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Message no. 1
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] Problem player
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 14:12:16 -0400 (EDT)
At 07:39 AM 8/1/96 -0600, David wrote:
>Wynd wrote:

>|I know this is a problem that has probably been discussed to
>|death, or thereabouts, but how can I encourage this guy to
>|play a character with a mentality more than "kill, eat, kill,
>|sleep, kill, defecate, kill, etc.." He also belongs to the
>|"my character has a prejudice against ______"
>|__ being whatever quirk any other character has just decided upon
>
>Run your game the way you want to run it and make sure that
>his characters suffer the consequences of their actions.
>He'll either have to change the way he makes characters or
>give up and leave.

One of my players was like that, except each week he'd make a new character
based on the events of the last game's events, but not much good in any
other situation.

Anyhow, he always screwed his characters over until he started wising up.
Unfortunately, he graduated and left town.

His characters included...

Thumper, a Troll PhysAd who wanted to join the Oni-Do (he had a copy of a
module I can't recall the name of right now) and was about as subtle about
getting in as a frag grenade. A Yak embezzler promised to get him in and set
him (and the team) as a fall guy for his operation. He wound up losing two
points of magic and no longer wanted to play him, so the team tied his
carcass to the truck the embezzler rigged to blow up as a "gift" to the
guy's Yak boss.

Shockwave, ex Lone Star cop with a bunch of laos. He wasn't too quiet about
having it, and the Paladins at the end of the original harlequin adventure
took him away, never to be seen again.

A human character who he thought could kick ass in unarmed combat but never
got past the meet with the Johnson after leaping at two goons who came in,
they shrugged off the damage and started emptying their heavy pistols into
him, a la Pulp Fiction.

You get the idea.

--
"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
Caxton translation,
V15 1484
Message no. 2
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] Problem player
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 12:32:49 -0400 (EDT)
At 05:00 PM 8/5/96 +0200, Dion wrote:

>How many GM's on this list allow their players to choose
>ANY equipment and weapons from the Srun Books?

I allow almost anything, except bioware. As long as they have a plausable
excus^H^H^H^H^Hreason, I don't care. There's some stuff I definately don't
allow, ut I can't think of any right now.

>If so, how do you cope with the bigger better gun syndrome?
>(i.e. Need a biiger better gun to challenge PC's in a combat situation)

I remind them that they could get in trouble running around with big guns
and in heavy armor. ;-)

--
"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
Caxton translation,
V15 1484
Message no. 3
From: dbuehrer@****.org (David Buehrer)
Subject: Re: [SR2] Problem player
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 11:23:42 -0600 (MDT)
At 05:00 PM 8/5/96 +0200, Dion wrote:

>How many GM's on this list allow their players to choose
>ANY equipment and weapons from the Srun Books?

For current PCs: If the PCs go to all the trouble to jump
through all of the hoops (get the money, find the item, and
if cyber- or bioware find a doctor to install it) then I
let them have it. Keeping in mind the street index, the
time required, and all the roleplaying involved (I don't
like straight dice roles for the big stuff).

For starting PCs: limit the ratings to six, no advanced bio- or cyberware
(beta, delta, gamma), and no initiating.

>If so, how do you cope with the bigger better gun syndrome?
>(i.e. Need a biiger better gun to challenge PC's in a combat situation)

If the cops see it and it's illegal it gets confiscated and
never returned. Sometimes things break. If it's really
cool it's going to catch someone's eye and it might get
stolen. And there's always someone better than the PC (or
a group of people anyway).

-David

/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\ dbuehrer@****.org /^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\/^\
"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."
~~~~~~http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm~~~~~~~
Message no. 4
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] Problem player
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 21:00:34 -0400 (EDT)
At 05:55 PM 8/11/96 +0100, Pete wrote:

>Example: I have a player at the moment, who is using an ex Doc Wagon
>medic as a character, and having a lot of fun with it, I "allowed" him
>to acquire a Cyberpunk Medic ACPA, 500,000 nuyen worth of powered battle
>beast. He loved it, polishes it regularly, drools over it even, but has
>yet to find a situation where he can use it. Half a million spent on a
>suit, he can't use. His problem, not mine. It will be interesting to
>see his face, when I finally give him a reason, and he finds out that
>the power unit was an optional extra.

*cringing and hissing*
Nasssty DM! Nasty DMMMM!

Pete, you better have your running shows on when he finds out, cause my
group (me included) would kill sometime who tried to pull that.


--
"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
Caxton translation,
V15 1484
Message no. 5
From: Ubiquitous <weberm@*******.net>
Subject: Re: [SR2] Problem Player
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 20:00:08 -0400 (EDT)
At 03:08 PM 8/12/96 PDT, Richard wrote:

>You're facing a very tricky In Character issue here. I tried something
>similar with my group: a friend came up to me with an idea for a
>character, an Undercover Cop, designed to infiltrate the team and expose
>or report on many areas of the criminal underworld. I was initially
>reluctant, as this was eventually going to end up with either his
>character dead, or the campaign in turmoil.

I had a similar situation, but the player in question was a reporter
and had headgear equipment with which he recorded them on their runs
and then turned what he recorded in as part of his story. In fact, after the
team wiped out the APN, there was a news story on them, accompanied by
pictures that could only have been taken by someone there with them!

Unfortunately, no one thought about it, and the player moved before more
"exclusive" stories were aired.

--
"I dyde shyte thre grete toordes." Fables of Aesop,
Caxton translation,
V15 1484

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Thwap!