/srg/ - Shadowrun General

more excuses as a gm? like you'd need to give the players more of a reason to go into a death pit like that?

i did
>long story short

i cut out quite a bit
they were offered an unusually large payday (which they never received)
they were implicitly offered a limited amount of tech or paydata recovered from the lab
their legwork uncovered the fact that this johnson was doing experiments that could endanger the nearest town
their legwork also involved speaking to a few concerned families of workers at the site

i tried to give the players several angles on why they might want to be involved with this mystery lab

and as a side note: one of my players expressed he was tired of his character, but didn't want to retire him; wanted him to die an epic or gruesome death (i figured a xenomorph tail through his chest and his head eaten would be sufficient)

>Take simple bodyguard gig
>Protect a z-list trid celebrity while they're on a 2 week island resort
>Previous bodyguards all complain they're an absolute monster to work with
>This is true
>This is hell
>But hey, free resort time. expenses and them being blacklisted by every other proper security company gave us good leverage on the contract

>Arive on island
>Island resort is 20% security
>Great, less work for us
>20% staff
>Great, more catering and bars!
>59% mercenaries
>Uh, wait, hang on . . .
>1% random grab-bag-list of VIPs in suits
>. . . Fuck.

Over the last three days, our team has disabled six assassins, four drones with preprogrammed kill instructions, disarmed eight (EIGHT) bombs (one of them was in a pie), had to check for exotic poison compounds that required our technomancer to get an on-the-spot bsc in chemistry and pathology, and had to beat a troll unconcious with a bokken from the local kendo morning warm up club

None of these assasssins were actually targetting our client, but they keep hitting other targets in the vicinity of our client

holy hell /srg, get me off of this fucking island. I've still got another 14 days to go and I cannot have another knife with yakuza assassins cunningly disguised as wait staff while someone else distracts the client with shouts of "selfie!" because her stuck up agent stipulated we get docked in pay every time she "has an upsetting experience"

An adept tried to kill me with a fish
a fish

...

Your GM is a glorious glorious bastard

I love negative qualities so much that I usually try to take more than 25 karma worth.

My current character is a drug addicted prison human supremacist hitman. It's fantastic.

Had my runners go against this fella.

They were going throught a tunnel, complete, darkness, suddenly this thing attacked just like it did in the Riddick movie: Stinger with super-strong paralytic and then going in with it's jaw.

Didn't go as planned for me, but it was pretty hilarious to see them panic after the stinger attack failed to pierce their armor. They all started shooting in the water terrified.

Then the sam pulled out her grenade launcher and it got gibbed.

This is literally what I do, just remember to be very upfront about this. Directly tell your players "Sure we can use chunky salsa if you want, but next time a grenade goes off next to you, it also applies to you."

It solves a lot of problems.

I have both types of illiteracy, uneducated and amnesia.

Also 1 logic.

Make that relevant.

>Techno cheesing hosts with Resonance Veil
>GM uses resonance veil vs the party in combat
>"Cunt why are you cheesing with shitty enemies"

>An adept tried to kill me with a fish
>a fish
Was it a swordfish?

That's not interesting at all.

>I love negative qualities so much that I usually try to take more than 25 karma worth.
You can. I'm certain that any GM would let you pick more negative qualities than the 25 karma limit allows, but without the karma bonus.

Replace Resonance Veil with Puppeteer.

Oh yeah? Well neither is your life.

imo Resonance Veil is even more bullshit than Puppeteer, you can basically do ANYTHING with a device, it can act as a sudo-puppeteer if i say:

"i make the device believe that i'm the owner and to make every gun slaved to this device eject their clip."

According to RAW you can control multiple devices if you're the owner of said devices, so i according to RAW again i can make a device believe that, right? Same goes for a camera's feedback and such.

This problem is solved by simply removing wireless capability of all your devices, which is what I do.

What you are describing is a spoof command, that's not Resonance Veil.

Resonance Veil is like Trid Phantasm in the matrix, you can't make it give orders, that's specifically what Puppeteer is for.

Resonance Veil is best used to copy your persona and have it do shit across the host to divert security, or make it look like a file is still there even thought it's missing.

Sounds like overkill. What about the dice bonuses, comms, legality (SIN broadcasting etc), extra functionality, and so on?

>What about the dice bonuses,
If the bonuses are so relevant that I'd consider an activity because of them, chances are I'd refrain from doing it in the first place. Like trying to sneak with just 4 dice being bumped to 2 with 'hurr you can move more quieter when your suit is taking pictures and posting it to your instawhore feed'
>comms,
I'll have a burner commlink online if someone wants to call. I'll also use a commlink if interacting with AR is absolutely necessary. If I'm under a PAN, it's different, because then matrix defense is the decker's responsibility, and he's an expert.
>legality (SIN broadcasting etc),
I'll have a burner commlink broadcast a SIN.
>extra functionality, and so on?
Unnecessary 90% of the time. I don't need a suppressor to tell me if someone heard the shot (however the fuck that's supposed to work)

Is it overkill? Maybe, but I play professionals, and I refuse to introduce weak points into a working machine. If I'm not proficient with matrix shit, I'll avoid it just like I would avoid magic shit if I'm not awakened.

does your mage know influence, sound barrier, or control thoughts?

do you have a way to obtain leal?

those won't get you off the island, but they can help make the person forget or not notice indiscretions

especially Uncouth.

You will die to Uncouth if you take it. I guarantee it.

or have a good decker on your team

The decker isn't always present. And even if he is, mission critical equipment such as guns have their wireless capability permanently removed. Wires exist if a hud and/or guncam is required.

I have a character concept with two major secrets: he is a clone, and he is Gay. The latter is more significant because all his contacts are gangers that would abandon him for being a faggot.

How do you handle a Gaydar, mechanically? I don't want to make it obvious the character is looking for a partner to the other players.

>How do you handle a Gaydar, mechanically?
With a round of 7.62x51 real fuckin' NATO in the skull.

t. Weener.

i don't, because i explicitly forbid ERP at my table

Not looking for ERP. If you're a hotshot male shadowrunner you can hit on chicks and have a good chance of them being straight. But gay men are both less common and have bigger consequences of a wrong answer.

Maybe I will just Astral sight everything.

>being gay matters in the 6th world
user they would care that you suck dick only if you suck dick in shooting a gun

Any groups that'd accept another player?

My dude has a vow of poverty, so relies on many Ganger contacts to give him rides. Wouldn't the Gangers not want to share a bike with a gay?

"looking for a partner" (gay or straight) is ERP

also, why are you assuming homophobia is super prevalent in the 6th world?

Do you guys think I could get four anthrodrones up to highway speeds to carry me around on their shoulders as I maintain a constant state of sexy lounging?

Kiddo I get you wanna be special snowflake and the woe is me shit
But we are talking about Shadowrun. Things are degenerated to unimaginable level.
Like building your own personal slave to fit your every little desire, porn industry that was the main form of employment for Surgelings and complete sex change is common surgery
The hell does mouthbreathers care that you are gay
.

Because the 6th world does at least something right.

It might be his fetish to shut down gay people.

so you hate gays and are playing a gay character?

i detect suppressed urges

That's a different person. I am indifferent to gays.

I thought that since gangers love all kinds of other anti social behavior, hating gays might be part of that

I don't dislike gays, I hate faggots. People who bring up what they want to stick their dick in like it's somehow relevant need to suckstart a shotgun.

>all his contacts are gangers that would abandon him for being a faggot
You realize this is a setting where people bang sapient dogs and robots shaped like little girls, right? Where changing your genitals is an outpatient surgery and having a full sex change doesn't cost Essence?

Humanis might care if you're really into troll cock in particular, but basically nobody gives a shit about you being a massive faggot.

i'm not sure why a person would surround themselves with people who would hate them if they learned their secret (exception: elf and ork posers).

mechanically speaking? does your character dislike those that are prejudiced against gays?
if yes: negative quality (specific, biased)

you could treat it like the negative quality Big Regret, in that if someone who knows and is prejudiced finds out might blackmail you

at the very least, they'd be prejudiced and you'd receive -2 to all social interactions with them. at worst, they become enemies or outright hostile

It was a sailfish. He threw most of it at me (3 P damage) and tried to shank me with the fish rib.

Yes, Yes, Yes. No. No drugging or mind controlling the client, albeit they're so abnormally oblivious and sheltered by their rich upbringing they didn't notice when the troll valet pulled out a mono-garrote.

Sound barrier is something we'll have to ask them to use more, might make our job eaier.

If you're basing the game in the UCAS sure.

There are still a lot of countries and cultures where homosexuality is punished by death today, it's not far fetched to think that the advent of new technology doesn't remove the social stigma of sexual deviancy.

Especially in a low-level gang culture where machismo and strength is still considered the expected attribute of any of it's members.

>Especially in a low-level gang culture where machismo and strength is still considered the expected attribute of any of it's members.
>implying that cornholing an augmented male troll isn't the height of machismo and strength
Being a bottom is probably a bigger problem than being a faggot.

That's actually a big thing in ganger culture, fucking a heterosexual man (as rape) to express dominance or to intimidate isn't seen as gay.

You see this often with debt-collection and racketeering in addition to prisons. They'll fuck the guy who refuse to pay and then take pictures, blackmailing him into paying otherwise they'd plaster them everywhere and ruin his reputation, implying he's a faggot.

Might Makes Right
That Troll over there? He likes cock. But he also can punch a hole through Lone Star car and is on your side. Do you care?
Also like 90% of the Ancients are gay ass faggots.
CUTTERS RULES!

Spikes for life, motherfucker

Hey Yekka you around? for some reason im crashing whenever i try chargenning a nartaki, is this happening to anyone else?

Not Yekka, but I can answer this one. A lot of the code got overhauled fairly recently, and there have been numerous crashes relating to entities not being defined properly. If the crash is reproducible, send an error report and download an older version.

'Bubba the Love Troll' has been canon since 3rd edition.
For the uninitiated, pic very fucking related.

I have a problem with a core rule of Shadowrun combat.

When you do physical damage, there's a chance that you do stun damage instead, if you don't exceed the enemy's armor value. If you intentionally do stun damage, you are always going to do stun damage.

This means there is never any reason to do physical damage. Doing stun damage means you're more likely to down the target, and the side bonus is that you minimise collateral damage. Hard to get mad at a bunch of runners who only stunned all your guards, didn't break much of anything, and only stole this one thing before leaving.

Only reason you'd want to do physical damage is if your job was specifically to kill someone (even then, stunning them and capturing their body for later disposal would be easier), or the enemy has augmentations that let them ignore stun damage.

You can't just remove stun damage from the game. Too many items rely on it, and it prevents players from using nonlethal options in combat.

So, I propose a simple solution: if a stun damage attack does not exceed the enemy's armor value, it simply does no damage at all.

A major nerf, but a necessary one, I think. Thoughts?

Pic unrelated, could possibly be a 'stylin retired runner turned fixer.

BOD STR 1 CHAR 200 Human 80 yrs old Face. I can make that work

Shadowrun rules are fucking retarded, more news at 11.

So you agree? I'm in my right mind here? I'm certain there must be some terrible ramification to this, but it just seems like such a common-sense thing.

This solution changes nothing because Stun Damage only functions when the opposition has 20 or less dice or armour.

You're not going to deal dick all damage to an enemy at 28-35 armour with a stun round.

The problem I feel would be more to adress the armour bloat than the physical and stun damage tracks.

Alternatively, I'd attempt to fix physical damage instead.

Using physical damage should stay physical. So if your damage value is under the armour of the person defending, he takes the damage/2 as physical.

This makes stun and physical two very different realms that rarely, if ever should work together.

This will make stacking armor even more effective than it already is, but at the same time will do nothing to address stun damage from toxins. So it doesn't really address anything at all, except to make stun-only weapons (except Stunbolt) worthless.

Plus, you can't CHOOSE to do stun damage unless you're fighting unarmed. If it happens, it's automatic. You can't control it.

Yes, of course I do. You could literally write a book on how retarded current Shadowrun rules are.

>Plus, you can't CHOOSE to do stun damage
Gel ammo vs any other ammo?

>Plus, you can't CHOOSE to do stun damage unless you're fighting unarmed. If it happens, it's automatic. You can't control it.
You can, though.

Thoughts on how to make my Loremancer more mechanically useful, without sacrificing the core idea?
Built with Sum-To-10. Only difference is double Karma allowance for negative qualities.
Those lore skills at rank 1 or 2 are bought with karma, in case you think I used the free points.

Using gel rounds in his scenario would be pointless against any armored foe. So he's clearly trying to do stun damage via weapons with P.

You can specifically aim at plates to do S instead of P.

I was more thinking about these rules in terms of the average enemy the players will face. The game is totally different if you're hitting solid opposition with good equipment, and at prime runner levels all bets are off. But stun damage is just objectively better in most cases.

I like this solution a bit better.

Toxins are rather easily countered with gas masks and/or chemsuits, though, and it's conceivable that even a lowly mook could possess either. I see what you're saying though.

As for unarmed, you can indeed choose. I believe it's with the Titanium plating that your unarmed damage actually needs to become physical.

The actual fix is to make there be only a single health bar which can get filled by either damage type.

Take only Stun damage once your condition bar is filled? You pass out.

Take partial Stun and partial Physical damage once your condition bar is filled? You pass out and are bleeding.

Take only Physical damage when your condition bar is filled? You're outright dead.

Then Physical becomes the ideal damage type for incapacitation (can't resuscitate, have access to high AP/DV rounds) but doing a mix of Stun and Physical (say one person has a taser and the other guy has a Ruger Super Warhawk) isn't going to be counterproductive.

Simple, easy, effective.

Holy Shit
>BOD 2
You are going to die. Get it up to 3 at least, sacrifice a point of REA or EDG if necessary
>AGI 2, REA 2
In fights you will be useless to the max
>8+1d6
get it up to 9+1d6 at least or 8+2d6
>unarmed combat
NOPE, get rid of that one point. The difference between 1 die and 3 dice ain't gonna help you
>all that ammo
get rid of it and just use regular ammo. With your dice pool you aren't going to hit against any aware opponent, and likely not against an unaware either

What the Sammy is during legwork, you are during fights.

>You are going to die. Get it up to 3 at least, sacrifice a point of REA or EDG if necessary
Can't raise a physical attribute above 2, 3 is the max if you have Aged 3. Raising Body to 3 is a priority once in game.
>In fights you will be useless to the max
It's not a combat character, he's mainly for legwork and buffing others.
>get it up to 9+1d6 at least or 8+2d6
Well Improved Reflexes at Force 6 should do that.
>NOPE, get rid of that one point. The difference between 1 die and 3 dice ain't gonna help you
True. However with Analyze Device it buffs it to 9. Still not great, but better than nothing. Might ditch it anyway.
>get rid of it and just use regular ammo. With your dice pool you aren't going to hit against any aware opponent, and likely not against an unaware either
The idea isn't to hit anything, it's to lay down suppressive fire so the rest of the team can do shit. Also, he can just sommon a spirit. But you're right, I only need one type of ammo for that.
>What the Sammy is during legwork, you are during fights.
I have absolutely no idea what you just said.

Injection-vector toxins don't care about chemical seals, or chemical protection armor mods. Narcoject on a dart/sword/throwing knife will bypass those protections completely, even if the attack only did stun damage due to the high armor value. It's probably even better that way, because they're more likely to get incapped by the 15S if they've already got some boxes filled.

If you're using a dart rifle, you don't even have to roll for damage or anything. If you hit them, the toxin applies. Dart rifles are one of the best ways to take down heavily armored targets, because they rarely have the dodge values to avoid the injection darts. Plus they're silent, which is always a bonus.

>current

>Using gel rounds in his scenario would be pointless against any armored foe.
What the actual fuck are you talking about?

>setting where people bang sapient dogs
wait, what?

>I have absolutely no idea what you just said
He's saying you're useless during fights Omae, just like streetsams supposedly are during legwork

Shapeshifters, man. It's been noted several times in the fluff that there are people fairly regularly banging sapient animals - both in metahuman and animal forms.

>However with Analyze Device it buffs it to 9.
I don't understand what you are trying to say here.
If the thing you want to Analyze is static, then you don't need a test for it.
And if it is moving, then you won't hit it with 3 dice either
Either way you could remove that one point and it wouldn't change the situation.

>I have absolutely no idea what you just said.
The three main roles from about 1e to now are
>Sammy: Does Sammy things during fights and Sammy things during legwork
>Mage: Does Mage things during fights and Mage things during legwork
>Decker: Does Decker things during fights and Decker things during legwork

The big problem is this:
It is known what the things are that the Mage does (Astral scouting and Detection spells during legwork and Attack spells and Spirits during fights)
It is known what Sammy things are during fights (shish-kebabing enemies and shooting their brains out) but there aren't many ideas what Sammy things during legwork are
It is known what Decker things are during legwork (gathering info, opening doors, stopping alarms) but there aren't many ideas what Decker things during fights are.

So during legwork the Decker and the Mage gather info or open doors, while the Sammy plays SSBM in the next room over.
And during fights the Mage and the Sammy deal with the enemies, while the Decker plays Angry Birds on his tablet.

What I'm saying is, that your usefulness during fights is not only 0, but negative. You not being there will literally improve the effectiveness of your party.

oh right, duh, forgot that shifters were just sentient and magic animals.

If you've houseruled that S-type weapon damage is completely ignored if it's less than the total Armor of the target, then using gel rounds is always a detriment. You might as well be firing blanks unless you're shooting civilians.

>If you've houseruled that S-type weapon damage is completely ignored if it's less than the total Armor of the target
Oh. Yeah, no, that's a terrible house rule. I get what it's trying to fix, but it's a fucking shitty choice.

What's up with Street Scum in Chummer? Doesn't seem to do what it's supposed to

What can I say? I'm an optimist.

The past, the present, and the future as well.

>chummer
Found the issue. Stop using bloatware designed by fucking redditors.

yo chummers, what sort of shit should I make sure to include in my ex-corporate hitman? GM is allowing some pretty crazy things as long as it stays chargen legal.

Prototype transhuman with muscle toner and pain editor, magic 6, neoteny (to disguise as a loli, it's brilliant I know)

Body sculpting, face sculpting, voice control, all that jazz. Shapeshift the fuck out of yourself and get to your marks by seduction.

>I don't understand what you are trying to say here.
>If the thing you want to Analyze is static, then you don't need a test for it.
>And if it is moving, then you won't hit it with 3 dice either
>Either way you could remove that one point and it wouldn't change the situation.

...what? Analyze Device spell raises skill use with an item by 1 per net hit against the objects resistance. With 16 dice against a resistance of 6-9, I should be getting a fair number of net hits.

>What I'm saying is, that your usefulness during fights is not only 0, but negative. You not being there will literally improve the effectiveness of your party.

Have 12+3d6 Initiative due to spell at start of combat. Find Cover. Summon combat spirit and get it to attack. Lay sown suppressive fire while rest of team actually deal damage. Use Heal spell where necessary.
I'll put another 4 points into Automatics, but how is this not a useful strategy in a fight?

>dart
on 3+ net hits
>sword/throwing knife
on phys damage, how are they getting injected without breaking the skin?

3 willpower on a decker okay or should I move stuff?

>neoteny
>loli
>seduction

Not okay

Deckers should have Logic, Intuition, and Willpower, in that order. If one of those is below 5, you fucked up somewhere.

All adults are pedophiles.