CrystalBlue

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	1,028 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	2 years, 2 months
39 badges		location	La Crosse, WI		seen	yesterday

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Oct 10	comment	How to balance the numbers and equipment of an encounter in Shadowrun 4E? Right. Gangers might have a smattering of sawed-off shotguns, crappy SMGs, and pistols. No good modifiers there. Corp Sec's going to have smart links, heavy body armor, skill wires, specialization in the type of assault rifle they're using, a rigger running a TacNet. Even though I sit with a DP of 14 for corp sec, that number can go up to around 19 if I add the modifiers. And for numbers of guys, that has more to do with what you think they'd have. Corp Sec would normally have 12 guys, 6 on patrol around an area with 6 others on break or on cameras.
Oct 9	comment	How to balance the numbers and equipment of an encounter in Shadowrun 4E? Since Runeslinger's got the answer mostly covered, I'll only add a few cents. When I'm having to design a group of people or an encounter, I try to run with the idea of a dice pool in mind for that particular type of encounter. Usually, I use a 4 DP for anyone that's not trained or used to combat, a 6 DP for average, 8 DP for trained, 10 DP for well trained, and 12+ DP for highly skilled and trained. This would be without modifiers. If you throw some gangers at the PC's, their gun skills should be around 6 or 8. For a strike team? 12 to 14.
Aug 24	comment	How do initiative passes and multiple actions work? Good answer. I'll also add that initiative passes and combat rounds have different things happening to them. Everyone runs the same amount of distance in a turn, which is broken up between all the initiative passes. So, say Bob runs for cover and it's 30 meters away. He runs 30 meters in a combat turn, but it's broken up between the three passes, because time is taking place for the other runners in a different lapse of time. So in the first pass, Bob is only 10 meters towards cover.
Jul 3	comment	*How do I deal with a Technomancer who uses a lot* of sprites?** It's an issue if you have a hacker that knows what they're doing. Sure, a technomancer can't be 'hacked' and tracing them is hard. Notice that it doesn't say impossible. Technomancers get a silver plate to eat off from on a golden pedestal by many people in SR. They're seen as untouchable. They are not, and my rigger Mouse proves that point. I constantly have to clean my data trail every game and put more points into my stealth program when running around the city. It's not as easy as most people think it is.
May 8	comment	How does Monk's unarmed strike interact with powers requiring two weapons? I kind of call suspect on that last comment. By the flavor of the text, you are correct. They can make an unarmed strike with any part of their body. However, back in 3.5, a monk needed to be wielding only monk weapons or have their body unimpeded to use their flurry of blows, gain the damage from their unarmed strikes, ect. Even though this is 4th we're talking about, it still sounds right to me. A monk's martial arts encompasses the entire body. Limiting them to only kicks would reduce their effectiveness, ergo, reducing their ability to effectively wield their unarmed strike.
Mar 28	comment	How to use a Minigun effectively That was my major point about the RC, was that many of them were incompatible. I'll have to pass this by the books and see if I can see that rule somewhere.
Mar 19	comment	Do burst powers affect the square you occupy? Is there a specific place where this lists this? Because I can see how it's interpreted to mean that. However, I think the point of the close burst is to not target the caster when making the attack. Meaning you could, theoretically, target tiny in your square. At least it makes sense to me in that context.
Mar 8	comment	*How do I deal with a Technomancer who uses a lot* of sprites?** One thing to point out about sprites is that you can only have so many registered. I can't remember what stat it is (Cha?) but you can only have so many. Plus, if compiling a sprite on the fly, you do take drain and you can't have more then one compiled sprite at a time (what I call a Run-Time sprite)
Mar 6	comment	“Epic Level” Shadowrun If you want to be especially mean, you can throw in some twists to the campaign. They have cortex bombs in their heads. Have they even tried to ID the ware? Maybe it's nothing more then a chip in their brains to make them think that. Psychological mind-games like this from the prison would be great. At least give the players a way out while being bought by SK. Give them the small window of oppertunity to try and escape. Or maybe they like the idea of being part of the mega corp, since it'll pay well and they're protected. Just some hooks for your last run.
Feb 29	comment	Does Novice Power let you retrain your Paragon Path encounter power? Well, I agree with you. That's why it didn't make sense when I saw that and thought 'Wait...I guess you could, by the rules, swap it out'. I was actually looking for that ruling but didn't run across it.
Feb 29	comment	Thunder Hooves Issue No, I understand. I was just pointing out that Rage + Action Point + At Will Power was what I assumed his idea was.
Feb 29	comment	Does Novice Power let you retrain your Paragon Path encounter power? AH, hard rulings. It didn't seem to make sense before, but now that I know there's a rule for it specifically...
Feb 28	comment	Can a thief sneak attack with an implement power? I guess the entire subject is off, in my opinion. I can't see how the type of weapon you're using as an implement matter in terms of sneak attack, but if those are the rules, those are the rules. I don't agree with them, but if it's a hard ruling from WotC I have to accept it.
Feb 27	comment	Can a thief sneak attack with an implement power? I can carry around a dagger and, just because it's a focus, doesn't mean that I'm using the dagger to attack with. Implement attacks are not physically delivered through the implement. Same with a ki focus. You are not delivering the attack through the weapon, you are delivering it through some other means which gets charged from the implement. Hence, you are not making the attack with the weapon, you are making the attack with [Insert Melee Tool Here] and you're charging that hit with the focus.
Feb 27	comment	Can an Elementalist benefit from “sorcerous reserves?” I agree with this. It states that you have to expend them, and as an Elementalist, you can't expend daily powers. Ergo, you can't get the benefit.
Feb 27	comment	Is magic, hacking, or rigging vital for balance in SR4? That's kind of why corps press awakened people into their inner circle when they find them out. For two reasons: to use you as a magical tool and to keep all other corps from using you as a magical tool against them. I don't think magical people are that rare, however, but it is uncommon, if anything. You have to understand, SR is on a major mana-cycle upswing. The rules of reality are changing on a daily basis. Why do you think the Night of Rage happened. :O
Feb 27	comment	Is magic, hacking, or rigging vital for balance in SR4? There's a theme when playing a hacker or rigger. The downside to hacking is that it takes too long and usually only one person is doing it, which gives the illusion that the hacker is a god in their own arena. However, give a mundane without a datajack a good commlink and some decent agents and programs and they can usually stand up to a hacker even without VR. A hacker just has the added bonus of VR and having the skills rather then relying on a program to do it for them. Technomancers and sprites...that's a different ballgame altogether.
Feb 24	comment	Is magic, hacking, or rigging vital for balance in SR4? Like I say, it's your game and you chose the world. If you want it as written, there's a lot that you might be missing by removing those elements from the game. Thematically, they should be there. But it's your world and you can do what you like. Again, it's completely viable to use only mundane and cyber characters.
Feb 9	comment	What's the result when a Readied Action is triggered by another Readied Action? So the math would go something like PCa, PCb, Target. PCa readies for Target. PCb redies for PCa to act. Target makes the action that PCa readied for. PCb's action then triggers. Initiative would move around so that it would read PCb -> PCa -> Target, and the actions that each of them have resolve in that order as well. PCb gets is action, PCa gets to continue his action, then Target gets to finish his action.
Feb 6	comment	What makes Shadowrun 4e different? What are its defining tropes and features? Or pre-errata, you could have a troll take a simple bow and put an arrow through the same tank. A normal, everyday arrow. Archery trolls were something to be feared before they were nerfed, for good reason.