It's the need to get them to avoid certain death that i have a complaint with. Yes, I understand that each method of creation can get extra passes in some way (wires, riggers, improved reflexes, etc. etc.) And I know that SR promotes things like that by emphasizing their State of the Art gear/magic etc. etc. or risk "falling behind." But what about a face character? Or a character that doesn't want to be magical, and doesn't want cyberware.
I'm just not sure full extra passes are the way to go to represent inhuman speed. And some humans (unaugmented) are as inhumanly/supernaturally fast.
I'll keep playing with the passes and see if I can find a way to improve them one way or another.
There is a way to avoid certain death without extra IP's...it's called STEALTH.
We have an Invisible Way adept in the group, and basically she can''t be seen. 1st pass she disappears (if she was visible to begin with), and gets into a nice hidden sniper position.
As for the complaint that you need them to avoid certain death, you only need them because other people (who want to kill you) will have them. Ergo, you need to either escalate your abilities to compete, or find a workaround.
The classic workaround is to not get targetted by attacks, and the ways to do that are:
- Look unassuming, but non-magical. Pretend to be a civilian
- Just plain hide...duck for cover and don't shoot back. Enemies will take out people shooting back with SMG's and shotguns before hunting down the people taking cover
And if a character doesn't want to be magical, and doesn't want cyberware, then I recommend bioware.
If they don't want any augmentations at all I recommend Combat drugs.
If they don't want any combat advantages at all, then I recommend they stay out of combat.
But combat is a big part of shadowrun, so if they don't want to be in combat, the player (not just the PC) is going to be twiddling their thumbs a lot....
If you find a better way to account for superhuman speed (other than Initiative passes) I'm all for it. But to me, I haven't found a better option than the guy who snap-shots 4 bullets before the average Joe can blink. To me, that's superhuman, and very much what the current rules allow...