(no subject)
Yet more Aphelion braincheese.
One of the problems with the old system which I've been looking at is that in terms of mechanic, there's little difference between Augmentation and Skills (to use the old terminology). You can feasibly have a piece of cyberware or a genemod that allows you to not get knocked down by guns, and also a skill that does the same thing. The differences are secondary; PULSE vulnerability and side-effects in the latter cases.
Another problem is the issue of skillsofts - chip-mounted software that a character can plug into themselves that gives them a skill instantly. How is it possible to balance temporary, transient skill capability like that with a character's permanent skills?
To get around this, my current model abstracts all of these capabilities as Abilities. Whereas previously we havd a single list of Skills, a single list of Cyberware and so on, now I give every Sector a different selection of available options, all of which translate to a list of standard Abilities. In the printed rulebook a "see Ability" reference would do the job, while on the Website, we can use mandatory hovertext over the Ability name to show what it actually means.
A couple of examples:
The Ability to not fall over when shot with a gun is called "Firearm Strikedown Immunity".
The Training lists available to Street characters include a Skill called "Hardcore", which states that it grants the F.S.I. Ability. Mil characters also have access to a Genemod called "Reflexive Stability" that grants F.S.I., and the Mil "Shock Trooper" Lifepath includes F.S.I. as part of its setup.
Finally, there is a skillchip available to most characters called the "Combat Suite MkIII" which includes Firearm Strikedown Immunity along with a few other Abilities such as Combatant (the ability to use weapons correctly) and Rapid Reload (removes the artificial 5-second pause when reloading). However, the character requires several other pieces of Cyberware to be able to use said chip.
The Ability to withstand extra damage is a particularly common one. It's simply called "Extra Body Hit" and is available as a Skill to pretty much every Sector, is part of numerous Lifepaths, and is also available through Genemods. The major benefit of all of these available sources is that while each source has a maximum number of additional hits available (1 per skill, 1 or 2 as part of a Lifepath, and up to four from Genemods), characters that have access to all of them can thus gain more than other characters.
The issue of side-effects is dealt with blanket-fashion. So, any Cyberware marked with an asterisk in the list makes you vulnerable to PULSE, each Genemod increases the amount you need to eat, every piece of Bioware makes you more sucsceptible to disease, and so on.
I've got a whole SHEDLOAD of Abilities lined up, but I need to work on keeping them down; Wouldn't do to make things too complicated...
One of the problems with the old system which I've been looking at is that in terms of mechanic, there's little difference between Augmentation and Skills (to use the old terminology). You can feasibly have a piece of cyberware or a genemod that allows you to not get knocked down by guns, and also a skill that does the same thing. The differences are secondary; PULSE vulnerability and side-effects in the latter cases.
Another problem is the issue of skillsofts - chip-mounted software that a character can plug into themselves that gives them a skill instantly. How is it possible to balance temporary, transient skill capability like that with a character's permanent skills?
To get around this, my current model abstracts all of these capabilities as Abilities. Whereas previously we havd a single list of Skills, a single list of Cyberware and so on, now I give every Sector a different selection of available options, all of which translate to a list of standard Abilities. In the printed rulebook a "see Ability" reference would do the job, while on the Website, we can use mandatory hovertext over the Ability name to show what it actually means.
A couple of examples:
The Ability to not fall over when shot with a gun is called "Firearm Strikedown Immunity".
The Training lists available to Street characters include a Skill called "Hardcore", which states that it grants the F.S.I. Ability. Mil characters also have access to a Genemod called "Reflexive Stability" that grants F.S.I., and the Mil "Shock Trooper" Lifepath includes F.S.I. as part of its setup.
Finally, there is a skillchip available to most characters called the "Combat Suite MkIII" which includes Firearm Strikedown Immunity along with a few other Abilities such as Combatant (the ability to use weapons correctly) and Rapid Reload (removes the artificial 5-second pause when reloading). However, the character requires several other pieces of Cyberware to be able to use said chip.
The Ability to withstand extra damage is a particularly common one. It's simply called "Extra Body Hit" and is available as a Skill to pretty much every Sector, is part of numerous Lifepaths, and is also available through Genemods. The major benefit of all of these available sources is that while each source has a maximum number of additional hits available (1 per skill, 1 or 2 as part of a Lifepath, and up to four from Genemods), characters that have access to all of them can thus gain more than other characters.
The issue of side-effects is dealt with blanket-fashion. So, any Cyberware marked with an asterisk in the list makes you vulnerable to PULSE, each Genemod increases the amount you need to eat, every piece of Bioware makes you more sucsceptible to disease, and so on.
I've got a whole SHEDLOAD of Abilities lined up, but I need to work on keeping them down; Wouldn't do to make things too complicated...