From: pmenard@cse.unl.edu (Patrick Menard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: SRII: Phys Adept
Date: 13 Jan 1993 02:07:22 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cse.unl.edu

mfterman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Mutant for Hire) writes:

>In article <1iv734INNc2n@crcnis1.unl.edu>, pmenard@cse.unl.edu (Patrick Menard) writes:
>>Walking through an airport metal detector???????  Next.
>So in other words your sams never take a plane anywhere? If your
>characters have sufficient connections, no problem. Otherwise it
>could get messy.

contacts, chummer, are everything!

>I always viewed the PA as being a more subtle type of character to play.
>A sam is fast and is excellent in the straight shoot out. A sam is also
>fairly obvious to even casual weapondry checks. The PA on the other hand
>is excellent for going under cover. Save by magic tests, you're just like
>anyone else. PA's are more the sneak types than the headon shootout types.

Well, most of the Sam's we play with (besides trolls) are pretty darm sneaky
and have all the other stuff too.

>>Well, aside from being able to being better at obeying the law and sitting in
>>jail, the adept is physically weaker, can't cast spells, isn't much better in
>>physical combat(melee), and is definately worse in ranged combat.(either they
>>fire a bow at half the rate of the sam, or fire a gun at a higher target #)
>>The sam's spur is almost as good as the adepts hands, and the sam can have a
>>much higher strength so it works out to being just as effective.(starts out
>>lower, but much harder to stage down, so both will probably do light damage)
>>Also, the fact of getting shot before getting into range.
>Start having the GM throw magical threats against characters. The PA will
>start showing a dramatic improvement relative to the sam. I would like to
>see a bit more improvment in mele skills. A PA should be a deadly hand-to-hand
>type. In shootouts, less effective, but don't let one get close up to you.

Ok, first of all, My group uses all the stuff from Street Sam and Shadowtech.
The problem we had was that nobody would play a sam, we all had mages(shamans).
With the addition of Shadowtech, being a mage-type is REAL hard.  There is so
much Bioware that increases attributes, most sam's can walk around with a
Willpower of 6.(makes it kind of hard to cast spells without heavy drain)  This
tipped things in balance that way so things were good again.  Now the only prob
is to beef up PA's.

>I don't think having PA's gain strange new D&D-like powers is the solution.
>They were far too munchkin in SR, hence the new SRII version. I think fine
>tuning of existing abilities is fine.

Far too munchkin???  the only thing they had going for them was the auto-success
in various abilities.  This only really helped in Stealth and Athletics.(and
maybe Armed/Unarmed combat)  For Ranged combat the Sam still had the edge.
As I said, double or triple the starting points and the PA might be able to
survive.(while all the others prosper, the PA might survive (only if the stuff
is REAL easy (which is why all the others are prospering)))

Still searching for the answer....

Shadow