From:	sfeley@*****.com (Stephen Eley)
Subject:	Average?
Date:	Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:08:17 -0400

On 8/25/05, Timothy J. Lanza <tjlanza@************.com> wrote:
>
> Getting back to the compression issue, under this game's system no
> character starts with higher than 6, but there is still 7 and 8 to reach
> for. 9 and 10 are generally reserved for the truly extraordinary, and give
> the GM headroom to play with.

But you can do that in Shadowrun too. 6 is just the *starting*
maximum. The absolute maximum for karma-raising is 9 (plus racial
mods) and then you've still got cyberware, bioware and spells to play
with. Lots and lots of headroom for making NPCs that will challenge
the players.


> In my SR campaigns, I have always set the Man on the Street average at 2
> rather than three. I carefully explain to my players that three is the
> average runner; this reduces the number of people that insist on starting
> with sixes.

Do you also reduce the number of attribute points available at
chargen? Otherwise, what you just said connotes that the average
runner takes Priority E on attributes (thus indicating retardation
even before INT points are assigned) and the Man on the Street takes,
I dunno, Priority G or something.

Anyway, my experience is that nobody really cares what the "average"
shadowrunner can do. They care about making *their* character the
best he/she can be at whatever they decide is important. And that's a
proper perspective. The PCs are the protagonists of the story. They
are, in a narrative sense, the most important people in the world.
The stats of the average person matter because they'll interact with
them, but why should they limit what a PC can do?

--
Have Fun,
Steve Eley (sfeley@*****.com)
ESCAPE POD - the SF podcast magazine
http://escape.extraneous.org