/srg/ Shadowrun General - Let's Make A Deal Edition

Sup /srg/

I'm playing 5E in a friend's game soon, but I absolutely detest Shadowrun.

Give me an OP as fuck build for Street Level so I can absolutely ruin the game.

no.

no

>Street Level
Oh that's easy
Gear: Any gun
you then take the gun
and shoot yourself in the head

Why?

Absolutely not.

no

Because it's funny.

why the fuck do you play in it if you hate it?
what possible reason do you have to simply not say to your friend "I don't want to play"
You are a That Guy
yes I know this is bait

>I can't fix shit I don't know about, omae. Is it a specific improvement that crashes, do you get an error message?

The improvement type is for knowledge skills, if that helps you any. When I try to add 1 for my languages, since I have the Linguistics Adept power, I get a crash as soon as I hit 'select values'.

I'm away from chummer and my sheet for the moment, but I could get it on dropbox for you later on tonight.

I'm also having an issue that when you delete a knowledge skill you don't get its karma back, just to let you know in that regard too.

You take photographic memory and speedreading, go to the public library, learn all the dictionaries by heart. Go to spelling bee. Win. Make LOTS of nuyen. Contract a prime level runner team to work for you.
???
Profit

Anyone know of any funny/interesting ways to fuck with your GM? Not ruin the game for everyone or anything like that though

see
Works every time. Guaranteed.

>Troll proportions are weird, it's probably quite difficult to make clothes that fit them properly.
It's not as expensive as people think to get clothes tailored to fit you. Trolls probably buy generic, loose fits, then get them tailored.

You know, the ones who care how they look, anyway.

I have actually refluffed CFD to something far more flexible in the end result and far less spread than SUPER NANOTECH AIDS

I respect what it does but it's too pervasive

>Anyone know of any funny/interesting ways to fuck with your GM?
Actually bite every plot hook, and intentionally leave dangling plot hooks for your GM to bite in turn. They won't be able to help themselves, and it'll turn out great.

Interacting with the setting at every possible opportunity and giving your GM tons of character hooks to cause character-specific things for you personally will totally fuck with your GM, in a funny/interesting way.

For sure.

You're a real dick, you know that? What, you gonna tell him to put away his phone and pay close attention to room descriptions so he can work established furnishings into his actions next?

Last time I did this the GM ran out of content in 30 minutes since everything went exactly as planned. Game completely fell apart after that as he scrambled to send us on the next runs.

Sounds like you had a bad GM, omae.

It is. Gymnastics stole its' mechanics, like Swimming did for Diving.

Just ignore Free Fall & Diving entirely, and the game will be better for it.

Woosh

>I assume you want something like the vehicles output crossed with the text-only output?
Just line by line text output; with (eyeballing it) seven spaces for nuyen, four spaces for essence, and then item name. Would really beat doing it by hand for 550,000¥ worth of gear.

I always tell my players to make characters with some points in the "running" skill but to be honest I've never seen a situation where it was actually useful.

have you guys ever actually had to run for it and didn't have a vehicle close by?

5e edition rigging...

So if the Rigger is in the drone how does Matrix combat effect it?

I see that it says Control device actions aren't possible since the Rigger being in the drone supersedes all that.

What can marks be used for then? Can it still be fried through attacks?

the 5e book has a section where it points out where the rules intersect for both archetypes.

Think about how fucking huge that troll is - the pixie is something like 30-50cm tall.

Is it too cliche to have the players try to steal a priceless ming vase?
I want the gimmick to be everyone is playing softball to avoid damaging it, guards and players alike. I'm not sure how to impress that on them, though.

Once running from a body snatching spirit.
Tbh the bonus per hit should be higher.

Have guards focus exclusively on using their bodies to bar exits, even throwing their weapons down on the floor.

Aren't there weird niche weapons that could stun/harm intruders but not damage expensive stuff in the room?

If nothing else, there's mana spells.

maaaaaaybe tasers, but damaging the person holding the vase in any way is going to risk the vase getting damaged

True, I feel dart guns might suffice as well. At least for unarmored targets

I'm on mobile so I can't really do the research but is there a stated way to do a super glue launcher? Cover the target in fast drying glue so they can't keep running or drop the thing

Something like this?

>So what's your protocol for dealing with Johnsons, chummers?

The closest we have to a face, my mage, goes to the meet in a separate vehicle. The rest of the crew listen in on us while we talk.

Rigger is sitting in the van nearby and has three drones with him usually (more depending on if we're expecting trouble),. The Optic X-2, is outside on survellience while he has a roto drone or two that he can launch if we need backup.

The street sam is with the rigger ready to bust in and smash some heads if need be.

Decker is there too and snoops the matrix to make sure everything is kosher.

If everything goes as planned I walk out without having to use a single spell, if not I duck for cover while tossing napalm around and screaming about how I love the smell.

You have been given a wonderful opportunity to make this run Jackie Chan as fuck. Do not let it go to waste.

Frangible rounds. But any projectile, including injection darts and maybe even taser darts, could damage an antique like that. A spirit of air might be a good choice.

I'm planning things out for a campaign, first time DMing SR, and wanted some quick tips. It'll be 5th ed.

I'm wondering primarily what books I should allow to start with. I don't want to swamp players, or myself, with options. However, I also don't want to limit them to the point where they don't have the cool toys I know they would want, and that I want them to have.

I'm looking at currently having 4-6 players, is there anything I should recommend to them for starting off?

Currently I have some character concepts from three of them:
Player 1) Elf Adept Swordfighter (Wants to have a drow-like skin color. I'm letting him do it, because it sounds cool. Is there any precedence for this in SR? Should I allow Martial Styles for him? They sound right up his alley)
Player 2) Gunner (of some variety)
Player 3) Rigger...or Technomancer (I know, I've read that I shouldn't let players do this, but is it /really/ that bad of an option?)

I'm sure you guys get asked this kind of stuff all along, but I'd appreciate any tips you have.

>Something like this?
Yep, but nuyen costs lined up, then essence costs lined up, and item names lined up.

Player 1 - Yeah, he can be an African-American elf (or whatever nationality). If you let him get a MA style, make some flash cards or a cheat-sheet for what the moves he's bought do.
Player 2 - Are we talking street sam (i.e. chromed up and armed) or as in a guy that specializes in Gunnery, which is shooting mounted weapons (Agi if it's manual, Logic if it's built into a drone or vehicle and is being fired remotely). This makes a difference, and the first one is more likely to want Chrome Flesh to be added in.
Player 3 - Tell ask the player if he wants to be a drone rigger or a vehicle rigger. They're very different builds, and you won't be able to do both well. If drones, get some rotocopters, the Swarm and Smarlink programs from Rigger 5.0, and have them hose down enemies.

If he goes Techno, both keep these things and mind and tell him these things. One, your special powers other than calling and making sprites have too much drain associated with 'em. Get some Software, but also pump Edge as high as possible and treat them as extra Vanican powers. Also, those powers are basically invisble to non-Techno life until they do something that can be noticed. Two, you don't want to be in a fair fight in the matrix and there's ways to do that, it just gets a little iffier at the high ends. Three, instead of fighting fair, call up a level 5-7 sprite, have it do stuff, and then dismiss it back to resonance at the end.

none of the splats add any complexity that isnt at the very least matched by the core book, and they dont introduce any balance problems that arent already in core anyway

drow skin is not normal, but is possible with cosmetic augs or surge (i'd go with striking skin pigmentation, same as nartaki and oni)

martial arts dont do all that much in 5e, and are hardly overpowered, so i cant think of any reason to ban them. a lot of them just reduce penalties for called shots.

melee is very much secondary to shooting in just about every circumstance, and that goes double for anyone with merely human-tier strength, and adept powers arent as good at increasing melee damage as augs. whether or not this is a problem depends on the power level of your game and how much the player optimizes, just make sure he also has a gun

i'd probably bar both riggers and technos, for pretty much the same reasons.

technos just arent very good at hacking unless theyre registering a bunch of sprites

riggers are best when they bring more drones with guns

the problem with both of these is you are adding a lot more pc-controlled guys to the game, which can get very burdensome for the gm to manage very quickly. i do not believe it is wise to throw a novice SR gm into that

there are a number of player and gm aids in the pastebin which you might find useful (hayek sheets in particular)

There's an elf metavariant pretty similar to Drow called the Nocturna in Run Faster on page 92, might wanna have him play that. Mild allergy to sunlight, nocturnal, all that good night elf stuff.

Are there any source books that add new options for Technomancers in 5e? Is Data Trails the only one?

Unless you can pull books from the future, yeah, Data Trails is it. At least the good stuff in there is pretty good.

Perhaps not enough to dissuade you from putting in about a point of Essence worth of Bioware (and possibly a little cyber).

Player 1 - Fair enough. I was originally thinking of just having him take the Distinctive Style Negative Quality to fluff his abnormal skin color.
Player 2 - More of a Street Samurai, or that's the vibe of gotten from him so far, but he hasn't given me much. Can you give me a tip on what Chrome Flesh would give him?
Player 3 - And if he decides on vehicle rigger? I'm also assuming it's just skill distribution and raw nuyen that would hold him back from doing both.
On Technomancers - I still have a lot of reading to do on the way they function, and the matrix in general, but I'll make note of this. I gave him a heads up already that I'd prefer he play a Decker first, if this is a role he wants to play, but I also told him that I won't stop him if it's what he really wants.

True, but considering it's a first game of SR all around, I just wanted to make sure it was functional, and I was worried that adding more *stuff* would just bog things down.

As I said above, I was thinking of just letting him play an elf with the Distictive Style Negative Quality to cover his skin color, does that make sense?

Fair enough, if he wants them, I'll let him take some martial arts if he wants them.

Would speccing into Throwing Weapons be a trap? He seemed interested in using that as his ranged option instead of firearms.

Hmmm, you make good points on the additional actions making combat and other out of combat situations more difficult to manage... I'll have to think about that. I knew technos were an issue for being difficult/bad, but I hadn't considered that issue with riggers. Honestly, I'll probably still give it a shot, but it's worth noting.

I've made sure to check out the pastebin, the new DM advice in particular. I didn't notice the "hayek" sheets, so I'll give it another run through and see if it helps at all

Appreciate the heads up, he seemed interested. I'll see if that pans out.

>Player 3 - And if he decides on vehicle rigger? I'm also assuming it's just skill distribution and raw nuyen that would hold him back from doing both.

you can do both
but a vehicle only rigger is more of an NPC role desu

Player one - Unless he's tending towards obviously purple or constantly oiled up black, it's probably not distinctive style worthy (well, I guess with shock white hair it could be). If he wants throwing, then he'll also want enough 'ware to boost him to doing at least 7P on a thrown weapon, or specialize in grenades.

Player 2 - Chrome Flesh adds in a lot of little bits of extra bio and cyber wares, some of which are pretty fun. Like having a lighter in your finger, or credstick.

Player 3 - If he goes vehicle rigger, I'd suggest either saving to or getting not very modified (just the rigger adaptation and a little protection) backup vehicle. It's more different wants from the RCC and upgrades that make it hard to both drone and vehicle, both rigger types usually have most of the same skills. A vehicle rigger usually wants max program sharing and a higher Control Rig because they're usually going to have a wired connection to the vehicle, so noise reduction's not very useful. The drone rigger wants a higher rating RCC so they can mix both sharing and noise reduction. It's possible to do both, but you're definitely getting cheaper options on both. So smaller vehicle and Rotodrones only, and they're going to need to be upgraded later on, meaning some Hardware and a kit or workshop.

Well, it always depends on the exact Johnson, job and situation; but remember: the meet before the run is basically a job interview. Johnson still needs his problem(s) solved at that point. I'm not saying it can't go wrong, but the majority of the times it goes sour is during the run, then after the run; with before the run a distant (but still possible) third.

Now, A show of force at the meet might look professional; but it might also make you look like tryhards; depending on how good you are/experienced J. is in the shadows.Two good 'rules of thumb' are: weapons visible but slung/holstered; and don't cast magic/try to hack Mr.J right there and then.

Keeping Astral/Matrix overwatch... Again, that might come over as paranoïd and unprofessional. Not that paranoïa is a bad thing in the shadows, mind, but remember: job interview. You need to convince the guy you're the ones he want. Ultimately, that's why you research J. and his rep' in the shadows before the meet and act accordingly.

It's not even good enough to convince someone to play a Technomancer in the first place, omae.

I'm assuming that if you can make a workable Techno, you're either very bloody minded or kinda good at it.

And in that case, you can make an actual choice between keeping all your Resonance, or the benefits of trying to stuff in as much into 1 point of essence as you can.

Lots more essence if you want to get really silly about it.

What wares does a Techno need? Aside from Cerebral Booster of course.

I want to say pain editor, its low essence and will help greatly against all except black IC. Lets you ignore penalties from damage, so better hacking. boosts will, which acts as your firewall.

Assuming that you're not using an old printing where every submersion is horrifically expensive, a pain editor is your second submersion. First one's probably either skinlink (non-ware types) or Quiet (so that you can connect in those cases that you can't anymore because you lost some Resonance).

Some things you'd want are the Cerebellum Booster (because more Sleaze), a datajack (direct connection even helps your powers in some cases and noise reduction), cyber-ears (get antenna *3), and possibly a cyber-eye.

Alternatively, you can get skills via hardwire (cheaper) or a cyber-limb with sensors and boost with Diagnostics. Or even both if you set-up right.

Cerebral and Cerebellum Boosters, "Hand of God" Cyberarm and snowballing designer-grade Cram and Psyche drugs just before the run.

That way his mental stats are higher for when he's in the Matrix and he can hopefully meaningfully contribute to combat if he's not hacking.

Don't even try it if you're not using Sum-to-ten, and be ready to be creative stretching your chargen resources enough over and Resonance, and Edge and mental Stats and Skills. Because you'll need them all.

IIRC, I saw it done without Sum-to-Ten, with max possible everything.

It's kinda like making an Ess 1 Adept, only worse in some ways. Better in some, but it is cheese-tastic.

To clarify. Max everything referred to the arm and possibly non-attack hacking stats.

You kind needed to skimp somewhere if you wanted any real meatspace ability, so not attacking was the easy cut.

Especially because it used custom drugs to have enough will to put just about anyone to pause.

Cheese just as hard on a mundane decker, he'll be plain better at hacking. (And let's not get into cheese killing machine builds for sammies/adepts.)

Seriously, unless you want to play Matrikemon: Go! and enjoy being a Sprite trainer; just don't bother with TM's.They're a nice idea but the execution is abysmal. (And abysmal barely even starts to cover it.)

Ironically, though, a mundane decker isn't going to be as hard to hit in the matrix. This matters pretty much next to never, but it is something.

Oh, and obviously cheesed techno is cheaper nuyen-wise because you'll have the raw numbers of a much higher end deck than any sane non-prime decker is going to buy at the start.

Narco. Possibly Nephritic Screen.

Cereprax plus Narco is Logic +4, Intuition +3, and some other stuff.

Risky, especially with a high-grade screen. One hour of boost might not last the run, and a second dose on top of the first is really, really, really not a good idea.

Get pharma-grade instead. 1600 nuyen the dose is expensive, but it'll last the run and drop the Addiction Threshold to 2. Doable on base stats, even with the negative modifier of Narco, and you never risk brain damage.

Hence the 'possibly', but you shouldn't need the effect longer than mission go time, with some spare change on either side.

Mild addiction isn't much flak; I'd switch to higher grades after that.

Just go against expectations. Black trenchcoat group? Make sure they know, but play a pink mohawk whackjob who lives in the sewers. Pink mohawk? You're the professional on a roof the block over with hack-cess and a high powered rifle, as well as your gear set to self destruct and a camo-pod nightwraith for escape. When he starts to catch on, swap. Just make sure your group is in on the joke so they can compensate.

Or, instead of swapping, get worse. That black trenchcoat runner isn't on the roof anymore. He's in a bar a few blocks away, but he managed to manipulate a few folks inside in such a way that they do all the dirty work he'd normally do. That pink mohawk runner just organised a flash-mob mardi gras that turns that secure corporate facility into the world's biggest flesh-formed pink dong. Or something, I guess.

>That pink mohawk runner just organised a flash-mob mardi gras that turns that secure corporate facility into the world's biggest flesh-formed pink dong. Or something, I guess.

All I can imagine right now is the Cuban Pete scene from the Mask

That's pretty much exactly what I was going for, actually. Mask-Stanley. The ultimate pink mohawk. Wish I'd thought of it. Ta.

Wait I'm confused is she shooting lightning out of her foot or is he shooting lightning out of his hands and it's backfiring?

It's an illustration from the fashion book. She's got electrified stockings.

>looking at the lightning and not delicious elf thigh

What are you gay?

Taser stockings/socks.

They are great and no face should be without them.

>That pink mohawk runner just organised a flash-mob mardi gras that turns that secure corporate facility into the world's biggest flesh-formed pink dong. Or something, I guess.

That was really cool until the end.

Imagining that going differently where the flash mardi gras mob makes securing the facility impossible, allowing breaks in coverage that allow the running team in, or cover their escape, or something like that, top stuff.

Somebody suggested I watch Mirrorshades a few threads ago. I'm looking at it, skipping around extremely briefly, and it looks like there's a female character played by a male player.

Is there going to be any cringey shit there with him? I don't want to get invested into this and then get super turned off of the whole thing because of him.

Bonbon? Nah, it's fine. Nightsass is substantially worse. The robot voice is annoying as fuck, but that's about the worst you get.

God steampunk is awful.

>that shitty fucking trigger discipline

Yeah, Nightsas's voice seemed weird, what little I heard of it. I think it's bearable though so I'll give it a try. Thanks user.

All 'punk is awful.
I was more talking about Bonbon's "I'm speaking in the Matrix" voice, but the whole canadian valley-girl thing kaitlyn has going on is super weird as well. Anyway, it's a good campaign and dodger is delightful in everything.
One doesn't simply fire the Constabulary Discombobulater by pulling a trigger, sir! Gears must be rotated, levers must be pulled!

What is his matrix speaking voice?

You know how people do that thing where they pretend to be a robot? Beep boop I AM VO-CAL-IS-ING. That shit. Drives me up the wall every time I hear it.

Holy fuck that sounds terrible.

Doesn't do it all the time at least, just while speaking in character to the others.

>you will never have your rifle blessed by a holy man

Come to think of it, how many people have ever played a straight up priest in Shadowrun? I know a lot of people play spiritual characters because of the whole Shaman thing, but I'm talking straight up priests.

I had a gang in the slums north of New York City ran by a Catholic priest that wanted to protect the SINless of all shapes and sizes. Think Shaman Priest Vallon. Used an old sword that was a weapon foci and everything. It was fun as hell.

That fucking cross is the coolest fucking mace I've ever seen in a movie.

>sweet ex corporate girl forced into the shadows now using her organizational/management skills and cut throat negotiating ability to become the best damn face you've ever seen

Could it work?

>Sweet Girl
>Cut throat negotiating ability

Depends how Black Trenchcoat your game is I suppose.

>looking at pig disgusting elf girls
>insinuating that somebody is gay for shunning elves

OOOOOHHHH boy, do I have news for you.

Troll girls is where it's at, family.

Just because you can swing a mean deal doesnt mean you arent a nice person off the clock user.

Of course she'd lose a fair bit of that sweetness as the game wears on.

Someone needs to get their cybereyes checked. The trog's got elf features, omae.

That's pretty much the story behind my next character
Except with less sweet, and more wanting to be a Johnson

Speak for yourself.