/srg/ Shadowrun General - More Toxic Than A Shitposter Edition

Not to mention Elemental Attack, up to Magic/Force meters away, which lets him cook a truck full of runners like popcorn in a microwave.

That's 12, max 18 meters.

You can drive faster than an angry spirit, right?

Until it uses Movement to multiply it's speed by it's Magic, sure. Then it's going fast enough to stick it's astral dick down my throat and ejaculate cancer into my lungs before I can bring my guy to bear.

I'm pitting my runners against a group of toxic mages. I'm waiting to reveal radiation spirits just because they're such a big fuck you (-AP = armor value!) but when it happens, it sound really put the fear of Winternight in them.
So far they only know there are some Toxics and they're bad news. And that they had a plan to nuke the city (or somewhere). Soon they'll find that was only one of like 4 simultaneous plans.

A Force 12 spirit can move 48 meters in ~3 seconds, right? That's about 35.7 miles per hour. Of course that's manifested and it takes a complex to go from one plane to the next. Driving away is not a bad choice as long as you don't stop, I suppose.

What if it doesn't follow you when you are in a car?

It walks at Agilityx2. For a Nuclear Spirit at Force 12, that's 14 Agility, 28 meters walking, 56 meters running.

If it uses Movement, multiplying it's speed by it's magic (which is equal to it's force), that's running at 672 meters a second, 3360 meters a minute, or better than 24,000km an hour.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because that's a ridiculous speed and I don't know if Spirits use special rules or I just suck at math, but if I understand correctly then basically you can't outrun a spirit unless you're going twice the speed of sound. Even a Westwind will have some trouble doing that.

IIRC you can fuck around with vehicle mods and get a car from Rigger 5 to go at a measurable fraction of C if you felt like it.

Actually, Nuclear Spirits don't have movement. Other toxics like Barren, Sludge, Noxious, and Abomination do, but Nuclear and Plague Spirits don't.

So you can outrun a nuclear spirit in a good car, but god help you if the toxic shaman has different kinds of spirits.

You can't do it with a car. Jets and humanoid drones, yes.

New mage here. What's a solid force for casting spirits and spells without utterly stunfucking myself to death? I mean force 12 monster spirits are rad, but they do kinda doom you unless you roll well or edge to safety.

Generally 3-4 is an achievable Force for most common summonings, and F6 is for a combat spirit.

Spells are usually on a case by case basis, who are you casting the spell on often determines how much you want to push it.

Spirits at lower forces (1-5) can be very useful for recon, whereas force 6+ are combat monsters.

>How are you supposed to fight Nuclear Spirits?
While wearing lead lined clothing, one would assume.
Like, if you're going off to fight Yuri the Radiant in the ruins of chernobyl, you should probably be prepared to deal with radiation.

I like going for force 6 fire spirits when you need something engulfed.

I don't know if this changes peoples answers, but i'm a possession mage.

Huh. That'll really change people's answers. Like, I got no damn clue as to how possession mages work. Can possessed folks even use spirit powers like engulf?

No. You just need a body for your spirit to interact with the physical world.

Force 3 for some astral scouting, Force 6 inside something solid to fuck things up.

6 Is the highest starting level for a skill, including knowledge skills, right? So if I have Agi 4 I can only put 2 points into pistols?

I mean at character creation

Dice Pool =/= Skill Rating
I made the same mistake my first time around.
If you have 4 Agility, you can put 6 Points (and a Specialization) into Pistols, and then you cna roll a full 10 dice.

No. Attribute level is irrelevant to skill level.

Hot damn thanks.

No, you can put in 6 points, because 6 is the max number of points you can put in. That'll give you 10 dice total, which is 2 dice less than what you want if you're focusing on pistols.
Wouldn't they be rolling 12 dice with the specialization?

youtu.be/fjKVXvBWGZU

I need some cyberpunk movies to watch, any suggestions?

Can you guys tel me more about gangs (or where to look up more info about them)? They seem to not have much said about them in 5e.
I browsed through the Vice book from 4e. Is that the best source right now?
And lastly, is there any truth to the rumor that the Desolation Angels are run by a Mantis Spirit?

I wasn't counting the specialization. If they take the correct Revolvers specialization, they get to roll 12 dice with their Warhawk.

Why is sonar in shadowrun so much worse than sonar IRL? The ultrasound sensor in the corebook has a 50 meter range. Meanwhile, american sonar devices during ww2 had a 2286 meter range.
I understand if a sonar device put into someone's head would have to be slightly shitty in order to fit it inside someone's head, but you'd think that vehicle mounted sonar devices would be able to see at least as far as sonar devices built over 130 years ago.
The same thing applies to radar. The US army's SCR-584 radar, used during WW2, had a range of 64008 meters. Meanwhile, radar units in shadowrun have a range of 50 meters. What the hell is going on here?

Then you add two dice due to smartlink running silent with cybereyes.

Total 14 dice, which is respectable. Until you take into account range penalties, glare, darkness etc...

The Zero Theorem is great if you like existential angst, although it's the least funny thing done by an ex-python to date.

Sonar =/= ultrasound.

sick.com/gb/en/product-portfolio/distance-sensors/ultrasonic-sensors/c/g185671

>Integrated time-of-flight technology detects objects such as glass, liquids and transparent foils, independent of color
>Range up to 8,000 mm

That's 8 meters right there. Sonar doesn't work half as well in air.

Huh. Still doesn't answer my question about radar.

I enjoy Terry's stuff. I saw it and I enjoyed it.

Repo! The Genetic Opera is a really awful cyberpunk musical. I genuinely don't know who thought making a cyberpunk musical would be a good idea, but there you go.

This may surprise you, but a military grade, shed-sized radar emplacement with a directional dish as large as a tractor tire, operated by a highly trained crew, is more effective than some discreet vehicle mod using a robot brain to interpret it's surroundings.

Here's a guide to a personal radar device, with a range of about 5 meters at it's max.
pyroelectro.com/projects/ir_radar/

The waves travel a lot farther, but the limited computing power can't turn it into useful data.

It's a thankless job, someone's got to do it.

And? The military grade navigational systems used during the Gulf War now come standard in most phones.

And the radar tech is now a little box you wire into your car that does all the heavy lifting for you, just giving you the accurate results. And guns are still tubes with explosive powder that propel small pieces of metal at heigh velocity, the same way they did 200 years ago. Technology doesn't move in lockstep. Radar uses bouncing radio waves, and if you're not getting a good-sized dish to receive the signals better there's only so far it can be taken.

Are you upset that technology moved dramatically ahead, but is not magic?

I'm not an expert, but GPS and sonar are not the same thing, are they?

You don't even get the option to put a dish on though. And assuming the dish only rotates when it's in use, it wouldn't even be that conspicuous if you put it on the right vehicle. The RVs in rigger 5 literally come standard with a satellite dish. Replace that with the radar dish and no-one's the wiser until you turn it on.
I was just using that as an example of how military tech ends up in civilian hands.

Hey Chummers

What makes the best GUY WHO SHOOTS THINGS character: A Sam or a GSA? And what guns for that character? Automatics or Pistols?

>What makes the best GUY WHO SHOOTS THINGS character
Lightly 'wared GSA

>what guns?
Automatics

Automatics are the gold standard for shooting things. Pistols are for the face.

'wared GSA? Interesting.

Is there anywhere I can read a guide to Minmaxing GSA in SR5? Specifically so I can go read that instead of keeping on bugging the thread.

>Automatics are the gold standard for shooting things.

No, that's Heavy Weapons. People are just too boring to carry an assault cannon everywhere like a real man.

There's no resist check for the attribute boost drain is there?

If you don't care about subtlety, Heavy Weapons ends up losing out to Gunnery, which covers everything in the game so long as you mount it to a go-kart first.

How do people become toxic mages? Is it like comic books where you get exposed to radiation and end up getting super powers instead of cancer?

How should i go about my insane hobo dual wielding gundept PC i'm intending to make for an upcoming campaign?

All spells and powers have drain and drain resist rolls as per normal unless there is specifically mentioned DO NOT RESISt, DO NOT PASS START, DO NOT COLLECT 200 NUYEN!

First you take raial max in Agility and max points in automatics.

Then you sacrifice one point of Essence and Magic for Muscle Toner 2, Smartlink, Reflex Recorder (Automatics) and a Datajack.

With your five remaining PP, you take Improved Reflexes 2, Attribute Boost (Agility) 1 and Improved Ability (Automatics) 3. You can also take attribute Boost (Agi) 1 as a Qi Focus.

This allows you to max out your agility on demand. With a honorable (3D6 + REA + INT +2) initiative and 20+ dice in automatis, you can rock and roll with an Ares Alpha all night.

So since sex reassignment costs zero essence, does that mean a dragon could theoretically get a sex change? I know they can't get cybernetics, but without the essence hole thing it seems like it should be possible. Asking because reasons.

You say sacrifice one point of Essence - Couldn't I just use Prototype Transhuman to get the best of both worlds on this one?

>karmagen
>Elf is 40 karma
>Dryad is 90

>priority / sum to 10
>Elf and Dryad have identical progression

I already know the reason, but someone has asked the writers about this, right?

Street Grimoire 79-80 has the general paths people take to becoming toxic shamans (and blood mages). You have to already be Awakened, and then either you start using the corrupted mana of toxic places for your own ends, or you could just be crazy. If you Awaken in someplace like Glow City, odds are good that you're going to become toxic just because that's all the mana that surrounds you and you know of no other way.

Getting exposed to that mana sucks for regular magicians and adepts (and regular folk to a lesser extent) but it doesn't automatically turn you like Ooze and other strangeness. You need to make the choice, consciously or not, to use that rotten mana and let it in.

Be a gunadept, get Hobo with a Shotgun and one of the mental illness qualities. Glad to help.

>dual wielding
Don't. Dual wielding requires you to split your dicepool, meaning you need to be rolling 18 dice in order to not suck.
Wasn't there a dragon who got a datajack? But anyway, yeah, I guess they could.

No. Muscle Toner and the Reflex Recorder are Bioware, the Smartlink is Cyberware. You'll have to dip into your Essence either way if you want it all.

Prototype Transhuman will allow to get more 'ware on top of that if you really want it, though.

Sure, but then you either glow like a lighthouse on the astral or have a corp trying to hunt you down and recapture your ass.

Yeah, Eliohan. Which means, if I'm not mistaken, that there's at least in principle a path for a metahuman to become a female dragon. You'd just have to displace DEUS somehow and voluntarily e-ghost yourself before transferring into Eliohan's body, then construct a giant vat and retool SRS procedures for a dragon, then defend it for the three months or whatever it takes the procedure to go through..

>Wasn't there a dragon who got a datajack?

Eliohann. Didn't work out so well for him, though I guess it's not really the datajack's fault.

Maybe? They don't cover how that translates with shapechanging, so the dragon would have to stay in that shape forever, but there's no reason why you couldn't do surgery on a dragon.

Then what would I resist the drain with? Adepts don't have traditions.

>Adept Drain: Some powers cause Drain. The Drain from adept powers is Stun unless specified in the description, and is resisted with Body + Willpower.

Core, 308, right in the section about Adepts using powers. C'mon, user.

Glamour is broken.

Of course, the real minmaxers tend to play changeling elves with glamour, anyway.

Are toxic mages immune to their own gimmicks? Like, can a radiation mage die of radiation poisoning?

I want to squeeze every bit of Unarmed skill out of my PhysAd character at character creation. How can I go about that?

See , replace all mentions of Automatics by Unarmed Combat. You can drop the Smartlink, it's useless. Replace with one pair of Striking Calusses.

No. Standing in their own AoE they are going to get radiation poisoning. Standing next to an exposed nuclear reactor and they're going to get radiation poisoning, If they target themselves with radiation beam then they're going to get radiation poisoning.

Some Toxics also are motivated by ecoterrorism. They claim to be defending the planet by getting back at the people who poisoned it, by using that poison. Or they're the ones who claim that it's now time for toxic Earth to rule the day, for everything to be smog and sludge and those six-pack rings that dolphins get stuck in.

Yes and no. If a toxic mage eats a spoonful of uranium, he's going to die like a normal person would. However, they probably know some spells that help keep them alive while they squat in their toxic dump. As well, toxic adepts tend to be super gross due to the fact that adepts internalize their magic, but it's closer to how Nurgle followers look rotted but are sustained by magic.
>Some toxic adepts will become covered in boils, warts, and sores as their skin takes on a sick and diseased look. Others seep puss, bile, or filthy chemicals from their very pores. Drawing the toxic magic may give some a greatly enhanced physique, with their bones and muscles swollen and distended to enormous proportions, pulsing with malicious power. Others gain a sickly and emaciated appearance, mirroring the sick and shriveled aspects of the poisoned land. Their skin is pallid and drawn; their eyes sunken and discolored. Yet this appearance belies the fact that they still possess the same supernatural quickness and strength as they did before (if not more).

What's a respectable level of dice? I have one I've been tinkering with for a while, except that I traded AGI for STR. (DP of 17, 13P Damage because of Bone Density Aug)

Depends entirely on the table. Talk to the GM and the other players so that you're all at the same page; if everyone hits the same level of optimization, it doesn't particularly matter what the benchmark is. I've played in games where 12-14 in your primary diepool is top shelf, and I've heard of games where anything less than 20 is scorned.

Depends on what you're doing, omae.

In general for static tests you need 3-4 times the dice vs the number of hits you need, and in opposed test similar.

When more net hits equals more damage, you want as many dice as possible to 1shot folks.

In my experience 17 is not exceptional, that's what a human gets with a maxxed Arm of God, 6 points in a combat skill and a smartlink.

On the other hand it's more than enough to blast troggas dead with a fuckhueg revolver/deliver some brutal suppressing fire.

Who produces the Steel Lynx?

And are there alternate model names for drones, like there are for vehicles?

>17 is not exceptional
17 is pretty high. At my table "your thing" dicepools hover from 12-14.

Aww. What's the point of having crazy radiation wizards if they can't live in places filled with radiation.

Amusing how those things vary, huh?

But no, 17 is nothing exceptional in a combat skill. That's the level you can get simply throwing nuyen at the problem.

Non-combat skills, though, that's another discussion.

Deckers at my tables always seem to struggle with /only/ 12 dice in computer/cracking

Well, an AI with exceptional entity can have 13 CHA, 6 ranks and a specialty for a dicepool of 21 right out of the gate, which I think may be the highest, tied with an elf with exceptional attribute, geneware and max rank tailored pheremones.
Funny how it's easier to make a face AI than a hacker AI.

They do live in places filled with radiation. They just get sick from radiation and have to purge themselves with spells, continuing a never-ending cycle of rot and renewal. Or they wear hazmat gear.

Decking use mental attributes, and there's no (relatively speaking) cheap 'shortcut' to get them max attribute + 3 for almost all relevant actions like a "Hand of God" cyberarm does.

This being said, between a Cerebral Booster, Cerebellum Booster, specializations, the Codeslinger quality for their primary shtick and an Agent helping them with teamwork tests; a decker can push past the 12 dice barrier relatively easily.

What is this Hand/Arm of God?

Hey guys. Could you please post the character sheet for the spell foci abusing trolldept?

A cyberarm that is customized to your metatype's maximum Agility, and further equipped with 3 levels of Agility enhancement. (And optionally the same for Strength, but it becomes more expensive and might be too high in availability to get at chargen.)

As long as you use a one-handed weapon it boosts your dicepool tremendously, because you use the limb's Agility of (Racial Max +3) instead of your base Agility.

Alright, would you pass this as GM. ESS cost for Muscle Toner or similar ware is halved if the ware is concentrated for example hands only. Meaning actions that don't use wared bodypart don't get the bonus.
For example muscle toner on hands and upper body wouldn't give bonuses to running fast.

As far as I can tell the only spell capable of doing anything about radiation is decontamination, which just gives you extra dice to resist damage. Said damage is stun, so there's not really much a mage can do about it. By the time it slides over to physical, (at which point you can get rid of it via casting heal) your stun track is full.

So, i got Submereged for the first time (playing Technomancer). And i'm thinking what echo should i take? I'm thiking between FFF, Program [Signal Scrub] (we are playing as street scum in barrens, so there is a lot of noise) and Overclocking.

No. Muscle Toner/Augmentation is already really damn good, usually bought for a specific purpose (typically combat) but with handy side benefits. I wouldn't make it even easier to pump up your body with it, when the player is still going to get 90% of the desired use out of it.

Skinlink.

FFF cannot be taken as Echo for the first immersion, Overclocking is nice but not really primordial since you're in hot-sim anyway. And Skinlink should take care of noise as long as you can touch whatever (is slaved to) what you're trying to get into.

Explain Skinlink. What if i need to hack something in VR?

Doesn't matter whether you're in AR or VR. You just need to touch the target with part of your body and you have a direct connection to it.