From:	shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken)
Subject:	Complementary Skills
Date:	Tue Mar 12 20:35:01 2002

Xian writes:

> As an especially tolerant and permissive GM, I've always used
> complementary skills like this just like the using Athletics to suplement
> Dodge.
>
> Since in the end it comes down to an active skill, it really doesn't
> matter how much you know about Urban Sniper Concealment if you have no
> experience hiding yourself. I have a PC that has a know skill on Dwarven
> Welsh Mafia. When he has to make Street Ett roles I allow him to make a
> Know skill roll first and add the number of successes in dice to his Street
> Ett roll.
>
> This system has served me well in the past, and I find that players
> choose knowledge skills that really apply to their characters more this
> way.

Um, not that I think this rule is a bad idea, but I was wondering why you
considered that you were "especially tolerant and permissive" for allowing
it? It's probably worse in many circumstances than the 1 success for every 2
Complimentary Skill successes rule that's in the book. But, OTOH, I guess
that in some circumstances (mainly very low TNs) it's actually better. So it
probably evens out, and it actually involves less maths ;-).

OTOOH, it doesn't really help answer the original proposed question. A
Stealth Test has _no_ TN. It is an Open Test. So even your rules do not
cover the situation, as the Complimentary Skill roll is unable to generate
successes, and thus unable to add dice to the actual Skill Test.

Marc Renouf writes:

> On Tue, 12 Mar 2002, Gurth wrote:
>
> > Probably the best suggestion (that I can remember, anyway) was to halve
> > the number of dice rolled for the complimentary skill, as this still
> > lets you roll a high number but gives less chance of it happening than
> > on the basic skill dice.
>
> This is the way we've always done it, and it works fine.
> Actually, this is the mechanic we use for *all* tests involving
> complementary skills (not just Open Tests). While statistically it makes
> complementary skills more useful, it's just plain easier to remember and
> it means you only have to roll dice for a test once.

You should mention this in your house rules, then...

For what it's worth, it took exactly one SR3 gaming session for my group to
do exactly the same thing. We figured that the slight advantageous skew it
gave Complimentary skills was more than offset by the convenience of not
doubling the dice rolling, and being able to be used smoothly with Open
Tests.

--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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