SR5: Suppressive Fire vs Cover and PANs

This past Monday was the most recent session of Shadowrun Missions using the Fifth Edition rules at my local FLCGS. As anyone who's ever played Shadowrun 5th ed (SR5) know, the complexity of the rule-set is not for GMs for the faint of heart. As usual, I was a player so I didn't have to contend with the two tricky rule concepts among a group that likes to wade into complex and complicated rulings. Those rule concepts were Suppressive Fire into Total Cover and PANs (Personal-Area-Network).


Suppressive Fire


The suppressive fire was basically a PC firing a suppressive fire arc into the wall of a building. Everything was A-Okay until we realized a key NPC would not only be caught in the crossfire but probably wouldn't be taken action to avoid being hit. So we did review of the rules for suppressive fire and then proceeded to figure out the effects of firing into and penetrating a barrier. As anyone who has tried to quickly consult a rule in Shadowrun could attest it was not a simple process. After much yammering, a ruling was made and dice rolled.


Simple, right?


You'd be wrong.


After the game, I decided to brush up on the suppressive fire rules. Looked at the chart. It read: Duck or Take Cover. Hmm, that's weird. Why would take cover work due to the barrier rules? Read the first page. Everything checks out. Those adjacent and within arc suffer penalties to actions. Ok. Read the next page. Characters behind full cover don't have to make the test to avoid damage. Uh, oh. Meaning the barrier rules don't apply to suppressive fire against full cover.


So we got a rule wrong. Oops. As we're lucky if we play Shadowrun 5th edition once a month, we're still mastering the basics let alone the more advanced rules.




PANs


I must admit we generally take PANs for granted. Is there a decker or rigger present? The rest of runners link key gear to the RCC or deck and don't sweat the small stuff. Well, we ran into the thorny question of what happens when a PC has too much wireless gear; and the appearances of the PAN within PAN trees.


Personally, I view PANs as a rule mechanic for firewalls. Everyone's commlink could benefit from the firewall provided by the RCC/deck's PAN, while any wireless gear would be within commlink's micro-PAN and benefit from the commlink's firewall.


Turns out, my viewpoint was minority viewpoint. Everyone was too focused on the network aspect of a PAN and thus my viewpoint was deemed to powerful. The point of contention was that one of the PCs had wireless grenades. Many felt that it would create quasi-chain of networked items far larger than what the rules allowed. Fair enough.


After the game I got to thinking, all weapons are visible in the Matrix. A PC would have their PAN and every wireless weapon's icon would exist outside the PANs icon within the Matrix. Who the drek would walk around the sprawl with grenades visible on the Matrix. That's asking for trouble.


Solution: Just because an item is wireless doesn't mean it's on the PAN. You're not going to walk around with every wireless item on. As such as, it won't be visible on the Matrix and thus the item doesn't require the protection of the Matrix.


Quite sure that interpretation will foster quite the argument... er discussion. Which I will probably lose as we've had the Bluetooth analogy before.




Happy Gaming!


Next time.

A Quartet of Classic Macys Thanksgiving Clips

Another Thanksgiving and Cyber-Monday has come and gone. Over the years, I would occasionally watch the annual Macys Thanksgiving Parade. One thing I always enjoyed was the balloons, floats, and performances that would pertain to this blog such as Peanuts and Spider-Man. Recently, while perusing Youtube I discovered that He-Man and the Masters of the Universe had a float during both 1985 and 1986 parades.


So I went on a Macys Thanksgiving Parade clip binge.


Around that time, I decided to do something I have never done on this blog before. Share video clips.  So I researched how to do so. Learned out embedding. Then, I discovered blogger has an insert video function that pretty much cuts out that step if the video is from Youtube.


So without much ado, here are the clips of both He-Man and Marvel floats from 1986, 1985, 1989, and 1987.


Here's Dolph Lundgren (who portrayed He-Man in the live-action film from the 80's) narrating the He-Man float during the 1986 Macy's Thankgiving Parade. His narration is kind of wooden but the story the performers convey is decent given that its a float.

I liked the previous year's He-Man float better as well as appearances of the evil Horde. Strangely enough, characters that didn't appear until later are among the characters used...

Vividly recall as a kid enjoying the Marvel from 1989 which much in the same vein as the Masters of the Universe floats. Would spend the next decade watching ensuing Macy's Thanksgiving Parade for a repeat performance to no avail.

What I didn't know and didn't learn until recently was that Marvel had a similar float back in 1987. Captain America is the featured hero. Got to say watching Captain America manhandle the Hulk is hilarious!

Hope you all enjoyed this belated touch of a Thanksgiving tradition from the 1980s!


Next time.

Charge it Marvel?!

Arriving home from work, I noticed I received mail from Marvel. You know the home of Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, and Howard the Duck? Yep, that Marvel. With baited excitement I pick up the envelop and discover... it is for a Marvel MasterCard.


Face it True Believers, apparently Marvel is getting into the credit card industry with MasterCard.


I scan it over and at first I think maybe it's a hoax. After all, one must apply online. Why would I want to do that? Normally, I throw out credit card offers. Only reason the envelop didn't immediately hit the wastebasket is because of the shiny Marvel logo.


I'll concede that the typical credit card boilerplate is present.


Both Marvel and MasterCard are presented via standard intellectual property.


Oh, Marvel Shop, digital comic sales, and Marvel Unlimited receive a cheap plug.


Okay, the Marvel MasterCard is probably legit. There's six designs one can pick from such as Awesome Mix to the Punisher skull to the Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes. I admit it would be cool while charging a purchase to mentally go 'Make Mine Marvel!' Plus, I could have a dedicated card for both comic purchases and Marvel Unlimited. The comics geek in me sees the potential.


Of course, I am just thinking out loud. Seeing this offer among my mail just struck my sense of novelty. Don't usually blog about comic book-branded credit cards after all!


So the next time you get ready to pay for something, you can charge it and make it Marvel.


And that is today's bit of whimsy.


Next time.

AL: WOTC Wants Your Thoughts on Adventurers League

With the advent of what is dubbed the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons (not going to quibble with that specific), Wizards of the Coast has exhibited a fondness for feedback in the form of surveys. You can't blame Wizards (WOTC). Fourth edition and the GSL's failure could be attributed in part to WotC being within a bubble. WotC asking for feedback most assuredly has broken the bubble and may very well have contributed to fifth edition's success and the advent of DM's Guild. Whenever WotC tinkers with new rules, they release playtest versions and ask for feedback. However, WotC hasn't surveyed one aspect of their business all that much.


Organized Play has not been a focal point for any feedback. Which is odd because the current version of WotC's Organized Play, Adventurers League, probably plays an outsized role in recruiting and retaining gamers. Fear not. As of today, WotC has issued a survey on Organized Play.


Link to the Adventurers League Survey can be found HERE.






Your mileage may vary from mine... The survey does change depending on whether or not you've participated in Adventurers League (AL)...




Filling out the survey, it confirms my belief that Adventurers League only fulfills the minimum of what I want in an RPG. As someone who can't and is unwilling to commit wholeheartedly to a regular gaming environment, Adventurers League at my local game store scratches my gaming itch. However, the framework of the modules and their connection to the hardcover adventures don't satisfy everything I want out of a game. For the most part, modules are too modular and PCs only have a limited impact on the direction of the mod along with limited chances for role-play and character growth. Skyrim is more an open world, which allows for more creativity and use of skills than the average Adventurers League module. I am generalizing of course as not all modules and DMs are equal but within the confines of a survey that's the impression my answers convey. And of course, one does not simply play an AL mod within the allotted time if the group exceeds x number of characters as combat bogs down. While I appreciate combat, I am quite happy with the one combat per game session per module.


If your impressions of Adventurers League differ, cool. If you're like, yeah, you're right, cool. The more who fill out the survey, the merrier. AL isn't perfect; and it does feel like WotC has neglected it too much.  Hope WotC learns much and that this isn't the last Organized Play survey.


Happy Gaming.


Next time.