From: elder@ecf.toronto.edu (ELDER J David)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SRII: Some questions and Comments.
Date: 30 Sep 92 19:31:00 GMT
Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility


Hi all! I have purchased SRII and read most of the rules. I have a few
questions and comments. Since I have never played SR I hope you 
will bear with me :-).

First, the rules seem reasonably well written and quite well thought out
for the most part. However, some recent posts about SRII have placed
the race priority somewhere other than A or E and I don't see why. It 
says in the rules that a Metahuman must have the race priority at 
level A - otherwise the character will be human. 

Here are my questions.

1) Phys Ads can increase their abilities at a later time by expending
   points later on ... if they have purchased the ability at the 
   beginning of the game. However, where do these points come from?
   Magic Rating is fixed at 6 and is decreased by Essence loss. 
   Karma cannot be used to increase the Magic Rating. Does this
   mean that Adepts can use Power foci to increase their abilities?
   Can spells be cast upon adepts which would increase their magic 
   rating? 

2) Targetting of area of effect spells. It repeatedly says that a 
   mage must see the target for him to be affected by a spell. And
   so - targets out of his line of sight are not affected. This
   doesn't seem to make sense in conjunction with the descriptions
   of how the spells work. Mana spells discharge energy into the 
   target's aura which then radiates outward... what would stop this
   from affecting bystanders that the mage can't see. Similarly,
   manipulation spells cause a real energy discharge ... wouldn't
   this affect an invisible target between the mage and the designated
   target? Even if the mage can't see him? If as in their example
   it can be stopped by a wall ... then it should be stopped by
   any other physical prescence. (See the example about firing
   spells with mirrors.) 

3) Possible misprint. Mana combat spells ... three of the four 
   Manabolt, ManaMissile ... are listed as physical and I think 
   they should be Mana spells - otherwise what real difference is there
   between these and the Power series of spells?

4) How can a sleep spell ever actually sleep someone. It appears that
   the caster would need 4 more successes than the target to cause 
   a deadly stun and thus put the target uncounscious. However, a
   manabolt would only need 2 more successes to stage it to deadly
   physical (The drain in the two cases would be about the same 
   F/2 vs F/2 -1 ) and the spells are resisted by the same characteristic.
   So, moral of the story is that it is easier to blast someone than sleep
   someone? And if it isn't too easy to blast someone - it must be damn 
   hard to make them go to sleep. 

5) Increase reflexes or Wired reflexes at a +3 dice level ...
   does this give (Reaction) + 4d6 for initiative?

6) Telekinetic manipulations... they list a value of 50kg/point of body
   for mass and this seems unrealistically high would 50 lbs + 50 lbs/point 
   be more realistic? 
   i.e. 100 to 350 lbs (Could be ~50kgs to ~175kgs) instead of
        110 to 660 lbs 
     as the normal human range.
   (P.S. I know 1kg = 2.2 lbs ... no flames please.)

I am planning on running a session this weekend as an intro to the
game for some friends. Does anyone have any simple introductory
runs that I could borrow ... I can make up my own but I'd like to see
what ideas are out there.

Thanks

David


-- 
David Elder                                University of Toronto
                                           Institute for Aerospace Studies
elder@bullet.ecf.toronto.edu               Fusion Research Group 
stange@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca