s/LaSH
First Post
I found the SRD fairly interesting. It looks like a fairly balanced, sensible way to run adventures in a generic modern setting. It's not perfect, but it's quite good IHMO.
Personally, I take issue with the general handling of firearms. As has been noted, they're a little wonky. In a certain type of game, they should work fine; however, in games where the average gun user is more skilled than a James Bond evil minion, the lack of options is a little discouraging. I don't know... I'll try and cook something up on my own.
The Wealth system is cool. I could concievably adapt this to other genres too, because it's so darn neat.
Vehicles didn't strike me as all that great; it's basically just a system using bigger squares and a little more bookkeeping. I suppose it would work, but I'd be more in favour of an abstract system.
Computer Use skill does what it's supposed to do, which is handle a complex matter in an abstract and easy fashion. Strangely, I'd like something a little more complex, but it would require a lot of development. (Anyone else play Uplink? That's what hacking should be like for me.)
Finally, I didn't like the fact that more advanced tasks always take longer. For example, the Forgery skill allows you to make a piece of military ID (which is extremely hard to do right). It always takes 24 hours to do. I'd like the option to drop the time but increase the difficulty. My rule of thumb would be, Add the penalty from the previous difficulty to drop to the previous time category. Example: A military ID in 1 hour? It's -32 to the check (-16 for extreme difficulty plus a further -8, doubled because you dropped two time categories. You don't use the -4 because it's not adjacent and is unbalanced.)
Whaddaya think? Is that a good rule of thumb? It's pretty hard to accelerate the process, especially for extreme situations, but it works.
Heh, not 24 hours since I got it and already I'm picking holes and creating my own variants.
Personally, I take issue with the general handling of firearms. As has been noted, they're a little wonky. In a certain type of game, they should work fine; however, in games where the average gun user is more skilled than a James Bond evil minion, the lack of options is a little discouraging. I don't know... I'll try and cook something up on my own.
The Wealth system is cool. I could concievably adapt this to other genres too, because it's so darn neat.
Vehicles didn't strike me as all that great; it's basically just a system using bigger squares and a little more bookkeeping. I suppose it would work, but I'd be more in favour of an abstract system.
Computer Use skill does what it's supposed to do, which is handle a complex matter in an abstract and easy fashion. Strangely, I'd like something a little more complex, but it would require a lot of development. (Anyone else play Uplink? That's what hacking should be like for me.)
Finally, I didn't like the fact that more advanced tasks always take longer. For example, the Forgery skill allows you to make a piece of military ID (which is extremely hard to do right). It always takes 24 hours to do. I'd like the option to drop the time but increase the difficulty. My rule of thumb would be, Add the penalty from the previous difficulty to drop to the previous time category. Example: A military ID in 1 hour? It's -32 to the check (-16 for extreme difficulty plus a further -8, doubled because you dropped two time categories. You don't use the -4 because it's not adjacent and is unbalanced.)
Whaddaya think? Is that a good rule of thumb? It's pretty hard to accelerate the process, especially for extreme situations, but it works.
Heh, not 24 hours since I got it and already I'm picking holes and creating my own variants.
