From:	Tuvyah@***.COM
Subject:	Re: Paranormals
Date:	Thu, 8 May 1997 03:12:36 -0400

M.J.Steedman@***.rgu.ac.uk (Mark Steedman) writes:

::Gurth writes

::> Simon T. Sailer said on 8:05/ 5 May 97...
::>
::> > Whenever I want to hassle my players with tough metabears,
::> > colour-adaptive bandersnaches or even gigantic juggernauts, the
::> > result is the same...
::> [snip]
::> > Same goes for nearly all animals. They are no challenge.
::> > Anybody got a idea (aside from: 'Up their stats.')?
::>
::> Critters aren't fun in SR unless you make it difficult for the players.
::> You can't play an AD&D-style "kill the monsters" adventure, because
::> automatic weapons make it very hard for the monsters to survive.
::>
::Just about any gun vs nearly any critter is totally terminal as you
::say regardless of the shadow comments to the contrary.

Yah. Personally, I have no problem with critters being less of a threat in
Shadowrun. Recent (last 5,000 years, at least) human history has pretty much
been a rising curve of human effectiveness against animal threats. We've
gotten deadlier, and the other predators have not. It seems only logical that
the Awakening has upped the power levels on both sides, and so hasn't really
leveled the playing field. Cockatrices have magic? So do we. Plus we've got
nifty techno-toys that we didn't have 60 years ago.

Animal threats are only really dangerous when we are unprepared -- i.e.
stripped of the technology that has made us the current Big Kahunas of the
food chain.

I was in Kenya two years ago, and we didn't have to worry about the lions and
cheetahs -- because we spent our time in and near our Land Rovers and we had
a couple of game wardens with AK-47s, just in case. (Also, a century of Brits
with guns and Maasai with spears have taught the cats to just say "no" to
man-eating.)

The one time I WAS in danger, I was in the middle of a nice luxury 4-star
encampment, walking to the dining hall. No knife, no heavy boots, not even a
good walking stick -- unprepared. I was attacked by a spitting cobra on the
steps. (Fortunately, the thing spat its poison, it didn't bite, and I was
wearing long pants.) After the first miss, the cobra didn't press the issue.
I went inside and talked to the staff. Properly prepared, they got big
sticks, found the thing, and whacked it to death.

The few times we've had paranimals in a scenario, they've wreaked havoc
because the encounter was when the players were not expecting it, and were
consequently lacking in body armor, machine guns, and force 10 foci. It's not
the Ares guard-piasma that gets you; it's the devil rats in your bed.

My two cents.


--Smilin' Ted
"....who knows why he's smilin'."