/srg/ - Shadowrun General

So basically Gandalf is not powerful because (in gaming terms) he took a level in caster but because he has access to the sourcecode?

Have: Shitty apartment, shitty scooter, katana, Ingram Smartgun X, magic powers, some cool clothes.
Want: Decent Magical Lodge Supplies, better vehicle, to be able to pay rent, some more spells and a drink

Gandalf's a Solar custom class at level 50, but the DM told him to go fuck himself and capped him at 1, along with all the other Wizards, because last time they had a campaign the dick swinging rewrote the geography of the world and did other weird shit. He relented a bit when sending him back as the White and let him go to level 2. Sauron was the same, but forked off into a weird prestige class a bit, lost a fair bit of exp in places, and Morgoth's player is chained up in the back yard because he's a homicidal erotomaniac who doesn't know what D&D is and will rape the entire game group to death if he isn't.

>MbW

best wire

Anyone else gets the bug with adepts in newest chummer?

I get adept quality, increase magic but then i cannot get power points and powers do not increase beyond lvl 1.

/srg/ I need help.last week of this month I'm starting my first SR5 game as GM. All of my players are newbies to the shadows, should I limit character creation to the base book or are there must open splats. I'm keeping priority (I know it sucks), but I feel like Run and Gun provides a lot of really flavorful shit but I also feel like having a bunch of extra combat options will punch alternate combat characters in the balls. Any pitfalls I should look out for?

>should I limit character creation to the base book or are there must open splats.
I'm personally a fan of admitting all splats, but you can start with just Core
>I'm keeping priority (I know it sucks)
just use Sum-To-Ten from the book and nothing else
>but I also feel like having a bunch of extra combat options will punch alternate combat characters in the balls
why do you think so?
>Any pitfalls I should look out for?
Keep in mind that awakened need FAR less karma to get better than mundanes need money, so give some runs where the pay is in stuff (ware, weapons, vehicles, etc.)

Also: Get yourself Chummer5, read the rules carefully, get yourself the Hayek sheets from the pastebin, read the rules carefully, when in doubt with modifiers just wing it, read the rules carefully, but remember that you are the GM.
Also keep in mind that Magic gets weaker the more you know the rules, while the Matrix gets stronger.

If in doubt about some rules or want critique for a character, just post it here

Is that a Skilljack that teaches you German or a Skilljack from a German sourcebook?

What is a good magical tradition for a social manipulator type character?

R&G, HT should be opened because theyre just the expanded Armory and Character Option book. SG needs to be open for mages and CF needs to be open for chrome. Beyond that keep it closed, like, Forbidden Arcana is also a magic book, but fuck that. Data Trails is also entirely too fucked up.

>alternate combat characters
The fuck is that?

Any that have Charisma as a secondary stat.

German language, he gets the skilljack for free with M-b-W

Black Magic. Your Manipulation spirits look and act like people, your drain involves Charisma, and your associated spells/powers will manipulate the shit outta everyone.

German skilljacks are much cheaper than the ones from CGL

>Your Manipulation spirits look and act like people

Like evil, explicitly magical people.

Yeah, like Aztechnology employees.

The latter. Only costs 1000 Nuyen per level (yes, 1k) and the essence cost doesn't change on higher levels.
Makes skillwires of any kind a lot more viable.

Thats wrong, you only get free skillwires.

>Why do you think so?
I'm just worried that if I only open that book characters that focus away from combat will feel like the options in their focus are severely limited in comparison. Most of my players are from a DnD background and I feel like the "Right Choice" is often very clear in the Core Book. I don't know. I think the problem would be worse if I opened Chrome Flesh but not Street Grimoire. I guess I just gotta read all the books again and make a decision.

I have chummer5 probably gonna keep a digital copy of each character in the party.
>funny thing I was gonna report a bug but the newest update made it go away. TFW laziness works out.

Yeah I still don't know what people will play session 0 in like 2 weeks so I'm just banging my head against CGL editing and making my own cheat sheets so that the info is in my brain and so I can homebrew on the fly.

to add upon this:
>fuck Forbidden Arcana

Not only fuck it, keep it forbidden AT ALL COST, except for aspected Magicians and Alchemists.

Everything else in there is potentially broken shit.

>if I only open that book characters that focus away from combat will feel like the options in their focus are severely limited in comparison
Open Cutting Aces and Hard Targets, problem solved.

>I have chummer5 probably gonna keep a digital copy of each character in the party.
The success rate of sending someone a chum file and having it correctly display everything at the other end has historically been pretty low in all my groups. Usually best to have chummer put out a pdf and send the pdf.

ze fuck

Street Grimoire can be left away a lot easier than Chrome Flesh.
The latter is basically the point that makes a broad range of Cyberware Characters playable(!). Street Grimoire is the point that increases the already high power of core book mages even more.

Honestly SG diversifies mages instead of making them more powerful more than anything. More traditions, mentors, etc.

A mage can break ALL your shit with Control Thoughts, but they can also break ALL your shit by summoning spirits.

Due to CGL balance generally Shadowrun groups run on the understanding, especially for mages but also others, that if you're a cunt about breaking everything, the chances of rocks falling on your character rapidly increase. Especially when you start dragging down every encounter with summoned spirits or break every challenge by mindcontrolling the opposition.

Scrub Gm here i will be back in an hour minor personal emergency. Deride on

Man those strike teams get faster every year.

There's useful aclehmical tools, some decent mentor spirits and spells, and the Harmonious Defense/Reflection metamagics.

There's good and bad in it, though a new GM might have some trouble separating the two.

It ALSO makes them even more powerful.
Thats a shitty cost for added diversity.

Though the biggest stinkers are easy to remove anyways.

-use mission errata for mindcontrol spell, so people actually have some dice left to resist it
- ban quickening
- ban posessionshittery
- reduce the hardened armor of spirits to force.

>There's good and bad in it, though a new GM might have some trouble separating the two.

Thats the big problem
"oh, new traditions, that sounds nice" and bam, you'll end up with some wanker who chose that fancy new black magic shittery.

Possession and Immunity = Force x2 are both in Core, mate.

Like me, with my black magic banshee face. Control thoughts, influence, convince...I'm pretty cancer.

I think those were some general fixes, not just for FA

Black Magic is acceptable if the player doesn't become a cunt as detailed earlier. The only required to be banned Tradition is Wicca due to the drain roll.

Tarot, I think you mean. Wicca is fine, either INT or LOG.

>Wicca due to the drain roll.
?
I doubt it could be worse than Romani's WIL+WIL

Whichever one is the one with the skill in it. I just remembered Wicca had a weird drain roll and thought that was the one.

Draconic, which is WIL+MAG?

Though any GM who allows someone to play a scalie gets what's coming to them.

Yeah, thats utter cancer.
Would ban as a GM, would dislike running ingame with (infected), would dislike running outgame with.

Entirely depends on if he knows when to keep his foot off the gas to be honest.

In theory?
Yes.
In practice?
To many red flags to give the benefit of the doubt.

Begin a new game of Shadowrun 2 months ago. Party composition:

Street Sam (me)
Mage
Gun Adept
Face
Rigger

Over the course of 2 months Rigger and Face make new characters/adjustments to their class with GM approval. Now the party composition is this:

Street Sam (me)
Mage
Gun Adept
Adept Face
Second Mage

I'm the only mundane character in the group. Everyone else sits in low lifestyle and converts as much run reward into karma and thus advance at a faster rate than I do. Life is suffering

>reward into karma
ask your GM if you can do the reverse?
Also ask if you can get more gear instead of money?

and of course the big question: Do you use Background counts? With just one or two awakened I can understand not wanting to bother, but when all but one are awakened it's one of the few ways to limit them.

You also ended up being without a Decker or Rigger that would either also be interested in tech or able to acquire/supply/build/improve yours, really. Nuyen into Karma conversion is also the less frequently allowed one and pretty limited in quantity generally, while Karma into Nuyen should be pretty commonly available to you.

Keep in mind most things like inner-city background count and all that are mitigated by acclimation if you spend enough time there. You need to go into zones with unfamiliar background count on short notice to really have it hit.

Agreed, though character's been finalized, unfortunately. I'll just stick with "making rash decisions involving ware and black market doesn't always go well" and roll Elysium-style.

Well, it surely makes the slomo bulletstorm fantasy easier.

They should've added a paragraph to MbW where if you take the right kinda drugs (like the ones snipers take for steady hands) you can curb the shaking but eventually risk addiction.

Remember if you're not a Green Mage you don't really love the environment

Eh, thats one way to do it.
The other way is to simply turn the thing off, which is explicitely and option in the Krautrules.

I still have this fantasy about the final combat being one where i can pop Accelerator on top and guzzle some K10 to round it off, for a cozy 26+5d6 INI. Will probably end in going out like a blazing fireball, but glorious it would be.

Just spend all that extra init on dodges and you're fine. That'll also free you up to get a max rating Adrenaline pump and try to run it for maximum duration so you die from the shutoff at the end but all your stats are bullshit while its on.

That would be pretty redundant with the boosts from MBW, muscle toner and K10.

That's Shadowrun baby

>What if there was Cyberpunk..... but also Magic came back?
>Magic Wins LOL

more like
>That's Shadowrun 5e under CGL, baby

t. idealizes what he never played

Turn to Goo has always been the trump card, with hermetics and their elementals a close second.

So what's your opinion on Runner Names? Should you always just take what the players say despite their shittiness (because realistically there'd be many runners with shit names) or do you make players make new names until they have good ones (as shitposters on Shadowlands BBS would make them do in universe)?

How are there gypsies in a world where the mall cops have orbital bombardment?

Have npcs mock them for shit names.

How are there anti pornography laws in a world where people can enter the internet psychically

Send 'em to an ID Manufacturer who hands out new codenames.

Players Characters, players Choice.

If its an obviously ridiculous name like Cockwad McSchlongosaur, he might get ridiculed for it ingame.
Depending on his ingame-behavior the intensity of this might increase or decrease.
Its probably not the best idea to laugh at some 0.01 Essence Murderbot with a Monowhip or some insane Magician who lets spirits possess himself.

Just make sure everyone's on the same version. I don't build chummer with legacy shimming in mind. Personally, I have the version of Chummer I want our group to use in a Dropbox folder and get everyone to use that version.
I generally tell my players not to bother with a street name until they've got a run or two under their belt, then we all sort of vote on a street name based on stuff that happened. In most cases it's the name they would have picked in the first place, but there've been a a few instances where they got something completely different because they did something neat during those sessions.

Nah even on same version it always arrived all changed up. Generally everyone in the campaign knows we use the version we started the campaign with and not to update until the campaign is done so nothing breaks, aswell.

So for an adept face/pornomancer who can't take the essence hit from a cyberarm, should I bother going automatics or just use heavy pistols?

Also, how much do you think cosmetic surgery to turn a dwarf into a goblin with green skin and pig pointy ears should cost?

I don't understand how not having a cyberarm relates to using heavy pistols over automatics?

>can't take the essence hit from a cyberarm
Yes you can

Arm of God to boost AGI and recoil compensation combined with a cheap machine pistol that can be fired one handed.

Alright, lets go through this.....
1. Recoil isn't determined by what gun you use, but how you fire it. By taking a pistol over an automatic all you're doing is taking out the options for better fire modes.
2. Larger weapons usually already come with more built-in recoil compensation AND have slots to fit more extra recoil compensating modifications.
3. Larger weapons have much better ranges, meaning you're less likely to take a range penalty to your low AGI dicepool on a larger gun than you are on a pistol.
4. Again more slots means maybe that Improved Rangefinder can go on the big boy.
5.If despite all this you still want a pistol it is likely due to concealability in a non-disassembled state. In which case still don't get a pistol, but get a Silver Pistol Crossbow. Fired with archery, pistol sized, pistol ranged, can get by basically all the scanners in the world, is silent. Has access to arrows, which means Stick n Shock with Static Bolts, making it significantly better than other SnS, White Phosphorous for bonus warcrimes, aswell as your average DV/AP exchange type of deal, or fancy stuff like Screamers.

Lone Star License made Predator IV promotional image

Bonus for projectile skill. The giant slayer slingshot is perfectly legal to carry around.
You can buy a bunch of ball bearings and never run out of ammo by picking up screws/rocks/debris.
Sure you won't kill anybody with them but called shots are one hell of a drug, disarm red samurai with your slingshot.

Also since he's a face, if for some reason he isn't spending his turns in combat rolling Leadership to give everyone Initative and actually is shooting.... still no one expects him to be the guy gunning motherfuckers down with deadly force and precision. Instead, a well-placed grenade of some utility, or better, a nice big cone of suppressive fire work well. And for Suppressive Fire, or even ENHANCED Suppressive Fire, you want a nice rifle with a nice biiiig magazine. Not a cruddy pistol. Your dicepool don't even have to be that good for throwing 'nades or doing a decent enhanced suppression. Same for SnS Bolts with the crossbow, since glances win for electricity.

Steyr TMP, also known as pocket supressive fire.

When a Raiden is out of reach, as it isually is, I quite like the Monsoon, actually. Very handy ammo system for suppression, too.

>When a Raiden is out of reach, as it isually is, I quite like the Monsoon
heh

>Stick n Shock with Static Bolts
Unless they changed something, there are no static bolts. Only static shafts.

Capsule rounds are also perfectly legal, iirc, as is pepper punch.

Yeah I meant static shafts. Problem with capsule rounds is "immediate" for toxins doesn't actually mean immediate. Electric hits however actually do happen instantly, and leave people debuffed and with less Init.

Disarm red samurai with pepper punch rounds.

>Yeah I meant static shafts.
Which don't go on bolts.

Surprise/unaware prevents the target from reacting to anything that takes place during the surprise round. Just be smart enough to weight the surprise roll in your favour, and don't risk the mutual ambush situation - always start an ambush when you can see your target beforehand.

>worrying about legality
>not being an undercover vice officer for Knight Errant with totally legal access to shotguns and assault rifles
Only squares don't sell out

So what are the things in your games where you say "Fuck this shit, I'll just simplify this" and how do you simplify it?
>inb4 "for matrix stuff I just let them roll once and say how well they did"

Shit, now I want to run a game where all the players are undercover for different law enforcement agencies but don't know that the others are as well.

Some of you may remember last week when I asked for a random table of cancers because nuclear spirits? The player in question has asked me if awakened cancer is a thing. I was about to say "no," but then I hesitated because I realized I couldn't guarantee they isn't.

So, /srg/? Does my player have magic cancer or regular cancer?

>The player in question has asked me if awakened cancer is a thing.
Sure, most Awakened fall under it, but especially those with Prototype Transhuman or Dedicated Summoner. Those are REALLY cancer

Magic cancer. Functionally it would be the astral hazing metagenic quality combined with borrowed time. Their body is becoming aspected towards toxic magic despite they themselves being a regular mage

No grids, no noise when there isn't an actual jam.

Sounds like Paranoia

Sounds like a fun time.
Maybe mix things a little up
A member of a secret (doomsday) magical cult.
A member of a humanis Poli club.
A member of local law enforcement.
A member of one of the big crime syndicates, like the mafia.

I'd put dorf-to-gobbo at Severe Biosculpting, to skip getting multiple different 'ware. 0.25, 10k, getting green skin, slimmed frame and face, and no beard. They already have pointed ears.

I remember a screencap of an user telling the tale of how his father (a cop) entered a group willing to overthrow the government. He was undercover and he was searching for evidence to overthrow them
one day suddenly there was a raid, where it turned out that all of them were law-men. Every single one of them. None of the groups had talked to another.

>The one guy who's actually a shadowrunner is suspected by everyone else of being an undercover agent

so basically make all of them be part of different agencies
one's from the Star
one's from KE
one's from Firewatch
one's from the Tir Ghosts
one's from GOD
etc.
Make the characters with each one in secret and tell each that they are an undercover agent in a Shadowrunner group.
And somewhat into the campaign give each of them at once the signal that the gig is up and watch each of them scream at everyone else to freeze. Just to watch their confused faces