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Message no. 1
From: mrnexx@*********.net (Mr. Nexx)
Subject: Luck and Small Unit Tactics
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 03:58:32 -0600
Ok, its really late and my brain is somewhat muddled, but I wanted to
post a couple ideas here, and let people think about them.

1) Luck in Shadowrun
Luck is, essentially, the influence of chance. It's not like karma,
where doing good (or well, we should say) will grant you benefits at a
later point, but its those times when life hands you a pineapple just
when you need a fragmentation grenade.
Before each game, the GM secretly rolls D4-1 for each PC. That's their
luck points for this game (luck points work like karma pool). Every
time they spend a luck point, the pool goes down. When they call for
luck and there's none left, they have a nasty effect, about equivalent
to the Rule of One (even the the action succeeds on its own merits,
something bad happens somehow).

Luck for Villains:
If the GM wishes, the players can keep track of luck for the NPCs in the
game. This works similarly to the version the heroes use, but the
players instead roll 1D6-1 at first, 1D6-2, then 1D6-3, etc., until the
NPCs are completely out of luck. The GM should not know how much luck
the NPCs have available, and thus has a chance of causing his NPCs to
have bad luck, too. They have a larger starting pool because the luck
pool is for all NPCs, not just one individual. It might be advisable
for 2 luck pools for NPCs to be maintained... one kept by the GM for
player-friendly NPCs, and one kept by the players, for player-unfriendly
NPCs.

Idea #2: Small Unit Tactics
This idea is pretty simple: A well-laid plan helps the players. This
is represented through the Small Unit Tactics skill. Based on the
feasibility of the plan, the GM assigns a TN for the skill check. A
good plan has a lower TN (5 or 6), a bad plan has a higher one (8), and
an outlandish plan (involving hot air balloons, grappling hooks, and
making quick escapes through the sewer with your high-dollar movie star)
have really high TNs (12 and up). For every two successes made on Small
Unit Tactics, the group gains 1 success which can be used in following
the plan. So, the decker can use one of them to help break into the
system, but if he decides to pilfer a nuyen store that isn't on the
plan, he's broken from the plan and can't use any more. If the plan
involves getting in and out without being noticed (as any good plan
should), then the moment guns are drawn, the bonuses disappear for those
who are deviating from the plan.

I don't think I'm explaining this well. It's 4 in the morning. I'll
defend it later.

--
***
Nexx
aka Skaldmark
aka Mark Hall
***
http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/nexx/
***
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all
time have gone before us."
-Joseph Campbell

Further Reading

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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.