From:	TopCat <topcat@**.CENCOM.NET>
Subject:	Speed=everything (Was Re:Geasa and Physical Adepts)
Date:	Thu, 21 Sep 1995 19:07:15 -0500

You said it yourself, Eve... "when will I learn... NEVER GET OUT OF THE
VEHICLE!"

Riggers are riggers and deckers are deckers. If you hire a shadowrun team,
you aren't going to be thrilled with the knowledge that the decker will be
running along with the infiltration team, and you'll probably be much less
thrilled learning that the driver of the getaway vehicle is going to go
along too.

This outlook (although rather obvious) is somewhat unfair. Why can't the
decker swap his deck for a Ingram and charge forth to glory and nuyen? Why
should the rigger have to wait in the car (it gets stuffy in there!) all the
time? Because they are suddenly out of their element when they do so. I
would much rather have the rigger driving the Dynamit than the eagle shaman.
I would much rather have the decker running matrix security from the safety
of his own home instead of the phys ad wrapping the trodes around his head
and wondering where the Advil went.

It just makes sense. Now, what has started happening more often in my group
is that people aren't specializing near as much (except the mages/shamans).
Which means that overall, we don't have the intense skill concentration that
other groups might have. But what we DO have is variety. If the prime
driver goes down, the secondary can step up. Deckers are starting to use
reflex enhancements and a smartlink so they don't curl up into a ball at the
sight of a gun. Samurai *gasp* can do pretty much anything mundane that's
needed (the all-purpose third man) by slotting a chip and juicing up the
skillwires. Mages & shamans still tend to specialize, but with 2 or more in
the group it isn't a problem. One likes to play "combat boy" (though he has
this urge to never want to kill anything... practices all kinds of spells
like death touch and hellblast, but absolutely freaks when I decided to cack
someone) and the other is more toward the stealth side.

ANYWAY...

What I'm saying is this, although it happens... specialization to the degree
of the SRII archetypes is a very rare thing indeed in real life. People
pick up bits here, bits there, and make the most of it all. Build the chars
to reflect that and you won't find yourself worrying so much the next time
your rigger is unconcious and the mage slides behind the wheel.

-- TopCat!

P.S. I suggest throwing boosted 1 or a synaptic accelerator or something of
their ilk on your rigger. No-one would go into a situation where they know
they're outclassed without at least some kind of edge. If you follow the
cyberpunk literature at all, nearly everyone shadowy has some sort of
speed-enhancement, be it drugs or wires or whatever. Why wouldn't your char?