Re: [BNW] Strength Bonus

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

 > > That's when you have the policeman ask to see th goliath's papers and 
when
> > > he doesn't have them DP sends the 5-man squad of power suits to nail 
>him
> > > (they've dealt with goliaths before, they know what it takes).
> >
> > And everyone dies trying to fight off the armaggeddon suits, my players
> > whinge at me for making it too hard (despite it all starting because 
>they
> > punch a guy out in a bar that has absolutly nothing to do with the
> > adventure), and we dump BNW for another bunch of months.
>

Well, just as a note, the Goliath is to some degree disruptive. Any 
heavily-combative type can be (a discussion I'm having in another game's GM 
forum now, actually).

It's hard to say depending on the situation you describe without knowing all 
the particulars. There are several factors to be taken into account.

Why were they punching a guy out in the bar?

_Who_ started punching the guy out? If it's the Goliath, getting them into 
fights they can't handle, maybe they shouldn't hang around with him. If it's 
someone else, why was the Goliath getting involved? Do they need the Goliath 
to help them punch out a bunch of bar patrons? Or should they keep him in 
reserve for when they need him just so that they _don't_ draw the attention 
of an Armageddon patrol?

Related: what is the arrangement in the group for these kinds of combat when 
the Armageddon police show up? And as a GM, how are you handling the 
Armageddon goons? IMO, they should be going after the Goliath, primarily. 
Sure, the AP should worry if a Blaster starts nailing them from the rear. 
But if I were running such a squad, I'd have their main focus be...the 
Goliath. The rest of the group shouldn't get trashed until after the Goliath 
already has been.

And the final thing is: a Goliath in a group to some degree will determine 
the direction and goals of that group. They're hard to hide, and they ain't 
subtle. By allowing a player to choose that one power package for his PC, 
you're essentially committing to a particular type of campaign, and a 
certain type of group of PCs. If your group has Hackers and Sneaks and 
Smugglers, for instance (to make an extreme comparison :) ), a Goliath as a 
PC member of that group probably isn't going to work very well.

Ideally, one Delta should be able to handle one Armageddon Suit-type. But 
that's on average. If you got one Goliath and 5 other weaker characters, I'd 
say average out those six Armageddon Patrol types by having 3-4 go for the 
Goliath, and the other 2-3 go for the other five people.

Alternately, if your campaign keeps folding because the group can't keep up 
with the Goliath, combat-wise, and thus quits playing BNW, perhaps the 
solution rather than shutodwn the campaign is to not allow a Goliath as a 
PC.

Hope that helps.



---

Steve Crow

"Logic merely enables one to be wrong with authority."

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/


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