/srg/ - Shadowrun General

>vampire mysad bloodmage

Because someone brought up the idea, I hammered out a legitimate backstory for it, and now I'm on the ride and it's not going to stop.

Fair enough. You gonna share with the class user?

It's admittedly a rough backstory I whipped together in like five minutes, so if there's any advice/critique/input people have, I'd be grateful for it.

Right now, it's likely going to be something along the lines of like, originally an Aztechnology Corp Kid who had a somewhat shitty life in the Bario. Got caught stealing from some place where an Aztechnology scientist happened to see, and the dude intervenes to stop a shopkeeper beating his ass. Dude talks to the kid, asks where his parents are, offers him a place to stay. Kid is wary as fuck because this is some "Are you going to fuck my ass dude, I don't roll that way" type shit. Guy assures him he isn't, and tells him he can leave whenever, because the kid showed some talent, and a willingness to survive even if it might not be moral. Queue several years of him going through training and getting tested, purposely Infected eventually to serve as an Aztechnology trooper, and eventually Some Shit goes down. Runner attack, Aztlan Freedom Fighters, whatever. Shit goes down. Character is forced to escape after he overhears the higher ups talking about how this is the end, facility will be auto-claved to prevent acquisition of data, yada yada. Get out of die, basically. Character feels betrayed, feels like he's been thrown away by the corp he worked for, and takes the chance to fucking book it out of there. Scrounges together enough cash and shit to get the fuck out and heads north, over the course of a few months. Eventually ends up in [Campaign City] after vagranting his way around the Southern UCAS/Mexico. Manages to get in touch with a fixer, sets himself up running, saves enough for a cushy little place. Time to actually get acquainted with the shadows more.

I'm leaving it up to them what their backstories are, and if they want to take an out of city contact like an infobroker or a megacorp employee that owes them a favour I'm not opposed to it, but I'd like them to build their own working network here. I haven't sat down with them and hashed anything out yet I'm just laying the groundwork.

I got some good ideas from your suggestions though, thanks a lot. The pre-roll scenes are going to add a lot.

>How do I make a dedicated summoner?
The short answer: Put points into summoning and buy a tuxedo.

The real answer: If you aren't going for an actual Dedicated Conjurer (there's no reason not to since most problems that a magic could solve, a spirit can solve as well albeit in a different fashion and you still have access to Ritual Spellcasting), you can still do more or less the same shit just without being able to deviate from your Tradition's spirits. Never pick a tradition with Beast as your Combat spirit, Guardian or Water or Air or Fire are all the bee's knees for that. If you ever plan on binding, pick a Cha tradition for less ability spreading and a bit of common sense. Now maximize your Summoning, take a specialization in your Combat spirit of choice, snag a Mentor spirit that gives either extra summoning dice or extra services, consider Spirit Affinity, and bam. The core work is done. Oh, and be Human as the Edge is invaluable for dealing with high Force spirits. And a Shaman Tuxedo never hurt anyone.

Congrats, now you've got a character fresh out of char-gen that is rolling 14-16 dice to summon his Combat spirit, might get free services out of it, and is still able to reliably shit-out Force 4 spirits of whatever other type for miscellaneous help. If you're willing to possibly need to spend 1-2 points of Edge to not bleed out, you can now toss out those 14-16 dice against a Force 12 spirit. On average rolls, you're favored to beat it but might need Edge, and then might need Edge to soak the 8 Physical drain, and the Tux and qualities can ensure that even 1 net hit turns into 4 services. And now, as a Complex action, you've basically summoned a kaiju. Averaging 24 Defense, Hardened Armor 24, 24 attack dice dealing 24 damage and -12 AP if using Engulf or Elemental Attack.

You could also pull a Burn Notice start on your characters. When the main character ends up dumped in Miami, he meets two recurring contacts simply by getting a crappy loft apartment over a nightclub.

The owner of the club, who has heard of his reputation, enlists his aid to help one of his barmaids with a stalker problem. Then there's the Drug Dealer downstairs. Michael ends up breaking into his apartment, and proceeds to shoot him a couple of times in the leg.

Little connections like that can lead to other characters, or locals who can either provide side jobs, or later on, an in with a fixer. Maybe that Drug Dealer on the corner thinks the heavily aug'd guy moving in down the street is competition, or potential paid muscle. Turns out that guy works for a dude who has a business arrangement with a fixer.
Maybe that barkeep has a side business running a matrix node, and sells access to the locals. He's got a bit of trouble with the gang a few blocks over trying to run a protection racket. He has a deal with a fixer's tech guy to supply an offline file server. He'd be willing to pass a name along in exchange for help.

People know people, and getting a couple of local contacts can easily get a basic rep going, and fixers always like to know what's being said.

Reposting from yesterday.

SOX-user here, and today we got a preview of some of the opposition you'll face getting on the other side of the Wall.

Next time, we have your allies on the outside.

docs.google.com/document/d/1tbh7C7YIiPgfFuJcgpoeRk0qP0vPM7i5tlhRtlVESDU/edit#

So, anyone got idea for Christmas Themed runs, besides robbing a warehouse to give toys to kids?

(this might be a house rule)
nah, it isn't.

If ya want to be a real vut you can call in touch attack, which gives you a +2 to your attack roll and make a called shot to reduce his initative by additional 5 points.
Together with the electricity damage you shave off a whole turn from an enemy.

A creepy old fat dude wearing knee-high leather boots and a red jumpsuit has been sneaking into childrens bedrooms at night. He 'stuffs their stockings' with goodies from his 'special sack'.
You have been hired to track this sicko down and give him street justice.

Fuck I can get behind that.

What is he? Mysadept ninja?

Who is hiring the runners for this? I suspect that the local Neighborhood Watch wouldn't turn to illegal mercs for help.

Last year I did a one-off with the sammy that was just Jingle All The Way - she needed to get a Chip Hazard, Firewatch Major and Saviour of Chicago, action figure for her nephew. Hijinks ensued. She got bonus karma for sticking to the spirit of it and not stabbing anyone to death.

>Fast_And_The_Furious:__Skimmer_Drift.trid
Is this a reference I'm missing?

...

How do I make a dedicated summoner that can shit out high force spirits at chargen?

You don't, you'll ruin the game

That's my goal, user.

Step 1.
Be mage with magic 6, maybe add exceptional attribute (magic) and bring it to 7
done.

Lets see... without even looking at the book:

6 magic
6 conjuring
Rating 6 Power Focus (Requires Restricted Gear Quality)
6+ Edge as well. If you're playing someone relying on spirits for everything, you could argue to have lower attributes and/or skills to compensate for having a higher metatype priority for higher edge.

Boom, 18 dice minimum for both conjuring and binding, and then you have another 6-8 (Depending on if you're human and/or have the lucky quality) for edge if it is necessary.

>Rating 6 Power Focus
>108k nuyen
>36 karma
Kinda expensive.

You're not wrong.

But then again, it is still gonna break the game at chargen, and the power focus will be useful for EVERYTHING magic related, and the edge will also let anything else you do be useful besides JUST conjuring.

Maybe I should get a summoning focus instead. What's the best spirit for combat?

I literally already told you upthread, drekhead. See

Blackjack spirits. Or Anarch spirits, if you prefer your runs to be filled with awesome explosions.

Sorry user, it didn't (You) me. Thanks for the help!

Where are those spirits? I couldn't find them.

>I suspect that the local Neighborhood Watch wouldn't turn to illegal mercs for help.
Why wouldn't they? if legal channels don't cut it?

On of Renraku subs is launching new line of toys.
Horizon is doing the same.
Cue a shadow war in sabotaging factories, stealing shipments, slander and straight up murder.
Anime vs. Action figures. Whoever wins, the kids loose

do you know the Fast and the Furious series?
do you know what skimmers are?

Illegal mercs tend to cost more money than they make in a year.

Buuut.... I could always give the party a choice with 's suggestion.

"Ya got two jobs. One of them seems to be paying... uh... three grand. Something about some lady in a gated community in up town. The other job is paying closer to 100 grand, and the usual Horizon Johnson delivered the job himself."

Let them choose between feel good and cold bastard.

Already sort of answered it upthread, but there's definitely a top 4 that consists of Guardian, Water, Air, and Fire. The key thing that you're looking for in a combat spirit is decent stats which only differs by a few points and primarily a means of reliable attack. A quick run-down.
>Guardian
My favorite just for the stupidity of it, Guardian spirits honestly aren't the best but they are unique. You get +1 B, +2 A, +3 R, and +2 S. Guard and Magical Guard is nice, but the real fun happens at 3 net hits. You really just want Elemental Attack, but they also have the unique ability to take any Combat skill which depending on your GM means that you now have a Spirit capable of carrying about assault cannons or the like. But really, you just want the Elemental Attack.
>Water, Air, Fire
Fuck it, I'll list the elemental ones all together. You just want that tasty Engulf or Elemental Attack. It's retarded powerful, and each of these spirits have extra funcationality.
>Beast
It's a trap. Actually a really shitty Combat spirit because the offensive power it gets in the form of Natural Attack lacks any AP while Elemental and Engulf both shit out Force AP.

Depends where they are.

A Kiez in Berlin would, for example, or a community group in the Barrens. If it's just a middle class wageslave neighbourhood then come up with something. Someone knows a guy who talks to a bartender who is supposed to know how to talk to a fixer.

Howling Shadows. However unless you have the Dedicated Conjurer quality, the only way to summon them is via Ritual Spellcasting. Of course there's nothing stopping you from binding them after you use a ritual, then just using them as normal.

Which edition has the best rules?
Looking for something with a good balance between customizable and streamlined; not too simple, not too complex. Somewhere around D:tD level without just running D:tD in the Sixth World.

2e

Oh, and if it wasn't obvious why Anarch's/Blackjacks are good spirits to have:
They can pass off as fully metahuman.
They can use any equipment normal metahumans have.
They come with their own equipment, or you can give them something to borrow.
They come with a 'shadowrunner' personality and know how to run the shadows just as well as any of your team-mates.
However your GM may not allow them because they can potentially break the game. Depending on who you talk to they already break the lore.

Sprawl.

I had a summoner once that used Blackjacks/Anarchs exclusively, and he pretended to not be Awakened at all. He tricked everyone into thinking he was an ex-Fixer, and all the 'Shadowrunners' that happened to show up to help on runs were simply contacts who owed him a favour.
>Team pinned down in a firefight, can't reach any of the exits. Suddenly 'Bob' steps out of a closet, guns down the enemy, salutes the ex-Fixer, and runs off. Rest of team is utterly bemused.
>Go to a meet, get double-crossed. Johnson is about to give the command to execute us, then he is suddenly covered with laserdot sights from a half-dozen snipers. Rest of team has no idea where backup came from.
>Team gets send to defuse gang war. An unknown third gang turns up, beats up BOTH the other gangs, high-fives the ex-Fixer, then bugger off to get laid.
>Lost in the wilderness, driver is unconscious and we need to run a blockade. Along comes one of the ex-Fixers 'friends', hops in the car, drives like a madman, and saves us.

Fun while it lasted. Good times.

Top notch!

Fuck. this sounds like a lot of fun.

That actually sounds pretty great. I see the statblocks in Howling Shadows, but where's their gear listed? What determines what they have? And I'm guessing it requires a Dedicated Conjurer to even get access to 'em?

Yeah, only ways to get them are Dedicated Conjurer quality or Calling ritual.
As for gear, when Howling Shadows was released I was told that they come already equipped with whatever they need to perform the specific service they were ordered to do. That's obviously OP, so I just had a van full of gear that they could pick and choose from before a run, or they scavenged what was available while on the run itself.
If you don't have the time or gear necessary to equip them, it's your GM's call. I'd rule that they show up wearng standard clothes and nothing else.

Yekka, Superhuman Psychosis' +1 to all Melee isn't properly applying to Exotic Melee skills like Monowhips or Chainsaws.

Yekka: Altmeier SPX has a visibility mod of +2, not 0.

I can dig it. So you end up an slightly awkward mage that has an amassed sum of arms that could rival a sam stashed in a van somewhere? Though it looks like only the Anarch has Materialization, which kind of clashes with even the fluff bit about the Blackjack warping around a corporate tower. And that'd mean that the Anarch could hop back to your Lodge/Van/Armory to gear itself before materializing, but the Blackjack would have to physically get shit without leaving your control zone, right?

>six snipers
>a gang
That's a fuckton of Binding, I'm guessing?

>How do you guys usually start a campaign?

Yup. The Anarch is your "OH SHIT!" button, you whip it out when you need maximum punch and maximum distraction (dudes come with Demolitions and Throwing skills, you do the math!).
The Blackjack is for when you plan ahead, and try to stick to the plan. You gear them up beforehand like the Matrix. One of the reasons why I pretended to be an ex-Fixer would be to explain why I had loads of guns to hand, leftovers from my previous occupation.

Well it was actually only two, but they had a couple extra laser sights on them for intimidation purposes. My summoner wasn't THAT good.

I hear he "comes down their chimneys."
Sick fuck.

How hard is it for vampire (or other kind of infected) wannabe to catch his desired strain of HMHVV bug?

Sounds pretty good. How did you typically run them? Obviously never binding Anarchs, but have a small roster of Rating 6 Blackjacks bound to drawn on as needed? A pair of snipers, a bodyguard, a driver, etc.

Wait, did you translate the source book?

He is in the process of it, pretty rad

I've been wanting it in English for like 2 years that's awesome.

Hey /srg/, I'm working on a Genesys conversion of Shadowrun. Can anybody help with a question I have?

My gm seems to think sensei means I don't need to pay karma either... what do?

Binding doesn't necessarily imply force. Anarchs/Blackjacks cross over to do runs for their own reasons, if you can convince them that helping you will complete their own agenda they'll happily lend a hand. According to the rules you don't even need high social skills for this part, but it helps set the scene if you do.
The number/force of my bound Anarchs/Blackjacks changed over the campaign. I only had a couple Blackjacks for most of it, the rest were Anarchs. You only need a couple operators operating, but it's useful to be able to summon a load of psychotic punks when you need to.
They don't even need to be high force either, because they can make use of burst fire/full auto rules.
If you absolutely know you are going to need a mega powerful spirit with a specific equipment loadout, you can just use the Calling ritual in advance of the run and persuade a specific spirit to help you. That's how you manage to get a one-time-use spirit with a drecking Assault Cannon.

Fair enough, so a stable of 4 or so 4 Force Anarchs looking to help burn down the town, and one or two higher force Blackjacks for professional escorts and maybe another 4 Force driver.

The thing that seems to hit me the hardest is just kitting this bastard out in CharGen. You want the high Mag for summoning and binding, you need a decent sum of nuyen to get a nice van or sedan and stuff it with an armory ranging from a half dozen sets of Armored Jackets, Helmets, Assault Rifles, Snipers, Shotguns, etc. You probably want a decent amount of skills to max out your summoning and binding as well as making the most of your Charisma and acting as the group's Face to better sell the feel of an ex-fixer. Your own abilities end up as less of a priority, but then there's also getting a nice cushion of Edge since a 3 Edge human just feels sad.

How do i improve my chance to hit with melee attacks?
Is there some form of equipment i can buy to reduce my enemies defense pool ?

Remember that building the summoner gets much easier once you realize that you can just make a rush straight to channeling. As a result your actual attributes and skills can take a significant hit. For example my summoner had the Aged 3 negative quality, having your maximum physical attributes set to 3 doesn't really matter when it gets overridden by a channeled spirit.

Also getting a van full of toys was a goal over the span of the campaign. At the beginning I just had a load of Bolt Hole's all over the city, stashed full of random bits of armour and weapons. It works out cheaper in the beginning, and it also fit the background story better.

You really have to make sure you keep your spirits happy though. I spent most of my downtime going on metaplanar jaunts to Zenocorporatum and helping my spirits complete runs in their home metaplane. Basically I was part of two shadowrunner teams at the same time, one working in the 6th world and the other working on the metaplane of corporate dickery.

Gotcha. Makes a good bit of sense, but once you channel a big dick Blackjack into yourself, do you just try to bluff off being called in support by your Fixer character that's mysteriously not present on the run?

...

That's one of the beauties of using Anarchs and Blackjacks, they come with Aura Masking and Realistic Form as standard. You can channel one and you don't have to look different at all. No body suddenly spouting flames, no mystical mist pouring out of your ears, no funky sparkles shooting out of your bum. You channel them into your body and you still manage to look 100% mundane.

Yeah, but they have their own Realistic Forms. Wouldn't that override your own appearance when you Channel them?

Nope. When you channel a spirit you still look like yourself, but at GM's discretion you might take on part of the spirits appearance that's appropriate to the type of spirit it is. So a spirit of fire might give you a fiery aura, a water spirit might make it look like you are permanently drenched, an air spirit might have a cloud floating around you, an earth spirit might turn your skin the colour of granite.

But an Anarch spirit or Blackjack spirit? They look completely metahuman, that's the point. If you channel an Anarch I guess a GM might decide that you suddenly manifest band patches on your suit, but that's about it. Maybe a Blackjack spirit will cause you to manifest a pair of mirror shades? Never came up in my campaign though.

When you channel a spirit you gain access to the spirits powers. So you gain access to Realistic Form. So you use the Realistic Form power to make you look like your original self. Done.

Seriously?

I ran food fight but I never thought of using it to actually start a campaign.

Well there are two methods
Reach and Giting Gud

Need an uncommon Allergy for a low level Adept.

Considered real meat, drawing a blank otherwise.

>How do i improve my chance to hit with melee attacks?
Buffing skills and attributes, and good reach. Not much else you can do.

>Is there some form of equipment I can buy to reduce my enemies defense pool?
I can't think of anything like that. Melee is fucked in 5e.

what do you think it was made for? It's an introductory adventure, meant to give a feeling for the world, let everyone roll dice in their specialties and show how a shadowrun can go

Platinum

I mean yes, but that doesn't mean it should be the basis for every campaign.

I was looking for general story ideas, rather than a jump off point. I can make a run that'll work (or maybe I will just run food fight again, who knows) but I was more after how to get them there from where I wanted to start them.

>uncommon
Pussy. Go Allergy (Soy, Extreme) like a real man.

For a player, actually.

He can't take any more negatives than he already has.

>Pussy
Allergy(Uncommon, Moderate)(Pussy) ?

Ares FlaShield. Can't block what you can't see.

Cotton, pollen, pet dander, leather, cold, nickel, latex, laundry detergent, unfiltered sunlight, alcohol...

>Pussy
>Uncommon
maybe for you

95% of GMs I know will let you pick more negative qualities without gaining the karma from it.

Still go Allergy (Soy, Extreme)

Not all of us have the good fortune you do of simply looking in the mirror every morning.

Random thought, how would be the best way to set up a gear-integrated supply of inhaled drugs along the lines of something like Saw's shit in Rogue One? For those times that you need a gallon of inhalants and don't want to fuss with individual doses.

So what spells/spirits are prime examples of magicrun? I want to know what to watch out for.

try to think of common and uncommon an how much the player can actually encounter it in your game, not strictly how often it's available.
Allergy (fennec fox salvia) is basically just free karma.

If it's in seattle, how about allergy towards direct sunlight ?

bog standart water spirits with force 3+.
Weather control is hell of a drug.

Gas mask would be the simplest solution. Or the cyberware that vents out drugs from an internal reservoir.

Autoinjectors seem to be what you are looking for, nothing saying that they can't realease gas,dust,smoke into your airways.

A hell of a drug that exists entirely in the realm of GM control.

Have you ever actually played SR, kneejerkspiritscared user, or do you only theorycraft about what would happen if you played with a computer that only ran scenarios from your nightmares?

Already down to .07 Essence, so more 'ware ain't likely for a while.

Good point. Auto-Injector/Gas Mask combo on my Custom Ballistic Mask seems perfect.