Shadowrun General [srg]

street sam tries to impress japanocorp mr johnson with his authentic kabuto-style helmet which actually looks like the pokemon kabuto

Hey man, I got a small request for you.

I want a rugged, white male, shaved head. He'll be wearing a wife beater and a prison jumpsuit. The jumpsuit is tied around his waist. He'll have a Browning Ultrapower, and sleeve of Aryan Brotherhood/Humanis tattoos on both arms.

Okay I got one for a character in my group
>Older human female, mid to late 30's, Spaniard
>all organic, not augmented
>wears tweed suits
>has long black hair
>probably hugging a garand

Cyberarm with food storage with skittles or pizza. Bonus points if it used right in the middle of combat.

Whew, that was fast. Took a while last time to get this many.
Let's cut it off here until I can finish a couple.

Raksha, a female runner turned meta sapient activist / terrorist.
She's indian (as in the asian one), in her 30s, human.
Stern, but motherly character. Not accepting any nonsense, but very protective of her comrades and the people and critters she is saving.
Shes an infiltrator, usually wearing urban camo fatigues, with lots of gizmos attached. Her main weapon is a beefed up taser. Don't really have any good reference, so I'm not expecting you to give this high priority.

>none of my characters have an iconic visual theme
fuck
I should just make goddamn carmen sandiego or something.

We are japanese goburin

Good warm up desu.

Sperg out all you want, but you realise all the OPs were new and 'speshul' at some point, right?

female elf street sam, nothing obviously cybered save the eyes. the eyes are literally the most inhuman mash of image enhancements, flare compesnation, retinal dampers, you name an eyeware system she's got it, and it's OBVIOUS.

>just getting into game
>haven't even created a character yet only the vaguest idea of a them/motivation
>hyped up drawfriend appears

fuck, I really need to get off my ass and make my guy.

Now it's the point where you explain for what purpose it was made.

There are some Knife Party tracks that work pretty well for Shadowrun fight scenes. If you like them wub wubs, anyway.

Destroy Them With Lasers should be your go-to for an encounter with some laser-totin' ARES HTR.
youtube.com/watch?v=u6-U-apEUZI

Here's another nice one:
youtube.com/watch?v=y_z9W_N5Drg

And this works pretty well too:
youtube.com/watch?v=xcLqVfKTtKw

He made his point here: They're pretty good points, too. I agree that the pastebin and chummer links shouldn't be greentext, and the next OP could easily incorporate that change into the older filename-joke format we were using for the past few threads.

He doesn't explain why he removed link to previous thread and change /srg/ to [srg] (when whole Veeky Forums uses the former format for thread name abbreviation when necessary)

Just to annoy you, specifically, user.

Posting one of last week's while I'm working on Tattoo sleeves are a bitch.

...

Fantastic. Thanks man.

...

Minotaur with neon tatoos, cyberarms and two shotguns

Video game music is a surefire bet. It's purpose designed to be played behind the focus of attention. Just gotta pick some good games.

youtube.com/watch?v=u3VwdQ_xo7E
(Check Samurai Showdown & Swordpoint for more heavy songs, the majority are rather thoughtful. "This is the End" has a very finale feel to it, for natural reasons)

youtube.com/watch?v=2ffgpDCJGVE
Also more thoughtful and low key songs. Tactical Intervention and Coordinated Surveillance are the only fast paced songs. The rest are perfect for those moments before shit hits the fan, and even better for setting them up in such a way that the actual combat is over in a blink.

youtube.com/watch?v=R7QshvmFzic
youtube.com/watch?v=oamPfHTleIE&index=9&list=PL_JV7wl8KPk6qAgLWsCjmV6ifXlFDJRy3

youtube.com/watch?v=fDAI4OW4CRM

This song has always been my favourite for setting things on fire
youtube.com/watch?v=uRGdWaZUw1w&index=17&list=PLZzGW3tg6wSptWly_jvMACXpcH7UXIbeX

I wish for there to be more symbiotes and bio-tech.
I want guyver suits.
I want symbiotic fireflies that produce exotic chemicals.

The closest I have are chem-leeches.

...

That's about it for tonight, I think. My fingers are getting sore and I gotta eat something.

I'm trying to do this every Friday night, it's good practice for me.

I'll leave you with some sweet dwarf booty a parting gift.

13 yo kid with a deck at the waist, aheadband with 'trodes (too young for a 'jack) and a spunky attitude.

If you have the courage, there's a huge linework spider protectively behind the kid. (You can actually only see the spider in AR, but that's kinda hard to draw on traditional paper.)

This is great. Thank you!

youtube.com/watch?v=pPH8vxyD--k
youtube.com/watch?v=X0nz-9y8wno
youtube.com/watch?v=2m3y3VIeABY
youtube.com/watch?v=N6atL8AwzKc

>ability to get a game going/join a game?

Yes, it's probably the most widely played right now.

>accessibility of the rules

A lot of people think that the Anniversary edition of the 4th edition rules are better edited and easier to process, but in-play 5e is smoother in ways, especially the Matrix.

I'd recommend 5e personally.

Nice work! Keep it up!

The MAG soundtrack (the SVER faction especially) had some excellent high-energy instrumental metal that played when you were really on a roll:
youtube.com/watch?v=WzIuWqeHtcg
youtube.com/watch?v=l5Uaz-qXuUI
youtube.com/watch?v=CZNDVK-UiT4

In a similar vein, these tracks from the Megas XLR soundtrack are dope:
youtube.com/watch?v=gYHgH68Trz0
youtube.com/watch?v=oBQ68x54RQA
youtube.com/watch?v=NY8MEesdADE

Is it possible to be 'ard enough that you can even make HTR teams recoil?
Double challenge, do it without an autocannon.

presumably by being the equivalent of an HTR team yourself

better hope the rigger has a LAV/APC

I'm pretty new to tabletop and I've been trying to find a game to run for some friends.
I love Shadowrun's world and the flavor of it all, but the rules are very daunting

What's everyone's opinion on the most accessible version?
Any tips on how to streamline gameplay so it doesn't turn into number crunch and rule citing?
Even if it's not 100% by the book, I'd rather keep the group moving and spend more time playing than consulting the rulebook

I like 3e

>
What's everyone's opinion on the most accessible version?
IMHO, 5e

>Any tips on how to streamline gameplay so it doesn't turn into number crunch and rule citing?
Stick to the core book until you have a good handle on the system.

>Even if it's not 100% by the book, I'd rather keep the group moving and spend more time playing than consulting the rulebook
Quick reference sheets, omae, and don't hesitate to wing it. Just remain consistent during the session, check up the intricacies afterwards with the player(s) and clear it up/adapt at that point.

4e Anniversary edition is the easiest, in my opinion.

Also, please, please, please use Chummer if you can - it helps streamline things, provides page references and so on - just remember to enable the splatbooks in the options/tools. It's a great character creation tool and I think without it my Shadowrun experience would've been nowhere near as enjoyable.

still have to pick some combat spells and spend a little bit of cash, but does anyone see any glaring problems or has some general advice? (apart from not playing pixies)

Your priorites are ... well to put it frankly a bad idea. Skills are too important to dump on a decker unless you are starting with log 10. What form of gen are you using and what are priorities if its BT10 or Priority gen?

priority and i have effectively log 11 cause of magicks and sustain focus

>Prejudiced (Common, Biased) (Normies)
Really?

I'm pretty sure that that's just a placeholder. I hope

You should get a couple more spells. Utility spells for when you're not hacking.

As is you'd be defaulting on half the matrix actions and whilst your hacking score is really quite good, lots of EWAR actions run of INT, meaning that you can easily get marks, but beyound that your options shrink. If you want my opinion you are better off (Going to your GM and asking to use ST10, but aside from that) using Skills>Pixie>Mage>Money>Atts. Sure this will reduce you defensive capacity and rob you of 5 or so spells, but resulting dice pools will mean that you can actually do stuff in the matrix rather than getting wrecked first time you see a data bomb.

What are some ways technology can help magic?
What are some ways magic can help technology?

I'm sort of sad buddhist chant wheels aren't powering some kind of generator somewhere.

I think most of the time, magic and technology are mutually exclusive. There is essence restoration in Chrome Flesh, which is said to be a combination of bioengineering and astral manipulation, but it's usually one or the other, even in case with technomancers.

Thanks user!

Is it crazy to list the locations where ammo is stashed at my place (in the toilet tank, in the vents, under the bed, ect)? or is cool to assume I'll have extra ammo on hand whenever someone comes bursting through the window?

Every shadowrun game I've ever watched involves a GM that dicks over players if they don't specifically state where everything is, and will also dick them over if they forgot that they specifically stated where things were and don't fight the GM on it.

I mean, they were generally OK to good games, but man do shadowrun GMs seem to like dicking you over about items.

Depends on your GM. Most will be cool if you tell him (now, before a situation arises when you'll need the weapons), "Hey, I've got stuff stashed all over my apartment." Be kind and show him that you're buying a couple hundred extra rounds (and the guns to shoot them, unless you have an implanted weapon, because if you're surprised in your home you might not have your usual gun right on you, and you don't want to be one of those 'I sleep in plate armour' fags).

If they ask you specifically where, say specifically where, and write it down in a list to be referred to later.

Any new books aside from hard targets and rigger 5.0?

Market Panic and the Hong Kong Sourcebook (which wins my award for 'worst CGL editing of the year, seriously was this typed by a blind Albanian').

Are they at pastebin?

>but man do shadowrun GMs seem to like dicking you over
This is an unpleasant truth with SR, since most games are essentially players trying to solve a puzzle of security set up by the GM, it often leads from normal gming, to arms race, to hostile gming. Generally good GMs eventually figure out that things are horribly wrong when you are trying to find ways to dick players over, but not all GMs are good.

>typed by a blind Albanian
I submit that any Albanian compentent enough to get a job as a freelancer writing these books writing would be better by at least one level of magnitude.

You know, you asking that question, and me responding, probably cost more collective effort than if you just checked the pastebin yourself.

You are very inefficient, and you will not maintain your position here at MCT unless you shape up.

When was that Hong Kong book released? Not finding it anywhere.

Maybe he is prejudiced against wage slaves?

February, maybe? And it's in the mega last time I checked.

Not really worth it, to be honest. In addition to the shitty editing (really shitty, like "editor's notes left in" shitty) the Matrix is abysmal. Nodes are back because it's set in 2055, but good luck understanding how they work, and also GOD is there too. Add on stuff like there being noise in the wired connections somehow, and data size limits, and it brings back fond memories of when nobody played a decker because the rules were fucking garbage that actively prevent a player from decking.

money at d wont work, cant even afford armor if i take the worst possible deck. magic at c will cost me most of the skillpoint i win just for beeing able to cast at all. could probably swap attributes and skills for 6 more skillpints but everything else seems crippling

Would you play a street scum level game where you were a bunch of SURGE kids trying to scam your way into easy living on the mean streets?

i got7 karma left that arent displayed by chummer for some reason so i could get 3 points in computers, which i forgot for some reason

At what SURGE level? Lower levels can be pretty annoying with what they give you.

A higher level.

I want mutants with a theme, not just random hodgepodges.

Well, other than the guy who's theme is being a hodgepodge. I'm not going to say no if someone wants to go for that.

>money at d wont work, cant even afford armor if i take the worst possible deck
You can spend 10 karma to increase your money at gen resulting in 15k extra for lifestyle and Sin, and 5 k for trodes/contacts/armor/etc

>magic at c will cost me most of the skillpoint i win just for beeing able to cast at all
Magic A gives you 10 more skillpoints and 5 more spells than Magic C.

If I see it right you are at Mage>Cash>Pixie>Att>Skills. You are a mage without assensing. I will skip all other shit, but mage w/o assensing is a joke, it literally means you are too confused to see what's up when you astrally perceiving, even if you ignore all my other points, invest a skillpoint or 2 into assensing.

Going skills A means that you have 46 skills and 10 skillgroups. To compensate for magic C you'd be losing 10 skillpoints. Out of 46.

Mage/decker is always hard to build so there will always be disagreements on what's needed and what's not, but psure skills below C for this is an exercise in futility.
>

There's not a single more fun roleplay flaw then uneducated, you can't prove me wrong.
>mfw being scared of the eternally starting eye of the automated auto cab
>mfw being unintentionally racist because I don't know if elves trolls and orcs can be black
>mfw spending all my cash on real food because soy isn't how a man should eat

ok, wasting so many points on first aid just for the sake of flavor sucks, but sacrifices have to be made sometimes.

i can put the 5 skillpoints in summoning into assensing instead.cant afford a sustaining charm or even a deck that is good enough for average rolls with cash d. so i need meta cash and magic in a-c. i swapped attributes and skills for 6 more skillpints and am thinking about switching to mys adept so i can get 4 more skillpoints in the important stuff for 10 karma

Try Uncouth.

It has its own brand of sillyness.

Hell yes. Nobody ever wants to play street games, it's always high power tactical operations.

This one is more about establishing the monster kid gang, doing 4-kidz shadowruns, and possibly starting up some barrens-equivalent of a lemonade stand.

I'm gonna leave you be, but before I do I'd recommend you check out modding rules for decks in data trails, and also say that all a sustaining foci does is remove a -1 penalty(it's -1 because if you are not on psyche you are doing magic wrong).

Try out gremlins 4. Its hilarious, sad and disastrous.

I dunno, I think all campaings with new groups should start street, cause why not. If you have a group that's already used to shadowrun and eachother, sure start as supercriminal elite, but otherwise keeping your head low is da best.

I'd say don't make them kids, unless you already have a group that's into it, just young adults dealing with barrens life. Other than that, cool idea chummer.

I sorta want it to be shadowrun kids so that I can have that whole childhood scamps angle on the adventures.

You know, stealing baked goods from ms. Picarthy's windowsill and the like. Between the muggings.

I think playing kids could be a good start. Let them do a few literal milk runs to get started, then fast forward to young adults when they get their first karma dump. It's a good opportunity to flesh out a PC's development.

>SURGE kids trying to scam your way into easy living

Fuck yeah, that sounds awesome.

I'm playing a Nocturnal character with 2 LOG and 2 WIL. Those Attributes get literally cut in half during the daytime. It's like getting to play two characters, one who's just out of bed and terribly grumpy and another who's wide-eyed and energetic as long as it's after 9 PM.

Funny enough, he does have gremlins 1 and gets into all sorts of hijinks due to it and him only having a 1 in logic.

Huh, the sniper of our crew has uncouth, go figure. The player behind the character seems to enjoy it a lot. I could be wrong, but is that you, Reaper?

>Incredible Crisis
Thanks, now my wrists hurt again

if im not mistaken modding still only gives me a max of 5 which wastes some average hit on 19 dice hack on the fly

pls rate my first SR character ever.

What are some good uses for Trid Phantasm? What would happen if I made illusory suppressing fire?

Get the Smoke&Mirrors program and some Noise Reduction.

still only got 8 or 9 defensive dp and 0 program slots left. feels like even low level security can kill me with that

if only aspected mages werent so shitty i could go skill>meta>$>magic>attributes but as is i dont really want magic at d and money at d still seems really bad for a decker

You can get 2 extra program slots by modding any deck with the "Virtual Machine" carrier module.

And a high sleaze will allow you to remain running silent and hidden more easily. Security cant ICe what they can't see.

And on top of that if you hack from AR, worst that can happen is your deck getting bricked. You'll need to get it repaired, sure, but you cannot take any meat damage sticking to AR.

Is wearing a full facemask at all times an acceptable distinctive style?

Would you, as a player, get mad at your street sam if he was a bit famous and had the distinctive style trait for being an ex-power ranger?

Sure, people are weird. They'll do whatever makes them feel normal. Wearing the same mask for years at a time is better for you than alcohol poisoning.

thats pretty neat. Still seems kinda risky cause you lose even more money when your deck is bricked but i might try that. would still love to take money at c+ but pretty much every option i to do that kinda sucks. Why cant aspekted mages get spells for free?

>Combat Knife
>No points in blades

>Ork decker, no LOG booster

You've got a really expensive deck that you can't really take advantage of. The deck mostly sets your limits, but with your dice pools, you're rarely going to be getting more than 5 hits. Dump that deck for something cheaper like the Tsurugi or Navigator and use the extra nuyen to pick up a Cerebral Booster (you can afford one at Rating 2!).

One more thing: I'd pick up some skill specializations. Pistols (Semi Automatics) is basically free dice, and you'll want some specs for your favorite Matrix actions. The points in mechanics aren't doing much and can be picked up with post-chargen karma. I'd advise that you convert them to specializations.

Your cyberarm of doom is pretty nice, though. Good call there.

I'd be fine with it.

>I dunno, I think all campaings with new groups should start street, cause why not. If you have a group that's already used to shadowrun and eachother, sure start as supercriminal elite, but otherwise keeping your head low is da best.

Nah. Most people I've played Shadowrun with (and indeed most people I've played tabletop games with) don't want to be the low end of the setting's scale. They want to be the ones who have cool cyberware, or are awesome mages or l33t hackers or whatever. It's the same reason why groups should skip the first few levels in D&D; nothing exciting happens there.

I would be very careful with that spell, it's one of those "so poorly worded it can do anything" spells, so it's real easy to make your GM tired of it and start being a dick about it. It's intended use is creating mostly static objects within a given area, try not to overstep it.

It tends to backfire, like pretty much always. Everyone goes, yes I know shadowrun, I'm a pro etc. One high threat run later you have a corpses and a survivors with bounty on their head looking for a way to lay low. In D&D player competence is n't mandatory, because everyone knows how to be a hero of a fairy tale, few know how to be a criminal in a corporate surveillance state.

Eh, don't worry, repairing gear isn't that hard nor expensive. You need a toolkit, time, and a point of Edge to downgrade any pesky glitches (just to be sure).