Message no. 1

From:	Ed Matuskey <MATUSKEY@***.EDU>
Subject:	Player balance & a warning
Date:	Tue, 20 Apr 1993 11:17:50 -0700

On the subject of game balance: I'm a GM, and have the same problem a lot of
SR GM's do: the players walk all over the opposition you send after them.
Then another GM took over for a few sessions, and ran us through a combined
NAN I&II adventure, which you've already heard about. The end fight was
our team of seven ambushin 4 or 5 guards, one Ally, one super-sam, and one
toxic Dog shaman. Guards: no problem, gone the first round of ambush. Ally:
still no problem, our mages banished the thing to oblivion. Shaman & sam:
problem. BIG prolbem. Why? Well, they were powerful, but that wasn't it:
we'd beaten powerful foes before. Steve played the villains smart, and he
gave them their own karma pool, as well as their own team karma pool. THIS
was the great equalizer: suddenly the enemy was dodgin our 10 success attacks,
and rerolling their own attacks to pound us more effectively. So, if you GM's
out there want to give your villains some extra punch, give them a team
karma pool, along with a personal karma pool. It makes all the difference.

Oh, and a word of warning: Any more Mr. Ed jokes, and I'll thwap the joker
with a flaming dikoted carp that was force-fed cyanide, and dipped in
DMSO/Hyper. Just to let you know.
-Ed
-Highlander
And I mean that