Shadowrun General: Augmented Reality Is Fucking Sweet

Ayy new thread.

So since I have nothing but time, AI still aren't functional, and I'm piling up backup characters like mad for my next (and first) campaign...

What secondary roles does your heavy weapons guy take on?

>>43941021
Medic or explosives tend to be good secondary roles. Magical healing doesn't do shit if the subject isnt' stabilized, and you'd be amazing how often mages forget that is a thing. And explosives just seem intuitive with it.

I like the idea of technomancers too much to not play them. How do I make them good in 5e?

>>43941021
>AI characters will never be functional
I will never be a killer robot.

>>43941084
I'm considering my heavy weapons, a couple fly-spy drones for remote viewing/indirect fire, and explosives. But that doesn't leave a ton for subtle runs,especially in a group with a rigger.

>>43941098
Puppeteer is your only good Form. Use it to dodge Overwatch.
Use Sprites liberally.
Pump Attack or Sleaze, but not both.

>>43941098
You realize they're one-trick ponies and you exploit their Sprites for everything they're worth.

>>43941098
'cording to the more vocal who lurk srg, play it as a pet class. use the fuck out of your sprites.
I'm doing it with being heavily compartmentalized. Me and sprites on offense, my commlink with a dongle on the defensive.

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So we got all sort of fun and weird technology thanks to the magic-infused cyberpunk future of Shadowrun.

But I must ask. Considering all that can be made in Shadowrun, would giant, multi-story mechs still be considered a far-off dream even in this realm of fiction? I'm not talking Gundams here, I'm talking more like pic related.

...I ask because I am a sucker for these kind of things, and it's a shame more settings don't utilize the concept when they can.

>>43941193
Walker drones (dog-sized) are a thing, so building a giant one should be well within the realm of possible.

>>43941193
They're not popular because they're not efficient cost-wise, but they get play in Desert Wars on occasion.

>>43941193
do what I do and just insert FUCKING ANYTHING as HRT teams

Robocop? S'fine. Terminator? Cool. Metal gear? Awesome.

That way players never know what will happen if they stay late.

I'll ask this again.
How do I get away with being the pain in shadowrun?
I wish to swarm my foes with bees.

>>43941234
swarm of flying micro drones with poisons. Go nuts.
Also street grimoire has a swarm spell, i think?

>>43941248
Core Rule Book pg 290 has bugs, and swarm, but it is only a illusion not an actual swarm.
street grimoire does introduce bug traditions and insect spirits i think, although I haven't looked too deeply in it because eww bugs.

I don't understand why ALL bug spirits are so evil and shit.

I mean, honey bees are real damn nice, as long as you know how they operate.

>>43941377
They're not; some are loners and some hunt other bug spirits.

>>43941389

Mantis shaman who is on a crusade to kill (devour) all other bug spirits?

I could see that being cool as shit. But, what's the end goal? Where do the mantis shaman turn when all the other bugs are dead?

I get the idea that they won't always be dead, but I'm legitimately curious how to make a legit runner for a legit team with this basis.

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So, I've been trying to build a Street Sam/Cover Ops character, and I keep running into problems with the Physical Limits. Am I missing some way of increasing it, or am I always going to have my dice pool capped by my meat?

Is there any real point to cyber limbs? I was originally going to have my runner with double cyber legs, but for the same cost of replacing her legs, I could just get muscle replacements, which would boost her arms and increase his stupid physical limits at the same time...

>>43941526
You need a dice pool of the size (Limit * 3) to reliably hit your limit. What are your numbers looking like right now?

Cyberlimbs are a trap option. Get muscle aug and toner.

>>43941084
Magic healing doesn't stabilize?

>>43941219
HTR seems like they'd generally be professional rating 5 or weaker.

>>43941193
Western writers and settings seem to be allergic to giant mecha outside of CLUNKETY CLUNK OVERHEAT OVERHEAT (which, coincidentally, is CGL's other license), but the rules in SR can definitely support big vehicles and big drones. Just know that the vehicle combat rules are fucking stupid.

>>43941646
The Heal spell doesn't. You'll need the Stabilize spell (hurr) to keep a badly hit chummer from becoming ghoul chow.

>>43941462
>Where do the mantis shaman turn when all the other bugs are dead?
Harldly a question worth asking. There's always more bugs. The real question is if they feel any sense of success as they progress down that road

>>43941646
Stabilize is its own spell, and both of my magic PCs who have heal neglected Stabilize

What non-combat Adept specialties have you guys taken in the past? How have they worked out?

>>43941462
The real problem is that the Mantis is at best an ally of convenience to the runners, with common short-term goals. (I.e. Frag that other bug with extreme prejudice.)

Unless you're playing a BugBusters campaign, soon enough the Mantis will urge/coerce/contraint his mortal assistant to get back to Bug whacking rather than waste their time doing human things.

>>43941923
Infiltrator.
Pretty good, I guess.

>>43941581

*sigh* that was what I was afraid of.

There's no problem with my numbers if I just drop the legs and all the crud that went with them. I can move my resources priority down to C if I drop all the shiny chrome, which will let me boost up my Attributes, which will be further boosted by the muscle augs.

I just really liked having a large smuggling compartment. Being able to hide all my Forbidden intrusion tools in my leg would be nice, as well as having a great place to stash a backup weapon. Then you add Hydraulic Jacks and boost up the Agility, maybe add a Shock Hand (foot?) or Auto Injector...

I liked the idea, but spending two essence and a pile of Nuyen on it just puts you too far behind the curve at character creation. I suppose that is a good lesson to learn: cool toys don't trump raw dice power.

>>43942145

On a related note, what are the thoughts on the Redliner quality? Honestly, Chrome Flesh is really poorly written, but if you effectively get a free rating 1 Muscle Aug for taking a pair of limbs, I'd consider it.

>>43941815
>>43941646
my mage is a combat medic :^) best of both worlds

what do you guys do for corp scrip exchange rates? are there rough guidelines outlined somewhere?

>>43942560
Run Faster, page 174

>>43942209

The writer of the ability said on the catalyst forums that he intended for it to augment both your base stats and your cyberware stats in the errata thread for Chrome Flesh. Talk to your GM about it.

>>43942668
Oh thanks m8

>Evo 5:1
fuq

>>43941377
>I mean, honey bees are real damn nice, as long as you know how they operate

They aren't the Spirits of Insects, at least not in any conventional sense, but the Invase are an extradimensional race of aliens with insect-like forms and visuals similar to the insect they take their names from.

Look at them in Shadowrun Returns; those are Ant Insect Spirits, but do actually LOOK anything like ants at all? No, they just have ant-like behaviors. Technically a spirit of any earthly animal is just another Beast Spirit, while Insect Spirits are more like alien spirits that vaguely resemble Earth insects.

>>43941462
>But, what's the end goal?

Same thing as other bugs, unfortunately.
Mantis Spirits still do the thing where they hollow out your corpse and wear it as a skin to exist in the material plane; ALL Bugs need to do this to get past evanescence, regardless of their intentions.
Mantis Spirits hollow out female hosts (presumably only women can be mantis shamans) and then go around hunting and eating other bugs because that's what Mantises do.

>>43943152
>>43943138
I'm upset there isn't a bug spirit that is just
BUILD
REPRODUCE
COLLECT SWEETS
REPEAT

>>43943152
There's that small gang of human form Mantis spirits in Seattle that seem to mostly go around kicking ass and doing what gangs do, so presumably like any other free spirit they can have distinct goals, just very weird ones.
Or that Cockroach Spirit who disguises himself as a dwarf and hires people to take pictures and spy on what appears to be completely random people and locations and then does nothing to either.
Bug Spirits that aren't hive-bugs can be non-hostile to metahumans, but they DO require a human sacrifice to get their physical form plus free spirits never exactly make perfect mental sense and Invae are exceptionally weird even for free spirits.

Hive Bugs are always dangerous though since they always need more hosts to fit more bugs which means by necessity they need to pull their whole infiltration-takeover thing.

>>43940960

Always thought this was the most realistic vision of a future where everyone has augmented reality as standard:

https://vimeo.com/8569187

>>43943204
Anon, that's pretty much Bug Spirits. They just find humans to be really tasty, squishy, and fidgeting sweets.

>>43943431
well, yeah.
I mean I'd expect there to be some that actually want sweets, and not people.

sweets are like, the holy grail to lots of bugs.

>>43941234
>>43941248
>>43941325
Clearly the solution is to combine the illusion spell with micro drones.

>>43941021
How are AIs not functional? I've kinda wanted to play one.

>>43943532
They're junk unless you take Exceptional Ability(?), then they're insane. More importantly, Yekka is still working on making them Chummer compatible. Until he does, you gotta do the sheet by hand.

>>43944001
Not too worried about handwork.

>>43944374
Eh, it's not a killer, just a major inconvenience. They're not good enough to justify the hand work.

>>43944001
Which book are the AI rules in?

>>43944418
Data Trails. They're COMPLETELY UNMENTIONED in the table of contents; it's the second to last chapter, I believe.

>>43944492
Thanks. I've got it but I couldn't find anything. I was a fool for expecting the table of contents to actually provide help.

>>43944515
Chrome Flesh and Data Trails don't have an index. Hard Targets went back to a sane, useful index, hopefully Rigger 5 will too.

>>43943455
You seem to have trouble with the concept: Bug Spirits=/=Bugs. They have no relation to the actual creatures, just like a Spirit shaped like a dog has no relation to actual dogs.

They are called insect spirits because that's the shape they take in our universe, and they practise insect behaviors like forming hives, but they don't have anything to do with real insects. It doesn't matter if real bugs like sugar, bug spirits like devouring humans.

>>43941462
What does any predator do if it overhunts its prey? It starves to death.

Okay guys, I have a question?

How viable is a 4th Ed tecnomancer/street samurai build?

GM gave me a 30 point quality that lets me count all cyberware implants as deltaware, and started me off with wired reflexes 1 and muscle replacement 2, and I have an effective rating of this in the following stats:
Bod2, Agi4, Rea5, Str3,
Cha4, Int3, Log4, Wil4,
Edg2, Res4

And I have my skills buffed out with a focus on unarmed combat and brute-force hacking. ST says in the prologue story I'll be unlocking my first echo, which I've already planned on being the touch-to-connect-to-stuff ability.

Basic plan is to get in close, smack people and hack their PAN and fuck with their implants, guns, whatever I can. Probably going to be picking up BlackIC complex forms at the first opportunity.

Any chance of this being viable with the right armor? Or am I looking to get destroyed in my first few fights?

>>43945799
>BOD 2, AGI 4, REA 5, STR 3
>These are your augmented stats after Muscle Replacements and Wired Reflexes
>Want to do unarmed combat with 3 STR.

>>43945917
Point isn't to do direct damage but to go after their cyberware and implants and stuff since it's unlikely that any guard is going to be unaugmented. But yeah, buffing my strength is going to be pretty high on my priority list.

>>43944001
Which exceptional ability?

How do you scrub your astral signature?

>>43946034
There#s quality for that. It lets some (or all?) of your attributes be uncapped and has some other bonuses iirc.

>>43946044
There's an action for that. Or you have the metamagics to not leave one in first place.

>>43946044
No roll, you just concentrate for a complex action and it reduces the time it hangs around by half. Repeat as necessary.

>>43946192
>>43946210
Thanks

So, bioware or cyberware?

also, hidden or openly displayed?

>>43947056
Personally I find obvious and stylish cyberware the best.
Mechanically, hidden ware, especially bioware is the best. Unless you want to scare a wageslave shitless with your robocop body.

>>43947056
On an elf, bio or hidden only, on about anyone else, non-obvious cyberware also works.

What are the most important things that a decker might be able to hack in any given situation?

>>43947203
Drones
Doors
Vehicles

Question for you, /srg/. Tolkien. Was his work considered prophetetic? Is his work well-known? I recently learned "Sons of Sauron" are a thing.

How do spirits resist drain??

>>43947502
What edition?

>>43947544
Sorry, should have specified, 5e. I can't find anything in core or street grimoire.

>>43947502
>>43947589


I took this from the Rules Summary Spells in the OP.

>Innate Spell As Spell, Complex, As Spell, As Spell: Cast spell per normal Spellcasting rules using Spellcasting skill. Can be Counterspelled. Resist Drain with WIL + (INT or CHA, GM’s choice). If Sustaining spell, take normal –2 penalty.

>>43947682
Okay, thanks. I'll pick the drain attributes based on tradition then.

Question on lore guys. My GM already says it's cool, but wanted to check with the more lore savvy guys here.

Can EVO pull off some of the shit that happens in Eclipse Phase? Accelerated mental and physical growth? Sticking someone in a full VR that's accelerated the amount of time the person inside seems to experience so they mentally develop twice as fast, while deltaware/magic crap is used to accelerate the growth of their body?

If anybody could do it, it would be Evo I know, but I'm curious if it directly contradicts anything already in the lore?

>>43947448
A lot of the first gen metas turned into massive tolkien nerds early on.

>>43947917
I think it's fine. If your GM says it's ok, then it's already fine with the lore in your game.

So go ahead!

So where do canon e-ghosts come from? Is it ever confirmed?

>>43947917
Accelerated physical growth can be done more easily with just growing a cloned body and transplanting the head/brain.

Considering the rest there isn't anything supporting it in the fluff, but also nothing contradicting it directly (except the fact that extremely accelerated growth/education gets to fuck up people's psyches heavily). I'd suggest waiting a bit. There are some people in /srg/ who know a LOT about cloning and force-growing cutting edge tech.

But finally what >>43948040 said is true. Nobody uses ALL the fluff from the game anyway, there's too much of it, and stuff gets small-scale retconned all the time.

>>43940960
>Not even going through an onion router to log in.
Man the quality of runners has dropped these days, hasn't it?

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>>43948129
It's pretty clearly people who died during Crash 2.0 (or possibly earlier) while jacked in, but jury's out on whether it's actually them, or just a copy of their mind (or some part thereof).

>>43948040
>>43948183
thanks both of you, I'm just curious on it.

>>43948285
Apparently the e-ghosts of people died later also have appeared. The book says directly to make stuff up and to not give a shit.

Is it possible to make a wared throwing character and have it come near where throwing adepts can? For knives/tomahawks obviously, not cards or whatever the cool kids throw these days.

>>43942145
Just get LOWER legs and call it a day.

>>43941688

To be fair, fast mover mechs are saying "shoot me with a guided rocket up my back thruster, I love big missles!"

It was a question on why Lyran assault lances haven't thought of installing horizontal jumpjets to make them move fasta

The concealment critter power makes it harder to see the target of the effect by lowering the dice pool for anyone looking for them...how does this work in world? Does it make a creature partially invisible to thermographic vision, ultrasonic sensors, chem sniffers, etc?

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>>43941193

Because you don't need to be a robotics or combat expert to see why they're inefficient.

Humans grew biologically. We're the way we are because that's how we grew up. Robots don't have such limitations. Why have a "head" when robots don't have brains, or eyes? Why have arms when you can place guns and such wherever you want? Why walk on bipedal limbs when there are way better things a robot could use to get around?

More importantly, even if you don't care about the laws of reality, or don't think armed forces would want to spend their resources in a much more useful way, just look at them.

What possible purpose could it serve in combat? Can't secure areas as infantry, can't travel as fast as tanks even though they dish out equivalent damage, lack the speed of mobile artillery salvos, and they sure as shit aren't good recon.

They're not cool, they're just plain stupid.

>>43949642
I hate western sci-fi sometimes.

>>43949678
Except western sci-fi had a huge love affair with androids and pretty much pushed the concept to the point of saturation.

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>>43949678

I can't tell whether you're agreeing with me or not, but western sci-fi does suck some cock. Instead of interesting looks into the possibilities of the future, we're given dorky nonsense made by superhero-worshipping comic book nerds.

>>43943532
Their only real neat ability is to bumrush people our of their decks with Bootstrap and Inherent Program. Without Exceptional Ability their dice pools are average at best, and the inherent weaknesses mean that if you're not hiding out in a best of a deck you're gonna get jibbed quicksmart.
>>43948197
We dropped all the fun fluffy shit because autists complained about the post length.
>>43948651
Not really? Throwing adepts work because they have powers that bootstrap the power of their knives. Regular humies can't get those, without GM fiating powers into cyberware.
>>43949435
Concealment's fluff ability is basically making you overlook the target of the spell. Like it's something you see out of the corner of your eye but you KNOW it's unimportant so you don't bother to focus on it.

>>43950135
so it wouldn't work on machines, just the people operating them, right?

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RIGGER 5 PREVIEW TODAY

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>>43950659
part 2

>>43950153
That's sorta problematic. RAW says the machines are just as gibbed, RAI probably too. But this fluff actually would suggest what you say.

>>43950659
WAIT WHAT provide link pls.

>>43950721
http://catalystgamelabs.tumblr.com/post/134411092596/shadowrun-rigger-50-art

>>43950153
Per RAW, anything that makes a Perception test to detect you has a reduction in its pool. It's a Physical based spell so there's no real reason for it not to affect machines. I have it blanket effect everything, but YMMV based on GM.

>>43950821
Well, I am the GM for a batch of newbies, so I'm trying to find the best way to explain it. Since it's physical, then maybe Predator style invisibility on all light spectrums?

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>>43950743
Much obliged.Have a biodrone rigger in return.

>>43950905
That wouldn't be wrong. While Concealment is supposedly more of compelling not to look at the Concealed object/person, refracting lightwaves away from it could be more or less the same. You can also say it's similar to Accident as it influences probabilities making even software glitch over recognizing the Concealee.

>>43950699
Those are some big guns.

>>43951025
Maybe we'll finally get some guns with better than 17P. Or fifty cals that do more damage than a small caliber rifle.

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>>43950911

The tables have turned. Also, ideas for a weird drone rigger.

>https://sg.news.yahoo.com/dutch-artist-turned-dead-cat-195000059.html?linkId=11977974

>>43951114
The best thing is that he (or maybe others, don't remember) followed up on that shit. With a rat, an ostrich and fucking shark. Each project was somehow different, iirc the shark was a blimp or something.

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>>43951204

Fly spy drones aren't even half as inconspicious as the glorius shark jet drone.

Is there a way to be a combat rigger? I just hate being the full on sit in car and control drones kind of tigger. I want to be in the scrap but doing rigger things? Is that possible?

>>43951465
Carry a gun and shoot people while your Drones run interference?

>>43951465
You can order the drones to attack on their own and then trust their pilot programs. Or your rigging can be spy or vehicle rigging, and you spec for combat when not doing that.

>>43951488
Is vehicle rigging worth it though? How often is a vehicle come in handy besides for getting to and leaving a run?

>>43951700
Police chases, chasing a target, being conspicuous or not getting to and leaving a run, outdoor fights (think of how Batman uses the batmobile).

And remember, that's not just cars, that's airplanes, boats, submarines...

>>43950821
Yo yekka, thanks once again for the work on Chummer. But, I have to ask: who translated the additional german mentor spirits? Some of them are just plain wrong.

>>43951700
Smashing a vehicle into a spirit is a great way of obliterating it.

>>43951823
idk, came from an /srg/ thread a few weeks back. The extent of my German is telling my players their nebels are getting werfed when I lob smoke at them ingame.

>>43951954
I'll have to check out the way github works, but I'm gonna submit a fixed file.

>>43952024
If you want, I can proof-read. Just post it here.

>>43952058
Will do. Probably not before tomorrow tho.

>>43952091
if you do, please provide the page numbers in the German PDF.

>>43952166
Yeah, about that, whats the abbrevation for the german Street Grimoire? SGG?

>>43952183
No idea, sadly. But I'd go by SG?

>>43952241
But that's already the abbreviation for the regular Street Grimoire.

>>43952273
Point. I have no idea how people handle it, in this particular case or generally. SG[Ger] would at least be clearly understandable.

>>43951902
Even better if it's not your car.
Get your Hacker/Decker in on that shit.

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>>43951954

Hey yekka, current Version of Chummer is a huge mess. Most guns aren't working and raising edge from 1-2 costs like 70 karma

>>43952183
I was under the impression all the new stuff was added as part of SHB. German books with the same book name can just use <page> values.

>>43952745
You're on 177. Update to 178.

Turns out that a few hundred people updating to 5.178 via the autoupdater kicks my account over the 100,000 daily permitted file transfers for a dropbox account, so I need to figure out another method for distributing those files. In the interim, the autoupdater's locked at 5.177.

I bought Shadowrun Returns on a whim because it was only 3 dollars during the Steam sale.

Man this game is fucking awesome. What more is there to this universe, besides the pen and paper RPG?

>>43953850
Did you buy Dragonfall and Hong Kong, too? Those are better than Returns, imo.

>>43953850
Dragonfall and Hong Kong are your only good options for that kind of gameplay.

>>43953850
There's a good amount of novels, and an old game on the xbox/pc, but it was super shitty.

>>43953871
I got Dragonfall. I heard Divinity: Original Sin enhanced edition was similar and also very good.

>>43953932
which novels are good?

>>43953850
I was disappointed with Shadowrun Returns campaign, but Dragonfall and Hong Kong are really so much better in every way. Highly recommended.

>>43953970
Get Hong Kong too.
As far as novels, I really liked Changeling. It's about a guy learning to be happy with who he is and also punching ghouls.

deus did nothing wrong

>>43943455
Dude, run with that. In fact, I think I'm gonna nick this idea and have a johnson just ask for seemingly random shit. Then as soon as the players think they're running for some knock-off willy wonka, BAM, fly spirit was just craving sugar and sweet recipes.
"But GM, bug spirits wouldn't-" "Bug spirits are completely alien and unknowable. This one happens to want sweets to fuel his agenda in some way that you just can't see... also shut up."

>>43951025
4u

>>43951902
this I know from experience.
>cant materialize in the car, the spirit would get geeked!
>i know, i'll materialize under and pull the drive shaft o-
meanwhile in the car
>BUMP
>what the fuck was that?

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Would Shadowrun be a good system for a Samurai Jack game?

Shadowrun has kitchen sink setting somewhat like Samurai Jack iirc. magic and demons and robots and cyberpunk all in one right?

>>43955497
Sorta, but not if you want the PCs to be like Jack and take on wave after wave of mooks and be all mythic hero bullshit tier. I could see Aku as some kind of high force shadow spirit or something though.

What's the big differences between Technomancers in 4th and 5th ed?

From what I understand Technomancers got gimped hard (though I read a reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/2q94e8/viable_technomancer_builds/ that is pretty interesting for saying how even the books lie to you about the optimal way to play technomancer), but some other stuff seemed weird.

Like Technomancers not even being able to pretend to use cyberdecks, and G.O.D. being waaaaaaaaaaaaay more down on them than they were in 4th Ed?

Is that true? What's the lore behind it?

>>43955609
Technomancer Complex Forms are different and waaaay more magic now. They are also limited in their usability, except Puppeteer.

The lore is that we have a new Matrix which in a rare collective effort of all 10 megas was made extra to fuck with hackers, technomancers and AIs. The GOD is down on everyone's shit now.

>>43956007
so what did they do? Shut down the old wireless matrix and boot up matrix 3.0?

So I'm going to be playing a decker, and I've never run shadowrun before. I didn't actually learn that much about hacking and the interent during character creation because our DM is rules light .
So what is the internet like? There are apparently BBSes? Are things stored on servers like irl basically? What is chatting like? Is there a basic visual client for email and chat programs and stuff in lists, or is everything seriously a physical file you reach out and touch somewhere in space?

what's a good resource for "the internet" in shadowrun?

>>43956129
An extremely efficient matrix which by raw makes it impossible for runners to actually operate on the matrix was booted in a way which conveniently stroked grogs' need for surboard sized supercomputers that cost more than enough to retire rich.

>>43941234
Pheromone implant or alteration to direct a particular hive of a particular insect.
For real ones, of course.

Pheromone technology is actually fairly easy to work with. We have rudimentary versions of it irl.

>>43956177
>An extremely efficient matrix which by raw makes it impossible for runners to actually operate on the matrix was booted in a way which conveniently stroked grogs' need for surboard sized supercomputers that cost more than enough to retire rich.
so cyberdecks are basically a way to actually get into a matrix which prevents runners from normally getting into the matrix?

Wouldn't that utterly fuck technomancers? who can't use cyberdecks?

>>43956129
More or less. They basically started running everything on new protocols and offered free and completely not-forced software upgrades for all commlinks, which were also obligatory to use the new Matrix. The techno were, funnily enough, the ones who felt almost no speedbumps changing from old to new. This shit is covered in Storm Front for SR4 (or 5 in German), and, quite obviously, the core book and Data Trails.

>>43956336
technomancers can deck (if that's what you could call it) with their brains, so they are always connected to the matrix and G.O.D can't see them. the only way for them to go offline is to "reboot" their brain for like 8 hours.
Honestly I think the entirety of technomancers needs to be re written.

>>43956336
You need decks to hack, normal links are more than enough for all non-decker jobs (and offer better Device Ratings and Firewall for a negligible cost compared to decks). Technomancers just felt dizzy at first and got on pretty well later. Their brains aren't exactly protocol-limited. I guess they could peruse modern (as in, 2015) computers if given wireless access to them.

>>43956401
They can reboot for a Complex Action just like everybody else. They just go into "reboot" when they go to sleep to not get buggered over the matrix while they sleep.
Also GOD sees them just as well as anybody else, it just doesn't recognize them as 'mancers immediately. Only unregistered sprites are fucked.

>>43956165
The core rulebook describes it raher good. For more you can look into Data Trails, but it contains lots of stuff I'd say only few people know in-universe and also not all GMs will incorporate.

Also drop what you think now. It is VERY different.

>>43956165
>what's a good resource for "the internet" in shadowrun?
I asked the very question at some point in the previous thread. Apparently there's no reference for the hardware side of The Matrix. There's no way to know how it works or why. Characters just enter this magical realm called cyberspace that is somehow related to all the electronic stuff in the real world.
Also this thing called Augmented Reality (AR) that overlaps both worlds so that the decker doesn't need to go full VR in the middle of a run.
Since this is a magical realm, the closer to the target, the easier it is to hack. You could safely try to hack your way in far from the action, but it makes it considerably harder.

Mail, phone, chat and all that is included as part of the commlink for every character (I think). Commlinks form vary in almost every way you can imagine.

>>43953359
cant you work something out with a torrent?

>>43956696
You are right, even if the last thread slightly over-simplified it. There is some technobabble about how it works, but it's just not very realistic. The new Matrix is also clearly more magical, the way new Hosts (think websites/cyber"rooms"/"buildings") are built is completely weird.

The hardwar works basically by complete peer-to-peer/Onion principle. Since computers are fucking everywhere and everything has wireless capacity (like each piece of clothing and most food in your fridge, not to speak about the fridge itself) all information is split in packets and routed to the destination per different channels. Distance creates "Noise" whcih is pretty much packet loss. Hope that helps.

>>43956848
>>43956696
Packet loss and/or lag. But yea, you kind of need to stretch things a little. It makes sense if you really simplify existing systems, refocus them towards wireless, then try to make it sound high tech.
CGL has a lose grasp on how the internet works.

>>43956463
>>43956401
>>43956397
>>43956336
Continuing this line of questioning.

How did we go from "Technomancers and AI aren't trusted, but the public is sympathetic to them because of the footage released of horrible, inhumane, megacorp experiments" to "All these new fangled data-life people need to be NUKED TO DEATH BY GOD!"

>>43957349
Wait what? The public never trusted them, from the start on, see Deus. There was some techno sympathy when people understood that they weren't immediately destroying/stealing all their data, and the anti-Horizon campaigns helped. But they are still about as trusted as refugees from the Middle East today.

>>43957471
4th ed seemed to paint public perception of them in a WAY more positive light than 5th ed did.

>>43957509
>>43957471

One of the big Catholic Cardinals is an open technomancer and it did wonders for the public perception of them.

I'll be damned if I can remember the city he's in though.

>>43957509
Well, CFD is the big new panic and some people start to understand it's linked to AIs.

Also I can't really concur.

How big of a dice pool should a Sprite technomancer be rolling in Electronic Warfare, Hardware, Software, Computer? I have no idea.

>>43940960

This picture is great. Pretty much how The Meet feels.

>>43956177
They're not surfboards, they're tablets. But also I don't get the new matrix hate. It still sucks, but I find it way easier than 4e was. Perhaps I am just a fag, though.

>>43957888
i got to 7 dice (9 with hot sim bonus), but im also playing party face, so i got skill diffusion going on, so i reckon you might be stronger.

>>43958428
Hush, let the idiot sperg. You'll learn to ignore it soon enough.

>>43959359
Ignoring it helps perpetuate the meme, though. More and more people who just don't know better will feel justified in their uninformed opinion.

>>43957888
Putting points in those skills is mostly a waste.

>>43957509
Technomancers were never put in a positive light, they're at best boogie men that get blamed for anything that goes wrong with the Matrix. (Just like magic-users were fifty years before for anything going wrong in the world, but I disgress.)

As rigger, why would you ever hot sim into a drone or hell... Even your car? Hit summing seems really dangerous. Granted, I am a new player so maybe it isn't bad? I like the idea of a rigger. People tell me drones are flimsy and not worth though. Hell... Are riggers worth it? I also heard there is a rigger variant called a spider? Is it possible to be one of those?

>>43962236
>why would you ever hot sim into a drone or hell
+2 to every roll.

>>43956708
Thought of that, bit of a shit to implement. I could just remove the current code and change it to look for a new update on Github (Would actually be a LOT easier for me to maintain), but I like the current granularity.

>>43962489
You may want to make the code lookup a certain file on github where an url to current up-to-date release branch is stored.

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All right /srg/ I'm playing a bomb maker in 4e and I need info on underwater bombs. Aquaman is taking offence to my murderhoboing and I need to know how I can explode him back into Davy Jones' Locker. Are there special underwater bomb rules I'm missing, or pre-statted depth charges, anything will help.

>>43962724
That'd be the plan, yeah. But since file paths change with each commit, I can't use the current system. It'll pretty much need to be gutted entirely, and I've got better things to be not working on than that at the moment.

>>43962236
Riggers are worth it because drones and vehicles still have a place in a run; you still need a escape vehicle or a tiny spy or a heavy weapon platform. Drones with the best autosofts may get a dice pool around 10 which, if its your escape car, is fairly terrible. Riggers can push the dice pools above 20 and not rely upon a dog brain to make decisions. Yes you can get away with not having one but in the same way you can get away without having a decker, mage or combat character.

A spider is the name for a decker/hacker that defends hosts and locals; basically the counter hacker

>>43945799
>bod 2

You're going to get completely destroyed. Techno/Sam is viable, if you go for a soak build and slap techno on as an afterthought. That said, my troll techno tended to use an assault shotgun and sprite possessed drones. Tackle hacks just weren't efficient at all (except to transfer sprites to places they otherwise couldn't go; read: vehicles).

>>43957888
Technomancers dont really use any of the hacking skills apart from software which they use alot; think of technomancers not as deckers but as mages of the matrix, in 5e at least, they are mechanical identical with different names.

>>43962236
Jumping in is dangerous, yes. But shadowrunning is a dangerous business, omae.

You can be a rigger without a control rig implanted if you want, by using manual controls or a comlink, just like you can hack sticking to AR. Less juice but less risks.

>>43940960
>Even bothering with any other group other than 'Wyld Stallyons.'

I hope this guy loses his job.

>>43963241
Shadowrun is an alternate universe where Bill and Ted never passed their History report.

So is our universe, except there's also no magic here.

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>>43961462
>First big thing magic users do: Erupt multiple volcanoes, killing thousands and threatening more lives unless their terrorist demands are met, which effectively destroys two countries politically

>First big thing technomancers do: Sign on to fight in the wars between AI, aiding and abetting Crash 2.0

Just saying, there's a reason people don't look too kindly at them

>>43963285

Nah, we get magic in 2025 when the Kali Yuga ends.

>>43962236
Spiders are the name for the security specialists that work in the Matrix. These are the guys that your hacker is going up against, as they are responsible for maintaining all the security systems of an installation. They are also in charge of whatever drones might happen to be around for physical security, though depending on the size and complexity of the defenses there might be specific corporate riggers handling them.

So it's not an archetype for players unless you're playing as the corp security, just like how you're called a street samurai and not a cop.

>>43962879
Not sure if I understand what makes you change the path all the time. The file/branch path does not depend on the latest commit hash.

What's the price on a regular replacement biolimb?

>>43964394
Regular (aka. Type-O) biolimb is 40.000 nuyen for a full limb + adaptive therapy.

Cloned, vat-grown biolimb is 80.000 nuyen for a limb.

>>43964430
And only the latter doesn't touch your essence (unless you have a type O system)

>>43963312
Wait, the Kali Yuga ends in 10 years? Isn't that supposed to fuck us up big time? A.k.a. Apocalypse and rebuilding the universe from scratch?

>>43964459
2012 was also supposed to. Lo and behold - Shadowrun got fucked up big time indeed!

>>43955536
Akus a fuckin Yama, bruv

Help me /srg/. In chummer5 I'm trying to find a way to purchase extra powerpoints for my adept, but I cannot find an option to do so. wat do?

>>43966317
Normal Adepts have PP equal to their Magic. Buy up magic to get extra power points.

Mystic Adepts buy PP at chargen for 5 karma each, up to their magic.

>>43966317
Adept? Or MysAd? Cause the former shouldn't be able to buy them, unless by initiating.

>>43966620
>>43966617
I think he's indicating he's having a difficult time mechanically adding them into the sheet itself, not how one acquires them. Or maybe it caps PP at magic, despite one initiation reward you can pick is a bonus PP on top of that?

>>43966735
My point, on the other hand, was that they sound like they may be trying something that's against RAW (and also RAI).

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>>43949983
>dorky nonsense made by superhero-worshipping comic book nerds.


Well, that hit the spot on my frustrations with Western Sci-Fi.

>>43950699

The fuck is that.

The proportions on that gun are completely fucked, actually having a GAU-equivalent on a wing and firing it would totally fuck up its stability.

It seems to have a massive laser cannon at the front as well, and it looks like it's mostly fixed instead of a turret.

Thre rest of the design isn't bad, but the wings are also lopsided and the canopy has very poor visibility - though of course they don't really need a canopy with their tech.

It seems to be a hybrid jet/copter, judging by all the speed lines, but it doesn't seem to have an exhaust anywhere.

>>43967641
>The fuck is that.

A drawing made by someone without even basic knowledge of aircraft design.

>>43967641
>It seems to have a massive laser cannon at the front as well, and it looks like it's mostly fixed instead of a turret.
Couldn't it be some radar thingie? I've seen similar on IRL military planes.

>but it doesn't seem to have an exhaust anywhere
Aren't that the thingies under the wings, connected to the main plane "body"?

>>43967724
>Aren't that the thingies under the wings, connected to the main plane "body"?
That might be the intakes.

>>43967641
See that flame on the other side? Probably the same shit on the other wing, so at least it is symmetric.

But where the hell is the tail rotor? I don't see the exhaust for NOTAR scheme, either

>>43963348
Doesn't really work. In theory I could link the files up to rawgit and do some curl shenanigans to make it look for the next version, but I can't do the binaries that way. I'll figure something out, but it's most likely going to be fetching the most recent release archive and replacing everything inside it.
>>43966317
Adepts automatically get 1PP for every MAG point they have. Mystic Adepts during character creation will have a number box next to their MAG value that allows them to purchase power points for 5 Karma. During Career mode, you'd need to Initiate or make a custom improvement.

>>43968764
what the frag, omae, one of us has definitely glitched a software engineering roll.
>I could just remove the current code and change it to look for a new update on Github (Would actually be a LOT easier for me to maintain), but I like the current granularity.
I scan this as
>I can update from master null sweat

Now, I understand that continuous delivery might be not the thing you want, so instead do this
>on each release have a branch or tag or both created
>have .vs/Chummer/whatever contain branch name of the current release
>have your update code update the contents of ./vs/Chummer/whatever
>have your update code update other stuff from the specified branch each time the contents of the version file change

how can it not work? if you can update stuff from master, you should be able to update from any other branch as well. and there probably is a bunch of stuff to use github as a sane fs, like, I dunno, octokit or something.

>>43969564
More of a glitch on my etiquette test, I think. Doing an update via github is easy. That's not a problem. The technical issue is doing in such a way that I can maintain the current system of users updating individual files AND updating the binary. As is, the only place that the chummer.exe is stored is in the releases archives. Fetching that out would be a pointless waste of time since I could just download the whole release file.

So the github route would be 'Check github.com/chummer5a/chummer5a/releases/latest for version number. If higher than current binary version, download the archive, extract and then do the updatey shit.'
The current method uses a manifest file to tell the client which files have been updated, allowing you to download them singly.

So I have a player who is dual natured but doesn't have any points in assesning. so does this mean that they do still see floating colors and so on when it comes to spirits but they are unable to ID them at all?

>>43970259
>a player who is dual natured
how'd you know? have you assensed him or something? this is an honest question.
if I understand correctly that means that he doesn't see jack shit, but is perfectly visible.

>>43970259
He can see auras, but can't interpret them.

>>43970306
Well I'm the gm and I'm just unsure on what they player will see even if they are dual. At first I wanted to say that they see balls of lights going around all the time but I'm sure as soon I bring that up he thinks WW3 is going to happen on his ass

>>43970351
>>43970306
Ok thanks

>>43969953
well. looks it's well past time I can have a meaningful conversation in English. still don't get what the problem is.

using github instead of manifest doesn't change much, since bandwidth is not ever a problem nowadays. just download the whole package, extract and then do the same stuff with allowing user to choose what files does he want to update.

/srg/, quick!

I need some wacky neighbors for my shadowrunner's apartment building. The game is not very serious and apartment is not in a good neighborhood (Low lifestyle), so whatever you think of will be put in a game with only maybe minor adjustments.

Except bug spirits. They will be put into the game as greasy charred stains on the basement walls (our landlord is ex-shadowrunner martial adept with elemental body(Fire)

>>43970351
"So what about this weird monstrous spirit in the astral that seems to be constantly on fire? Is it a fire spirit?"

"You don't fucking know, loser."

>>43970581

Whatever I think of? Then I totally recycle the worst character I ever thought of that I posted in an earlier thread: a transgender drake who has no useful skills, mooches off of their roommates in exchange for helping with the heat, stays inside (for some reason the apartment masks aura) all the time to avoid great dragons and shitposts on shadowland.

>>43970636

Oh, I forgot: they never leave drake form because that form is female and their metahuman form is male. There you go, there's the complete idea.

>>43970588
Can tell what the spirit looks like on the astral, can't tell things like force, essence, emotional state, etc.
>>43970555
Like I said originally, it's not a PROBLEM problem, it's just something I don't have a lot of spare cycles to throw at fixing. I'll likely wind up doing it that way at some point, I was just sort of hoping there was an easy way for me to retain the current method of doing it. No big loss really.

>>43970588
One of my player summons a fisherman as a spirit, quick what kind of spirit it is ?

>>43970668
Sex reassignment surgery is fucking easy in the 6th World. Also Shadowland is well-moderated and won't tolerate shitposting, you have to actually contribute useful stuff to be there.

>>43970581
The guy from Fifth Element.
http://youtu.be/aY_aOtFAcO4

A drug-addicted loon with a weird accident on regularly tries to mug the PC and fails to the point where it's routine. Have his ambush plans get increasingly weird; disgusting himself as a tree...indoors, poorly dressing up as a mailman, coming to the door and offering "free samples of joy" and other hilariously bad ruses.

>>43970841

Yes but canonically it's still only cosmetic. And having read a number of sourcebooks, the threshold for useful post is still pretty low. You can just post things like "WE ALL KNOW WHO BENEFITS FROM THAT" and normally it's a thread killer but doesn't get called out.

>>43970739
Water or spirit of man. If it isn't one of those, why did you let them make it a fisherman? It doesn't have any strong Guardian connotations or beast. Maybe if like...it always has a fish with it?

>>43970581
Ork grandma throwing adept with specialisation in frying pans.
Dwarf trucker who has been everywhere,. including most ridiculously dangerous places and has photos from there.
Some Infected need to be there, too, but I cannot think of any particularly funny right now.
A huge troll with a very small car (one of these three-wheeled bubble things) who can be seen everyday, wearing a cheap suit, folding himself into the car and driving away.

>>43970878
>Yes but canonically it's still only cosmetic.
What now?

And ok, it depends on the definition of shitposting. As long as you contribute you are allowed a big amount of wankiness.

>>43970581
You'll need a conspiracy theorist with way too many safety concerns. They also don't do ANYTHING bad, suspicious or capable to call in the ire of the powers that be, but should look and act otherwise.

>>43970925
>A huge troll with a very small car (one of these three-wheeled bubble things) who can be seen everyday, wearing a cheap suit, folding himself into the car and driving away.

So Mr. Troll Incredible

>>43970999
>>Yes but canonically it's still only cosmetic.

Not the guy you were responding to. There is cosmetic sex changes and actually getting reproductive organs replaced/added. The latter costs essence.

>>43970889
Could also always be a Task.

Was does shadowrun have such idiotic payouts?

You can make a quarter of million dollars smuggling a van full of cigarettes from Virginia to New York.

Nobody in their right mind is going to pull a heist for a 3000 dollar payout.

>>43971060
Not to mention you start with nearly half a million dollars in gear and training to begin with.

Shadowrun is fucking retarded.

>>43970889
Good job, it's a spirit of man.

>>43971016
>The latter costs essence.
Not if you are trans. It is explicitly said that sex reassignment to be compatible with the actual gender actually "stabilizes the Astral body" or something like that which read to me as transgender people pre-op have an essence hole which gets filled when they change their body to consign with their body image.

>>43971107
Spirit in the form of a classic Aztec Jaguar Warrior. What type is it?

Trying to make a D&D character for a friend's campaign (one of the other players in my upcoming SR group) is making me appreciate Shadowrun's skill system so much more.

>>43971122
That's interesting, I haven't actually read that anywhere, but it makes sense.

>>43971151
Beast man, or something related to blood magic.

>>43971016

>>43971016

Oh, that's better than I thought. DNA still doesn't change though.

>>43971122

Oh shit really? I feel dumb now.

>>43971181
You know the actual Aztec tradition is separate from blood magic? All blood spirits tend to project what they are very clearly. Usually by being made out of it or coated

>>43971151
Guardian or man, probably.

>>43971268
>You know the actual Aztec tradition is separate from blood magic?
No, that's interesting. I was supposing that the Aztec tradition was mostly blood to begin with.

>>43971122
lol, pandering as fuck

>>43949642
Symbol of authority and morality.
Pretty much a giant middle finger to the enemy because you have the resources to make one, and that you are just showing off at that point.

Bonus points if you can get it to throw a enemy tank into a enemy helicopter somehow.

>>43971122
can i get a citation?

>>43971122
The hell are you going on about? It cost 0.3 in 4th for everyone. In 5th it doesn't cost anything.
>A revolution from Universal Omnitech brought us the Zimmerman Method of Biosculpting, a huge advance in the field. While previous approaches in this particular field were based on speedy rebuilds, adding bio-material while stripping away the unnecessary, the Zimmerman Method is a slower, more holistic method that’s garnered rave reviews. The older method’s worst feature was that the patient felt “different” in a way that continued to bother them after the changes. This was due to the insertion of foreign material into the body, eroding the patient’s sense of self. The Zimmerman Method instead uses the subject’s biomatter, and only their biomatter, like clay, molding and reshaping them into the desired appearance. This results in a more satisfying experience fully without the “alien” feeling that haunted so many who came before. Finally, a patient can simply undo a mistake made by nature and be who they were always meant to be while feeling whole and pure.

>>43971060
it does say those are guide lines......

>>43971329
ty yekka. keep being awesome.

>>43971319
I'll have to search. I think it was in the "general operations" part of Chrome Flesh.

>>43971329
Hm, weird. I'm pretty sure there was something somewhere about the results of Assensing people pre- and post-op, with less "disturbances" being there afterwards.

>>43971288
I just happen to have read 2nd ed Aztlan book. The Aztec tradition is not originally blood and is not officially blood, despite the blood offerings from the rank-and-file citizens, BUT.
- back in 2056 there were two different (and secret) initiation groups within Azzie religious circles, both being into blood.
- their pyramid glow like hell in astral, being overflowing with mana.
- their ritual executions have an astrally-visible mana flow between the victim and the priest.
- they are speculated (by Big D himself) to be run by an honest-to-god Horror either directly or indirectly.

tldr
>yup, Azzies were not into blood magic originally
>too bad they are neck-deep in it now

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>>43971268
>Usually by being made out of it or coated
Usually a bit more subtle, but your point still stands: you can clearly tell what it is.
Pic very much related.

>>43971531
I just checked the 5th edition street grimoire and it appears that Aztec mages in Atzlan are pretty much hunted by the Big A (which is more blood than jaguar).

Back to reading Transmetropolitan

>>43971581
>Hating on Bloodmagic
>Pondering towards Trannyfedoraspecialsnowflake fucktards

Ach Shadowrun, why do you sometimes have to suck dick so much?

>>43971660
Yup. As are Christians.
Comes nicely under the "a horror did this" hypothesis.

>>43971671
>Hating on a system of magic that's based around fucked up shit
>Letting a real issue have a solution that makes internal sense in-universe

Ach /tg/, why do you sometimes have to spaz over shit so much?

>>43971671
It's fucking cyberpunk. It wouldn't be cyberpunk if being a trans furry carried drawbacks.

>>43970999
The tl;dr is that the authors are retarded and put in a "sex change" in augmentations that's less medically advanced than what they had in the 50s already seeing how it doesn't even include HRT, and was obviously written as titillating bullshit for horny teens.

The fifth edition one is actually not cosmetic.

>>43971671
>trannies are the real fedoras
Yet you're the one tipping right now.

>>43971776
Because it triggers some fa/tg/entoomen, like girls at the table and elves.

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>>43971776

>>43971351
>>43971060
>>43971089


No, its fucking stupid, and the authors should feel stupid because they are the idiots who somehow arrived at such ridiculous numbers.

>>43971952
why does he have a damn bandaid on his head? DId he try drilling a hole to let the evil spirits out?

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>>43972162
Mauled by cops in the precedent tome

>>43972148
The economy being slightly less retarded would help. Running gear should not be expensive enough to retire at High.

>>43972193
Oh boy, the filthy assistant's boyfriend was more of a dick than Spider was, and that's saying something!

>>43971671
>being nice to transpeople by not making sex change surgery cost count as mutilating your body
>pandering

Oh tempora! Oh mores! Truly, 'tis pandering of the worst kind and will actively subtract from your enjoyment of the game.

Shoo, troll, your kind is not welcome here.

>>43972206
I have no problems with the gear prices, those actually make sense.

The problem is the payouts. Each player should be making 10-50 grand, minimum, per run, or they won't have enough money to improve/expand their gear. You should just assume that 3-6 months pass between each run, and have their lifestyle costs eat up their finances accordingly.

I personally like to end the campaign on a high note with a really big score.

>>43972237
yeah, fucker was having an affair.

>>43972291
In Missions, you have a run EVERY WEEK.

…I consider both too extreme. I'd prefer a run per month.

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>>43972237
I'm literally discovering that shit right now. That comic is more insane than Enki fucking Bilal.

The whole idea of shadowrun is that there are a group of people who make a career out of crime, living a decent middle class lifestyle and employing high tech gear that requires a special set of skills and a certain level of professionalism.

>>43972291
I usually have my players do 2-3 runs a month with payouts from 8k-25k. Enough to make it worth risking your life and buy some cool gear.

I dunno. Most people say shadowrun was based off cyberpunk 2020, which was supposedly a lot more gritty. I think what they were aiming for was more like Black Lagoon, trying to describe the concept of "the devils poor" to bored college kids with too much free time on their hands.

The basic idea is that there are other, easier ways for most middle class families to make money than turning to a life of crime. Most criminals don't actually have much of a choice.

The difference is, when middle and upper class people turn to crime, its usually due to psychological reasons. Kids from broken homes, people who are addicted to drugs, gambling addicts, stuff like that.

>>43970581
>A saucy bisexual Aztlaner elf with a fetish for revolvers

>An aloof Orc Carny/gymnast that MUST BE PRETTY ALL THE TIME OR BAD SHIT WILL HAPPEN

> a novacoked out tabloid journalist obsessing over simsense stars who pays the runners to pick crusty panties out of dumpsters

>>43970841
You can't have that kind of surgery if you're shapeshifting, I imagine. You can't have 'ware or other alterations made without them being rejected when you change form, I imagine going under the knife would just leave a pile of fake genitals behind.

>>43972357
That was never the idea until they tried to make it a game about slick operators who operate around 3e.

>>43972690

It seems like if it's biosculpting with one's own material that wouldn't necessarily be the case.

As the person who proposed the concept that started all this, I propose the revision that either that the character is too poor to afford the surgery, or that the change trapped them in the apartment and they're too scared to go get the surgery because of great dragons.

>>43972691
Yeah, it kinda strips the whole 'punk' aspect out of it if you treat running like a 9-to-5.

I don't hate that kind of running like some people do, but I much prefer to be someone fighting for something.

I can't decide on what to roll. I think the other two in my group will be a gunslinger and a combat adept/side face, but I've no idea what to roll. The DM is brand new to shadowrun

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>>43972734
That does raise an interesting question: when you shapechange, do you change to something based on the genetics, or on a magical idea of what it is? The latter seems more likely, but (IIRC) you turn into exactly the same thing every time, which implies some kind of DNA copy. I know I couldn't hold an exact image of a bird in my head.

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>>43972809
There's the obvious thing: A Decker. If you've got an adept to cover you on the magical front (assuming he can assense, it'll do in a pinch) and your physical violence needs are covered, you still want to be able to handle the Matrix.

Plus, computers are cool.

>>43972827

Well my understanding is that the drake is the true form and the metahuman form is the transformed form. So it makes sense that the metahuman form could be any manner of different from the true form.

>>43972809
Mage/primary face, duh. Or a decker.

>>43972872
I thought you could only turn into a specific new form every time? Shapechange only lets you assume one new shape.

>>43972867
>>43972878
I've never played a decker before. Are they any fun? I've heard a lot of games tend to be boring as a decker.

>>43972669
>who pays the runners to pick crusty panties out of dumpsters
Reminds me of one of my players who was a jazzed-our spec op in body suit, fucking paranoid about bombs in his escape vehicle so he was triple-checking all of them. He made some insane roll on perception in his dealer's vehicle so he found used panties.

He stored them in his body suit.

>>43972907
Generally, the more your GM and you know about it, the more fun and useful it is. If neither of you want to put the extra effort in, it sucks.

>>43972889

That's not what I meant. I just meant there''s no reason to think the metahuman form wouldn't be different in some arbitrary way from the drake form.

>>43972809
>>43972878
You can also always ask your GM what they want. I know that my first SR GM was new to it and didn't want any magic besides maybe sorcery and surely no hacking in her game.

>>43972907
Another case of GM-dependent. But then again, I also have never played one. The newer versions of SR make for a more integrated play.

>>43972907
It does depend a lot on the GM. It's totally possible to run it fast and easy though. Just make sure decking isn't the only thing you do, grab a gun too or something.

>>43972907
It's better in 5e. Make sure you get the rules summary from OP, read the Matrix chapter thoroughly, and think about the kind of cool stuff you could do when computers are everywhere and in everything and you can control computers.

The maxim that deckers are underpowered unless you understand the rules and mages are overpowered unless you understand the rules is true.

>>43972955
>didn't want any magic besides maybe sorcery and surely no hacking in her game.

So she didn't want to play Shadowrun is what I'm hearing. She wanted to play "Criminals with bad fashion sense and occasionally imaginary friends."

>>43972957
>>43972955
Alright. I'll definitely put in the extra effort. Dunno about her.

>>43972993
Isn't that just CP2020?

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>>43973021
Not without hacking it's not. Without hacking it's nothing.

>>43972993
The stuff was there all right, and was important. She was just new to it and didn't trust herself enough to GM that stuff.
Especially since it was 3rd ed.

Most of that stuff was handwaved or (in case of decking) delegated to a 3rd party.

>>43973051
Eh, it's an easy thing to not want to deal with. I had to turn hacking into spellcasting before I felt comfortable making it a major part of the runs I planned out for my group.

>>43973094
>>43973143
I just wouldn't feel right without the cyber- part of cyberpunk front and centre. It's intimidating, but I feel like it's critical to what makes it different from just playing modern-day criminals.

>>43973143
I'm fucking lucky, I haven't had to deal with the three part of the gameplay at once on my first runs as DM.

has anyone experimented with making recovery from stun damage shorter? Or at least recovering from unconsciousness? My players are upset that if they get KOed they're out for at least an hour, but getting rid of unconsciousness altogether doesn't make sense. flat recovery of of [body] hits/minute could work, but it reduces the effect of drain on casters, as well as time spent resting

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So as a mage I am not allowed to cast at targets through a video screen like cctv or super vision enhanced/magnified goggles.
I read optical binoculars and mage sight goggles (at like a -4 modifier) were okay though.
So my question is this, what is the limit for being able to cast through glasses? I think things like vision enhancement/magnification is too much, but what about image link, or is the fanciest pair of glasses that I can cast through would be a pair of sunglasses.

>>43975649
If your eyes are Cybereyes, you can cast through them. I allow Vision Magnification and enhancement to work with spellcasting when surgically installed but thats my own interpretation.

>>43975649
You have to see physical light from the target (seeing their aura or something), which is why mirrors, telescopes, or fiber optics are OK, but technological images, like digitally zooming in on them, or images from a TV don't count.

Unless it's from your cyber eyes, because those are within your aura or something.

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I may or may not want to play as a ghoul because of the cool physical powers and longevity but I'm aware that the thing is mighty contagious and could prove to be a problem in a group
So i have some questions about ghouls and ghoul characters in general

>Do ghouls lose essence or can they practice magic just as they did before becoming infected?
>Do infected bodies have any kind of bad reaction towards chrome implants? (Besides eye implants, which i know are common among ghouls)
>How should I approach eating habits? Do I just eat off corpses in runs or can I just pay a guy with a hotdog stand for raw sausages? What about things like bread, or rice? Do vegetables count as "uncooked food"?
>How do I avoid my team from becoming infected, and my presence becoming a nuisance?
>Are there any special things i should take in account when playing a ghoul character or can I just ask as if i were a nosferatu from VtM or something?
>How do you, as a GM, handle a ghoul character in a party?

I REALLY wanna avoid just showing up with a ghoul character and automatically becoming That Ghoul

I could also make myself a rigger that can hide wherever and command something from afar to avoid contagious spreads, or a Decker that can operate from a distance in a base or operation room of sorts but I don't think participating in runs indirectly is safe or fun

>>43976083
>yes, i think?
>yes, quick regeneration will do that
>needs to be human meet. Big D offered a reward to create a alternative that would work for ghouls. Cows dont cut it.
>chemically sealed suit? expensive, but it works.
>i guess? yea, everyone will basically want to kill you if they find out and youre hideous. so yea, nosferatu.
>idk.

How did the Christians react to magic and metahumanity?

>>43976083
A long-distance ghoul decker would be really cool actually, though you might want to have that chem suit just in case.

>>43976491
Very poorly at first. Then they warmed up to it.

>>43976083
>>Do ghouls lose essence or can they practice magic just as they did before becoming infected?
Getting infected means losing essence. Read the disease entries.

>>Do infected bodies have any kind of bad reaction towards chrome implants? (Besides eye implants, which i know are common among ghouls)
You have a chance of rejecting implants installed prior to infection, but that just means you need anti-rejection drugs. Regeneration, if you buy it, will push out whatever non-delta implants you have.

>>How should I approach eating habits? Do I just eat off corpses in runs or can I just pay a guy with a hotdog stand for raw sausages? What about things like bread, or rice? Do vegetables count as "uncooked food"?
Most infected have specific eating habits you should abide by, unless you want to be nauseous.

>>How do I avoid my team from becoming infected, and my presence becoming a nuisance?
Don't get your bodily fluids on them is the best protection. It's easier for HMHVV I & II infected to avoid infecting the team.

>>Are there any special things i should take in account when playing a ghoul character or can I just ask as if i were a nosferatu from VtM or something?
You're blind, unless you take cybereyes, and your skin is rough and greyish unless you take cosmetic 'ware options to change that.

>>How do you, as a GM, handle a ghoul character in a party?

Do TMs always see AR? Can they hack without being conked out and in hotsim?

>>43976491
At first metahumans and magic was the works of the devil.
Then pope john 25 came in like in 2026 and wrote "In Imago Dei" which basically said metahumans possess souls and could be subject to salvation and discrimination against them is not christian.
Magic is but an extension of the nature of man and is not inherently evil. however, man has free will and can perform good as well as evil.
Spirits are from nature. but the nature of conjuring and some of the spirits are kinda weird due to how it conflicts with doctrine, so you can only do it as a cleric with written permission from the Catholic mages at the Order of St. Sylvester.

oh and they have the Christian theurgy tradition which resists drain by WIL+CHA.
other Faiths may vary.

>>43976987
They can blink AR on and off at will. And yes, they can do things in AR without needing to go hot-sim. Jolly good luck!

>>43977226
Fun. Thanks, anon!

>>43976521
Can they interact with the AR even though they're blind? I mean, it kind of makes sense, but it's also weird.

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So I'd just like to run my ideas by /srg/. I've been tinkering with a 4e Matrix rewrite that upends what I see as its primary shortfalls: action economy, Karma/nuyen discrepancies, Agent viability, and Technomancers

Here's the TLDR of major changes I've drafted out so far: http://pastebin.com/xeeV1AWV

Everything in this rewrite branches out from the concept of making hacking a Karma-dependent profession. The biggest thing: specific hacking actions are now packaged like spells, so hackers can just use a hack straightaway after spotting a target without jumping through the hoops of node access and such. They have immediate effects in cyber- and meat-space without slowing the team down. Learning how to hack requires purchasing/learning hacks with Karma.

So uh, rate, hate, masturbate?

>>43978069
You clearly haven't playtested this.

A) making drain for actions and backporting 5e is fucking stupid
B) you can't actually hack a system if you're fighting your HP bar as a battery timer.
Keep in mind that drain = actually deadly and also it racks up penalties like any other condition monitor does.

Better idea:
http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=31786&st=0
as actual martial art styles

give technos actual adept-like powers. A lot of echoes are shitty rebranded ones, or actions any old User can take - learning those should come easily.
maneuver system , done

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Just finished the Dragonfall. I liked the DMS and finished it in one sitting when it first came out and then I always delayed getting the Dragonfall until this week and....man...god damn it. This was so beautiful I can't even believe how much I got invested in the story and the characters. The twists, the open ended stories... It was fucking perfect.

Please tell me Hong Kong is same quality. I have it in my library waiting for tomorrow. Today I need to digest the end of the Dragonfall.

>>43978358
Sidekicks and combat system are better, but the story itself is worse.

Adrian Vauclair > everything else.

>>43977858
A ghoul would need either DNI or some especially adapted device for the blind to go AR, but they can do it.

>>43978358
It's p. good. Just make sure to go for the ranged path with your horrible mechanical death machine.

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>>43978176
Of course I haven't playtested it, I don't have the numbers in. This is just the top-down. Apart from Attribute hacking, unifying Matrix actions and limiting Agents... Those aren't even the bad parts of 5e matrix, so I don't see what the deal is, you grog.

The "timer" is exactly what's being reduced. The spell format is meant to turn hacking into more of a 1:1 deal, like Spoof on steroids, bypassing all the hoops of node navigation, gaining access, and all that. So you get dinged a little for a much better risk/reward scale; drain values can be adjusted in formal playtesting.

Coding Styles are intended for all Matrix actions, not just combat.

We're agreed on the TM bit; I have some crazy shit penciled in in the full version of this and am still populating the list. (Empathic damage? Spiderclimb? Yes please.)

New GM question, 5e.

So, are spirits super overpowered or what? Like, a materialized, force 1 spirit of man can take out an etire party of mundanes because they only have "normal weapons" and materialized spirits are immune to "normal weapons?"

>>43980537
Why don't you read what Immunity to Normal Weapons does before overreacting?

>>43980537
The word immunity is a misnomer. Spirits gets Hardened Armor of rating twice their Force against non-magic attacks, but they're still affected.

>>43970581
Two guys, two different rooms just down the hall from you.

One is a contact, he knows a guy for practically everything, all with vaguely eastern European sounding names. He's pretty friendly with you, you suspect he deals in drugs or sims because you've never seen him work an honest day. Always coming up with new schemes, like importing aztecs refugees to make authentic Aztec blood cigars (or whatever, I barely know the lore, but I'm learning). Always bursts into whatever room he enters.

The other guy isn't as friendly. He's some sort of low rent entertainer, but he's never made you laugh. Always greets you with a sneer and the name you told him. He's fairly on the up and up, and also obsessive about hygiene. You've seen beautiful women angrily leave his apartment yelling about tooth brushes.

He has two friends who routinely visit, but you don't know much about them yet.