/srg/ - Shadowrun General

Isn't that how Star Lord grew up?

>pointing your gun at something just to see it

??

loli's should have a penalty to STR, Etiquette, Con and reduced RC due to being ill fitting in most situations and being weaker

Same here, latest nightly's have been fucked for whatever reason.

I got a 5e first timer run coming up and it seems like technomancer, sammy & face are spoken for.

Probably going to end up mage.

Anything I have to know or useful tips before I hit the rulebook? Any common pitfalls to avoid for a first time mage?

>seeing something
>not wanting to shoot it

It's like you didn't even read OP

Willpower is your friend. Always try to have at least one combat spell, and then maybe Increase Reflexes and Armor (those are my preference though). From there, make sure you get a tradition that flows with your theme, as that determines your OTHER non-Willpower drain stat. (It's usually Logic or Intuition outside of a few small edge cases)

Mage is easy mode. You don't need more than 1 or 2 combat spells, grab a load of utility spells instead to amplify your team.
And whatever you do, HIDE THE FACT YOU ARE A MAGE. Wear armour, buy a rifle.

The saying goes "geek the mage".
If people can tell you're the mage, they're going to shoot for your ass.

My runner is a professional, So she hasn't let her hatred show...But she really doesn't like 'Faces' in an abstract sense. Charismatic assholes who think they are hot shit.

That is some seriously underrated advice right there.
You see three dudes, one is brimming with chrome, Ones got a karate gi on and a headband, and the third is wearing robes and holding a staff. You kinda know exactly who to shoot first.

Etiquette is used for multiple things, so a flat negative is bad. But they should get modifier penalties in a lot of situations.

Neoteny already gives you a penalty to physical boxes, so a penalty to BOD is redundant. You're right on STR though.

Also by being the little girl you are the last person to be suspected of anything which is invaluable.

She could have had the handheld torch out when she suddenly had to draw the pistol, the pistol's torch could be low-light only, or the handheld could have more lumens which is handy for blinding enemies in the dark.

What's star lord?

Why the geek the made motto? Never once in my games has the mage ever been the big threat during combat. It's always been the sam/adept with 20 dice kicking everything in the first round. Tue mage is usually there for moral support.

The mage is going to die when you shoot him, Also this.
VISCERA WEB
(Blood, Physical, Damaging)
Type: P Range: LOS
Duration: S Drain: F + 4
A horrific spell, this causes widespread ruptur-
ing across the target’s body as their veins shoot
out to adhere to the environment surrounding
them. This incapacitates them with extraordinary
damage and pain, plus the fact that their living
veins stick to the floor, walls, and ceiling. Any
damage caused cutting them down may cause
them to bleed out—assuming they survived the
initial spell. The caster must win a Spellcasting
+ Magic vs. Body (+ Counterspelling) Opposed
Test. Additionally, the spell’s Force must equal or
exceed the target’s Body. Non-living material—in-
cluding clothing, gear, and cyberware—are not af-
fected. The target’s Agility is reduced by every net
hit on the Spellcasting test. If Agility is reduced to
0, the target becomes fused to the nearest solid
surface and unable to move their limbs without
causing further damage to themselves. The tar-
get can painfully tear themselves free, though this
causes additional damage equal to the net hits on
the Spellcasting test and one additional box of
Physical damage every (Body) minutes until they
receive medical attention to stop the bleeding.

Mages can mind control enemies, can call in spirits, can buff the rest of the team, turn people invisible, prevent you from reloading, turn into a monster, go as fast as a street sam, AND MORE. They are a wildcard that can do huge amounts of damage unchecked.

They're also usually the easiest damage source to first-pass geek.

How important are magical societies when making a mage?

Mages can do almost everything that any other character can do, with only a turn or two preparation (or less if they have enough foci). This means that neutralising a mage can be bloody hard, or mitigating their potential damage.
The street sam may look threatening because he has a huge gun, but the quiet mage only needs a few seconds to mind control you. Or to levitate you so you can't run away. Or summon a huge spirit that's immune to your puny low-calibur weapons. You have no idea which of their infinite tools they are hoing to pull out of their Bat-utility belt, so you have to end them hard and fast.

nice but not necessary
Magical groups can be useful in getting reagents, foci, information and as help during initiation
But not having one at the start is not a big problem

>street grimoire specifies preferred spells per tradition
Is that just for fluff?

Okay, there is a Cyberpunk thread so I will ask here.
What's the name of that Cyberpunk homebrew that sort of modernizes the setting?

So, I'm a dumbass and I'm new to Shadowrun. My friends are new to Shadowrun, too. I checked out the core rulebook, and hoo boy, it's massive. I still want to play, though, and none of us are deterred.

I'm guessing that I'm going to have to learn every system? What's a good place to start at?

If you and your friends are okay with it, you could maybe afford to skip most of the matrix stuff and just have an NPC handle that stuff for you. The Matrix is probably the most awkward and complex part of the rules.

If you're going to run you don't need to know every system, just have some familiarity.

The cheat sheets can help out quite a bit, as can the index of stuff in the back of the book.

well, first of all: yes, you will need to read a SHIT TON of stuff, not just the core book, but all the splats too
That said
In the OP Pastebin is a link to the Mediafire. It contains all the books as PDFs. GET THEM THERE.
Second: Also in the mediafire, in the 5e folder, are the Hayek Sheets. These are summaries on how those systems work
Third: Get chummer5. The link is in the OP. It will make the CharGen bearable. The developer posts here as Yekka.
Fourth: As said you can just skip the matrix and let it be handled with a NPC. The matrix was never good, in any edition.
Fifth: If you have questions try to look for answers yourself through Google. If you looked an couldn't find stuff ask here. If you want help with a Char Sheet print it to PDF and post it here

My general suggestion for starting groups is to use only (ONLY) the core rulebook, skip Chummer, and mess around with some gang-wars type of thing for the first few sessions. The power level's easy to work with and you can adjust it up or down pretty well, then once things are going strong there's infinite options.

Most people use every splatbook under the sun but personally I think it's usually in everyone's best interest to keep the level of system bloat to the lowest level possible.

>use only (ONLY) the core rulebook, skip Chummer
do you enjoy giving bad advice?
Restricting to CRB? Sure, unpleasant, unnecessary, but possible
But not using Chummer? For what Reason?

Because if you're brand new to the game, reading through the entire chargen section is going to be necessary anyway, so you might as well just do that with a piece of scratch paper. Chummer's great if you already know the rules but if you don't, it's a lot more flipping pages.

Should I be deeply concerned when my mentor spirit warned me that a great darkness is coming, and last night one of my crew had a dream of a empty, barren Seattle twenty years after the end of the world and woke up with the injuries she had sustained in the dream and a tooth buried in her back from a beast none of us can identify? Because i'm not getting paid enough for this world saving drek and don't think any of my contacts could help in the event of cataclysm.

It's probably fine.

that's a relief, omae. Was scared I'd have to do something other then grab a few soy dogs from the shack and watch some trid tonight.

Stop mixing liquor and kamikaze. Also, maybe invest in some Athabaskan real estate.

Nah, don't worry. Maybe take a couple of days off, you're worth it.

Yep. Don't feel like you need to take them.

What mentor spirit do you have? THIS IS IMPORTANT

Making a mage. I'm reading through corebook & street grimoire. Anything I'm missing?
Any reason not to go balls deep on magic attribute and pack as many spells as I can?

Only reason not to have mag 6 is cyberware.

Chummers, I'm afraid of bogging my DM down too much with these inane Goggle questions i've been having, I spared you guys three other stupid ones but now I don't want to bother my GM with these stupid ones.
1. Can the goggles themselves be NVG, And if they are will this property extend to or be overwritten by cameras inside them?
2. Can the goggles contain multiple cameras? If so, Can i switch between them, And if so free action or what?

>Can the goggles themselves be NVG
I'm not sure what you mean by NVG, but I'm guessing Night Vision Goggles
And if they are Night Vision, then they are just Goggles with Low-Light Vision in them already. Getting more stuff won't overwrite the LLV

>Can the goggles contain multiple cameras?
Why would you want multiple cameras in there?

2 Was sorta a subset of one, So if a set of goggles has Low Light Vision, then a camera in those goggles has it too?
I'm trying to work without going over 12 avail and having trouble so I figured I might have to take a second camera just for nightvision if the goggles themselves couldn't hold it.

Chummer, I'm really not sure what you are trying to ask
If you have NVG, then you basically have a pair of goggles, that contain a camera and the LLV mod.
If you look through then you can see stuff for which the ambient light would have been too low
If you add to these goggles a Thermographic Vision mod, then you can amplify ambient light or convert Infrared light into normal vision spectrum
Adding a second camera won't do anything, since the mod is in the whole set of goggles
If it's too much Avail then you need to choose which mods you take, buy some mods now and put some others in in-game, or just take two sets of goggles, with the mods split between those

Getting a high magic is usually your best option as a dedicated mage, but make sure to check out spirits and alchemy as well as spells, as being able to provide a wide range of benefits in a wide range of situations is useful.

Goggles (Rating 3)
-- Camera (Rating 4)
--- Smartlink
--- Flare Compensation
--- Magnification and Enchancment
Low Light
Image Link
Does that help clarify the question? I'm asking if while looking through the camera it has the benefit of the low light vision that the goggles themselves have but the camera does not.

A mage will usually want no less than magic 5, and often even that only because there's 'ware that they felt were worth the benefits.

A few things that might tempt you away from Mag 6 include things that boost your drain pool, cybereyes for thermal and low light, and drug boosters.

But even then, you may not be able to afford those hits.

If you are doing sumto10 is there any reason not to grab exceptional attribute for MAG 7?

Exceptional Attribute cant be used on MAG for one.

A really stringent reading of the rules would suggest that the camera would need it's own mods.
Exceptional Attribute for Magic isn't legal. Sorry chummer!

Ah. Well that's that, then.

What, no, it can. The text literally says that it also applies to special attributes like Mag or Res (but not Edge, that's Lucky).

The main reasons not to are that the GM doesn't allow it, and that it's three quarters of the way to some serious cheese for anyone that can summon.

Wait sorry, my mistake, it's totally legal.

Alright, I'll assume thats the case then, And now we can move to question 2: Multiple cameras in one set of goggles, And what would be required to switch them? Is it even worth the effort for negating a -3 at that point?
You cant have more MAG than you have Essence. So you need to get another point of essence, which is much harder, before you can have 7 MAG I would think.

Wise Warrior. If it was something like the Raven spirit my physical mentor told me about I'd just laugh it off as a ruse. But the spirit seems pretty insistent, so I've been trying to stock up on ammo and canned goods just in case.

Just go out and shoot every Azzie you see. Eventually you'll get to the one that's gonna kill everyone.

Exceptional Attribute literally lets you have an attribute (other than edge) at one over your maximum.

The metahuman maximum for Magic (and Resonance) is Essence+Initiations(Submersions). Exceptional Attribute then makes it Essence+Initiations+1.

And so somebody with Exceptional Attribute could have .8 Essence and still be magical, because with the exception of AI depth, a decrease in Essence corresponds to an equal drop in the special attribute. It's just a horrible waste of points overall to do this on an Adept or Mage.

>if while looking through the camera
chummer, you can't see through the camera
you could only see it if it was sent to your commlink and from that to your goggles
And I'm pretty sure that a smartlink in a camera would be pretty stupid
So this would seem better (or at least saner)

Goggles R3
>Flare Compensation (because you are shielding the whole set, not just the camera)
>Image Link (to collect and send the data to the whole set)
>Smartlink (because all it does is display things)
>Camera R3
>>Low-Light
>>Vision Enhancement X (you need a rating on it)
>>Vision Magnification

Total Avail 5R
Total cost 3975 Y

>Multiple cameras in one set of goggles, And what would be required to switch them?
Not sure if there is an official rule, but I'd say that you switch between the actual mods, not the cameras directly.
If you have Camera 1 (LLV, Thermo) and Camera 2 (Vision Enhancement X, Vision Magnification) then it takes the same action flipping from LLV to Thermo, as LLV to VM. Managing the flip between the feeds is done by the processor in the Goggles and should IMO be a Free action

>Wise Warrior
You don't have to worry about what the spirit of alzheimers is saying, friend. Just relax, take it easy.

That makes a lot more sense, Gonna swap em all around to be in that order and it'll be way less confusing to understand. Thanks for the help omae.

Just be aware that I used VE 1 in that example
If you want it higher the price rises as well

>captcha: Midway centre
yes captcha, that's usually where the center is. In the middle

What's a good price for an alligator hide? I have found absolutely nothing indicating the market value of creatures.

Chris Plott, president and chief executive officer of Griffin, GA-based American Tanning & Leather, buys wild hides from hunters and dealers throughout Louisiana. He estimated the average price per foot of hide at about $22-$23.
That's near the average price per foot of hide in 2012, which was $23.50, according to Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries figures.

Find some shit in the books that costs like $20 in real life and there ya go now you know how much nuyen it is.

>And I'm pretty sure that a smartlink in a camera would be pretty stupid
Whatever you put the smartlink in, it gets access to the smartgun system micro camera. (cap 1)

That's per foot though, a typical adult alligator is 8-15 feet, so you're looking at around $160-$360

Not seeing the problem here.

Sure, but the smartlink is just the display part, so putting it into a camera means the data is calculated, turned into AROs, sent to the camera, which then sends it to the goggles to display
Why not just skip the camera part and send it directly from Smartgun to smartlink to goggles

Is rolling a dwarf and stacking high willpower and magic resistance quality a terrible or great idea?

So, I'm going to play changeling chaos mage, and character's true form is amurian tiger. I swear that i'm not a furry, but changeling tigers had exact stats I wanted. What spells will you recommend, guys?
Also, if I'd play adept, would claws+adept shit work?

>none of us can identify
It was a barghest. They went on my back like it was a free buffet before my head turned into a fine red mist from a sniper round.
Crazy shit. I know Longhaul's a drug 'n' all but this is a whole other level, especially when stuff in my apartment's been burned, yet there's no signs of a forced entry.
I'm scared to go back home now, Chummers, just in case it happens again. Is it time to call in an exorcist or something? This shit is beyond me.
And yes you should be fucking deeply concerned.

Dwarves pumping their willpower can be really good if you want to use the high armor cyberlimbs + cyber-singularity-seeker build without being a troll or an orc. Attract attention, try to get shot at, try to get enemies to cluster around you and tell your teammates to chuck grenades at you. You can be a great asset.

The only problem is that Pain Editor makes stun damage, and thus stun track, irrelevant, but in the early game before you have access to that 24F piece of bioware, it's a really great build IMHO.

Lets say that for one reason or another, you wanted to play a Krogan in Shadowrun.
Would you keep them in angry dinosaur aliens or just fluff them as a SURGE thing? How do you make them different from trolls?

troll metavarient if you want them to be a species, troll changeling if you want a one-off character

Juat use surge to create the horrifying mutant you are looking for.

I'd make a troll who got a bunch of cosmetic mods to become a Krogan, due to being a huge fan of Mass Effect 3 (the only one of the series which had surviving copies after the Crash)

>he is always looking to find copies of Mass Effect 1 and 2, along with a PC or Console to play them on

>he considers the different colored endings in 3 a manifesto of nihilism, and the superficial nature of choice

Jokes on you, I already consider the 3 flavors of ending a lesson in nihilism.
Fuck you Bioware

Can anyone summarize what body suits are in this game? Can I be wearing it under casual clothes without being overtly noticable?

quick, what are some ME3 quotes he'd say at climactic moments like Jules's bible verse
They're not bulky, but they cover a lot of area so it'd need to be a suit (or similar amounts of clothes) in order to really cover the whole thing.

Holo jumpsuit is my 'casuals' that aren't business casual. and I think that counts as covering.

Cyber vampires/ghouls.
Can I do it?

Infected with cyber? Sure. Vamps with cyber? Harder to manage.

Vampires being regenerative and all is gonna make it really difficult. Not impossible, just more like impossibly expensive for a player.

>Vampires being regenerative and all is gonna make it really difficult
No it isn't. Regen is optional and not available during chargen.

>Many of the qualities have a list of Optional Powers. These powers can be bought with Karma as the campaign progresses; Infected characters do not start with any of these powers. Only one Optional Power can be purchased every two in-game months.

Since stun overflows into physical, and you still take stun damage, it's not irrelevant. IF anything Pain editor allows you to take even more advantage of the high stun track (with a complimentary armour rate for downgrading damage from physical to stun) as can have it filled with damage and suffer absolutely no ill-effects.

The key thing that Chummer brings is doing the math for you; nobody is going to get it right just reading the chargen chapter, if only because there are a thousand modifiers and equations to work out hidden everywhere in the book.

Saying someone new to the game should skip Chummer because they'll be reading the books anyways is flat retarded and bad advice.

There's not very many modifiers if you're making a simple character with core only. The most significant math there is limits, which aren't that easy to fuck up.

Keeping in mind of course that in the current batch of nightlies I forgot to include mental attributes in the karma cost method...

So theres a group of shadowrunners fighting another group.

Our decker was curious since hes doing everything in the matrix, but everyone else is doing stuff physically. Would he roll matrix initiative or physical initiative?

Is he in VR? Matrix initiative and he can only take Matrix actions.

Is he in AR? Physical initiative and he can take both Regular and Matrix actions. (with a -2 modifier if he mixes both during a given combat turn)

Thank you