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Briggan
Im thinking about implimenting this as one of a few modified rules in the game I am running. Other than this one the rest of the rules are ones recommended in each of the source books.

- Edge may be spent to automatically hit a target. Damage dealt will be standard DV for the attack x2. It may also be spent to automatically dodge a hit, taking no damage. However edge spent this way will not be refreshed at the end of a run, it will return to you after 8 - Edge attribute (Minimum 2) runs.

What do people think?
noonesshowmonkey
Why?

What dramatic effect do you need to have that edge does not already provide?

Edge can give extra dice that will make an impossible shot juuuust within the realm of possibility. Edge may also be spent to take a lethal shot and turn it aside just enough to survive.

Both of these seem to be the points that you are hammering on - dramatic character driven success and failure in a combative setting.

What about spells? What about vehicle tests? I can kill a man by crashing a motorcycle into him... What is the damage on a crotch rocket?

Seems like its a bit much.

- der menkey

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter."
~ Ernest Hemingway
CrystalBlue
The only thing I see here is...for me, I'd rather just burn the edge and make it up later at that cost. Basing it on number of runs...it decreases the effectiveness of edge. If you look at the statistics, most runners don't live for that many runs. PCs are the exception, but still.

Two ideas come to mind.

1.) Instead of a number of runs, compromise and say the end of the session. Normally, edge refreshes at the end of the scene. That means a meet with a Johnson, getting through to the second floor service elevator, hacking the mainframe, an exciting car chase. Those are scenes. Instead, tell them that they get it back at the end of their session...or do what I do and tell them they get it back 'when they get it back'.

2.) I loved the old Karma rules with Karma Pool. One thing I think they should have ruled was using Karma for things other then training and spells and such. Maybe using a point or two of Karma to buy a critical hit against someone. I mean, hey, it's called Karma for a reason. Do good, and good things happen to you. Maybe your work up till now warrants a little help from TPTB, and they send that horrible shot bouncing off of a metal wall and into the back of the enemy snipers head.
Lagomorph
It's sounds like you want to have a get out of jail free card with edge, but edge already has mechanics to do that (burning, longshots + called shots).

This also makes high edge more worthwhile, an 8 edge human will get edge back faster AND has more to burn in this way, why conserve when you can blast away 4 of anything, each session? I'd say make it comeback after edge runs (so if you only do this once a run you'll always be getting back one edge per run)
Mercer
I find that buying success tends to be anticlimatic.

Edit: I'll elaborate a little. Spending edge to increase your chances still has some tension to it. You can dramatically increase your chances, but you can't buy an absolute certainty.

It seems like the next time your players get in a room with a guy they really don't like, they'll all spend an Edge to auto-crit on their first pass. And the climatic end battle becomes, "We all hit." And if you introduce things to invalidate that (like the main baddie spending edge to auto-dodge), then you've gone to all the trouble to make Edge more powerful only to ultimately make it worthless.
Moon-Hawk
I appreciate that you're trying to come up with effects of edge between spending and burning, but my initial reaction is that the variable-time refresh is a cumbersome mechanic and probably not worth adding.

Also, spending edge in this way to hit a target is actually more powerful than burning edge for a critical success, due to the double DV thing. (unless of course you're using a hold out pistol, then it's the same) So there's a big red flag. You might want to change it to just base damage.
Briggan
Okey doke. Taking into account all that is being said I have realised a few pointers and have an idea on the flip side. In my game and the game I had previously taken part in we agreed that edge refreshing after a scene was too hard boiled so we changed it to the end of a run, hence my rule. I have changed it now, whats the opinion of the new format:

- Edge may be spent to automatically hit a target. Damage dealt will be standard DV for the attack (Changed from x2). It may also be spent to automatically down grade the damage of an attack. For example P would become S and S would be negated completely. Edge spent this way will not be refreshed at the end of the run. Instead edge used in this manner will only return on a critical success.


James McMurray
Depending on how rules-lawyery your players are, that could be a nightmare. Achieving a critical success in something you're focused on can be extremely easy.
Zen Shooter01
Beware, beware, beware of automatic anything. It's a bad idea.

Automatic means automatic. The target has moved to the other side of a closed door at the absolute extreme range through heavy smoke and the shooter has 9 points of physical damage and 9 points of stun damage, but they fire a long narrow burst out of their assault rifle and kill that sucker dead anyway. That's the kind of thing that this rule makes possible.

You're thinking to yourself, "It's only the base DV of the weapon. That's not so bad, right? That's balanced?" Until your human edge monster arms himself with a shotgun full of explosive ammunition, or a PAC, or a missile launcher, or a knife treated with Narcojet, and becomes the Inescapable Doom Of An Angry God.

Your players are going to want to know why this rule only applies in combat, and it's going to tip gameplay in favor of fighters. The face can't automatically succeed in his field by spending edge, the hacker can't, the magician can't - the street samurai can.
Briggan
To deal with that I have "With in reason". Such a shot would be impossible and thus I wouldn't allow the edge spendage for it. Players wont get the chance to be god like with it because the rule will be moderated.

In hinesight however I feel I will probably forget the rule in favour of a different angle.
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