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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: ANGLISS@****.PSU.EDU
Subject: Re: running on every turn
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1993 19:57:24 -0400
Jason said:

>Realistic!?!?!?!?! It couldn't be any farther from realistic.

>Your talking about a little bit of reflex enhancers making a person 2, 3, even
>4 times as fast. Would a simple reflex enchancer make you faster? Yes. This
>much faster? No.

>First off the human body just can't move that fast. Your muscles would knot
>up and your heart would burst. You would either cripple yourself or die a
>very quick but painful death.

Probably true. Makes a really strong argument for Muscle Augmentation or
Replacement and a Synthacardium...

>Then you get into the world of wonky game mechanics. Following your rules you
>can talk a totally natural guy with Quickness 6 and Reaction 5. If he rolls
>a 5 or less on initiative he can run 18 meters without athletics, but if he
>rolls a 6 on his initiative die his running speed for the turn DOUBLES to
>36 meters!

Good point on this one. Maybe the guy(I don't remember his name) who proposed
the "movement per every phase" idea for vehicles was right and this idea could
be adopted to this problem as well.

>Now assume this guy is a world-class sprinter with Athletics (Running) 8. On
>the average roll he will get 4 sucesses. His quickness is then effectively
>10, allowing him to run 30 meters on the average turn. But if that 6 shows
>up on the initiative die, his speed increases to 60 meters a turn. This would
>mean that on a lucky day, a world-class sprinter could run the 100 meter dash
>in less than 6 seconds! And with maximum luck (Init rolls of 6, all successes
>on Athletics Test) the world-class sprinter could run 42 meters in an action and
>82 meters in a turn. That's an unagmented human doing the hundred in about 4
>seconds.

>Now tell me this is "more" realistic than the system in the book.

I do have a question about the Athletics thing raising the quickness for
running. I have gone through my Black Book looking for it and can't seem to
find it. I'll check again, but until the page is found I'll go with my way
which doesn't have Running Athletics skill modifying the running quickness.
I have never used or seen this rule(wish I had, it would have made some
arguments with my players last year shorter, but they couldn't find it either)
and it makes the system more realistic.

Overall, the only problem that I have with you system is that it seems way too
slow for the upper end of the scale. Mine seems way too fast for the lower
end(which I realize from the example). So, what's the fix to make them both
more realistic?

Brian
Message no. 2
From: Dave Sherohman <esper@*****.IMA.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Re: running on every turn
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1993 10:42:09 -0600
>I do have a question about the Athletics thing raising the quickness for
>running. I have gone through my Black Book looking for it and can't seem to
>find it. I'll check again, but until the page is found I'll go with my way
>which doesn't have Running Athletics skill modifying the running quickness.
>I have never used or seen this rule(wish I had, it would have made some
>arguments with my players last year shorter, but they couldn't find it either)
>and it makes the system more realistic.

You must've forgotten to look in the obvious place. SR2 (softback), p. 83
under Combat/Movement/Running, third paragraph (just above the Running Table):
"Characters with Running Skill may attempt to increase their running distance
by spending a Complex Action (Use Skill). Each success against a Target
Number 4 increases the character's effective Quickness by 1 point for that
Combat Phase." Note that this eats a complex action, though, so if you push
your running speed, you can't shoot.

>Overall, the only problem that I have with you system is that it seems way too
>slow for the upper end of the scale. Mine seems way too fast for the lower
>end(which I realize from the example). So, what's the fix to make them both
>more realistic?

If you're worried about the official rule being too slow for multi-action
folk, you could let them make the Athletics/Running test every phase they
move, which would give you a chance to bump up your Quickness every time.
Alternately, you could only allow them to do so on actions where they've
already started running. (i.e., Sam the Sammie gets 3 actions. If he
actually runs (that is, takes the movement multiplier) on his second
action, he can't use Athletics to boost his movement on the first action
(since he hasn't started running yet).) How's that fit with your sense of
realism?

esper@***.umn.edu

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