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From:	ColdIsTheBlade@*.com (ColdIsTheBlade@*.com)
Subject:	Newbie needs help!
Date:	Wed, 04 Dec 2002 19:56:22 -0500

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From:	Shannon@*****.co.za (Shannon Buys)
Subject:	Newbie needs help!
Date:	Thu, 5 Dec 2002 09:12:17 +0200

Message no. 2 Ah! This Sounds like another job FOR......PLASTIC RAT'S FAST AND DIRTY
GUIDES TO SHADOWRUN!! *Que heroic music*

They're on there way.

-----Original Message-----
From: shadowrn-bounces@*****.dumpshock.com
[mailto:shadowrn-bounces@*****.dumpshock.com]On Behalf Of
ColdIsTheBlade@***.com
Sent: 05 December 2002 02:56
To: shadowrn@*****.dumpshock.com
Subject: Newbie needs help!

I posted this message on the Dumpshock MB, but to make sure i can get an
answer, I'll send my post to you all.----Yes I am a "newb" to Shadowrun.
I've read most of the core book. well, I have about 4 people who want to
play with me (i'd be GM) and I'm trying to learn the rules. I have most of
the basics down. I'm going to run Food Fight shortly (a week or so), but
there is one big problem. I BARELY understand the combat syetem I've read
and re-read it, and it still doesnt make any sense to me. I understand the
combat phases, but my main problem is how to apply damage and also about
weapons. The book does a HORRIBLE job of explaining this, in my opinion. My
other problem...well I have all of character creation down EXCEPT skills.
The book also doesn't explain HOW to apply your skills points to skills for
character creation! Maybe I'm blind or something, but please please help! I
need a mentor-like figure to guide me and explain what the book cannot. Post
any information here or email me at coldistheblade@***.com (If you have AIM
that's great, but i block nearly everyone, so email me if you want my
attention). Thank you all in advance!

From:	Gurth@******.nl (Gurth)
Subject:	Newbie needs help!
Date:	Thu, 5 Dec 2002 11:25:55 +0100

Message no. 3 According to ColdIsTheBlade@***.com, on Thu, 05 Dec 2002 the word on the street was...

> Yes I am a "newb" to Shadowrun. I've read most of the core book. well, I
> have about 4 people who want to play with me (i'd be GM) and I'm trying
> to learn the rules. I have most of the basics down. I'm going to run Food
> Fight shortly (a week or so), but there is one big problem. I BARELY
> understand the combat syetem I've read and re-read it, and it still
> doesnt make any sense to me. I understand the combat phases, but my main
> problem is how to apply damage and also about weapons. The book does a
> HORRIBLE job of explaining this, in my opinion.

It's actually quite simple, but I can see how it could be difficult to understand
when you're new to it[1]. Anyway, the basics are that the attacker rolls a skill test
against the TN you calculate according to the combat rules. Keep track of the
successes rolled, if any (if there are none, the attack misses, obviously).

For example, Joe shoots Jane at short range with an Ares Predator. He's got
Pistols skill 5, and conditions are perfect: he only needs to roll 4s. His dice
roll 1, 3, 5, 5 and 8, so he has three successes.

The defender then rolls a Body test, with a target number equal to the attack's Power
Level minus the target's appropriate armor rating (usually the Ballistic one). If
there are any successes, subtract them from the attacker's.

Jane has Body 4 and 3 points of Ballistic armor. Joe's Predator causes 9M
damage, so Jane's target number is 9 (the Power Level) - 3 (her armor rating)
= 6. She rolls 2, 2, 3 and 8 with her Body dice, which is one success. That
leaves Joe with 3 - 1 = 2 successes.

If the attacker has one or more successes left, every two full successes increase the
damage by one level as follows: Light -> Moderate -> Serious -> Deadly. On the
other
hand, if the target had more successes, move along this track the other way.

Joe's Predator causes Moderate damage (because of the M in 9M), but because
he has two successes, that's increased by one level, to Serious.

Finally, on the target's Condition Monitor, fill one box if the target took a Light
wound, 3 boxes for a Moderate wound, 6 for a Serious, and 10 for a Deadly. These come

_after_ any boxes already filled in, so if you have taken a Moderate (3 boxes) and
then take a Serious (6 boxes), you end up with a total of 9 boxes filled.

Since Jane takes Serious damage, 6 boxes are crossed off.

[1] I remember back in the days when I just started playing SR, the first-edition
rules said you had to apply the damage starting "with the empty block closest to the
bottom of the Condition Monitor" (the bars were vertical then instead of horizontal)
-- so we ended up marking them off alternately on the Physical and Stun tracks...

> My other problem...well I
> have all of character creation down EXCEPT skills. The book also doesn't
> explain HOW to apply your skills points to skills for character creation!

Basically, every skill point you spend gives you one level in a skill. However, once
the skill rating exceeds the rating of the attribute to which the skill is linked,
you need to spend 2 skill points to raise the skill's level by 1. A quick way of
calculating how many points you need to spend is to start with the skill's rating,
and subtracting the attribute's rating from it. If this gives a positive number, add
it to the skill rating; if (skill - attribute) is negative, disregard it and use the
skill rating straight.

A few examples:

* Skill rating 1, attribute rating 3 costs 1 skill point.
* Skill rating 3, attribute rating 6 costs 3 skill points.
* Skill rating 4, attribute rating 2 costs 6 skill points.
* Skill rating 5, attribute rating 5 costs 5 skill points.
* Skill rating 6, attribute rating 5 costs 7 skill points.
* Skill rating 6, attribute rating 6 costs 6 skill points.

and so on.

> Post any
> information here or email me at coldistheblade@***.com (If you have AIM
> that's great, but i block nearly everyone, so email me if you want my
> attention). Thank you all in advance!

Another one who needs to learn how to properly set up a mailer... ;)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Je moet knoeien met de riemen die je hebt.
-> Probably NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

GC3.12: GAT/! d- s:- !a>? C++(---) UL+ P(+) L++ E W--(++) N o? K w(--)
O V? PS+ PE@ Y PGP- t- 5++ X(+) R+++$ tv+(++) b++@ DI- D+ G+ e h! !r y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998

From:	l-hansen@*****.tele.dk (Lars Wagner Hansen)
Subject:	Newbie needs help!
Date:	Fri, 6 Dec 2002 21:01:45 +0100

Message no. 4 From: <ColdIsTheBlade@***.com>
> Yes I am a "newb" to Shadowrun. I've read most of the core
> book. well, I have about 4 people who want to play with me
> (i'd be GM) and I'm trying to learn the rules. I have most of
> the basics down. I'm going to run Food Fight shortly (a week
> or so), but there is one big problem. I BARELY understand
> the combat syetem I've read and re-read it, and it still doesnt
> make any sense to me. I understand the combat phases, but
> my main problem is how to apply damage and also about
> weapons. The book does a HORRIBLE job of explaining
> this, in my opinion. My other problem...well I have all of
> character creation down EXCEPT skills. The book also
> doesn't explain HOW to apply your skills points to skills
> for character creation! Maybe I'm blind or something, but
> please please help! I need a mentor-like figure to guide me
> and explain what the book cannot.

Hmm... why do I get the feeling that you have a Shadowrun 1st
edition book (difficult combat rules and Food Fight!).

If you happen to have the 1st edition Shadowrun (blue cover and
Food Fight adventure at the back of the book), then I can only
advice you to upgrade to 3rd edition.

Lars

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