Shadowrun Play > Rules and such

Quality Control

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Typhus:
I'm still crawling through Sixth World Companion and some supplements to see what I can make of SR6.  One area that has emerged for me as a problematic area are Qualities.  While I can use SWC to redo the costs from the core book, and other simple things, I'm finding that in general, Qualities are all over the map in terms of balance and viability.  The core ones are mostly okay, but in supplements they are just wild.

For those who are playing SR6, I'm wondering which ones you find problematic and/or how you may have houseruled them.  Obviously Analytical Mind is a problem one, but SWC has a couple fixes for that.  What else has anyone run into and what did you do about it? 

MercilessMing:
My group and I are really against Analytical Mind, Attribute Mastery, and other extremely broad Edge granting qualities.  We deal with those by banning instead of revaluing, because we feel that their problem isn't a cost issue but a design issue.  Qualities like Toughness on the other had that are situational, we embrace. 

Honestly, aside from those we haven't found any to be problematic.  However, I'm totally willing to grant that it may just be because we haven't noticed the issue or played with them. Almost every 6e Shadowrun product has added qualities.  We're at the point in the edition cycle that I can't keep track of them all anymore. 

One area however is the Chase qualities in Double Clutch.  We found that when you take a couple of them together, the rigger is drowning in Edge.  And since the Chase is primarily fueled by edge, the encounter becomes trivial.  We didn't deal with this, we just came to an agreement that taking these things actually took away from the fun of the game.

Can you give examples of things you think are wild or really in need of adjustment?

Typhus:
It’s more often in the supplements than the core for sure.  Hardly an exhaustive list, but here’s a few that stood out recently.

In core (aside from Analytical Mind), it’s mostly little things like that Gearhead costs 10 while other “gain an Edge” qualities like Catlike, Guts, etc. are 12. 

In SWC, things like Cyberjack Maximization and Software Optimization feel like they would be better as gear mods.  Many Talents, Many Skills seem unnecessary and overpriced (higher costs for maxing stats is better dealt with another way, IMO), and Muscles should just be a standard rule option.  Relentless Tracker is basically a Guts type ability, but costs half what ones like it do.  Limited Attributes and Limited Skills never come into play after character creation, so it’s a little weird to gain a Karma benefit from something that could just be a point spend choice.  Feels a little cheesy.

Double Clutch has several that don’t really justify the investment, like Motor Pool 1&2.  As you say, the Edge boosts for Riggers and Attribute Mastery, and so on.  Fuzz Magnet is a game night derailer, things like that (I speak from experience there -- random police encounters often mean you can throw your plot out for the night).

Not having played yet, I'm more wondering about what is actually happening at the tables than on paper though.  Curious about what others have dealt with.

Hobbes:
What happens at the table is that nobody takes any of the Edge Qualities except Analytical Mind or Attribute mastery because the rest are significantly over priced.

If you nerf Analytical Mind/Attribute Mastery, then nobody takes any Qualities for Edge gain.  They may grab a Mentor Spirit that gives them some sort of Edge benefit, but Mentor Spirit is a 10 Karma Quality that provides multiple advantages.

I think the only other Edge quality I've seen someone take is First Impression.  And IIRC they wound up taking a Mulligan on their character and dropping it.

If you want to houserule the Karma costs of qualities I wouldn't change AM, I'd lower the costs of everything else to 1 or 2.  YMMV.

Typhus:
Interesting.  Thanks! 

Would you say that is because Edge gain is solid enough as written?  Or just a Karma budgeting situation?

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