From: [f--h--e] at [amd.com] Reply-To: [f--h--e] at [amd.com] Errors-To: [flashlife control] at [amd.com] Subject: Flashlife V2 #5 To: [f--h--e] at [amd.com] From: Carl Rigney (moderator) <[flashlife control] at [amd.com]> Flashlife Tue, 30 Apr, 1991 Volume 2 : Issue 5 Today's topics: Re: How to make players think (D. J. McCarthy) Limiting Mages (The Renegade Ranger) Tech Priority 3 & 4 (Milord) Priorities in Archetype Generation (CRIT) More Stuff: Metahumans, Stealth (Andrew David Weiland) New Metahuman Design Rules (N.A.Charsley) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 91 09:30:24 PDT From: [d m ccart] at [modl01.intel.com] (D. J. McCarthy) Subject: Re: How to make players think I've been stuck in a rut like this too, in a lot of different games, and I've only recently found a way out. It might not work too well in Shadowrun, but I'd give it a shot. Set up a command structure. Or rather, have the players set up a command structure. I'm not talking about a rigid military-like structure, just one that has a definite decision-maker and maybe a "vice decision-maker", and have the rest of the players tell the decision- maker what's going on and what they think they should do about it. Think of the new Star Trek (although this may be a little too militaristic of an example): when there's something to be planned, all the officers pile into a conference room and they throw out ideas until the captain picks one that he feels will work best. A lot of bad ideas usually get brought up, but a lot of good ideas do too. It's up to the leader to pick the best one. If the shy players are afraid that whatever they suggest will be the thing to get done, then they might not be saying anything because they're afraid it's dumb but it will be carried out regardless. Having a leader provide a "sanity check" might be just the thing they're looking for. If they're good role players, as you suggest, then the best choice of the leader would be the smartest character that *isn't* being run by the person who usually conducts the strategy monologue. Have someone else mediate. If she mediates, then her idea will probably get picked and that will get you nowhere. The leader should also actively recruit ideas - "So, Quiet One, what do *you* think we should do?" - and not let them get away with saying nothing. And, like the old saying goes, "nothing succeeds like success." Carl is right; if the same old "kill everyone" tactic is working for them, there's little reason to change. If player death is the only way to snap a group out of the hack 'n slash mentality, then that's what you have to do. Sorry, chummer, but he who lives by the smartgun dies by the smartgun. -- D. J. McCarthy [d m ccart] at [swtec1.intel.com] intelhf!mipos3!modl01!dmccart -------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Apr 91 22:18:18 EDT From: [t--c--r] at [wpi.WPI.EDU] (The Renegade Ranger) Subject: Limiting Mages Number-crunching and mages can really make a game unbalanced. When their spell locks are making them become Samurai, and they use 'Analyze Device' to try and program, what is everyone else left to do? In my campaigns, I've initiated two methods of control, one slightly more vile than the other. The first occurs due to the likening of Astral Space energies to a spring: It has a constant flow, but of limited scope. If someone diverts the flow upstream, there is less downstream. People who bind the energies to them, using spell locks or whatnot, decrease the available energies for true Hermetic or Shamanic research. The people who would like access to these energies for such legitimate purposes are no doubt going to be slightly upset that people are using the powers for criminal or less-than-worthy applications. And they're just the people to do something about it. FAMC (Free Astral Magic Coven) -An organization of magicians dedicated to the purpose of freeing Astral energies enslaved by the needless. Believing that far too many pools of astral energy were being sucked dry by careless use, the FAMC formed and appointed itself guardian of astral space. Consisiting of high-level initiates, and a few cybered 'retrievers' (those who physically hunt down the magic binders), this group polices the realm of astral space, seeking out wanton misuse of resources. Many of their targets are flagrant users of multiple spell locks, normally for criminal purposes, a high concentration of quickened spells, and elementals/spirits as servants. These individuals can and will free the energies, no matter what it takes. Normally Spell locks will be destroyed first, when conspicuous and multiple, as they do not fight back. Quickened spells are more work, so they will asess the relative worth of the reason for quickening. Elementals and spirits they will unbind only in extreme circumstances, not caring what havoc they wreak. While the seemingly dictatorial methods may be seen as unfair, these mages have both the resources and the abilities to compensate people for their losses, if they voluntarily submit to losing the bound energies. Such compensations as sponsorship for initiation are often more than enough to convince even the most spell-lock dependent person to give them up, in the hopes of currying favor with those more powerful. While the structure of the coven is somewhat loose, there is apparently some interconnection between members which allows easy decision-making. Known to be in the ranks are at least a dozen 6th grade initiates, and a few of even more venerable masters. Rumors even extend to the possibility that several pre-UGE elves (Ancestoral Ancients) are present as masters of the coven. If true, these being would be centuries old, and powerful beyond estimation. The second idea will make Mages hate you the first time they see it happen. Switch the Narcojet toxin, in Narcojet rounds, with high-level stimulant ammunition. When mages suddenly have to start rolling dice to see if they lose magic, they'll learn to avoid open combat real quick. It gets worse though. The twist I've added to the stimulant, and other drug, rules is this: If you use multiple dosages, you have a higher concentration of the chemical in your blood. This translates, in game terms, to a higher rating of the substance, most obviously with stim-patches. Seeing as they operate on a chemical saturation basis, infusing your blood with a high enough level to keep you functioning properly, it stands to reason that the chemical does not difuse throughout the body for a short while. During this period of time, if chemicals of the same sort are pumped into the body, the effect is cumulative. If you give the body a sufficient chance to rest and process the chemicals, it will take care of them. If not, you take the effects at a higher level. In game terms: If someone is hit with stimulant (as an example) of rating 4, then hit with another rating 4 patch two minutes later, they have the concentration equivalent of a rating 8 patch. Therefore, if a mage uses a rating 4 stim patch, he rolls to see if he might lose magic normally. If he uses another rating 4 stim patch within a short period of time (GM discretion, but should be no shorter than 5 minutes), he takes the magic loss test again, except with the rating equivalency he must face being the sum of the two ratings: 8. If he or she waits a sufficient amount of time for the chemical to deconcentrate and begin processing within the body, then the effect is not cumulative. Let me know of comments/complaints/criticisms/cauliflower.. -Tracker [t--c--r] at [wpi.wpi.edu] -------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 91 11:24:10 EDT From: [m--lo--d] at [jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu] (Milord) Subject: Tech Priority 3 & 4 It is true that tech priority's three and four are powerful, however, priority four of anything is powerful (although some would argue that it isn't for race...). Halving it would be a gross blunder. Why? Some examples. Your street sam can (with Level 3), now get Wired-2, a smartgun link, and some minor cyberware and a few contacts. Docwagon? Basic. Now I'm not saying that this is bad...it seems kind of nice actually, but are you scaling the opposition down, too? A decker with 200,000 isn't. That simple. Of course, you could start him/her out without a deck (it's been done often enough...) and hope you find (read in steal) a good one. True, most other basic characters don't need 400,000 Nuyen, but when you consider that it isn't money, so much as background, you start to see it. Our fixer (yes, I am the person who "wouldn't say anything if he knew how to end world hunger") used the Tech three to get around 40 contacts. 200,000. You have to have a way to account for that... As for people buying gross amounts of stuff...a few things: 1) Essence is your check against cyberware. If you are letting characters have alpha- or beta-ware at the beginning of the game then you might have a problem with Tech--4. But charging them surgery costs should balance... 2) If people want to buy all sorts of cool stuff, let them. Where are they going to put it? Carry it around with them? My character, dreamer, bought around 300K worth of `stuff' and couldn't even begin to carry it all. Most of it sits around, waiting for a time to be useful. 3) Lastly, Tech--4 is a `free safety' on character conception. Just like the fact that if you want a martial artist, build them as a physical adept (refering to the last discussion in flashlife...if you really want to call them non-magical, fine by me), if you need to build a character that isn't magical, super-dude, or meta-human, but interesting, Tech--4 might be the place to go. Consider Dreamer: Tech, Stats, Skills. First thing I got, Skillwires 6 and backup cyberware. Dreamer simply could not be built without high skill wires. In truth, I ran out of money having only 1million Nuyen. So, Dreamer had only a few chips in the beginning. I think the problem might lie, not in the 400,000 Tech 3 but in the 20,000 Tech 2. Most mages and physical adepts don't have anything. Maybe you should consider giving all characters one or two contacts `free' That would be a boon to everybody, but moreso to those who can't afford much. It doesn't terribly overpower the characters, but helps those with low techs. Brian Bankler Dreamer-"I've heard there is a Ziabatsu that is working on better expert systems for drones that suddenly lose their riggers. Can I invest?" -- Said shortly after returning to Seattle after the Germany run in Harlequin (assuming I survive). "Is this hell?" -- During a two-second bout of consciousness. -------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1991 15:33:21 PDT From: [C--T] at [USDCSV.ACUSD.EDU] Subject: Priorities in Archetype Generation I was reading through some sample archetypes on your list and noticed that people were using the priorities in a way I wasn't so I thought I would ask. In the rulebook, it says to assign a priority from 0 to 4 to each column of the master character table. They then say the total of your priorities should be 10. I assumed that this meant you could use 2 3's and a 4, or any combination that added up to ten. I notice, however, that they use all the numbers between 0-4 once in generating their examples. The characters generated via my method don't seem too out of line with the game balance, but it would be nice to know if the rest of the Shadowrun world is doing it differently. Thor [The official rule is that you assign each of 0 through 4 once. The other sentence was a mistake. Some people allow sum-to-10 anyway because it gives you more possibilities. I now have a completely different character-building system that I & my players like a lot better; its part of my house rules. --CDR] -------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Apr 91 18:07:11 -0400 From: Andrew David Weiland <[aw 1 s] at [andrew.cmu.edu]> Subject: More Stuff: Metahumans, Stealth More news from the new Shadowrun DM: One of my players informs me that a Decker can use up 1 Million Nuyen buying programs. I still hold that the rigger and samurai cannot use 1 Million Nuyen unless you allow Alpha or Beta Cyberware, or buy things you won't be able to use, like helicopters or possibly hordes of skillsofts. [Not hard at all - Skillwire 6 is 600,000 nuyen by itself. --CDR] Race: I believe that metahumans are severely hosed, since they must give up priority 4. So i've invented a different system. There's no real race priority, but Metahuman genes are approximately the equivalent of priority 3. There are four characteristics; magic, tech, skills, and attributes. Humans can assign priorities 1, 2, 3, or 4 to the four characteristics. The one exception is magic, where one can take priority 4 (mage), 3 (adept), or 1 (no magic). A metahuman without magic takes priorities 1, 2, and 4, the same as human adepts. I suggest that you restrict metahumans to tech priority 3 instead of 4, unless you halve the tech priority 4 award (as i did). Otherwise it's impossible to duplicate a metahuman samurai, decker, or rigger. Metahuman adepts take priorities 1, 2, and 3 (as do human mages). Metahuman mages take priorities 1, 2, and 2 (that's priority 2 for two characteristics). Stealth: I'd also like to hear how people here handle stealth skills, since there are no clear rules in the book. As i play it a character who makes a stealth success test (with a target number based on the environment) manages to avoid detection until someone starts searching for him. Otherwise anyone nearby gets an intelligence check to detect him (usual target number 3, modified for concealment and darkness). If someone searches for him, the target number is based on the environment or twice the character's successes, whichever is lower. As you can see, this system depends a lot on GMs discretion. I've been thinking about codifying it, but i want to see what everyone else has done. -- Andrew D. M. U. Weiland | [aw 1 s] at [andrew.cmu.edu] -------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Apr 91 15:21:46 BST From: <[N A Charsley] at [loughborough.ac.uk]> Subject: New Metahuman Design Rules [This took a long time to reformat. Please don't indent an entire article with spaces; they just waste time and bytes. --CDR] The Reasoning Behind the Rules. Over the past couple of weeks a group of us here at Loughbrough have become increasingly awere of the total disadvantage of being a metahuman. Although in reallity this is a problem which can be lived with it does cause an imbalance in the game. The problem is that it is more cost affective to play a mage than a metahuman, this leads to more mages than metahumans in shadowrun groups. When it is considered that in Seattle 40% of the Population is Metahuman but less than 1% are magically active, this ratio should show up if not in the actual group itself, atleast in the pool from which the group is derived. After much discusion we decided that a change to the methods of designing Metahuman archatypes was needed. The following rules are thoes which we felt were best suited to remadying the situation. They are our best shot and I am submitting them to flashlife with some Trepidation. Please be gentle with them they can be misused. I would be grateful if you would send any comments direct to me at [N A Charsley] at [loughborough.ac.uk] and I will send a summary of the comments to flashlife in a couple of weeks. Metahuman Creation Rules This will eventually replace the book rules for designing metahumans. It will also demonstrate what individuals can get for their priorities. I. Priority Assignment The priorities are still the same i.e. 4,3,2,1,0 assigned between Magic, Attributes, Skills, Tech and Race. The new Master Character Generation Table is as follows, Priority Magic Attributes Skills Tech/Spells Race 0 - 15 17 100/ 5 0 1 - 17 20 1,000/10 5 2 - 20 24 20,000/20 16 3 Adept 24 30 400,000/50 28 4 Magical 30 40 1,000,000/50 40 No mater what race, you can only be a magic user if you spend three or four points, as previously only for humans. II. Brief Description of the Metahuman Creation Rules So now we have our points how can they be spent? These rules apply to Homo sapiens sapiens as well). The full description of the system follows. Points can be spent in two or three ways. 1) To buy the physical characteristics of the race. 2) To be treated better than the stereotypical member of your race. 3) If your campaign allows for characters having SINs then they can be bought for Ten Points. You can get points back from two sources. 1) By the way that the stereotypical member of the race is treated by the rest of society. 2) From the severity of the allergy that the character has. so the formula is as follows, 0 <= Race -( Attribute Mods + Racial Bias + Allergies + Personal Bias + SIN ) the components of the formula are explained under in the next section. <<< What do you call an Elf standing with fourteen Trolls? - The Quarterback >>> III. Detailed Explanations A. Attribute Modifiers Each race has different abilities, which affect various sections of the Gaming System. The more sections effected the more useful that ability is. The following table contains the values that are suitable. TotalCombatDefenceMagicDefenceAstralDeathDamageHealingNormal Body 6 1 1 1 1 6 Quickness 3 2 1 Strength 2 1 1 Charisma 2 1 1 Intelligence3 1 1 1 Willpower 5 1 1 1 1 1 Dermal 5 1 1 1 2 Reach 2 1 1 Low-Light 2 2 Thermo 4 4 Disease 0.5 0.5 This provides the following points for the Standard Metahuman races, Elf 9 +1 Quickness [3] +2 Charisma [4] Low-light Eyes [2] Dwarf 17 +1 Body [6] -1 Quickness [-3] +2 Strength [4] +1 Willpower [5] Thermographic Eyes [4] +2 Dice versus Disease [1] Orc 19 +3 Body [18] +2 Strength [4] -1 Charisma [-2] -1 Intelligence [-3] Low-light Eyes [2] Troll 31 +5 body [30] -1 Quickness [-3] +4 Strength [8] -2 Charisma [-4] -2 Intelligence [-6] -1 Willpower [-5] +1 Dermal [5] +1 Reach [2] Thermographic Eyes [4] B. Racial Bias As can be seen in our society today people are discriminated against because of their race, creed, sex and sexual preference. Seattle in 2050 is unlikely to be any less prejudiced. For simplicity this bias has been broken down into two parts. 1) Tolerance; will people work with you, serve you in restaurants or let you join their Tennis Clubs? 2) Violence; do supermarket trollies have an affinity for your ankles, are you subject to drive-by shootings, or do they stop and make sure they got you? The following table shows how this works. On the basis that if you are fully Tolerated it is unlikely that people will kill you on sight, therefore the level of Violence can never be higher than that of Tolerance. Levels Tolerance Points Violence Points 0 Total 0 Never 0 1 High -4 Confront -4 2 Average -8 Wound -12 3 Low -12 Incapacitate -16 4 None -16 Kill -24 <<< How do you stop a group of Trolls from raping your sister? - Throw them a Football >>> Again for the standard races the following values are obtained, Elf - 8 High Tolerance [-4], Confront [-4] Dwarf - 8 Average Tolerance [-8], Never [0] Orc -24 Low Tolerance [-12], Wound [-12] Troll -28 Low Tolerance [-12], Incapacitate [-16] An additional modifier applies, if the character is of a non Anglo- American background then either Violence or Tolerance should be increased one level. The Racial bias is dependent on how the society in your gaming universe reacts to metahumans. The following is a brief view of how the society in Seattle reacts in our gaming universe. Elves are very airy people, and a little condescending, in the main they are alright, but you would not want one to date your daughter. Elf bashing occurs in some of the predominantly human middle to low class neighbourhoods. Dwarves are very thrifty almost miserly, and they are more at home in sewers and dark tunnels than in civilised society. They have to pay more for membership to Nightclubs etc and are usually prevented from staying in high class Hotels. Very little violence is aimed at dwarves because there is little rep to be gained from it. The only time that Dwarves get the short stick is in the infrequent games of Dwarf-Ball (a relative of Dwarf tossing) played in the Big Rhino, although these are even more infrequent since the ball won the last game! Orcs on the other hand are genetically criminal (the amount of stick that Orc Law enforcers get is quite remarkable) and on the whole cowards. Most places will not employ them because they are untrustworthy. They will be unlikely to gain membership of any non-Orc Clubs and they will most probably be taken for questioning if they are seen in the lobby of any but the lowest Hotels. Their rep is such that the young man who has just been mugged by a female dwarf will swear blind that she was a gang of orcs. Trolls are considered a cross between a puppy and a rhino. They are quite stupid (if you repeat it several times they will finally understand) but will do their best to please you. On the other hand the best place for them is as faraway from human habitat as possible. A Troll wondering into a Middle Class neighbourhood (with out the dust cart) will be shot by a concerned citizen, because there are small children playing in the neighbourhood. <<< Did you hear about the Dwarf Mugger? - He charges Sales Tax >>> C. Allergies These are no longer random, and so the severity and type can now be chosen for the character. They follow the table laid out bellow. Allergy Points Severity Points Silver 2 Nuisance 0 Iron 0 Mild -1 Sunlight -1 Moderate -2 Plastic -3 Severe -3 As can be seen from above the breakpoints are, An Elf only needs a Mild Allergy to Iron. [-1,0] A Dwarf cannot break even. An Orc does not need an allergy to break even. A Troll needs a Nuisance allergy to Plastic. [0,-3] To illustrate this point, an elf with a severe allergy to plastic [- 3,-3] will gain 5 point which can be used to improve ones standing in society (termed social modifiers) D. Personal Bias In each race there are levels of discrimination levied against different members, due to their choice of friends or because of their similarity to the discriminators (Personal Bias). Therefore a high personal bias offsets a low racial bias, Social Modifiers = Personal Bias + Racial Bias The benefits of using points towards personal bias increase the Social Modifier. It must be pointed out that because there will always be some discrimination, your racial bias must always be larger than your personal bias. For example a troll with a racial bias of -28 cannot have a personal bias larger than 27. So what does this Social Modifier effect? Well it makes a difference to how much you have to pay for your day to day living, as described under lifestyles. <<< How do you stop a troll from mugging you? - Tell Him he already has! >>> E. SINs and SINlessness In some campaigns there is a very large penalty for not having a SIN, to try and get round this players will try and claim that they have a SIN gained from some method, It is possible for a SINless person to obtain a SIN from several places. The cost in points was set at ten for a very good reason. If a character is a non mage then they will always be able to assign priority One to Race so This means that they must assign at least priority Two. Of course the style of the campaign will determine if SINs can be bought in this method and what they will cost. IV. Lifestyles Well there are two ways to do this. The first is the simple way, the cost for a months lifestyle is simply multiplied by a factor relating to the Social Modifier as follows, Cost = Life style x ( 100 - 3 x Social Modifier ) ----------------------------- 100 This of course is the simplified version of looking at it and although you are proportionally penalised due to how much you are spending, it does mean that even when you are only buying food you are getting a raw deal. It also does not give any clues as to what you actually get for you money. The other method suggested is to have each lifestyle give you certain points with which to purchase services. The number of points that you actually get will have your soicial modifier added to it and that is how many point you get to spend. Point Allocation Lifestyle Cost Points Minimum Luxury 100,000Y 28 15 High 10,000Y 20 10 Middle 5,000Y 13 7 Low 1,000Y 7 2 Squatter 100Y 3 2 Streets 0Y 0 0 The points that you get are allocated every month so it is possible to decide that you want to change what you get for your money. It is also possible to look at what you get and then back calculate how much you should pay per month. If you are paying for a certain lifestyle then you should be better off than if you were paying for the lifestyle bellow that which you are in, so if you social modifier would take the points value below the minimum points allowance then you get the minimum points. It can also be seen that some of the combinations are rather unrealistic, ie. it is unlikly that you could get a security firm to look after your squat. Points Food Shelter Security Travel 0 None None None None 1 Low Grade Coffin Locked Door None Nutrasoy Hotel 2 High Grade Squat Neighbourhood Tube Nutrasoy Watch Pass 3 Autochef Apartment Gang Bribes Jack Rabbit 4 Maid Service Nice Condo Police Bribes Americar 5 Housekeeper Nice House Security Westwind Firm 6 Household Roomy Condo Elite Staff 7 Roomy House Nightsky 8 Snazzy Condo 9 Penthouse The following are some examples of how the system should be used. Character Concept, Elf Company Man with SIN. The fact that the character is an Elf automatically sets both the Attribute Modifiers and the Racial Bias. We have also stipulated that he has a SIN so again we are fixed with that expenditure, so at the moment we have 0 <= Race -( 9 - 8 + Allergies + Personal Bias + 10) Race -( 11 + Allergies + Personal Bias) Being a company man with a SIN he will most likly be treated well, and so his social modifier should be as low as posible (-1) this means that his Personal Bias will be 7 (-1 = -8 +7), so the equality now becomes, 0 <= Race -( 11 + Allergies - 7) Race -( 18 + Allergies) The most points taht can be got back from an allergy are 6 for a Severe allergy to Plastic. This would mean that the points from race would have to be at least 12 (priority 2), on the other hand the minimum allergy would cost 2 points and so we would requier 20 points (priority 3). If we assign priority 2 to race then we get 16 points and the equallity becomes as follows. 0 <= 16 -(18 + Allergies) 0 <= -2 + Allergies This means that the character must have at least a Mild allergy to Iron. This has selected the priority for race and the other priorities should be assigned in the usuall way, ie. Magic 0 None Attributes 3 24 Skills 4 40 Tech 1 1,000Y Race 2 16 The Next Example is very simple, Character Conception, Human Magic user with a SIN. Well from Normal Rules, any full blood mage or shaman must have a priority of 4 for magic and human wishing a SIN must have a race of 2 (they lose the other 6 points of the 16 they get for priority 2 race), so now the remaining priorities must be assigned Magic 4 Full magic user Attributes 1 17 Skills 0 17 Tech 3 150,000/50 Race 2 16 The last example is more to demonstarte the other parts of the sytem, it involves the creation of a new race, we will follow in the Tolkinesk vein and call them Hobbits. The first thing we must deside is what their stats are changed by (remember this is for the race as a whole not one individual). [DEATH TO HOBBITSSSSS! --CDR] Hobbits are tought little creatures (+1 Body), they are also agile although they don't run that fast (+2 quickness, x 3 running multiplyer). They are not very strong (-1 strenght), and they have average charisma. They have simmilar inteligence to humans but are generaly more stubbone than even dwarves (+2 willpower). They don't have much of a reach, and are as blind in the dark as humans (no vision mods), however they are very resistant to poisions and other diseases (+2 dice vs disease). Thier lack of stature makes them the butt of everybodies jokes, but thier harmless jovial behaviour means that they are never physicaly harmed. [Don't start paragraph's with From! And don't use brackets - those are reserved for comments. --CDR] [F]rom the above discription we can work out the Attribute Modifiers, Racial Bias and average Social Modifiers for hobbits. Attribute Modifiers, +1 Body ( +6) +2 Quickness ( +6) -1 Strength ( -2) +2 Willpower (+10) +2 dice Vs Desesase ( +1) Total Modifier (+21) Racial Bias Average Tolerance (-8) No Violence ( 0) Total Modifier (-8) This means that the Social Modifier for a Hobbit is also -8. -------------------------- End of Flashlife **************************