/srg/ - Shadowrun General

Are there any metatypes/variants that appear among the french the way the irish all became elves? I want to play a louisiana swamp frenchie who has everyone convinced he's a classy european french.

Gnomes, Ogres, and Fomorians can all be found in France along with the usual types.

Thanks, this sounds pretty good.

>Fomorians
Aren't those a irish thing?

I'm pretty sure FASA/Catalyst thinks their generically Celtic, so they put some in Brittany

Roll4it

Why the fuck is Iceland part of the NAN? Shouldn't it be like, an island full of ice elves and frost giants?

Does Iceland have its own aboriginal peoples? I know GREENLAND did...

Also, was the Renraku corp samurai/Red Samurai armor ever properly statted up in 5e like it was in 4e?

Technically the people of Iceland are the aboriginals. It was settled by one group and as far as I know there wasn't a native population that they replaced, thus making them the natives. And it might be a political alliance even if genetically Icelanders and NANners aren't from the same group.

The original settlers of Iceland were Vikings though right? Like, culturally it makes no sense, and it's not just an alliance they're literally part of the Trans polar Aluet nation, which also doesn't make sense since Iceland has been it's own nation for like forever.

The countries that make up EU have also been separate nations forever but their political/economical alliance still makes sense. It's not like alliances and nations are only formed based on ethnic groups.

They went bankrupt due to massive pollution and over-fishing in the seas around them. So they wound up joining the Transpolar Aleut out of financial desperation. It was touched on in some 3e books, but 1e barely mentioned it. Probably because they just randomly placed it in their borders without realizing it and then had to come up for an excuse later.

It works pretty alright though. I mean, not like anyone would be headed up that far North normally anyway, but it gives whitey easier access to it through there.

Also I don't think it's supposed to necessary be a permanent arrangement between Trans-Polar Aleut and Iceland. They're more of a Protectorate(that the NAN probably won't let go of since it's one of the only areas that bring in actual money).

>Also, was the Renraku corp samurai/Red Samurai armor ever properly statted up in 5e like it was in 4e?
It's just milspec armour in 5e.

>dat Mike Jackson art
complete with obligatory Thrud Rocks, My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult and Max (from Sam & Max) references

But don't forget the real human beans

I know I'm never going to find a game, ever, but I've been scanning around through the 5e books; what is reasonable cyber for a dedicated decker. I mean, besides datajack obvs. Do decker-faces work out at all? My gut is no, just because you should always be hacking the gibson and letting someone else with free time bluff past the guards, right?

Look up the Profiler quality in Data Trails. Yes, it's viable to mix the two.

Your best 'ware is bio, though - tailored pheromones, cerebral booster, the various gene/nano augs to improve logic-related tests ...

I played a hacker who could side as a face. Not as good as a dedicated face, but enough to bluff and chit-chat. And apparently work as a lawyer because that was her day job. Also, social skills can help with social hacking, aka tricking people into just giving you their info or letting you in. Plus her hacking was bonkers.
Good cyber/bio definitely includes cerebral boosters because high logic is great. If you go face also, tailored pheromones are nice but really hard to fit in as a decker, money wise. Otherwise, some stuff to make you less squishy would not be amiss.

Ah, all righty. I've been looking through 5e again now that more books are out for it.

>tailored pheromones are nice but really hard to fit in as a decker
Go used or omega grade.

The mage of our group just keeps scouting ahead on the astral plane and spams spirits whenever there is combat. You might say, that it could be worse, but damn... everyone in the group is pissed off, because he keeps stealing the limelight. To top it off he's not a really good roleplayer and keeps doing stuff, because it's the best thing to do from the player's perspective, never mind what his character would do...

What can I do to put the breaks on him?

Used Tailored Pheromones...

It's not my smell, officer, I'm only borrowing it. ...well, I mean, the original user got geeked, but- ok- yes, of course it's my SIN! I am a 12 year old Ethiopian girl- what more do you want, you're already mocking my corpse-smell, how am I supposed to afford a good fake SIN- and now the gun comes out. Great.

>Do decker-faces work out at all?

It can. You'd need both a high LOG and CHA and a bunch of skill points to spread over the decking and face skills; and money for a deck. You'll have to juggle your chargen resources carefully, especially if you want some cyberware on top of it.

Cerebral Booster is a given. Pheromones if you want to boost your Face abilities, although you could simply go max CHA, (Max-1) LOG and get that one during gameplay instead as a compromise.

Antennae to reduce noise are quite useful. Cerebellum Booster to boost Intuition is also great but costs a truckload of nuyen.

And then you'd need to work in not sucking at combat too much.

Second, SINs. SINner. Why is Criminal SIN 15 points less than Corporate SIN? It mentions that sure, if you're broadcasting, you'll probably get beaten to death and people will constantly suspect you, but what's stopping you from just taking it and getting fake SINs? Or is that just functionally impossible (or if you get caught, as mentioned, it's just insta-felony)?

Top tier says it doesn't even really communicate outside of the corp itself outside of 'yes this person has a SIN', so is it more that if you're former Renraku and get anywhere near one of their facilities, they just *Know* who the hell you are no matter what you do, since you're heavily tagged in their system w/ biometrics etc? If I genned, I'd want to play a former corp spider who just has terrible impulse control and was involved in rich peoples' Decadent Behavior, but I don't really 'get' how CorpSIN is *all* of your possible negative Karma.

>what's stopping you from just taking it and getting fake SINs?

Nothing. That's how you can go around without hassle.

If you ever get caught and someone thinks about matching your genetic code vs the C-SIN database (which is the first thing they'll do, before even starting the interrogation)... Well, let's say you're in even more trouble than before, omae.

>If you're former Renraku and get anywhere near one of their facilities, they just *Know* who the hell you are no matter what you do, since you're heavily tagged in their system w/ biometrics etc?

Basically? Yes. Not everywhere will have such scanners on-site, but if you leave any trace, they'll backtrack it to you. (And add to the grudges against you.)

So, just messing around with stuff, but how would you all suggest making the fastest character possible, running-wise, preferably with cyberware. 5e.
Just a quick, basic idea I have just from core is cyberlegs, both customized to 6 agility, 6 strength, increased to 7 agility, 9 strength with enhancements, with rating 6 skimmers, skill of 6 in running, with a relevant specialization, probably urban, plus some reaction enhancers so they can get 3 init passes easily to make the most of sprinting tests.
And speaking of sprinting tests, am I missing something or is the fatigue damage for running a little unclear. In the section on using running (pg 136) it says you can run for up to your (body + running)x10 minutes before taking fatigue damage, but in the section on fatigue damage from running (pg 172) it just says sprinting starts dealing cumulative fatigue damage if you sprint over multiple combat turns/action passes and for every 3 minutes you run. How would you rule it? Don't say ask the GM, because that's me. Honestly it seems like it needs some house ruling to me, just want to hear some opinions.
Also, if the loose calculations I did are correct, the build I have can get about 40 mph average, while sprinting. Or about 55 meters per combat turn. Of course I could be way off since I did the math mentally and am only vaguely remembering numbers. Don't really feel like doing it again right now though.

Skills can go up to like 13 in 5e, can't they? Just not at chargen.

Limnal Body: Centaur. Augment all four legs to max AGI. Add Skimmers. GIDDY-UP!

I think it's -all- your negative karma because you are still connected to and presumably working for said Corp since you SIN hasn't been burned yet, which is really hard on you as a runner since you have conflicting interests and can't let either side find out without getting screwed.

And by skimmers I meant hydraulic jacks since as far as I've seen skimmers aren't in the core book, which was all I was looking at at the time. Speaking of, where are skimmers and what are their stats?
Yeah, so something a char can work up to eventually. I suppose I could throw that on the NPC, but, well. Seems a little overkill. But yes for fastest fast.
Will actually want to max STR because that's what running is based on, but otherwise sounds fun.

>Basically? Yes. Not everywhere will have such scanners on-site, but if you leave any trace, they'll backtrack it to you. (And add to the grudges against you.)

And this is why being former corp is something you never do when playing in Black Trenchcoat mode.

How do A.I. skill tests work? I don't see any damn table anywhere.

Also:
Can a paranoid A.I., lets say one biped-drone with no wireless access, hack through a deck in AR, as in typing shit with those drone fingers? It's not you're having dual-personas, because there is only one persona CONNECTED to the grid.

Skimmers are in Chrome Flesh. Lots of fun augs in there.

I hope they have my favourite AUG in there.

Lots of weird ones in there too. Like, what point is there to Sensitive Skin? It increases the nerve endings in a patch the size of a hand. Let's be honest, that's just there so I can trick my Sam to pinch my ears when I mess up, since I know he won't notice me tense up and hiss "fuck me daddy" under my breath?

Or Clean Metabolism, which I think I'd buy if I were going for 'weird groomed corporate suit failure', as it fits in, but unlike the weird (and totally sex based, right) Sensitive Skin, it costs .1 essence. So is farting an essential part of the human experience to where I'll weird people out if I don't do it enough?

Is it worth wearing an armour vest with an armour jacket, just for fluff reasons?

Hey guys Bundle of Holding has two 3rd edition bundles foe sale for tge next two weeks if anyone is inclined to buy PDF's

Considering it will crank your encumbrance up the ass with absolutely no benefit, no, not really.

>Top tier says it doesn't even really communicate outside of the corp itself outside of 'yes this person has a SIN'
Not necessarily.
>Fortunately, Corporate Born records are limited to the megacorporation that generated them.
That could mean it doesn't work anywhere but within corporate grounds.

The bigger problem of corporate born is that they aren't burnt. They're still important enough to keep in the fold and need a cover story or alibi to spend time shadowrunning. This means anyone on the inside that still knows you or knows of you has blackmail to hold over you - both within the corporation and the SINless 'community'.

>What point is there to Sensitive Skin?

I can think of one, at least!

Concluding from stuff from chrome flesh, if this person gets a luminal centaur body with 4 digigrade legs, skimmers, augment each leg to 9 agility and strength, they can go up to 162 meters a turn without sprinting, assuming buying hits with specialized 13 skill running and 3 initiative passes they get another 36 meters a turn, so up to 198 meters a turn or 3.95 kilometers a minute, or 237.6 kph. Very fast. A bit excessive, and expensive. But quite fast.

Also if they trip they get totally rekt.

>Like, what point is there to Sensitive Skin?
It's cosmetic. Someone, somewhere, will find a want for it, and it sounds like you've hit on one.

>Clean Metabolism, which I think I'd buy if I were going for 'weird groomed corporate suit failure'
Also good for ex-corporate trog. The type that wear Sleeping Tiger.

>it costs .1 essence. So is farting an essential part of the human experience to where I'll weird people out if I don't do it enough?
Essence costs are essentially a balance. You can expect to not produce bodily odours to the degree that it's somewhat helpful, but not so much that it gets it's own bonus. Olfactory scanners get bonuses vs menstruating females, so it probably helps there, if the GM remembers.

>Let's be honest, that's just there so I can trick my Sam to pinch my ears when I mess up, since I know he won't notice me tense up and hiss "fuck me daddy" under my breath?

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable excuse to have sensitive skin honestly.

So how big of a dice total should I have in my perception and assenssing to reliably function as the "radar" of a group?

My perception rolls have usually been legendarily bad in other systems (note plural form) but I still want take my chances with SR.

You are lucky, since both mundane Perception and magical Assensing depend on Intuition. So if you want to be Eagle-Eyes-Who-Misses-Nothing, you max out INT, you take 6 ranks in both Perception and Assensing (and a Magical tradition that uses INT as drain stat!) and you're set.

If you are willing to go all the way: Pantherine shifter (for that starting 8 INT). Alternatively, Gnome and sacrifice a bit of your Magic for a Cerebellum Booster raising INT and Cybereyes loaded with gimmicks to reduce/remove vision modifiers.

Jesus christ, how high of a score does all that make?
I thought that something around 10-12 would have been enough...

If you min-max very hard with Exceptional Attribute and add specializations? 18/16, depending on whether the spec applies or not.

But really, 6 INT and 6 ranks in both skills for 12 dice in both modes and you're already more than set.

Add goggles with Vision Enhancement 3, Thermal and Low-light vision, and Vision Magnification.
Then get Sensors with MAD, ultrasound, olafactory and movement detection. And a good commlink to process this ongodly amount of data and discern false positives from true threats.

It's milspec. I know one of the modules has some Red Samurai statted out fully.

Yeah, I got an image that stats them when I was posting about how crazy some of the NPCs were a couple of thread back.

There's plenty of wards and nasty things hanging around in the astral specifically to stop mages from sending their souls a-wandering through secure locations. Alternatively, someone hits the group while the mage's spirit is gone, he has to wander around while they take his body elsewhere and try to get back somewhere he can find them before time runs out.

And you can't 'spam' spirits. If he's getting a bunch of spirits and binding them ahead of time, OK. Just remind him that spirits hate being bound, and they hate being used as meatshields, so if he keeps it up he's going to get Spirit Pariah or a similar negative. Also, tell him not to be a dick and stop stealing other people's thunder.

>Is there any other set of mods containing other stuff like you know, chameleon coating?
Yeah, in the vehicle mods section. Trust me, you'll run out of mod points pretty damn quick.

>Also semirelated who thought it was a good idea to make Noizquitos stack and then stick a rating fucking 6 area jammer inside a 12F availability drone?
I'm pretty sure they changed that in Missions Errata.

>work as a lawyer because that was her day job
Literally the best day job for a day job runner

According to the Errata, all Noizquitos have a fatal flaw in their programming and they all no longer work/are no longer manufactured.

This was announced about 20 seconds after R5 came out and people online pointed out the Noizquitos were broken as shit.

>Are there any metatypes/variants that appear among the french the way the irish all became elves?
Modern France is mainly settled by Germanic tribes, with some Norse and Celts still being represented in the population. Expect any of those metavariants.

On top of that, France has not-insignificant African, and Middle Eastern populations, so don't be surprised by the occasional Wakyambi or Hobgoblin.

>I'm pretty sure they changed that in Missions Errata
Missions FAQ, not Missions Errata. The difference being that Missions rulings exist primarily to keep convention games running smoothly (which is why they straight up ditch anything that works against that), and aren't official errata.

How do you get your hands on more contacts? We've got a couple from the GM for various acts of role playing, but I kinda need to buy more, it turns out a tailor and a fencing tutor don't make the best contacts for a shadowrunner to have.

The game gives prices for fake licenses but what if I wanted to make a legit SINner with paperwork in order? How much would I have to pay for different kinds of permits?
For the sake of the exercise, let's say this happens in UCAS.

>Do decker-faces work out at all?
They do, but they require you to play them like a real-life hacker. Social engineering, phishing, bluffing your way past security measures, faking credentials or hardware failures to let you worm your way in deeper, and only then do you actually go full deck.

If you've ever played Watch_Dogs, the protagonist's periodic internal monologues (the ones where he's strategizing, not the ones where he's angsting) are great fodder for how you're supposed to think and play.

There are no such rules. Assume that fees and bribing DMV officials to get through your paperwork this quarter costs the same as black market licenses.

>Will actually want to max STR because that's what running is based on, but otherwise sounds fun.
No. Your base speed and running speed are multipliers of your AGI. Even if the running skill is based on Strength, Agility is a much larger component of your actual movement speed.

Bit boring but works.
Please tell me that your tailor is 6/3 contact.

Adding on to these, take the Hawk Eye quality from Run Faster. For 3 Karma, you get +1 Perception and reduce all range-based penalties by one step, including gun-shooting.

You tell your GM "During my downtime, I ask around my contacts (preferably those with a high connection rating, such as a Fixer) if they know a reliable Street Doc / Smuggler / Trid producer / Freelance Detective", then you get aquainted, and if things go well pay the cost in Karma for the new Contact.

Depends on the kind of permit I guess, work this out with your GM. I would go with something close to a Rating 4 fake license, give or take 100 nuyen

I always handwave the license cost for licenses the guy wants on his real SIN.

>How do you get your hands on more contacts?
Legwork. You have your face start networking, introducing you to people, and then you do some minor runs to get 'in' with them.

Also, you can upgrade your existing contacts the same way.

Need a contact to have more Loyalty? Do them a solid, don't ask them for any repayment.

Need a loyal contact to have better Connections? Do a run where you're helping to secure a new smuggling route for them, or whatever.

But mostly the way you get Contacts is by going out and meeting people, whether your Face is just going out and networking (literally his downtime job) or they're people you get to meet during missions or after them with the Johnson offering you a meeting as a reward.

>and if things go well pay the cost in Karma for the new Contact.
Contacts don't have a Karma cost post-chargen. You get them for free as a result of in-game actions, or not at all.

What a lazy way to errata.

>What a cheap way to errata.
Fixed that for you. Catalyst embezzled so much money that can't afford to actually pay someone to do real errata, so that's the best they've been able to do so far.

>what a cheap way to edit

Fixed that for you. They're paying Goodman and co. to do the right errata now. They just don't want to invest the money in a woodchipper to mulch Hardy and hire a couple of decent line editors who actually understand game mechanics and will test things before publishing them.

Plus it provides a potential adventure hook. What was the flaw? Was there even a flaw to begin with? Was it a bug, or a feature?

Hawk Eye doesn't work with "electronic vision enhancements and/or cyber- or bioware augmentations or replacements". Pretty much the only thing it does work with is Tetrachromatic Vision.

I actually use Nozquitos as my stealth recon drone of choice because it's smaller than the flying eye and fly-spy. As a GM I just remove the ability for them to work as a swarm. A - 4 penalty eats gangers, but it matters a lot less at my table against cops and made men.

2/3 I think.

I am the face. That said, going on some mini runs to fill out my contacts does sound fun.

That's the Missions errata, which is technically only applicable for organized play at conventions and such.

But yeah, Noizquitos are dumb and shouldn't exist in their current implementation.

>2/3 I think.
Shame. It would have been funny if tailor had corp mid-level exec levels of influence.

Sounds good, thanks!

IIRC my fencing tutor is 4/3, so he's nearly there.

I had an idea for a run, but I don't really have any ideas.
Mr. Johnson would be a state client or something
Target would be NXP, an advanced Gyroscope manufacturer, which also featured locational data in their Gyros. Their Gyroscopes are used in Ballistic Missiles, their objective is to replace one box in the building with another, ensuring that the Mr. Johnson gets a remote killswitch in a new line of ICBMs. There would be a bonus if they were undetected, but as long as they weren't noticed making the switch and the box is sent out it is fine.

Now, here's the main gimmick, because of their access to cheap and extremely high quality Gyros, NXP decided to work it into their security routine, giving all of the guns in their facility advanced Gyro Sensors, and using that instead of chipping their security force to get locational data. A gun dropping to the floor also sets off alarms, and this ended up stopping the last shadowrun team that went after them (I'll get to that in a minute). The thing is, the chief programmer wasn't able to get this working himself, being unable to compensate for the recoil completely throwing off the gyros, so he outsourced it to a small tech company off the books, MTT. Now, this is where the runners come in, hitting up MTT as a small off the books tech company is relatively easy, just requiring social engineering or bribes as opposed to anything else, as it is a small off the books company

Rather than giving them a flat penalty, use the environmental modifier rules (ie; glare) from the core book.

Keep in mind that they're not cumulative unless you have two modifiers with the same penalty. (then you bump up to the next highest penalty)

It's so insanely simple, functional, and convenient that only CGL could not only fail to use it in the same book they introduce the rules (flashpaks), but at least two subsequent main books. (noizquitos & flashields)

>23 Hardened armor
>30+ Dice and rolling decently on an Ares Alpha to do any damage

I mean, shit. I think my groups GSA could almost do that. But the problem is there's how many of these in a squad?

It says 3 led by another guy that spits out the same type of dice.

5 is the traditional number, with at least one of those being a mage.

Jesus fucking christ I'm blind. Just woke up.

Thanks.

My group of non-prime runners could potentially handle that, if they're lucky and/or smart. But man, that would definitely be the fight of their life.

>My group of non-prime runners could potentially handle that, if they're lucky and/or smart. But man, that would definitely be the fight of their life.
My group would try to collapse the floor or use a vehicle to pin them to a wall or something. Lock a blast door behind us, that kind of a thing. We're big into using the environment to neutralize threats rather than actually shooting it out with people.

That or we'd use Small Unit Tactics and suppressive fire to lock them down, while the mage uses Direct Damage to clip through the Hardened Armor.

That or we'd use APDS on assault rifles and hope we didn't die.

Now hitting up MTT would give the runners a backdoor into their system, and they'd figure out a few things. Firstly, they have the locational data of all the guns in the facility, which also appears to be the guard patrol patterns. They also have a remote kill command which disables specific guns. This was introduced after a failed run by another team, attempting to steal fire arms from NXP, which would allow NXP to remotely deactivate the guns as well as track their location. This giving the players a remote killswitch to every gun in the facility when activated, but also simultaneously setting off every single alarm and summoning piles of Lonestar.
This doesn't include though, the corporate mages. Which if forgotten about can cause their cover to be blown. The main paydata would be the gun designs, and attempting to find who hired the previous team and selling the data to them. Since these are also advanced locational gyros, they can also turn them on down the line, to act as a "beacon" to Lonestar/private security, which is a neat ability.
Anyways, I couldn't think of how to incorporate Magic more into the run, any ideas?

You're right, sorry. I realized that a bit after posting. Ideally you'd max both.

Also, anyone have an opinion on the sprinting fatigue rules mentioned?

>and suppressive fire to lock them down
I think the fact that you can't penetrate their armour at all would negate the need for any sort of composure test to resist being suppressed.

Really, at that point, your best friend is a disposable LAW-esque weapon, or a vehicle to hit them with.