| From: | Gurth <gurth@******.NL> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: SRII Lethality |
| Date: | Thu, 18 Dec 1997 10:58:35 +0100 |
> What do you think about the lethality level of the Shadowrun combat system
> overall? This includes melee, guns, explosives, and magic.
It's both not lethal enough and too lethal at the same time. This may
sound weird, but read on...
> If it's too lethal, why do you think it's too lethal? Too easy to stage up
> damage? Too hard to stage it down? Power too high?
>
> If it's not lethal enough, again, why? Staging? Power? Damage Levels?
For characters with average Body (3-4) and little or no armor, SR is
pretty lethal, but not overly so. Characters with Bodies of 1 or 2 are
simply asking to die, which is IMHO partly why you hardly ever see people
play such chars as PCs and why only minor NPCs should have Body ratings
like that.
OTOH, a Body of 5 or more and decent armor will allow you to live through
most kinds of damage, especially if some Combat Pool can be thrown in. The
other day, to demonstrate to my players that SR breaks down on the high
end of the scale, we took Mr. Indestructible (a troll with Body 18 and 10
or so Combat Pool dice) and shot him with a shotgun. No damage.
The other side of this is that it's virtually impossible to do any _real_
harm unless you have a reasonable skill level, preferably coupled to a
powerful weapon. Light pistols, not to mention hold-outs, are virtually
worthless, as are knives wielded by weak or average people (Strength <=
4) almost regardless of the skill level. Sure, someone with Firearms 10
and Combat Pool 10 will be able to kill people with a hold-out, but an
unskilled sooter will often fail to kill with a sniper rifle at
point-blank range.
> The general consensus I seem to get (here and on r.g.f.c) is that Shadowrun
> isn't lethal enough. Either it's too easy for characters to resist damage, or
> too hard to get it up to an appropriate level of lethality.
MHO about the SR damage system: Body has a disproportionate impact on how
much damage you actually take, while at the same time the firer's
successes (or lack thereof) also have too much influence.
To really fix this, if that's the intention of your post (it has a very
Steve Kenson-ish "What do you think about the SR magic system so it might
perhaps be addressed for a future book proposal that I may possibly be
working on?" kind of feel to it :) I think things should be leveled out a
bit more. Apart from the obvious fixes (adjust Damage Codes to more
realistic levels), it should be possible for untrained people to kill
others with guns, even if those others have high Body ratings and some
armor.
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html - UIN5044116
It's crap but we love it!
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-> The New Character Mortuary: http://www.electricferret.com/mortuary/ <-
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version 3.1:
GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+ PE
Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
