/srg/ - Shadowrun General

>>44285919
There is literally nothing in the rules that prevents Top Gun fantasies, shitty or otherwise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHNJPsCDSqo
Has anything like this happened on a Run?

File: Nofun_robot.jpg (59KB, 448x473px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 448x473px

>>44286033
I was about to say that guy was a NFA buzzkill.

>>44286033
You mean beyond the unattainable costs and the impossibility to simply fly aroubd in a 24+F item that will make all alarms go off the moment it hit a radar screen?

Seriously, kill yourself!

>>44286068
Better "NFA" than a terminal autist. No, you cannot get one. Building your character around that concept is stupid. Stop wasting your and other people's time.

File: Revy is pleased.jpg (55KB, 1274x702px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 1274x702px

>>44286142
Who is the bigger autist, the one who is going to play a concept with their friends with similar interests, or the person who thinks their way is the only way to play?

>>44286142
Wow, this is advanced autism.

>>44286142
You can get sponsorship from a corp looking for prospective pilots. After all, a good deltaware cyberlimb can cost almost as much and have an even higher availability.

>Stop wasting your and other people's time
You might save that comment for a place that isn't a tabletop game general.

>>44286179
>>44286220
>M...muh homebrew...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go play with your "friends" and fuck off.

>>44286237
>"friends"
Wew lad

>>44286237
No one even mentioned homebrew.

File: 2000px-Biohazard.svg.png (152KB, 2000x1750px) Image search: [Google]

152KB, 2000x1750px

>>44286237
Someone is edgy. You should have a sharps warning on your shirt to prevent transmitting your disease.

>>44286259
>wew lad

Wew lad

>>44286270
Oh, you can get multiple million nuyens easily?

>>44286290
>I'll insult him, that'll totally tell him...

>>44286235
Not him, but deltaware is cheap compared to a jet fighter in SR, especially if you must maintain said fighter. (the 5% base costs/box of damage will rack up quickly, where maintenance of limbs is handwaved into lifestyle costs)

>>44286379
>Not him
First post of a samefag.

There's ways to hand-wave things. At their table.

>>44286378
No, that was advice, not an insult.

>>44286379
A little grand theft aero and a near autismal paranoia for tracking tags and problem solved.

Wait, you do make runs for your teammates, right?

>>44286450
It's not worth talking to him or trying to make him see reason. He's the Ayatollah of Shadowrun calling his Fatwas.

Lowfyr Ackbar!

So how is the forum roleplay on Dumpshock?

>>44286425
>>44286497

Fuck off with your "advice" and autism, faggot. Come back when you've read the books and understood the basic concept of Shadowrun.

>>44286450
Stealing the aicraft might be the easiest part in the long run. Managing to fly around while pretending being a legitimate military aircraft will be a lot more trouble.

>>44285973
With Rigger 5.0 out and the TM book in the works, I feel we have enough crunch and should start focusing on background and inspiration. I second the idea of a Street Level book, with infos on gangs, street docs, black market, and how the SINless manage to survive. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I'd love to see a small e-book about the darker corners of the Sixth World: Cybermancy, Toxic Mages, Human Traficing, Bunraku, and plenty of other things that should make the PCs shiver. I seem to recall there was such a book full of creepy stories in the earlier editions.

>>44286566
You are 100% correct, and I imagine that's the fun he intends to have.

Suppressing your autism is not that hard, isn't it?

>>44286497
>Lowfyr Ackbar!
Actually, it'd be quite funny to have Lofwyr showing the futility of trying to perform another 9/11 against Saeder-Krupp.

He does this by straight up eating the plane and its passengers. (He's really sending all the people who aren't terrorists to a metaplane, the terrorists are delicious, but the plane gives him a bit of gas.)

>>44286594
Cybermancy PDF is not confirmed, but Wak wants to write one REAL bad and he's trying to get the go-ahead.

File: 1421744211999.jpg (272KB, 667x1000px) Image search: [Google]

272KB, 667x1000px

>>44286555
I have.
I've played since Second Edition. I think I'm grown enough to start doing things on my own without Catalyst holding my hand.

Who is appealing to authority now, btw?
>wew lad

>>44286617
yo, you like my idea>>44286611?

File: 8fbef7730e86f8622252b2917c1f84b8.jpg (448KB, 1200x639px) Image search: [Google]

448KB, 1200x639px

>>44286611
But what would he wash that down with? I hear Jet Fuel, while not melting steel beams is quite spicy.

Also Freedom Dragons are Freedom.

File: Abort!.gif (37KB, 206x205px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 206x205px

>>44286608
Oh god, it's getting worse.

>>44286617
Yeah, great, you're so cool. Go make your shitty homebrew and fuck off.

>>44286649
The best part is that he believes everyone not agreeing with his retardation is a samefag.

>>44286608
Yeah, but what dragons are for freedom?

Hoarders and covetous worms always out to grab more; the lot of them.

>>44286700
Not all dragons are hoarders... Dunkelzahn (God rest that WizWyrm) was one of them.

>>44284472
Shapeshifters aren't supported, because some asshole decided that it was a good idea to make players pay for the costs of their human form's stats separately after character creation, apparently including the mental stats. The only real way I could support this is by doubling the karma cost; I'm not really interested in building in an entire other stats form for the shifters.
>>44282050
I use Foxit PhantomPDF. Does what I need it to.
>>44286615
Ehhhh. Is there really enough content that's relevant to players for that to be useful as a book?

>>44286725
Dunkelzahn was a whiz wizworm, omae, no doubt about it, but he was still sitting on one hell of a lot of riches and gathering more.

It's... genetic (by a lack of a better term) for them.

>>44286757
It's a very short PDF, from what I hear.

>>44286770
At least he wasn't a dick about it, and when he croaked off he did something odd for a Dragon... he left a will.

You think he might have knew his time was about up?

>>44286725
>Drinking the Dunkelzahn coolaid
Hey buddy want to try my vaccine? I promise there's no mind-control involved!

>>44286796
No idea, but I suppose seeing a dragon running for president of a nation might have left a sour taste both with anti-dragon groups and some other dragons. Very gutsy move that made him a lot of enemies.

>>44286757
Can you make a cyberzombie in chummer?

>>44286864
There's a couple of items that need to be generated but the code's still in there from 4th, so it should work.

>>44286555
Wasn't the original post about an Ace Combat game that's a lot like Shadowrun without magic?

You can defect to a number of different players in the conflict, pissing off your old employer. You see corporations bicker with one another using their sponsored news networks to throw shit at the opposition and armed hit squads when that is not enough. You exchange video mail in some magical matrix that nobody comprehends. You have a decker hijack a plane for you to jump into and destroy rival drones in one of the missions. You "deal" with a CFD outbreak at one time. You work and/or fight with a rogue AI. One of your friends or enemies is a secret corporate experiment.

Just refluff one character as a dragon and you have an official 5e campaign for airborne riggers.

>>44285973
A port of Jarheads and Cyberzombies from 4e Augmentation would be nice, maybe combined with extreme body modification/body horror. (basically, the same but with bioware instead of cyberware.)

Asked in a previous thread with no responses. How do you guys plan out campaigns? I don't know for sure what my players will be yet, except for the Street Sam who's already confirmed themselves as being present, so I'm planning for a general group. But I'm also a first time GM who's never made a campaign before.

>tfw i really want to try shadowrun
>tfw i don't know anyone irl that plays shadowrun
>tfw doomed to the (fun) visual novels on steam

Is there a copy of Rigger 5 going around without the stupid fan-wank cover? Why someone thought that was a good idea is beyond me.

>>44285973
A street level book would be great. As would another supplement on cyberware.

Personally, though, what I'd like is another book ala War!

>>44286995
>War!

Be careful mentioning that here... people HATED that book. I didn't but many did.

>>44286962
I forsee a very loose guiding thread, and start my runners off with unrelated runs where they can get more gear/some XP and (hopefully) some clues that don't make sense yet about something big in the making. (For instance, the Yaks trying to take over the city with the help of Renraku and ousting everyone else out).

Then, when they start to make sense of what is happening, the buildup toward the finale starts, where the runners deal with the situation.

>>44287019
What did everyone hate about it?

I'll admit, I'm only really interested in the military-grade vehicles.

>>44287025
Makes sense, I suppose. Thanks.

>>44287092
Long story short, it was a horribly unbalanced mess.

File: 137137855648.png (455KB, 1000x1600px) Image search: [Google]

455KB, 1000x1600px

>>44287124
For instance the YNT Softweave of WAR!

Cut encumberance by half, Could pretty much make myself Master Chief without penalty and a STR of 3. Pretty much made a riggersuit that was self-contained, tougher than a troll in light milspec, and followed the concept of a well padded motorcycle suit.

And could crash and not feel a thing inside my rigger cocoon... because fucking armor.

File: tgdivegrass.png (59KB, 250x272px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 250x272px

Hey /srg/
I'm helping out Marqod and Nearly Enough Dakka for the testing and preparations for this years 4chan winter divegrass competition which is happening soon™!
Since I browse /srg/ they asked me if I could ask you guys if we want our rep on the team replaced.
Currently, our rep on /tg/s divegrass team is Rigger, a sort of joke on how everybody says the games are rigged, however it's not a super iconic role for SR or a /tg/ character like Los Tiburon, so we figured we ought to ask you guys for some input.
Personally I've thought up a few possible contenders for the slot, which are
>Johnny Spinrad
>America-san
>Dunkelzahn/Lofwyr
>Or just keeping Rigger
What suggestions do you guys have?
Once I have enough I'll throw up a strawpoll and we can decide.

>>44287206
That's true.

And to be honest, I think the approach may have been the larger problem. Most of the equipment provided was designed to be "superior" to anything else available -- but why would a corp not provide military gear to its top-tier security personnel when the corps are the ones with armies these days?

Rather than focusing on "better in every way gear", the focus should have been more on cheap but effective "grunt equipment" -- security forces at a corp's base should have better equipment than your average grunt (even if that equipment requires more maintenance), not worse, while that grunt should have equipment that's fairly cheap but built to last a lot longer. Special forces are different, but aren't much different from CorpSec hot teams in concept anyway.

Now, vehicle-wise, I think War! had the correct approach. But that's just me.

>>44286977
>SRR games
>VNs
nigger what
They're isometric RPGs

>>44286962
I start of with a bunch of small runs to gradualy introduce new concepts ( physical/matrix/magic security, places, power brokers, etc) and try to keep the objectives varied. Then I look at each run and try to estimate what the involved parties will walk away with. More than the obvious nuyen and karma, the PCs might get access to gear, contacts, knowledge or reputation, and the Johnson will usually win something as well.

I then draft a couple of scripts for future runs, using a system of IF-THEN triggers.

Exemple: The team is hired by the Yakuza to gather intel on a rival operation.
If they get spotted, the rivals know that the Yaks are alerted, and will precipitate their plans, starting an invasion of Yakuza territory where the player might get hired as hitmen/bodyguards.
If the players complete the mission with no issues, the Yakuza may hire them to delay/stop the rival op, violently reprimanding this lack of respect from their rival while still maintaining a good public face.
If the team handles the job flawlessly, gathering enough intel to allow the Yaks to strike back and gain more ground, word of it might go up the ladder and a job offer from MTC might pop up in the future.

This way, the job difficulty automaticaly scales with the proficiency of the team, and the players feel their actions have an impact on their environment.

File: 10897052_842877692429963_9165945140555023871_n.jpg (89KB, 640x800px) Image search: [Google]

89KB, 640x800px

>>44287467
Well WAR! was supposed to be a book for Prime Runners I think. High level, high stakes, high casualty games where players will be expected to be the fulcrum upon which history pivoted.

Pretty much, WAR! was the epic level handbook of SR4/20A.

But, that book became the best way to make your character invincible in lower-level play.

File: 2015-12-21 10_27_15-Weeaboo Cover.psd @ 200% (Layer 4, RGB_8) _.jpg (237KB, 1001x1279px) Image search: [Google]

237KB, 1001x1279px

>>44286985
Better?

My GM said we don't have to buy separate alchemy and regular spells. Is alchemy worth while?

Is the conjuring skill group worth taking at chargen at rank 5, as opposed to taking summoning 6 and buying binding up later with karma when the nuyen starts flowing? I'm just not sold on the value of banishing.

>>44287707
Yes you have to and no it's not.

>>44285973
How about a book that makes alchemy viable.

File: Cockpit.png (2MB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1280x720px

>>44287705
This is how I Rigger 5...

>>44287397
Why get rid of Rigger? He does his job well. Although if you must, Dunkelzahn is the best bet. We could always use an all-american Dragon on the team.

>>44287707
Not by default, no. The effective Force of your spells will be reduced by both time and the creation process, so instead of casting a force whatever spell and dealing with a bit of drain, you're casting a force whatever minus everything. Ask your GM if you can prevent your materials from decaying while inside your lodge or in a special container and it's okayish.

>>44287725
Binding is too good to not have it for the early game.

>>44286378
Biggest faggot I've seen on /tg/ in a while
Congrats, senpai

>>44285973
>pitch ideas for books
A collection of war zones, where you might put a mercenary group to their paces, or have your mercenary PC just out of. Different flavors for each conflict, different enemies. If it needs stats, give it old terrorist guns like 4e Gun Heaven 1, maybe some examples of vehicles certain factions fly-- Nothing overly powerful, just flavor options with a good nuyen cost.

>>44288063
Doesn't 10 Mercs do that to an extent?

>>44288165
Mentions in passing, really. It's not like it's meant for players to be using that fluff to write their backstories, or GMs to make their campaigns.

>>44287810
I'm just tossing out ideas and seeing if people want someone different, that's all.
From the lack of responses it seems most people are either cool with rigger, or not really interested though.

>>44287397
America-san or the Big D would likely be best. Maybe "Your technomancer a shit"

>>44286378
>Oh, you can get multiple million nuyens easily?
We're talking about a game where you can conceivably play a character that has "Friends In High Places" contacts with all known great dragons. Yes, it's possible to acquire a single vehicle, even if you don't have the nuyen to purchase it outright.

>>44287397
America-San, alternatively a tetraplegic rigger.

By the way, Rigger 5.0 updated. Bookmarks are in.

>>44285973
>Pitch ideas to Little Mac for possible e-books.
An 2075 update of Shadows of Europe ?

>>44287978
Is it worth getting in the skill group up to rank 5 along with summoning and banishing, or would it be better to grab summoning and binding separately up to 6 with no banishing?

>>44288443
Personally I don't buy up banishing at pcgen unless I know that the GM will being using Mages with summoned spirits. 2 ranks and you should be fine post gen and then buy up after. Max out summoning and binding if thats your thing otherwise go for counter and spellcasting.

>>44288392
In unrelated news, I need art suitable for the cover, otherwise I'm just going to use Celty.

How would I go about finding a group to join to play shadowrun 5e? I want to play online.. I thought /tg/ use to have like a looking for members kind of thread?

>>44288443
I don't know much about magic, so the only advantage I see here aside from having one of the skills a rank higher is being able to take specialization in one of the spirit types.

>>44288700
I'm in the same boat, omae
Every online game on roll20 has been a bust for the past few months

>>44288700
There is a game finder thread >>44280890, but I don't see Shadowrun often there, and pretty sure it wasn't even 5e when I last saw it mentioned.

>>44287740
I meant as a houserule.

>>44288700
>>44288722
After the holidays I'll try to GM a bit over roll20, but I'm still worried about english not being my first language.

>>44288912
As long as you're intelligible and operate during US evening time I literally couldn't care where you're from.

>>44287534
Maybe that's the problem -- it might have been better if it had focused on being a military supplement without being "this is where top-tier prime runners get their stuff."

File: 1343600820769.png (758KB, 2124x2533px) Image search: [Google]

758KB, 2124x2533px

>>44288666

File: 2015-12-21 11_37_15-Weeabii Cover.psd @ 200% (Layer 3, RGB_8) _.jpg (334KB, 2560x1400px) Image search: [Google]

334KB, 2560x1400px

>>44289012
I'm leaning towards this, but it's more entertaining infuriating people with the animu art.

File: static.jpg (54KB, 437x246px) Image search: [Google]

54KB, 437x246px

So, I am building an ex-Knight Errant HTR member with a Monofilament Whip who got drummed out of the service after taking a Ghoul bite on a mission. I like the idea of slicing chunks off of security forces and taking them for snacks later.

Three questions: number one, taking the Ghoul infection means that I'm going to be down one point of Essence. If I take an awakened character, I'll also be down one point of magic. In the long run, will those penalties hurt me more if I play a physadept or a street sam?

Number Two: I'm assuming that I can't take Cyber Eyes, as Ghoul blindness is a thing. Is there any way to get a smartgun system for someone who astrally perceives?

Number Three: Run Faster is pretty vague about the specifics of anti-HMVV sentiment. Is there anywhere that specifically talks about how people react? Is it still viable for me to have contacts with Ares, or am I on their hit list? Does it even make sense for them to have fired me because now I eat people?

>>44289068
lol, I know. Fuck 'em. let them replace the page with whatever they feel like if it bothers them so much.

>>44289113
>Is there anywhere that specifically talks about how people react?
In UCAS there is an open bounty on infected people, dead or alive.

File: surge3_rigger_walker.png (558KB, 690x1000px) Image search: [Google]

558KB, 690x1000px

>>44289068
Definitely needs anime.

>>44289113
I don't know about the whole slicing chunks off bit. Excessive murder would probably get you an awful lot of attention, especially if you're doing it with a monofilament whip. But if that's how your group plays, that's fine I guess.
Adepts can afford to lose a little magic, I think. You can get the magic back with initiation, remember.
I don't think so but I'm not hugely familiar with Astral Perception or ghouls in general.
I believe the UCAS has bounties on the infected. Could be wrong though. And ghouls are GENERALLY seen as being a lesser evil, when compared to vampires and such, because ghouls can theoretically just live on legally-purchased flesh and don't eat the souls of the living or so on.

Eyeware with image link or perception boosts or smartlink won't prevent me from casting right? Only stuff like magnification or thermal does that?

>>44289113
>Is there any way to get a smartgun system for someone who astrally perceives?

Add pilot upgrade/weapon personality/camera upgrades and your gun can kill people for you.

>>44289248
Things paid for with essence "count" as natural for spellcasting
Imagelink is just like wearing image link or smartlink glasses, it's just an overlay on a "natural" image so it's fine.

>>44289301
>equip gun with weapon personality, weapon camera, gyro mount, and anti-tamper shock system
>no matter what happens to you your devoted raifu will keep firing until the end

>>44289340
Can't you let a spirit possess it if you want a real weapon waifu?

Fuck man.. I think I am just going to man up and GM my own shadowrun 5e game. The problem? I feel like I don't know EVERYTHING about the setting, mechanics of the system etc.. How can a GM learn all this shit? I want everything to make sense BUT be general.

Any gming tips? I think I am going to seriously get into shadowrun GMing

>>44288715
The reason I was debating this, was because I am deciding between sneak 6(urban) and conjuring group 5, or stealth group 5 and summoning 6(man). I have a charisma of 2 (int tradition) so binding will be less effective, but I plan on getting it somehow anyways, if I didn't go the skill group route.

My mage has the other normal skills of spellcasting(manipulation) and counterspelling, along with unarmed combat, con, assensing, and perception. I was trying to make a utility mage that could use the shapechange spell (body 3-7 range for critter choice) and unarmed combat to back up the adept as it seemed like it could be fun and effective. (a dog with masking could make a good scout too it seems)

Would palming and disguise be worth it, or would the group points be better in conjuring? My idea was to use palming with magic fingers for ranged thievery, and disguise would find a role somehow as it would have a pool of 11. But I am not sure how good of an idea this is.

File: Noro_in_the_manga.png (194KB, 959x880px) Image search: [Google]

194KB, 959x880px

>>44289230

Well, the murder would not be excessive. The idea is that, first and foremost, he's an ex-KE operative making his way in the shadows as a mercenary for people who don't mind the HMVV infection. As long as he is getting into fights anyway, it doesn't hurt to snag some of the limbs that are getting dismembered.

He was good with the MF whip before he started eating people, it just happens to synergize nicely with his current condition.

>>44289363
That's just a slut taking the form of my gun
A weapon personality /is/ my gun

>>44289389
Well, I mean, most people, when they think of non-lethal combat generally tend to think gel rounds and stick and shock. Not dismembering with a monofilament whip. But like I said, it's down to the group's play style. If your group doesn't use tasers first and lethal alternatives second, then that won't be a problem. If your group is a little more Black Trenchcoat in that regard, then it might be.

>>44289363
I don't think items that complex work as vessels.

>>44289166
>>44289230
I thought they got rid of that. There's like the little hornet deck or something like that that's made by the infected in Chicago, and I thought there was something else.

>>44289012
God, I saw someone's shirt today that'd make perfect art of Two-Dee. Wish I'd gotten a picture or something.

>>44289113
I'm pretty sure you can get cybereyes. It's reduced sense (blind), not blindness. That sounds like needless semantics, but reduced senses are fixable. I think there's another thing in chrome flesh about a surgical procedure that fixes eyesight problems too.
And you can probably still have a contact in ares. I'd say maybe a point of loyalty in damage due to it.

>>44289389
>people who don't mind the HMVV infection
>file not found

any tips for gming shadowrun.. I feel like there is so much I don't know. Even just the matrix itself is a fucking mystery to me mechanics wise. Granted, I am new too but we all have to start somewhere right?

>>44289803
Run core-only
Mind your modifiers
Don't be afraid to run modules

>>44289771
What is: Ghoul Liberation League?
Yeah it's still a shitty life, but it's not like you're completely alone in it.

>>44289896

Could you elaborate? Also, what is the core? is the primary book considered the "entire" core? Or is the core like the primary book+books like rigger 5.0?

>>44289932
"Core" as in Core Rulebook, Omae.
Get a nice PDF file printed out with all of the modifiers to help you keep track, it really helps for me.

>>44289926
Your average runner is less afraid and more profit motivated than anyone else your ghoul is likely to encounter.

>>44289932
Core is just the main, core rulebook. Run and Gun, Run Faster, Street Grimoire, Rigger 5, and the like, those are "core supplements", things that are accepted in many games-- but they're not required, and they tend to punish GMs who don't know where the less-balanced mechanics are, so I say leave them be until later, add them as you get comfortable. Books like Assassin's Primer or Hard Targets are non-core supplements and always optional.

Well, I don't want to screw riggers over though by not including rigger 5.0 considering... rigging in just the core is apparently crappy?

Are there a bunch of Overpowered options in run faster, street grim and run and gun?

>>44290063
Run & Gun, no, I wouldn't say so.
Street Grimoire... it's magic, omae. There's always overpowered options.

Run Faster is where things go to hell.

>>44290116

SO I should include run and gun, street grim and rigger 5.0?

>>44290063
Don't worry about screwing people over. The core book's just fine to get you running, there's no requirement to run with the supplements. It's better to have a trimmed-down game and a GM who can keep track of everything than it is to have a ton of options and a GM that couldn't possibly remember them.

>>44290168
Run Faster is useful. Very useful, even. You just have to control what you add. RF is practically a requirement if only for the existence of Sum to 10.

Don't add HMHVV and don't add SURGE. I don't even remember if Shifters are in RF, but if they are, don't add them.

>>44290309

would it be better to leave it out until I get better or should I as a new gm still include it? Also, what is sum to 10? I gues I have to read more rules.

>>44290441
Sum to 10 is a modified priority system. Instead of straight ABCDE, each is assigned a number. A=4, B=3, so on and so forth. Select a priority system that adds up to 10. It makes metahuman (especially ork and troll) characters significantly more viable, and IMO is better all around.

I'm a fellow new GM about to run a campaign, and I'm personally letting all the books in. But I've been trying to get in as a player for over a year now and I know most of the books offhand. If you're not comfortable with it, leave out RF. The main bonuses it offers are advanced lifestyles (which STILL kill Chummer, I think, Yekka) and the new qualities. The new qualities can be cheesed a bit, but if you're paying attention when going over character sheets, they're easy to catch. (It's stuff like Fame + Day Job + Electronic Witness from Data Trails, which nets you completely free tens or hundreds of thousands of nuyen every month)

File: noro2.jpg (42KB, 630x358px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 630x358px

>>44289453

A wise Australian once said: "at the end of the day, as long as there are two people left on the planet, someone is going to want someone dead". This is a character for a group that doesn't mind wetwork assignments.

>>44289771

"Experienced close quarters specialist, specializing in black ops, high threat response, and small unit tactics. Magical sensory and anti-spirit support provided, reasonable rates"

People with worse resumes get runs, omae.

>>44290508

ah I see. Do you have any other tips? How do you not get overwhelmed with the SHEER amount of mechanics? For example, some shit like "YOU ARE TRYING TO SNIPE A DWARF FROM 10 MILES AWAY AND ITS RAINING OUT! What are the modifiers!?"

I am just kind of fearful of situations like that where its super specific and mechanical and I don't know whats going on? The matrix feels like this to me largely.

>>44290309

Ghoul runner here. You say don't add HMVV, but is the Ghoul one of the problem cases for it? Should I not be doing this for the health of the game?

>>44290508
For the sake of acknowledging differing voices, I think sum-to-ten gives all the balance issues of Karmagen without the overall lower power level, and overall it's just the most grossly unbalanced of all the included chargen systems. I'm not rabid about it, though.

>>44290715

thank you for this information.. I think I will just keep it basic as a new gm. Probably just going to use 5e core and rigger 5.0

what is it about regular priority that apparently fucks over orks and trolls?

>>44290669
As someone who GM's for his group of complete newbie friends:

I fuck stuff up all of the time. I forget modifiers or their values. Or I forget how mechanics work exactly. Luckily we are a Matrix-light game with no deckers, so its easier. You just have to keep working at it and taking it to heart.

>>44290677
Infected might be bad for new GMs. Infected players often skew the game into "how can we cope with this one player who has a character with major downsides. Or they roll a vampire and you have to shoot them and burn the body.

>>44290762
You need to pay for the ability to be anything other than human (and you get special attribute points for Edge and Magic/Resonance alongside). It's honestly usually a solid choice to go high on Metatype, though, since it lets you go lower on the Attributes priority almost risk-free (Human characters tend to need a pretty high value there to not look weak), and depending on your role special attribute points can be a solid expense.
So like most things it's a two-sided deal.

>>44290677
Ghouls are fine, in my book. It's stuff like banshees that start to trip things up. It's just more bookkeeping for new players, more lore implications that you have to deal with, all that's fine. Basically what >>44290784 said.

As far as orks and trolls go, trolls are mostly what I'm referring to; you need to assign a very high priority to their metatype to get them to be available at all (B or A, and B gives you NO special attributes, aka edge), and by doing so, you lock yourself out of a lot of options. The metatype doesn't really compensate enough in my book.

>>44290669
Admittedly, the combat system is actually the weakest part for me. Modifiers, I improvise. Deckers... Well, we don't have a decker, but we're recovering a NeoNET AI in one of our runs that, if it survives, will be our NPC decker, so I don't have to handle that too much myself.

But yeah, basically like >>44290784 said. Again. I fuck up.

>>44290677
Infected in general are just a different type of character entirely, both in the rules and in the fluff. It's hard to really get that right without starting on the easy stuff.

>>44290669
>"YOU ARE TRYING TO SNIPE A DWARF FROM 10 MILES AWAY AND ITS RAINING OUT! What are the modifiers!?"
Environmental modifiers (visibility, light, wind, range) are really simple. I'll explain.

Take the highest single penalty ... and ignore the rest. If there are two tied for highest, raise the penalty to the next category.

>>44290964

is that the actual rules or does that just make things simpler and more efficient?

>>44290677
(5e) If you play it straight, HMHVV is hazardous for group health.

Strain I speeds up essence loss by using powers, which means draining more often than they probably expect.

Strain II is contagious through bodily fluids, on contact with wounds.

Strain III is contagious through bodily fluids on contact, full stop. The first time ghouls get shot or blown up near the team will be when infections start passing around.

>>44290964
At the risk of starting an argument, I never really felt good about this change, and adding modifiers together outright is one of the few houserules I add to 5e combat. Just feels more like range and light rain and wind should all contribute to how hard the shot is. I always thought the pre-4e dice system had better modifiers, though, the rolls were more flexible.

>>44291109
That's the rules.

>>44291128
I always add the modifiers together because its simpler for me to just look at what I've described the area as and pick out what they are.

File: Joe Average.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

Hello everyone. Meet Johnathan Mean, professional car mechanic. He recently took out a large loan from an unscrupulous lender in order to buy his own house (a bit cramped, but it's his!) and get enough finances to retire. However, he is now in debt, and after he was a day late the lender sent some thugs to beat him up. The second time he had a gun, but they STILL beat him up. Now Joe really needs some extra income, he feels he can handle a gun, and those Trivids make being a shadowrunner look so easy, and the pay is so good! So he's hatched a brilliant plan: Do one run, then use the money to pay off his debt and retire.

He's fucked.

>>44286142
I've played in a military campaign where among other things our Rigger would fly in drones for close air support. Sometimes he was straight up dog fighting Aztlaners while we were rigging the base to blow.

Hey Yekka, any word on when Rigger 5.1 gets put up with bookmarks and all? Player just expressed interest in playing a rigger and I'd like to give them a bookmarked version if it's ready. Otherwise I'll just point them to the mega

>>44291255

How do the GM's in the thread handle MAPS.. I am going to be a new GM and I am terrified of maps. Like how do I construct a good one? How... specific and fleshed out do they need to be? What exactly is "theater of the mind"? I just don't want people to get bored. Also, I would be gming a ONLINE session and not a session in meat space. As in, no physical dice and what nt.

>>44291308
Some GMs don't use them. Some GMs do. They're definitely optional.

Theater of the mind boils down to tracking it all in your head. Which can work, sometimes doesn't. It's really personal preference. Also a new GM, and if any GMs still here have examples of how detailed they go it'd be nice. My old 3.5e GM just drew out the outlines of rooms and filled in details theater of the mind style.

>>44291308
I give out floorplans when the team gets something like that during legwork. I always keep one bare-bones outline map covered in stickynote descriptions for myself, usually on isometric graph paper.

If HMHVV gets you down you can always get a Mage, mystic adept, or even physical adept with the adept spell power. Have them learn sunbeam and burn the plague away.

Can you feel the sunshine? Does it brighten up your day?

>>44291504
I wish there was a variant of Sunbeam that always dealt full physical damage. I have a mage-boner for light magic and smiting gangers with Super Sunbeam sounds like fun.

>>44291504
Thought of the day.

Can an HMHVV infectee use sunbeam against other infectees without consequences?

>>44291585

Just have a sun, light or fire mased mentor spirit and have your shaman mask be light.

Problem solved. Every spell can now be a variation of sunlight beams.

>>44291308
Well my home group was also all Battletech players so we had minis and hex maps. But the air battles was homey's thing, in the end we tended to avoid it because it was two different sessions going on at once as he engages in a lightening quick duel thousands of feet above us over a 'tiny' five square mile area till he can line up his bombing run while we are wadding through traditional infantry or trying to sneak inside the facility. He was way happier controlling ground drones and shit once we were done with the AA 'arc' or the campaign.

The funny part is neither was the distraction. Our entire tactic was a missile down your throat or C4 up your ass. Target one and here comes the other.

As for how you should do it, it's up to you. We didn't jump right into this out the gate. Don't be afraid to start slow. Against a handful of gangers guarding a BTL studio your group has been hired to shut down/rob blind/defend you probably don't need to worry so much about ranges, tactical nets, blast radius, fucking air to air combat, ect ect. Maps shouldn't be that big of a deal. Once your comfortable running it, make a simple map for a simple combat and see if it streamlines things or bogs you down. Go from there.

Also it's very important you invite me into this game and let me play please I don't want to be forever GM. It's also very important it be on sat. nights.

How do people feel about that Akiyama drone. Runnerhub and other PC numbnutz get spooked about someone using a child murder bot but the GMs over there play murder lolis anyway. Is it wrong to make a murderbot disguised as a kid to troll my enemies with psychological warfare and annoying snot nosed robo-brats?

I recall something from the old Aztlan book talking about soldiers walking around with a barrier spell up to buy them a few seconds in an ambush if they got hit by a rocket or ied, but physical barrier doesn't really seem that great aside from some utility.

File: sunshine.png (156KB, 420x270px) Image search: [Google]

156KB, 420x270px

>>44291504
Been done.

Almost ran into trouble last game when an adept got past my firing line and hit my commander in the the head with a staff. is there a non magic way for someone to prevent an adept from getting close, besides shooting first, or a way to buff themselves when they're close?

>>44291899

It can act as full cover, which is HUGE bonus.

http://hnng.moe/f/5NE Updated Rigger 5.0, replaced that weeaboo art

Does anyone have a scan of the full world map from Sixth World Map? I'd be be grateful as hell to anyone who could point me towards one without paying 70 dollars for one.

>>44292100
Sixth World Almanac.

>>44292097
That's beautiful. You're beautiful.

what are good stats and gear for semi disposable gunmen? i'm making a crew of recruits for shock and awe style raids and have a couple npcs that a need to outfit.

>>44292671
What kind of gunmen, like Gangers or Military type?

>>44291118

Except that, unless you pay Karma for it, the infection doesn't take. That's the nice thing about a disease that counts as a positive quality.

I personally wouldn't play Strain III as more contagious than ebola, simply because it doesn't make sense in the world. I mean, it hasn't progressed to epidemic levels anywhere except that one ghoul-country, which WOULD happen if you had to burn anything a ghoul touched to prevent infection.

>>44292838
Not him, but I'd like to know for both, actually.

>>44292838
one is ex security, dwarf the other was in the Halloween gang, orc. idk what i want them to do yet.
>>44293127
same

>>44292848
>Except that, unless you pay Karma for it, the infection doesn't take. That's the nice thing about a disease that counts as a positive quality.

That's not how it work. The disease does take, but you don't get to keep your mind and go feral. The karma is to survive it.

>>44293231
>The karma is to survive it.

...
*quietly scratches out all ghoul-related notes for upcoming campaign*

>>44292848
You could always just be a carrier; that's a negative quality. Otherwise you gotta roll them dice and hope you don't get it. Or burn edge in which case it kinda seems like GM decides.

>>44291118
There are no rules for bloodsplatter, and chemical seal exists. If you get HMHVV from a teammate, you got it through fiat.

>>44293231
I don't think that's how it works either; unless it's different in previous editions. There's not really mechanics on going feral, so I'd assume by default PCs don't have a high risk of going feral.

File: Corp Sec.png (90KB, 1014x1032px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 1014x1032px

>>44293127
>>44293212
My Excel Goons Doc doesn't translate well to PDF, so I got this for you.

I would up the armor to 12 and give them AK-97s with Rating 2 Extended Mags, and some Flashbangs. Throw the Flashbangs and then enter with lots of Suppressing Fire

>>44293278
>>44293272
>>44293254
>>44293231

It's poorly explained and split in a couple of different books, but you should get to have one of the vaguely-worded disease resistance tests for it. I can't find the official disease power or threshold though.

>>44292848
>I personally wouldn't play Strain III as more contagious than ebola, simply because it doesn't make sense in the world. I mean, it hasn't progressed to epidemic levels anywhere except that one ghoul-country, which WOULD happen if you had to burn anything a ghoul touched to prevent infection.

They're not zombies though. The reason why it's not so prevalent is because that

A) If a ghoul fights someone, it's usually to eat it, and ghoul-show doesn't rise up to be ghouls themselves

B) Ghouls still need to survive, like anything else. At best they're left to rot in unsafe and unsanitary conditions that makes sure they don't survive particularly long, and at worse they're actively hunted.

>>44293231

So, why aren't there millions of ghouls out there? I mean, we saw this year what a fluid-contact contagious disease with no effective treatment does with the Ebola epidemic.

I mean, in the end, Shadowrun is not even a realistic cyberpunk game, but that is kind of the point, right? If you don't want to deal with rampant infection, just tell your GM you don't want rampant infection.

>>44293366
any reason to give the so many guns?
is a rifle and a pistol enough?

>>44293409
Not him, but I'd say that you're intended to pick one of the pistols for corpsec. Rather than use both, I mean.

>>44293344

There are. It's like a one or two sentences in the books that goes "The character becomes an NPC".

3rd edition DID allow feral players, of a sort, by giving them MASSIIIIIIIVE mental penalities. If you went to 0 or less, you became animalistic and NPC no way around it, but very very smart people could manage to just become pretty dumb but in control.

>>44293394

Ghoul rubs his eye, and touches a doorknob. Ghoul waste enters the sewer system, touches rats. Ghoul gets shot in an alley, body has to be disposed of. Instant outbreaks. There's a reason why Ebola victims have to be in complete quarantine.

>>44293425
Ares Predator is for the Corp Sec who wants to look intimidating, and the Fichetti is for those that don't go for that look.

File: hmhvv.png (307KB, 494x731px) Image search: [Google]

307KB, 494x731px

>>44293394
In 5th it's just right after the infected types. Pg. 142, Run Faster. Unless there's a problem with what's in pic related.

>>44293400

see >>44293394

But also it's an AWAKENED retrovirus, it doesn't survive in the wild like the flu or ebola. It has to be given fresh.

Also, while there's no vaccine or cure, a lot of people manage to shake it off just fine, typically the healthy people.

It's the vulnerable, weak or poor that are the most at risk, and since ghouls are carrion eaters, if they fight and DO scratch you, it's either in self-defense or because they're gonna eat you.

>>44293432
Any idea on what book, page, or wording of it?

>>44293560

Man, been so long... let me see. I think a good chunk of it was in the runner's handook... brb gonna search for it.

>>44293639
Don't stress too much over it if you don't really remember. It was in a previous edition, and it looks like in 5th core you just get instantly NPCd if you get the the chomp.

>>44293560
>>44293639

Found it

Shadowrun companion p.32-34 for the disease and tables. The third stage infection caused the stat penalities as well as the ghoul metavariant additional attribute changes.

The start of p.34 explains that if a mental attribute goes to 0 or less the character goes feral, if Essence goes to 0 they die.

So hey, I'm playing 5e right now. Just got into it and the group loves it.

How likely am I to die from Essence loss? I'm going as "full cyborg" as possible. The end goal is to have every limb be cyberware, which means even if I waited until I had enough money to get full Delta everything, my Essence would be in the garbage. I just really like the idea of cyberware.

Should I be worrying about losing Essence in combat to monsters or something over? I'm not dumb enough to go to yet, but I'm already super close. I have 0.25 essence left at the moment, since you can't get deltaware at creation, and part of my concept was becoming a Shadowrunner specifically because he was forcibly given cyberware.

>>44293823
The only thing that can take essence is monsters with Essence Drain. Which generally pairs with HMHVV.

That solves your cyberware issue very quickly.

>>44293866
Sounds deadly.

Are there any special precautions I can take to protect myself from HMHVV and creatures that might be infected with it? Anything you might recommend as a failsafe in case shit hits the fan and I happen to be currently grappled and Essence drained by some nasty critter?

>>44293823

Stay as far away as you can from evil magical entities, avoid the infected more than a typical runner and always ALWAYS say no to drugs.

Other than that, your tanked social limit is probably the biggest threat to your survival.

In other words, you're reasonably safe.

>>44293915
Chemical seal will do nicely to protect you from infection. If you're currently being eaten, pray it's Strain 1 and pay the karma cost, take Regeneration. If you're a human or elf, you should be able to solve your essence problem, but you lose your cyber.

>>44293823

You can go "full cyborg" and have a decent Essence score, if you avoid overloading on cyberlimbs. While one limb is a good investment for non-combat characters, going for four limbs, a torso, and a skull is just bad.

The system is just not set up to make it work. Having to pay to increase the stats of each of your limbs separately is *backbreaking* expensive, and the essence cost is, as you've noticed, absurd.

I would chat with your GM about buying rating 3 Muscle Replacement and some Bone Lacing. At that point, you're still going to be 70-80% synthetic for a much more manageable cost, in both Nuyen and Essence.

>>44293937
If there's magic, send the adept in and pull out the rockets. Make sure the decker is in front of me when we go hunting mutants. Winners don't do drugs.


Got it.

>>44293961
By chemical seal I assume you mean a chem suit or hazmat suit? Also, unless there's a way to get Essence back that I missed, I don't think I can get Regeneration. Already a bit too chromed for powers.

>>44294040
That's unfortunate, because my character's already in play. And yeah, I noticed in character creation that actually improving your attributes via cyberware is extraordinarily expensive, whereas the bioware dude is just kinda coasting on by.

Maybe I could convince him to let me pull the character back and replace all of his current chrome with high Muscle Replacement, Wired Reflexes, Bone Lacing, and stuff like you mentioned, but I adore this image I have in my head. It probably won't work very well, and it's going to cost me more Nuyen than the entire city I'm in has, but I want to make it work as best I can. At this point, I already have everything except for a Skull, so I might as well go all the way.

I am, however, only really increasing my stats for the arms, since my character is running around with an arm blade and hidden pistol in his leg.

>>44294132

Did you increase your stats as much as you wanted at chargen? Remember, you only get to customize a limb on purchase. If you want to increase the stats afterwards, you need to buy the whole limb over again. That feeling of having to try harder than the rest of the party to get where you are going is just going to get worse as the game goes on.

Yet another way the system screws multi-cyberlimb characters, on top of forcing you to use your un-augmented stats for derived values like movement speed and Physical Limit :/

I know this is a high concept character, but wouldn't someone with all their muscles, bones and skin (dermal plating!) replaced by cyberware be pretty much the same thing?

>>44294294
Pretty much. I mean, there's room to increase them, but the stats are around where I want them right now. Eventually I'll have enough Karma and Nuyen to afford putting another point in Agility or Strength, but they're both at 5 right now with no exceptional attribute, so I'm still holding my own right now (and flat out making my GMs jaw drop when I tell him my armor rating).

But yeah, if I ever do the character again, I'm pretty sure I will replace the muscles, bones, and skin with cyberware and not bother with limbs except for one arm and one leg (mostly for the arm blade and hip pistol holster).

>>44294132
>And yeah, I noticed in character creation that actually improving your attributes via cyberware is extraordinarily expensive, whereas the bioware dude is just kinda coasting on by.

... Muscle Replacement cyberware is a quarter of the nuyen cost of the bioware equivalent as it's not only cheaper, but boosts BOTH agi and str. It's also eight times as costy in essence...

That's the gist of it. Cyberware = Heavy essence but low nuyen cost, Bioware = Very low essence cost but nuyen cost skyrockets.

Cyberlimbs are another story, but they allow you to reach higher numbers without spending karma, only nuyen.

>>44287397
I can dig America-san

>>44294294
>on top of forcing you to use your un-augmented stats for derived values like movement speed and Physical Limit :/

It uses the average of the limbs used. A truly, fully cyberlimbed razorboy can have AGI and STR of 1 but still have high as fuck attributes. Instead of buying attributes with your karma, you just gotta buy one of the bazillion limit-increasing qualities (or additional 'warez, like artificial hearts)

>>44294431
Yeah, I'm specifically talking about the cyberlimbs. The Muscle Replacement is really good for the cost.

>>44292848
>which WOULD happen if you had to burn anything a ghoul touched to prevent infection.
... Good thing it isn't anything they touch. Just anything they splatter bodily fluids over.

>>44294483
Good for the bank, very bad for your soul.

>>44294849
>bad for your soul
That guy was a cunt anyway. Fuck him.

>>44285973
Can I just point out how similar this looks to the Guardians of the Galaxy movie scene?
With the middle finger and shit, or am I crazy to think so?

I plan on gming soon and was wondering about some ideas for a first like.. intro run I guess? I guess what I worry about most is shit not making sense. I want my run to make place in the seattle barrens(primarily because I don't know many other locations..) and the run will basically be about one gang member wanting another gangs special nova coke recipe(the drug is called nova coke right?).

The runners would have to track down the gang member boss with the recipe and return it to the johnson for their payout. If they bring the recipe and a sample, they get paid more.

The kicker is that they won't know exactly where the gang boss drug factory is at. I would leave it up to the players to either beat the recipe out of him or maybe find its physical copy or something.

Does this sound like a shit run?

>>44294999
>Intro Run
>Not Foot Fight

Come on, Omae.

>>44295038

Should I do that one? I wanted it to be more of a intro for me. not neccesarily the players.

>>44295125
What are your player's pcs?

>>44295195

I don't have any players yet. I am just trying to get some things together so I can start gming soon. What should I even practice or memorize?

>>44295221
My first group made the mistake of opening all of the books all at once and it was a nightmare that our first GM never recovered from.

I would start by learning skill tests, opposed, threshold, extended. And then move on through the core rulebook and catching the important and common skill tests for magic, combat, matrix, etc. I think running combat smoothly and quickly is important because it gets bogged down easily.

>>44295304

any tips for not getting bogged down in combat stuff? I like combat but I don't like anything getting bogged down. What kind iof things bogs the game down?

>>44295365
Firstly, us GMs just straight up have to memorize what to roll for combat and remember wound modifiers, recoil, and environmental modifiers. I write down the environmental modifiers for the particular combat scene down on the same page with the npcs and player's tracks and initiative scores. In my own group the players spend a lot of time doing the strategy during combat, and I want to try to push them to think of strategies/maneuvers in downtime and then execute them when the time comes.

>>44293823
You can't go below 1 essence. inb4 cybe zombie shittery

>>44295485
You mean 0.01 Essence.

>>44295433

Do you ever feel burdened by what you need to know? Like how do people remember all this matrix shit? Do you let the players give a lot of the info on what they do and such?

>>44295485
As far as I can tell, you just can't hit 0. You can go as low as you can get it, but it might not be a good idea, depending on the setting and critters fought.

File: Matrix Flowchart.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>44295514
The burden of the GM is real, but still very rewarding.

The Matrix is hard as fuck to learn and I still struggle with the specifics. Take the Matrix Flowchart and get the basics down, and hopefully you and your Decker will figure the specifics out together on the first couple runs.

>>44295491
>>44295535
No the limit is 1 essence right in the rule books 1-5. I'm sure there's quite a bit other character creation rules getting broken if you have that much cyber

>>44295575
is there one of these for 4e?

>>44295646
Nah. The limit is 0.01.

>>44295646
Source please.

>>44295716
I have no idea, sorry omae. Check the 4e resources, I'm 100% sure there is something similar or at least close to it.

>>44295646
I can't find any lower limit in 5e aside from 0. It only mentions that if you reach 0, you die.

>>44295646
Also, there's no rules being broken for that much cyber in 5e, from what I can tell. You just need the money (resource C should give you enough for all that I initially bought, though I think I took B instead), and all you're limited on in terms of cyberware is availability and making sure it's either standard or alphaware.

>>44287397
America-san PLS

>>44295811
Doesn't even list a minimum essence under the essence section in 5e. Best I could find was the drain essence spell saying victims die at 0, might be a surge addendum. I remember it being 1 in 4th but I'm not looking anymore

Can people hack my cyberware? How easy is it? How do I prevent it?

>>44296092
>Can people hack my cyberware?
Yes, if you have the wireless on

>How easy is it?
If you have your cyberware properly slaved to a good commlink, it'll take an actual decker to do matrix damage to it. Otherwise, your cyberware is fucked.

>How do I prevent it?
Turn the Wireless off, Slave it properly, have a good decker on your team

>>44296092
if it has a wireless, yes. So most of your cyberware probably not. Wired reflexes or some weapons are the major ones.

>>44296092
If its wireless attuned, but of course you get sweet bennies for wireless being on

>>44296161
>>44296165
>>44296172
What about just my cyberarm? Like, if that's all I have plus its enhancements and the arm blade? If it does have a wireless capability, (like a hidden holster), just turn the wireless off and it'll be fine?

Also, what does slaving it mean? Good Decker is covered, but in the instance that he's either out or I've gotta take care of myself, I need a backup.

>>44295862
>>44294445
Who is this America-san?

>>44287397
America-San

>>44296292
One of the characters in one of the greatest SR campaign writeups ever. Read it, for it is glorious. Mixed links, because tagging stories consistently is apparently hard.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=shadowrun%20storytime
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=2D

>>44294999

The only issue I'd have with that, is that the shit's imported.

Replace "finding a recipe" with "finding who'se their contact who manage to smuggle the stuff for cheaper than the Ancients" and "bringing a sample" with "making sure the other gang burns that bridge, leaving us alone with that new pipeline"

>>44295811

Or used/gammaware

>>44296008
It's never, ever been 1. The limit is and has always been "above 0"

File: 2D shadowrun storytime.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>44296461
Here's the whole thing chummer

>>44296574
In 5e, only Standard and Alphaware are available at CC. Top of page 95 of the Core Book.

>>44296726
It was the same in 4e, and every other edition that had multiple grades of 'ware.

File: noro 3.jpg (283KB, 600x848px) Image search: [Google]

283KB, 600x848px

Ghoul anon again. So, I just finished reading through the rules for Duel Natured. I didn't realize that it was such a kick in the dick to be stuck in the "always on" perceiving state.

Are there any decent work-arounds for playing as a Duel Natured creature, or are you just screwed?

Jesus fuck, now I get what people mean when they say to stick with the stock metatypes. Shadowrun is not friendly to special snowflakes, like at all.

>>44288960
So what is War! good for?

>>44297047
There are some advantages to it, like mages not being able to sneak up on you, and you being able to punch them in the astral dick without having to make anything but your attack roll.

>>44297100
Absolutely nothing except progressing the storyline

>>44297047
Dual Natured is dangerous as fuck

>>44296726
>"Only standard, alphaware, and used implants
are available for purchase at character creation."

Rulebook, p.451 under the "cyberware and bioware grades" section

>>44296223
>If it does have a wireless capability, (like a hidden holster), just turn the wireless off and it'll be fine?
yeh
>slaving
It gets to use the defense stats of your comlink.

>>44297146
>ware
Huh. Well, I guess someone fucked up somewhere.

Do you allow used 'ware at CC?

>>44297122

Except that you have to use your fucking Astral Combat skill to fight an astral threat for some reason. A skill that ghouls don't even get access to unless they take an Awakened archetype.

A mage might not be able to sneak up on you, but he can use spells on you, and good luck catching an astral form with your melee attacks.

On top of that, you are blocked from passing over Mana Barriers, making you less useful on a run than a Spirit. Eugh.

>>44297190
astral is for projecting, dual natured would still use a normal attack option like unarmed or blades. I believe they also need a foci for armed attacks.

>>44297182
Yes.
Remember there are no different grades of used ware, everything becomes used once it's been in someone regardless of it was standard/gamma/whatever grade beforehand

Used titanium bone lacing is a common one for character creation

>>44297261
Really? My friend just assumed that used ware was just really bad. So even if I have a Deltaware Cyberarm, if I take that off and someone else tries to implant it, it becomes used?

What if someone steals my Deltaware Cyberarm and I eventually get it back. If I want to put it back on, is it still Deltaware for me, or does it count as used now?

>>44297190

Disregard that, I suck cocks. I should learn to read before I post on the internet.

>>44297308
Yes

Used ware is just cheaper, more available and more essence intensive

It becomes used

Yes, still used. If I was gm though I'd rule that if you could get it re-implanted at a delta clinic you could have it back the same as before.

>>44297241
Actually, "All Infected are dual natured and may freely learn the Assensing and Astral Combat skills."
So much like everything else they've gotta do the astral combat skill thing.

>>44297308
>>44297338

Deltaware, by definition, is custom tailored to their owner to a genetic and even slightly magical level.

But yes, unless a delta clinic installed the cyberware again using their patented technique, that super awesome delta cyber wouldn't be the same without all that shit.

So yeah... say you geek a super badass cyberzombie? ALL his 'warez is delta by default! Time to sell the body amirite? Well... it's just gonna be some very pretty Used ware for the poor sob who gets it back.

Personally though, a good enough cyberdoc should be able to salvage such beautiful piece of tech and at least make alphaware out it given time. (Not like he'll tell the looters tho)

>>44296688
I made the original one of these! In hindsight I shouldn't have tripfag'd it. It just feels so dirty.

>>44297468
>Personally though, a good enough cyberdoc should be able to salvage such beautiful piece of tech and at least make alphaware out it given time. (Not like he'll tell the looters tho)
From a cyberzombie? I'd say -at least- betaware.

>>44297600
Betaware+ is personally tailored to the recipient.
I'd say alpha is about right.

>>44297308
Used. They sawed it off with a hacksaw, all that nice craftsmanship was ruined. Used ware is to normal ware what stolen diamonds are to diamonds that haven't been cut up into small pieces for easier sale.

>>44286036
I wish it had.

>>44297635
I thought betaware was the next step beyond alphaware, where it could be tailored or not, but it can go either way

>>44297931
All cyberware (even standard) is tailored to the recipient.

The difference is that where "standard" is a factory chain-assembled chassis that gets minimally adapted to the recipient at installation; the higher grades (beta- and deltaware) get designed and constructed to the recipient's morphology and personal situation.

Any idea on how to convert Detritus into a Shadowrunner? I mean, I got the name down pat (D-3-TU5) and Piecemaker ("Originally" it was simply a minigun modded to fire shotgun shells, now...) but apart from that I have no idea.

btw, I'm not making him for game, I'm just spitballing what he'd be like as a Legendary Runner.

>>44297993

Troll street sam with huge-ass heavily modded Assault Cannon? With 4 Charisma and some decent skills in leadership?

I saw it once on here ages ago, but I can't find it anymore.

Does anybody have the troll who has a giant collapsible assault cannon with built in rocket launchers? It could be disassembled and reassembled to be a one man band. Was 3rd or 4th Edition. The idea was he was a children's and street entertainer in Seattle until somebody called in a hit, when he ducked down an alley, assembled his instruments into the assault cannon from hell, and got the job done.

>>44298017
Yeah that sounds about right. The Piecemaker is more a thought experiment in insane, illegal gun modding (The starting point WAS replacing the standard ammo with shotgun shells after all, I'm not sure where you would go from that,)

>>44297993

Well, if you're looking for a crazy ass heavy machinegun that shoots shotgun shells...

Ruhrmetall CF-20 firing "Hand Load [+1DV]" Flechette ammunition.

DV15, AP0, can only fire FA, great accuracy.

The flechette ammo makes it a beast for suppression, too.

>>44297100
>So what is War! good for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztZI2aLQ9Sw

>>44287705
Oh much!

>>44298255
Too bad, you get >>44292097 instead!

File: Lol.gif (2MB, 200x150px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 200x150px

>>44298259

I'm about to start a run and my character is...fairly wounded. How best to minimize the effects?

>>44298311
Stun damage? Physical damage?

A dose of Nitro can easily keep you going for a short time independently of how bad you're hit, but it has a big chance to also finish you off when it wears out.

>>44298331
like. its 2 days to the run. and i've got...5/11 physical damage. i've got a fuck ton of drugs to cancel it out as well

>>44298338
Two days is enough for a good rest. Hook yourself up to a decent medkit and enjoy a day in bed.

If you can have a chummer knowledgeable in medicine to give you a quick patch-up, even better; and if on top of that you can convince a mage to cast a Heal spell on your sore behind you'll be good as new.

So here's a funny one. Working on implementing AI, and I noticed Chatty.

>The character is especially comfortable behind the mask of anonymity offered by the Matrix. The extra confidence grants the character a +1 to their Social Limit when communicating via AR or VR.

How is an AI ever NOT going to be communicating via AR or VR?

>>44298407
Jump into/control drone body; use voice modulator?

>>44298433
>Jump into/control drone body; use voice modulator?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4iJgghujzU

>>44298451
Also this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxDQh_-vJss

Why do people get multiple datajacks? What difference would having two at once make?

>>44298384
that IS after the mage cast a heal spell.

>>44298466
You can directly plug into more than one thing... I guess.
Maybe your decker wants to plug into something while they're using a wired smartgun at the same time?
I don't know. I wouldn't get more than one

>>44287705
better than the other animu cover, pls repost Rigger V with this cover

>>44298451
>>44298465
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-_230SjbM

>>44298513
Was not expecting this.

>>44285973
so...is rigger 5.0 been added to chummer yet?

>>44298433
Nope. I generally prefer to let someone else do the scut-work then go back through and fix the broken bits. I think someone said they were going to take a look at doing it for me yesterday. If I don't get anything back within a week or so I'll start working on it.
>>44298489
Maybe next time the PDF gets updated.
>>44298433
I guess? I kinda thought that they'd always essentially be in VR. It honestly doesn't strike me as a purely-AI quality, which is what weirded me out the most.

>>44298466
>>44298487
A wirelessly-enabled datajack grants you one point of Noise Reduction. There's no limitations on how many you can get.

>>44298973
Doesn't it give you noise reduction because you transfer data through its noise-reducing thingy? How would it affect the data going through other datajacks?

>>44299051
Who the fuck knows. Besides, nowadays there's antennae for noise reduction when you don't wanna look a litle less like a jackass, it was a thing before Chrome Flesh mostly because of that slight oversight.

File: 88a6faace88361c9b217050dc4ef734c.jpg (249KB, 1124x1500px) Image search: [Google]

249KB, 1124x1500px

Does anyone have some 1st-3rd edition color art?
It's pretty hard to find.

Is there much of a difference between the Sony CIY-420 and the Shiawase Cyber-5 (apart from cost)? I'm a new player in a Prime Runner group and I was thinking about helping our normal hacker out.

>>44299738
1 more limit whatever the action, 1 more dice whatever your deck has to defend against and 1 program slot.

The Shiawase is superior, but the Sony is more than enough for even a prime runner. Use programs and/or mods to boost whatever is needed if you reach the limit(s) of your roll(s) too often, and invest the 200.000 nuyen in some decent cyberware/extra gear.

File: insertstringofexpletives.gif (498KB, 430x243px) Image search: [Google]

498KB, 430x243px

>Get into reading into SR again
>Find people bragging about playing it like a domestic terrorism sim again

>>44299781
Isn't that the whole reason why some people play Shadowrun?

>>44299887
It is, but that doesn't make it a good way to play it. It gives the roleplaying community a bad name and creates poisonous groups that in turn raise poisonous players. It's incredibly hard to break players of habits they pick up early on - and guess what, it's usually young players who're fascinated by blowing shit up and killing everyone while wearing "cool" outfits. By making sure that new players get into groups that don't teach them the wrong things about roleplaying (that is, "the goal is to defeat the GM", "roleplaying is just escapism lol u can do wat u want" or "the more unique your character is the better they are"), we can help them get a better experience in the future through learning actual character- and narrative-based roleplaying, as well as saving countless groups the kind of people who play Sabbat in 1e Vampire.
Inform them first. Put the information out there that roleplaying is more than killing things for points with the best set of dots, and hope people listen. Show up at youth clubs or FLGSs to get to the young players before Mick with the Slayer T-shirt and bolero hat does.
And if it's too late, just try to make sure they don't breed by shaming, shunning and excluding Those Guys instead of preaching the degenerative neo-roleplayer rhetoric that "if they're having fun, it's okay". Trust me, they're not having fun - I volunteer a lot for GMing youth club games and have played with SJWs a lot, and their games are invariably tense and antagonistic, filled with PKs and players skipping out in addition to the shrieking drama. There are some things you just have to stick to if you want roleplaying to be an enjoyable activity, and it's a shame that some people are caught up enough in mainstream neo-roleplaying Will Wheaton PC preaching that they never realize how entertaining it can be.

File: for you.jpg (59KB, 480x480px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 480x480px

>>44300111

First time player here, toying with character concepts.

How unusual to any random person in Seattle would it be for my character to not have a datajack? How unusual would it be for my character TO have one?

What downsides are there to not having one?

These are more important questions than they probably seem, Thanks

>>44300160
It's not out of place to have one, and it's not uncommon to not have any.

Well, if you're gonna go VR'ing a lot, datajacks are good. They're cheap and cost little essence. Trodes exist as an even cheaper and no-essence alternative. Datajacks provide 1 point of Noise Reduction and can't be (easily) removed, but Trodes retain VR functionality and can be concealed under a hat or helmet.

On getting one or no, I suppose it depends on if you're actually going to be the hacker or no, but it's cheap and commonplace enough that no one will look at you like you're a weirdo for being a streetsam with a datajack.

>>44300144
You're the one who'll be playing with Jaden the 14-year-old who plays a drake technomancer, fights with a katana and gets mad every time it doesn't work well since he's a technomancer, and insists on using all of Rigger for a transforming motorcycle; Flower Grÿfhon the SJW who can't stay in character because he/she/it picks fights over the use of all conventional pronouns and occasionally manages to play a gender-special "anti-authoritarian" decker who's Chaotic Stupid but who he/she/it insists is a righteous genius and not having them win everything is discrimination; and Big Mike, who's perhaps dimmer than his 1-INT minigun troll and simply goes back to his Doritos whenever he's not rolling for damage.
These people are out there.
These people are breeding.
And you're the one who's enabling them by not trying in the least to maintain a hobby and a community that's given you countless games and sessions over the years.
I guarantee you, you'll miss it when it's gone, and you can rest assured it's all the fault of people like you.

>>44300195
Is that from personal experience?

>>44300160
Datajacks are the most common cyberimplant, along with cybereyes. Depending on what exact company you hold, but they are pretty ubiquitous. Their biggest advantage is to allow the user to think commands at a device directly, bypassing the need for verbal instructions or manipulations; wich is a solid productivity boost in the majority of jobs.

There are no real downsides to not having one, sonce an electrode net can do the same without needing to be implanted. The Datajack has internal storage for data (which can be handy in some situations) and reduces noise by one (same remark) but you can do without.

>>44300160
The average person in Seattle would notice/care/bat an eye at a person who has or doesn't have a datajack. Having a Datajack is IMO mandatory for a non-adept decker. Also having a Datajack can let you use Wired Smartlinks if you like that retro stuff.

>>44300160
In early Shadowrun it was a specialized piece of equipment pretty much only used by professionals.

In Shadowrun 3 it was quite common for people to have it.

In Shadowrun 4 it wasn't as mandatory anymore but still useful.

In Shadowrun 5 there is little reason to get a datajack instead of trodes unless you're a professional decker, rigger, data courier or fanatic.
The advantages are minimal and completely useless for average AR/VR users.

File: 352436.gif (1MB, 500x281px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 500x281px

Need help understanding a few things about AIs in Shadowrun (was thinking about making a rigger with side specialization in face);

>When an AI is in a host, what does it use for attack and sleaze and all that? The deck/whatever else is its home device or is it restricted to the emulate action?
>Is having a high depth worth it? A lot of programs I've noticed requite you to be not above a certain depth, and seeing as how a rating 6 autosoft is exceedingly hard to get, would it be better to have low depth?
>Similarly, should you ever want to raise your depth to 7? The highest device rating you could sit on is rating 6, which couldn't comfortably hold you anymore.
>Which advanced programs are worth it? Most seem to have big drawbacks without a lot of benefits.

File: header.jpg (70KB, 460x215px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 460x215px

Is this Shadowrun?

>>44301524
No, that's Underrail.

>>44301513
>When an AI is in a host, what does it use for attack and sleaze and all that? The deck/whatever else is its home device or is it restricted to the emulate action?

The AI use their home's attributes if they're currently running as a program on it; or use emulate if they are busy free-floating on the Matrix (or in the case they need an attribute their home don't have). And this whether in a Host or on a Grid.

>Is having a high depth worth it?
Considering it is used to Emulate, yes, unless the AI is the virtual equivalent of a NEET shut-in basement dweller that stays in its deck forever.

>A lot of programs I've noticed requite you to be not above a certain depth
Nah, it's just a (rather unimportant) limitation in the sense the AI can only be 'running' on a powerful enough device.

>and seeing as how a rating 6 autosoft is exceedingly hard to get,
Wat? Rating 6 autosofts are 12R, 3000 nuyen apiece. Easy and cheap as hell.

>>Similarly, should you ever want to raise your depth to 7? The highest device rating you could sit on is rating 6, which couldn't comfortably hold you anymore.
Doesn't work like that. If Depth > device rating, you need two program slots to run your virtual behind from that particular device since t's too weak. This being said, since autosofts can only go up to rating 6, a rigger AI might want to stay at 6.

>Which advanced programs are worth it? Most seem to have big drawbacks without a lot of benefits.
Rootkit is great to stay undetected, and the rigging ones can come in pretty handy at times.

>clip

Bioware Adept; is it worth it? How low on the Essence should I go?

>>44302161
Does your character think it's worth it?

How viable is melee combat in this game if you're not an adept or cyberzombie-in-training?

How easy would it be to become a General Grevious style Cyberzombie?

>>44302253
You better invest in some really thick and unsubtle armor if you are neither.

It's relatively easy to be able to dish it out in melee, but you also need to be able to take a punch.

>>44302161
Mechanically, 1-2 Essence loss is what I shoot for, with 5-4 MAG. Flavor-wise, most Adepts are not Bio-adepts and would not consider losing more than single point of essence

>>44302253
another good route is the loltroll, or even a loltroll Adept Cyberzombie.

File: hmmm.jpg (8KB, 261x216px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 261x216px

Old discussions, but:

>>44286142

This guy is an obvious troll, but I'd like to mention, for those wanting to have a Top Gun game, GURPS is actually going to give you the best experience. Not saying you can't do it in Shadowrun, GURPS actually will let you do what you want with all the possible options and tools your heart can desire. Shadowrun is more focused on tactical combat and criminal hijinks, and thus lacks the crunch to run a truly cool Top Gun-esque deal.

>>44289372

2.) I've been GMing online games for 5 or 6 years now. Players correct me on the rules pretty often. As a GM, your job is to facilitate a fun game for the players, so that should be your focus. The players are always going to know more about the rules than you, because they actually have to care about them, and they only have to read the sections relevant to their characters, while you have to memorize pretty much everything. Don't stress too much, just keep your finger on ctrl+f in a pdf, or bookmark relevant pages in a paper book, and you'll do just fine.

>>44300111

Another obvious troll, but a jerk is going to be a jerk. For example, the autists on tumblr didn't learn to be nutjobs, and they don't actually care about all the subjects they preach. Most of them are actually autistic, and have a warped view of reality that cannot be changed. It's the same with That Guys.

>>44294294

As an SR GM, I'm considering a house rule where cyberlimbs affect physical limit. How would this balance/unblance the game?

How much can you mix cyberware and magic to somewhat stay effective with both?
I'm thinking about a paramedic character, with only a few spells, but also at least a cyberarm. Haven't played a magic user before, so I don't really know how to balance it...

>>44302392
You can sacrifice 1-2 points of essence to cyber-/bioware without hampering your casting abilities too much.

File: 1439849337511.gif (98KB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

98KB, 500x375px

>>44302376
I'm against Cyberlimbs affecting the average for physical limits as a balancing measure. As a GM, I houserule all cyberware to be half the nuyen cost, give Cyberarms the same capacity as legs, and allow Cyberlimbs to be Enhanced up to rating 4, not 3.

>>44302392
A Full Cyberlimb on a Mage Medic is very effective at boosting your Pistols Dice Pool. You can drop down to MAG 4 and still be functional with Heal and other support spells.

My group is coming over in an hour and I need to plan out the run after they finish their current one. Fuuuuuck.

>>44302376
>As an SR GM, I'm considering a house rule where cyberlimbs affect physical limit. How would this balance/unblance the game?

Then you'd have even more reason to play a wimp with one maxed-out cyberlimb.

>>44302296
I was thinking of relying on stealth, maybe with one of those uh, invisible-suit things. Think that'd work?

>>44302549
Stealth will work until you fail a stealth roll bad enough and get detected.

As a rule of thumb: whatever you do, assume you'll eventually take a hit and make sure you have enough armor to make it stun damage and survive it.

>>44302253
>>44302549
Melee combat scales directly with your stats, and is usually underwhelming when half-assed.

With low agility, you will struggle to close the gap on a target (your sneaking idea mitigates this but Sneaking is still Agility-based, so your effectiveness would suffer) and your ability to add net hits to damage will be limited.

With low strength, most weapons are not going to do enough damage to justify their use, and your physical limit might be especially snicker limiting.

Considering these points, you will need augmentations of some sort, magical or cybernetic. I'm personally a fan of Alphaware Muscle Replacement for sneaky melee characters. A bundle of Agility and Strength, takes less than 2 essence (I recommend taking Biocompatibility or Adapsin or both) and doesn't force you to take Resources A to afford it. Others will swear by Muscle Toner and Augmentation, but the low nuyen cost makes it superior for Infiltrators in my book.

File: 6567845.jpg (24KB, 401x308px) Image search: [Google]

24KB, 401x308px

>>44301769
Whoops I mixed autosoft prices/availability with pilots, thanks for the help anon.

>>44302796
I should add that that's an Alphaware Rating 2 Muscle Replacement.

>>44302796
Meh... Muscle Replacement (like all cyberware) has a big disadvantage over Augmentation/Toner (and other bioware) for an infiltrator, in the sense that cyberware is detectable by a scanner where bioware is not.

It's a good "budget" option, but this is one time where you might prefer the full monty.

>>44302869
If it's a sneaky infiltrator, it's usually the kinda infiltrator that would avoid checkpoints and scanners and find an alternate route instead of trying to bluff their way in. Besides, a Replacement is hardly an outright giveaway for trouble, you can probably explain it as the result of a medical condition or somesuch.

>>44302869
Shit, does that mean I can't take a Smartlink or Datajack without getting detected?

>>44302998
Being detected isn't a problem, as long as you can explain it away. A datajack won't raise any eyebrows, it's common enough, nor will a pair of cybereyes.

Problems will arise when the scanner detects that the guy pretending to be "John the Janitor" has one shitload of implants like wired reflexes, subdermal armor and other niceties that will make even the densest of trolls go: "Waaaaait a minute..."

>>44302998
Yeah, but a Datajack is legal

Everyone complains about the cover for Rigger 5 and I just can't get past how lazy the name is. Data Trails and Run Faster are both pretty good, they couldn't bother to make up something about servos or something?

>>44302284
you know cyberzombies are NPCs by default, right? If you want to get crazy augmented and keep your essence above 1, that's fine, but there isn't anything to give you four arms. Best option is to be the naraki metatype (humans with four arms, sometimes blue), and cyber yourself the fuck out.

Good news is, his monowheel thing is in Rigger 5

>>44303068
It's worth noting that having large amounts of cyberware actually increases the threshold for the scanner to get significantly. Get 6+ pieces of cyber and that +3 to the threshold makes it so the average scanner doesn't even get a chance to detect you.

>>44303156
Rigger X has been the standard for a long time, omae

>>44303068
So how does the Street Sam get into parties then?

>>44303208
He goes as "himself", meaning he's warned in advance he's loaded for bear.

Alternatively, he has his decker/technomancer pal confuse the scanner.

>>44303201
What the? No! More cyberware gives the scanner a dicepool bonus, it doesn't makes it harder to detect them.

What the fuck are you on?

File: 325324.jpg (49KB, 277x435px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 277x435px

>>44303315
I'm high on charts man.

I hope I don't just have some out of date book and the chart's wrong

>>44303391
It says modifiers in my copy, but that one is actually in line with how cyberware scanners function in setting. Go figure.

alright chummer, gel or SnS rounds?

i personally prefer gel rounds. the knockdown effect is great, and there's something satisfying about hitting somebody with an expanding gel slug.

>>44303888
SnS is nice for holdouts or other low power weapons, but I love a good full auto with gel

>>44303888
I go with gel because I only have automatics. If I used longarms I'd go with SnS

>>44303888
Gel for most situations. but keep a mag/speedloader of SnS in a back pocket just in case of grumpy spirit.

New gm here. I am wondering, how many players should a typical session have? I was thinking 4..? does that bog things down?

Also, I am so worried about gming, I am mostly nervous because I don't know all these fucking rules. I played a lot of DnD 5e and the rules in that are simplistic I guess. Maybe I am just soft? Shadowrun seems to have SO MANY rules. I also don't think I would write very well considering I will probably do a online session and not meat space session.

Can someone take me throw some scenarios you have been in when playing shadowrun 5e. Players or gms can respond, I am just trying to feel out how a basic "scene" would be.

>>44304169
4 players is solid, I don't like to go above 6 personally.

Protip: No one knows all the rules. Don't worry about it. Just remember rolls are attribute + skill or other attribute, and wing it. The matrix is the most complicated thing, so avoid runs that focus on that aspect early on. I'd start with Food Fight, or some other meatspace combat for the first couple runs, bring in some stealth/infiltration stuff, then magic, then finally a matrix run. This way, you AND your players aren't hit with a wall of rules.

Personally, I also like to run some test combats for my (new) players as they make characters for the same reason. This way, they can adjust if they suddenly remember "Fuck, I need ranks in perception!", as well as learn the basics of combat, and how to use their own abilities, while not worrying the character they just spent 3 hours making is gonna die because they didn't read something.

So how does dual wielding work in SR5?
I haven't found anything specific in Core and Run&Gun aside from a small remark that you have to split your dicepool and the total recoil of both hands applies to both attacks.

>>44304321
Exactly like that. You determine your dicepool like you would for a single attack, then split it evenly over the multiple weapons/targets and treat each one as an independent attack.

>>44304310

what if you have a decker in the ground though? Its hard to avoid matrix stuff if you have a decker. Its strange because the matrix is a very prominent thing.. like what if the group decker wants to hack a commlink or something? How do I smooth that over?

>>44304169
>>44304310
Scenarios can be ripped from headlines and action movies pretty easily. There was a greentext in another thread about a group who had to steal a panda from the zoo, and my players once had to retrieve a prototype vehicle from the Vory. Basically, the biggest things to think of are:
1. Why is Mr Johnson going to a bunch of criminals for this? Specifically, deniable assets. Is it important that the actions can't be traced back to them, or is there just no one else to turn to?
2. Is it worth the money they're spending? I mean, runners aren't cheap, it's not likely someone will spend 8 grand to get tickets to a sold out concert. Most of the time upping the stakes will justify it. Maybe if it's Maria Mercurial's last concert before she retires, a hardcore fan just might spend the dosh. Of course, that means everyone else with one is going to be guarding theirs.
3. What's the bigger impact in the world? This won't be a big deal for small runs, but when your players hit corp tier runs, or even organized crime runs, it'll affect the world, and people in the shadows will take notice of them. Maybe that Johnson gets a promotion, and can give them bigger jobs and paychecks. Maybe it turns out their last three runs were connected, and now they're linked to something awful (like working for a dragon). At the very least, I know my players like hearing news headlines about their latest antics (Minotaur leads KE on wild chase through Chinatown!)

>>44304463
Remember hacking is usually just a a skill roll like anything else. Just make sure to understand that a decker needs to place marks on a device to do certain matrix tasks.

>>44304463
Hacking a commlink? Like, to get info or something or whatever?

That's already pretty damn smooth.

1. Matrix Perception to spot (if it's even hidden, if not, skip this step)
2. Hack on the Fly 1 for mark (you may repeat this step)
3. Edit File to get the information

Decking only gets complicated once you throw Hosts in, otherwise everything else is very simple and straightforward- Get Marks, Do The Thing, and then you get out.

>>44304463
I mean, you should read through all the rules, but don't worry about the details or committing anything to memory. Check out the hacking flowchart posted earlier in the thread >>44295575
, and that should cover you for a while until you get comfortable enough to have them hacking hosts.

You know, I've got some free time on break, I might make a "How to GM Shadowrun" pdf, a kind of FAQ or something.

File: 1285030065871.jpg (135KB, 456x684px) Image search: [Google]

135KB, 456x684px

>>44304169
I've GMed Shadowrun since 2nd edition, so here's some general advice.

Sit down with your players for the first session and discuss what kind of game you want.
Action? Stealth? Magic-heavy? Tech-heavy? Serious? Goofy?

Discuss what kind of characters everyone wants to play AS A GROUP. There's nothing that bogs the game down as players that start quarreling because one player decides he likes playing a horrible backstabbing asshole.
Be sure you as a GM and your players are in the same boat and come up with a couple reasons for why the characters work in the same team.

4 players allow for a very character focused game, with 6 I would focus more on the narrative. Just keep in mind that the more players the longer combat is going to take and the less spotlight for individual players.

Here's a rundown of the combat rules.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1-ucFiNP20

Matrix and Magic may feel a bit overwhelming to beginners but don't get intimidated.
I suggest reading a couple of the official novels or maybe watch a couple youtube game sessions.
You can roleplay most of it and ignore a large chunk of the rules until you're more comfortable with the whole setting.
Matrix isn't as complicated as people make it out to be.

In the beginning I usually give new players something vague and uncomplicated to do.
"There's this rival fast food shop. Make it so they go out of business."
That way you give them complete freedom to approach a problem how they want and get used to their roles as well as the rules. You on the other hand can get a feel for how they want to play.

So uh, how does an AI hacker-drone rigger work? Live on a cyberdeck, go to an RCC caried by a friend when you need to jump in, then switch back when you need to do Matrix stuff?

>>44304685
That can. Another possibility is to Emulate whatever you need when hacking, get into the RCC when rigging and retreat to your 'home' only to realign.