/srg/ - Shadowrun General

>shadowrun 5e
>players can't understand it because they're stupid

They don't understand it because the SR5 ruleset is a bloated hell of poorly-edited, self-contradicting spaghetti-code whose writers weren't even talking to each other. The setting, particularly in relation to the matrix, is both nonintuitive and very poorly realized so it's difficult to guess what they intend at any given time.

Like shit dude, I spent my college days writing process models and I sometimes have a hard time making sense of this crap. It's supposed to be a game, not a day at work.

Sure, you can ego-stroke over having spent 6 hours a day lurking and wading through the mess, but that doesn't mean other people are dumb for not having done that yet. It's like calling your HR rep an idiot for not having learned COBOL in his spare time.

>It's like calling your HR rep an idiot for not having learned COBOL in his spare time.
As opposed to more correctly calling him an idiot for relying on his charisma instead of his brains, thus ensuring that all his power, resources and capability lie within other people and that on his own he is, in fact, quite helpless?

Absolutely terrible.

can´t read*

care to elaborate?

For me, i would house rule it a lot. For example, fixed difficulty curve for simple rolls (don´t like as a GM to roll for everything).

>(don´t like as a GM to roll for everything).
That's what rule of 4 is for.

Does anyone else think that MG damage in 5e is kinda low? OK, I agree that an LMG would probably use a rifle round, and hence deal comparable damage (Ingram Valiant does less damage than most assault rifles). RPK HMG does look effective, having -4 AP and one point of damage on the best assault rifles in the core book. But isn't an HMG supposed to be firing a substantially more impressive bullet?

If a Shadowrun “HMG” is supposed to be a man portable weapon intended primarily for suppression, why the heck do you call it an HMG? It kinda triggers me a bit.

I sat down with my new players during character creation last night and talked them through all the great roleplaying opportunities that come with different negative qualities, but by the end of it everyone agreed that a laundry list of minor allergies and phobias would make for a more interesting cast

I'm already dreading the upcoming game, christ.

I just ban allergies unless it's something interesting. Had a character in my game who had an allergy for soy beans. SOY! Now that is a disadvantage if I see one.

Yeah it is. Generally speaking, the way I understand it is LMGs use intermediate/assault rifle caliber, MMGs use full power rifle calipers, and HMGs use things like .50 BMG or 12.7mm. They should be dealing as much damage as something like the Barret.

>Does anyone else think that MG damage in 5e is kinda low?
I think that the damage is fine, it's just that the price tag is ridiculously jacked up.

If at least one person in your group doesn't have distinctive style, they need to rethink their priorities.

>trips
>wisdom

Preach it, omae.

I can empathize.
Funnily enough, I guided my players through chargen yesterday too. One of them wants to play an icelandic elf shaman, while the other decided on playing a crossdressing decker.

Nothing can go wrong, right?

>on his own he is, in fact, quite helpless?
You could say the same for just about anyone living in modern civilization. A coder doesn't have a whole lot to do without other people to provide him with his tools or the demand for his skills. A leader flourishes in the context of an organization, whether in someone else's or one that he creates. Even a "self-sufficient" business owner's lifestyle is reliant on a vast economic network (and the many things underpinning that system) that generates demand for his goods and services, and in turn supplies him with necessities and the means to continue operating.

Isn't there some German alt rules for HMG's and the like? Something about suppressive fire doing X1.5 damage.

There's a German optional rule which uses a 4e inspired rule making certain/all Machine Guns fire more rounds in Full-auto. In 4e I think its called high-velocity fire. Something like 10 and 20 for Simple and Complex fire, respectively.

I'm not necessarily agreeing with
or anything, but
>but by the end of it everyone agreed that a laundry list of minor allergies and phobias would make for a more interesting cast
They have it all wrong. They should have a laundry list of various different flaws for maximum FUN.

Perhaps, but at the end of the day there are some people that are clearly going to do better than others if we all suddenly find ourselves completely and utterly alone.

Can you be more specific, chummers?

Show some initiative, chummer. The German optional rules are in the German editions of the Sourcebooks.

Do not speak German.

>new players
>playing it safe
They're probably just scared of all the debilitating NQs you're pushing on them. Just let them roam around in chargen and let them find the fun options themselves. They'll have a better feel for things once they've started playing.

I've found by experience that the Stoner Ares MMG will fuck anyone's day, most of the time. It's a bit weird when you spend an hour or two creating an NPC for your players to face, he shows up, and the rigger goes "I fire a Complex Full Auto of APDS rounds at him."
Ingram Valiant a shit, though, which saddens me greatly.

And here comes the "Let's roll a D6 to see if your allergy of choice comes into play at the worst possible time this session !"

>And here comes the "Let's roll a D6 to see if your allergy of choice comes into play at the worst possible time this session !"
>leaving your allergies up to chance
>not being allergic to pollution, which is practically everywhere
>not being a van rigger who literally lives in his Ares Roadmaster with maximized armor among other mods
>not having Environmental Sealing 2 so that the filthy air of the city will never contaminate your sanctum of purity
>not using a gask mask for those occasions where you HAVE to leave your armored van and go out into the disgusting polluted world.

Whooops, looks like one of your filters AND the redundancy just died!

So, just to confirm I did this right, how would one go about capturing a possession free/wild spirit NPC?

I had friendly forces create sort of a one way ward and then have them use super-magecuffs on him once they wrestled him down. If you knock him down to zero HP, that would have ejected him from the body, right? Am I missing anything?

Young Lia unrelated

It's cool, I've got a dice pool of 12 to fix that shit.

But realtalk, if a player spends an absurd amount of money on dealing with or even getting entirely around, you should let them because....well, they spent an absurd amount of money on it. Converting karma into cash is an option in chargen, so I don't see why it would be bad to do the opposite at a far less efficient rate. If you made a paraplegic character and spent a lot of money on a bitching chair-drone, your GM shouldn't be taking it away from you all the time.

>icelandic elf shaman
Seems legit. Tell him to research icelandic mythology for his spirits.
>crossdressing decker
Distinctive style and you're done. Point out that breast implants 2.0 are unisex.

>2.0
WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP RECOMMENDING THIS
THERE'S NO POINT
THEY'RE NOT BETTER TITS
THEY JUST CHANGE SIZE
THERE IS NO POINT IN GETTING TITS 2.0 UNLESS IT'S IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT YOUR FAKE TITS BE ABLE TO CHANGE SIZE

>not wanting variable size tits for disguise purposes
Omae . . .

>THEY'RE NOT BETTER TITS
>THEY JUST CHANGE SIZE
Do you have shit taste in everything, or just ware?

>disguise purposes
What is this, a black trenchcoat game?

Nigga, you want to see a woman's breasts swell you try a little something called foreplay so she doesn't have to fake her orgasms.

>projecting THIS hard

I don't even get what you're supposed to be implying there.

>What is this, a black trenchcoat game?
OK.

>not wanting variable size breasts so you can visibly pump them up while seducing your mark, before luring him back to the rigger's van, so you can drag him behind said van throughout the streets of seattle

But then why not just have large breasts to begin with?

Catering to his BE fetish, obviously. This is the 6th world, omae.

But then why not do it with bioware? Just redistribute your body fat for the tits and have an implanted gland that releases the natural BE chemicals on command.

If there are stats for that, then you should 150% go for that option. But I'm a charop faggot who came here from /pfg/ and /5eg/, and so I operate mostly on RAW.

You want variable size so that your decker can rifle through the guys' matrix history, give you a dossier on his ideal partners, and then the face can optimize her appearance and approach to suit that. Should be worth at least +2 to +4 IMO.

Well...the breast implants in the cyberware chapter of Chrome Flesh are just silicon implants, and the bioware chapter says it's possible to change your gender completely without losing essence, so there's no way that "redistribute body fat" doesn't fit under "minor modification biosculpting". Assuming that the specific hormone(s) have been discovered, Chemical Gland should cover the rest.

>and then the face can optimize her appearance and approach to suit that.
Yeah, but why recommend 2.0 for the decker then? Also, the face could just be flat-chested to start w-oh who am I kidding,the face needs to have at least a b-cup.

The problem with biosculpting is that it takes months to perform. That's why there's no essence loss. BE2.0 are basically silicone balloons that can expand in seconds.

>The problem with biosculpting is that it takes months to perform.
Which is why you do it in chargen.

>Yeah, but why recommend 2.0 for the decker then?
You're right, that is pretty dumb

Well yeah, but that doesn't work for 2 reasons:
1. Getting biosculpting at chargen removes the 'crossdressing' part of the character's theme - unless you're leaving the genitals and just changing the rest.
2. Getting biosculpted instead of BE2.0 means you can't visibly balloon to seduce someone with an expansion fetish.

>unless you're leaving the genitals and just changing the rest.
Yeah, that's what crossdressing is.
>you can't visibly balloon to seduce someone with an expansion fetish.
You can with a Chemical Gland.

>You can with a Chemical Gland
Go read the biosculpting section again, chummer. It'd take literal months to change your cup size that way.

Breasts can swell as a result of a woman's arousal, so ballooning can be done if the hormone(s) have been isolated.

Well yes, but not to the extent that the 2.0 implant does. You can't go from A-cup to DD-cup in 6 seconds due to just arousal.

True, true, but how often is your mark going to be THAT level of degenerate?

Let’s talk NPC stats, chummers.

Where do you get yours? Do you just handwave stats and skills and assign NPCs reasonable looking dice pools when the need arises? Do you have generic NPC stat blocks and equipment loadouts written down?

Also, I would be grateful if you point me towards some fan-made NPC stats collection. I searched around the web, but it looks like 5e statblocks are a rare commodity, or my Google-fu is just weak.

I had an stupid idea the other day, and I need some help since searching for details on the setting is a bit hard.
A decker that host a pirate radio. Not a podcast or anything, just a good old radio transmitter from the back of his car and drives around the city, picking up calls and mail with a burner comlink, and 'telling it like it is' while putting music as old as he can get his hands on.
I need details on the setting, mostly to see if the radio spectrum is still 'reserved' for radio and wasn't cannibalized for grid space, and how available would be radio equipment... Any ideas?

In the 6th world, and particularly in an explicitly pink mohawk game? Probably fairly often.

I think radio has gone the way of the dodo, what with trideo being a thing now. But you could pirate that shit.

Hey guys, I'm kinda lost when it comes to programs

Does a decker absolutely need to have all possible program maxed out at chargen or can we just pinpoint a few useful one at rating 3, max a few vital ones at rating 6 and drop a bunch of useless ones? Also which ones are must have and which one are situational?

I don't know if it's been stated what happened to that spectrum, but I'll bet fucking nobody has a radio. Maybe there's a couple crazies who live in the middle of the AMC and still use HAM radios to talk to each other about how the government is all HMHVV bug shedim, but everyone else is going to use the ubiquitious satellites and grids.

There's plenty of spaces within the Matrix for someone to hide and broadcast, though, even in De Le Mar's new cyberworld.

>Decker
>Program Ratings

Wut? The only "program" with a rating is an Agent. (Which you better get Rating 6 ASP, they're super-useful for teamwork tests.)

There's no such thing as program rating in 5th edition

Hey chummers. Every once in a while I like to give myself a mental exercise by doing something odd with character creation. Today, I am gonna ask for some help from you guys:

Give me a character concept or mechanic that you will absolutely never allow in your campaigns, and I'll try to make a character (either concept or actual character sheet) that would would willingly accept.

(If I decide to make the character sheet, it will be standard sum to 10)

Also, I'll ask now not to be painfully specific. Burnout aspected alchemist dryad weeb with a tragic backstory isn't a challenge, it's just obnoxious.

Finally: Give me a reason why you won't allow it in your campaign. gives me something to work with.

Gnome. I don't allow it because gnomes.

That's not much to go off of. what's wrong with Gnomes? They aren't Pixies.

Ghoul (or vampire, or any Infected really) runner. Infected are "NPC only" in my games.

I despise short people.

>tfw all the shadowrun MUDs are dead

SURGEs, they are either a pool of random quirks without rhyme or reason that only adds trouble to making the characters part of the game, they make their fursona, or they are heavy minmaxers to the point they don't care about anything other than overshadowing all other players.

If you feel like you can make a character that doesn't fit into those categories, go for it.

Would a Gonzo Journalist turned shadowrunner be better off as a hacker or a face in SR4e?

They're the size of three year olds.

That's more of a personal bias than something mechanical. I'll try to work on it, but you're not really giving much of a good 'reason'.

Alright, I can try to do that. I'll probably go for Ghoul, though if another infected works better, I'll snag it.

Done it in the past. Actually, I had 3 (Although one was a bit min/max-y, it was for something that was subpar to begin with). I'll try something new for ya, though.

Alright, that's 3 things I've got. I'll try to finish them before I move onto any more suggestions.

manlet self-hate spotted

I find building journos as hackers, mostly since they have a reason to go undercover and play against the rules to get what they want. But, the idea of a face adept that doesn't know he is a mage, and believes he is just THAT good at getting his way sounds quite fun...

I'm gonna start with the SURGE character. Gonna make the sheet because it's the most fun to me. Then I'll work on the Ghoul, and then finally the Gnome. Gnome is gonna be the hardest because it's a stupid reason, but I want something more creative than "While most gnomes take their size as compliments, he hates it, and insists on wearing stilts to be at least as tall as your average human' or something like that.

see, chummer
there's your problem

1/2

...

In Chummer the Hanuman metavariant is out of date with the new version of run faster. It gives Agi 1/6 with metagenetic improvement instead of simply 1/7, and Distinctive Style for some reason when it already does the Unusual Hair.

random thought I had in another thread:
UGE and goblinization are due to the increased background mana level, right?
and in space you don't have any mana unless you build an artificial biosphere, right?

does that mean that in space only humans get born? No elves, orks, dwarves or trolls?

Is the updated version of run faster in the pastebin?

>Magic people that don't know their magic and just think they're hot shit
Patrician tastes there m8

I think so, yeah. Not 100% sure, though - link me the new version and I'll check against the version in the bin.

That's my understanding. I'm actually toying with an idea of a plotline about this; essentially, some conservative holdouts in Evo from the Yamatetsu era trying to use Evo's space exploration and colonization focus to simply leave the Awakening behind.

Already fixed in nightlies.

I don't have a source so this is conjecture. You can't goblinize or be born an Elf or Dwarf in the void of space, but Metas can give birth to Metas no problem. They've already been genetically changed by magic back on Earth, it wouldn't have any impact in my eyes on what happens after.

By be born an Elf or Dwarf, I mean they couldn't be born with UGE, because there wouldn't be any mana for that to express itself. If they had a Dwarf daddy and a kinky Elf mommy an Elf or Dwarf baby would pop out.

Never made a rigger before, so this SURGE character is taking a bit longer than Usual. Still, should be done relatively soon.

but isn't the expression of those genes dependent on mana level?
It's the same reason as for why in the fifth world there were only humans: Even if you have a gene, unless it gets expressed you might as well not have it
and apparently it's dependent on the mana levels at the conception, because you can have two metas who still get a human child

AI specced to be a face. Someone asked about playing one in an upcoming game and I just can't see how it's not gonna be a huge handicap.

look up cinnamon
AI with no upper limit on CHA
IIRC 13 CHA and room for more

pastebin.com/u687vu13

I . . . huh.
Definitely workable, though trying to meet someone face to face is gonna be problematic. But then you just save up for a Saeder-Krupp Direktionssekretar with realistic features.

Do you have a source for the two Metas giving birth to a Human, just curious
>It's the same reason as for why in the fifth world there were only humans: Even if you have a gene, unless it gets expressed you might as well not have it
I'm saying that the I think the initial expressions of the Metahuman gene requires a Manasphere. However, once you have Metahumans, a Manasphere isn't required for people to be born as a Meta because its now a genetic thing.
In the Fifth World there were folks roaming around with Metahuman DNA, but without a Manasphere to kick off Metahuman genetic expressions, the Metahuman ball couldn't start rolling.

Two giants have a one in four chance of giving birth to a human if the baby is female. The girl is still a carrier for giant genes though and her chances of human to giant offspring are the same as with a giant.