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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Debbie Giesbrecht <Debbie_Giesbrecht@**.CHIRON.COM>
Subject: House rules for a newbie
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 10:29:20 PST
Greetings,

As a newbie player and a GM, I have found the combat system to be kind
of confusing and slow. Most of this is probably because I don't know
exactly what I'm doing. These are some of the problems that I've run
into and I could use a little advice. Perhaps this will let some of
you veterans reminisce about the old days when you were searching
through the rulebooks too.

I've noticed that basically there is a separate combat system for each
class. I know its not written that way, but it comes out that way.
For example, the rigger needs to have a position test, the ranged
combat and melee combat are different, the magic system is hard to
keep straight with Astral reaction vs. regular reaction etc., and I
don't think there is any need to comment about decking. It is a field
unto itself.

I was just wondering if there is a simplified version or some house
rules that people have put together to help keep the game rolling. My
gaming style is such that I'm more interested in roleplaying than
rollplaying and I don't want to spend a good portion of my game
dealing with dice.

For that matter, I'm interested in any good house rules.

Debbie
Message no. 2
From: Jeff Norrell <norrell@*******.ME.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 14:02:36 +0600
When in doubt, wing it!

As long as you're consistent, most people won't complain. I tend to gloss over
some of the nit-picking combat rules myself but the players don't seem to mind.

However, if your players are the rules lawyers types, Good Luck.

-Jeff
Message no. 3
From: Shadowdancer <BRIDDLE@*****.VINU.EDU>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 18:38:51 EST
On the case of astral and normal inish, We usually play with the
astral going first. Makes combat a little faster, especially since the
druid in the group likes the astral. If there is more than one in astral,
resolve astral first. It is the fastest. As to other combat proceedings,
just practice and learn the most used mods to TN#s. Speeds things
up. And another thing. If you are the GM, let the runners do the paper
work. If you have to roll dice, just gauge how powerful the roll is to be
and wing it. Way less stress.

As for decking, the down and dirty fast resolve system works real
well. If you don't have Virtual Realities, mail me for the exact rules.
And if you want to avoid heavy dice rolling, stay out of combat.
We've cracked dice rolling so often(and the occasional dragon
induced throwing dosen't help either.)



Many people run the shadows, praying that whatever gods they worship will smile upon them.
I waltz through shadows with my gods, and I lead!

-SHADOWDANCER-
Message no. 4
From: Luke Kendall <luke@********.CANON.OZ.AU>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 15:59:38 +1100
Debbie,

I'm afraid you're right. Big combats take ages.

The time taken seems to be proportional (or worse) to the
number of dice involved, if both sides are evenly matched.

Note that the astral combat rules were gradually rewritten
over various issues of the game, to make it work more and
more like hand-to-hand combat.

As far as keeping astral Reaction (and other attributes)
straight - just write it down on the character sheets. As
far as I know, all the reactions are resolved using the
same `timeline'. Astral activities don't pass at a faster
rate, even if astral things can travel at high speeds.
(Not in close quarters: would you like to fly a highly
manoeuverable jet in your kitchen? :-) )

I'm afraid I don't have any practical suggestions for
simplification. I believe the SR II system is slightly faster
than SR I, mainly because all the weapons have a `staging factor'
of 2.

It gets faster with practice, of course.

Our group likes the flavour of the rules, however. It works
reasonably well, As long as all the people in the team have
a similar Reaction. Otherwise combats gets extremely boring
for the people with only 1 action.

For house rules, keep an eye out on rec.games.frp.cyber - there's
a FAQ on the subject which seems very good, to me, and will have
heaps of info for you.

luke
Message no. 5
From: Damion Milliken <u9467882@***.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 15:12:27 +1000
luke writes:

> As far as keeping astral Reaction (and other attributes)
> straight - just write it down on the character sheets. As
> far as I know, all the reactions are resolved using the
> same `timeline'. Astral activities don't pass at a faster
> rate, even if astral things can travel at high speeds.
> (Not in close quarters: would you like to fly a highly
> manoeuverable jet in your kitchen? :-) )

Actually, I think the rules say to resolve all astral actions, then all
matrix actions then all physical ones. Why I cannot see (I have never used
the rules this way, I always run the lot simlutaneously), it just sems to be
a tad odd to me.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong e-mail: u9467882@***.edu.au

(GEEK CODE 2.1) GE -d+(d) H s++:-- !g p? !au a18 w+ v(?) C+(++) US++ P? L !3 E?
N K- W+ M@ !V po@ Y(+) t+ !5 !j R+(++) G(+)('') !tv(--)@ b++ D+
B? e+ u@ h* f(+) !r n--(----) !y+
Message no. 6
From: "Jason Carter, Nightstalker" <CARTER@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 22:30:24 -0700
Damion Milliken said:

>Actually, I think the rules say to resolve all astral actions, then all
>matrix actions then all physical ones. Why I cannot see (I have never used
>the rules this way, I always run the lot simlutaneously), it just sems to be
>a tad odd to me.

The rules say that on any given phase resolve all astral actions, then all
matrix actions, and then all physical actions. Thus on say Initiative phase
20 anyone in astral space goes first, anyone in the Matrix goes second, and
anyone in the physical world goes last.

*******************************************************************************
* See Ya in Shadows * * "Trust No One." *
* Jason J Carter * Carter@***.EDU * The late Deep Throat *
* The Nightstalker * * The X-Files *
*******************************************************************************
Message no. 7
From: "Jason Carter, Nightstalker" <CARTER@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 22:56:26 -0700
Debbie Giesbrecht said:

> As a newbie player and a GM, I have found the combat system to be kind
> of confusing and slow. Most of this is probably because I don't know
> exactly what I'm doing. These are some of the problems that I've run
> into and I could use a little advice. Perhaps this will let some of
> you veterans reminisce about the old days when you were searching
> through the rulebooks too.

Yes, it can be quite confusing. As long as it is confusing, it will be slow,
but you will find that once you know what you are doing that it is actually
quite simple.

> I've noticed that basically there is a separate combat system for each
> class. I know its not written that way, but it comes out that way.
> For example, the rigger needs to have a position test, the ranged
> combat and melee combat are different, the magic system is hard to
> keep straight with Astral reaction vs. regular reaction etc., and I
> don't think there is any need to comment about decking. It is a field
> unto itself.

Here you are more or less correct. A few things to remember are that Astral
Combat is basically a combonation of melee combat and spell casting. Just
use the astral characteristics and run it like a melee battle. As for matrix
combat, it's totally screwed up. I've yet to find a matrix combat system
that makes me entirely happy. The chase rules are a world onto themselves,
although they do remind me of the rules in the James Bond RPG. We never use
the damn thing in the campaigns I've been in.

If you have any specific questions, please ask away.

*******************************************************************************
* See Ya in Shadows * * "Trust No One." *
* Jason J Carter * Carter@***.EDU * The late Deep Throat *
* The Nightstalker * * The X-Files *
*******************************************************************************
Message no. 8
From: Malcalypse The Younger <shadow@******.NET>
Subject: Re: House rules for a newbie
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 21:42:57 -0400
>
> Here you are more or less correct. A few things to remember are that Astral
> Combat is basically a combonation of melee combat and spell casting. Just
> use the astral characteristics and run it like a melee battle. As for matrix
> combat, it's totally screwed up. I've yet to find a matrix combat system
> that makes me entirely happy. The chase rules are a world onto themselves,
> although they do remind me of the rules in the James Bond RPG. We never use
> the damn thing in the campaigns I've been in.
>
You know, I don't think we've had more of a decker than a charachter with
a plain 'ole datajack and a cheapo deck in a long time... No
'professional' deckers.. Just because the rules are so bad for most of
the matrix oriented stuff.

Further Reading

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Thwap!