving, Dodge, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gunnery, Heavy Weapons, Instruction, Intimidation, Locksmith, Parachuting, Perception, Pilot Aerospace, Pilot Aircraft, Pilot Anthroform, Pilot Exotic Vehicle, Pilot Ground Craft, Pilot Watercraft, Throwing Weapons, and all Knowledge Skills. Q. What is the magical attribute for spellcasting/conjuring for success tests: magic, willpower or charisma? Magic Attribute. Q. How do I raise a skill or attribute? Special Note: Raising a Skill or Attribute above 6 costs double the usual amount of Karma, and can only be done if you have Aptitude in that skill or attribute.
If you raise a skill within a group separately, you can no longer raise the group. Q. How do specializations work? It costs 2 Build Points (1 for Knowledge skills) or 2 Karma to "create" specialization. You may not make a specialization on a skill that's in a skill group. A specialization does not lower the skill it is enhancing, but it simply adds a +2 to the base skill. You may only have one specialization per skill, and any new specializations on a skill overwrites the old one (GM discretion). You can't improve specializations. Q. Can specializations exceed the skill cap of 6? As in Firearms Skill Group 6 (spec:Pistols +2) for 8 dice? You can't specialize with Skill Groups, but you could do so with a single skill (Pistols 6/Automatics 8 ... the extra dice does not count for the skill limit). Specialization is a modifier to the dice pool, not an increase in skill, or that's the way it looks. Q. I really can't wait to see SR4 martial arts rules. There are no rules for Martial Arts per se in the BBB, but you can get a specialization of Unarmed Combat into a Martial Art that adds +2 to your Unarmed Combat when using that Martial Art (any time you aren't using Subduing Combat or a Cyberimplant Weapon, I guess). Q. Defaulting, pg 110. What is up with that? -1 modifier or GM can declare they cannot try. Edge can augment. Q. Does anyone know what Aptitude does exactly? It sounds like it makes it possible to break the skill 6 barrier - and not just by one point by the sound of it. Nope. It only allows you to reach 7 with a skill as your max, that's it. Q. An attribute cap? Does this mean that adept power and ware can no longer give you supertroll stats? A human with reaction 6 adds wired 1, does his reaction go to 7 or stay at 6? The augmented Reaction cap is 9 for everyone but Dwarves (which is at 7). Thus, your maximum Reaction will probably be a 9. A human with a Reaction 6 and Wired 1 will have a Reaction of 7. There is a hard cap for maximum augmented attribute, so both sammies and adepts will have, at most, a 10 augmented Reaction and 7 natural Reaction (but only if you have Exceptional Attribute: Reaction). Q. Is Reaction capped at 9 even when you got this extra thing so your unmodified limit is 7? If you get Exceptional Attribute, you can boost your augmented Reaction rating to 10. Q. So the max augmented stat is your 'normal' max +3? Racial Max * 1.5, round down. Q. What kinds of tests does SR4 have? There are now three types of tests: Opposed Tests, Threshold tests, and Extended tests. Open tests no longer exist. These were tests like with stealth, where you'd roll and your highest die roll would become the opponents target number. This type of test was always more than a little wonky and could be extremely random, and we hated it, so we chuked it. Q. What is an opposed test? Opposed tests are your standard My Dice vs Their Dice tests, with you wanting to get more hits than your oppoenent or whatever is resisting you. Q. What is a threshold test? Threshold tests are generally unopposed type of tests where you're simply trying to succeed at an action. Things like climbing would be a Threshold test. The GM will give you a threshold of hits that you need to meet or beat to succeed at your test. A threshold of 1-2 is relatively easy, while a threshold of 4-5 is pretty difficult. It's GM fiat as to how difficult a lot of thresholds are, so again, bribes work wonders. Q. What about extended tests? Extended tests are written up in the following manner: Dice Pool (Threshold, Time) For example, Strength + Swimming (5, 1 hour). You roll multiple times, tallying up hits until you exceed the threshold. Each roll represents the time period listed. For example, in the previous test, if you were swimming across a lake, and you rolled three times (finally accumulating 5 hits after three rolls), you would take 3 Hours to do that task. The GM, at his/her discretion, may limit the amount of rolls made to a number (they suggest a maximum of rolls equal to the number of dice in the dice pool). If a glitch occurs, the GM may decide to inconvenience the PC in some way (represented by "removing" the hits by 1d6). On a critical glitch, the whole thing is a bust, and the character has to start over. PCs can also attempt to do a "rush job" and cut the interval time in half. However, this makes it so that 1s AND 2s can trigger a glitch. Q. What is a glitch? A glitch is having half or more of your dice come up as 1s. If you Glitch AND you don't score any hits, it's a Critical Glitch. Q. What's a teamwork test? If characters band together to accomplish a task, one is designated the primary. The secondary characters roll and their hits count as positive dice modifiers for the primary character's test. Ritual sorcery works this way, too. Q. How many dice get subtracted for Glitches and Critical Glitches? Or do they count as a Glitch on the primary's roll (so the primary can have multiple Glitches/roll)? Critical glitches from the secondary characters raise the threshold. Q. Is there a mechanic for automatic successes? If the dicepool is large enough, you can get automatic successes. 4-7 is one, +1 per 4 there after. No auto-successes on "stressful" rolls. Q. Is there an AR mode that doesn't add TN mods to physical activities? or does the AR mod not apply to AR-assisted physical activities, such as shooting with a smartlink? You don't automatically get AR bonuses for everything you do, only certain things, and that's really GM call as to whether or not you do get a bonus, and what that bonus would be. Most of the time the bonus is going to be ina situation for readily accessible info downloaded from the Matrix (or uploaded off of chip or something) will directly aid you in your task. Q. Since there's now skill caps, how much karma would it take to hit max (6) in every available attribute and skill? The tentative estimate is that a magically active character requires 3242 bp, minus the 400 bp or so for starting. Ellery worked it out! Here's the exact structure:
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Aug 25 2005, 03:41 PM
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
EDGE, DICE POOLS, and TNs
Q. What happened to dice pools? Dice pools as you knew them are gone. Combat, Astral, Hacking, Rigging, Karma Pools, all gone. The core mechanic now is skill plus attribute, plus or minus any modifiers in dice, and that is now referred to as your dice pool for the test. Q. What happened to TNs? Target numbers don't change anymore. Your target number is always 5, and this is called a Hit. Modifers add or subtract dice from your dice pool rather than modifying your target number. Q. Exactly *how* does the Edge mechanic work? Does it add dice? Do they have to be rolled separately, so you can see them explode, or do they make all the dice explode? And how often can you use it? Edge is a bought Attribute. You may add a number of dice up to your full edge attribute to a roll and all dice on that roll explode. (Does not apply to longshot test.) You may add edge dice after a roll, only the edge dice explode. (Does not apply to longshot test.) You may spend a point of edge to reroll failures, like Karma pool use in #3rd. If dice pool was reduced to 0 through modifiers, longshot test, you may use edge dice, but they do not explode. You may spend a point of edge to go first in an initiative pass. (Multiple people spending edge this way go according to initiative score.) You may spend edge to gain an initiative pass in one combat turn. (As above.) You may use edge to negate a glitch or critical glitch. You may use edge to invoke the Dead Man's trigger rule, take an action when your condition monitor is full. Edge renews when GM decides. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:41 PM
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#4
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
WEAPONS / ARMOUR / DAMAGE and other equipment
Q. How does gear acquisition/Availability/Legality rating work? Legality: There are three "Ratings" for Legality. Legal, Restricted, and Forbidden. Restricted means you can only own it under certain circumstances, often something like a Permit. Forbidden means that private citizens are never allowed to legally own or possess the item, under any circumstances. Availability: Acquiring anything with an availability rating is now generally an Extended Test using Charisma + Negotiation. The Availability of the item is the Threshold. Charisma + Negotiation (threshold = Availability) Extended Test. You can buy extra dice for the Extended Test by spending extra nuyen on the item. The Interval is based on how expensive the item is:
Combat Axe: Damage value: (Str/2+4)P ; Armor Piercing: -1 Mono Whip: Damage value: 8P ; AP: -4 Colt America l36 (Light Pistol): DV: 4P ; AP: -- Ruger Super Warhawk: DV: 6P ; AP: -2 Ingram Smartgun X: DV: 5P ; AP: -- Ranger Arms SM-4: DV: 8P ; AP: -3 Panther XXL Assault Cannon: DV: 10P ; AP: -5 Hold out: - 4P, -AP Light: - 4P, -AP Heavy: - 5P, -1AP SMG: - 5P, -AP AR: - 6P, -1AP Sniper: 7P or 8P, -1AP (one available at chargen is 7P) Knife: (Str/2 + 1)P, -AP Unarmed: (Str/2)S, -AP APDS Rounds: -5 AP EX-Explosive Rounds: +2 DV, -2 AP Gel Rounds: +2 DV(Stun), +2 AP Lined Coat: 6/4 Armor Jacket: 8/6 Full Body Armour: 10/8 Q. What does the "P" in the 5P of the Predator mean? yep, P is Physical. Q. So, how much base damageboxes does a 5P Predator with AP -1 to a 6/4 lined coat? zero? The coat would add 5 (not 6) dice to the resistance roll. Base damage would be the DV + net hits on attack test, minus hits on resistance test. Q. Is the -1 AP modifier only for checking for stun or physical damage? It's also for reducing the Armor dice. The 6 ballistic armor on the lined coat becomes 5 bonus dice instead of 6 for the defender. Q. Is it me or does EX Explosive now trump APDS? APDS gives -5 AP, Ex Explosive gives +2 DV, -2 AP. APDS actually gives -4 AP, while EX Explosive is as stated (+2 DV, -2 AP). EX Explosive is more expensive, and all explosive rounds have that nasty "explodes when you have a Critical Glitch" thing (which happens a lot more often now than before, given the fact that you only have to roll half or more 1s and no hits). Q. What about small arms AV slugs, is that in with AV missiles? Or are they [bizarrely] inferior to Ex-ex in this category? AV rounds do not exist, although I'm assuming that the AP mods from explosive and APDS rounds still apply against Vehicle Armor (this is a rather large assumption to make, I know). Q. Are Ex explosive and APDS ammo available at character generation? No, as they are both above Availability of 12 at character creation. (Although this will be errata'ed: p.300 in the gear section says Availability 8; p.84 says Availability 12.) Q. Is there armor out there that is likely to convert EX ammo damage to stun? Seems as though you'd need armor ratings in the 8-10+ range for that to even be a possibility. Armor Jacket has 8 Ballistic. Full Body Armour has 10. There is no MilSpec armor in the core rules. Q. How are shot rounds for shotguns treated? They have 3 different spreads, narrow, medium, and wide. They can shoot only 1, 2, or 3 targets within a meter of each other respectively. Damage code gets modified for each, defense roll gets different modifier for each, harder to dodge wider spread. Q. How do those "super extra wide bursts" affect the power of shots? It seems like shotguns are still as stupid as ever. There are Narrow and Wide bursts and autofire. Narrow increases damage, wide increases likelyhood to hit. With shotguns there are basically 3 choke settings that allow you to hit more targets, and/or make it harder to dodge and decrease the power of the attack. Q. do the rules prohibit you from using called shots (such as Hit a Vital Area) with burst fire or wide-choke shotgun blasts? I don't see anything in the Called Shot rules that forbid it entirely, although it does limit called shot to single shot, semi-auto, and burst fire (full auto not allowed). Of course, there's text in there that says "The gamemaster decides if such a vulnerable spot is accessible.", which means it's up to the GM. Q. What is the highest level of recoil compensation available for guns at character creation? The Ingram White Knight has 5 points of RC, using a special built-in Gas Vent system. However, you'll effectively only have up to 4 points (3 points for the Gas Vent, 1 point for the stock) max for most weapons. Gyromounts are an option for large arms (6 points of RC), and tripods (6 points) and bipods (2 points) are still around. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:42 PM
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#5
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
CYBER/BIO/GENEWARE, CHEMISTRY
Q. What cyber grades are listed, and do they operate the same way as they did in SR3? Alpha, -20% ess., cost*2 Beta, -30% ess., cost*4 Delta, -50% ess., cost*10 Q. Are there any limitations on mixing alpha/beta/delta/std cyber like what we had in SR3? Accessories must be the same grade as the part they are put into. Q. Is there any mention of used cyberware? No mention of used cyberware at all. Q. What are the grades for bioware? It says bioware and cyberware are available in 4 grades, and goes on to say about the bioware that is only available as cultured. Q. Is bio available at creation? Yes. Bioware overlaps a little with higher grade cyberware in some areas now though, since they both cost essence. Generally, Bio is more essence firendly, but a lot more expensive. But there are still some things only Cyber can do. And only some things Bioware can do. Q. Can you give people stats for a standard piece cyberware? (say, the much beloved Wired Reflexes 2) Wired 2, essence 3, capacity - n/a, availability 16R (not available under standard chargen rules of availability 12), 32,000 nuyen. System includes a trigger to turn on and off. +1 to Reaction and +1 Initiative pass per rating point. So +2 Reaction, +2 Initiative passes (roughly +20 initiative?) Wired 2 still costs comparably much essence (3), but its nuyen cost has been *divided by ten* Wired 1, 2 ess, Avail 8R(estricted), 11000 nuyen, +1Reaction, +1 initiative pass covered Wired Reflexes 3 is 100K and still 5 essence. Q. What are the (average) essence costs of implanted smartlinks? CommLinks? 0.1; 0.2. Q. Someone asked about skillwires. Active skillsofts are rating 1-4, knowsofts and linguasofts are 1-5. skillsofts - rating *3000 nuyen knowsofts - rating*1000 Linguasofts - rating*500 Skillwires are available in ratings from 1-5, rating*.2 essence, rating*4 avalability, rating*2000 nuyen. need rating of at least active softs rating. Skillwires can handle a number of skillsofts with a total rating up to 2*its own rating. Q. do skillwires provide real skills (dice pool skill+attribute), or just dice pools of the rating? Skillwires/softs are interesting. First of all, there is a hard cap on Active and Knowledge skillsofts, with 4 for Activesofts and 5 for Knowledge/Linguasofts. Second, you use the higher rating (either the user's skill or the skillsoft's rating). Finally, if you use the skillsoft's rating, you cannot augment it by using Edge (ouch). It follows the standard rules for skill tests (Skill + Attribute vs. threshold). Q. Do chipjacks still exist? If so, multislot or not? Ditto for the Skillsoft jukebox? You need a Sim Module or datajack to use Knowsofts or Linguasoft. Activesofts require a skillwire system. Q. So if you want to slot 2 Activesofts, do you need 2 datajacks, or do you plug the 2 'softs into your commlink and then wire it into a single datajack? Do you even need to hardwire a commlink into a datajack? You just need a way to get the Skillsoft to your Skillwires, which would mean either a Datajack or a Commlink or some other method. Hardwiring a datajack to a commlink could be useful if you intend to do some work with your datajack that needs to share information with data stored in your commlink. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to access your commlink information through a datajack transfer. *shrugs* I'll admit, it's not too terribly useful but it's a consideration. Q. What about the Biomuscles (0,4 Bioindex per rating, around 20 000Ą per rating)? Muscle toner? Muscle Augmentation, the one that was 0.4 and 20,000, is now 0.2 and 7000 with an availability of rating *5. Muscle Toner is 8K/point. Q. Information on any other items? Synaptic Booster is 80K and no longer compatable with Boosted Reflexes. Enhanced Articulation is .3 ess. and +1 die for any physical skill with a linked physical attribute. (Physical skills do not include combat skills.) Reflex recorders work for skill groups. Mnemonic enhancer gives no karma reduction. (insert strangled sounds from Talia) Pain Editor avail 18, no trauma damper listed. Full cyberarm is 15K. Cyberarm gyromounts are available at chargen. Cyber skulls are not (availability limits). Cybereyes can be purchased with variable capacities, 4-16, .2-.5 essence. Ears follow suit. Bonelacing essence is .5, 1, 1.5 for original 3 types. Increases power still. Adds to B and armor like it did. Bone Density acts like bone lacing, only less essence. Cyberlimbs now have Body rating too. Body, Strength and Agility come with rating 3, need torso too raise above 3. Do not see the old essence cost to increase them and the most expensive looks to be 250 nuyen per rating point. Probably limited by ECU (besides cap of 7). Yes, there are still datajacks, as well as much of the cyberware. Q. Will it be possible to hardwire one's equipment? Definitely yes. I think the main thing that is mostly wireless is access to the Matrix and the cellular infrastructure of AR/VR Matrix 2.0. There are several options to hardwire equipment for most things, although some electronics are simply too small or unwieldy to adapt to a non-wireless version (Contact Lenses come to mind). Q. Any word on Tactical Computers (ie, do they exist)? Don't see it. (Then again, it's never been listed in the core books in any of the previous editions.) Q. What drugs are listed in BBB, what do they do, and do they have real life equivalents like M&M Here's my list: Bliss, Cram, Deepweed, Jazz, Kamikaze, Long Haul, Nitro, Novacoke, Psyche, Zen, CS/Tear Gas, Gamma-Scopolamine, Narcoject, Nausea Gas, Neuro-Stun, Pepper Punch. So basically, it's the same. A few are missing (Arsenic, Green Ring, etc.), but I'm sure someone can retrofit some stats. COMMLINKS and COMMUNICATION Q. Could some one give me more details on comlinks? Commlinks are PDAs/Pocket Secretaries on steroids. They are approximately equal to cyberterminals/cyberdecks in terms of mechanics... imagine a CD-player-sized portable device with the power of Fairlight Excalibur and the functionality of a Pocket Secretary, with the ability (using appropriate devices) to project AR information, utilize a Sim Module to send your character into full VR, and act as a hub for all of your personal electronic devices in your PAN... that's a Commlink. Commlinks have two attributes, Response (processor speed) and Signal (Flux). They run an OS that has two attributes as well, Firewall (fend off attacks) and System (overall program power). Q. What does an OS system rating determine? A LOT of things. Many many things. But for starters, it determines your condition monitor for your persona (8 + System/2 round up) and how many devices/nodes you can subscribe to on your list (System x 2). Q. What are the differences between the OS's? The difference? Two numbers: System and Firewall, as listed before. That's it. There are a number of prefab OSes available to purchase, or you can buy the OS individually (200nuyen x Rating up to Rating 3 for both System and Firewall, 500 nuyen x Rating up to Rating 6 for both System and Firewall). Q. What is the range of essence costs for accessories of implanted commlinks? What kind of accessories exist? Commlinks are 0.2 essence or they take up 2 capacity units in a cyberlimb. Sim Modules are 0.2 essence or they take up 2 capacity units in a cyberlimb. Datajacks are 0.1 essence or they take up 1 capacity unit in a cyberlimb. Simrigs are 0.5 essence. All of these are available in non-cyber versions, and cybered/non-cybered versions can be linked together either wirelessly or other connections. There are other non-cyber accessories, like AR gloves, Biometric Readers, Nanopaste/regular trodes, printers, satellite links, subvocal mics, etc. Q. Are there separate OS [off-the-shelf] options for a given commlink, or is the commlink/OS a package deal? Can you get after-market and/or home-rolled OSes for those that feel they absolutely, positively must be a slave to the bleeding edge? Commlinks and OSes are purchased separately. There are rules for pirating software. Q. Did the Commlink Customization section at the end of the Matrix chapter get cut for now? No, those rules are in there, p.240. They're basic, but they're absolutely functional. Just, uh, it may be 2085 before your hacker finishes recoding his rating 6 OS. Q. I believe I spotted a comment about being able to load IC onto any device that has a wireless connection now. I take it one can then defend one's wireless smartlink with a black ice if one can get hold of it? You probably couldn't load your smartlink with IC, for the same reasons you couldn't load a security camera with IC -- it's not designed to run programs like that. But you could (and should) run IC on the commlink your smartlink connects to, and you could databomb or encrypt the connection to your smartlink. Q. So a decker/techno has to go through my commlink (breaking into it as a 'host' first) to access my firearm's controls? Or is it that my commlink automatically attacks any attempt to directly connect to the firearm? In game mechanics, anyone who wants to access your devices must be able to access your commlink first. p212 This assumes that you have your network set up in such a way that you have your commlink as your main wireless access point for your PAN. Q. So the connections between devices and the PAN's controller (normally the commlink) are considered impenetrable to man-in-the-middle attacks? So we can assume the same for building security? You can't actually directly jump into a security camera. Instead you have to go through the building host, just like an SR3 overwatch operation? Only now you can do it while walking around in the building? While I wouldn't say impenetrable, it would be difficult to do a Hacker attack on an item that doesn't even have stats associated with it. It's simply easier to do PAN attacks using the Commlink route, from a GM's perspective, I guess. Besides which, the flux on most PAN wireless devices is so low that you would have to be within 2 meters of a target, which might get uncomfortable. I'd say that if it has stats, you can hack it. Security for non-PAN devices is different. You hack into them either through a central node or through the device's node itself. Q. So I can't fire my weapon from across the room? You can, if the device was upgraded to have a stronger signal, I guess. Seems kinda pointless unless it's a Smart sentry gun. Q. What does it take to change which PAN a weapon is on? Say I am grappling with someone, so i'm will within the 2m range. Or does it have to go outside the PAN range (get dropped) and then any PAN can hook up to it? Also, i assume that if a device has stats that it can have Ice local to it? First of all, how the heck are you going to hack while you are grappling? You have to have all of your concentration devoted to hacking his gear, and grappling definitely isn't one of those situations. 2m is just a ballpark figure, I think the max effective range of a Signal 0 device is 3m. It definitely requires much more than simply "getting into range" and doing a Complex Action to steal the gun (assuming that it's smartlinked to begin with). I think brute force hacking (or hacking on the fly) is a Hacking + Exploit (Firewall rating, 1 Initiative Pass) Extended test for the access (which, depending on the Firewall, might delay you for a bit), then you have to engage in an appropriate action (depending on what you want to do), with the risk of triggering an alert both on the above Extended test and the Hacking actions. An alert can scramble a VR security Decker (if you are hacking into a sec guard's item), patrolling VR IC on a node nearby, Terminate all connections (locking everyone out of the item) or shutdown (rebooting the item). Still, I wouldn't make any speculations about the Hacking system until you get a copy of the book and can slog through it, and then playtest it multiple times (I'm still in the process of doing so in my group). Q. You can't take penalties for two simultaneous actions? I thought there weren't any exclusive actions anymore? As long as you can do this while in AR mode (since VR mode doesn't allow meat body control) and have the $k!llz to work past the penalty. If you have to go VR then amend my example to be in a Decker Bag™ strapped on the back of a Troll that is **grappling the opponent. If you are using Augmented Reality, you will have to be able to manipulate AR somehow. I'm not sure if having "just" a cybernetic commlink would be sufficient for this, as you have to be able to manipulate the AR symbols and such. As it stands, to grapple an opponent, you would need to use a Complex Action each action phase, thus limiting your ability to do anything else. Likewise, most Hacking actions are either Simple Actions or Complex Actions. Just like you can't grapple someone AND cast a spell unless it's happens to be a touch-based attack spell of some sort. Going "VR" is just like jacking into an old-time Cyberdeck and the old Matrix. Q. Backtrack - what's a PAN ... other than that thing you cook stuff in? Personal Area Network, the wireless and wired connections that connect all of a single person's devices, plus the commlink router that lets you connect your PAN to other hosts (whether PANs or bigger hosts) out in the Matrix. Q. Are these mandatory as part of your ID? (As seems to be hinted by the comlink in the ID section of the book)? If you have an active Commlink, you have a PAN, albeit with a single member (population: 1 Commlink). I guess technically it isn't really a network without at least one device attached to your Commlink, but you get the idea. It's simply all of the devices on your body that have been linked together, that's it. It's an easy way to designate a unit in the WiFi version of the Matrix, so you don't have to say "My smartlink wired to my Commlink going through the NeoNET node, blah blah blah". You just say "My PAN is connecting and heading to Shadowland". Q. What can you do once you've hacked someone's PAN? Can you lock their smartlinked gun so they can't fire it? I mean, what are your options? Probably. Any device linked to the PAN can be hacked, and you can edit or command the device (but you should do it quickly, before the device reboots, either manually by the user or automatically by the OS). Of course, just making the device reboot can throw a wrench in the works. Q. Extrapolating, would all the sec guards at a facility be running their smartlinks off of the facility's LAN? So if you hacked the LAN, you could wirelessly kill all the guns in the complex as easily as taking out the sec cameras used to be? Probably not. You could connect to each and every single guard's PAN as a separate node, with the LAN being the main connection to do it, but you'd have to deactivate each gun individually (unless, for some bizarre silly reason, there is a killswitch code for all smartlinked guns connected to a PAN that is connected to the WAN). You can have a number of nodes "open" in your view equal to your System x 2. Q. It seems like a squad of sec guards would want to have their PANs linked for communication, and if they're all receiving transmission from a central hub ... This just means you can find each Sec Guard's PAN from the central hub. That doesn't mean you can killswitch all of the PANs simultaneously from the central hub. You can probably crash the central hub, but the PANs would find some other way to route themselves for communications. Messing with each individual PAN is a separate device or node that you have to subscribe to, and you can only mess with one node at a time. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:42 PM
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#6
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
COMBAT and INJURY
Q. How does initiative work now? Initiative Attribute is Reaction + Intuition. Make an initiative roll, edge may be used. (Does this mean all dice explode?) Add hits to Initiative Attribute, this is initiative score. Act high to low, ties go at same time. If imperative to break ties compare edge, initiative, reaction attributes in that order. Q. What are initiative passes and how do they work? I'm guessing something along the lines of actions per round? Characters no longer have a semi-random number of actions per turn, as they have in previous editions. Now they always have a flat number of actions (or Initiative Passes), which is 1 plus extras granted by cyber/bio/magic/gear/whatever. You roll dice equal to your Initiative Derived Attribute, and add the number of hits to your Initiative Derived Attribute, modified by wound modifiers. this determines the initiative order. Everyone goes once, then those with second, third, and fourth actions go in successive passes. If no one has the ability to get extra actions, the turn is over and initiative is determined again. No one can act in more than 4 Initiative Phases in a combat turn. Q. So how do reaction enhancing cyber / powers / spells affect initiative? When you have more than one action / initiative pass, do you take them all at once? It creates phases within the turn, similar to if a character had initiative over 10 in SR3. Q. Can you still take two simple actions or one complex action per turn/initiative pass? 1 Free action anytime during Pass, 2 simple or 1 complex during action phase. Similar to SR3, but no more Free actions on anyone's phase. Q. So no simultaneous complex actions at a penalty? With the exception of simultaneous spellcasting, no, none. Q. What are the combat modifiers? They look similar to current modifiers except they modify the dice pool not the TN, especially the visibilty mods based on light, smoke. Partial cover -2, good cover -4, blind fire -6, smartlink +2, normal vision in partial light is -2. Q. How would it handle that i'm shooting blind (specific for through a barrier)? I've already rolled. Or do i have to declare up front i was trying to hit them? Yes, and you apply the blind fire modifier if you couldn't see through the barrier. Q. Is reach still in the game? Yes. Q. What stat is hitting people with melee weapons generally linked to, strength or agility? Looks like agility. Blades, clubs, exotic melee weapon and unarmed. Q. How does two-weapons melee combat work? Both with and without the ambidexterity edge (if it has made it into SR4) ... How about firing two pistols or two SMG's at the same time? You split your dice pool for each weapon. If you're using two different weapons with two different skills (ex. An SMG and a Pistol), you use the smaller of the two pools. Recoil penalties apply to both weapons (see below). If you do not have Ambidexterity, your off hand weapon suffers a further -2 to the dice pool. Q. How does recoil works now that TN's are fixed? (Or burst-fire / full auto, for that matter?) Each bullet past the first gives a -1 die penalty. Each point of recoil comp eliminates one penalty point. Q. Is Taking Aim a simple action is SR3 (-1 to TN)? Apparently similar in SR4, except that it adds a die? Looks that way. Q. Can you give us a short example calculation of a shot? (Complete with hitting, dodging and resisting damage) Declare attack, apply situational modifiers, make opposed test, Compare armor, damage resistance test, apply damage. Ranged combat summary:
When defending against a melee attack, you use Reaction + appropriate Melee skill or Reaction + Dodge. Although there's many ways to "stack" attribute/skill dice, remember that there is a hard cap of 1.5 times the maximum possible rating of the attribute or skill. Improved Ability does not count toward this hard cap for skills, so the highest possible you can see for a human is 9 + 9 + 7 or 25 dice (with a probable +2 for smartlink and any available Take Aim actions). It can go even higher, especially with metahumans:
Buy as skill. Linked to Reaction. Says Reaction + Dodge for ranged. Reaction + Dodge + Dodge for melee or Reaction v+ melee combat skill + Dodge in melee. Also a Full Parry, and a Gymnastics Dodge. On your action in the Initiative Pass, you can choose to go on Full Defense. Q. the person defending has to split their dice pools too when defending? Nope. So you are going to want to either have lots of dice or for them to have lots of penalties going into an attack like this. Firearms is a little easier, so long as they aren't Dodging, since they only get Reaction to defend with. Q. What does "full defense" mean? Is that a complex action, or can't you do anything else in that rurn, or what? Yes, Full defense is a complex action which allows you to dodge for the rest of the pass. It can be used when needed but uses up the character's next available action as long as not surprised. Can carry over to next combat turn. If you did not go on Full Defense already, and still have an initiative pass, you can choose to go on Full Defense, but you sacrifice your next Initiative pass, and you only get to dodge that single attack. Q. Only once or can you dodge multiple rounds with dodge skill? Under Full Defense it says you dodge until your next Action Phase. Under Defense modifiers it says for each attack dodged since last action, you get a cumulative -1 modifier. Sounds like you can dodge several attacks. Q. There's probably not any modifiers to dodge and dmg resistance mostly, right? In SR3 only shotguns and grenades modified dodge as far as I remember. So my hope lies in much less modifiers to the attack roll. Is it really the same as before? Some Defense modifiers.
With Wide Bursts, you make the shot harder to dodge by the number of bullets -1 (a 6 round burst lowers the defense by -5 dice). The recoil modifier is similar, but is compensated by recoil compensation. With narrow bursts, it increases the DV of the attack by the number of bullets -1, and has the same recoil modifier. Q. What are the Dodge penalties for being fired on by burst (not full-auto) fire and shotguns using shot rounds? Wide burst is -2. For shotguns: narrow spread - no mod, medium spread -2, wide spread -4. Q. How to penetrate/destroy physical barriers? Barriers now have Armor and Structure Ratings instead of a single Barrier Rating. You roll an unopposed Attack test, and add hits to the modified DV of the weapon.
Q. What happens to the slug that penetrates a barrier [easily]? Can it do damage to a target on the other side? I'm thinking shooting people through typical gyproc walls or office cubical panels. As long as you exceed the Barrier's Armor rating with your DV, it will penetrate, but the person on the other side gets the benefit of the Barrier's Armor (added to the target's own Armor/Body). Q. So basically any [modified] DV over the Barrier Armor rating is the new DV that the person behind faces? Erm, no. What happens is that you take the modified DV on the attack, and if it's below the Armor Rating, it doesn't penetrate. Otherwise, you roll the attack normally (and a -6 Blind Fire modifier unless the barrier is transparent), using your Base DV, and the defender rolls normally (adding the Barrier's Armor Rating to his/her resistance test). This is one case where APDS shines, since I believe you can apply the AP modifier to both the Barrier Armor rating AND the Armor worn by the target (effectively double-dipping), but don't quote me on this (I haven't seen any examples of this in the book). Note that the table that I gave above for modifying DVs only applies to damaging the barrier itself and not a "normal" attack through a barrier. Q. A loophole! You can layer armor still. The downside is that the outer layer has to be a box. I wonder what the social skill modifiers are for walking around inside an office cubicle that you put wheels under? Well, I'd rule that it would be the same as vehicles. You can aim at the passenger or the vehicle under vehicle combat, and if you aim for the passenger, they get the benefit of the vehicle's armor (in this case, your steel box), but they also have -2 dice to defend. Q. What about indirect explosives (Landmines, truck bombs, aircraft gone 9/11 style, etc)? Resists with Armor x 2, as usual. They said "Explosives attached directly" specifically in the rules. Anti-vehicle landmines i would think are something different than normal explosives. Whether the BBB has proper rules to deal with that class of weapon, or we have to wait for the supplement for canon answer, is another question. Also a GM might count landmines as in contact if they are triggered by pressure or very close proximity. Q. Is there a list of typical barrier armor ratings? It's actually very similar to the table in SR3 (use Barrier Rating as the Armor Rating). The structure ratings are a linear progression of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, etc. as the Barrier Rating (now Armor Rating) goes up. Q. How can wounds be healed? Time. Magical Healing. First Aid. Medicine. Using Medicine, each hit adds to your natural healing test, so it should help reduce healing time. Even physical wounds will heal naturally over time. A critical glitch on the healing test may kill you though, actually a critical glitch on the First Aid test may kill you. Medicine is not meant to be used in combat. Q. Can the same set of wounds be healed more than once? Not with Magical Healing. You can heal any single "set" of wounds once with First Aid and once with Magical Healing (in that order). First Aid is a very icky roll now (I think it's something like a Threshold 2 with net successes determining how many boxes are healed), but Medicine allows you to augment long-term healing. Very similar to the way it was in SR3. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:43 PM
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#7
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
RIGGING (some overlap with decking)
Q. Any news on the change to Rigging at all? How much cyber is needed? Are the vehicles sensible on their Economy*Fuel? and finally is there a decent set of rules for crafting/repairing things? Full vehicle-creating rules are not in the BBB. The Rigging rules are completely abstract and there are some enormous differences from SR3. I can tell you that when you are shot at, you defend using Reaction (just like in regular ranged combat) + Handling, and if you are using the Rigging equivalent of Full Defense, you also get your Vehicle skill added. Drones use Pilot (their AI software) + Handling. Q. Q: A rigger is supposed to be better than an average joe with a datajack (or, I guess, a commlink) at driving a vehicle. In SR1 through 3, this was made possible by using a piece of cyber that essentially acted as both a TN modifier (hefty at that) and a wired reflexes while driving the vehicle. Is something comparable available for SR4, or did you just ditch the concept altogether in favour of combining wired and skillwires with a commlink? If there still is a vehicle control rig of some kind, how does it work now there are no more TN modifiers? Add dice? The VCR concept was pretty much ditched. Anybody with hot sim can jump into a drone (at least, the rules I have assume the rigger is using hot sim). Vehicle Riggers are automatically using Full VR (cold sim or hot sim) when they are rigging ("Jumped in" a vehicle), which means that they use Response (of their commlink or whatever hardwired system they are running) + Intuition for Initiative and at least one extra initiative pass (two if Hot Sim VR). The other basic concepts of rigging remain the same, though with obvious mechanical differences. Technomancers can be riggers, though they need something to boost their signal rating, usually. Oddly, I don't believe there are any rules for controlling drones through the Matrix; you pretty much have to control them directly (eg, using your own transmitter). However, there is a piece of Cyberware called the "Control Rig" which has a 0.5 essence cost. It basically is a VCR (in terms of description), except that it provides a benefit of +2 dice on all vehicle tests when you are using "full-VR" to control a vehicle, also Intiative is now Response + Intuition + 1 and an extra initiative pass (for a total of three). It isn't clear to me whether anyone with a Commlink and a Sim Module can do "full-VR" to control a vehicle (and get ginormous benefits to initiative, I might add), but a person with a Control Rig would be able to do it better. (VR Section, pg 228-229, and "Jumping Into Drones", pg 239) Q. How does VR work? VR works pretty much like it did in SR3, except you can open a link to a new node without leaving the one you're at -- basically, you can split your icon between multiple locations. Those who use full-VR to jack into the vehicle or "jump into" the vehicle get a -1 threshold modifier on the various threshold-based tests. For example, the classic "Bootlegger Reverse" or J-turn from Car Wars would be a threshold of 3 instead of 4. Q. How does AR work? Characters who are using AR while they are driving have a +1 dice pool modifier (to represent the additional GPS information and other things that might pop up on the display). Remote piloting does not receive this bonus. Q. Do you have the choice of AR (i suppose this is the old virtual dashboard mode) or VR? What are the benefits of VR over AR? You can still get dumpshock in VR, correct? What about AR, any risk of damaging feedback? AR requires a Commlink, and is analogous to astral perception (you can see the Matrix and manipulate it), and you can't get dumpshock, although being attacked with attack programs or viral ware, or being in spam/static zones, can give you penalties. Highly congested areas can also give you a sort of "background count" penalty, similar to spam zones. AR uses meatbody initiative and initiative passes. VR requires a Sim Module and a Commlink, and is analogous to astral projection... your body flops over, and your persona flies off to whereever. Full VR is also used when you "Jump In" a drone or vehicle and take it over... you effectively become the vehicle. In cold sim, you get an extra initiative pass and use Matrix initiative instead of meatbody initiative. In hot sim, you get a bonus to your initiative, another initiative pass (for a total of 3 passes), and +2 to ALL tests done in the Matrix (note: This bonus only applies for Matrix actions, not vehicle tests, although I will note that now you can do Matrix Actions while you are Jumped Into a drone/vehicle without penalty). VR causes dumpshock when you are jacked out, and you take damage from Black IC/Blackout (only Stun damage if in cold sim, Physical Damage if hit with Black IC while in hot sim). VR is basically similar to the old way of decking or rigging. Q. It's fully wireless now? It might or might not be wireless. You can still hardwire yourself using a Control Rig and Sim Module through a Datajack, eliminating any wireless vulnerabilities. You probably will want to have a relatively high Firewall rating on your drones to prevent hijacking, of course. While a lot of Riggers will learn technical skills, they will probably focus more on Electronic Warfare and their Signal and Firewall rating rather than Response/System and Cracking skills. There is a whole column that describes the differences in focus between a Rigger and a Cracker. Q. how electonic warfare has changed since SR3? Still a nightmare? Well ... there are many ways to use the Electronic Warfare skill (from Encrypting/Decrypting to detecting "hidden" nodes to intercepting communications). However, Jamming is a simple comparison of ratings. If your Jammer rating equals or exceeds the target's Signal + ECCM, then it's jammed. Q. Can technomancers, if there is no more VCR, operate machines as well as hack and crack their way through M2.0? Again, I'm not seeing any text that forbids someone without a Control Rig to "jump into" a vehicle/drone, and certainly a technomancer can spoof commands to a drone to make it do things the current subscriber doesn't intend it to. It actually gives the comparison that Technomancers and Hackers who focus on rigger drones and vehicles do exist. (First sentence under "Rigging and Drones" pg 238). Q. Would it be possible to get a list/description of viruses and IC? IC are the equivalent of Agents, with a Firewall and Pilot rating. They are all considered the same, save for their program loadout, which may contain the following programs: Analyze, Attack, Black Hammer, Blackout, and Track. As far as virus programs, there are Databombs and Encryption. IC can also be attached to files and programs, triggering them when the file/program is accessed or decrypted. (p 222) Q. What vehicles are available at chargen? Helicopters available at chargen, as well as most vehicles and drones listed. All but 4 vehicles, 2 of which are military or security and 2 of which are VTOL or VSTOL. T-bird and tilt wing. Hughes Stallion available at 225K and Ares Dragon at 495K. Oops went over that 250K limit but availability is 12. Q. Q.[/b] Can you give all the stats of the citymaster, for comparison with SR3 version? Handling: -1, Accel: 5/30, Speed: 120, Pilot: 3, Body: 16, Armor: 20, Sensor: 3, Avail: 20R, Cost: 51,200Ą Q. Will there be vehicle modding rules? A rigger who's restricted to off the shelf vehicles is pretty useless. Probably in the future "Arsenal" supplement. Vehicles and drones literally get one page (front and back), and have two upgrades, Rigger Adaptation and Weapon Mounts (1 mount per Body/3 round down, holds up to an LMG). Actually this was talked about very briefly during the "What's Up with" seminar at Gencon on Saturday (20th). Rob does not want a book like Rigger-2/Rigger-3. He does want to give the ability to mod vehicles, but I don't believe he wants to go into the full-on "Build Your Own from Scratch" argument. While as a player/GM I find this an incredibly limiting viewpoint as a developer I can understand it from the POV of someone who does not want to have to deal with all the bitching/whining that arising from people who have conflicting opinions/perceptions of how the B/R rules worked originally. Q. Is there still the concept of flux, as in a transmission range, with wireless communication? If there is, what is the native flux (range) of a Technomancer's body/brain/nervous system? Flux looks like it is now signal. Technomancer signal is Resonance/2 (round up).
You can actively subscribe to 2 X System Rating Drones, nodes, etc. at any time, if memory serves. Q. You mentioned that drones use their AI rating for tests. Does that mean rigging drones becomes impossible in favour of, say, a more god's eye way of controlling them (kinda like a PC strategy game)? You can "jump into" a Rigger Adapted vehicle or drone, and still control your other drones (using their Pilot rating for tests). Q. Is it still possible to "RIG" Security systems? I never used it in SR3, but i would like to start using it in SR4. I believe so, if you have a Rigger Adapted building. Q. What about vehicle driving and combat rules?? Highly Abstract. There are two types of Vehicle Combat: Tactical Combat and Chase Combat. Tactical Combat takes place in the same turns as meatbody initiative, and is used in situations where vehicles are mixed in with flesh-and-blood characters, like a Drone versus the party or trying to avoid a Citymaster or a biker gang. Use Acceleration as Walking/Running rate of the vehicle (listed as a walk/run number). You can do maneuvers or Ram as the driver of a vehicle. Pretty much analogous to regular initiative and combat, except that in order to do any fancy movement or collisions, you have to make Vehicle tests. Chase Combat takes place in Chase Turns that are 1 minute long, and represents extended engagements between vehicles only. Chase Turns are started with an Opposed Vehicle Test in which the Winner gets to choose one of three "Engagement Ranges", Close (leap from one vehicle to the next!), Short (medium range on ranged weapons), or Long (long range on ranged weapons). The winner (most hits on a vehicle test) gets the choose the Engagement Range against the losers. During the Chase Turn, one can do maneuvers (Swerving to cut someone off, forcing them to crash, trying to out run your pursuers, etc.) or fire weapons, or whatever. In both cases, the driver of each vehicle needs to make at least one Complex Action each turn controlling their vehicle, or risk crashing next Turn (and the vehicle is uncontrolled next Turn, giving a -2 to all actions to the passengers). Q. What about the dreaded shooting at vehicles? Do they explode at the mere touch of AV weapons and laugh off regular ammo, unless they are rigged? Getting hit by AV missiles seems like it will be tough on them. Check out the Combat thread, there are details there on how it works and numbers for it all. I didn't see much in the way of examples though, and haven't tried to work them out yet. Good news is that for cars and larger it looks like they are going to have many more boxes of damage to survive. For example a Citymaster will have 16 boxes in its condition monitor. The minimum number of boxes you can have is 9, since it's 8+(stat/2, rounded up). Q. One problem seems that if you get a -1 penalty for every 3 boxes of damage, a 12 or 13 box troll with 1 box left will have more severe penalties than the average 8 box pedestrian with 1 box left. Is this how it works? Yes. An average pedestrian will likely have 10 boxes (3 body), so at 9 boxes of damage, he's one below dead, and looking at -3's. A troll with a 13 body could have 12 boxes of damage and be one below dead, but suffer -4's. So yeah, the troll is hurting worse... But, by the same token... He's also taken enough damage to kill the lesser man. While the human has dropped dead from damage, the Troll is still on his feet. Woozy, hurting, but he's still standing enough for a last ditch manuever or to possibly drag his sorry carcass out of there. Q. Penetrating/destroying physical barriers and vehicle armor. How dat work? Barriers now have Armor and Structure Ratings instead of a single Barrier Rating. You roll an unopposed Attack test, and add hits to the modified DV of the weapon.
Vehicles use Reaction + Handling to avoid attacks (+ Vehicle Skill on top of that if using Full Defense) and Body + Armor to resist attacks. Vehicular/Hardened Armor stops attacks cold, just like in SR3 (if the modified DV of the attack after Damage Resistance doesn't exceed the Armor, then it does no damage). GMs are encouraged to use the "Automatic 4 dice for 1 Hit" rule when determining whether or not light arms would penetrate and do damage. Vehicles range in Body from 4 (for a motorcycle) to 16 (Ares Citymaster, which also incidentally has an armor rating of 20). Note: AV Missiles and Rockets have -6 AP against vehicles. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:44 PM
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#8
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
MAGIC and TECHNOMANCY
Q. Does the quality of being a magician forbid to have the quality of being a technomancer? Yes. Or at least the other way around. Q. Considering the ability to buy positive qualities with karma and awakening being a positive quality ... is it now possible for a mundane to spend karma to become a mage/adept/technomancer? It's GM's discretion as far as what qualities can be worked off/bought, but there is specific text that says that Magician, Adept, Mystic Adept, and Technomancer may not be awarded for Karma. *shrugs* It's up to your GM, I guess. Q. Is there any language that forbids taking the Adept Quality and the mage Quality? Yes, it is expressly forbidden. MAGICIANS and ASTRAL SPACE Q. What is a Mystic Adept? Magician's Way, Physical Mage, whatever you want to call it. And they aren't nearly as gimped as they used to be under the old SR3 canon rules. Q. About mystic adepts, can you give some more details e.g.: will they be able to buy powerpoints with karma? You buy Magic Attribute, just like all other Adepts (while you still have "power points", it is always equal to your Magic attribute), and then decide if you want it to apply to your Magician powers or your Adept Powers. Basically, you just put another point into "Magic Ability". Adepts no longer can outright "buy" Power Points, and they must buy Magic Attribute just like all other Awakened. Oh, here's an interesting thought: You can make the equivalent of Aspected Magicians by picking Mystic Adept and then purchasing Astral Perception and 1-5 points of Magic Ability with no adept powers. Neat, huh? Q. Can hermetics take totems? Both hermetics and shamans can take Mentor Spirits, which replace totems. (Shamans no longer automatically get totems.) There's definitely some roleplay aspects that come into play based on how exactly you view the traditions, but I can easily see a Hermetic that follows or heeds the words of a mentor spirit that represents an embodiment of an ideal, rather than a nature totem. Things like the converted passions concepts that showed up a while back in one of the Tir books, or The Dark King or Seductress. Mentor Spirits do not necessarily represnt the exact same thing as the Totems did. They can be the big astral spooky that a totem was, or they can just represent a powerful spirit that the character has contacted (or that contacted the character) and has bartered teaching and aiding the character in exchange for service, worship, or whatever. Q. Is there a limit on how many Mentor Spirits a magician can ally himself to? Only one. p79 Q. Can physads have a mentor spirit? If so, what kind of bonus does/would/could it give? Any magically active character can have a mentor spirit if they buy the quality. Bear gives a +2 dice modifier for resisting Physical damage, Cat gives +2 to gynastics or infiltration tests, Dark King gives +2 for Perception tests, Dragonslayer gets a +2 for tests with one Social Skill of choice, Moon Maiden gets +2 to Negotiation, Rat gets +2 for infiltration tests and +2 for resisting disease and poisons, Sea gives a +2 for swimming tests, Seductress gives a +2 for Con tests, Thunderbird grants a +2 for intimidation tests, and Trickster gets a +2 for Con. These are just examples: in all, 19 mentor spirits are listed in the BBB. Q. What about other types of magicians? Do they still exist? Are there plans for other types of spellcasters/other traditions to have different spirits/different metamagic (like psionics, voudoun, bug shaman, etc...) They weren't mentioned in the BBB. Then again, they weren't mentioned in the BBB in previous editions either. The system does give a basic set of guidelines for making alternate traditions. It really comes down to selecting the spirits and choosing a drain-resisting attribute. Q. Are there idol follower totems or loa in the main book? What about blood magic and blood spirits? There are idols in the main book. No specific Loa running around in there (although the idol templates are generic enough that they could possibly be used for Loa), and definitely no blood magic. Q. How has astral perception and projection changed? Projecting magician's time is now linked to Magic, not essence. Astral forms are no longer are able to pass through earth. Manifesting characters are vulnerable to mana-based effects on the physical plane. Q. Will aspected mages still not be able to access the astral plane? Also, will initiation still improve your astral initiative? There are no Aspected Mages. You can simulate Aspected Mages buy creating a Mystic Adept and getting Astral Perception as an Adept power and sinking all of the Magic rating points into spellcasting skills, or you can drop the Astral Perception and go with all Magic rating points into spellcasting skills. Initiate Grade does not add to Astral Initiative, which is derived from Intuition x 2. Q. Are background counts and/or mana warps covered, and roughly speaking how do they screw with magic now? Background counts are not covered in the BBB. MAGIC-RELATED EQUIPMENT Q. I'm curious about foci. What are the bonding and nuyen costs? Are there still sustaining foci? How do they work? I think I saw that power foci are now quite cheap, like 25k per point. What are the benefits? Power foci add their force to all tests in which magic attribute is included. No help counterspelling. Foci are inexpensive, but max at chargen for any is 3 and 2 for weapon or power foci. Sustaining, binding and weapon foci are 10K*F, Spellcasting and Summoning foci are 15K*F, Counterspelling and banishing are 5K*F, and Power foci are 25K*F. They are still expensive to bond. Sustaining 2*F, weapon (3+reach)*F, power 8*F. BP can be used at chargen like karma to bind foci. Max no. of foci bonded equal to Magic attribute, only one focus may add to any single dice pool. No mention of addiction. Q. At what force does a weapon foci become forbidden? They are only Restricted (as are all foci). Availability at chargen is Force 2. Btw, all combat spell formulae are Forbidden. Q. Since stimpatches seem to no longer burn Magic points, is there any reason a mage wouldn't carry so many of these his pockets drag? Stimpatches last Rating x 10 minutes. After they wear off you receive an additional point of stun so eventually you'll kill yourself if you keep using them. Additionally, repeated use of Stimpatches may call for the player to make an Addiction test with Threshold 2 (according to the addiction table on p248). Q. I noticed in the other thread that combat spell formulae are Forbidden (as far as availability goes) How will this affect learning a spell at character creation or during gameplay? Will you still be able to write your own spell formulae? Will the elemental manipulation spell be included in this too? As long as the availability is 12 or below, you can purchase it at character creation. Thus, combat spells can be learned at character creation. I think the reason they are Forbidden is not because they don't exist legally, but because any act of magic used for hurting others is automatically considered Assault, and any death is considered premeditated murder, but this is just speculation. "Elemental Manipulations" are now considered Indirect Combat Spells instead. Q. Do hermetic libraries and shamanic lodges still exist? All traditions have "lodges" now, although the Hermetic lodge consists of libraries and circles and stuff. It costs 500 nuyen per Force point. Q. what are Magesight goggles? Goggles with a fiberoptic cable on them, to cast around corners. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:46 PM
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#9
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
TECHNOMANCERS, HACKERS, and THE MATRIX
Q. What do programs do now? Since target numbers are fixed and all, they obviously don't do that anymore. The majority of tests made while Hacking involves a (Electronics/Cracking skill) + (Program Rating) test. For example, you roll Data Search + Browse Extended Test to do typical Searches. The program effectively substitutes for where the Attribute would normally go in a typical skill-based test. Q. In the DAQ 2.0, in skill groups it lists: "Tasking: Compiling, Decompiling, Registering". Is this a technomancer only thing? These are skills that pertain to Sprites, the "spirits" of the Matrix that Technomancers can summon. Compiling is Summoning, Decompiling is Banishing, and Registering is Binding. Q. What do the skills "Software" and "Hardware" do? do these replace programming and B/R? Yup. You are correct. Q. If cracking is the new computer skill, then what does computer do? Cracking skill group consists of Hacking, Electronic Warfare, and Cybercombat, and is usually used in illegal or oppositional tests. Electronics skill group consists of Computer, Data Search, Software, and Hardware, and is usually used in legal or build/repair/take-apart type tests. Note that both Computer and Hacking often are used for the exact SAME tests, substituting for each other depending on the situation. Computer is used when you have legal access to a system (a legal user passcode/access) and the system isn't fighting you. Hacking is used when you do not have legal access to a system. For example, if you have legal access to a certain node with a lot of personnel files, you use Computer + Edit to alter the files within. If you are Hacking illegally and do not have a legal access code, you roll Hacking + Edit to alter the files. While redundant in some cases, this allows for folks to be competant/exceptional data handlers (high Computer skill) without being uber Hackers (low Hacking skill). Q. Why doesn't Hacking take advantage of the Skill+Stat system like the other skills? Hacking does use the same system only, since the character's Physical and Mental Attributes are irrelevant when interacting with to cyberspace (its the programs that do the actual "doing"), instead of a character's Attribute you use the relevant Program or Hardware "Attribute" for each test (ie. the Persona's Attribute). Your computer skill figures in because that's how a character interacts with his OS and hardware. Q. I thought you didn't have to roll if you had legit access to a system, at least in SR3? Do you immediately switch over if you are able to add a new root user to a system? Normally, yes. But remember that in order for you to do things like Opposed tests to determine forgeries or fake life-like illusions or insert junk data into a file, you would have to roll something. Remember that one scene in "Speed" where they loop the tape? If you had legal access to a system, you'd roll Computer + Edit to do something like that, and it would be opposed by the onlooker's Visual Perception test. If you were hacking and were doing something illegally, you'd roll Hacking + Edit. Basically, anything that would actually require a test would use the Computer skill to roll. Q. What about MegaPulse and how large data is? In SR4, memory technology is considered to be so advanced that your devices are automatically assumed to have more than you'll ever need to use. Also, you would have wireless instant access to remote data storage at the same time. Thus, in terms of game mechanics, you never really worry about how much Mp you need to use. This is subject to GM fiat, of course. (You can't download the Library of Congress into your Ares Predator IV's internal storage.) Active memory is measured in rating points. storage memory is unlimited, unless the GM decides there are limits in a special situation. Q. One of the things I've really missed in previous incarnations of the decking rules (and especially since VR2.0) is the possibility of having a group of deckers/hackers/whatevers going together and helping each other out. Is that possible by the book now? Yes. In the case of deckers working together, they'd use the Teamwork Test rules for Extended Tests. Having a bunch of talented deckers looking for flaws in a car's software, for instance, can be advantageous. Of course, having a bunch of talentless hacks pitching in can actually slow you down if they critical glitch. Sometimes, too many cooks can spoil the broth. Q. How much of SR3 Matrix made it into the BBB? Specifically IC (I'd love to know more about IC), Agents, Searches, and Security Sheaves? The concept and how the matrix and Hosts work is a good deal different, and the mechanics are vastly different, but IC and Agents are still around. I'm assuming you mean "Searches", as in searching for information, and that is still there. The Security Sheave is now gone, however. Q. If there is no Security Sheave, how does IC work? Similar to how it worked pre-VR2.0. Basically, if you fail to properly sneak into a host, or you alert the host through your actions (Like destroying things), there are several responses the host can make. One of them is to have IC on hand to attack the intruder. It's more freeform now, and this sort of thing is basically at the GM's disctrection (Though there is a random d6 chart of responses in the book for lazy GMs :)). Other possible actions include calling in a security hacker, attempting to terminate the hacker's connection, or shutting down the system altogether. Another interesting thing is, IC is always loaded onto frames. and frames can be hacked. Q. So...I may be reading this wrong, but is it all or nothing? (ie. I can't have a trace launch at one response and a killer the next, to use SR3 IC; instead hacker fails roll, host's security system sends in the IC) ... I guess a better way to ask is are there more or less or the same number of IC on any given server? I think it's GM's call. The new rules are pretty loose and designed to give both the player and GM more freedom, and to run a lot faster. One of the biggest design elements of a lot of the rules seems to have been to remove excess bookkeeping. So a Host could have multiple pieces of IC. Maybe it all attacks the first time you misstep. Maybe each time it loads a new copy of the IC. You could still set up a security sheave of sorts with a prearranged list of events that happen each time the Hacker sets off an alert. But as it stands, there's no hard and fast rules. Other than if the system shuts down, it won;t activate any additional IC ;) Q. What's the limiting factor for Technomancers/Hackers to acually hack a node. Other than the Firewall rating of a vehicle, I assume the character must be in range of the node's signal to hack it? Am I correct? (I had an event where a hacker was attempting to hijack vehicles on a street corner and I ruled that unless he hit the threshold on the extended test in one round, the car would move past him and out of range too quickly for him to get control over. Then he moved to a traffic light and got a nice shiny new car. Course, then he also got a nice shiny new criminal SIN, but that's a different story.) Range is a consideration, yes. Assuming the hacker is trying to brute force hack the car, which it sounds like he is. If he were going through the 2070 equivalent of OnStar to access the car, range isn't as much of a consideration. There's other things to keep in mind too. Since the hacker is brute forcing this, he's trying to find a hole in the car's software to grant him access, instead of spoofing through an authorized channel (like the OnStar example I mentioned above). Since standard electronic devices only have admin level access, this is an automatic +6 threshold. And while he's doing the hacking, the car is making tests to discover it. If the car makes threshold before the decker does, it will defend itself. Since many cars probably don't come with IC or their own security deckers, it will likely just shut its network access down (it will "go autistic", if you've ever watched Ghost in the Shell ). Though it may inform the local authorities of the location of the intrusion attempt before it does so ("Help, I'm a car at the corner of 12th and Pine, and I'm being hacked!"). Since cars are designed to operate just fine without networked access, shutting its access down doesn't harm it. It'll still just keep driving via its Pilot rating or the guy behind the wheel. Important things to keep in mind: Range: It's very possible a hack on the fly will take more than one initiative pass because of the threshold (probably around 9, 3 for device rating plus 6 for admin access). The hacker needs to stay in the car's range during that time. Limited attempts: Under the information on Extended Tests in the Game Concepts chapter, it is recommended that on tests where success isn't ensured (and finding a security flaw in the car's software isn't a sure thing), the character should be limited to a number of rolls equal to his dice pool. So if his dice pool for the Hacking + Exploit test is 8, he's got 8 rolls to get the threshold. If he can't do it in that time, he just can't find a flaw in the software. Glitches: If the hacker rolls a glitch during the Extended Test, the GM can roll 1d6 and subtract that number of hits from the hacker's accumulated hits thus far. If it goes below 0, the test fails. The GM can then rule that the hacker just can not find a flaw in the car's security. If at any time the hacker rolls a critical glitch, the whole test fails and again the GM has an opportunity to say the hacker just can't find an appropriate security flaw right now. The other way into a car is through the authorized channels. Every car has a limited subscriber list it talks to, with subscribers that likely have dedicated passkeys. For instance, the car's owner might have a dedicated passkey built into his commlink so he can access his car from his PAN. Likewise, the 2070 version of OnStar (GridGuide, perhaps?) probably has a dedicated passkey for the car, so it can do things like unlock the car remotely in case the car is in an accident, the driver is unconscious, and the paramedics need to get inside. The hacker could go through the driver's commlink to get access to an authorized channel. But hacking commlinks can be harder, especially if the car owner isn't around (like you're trying to hack a parked car). You could also try to go through the OnStar-like service. Advantages there are that range is not really an issue (most of those services use satellite coverage to reach a car wherever it might be) and service's hosts don't go anywhere or get shut off. Of course, in that situation, you're hacking into a full-fledged host, which is bound to have IC, security deckers, and all that fun stuff. TECHNOMANCERS Q. More details if you could on the differences between hackers and technomancers ...? Technomancers use complex forms instead of programs, they need no device to access the matrix. They have no separate Matrix condition monitor. They use the same skills common to Hackers, but Technomancers use them differently and cannot teach them to non-technomancers. Technomancer versions are not available as skillsofts. Technomancers must learn complex forms from another technomancer or a sprite. Q. Do Technomancers start out smarter than average like otaku did? There are no stat mods for being a technomancer, except for gaining the Resonance attribute. So, no. Q. Can Technomancers go full VR? Technomancers can go full VR (in fact, they prefer this, according to the book). Technomancers are always considered as being in hot-sim VR, and cannot do cold-sim VR at all (unless they strap on a commlink and do it "old school"). Q. Do Technomancers experience drain? Yes. Q. What do Technomancers use for data storage if they need no devices or cyber? Store it online somewhere. Instead of downloading into headware, they transfer it to their "website" or a "Resonance Realm/Well" or whatever. Technomancers have no form of organic storage memory whatsoever, so if they want to download a file, they need to mentally transfer it to a physical storage device. (p.233) Q. How does a Technomancer download data? Most technomancers will still have a Commlink, as that still contains their ID, "credstick", phone, etc. And any onboard memory for that can be used as storage space. Q. What is technomancer threading? Threading is the ability for a Technomancer to either boost the ratings of existing Complex Forms or create a new "temporary" Complex Form. Threading causes Fading, and takes concentration to sustain (-2 to all dice pools). Q. Are technomancers hackable? I know they can hack other's networks, but are theirs unhackable because it is all in their mind? They have a firewall rating. Not sure if that means they are hackable. They can "shut off" their connection to the Matrix in emergencies, which implies that they can be hacked. Note that hacking into a commlink/technomancer is most likely useful because of the devices hooked into the PAN, and not necessarily for the act of hacking into the commlink/technomancer itself. Q. So I can use eletronic warfare vs technomancers? Can I signal jam his mind? Yes. And they can have ECCM Complex Forms to overcome Jamming. Q. Does jamming give technmancers headaches, like a background count or such? Meh. Probably not. It will certainly make them cranky or perhaps frightened. Imagine suddenly losing your sight or hearing, and you get the idea... if it has happened before, it could be a nuisance (especially for socially well-grounded technomancers or veteran runners), but some technomancers may panic. Q. Can a Technomancer use a touch link or skin link to download data? Yes. Also, a Skin Link (different from a Touch Link, which is simply a way to receive Touch-related data from AR directly through a cybernetic connection) is a plausible way to connect with your devices, I guess, but folks are still going to hack into your "Commlink" first under SR4 rules (in the case of Technomancers, this is their Living Persona). Q. Can Technomancers get mentor spirits? No. Mentor Spirits are for Awakened Characters. However, I can definitely see a way to make the equivalent rules for Technomancers (different philosophies on Resonance/Dissonance and the like), but this would be house ruling it. Q. What causes a technomancer to take fading? Is it everything they do, and are they allowed to mix programs on their comlink with complex forms? (ie. run 1 program and 1 form)? Summoning/Registering Sprites and Threading Complex Forms are the two tasks that come to mind that cause Fading. While technomancers can get a commlink and use programs on that commlink, they will need to get an entirely separate skill to do so, as the Technomancer and Hacker versions are separate skills. p233 Q. Does this count for coding too? good technomancer coders don't make good holoLisp coders? Technomancers have their own version of the following skills: Computer, Cybercombat, Data Search, Electronic Warfare, Hacking, Hardware, and Software. Thus, since they get the Software skill, they can code as a technomancer skill. I don't see any text that limits the Software skill, preventing a technomancer from intuitively coding a project similar to the way a Hacker would write a program. They just would not be able to use said programs to Hack with their Technomancer-version of skills, since the programs aren't Complex Forms and thus do not allow the Technomancer to exercise his/her own mind-machine interface. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:47 PM
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#10
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
PHYSICAL ADEPTS
Q. Does the adept still buy powers with his magic rating? How are the power costs compared to third edition? Yes. Some powers have been adjusted. Astral Perception costs only 1 point. Killing Hands costs 0.5 points, but only converts your damage from Stun to Physical and your hands count as magical weapons for the purpose of kicking butt (bypassing Immunity to Normal Weapons and Regeneration). For higher damage, you want Critical Strike (0.25 points per level), which adds +1 DV per level. Improved Ability works pretty much the same... +1 die for 0.5 for Combat skills, and +1 die for 0.25 for everything else. Missile Parry is 0.25 per level, and is now a Reaction + Missile Parry test, requiring more hits than the attacker to successfully parry. Q. How do starting adepts go about getting their initial powers? In comparison to SR3, Do they cost more? Less? The same? They get power points equal to their Magic attribute, which starts at one and can be bought up as stated elsewhere. Q. Can adepts still purchase additional power points directly with Karma as in SR3 or do they just increase their magic attribute? Adepts cannot directly buy power points. They must increase their magic attribute. Q. Does this mean that after earning his first 6 power points (the ones he started with in SR3), the adept must pay 34, 40, 46 etc. karma for more powers? An adept may not necessarily start with 6 power points in SR4, since Magic is bought just like any other attribute. Your other assessment is correct. An Adept, once they hit the Magic Attribute 6 cap, must Initiate first, then purchase the next point of Magic to hit 7 and get another point of powers. Note that you don't have to wait until then to get your first Initiate grade ... as long as your Initiate Grade (in this case, 0) is less than your Magic Attribute, you may Initiate. Q. How much do powers cost in SR4? The costs are relatively the same as SR3. Some examples: Improved Initiative 2 (3 PP) Improved ability - physical skill +2 (.5 PP) Improved ability - combat skill +2 (1 PP) Mystic armour +2 (1 PP) Q. How does the adept power Improved Physical Attribute work in SR4? Given the greater value of attributes I would guess that the cost has been increased? Nope. It's the same, 1 point per attribute point up to Racial Max, and then 2 points per point above the Racial Max up to the maximum augmented attribute (the hard cap). Q. I see that Improved Ability survived into Fourth (like I assumed), but I was wondering if it's just for individual skills or if there's a set of Improved Ability powers for the various Skill Groups that would cost 1 or 1.5 or more power points for each extra dice. Improved ability is just for individual skills, but you can purchase Improved Ability and have it apply to a skill that's rolled into a skill group (i.e. Firearms Skill group of 4 and Improved Ability Pistols +2 would give you Agility + 6 dice for Pistols and Agility + 4 dice for everything else). Q. Also, can I assume there is an Improved Dodge of some sorts, or something that perhaps does what Combat Sense does in Third Edition? 0.5 per die. Combat Sense is totally evil now. Not only does it give you dice in Surprise tests, but it adds directly to your Reaction for the purposes of the Ranged/Melee attack opposed test while defending. It's better than Improved Ability (Dodge), because you can use it in all situations, not just full defense. Q. was wondering about the Combat Sense adept power. Does it add dice for certain tests, or does it actually add to reaction, thereby being subject to the hard cap on attributes? I imagine it's also limited to a number of levels equal to your magic rating, but is it also limited by your reaction attribute? A little from column A, a little from column B. Combat Sense adds to Reaction only in Surprise test and when rolling Reaction to defend against attacks (i.e. Dodge test), melee or ranged or otherwise. The wording makes it seem like it's also subject to the attribute cap for Reaction (because it adds to Reaction), but you can buy levels up to your Magic Attribute for it (no other limitation). Remember, since there are usually penalties involved, extra dice above the Attribute cap are still useful. Q. Does the Adept power Improved Ability add dice to Attribute+Skill and is there any limit on how many dice can be added in this way? It adds dice to your dice pool, and you can never add more dice from Improved Ability than you have in your base skill. So if you have Pistols 3, you can only get up to 3 extra dice from Improved Ability: Pistols. Q. What's up with Mystic Armor? Mystic Armor now counts as Ballistic and Impact and works against astral combat. Q. Does Mystic Armor stack with other armor? Yes. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:47 PM
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#11
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
SPELLCASTING
Q. What spells are available? A complete list of spells is available here. (Thanks, the_dunner!) Q. Is there a max force you can cast your spell at? For example, the magic attribute? or the spellcasting skill? Maximum Force is Magic Rating x 2. Q. So you don't buy spells at a fixed force anymore? What exactly are you buying then? The new magic system for spells is perhaps (IMO at least) one of the largest areas of change. When you obtain/buy a new spell formulae now, you are obtaining the formulation ... not the "FORCE LIMIT". The limit on the spell force at the time of casting is chosen at the time of casting. So if you want to cast a spell that is Force 5 one time and then the same spell at Force 8 some other time ... you may do so now. Drain Values change as do many of the mechanics for the success levels/hits with regards to Force. Additionally, determining if a spell is "mental damage" or "physical damage" for drain depends upon the Force as compared to your Magic Attribute. Q. I'm curious about how drain now works. Drain value is F/2, round down, =/- modifiers, minimum of 1. Roll Willpower + Charisma for shamans or willpower + Logic for mages. Each hit reduces Drain Value by 1, wound modifiers and sustained spells do not effect drain test. Q. How do damaging manipulations spells work? In 3rd edition they kinda sucked IMO, there drain costs were exorbitant for the effects gained. Yet since that was the only way to get elemental effects I dug them. Also the 4 target number was kinda cool. Now everything has a 5 TN not 4 not body etc. So how do these spells work, and how is that different from I guess direct combat spells? They work like ranged attacks, Magic + spellcasting vs Reaction. If the caster gets any net successes, then the target gets to resist damage with Body + half Impact armor + possible counterspelling. Looks like all the drain codes are +2 compared to similar (P or S) direct combat spells. . can someone of those fortunate to have book, please give us an example, how an attack with a stunbolt works? with target's resistance and all ...? Marvin the Mage has a Magic Attribute of 5 and a Spellcasting of 5. This means he rolls 10 dice on his spellcasting. He selects Sam the SecGuard as his target for the Stunbolt. He decides to go for a Force 5 Stunbolt, mostly because he's a wuss when it comes to drain and doesn't like overcasting. On his spellcasting roll, he gets 4 hits, just above the expected average. It's his lucky day, I guess. Sam the SecGuard has a Willpower of 3 and doesn't have any Counterspelling to protect him as spell defense, so he rolls 1 hit on his resistance test (about average that he can expect). Now we figure out the damage. The base DV is equal to the Force of the spell, which is 5. You add the net hits, which is 4 - 1 = 3 hits, thus doing 8 points of Stun damage. Since Sam the SecGuard has 10 Stun boxes (willpower of 3), he's 2 boxes away from being Knocked out. Finally, we figure out drain. The drain for a Stunbolt is Force/2 (round down) - 1, which in this case will be a DV of 1 measly point. Marvin the Mage rolls his Willpower + Logic (being a Hermetic), which in this case is 4 + 4, or 8. He easily gets the 1 hit he needs to reduce the drain down to nothing. Now, if he had not been such a wuss and went for the full tamale overcasting, he could have cast a Force 7 Stunbolt, and using the above example would probably knock the guard out (3 net hits) and still not take Drain (2 DV physical). Or if he feels that he absolutely needs to knock out the guard, he could go for a 9 Force Stunbolt (just below his max of 10), and guarantee a knockout, while taking 3 DV physical drain (probably reduced down to 0 or 1 boxes). Q. What sources of Attribute boosting works for increasing Attributes in regards to casting, summoning, etc? For example I assume that hermetics do not get to include the extra Logic from a Cerebral Booster when resisting drain. True? Actually, there is no language that forbids using the bonus Logic dice from either a Cerebral Booster or an Increase Logic spell for the purposes of resisting Drain. You can have a Hermetic with a Rating 3 Cerebral Booster running around that gets +3 dice for Drain resistance. However, keep in mind that it reduces your Magic attribute, which is much more important than it was before (and it was pretty darn important before). Q. Can the 'exceptional attribute' quality be applied to magic? No, it is for Physical and Mental stats only, not edge, not resonance, not magic. Q. How does Invisibility work now? Invisibility affects the minds of viewers, while Improved Invisibility actually warps light around the user. Since hits (successes) are limited by Force, you definitely need higher than a Force 1. Invisibility works as an additional "buffer" for sneaking around... the person must first pierce the illusion by getting equal or more hits on their Willpower (mana illusions) or Intuition (physical illusions) than the spellcaster got on his/her spellcasting test, then they must do a Perception Test normally if the invisible character was using Infiltration/Shadowring to sneak. If the illusion is resisted, then you can attack the "invisible" character normally without the Target Hidden modifier. Note that against technological sensors, you need to beat the Object Resistance threshold number. This means 3 hits for most standalone cameras and electronics (laser tripwires or whatnot) and 4 hits for computers, vehicle sensors, and drones. They don't get to resist, being non-living objects. Q. Is it still impossible to heal stun damage with magic? Yes, you still cannot heal stun damage. It even specifically says so in the Spell catalog (along with Psychological illnesses). Q. How long does it take for Heal to come into effect, do you have to sustain it over several rounds/seconds/minutes? The duration that Permanent spells need to be sustained is equal to twice the Drain Value of the spell (which for Heal is the Damage Level of the target -2), before Drain is reduced by the Drain resistance test, and in intervals of 1 Combat Turn. Most permanent spells allow you to use hits to reduce the time by 1 Combat Turn instead of adding to the primary effect. Each point of Essence Loss on the target reduces the dice pool for the Spellcasting test by 1. Q. How has (the spell) Increase Reflexes changed with SR4? Are there still multiple versions of it (+1-3)? The effects are now identical to Wired Reflexes and the Adept version of Wired, so + to both Initative and Passes. There is only one version of the spell now, and it appears you choose which "bonus" you want to cast at. Each increase has a higher Threshold you have to meet, and +3 is the highest it can go. Q. Increase Body: If you cast this on someone do they get more wound boxes? Just thinking that might be a quick way to get someone who has a full condition monitor up and about to hobble out for better healing later. Yes. It even says so specifically in the Increase Attribute description. Q. Is Turn to Goo in the spell list? Yes, Turn To Goo has returned. So has Petrify. Q. Does ongoing sustaining of spells cost you -2 dice to all actions? Each sustained spell gives you -2 Dice for all of your actions. Q. Can you cast more than one spell in a Complex Action (simultaneous cast) and what is the penalty for it? You can cast multiple spells in a single action, but you must split your Spellcasting + Magic dice among all of the spells that you cast, and the drain value for each of the spells is increased by 1 point for every additional spell. Q. And area effect spells? Radius is now equal to the Force of the spell. (Possibly to be errata'ed. The text on p173 and p195 contradict each other. p173, under the description of area spells, uses Force for the Radius, while p195 says Magic rating.) Q. How does Spell Defense work now that there's no Spell Pool? You add Counterspelling dice (one of the skills in the Sorcery Skill Group) to any hostile attempt to cast spells on yourself and any protected individuals. All magicians are always considered protecting themselves with Counterspelling dice, and it takes a Free Action to designate others as protected. You can only protect those within your line of sight. Q. Does counterspelling count as an action or does it work like the old spell defense? How will the shielding metamagic work into the counterspelling, or will it work differently? It's passive, in that it doesn't take an action to use (except for the Free Action to extend protection over your friends). Shielding adds your Initiate Grade to your Counterspelling attempts for the purposes of spell defense only (There are other ways to use Counterspelling, and Shielding doesn't help with that). Q. How does ritual spellcasting work? Can do it solo. Hits on magic + ritual spellcasting determine success. Additional members of the team, same tradition, hits grant bonus dice to leader. Team must all know spell, size is limited to lower of Force of lodge or Lowest ritual spellcasting skill of the team. Still have targeting if out of LOS. I think you now have to make sure the spotter has enough time to stay astrally projected, but a bound spirit can be used as spotters. Spotter must be able to assense the target. The leader's Magic + Ritual Spellcasting forms the base dice pool. Spell Force is limited by leader's Magic attribute. If the force is higher than leaders Magic, the entire team resists Physical drain. Takes 12 hours minus leader's Magic, minimum 1 hour. Individuals may use foci to supplement their own tests. It isn't stated in the same place, but it mentions individuals may use foci or bound spirits who are not otherwise occupied to resist drain. So I assume a spirit could be used to Aid Sorcery. In fact, Ritual Sorcery is listed under the Aid Sorcery section. Note too, only one focus may contribute to a single dice pool, so no ritual focus + power focus + power focus. But dice pool + focus + spirit aid sorcery power seems legit for the ritual casting for each member and the same combo again for drain. Q. In ritual sorcery, can you still withhold dice to get the ritual to sustain the spell for you? I've read nothing in SR4 to that suggests this so far. An elemental can sustain the spell, or a sustaining focus. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:48 PM
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#12
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
CONJURING
Q. How does conjuring work? The roll for Summoning is an opposed test of Magic + Summoning vs. the Spirit's Force. Drain is equal to twice the Spirit's hits. The roll for Binding is an opposed test of Magic + Binding vs. the Spirit's Force x 2 (binding is harder). Drain is equal to twice the Spirit's hits. Shamans use Magic + Charisma to soak drain. Hermetics use Magic + Logic. Neither are linked to Logic or Charisma, although your GM may apply modifiers based on roleplaying and situation (perhaps give you extra dice based on a Charisma test, with extra dice equal to the number of hits, or if you take a long time with lots of burning incense and a boring ritual, give you extra dice based on a Logic test), but that would be your GM's call. Q. Can you review conjuring drain? Summoning drain is based on twice the hits the spirit gets, minimum 2. Binding drain value is based on hits, resulting from 2*F for summoning, again minimum 2DV. Q. What kind of spirits can be conjured? All full magicians can conjure earth, air, water, and spirits of man. That's 4. Hermetic can conjure fire spirits while shaman can conjure spirits of beasts. Q. What are animal spirits like? And someone mentioned something about picking a spirit's powers at summoning time? Like your typical wilderness Nature Spirit, except they also get powers to control animals. Every 3 Force points of the Spirit, you get to pick one additional power for the spirit from a list, specific to that Spirit. Q. Is there a penalty for having active bound spirits? All spellcasters suffer the -2 penalty per active bound spirit. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:48 PM
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#13
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
INITIATION and MAGIC LOSS
Q. Any reduction of magic when a character gets cyberware implanted? How does that work with the variable magic attribute? Same as always. If you have 5.0 to 5.99 Essence, you lose a point of magic. If you reach 0 Magic, you burnout and are no longer Awakened. So say you had a natural Magic of 4 (and a max Magic of 6, just like every character) with an essence of 6, and you want to install a commlink. You lose 0.2 essence, bringing you down to 5.8 Essence, but you also lose a point of Magic (down to 3) and a point from your Max Magic (down to 5). If later, you install a cyberhand (0.25 Essence), it brings your Essence down to 5.55, but you don't lose another point of magic until you go below 5. Q. Ok, then how do you figure out raising your magic attribute after that? Would you pay to have it raised to 5 (increasing the previous base) or to 4 (since your att. is now 3 thanks to the cyber?) Or does each level cost the same karma no matter what? I can't say conclusively, based on the rules I'm reading here. It appears to be simply New Attribute Level x 3, regardless if you've incurred Essence Losses or whatnot, and I don't see any "special" rules based on that circumstance. That's something that will probably have to go up on the FAQ eventually. Q. Can you still geas magic lost from essense loss? There are no rules for geasa, but you can just buy back lost magic points. (These weren't in the main book in the previous editions either.) Q. Can you explain magic loss a little further. In particular buying back magic after you have lost it. So I start with a Magic at 4. Add some cyberware, takes it down to 3. Earn me some karma during a session, I want to boost my Magic back up. Do I pay for it as though it was going back to 4 or up to 5 ? Can you just pay for it this way or do you need to do an ordeal ? Can I choose to "initate" even though I only have 3 magic? It does not make an exception, that I saw, for reduced attributes. So here (maybe) is a loophole for staying magically active while getting implants then maxing out magic. I know that you can Initiate at any time, and your Initiate Grade cannot be higher than your Magic Rating (if it is because of Essence Loss, then you actually lose your grade). Essence Loss removes a point from both your Magic AND your Max Magic, but I haven't read any indication as to whether the Karma costs are for the current attribute or the adjusted pre-loss attribute. Bull clarifies: Magic Loss effectively reduces your Attribute Cap. Your Magic Attribute Cap is effectively Essence+Initiate Levels. Initiation gives you access to a metamagic ability and raises your Magic Attribute Cap, but does not raise your actual Magic Attribute, as noted by others. If you lose essence, both your current magic attribute and your attribute cap drops. if your current magic rating drops to 0, you become mundane and lose all access to magic. Q. What about initiation? When you buy back your Magic attribute point, is it from the Current Magic Attribute in Karma or from the previous Magic attribute level before the loss? Initiation gives Increased Magic (add grade to Attribute) and metaplanar access to one metamagic. Initiating doesn't give you a shiny new magic point, but instead raises the MAX magic points you can have. As in, a 6th Grade Initiate would have a max total magic of 12. Also, once you raise this cap, you actually have to pay MORE karma to raise your magic up to the new cap. Q. How much does initiation cost? Initiation is 10 + ((Target/Would-Be) Grade x 3). This doesn't include the purchase of the magic point, just the increase in cap. Q. Nothing about reduction in cost with groups? Nada, it does mention what used to be ordeals as standard fare for intiating - as in no discount for ordeal. Q. In previous editions you had to roll for magic loss if getting a deadly wound or on certain other occasions (first aid without the +2 mage modifier ...). How does this work in SR4 and when do you have to roll for magic loss? This is gone from SR4. (As, for that matter, are deadly wounds.) But the modifier for treating a Mage/Adept in First Aid still exists. Basically, anyone who has a Magic/Resonance Attribute or has a lot of burned Essence will have First Aid penalties. Q. What metamagic powers are available and what benefits do they provide? There are five techniques included in the core book, most seem similar to their SR3 counterparts. Q. Do Adepts still get the skill bonuses from Centering, or is Centering just another term for "drain reduction"? Centering is just another term for Drain Reduction. Adepts can still take Centering to reduce the Drain from their powers. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:50 PM
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#14
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
THE WORLD OF SR4
Note: there are some serious spoilers in this post. Read further at your own risk. You have been warned. Q. What are the six core settings? We know of Seattle and Hong Kong already. Core settings are mentioned as the Matrix and the astral plane. I do not see much mention of Seattle or any other City as a default setting. Q. Who's President of the UCAS? Angela Colloton: 2060: On January 3, at a closed meeting of the United Corporate Council Central Planning Committee, Brigadier General Angela Colloton of the UCAS army announces that President Haeffner has given her command of investigating and securing the Renraku Arcology, citing that the three nuclear reactors in the Arcology make the situation a potential threat to UCAS security and therefore the jurisdiction of the UCAS. (Renraku Arcology: Shutdown) Q. When was Colloton elected? (BTW, she's a Major General by the time of State of the Art). 2068 Q. What's the word on how the Matrix crash happened? Novatech was scheduled to have an IPO. Deus decided to take advantage of the high traffic event to upgrade himself. Pax and Winternight teamed up to release a stolen nanovirus worm which hit as the stock exchange got going and Deus appeared on the virtual trading floor. Q. How about a list of the megas? (not asking you to leak the plot surprises, just name them) Ares, Aztechnology, Evo Corp, Horizon, Mitsuhama, NeoNet, Renraku, Saeder-Krupp, Shiawase, Wuxing. Horizon is a multimedia/PR corp based in LA. Q. How about California? What happened to the area surrounding LA? Saito is gone, earthquake flooded the central valley in 2069 (may recede in a year or two). LA and San Fran escape. Q. What happened to Cross? Lucien Cross died in a plane crash the very day of Crash 2.0. Damien Knight bought up Cross assets while Horizon group went after its Corp Court seat. Horizon is a new Megacorp that rose up out of nowhere [Bull thinks] after the crash. I'm not real familiar with them or the post crash events, but they seem to be a different type of corporation as far as design and management types go. They're described as using "people-centered" management that focuses on group consensus and the like rather than having a traditional hierarchial management style. Q. What para-animals are included? And can you give an example of their stats? Barghest, devil rat, ghoul, hell hound, merrow, naga, sasquatch, thunderbird, vampire, wendigo, spirit of: air, beasts, earth, fire, man, water, watchers, eastern and western dragons, feathered serpents, leviathans and great dragon mods. Funny how they did not scale back dragons as far as I can tell. Hell hound: B4 A4, R5 S4 C3 I4 L2 W3 EDG3 ESS6 M3 INIT9 IP3 Movement 15/50, bite DV 4P, AP 0 |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:50 PM
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#15
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 445 Joined: 18-August 05 Member No.: 7,567 |
Someone should sticky this
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Aug 25 2005, 03:51 PM
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#16
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
Post two of two "just in case" posts. |
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Aug 25 2005, 03:54 PM
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#17
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
Better make that three of two "just in case" posts -- I just found something I'd missed.
(You couldn't have waited another minute, Shadow_Prophet? ;) ) |
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Aug 25 2005, 04:12 PM
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#18
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
Okay, I'm clear. Can't see needing more posts than this. Replacing the gaps now.
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Aug 25 2005, 11:44 PM
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#19
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383 |
No, it's more fun to let this thread get lost so that when someone asks about something covered here you can type, "STFU SEARCH FUNCTION N00B LOL LOL LOL YUO = t3h SUCK LOL LOL LOL". |
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Aug 25 2005, 11:55 PM
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#20
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 807 Joined: 9-October 04 Member No.: 6,741 |
Hold on while I save that comment. I plan on using it in the future.
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Aug 26 2005, 02:33 AM
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#21
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 102 Joined: 26-February 02 From: The freelancer crackhouse Member No.: 119 |
Um, are you sure about that? |
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Aug 26 2005, 03:21 AM
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#22
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Free Spirit Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,948 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Bloomington, IN UCAS Member No.: 1,920 |
Pretty sure. Page 264, the cost of improving a natural attribute rating is the new rating x 3. Then there is erratta, For example, if a character wants to improve her Agility from 4 to 5, the cost is 5 x 5, or 15 karma). There is only the ending parenthese, and 2 out of 3 references say 3 to the 1/3 that claims 5. |
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Aug 26 2005, 02:07 PM
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#23
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 102 Joined: 26-February 02 From: The freelancer crackhouse Member No.: 119 |
It just differs from what I had seen at the next-to-the-last minute, that's all.
*shrug* Not that it really means anything, though. Last minute changes always have a way of getting in like that. |
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Aug 26 2005, 02:37 PM
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#24
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,677 Joined: 5-June 03 Member No.: 4,689 |
It's maybe actually better that I don't have a copy of the book (yet!): that way any mistakes caught in this summary will necessarily reflect what's been said on the boards that's not so. I'm trying to stick to what's said as fact, leaving out speculation and analysis entirely.
Today will be very busy, my end. I'll finish this -- up to where all other threads are at -- tomorrow. The LitS Amazon SR4 link. If you're going to order it through Amazon anyway, here would be good :) |
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Aug 26 2005, 06:59 PM
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#25
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Shooting Target Group: Validating Posts: 1,618 Joined: 29-January 03 From: Montevideo, Uruguay. Member No.: 3,992 |
Success!!! :D |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 1st December 2024 - 04:36 AM |
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