From:	Robert Watkins <bob@**.NTU.EDU.AU>
Subject:	Re: Creative solution to Initiative escalation
Date:	Tue, 26 Sep 1995 20:41:57 +0930

Gurth wrote:
>
> > From: Sascha Pabst
<Sascha.Pabst@****.INFORMATIK.UNI-OLDENBURG.DE>
>
> > By the book? Well, Shadowtech, p.4: "it is also recommended that beginning
> > characters not be allowed to start the game with technology from this
book."
> >
> > Well, either you have an different copy then I have, or you read this rules
> > ... differently. But that character would NOT be "by the book".
>
> Read the line you quoted again: it says "recommended," which means
"GM,
> make up your own mind whether or not it is suitable for starting
> characters." And to me the answer is "yes, it is suitable;" any
starting
> character _with_ bioware is by the book, simply because the book doesn't
> forbid it, only recommends it be forbidden,

Also consider time settings. The game starts in '50. Bioware started hitting
the streets in '53, and was hard to get hold of. Hence characters starting
in '53 shouldn't really have had much.

It's now '56. Bioware is a lot more common (well, a bit at least), more
reliable with fewer intersystem conflicts. Starting characters should now
have it. :)

Heck, in Cybertechnology they said that beta and alpha cyber was filtering
down into regular channels...

--
Robert Watkins bob@**.ntu.edu.au
Real Programmers never work 9 to 5. If any real programmers
are around at 9 am, it's because they were up all night.
*** Finger me for my geek code ***