Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: John E Pederson <lobo1@****.COM>
Subject: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 12:47:50 EST
Before you get too confused the "Threat/Professional Rating: Force/4"
does NOT mean force divided by 4. What it means is that the spirits have
a threat rating of Force and a Professional rating of 4. This isn't the
same for all spirits either. The Ant Worker has a Threat of 1 and a
Professional of 2, for instance, no matter the force. AFAIK, this may or
may not apply to spirits other than bugs. Threat Ratings aren't even
discussed in Awakenings and only TR's for Toxics and Bugs are discussed
in GR2. So, what Bug City is saying is to give Bugs a threat rating equal
to their force (in most but not all cases) and a Professional Rating
equal to 4 (in most but not all cases). For other spirits I can give no
input, but can only assume that the information is provided in the SRII
main rule manual for this game. And, of course, if you don't like the way
FASA has it set up, no-one's going to force you to do it that way. It is
your game and you're certainly allowed to play any way that makes you
happy.

Canthros-the-shapeshifter-mage
Message no. 2
From: Loki <loki@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 13:34:17 -0000
> Before you get too confused the "Threat/Professional Rating: Force/4"
> does NOT mean force divided by 4. What it means is that the spirits have
> a threat rating of Force and a Professional rating of 4.
>
> Canthros-the-shapeshifter-mage

This is exactly how I've understood it, and I couldn't have said it better.

@>--'--,--- Loki

/>
/<
[\\\\\\(O):::<======================================-
\< Poisoned Elves http://www.netzone.com/~loki
\>


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Message no. 3
From: Jonathan Hurley <jhurley1@************.EDU>
Subject: Re: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 20:35:44 -0500
John E Pederson[SMTP:lobo1@****.COM] wrote:
>Before you get too confused the "Threat/Professional Rating: Force/4"
>does NOT mean force divided by 4. What it means is that the spirits have
>a threat rating of Force and a Professional rating of 4. This isn't the
>same for all spirits either. The Ant Worker has a Threat of 1 and a
>Professional of 2, for instance, no matter the force. AFAIK, this may or
>may not apply to spirits other than bugs. Threat Ratings aren't even
>discussed in Awakenings and only TR's for Toxics and Bugs are discussed
>in GR2. So, what Bug City is saying is to give Bugs a threat rating equal
>to their force (in most but not all cases) and a Professional Rating
>equal to 4 (in most but not all cases). For other spirits I can give no
>input, but can only assume that the information is provided in the SRII
>main rule manual for this game. And, of course, if you don't like the way
>FASA has it set up, no-one's going to force you to do it that way. It is
>your game and you're certainly allowed to play any way that makes you
>happy.
>
>Canthros-the-shapeshifter-mage
>
My argument for not giving spirits threat rating is that the PC's spirits
don't have them.

And I don't think either side *needs* them. My philosophy in recent years
has become this: no matter how much I up the numbers on solitary opponents,
the PCs will beat them (having access to Karma pool, multiple minds, etc.)
So I just gang up on them. I don't use force 12 spirits. I use three force
5 spirits. Instead of 5 guards with decent ware, I use 15 with little to no
ware.

It works a lot better, and lets me manage encounters with a much finer
grain.


From a Gateway 2000 manual:
Sucking all the chips off your system board with an industrial strength
wet/dry vac is not covered by your warranty
mailto:jhurley1@******.stevens-tech.edu
Message no. 4
From: Loki <loki@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 00:14:37 -0000
> My argument for not giving spirits threat rating is that the PC's spirits
> don't have them.

I give Threat Ratings to the spirits/elementals summoned by the PC's as
well. Even though they're brought up by a PC, the spirits are still NPC's.

@>--'--,--- Loki

/>
/<
[\\\\\\(O):::<======================================-
\< Poisoned Elves http://www.netzone.com/~loki
\>


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Message no. 5
From: Charles Baker <karolusb@**.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 23:33:08 -0800
Jonathan Hurley wrote:
> My argument for not giving spirits threat rating is that the PC's spirits
> don't have them.
>
> And I don't think either side *needs* them. My philosophy in recent years
> has become this: no matter how much I up the numbers on solitary opponents,
> the PCs will beat them (having access to Karma pool, multiple minds, etc.)
> So I just gang up on them. I don't use force 12 spirits. I use three force
> 5 spirits. Instead of 5 guards with decent ware, I use 15 with little to no
> ware.
>
> It works a lot better, and lets me manage encounters with a much finer
> grain.
>
Agreed, in SR it is fairly difficult to achieve a level where one
opponant can be hurt but isn't invulnerable, we had this problem playing
harlequins back, only the troll could hurt one opponant (only a mage
could effecctively hurt another) I wondered what happens when you don't
have a troll? Frankly when I was GMing the stats of their opponants
never had any significant impact on their drek factor- tough guy at a
good time would go down, Janitor Man at the wrong moment can thrash your
whole day (it happened).
Message no. 6
From: Glenn Robertson <Glenn.Robertson@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 23:19:08 -0700
> My argument for not giving spirits threat rating is that the PC's spirits
> don't have them.

No, PC's spirits are critters, and critters have threat ratings. So in
our game, all spirits have them.

Glenn
Message no. 7
From: Shane Courtrille <hardware@*******.DATANET.AB.CA>
Subject: Re: Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions)
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:29:30 +0000
> > My argument for not giving spirits threat rating is that the PC's spirits
> > don't have them.
>
> No, PC's spirits are critters, and critters have threat ratings. So in
> our game, all spirits have them.
>
> Glenn
>
PC spirits are also NPCs, and all NPCs get a threat rating... From
your lowly pedestrian to Dunkie himself

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Spirit Threat Ratings (was :Re: CZ Attack Questions), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

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.

Thwap!