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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Valeu John EMFA)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 04:45:01 2001
It's going to be a long weekend and I hope to have some answers to the
questions presented here.

1: Am I correct in reading that the Troll metavariant of Fomori (the Celtic
one) gets NO Charisma modifier?
Even the Giants get a minus 2 (or was it 3?) and they look fairly human (at
least, that's the artist's rendition).

2: Cosmetic Bioware thing, changing the way your sweat smells or even
tastes. Sorry, this is just something that, well I wouldn't say bother, but
it makes me thing of weird things. Granted, I am the GM...

3: Finally, I'm creating an NPC to help my players new campaign. I'm going
to base him off the Mentats from Dune. So he'll be extremely intelligent
(Thinking about a 6 minimum) but have little to none combat skills, body,
strength, quickness, average willpower and charisma...
Anyway, what Cyber/Bio-ware would be good for a guy like this? Should I
just use the cyber-logician, but slightly moded?
(For the record, the mentat would be based off Piter De Vris. Twisted,
cruel, sick in the head, but above a genus.)

4: Did anyone check the forums on something about firing two guns
simultaneously? One old suggestion was to basically turn your other arm
into a linked drone with a laser-guided tracker (linked to your pistol's
sight, nach) and rigged to fire when you did. Simple mechanics overcome a
+4 modifier.
Does anyone have a way to counter this? It made perfect sense (rules-wise)
to me, and since it's within the rules it's only a matter of time before
someone else thinks of it.

Alright. It's getting late and time's a wasting.
Sayonara.

PS: Someone out there wanted to do a "Steam-Punk" game similar to
Shadowrun? There's a recently released computer game that does just that.
Industrial revolution with fantasy and magic. Even says on the box you can
be a gun-toting elf or a magic wielding ork.
Supposedly it's a good single player game (Havent heard much about
multi-play).


EMFA John Valeu
-AKA- TimeKeeper
"Don't put off tomorrow what you can do today, because it's just a matter of
time."
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Derek Hyde)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 08:40:01 2001
> 1: Am I correct in reading that the Troll metavariant of Fomori (the
> Celtic
> one) gets NO Charisma modifier?
> Even the Giants get a minus 2 (or was it 3?) and they look fairly
human
> (at
> least, that's the artist's rendition).

Yes the formori have no charisma modifier because if you read the
description it says "(p39 fanpro printing first couple lines) Fomori are
Irish/Celtic trolls, they lack dermal bone deposits, and are generally
considered comparatively attractive by other races."

That means that everyone likes fomori so they don't have a negative to
charisma

> 4: Did anyone check the forums on something about firing two guns
> simultaneously? One old suggestion was to basically turn your other
arm
> into a linked drone with a laser-guided tracker (linked to your
pistol's
> sight, nach) and rigged to fire when you did. Simple mechanics
overcome
> a
> +4 modifier.
> Does anyone have a way to counter this? It made perfect sense (rules-
> wise)
> to me, and since it's within the rules it's only a matter of time
before
> someone else thinks of it.

Take the Ambidexterity edge at +8 you're completely ambidextrous and can
fire two weapons without any modifiers at all, you'll still pay for the
recoil of course but I (as the GM) count each gun's recoil
separately rather than adding them together.
Message no. 3
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Derek Hyde)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 08:45:01 2001
> PS: Someone out there wanted to do a "Steam-Punk" game similar to
> Shadowrun? There's a recently released computer game that does just
that.
> Industrial revolution with fantasy and magic. Even says on the box
you
> can
> be a gun-toting elf or a magic wielding ork.
> Supposedly it's a good single player game (Havent heard much about
> multi-play).

What's the name of the game? (can't tell us about it without telling us
what it is now....)
Message no. 4
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Jonathan)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 11:25:01 2001
> 2: Cosmetic Bioware thing, changing the way your sweat smells or even
> tastes. Sorry, this is just something that, well I wouldn't say bother,
but
> it makes me thing of weird things. Granted, I am the GM...
>

Yes the cosmetic bioware is pretty well just a weird roleplay device. I
think FASA was looking more to twisted PBeMs when they came up with
that...mainly because in my current PBeM I have a characters whose sweat
smells and tastes like raspberries...why I don't know...but it fits her
character.

> 3: Finally, I'm creating an NPC to help my players new campaign. I'm
going
> to base him off the Mentats from Dune. So he'll be extremely intelligent
> (Thinking about a 6 minimum) but have little to none combat skills, body,
> strength, quickness, average willpower and charisma...
> Anyway, what Cyber/Bio-ware would be good for a guy like this? Should I
> just use the cyber-logician, but slightly moded?
> (For the record, the mentat would be based off Piter De Vris. Twisted,
> cruel, sick in the head, but above a genus.)
>

Well if he's to be genius over combat look to decker/rigger cyberware. If
you really want to get sci-fi on him try integrating nanities or symbiotes.

> 4: Did anyone check the forums on something about firing two guns
> simultaneously? One old suggestion was to basically turn your other arm
> into a linked drone with a laser-guided tracker (linked to your pistol's
> sight, nach) and rigged to fire when you did. Simple mechanics overcome
a
> +4 modifier.
> Does anyone have a way to counter this? It made perfect sense
(rules-wise)
> to me, and since it's within the rules it's only a matter of time before
> someone else thinks of it.
>

Actually the cannon companion includes the edge: Ambedexterity reducing the
modifiers for using a weapon in each hand. Though the drone idea seems very
nice it seems a bit much to control two weapons...
Message no. 5
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 11:30:01 2001
Valeu John EMFA writes:

> 1: Am I correct in reading that the Troll metavariant of Fomori (the Celtic
> one) gets NO Charisma modifier?

Well, recalling that Charisma is not just about looks, there probably isn't
too much of a problem here. Hey, maybe them Fomori's are real likable chums
or something ;-).

> 2: Cosmetic Bioware thing, changing the way your sweat smells or even
> tastes. Sorry, this is just something that, well I wouldn't say bother, but
> it makes me thing of weird things. Granted, I am the GM...

<grin> Yes, the uses are wide and varied and can add much flavour to the
game...

On a related topic, this reminds me of the character who once had "reverse
tailored pheremones", so that rather than people liking him for no obvious
reason, people were fearful of him for no apparent reason. Quite cool.

> 3: Finally, I'm creating an NPC to help my players new campaign. I'm going
> to base him off the Mentats from Dune. So he'll be extremely intelligent
> (Thinking about a 6 minimum) but have little to none combat skills, body,
> strength, quickness, average willpower and charisma...
> Anyway, what Cyber/Bio-ware would be good for a guy like this? Should I
> just use the cyber-logician, but slightly moded?

Er, it beats me what a "Mentat" is, but an Encephalon would be a great
thing. As would Cerberal Boosters or whatever that cheesy bit of bioware
that adds to Intelligence is. You could also go for the Photographic Memory
Edge, and perhaps headware memory, too. A Tactical Computer with all the
Battletac add ons and communications gear to boot would be great - the rules
for giving everyone extra Initiative and/or Combat Pool with Small Unit
Tactics are extremely useful.

> 4: Did anyone check the forums on something about firing two guns
> simultaneously? One old suggestion was to basically turn your other arm
> into a linked drone with a laser-guided tracker (linked to your pistol's
> sight, nach) and rigged to fire when you did. Simple mechanics overcome a
> +4 modifier.
> Does anyone have a way to counter this? It made perfect sense (rules-wise)
> to me, and since it's within the rules it's only a matter of time before
> someone else thinks of it.

Er, what exactly is wrong with firing two weapons at once? Even with no
modifiers? Using two pistols at once is still not as effective as using a
single SMG, for example. But it is _considerably_ more stylish. If the player
wants to go for all those extra mods just to be _less_ effective than if he
didn't and just used a better weapon, then why stop them if it's all in the
name of game flavour (or fragrance ;-))?

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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Message no. 6
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Jonathan)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 12:10:01 2001
> Er, what exactly is wrong with firing two weapons at once? Even with no
> modifiers? Using two pistols at once is still not as effective as using a
> single SMG, for example. But it is _considerably_ more stylish. If the
player
> wants to go for all those extra mods just to be _less_ effective than if
he
> didn't and just used a better weapon, then why stop them if it's all in
the
> name of game flavour (or fragrance ;-))?
>

It's all in the target numbers, without any modifiers using two weapons
makes hitting anything next to impossible (if it's a clear day with no
restrictions, you might hit what you shoot at. If it's dark or vision
impaired put away the guns you aren't hitting squat)

I think it was implemented this way due to how with certain cyberware
adjustments it's not hard to conceive a street sam with cyber arms and extra
support arms holding larger guns (ie SMG, MG, miniguns etc) if there were no
modifiers this kind of street sam could basically take on an army by himself
and still hit 99% of what he shot at.
Message no. 7
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Ray Macey)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 17:25:01 2001
>
> What's the name of the game? (can't tell us about it without telling us
> what it is now....)

I'm going to assume that he is talking about Arcanum. It's the only
steampunk PC game with elves and orks that I know of.

Ray.
Message no. 8
From: shadowrn@*********.com (shadowrn@*********.com)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 19:55:01 2001
> 3: Finally, I'm creating an NPC to help my players new campaign. I'm
going
> to base him off the Mentats from Dune. So he'll be extremely intelligent
> (Thinking about a 6 minimum) but have little to none combat skills, body,
> strength, quickness, average willpower and charisma...
> Anyway, what Cyber/Bio-ware would be good for a guy like this? Should I
> just use the cyber-logician, but slightly moded?
> (For the record, the mentat would be based off Piter De Vris. Twisted,
> cruel, sick in the head, but above a genus.)

Hmmmm. I can't seem to find my cybertech book anywhere, but you DO have a
few problems with your 'Mentat' concept. Therefore, I am going to give you
two different answers, one for a version from the first movie, the second for
the books and SciFi channel miniseries.

1. Penalty to strength and body, bonus to maximum intelligence. Bring
intelligence all the way up to its absolute maximum (9 or 10), let willpower
hit a 6 or 7, with charisma at a 4 or 5. Quickness should also be high; even
in the movie, they were poisoners. Stir in mnemonic enhancers, encephalons,
basically every intelligence-bolstering bio- or cyberware you can dredge up,
as well as using whatever method of 'photographic memory' you happen to have.
Add the 'enhanced scent' and 'enhanced taste' cyberware/bioware (I don't
have M&M, so I don't know if they have it as bioware yet) and toss in a bit
of headware memory. Follow up with plenty of 'political savvy' skills --
negotiation, etiquette, and knowledge skills up the ying-yang. Dust lightly
with as many other skills as possible, from combat to vehicle, and even
magical. Bake until psychotic.


2. Boost intelligence, add cyber/bioware as above. Keep physical attributes
moderate to high, charisma strong, willpower strong. Add political savvy,
other additional skills. Make sure KS: Military Tactics is strong, with
strong support by physical combat and piloting skills. Stir in light doses
of other physical skills. Remember that these men are specifically trained
to gather disparate, incomplete parts to form a mental 'whole' -- or a hole,
to know the shape of the 'whole'. Bake until fanatical.

To get the best -real- vision of a mentat, read Heretics of Dune, and pay
attention to the Mentat Bashar. *grins*


The Wyrm Ouroboros
'Half Russian mathemetician,
half Silicon Valley code freak.'
Message no. 9
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Rand Ratinac)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 20:45:01 2001
> > 2: Cosmetic Bioware thing, changing the way your
sweat smells or even tastes. Sorry, this is just
something that, well I wouldn't say bother, but it
makes me thing of weird things. Granted, I am the
GM...
>
> Yes the cosmetic bioware is pretty well just a weird
roleplay device. I think FASA was looking more to
twisted PBeMs when they came up with that...mainly
because in my current PBeM I have a characters whose
sweat smells and tastes like raspberries...why I don't
know...but it fits her character.
<snipt!(TM)>

Strawberries, Jonathan. ;)

I've got an ex-bunraku prostitute character in a story
who, amongst other things, smells and tastes like
strawberries. :)

====Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow, aka Doc'booner, aka Doc' Vader)

.sig Sauer

If you SMELL what the DOC' is COOKING!!!

__________________________________________________
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Message no. 10
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Jonathan)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 21:40:01 2001
> Strawberries, Jonathan. ;)
>
> I've got an ex-bunraku prostitute character in a story
> who, amongst other things, smells and tastes like
> strawberries. :)
>

Actually my player specified raspberries not strawberries. :)

lol for a prostitute I could see such a surgery being useful but for an
actual character that just goes a little off beat ;) Tailored
Pheremones(spelling?) I could understand but changing your sweat and scent
to whatever kind of berry....in a stats way it serves no logical purpose for
shadowrunners in a role play sense it's an interesting little gimmick :)
Message no. 11
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Rand Ratinac)
Subject: A couple of things from the rulebooks and more
Date: Sat Nov 10 22:20:01 2001
> Actually my player specified raspberries not
strawberries. :)

Strawberry's better. ;)

> lol for a prostitute I could see such a surgery
being useful but for an actual character that just
goes a little off beat ;) Tailored
Pheremones(spelling?) I could understand but changing
your sweat and scent to whatever kind of berry....in a
stats way it serves no logical purpose for
shadowrunners in a role play sense it's an interesting
little gimmick :)

But that's the whole point! :)

I mean, for a stereotypical shadowrunner, sure, not
all that useful. But what about a female face who does
a lot of her work by charming execs or the like?
Tailored Pheromones (Cultured if you can afford it),
sure, but add in clean metabolism, dietware and scent
glands and she's the queen of the social situation.

It all depends on the character. For some it might
just be a quirk, but for others, while it may not give
a mechanics benefit, it might just give all the game
benefit you need.

====Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow, aka Doc'booner, aka Doc' Vader)

.sig Sauer

If you SMELL what the DOC' is COOKING!!!

__________________________________________________
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Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com

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