From:	JonSzeto <JonSzeto@***.COM>
Subject:	SR Lethality Follow-up
Date:	Tue, 23 Dec 1997 17:22:16 EST

Okayyyyy, let's see what we've gotten here....

In answer to the question "Is Shadowrun lethal enough?" the general consensus
I've gotten has run around the form of "Yes, but...." Most people seem to
think that it's lethal enough at the "normal" level but breaks down at the
higher end of the scale.

With that in mind, I'd like to toss around a couple of ideas:

(1) Currently the basic combat test (in other words, for ranged, melee, magic,
and so on) is an Opposed Test: whoever gets more successes (attacker or
target) stages up or stages down the damage, as appropriate. How about
changing this back to a Resisted Test: The attacker makes his test and stages
the damage up, based on the number of successes. Then the defender makes his
resistance test, staging down the damage from the result (after the attacker's
test).

(2) For both the Attack and Resistance Tests, every two successes stages the
Damage Level up (or down) by one step. Consider this idea: during the
Attacker's Test, every *single* success stages the Damage Level up by one
step; for the Resistance Test, it still takes two successes to stage the
damage down one step.

This should address two problems that have been mentioned: it's a lot easier
for characters with low Combat Skills to achieve enough successes (before
including Combat Pool dice) to do real damage, and now light pistolsand knives
are a real threat (it only takes 3 successes to score these up from Light to
Deadly damage, instead of 6). By leaving the Resistance Test unchanged, it
shouldn't make it Shadowrun more lethal than it already is.

(3) Currently any additional successes (after scoring damage to Deadly) have
no effect, unless using the optional Deadlier Over-damage Rules (either the
FoF version or the SRComp version). Consider this idea: any "leftover"
successes, after staging up the damage to Deadly, increases the target number
for the Damage Resistance Test, at a rate of +1 for every *two* successes
above and beyond.

This does not necessarily nullify the Deadlier Over-damage Rules. Those rules
require that the Power be greater than a threshold (2x Body or 1.5x Body,
depending on the verion used). The +1 modifier/2 successes may apply to
weapons that do not meet the Deadlier Over-damage criteria.

One final note: as they stand, ideas (1), (2), and (3) are not interlinked
together and can stand apart from each other.

Let me know what you think. Are any of these ideas worth considering? All of
them? None of them? Some of them? Why or why not?

Thanks,
-- Jon