/srg/ Shadowrun General - Through the Valley of the Shadowrun Edition

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>Shoot straight
>Conserve ammo
>And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon

Tell me about your souls, chummers. To Whom do you consign your demonstrably existent spirit? Do you go to mosque every Friday like a good Muslim, do you ask a priest to forgive you for last run's sins, do you dance for the Great Ghost or get your thetans read?

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>Connected to Green Onion Routers
Why do we use these, again?

As a counterpoint to the loving message of OP, behold the worst table in all of Shadowrun 5.

Why, you may ask? Because of this bit of explanation.
>Moderate changes are less common, but still relatively easy and can be done in appointment clinics, if not in walk-in. These include body-hair removal (popular everywhere), removal of extreme levels of weight (twenty-five kilos and up!), or scalp replacement to grow different color/texture hair.

>[Transgender augments are] actually something of a hot topic at MIT&T. KAM might like to attribute it to psychological reactions, but magical theory has found that people who identify as pre-op transgendered has a slight distortion to their auras. Almost imperceptible, but still there, though it doesn’t seem to affect them, health- or magic-wise. The crazy thing is, procedures to bring them closer to their self-perceived correct state cause this distortion to stabilize. Some people say it’s a matter of self-sabotage or a subconscious side effect of feeling disconnected from your true self, but most of the research done thus far strongly supports that operations aligning the body with the identity of the subject in a non-enhancement way don’t damage their metaphysical self at all.

You can go from a tiny Arab elf girl to a big Inuit orc man, and it doesn't alter your Essence in the least. It's all cosmetic, true, your attributes and limits don't change. But if you get the next stage in hair plugs by replacing your scalp, or pull out your hair follicles, that dings your immortal soul. Because your true self might be a different race, metatype, and gender, but if your true self is skinny or has red hair instead of brown then you are committing a grave metaphysical crime.

If they want to say that trans people are all fine, then at least make it consistent- make all the cosmetic bioware without stat effects (like Reduction) Essence-cost free. As it is, it's just bad writing with arbitrary distinctions.

Now post the Fleshfinder from SR4.

They're safe, they're hidden, and they go great with stir fry.

Not sure I see the connection to a weird Nazi artifact from the worst SR4 book.

Posting shitty parts of SR would be the connection.

I'm kinda considering playing a nork mage who works for their goverment in exile (now basically a criminal syndicate that funds itself via dealing drugs and counterfeiting corpscrip) that worships Kim Il Sung as the savior of the korean people and has him as a mentor spirit.
I also kinda wanna play a scientologist who runs in order to pay for the exorberant cost of auditing. (Especially given that the alternative would be to join the sea org and pay for auditing via working as slave labor and also occasionally being sent to toil in secret desert labor camps.)

What about Carrot Routers? Just as safe, hidden, and they also go in stir fry.

>secret desert labor camps

Is this an actual Scientology thing? I don't recall it being mentioned in any SR book (though I do like how Awakened Scientologists are the ones who do readings. If you can assense, you can get a steady job telling people about their thetans.

It's dumb and edgy, but at least 'strong and sustained emotions can influence something into being an artifact' is an established part of SR. It's not like it makes you some great murderer or drives you to kill, it's just some horrifying lump of magically aligned metal.

When are some other times that's happened? I wasn't aware of any.

>Is this an actual Scientology thing?
Yeah. It's not even that big of a secret. If you're a member of the Sea Org and you break one of the numerous rules, you get sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force. Back when the Sea Org was actually at sea, your job was mostly just dealing with bilge water, but now they mostly just do anything that requires a lot of manual labor, preferably out in the california desert.
Also, even if you aren't a member of RPF and are instead a regular member of the Sea Org in good standing, sometimes David Miscavige (scientology's pope equivalent) will personally beat the shit out of you. I think he also shoved someone out of a window once.

>sometimes David Miscavige (scientology's pope equivalent) will personally beat the shit out of you. I think he also shoved someone out of a window once.

Neat.

Well, technically you can go from apparently a tiny Arab elf girl to a tiny Inuit ork guy with no loss, but being taller does. And the hair stuff is only if you for some reason want to drop two and a half times the money to get your scalp replaced instead of just getting cosmetic bioware. But hey, perhaps you really just feel you must get rid of your old scalp.

Honestly, given that the line as a whole has been really iffy about what causes Essence loss and doesn't, it's seemingly less to do with any kind of 'metaphysical crime' and more about some kind of recognized difference or unrecognized healing.

At least that's my reasoning for why a cloned limb still involves a tiny bit of essence loss and why bad medical care could also lose you essence. The soul doesn't quite recognize that everything's healed up right, and so it's less attached.

Of course, like I said. The line's never been super solid about why Essence can go down and what it's really about.

>Making a campaign for one of the Returns games
>Realize I have a shitton of female characters
>Only come up with more female characters

fuck why is my UGC turning into a harem anime

Because your UGC is the file to be retrieved in the next iteration of LoveLoveAnon's module.

Shadowrun is startlingly good for waifus.

I mean you wouldn't think a shitty dystopia would produce that many but.

A place being aspected from emotions is an established fact of mana. There's a number of artifacts that seem to be impacted by emotions associated with it.

The Fairy Flag of Dunvegan (Target: Awakened Lands) is a real Scottish flag, but now it glows in the Astral and people can hear a ghostly army. The Jade Dragon of Wind and Fire (Year of the Comet) was made in the 5th World but affects mana lines now. The MacDonald Claymore (Imago adventure) puts up a magic force field around it's castle that repels all non-MacDonald magicians. Dunkelzahn's Will bequeathed the Spear of Longinus, which is apparently a weapon focus. I'm sure there's other, more mundane ones, those are just a few that I know of.

Forgot my picture. I wonder if it's still in the case, or if they let it fly on a banner pole.

The Carrot Routers are more useful for covertly connecting to corporate nodes. Something about the configuration process and the way the routers connect to exit nodes fucks with the IC.

Connecting to a runner data haven through Carrot Routers is like going grocery shopping in a tacsuit.

I'm new to the game, and I'm going to be running an SR5 campaign soon. Is there a list of essential gear for starting characters that I can pass on to my players?

Listening to this for inspiration.

broadcastify.com/listen/feed/763/web

If you have Run Faster, they will want at least the stuff in the Intro Runner Pack (backpack and restraints optional).

More likely they'd want a kit that resembles the Basic Runner or Advanced Runner kits with extra ammo.

Of course, depending on what roles they're playing, they will be switching out certain bits of those kits. (Face might want more lower grade credsticks to use as bribes, for instance.)

They'll also want to license some/most R-rated things (or magic abilities) at the fake SIN's level unless you're going to be heavily in the barrens. Reminder that in UCAS, you don't technically need a summoner's license for any bound spirit Force 3 or below. But it's still a safe thing to get one if you want to have one around you.

Are you saying I -shouldn't- do that? But how am I gonna shoplift If I can't turn invisible?

Depends on the what type of game you're playing, but a really good list of basic things are.

Commlink. Literally required. Just fucking get it. This is the most important thing in the whole game next to firearms.
An Fake SIN plus Licenses for what they want.
A gun. If one of your players wanna be One-Punch Man (like every new player to RPGs in general wants to do for some fucking reason, maybe that's just my friends) they can ignore it. If they do get a gun, get a big one and a small one. Or just a couple of big ones.
Lethal and Non-lethal ammo.
Armor Jacket. Just get it, you probably need it.
A vehicle is useful, unless everybody is bumming together they can all pile into their own car.
A backpack is great.
A lifestyle that isn't Street. Even squatter is good if you specify that it's a coffin motel.
A crowbar or a chisel. Good for getting into places with blunt force.
Sunglasses and earbuds if their perception sucks dick.
Gas Mask and Chem Suit. Or don't if you plan on being a douche and tear-gassing them repeatedly.

... and that's just off the top of my head.

We don't talk about Carrot Routers.

Is "you are the complication of some other group of runners" a good shadowrun complication?

It was pretty fun when our GM pulled it on us.

Almost made our sniper feel bad about plugging a guy when he found out we were in the same line of work.

Yes, especially if you have a group of players that love making friends with NPCs.

And putting my my two centavos about two little bits of this planned kit. If somebody's going to want to do disguises, they may want an Armored Vest because it can go with just about any disguise by not being seen.

Some casing for both audio and visual enhancements is desirable even if they have good perception. It's up to them if they want to rely on their DNI (implanted comm or deck, datajack, or trodes) or put image and sound links in their glasses/contacts/goggles and earbuds, but the rest of the thing's capacity should go towards a mix of just dice enhancing stuff and capability expanding stuff. Note that if a character isn't going to aim, a smartlink-in-gear-smartgun combo isn't price efficiency-wise any better than a laser sight. But if they will aim, then it's a bit better. Don't have to choose, but you're probably not in a sitch where that's super useful.

Is being a van helsing/belmont too gimmicky for a shadowrun group?
I feel like loading up silver bullets and crosses and whips and stake guns.

Not at all... unless you're fighting humans.

Ask your DM.

Naive Hawaiian dwarf shaman on the mainland because she royally pissed off the yaks; hot or not?

It was either that or a Greek snake shaman who receives uncontrollable oracular visions, but the game is set in Los Angeles so I have a harder time working them into things.

Help me decide?

If you support the gear properly (I'd suggest being an Adept, possibly MysAdept so you can be Richter), it's not too bad.

'Paracritter/Infected Hunter' is a good jumping off point for a character with tracking abilities, stealth abilities, and combat abilities. So they'd make a great runner, you just need to not focus so hard on the gimmick that they are -only- useful against their primary foe.

Are the Yaks big in hawaii? I'm aware they're a free kingdom/country now, but I don't know what the shadows there are like.

A Hawaiian shaman sounds neat, though.

I mean, the yaks are big there in our world. Most of the illegal guns in Japan and Korea come through Hawaii at some point, and I'm sure the Japanese helped the Hawaiian bid for independence in SR.

Heyo chummers, I need a premise and a good second run for my campaign. I'm running a 4e, and I have just not prepared AT ALL for my session this Saturday, and I don't feel comfortable trying to wing it. Any help you have would be appreciated.

now to just figure out what the stats on a stake gun would be.
Somewhere between a crossbow and a gun.

You ever read Dunkelzahn's will? Drop a lead in the players laps to the original Jiffy Pop recipe.

Where is it set, who are the runners, what was session one, etc

Take a western or crime movie that's close to you. Watch it. Cut the plot in half (roughly), and make that either the complication for a simpler run or the run itself.

Depends on what movie you had close by and chose.

Yeah, but I had someone sassing a Swedish runner I made about their homeland being 'The Islamic Caliphate of Sweden' until I reminded them that SR runs on a split timeline and in-universe Sweden isn't like that.

It's worth checking your books.

Does this work for fakes? Is the turin shroud magic now, even though it was made long after christ died?
It'd probably fall apart if you let it out of the case.
Sounds like it'd be hilarious. Do it, esp. if your runners aren't fans of legwork and like to do things with big explosions.
Van Helsing was a medical doctor with a silly accent, so yeah, being him wouldn't be that helpful.
As far as being a vampire hunter goes, it'd be OK if infected feature greatly in the campaign. Ask your DM about it, cuz otherwise all your gimmicky stuff will go useless.
I think they'd both be great characters.
Also, you do realize immigration is a thing, right? Your greek's great great great great grandparents moved to america because they were sick and tired of living under ottoman rule or some shit.
Heists are always good. Either the players need to steal a mcguffin from a safety deposit box in a bank, or they need to steal it from a moving armored car. Either works.

>inb4 the sentient pop-star AI run.

As mentioned, Run Faster has PACKS, which are specially designed for new players to snatch up and easily get gear. Not just the basic runner packs, but there's kits for various archetypes, for weapons, for 'ware, all with helpful little blurbs. Use them, they cover most of the things in.

Also, not having a vehicle is a big deal. Some GMs might handwave getting around, but because so much of SR relies on timing it's important- can't bus everywhere with a duffel full of guns, and during legwork you're going to need to get around on your own.

My recommendation, if you see a runner without a car, is to point out the bicycle. Sure, it's not stylish, but it's faster than feet and it goes everywhere.

Unfortunately pic related doesn't exist, but there are crossbows in core and pistol crossbows in Hard Targets, and they're pretty decent (the crossbow hits like a machine gun). There's also a harpoon gun.

Or you could buy guns and get wood pulp and silver bullets.

There's a speargun in Arsenal (It's bad).

Just run with a crossbow. Vampires hate wood to the point where wood-pulp-bullets fuck them up, Stakes through the heart don't do anything a stake through the skull wouldn't.

also damn kaptcha being a bitch tonight.

>four empty plots
>3 carrots
w-wheres the fourth carrot?

>The soul doesn't quite recognize [...], and so it's less attached.
This is the crux of it. When your essence is low, there's less connectivity between your astral form and physical form.

Why the fuck do they need an overpriced cyberware enhancement to be placed inside their headphones?

I was actually going to have one of my players start getting hunted by Omega Dawn if his grenade shenanigans keep going the way they are going. It all fun and games until you blow up a bar in southend Boston, when you weren't even on for a job... he just always keeps those fucking grenades on him... he rps well but it can be so frustrating.
>The Boston Grenadier has struck again in west Cambridge just a few block from MIT&T
>In unrelated news, upcoming all elf guitar band Flamin' Strings never wants to play a show in Boston again.

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT CARROT ROUTERS

She ate it.

You don't. I was saying that if they didn't want to have a DNI, which they get from any of those things, they can just put an image link in a visual device, and a sound link in an audio one. Or if they're paranoid and want back-up, or put the trodes into a piece of headware that they're not going to wear all the time.

I feel like you're misquoting me by quoting me like that. But I think the bigger part is that the line's never actually been too good about nailing down the solid wheres and whys of Essence loss.

Here's a similar concept I just worked up, for a mundane (and more practical) version of the concept.

What's important is that he doesn't just kill monsters. He can fight most anyone well, and especially mages with his Magic Resistance. He has a pimped-out car, which is really valuable in most groups. With some special bullets, AgHexHex, and a knowledge skill, a little goes a long way in flavour.

>crossbow hits like a machine gun
Holy shit, that might be perfect.
Unless you're talking about a really shitty machine gun

I feel like this guy has to correct people that his street name isn't a misspelling of Stalker a lot.

>bicycle
Dodge Scoots can also be useful if you want to, yaknow, actually go somewhat quickly. Assuming you don't mind looking like a dork on what I assume is a cross between a unicycle and a moped.

Headphones/earbuds do not need sound links because they connect directly to the commlink. It works a lot like the wireless headphones we have today. Plug one in into the headphone jack and place the buds over the ears.

>Plug one in into the headphone
Plug the transceiver into the headphone jack.

Not really using it to quote you, but point out what I'd consider the better of the numerous official explanations. The chrome flesh tranny thing is still an issue for being obviously tacked on, though.

>Does this work for fakes? Is the turin shroud magic now, even though it was made long after christ died?

But honestly I can't get a straight answer. I hoped the GeMiTo sections would have something on the Shroud, but nothing really concrete

It started as a play on 'Stoker'.

A heavy crossbow with smartlink is 7A, 10P. A Stoner MMG with smartlink is 7A, 10P.

A crossbow obviously has much more limited crowd suppression abilities, but fit it with explosive bolts and you can put down people like you're using a sniper.

A Scoot is 3000¥, a good bike is 500¥. Most of the times, vehicles are last on the list for non-riggers. It's embarrassing, but at least it works and is cheap. Probably just as fast, too.

Just realised I bought a FlaShield, but forgot to delete the old Ballistic shield. Now I've got an extra 1200¥.

It's like finding a $50 in your winter coat.

Also, get incendiary bolts. Burns like a motherfucker through armour, and you can wirelessly detonate it and burn a couple different targets, which is good enough to help suppress a group.

Add some Hammerheads, and a couple of SnS with static shafts for absolutely ruining the day of spirits, and you're golden.

>* You have 1 new private message, titled ''We Do What Wiccan't"

I want to say that a soundlink in the earbuds is pretty useless (doubly so if you're using your commlink's built in retractable earbuds), but if you didn't want a free standing set of trodes or other method of getting a DNI, it has incredibly niche uses. Other than audio AROs. (Amusingly, the text seems to imply that you could make one of those uses getting music from your gun even if there's too much Noise.) But yeah. It's definitely a low priority because it has no niche uses.

Mind if I ask which official explanation you're thinking of? I want to know what kind of view you're using. (As an aside, Chrome Flesh's mods would definitely be supported under 3e, with the possible change of making ripping out your scalp and putting in a new one into one of those 0 essence changes.)

SR 3rd question here, the tables imply that a 5 intelligence is above average, yet it only nets you 7 language skill points, which is barely more than enough to cover fluency and literacy in one language. Are you then expected to drop knowledge skill points for additional languages? Is this wise, or should I conserve points for other relevant knowledge skills? (I speak four languages and I'm not very smart, I don't understand the anti lingual bias here, chummers)

>Tell me about your souls, chummers
That's the great thing about being a Shaman.
"Hey Bear, we cool?"
"GROOOOOOWR!"
"Yeah we're good."

I think you're misreading things. The little table on p 41 puts 5 at pretty well above average and you can still get language ranks with general knowledge skill points. You also have a small number of extra points just for languages.

So it's saying that you picked up seven points of language skills without any studying. Putting knowledge points into it represents some study.

But in short, the bias should be seen as (at least semi-)intentional work by corps to keep people uneducated.

Oh! So you don't have to spend points on your native language then, am I reading that correctly?
>I don't think they printed these books in Romanian, I'm trying to read them in English.
Would that mean I have 7 points to spend on secondary and tertiary languages? So for example, German as a natural language at no cost, then Japanese for my 7 points and some extra Knowledge skill points in English as business languages?

Bear shaman bro!

My shaman took out an elite corp-security team with a stunball and all it cost him was 7 points of physical drain. Mission complete without a single metahuman-casualty! One week of chilling in his new apartment that he got with the Nuyen earned by selling the loot and he'll be up fine too.

For the record, the team was robbing an armoured van. We left behind the some of the stuff that we considered too hot to touch including a magical statue that was property of Lowfyr. Luckily we managed to explain one of the characters that we WILL shoot him if he tries to take it with him. Now we just hope that good ol' Lowfyr won't eat us and our families.

>Tell me about your souls, chummers. To Whom do you consign your demonstrably existent spirit? Do you go to mosque every Friday like a good Muslim, do you ask a priest to forgive you for last run's sins, do you dance for the Great Ghost or get your thetans read?

I feel like that's a way more interesting question for the NON-awakened characters than the ones that get magical powers from their faith-traditions. I assume there's plenty of atheists in the sixth world, but who all do you play with that believes even if they're not getting juju from it?

I'm looking at my own sheet and I have a hacker who's a Christmas-and-Easter catholic, and an infiltrator who believes in chinese folk religion (and traditional chinese medicine, which annoys one street doc she knows).

Every other religious 'runner I've made is a mage/shaman or adept of some stripe.

It's been a long while (thankfully hadn't put the book back up), but I think that the free Language points are supposed to represent the character's mother tongue or tongues.

By the text, a rating of three in a skill is competence (so a person with 2 Intelligence can speak their native language perfectly well, and read/write poorly, but at the expected level of most people) and it roughly works out to getting that one success you'll need for day-to-day life. But because of how the example and the tns work out, the chart doesn't work well for non-daily stuff.

(I'm not the best traveled man around, but I can get across tax information to a person speaking with a Caribbean accent and that's supposed to be near impossible when it's important.)

Wew, thank you for explaining more clearly! I appreciate the help!

What active skill would the use of a taser come under? I see edged weapons and unarmed, but nothing under simple or nonlethal melee.

For 5e, it's pistols.

Same 3e user, here, but I'll assume it's the same, since it doesn't distinguish. Thank you!

Pistols if you're shooting it, Clubs if you're using a stunner.

Ironically, I left out the 'it's also pistols in 3e' bit because I was having some issues with captcha and was frustrated by the time I got through I forgot to finish the sentence.

(P 86 if you need a page reference.)

Chummer 5.182 has been released. Per usual, there's so much fixed broken shit that it doesn't fit in the field length.

github.com/chummer5a/chummer5a/releases/tag/5.182.0

Heya /srg/!
I'm going to be participating in a Desert Wars campaign in the near future, with the PCs being a new contender in the wild world of combat sports in bombed out lybia (for those who don't know, Desert Wars is a combat sport played between corp security teams in Lybia/Egypt, with non-lethals used until the final round.)
What do you guys think would be an interesting character to play in a game like this? I had a few ideas in mind.
>Option A: An older SWAT commander with knowledge of small unit and military tactics
>Option B: A bubbly girl who is very much into the viewership and sponsorship aspects of DW. Think fan events, taking a nice refreshing drink of Dr. Fibb(tm) after winning a match, and being cute while doing it
Which of these do you guys like more?

Both.

The second one.

In the same accident that netted him all that yamatetsu betaware on his left side, Helleb0re got a cyberlung when his meatbag collapsed.
The real question is,
How long can Helleb0re eat troll pussy with a top-grade prototype polymer lung to hold his breath with?
I'm asking for science.

There's a formula for how long you can hold your breath in 5e under drowning. A cyberlung (or 2) wouldn't change much since its primary goal is to emulate the whole "supply oxygen to blood" thing. To keep your breath for really long periods, you'll need an internal air tank.

I KNEW I SAVED THIS FOR A REASON

I think I'll go with the second and do the whole
>Cameras stopped rolling? Get me a cig.
Type instead of
>Pure idol waifu

Obviously she'll have high charisma, but what should her other role be? Mage? Gun Bunny? Neko Decker?

I know what I'm spending my next payday on
I'M GOING TO MAKE GUNNR A VERY HAPPY LADY

Neko mage. Use Egyptian tradition and animate cat paraphernalia. Oh, and get Sunbeam for shits and giggles.

>To keep your breath for really long periods, you'll need an internal air tank
Or p4m0 "blue blood", oxyrush nanites, adept powers, spells, etc.

I wanted this for reasons before lewds.

Internal Air Tank gives you several hours, so if you're looking for...uh, oral sustainability, it's hard to beat.

But that takes the fun out of it

I've thought about using some unused run ideas for it.
Kind of lazy about learning to do it despite actually working in the unity game engine regularly.

You may want to look into lingos

my runner's a texan catholic holy father of an orc. He's the party big guy and face. He usually prays for absolution on his own.

Father Gregory's basically like a jaded dad for his runner team, driving everyone around in his "JESUS SAVES" labled GMC van.

I had an idea for a character who was a technomancer who is filled with insane amount of nanobots and able to communicate to some degree with them. (Like how the books mention techno manners able to "argue" with microwaves). has found a sort of spirituality in resonance that allows him to keep himself together and live in harmony with them despite all the voices literally in his head.

How do you feel about CFD?

That would be wonderful if that was how essence actually worked, the reason for the psychological issues is because you essentially build your own dysphoria.

It would also explain why they chose to make sexual reassignment surgery not cost essence.

Alas, that's not what essence is, not how it works, and would require a complete overhaul of the system.