From: ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Shadowrun - What's new in SR2
Keywords: Shadowrun, Second edition
Date: 28 Aug 92 14:38:39 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc8.ward1.715012719
Distribution: na

schurman@cbnewse.cb.att.com (McGill Feighan) writes:

>The second edition of Shadowrun was released at Gencon last week, and is

Finally.  God, I've been going nuts.

>The book itself is longer, 296 pages, up from 208 in SR1. It has the same
>cover painting, but now includes rules for firing two weapons at once. And -
>you may want to sit down for this one - it has an index! Many sections are
>expanded and have more examples.

Indexes seem to be the wave of FASA.  (Guess they finally figured out that
listening to the customers yelling at them was a good idea.)

>spell combat. Vehicle and matrix combat have changed too, but my experience
>with them is limited, so I'll let someone more qualified describe those
>changes.

Vehicle combat is pretty much the same.  The one change is that weapons
no longer do half-damage code to vehicles, but vehicle armor is multiplied
by 5 (i.e. 1 point of armor in SRI is 5 points in SRII).  The rules use
this do good advantage.  Matrix combat is also pretty much the same.  It
is a bit more streamlined with .many. more examples.

>The concept of auto-successes has been deliberately removed from the game.
>Physical Adepts can no longer buy them, and Armor now reduces the attacking
>weapon's power (which lowers the defenders target number).

This is, to me, a good thing.  Seems like half the people we were playing
with last year were PhysAds.  I hated that.

>Staging still exists but is now always two. Staging numbers no longer appear
>in damage or drain codes.

This has the added effect of vastly speeding combat (although it doesn't
sound like this would matter much).

>In an apparent attempt to eliminate karma powered characters (i.e. those that
>spent little or none of their karma on improvement, but instead just bought
>the successes they needed) you are now forced to spend 90% of karma on
>improvement. The other 10% goes into a karma POOL that refreshes at the start
>of every encounter. Karma can no longer be used to buy off your opponents
>successes. Re-rolling failures uses 1 point from the karma pool. Buying a 
>success permanently removes 1 point from the karma pool.

Karma pool may be the best thing about SRII.  I've not yet been in an
encounter (defined as 'scene', so the the time spent breakin into the
compound is done on one karma pool.  The guideline is that it refreshes
only when a break in the storyline allows you to rest for a few hours;
e.g. GM: "Unless you want to do anything, we'll accelerate time to the
meet" = new scene = karma pool refreshes) where I didn't spend all my
karma pool.  One thing, humans start out with 1 karma pool, metas with 2.

This is one of the mirad of little things that make metas worth an A race
priority (although there is (or was in the copy I have, which is not
the final one) a publish alternate rule for race priotity C for metas).
Other things include the fact that the one-point celing on rasiing attributes
is gone, allowing metas to utilize racial maxes.  Another is that natural
vision enhansements are better then mechanical ones.

>Character creation now includes an option to allow more meta-humans in the
>game by reducing the meta-human priority from "A" (4 in SR1) to "C" (2 in SR1).
>Allergies are now optional. If a character has an allergy s/he get extra nuyen,
>skill, or attribute points as compensation.

We use a house rule that all allergies must be chosen at the same level of
severity.

>A simpler method is now used to determine multiple actions. After your action
>you subtract 10 from your initiative score. As long as the number is greater
>than zero you get another action. In an action a character may have one "free"
>action and either two "simple" actions or one "complex" action. Examples are
>given of each kind of action.

Almost.  You get a free action on every "tick" of initiative.  Which means if
you get an 18 on itiative, you "go" on 18 and 8 (where you can do a free
action + (1 complex action or 2 simple actions).  You may also take 18
free actions, one on each "number" (I call these ticks).  Unfortunately,
you can't do much with Free Actions (I've .never. seen anyone take more than
3 in one turn).

Complex Actions include casting a spell, summoning a nature spirit and melee
combat.

Simple actions include firing a firearm, aiming, readying a weapon (drawing
it, knocking and arrow) and so on.  (Yes, this means you can fire twice
in an action, BUT, every gun is now assumed to be using reactive triggers,
so they are removed from game mechanics, meaning it is only two shots, not
four.)

>A lot has changed in ranged combat. The power level of all weapons have been
>increased, especially heavy pistols. Explosive ammo now adds +1 to power.
>Firepower ammo no longer exists. The dodge pool is gone, replaced by the
>combat pool which is equal to (Quick + Int + Will)/2 [yes "2", not "3"]. The
>combat pool can be used for *offense* as well as defense. Before you start

Armor subtracts from the power of the weapon.  Weapons now have really
hanous damage codes.  The Preditor II, for example is 9M.  Combat is
.very. .VERY. deadly.  If you want to live, fight from cover, or in hard
to see areas (vision penalties are really heavy).

>In spell combat the force of the spell (instead of the attacker's skill) is
>now the defenders target number. However, it seems easier for mages to cast
>higher force spells because most drain codes give a target of force/2.

It rarely makes sense to cast a spell at less than 5 force.  From a GM
perspective, this is cool, beacause it forces magicians to pay more karma
for spells than the old 1 force way.

>Ralph Schurman                                  schurman@iexist.att.com

Wordman
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc