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Message no. 1
From: Nightfox <DJWA@******.UCC.NAU.EDU>
Subject: Characters and Military
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 14:51:12 -0700
Ok, first off - the military.
The military would not spend the money to cyber ordinary troops. First of all
it is not all that cost effective - the normal troops will probably not get into
much combat during their time in the military. Look at the US - how many times
since Vietnam has the military actually been in combat? not many and most of
those times it was not man vs man but man vs machine or Machine vs machine.
The gulf war is a good example - the average soldier was over there for a few
months and maybe saw two days of fighting, most of the Grunts never even had to
shoot that much (that I know of).

Also - the government probably would not want to put that cyber ware into
somebody who will hopefully never use it and who will leave the service in three
to four years. Can you imagine the uproar when an ex-army man goes cyber-psyco
and blows away alot more than he normally could because of cyber.

Another thing that needs to be recognized is that if you give the man smart
goggs - the guy who comes in after him will get his which cost the army only a
little because of paper work.

Special forces are another matter though - and they would include plane and LAV
pilots. The gov would spend the extras on them since they are worth it - and
they would only do the mods to people they would keep for a long while.



Police - not everyone wants cyberware like a Sam does. Most police would make
do without any cyberware just using slightly better weapons. Also people with
cyberware tend to start thinking they are invincible and get geeked quicker.



Corp Security - again little cyberware. They would most likely only put cyber
on their better and more trusted people using the old military reasoning of how
often will they need the cyber. Think about it - good planning and tactics will
help you more than cyber ever will. People who tend to get into fire fights
have a higher chance of death - once you start a fire fight youve already lost.





Runners - Somewhere I read that Seattle had about 100 truly good and competent
runners. What this means is that there are a lot of wannabes and no names out
there looking for a shot and hoping to get better.

If you compare the characters in Archetype creation to normal humans you should
notice that they are way above normal in EVERYTHING. What this means is that
the Runners you create from the book are already in the top 150 or even top 100.
They are the type of people you read about in books - they are the hereos in
stories who are more than the normal man. There are other runners out their but
most of them are below what can be made from the book.

The runners are the big heroes - thats why they can take on gangs and win, your
average begining runner knows better and knows that one or two gangers might be
chipped as much as he is and will be the ones who take him out. But the runners
you make from the book are not average - a mage for instance is very powerful
and is a force to be feared. A sam from the book is is a killing machine.


from Turtle in the Tower - " he held on to his radio shack deck like it was a
fairlight excaliber" - this is your little less than normal runners he has
maybe one or two advantages set set him somewhat apart.

The guys you start out with should not be looked at as novices to the shadows,
when you start playing them they probably have already been running for about a
year or so. That combat skill of 3 is GOOD while the sam with a skill of 6 is
god. Stop looking at the guys you create as wimps and begin looking at then as
highly skilled and powerful.

Nightfox

BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!
Daniel Waisley + SCA - March of Ered Sul - Flagstaff AZ
DJWA@******.UCC.NAU.EDU + Nau fencing club.
"Nightfox" + Brotherhood of the Cryptic Demesne -household
BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!
"A lack of knowledge is a dangerous thing. I am the most dangerous
man in the universe." - Daniel Waisley "Nightfox"
BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!BOINGEE!!!
Message no. 2
From: The Deb Decker <RJR96326@****.UTULSA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Characters and Military
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 23:31:59 -0600
>since Vietnam has the military actually been in combat? not many and most of
>those times it was not man vs man but man vs machine or Machine vs machine.

Grenada. Panama. Los Angeles. These required infantry.
Libya. This was a machine v machine thing.

>shoot that much (that I know of).

Mon Frere Waisley, speak only of that which you know. Simply advice, no
judgement as to the validity or lack thereof in your statement.

>Police - not everyone wants cyberware like a Sam does. Most police would make
>do without any cyberware just using slightly better weapons. Also people with
>cyberware tend to start thinking they are invincible and get geeked quicker.

I simply think that the value of some cyberware is exxagerated in terms of
game mechanics, and that the average person can get just as much gain as
a techmonger. As point out below, PCs skew the statistics, and therefore
aren't a good gauge of the shape of things to come.

>Stop looking at the guys you create as wimps and begin looking at then as
>highly skilled and powerful.

Sound advice for any game. . .unless you ARE playing normal people (my
friends here just won't go for a 25 point GURPS campaign. . .)

J Roberson
Message no. 3
From: Julian M Wiffen <ne95003@******.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Characters and Military
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 00:32:34 +0000
While we're on the subject of the military, an interesting story broke
this morning here in Britain which I doubt made it to the US papers. It
concerns the reasons behind the Falklands war.
Everyone knows that the Gulf war was about oil. Now it turns out that
so was the Falklands - surveyors have now reported that the seas around
the islands (ie within the exclusion zone) contain a lot of oil, to the
tune of 50% more than our North Sea reserves. Apparently, it was known
that there was likely to be oil in that area, just that no one new how much.

This set me thinking - would wars in SR be likely to be fought over
natural resources in the same way - at the moment it's the Western powers
versus various various third world powers - I can see this sort of
colonial war going on between corporations (ie the small high tech forces)
and localised developing world powers (who have a lot of local men on the
ground) who as in both of these cases have underestimated the Western (or
Corporate rediness to use force, particulary when serious money is involved)



Thats enough random mumbling for now.

Julian

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