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Message: <blockquote data-quote="IanArgent" data-source="post: 4679629" data-attributes="member: 21673">Then we have orthogonal design space for investigative games. I believe that mechanical niche protection is not required in an investigative game (and have empirical evidence that with the players I have run games for to prove it in my case). You don't. So for me system doesn't matter, but for you it does. Which rather goes to show why there are multiple systems for sale out there <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I will point out that the SR4 skill list isn't a whole lot more expansive than the 4E skill list, and that large swaths of them are less important for an investigative campaign, just as the 4E skill list shrinks. And a s a skill-based system, it's much easier for characters to cherry-pick the skills they think are important.This is how I've run investigations in the past, but not so that it forces characters to prioritize and specialize. I would rather have well-rounded characters so I can throw different "adventures" at them and expect them to succeed as a group at them all. For this, I find that 4E's emphasis on forcing characters to be not incompetent in the basics of adventuring (the skill system assumes that even the non-specialists will pick up enough to get by) and limited mechanical choices to be an advantage. Shadowrun doesn't have this safety net, but I always had enough system veterans in the group that when new players were making characters they could give advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of character generation (and I've always had a lax policy on rewriting characters to suit even after play start).</blockquote>

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