| From: | Marc Renouf renouf@********.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | A False Sense of Security (was: Melee Combat) |
| Date: | Wed, 10 Nov 1999 11:29:35 -0500 (EST) |
> This all boils down to the old question of what is better in meele, skill
> or speed. There have been several flame wars around here over that
> question especially when Sr3 came out and the4 new initative and pool
> refresh systems were introduced. In Sr2 Speed was everything, a skill 3
> guy with 3 actions/turn would always beat a skill 8 guy with 1
> action/turn.
No, no, and no. Speed is *not* everything in SR2, especially
where melee combat is concerned. The guy with the skill of 3 and wired
reflexes will attack first...and promptly get his ass counterattacked into
the ground. Even dumping in all his allowable Combat Pool dice, he still
only rolls 6 dice (as opposed to his opponent's 8 dice *without* Combat
Pool). The guy with a skill of 3 has little or no hope of beating an
opponent with skill 8 in melee combat, wires or no.
Speed has its advantages, in both SR2 and SR3. It's also *way* to
heavily banked on and exaggerated. There are *so* many ways to remove
speed from the equation it's not even funny. The biggest problem I have
with Wired Reflexes is not that they make PC's unstoppable, but that they
give them a false sense of security and they end up dying in droves. I've
finally got my players trained to *think* rather than just roll for
initiative and bank on going first. It's easy to do, and it torques me
off that everbody wines about reflex enhancement. Don't fix what ain't
broken.
> In Sr3 that was corrected (in most of our eyes) but now a
> skill 8 guy with 3 actions has basically no advantage over a skill 8 guy
> with one action.
The reason for this is not because of the initiative system, but
rather because of the change in the way Combat Pool is handled in SR3. If
the guy with three actions had his Combat Pool refresh more often, he'd
have an advantage. It has nothing to do with how many actions they get,
other than the fact that with completely equal skill, the combatant with
more actions will be the "attacker" more often, and thus ties will go in
his favor, which would be the case in *either* initiative system.
Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)
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