/srg/ Shadowrun General - Focus On Foci

Hey, guys, say I specced into resisting drain as an adept and spent 1.25 PP on the adrenaline boost power, could you not use the power each initiative pass to get +10 initiative and keep going forever? It does say "for the combat turn" but it says nothing about using it more than once.
Obviously any GM worth their salt would tell you to fuck off, but RAW, is it possible?

If you're the guy from the last thread, your fursona or whatever (even playing a furry character because you are a furry) might not be the best idea, mostly because SURGE is fucking rare as shit in SR and everyone forever is going to remember you, in addition, you're gonna have to take up to 30 karma in negative qualities for 30 karma worth of (generally iffy) positive ones, and take huge social penalties because of how the "freaks" modifier works (in short, if you take certain qualities you get -1 for every social action, period, stacking)

I want to try it and if it turns out awful I'll just make a new character. I'm really struggling to balance it all out but I can already see he's sure as shit not going to be great in a conversation.

So I've got a guy in our group who's struggling with his money.

He doesn't want augmentations because his character is something of a purist, as well as he's the face so he wants his essence mechanically.

He's not magical, so he's not getting foci.

He's not a decker, so he's not saving for cyberdecks.

And lastly, he's not a rigger so he's not gonna get drones.

What else can he spend his money on?

Being a "face" is kind of a secondary role, why not have him pick up physical infiltration as well?
Faces can generally function as social infiltrators, and he can invest his extra cash into B&E gear. Pheromones are basically standard face gear, and they boost your social limit so essence isn't a big issue. A purist is a fine character concept though, and pheromones are a 3 dicepool boost at most.
Worst comes to worst, just have him take resources E and pump his metatype for more edge, can never have enough edge.

No no, you see. We've already started. I'm talking about the money we gain from jobs. He's piling on the nuyen with nothing to spend it on. So, long term wise, what sort of thing should he buy?

I should also mention that, like you said, face is his secondary role. He's primarily the most streetsam guy in our group, with the code of honor and all.

The finer things in life.

Really, fuck him. Saying you don't want Augmentations because "muh essence" is like turning around to your teammates and saying "I don't fucking care about doing my job right".

Spend it on credsticks that he uses to bribe people.

Give him larger dice pools on more corrupt fucker, like post people.

Other than that, you aren't putting him in situations where he burns his SINs. Make that shit track back to him.

>primarily the streetsam guy
>has no augments
I'm assuming you mean the classical definition of Street Samurai, being that you mentioned the code of honour. If that's the case, why not spent it on improving his local community/hooding? Maybe ask the GM if he can convert nuyen to karma similar to how you can convert karma to nuyen in chargen.

I'm the GM, and I was talking to him about that earlier. What kind of rate do you think is fair? And fixing up the hood is a great idea too, since we're playing a gang heavy session.
You know what, you're right. I'm not pushing SINs hard enough. I like the bribing idea.
I'm trying to convince him of this, but he just keeps resisting.

>I'll take 'doesn't like playing characters as characters that sometimes have their motivations and views clash with what they need to do for a job, and instead min-maxes like a faggot' for 300, Alex.

What book has info on shamanism? Also, is there like an index or something so I don't have to keep asking this question about every subject?

Uhhh...

Street Grimoire, I guess.

I had an idea for a former Ork go-ganger who got set up by a rival member and sent to prison. Is having the criminal record trait pretty much unworkable?

The Shaman Tradition is in SR5, pg. 279. Other traditions can be found in Street Grimoire, starting on pg. 41.

That's it? No mention of totems or things like that? Do I need to go back to 4E for more?

That argument doesn't really work when your life, and the lives of your co-workers depends on your capacity, Omae.

At least, not beyond a little bit of character growth.
Which his character seems to have had a fair chance for.

It seems to me totems are referred to now as mentor spirits, which is a 5 karma positive quality. Things like the bear, the wolf, the dragonslayer, stuff like that right? I've never played 4E so I don't quite know what you're talking about.

You may have to go back to 4E for some totem/mentor spirits, but a good chunk can be found in SR5, pg. 320, and a few in Street Grimoire pg. 199.

Go back to 3e or earlier to really learn about sixth world shamanism.

Also he can always buy shit for his team or nice items for bribe or "good will gifts".

No

>starting a thread with your own doodle
How arrogant.

late but en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leverage_(TV_series)

Burn Notice works too.

I prefer Burn Notice, fwiw. Leverage just felt hammed up in the wrong way for me.

It doesn't matter what interesting nuances and mannerisms a dead character has.

Hey /srg/; ive been asked to run a game of shadowrun; ive played in a 5e game (as a decker) and ran other games before but my players only have experience with 4e. What things should I be aware of in terms of expectations?

Furthermore, ive been contemplating setting it as a corperate HTR team rather then runners (to begin with at least), any ideas for expanding that feeling to the mechanics (ie larger focus of licences rather then availability)

I wouldn't know, never watched Leverage. I have however been banned from playing a Face as a transparent Sam Axe knockoff...

How do you like your Shadowrun, /srg/? More shiny plastic and carbon fiber corporate cyber future, or more grimy 80s hell world punk future? More pink mohawk, more black trenchcoat? Overt magic-as-a-science, or subtle spooky magic? The Matrix as just a series of tubes, or foundations and resonance being spooky supernatural shit? Essence just psychology we don't understand, or people literally trading their souls away for some cool tattoos and adjustable breast implants? More distinct storylines, or more monster-of-the-week type disconnected runs?

I've had people tell me Human Revolution was their ideal Shadowrun game, and I've had people go as far the other way as to tell me Saints Row 3 was their ideal Shadowrun game.
Shadowrun means something different to everyone, what's it mean to you guys?

Are there no heroes left in man?

Grimy favelas, shiny plastic corporate towers, generations of corporate orphans, lawless zones beyond the cities with roaming toxic mutants, paracritters, bandits holed up in ghost towns attacking supply trains, etc.
Black trenchcoat where you have to (corporate arcologies & sanctums), pink mohawk where you can get away with it (usually industrial zones and further out).
Subtle magic unless you go looking for the crazy shit, magic-as-science when you dig into the better funded corporate R&D facilities or go up against wagemages.
Matrix as 'every device contains separate routing hardware to establish the matrix', technomancy as "what? gimme that damn crackpipe, nigs."
Essence as the glue that binds your physical and astral forms, tats and cosmetic modification distinct from Essence damaging replacements.
Storylines running in the background unless you chase them.

Post-Cyberpunk, so less neon, nobody takes punks seriously, Corporations are more insidious threats than obvious ones.
Magic should be a semi-wild force which is very hard to contain, but you shouldn't shit all over Hermetics for trying (like Shadowrun canon does).
The Matrix is tech, Technomancers are fucked up bio-computers who can interface with this tech and rewrite their own biology. There's nothing mystical about their powers.
Essence is biology we don't understand.
I prefer connected runs for a distinct storyline.

Shadowrun to me is playing career criminals with a heart of if not Gold, then at least Silver. In a world that ideally would have been fantastic with all it has going for it, but is brought down constantly by selfishness and human greed. But which due to omnipresent surveillance, can't be as overtly assholish any more.

If there's one thing I dislike about Shadowrun, it's how Corps are always shat all over as tyrannical assholes who exist to ruin life for the everday man. It's so untrue. The fucking people over part is a byproduct of improving their own citizen's lives.

I've always liked the evil below the surface shiny plastic future. Some dirty trash city areas where the SINless are likely to pile up add contrast to show the more obvious cost of the shiny plastic bits.
Black trenchcoat is the ideal, but every once in a while it's fun to cut loose and start a riot, blow up some NeoNET building in the process of stealing something super insignificant, or end a freeway car chase with the sam jumping off her bike and onto the skids of the rigger's stolen escape helicopter.
I prefer less magic, but where magic is used I like it to fit with the "feel" of the surroundings. Shiny plastic future, shiny science magic. On a run in the barrens, more shamanistic or subtle magic. As long as it's rare, I'm fine with it.
I personally like the idea that Technomancers are entirely mundane and have a completely scientific explanation that we just haven't found yet, but that their interactions with the matrix (and those of the Otaku before them) have actually created a supernatural force (resonance, resonance realms, sprites) in the matrix over time.
Essence can go either way. Maybe both ways. Probably both ways.
A good mix of storyline runs and filler runs is good to keep people entertained without burning them out, I find.

Saints Row 3 would make a pretty good over the top pink mohawk shadowrun game if you don't take it super seriously, yeah.

so why can Ulysses coat and Sleeping Tiger stack in chummer if they are from different maker ?

Its an Adept Power.

Mentor Spirits are the generic name. For a Shaman, a mentor spirit is their Totem. For a Catholic, their mentor spirit is their Patron Saint.

Chummer5a limitations. I assume Yekka hasn't gotten around to it.

Somewhere between Cyberpunk and Post-cyberpunk. I like to play up the distinction between the SINners and the SINless, and the punk/post-punk distinction helps. I play the setting more pink mohawk than most /srg/ folks do. I like my magic pretty commonplace. The Matrix was created as a series of tubes, but Resonance is Magic attempting to get its hands into a new world (the Matrix) it shares space with.

Short version, I couldn't think of an easy way to implement it without doing something terrible like making categories for each manufacturer.

>Alright before I start making my shitty fursona are unarmed adepts viable or will I need a weapon? I don't want to find out after making him that he's unplayable.
Unarmed adepts are only really viable if you're willing to use magical brass knuckles, or if your GM is willing to let you tattoo up your meat fists as Weapon Foci. As if the damage difference wasn't a big enough problem, there's a massive, MASSIVE dice pool size difference for armed vs unarmed adepts, due to weapon foci being a thing.

On top of that, 'ware makes you objective better at unarmed combat. You're going to want to look at Bone Density Augmentation/Bone Lacing and Striking Calluses - a combination therein can get you +5 damage to your unarmed (on top of other bonuses) which is well worth the hit to Essence if you're playing an unarmed character.

>What's the best foci you've seen/used?
Focus. Foci is plural, focus is singular.

>or if your GM is willing to let you tattoo up your meat fists as Weapon Foci
Which is 100% RAW as of Street Grimoire.

>What else can he spend his money on?
Buying a permanent High or higher lifestyle.

Buying a variety of high-end outfits.

Buying a really nice car.

Offering bribes.

Making new Contacts during down time that can be tapped for useful effects in play.

>What else can he spend his money on?
Slap him until he buys Tailored Pheromones.

Face isn't even a full archetype. Doubly so for a Face that won't even take social 'ware.

What an awful shit.

I loved both. Leverage was fantastic - especially the earlier seasons - and had real character growth and change. Burn Notice was spy/criminal/vigilante MacGuyver. Both are essential shows about Shadowrun characters going Hooding.

Grimy 80s retrotrash, pink mohawk, with subtle spookums. A matrix where secrets/uncertainty, rather than wizard shit, define its dark corners. Essence as a game abstraction only. One or two distinct main storylines, with each player character having their own personal plot threads complicating the main plot and leading to side runs.

>Which is 100% RAW as of Street Grimoire.
Oh, for sure. Street Grimoire explicitly spells out the fact that any artificer with Tattoo Magic can give you magical murder-hands.

But that doesn't mean his GM will necessarily allow it. People get an idea of how things - like foci - work in their heads, and I've known people who ban tattoo foci because it conflicts with their idea of foci too much, especially since it's a non-Core option.

If you want to be a hand to hand combat guy but not an adept is it better to go to bio route or the Cyber group?

Bone Density and Bone Lacing offer the same amount of damage bonus at maximum rating. Density has the advantage of being largely undetectable, but Bone Lacing has 2 more dice. Add Striking Callouses and Muscle 'ware for additional damage, of course.

I would also include a Shock Hand for the clean stun damage option, as well.

A mix of both really.
Titanium bone lacing is better than bone density because it gives you in addition to +3 soak dice and melee characters should be non-squishy, but for most other things you want bioware.

If you need a budget option, one "Hand of God" cyberarm to swing a machete around does nicely.

Otherwise I'd say to mix both: Bioware to boost STR and AGI while being light on the Essence, Wired Reflexes and Reaction Enhancers to boost your init and dodge, and bone lacing to give you better ability to also take a hit when one lands on your skull.

>If you want to be a hand to hand combat guy but not an adept is it better to go to bio route or the Cyber group?
If you want to be a hand-to-hand combat guy, you want Bone Density Augmentation/Bone Lacing and Striking Calluses, regardless of whether or not you're an Adept, unless you want to have cyber-spurs.

After that, you just get initiative, Strength, and Agility boosters, and the standard Pain Editor + Platelet Factories.

Checked.

Also what about Orthoskin for reach?

/shrug
2016+60 years; magitech marches on. It's also considered a "core supplement" by CGL, so fuck them.

>Orthoskin for reach?
Nah, fuck that. To get shark skin, you're looking at a starting Essence cost of .5 just to get +1 Armor and +1 Reach. That's a relatively minor bonus for such a steep cost.

Pick up the Kick Attack martial arts maneuver if you want more reach.

Well, I'm not the original guy but I'm currently making a character who I'm deliberately making skirt the essence line and also use almost exclusively bioware.

Even then, that's still a super minor bonus for a fairly major Essence cost when you could be cramming something else in there instead. Regardless of how close to Essence 0 you're willing to get, there's still the opportunity cost of not getting the other thing.

What's Singapore like?

Orthoskin is only worth it if you can't get better gear/more armor on cyberlimbs and you still think you need more armor. It's not that efficient Essence-wise.

It became a reverse megacorp. The entire citystate turned itself into a sovereign corporation in 2031. Everyone with a Singaporean SIN has an automatic share in the company - just like in the PCC. It's headed by a CEO and a board of directors.

Aside from that, very little canon is known about it. Mitsuhama controls most of Singapore's heavy industry, so there must be a major Yakuza presence there.

It's part of the Pacific Prosperity Group.

It's home to the world's third largest data haven.

Not my art; a drawfag in /srg/ made it for me. Same person who did this one.

Any suggestions where to look after air drones beside arsenal or this old drone?

I'm looking for something that able to carry a human from one building to another.

>What things should I be aware of in terms of expectations?

Rule 0 is absolutely necessary. Make a document that you keep with you at the table- whenever you make a house rule because you can't figure out what the fuck CGL thinks the actual rule is, write down the houserule. Make sure the players have access to that document, so they can build correctly (for example, with Rigger Gunnery LOG vs. AGI).

Other than that, remind the players to keep an eye on their limits. I know a 4e player who got annoyed that they couldn't cheese their way into 20 successes a roll because they didn't realise their limit was 4.

so say that I'm a rigger who have awakened due some reasons. Essence is 1,83 and i get 1 point in magic for free. What now ? What can i do with max of 2 magic due to dm fiat? Adept ? Techno? Fuck it all and just keep upgrading rigger stuff?

Either way works. OP didn't limit people to one focus per response, they can give a list of their best ones.

Each combat turn is whenever you roll Initiative. When you subtract 10 and go around again, you are going through Initiative passes, not turns. So while you can use it every turn, you cannot chain it together for infinite passes.

>Either way works.
No, it doesn't. He said 'what's' not 'what're.' It should have either been 'what're the best foci' or 'what's the best focus.'

Did you Awaken or Emerge? They're different things, the former is magic the latter is technomancy.

If you did Awaken, I'd say Adept because you can spend that one Power Point on something useful. Post the sheet and I might be able to recommend specific power(s).

There are some spells like reduce noise or Ignite that might help you in your day to day, but you might be better going adept to bump up some dice pools or to get like 1 nifty power.

First off: your Maximum is 1 not 2 due to having less than 2 essence
Second: better save up that Karma to Initiate/Submerge or you'll stay at 1Mag/Res forever

here it is
Dont pay any attention to the absurd amount of gear and vehicles,we are playing as military grade shadowrunners in space

dm fiat that limit is rounded up and i can either become techno or adept

In that case i'd say take Techno and just Focus on Sprites

Are there any "good" spirits from the Deep Metaplanes? Not understandable or human, but benevolent or at least benign?

I can't think of any off the top of my head that are generally "good". "Good" in this case meaning "doesn't plan to immediately kill metahumans". Doesn't mean they don't exist out there, of course.

>in space
You don't want to be Awakened in space.

Yes, but those are the same ones who also don't give enough of a fuck about humanity to be accessible on Earth.

Don't want to astrally perceive, at the very least.

>Don't want to astrally perceive, at the very least.
No, you don't want to be Awakened either. Space - mechanically - has a Background Count of 'literally goddamn infinity.' Magic doesn't work there, full stop. Adept powers? Shut down. Foci? Deactivated. Casting spells? Impossible.

Sure, astral perception up there is even worse, in that it blasts your mind to smithereens, but being Awakened, at all, is somewhere between pointless and worthless in space.

If it's a space-based game, he should be a Technomancer, because at least Technomancy can still be used when outside of the manasphere.

>Other than that, remind the players to keep an eye on their limits. I know a 4e player who got annoyed that they couldn't cheese their way into 20 successes a roll because they didn't realise their limit was 4.
Should have told him about using pre-edge.

Wroooong. Background count only penalises you in tests which use your magic stat. Passive adept powers work, as those are innate.

how to be even mildly effective though. The more I read on technomancer the more I think I wont be able to do jackshit. At least with going adept i can get +1 to 4 skills

I'd go with an adept, yeah. It'll be useless until you get into a place with a manasphere, but it's less useless than essense 1 technomancy.

For Nuyen to karma in 5e the rules for that is 2000 nuyen per karma up to 5 times. While "working for the people" it takes a full week of doing nothing but that. Of course you can fluff it or cange it to however you want.

>Background count only penalises you in tests
Since fucking WHEN?
Because AFAIR it reduces your ATTRIBUTE, meaning a MAG 6 mage in a BC of 3 only has effectively MAG 3, and in a BC of 6 has MAG 0, meaning they are mundane
which is why Background count rules hurt Adepts FAR more than mages
Take a BC of 2
for a mage it means: two less dice in Spellcasting/Summoning tests, threshold for Physical damage two lower. But they can still cast almost as well as before
for an adept it means: two whole PP less, meaning that he needs to disable two PP worth of powers. For many adepts this hurts them significantly

I can't find anywhere in 5e core where it explains BGCs, so this is from SG.

IIRC, 4e drops the MAG rating by the BGC. You might just be mixing the two.

You're in a situation were either will be literally useless.

A technomancer, though, can slap a Sprite in a piece of equipment to buff it.

Adept powers, on the other hand, shut down 100% completely in space. If most of your games don't actually happen in space, then Adept is by far the better choice. But if, as you said, you're space-based mercenaries? It's just worthless.

Reminds me of one of my players. He wanted to be a void magician. Standard damages and all that such, but his method of initiation was to survive different distances from space.

Was pretty fun. After he was initiated twice, outer space qualified as having a compatible background count, so instead of frying him from lack of magic, it would burn him out from too much magic. His character died spectacularly later by casting a super charged Mana ball while on a shuttle carrying a special military kill squad.

It says so in the first sentence of your screencap. Note the 'active adept powers', keyword 'active'.

?????
All I did was post the rules from SG and clarify that the guy might have mixed 4e and 5e's BGC rules, I didn't say you were wrong.

Sorry, I got confused because I though you were quoting me too. It's late.

So... Do all devices on a PAN need to be running silent, or just the master device? Ihate this wireless shit.

All of them need to be. The only thing the master device on a PAN does is let the slaves use its Firewall.

Thanks.