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Message no. 1
From: Starjammer <starjammer@**********.COM>
Subject: Dodging bullets (was Re: Musical Skills)
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 11:46:19 -0400
At 11:24 AM 9-24-98 -0400, you wrote:

><warning, thread topic change>
> Who among us here would allow using Athletics to compliment
>dodging bullets?
></topic change>
>
>Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,

Agreeing to disagree on music, I would allow Athletic dodging under very
specific circumstances:

* The character must see the attack coming, and I don't mean catching a
glimpse out of the corner of his eye at the last moment. That, or have
some sort of mystical Combat Sense and make a Surprise Test.

* The character must declare the dodge as a Complex Action, and have one
available before the attack comes. Also, most circumstances would have the
character winding up prone after the dodge.

* The character must defend against the attack using the rules for Full
Defense.

With those caveats, I would probably allow the character to use Athletics
as a complimentary avoidance skill. But no, otherwise I would not allow a
character to be side-stepping bullets without a very expensive Adept power.
Starjammer | "Would it help if we sacrificed a
goat?"
starjammer@**********.com | -- Street sam "Crusher" Carlson
to mage
Marietta, GA | Straight Blue, on a really bad day
Message no. 2
From: Mongoose <evamarie@**********.NET>
Subject: Re: Dodging bullets (was Re: Musical Skills)
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 18:24:39 -0700
:> Who among us here would allow using Athletics to compliment
:>dodging bullets?
:></topic change>
:>
:>Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,
:
:Agreeing to disagree on music, I would allow Athletic dodging under very
:specific circumstances:
:
:* The character must see the attack coming, and I don't mean catching a
:glimpse out of the corner of his eye at the last moment. That, or have
:some sort of mystical Combat Sense and make a Surprise Test.
:
:* The character must declare the dodge as a Complex Action, and have one
:available before the attack comes. Also, most circumstances would have
the
:character winding up prone after the dodge.
:
:* The character must defend against the attack using the rules for Full
:Defense.
:

We had something very like this in our house rules (we used SR3 style
dodges for a long time)- as a complex action, you could roll athletics
(acrobatics specialization, I think). You kept the dice from the roll to
one side and compared them to your dodge TN's when needed; every 2
successes counted as one for the dodge test.
Yous could just say, as a complex action, you can use athletics to
complement any and all of all your dodge tests until your next action; it
would be about the same.
We didn't require that the person know the attack was coming (in fact,
it was usually used when you knew their would be an attack, but not from
where; getting past an open doorway, for example)- it was assumed that
your flips and such made you harder to hit.
We never used this for avoiding melee (but I'd consider it ok); the
rules for full defense don't apply to ranged attacks, and we allowed it
was OK to get hit and even damaged, as long as the knockback did not
affect you.
It does make athletics a much more useful skill, IMO, and was not
grossly imbalancing; in SR3, with combat pools refreshing only once per
turn, it could get very hard to hit a physad who just bounces around, so
it may be better to say each success on an athletics 4 test adds a combat
pool die usable for dodge purposes only.

Mongoose
Message no. 3
From: Matthew Waddilove <matthew@*********.U-NET.COM>
Subject: Re: Dodging bullets (was Re: Musical Skills)
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 10:44:18 +0100
>:> Who among us here would allow using Athletics to compliment
>:>dodging bullets?
>:></topic change>
>:>
>:>Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,
>:
>:Agreeing to disagree on music, I would allow Athletic dodging under very
>:specific circumstances:
>:
>:* The character must see the attack coming, and I don't mean catching a
>:glimpse out of the corner of his eye at the last moment. That, or have
>:some sort of mystical Combat Sense and make a Surprise Test.
>:
>:* The character must declare the dodge as a Complex Action, and have one
>:available before the attack comes. Also, most circumstances would have
>the
>:character winding up prone after the dodge.
>:
>:* The character must defend against the attack using the rules for Full
>:Defense.
>:



I personally wouldn't allow it to dodge ballistic(guns) attacks but would
allow it vs non-ballistic(Bows, thrown weapons).

-Matthew Waddilove

<who does hope he got ballistic & non-ballistic the right way round 'cause
he can never remember;) >
Message no. 4
From: Fixer <fixer@*******.TLH.FL.US>
Subject: Re: Dodging bullets (was Re: Musical Skills)
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 08:22:13 -0400
On Thu, 24 Sep 1998, Mongoose wrote:

->:> Who among us here would allow using Athletics to compliment
->:>dodging bullets?
<snip>
-> We had something very like this in our house rules (we used SR3 style
->dodges for a long time)- as a complex action, you could roll athletics
->(acrobatics specialization, I think). You kept the dice from the roll to
->one side and compared them to your dodge TN's when needed; every 2
->successes counted as one for the dodge test.
-> Yous could just say, as a complex action, you can use athletics to
->complement any and all of all your dodge tests until your next action; it
->would be about the same.
-> We didn't require that the person know the attack was coming (in fact,
->it was usually used when you knew their would be an attack, but not from
->where; getting past an open doorway, for example)- it was assumed that
->your flips and such made you harder to hit.
-> We never used this for avoiding melee (but I'd consider it ok); the
->rules for full defense don't apply to ranged attacks, and we allowed it
->was OK to get hit and even damaged, as long as the knockback did not
->affect you.
-> It does make athletics a much more useful skill, IMO, and was not
->grossly imbalancing; in SR3, with combat pools refreshing only once per
->turn, it could get very hard to hit a physad who just bounces around, so
->it may be better to say each success on an athletics 4 test adds a combat
->pool die usable for dodge purposes only.

Actually, I was considering using Athletics like Sorcery and
Combat Pool (allocated for dodge) like Spell Pool (allocated for Spell
Defense). The player may increase their Combat Pool using their athletics
(which includes not only acrobatics, but body-building as well) for either
dodging or damage resistance. Makes the game a little more cinematic,
because now the "athletes" would be more combat prepared than "former
corp worker with 1mil Nuyen of cyber and no athletic ability", which makes
a kind of sense to me. You can allocate dice to "Dodging" during any free
action... etc... just like Spell Defense. Any dice allocated cannot be
used for other purposes (like running or jumping) until the next Combat
Turn. Anybody thing this makes sense but me?

Fixer --------------} The easy I do before breakfast,
the difficult I do all day long,
the impossible only during the week,
and miracles performed on an as-needed basis....

Now tell me, what was your problem?

Further Reading

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