/srg/ - Shadowrun General

Turn Wifi of, pick a mircophone sensor function and put one of those mini-walkie talkies on it, off course also with wifi turned off.

Now you got an unhackable drone who operates on it's own but you can still give commands in a 1 km radius.

Changelings are people subject to SURGE. Basically it's a bunch of random magical mutations that can happen to anybody.

Any metahuman can become a changeling. Changelings express weird metagenetic traits that go beyond the standard metahuman features. Shit like fish gills, satyr legs, octopus heads, razor claws, extra eyes, even morbid obesity.

>A changeling is basically weirdness.
But also let's you play as a hotline miami reference.
Other ways to do it include getting a cyberskull (or helmet of you are a pussy) with inbuild trod-projector.

> even morbid obesity
Good thing that thats just a genetic trait one doesn't has influence over :v)

Unlike tumblr obesity, you basically turn into a walrus with the surge obesity.

My last character had an npc AI partner who lived in her implanted commlink and appeared on her skin as a tattoo when she needed to talk to others. She acted as the team's matrix support.

AIs are pretty common and they aren't generally world-shaking basilisks trying to get out of a box, they're just adaptive programs of one sort or another that got left running for too long and ran off into the matrix and aren't any smarter than your average meta. You probably shouldn't play as one, for various reasons, but having met one isn't even unusual, never mind snowflaky.

Heritability of obesity is >80%, with no measurable impact from shared environment.

Hey here's a thought.

Have you ever met a grognard so bad that thinking about him makes you not want to play the system?

Can you deactivate Wireless for drones? I thought it was always on by the nature of the beast.

I think if you've got a good pilot program you're okay.

I thought pilot programs needed wireless to function because of "cloud based computing" or whatever. Honestly the wireless matrix doesn't really make any sense to me.

No, I just don't play with them specifically.

Meeting an AI is extremely unlikely for the majority of people, even in the shadows. There are very few AI out there, and fewer are open about what they are. The first public AI wasn't even seen and acknowledged as such until 2070, when Sojourner threatened to blow up the world. Nowadays, the most likely situation for a person to have met an AI is when CFD took over their mate and turned him into a meatpuppet.

It is snowflake as hell to say that you have a pet AI living in your commlink.

I almost played with one, but talking about chargen alone left me shocked.

They are common enough that several nations and corps have started issuing SINs and people have created "AI shelter" hosts. While they aren't exactly common it's not anywhere near impossible for someone to run across the occasional free sprite or E-ghost. Plus more and more AIs are coming out of hiding as the public becomes more accepting of them.

>Trying to bait this hard.

It doesn't for anybody but i'm sure drones are fine wireless.
If you don't mind having your drones near you you could also just connect them via wire with your commlink.
Could become problematic for flying drones but any ground drone bigger than micro should be fine with it.

Tell us more.

This is gonna take a few posts, hold onto your butt.

>The worst ultra-grognard I ever met was in a Shadowrun 4e group.
>To this day, the thought of him makes me so annoyed I want to quit the hobby.
>The game itself never started, the group would split after finding out the GM had gone MIA.
>This all happened in the period of character generation and all related discussion.
>I was the second guy to enter the chat, the grognard was there when I arrived.
>He was a nice guy at first if a bit odd in how he constructs his sentences. Either way we greeted and threw some in-lore jokes at each other.
>My suspicions began to arise when the GM asked us what we wanted from the game.
>As a polite gesture I wanted to give him the first go at posting.
>However, he had typed for so long that at first I figured he was either away from keyboard or Discord’s servers were in an emergency ass-clench, like they tend to be sometimes.
>Six whole minutes later.
>He lays down a wall of text that just about covers the entire chat bar of Discord on your average monitor.
>That thing was too big to be called a post. Too big, too thick, too unrefined.
>It was more like a large hunk of prose, detailing what the game is and isn’t.
>Not what it should be, it was specifically worded as “the party is, the party isn’t, the game is, the game isn’t.”
>If there was a central point to these divine commandments, it was that we were going to be strictly PROFESSIONAL.
>As in, we do not work for anyone but the corps, because going around shooting gangers would make us mindless vigilantes.
>The professionalism was to extend to party behavior as well.
> The shadowrunners shouldn’t be friends, they should be afraid of each other turning on them.
>I asked for a reason to this, and his response was that it creates – and I quote – “a wonderful atmosphere of an experiment in paranoia.”

(cont)

>The game would also not be set outside of Seattle, since all the main rulebooks were created with Seattle as the default environment.
>He did admit that it was possible to play a game of Shadowrun outside of Seattle, but it would require expert, if not professional players.
>Now for the interlude.
>At this point the GM had logged off and the third player had entered the chat.
>Me and the Third Guy attempted to deconstruct this litany from God, only to be responded with further, if a bit smaller walls of text.
>The Grognard said that he regrettably couldn’t express his thoughts coherently through text, and invited us to a voice chat session with him through Discord.
>I thought that, while this was interesting since the game was designated as a text game, it’s also somewhat understandable if he’s not a native speaker.
>I enter voice chat with him alone, as the Third Guy was occupied at that time and would join later.
>The thing that stuck out to me first was his manner of speaking.
>His voice vas very . . . breathy, he had this odd rising and descending style of speech.
>Like, imagine that “myeees” guy from the Simpsons, it sounded exactly like that except a bit less exaggerated in tone.
>At the time I thought that he just threw on a funny voice as a joke
>To my disappointment, however, I didn’t find him to be any more articulate in voice than in his holy mantras.
>I had started to suspect that he was incapable of having fun, and going forward with this chat I started to become surer of it.
>But then I thought “If he’s incapable of fun, why is he still throwing on that weird posh voice?”
>And then it hit me, that this is his actual manner of speech.
>I exited the voice chat with a troubled mind, just as the Third Guy returned and was going to talk to him.

(cont)

>I remarked that his coherence did not in fact improve in voice chat in my opinion.
>His response was that I “didn’t understand the context and subtleties of the engish language as a non-American.”
>The Third Guy’s opinion on the matter can easily be condensed into a choice quote from our private messages.
>”I don’t even understand his context subtleties. I don’t get what he’s arguing for, other than the option to kill teammates be on the table.”
>Now for Act 2, where we actually move onto chargen.
>Discussing chargen with this man is the part that made me realize that he was actually crazy.
>The first thing that we talked about was combat roles.
>His opinion was that most people do not understand how to make violence feel meaningful.
>”All the kids pick the combat classes expecting to do whatever they want, flipping about as they go.”
>So, guess who volunteered to be the party street sammie to “take it away from the people who don’t understand how to play the role”?
>You guessed right, but I didn’t really object since I was going to play a face anyway.
>I talked about my concept of a Troll Face and he objected.
>He sincerely believed that in the Shadowrun world trolls are not treated as actual people.
>He said that they only live in sewers and sprawls and are not allowed to be in common areas.
>I brushed it off as a remark. What reason would he have to get angry about by character choices? He was gonna be the sam anyway; he wasn’t going to be the smooth talker.
>Either way, I felt that I might as well play to some of the strengths of my metatype, even if I’m making an unoptimized character.
>So, I started pumping karma into strength, dexterity, unarmed skills and picking some shotguns for myself.
>When talking about concealed weapon choices with the Third Guy, the grognard spoke up, angered.
>This is the point where I unveil the madness within his mind.

>See, according to him I shouldn’t have any combat investment at all, I’d be stepping on his toes.
>A pool of 9? Absurd. Even a pool of 5 would be pushing it.
>I ask him what for, he’d still be the main star of combat because I can’t even dream of fully speccing into combat stuff with my face investments.
>After seven minutes of continuous writing, he births his essay on the subject unto the chat.
>See, every character in Shadowrun has a job, they’re professionals and they don’t stray away from their role in the team.
>What this means in terms of the actual gameflow is that every scene has a ‘star’ character who does the thing.
>And in that scene, all other characters exist only to augment that star and his performance in that scene.
>So, it’s only reasonable to say, that my troll face being able to hit an object after firing a shotgun is me stealing spotlight from the street samurai character.
>And remember, he was of course going to be handling combat to preserve its sanctity.
>What followed was a state of shock shared by me and the Third Guy, and a string of mostly pointless queries to his viewpoints.
>The group would dissolve quietly and go their own ways without too much of a fight.
>But a lasting impression had been made on me and the Third Guy.
>As punctuation to this awful story, here’s another choice quote from our private messaging .
>”Just what…How did it devolve that fast? Am I the asshole here? Am I just not realizing that I’m being a dick?”

Now I don't know about you guys, but I feel like making another player depressed labels him as a That Guy.

Holy Crap
Wow
That's certainly impressive. Not good (far from it), but impressive.
I sincerely hope from the bottom of my heart that none of us will ever encounter such a MASSIVELY shit GM (again in your case)

>run is an assassination on a docked boat guarded by an enemy runner team
>one player just walks right on through the main entrance with an assault cannon

It's all the fun of the Leeroy Jenkins quality with none of the karma

Oh for further clarification, the grognard is another player, not the GM.

The GM was fine, but he was practically absent after he asked us what we wanted to play, and he never returned to our presence thereafter.

Then you still have my sincerest condolences and I wish for you to not encounter such players again

Science is science, my dude. When you test something and get results, you go with what they say, not what you wish they said.

Mother of spurdo

Thats absolutely horrible.

The worst Thing about those guy is when they Keep you from actually playing because there are so few groups.

I could play in one, but
- street scum + low karma gen
- weeb GM
- female GM NPC face

I REALLY want to play more IRL, but i have heavy doubts about this, to many red flags.

This guy doesn't even seem like a grognard, just an asshole. Plus he's not even right about his ideas. Older shadowrun was pink-mohawk balls to the wall craziness. It's only with the newer editions that you have black-trenchcoat hyper-professional corporation bootlickers.

Your GM could probably just award him with that quality if he makes a habit of it.

I AM the GM. I already mentioned the quality but don't want to award it because that would probably get REALLY annoying to the other players, and possibly even to the player himself.

If you're wondering why I let him bring an assault cannon onto a boat in a public dock, he had the foresight to have his Yakuza contact make a distraction. One foot in subtle,
one foot in loud, I guess.

I'm assuming you've already made the behavior bite him in the ass to try and get him to stop?

Just leave it as it is.
If the Player did as you wrote in the spoiler its alright, except if everybody else wants to go full trenchcoat-faggot.
Don't punish players for being creative and creating some fun.

He DID almost die, just by virtue of having to take the runners on directly.

Yeah, I'm not mad about it, it just really threw me for a loop. The other players are more subtle, but honestly it can still work with his character being a loud death machine that distracts from the other characters sneaking in. I think that's the solution to satisfy everyone.

>He DID almost die
Even with an autocannon? They must be made of stern stuff.

Can you get a drone that's just a roomba?

You mean the cleaning robots? Sure thing. You can slap an RC on any device and will be able to even jump into it as a rigger. You could even make a toaster a drone. (with limited functions but oh well)

I meant RI not RC, sorry

Can you voluntarily take Physical damage instead of taking stun? Lets say you're about to take enough stun to knock you out. Can you choose physical to stay up?

not RAW, but you could take off your armor so more damage becomes physical.
But that's also the reason why coordinated stun damage is so powerfull.

Is there any reason at all to use shurikens and throwing knives other than the cool factor?

You could coat them with different stuff, or have your mage buddy cast spells on them, like high force fireball, because contact trigger always hit's the target that trigger it.
Also for the improved hit chance if you enable wireless.

iirc smart shuriken can give +mod because they mark a target and measure wind/flight path.

throwing knives maybe for adepts? You could also apply a toxin to any of those.

Alchemical Contact Preps with throw weapons. It outdoes bows.

His character only has, like, 7+1d6 initiative. So when there's multiple combatants and they're all going before you, you're gonna take some hits.

>7+1d6 initiative
Christ, that ist Just Bad.

Tell him about the wonders of drugs, ffs.

If I start with Magic 0, can I increase it to 1 during gameplay using karma? Can I awaken mid-game?

No.

What about metatype? Can I SURGE mid-game?

An Active Skill 1 will cost 2 karma points. And according to the training rate table it would take 1 day to learn this skill.
So with 2 karma, and 1 day, I could learn to pilot a space bus in my apartment using a simulator.
This is just too good to be true.

Metatype is not Surge.

No, you can learn incredibly basic level piloting that's not going to really do much for you.

You'll hardly be any good at it.

Not really. My reaction is 8. Now I can pilot a space bus at 9dice. Yesterday I couldn't. I buy successes and I score a net hit of 4, clearly enough to fly to mars on my own. I'm gonna be in space now, bitches. Watch me as I go!

Do not listen to . 4th has "Latent Awakening" as a Quality and you can buy those for double the price later down in your campaign. Will it be incredibly expensive to get even 1 in Magic: Yes. Is it impossible: No. Just talk with your GM you can definitely do something along those lines. There is even lore about late bloomers.

>I buy successes and I score a net hit of 4
I read that sentence like three times and still don't know what you're trying to say

Well sure, I never doubted you'd be able to fly to mars. Its a straight flight and space craft are high end pruduction vehicles in SR, not wonders on the very fringe of metahuman technology.

You're just not goint to be doing any fancy flyin' or anything much beyond obeying your designated space traffic controller and navigating into your assigned travel lane.

If your GM isn't absolute "Yes-Only" trash he will give you some modifiers for complex maneuvers because you have high REA and not high SKILL.

or if you cry like a snow flake he will just hit you with asteroids or whatever THE FUCK CHUMMER

>4th has "Latent Awakening" as a Quality
user, unless specified you should always assume 5e. And Latent Awakening was AFAIK never ported to 5e

Oh, I got that. Don't worry.
>i am a babby that is incapable of porting something on my own
>4-to 5. not even 1 to 5
>it was lore in 2070 it isn't in 2075

What? You think it could be "imbalanced" in 5th? Chummer CGL has no clue about balancing. Just adapt and play a story, not a math test.

Well, Run Faster has KarmaGen character building options, with karma points for the four types of awakened. So it is basically a quality that, using the character advancement table, you could simply buy then at twice the cost.
So yeah, to become an Adept in the middle of your game, you pay 40 karma points, and get a attribute of Magic 1/6 and 1 Power Point.
Where's your god now?

There's no RAW mechanism to purchase the Adept or Magician (etc etc) qualities in-game in 5e, so no.
Broadly speaking that's up to your GM, but mana-spikes are a common way of getting SURGEd.

Hey guys I am reading the Shadowrun core book, and I notice that the book mention a "Movement Table" on p.161, but I can't seen to be able to find this table. There is even one?

Or the Movement Table is that table inside the Exampel box. Why it would even be there?

it's the little 2 liner in the example box on 162 with agi x 2 yadda yadda

Yeah it took me a while to realize they put it inside the example box, because I completely ignored it, believing it was one of the examples from those example characters. It is, but it is also the table. What a clusterfuck.

Don't sweat it, chummer. We've all been there. CGL's design can be a little (or a lot) unorganized. I recommend cheat sheets from the pastebin.

Don't know if this is your first SR but here is a lovely example:

Spirits have immunity to normal weapons (they take way less damage). You can only find out about that through reading up on their "materialization" ability which is further described down in the critter ability chapter. There it is stated that beings with this ability also have immunity and then you have to read up about this immunity. So yes, have fun chummer.

First time, yeah. I played the 2nd edition years ago, I barely remember it much, but I always liked the ambience and the feel of the shadowrun setting so much, I decided to see if I can learn the game, and GM to my friends.

Assault cannons are fun

They'd be a lot more fun if one could burst-fire them. Would make APDS-Sniper rifles less of a superior choice.

That's the spirit. It took me a while to feel comfortable enough to GM myself because there is just SO MUCH CRUNCH AND LORE. But if you start with your friends on the same level and just learn together it can actually be a lot of fun. Just start slowly with the Core and don't allow too many add-on books too early. Cheat Sheets are your best friend in this game and don't be afraid to improv any modifiers you feel are right in a given situation.

Also: watching a VOD of some people playing on youtube/twitch (if they are capable) can help a lot to see certain things play out (like a decker or mage in action).

I'd just make assault cannons take regular ammunition but at a 1.5x cost increase. That way they can just use APDS themselves.

>Assault Cannon capsule round with PepperPunch
>Assault Cannon Gel rounds

>be rent-a-cop
>going on patrol around facility
>suddenly shadowrunners, oh shit
>one of them points a massive gun at you
>hellodarkness.mp8
>it fires
>you get hit in the face with a massive wad of jello
>come to hours later, covered in green goop and feeling bruised, but alive
>some of it got into your mouth
>it is, in fact, delicious

>Assault Cannon Gel Rounds
I lol'd hard. And I loved it. It's action movies explosions! Nobody dies and everything explodes!

that made me chuckle

...

I entered in this trove, and what books do you think are more relevant to read after the core?

Have some Assault Cannon Gel round stated for chummer.

0bf4113c-dedb-411d-8981-7b6af16fff56
Ammo: Assault Cannon Gel Rounds
Ammunition
0
SR5
434
12R
450
10

1
S

Unique ID SHOULD work, but is not tested, Price increased to 450 to reflect that regular gel ammo is also a bit more expensive.
Availability changed from F to R, to reflect its reduced lethality.

Run Faster is pretty big, as is Run And Gun. Beyond that, it really depends on what archetype you intend to play - Rigger 5.0 for riggers, Cutting Aces for faces, Hard Targets (and maybe Assassin's Primer) for Infiltrators, Street Grimoire and Forbidden Arcana for mages, Data Trails for deckers and Chrome Flesh for sammies.

Gangs.
They fight, recruit, battle. The lack of vision is depressing. It makes me tired. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Why do they continue to fight over things as petty as race, or circumstance?

I'll do that. Thank you for your imput!

Or - more to the point, how do I go about punishing gangs for their lack of vision?

Oh shit user, you accidentaly described the human race.

Because they are, in fact, petty. Just street trash with delusions of standing, scrambling to be sad little kings of their sad little hills. Urban savages, engaging in tribal warfare, to be used and discarded by greater entities than themselves.

Humans, orcs, elves, trolls, nagas. I don't care. They all disgust me. They've made a huge step towards claiming their place in the world - they've acknowledge that the use of force is a valid way to advance - then just sit around the campfire of that revelation, instead of fanning it into a blaze.

Exactly. The pettiness.

Most people are that petty, user. They need food, shelter, safety, camaraderie. Gangs attempt to secure these things, but they're flawed, rife with backstabbing and caught up in instant gratification and the hear and now. Only a few in the throngs of metahumanity can rise above that, pursue greatness.

Whether that self-actualization comes in the form of trying to create something bigger and better and leave the world a better place, advancing some ideal of theirs, or just being a pretentious asswad fascist varies, of course.

You call out the gangs, but the syndicates, corps, and states are no better in and of themselves.

The thing you have to understand is that to them, it's not petty.
It's a matter of opinion, priority and values just as much, if not more so, than any kind of "greater purpose".
To their own eyes, they're protecting important things that other people are fighting to erode and destroy every moment of the day - and they might even be right, considering that they live in circumstances where resources are scarce (often due to none of their own fault - the corps can be nasty).
They fight for family, for what they consider honor, for friendship, for dignity, and for their well-deserved reward.
And if they turn the other cheek, there'll be someone else waiting to beat them into submission, to take their money, to kill their friends and to do unspeakable things to their girlfriends and children.
There are go-gangers and boostergangers who just do shit for the hell of it. They're not all of them, though, and especially Barrens gangs live in an environment where they don't have a choice.
Even if all gangs were to find internal peace of some sort (and remember, people are different and don't all come to the same conclusions), devil rats, the forces of nature and the corps can steal away their livelihoods just as quickly as the other gangs.
The gangs would consider you petty too. Caught up in your ideas of "enlightenment", "progress" and "value", not knowing or caring that everything in this world comes at the expense of someone else and blaming others for doing nothing more than living.