/srg/ - Shadowrun General

Speaking of this kind of stuff

Honestly I'm surprised I've never seen a Starbucks reference once in Shadowrun, though I've not read much of the newer stuff.

The core fluff is kinda old already.

I was visioning Blink being more like a souped up-short range version of the Movement.

Maybe have the PC roll Magic + Gymnastics with the PC's Magic rating or Astral Limit as it's limit? Or just have it as a normal spell instead?

There's Soybucks in some of the 5e material.

I've been plotting out a wetwork run for my group, the target being a vampire in the barrens. I'd like to give my players more options than just kick in the door and shoot the guy, but I'm not sure what things I can do to provide the hints that they'll need.

I remember reading an old bit about treatment of mages in your average prison. Since awakened are a bit hard to safely "disarm" and being gagged, bound, and stuffed in a mage hood 24/7 is considered "inhumane" one example given to make mages easily to deal with was surgically installing datajacks in them and then hooking them up to a simsense program that'd run constantly and that, combined with sedatives and/or other drops makes it so the mage can't mentally focus on spell casting.

Was thinking of using this as part of a character concept (mage with a datajack and maybe some other light cyberware, no more than 1 essence's worth though). I'm curious as to what kind of simsense programs they'd use and just how intense they'd be. Would they be relatively mundane and low power stuff, or borderline BTLs?

What are some other "humane" methods of controlling Awakened prisoners?

I've only read 4e stuff, but Seattle 2072 has a fairly big entry for StarKaf.

That reminds me I wanted to throw a Mr. Johnson working for StarKaf at my players with a job offer at some point in my game. What kind of shady jobs do you think a cyberpunk Starbucks would be involved in? Stealing Aztechnology soykaf recipes from a secure coffee think tank office?

Short answer: spike it with novacoke

>the vampire is rarely home, spending most of the time out prowling bars, dingy nightclubs, and parties
>the vampire is a sick street biker, and has an alarm system at his home that, when triggered, activates the pilot system on his motorcycle for him to hop on and launch into the nearest ally, que high action street chase scene
>the players kick in the vampire's door, but his home is filled with edgy goth teenagers with fang implants, making it hard to tell which one is the real vampire

There is no teleportation magic in the Sixth World.

None.

So no.

Hi, I'm Mr. Cappuchino. I need you to

>Attack this colombian gang and destroy their drug shipments... we need the fields to grow coffee beans
>Put on this ganger-gear and go rough up the Jackson and the Juice down town, because I want all those nice hipsters eating in my cafe not theirs
>I've got a special delivery you need to make. It's six cups of Venti Grande Late, and it has to be delivered to this address inside the Ares Compound
>I need you to smuggle these beans through customs to our Denver branch, so that they can make a special cup of coffee. Don't let Horizon stop you, or they'll use our beans in their competitor brand
>I need you to drive traffic to us by disrupting the other brand; mess with their musc and do something awful to their coffee
>You gotta break into the CopaCepticCoffee bar down town and mess up their machines. Be careful though, all their barristas are ex-special forces.
>We're opening a new discount branch in the Barrens. I want you guys to man the register for the first month and deal with the worst of the gangs. Are you bad enough dudes to open a cyberpunk coffee franchise?

Wiped out in the first Crash.

It was one of the hardest hit companies, the area where it was headquartered makes the old Redmond tech zone look like good by comparison.

Except it's not actual teleportation, people can still see you as you move and you still have a physical presence.

Except it is, given that the very picture you posted is an example of a sort of teleportation needed to avoid falling into the void between those two points.

The fluff says 'no space-time manipulation', the actual mechanics of the power are just really fast movement with some walking on air (which you can do in the in the game).

It could be more like a really fast and short range leviation spell.

>I've got a special delivery you need to make. It's six cups of Venti Grande Late, and it has to be delivered to this address inside the Ares Compound
This is the best advertising practice ever.

There is now.

Lockdown, 56.

Don't spill a single drop, get it there within 45 minutes, and don't let security catch on.

I totally want one of Mr Cappuccino's venti grand latte like those cool Ares guys now.

So for a mage can I just stick with contacts (imagelink, smartlink), ar gloves and earbuds for my walking around AR gear? It seems like trodes are easier to slip off/damage

Not the guy in question but I love the last idea there.

You can also have your trodes installed in a helmet. With the added bonus of wearing a helmet, making you go one notch down on the "this guy is waving his hand wierdly, geek him" list.

Strictly speaking I believe contacts, or any other form of electronic vision gear placed in front of the eyes will not count as natural vision and prevent you from targeting spells or perceiving astrally.

I've already read 10+ pages of debate on places like dumpshock about that. Its accepted that as long as its not electronically replacing the image (thermo vision, magnification etc) then it wont stop mages from perceiving and I'm going to ask the GM about that just to make sure.

>Introduce NPC runner that the fixer brought along for a difficult run.
>He is in fact an agent of Johnson to make that the party acts professionally, because they have a bad rep of collateral damage.
How would your players react if they found out ?

>collateral damage

Astral Perception isn't vision, anyway. It's a nebulous sixth sense that's probably somewhere between seeing/tasting/touching/feeling with your aura, and can work even when you're wearing a 100% covering stealth suit or milspec armour.

So it's just a kind of minor thought here, but I haven't been able to see its equivalent - though maybe I haven't looked hard enough - but is there a Shadowland BBS equivalent to the Jackpoint entry code?

By which I mean the thing we start every General with, the..

'...Identity Spoofed
...Encryption Keys Generated
...Connected to Onion Routers
>>>Login: *********
>>>Enter Passcode: *********
...Biometric Scan Confirmed
Connected to SeattleNet... '

..bit. Is there a Shadowland equivalent to that, considering that the two systems run off of some fairly different structures and the like? Or is it just pretty much identical?

you could just go with a monocle, as it would unambiguously leave you one eye with natural vision for targeting.

Yeah but monocles are for faggots and people RPing universal soldier.

If the Johnson had access to a more trustworthy runner, why would he hire you fucktards anyway ?

Maybe hiring a prime runner and some low keys is cheaper than a full prime team.

Especially if the low key personnel has a very particular set of skills. Skills they have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make them a nightmare for people like you, and you can't get from your pool of prime runners on short notice.

>Hard boiled black trenchcoat experienced runner has to babysit a team of the pinkest mohawk newbies.
I want to play this now.

Are there any particular bits of gear a TM needs besides the usual? (Gun, ID, clothes etc)

>inb4 noose to hang self with

Get a deck abd AR gloves to pretend you areba hacker, else your team may sell you out to MCT

So if you are an adept with astral perception, do you have any other options for fighting spirits than just going the magical unarmed route?
I want to make a gunslinger but potential spirit adversaries are still holding me back.

Spirits cant harm you in the astral unless you are dual natured or astrally perceiving.

That doesn't really seem like an option to me.
I don't want to shut down everything just because I saw a kettle fall on it's own.

Assuming that you're not going to be doing unusual tricks with skillwires, hardwires, or dwarves with Exceptional Will and Cyber Singularity Seeker (purchased after creation), you may want to consider trying to save up for the two bits of brain boosting bioware, cyberears filled with 3 antennae, and/or a datajack

If you're in the situation where you can get all that and have it be under 1 Essence, good. If not, they're presented in the order of usefulness of what they give you.

(I.E. extra matrix stealth, initiative, and limits, 3 noise reduction, direct connection and one more noise reduction.)

I mean, theoretically you can make your gun a weapon foci if you only intend to pistolwhip spirits with it, right?

So making a sneaky infiltrator, should I get him the chameleon suit or the sleeping tiger? which makes me solid snake better?

Say you've got a team with loose morals willing to work to squeeze every Nuyen possible out of a job. What uses are there for captured people, both alive and dead, SINless and wage-slave, bystanders and security? What sort of people can you sell them to and what are the repercussions or dangers to look out for?

>reading Anarchy prototype
I never asked for this.

>chameleon suit or the sleeping tiger
>Sleeping tiger
wasn't the ST a suit for Faces?
I mean you can be a social infiltrator, but that doesn't really fit Solid snake

Well the ST seems to have the same polymer stuff as the chameleon suit and offers the same sneaking potential if I'm reading it right.

I want you to imagine Solid Snake in a Zoot Suit.

That is what sneaking in the Sleeping Tiger is like.

So Chameleon suit it is then. They really need to add more pictures...

The user is exaggerating. The Sleeping Tiger is hideous to us today, but in the sixth world its not /as/ ugly. But its off limits to non-trolls and orks, otherwise you look like a complete ork poser.

I think the point was that it may be good as a Face suit
But for sneaking like Solid Naga it's totally out

I figured, for chromed corpses, there must be people who specialize in removing cyberware for resale, although it might be that corporate cyberware is too hot to handle (too easy to identify? Locked up with corporate passcodes?). As for the rest, if they're fresh and intact there might be an organ harvesting market, after that maybe some kind of corpse starch food processing? Seems like there might be some kind of undead as an option but I don't know what the deal is on the magic/spirits side of things.

For the living, the average wageslave with a SIN is probably more trouble than they're worth, so one of the above options for a corpse is probably easier. Maybe some kind of criminal SIN organization could use them alive to help steal their identity? Any SIN-haver with actual skills like a scientist could maybe be sold to another Corp.

The regular SINless nobodies though probably aren't worth much. Maybe the hot ones you can sell to some kind of organized crime bordello, or the strong ones to some kind of underground fighting ring, but if people wanted regular nobodies there's tons of them already on the streets just for the asking.

Shadowrun is a hard setting to write for, there's just so much background and slang to get a handle on and if you're playing with an experienced group or posting online then any mistakes get picked apart. The wiki's really helpful but are there any other resources for getting informed apart from reading all the books?

You're lookin' at it, chummer. Or at least one of the resources.

If you don't want to read the books, or study up the wiki, the only other alternative is to immerse yourself in the communities.

We actually had a pretty good discussion about this going last thread.
You can easily find chop-shops, that will take corpses with uncultivated bioware and most cyberware of your hands, and even pay you according to what can be salvaged.
Making profit off another chromed-combat monster, may even be tolerated by your circles.

Regular organ-trade on the other hand, is kinda one of the lowliest industries, you can take part in. Especially since you will have to compete/do business with the kind of people doing this stuff.
Meaning the really scary crime cartells and ghouls.
Also, just dragging random security guards or passersby into a van to cut up for kidney's will not be looked upon kindly, and certainly be a hit to your reputation.
Regular organ trade i

How good are the Harebrained Scheme games for learning the setting? It seems they all take place at a particular time in the setting and I think the latest game edition is significantly past it or something like that.

The Returns games are set in the 50s, a lot has changed then but some things have stayed the same.

They're good for a general tone and feel, but its pre wireless matrix.

What are some of these "reputation hit" activities, and what sort of consequences are there for doing them? Would you actually lose out on jobs if people think you're "dirty" in some way? And would people come after you just for being unscrupulous even if there's no money in it?
How bad is selling people to be turned into bunraku? Is dealing in bunraku seen as below the Runner community or is it a normalized thing?

About as good as playing a single campaign is. It's isolated to its own little world, just like any Runner's existence might be. You'll see some shit, meet some people, but if you're wanting 'the fully informed' experience, you better be willing to read up.

Tamanous is always an option if you have living and dead people and loose enough morals to not care what they're about to go through! They also remove cyberware. The bonus is that none of the bodies will ever be seen again, as they will be eaten 100% of the time.

People looking for trustworthy and less monstrous runners for an assignment will probably look your group over. On the plus side, if someone wants to just hire some people to commit terrorism or mass-murder you might make their list.(You're hopefully more capable than terrorists or gangers)

>How bad is selling people to be turned into bunraku? Is dealing in bunraku seen as below the Runner community or is it a normalized thing?
far as I know bunraku parlors are all above-board with the shadowrunning community, and plenty of shadowrunners visit them regularly and talk about them openly online or in other runner hangouts. the parlors need to stay stocked up somehow and the runners need entertainment so the money flows in both directions

anyone worked with the shadowrun returns editors?

I have all three games but each one's packaged with their own editor and it looks like maybe there's different content packs for each game, is there an easy way to make sure my mod'll work for everyone?

What do you mean "stay stocked up"? Because that sounds a lot darker than what Shadowrun normally handles...

>>shaved_sasquatches_gone_wild.3id
I love quebec girls.

>What do you mean "stay stocked up"? Because that sounds a lot darker than what Shadowrun normally handles...
with fucking drink coasters, what do you think? women, man. picking off girls to fill the racks is like a standard low-level run, and kidnapping some middle-manager's subway crush or a wealthy fan's favorite singer is classic story material and usually good/easy money
I mean I guess if you're squeamish you could just pick up some more chips, they need BTLs and data filters, but if you're playing with someone who just refuses to deal with bunraku and specifically makes anti-bunraku characters they're probably a sjw.

BTL-strength.

There's also building a prison on a mana void like Alcatraz, keeping the mages there without magic as they slowly go insane from the void.

fuck your humane treatment

If you believe a guy named Dr Dyna Might, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Wonder how theoretical future fossil fuel crashes would affect Couche-Tards and other gas stations/convenience stores.

Maybe they just sell cyber-slushies now.

With enough bullets, everything dies.

>Be warden of mage prison
>Hot female mage prisoner
>Need to chip her 24/7 so she can't concentrate enough to cast
>Make a BTL of her riding my cock on a short, tight continuous loop
>Every day I see her stumbling and slurring about the yard, barely able to keep from drooling or feed herself while in a permanent state of being mentally violated by my cock
>No one cares if she'll ever be released

God I love the unregulated, privately-run corporate dystopia

>probably a sjw.

The only time Bunraku showed up in the Shadowrun Returns games was once as the private project of a Dr. Frankenstein villain and the player's encouraged to take pity on them, are you suggesting that Jordan Weisman is a SJW?

i've literally never heard of anyone doing any of those 'classic runs' man

it's okay if you got a weird shadowrun fetish you can admit it

>The only time Bunraku showed up in the Shadowrun Returns games was once as the private project of a Dr. Frankenstein villain and the player's encouraged to take pity on them, are you suggesting that Jordan Weisman is a SJW?
lets get real, they can't put that stuff in a high-profile video game that probably a lot of real sjws put money into to back, things aren't like they were in the 80s anymore. just having a couple bunraku in the game at all was a nod to a classic part of the setting but go any further and the ESRB would jump down their throats. besides the main quest hub was a brothel not like they separated shadowrunning and sex completely.

>those evil sjws, thinking slavery is wrong

So what you're saying is in this case, SJW doesn't mean "anyone to the left of me politically" but instead means "anyone who thinks slavery is wrong?"

>things aren't like they were in the 80s anymore

In most tabletop RPG areas, sure they are. Pretty sure running a Bunraku business was just as much of a sociopath thing to do in the 80's as it is today.

Tabletop just gives you the freedom to be an utter and complete fucking scumbag - it doesn't mean that your activities AREN'T that of a scumbag, however.

Closest my group came to any of that was the time we knocked over a Stuffer Shack and decided to grab the mouthy teenager working behind the counter for giving us shit the whole time. She wasn't like next-level hot or anything but the parlors apparently pay extra for young and fresh. I wouldn't call it a regular thing or anything though, just like a good option you can have in your back pocket to hang over people causing you trouble.

oh COME ON, so killing random rent-a-cops just trying to feed their families so you can rob a corp is on the level but grabbing one alive and reselling them is supposed to be so much worse? once you install the data filter and BTL they're basically "dead" anyway, it's no different than all that chop-shop cyberware harvesting people were talking about earlier - they're out of the game but their body's still worth some money to somebody. they don't even suffer they just stop existing. this is a double standard.

at least in the 80s you could embrace that stuff in your setting and play a grey hat character without causing some kind of PR meltdown, now companies are afraid to even hint at the bad stuff like racism or slavery in their games because the sjws seem to think just having it in the game is the same as endorsing it in real life.
and if you REALLY can't stand bunrakus I guess you must be against like 99% of prostitution in shadowrun because they're even worse, since they're run by organized crime and the women still have their minds so they feel the pain. and the majority of the people runners work for are people who go to those prostitutes and bunraku, so you're fine taking their money to kill people so they can make more money and use it to pay for more bunraku but not actually getting involved personally.
this is like those people who love meat but just can't hunt because they can't pull the trigger.

It's not on the level. The books specifically call out wanton murder of low-level security, as well as selling people to Tamanous for parts, as shitty things to do. Heck, even doing wetwork (that is, deliberately killing a single target) is looked down on in the fluff, and is mechanically penalized (you get less karma, literally getting less cosmic goodjuice because you did bad things).

So yeah, user; kidnapping people, forcing highly invasive brain surgery on them, and then selling them as puppets for whatever sexual deviancy someone wants is a bad thing.

Well yes, human trafficking is a bad thing even if you don't put a chip in someone's head.
>you're employed by terrible people most likely
Whatever happened to hooding?

>Whatever happened to hooding?
Hooding is for SJWs, I guess. I mean, god forbid you'd want to make the world a little less shit for everyone, right? If you're not playing the game as a criminal shitlord, ready and willing to pimp and mindfuck everyone who turns on you, you must not be playing it "right," or you're pandering to some kind of pussyfooting crowd. It's not like the game is designed to let you play however you like, after all. Hell, last I recall, as early as SR1, the Ares Squirt pistol was specifically put in the game because, as per the Shadowland BBS commentary, "corp security kind of appreciates you not trying to fucking kill them."

Are there any popular memes in the Shadowrun world?

Nerps.

The Neo-Anarchist Podcast has a good episode about the Second Crash and the death of Captain Chaos which indirectly touches on that. The host is obviously an early-edition diehard currently GMing the Hiddengrid liveplays, set in the 2050s, and the chick who is all about money and didn't give a shit when her 'girlfriend' died sticks out like a sore thumb, and he used the episode to talk about the general shift in tone in the Sixth World as editions changed.

It used to be that shadowrunners were people who were on the edges of society and were dealing with that. You had neo-anarchists, anti-corporates, eco-terrorists, tribal boosters, Underground sympathizers- not nice people, per se, but people who were trying to build something. The shadow community was just that. Now it's a lot colder. Everyone is a professional criminal with a very loose sense of ethics, doing just about anything for just about anyone.

Guess that explains why I feel way more comfortable in the 2050's.

should've called it a stuff HER shack!

still in the game though. they weren't forced to put Tamanous in, they did it to keep the whole shadowrunning experience real instead of the sanitized pr-friendly version the millennials all seem to want. I think this is more American puritanism where violence is okay but sex is taboo so a game that commodifies both is just too much for most people.
again they put these things in so players could make use of them, not to act like a bunch of paladins rooting out a goblin dungeon. everyone likes to talk up shadowrun as having no bad guys or black and white and everyone's just different shades of grey but get sex just a little incidentally involved and people lose their shit.

Which episode?