| From: | "John R. Wicker II" <jrwick00@***.UKY.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Shadowrun Lifestyles |
| Date: | Fri, 30 Jun 1995 00:44:52 -0400 |
> The difference is that the player who put an A priority in
>attributes ranked his physical and mental prowess *highest*. He dumped
>his *A* priority. Think about what that means. To this character,
>attributes are *the* most important thing. If you let the guy with
>attributes of 2 pump all of his attibutes up to maximum, you have
>effectively removed the entire point of the priority system.
So the guy who puts attributes at "A" can't raise skills either, right?
Because then he can spend all his time studying concentrations and
specializing with his toys, and then he'll be just as effective as the guy
who took skills at "A", right?
> Also, to look at things with a tad of realism, there are personal
>limits. If you are a totally puke, you're not going to become a
>super-genius of high mental acuity over the span of a few months.
>Doesn't happen. The *only* attribute I would consider allowing someone
>to raise more than once is strength. But for the few wimpoids I knew who
>became bodybuilders, that was *all* they did. They were in the gym 4-6
>hours a day. Not a shadowrunner's lifestyle. It is for these reasons
>that we stick by the old "only raise each attribute once" rule from SRI.
>It makes more sense and is more fair to those who have put high
>priorities into attributes.
Obviously, realism doesn't always match the gaming system. But we
have to keep in mind that this is a *game* here- we're not dealing in
genetic manifestations, the range of character expressions in a given
situation, or how much milk a character drinks. We're talking about an
abstracted slice of a fictitous reality.
As far as a shadowrunner's lifestyle is concerned, what exactly is
that? I have a character who wants nothing more from life than to have a
quiet place to run through his kata and the occasional good meal. Why can't
a shadowrunner work in a public library, or deliver pizza? Why can't a
shadowrunner play keyboard for a jazz band, or even *gasp* work out a lot? I
can't think of a good reason as a GM or player.
And as far as game balance goes- hey, life just isn't fair. If two
runners go through the same adventures together and earn the same amount of
karma, there is complete balance. If one spends 18 points on flower
arrangement and one spends 18 points in a library, whose fault is it if the
flowerboy gets blown away because he didn't notice the sniper? Maybe we
should look at the Intellegence score as an abstract quantity instead of a
strict measure of a character's educational level or I.Q. or anything
else... Maybe we should treat the whole thing as an abstract exercise in
fun, and stop worrying about realism so damned much.
> All very true. But you're not going to go from Forrest Gump to
>Stephen Hawking in a matter of weeks. It's just not gonna happen.
Stephen Hawking might be said to have about 9 dice in Physics, but
wer're talking about *attributes* here, so this is an invalid argument. One
might also say that because Hawking can't move very well, his perceptual
abilities have been lessened. Therefore his intellegence can't be very high
or he would see what's going on better. On the other hand, Mr. Gump always
seemed to notice the tiniest little details- he must have the perceptual
ability of a super-detective.
Does this make sense? Not really, but what I've done is applied the
abstract Intellegence score into a specific real world situation that it
supposedly covers. Doesn't quite work out, but that's the limit of a gaming
system, and the beauty of it as well- it isn't real life so we needn't treat
it as such or try and make it what it is not.
>Like I said, the few people I know who've done it with physical=
conditioning
>spent pretty much *all* of their time working out. And their stamina
>didn't increase appreciably. Just their bulk. Their flexibility
>actually decreased, so should their Quickness go down?
An excellent example of the Personal Attribution theory- just
because *you* don't know anyone that has been able to increase their
strength means that *you* know it can't happen. What you've actually shown
is that *you* only know people who don't know anything about using a proper
range of motion during strength training, which not only maintains but
actually adds to a person's range of motion. In any event, the logic gets a
little thin, don't you think? Why try to manifest reality on an abstract
system? The lines just don't match up...
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥=
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥=
¥
"If you aren't living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.
Embrace the revolution!"
-A found poem, 1995
This mail brought to you by: John Wicker
Free lance writer, Full time student, Founder: "Generation X, Inc."
Home Phone: 268-1385 BBS Number: 266-2416
E-mail: jrwick00@***.uky.edu
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥=
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥=
¥
