/srg/ - Shadowrun General

We're working with a higher Availability, and not in a city-based game.

Plus I wasn't planning on smuggling it anywhere

>Is the Terracotta Arms AM-47 a good sniper rifle to take
It's a 35,000¥ man-sized monster that you can't possibly conceal or get a license for. And it's 14F so getting it at chargen isn't an option unless you're a prime runner or took restricted gear.

I think you could make it work with the easy breakdown mod from hard targets. At least then you could fill a duffel bag with it and not immediately alert everyone at traffic stops.

Though for weapons in that availability range I'd rather recommend the Baretta, just to make vehicles and hardened armor easier to deal with. If you ever find yourself pointed at a strong spirit or someone in milspec, you're going to want every point of AP you can get.

A City in the sixth world isn't that good of a place for snipers.

There is constant smog, acid rain, air traffic and tons of other targets around your target on the streets.

Yes. Exactly why I'm not doing it in a city game.

Playing a sniper, none of those are a major issue.

>Barret
Ah, dammit. I'll actually have to grab restricted gear, then.

if you want problems, play a jack-of-all-trades random skill build

>and the party is going to realize that a dead rigger is one who can't sell out his boss, and they're going to fight.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

no, knowing players, that's already two steps ahead of what they're thinking.

Which sourcebook would have info on life (and founding) of the Sioux Nation

I default to the largest penalty, but I don't have any RAW to support that.

Shadows in Focus: Sioux Nation. Amazingly, it's the book with the thing you want in the title.

Also the old NAN sourcebooks from 1e if you want lots of stuff on the formation of the red states.

>5e book

Oh. Shit. I honestly didn't expect a 5e book to have shit on them.

Despite the shitposters, they are actually writing books with new information about places around the world. It may not be info people like, or about the places they want to hear about, but it is getting written.

They did 3 different books on the Sioux (the broad one, and focus books on Cheyenne and Butte), presumably because one of the writers likes the Sioux. When the staff is made up of fans, they will write about things they like, for better or worse.

In this case, it helps!

>Ah, dammit. I'll actually have to grab restricted gear, then.
Oh wait, you're in chargen?

Yeah no, you don't need a fragging Barret at session 1. Not badly enough to blow 10 karma on a quality for it. Just get the nicest rifle which is within your availability limit, maybe get easy breakdown so you can actually smuggle it places.

Chargen without much option for gear advancement and Prime Runner

If you want a starting sniper rifle, you can't go wrong with the SVD. It's like 800 nY, solid enough in the hands of a capable sniper, and offers you the ability to upgrade easily without replacing an expensive rifle for an even more expensive rifle. Instead, you're trading a cardbox box for a tank.

Why not ARES desert striker?

What would be a good price to put on the heads of retired military officers that escaped warcrime charges ? Not too much security, but they start getting bodyguards as more and more of them die.

Because I exclusively buy Russian.

Is anything up with the faroe islands? I'm looking for a place for a pirate/smuggler base in northern europe

So... I think I've just witnessed the "best" use of a favor in the history of Shadowrun...

Anyone want to hear how our meatshield cashed in his chips with the local VP of Ares?

yes

>has something relevant to do on literally every phase of every kind of run
>allowed to be lazy

A lazy decker is a decker who isn't invested in his team's survival.

>laziest runner archetype
In order of least lazy to most lazy:
Sammy (melee) > Sammy (ranged) > Specialist/B&E > Van Rigger > Mage (spellcaster) > Drone Rigger > Mage (conjurer) > Hacker > Face

Outside the ranking is "dedicated sniper": The type of PC who always wants to spend the whole run sitting in a nest 2 miles away "providing cover", regardless of how much sense (or how little) it makes for the situation. These guys are in their own special league of lazy.

what about a hybrid? Melee Sammy who uses technomancer powers to touch-hack enemy cybernetics and dump them full of machine sprites or malicious viruses he makes himself with hacking checks, only using technomancy to boost his rolls when necessary and do the really weird stuff?

>tfw when you're a melee sammy + face + dedicated sniper

>Why not ARES desert striker?
[angry ivan chesnokov sounds]

>grab somebody
>fall asleep hugging them
>they start wildly humping you when you fry their wires

So, I'm going to try and keep this brief, this ain't no tale for the ages, but I'll least fill in a little backstory.

Our party meatshield is Bort, (it was originally "Abort", but that name didn't last more than a minute) he is the result of a certain player randomly deciding "I'm going to make a biker troll" and then getting a bit more into it than anyone expected. He is built, despite all logic, on the assumption that his purpose in every run is to run over (or crash into) something with his motorcycle, which he will happily pay to have rebuilt or replaced after every single wreck. Of course he does other actually useful stuff, but that's the general theme we're working with here: he's a big tough troll who absolutely fucking LOVES big bikes and muscle cars.

How he earned a "favor" from a rising star in Ares was during our second run, which involved a generic gang of car jackers, when some stray high caliber gunfire was directed towards what the GM offhandely described as "a really fancy mustang", and Bort decided to take something like seven bullets FOR AN UNOCCUPIED CAR. (He later admitted that he thought he'd be allowed to keep it, the GM wasn't having any part of that, but he felt like rewarding him for a genuinely funny moment at the table). Well, once the run was over and the documents that'd been in one of the other cars' trunks had been returned to their relived owner, we decided to call the local cop-corp and collect any bounties for the gangers or stolen cars in the chop-shop, which led to a certain Ares exec hearing about how his "baby" had been heroically saved. The guy actually showed up at the street-doc where Bort was being treated, personally thanked him and gave him a contact number in case he could ever repay the favor.

We thought it was an amusing way for the DM to reward Bort's player, and just filed the Ares guy away as a contact in case we ever needed him.

gotta take the thing that lets you multitask. Also most folks don't load their cyberware with any form of protection beyond just 'you have to go through my PAN's central node first and that I've got loaded with stuff.' if it's even linked into their PAN at all.

Did you see the sign in front of my house that says Dead Rigger Storage?

Tell me about that support spell you love, /srg/.

this is god tier GMing. This is -exactly- how that should have played out in an ideal universe. The players don't get unrealistic expectations, and they're not punished for playing to character. It's perfect.

>fall asleep hugging them

>VR hacking as a techno when Resonance actions don't get the hotsim bonus

is there any answer better than heal? Well I guess sleep.

>It may not be info people like, or about the places they want to hear about, but it is getting written.
This is why there are shitposters

Improved Invis?

Hell son, our decker works her ass off doing pre run leg work. If she does her job right, and she has yet to let us down, the run its self is a cake walk. The laziest member of our team is the Sammy. He hasn't done jack except sit in a van and play AR games waiting for Plan B to be called.

If I'm a stealthy long range character, should I bother with the Mentor's Mask ability of +1pp and -1 drain or just leave it to not get spotted?

>face laziest
Only if extremely bad or extremely good at their job.
>not pictured: dedicated sniper
Agreed.

>Sammy least lazy
False. There are very few attempts at creativity in this field as it's already been optimized out the ass and back by the /k/ommandos and tacticools that SR attracts. This extends to their table behavior where they invariably roll over to have a drink and take a nap until the next fight starts, doubly so if they've taken all the usual precautions at securing their innawoods bolthole and off-grid assets.

Samurai have been optimized to always be relevant, not to sit out unless fights happen. There is absolutely no reason to make a samurai who can't always participate in a scene due to how overwhelmingly good sneaking is, and adept face-sam is arguably the strongest role hybridization there is on top of that.

Now, fast-forward eight runs to present day. The team's come a long ways, there's been some turnover but Bort is still there, riding his increasingly expensive bike around, and his Ares contact has matured as well.

We're planning our first real AAA run, an extraction against Renraku, when our infiltrator fucks up bigtime while scouting the location and leads a counter-intelligence team right fucking to us. After a brief, very bad, encounter we all bail, the idea being to split up and go into hiding until we can make another attempt. Cue two sessions of cat and mouse as we all try to stay alive and shake our pursuit

The thing is, unlike some of our more paranoid characters, Bort doesn't have a designated bolt-hole. So he thinks on the problem (while dodging pursuit vehicles and aircraft on his bike) and decided to take a note from a previous run where we found this fugitive hiding in a high-security U-Stor-IT unit. You know, the sort that come with free insurance and advertise as "troll-proof". I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Face is lazy only if the player is lazy. Otherwise, it's the hardest and often most intense class for the same reason: a lot of it relies on roleplaying rather than rollplaying. It's the same problem Bards have where it attracts a subset of people who want to be charming but have no clue how to pull it off. You'll get legit autismos who can't string a line of inquiry together; you'll get halfbeard wizards who think they can pornomance everything. Otherwise you get the GM handing them a dialogue tree and doing half the work for them.

But if you get a good Face player, they'll be working the angles hard, because they know they have to push whatever advantage they can get regardless of what the dice say.

Honestly, i think if your samurai can't double als fake bodyguard or security worker, can't google for shit and isn't a wheelman that makes professionals blush, then you are just min-maxing
I agree with

Do people still believe that trolls will steal your socks?
What do they think they do with them if they're too small for their feet?

Cumsocks.

So two days later, Bort is still in his storage unit, chowing down on MREs, wishing he'd sprung for a bigger camp-toilet, and growing terminally bored of the limited entertainment options available on his burner commlink, when a message appears in the dead-drop he's been watching directing everyone to be at a certain place in five hours. This is when Bort realized three things: it's 2am, "high security" U-Store-It units cannot be opened after hours, and the manager isn't answering his commlink.

He tried to break the door down, he really did. When that failed, he gave noise-making a shot to see if he couldn't get the night security guys to let him out, which only got a pair of security drones stationed outside his unit. So, temporarily defeated, Bort goes back to his comm and tries to figure out who his burner-commlink can reach that wouldn't be under Renraku surveillance...

And that's how our team's meatshield burned his favor with the Ares Seattle VP of Operations. We had no words. The run just had to be called off for the night after he called the man and asking for "an extraction", and going through half the expected "from which corp, how deep, what's the security like" before hesitantly admitting it was from a closet he'd locked himself into.

Best night of my life.

But that's what gnomes are for

I am amused. Good job, user.

I... wow... they couldn't have just waited or sent out a message saying that they couldn't make it and asked you guys to get them out instead right before the run?

You make it sound like this was a well thought out or planned endeavor.

He only went and got the burner comm-link after we prompted him to swing by a gas station and get one, his original plan was to just chill until he ran out of food or the rest of us found him. Without any hints at all.

It was not a very smart situation.

No I get that, but he obviously could communicate, he got the message after all... couldn't he have contacted you guys first?

>why did the troll do something stupid and illogical
Are you really asking this question?

In my experience the one who does dumb shit is the high edge human not the troll.

Yo /srg/ question for you, is bowling strength or agility based? As in the skill of bowling. We are in a debate with our GM about whether bowling is strength or agility. We as the players say that bowling is agility the DM says its strength. I fucking wish this was a joke but this actually my life right now. So what do you guys think?

agility for sure, its not a thing of raw power

100% Agility.

Okay, I may be dumb, but I'm at least willing to admit it. Sometimes.
I can't find them.

Help.

I'd want AGI + INT for bowling, but if one of the players asked I would allow subbing in STR and fluffing it as the character throwing the ball so hard good form stops mattering. I've used AGI + LOG (3) to sink pool balls, an extended REA + LOG test to set pinball high scores, and standard thrown tests for darts.

What's intuition got to do with bowling if pool relies on logic? At best, I'd choose one or the other for both, possibly the better one, to represent the character's intimacy with newton's laws.

I'm guessing due to the simplicity of interaction with pool balls and the far less precise interaction between bowling ball and pins?

In pool you walk around and analyse the table state in pool, read and compare angles, etc. Bowling the pins have minimal if any variance because they leave play when they move, so its all about getting a feel for the lane and sinking into the strike zone.

It's exactly the same set of physics user. They're inelastic collisions that require a good deal of practice (trained, intuition?) or analysis (untrained, logic?) to pull off. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that it doesn't make sense for two similar games to use different attributes.

Not the dude who gave the rules, just trying to make excuses for him.

How much dice is too much dice at chargen? I'm doing a point buy 5E mage chargen and I'm hesitating to go balls deep since it just seems unfair.

North of 18.

>How much dice is too much dice at chargen? I'm doing a point buy 5E mage chargen and I'm hesitating to go balls deep since it just seems unfair.
40. Because Then I would have questions for you like 'how?'. if you apply yourself, you should be able to manage in the 20s. If you don't want to make the rest of your table quit in oisgust, high teens is still acceptable

Sorta, in the time limit the player was given to think up a solution (how our DM deals with low int characters) all he could come up with was brute force, replying on the dead-drop forum (which had been strictly forbidden by the hacker) and calling people for help. He had the choice between spending more in game time thinking (which we expected him to do) or just going with it.

Sort of a perfect storm of in-game and out-game retardation. That said, it'll probably pay off decently well since our DM isn't a total dick. I imagine next session we'll find out Bort and all his gear will be transported to the rendezvous by Knight Errant or something without the slightest bit of hassle on the way, which is more than the rest of us will be able to say.

Whatever the GM doesn't want to handle, and potentially whatever establishes a baseline that's too high for the rest of the team.

I have some lore related questions.

Why dragons avoid Egypt?

Because it kills them.

Because they hate sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

>AGI + INT for bowling
>not Throwing(Non-Aerodynamic)+Agility [physical]
Be willing to let players suck at things they have no skill in.

My GM does things like that, making dancing agility+charisma instead of performance(dance)+charisma, just to take pity on us when we hit a club. I'd much rather just hear him laugh at our runners' dancing diepools of 0-4, and then we can pick up actual skills if we want to avoid embarrassing ourselves next time.

It's like, if the players want to make autists who are only good at their shadowrunning roles, then I feel like the GM should be willing to have that play out in the rest of the world. Charisma 2 and no points in performance? Great, enjoy your awkward cringey dancing. Low agility and no points in throwing? Then you're likely to be abysmal at darts. No fashion knowledge? You'll stick out like a sore thumb at high-fashion events. No Con skill? Good luck picking up girls at the bar. And so on, and so forth.

What? Dancing is Gymnastics, user. Canonically.

Why?

>No Con skill? Good luck picking up girls at the bar.

>he has to con to get laid
>he can't just pull out his 10 inch cybercock and lure girls home with it

I did not notice that before. It isn't the way I'd have written it, but I see the logic behind it.

Gymnastics(Dance)+Agility, then.

I'd use throwing (non-aerodynamic) for horseshoes but not bowling. Rolling a bowling ball doesn't really overlap imo.

Because it does. Now have a Nigel.

Ok then, another question.

Can shedim be turned into toxic spirits?

>Sort of a perfect storm of in-game and out-game retardation. That said, it'll probably pay off decently well since our DM isn't a total dick. I imagine next session we'll find out Bort and all his gear will be transported to the rendezvous by Knight Errant or something without the slightest bit of hassle on the way, which is more than the rest of us will be able to say.

If I was your DM, I'd also make it so that knight errant were the local security contractor for the place you're hitting, and those guys, surprise surprise, are called right back.

Would you stop posting that? Avatarfagging is illegal.

>Now have a Nigel.
have a Nigel as well

I think Shedim are definitionally toxic in the first place aren't they?

There's isn't anything that proves or disproves toxic shedim.
They're not. They're just evil, not a corruption of the natural world.

I assume same for blood spirits?

>They're not. They're just evil, not a corruption of the natural world.
Except Shedim aren't naturally, like how the horrors aren't natural. They aren't representations of the natural world in the way that say, Insect Spirits are (who aren't even evil if you get down to brass tacks, just predatory and horrible from human sensibilities)

>tfw you get shedim and bug spirits mixed up
They're both horrible horrible things though neither are toxic.