| From: | Justin Pinnow <vanyel@*******.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: SRII Lethality |
| Date: | Fri, 19 Dec 1997 12:51:05 -0500 |
> Date: Friday, December 19, 1997 11:16 AM
> At 03:33 PM 12/19/97 +0100, you wrote:
> >Damage from weapons shouldn't kill too easily but shouldn't be reduced
to
> >null either.
> When most folks in the game wear armor? Why not? An unarmored person,
in
> SR, is really, really unlikely to resist all the damage from even a light
> pistol if you got some successes, since he's looking at 6's to resist.
> Kevlar does wonders for stopping unwanted flying lead.
Exactly. Look at the base system for someone without armor vs. a shot from
a light pistol. With an average body of 3, half the time not even one
success will be generated, much less the two necessary to stage the damage
down from L to nothing. Also, if the attacker generates a couple of extra
successes, it's impossible to stage the damage down to nothing (without
karma, of course).
And that's just your average unarmored Joe resisting a LIGHT pistol. It
only gets worse with bigger guns. The difficult part is when the person
firing the pistol has no firearms skill and has to default. Then it's a
matter of hitting that's a problem, not a matter of hurting. And given the
stories I have seen and what I have heard here on the list, lots of lead
with few hits is pretty much the norm anyway.
So, in summary, a runner with an above average body and some armor is MUCH
better off than your average Joe Citizen. Besides, if you stage the damage
down to nothing, that doesn't mean you didn't get grazed and that your
clothing didn't get torn/stained with gunpowder burns, etc. You still got
hit by a bullet - so roleplay it.
Also, I don't think the canon rules work this way, but here's what I do
even when the damage is staged all the way down to nothing: I STILL apply
knockback/down to the hit. That makes bullets more effective. I mean,
after all, you still got hit by a bullet and the kinetic energy is still
there. However, the effect should be halved or whatever due to it only
being a graze or possibly a dead on hit that was stopped by armor.
The system works, IMO. I don't think it really needs to be changed. I
agree that it makes Joe average pretty ineffective against a well-equipped
runner, but they aren't always walking around in Seattle weather with
layered armor, etc. I mean it's not exactly cold there most of the year
and armor is heavy and would cause you to sweat and be uncomfortable.
I find that many GMs don't put enough realism into their games. If you
want a cinematic game, that's fine. But don't complain when the PCs become
unstoppable if you choose to play this way. I never have a problem with my
players not fearing a bum with a light pistol and only a couple of bullets.
After all, he IS dangerous when the runner is unarmored and isn't carrying
heavy artillery - which is a good portion of the time, as it realistically
should be.
You'd be amazed how much reality will control the players if you choose to
implement it.
losthalo@********.comGoFa6)
Justin :)
