My preferred level of SLA Industries games are when the players all have starting Operatives, and are against threats such as gang members, Shivers, DarkNight and normal civilians. Mix in a few Carrien and other monsters and the Sla system seems to work at its best. However, when characters or monsters reach the limit of the system (for example, high level stats, skills to match and big guns), then combat with lower level threats seems a lot slower and less fun. This is perhaps from the increased level of detail in the combat system if opponents are acting in every phase and sometimes more than once. Alternatively it may be that most of the characters have pretty much the same skills and abilites at high levels.

I played around with making some of the Contract Killers mentioned in the Contract Directory when the book first cam out. My original plan was to stat them up and place them on DoM. However, I found that they kept coming out pretty much identical. Even with the Signature Moves and advanced combat techniques also mentioned in the book, they still all had to have stats at the racial maximum and one or two combat skills also at the maximum amount. Put another way, the system doesn't assist people in making unique and individual contract killers (or high end characters). Instead the actual choices become more limited as the character becomes more powerful. Additionally, even though each Contract Killer should be tough and unstoppable, they still look like they can be bought down by the same weapons and tactics as any other threat: 17mm HESH.

The system does little to assist high-end characters, especially as the bell-curve nature of the main dice-rolling method (i.e. rolling 2d10 and adding skill/stat) gives less of a benefit with high levels of skills. That means there is a greater increase in success when you increase a skill from Rank 1 to Rank 2 (+8%) than from Rank 7 to Rank 8 (+2%). In effect high-level characters are doublely penalised when they increase a skill. Except for Ebb-users, who find that increased Ranks in Ebb abilities give them more of a benefit. The official solution to this problem is that Contract Killers get to use their Rep as a modifier in the circuit, or possibly the Competence modifier as mentioned in Key of Delhyread.

In other words, you add your Level Bonus to your skills.

I think a better solution can be gained by having a system that evolves as you play games of different levels. The basic Sla Industries system works well for low-level characters as is, especially if skills aren't taken much higher than Rank 4 or 5. This can be achieved by lowering the initial amount of points to make a starting Operative. My preferred method is to use just 50 points for Street-Level games, which I'll discuss in more depth in a minute. Then, certain key things about character generation change subtlely for high-end or Heroic-Level games. This would allow Cloak Division characters who can take on Necanthropes and Thresher powersuits without worrying about a group of street-level gangers. Unless of course the gang has planned their ambush. Eventually the game should evolve a second time to allow for Legend-Level games, where characters working for Stigmartyr take on the best that White Earth can set against them.

Of course the real trick will be designing a system that can evolve seemlessly between the different game levels, so that a character can easily be improved through the different stages in game-time, without difficulty, and without the current problem of calculating how many points it takes to increase your skills from Rank 8 to Rank 13* if your GM decides to enrole you in Stigmartyr.

50 Point Characters

The SLA Industries system works great for Street-Level games, if you reduce the starting amount of points to just 50 points. In fact it doesn't just work great, it actually means some parts of the system come to the surface that never seemed important before. Each race is given a half dozen skills with low-level ranks. In total these tend to add up to 10points. When you have a starting pool of 300points, these 10points are insignificant. By reducing the starting amount of points, these skills become quite signficant.

With just a low amount of points, most skills that a character has will be between Ranks 1 and 4. This is good as each rank has a significant change in the probabilities of success. The points required to increase a skill at these levels is also easy to calculate. The system defines skills at Rank 5 as being Expert knowledge. This is quite a misleading term as with 300point characters it is easy to be an expert in over ten different skills. With reduced points, characters with a skill at Rank 5 will defintiely feel an expert in their field.

Package skills also become more important with reduced character points available. With the existing system it is possible to take all of the package skills at a high level. With a reduced amount of points, characters will only be able to specialise in a few of the package skills. This means that two characters using the same package will appear quite different to each other. It also means that the package bonus of receiving Rank 2 in a skill if the character doesn't select it becomes important as well.

With a reduced amount of points available, it is almost impossible to have starting stats near to the racial maximum. This is good, as it means players have to think carefully as to what level to place their stats at. A player who tries to maximise their number of actions per round, will have few points left for anything else.

The Advantages and Disadvantages can be used as they are. There is no need to change any points cost, although a character wanting an APC will now have to sacrifice useful skill points to get it. With street level characters, disadvantages can make quite a difference in the points available. It is recommended that a limit is placed so that players don't abuse them too much. This and other recommendations are included in the next section.

Street Level Guidelines

The following guidelines are to help people making street-level characters. I have split them into two sections: those that are strongly recommended, and; those that are optional.

Strongly Recommended guidelines

• Character Generation is with only 50 points, rather than 300 points.
• Stats still start at Rank 5.
• Characters still get their Racial Skills at the specified ranks.

Optional guidelines

• Points can be spent on Advantages and Disadvantages, although the Disadvantages cannot be more than 25 points.
• Package skills are indicated with a +1, allowing the character to always benefit from slightly cheaper package skills. This +1 bonus can be used to exceed the stat maximum of a skill.
• Every Character gains their native language at Rank 4 for free.

Pros and Cons

Street level characters have the following advantage over 300 point characters:

• Characters are quicker and easier (less maths!) to make.
• Package and Racial skills are more important.
• Characters are less extreme and can only be Experts in one or two areas.

However, street-level characters do have some drawbacks.

• Characters do not have quite the same level of detail as before.
• Weapons, especially ammo, are more lethal due to lower hit points.
• Ebb abilities at the lower ranks are often weak and repetitive.
• The DEX and STR values that dictate changes in actions and damage bonus will be more obvious.

The Ebb abilities and ammo damage drawbacks do not really concern me as they are both areas I think Sla v2 should look at in detail anyway. I have in mind several ways to improve combat which will eliminate the problems with the damage bonus and actions. I also have an optional way to add detail to street-level characters for those who want a little more crunch in their system. All these points will be properly addressed in later articles.