From: cwagner@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Christian Wagner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: ShadowRun HEROIC??? (was Re: Burn, GURPS...)
Date: 26 Jan 1993 08:32:36 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: mickey.cc.utexas.edu

In article <C1FMwL.FxA@news.cso.uiuc.edu> dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga) writes:
>cwagner@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Christian Wagner) writes:
>>John, by the very nature of GURPS, there is no "background" per se, or standard
>>theme in GURPS CP. Thus, because the GURPS CP Adventures book is not part of
>>any particular theme or background, one can't judge GURPS based on the CP Adv.
>>book. 
>>Since SR's modules and supplements are all linked into one (semi)coherent 
>>whole, one -can- use the SR modules to judge the way that Fasa has designed 
>>their universe. 
>Oh, this is rich. Because FASA has placed all it's adventures in one universe
>you can judge them and say "Gee, they are all special ops." However, if GURPS
>CP has a bunch of special ops *but* they don't have a specific world, you 
>can't judge the gaming feel that GURPS CP is trying to convey? Yeah, right.

<rolls eyes> GURPS CP -has no gaming feel-. YOU, the GM, decide everything
that goes into your GURPS CP campaign. It doesn't try to convey a damnable
thing; that's the GM's job. This is the way the #$@! system works in GURPS.

SR, on the other hand, has a built-in attitude, a built-in 'feel'. Every one
of the adventures links in with the SR world in some way, and works off of 
this selfsame theme. 

The GURPS CP Adventures book is -not- hard-linked with anything in the GURPS
CP book. 'DNA/DOA' and company -are- hard-linked to the base SR rules. Do you
get what I'm trying to say here?

(And, for the record, I didn't like GURPS CP Adventures anyway. Felt too much
like SR.)

>>As for cyberware, it's not real hard to modify point costs to fit your own 
>>campaign, and (this is what I like about GURPS CP) there's no artificial
>>"cyberpsychosis" or "essense loss" to restrict options. You can pack as much
>>cyberware in as you've got the points to pay for it; -this- is closer to the
>>CP literature than the other systems. 
>Well, that's a game balance thing. Get rid of the "cyberpsychosis" and
>"essence loss" and the other character types will be even less capable
>when compared to the cyberboys. Same thing happens in GURPS by
>charging points for it.

No shit. But having a maximum arbitrary limit for -all- characters is a lousy
way to enfore game balance. The semi-random system of CP2020 is better, but
not much; at least it doesn't lead to standard 'packages' of cyberware, but it
still leads to artificial roleplaying problems for people with lots of gear.

In a system where cyberware costs money, and one has an upper limit, one can't
create quite a lot of interesting character types. Full-convertion 'borgs, 
something one finds in quite a bit of CP, are impossible under SR and just 
barely possible under CP2020. People with lots of 'ware but who are terminally
broke and under-equipped (Molly comes to mind) are difficult to make; one has
to have cyberware be ridiculously cheap for beginning characters to have any.

I suppose most people don't have a problem with it; I find cheap cyberware and
-- 
    "Well, do you ever get the feeling that the Story's too damn real
                        and in the present tense?"
               Christian Wagner - cwagner@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu