From: lev0@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Ron Levy (Armchair))
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Shadowrun-Trid and other questions
Date: 13 Nov 92 15:17:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: midway.1992Nov13.151751.13793
Reply-To: lev0@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Worshippers of Yig

>In shadowrun you can create a 
massively powerful street sam troll,14 body ect.. full of cyberware,skillsofts,
>loads of money to spend on contacts ie military(so you can now buy military
armour and weapons).That can survive just about anything(and they usually do!!)
>Surely this is wrong!

     You bet it is.  Sure, trolls is tough.  We knew that.  Pelt a spell
into them and they fall over and go beddy-bye.

>  I have known a troll street sam beat a dragon in hand to hand combat .

Don't know about you, but around here the dragons cast spells, fly
away, breathe fire, and (game mechanics) have combat skills instead of
relying on just reaction dice for attack dice like the book says.
I'd believe a troll street sam could GET into hand to hand and HURT a
dragon, WITH an entire team also fighting said dragon.

survive an explosion in an a small room with about 10 grenades.

     Trolls is tough, and grenades is not.  Grenade tech didn't rise
quite so fast as armor tech.  Now, if you use SPECIAL grenades...

What rule were they using when creating the archetypes??

     They were using the rule of simplicity.  The archetypes are
supposed to be easy to use and easy to read.  The fact that they
sometimes have basic math errors doesn't help people trying to learn
the game.  Never use the archetypes except for some sort of
introductory game..  then for the second session have them make up
their own characters that they'll like better.

another point(oh no!)is the magic well in fact trid spectacle. The rules do not
>go into this spell in enough detail. So by the rules you can use trid to give
>an image(or lack of one!)and this can fool all senses so you could say right
>I use trid and i want to make myself look invisible(or incredibly small) and
>nobody has a chance of seeing this. So what is the point of invisibility??
>You could trid spec yourself as a great dragon and surely everyone would run!
>not the case is it!


Not at all.  Illusion spells generally suck.  The number of successes
you get in any illusion spell is the target number (or target
modifier) for a perception test.  Therefore, suppose you have trid
spectacle at 6 and a magic pool of 6.  You roll 12 dice and, with the
generic illusion targetting number of 4 you get 6 successes.  Now
everyone rolls their intelligence.  If they get a 6, they know it's an
illusion.  What's more, it gets kind of obvious hat something is an
illusion when you throw a rock at it and the rock goes right through.
Now, if this was an invisibility spell, they'd have a +6 to their
perception roll to spot you.  Invisibility combined with Stealth can
be a deadly combination.  But.  The biggest problem with ANY illusion
spell is that anyone Assensing sees it as a spell hanging there in
Astral Space.  Whoop te do.  You'll never catch a mage, and any one
you're fighting that has a mage with them will blow your illusion
right out of the water.

Now, you might be able to fool that troll....




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American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence...From the
hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurances, and
tendencies prove that to insure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle