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Lack of Granularity

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Vormaerin

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« on: <02-19-17/0915:33> »
I really like the amp system.  It makes it quite easy for me to introduce various things that were difficult to do in SR5, such as obsolete cyberware, defective gear, or things with odd effects.  But one thing I find somewhat annoying is the lack of granularity in the amp costs.  By which I mean everything costs the same regardless of utility.   

Something like Muscle Toner might grant +1 die to all Agility rolls, while Retractable Climbing Claws might give +1 Reroll on Climbing tests.   There's a huge difference in effectiveness between these two things (in fact, the first does everything the second does slightly better), but they both cost the same Essence and amp points/karma.   This plus the fact that every thing Cyber costs 1 Essence makes it hard to justify taking any of the many minor bits of cyber in favor of the big effect items.

Anyone else thing this is unfortunate or have given thought to ways to address this?

complexmath

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« Reply #1 on: <02-19-17/1255:05> »
Since Retractable Climbing Claws are a special purpose amp, it makes sense to me that they should be really good at helping you do that thing. You're investing in a narrow benefit instead of a broad benefit. Since it costs twice as much karma to raise an attribute as it does a skill, a reasonable approach might be that for one amp point you can either increase an attribute by 1 or increase a skill by 2.

Gingivitis

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« Reply #2 on: <02-21-17/0157:29> »
I am unsure I would make changes yet, but if I were to make changes to Shadow Amps I would either:

A) Disallow/Revamp Shadow Amps that affect Attributes in all situations like Cyberarms (reroll on Agility-related rolls).  Perhaps Cyberarms should affect Agility-related Attacks, but not Stealth, or Dodging, or Pilot Ground rolls.  They should affect Skills only or Attributes only in certain situations.

B) Increase the "pip" cost of Attribute Amps (rather than increasing the dice effect of Skill Amps).  So it would cost 2 Amp points to add a reroll to Agility-related rolls, but only 1 Amp point to add a reroll to Firearms or Stealth.  This way you can keep to the 3 "pips" cap on dice effects; 6 extra dice on a skill could be unbalancing.  This would also be in line with Karma advancements costs of Attributes vs. Skills.

I think I prefer option A over B.
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Shadowjack

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« Reply #3 on: <02-21-17/0932:58> »
You make a good point. I agree that amp costs don't feel balanced in some cases and I hope this gets addressed in errata.
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