[Gobbo]

Hey Chummers,

i am a Gamemaster very new to SR 5 and started to play "Splintered State" with a new group.

One playercharacter chose the negative Quality "Code of Honor" like its written in the Core Book (p 79).
She had chosen to not harm "children their parents and child care worker" which is rooted in a solid way by her backgroundstory (having much brothers and sisters to care for after the "acciedent" of her father, who in fact was killed by some coldhearted bastards).

I like that very much, but i am not sure how i can handle that. The problem is that the character in the fewest case knows if the guard she meets is a proud father.
But its hard to say that everyone could probably be a part of a real family and always applie the charisma + wilpower (4) test to let her take an violent action against such a target.

So if i applie the test only if she knows the target has family that seems pretty fair.

But how to handle the other cases:

(A) I feel strong about deciding about gangers, ghouls and such drek that they dont have children they care for. (Wont make a randomtest for that cases)

(B) If the target is a employed member of the sixth world (Con-Member, Officer, Streetworker, ... ) there had to be some kind of random test to check if the target has familiy.

So what are ur suggestions for:

Q: How do I calculate the chance of hitting a childcaring person?

It should be affected by bithrating of seattle. (Do u have any numbers?) As well the rank of the employer should be affect the chance in some way, because the higher the rank the less time does Jon Doe have for his family.

What do think which numbers are balanced for 15 Karma to get applied here?

I have got a problem with the randomness here. If i protect children its clear if my target belongs to that group or not.

I would like it very much if my player does some legwork to get the information who of the guards of the Commercial Bank of Seattle is an father/mother and who not before go for the run. In my opinion negatice qualities should work that way.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Honestly, I think you need to sit down with your player and hammer that out a bit better.  I'd WAG the odds to be in excess of, oh, 70% that any adult they happen to be shooting at or near is going to be a parent.  Which makes the transformation of 'child-care worker' into 'childcaring parent' ... excessive.

Think of it this way: classroom guided tours.  Daycare (or nightcare!!).  Bring-your-daughter-to-work-day.  Schools, all that stuff, those are examples of 'children and child-care workers' - not 'oh, Jill Security Guard might be a single-parent mommy'.  She's not going to shoot at or towards any of the above with anything more lethal than a gel round; she might actively defend those sorts of groups all on her own.  She won't shoot at anyone appearing to carry a child, etc. etc.

Expanding that to 'anyone she knows is a parent' is ... kind of a dick GM move, IMO.

[Michael Chandra]

If someone would go "I refuse to kill people that are parents" they'd be forced to do legwork to make sure they don't kill parents. Sounds like a horrid idea.

[Gobbo]

Its not my interpetation to exceed the Code onto parents. It was her declaared wish to do so. She added the childworker extension as well.

 

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

My apologies, your lack of punctuation made 'children, their parents, and child care worker' kind of just blend all in.

Um ... what Michael said.  Or else the character shouldn't be using lethal weapons at all.

[farothel]

Limit the code of honour to children and maybe pregnant women and you have something that's workable.  I've taken that with a character in another system (where the penalties for breaking the code are very heavy) and that's something you can work with.

[Ghoulfodder]

If someone would go "I refuse to kill people that are parents" they'd be forced to do legwork to make sure they don't kill parents. Sounds like a horrid idea.

Yeah, I can't help but think this is a nice idea that's basically unplayable as a Code of Honour.

Either you have to play it that you don't kill anyone who *might* be a parent in which case it seems overly harsh, don't kill anyone who *definitely* is a parent in which case it's overly generous, or do lots of legwork to find out, in which case it's a total ball-ache.

The only way I can see this work is if you throw loads of kiddie gangers at the team. I think it needs a re-think for the Code of Honour target.

[Gobbo]

Thanks for all ur Advices!

Ill talk it over with that player again. I guess she should just take protected group children and (cause they really dont show in a run) the "warrirors code". The rule not to harm innocent bystanders as well as the karma loss for killing them represents her guilt for destroying family luck.