Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Cybernetic costs and modifiers both 3e & 34e

hal · 09-12-2017, 06:22 PM

For my next point, I'm going to try to compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges and see what happens in a comparison between 3e and 4e rules...

Unreliable (3e): here the break downs were at -10% and -20%, where a piece of equipment might fail to work properly on a roll of 15+ or 13+ respectively. In game terms, statistically speaking, the odds of your unreliable cybernetic malfunctioning would be 5% failure rate or 27% failure rate. The duration of this malfunctioning would be between 60 to 360 seconds (1d6 minutes). Note that it didn't require a repair to resume functioning.

Unreliable (4): Unlike 3e version, which has only two possible break down numbers, 4e gives us a wider range of values. 15+ is the worst value (works on a 14 or less), and happens such that 95% of the time the gadget works normally. The next value is 12+ (works on an 11 or less). This means the gadget works some 74% of the time. At this point in time, it is largely IDENTICAL in function to the older 3e version. The difference however, is that they expanded the table to include two more sets of numbers, where the item in question fails on a 9+ or fails on a 6+ (works 25% of the time or 5% of the time respectively). In my opinion, the 4e version is better for having expanded out what was a limited aspect in the 3e rules.

09-12-2017, 06:22 PM	#3
hal Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Buffalo, New York	Re: Cybernetic costs and modifiers both 3e & 34e For my next point, I'm going to try to compare apples to apples, oranges to oranges and see what happens in a comparison between 3e and 4e rules... Unreliable (3e): here the break downs were at -10% and -20%, where a piece of equipment might fail to work properly on a roll of 15+ or 13+ respectively. In game terms, statistically speaking, the odds of your unreliable cybernetic malfunctioning would be 5% failure rate or 27% failure rate. The duration of this malfunctioning would be between 60 to 360 seconds (1d6 minutes). Note that it didn't require a repair to resume functioning. Unreliable (4): Unlike 3e version, which has only two possible break down numbers, 4e gives us a wider range of values. 15+ is the worst value (works on a 14 or less), and happens such that 95% of the time the gadget works normally. The next value is 12+ (works on an 11 or less). This means the gadget works some 74% of the time. At this point in time, it is largely IDENTICAL in function to the older 3e version. The difference however, is that they expanded the table to include two more sets of numbers, where the item in question fails on a 9+ or fails on a 6+ (works 25% of the time or 5% of the time respectively). In my opinion, the 4e version is better for having expanded out what was a limited aspect in the 3e rules.