| From: | Paul Jonathan Adam <Paul@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Allergies and game balance |
| Date: | Sun, 23 Apr 1995 12:32:23 GMT |
> Dump the allergies and everything's cool. Add allergies and it (and the base
> system) start to get out of hand. Allergies, if at all possible, will not
> be in my campaign. And if they are on some existing characters... then
> they'll pay for them. All it takes is one guy to see that a silver blade
> did a number on a runner to get the word out on the street. Suddenly
> everyone who has to deal with the guy is carrying silver bullets or somesuch.
One character in our campaign is a leopard shapeshifter, and if you look at the
stats for that, you can see the potential for major munchkinism. Except that
this character was so leopard-like, it fitted too well to just write her off as
"unbalancing". So she is a shape-shifter, but a genetic one rather than the
usual awakened type.
She has no magical abilities whatsoever, especially not a dual-essence nature
(gross, very gross) and so the damage she regenerates has to go somewhere,
namely into stun damage, and if magical healing is used on her she goes into
cardiac arrest. She has a severe allergy to silver, which is difficult
considering her tribal background (...Jason, I don't care if you are
paramount warrior of the entire f***ing nation, take that damn silver jewelery
off when you're around me! Yoooowl!) and has to make willpower roles when i)
one of her cubs ie.friends is threatened and ii) around any small, fluffy,
potentially delicious-tasting, living creatures. A walk in the park is
difficult to say the least (..."Your cat just ate my poodle!" "Well, I'm
real
sorry Governer Schultz, erm, buy you another one?).
Another thing to remember, of course, is other people's attitudes. In our
campaign, a Bill of Congress had to be passed to allow Lilith to be a citizen.
Quebec doesn't recognise any paranormal creature as sentient, and even has a
bounty on on them. Powerful as she may be, Lilith still has to put up with
people whispering behind her back, staring, especially making supposedly good-
natured comments like "Is it OK for you to eat that carrot-cake? When I was on
safari in Africa the guide told me that Big Cats couldn't digest vegatables..."
(The reply is "since I can digest you, there's no problem...")
"I thought your skin wold be a lot darker. Leopards are from Africa aren't they"
or even worse, "Bet your husband can't wait till you're on heat...".
Racial bias is mentioned in a number of places in SRII, but is difficult to
use. But even if your elf/shapeshifter/vampire is the most lethal being in the
Known Universe, if they can't even have a quiet drink with Mr J in public
without attracting unwanted attention then they'll be pretty limited in the
kind of work they can do. Lilith works very hard to act like a "normal" human,
and even so has a lot of trouble with mages, as her true nature is like a
beacon in astral.
Making people pay for their power is good. It encourages very creative role-
playing. When Paul or I GM a game, the players pay for everything they have.
You're a good swordsman? Ito Tamazaki, one of Japan's "sword-saints" has heard
of you and wants to see if you are better than him. Incomplete background? You
have a memory implant that's just starting to break down leaving you with
nightmarish visions of how you got your skills and cyberware. We have a number
of potentially unbalancing characters in our game but their all too scared to
want to be numero uno...:-)
You may have to put limitations on players as the only surefire way
to control the powergamers but as a GM, it can also be fun to let them think
they've got it their way...(cue very evil Christopher Lee laugh ;-} )
Mr Jones?
Are there spots in a leopard's eyes, also? J O'Barr"The Crow"
Hazel Adam (Mrs Paul J) paul@********.demon.co.uk
