From: [f--h--e] at [amd.com] Reply-To: [f--h--e] at [amd.com] Errors-To: [flashlife control] at [amd.com] To: [f--h--e] at [amd.com] Subject: Flashlife Screamsheet V2 #1 From: Carl Rigney (moderator) <[flashlife control] at [amd.com]> Flashlife Screamsheet Fri, 22 Mar, 1991 Volume 2 : Issue 1 Today's topics: Flashlife Returns! (Moderator) Homicidal Players (P. J. Adam) Help with spirits? (jmellby) Request for NPCs (Brian Dunn) GM requests help (Ananda) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: [flashlife control] at [AMD.COM] (Moderator) Subject: Flashlife Returns! Date: Wed, 9 Jan 91 08:34:43 PST After 10 weeks, I've finally had the time to switch Flashlife to digest format. It'll start out weekly but may be more frequent if traffic warrants. The list is now at 173 users, which is too big a load to send each message individually. Further, by going to a digest format I can weed out the noise, at the cost of slower turnaround. More importantly, I can batch submissions and send them out only in the evening so that it doesn't clog our mailer during the day. Mail submissions to [f--h--e] at [amd.com.] Mail add & drop requests to [flashlife control] at [amd.com.] -- Carl Rigney, Moderator [flashlife control] at [amd.com] "Not impossible, but unlikely. Most of Seattle is like that, these days." -------------------------- From: [P J Adam] at [loughborough.ac.uk] Subject: Homicidal Players Date: Wed, 16 Jan 91 16:30:14 GMT Greetings. Is it just our group or are there some homicidal maniacs out there? We had a run where the runners planned and executed a raid on a MCT shipment. During the firefight, one guard was hit and knocked over, and although he wasn't badly hurt he decided he only had three years until he could retire with pension. Unfortunately, while he was lying there minding his own business one of the runners coup-de-graced him for no apparent reason. Similarly, when I was playing Bottled Demon, one of the group shot someone for reaching into his coat. Eight armed runners, all in Kevlar, this guy has something small enough to hide under his coat (and so too small to seriously hurt anyone) and the runner still blew him away. And now in Queen Euphoria, we're about to try to kidnap Euphoria, and our mage fried the brains of the corridor guard with a mana bolt. Lynch is busy trying to stabilise the guy, which seems to confuse everyone else since they all seem happy to let him die. Does roleplaying do things to people or are they like that anyway? My character at the moment is an ex-corp merc who knows what it's like to be on the wrong end of a runner's gun. Even if you don't stop to stabilise the dead guards, at least break their medevac bracelets so their trauma teams can arrive and help them. You'll get a much better reputation and fewer embitterred survivors will come gunning for you. Combat is dangerous. As regular correspondents will know, in my games it's even more dangerous. Players don't lose fights often enough - if they came out worst more often, perhaps they would behave often enough - if they did, they might behave in a more civilised manner towards fallen opponents. My personal thought is that most inter-corp warfare is kept 'clean' - limited extent, picked battlegrounds, and medics on standby - to reduce the risks for forces, chosen ground and medics on standby - to reduce the risks to innocent bystanders (They shot my wife! I'll never buy Renraku again!) and their own troops (Don't work for the Aztech, buddy, their medics don't know squat about trauma care). On a lighter note, is the NRA still out there? Fighting for the right of every citizen to bear the automatic weapon of their choice? Campaigning for the legalization of APDS ammo (in case Bambi evolves a Kevlar skin?) Demanding that smartlink circuits be fitted to every citizen at birth? The mind boggles. Another idea, suggested by the warring police tribes in 'So Long and Thanks for all the Fish' by Douglas Adams - when does the Seattle police franchise come up for review? And how far is Knight-Errant prepared to go to win it? What will Lone Star do to keep it? Even if the runners aren't actively involved, the possibilities are interesting as background. Anyway, enough for the moment. Let's see what this digest looks like... -- P.J.Adam%[uk ac loughborough] at [net.cs.relay] -------------------------- From: [j--l--y] at [skvax1.csc.ti.com] Subject: Help with spirits? Date: Thu, 17 Jan 91 08:36:29 -0600 My group is just starting its first real Shadowrun, and because they haven't start conjuring yet, I figured I would generate an elemental or spirit or two for their potential foes to use against them. Hopefully this would get the magician/shaman in the group to start using spirits themselves. I have a couple of questions about spirits. 1. What power do spirits have? I know the Shadowrun errata said "We won't define spirit's powers so that the players can be kept guessing" but frankly, this is stupid. If you're not going to define anything, why have rules in the first place? It reminds we of a short role-playing session between two friends of mine when they were more than a little "under the influence": Bob: "You attack the demon. Roll to hit!" Ed: "I roll 1,017.35!" Bob: "You hit, but it instantly regenerates two new arms, and eats Cleveland!" 2. What services do spirits do? It is explicitly spelled out for elementals. Do spirits do the same thing? (I would assume so.) 3. Elemental/nature spirit attacks, or any critter attacks. In the critter section it lists attack power, such as 4m3, but how do they hit? They have no unarmed combat skill. Strength can transfer on the skill chart but only at -4. Do the critters then automatically do 4m3 with no chance to increase the damage class, and no chance to miss? Do they get a single die to hit? Help? 4. In the example in the book (I don't have it here so I don't know the page number), a shaman summons a desert spirit to help him, and it performs an attack, a movement/transport, and protects him from the desert. I didn't see this class of protection listed under spirit powers. Does this mean a water spirit could allow someone to breath underwater? Or form a bubble of air around someone underwater? How about a city spirit protecting someone from a car wreck or a falling building? 5. Has anyone got any good examples of allies? I created a basic ally spirit, not too powerful, and the amount of karma it took would boost a merc or street samurai up to firearm skill 10+ or give someone a HOST of lower-power skills. Is this what old, experienced, powerful magicians will be? I.E. someone with a super-powerful Ally, and a pack of summoned elementals? On a final, comic note, its interesting seeing what the characters do just discovering the Shadowrun universe. They come from other FRP backgrounds (mainly D&D and the like). We have had incidents like: Players: "We bargain with him" Me: "Who has the highest negotiation skill?" Players: "Negotiation skill?" Me: "He cuts your fee in half!" or, just after a very nice bit of capturing someone by coordinating a car, a remote drone, and several large street samurai, they didn't really know who this guy was, just he had perhaps been following the Mrs. Johnson who was trying to hire them (they didn't even know Mrs. Johnson's name yet) Players: "We question this guy we picked up" Me: "Whats your interrogation skill?" Players: "Huh?" Me: "The street samuraii says 'See this blackjack? Tell us why you were in the street or we'll hit you, and this really hurts! See?' 'Now talk!' The rigger says 'Hey! His eyes are closed! And he is bleeding!'" Classic D&D questioning techniques :-) -- John R. Mellby Texas Instruments [j--l--y] at [skvax1.ti.com] P.O.Box 869305, MS 8513 Plano, Texas, 75266 (214)517-5370 (214)575-6774 telephone companies are not stupid, at least for large values of "stupid". -- Mr. Protocol, Mark O'Brien -------------------------- From: "Brian Dunn 312-935-6790" <[U 08884] at [UICVM.uic.edu]> Subject: Request for NPCs Date: 8 February 1991 08:49:40 CST i am still collecting pc's to use as npc's for shadowrun please send your favorite pc/npc to [u 08884] at [uicvm.uic.edu] and when i get enough pc's i will post them mr sin -------------------------- From: ANANDA%[BSU DECNET] at [MSUS1.BITNET] Subject: GM requests help Date: Tue, 12 Mar 91 21:02:42 CST I'm supposed to start gming SR this Sunday (read: 3 days from *now*), and I think I'm dooooooommmmmedddd...... Among other things, I have no good answeres as to why a physical adept can't use a (wierd) magical sword to its full abilities. I've been punting, but the results are falling a bit short... [ Because the magic of Physical Adepts is internally focused. They can do amazing things with themselves, but they can't bind magic foci or cast spells or call up spirits. (That's why it only takes priority 3, not 4.) -- CDR ] And I'm looking for suggestions on how to make a _Phantom of the Opera_-like character actually useful in some of FASA's modules... I don't know anything about the Phantom, d*mn it. -- Ananda ananda%[bsu decnet] at [msus1.bitnet] /ananda%[b--u] at [msus1.bitnet] \__if the .decnet ananda%[bsu decnet] at [msus1.msus.edu] \ananda%[b--u] at [msus1.msus.edu] / causes problems -------------------------- End of Flashlife Screamsheet **************************