Hello, I was GMing a run and got in an argument with the other players and a few GMs. Just wanna to remove a doubt. When staging ranged, do I ignore power changes if it stages above D?

Example:

Joe Sammy fires his Predator III on Jane Mage. Joe's firearms + CP test give him 9 successes. He's a pro with a bucketload of KP.

Jane Mage dodges, only getting 2 succ.

As I see it, you take the succ of Jane and subtracts it from Joe's test. 9 - 2 is 7 net succs on the test. So The damage stages 3 times: 9M -> 9S -> 9D -> 10D

As I see it, Jane needs to roll her resistance as a Body test (poor mage) + CP left (if she wants, and i bet she does) against 10 - ballistic.

My friend says that nope. After a Predator reachs 9D, there's no more stages up.

Who is correct?

Thanks for your time,
Bubasti_BR

Amazonian pride.

heh

You are.

Not in SR3, he isn't. In SR3, power only stages like that for melee combat.

I think that damage in SR3 for ranged combat stops at 'D', so you only ever need 8 successes to stage stuff down. I think the staging was 'net' (as you describe) in SR2. There is an optional rule in SR ('deadlier overdamamge' iirc) that means you take onw box of overdamage for every stagin past deadly, but I forget what book it's in. Of course, you you are into overdamage, you aer seconds away from dogmeat anyway.

Considering that damage IRL that leads to death in ~9 seconds, you are looking at things like having your heart smashed, having both femoral or carotid arteries cut. To produce the really instant death effect you basically have to hit someone in certain parts of the brain.

Of course, this does mean that your runner can sport some great scars, like where his heart was punched out of his chest (with awesome entry and exit wounds!) by a bug spirit, but the team mage fixed him up before his brain ran out of oxygen.

Your friend is correct, but those extra successes still need to be soaked off.

Ranged:

9M weapon, 7 successes. Staging is not performed now, but after the soak successes are subtracted.

Soak test, 2 successes. 7-2 = 5, 5 // 2 = 2, staged twice. D, Power is irrelevant as soak has already occurred.

Soak test, 0 successes. 7 // 2 = 3, staged twice to D, unable to stage further.

Soak test, 4 successes. 7-4 = 3, 3 // 2 = 1, staged once to S.

Melee:

9M weapon, 7 net successes. Staging is performed now. 7 // 2 = 3, staged to 9S, 9D, 10D.

Soak test occurs against 10D flat.

~J

Kagetenshi, I still have a doubt on your explanation. As you pose it, the power of the damage has no effect on the damage. I will, again, put an example and lets see if I get it correctly:

Joe Sammy fires his Predator III on Jane Mage. He rolls awesome 9 succ. (He's speced, with SL-2 and at close range without vision mods).

Jane Mage rolls dodge (TN 4) and only have one succ. So this subtract one succ from Joe's test, so he keeps with 8.

Jane Mage now has to soak. We still ignore the net succ and soak just 9M? Sorry, if this sound ridiculous. From here I can only see a few exits:

1 -> If she stages down the base damage to L, we take the 8 succ and stage the damage up four times giving her a D. (You said that power doesn't matter anymore).

2 -> Even is she manages to stage the damage to nothing, we still take the 8 succ and stage up four times, again going to D.

3 -> To Jane Mage survive, she needs to at least have 6 succ on the resistance test. Soaking the damage to nothing, and then culling 2 succ from Joe's test. Yet, he still have 6 succ resting, staging the damage back to S.

I know that my rule-fu is weak when it comes to this things, but I'm an ESL (English Second Language) person, and the rule book ain't very clear. At least for me.

Thanks again,
Bubasti_BR

Amazonian pride