Am I missing something with combat spells?

Scene: Security unit is in combat with runners. Security Mage casts Lightning bolt at the Hercules, dwarf face.

Mage rolls Sorcery (combat spells) vs Athletics (ranged defense) of the Hercules (p.66).

Security Mage has DP 10 on Combat Spells (p.248).

Hercules, pregen social adept face, has DP 8 on Ranged Defense (p.89).

By the average values table (p.81), DP of 8-10 gives at average 4 hits.

Let's say, Mage rolls 5 hits and Hercules rolls 4 hits. Attack succeeds.

By the description, DV = WIL. Security Mage has Willpower of 3 (p.248), and so total DV is 4 (+ net hit). Wounds of Hercules are 5/8/11 when wearing lined coat (p.89).

So, Lightning bolt attack lands, and it does no damage. By the description, Hercules lose one action. Is this works as intended?

We had very similar situation, to even more questionable result - team of shadowrunners were assaulting warehouse with other team holding defense in it. Face sneaked in, and find herself caught off-guard by a mage. Mage casted a Firebolt, attack succeeded, and everyone at the table held their breath... until we figured out it did literally nothing, not even a Light Wound. Was quite a bummer.

reddit.com
u/ckau — 13 days ago

Made a prop for upcoming campaign

Wish me luck. It's gonna be sandbox with West Marches influence and an additional Warden.

u/ckau — 23 days ago

ELI5: Probability and Game Design behind Risk Dice (again)

upd. I've talked too much about chances of success, but that is not the point. Gotta rewrite this thing for good.

TLDR: Character rolling 8d6 Risk Dice with RR1 (typical premade or new Runner, not even a Prime Runner) has only ~10% chance of Critical Glitch and ~3% chance of Disaster.

Rolling 8d6 Risk Dice with RR2 have ~3% chance of Critical Glitch, and ~0.5% chance of Disaster.

Basically, at this point "All Risk" means "No Risk At All". Same roll has a 26% chance of beating Extreme Difficulty gaining 8+ hits, and in case if Advantage is at play... well, it's 64% chance.

Risk Reduction is too easy / too cheap to get, Risk doesn't correlate with the reward when Risk Dice are at play.
Instead of high-risk/high-reward, it is usual-risk/double-the-reward.

Please, prove me wrong.

----------------------------------

What was previously said:

* I've hosted ~20 sessions, same group of players, same characters;

* Risk Dice and RR doesn't feel right, empirically;

* I've made an example of new Decker character being capable to crack the most secure host by the book (p.222) with Difficulty Threshold of 8, and made mistake of not adding up +2 for the admin access;

* Risk Dice and chances of Critical Glitch and Disaster kinda meet "industry standard" probability... but that's the problem. "Well, I'm going all-in, chummers! I will roll all the dices as risk ones, wish me luck!!!" doesn't sound like mundane roll of d10, with only Nat 1 being the bad thing.

* To me, dangerous or extremely difficult roll supposed to sound like something exceptional, like "okay, give me Nat20 and you've made it", not this "roll your average amount of Hits and do not botch it with four 1s, and you've made it".

* Decker at my table by average rolls 14+ hits, and so far never had a Disaster, while having just a few Critical Glitches.

----------------------------------

What I didn't clarify:

I'm okay with all of this. But my players look bored and confused, and the Decker specifically asked me if she did something wrong and have broken the game.

----------------------------------

To wrap discussion up, what was suggested and concluded:

* Considering Decker - there's three different outcomes/consequences on Cracking attempts to consider. General consequences on p.74, Cracking on p.75, GOD on p. 218. The GM must take into account all three at once, and also consider inventing something on the spot too.

* All and all, yes, chances of Critical Glitch and Disaster are really low, if players don't just mindlessly bloat DP while ignoring RR completely, and/or roll RD while not taking into account safe guards. No one argues with that, everyone suggests how to adapt to it, and there we have it.

* Yes, any character in SRA2.0 is capable of beating Extreme Difficulty, and most of them have very high probability of doing so right from the start, by the rules. The only solution is to choke them narratively, by enforcing Disadvantages and making even Minor Glitches hit them hard. Other than that, it's just wait game, since one successful Test doesn't win the game, and once in a span of dozens of rolls they will eventually be hit by a Glitch.

* Minor Glitches should not be ignored, even though this is suggested on p.70 on some occasions. They are supposed to be a slow-burners, that cheap away from the team. Basically, as Light wounds and Disadvantages.

reddit.com
u/ckau — 3 months ago

BEST DND RIDDLE EVER (Clearly not made by AI)

So, party enters the room, dead-end. They see a writing that says "just jerk it". The first PC who ends up jerking, will cum. A distant giggle echoes, and hidden passage opens, revealing the way through.

See? Everyone gets a good laugh, and it's memorable. You can use this jerk-off puzzle/trap room anytime anywhere. My players loved it and now they tell their players to jerk it in the dungeon too.

reddit.com
u/ckau — 3 months ago

So, I have a very aggressive rigger. Having several pursuit scenes, he always looking for a ramming and crashing, full carmageddon style.

How can it be ruled on the spot? Say, ramming big van against sport car to overturn it, or crashing into some gates with it? Driving into a crowd of bad guys?

reddit.com
u/ckau — 5 months ago