| From: | chaos@*****.com (Steven Ratkovich) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | VR2.0, a decker's comment |
| Date: | Tue, 10 Sep 1996 19:01:00 -0500 (EST) |
>> > group I would buy VR2.
>>
>> I haven't read the whole thing yet..But so far I really like the things I
>> have seen in it..It seems a whole lot simpler..of course I haven't had to use
>> it yet either...
>
>I haven't read it all either, our group uses NPC's for most of it's
>decking needs. (Granted they pay through their bio-ware nostrils for it
>;o) But the rules do seem to make decking less complicated and a whole
>lot quicker. Also, I love the optional SOTA rules...and the Otaku look
>like an interesting twist on the decker archetypes.
>
>
>
Well, here are my thought on VR 2.0, for those of you who haven't bought it
yet or read it all the way through...
In general, it is a very well done and well written book. They clarified a
lot of questionable subjects from the first VR, BUT... They changed too much...
I have been playing an Ork Decker named Bull for around 3 years now very
regularly... I believe he's topped 300 karma... by changing the rules as
much as they have though, it's forced me to completely change how my
character decked... That's nitpicking though. But there were suddenly
dozens of programs that never existed that were necesarry, the hack pool was
sliced in half, and the MPCP rules were changed, which meant my current deck
was worthless (i.e., oblsolete...) Now, I'm not complaining about the
changes, mind you. I understand that it was all SOTA. Things change...
But it was annoying to have to change so much after 2 or 2 1/2 years of
doing things one way and bukilding a guy up a certain way...
Other than that, though, once you got used to the changes in the deck
construction, most of it went fairly smooth. The combat is very cleaned up,
and in general it is easier and quicker to do...
I do have one major gripe about the new system, though. In the old VR,
syatems were mapped out with SAN's and NODE's and such... Now they
eliminated all of that, and everyuthing is reduced to sdearch tests... It
takes the fun out of decking, for the most part. I loved the concept of
exploring the systems, seeing the sculpted systems come alive, and now, it's
all one big mess... In our group, we ended up solving that by kinda
combining the two... It works well that way.
The only complaint I have now is that combat, for me, takes way too long or
way too little time. Bull is at the point where only MEGA black ice slows
him down, and a top notch decker is his only real threat. However, I went
up against a decker the other night, and we beat on each other for 15
minutes without harming each other... The GM finally crashed the system in
disgust... You can be too powerful...
Those are just my VERY unorganized and rambling thoughts, boys and girls...
hope they aren't too confusing...:)
Order is Illusion! Chaos is Bliss! Got any fours?
Not a flame, but a small glow:)
