| From: | Gurth gurth@******.nl |
|---|---|
| Subject: | things that go boom in the night! |
| Date: | Tue, 2 Mar 1999 12:45:30 +0100 |
the street was...
> this is a pretty short question: I have a group of runners that are
> intent on using grenade launchers to blast away all opposition, and as a GM,
> my sense of balance is disturbed--the rules for if launched minis go off on
> contact are vague, but SR3 seems to suggest that they explode on impact. I
> don't want to play the escalation game with them. any suggestions to
> dissuade them from this?
There are a number. One is that everything the PCs can get their hands on,
is also available to the NPCs. This means that if the PCs get a reputation
for using grenade launchers, then NPCs who know who they're up against
will try to arm themselves in a similar way.
Another way is to always remember the minimum range of these weapons, but
not to remind the players of this until after they've fired. Thus, putting
the NPCs close to the PCs will actually make the grenade launchers useless
-- a hit on anything within 5 m won't set off the grenade.
You could also increase the Availability and Street Index on such weapon,
making them much rarer than they are presently.
> perhaps house-rule it, and assign a lesser damage code to the
> minigrenades, given that they're "mini"?
That is something I've thought about myself, not so much because my
players use grenade launchers a lot but more for realism -- why does a
smaller grenade have just as big a blast radius as a larger model?
> cause dire consequences to fall upon them for using such a conspicuous,
> attention-grabbing weapon?
Definitely. You can't walk around the street carrying a grenade launcher
everywhere. Not without getting yourself shot on sight by the cops, the
local gang, and others who don't like you owning that particular weapon.
OTOH if they keep the weapon well-concealed (like leave it in their
apartment until they _really_ need it, and even then carry it in the trunk
of a car), grenade launchers aren't too much of a problem (for the players
and for the GM) in my experience.
> or use the setting, Bug City, as a keep-away device?
Not sure how useful this would be. If you want to run a combat-heavy
campaign, this could be a good setting. However if you choose BC only
because you want to keep grenade launchers away from the PCs, there must
be better options available.
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
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