on simsense vertigo- its actualy a potent disability for all characters, as it prevents teh use of a smartlink (-2 plus +2 equals +0) . not having a +2 to hit above your skill+ability, when thats not your best skill, and you have a bunch of penalties... well, it means you need to use less guns and more spells... and thus more drain, and astral traces of magic.
it also means your at -1 if you try to drive with AR. which could be somewhat of a problem, when so many roadsigns are only in AR.
the setting makes the assumption that every has AR, most if not all of the time. having a -2 to all spellcasting just so you can be in on the team PAN is a bad thing. it means not having the nice image overlay letting the hacker point out where your enemies are.
Full Version: Unorthodox Combat Mechanics
| QUOTE (eidolon) | ||
I'm sorry if this comes across as overly snarky, but "shoot it more because it isn't dying" isn't combat instincts. It's "it hasn't died yet, and my method of killing it is to shoot it more and hope it dies". If you want them to have to think on their feet, give them smarter opponents, not tougher. (Although smarter opponents are arguably "tougher".  ) |
Exactly. The best way to get the players to use superior tactics is to make the NPCs use superior tactics. The fact is that the guns blazing aproach really doesn't work that well if the security is set up correctly.
| QUOTE (Glyph) |
| On the specific problem of the players organlegging the opposition (which I think there was also a thread on, in the Shadowrun forum) - keep in mind that without surgery skill, plenty of time, and then a freezer to put the parts in, it's not very feasible. And if they invest in that, they should still find that their notoriety goes up, some of their better contacts drop them in disgust, and the ones replacing those contacts will tend to be more unsavory and less reliable. They will also get dirtier but less high-paying jobs, and have to worry more about law enforcement and vindictive enemies (dead guards are part of business, but if someone cuts off their body parts afterwards, the corporation will expend more effort in punishing the offenders). Logical, in-game consequences are the best way to deal with these kind of things. |
When the PCs are orgenlegging it is nice to humanize fallen foes. Humanizing foes is always good but orgenlegging makes it so much easier. For example, while the butchers are looting the corpse have them find pictures of their victim's children and handmad birthday cards expressing the children's love for their parent. Let them find weding rings with sappy inscriptions. Let them find hospital bills for a yound child's lukemia treatment that the family could barely afford with two living providers and now cannot possibly pay for. Have them find comlinks that contain the names and numbers of friends and family. Let them find half-written novels and beautiful garage band music. Let them find the area cranial bomb that was set to go off if anyone tampered with the guy's encrypted headware memory just a few seconds too late.
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