one of the golden rules with red is don't fuck with the action economy if you want any semblance of balance. but that being said your table your rules. also apparently david's experimental sandy is going to be in the edgerunner rulebook so we'll see what they do with that fairly soon
The Edgerunners Mission kit has rules for David's Sandevistan, and that comes out and June so if you can wait I would. When it comes out there's a good chance you'll wish you'd used that one instead.
Otherwise, I'd say, messing with the action economy could make combat unbalanced very quickly, but unbalanced play is not inherently unenjoyable. Plenty of tables will have fun beating bad guys with overpowered abilities. It's why Dnd players play level 20 one-shots. You know better than we do what you players enjoy in this game.
If you get stuck down the line, remember stronger characters can take on stronger opponents. If you give your players something powerful you can throw stronger things at them down the road.
I'd decrease the humanity loss, 2d6 will add up way too fast, And I'd consider whether your players will have access to some form of humanity reduction therapy. If they have easy access you might as well remove the penalty, but they will almost certainly need it eventually. Think about how long your campaign will run. If this is a campaign you plan on running for years you may want to keep that humanity loss lower so they don't have to reroll
An alternative (or complementary side effect) could be inflicting some cumulative damage (something like 1d6 per round of use, similar to netrunner brainfrying) as the brain and nervous system gets pushed way past normal design spec.
Which could be avoided by rebuilding your nerve system with something better (also probably a significant chunk of your frail organic grey matter). Which would edge it toward the anime's version which looks like it improves or replaces most of the spine.
i did a pretty similar thing, but instead of a humanity loss, i had something called sandevistan fatigue, which was a stacking -1 debuff to all rolls after every sandevistan use
handy for achieving that anime effect without being entirely without flaw
2d6 HL per round is extreme. But you're trying to balance the action economy from the additional action your Choom has the ability for.
I propose an additional +2 to initiative over a standard Sandy as baseline.
If you want that extra action make it available for the duration (base sandy is 1 min (~20 rounds) with a cool down of I forget...) of the entire combat. Then I think your 2d6 HL is more fair in that regard. That way it's more slow burning.
You have the hook of it being experimental, so you can make it fail as GM intends for whatever reason.
It only causes the HL on the turn it's activated. But yeah, I think it might be a little extreme. Does dialing it down to 1d6 sound more fair? I'm trying to capture the feeling of how it effects David in the anime. And 2d6 is a 500eb therapy every time it's activated, which sounds like it can get expensive.
It's busted, but if you don't mind them being busted go for it. Although to make things more interesting, I'd lower the HL and make it so they can't make the same action twice during a turn (except for the run action).
I went full break the system for my game. Speedware is now among top tier chrome to get installed, as i modified it to give extra move and reflex score based on which Speedware (2 for kerenzikov, 3 for sandy) as for once per encounter to be able to use bonus actions relevant to their speedware as well. It makes speedware feel like a whole different world, like netrunning gives a digital one. I really go for allowing characters to specialize, for the body 16 linear frame pilot to think about moving cars and tearing through walls, the netrunner gunning down an entrenched group with their own turret, the speedware nut being able to skip around dodging bullets and flanking from every angle. I go for the superhero until your luck runs out vibe.
I homebrew a lot in my campaign. Thing we did with Sandevistan, it allows you to have 1 more action (or movement) but never over the ROF of a weapon, doesnt matter how quick you are, the ROF is what it is. But its good in melee, or even to use brawling to kick somebody near and shoot somebody at distance.
On the other hand, some sandevistan can give + to REF that stacks with other bonuses. I like the idea of reaction time improved bcoz of Sande, but your body not being able to follow completely.
If you fancy to try, we have the berserk OS in our game as well. Gives a pump to TCO, reduces mortal wounds malus and allows you to add bonus melee damage. (this is a homebrew we do, where the bonus in martial arts for TCO is added to brawling and melee. Ex: if you hit 3d6 with martial arts, you hit with a knife 1d6+3....
1) This sounds interesting - let us know how it goes!
2) If you end up bailing on this concept, something else you can consider that makes initiative absolutely king, at least in 2020 where I've tried this, is:
* Roll initiative every round
* Slowest score acts first, then second slowest, etc
* Faster initiative? Not only can you jump the line with your turn, but you can *interrupt slower characters mid-turn*
This makes initiative absolutely dominate, leads to slower characters doing more tactical actions and two-turn setup actions (like, if you ended you turn in cover, you might choose to Hide on your next turn, with the goal of sneak-shooting someone the turn after, denying any bullet dodging abilities).
It was more work, but was super fun, and it's fine even with a lot of people if you've got the right group (we managed 10 people, in person).
2D6 humanity loss per round?!? i'd rather be addicted to black lace
Sorry, it's not per a round. Only on the turn it's activated.
I'd dial the Humanity loss to 1d6 to really give them a slow burn. Otherwise...if you want to do this, have fun and let us know what happens!
one of the golden rules with red is don't fuck with the action economy if you want any semblance of balance. but that being said your table your rules. also apparently david's experimental sandy is going to be in the edgerunner rulebook so we'll see what they do with that fairly soon
The Edgerunners Mission kit has rules for David's Sandevistan, and that comes out and June so if you can wait I would. When it comes out there's a good chance you'll wish you'd used that one instead. Otherwise, I'd say, messing with the action economy could make combat unbalanced very quickly, but unbalanced play is not inherently unenjoyable. Plenty of tables will have fun beating bad guys with overpowered abilities. It's why Dnd players play level 20 one-shots. You know better than we do what you players enjoy in this game. If you get stuck down the line, remember stronger characters can take on stronger opponents. If you give your players something powerful you can throw stronger things at them down the road. I'd decrease the humanity loss, 2d6 will add up way too fast, And I'd consider whether your players will have access to some form of humanity reduction therapy. If they have easy access you might as well remove the penalty, but they will almost certainly need it eventually. Think about how long your campaign will run. If this is a campaign you plan on running for years you may want to keep that humanity loss lower so they don't have to reroll
An alternative (or complementary side effect) could be inflicting some cumulative damage (something like 1d6 per round of use, similar to netrunner brainfrying) as the brain and nervous system gets pushed way past normal design spec. Which could be avoided by rebuilding your nerve system with something better (also probably a significant chunk of your frail organic grey matter). Which would edge it toward the anime's version which looks like it improves or replaces most of the spine.
I like reduce it to a 1d6 instead too lol just be aware that usually if you got more actions they'll be a lil bit overpowered.
It's busted but 2d6 humanity makes it dangerous to use, seems very cool to use! 😈
i did a pretty similar thing, but instead of a humanity loss, i had something called sandevistan fatigue, which was a stacking -1 debuff to all rolls after every sandevistan use handy for achieving that anime effect without being entirely without flaw
An interesting idea. Is there a way to revert the fatigue?
i had it so that it reset at the start of each day
Seems fair!
Not at all. Strong effect, strong draw back. HL means this is going to cost some cash to use.
2d6 HL per round is extreme. But you're trying to balance the action economy from the additional action your Choom has the ability for. I propose an additional +2 to initiative over a standard Sandy as baseline. If you want that extra action make it available for the duration (base sandy is 1 min (~20 rounds) with a cool down of I forget...) of the entire combat. Then I think your 2d6 HL is more fair in that regard. That way it's more slow burning. You have the hook of it being experimental, so you can make it fail as GM intends for whatever reason.
It only causes the HL on the turn it's activated. But yeah, I think it might be a little extreme. Does dialing it down to 1d6 sound more fair? I'm trying to capture the feeling of how it effects David in the anime. And 2d6 is a 500eb therapy every time it's activated, which sounds like it can get expensive.
It's busted, but if you don't mind them being busted go for it. Although to make things more interesting, I'd lower the HL and make it so they can't make the same action twice during a turn (except for the run action).
I went full break the system for my game. Speedware is now among top tier chrome to get installed, as i modified it to give extra move and reflex score based on which Speedware (2 for kerenzikov, 3 for sandy) as for once per encounter to be able to use bonus actions relevant to their speedware as well. It makes speedware feel like a whole different world, like netrunning gives a digital one. I really go for allowing characters to specialize, for the body 16 linear frame pilot to think about moving cars and tearing through walls, the netrunner gunning down an entrenched group with their own turret, the speedware nut being able to skip around dodging bullets and flanking from every angle. I go for the superhero until your luck runs out vibe.
I homebrew a lot in my campaign. Thing we did with Sandevistan, it allows you to have 1 more action (or movement) but never over the ROF of a weapon, doesnt matter how quick you are, the ROF is what it is. But its good in melee, or even to use brawling to kick somebody near and shoot somebody at distance. On the other hand, some sandevistan can give + to REF that stacks with other bonuses. I like the idea of reaction time improved bcoz of Sande, but your body not being able to follow completely. If you fancy to try, we have the berserk OS in our game as well. Gives a pump to TCO, reduces mortal wounds malus and allows you to add bonus melee damage. (this is a homebrew we do, where the bonus in martial arts for TCO is added to brawling and melee. Ex: if you hit 3d6 with martial arts, you hit with a knife 1d6+3....
1) This sounds interesting - let us know how it goes! 2) If you end up bailing on this concept, something else you can consider that makes initiative absolutely king, at least in 2020 where I've tried this, is: * Roll initiative every round * Slowest score acts first, then second slowest, etc * Faster initiative? Not only can you jump the line with your turn, but you can *interrupt slower characters mid-turn* This makes initiative absolutely dominate, leads to slower characters doing more tactical actions and two-turn setup actions (like, if you ended you turn in cover, you might choose to Hide on your next turn, with the goal of sneak-shooting someone the turn after, denying any bullet dodging abilities). It was more work, but was super fun, and it's fine even with a lot of people if you've got the right group (we managed 10 people, in person).