/srg/ Shadowrun General

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>Welcome back to /srg/, chummer

Take chances.
Get messy.
Make mistakes.
And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon.

>Pastebin: pastebin.com/SsWTY7qr (embed) (embed)
>Chummer 5: get.chummer.net
>Issue tracker: issues.chummer.net
>Last thread: (You|Cross-thread) (Cross-thread)

Topic: Player shenanigans; do you roll with the punches, or slap them down?

Shit man, i'm just a fuckin first time GM, i trusted my players too much since i've known them for years.

I didn't expect the quickening guy to lie and cheat his way to bwing the biggest stat stick around.

Okay, so there's a few things that have gone wrong there. First of which is allowing initiation during character creation. Literally the only time it should be allowed is to allow rigger technomancers to submerge for their control rig and even then it's better from a balance perspective to have them go into karma debt at the start of the game to afford it.

Anyway, the major reason to slap your player and tell him to roll it back is that he would've had to roll for the spell hits, and doing that away from the table is shenanigans. Also, strictly speaking quickening isn't on the list of things you can do with your remaining karma during character creation.

You can never trust players omae. Never.

My group is coming back together in a few weeks. I'm excited but worried that everyone is gonna be way to minmax'd and I'll be the unless because I care more about playing as characters I can role playing instead of number crunching machines. Fuck.

>I care more about playing as characters I can role playing instead of number crunching machines

I don't like this false dichotomy. You can make a mechanically good character and roleplay well with them.

I find they're not even a false dichotomy, but essentially two traits independent of each other, that have been roped together for peoples' agendas.

That's exactly what false dichotomy means.

Players are like dragons. You don't trust them, you do not cut deals with them.

Okay listen chummer, it is as pointet out.
Having a optimized character and having a character you can play well are not mutually exclusive.

I guess you are worried about Min-Maxing, where the samurai has logic 1 and charisma 1 because "he is not a smart man". If that is the case it is your GM's job to man up and tell the players to keep their retarded characters at home.

Anyone running anything with room in it? I swear i'm trustworthy and also cute.

Question. If you use the drug Cereprax (CF. Page 180) In a chemical gland and have it as constant release, would it be taking another dose?
And would you ever suffer the crash?

If an male orc and a female elf have kids, with the kids being orcs, does the elf have "litters" like orc women do or does she have a regular number of kids?

The whole thing with litters is ignored in the new edition, just like Orks being carnivorous and dwarves agoraphobic

Huh, I guess it just raised too many questions. Like why aren't orks a majority in some places. It kinda balanced out their short lives though.

Speaking of, is there any official statement about the aging of trolls? Because my head canon is that they live as long as elves.

/srg/, what are the houserules that you're fond of?

IIRC instead of having litters their gestational period is shorter
And no, Trolls live on average 60 years. I know about it in 4e, but the 5e CRB should also have a table of the sizes and age spans of the metatypes

Huh. The projected lifespan for humans is 55-65. That's interesting. I assume it means natural lifespan, ignoring medicine.

Goblinised orks and trolls have human lifespans because Bull can't be allowed to die, current fluff indicates that trolls have a life expectancy of around 50 years, while orks have an expectancy of 40-45.
Synthetic drugs can't be produced in a chemical gland. Better question is whether Cereprax can push your intuition to 0.

>trolls have a life expectancy of around 50 years

I know that's the word of god in setting, but somehow it just doesn't sit well with me from a mythological standpoint. Trolls/giants are the kind of entities that live outrageously long times, what with their connection to rock and stone.

Chummer, this is the same setting where Naga are are talking snakes and centaurs have horse heads
They just don't give a shit

Fair enough. I'm at least gonna house-rule that the giant metavariant lives as long as elves.

>Goblinised orks and trolls have human lifespans because Bull can't be allowed to die
They could just have sorted out by not being morons and saying the life expectancy table isn't natural lifespan but typical life expectancy in the UCAS or some shit.

Sure, the age chart is mostly useful to determine when you are born and approx how much time you have to live. Since you'll at most spend 5-6 years in game it doesn't really matter unless you already were close to it
Fluff wise the only thing that would really change is that Giants are researched even more than now. Currently because a fourth of their offspring are human

One fourth of all females. I also read as expressing human, but still having genetic potential for giants. So a woman that might outwardly look human would have all giant children. Partly as a nod to the fact that in Scandinavian myths about trolls the females can shapeshift into beautiful maidens and the famous Bauer image of the troll mother.

One more question that could probably be answered if I took the time to pour through all of Run Faster. Are metavariant expressions tied to where someone is from or where they are at the time? That is, a fourth generation Japanese immigrant on the West coast of the states would manifest as a regular ork or an oni?

Nobody knows. It seems that it in some way depends on the location (Nartaki only transform at the Ganges) and in some other way depends on the heritage (People with Japanese heritage turn into Oni) but there is no accurate way to predict if someone expresses as a metavariant or not

You argue there are more options, where I hold there are none.

Hi /srg/, i'm currently working on a Shadowrun game where the players are a desert war team, with all the trouble that comes along with being a professional player in the sixth world (blackmail, bribery, sabotage (even in form of assasinations), bets, corp contracts, etc.).

Since there isn't that much information on desert war, besides beign the most popular sport i wrote up some rules and would like to hear what you think about it.

Squad
4-6 People

Per Person:
-Primary weapon: Shotguns, Snipers, two handed in general
-Secondary weapon: Pistols, Shields, one handed in general
-Melee: from knife to shock ram
-6 Extras= Clips, Grenades, Decks, RCCs

Per Squad:
-one Vehicle
-two small or smaller drones/ one medium or larger Drone
-one Spirit, its summoner has to be a part of the Team.

If group size is below six, missing people can be replaced by adding a drone per missing person.
At least 4 metahumans need to be in a team.

Additional equipment may be brought but is left to the judgment of the on site judge to ensure a fighting chance (no rocket launcher vs “team taser” curb-stomp battle)

common play styles:
team death match
capture the flag
capture the point
VIP rescue

Play sizes are usually 1 on 1 squads or 3 on 3 or “full scale” with 9-12 Squads vs 9-12 Squads.


Do you guys have any thoughts on this ?

Consider giving your players discounts for gear that's specifically and visibly corp-brand; if they're running for Ares, a slight discount on ares guns and gm cars, for example.

Also I'd assume desert wars would have much larger teams than your runner crew.

I'd also assume that the News don't really bother with recording the entry league (squad vs squad) and the larger ones beign more common on the trid (also because, more death).

But i and the players have to start somewhere and build up their team or looking for other small teams to work tohether with them (without shooting them in the back)

>
I would take a run from the Sweet Prince, no problem. The first one might cause some problems depending on the group's attitudes to racial stereotypes.

If I have cyberlegs, is my movement my legs agility or my limb average agility?

Yes.

How does Magic Fingers interact in combat?

Does it use up your own initiative pool or does it have it's own?

More importantly, can I dual wield monofilament whips with them?

They're your hands and it's still you acting.

>dual wield melee
No point. Single wield is just as effective.

>dual wield monofilament whips
I feel like this is just asking for trouble

>asking for trouble
and making it double

Anyone have a line on Book of the Lost? Even 7chan doesn't have it.

Gotcha. I'm trying to find interesting ways to stab people from a distance as a mage without just casting fling on things.

That's what magic fingers is for.

Would you rule that Take Aim could be also be used for melee weapons?

I mean, if the target just stands in front of you and doesn't do shit, why not?

What are some good drones for a non-rigger to pick up?

sex bot

hand drone

autoblow2

You'd have to wait until your next turn to use the benefit (melee attacks are a complex action, remember) and meanwhile your opponent is hacking you to death while you lose a whole attack just to gain +1 die to your attack, so even if you allow it it's kind of a shitty idea.

Well I'm currently running a physical adept who uses the Kenjutsu martial art. With Iaijutsu I can draw and attack with my sword as a Simple Action. I figured that if I use a Simple Action to Take Aim on a target, then use my other Simple Action to use Iaijutsu, I can further improve my dicepool.

Fly-Spy
just get yourself some fly-spys and let the rigger access them

Bust-A-Moves.

Oh wait, that was 4th ed

Horizon Little Buddies.

Depending on the edition, 4e had Emoti-Toys from Attitude. They can come with a rating 6 empathy software. Also you can play with their sensor upgrades to turn them into inconspicuous scanners for pretty much anything

Other good option from 4e would be a Mr. FixIt from runner companion. The name says it all, they're cheap and they come with the tools and programming to handle a craft of your choice.

IIRC, Iaijutsu let's you quick draw as a simple action then make a melee attack as another simple action. I'm at work so I can't check for you though.

Have any of you ever used artifacts in the game? How'd that end up for you, giving people some custom gear or what have you.

You're right! I did neglect to mention that I took the Rapid Draw adept power so that I could make it a Free Action. Do you think sheathing a sword would be a Free Action as weapon?

Rather, "Do you think sheathing a sword would be a Free Action as DRAWING a weapon?"

Hey guys. Looking to give myself a bit of a mental exercise. Give me a character concept that you would never allow into one of your games, and I will try to make a character that follows that concept, that you WOULD allow.

Rules: Give me a reason why its not allowed in your game.

Don't be overly specific. Burnout aspected alchemy blood toxic mage changeling dryad isn't a challenge, its just obnoxious.

Have a somewhat open mind. Don't say "No gnomes, because I don't like short people" and answer with "Yeah, but he's still a gnome."

[And for those who remember, yes, I'm the same guy who made the Badger character concept, as well as the Cyber Naga]

How about a full body cyborg? Bonus point if his brain is in something silly like a truck

So... What are you asking that's different from any other person who's replaced bits of their body down to .01 essence?

maybe he's asking for Jarheads, though that only works for 4e

Possibly. And I would only be making a 5th edition character as its the only one I'm familiar with.

Also, its not exactly sounding like a concept that someone wouldn't usually allow into their campaigns.

ok then how about some kind of historian specialized into using outdated tech

As in, making a character who specializes in Pre-crash hard and software?

maybe, not sure. Some friend told me he wanted to join a game I partake in and said that was the concept he wanted to make. I didn't want to systematically shit him down but I honestly think it wont work at all

Reposting from last thread.

I have two ideas for a cool Fixer for the team to get as a free contact.

Neil, a black dude who runs a strip club called Jungle Fever in Snohomish. The decorations, both AR and physical, are all jungle-themed. The girls are all ebony, and from every race, be they human, dwarf, elf, or goblin. The important thing is that they have huge booties, and look good in leopard-skin lingerine.

The place mostly sells cheap, deep-fried soy food, which Neil cooks himself into a surprising array of delicious dishes, The alcohol is all cheap synthahol and beer with the consistency of monkey-piss, but it's alcohol.

There's a private room, connected to both the dance floor and the kitchen. It's almost never used by the strippers, since nobody who come's here has the kind of money for a private show. The room is connected to the kitchen, so Neil uses this room to brief runners on missions, if he's not vidcalling from the steamy kitchen.

The other is a dude who meets runners in a private host, decorated to be a candy-themed mansion. Everything in the place is edible, from the marble-looking floor actually being white marble chocolate, to the walls tasting like snozzberries. The Johnson himself changes his appearance very often, but he's always seen with a ridiculous cotton-candy afro, which less diplomatic runners have been tempted to try and taste.

I'm debating between naming him King Cotton Candy (it was going to be just King Cotton, since I originally envisioned him as a black dude, but I realized that was pretty racist desu), or naming him The Sweet Prince.

Thoughts?

Having no family members whatsoever.
>This includes mentors, parental figures, spirits that are constant companions, and so on and so forth

Protagonist or cryo-style amnesia
>Your typical min-maxed character sheet where the background section is a blank page.

Displaced setting characters
>Ancient beings, orks that just happen to be 200 years old, callbacks from earthdawn

Little girls as shadowrunners
>Not as companions, and actually a little girl.

Something or someone super-powerful "in disguise."
>CEOs of Triple-As, sekrit dragons, powerful spirits, etcetra

I think that covers the worst of it. Good luck.

Alright, I think I can Work with these.

The only thing I can't technically do is write a character concept for a character that doesn't have a character concept. So I probably won't be doing the 2nd one because doing the second one would no longer be doing the second one.

>tfw you realize, reading old books, that Clockwork and Kane used to be pariahs that most runners would shoot on sight because they're moronic go gangers who go loud on the most trivial run
Fucking CGL

No but Kane is /dev/grrl's mentor so he's cool now.
And Clockwork has to stick around so that there's a designated asshole.

An example of the second one done well is Dirvish from SR storytime - but even before he met the other players he still had *some* things he learned, and even picked up a parental/mentor figure in the process.

>Decker genius needs a mentor
>The mentor barely has the computer skills of my grandmother but talks a big game and somehow Fastjack doesn't just have him murdered and /devgrrl extracted from her own good like the street version of CPS
Literal VITAS III

I think he's more a general shadowrunning mentor, teaching her how the day-to-day works. She wouldn't need a matrix mentor, if she excels at it. She's probably need someone to help shore up her weak points.

No, it is not a good idea for a teenaged girl (well, she's in her early twenties now, but still) to be under the tutelage of a much older man, known to be an insane, womanising, drug-abusing murderer. But I think we can agree that shadowrunners in general have a skewed moral compass, so what's one murderer from another, eh?

How do I make combat difficult without making it a slog of a lot of bad guys?

It seems like it's very difficult to balance around players who actually know what they're doing (tactically and character-build wise), because the line between "mook" and "runner fucker 5000" is so razor thin.

Put them in situations where they cannot kill indiscriminately.

Surprise Rounds, Surprise Rounds, Surprise Rounds

Remember Group Morale Ratings. I've seen too many GM's who have everybody from gangers to HTR fight to a TPK. Cleaning up a routed set of enemies is a challenge in itself.

Don't let players get comfy in their battle plans. When they take cover, render that cover useless. When they charge, have enemies focus fire. Don't give their characters a moment to formulate a battle plan. Hit fast, hit hard. Everybody has tactics until they get shot in the face.

I prefer combat between runners and a few stronger opponents (usually about equal to the number of runners). Keeps the number of action phases a turn down.
Also, add combat scenarios have a goal that's not just murder. Like bodyguard work, or chase scenes.

Yekka, taking a chemical gland crashes Chummer, version 5.190.0

So has anyone got a pdf of the Book of the Lost yet? Apparently the Tarot cards are the pinnacle of CGL's retardation.

Yekka does.

He has a pdf?

Pls gibe Yekka.

I always found the part where he's a part-time human trafficker to be Kane's most objectionable trait, personally.

It has DRM. It'll be in the pastebin as soon as it gets cracked.

Clarification:

If a decker gets a mark on a slaved device, they get another mark on the master device, NOT every device on the PAN, right?

>Code of Honor: The Path of the Samurai
>Restriction: May not kill anyone from surprise or via treachery. May not break his word once given.

Obviously this restricts a character from slitting a snoozing corpsec's throat, or slaughtering gangers after he's agreed to spare their lives. But does this Code of Honor restrict a runner from using non-lethal surprise attacks like a tazer, chokehold, or gel rounds on an unassuming target? Does he have to announce himself Inigo Montoya style before he can start swinging his sword? Furthermore if going by RAW, does this mean a runner with this code suffers no penalty for sneak-attacking targets so long as the target doesn't die?

As long as you don't kill anyone that way, you're not breaking the literal code but since this is kind of a gray area, I wouldn't abuse it

If we're following it strictly by the letter and by RAW then yeah, you'd be good in surprising someone with a taser.

The thing with Code of Honor is that it's much more of a roleplaying/fluff centric quality than others of similar worth like TLE-X or full Insomnia. For it to work as a negative-quality worth 15 Karma, the player has to abide by the code of honor to the spirit as well as the letter. So while a street-samurai with that could interpret the code to be as flexible as possible, it's generally considered within the spirit of the game to let it restrict and challenge you to a decent degree.

>roleplaying element
>RAW

Kill yourself, you karma-whoring faggot.

I'll add a trigger warning for you next time if you get set off this easily.

I'm interested in making a Muscle Car Magician: someone who uses spells and spirits to obtain MAXIMUM DRIVE. I'm curious if there is some sort of Vehicle Focus or some kind of spell that would allow me to alter the Handling and Speed of a vehicle while I'm behind the wheel or help me lower thresholds.

I'm not interested in turning Seatle into a nuclear wasteland where everyone's dead, so I'm not looking into the Movement spirit power just yet.

I think what you want is the adept metamagic that lets you attune a vehicle. Also you could get some ridiculous dicepools by mixing the analyse device and attribute boost spells with the improved abilities powers and adept metamagic

>can I cheese code of honor for free karma
No

You're the reason most RPGs stopped putting in roleplay-focused negatives after the 90s, min-maxing shithead.

You don't know anything about me, omae. Go be salty somewhere else if a question sends you into an autistic rage. Here's a smug anime girl for your trouble.

Honestly, 3rd and 4th have better vehicular rules in general; 5e's appeal to grogs seems to have included going back to shitty, nigh unplayable vehicles.

I've managed to make myself a cyber pirate character as a semi-joke concept and the only thing he's still missing is a good enough pistol

What could I give him to emulate some kind of flintlock or hand canon?

A pistol shotgun (either the one in the core book or the Krime)

Lemat 2072
Revolver with an integrated single-shot shotgun barrel.

Busy with worship.
Update to a current build, 190 is old.

>wanting to protect the world from devastation

Go home, TerraFirst!

The Prolatarian is the equivalent of the Fixit in 5e

>allowing anything from Attitude
Almost as bad as allowing fucking War! at the table.

I'll admit, 90% of all gamebreaking pieces of gear comes from those 2 books but to be honest, if you don't include them your mundane characters have one hell of a harder time keeping up with the magical ones

There's a difference between helping mundanes keep up and "lol, the rigger is now a better face than the maxed out elf face with all the relevant bioware"

Heavily augmented history professor with a love of mundane spirit conjuring.

you do realize the elf also has access to those, right?