- SRM Street cred assisted item availability assumes long-term play - Through the grapevine, I heard the new SRM arc after the Chicago arc will lead to players starting over with new PCs to play non-prime runner modules. However, if you peruse the FAQ, PC can use their adjusted Street Cred to reduce the Availability rating of items. Street Cred mechanic already mandates the PC has been around for a while as it's base equals total karma divided by ten. SRM's adjusted Street Cred used for item purposes rule divides that result by another ten. We're talking runners with total karma in the hundreds here. Prime runners in fact. Going into today's session, I was going to use Nox's Street Cred to reduce the availability of Illusion Spell Formula then buy hits to simplify purchase. Upon discovering the math wouldn't be as simple as I thought, I abandoned the idea.
- Straight Combat PCs suck at non-combat modules - Today's module was pretty much a non-combat module. The parameters of the run were such that any combat would ultimately lead to failure. Both my combat mage and the drone/wheels/decker-assister rigger didn't contribute much...
- Binding Your 1st Spirit in Missions Feels Special - If you've read the rules for binding in Shadowrun 5th Edition, Binding is difficult for PCs well-skilled in it. My combat mage began the Missions with no skill in Binding whatsoever. Going into this session, I finally improved Nox's Binding skill to 5. Before the start of the module, I attempted Nox's very 1st Binding test. He succeeded Binding a Force 6 spirit. With 4 net hits too!
- Using Spirits in Creative Ways is pretty fun! - Speaking of Nox binding his first spirit, he actually used the spirit this very session. Remember how I said it was a non-combat mod? The spirit wasn't used in a manner where die rolls were needed. Rather intuitively obvious manner too using the elemental's create element power too but one I would never think to do if combat was the option. Other buying a couple minor items that other PCs used to dramatic effect, this was Nox's major and virtually sole contribution to the success of the run during this session.
- A more liberal use of buying hits would have sped up play considerably - Buying hits is basically dividing a PCs dice pool by 4 to acquire one hit. Doing so foregoes dice-rolling speeds up play. Previous SRM sessions generally lasted quite awhile. Ironically, our final SRM session of 2017 was placed under a serious time constraint compared to previous sessions. Plus, we had a late arrival whom required debriefing. Towards the end, the GM started allowing buying hits, which the sped the game up during crunch time. Think our sessions would proceed much faster if our group incorporated buying hits more. Although I suppose less poker face with challenge difficulties would encourage buying hits more often too...
Happy Gaming!
Next time.
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