From:	Steve Huth <HUTH@***.EDU>
Subject:	Wild off the wall ramblings that will probably be thwapped
Date:	Mon, 28 Jun 1993 16:43:14 -0700

Concerning this debate about whether Riggers can default to skills
they don't have and still get their control pool dice:
It seems to me that one problem here is that it is not entirely clear
(at least to me) exactly what it is the SR pools are supposed to
represent? Professional expertise (shouldn't that be reflected by
skill levels?)? Instinctive abilities (then why doesn't everyone have
control pools and hacking pools?)? Because I don't have my books with me
I can
(oops) can't do the intelligent thing (look it up) so I get to do the fun
thing (spout outrageously). Having spent a tremendous amount of time
thinking about this issue (all of 45 sec and counting) I began to wonder
because I could not come up with a reason that logically justified the
existence of these pools (the two reasons I did come up with I already
mentioned, and they have the problems I already mentioned). So then I
started to think about what would happen if there were no pools in SR
except for the Karma pool. Obviously, tasks would get a lot harder.
So I wanted a logical way to get more dice again. One thing that has
always bothered me in Shadowrun is that the abilities play a comparitively
small roll in the game. So what if each skill was assigned a controlling
attribute, and you rolled a number of dice equal to your skill + relevant
attribute? (I suddenly realize this is similar to CyberPunk). The Karma
Pool would work normally, but there is no longer any need for the other
pools.
Consequences:
Well, obvious problems with certain skills. I can see, for example, where
a low charisma might help in interrogation, rather than hurt. On the
other hand, it might be said that people with low charisma can't even
act the part of the heavy very well. They are merely boors.

Second: stuff that already runs directly off attributes (particularly damage
resistance) would have to be modified in some way. Maybe for
damage resistance the player could roll Body AND Will dice to resist,
therefore bringing into the game the fact that some people can take
obnoxious amounts of physical damage and keep going by sheer stubborn
refusal to die (like the guy in WWII who charged a MG nest and dropped
a satchel-charge in it. When they recovered his body later it had something
like 26 bullets in it. Bastard just kept running until he was close enough
to toss the charge in before collapsing and recognizing what his body was
trying to tell him--namely, You're dead, bucko.)

Third, the attributes generally have many fewer dice than the pools, meaning
the player will not be able to roll an incredible number of dice for those
times when they absolutely, positively, have to get it there overnight (or
something like that--i.e.: 2 days ago I rolled 22 dice on one test because
I really wanted someone dead: 9 skill, 9 combat pool, and bought 3 from
Karma pool. Then I bought a rerolls until I had about 18 successes (whoops,
I guess I rolled 21 dice). On the other hand....

Fourth, because players wouldn't have to save dice to allocate later it
might even out in many cases. i.e.: old system: decker has 16 die hacking
pool, allocates 6 to attack a guy, then uses 5 to defend once, and 5 to
defend a second time. This system: (assuming for now that all decker skills
run off Int, and decker has int of 6: then he would add 6 to attack, and 6
to defend against each attack as it came.)

Well, comments? About my system posited here. And about what those pools
are supposed to represent. I think my position basically says that a
person has a skill and an innate ability which he could add to that skill
every time.


Spectre
Steve Huth (rushing in where runners fear to tread)

P.S> I don't mean to offend you here Rat, but I think you like to make
Shadowrunners a little too powerful. I base this off your comment that
if the pools don't apply when defaulting that players should get double
the skill points to start with. At 80 points (for Priority A) that would
give beginning characters 13 level 6 skills to start, a level appoximately
equivalent to a college degree (if I recall correctly). Or even 20 skills
at level 4 each (which is professional equivalency). That seems like an
awful lot. Personally I prefer what Carter suggested, a few skills at
high levels that make you a Ground Vehicle specialist or whatever. And
such a rigger is hardly useless. If a guy with all Ground Vehicles at
level 6 can't make himself useful that is either a role-playing problem or
a mission specific problem. I don't believe that Riggers are supposed to
be automatically an expert with every vehicle. I guess I believe that
the skill web is is supposed to be used in emergencies, not as a matter
of course. And no, I wouldn't allow the combat pool to be used for
gunnery tests unless a person has the gunnery skill. The skill web is
for emergencies, not to make you an expert at every skill in the list. By
your argument all I need is Car skill to fly a plane, and I just can't
agree with that.