Well, a mage with only 3 magic sounds questionable to me, but if it's the right 'ware it could work out - but that character might have its two halves detracting from each other; perhaps an adept would provide a bit more of what he's looking for, where the magic loss is a bit less of a sacrifice. The artificial limitation to 2 initiative passes could be a factor, especially at that power level...
The Troll should be using something a lot more powerful than a knife - combat axe, for example - unless there's some reason he can't carry it where they are. The Elf wasn't even playing to his specialty either (I'm guessing that's bows - another reason he should look at Adept instead of Magician), which is an issue.
The elf is going for fluff, with a cyber warm...no idea why, probably for the bow. That and he had 3 spells, resist pain, detect individual, combat sense. And he had an Air ~100 meters away watching the target, it had 1 task only so calling it into combat was not an option.
the limitation on passes was because of 2 things, I like to make none augmented characters and wanted to see how it would effect the game, cause I don't like the idea of being effective means to primarily get Wired reflexes, synaptic boosters, improved reflexes or the haste spell.. Second well the Elf didn't have any pass boosters, he would have quit after the first 2 round if he figured out if he doesent get some pass boosters he is basicly useless (my opinion, I might be wrong). (But please leave the pass subject for another thread).
The guy had there equipment in there Van, all there combat equipment (except for the trolls boxes full of grenades). Troll had his Vibro-Sword, Elf had his bow and arrows.
From the looks of things they brought a knife to a gun fight. Someone pulls a heavy pistol and shotgun you don't respond with a sap, a knife and a taser. It's obvious the baddies aren't playing around so why were the players? As GM there is only so much you can do to mitigate stupid or unwise player actions.
Was there some reason they were only using those weapons rather than something more appropriate to what they were facing?
There was no reason not go all out, they had there primary weapons with them in the van (see above), And even then they were the ones provoking them.
Basic idea was, that the elf could stun the orc, and the Troll can take out the dwarf (cause the guy who made the troll was cocky about his stats (All physical, no mentals), and that the previous GM, now the Elf, allowed to target head or other none armored body parts for free, as in "I shoot him in the head", and that meant free armor ignoring. Then I bothered to read the rules, and well noticed that its not like that, even tho it makes some sense.
I can say that only way I'd fault the GM in this instance is if he made it impossible for the players to come armed.
But even if you had it set up where they could come in in an indirect approach, (back doors, etc) and you gave them the opportunity to look for that, then I wouldn't feel bad. And hopefully the players learned to come prepared. Not saying the players are bad or anything, but its always better to come over prepared than under.
They had there primary weapons with them... see above.
Ill explain the situation:
- Boss exited the car with another grunt, entering a building complex (low security, locked doors tho, with a back entrance that they didn't even check). And the whole are was a low security zone (building complexes for workers in Tacoma, Seattle).
- 2 grunt stayed in the car (orc and dwarf). So they were extremely optional.
*the elf had the idea to get 2 pepper-punch grenades into the car, knocking the 2 grunts out, so when the boss comes they just sit in the back and wait for him. But the elf instead of just opening the door and throwing the grenades inside, sat in the front seat, looked at the grunts, while trying to palm the 2 grenades into the car without them noticing. He rolled low, grunts noticed. They got out of the car in time, combat starts.
- While the elf did that, the troll tried to enter a building next to the one that the boss was in... didn't get in since combat started.
- Combat simplified: Dwarf rolled high for damage resistance, so did the orc, tho they rolled low for attacks. Couldn't scratch the troll with the shotgun, since he had near maxed out body, bone lacing, orto skin, and armored clothing...well that when the troll wasent dodging like a pro, cause he had 7 reaction. And the dwarf was shooting with 7 dice max... when not in mellee...even tho I forgot mellee penalties.
- Elf rolled poorly for the first 2 attacks with his taser versus the orc. The orc hit the elf now and then, but the elf had armor. (elf got only 2 boxes of damage while the orc got 7, yes I did not forget to count the penalties).
- And after 7 turns they realize they could go get there primary weapons. While the grunts ran away to where there boss was, and then the players gave up.
Huh, well, the point is they complained that I used high end over powered grunts against them. I just wanted to check if I did? It even looks as f I even under powered my grunts, cause they had wired reflexes 1 nothing else as augmentations go, nice physical stats as grunts should have, not even high end equipment. (Yes I rolled lots of successes on damage resistance check, but everything else were low rolls).
Please keep the topic on grunt stats and gear versus 500 BP (1 mellee combat, and 1 archer) characters.
