[Michael Chandra]

Scoring half your dice in hits is about a 10% chance, so 1/10 times such a chance will screw you over. That can be rather unfortunate but alas, it happens occasionally.

[Bull]

I did some digging earlier, but don't have the link handy still.  But found a website that had broken down the percentages for getting X hits on Y dice.  7 hits on 13 dice had jsomething like a 5.6% chance of happening.  So it's basically like rolling a natural 20 in D&D.

Anyway, I reiterate again that the adventures are written as they are written, generally designed to be tough but not horribly so.  However, it is up to each Gamemaster to judge both the difficulty of the adventure as well as the capability of the players, and to modify the adventure as needed to provide a challenge to each group of PCs. 

Frankly, in an ideal world, I could not put in stats at all into an adventure, just put in a list of NPCs you'll encounter (i.e. 3 Lone Star officers), and the adventure would run just the same as if I had provided balanced stats, completely "average" stats (3's across the board), or built them to be Street legend killers (5's and 6's with skills in the double digits).  because the GM would take each encounter and adjust it to fit the group he's running for.  Alas, it doesn't work that way, but that's the ideal outcome we'd get   The stats we do give just provide a baseline to ballpark things from.

[Xandron]

Are there any plans for Firing Line to be released in print form?

[Michael Chandra]

Bull, you noted Sprawl Wilds in SR5 is 6/6/8/6 max karma (from which I subtract any karma they wouldn't get in the SR4 karma list), which isn't a simple +3 on top of the SR4 amounts but a different calculation. What would you say are the Karma values for Firing Line?

[Slithery D]

Ok, yeah.  Pushing the Envelope stuff is entirely optional material that is there to either make the scene more difficult if the GM feels the party is tougher/better than average, or just as extra filler material to broaden/lengthen the adventure should you either be running ahead of schedule (at, say, a convention time slot) or for when you're not confined by schedules (like a home game version).

So my guess is either your GM didn't accurately assess the threat level the sniper posed, or he assumed that you could handle the sniper easily enough. 

And 7 hits is about 3 hits more than average.  The target should have gotten 4 hits, with a chance at a 5th hit, for the average. 

Bull

The problem with this scene is that you have to push the envelope for there to even BE a scene. Otherwise it's "find the fake tree" (three options are given, none of them difficult) and complete an easy Hardware extended test. That's it. No opposition or true challenge.

So what's the alternative? Go from literal walk in the park to highly proficient well hidden sniper who kills everyone he sees hidden in overwatch. Great design!

[Michael Chandra]

Except that Pushing The Envelope isn't just to make that specific scene harder, it's meant to make the adventure as a whole more challenging.

[Kincaid]

Ok, yeah.  Pushing the Envelope stuff is entirely optional material that is there to either make the scene more difficult if the GM feels the party is tougher/better than average, or just as extra filler material to broaden/lengthen the adventure should you either be running ahead of schedule (at, say, a convention time slot) or for when you're not confined by schedules (like a home game version).

So my guess is either your GM didn't accurately assess the threat level the sniper posed, or he assumed that you could handle the sniper easily enough. 

And 7 hits is about 3 hits more than average.  The target should have gotten 4 hits, with a chance at a 5th hit, for the average. 

Bull

The problem with this scene is that you have to push the envelope for there to even BE a scene. Otherwise it's "find the fake tree" (three options are given, none of them difficult) and complete an easy Hardware extended test. That's it. No opposition or true challenge.

So what's the alternative? Go from literal walk in the park to highly proficient well hidden sniper who kills everyone he sees hidden in overwatch. Great design!

I assumed this scene was included in an introductory adventure because it introduced a basic game concept (extended tests) and utilized a few common skills.

[martinchaen]

LALALALALALA *fingers in ears makes typing hard, guys*

Can we please put spoilers in the appropriate spoiler tags; I wanted to comment that I'm excited about the adventure and read what others had though, and was fortunate enough to recognize a spoiler when I see one. Guess I should know better, but come on, people (Slithery D, I'm looking at you specifically O.O), let's keep the spoilers where they belong...