From:	shadowrn@*********.com (Andrew Norman)
Subject:	New Adept Powers
Date:	Wed Sep 26 08:35:03 2001

Damion Milliken wrote:
> Andrew Norman writes:
> > Name: Bullet Deflect
> > Cost: 0.5 per dice (max dice equal to skill in weapon)

> Is there any reason that the Adept in the examples was rolling 6 dice, even
> though he only had a level of 3 in the skill?

Sorry ... my mistake I meant to say he had spent 3 points buying the power

> > The adept with this power can use a sword (or any other metal weapon) to
> > deflect bullets heading towards them.
> Could they use, for instance, their own gun? "<blam, blam, blam>, Adoofus
the
> Adept sqeezed off a quick burst at the bad guy. <fzzt, whzzze, twang>, he
> deflected an incoming burst with his Ares Alpha."

I cannot see why not ... but it the ares made out of metal or only the barrel ?

> > For each bullet in a initiative pass that the adept attempts to deflect
> > the player rolls the dice against a target number of 2 + (number of bullets
> > shot at the adept this round).
>
> You mean the number of bullets that were, or would have, hit the Adept this
> Turn, or this Pass? From the examples, I take it to mean that bullets that
> were fired at, but did not hit the Adpet are not included. I also assume
> that you mean per Turn, rather than per Pass.

I meant (cannot remember the term) the TN goes to 2 everytime the adept
rolls for initiative.

> > The adepts next action is at +4 TN (apart from deflecting bullets) due to
> > the violent moves needed to deflect bullets.
>
> What if he has no more actions? Is his first action of the next Turn
> penalised, or not?

Not sure at the moment. I think that it probably would.

> > What do you think, over powered ??
> >
> > I would make single shots from a single opponent almost worthless if you
> > have the number of dice up a bit. But a NPC with this power sure would put
> > the wind up the characters ;)
>
> It makes things like sniper rifles, assault cannons, missile launchers, and
> pretty much anything else that only fires single, although very deadly,
> rounds pretty useless. I feel that it has a bit of a balance problem,
> therefore.

I think trying to deflect a AVM with a table knife could be amusing ;) Thats
why I specified bullets .. a missile or cannon round explode on proximity
or impact so deflecting them would cause the round to explode.

> It might be better to, perhaps, set the TN to be the Power of the attack. A
> weapons Power is more or less it's armour penetrating capability, which is
> often a measure of it's velocity. Each success would counter one of the
> attackers successes. There would be no limit on the number of rounds that
> could be deflected, nor would there be any cumulative modifier throughout
> the Turn. Heck, you could probably even tone down the +4 modifier, or even
> do away with it.
>
> Although the above idea has the problem that it makes the Power less
> powerful, in that actually deflecting bullets is quite difficult. OTOH, I
> get the idea that you want the power to be able to, more or less, easily
> deflect bullets. In which case you will need some large drawback, like the
> +4 modifier.

The idea was that the first few shots wouldn't be too hard ... but once the
bullets started flying it would rapidly get worse. The increased TN was put
in to try and make it an exclusive action ... ie you can only really stand
there and deflect bullets.

> Keep in mind, if you're designing Powers like this, that "it'd be cool to
> have an NPC with this Power - it'd keep the runners scared" is usually an
> indication that the Power is too good. If you're thinking of not letting PCs
> get access to the Power, it probably means it is overpowered.

This was what I had thought about. Thats why I haven't actually put the players
up against an adept with this power ... yet.

> A good way to run it might be to give it a set TN for deflecting, say 4, and
> modify it in the same manner as Dodge tests. If someone shoots the Adept
> with a single shot, he can deflect it needing only 4's. Bursts give him +1
> to his TN per 3 rounds. It might be good to have his successes subtract from
> the firers successes, like a Dodge test. If he exceeds their successes, he's
> deflected the attack; otherwise he must resist (or dodge?) the attack with
> the reduced number of successes. Having it based on successes, rather than
> automatically allowing it to deflect incoming attacks is better, in my
> opinion. The +4 modifier for the Adepts next action is probably fair enough
> in this case, too.

Another thought that just came to mind. I could just add the number of dice
to the dodge test. Only if the adept is holding a weapon. In other words
he/she/it trys to dodge/deflect the bullets away from them.

> It might be worth paying attention to what the Adept is deflecting with,
> too. If he's deflecting with a sword, Barrier Rating about 10 or so I guess,
> then if he starts deflecting assault cannon rounds, he'll quickly end up
> with a shattered blade in the air around him and a hilt in his hand. If you
> go this way, you might also allow Adepts to use the Power with anything that
> they happen to have in their hands, too. Thus they could deflect with, say,
> Squishee drinks (for little effect other than a 1 time squishee explosion
> ;-)), their neighbours annoying dog (for damage to be resisted by the dog
> ;-)), the deckers deck (for damage to be resisted by the Adept from the
> decker for trashing the 5 million nuyen deck ;-)), and so on. Obviously,
> hard, non brittle, objects like metallic melee weapons would be the best
> :-). Items like impact detonated grenades would probably be the worst :-).

I like this idea. I might sit down and work out version two and
see what people think.

Thanks
-Andrew

--
"What a piece of worke is a man! how Noble in Reason? how
infinite in faculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and
admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension,
how like a God? the beauty of the world, the Parragon of
Animals;"
- Hamlet, Shakespeare