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Message no. 1
From: Bitrunner@***.COM
Subject: attributes and karma
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 08:32:19 EDT
here's one for ya to chew on...

on AOL, we are having an argument about the rules on page 190
SR2 about raising karma. the book says "A character can
increase Physical and Mental Attributes 1 point by paying a
number of Good Karma Points equal to the rating to which the
Attribute is being raised...The gamemaster should probably
discourage players from raising a character's Attributes to
beyond 1.5 x the racial maximum."
now, from the second part of that statement, it seems to me that you can
raise an attribute more than one point. ie: a character starts with a 4
strength and by spending 5 karma, raise it to a 5, then spending 6 karma to
raise it to a 6 strength. above the racial max the next level costs double
the karma for the new level up to the 1.5x max.
some however, are saying that they read it strickly
verbatum from the first passage, and that a character may
increase an attribute by 1 point, PERIOD, only 1 point and no
more beyond that. ie: in the above example which i gave, the
poor character would have to have stopped at 5 strength.
if you use the (optional) second phrase, how is this possible? a human has
a racial max of 6 for all attributes. 1.5x this
would make the new max a 9. now, if you can only raise the
attribute ONE POINT, then you would never get higher than a 7,
and yet the rules say it's possible to get to 9...why have
this optional rule if it can never be achieved??

i am trying to go through my scenarios and other sourcebooks
and see if i can find any characters/npcs with attributes in
this upper range (ie: 8 or 9 for humans)...or does anybody
have any idea where evidence towards either of these
interpretations are?

someone on AOL has already sent a message to FASA, but it will
probably take a couple of days for a reply and i wanted to
hear what this esteemed grouping has to say on the matter...

-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Richard Osterhout | Use highliter to reveal |
| Tavares FL | secret message below: |
| bitrunner@***.com | |
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Message no. 2
From: Ingo Rockel <q09877@******.UNI-PADERBORN.DE>
Subject: Re: attributes and karma
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 13:57:36 +0100
I think it is not ment that you can raise your Attributes once in a
Lifetime, but that you need to raise the Attribute 1 point act. + 1
points Karma and this is written in a bit missunderstanding way, I think.

Jailhouse
Message no. 3
From: Paolo Marcucci <marcucci@***.TS.ASTRO.IT>
Subject: attributes and karma (fwd)
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 15:18:13 METDST
>
> here's one for ya to chew on...

[snip]

> now, from the second part of that statement, it seems to me that you can
> raise an attribute more than one point. ie: a character starts with a 4
> strength and by spending 5 karma, raise it to a 5, then spending 6 karma to
> raise it to a 6 strength. above the racial max the next level costs double
> the karma for the new level up to the 1.5x max.

I left my players to increase their attributes how much they can.

> if you use the (optional) second phrase, how is this possible? a human has
> a racial max of 6 for all attributes. 1.5x this
> would make the new max a 9. now, if you can only raise the
> attribute ONE POINT, then you would never get higher than a 7,
> and yet the rules say it's possible to get to 9...why have
> this optional rule if it can never be achieved??

QED. Racial max is 9 (for humans).

>
> i am trying to go through my scenarios and other sourcebooks
> and see if i can find any characters/npcs with attributes in
> this upper range (ie: 8 or 9 for humans)...or does anybody
> have any idea where evidence towards either of these
> interpretations are?

A lot of my characters have high attributes :)

But I suppose this doesn't count as official...
As I view the question, the player can raise how much he/she can the
attributes of the character. Up to the racial std it costs 1 karma per
point, up to the racial max it costs 2 karma per point.

Bye, Paolo

--
______________________________________________________________________
Paolo Marcucci Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste - Italy
marcucci@***.ts.astro.it http://www.oat.ts.astro.it/marcucci.html
(1.0.1) GCS/GMU d-- -p+ c++ l- u+ e* m+ s n-- h* f+? g- w+/++ t+ r+ x+
______________________________________________________________________
"Visual Basic: You'll shoot yourself in the foot, but you'll have so
much fun doing it that you won't care."
Message no. 4
From: Bryan Prince <WALAB@******.HH.VANDERBILT.EDU>
Subject: Re: attributes and karma
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 10:10:20 -0600
It all depends on what your GM allows. PhysAd's can use magic to raise
their attributes above racial maxima also. As a general rule, most GM's
I know allow you to raise up to racial maxima with Karma. Only cyber or
magic can raise above the maxima in their worlds. Just my 0.02=Y= worth
Bryan Prince
Message no. 5
From: Jai Tao <jdfalk@****.COM>
Subject: Re: attributes and karma (fwd)
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 18:02:53 -0400
About the AOLusers' attributes and karma argument, has anybody asked the
DLoH? I mean, he _is_ on AOL, last we heard.
Of course, IMHO, such arguments get pointless after about five
posts -- at that point, it is merely a question of what the GM will
allow.
Message no. 6
From: "Bill P. Flint" <claymore@******.DIGEX.NET>
Subject: Re: attributes and karma
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 20:43:35 -0400
Look at the contacts and see if their attributes are higher than racial max.

--Clayore the Metaknight Champion, aka No-Dachi
Message no. 7
From: Ivy Ryan <ivyryan@***.ORG>
Subject: Re: attributes and karma
Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 10:22:18 -0700
On Mon, 30 May 1994, Bryan Prince wrote:

> It all depends on what your GM allows. PhysAd's can use magic to raise
> their attributes above racial maxima also. As a general rule, most GM's
> I know allow you to raise up to racial maxima with Karma. Only cyber or
> magic can raise above the maxima in their worlds. Just my 0.02=Y= worth
> Bryan Prince
>
I allow Characters to go as far as (Racial Maximum) times 1.5 % myself.
This gives an Elf Samurai the ability to get their Quickness up to a 10.
(Racial Max = 7 for elves, 7 x 1.5 = 10.5, rounded down as usual means
that they can get to 10)
Ivy K

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.