Still gives a character with a crappy gun a reason to call it a PoS, but doesn't completely nerf him either. He can still potentially kill someone with a hod-out pistol.

My suspicion is that a 'Called Shot' may assist with that. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the effects of calling a shot raised the limit of the test.

Just like it wouldn't surprise me if a Smartlinked Pistol could be fired twice, instead of just once.

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

There are some fundamental misunderstandings of dice littering this subject.

I think that's going to be a major hurdle to appreciating limits.

For instance: Having a lower limit than another person in no way eliminates your ability to beat them in a contested roll. Just like having less dice than someone, in no way, eliminated your ability to beat someone in a contested roll.

Additionally, having a larger dice pool with an infinite sample size dominates a smaller dice pool without limits. In the same way, having an equal dice pool, and disparate limits is likewise dominating in infinite sample sizes. There's no fundamental change here. The core result is a function of probability. Same as its always been.

There's a bit of a mathematical shell game going on, and if sounds like some of the above commentary isn't even looking at the table, let alone the shells, let alone trying to figure out which shell will win you a big kewpie doll.

-Wired_SR_AEGIS

What will really matter is the relationship of one person's dice pool to the other person's cap. That is, the percentage of rolls that will 'bully' the other person into a 0% chance of success.

Just a thought. Knowledge skill have been almost useless in SR4, crunchwise. Some GMs allowed bonus dice on active skill rolls after an appropriate Knowledge Skill test.

Could it be, that these tests now increase Limit?

I imagine Knowledge skills will continue to provide no to very limited crunchy benefit. However they're essential for answering questions like "what's a good jackpoint nearby?" and "what's a standard JoeBob SecuriCorp squad made up of?" and "what was the score of last night's Urban Brawl so I can quote it and buddy up to this bartender?"

Really, a good GM should encourage players to use their knowledges so they can have, well, knowledge. Creative application of them can result in fantastic roleplaying solutions to otherwise crunchy problems.

Preferentially, I'd really hate to see them make Knowledges directly affect Active Skills, because it would encourage everyone to select "thing that lets me get +limit" rather than "thing that is tangentially interesting and might be really useful someday."

I posted that because of all the people complaining about this will be more gear heavy than before. All of the "OMG, I'm NOTHING without my gear!" or "My skills are USELESS with crappy gear, better off getting a gutter punk with a zip gun than give it to me!" This at least gives the option of "DAMN chummer!, How the drek did you do THAT with a freakin' Raecor Sting!" LOL

Dammit. If I can't run around naked with my hands cupped over my tallywacker while simultaneously knocking out every guard then it's not good enough.

This gives me horrifyingly badwronghilarious ideas about a cybertroll with a detachable cyberschlong running around literally clubbing guards unconscious with his penis.

Penile implant is an option from Augmentation.

I made that post not only in full knowledge of this fact, but with a character that took said option.

Dammit. If I can't run around naked with my hands cupped over my tallywacker while simultaneously knocking out every guard then it's not good enough.

Okay Raiden, calm down there.

So get better tools.

Somehow I think range penalties will hit Accuracy not your dice pool.

Yup. Use those sniper rifles for close range firefights and the crappy guns for sniping at long.