From: nigel@rs733.GSFC.NASA.Gov
Subject: Re: Cyberpunk (was: SR: SRII combat mods)
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, USA
	<1992Jul16.231126.8702@uoft02.utoledo.edu>
	<1992Jul17.152949.16344@colorado.edu> <63688@hydra.gatech.EDU>
	<wilder.711439173@mik.uky.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 19:16:34 GMT

In article <wilder.711439173@mik.uky.edu> wilder@mik.uky.edu (jeff wilder) writes:

>(Lord Goodgulf the Ma-a-a-agical Wizard) writes:

[lots deleted]

>|     'Scuse?  I find this last about the decker a little hard to swallow.
>|I mean, if I'm the team weapons expert (or as close as they have to one),
>|I know I'd be damn sure that EVERYBODY on the team could at least handle a
>|pistol.  It doesn't take that much training to at least be that your shooting
>|towards your target and away from your buddies, and I'd much rather have the
>|decker be able to do SOMETHING other than just sit there and wait to be
>|shot.  Remember, even a poor shot is useful in a fight.  After all, they
>|don't know how good the person is.  So that's one more distraction to worry
>|about.

Hmmmm...one thing for sure...anyone not trained in a weapon isn't
getting one.  Statistically a police officer is more likely to hit a
perp by throwing his gun at him than shooting...and most police
officers have some familiarity with a gun ;-).  I suspect that in a
firefight an armed decker is more likely to be dangerous to the team
than to the bad guys.  Now a trained decker with a gun is much more
valuable and I certainly wouldn't go into harm's way without everyone
on the team able to contribute to a firefight...even if that
contribution is carrying spare ammo and tossing smoke grenades.

>Excuse *me*, but in that case, if I were a Decker, I'd not want to be on your
>"team."  A person with a firearm is only a help if that person takes active 
>part in a firefight.  No offense, but most of my non-combative characters
>aren't too keen on becoming targets.

Tough.  If you're in combat you're a target.  Learn to deal or stop
running.  If I need a clip and you carry all the ammo left you damn
well come up and hand me ammo or I'll shoot you myself with my hold
out gun just before we get hosed.

>*You* don't ask us to fight, we won't ask you to distract ICe.  Deal?

If it comes down to that my character has a datajack and program
carrier.  If it takes running around being a target for ICE to finish
the run I'll bloody well jack in naked and play target.

>As far as "be[ing] able to do SOMETHING other than...wait[ing] to be shot,"
>believe me, I'll be doing something.  Getting my ass OUT of the fire zone.

And again...you leave me in a tight situation you better hope the
guards kill me.  Or my character will find your character and your
decking days are over...funny you meniton Case...I'll find a nerve
toxin that'll laeve you even more a vegetable.

>I realize that the Shadowrun system isn't terribly conducive to this kind of
>role-playing, but I try not to let the system inhibit me. :)  And yes, I did
>play a combative technomancer.  Very briefly.

I play a combative decker once in a while and I live.  I don't shoot
very often or as well as a samuari but against mundane guards I can
keep their heads down long enough for the real combat jocks to bring
them down...fortunately we're mostly in the exit phase in the run
before anything like discovery takes place.  Mostly we're in and out
before they have an alert up.  

>I always try to bring Case to mind, when I consider a typical non-combatant
>PC in a cyberpunk genre game.

Nigel

>| Jeff W   uk06666@ukpr.uky.edu 
--
Nigel Tzeng
.sig under construction
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