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>Shoot straight
>Conserve ammo
>And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon
What's the most clever disguise you've ever used for a drone? Hidden it in a wedding cake, disguised as a bird, inside a decorative hairband that you 'carelessly drop' inside the Zero Zone?
Has anyone had a shifter in their group that's clearly not suited to this ecology (ex a lion shifter in Seattle)? How do you handle it? Do they live out in the barrens hunting gangers for food? Do they live with another character?
>>47096189
The most obnoxious tourist ever. Stare at EVERYTHING, ask questions that are really obvious to everyone else. Complain CONSTANTLY about the food. Continuously brag about your homeland and it's superiority.
>>47096256
So basically do a Borat impression all game long?
>>47096635
>It's a 'random genetic flukes should dictate the course of history, and not the work done by the sweat of metahumanity's brow' post
Tell me, do the elves pay you directly, or do you use a Caribbean League bank as a go-between?
Is it possible to create a personafix that emulates a living person's personality ? What kind of skills and time would it take ?
>>47096635
Because CGL has made awakened the better option especially by making bio-adepts so easy to build.
>>47096059
>greentext links, black text
Better off doing it the other way around, chummer.
What flying drones are there of a decent size? I'm looking for something (4e preferred) that's big enough to actually have a Pixie pilot it.
Rotodrones seems a bit small but there doesn't seem many much bigger until you hit 'Predator Drone' which is too big for indoors.
I feel like posing myself a bit of a challenge, as well as seeing if I can at least get anything salvageable out of 5e and its snowflakery.
I'm interested in seeing exactly how ridiculous a concept it's possible to write a black-trenchcoat character concept about, to see exactly where special character splats stop being niche and start being meaningless, nearly unplayable amalgamations of funkily balanced powers and fluff/crunch discrepancies, and for obvious reasons I'm not going to trust myself (since I'll end up strawmanning).
What I'm asking the thread is to heap the most ridiculous concepts they can think of on me (limited to crunch terms, for example metavariants, archetypes, cyberware and equipment, to avoid Frank-type runners who're simply relegated to the pinkest of mohawk games), and I'll take the most fucking ridiculously special-snowflaky one and write a character background on it, then post it here to be torn apart.
Please don't blame me, I'm bored and have nothing to do.
>>47097035
OK, 3e anon. Dryad or Surge (the highest grade) for the base, Liminal Body (centaur or tank), multiple monowhip finger compartments.
Or an AI in a customized drone body with similar.
>>47097122
>Basically, this guy would a complete social chameleon; being able to pose up as anyone, and completely untrackable.
Until you get a few initiations under his belt, he's still vulnerable to astral security blowing his cover.
>>47097122
What edition because i know in 4th you can't have stuff like caffeine alcohol or tobacco as you addiction.
>>47097202
Even then, corporations have access to sensor software for different types of pattern analysis; if they want to figure out you are/were somewhere (or not), eventually they will.
>>47097242
>>47097263
It's still a silly choice, unless you buy into the 'industrial byproduct' description of soykaf, and want to accept that drinking it can result in an addiction spiral to death.
Tried to make Super Mario in SR5 using sumtoten. Not really sure how I did. I need an adult.
Not sure about spell selection, adept powers, where to put my meager nuyen, and taking suggestions on qualities.
>>47097678
>I know it's a silly choice, I'm picking it because it's free karma.
So you're intentionally being a minmaxing piece of shit, and not doing it accidentally? Good to know.
>>47097122
I'd say you'd lack voice control. Recently I've tried building something similar, and another anon posted his suggestions - here's my version...
>>47097742
...aand here're the oter anon's suggestions.
Although yeah, you'd need to initiate ASAP, grab masking and astral sight so that you could imitate other people's auras.
Hi /tg/, quick question on the pain editor (corerulebook, cultivated bioware):
The combatbonuses are great and the flaws are hard but I think them fair. But the text says the ware has an "active status". I thought bioware is on all the time. How would you interpreat that? Can I willingly turn it off? How would I do that?
I think a free action would be possible but I'm not sure if that brings enough flaws.
>>47097853
What edition?
>>47097890
5th
>>47097853
If it's anything like other 'ware in 5e, it'd be a Free Action or Simple Action, depending on whether it's neurally triggered or manually triggered.
>>47097851
>high priority for skills when raising attributes gives better results
Arguable. For a (human) adept-face, you cap Charisma fast and don't need too many other high Attributes. If you want the highest dice pools for all those CHA skills, you need a high skill priority.
But yeah, elves will do it better (albeit with less Edge, which can be very important for faces).
>>47097678
>Pattern analysis isn't magic, you know.
It doesn't have to be. The nature of being a shadowrunner means that you do jobs, and that starts files. Eventually there will be runs where the corporation can pinpoint the actor, and that means they have data to work from. Speech patterns, psychological patterns, handedness, et cetera. The character is a decent conman and disguise artist, but a mediocre actor with particular habits and avoidances.
"Untrackable" is an exaggeration you're hoping a GM will humour.
>>47097851
Sure, go ahead. I just hoped it may give you an idea what else could be done with such a character.
Don't sweat too much about the mages - you'll be better than any other kind of social infiltrator anyways, with an added bonus of being suddenly able to turn into someone completely different. Just keep in mind that you'll need the masking metamagic ASAP.
Also, consider grabbing a ceramic holdout loaded with DMSO/narcojet caps. You'll need to take someone down sooner or later, and this method will be both less messy and more efficient that beating them with a stun rod/ extendable baton.
>>47098047
> humans are gay
> implying you won't spend majority of your time in human form anyway
>>47098047
Who plays elves when you can play a dryad bio-adept face with prototype transhuman?
>>47098104
>Bio-adept face with 6 Magic and Rating 3 Tailored Pheremones
>mfw
Pornomaners, not even once.
Any cool cosmetic alternate for spurs? I want to be less wolverine.
>>47098209
Superheated Wrist Blades?
>>47098209
There's the stingers from Chrome Flesh if you want something totally different. Otherwise, the basics are just 'big spike'; have it come out from your elbow to outdo the Rock, flip out horizontally from the wrist, or just come right out of the heel of your palm.
Also, I hate that there's no good art of cyberspurs.
>>47098301
Yeah, because she's a anthropomorphized Zoid.
>>47098209
Whatever this thing is?
>That thing was too big to be called a hand blade.
>Too big, too thick, too heavy, and too rough.
>>47098356
Aww, what a nice kitty
>>47098047
Honestly every character I've played would be better mechanically as an elf (I play a lot of infiltrators and faces), but I never pick them because they don't mesh well with how I like to roleplay. I feel pigeonholed by the elvish stereotype of refined, graceful andprivilegedand I'd much rather play a scummy human lounge-lizard type, or an ork trying to scrape by in an anti-trog world.
>>47098368
>bad art
I honestly don't think that last one is bad. Stylized, sure. Could also use a little work on facial perspective and the artist did the "eyebrow behind the hair is still clearly visible" thing. But other than that I don't see what the issue is.Especially when comparing it to some of the official SR art...
>>47098327
Is there any art of Cyberspurs? I have a hard time picturing them as anything but cowboy spurs.
>>47098433
It's less about playing a stereotypical elf than it is about playing in a world that's for the most part pro-elf. Unless I'm wandering around in the trog hoods in the barrens.
Obviously I don't have to play into the stereotype, but the world around me is going to trend towards the stereotype in how it deals with me, and I find humans and orks more interesting in that sense.
>>47098523
They're basically Wolverine spikes, though I think they're supposed to be more stabby while Wolverine uses them for slashing pretty regularly.
>>47098523
Relevant catgirl for good measure.
>>47098553
>>47098575
I got it now, thank you.
>>47098177
You sound really enamoured of how super awesome untrackable this guy is, and I'm just pointing out that a) we can read the sheet and see he's not that skilled, and b) there are people in the sixth world who are better at it & at better at countering it.
Try looking at modern day profiling, and realise the means and knowledge available to corporations has advanced beyond that.
>Yes, they'll know that they're looking for a person who
... usually has a soykaf (sorry; coffee - it actually says coffee) in hand, or smells like coffee. Is notably weak physically, exemplifies charisma, and whose aura shows a strong connection to magic. Someone whose DNA leavings are [whatever the specifics are], regardless of what they look like, because they don't have the geneware to prevent DNA evidence being used against them. Et cetera.
>getting specific on what pattern recognitions will be used
They're examples, mate. Remember, poor actor. We can draw a profile from the way someone writes letters today, so I think they can manage to do more than look for the swearing person.
>kinesics
Kinesics 1. It's something, but it's +1 dice in social defence, not super awesome sauce unreadable adept.
>Oh I'm sure he'll have fun trying to come up with ways to track the untrackable.
Ubiquitous (and not always online) camera presence is a decent start. Discrepancies always exist.
How long does it take for body sculpt to change, again?
>>47098979
>Ubiquitous (and not always online) camera presence is a decent start
Here's the part from the SR4 Runners companion. Since we're talking about CGL "Copying Gamerules Liberally" here it's probably the same in 5e
>>47099967
I posted it because the anon I quoted seemed to say that collecting a lot of data was easy and I refuted that
>>47099967
You seem to forget that if someone has the trail go cold on them a few times, you become a serious security risk. If they know of your presence (and they will - they'll know that things have disappeared from their warehouses or their data has been compromised) but not of anything else about you, you become a serious chink in their armor, and they'll start wanting to take care of you just to make sure you don't start taking on bigger jobs and become a more dangerous threat (or simply because they want to hire you to be sure).
No matter what, some corp or agency will start wanting to get ID on you as you complete more and more runs, and the more investigators you evade, the more of a potential threat or asset you become.
If you do a few runs where you're completely untraceable against the same company, you're going to start getting skilled investigators or even prime runners sent after you - after all, they have to assume you're a threat if you can't be ID'd. If that corporation's data gets compromised, their rivals will start getting interested in you too - and you can't evade them, since you evading them is why they want you. If you can't be pinpointed, pinned down and found a solution for, even just a contract and a decisive ID on file just to be sure, you'll be raising the stakes over and over again as you prove yourself more and more dangerous.
In the end, you'll be spotted, because the more you hide, the more people will want to find you. If you manage to evade the prime runners, God knows who you'll get interested in you - and at some point, it'll move up to a dragon. If you could evade a dragon's immediate, handpicked subordinates, there's only one person to do the job better, and that's the dragon in person - because you've proven yourself risky enough.
That character's potential is their weakness, and they'll end up getting ID'd sometime no matter what - for the better, since they'll invalidate most of the themes behind a serious game.
>>47099213
>What are you talking about, he's pretty skilled at what he needs to do.
Impersonation 3 Sneaking 1, etc.
>Maybe, but those people are extremely rare, and even they are not miracle workers.
>miracle
You keep using this word, as though it wards off competent and well-funded opposition.
>I suppose you're right in the guy smelling like coffee. Like everyone else.
Most people smell like soykaf. Not coffee. Soy. A poor imitation so ubiquitous that regular drinkers have been known to complain about the flavour of real coffee.
>That can be masked with body sculpting
Can be, but "approximately one hour" between changes.
>Charisma is a mental stat, you can't just look at someone and figure that one out.
I disagree, and doubly so when the person in question has to keep up the facade constantly.
>Why are you calling him a poor actor?
Impersonation 3.
>Oh, you mean handwriting?
No. I mean their sentence composition and such.
>You think a lot, you do.
And you seem to avoid it.
>Oh, that's just because I didn't count any of the Qi foci he'd be picking up.
Add that to the list of tells ...
>>47100087
>I posted it because the anon I quoted seemed to say that collecting a lot of data was easy and I refuted that
I didn't say it was easy, and you didn't refute that it can be done. The question is time and money.
>>47100169
>>47100236
You people should take a look at the "Erased" quality.
>>47097662
Pls halp. Or is it just a terrible idea?
>>47100261
That's not a bad idea.
>>47100169
Sorry for pitching in, but what you say boils down to "being good at something/ having unusual skills draws attention to you". Which is true, but being good at something/ having unusual skills while not being able to change your body and face at will will draw this attention far faster.
Anyways, shadowrunners, by definition, are people with unusual/ criminal skills and that's what makes them useful to corps and other big players. Adept with thousand faces will draw as much attention as novahot decker, combatmonster sammy or any other powerful individual, although it will be harder to definitively ID him. I honestly believe that it doesn't invalidate the concept.
Or do you believe that a concept of social infiltrator in general is silly?
Quick.
Spurs or Razors.
>>47100426
Arm blades.
>>47100236
Changing cities simply won't help, and if you think it will, you're not playing Shadowrun.
Megacorps are global, and that's that. It's not a matter of them not being able to find you, because they will always, always be able to find you if you do anything against them for a longer period of time, or even just once.
If they want to find you, they will. It's a matter of how much they're willing to spend on you, not if they can find you or not. You're a single specialist, and they're a massive. global corporation with thousands of employees on your tier or higher.
You're fucked.
>>47100386
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that being unidentifiable gives the corp nothing to work with. It means that they can't predict your actions, get a grip on your personality, know who you're loyal to or even act against you if they need to. They know all this and more about any normal runner that they bother to look at for longer than a casual glance - and someone who they can't get down is a security risk, because they don't know how to deal with you if they end up needing to. Since they don't know this, they'll need to find out, and evading them just makes you more unreliable and dangerous to them.
>>47100426
Razors.
>>47100426
Spurs. If you go illegal, go all the way and take the biggest weapon.
>>47100445
Since you are playing Shadowrun, unlike anybody else in the thread, would you care to point where exactly it says that it's impossible to avoid attention if you are avoiding attention?
>>47100282
What kind of advice are you looking for?
General optimization, help with the theme...?
Looking over it, I see a few things I'd adjust.
>No skill Specializations
>Reaction is way higher than it needs to be (you have Increase Reflexes for a reason, move at least one point each to INT and WIL)
>More ranks in Improved Ability than is allowed (should only be 3)
>Dragonslayer would be a cool Mentor (gotta fight Bowser!)
>Armor vest is probably not enough armor
>Traceless Walk? It's good, but seems not on-theme.
>No Light Body for sweet Mario jumps
>>47100426
I've always preferred the razor aesthetic myself, but in-game spurs are a bit more effective.
>>47100252
>The question is time and money.
Sure, but there are two things you have to consider
>Data balkanization
Sure they can gather a lot of information about him, but only in areas in which they control the cameras. If e.g. Ares wants to find him they can only gather data on Ares ground, on ares related firms and (potentially) on public ground
>Data flood
basically they will have to sift through a lot of data to get it. With a normal person this might be easier, but in this case they can change a lot of stuff so the markers get less. This means that they need far more time and work to collect all of it
Basically it is possible to find him, but it is INCREDIBLY hard to do so.
>>47100445
Oh, ok.
I still feel it mostly boils down to "people with unusual powers are dangerous", but I kinda get what are you coming at. Still, I don't believe that any corp collects full dossiers of all the 'runners before/ after hiring them (even more so dossiers of every 'runner operating worldwide), but I may not be trenchcoat enough.
>>47100480
Christ, you're missing the point so hard it's not even fun. The point of cyberpunk is that the Man is everywhere, and that the only way to avoid the Man is to not piss them off. If you really think that you can game the system just because it doesn't say "Rule 0: The megacorps will always find you", you really aren't getting much out of the game that you couldn't get from D&D.
And good job invoking everyone else in this thread to your defense when everyone else is also busy tearing apart the gaping holes in your fetish fantasy. I saw you ask if the character concept was realmy, which you'd never have thought if it wasn't your realm - characters like that have occurred in myth and legend from the dawn of time, and it takes one to know one, after all - it's your realm, and I can read it from miles away.
You're even engaging in the stereotypical behavior of the buttmad realmer - making spurious accusations and long, nitpicky, defensive posts about exactly how your character is the best because they get your rocks off.
I'm out of this, because I know from long years of GMing experience exactly what people you can't discuss anything with. You're constantly missing the point intentionally to nitpick small details, refusing to move on before people have caved to your carefully set-up charged questions, and refuse to listen to anyone telling you that your concept won't work and will kill the themes of the game on top of that.
>>47100282
The high unarmed is good, the low social stats are whatever, but I can't help on spells. I don't know them well enough. Might wanna look into addiction and find shrooms, though I may have missed that.
>>47100590
Except the whole point of Shadowrun is that the Man is not everywhere. There's 10 AAA Men, even more AA ones, little "Men" in the form of local governments and smaller corporations, and there is backstabbing and one-upping one another everywhere, even within corporations. Information is not central, and you can pay your way out of anything. A corp can destroy their own knowledge about a certain runner if it means it will hurt somebody else more than it does them.
And it's literally my first response to you, you sperg, unless you've been going on these retarded rants in the past threads as well.
>>47100445
Bro you obviously don't know people in law enforcement. Even between groups that share info, it's NOTORIOUSLY hard to actually get what you need in a timely fashion. And how long would it take for a mega to realize that you're not in the search area you we're in before?
It's a question of staying ahead of the ball. Moving faster than they communicate information and faster than they realize you're somewhere new. The idea isn't to be unnooced, but that by the time they motoce, you're moving on.
Think of the volume of people in Shadowrun cities, and the number of people who are actually behind desks scanning through security footage for Bob Jones the runner. Too fucking few on their end. It's not as easy as you'd think.
>>47100386
>Sorry for pitching in
Why even ... ?
>what you say boils down to "being good at something/ having unusual skills draws attention to you". Which is true, but being good at something/ having unusual skills while not being able to change your body and face at will will draw this attention far faster.
The guy started by saying their character is untrackable. The conversation has snowballed and strawmanned it's way beyond that, but I doubt anyone really believes it draws attention faster.
>>47100590
> The point of cyberpunk is that the Man is everywhere, and that the only way to avoid the Man is to not piss them off.
Could someone explain this to me, cause as far as I remember cyberpunk is about fighting the man.
>"Rule 0: The megacorps will always find you"
Well Rule -1 is "The megacorps will not search after you unless you REALLY piss them off"
>fetish fantasy
>fetish
>realmy
wut
>long years of GMing experience
doubt.jpg
>You're constantly missing the point intentionally to nitpick small details
pot meet kettle. He's a nigger
>>47100681
>Think of the volume of people in Shadowrun cities, and the number of people who are actually behind desks scanning through security footage for Bob Jones the runner.
Open up Arsenal and/or Spy Games, and go through all the ways they use software to replace people in the equation.
>>47100734
>Could someone explain this to me, cause as far as I remember cyberpunk is about fighting the man
A lot of cyberpunk works are set in a dystopian setting where a single corporation controls and monitors the entire world and there is no dealing with it or going around it. Anon assumes that it must apply to every single cyberpunk setting, and anything that doesn't follow the trope is fake cyberpunk.
>>47100734
>Could someone explain this to me, cause as far as I remember cyberpunk is about fighting the man.
That was the pink mohawk thing. Shadowrun has drifted over to black trenchcoat.
>>47100749
If there's fewer people involved it just makes it easier to go in and erase your profile to lower the heat on yourself. No one will bat an eye that a piece of data disappeared or was altered if they never had to work with it.
>>47100860
The first run, sure. The guy doesn't have Erased, though, and Corporations don't really care about things on the scale of a single run. Words like monolithic come to mind.
>>47100842
Is it impossible to run more than one mission in a black trenchcoat setting? You can't hide your astral signature in Shadowrun. As soon as you are spotted by anything that astrally perceives, especially a spirit, you should be done - your data is referenced with matching auras, and then tracking you becomes trivial. You do one mission, and then you die, because a AAA corporation immediately sends HTR teams on every single thing they can identify until the target is confirmed dead.
>>47101062
>You can't hide your astral signature in Shadowrun
Things like Astral Bluff, Masking + Extended Masking, Astral Chameleon, Flexible Signature and the like say otherwise.
Of course, you need to be really magic and have multiple initiate grades under your belt before it's all there and reliable, but a true physical/astral chameleon is possible.
>>47101062
>your data is referenced with matching auras
Is there actually a database of auras? My understanding what they are indescribable in mundane ways; a magician can make a check to see if he remembers an aura he's seen before, but there's not some vast catalogue of what everyone's soul objectively looks like.
>>47100976
Only if you know it's there to erase, and can get to it.
>>47101378
You can always pay insiders to do it.
>>47101209
There are cameras that can take astral photos, so they're probably not that indescribable.
>>47101420
sure, but these work like the first photographs
As in, you have to wait a long time without disturbing things
>>47101404
Sure. There's always a counter, and a counter-counter, and a counter-counter-counter ...
But remember this is a job you're doing for money. The more you pay, the less you get.
>>47101487
What I mean is that you are never truly fucked in Shadowrun unless you let it happen.
>>47101462
Everyone can wear a mask, slather themselves in disguise nanites, wear gait altering shoes, etc etc.
I don't buy the line of how this is enough to defeat security, every time forever more.
>>47101062
>As soon as you are spotted by anything that astrally perceives, especially a spirit, you should be done - your data is referenced with matching auras, and then tracking you becomes trivial.
From what database? The international, intercorporate omniscient database of every aura in the world?
That database doesn't exist because the Sixth World is balkanized, secretive, and paranoid as all hell. You have massive organizations doing dick measuring contests and telling each other to fuck off, and you, the player, are running around in the shadows of those giants.
So yeah, if you do two runs on the exact same facility and a dude assenses you twice, he can recognize you from last time. Maybe the guys you ran against give enough of a fuck to send that guy into the metroplex to assense everyone they come across that matches what they could glean from your (hopefully disguised) ass and look for a match, and maybe you'll know something about Mr. Johnson they can use. But that's a huge investment of time and valuable personnel, and probably not worth it.
Shadowrunning hinges on that very premise. You're a disposable, deniable asset that can't be traced and are therefore useless after the fact to a suffering party.
>>47101462
It can be a useful quality even for a face-shifter. Paying someone to remove all traces of one of their exploits from The Man's databanks is seldom a wasted investment.
>>47101472
So get a mage with that Memory (core 152) based image creation cyberware.
>>47101575
Go back to, "Corporations don't really care about things on the scale of a single run." and "I don't buy the line of how this is enough to defeat security, every time forever more."
>>47101622
He can recreate it based on his impression, but my understanding of astral stuff is that it's more personalized than that. He can show people exactly what he thinks a signature looks like, but someone else Awakened might perceive the signature totally differently.
>>47101893
>Yes, they can do that, but it won't be as complete as with magical means.
Bio & Gene options exist. Not everything is magic run.
>Nothing forces you to, dear. You're entitled to your opinions, as childish as they are.
I'll just have to console myself with the knowledge I can't match your level of maturity and wisdom.
Hey /SRG/, I have been looking for a specific table, I think I remembered it in one of the splatbooks. It is a table showing the cost, upkeep cost, and availability of different mundane and exotic pets, and I need it for a Navajo hellhound trainer (think pit bull breeder, but even more stupid) that I am creating. Chummer does not have any details on this other than the bare bones pets section under gear, and I have ctrl-F'd all of the source books that I could for this table. Do any of you know where it is?
Bumping with an armored horse, Chilean Riot Control
>>47101676
You're welcome to your interpretation; I don't share it, but I'm pretty sure there's room for both.
>>47101893
Actually, bioware and geneware is probably more stealthy than magic, since bioware needs what, four hits on an assensing test to detect, and can't be found by any other means?
>>47102033
The 4e Critter splat has that table, and the 5e one is due soon (so sometime in the next year and a half).
How do you guys propose we fix cyberlimbs?
Here's what I do for my games:
>Essence cost is 0.75 instead of 1
>Base stats before customization are (metatype minimum) + 2 instead of simply 3 to represent the arm being an "average" of that metatype
>Base price cut in half for both obvious and synth arms, customization/enhancements stay the same
I know it doesn't "make sense" that a troll can get a STR 7/AGI 3 cyberarm for the same price that a human can get a STR 3/AGI 3 one, but cyberarms fucked over stronger metatypes normally.
Does anybody have a good collection of art of "regular people", such as wageslaves, civilians, etc?
I've got plenty of art for full suited HTR teams, pink mohawk runners, but not a lot of standard security guards or average men and women.
>>47102413
>doesn't "make sense"
honestly, to me it does make sense. The troll cyberarm is simply bigger. If a human wants a STR7/AGI3 cyberarm then the cost comes from better materials.
>>47102413
>Base stats before customization are (metatype minimum) + 2 instead of simply 3 to represent the arm being an "average" of that metatype
I like this tweak quite a bit.
The Essence reduction might be a good buff as well, but the 1 limb = 1 Essence is pretty much a mechanical constant in Shadowrun.
>>47102560
I could dig some up, I'm sure. I don't know of any existing curated collections like that, though.
>>47102413
I like this ruling.
When I GM I also rule that cyberlimbs are modular by default. It makes limb characters more flexible and flavourful.
The essence pays for a limb-port of a particular grade (standard, alpha, beta...) that can plug in with limbs of that grade. This adds an extra layer on limb use since a standard grade port can slot a higher variety of attachments but an alpha port will give more available essence. Ports don't distinguish between synthetic or obvious.
>A runner might have his obvious arm with integrated weapons and boosted AGI of combat missions, a utility arm for downtime repairs and a synthetic arm with built in sensors for a night on on the town
>>47102413
Ditch synthetic cyberware entirely. Ditch the "cyber limbs have their own attributes" crowd, too.
Obvious cyber limbs can buy bulk mod or improved synthetic mod, but not both.
Customisation is required to change your limb's attributes when you're natural attributes change. Enhancement goes to rating 4.
Redliner ignores attribute maximums, but only lasts a single combat encounter before needing repairs.
>>47102645
Dang, I suppose it's a bit broad to be covered by a single collection, other than doing something like googling "regular people".
It's also really hard to find art of security guards that aren't a) Super killman mcmurderborg or b) a parody of Paul Blart Mall Fart, if you had any security guard art I'd welcome it.
Meanwhile, I'll just keep trawling through pinterest and tumblr.
>An ex-lone star hardcore alcoholic security guard
>>47103075
Playing an Ex-LEO in shadowrun would be fun, especially one who is more of an idealist instead of a corrupt asshole (who got fucked by corrupt assholes).
A lot of interesting roleplaying opportunities, being forced to work with people they would usually take in, not being willing to murder cops/security personel, etc.
>>47102739
>>47103479
Here's a regular guy who could be 'Felix Cole, Ace Detective.'
>>47103508
>>47103525
Here's some figures who could be generic security guys for an online game.
>>47103548
Here's a picture of the greatest police officer ever, Duncan "Don't Move or I'll Hogtie You" Wu.
>>47103632
Duncan "Bad boys bad boys whatchu gonna do" Wu?
Duncan "A ziptie for every guy" Wu?
Duncan "Subdue ya whole crew" Wu?
Duncan "Bunkin with the Truncheon" Wu?
THE Duncan "Donuts" Wu?
>>47103632
>>47103548
>>47103525
>>47103508
>>47103479
Thanks for the art!
Here's my completed token collection, with a mix of ~200 tokens categorized into Civilian, Punk, and Security
https://my.mixtape.moe/tfotfw.zip
And here's the base art for everything
https://my.mixtape.moe/iaywmi.zip
>>47102739
Whew. ~100 images is a good stopping spot.
Dumping is slow, boring, and eats up the thread, so here's an imgur album of assorted guards, civilians, and suits. Should help you populate anything from dive bars, barrens streets, nightclubs, to corporate offices. Enjoy!
http://imgur.com/a/dJ5z6
>>47104061
Wow, thank you so much!
This will help a ton, ~300 tokens total should help break up the monotony and allow me to not use duplicate tokens often.
I posted the art that I used and the tokens I made from them here >>47103963 if you'd like those!
>>47104189
Null sweat, chummer. Once you tokenize the new ones, we should get HateFish to include them all in the pastebin for everyone to use.
Especially since Esh-Esh's dropbox collection links haven't been working in a while.
Can a spirit burn edge to auto-resist binding ? Its an opposed test after all
>>47104460
Spirits can't spend edge, or never do. A player may spend edge for them, but that's about it.
Is there a Tiger mentor spirit printed in any of the books? I'm making an adept from India and would like to see if there's one I can use/adapt before I try to convince my GM to let me roll my own.
>>47103632
Duncan best girl. Is0bel a shit
>>47104773
Not to my knowledge.
What sort of thing do you want to play up? Master predator (reskinned Shark), pride (Eagle), what flavour?
>>47104590
I meant free spirits, who do in fact have an edge attribute
Are there different settings for Shadow Run or is the fantasy stuff inherent in the system? Otherwise, what are also rival/alternative cyber punk systems?
>>47104873
You can always play it without magic, it works fine as straight cyberpunk. There's also cyberpunk 2020 for a more 80's Magic-free cyberpunk, or eclipse phase for post-cyberpunk/transhuman horror
>>47104814
Sword Adept using a talwar (re-fluffed katana, GM's cool with it). I am trying to portray him as a skilled infiltrator with a strict code of ethics; never goes back on his word, doesn't kill if he doesn't have to, willing to put completing the job over his own life.
Honestly, looking at it now, if I couldn't find a real tiger spirit I would probably just go with wise warrior.
>>47104873
One setting, don't try and take the magic out. Cyberpunk2020 is the classic cp game, there's also Corporation, Underground, andGURPS
>>47104873
There's also Interface Zero, which hasn't been suggested yet.
>>47104937
Wise Warrior works, though one day I want to see Shere Khan as a mentor spirit.
>>47104345
That sounds good to me!
The following .zip contains 332 Tokens, which are comprised of
>170 Civilians
>6 Mages
>12 "Professional" looking killers
>59 Punks
>88 Security personnel, ranging from Joe Schmoe Security Guard to SWAT to Military Specops
https://my.mixtape.moe/tcuoju.zip
And here's all the raw art:
https://my.mixtape.moe/qvtusc.zip
>>47105110
Using these tokens, I just made this restaurant in roll20, I think it turned out pretty good.
>>47105110
Into the BOOOOOOOOOOOOOX!
>>47105110
>>47105110
In the interest of promoting diversity within your collection, I quickly gobbled up ~100 more images. You know, if you want 'em.
This collection is Mages and Metas: good for all your stupid sexy elf, hardy dwarf, geekable mage, and [s]trog[/s] politically correct term for orc/troll needs.
http://imgur.com/a/CceWn
right so if a commlink in 4e is basically a smartphone+holograph projector, how does AR spam work if it can't actually overlay itself past the commlink? I assume an implanted commlink is basically full on AR 'speaking' with your mind to others over the commlink, AR displays for messages and trids and such.
>>47106478
This is all from a 5e perspective, but I'm 80% sure that none of this changed from 4th to 5th.
The trid/holo projector is a separate piece of gear that can display actual holograms that anyone can see without the aid of an imagelink.
Your commlink picks up things broadcasting AR objects (a store sign, or a private message from someone nearby) and displays them to you via an imagelink (installed in goggles, contacts, or cybereyes) or over a direct neural interface (datajack or trodes).
Spam zones are areas that just have a shitload of AR objects.
>>47106478
For the most part you are assumed to be walking around with one of the following options:
Datajack- Basically you are running around with a full DNI AR feed which allows the commlink to overlay AR over physical reality bypassing the optical nerves.
Trodes- Basically the same as Datajack but way way bulkier although it can easily be incorporated into headware. Maybe lots of people in 2070s walk around with fedoras.
PAN connection to glasses with Image Link + AR Gloves- This is pretty common because not everyone wants full DNI to their commlink. One major advantage is that you won't be assaulted by full AR sensory experience which means limited tactile and auditory experiences which is nice for spam zones
Turtle-mode- Basically interacting with a commlink's screen in the way a smartphone works.
So how is rigger modification supposed to work with bikes?
If a rigger is jumping into a bike in VR then their body goes slack and suddenly they can't lean into turns like a normal rider would. Seems like you'd be guaranteed to fall off all the time.
I guess the cost of rigger modification could include some safety mechanism to lock your legs to the side of the bike but you still have to deal with the bodymass at the top end of the bike.
The logical assumption would be that jumping in doesn't actually disable your body like VR and decking does but I kinda dislike that from a game design perspective. The other solution would be to just say that Riggers actually stay in AR mode instead of VR which actually make sense logically and maybe even thematically.
>>47106824
It does disable your body, but rigger modification includes things like safety harnesses to make sure you don't flop around.
Oh Christ, one of my friends just cut a large flying drone coming at him in half with intercept and a mono-chainsaw.
The DM allowed it, but is that even possible? Also he was screaming RULES OF NATURE the entire. The entire group are MGR fans.
>>47106824
If the bike isn't modified with an internal gyroscope then it can't be remote controlled.
So how would you do the Scooby Gang as a bunch of Shadowrunners?
Fred-Samurai/Rigger
Daphne-Face
Velma-Decker
Shaggy-Dog Shaman
Scooby- Ally Spirit
Mystery Machine- Modified GMC Bulldog
Professor Pericles- Free Spirit
Mr. E- Decker
Angel Dynamite- Rocker
Brad Chiles & Judy Reeves- Probably Face/Sammies
>>47107006
Get some new friends.
But in general it sounds like it's fine for rule of cool pink mohawk games although even with a mono-chainsaw it's not like you slice through a drone like it's butter.
I guess at least it's better than doing one-winged angel
>>47104345
>Especially since Esh-Esh's dropbox collection links haven't been working in a while.
I'm really sorry. I needed the dropbox space...
Is there any good free alternative to upload more than a thousand pogs and related images for you guys?
>>47107044
>>47107196
I use Mega and Mediafire. 50Gb on each for assorted gubbins. Worth noting, though, that my Mega also has an astonishing ammount of other shit on it, as it's what I use to dish out files for my mates.
>>47107256
>Velma
>Troll
She's a short-stack dorf for sure and I don't really see Daphne as a sammie
>>47107360
I thought Velma as a dwarf too, but Daphne might as well be a sammy; it's not like she had any real qualities that would lend itself to running.Except maybe one
>>47107454
>Implying Daphne isn't a Charisma 8 Elf with Con 6 (Seduction 8).
Pretty easy to get into a secure facility that way
>>47107540
But she never really seduced anyone except KISS, or really did anything ever for the gang. At least as a sammy you could argue that the 'ware is doing the heavy lifting.and I like the Venus de Milo joke
>>47107196
In other news:
Would you allow a drake player to use one of their cyberdoc contacts to make customized trodes and sim module that work while they are in dragon form?
Or would not being able to properly communicate and interact with the matrix be an intrinsic balancing part of being a god damn dragon?
>>47107810
>Would you allow a drake player
No.
>>47107841
>>47107903
Not him but same tbqh.
Also, dragons deserve to be bullied.
>>47107810
>Would you allow a drake player
Stopped reading there
>>47096256
>>47096415
I prefer the twoflower mode of tourism. Endlessly optimistic and genuinely curious and interested in all facets of his new environment.
Including very dangerous ones that could lead to his premature demise.
Also takes a lot of photos.
>>47107810
>Esh-Esh fur baiting.
No one was surprised you creepy trap.
What company would be most likely to take a wage slave's child if he was a technomancer, besides obviously Aztechnology
>>47108552
All of them
But NeoNet and Renraku and MCT are probably most interested in the Technomancers
>>47108595
Thanks, I'm was thinking of an idea for a run, a Johnson wants a promotion, his main competition for it has let slip to him that his son is weird, and Mr. J think it would be easy to get rid of him permanently by getting his son taken away, making him undesirable.
How stupid is that idea?
>>47108647
If the kid is a legit technomancer then it's definitely doable according to the default setting because technomancers frighten the big corps a lot.
>>47108705
That's great to hear.
>>47108401
I was actually asking because this is happening in my group...
And yes, all PCs but one are snow flakes. I love snow, ok?
But seriously, from a purely gaming and group dynamic point of view is it a bad idea to allow a drake to communicate freely?Also I'm more unsettling than creepy, really...
>>47108840
Purely game? It's advantageous for PCs to be able to communicate. But it makes my brain scream.
Being a dragon makes you a snowflake.
Being a dragon with a DNI makes you a sue.
>>47109128
We came to the conclusion to at best allow it to have her be able to say single concept phrases through it.
As in "ATTENTION! HUNGRY! I'M MAD!"
And have it be waaaay too slow and jittery to do any real matrix actions.
We are just worried that she'll end up going RAWR, HISS, GRUNT for 3 hours every time a fight breaks out.
Also back to anon...
I got a character concept, I'm just not quite sure how to impliment it. Or more accurately, the crux or it:
I've got an idea for a dumb-as-rocks troll gun specialist, who has a ruger superwarhawk as his preferred sidearm (not main weapon, side arm.)
What I WANT is the gun to, quite literally, do the talking for him. Like... "Bob no like!"
> "Apologies, Mr. Johnson, but the bargain you have presented does not seem too appealing to Mr. Bob. I would strongly suggest raising the offered payment if you wish to employ him, lest you insult him further."
I know there are "weapon personalities" but they were portrayed as being more "present quote related to the situation" than something that could translate idiot talk.
>>47107810
The only dragon known to have had anything like this work was the subject of millions of nuyen in research.
>>47109928
Ehhh, you're pretty much talking about an AI there. Nothing immediately feasible.
>>47109971
Hm. Well, damn.
>>47101062
This is why Cyberpunk 2020 is superior to Shadowrun
>>47108840
Give it Dragon Speech if you're that concerned.
>>47109928
Get a weapon personality, and you're pretty much done.
>>47110337
*and high rated agent.
>>47110328
That's her eventual plan, but she has to find a mentor to teach it to her in-game.
Are Wired Reflexes rating 3 worth it?
>>47110404
Without context: yes, no, of course, never in a million years, damn near mandatory, and the stupidest thing you could ever do with your character.
Simultaneously.
Seriously, provide some context to the character before asking questions, omae.
>>47110436
In a mundane, melee focused character?
>>47107841
>>47108239
>Denying characters based on a quality they have.
Drakes are gimped mechanically anyways. If someone wants to shoot himself in the foot to be a discount dragon, I'd allow it.
>>47110526
Depends. I like to use anydice.com to check Initiative stats, like so.
This is my adept's Initiative with Improved Reflexes 2 (left) versus Improved Reflexes 3 (right). With IR 3, she's got triple the chance for rolling at least 21 and getting a 3rd action phase, which is definitely worth the Power Point.
Do a similar comparison between your options to see if the upgrade is worth it or not. You might be able to get by with WR2 and Reaction Enhancers.
>>47110526
There we go. There's some context.
WR3 could be very helpful, sure. Extra reaction and bonus initiative dice definitely helps you out a lot.
But I'd only get it if you've got more than enough money and essence to spare.
Without knowing your character (and not being an ass this time), I'd suggest going for WR2, and then picking up some jazz. The initiative dice stack, so you actually could be rocking 5 initiative dice. However, I'd reccomend a strong willpower to make sure you're not fighting addiction qualities.
Also, it let's you not always be "full power" so your gm doesn't constantly have to fight you for power. You can have 3 dice for initiative for your average-to-moderate mooks, and when it's time to fight a boss, or something really tough, you can bust out the jazz and fuck some shit up.
How useful is Essence if you're not a mage/adept/technomancer?
>>47110797
Literally does nothing. In 5e it slightly affects your social limit, but most faces will have a social limit well into the teens anyway, so that's not really a problem.
It's harder to heal you in earlier editions, as well.
>>47110813
It's also harder to heal you in 5e, but for magical healing it's pretty marginal and for mundane....
Well, you need to be chromed enough to hum to get a really bad penalty.
Hey, /srg/!
How often are musical artists a part of your games? Popstars, Idols, Rappers, Bands, whatever. Have you guys ever ran a game completely based around this? Have you every had players be the talent?
I've always wanted to play an adept rapper face, who, outside of runs, is trying to get his rap career off the ground, with all the drama that entails.
>>47110813
>It's harder to heal you in earlier editions, as well.
It still is in 5e, but it's not that hampering. -1 die per 2 full essence lost on all mundane healing tests
Magic healing is more fucked up with -1 die per point (partially) lost on magical healing spellcasting tests.
>>47110797
Not very. The Social limit is generally the easiest one to raise, and it's pretty much the only thing Essence has an effect on.
There's also some healing penalties, but being Awakened or Emerged has the equivalent penalty of having less than 2 Essence, so it's kind of a wash. Means burnout adepts actually have a real hard time getting healed if you actually play RAW.
>>47110840
Hasn't shown up in my games yet. We did however get to meet Johnny Fucking Spinrad last session.
>>47110840
>How often are musical artists a part of your games? Popstars, Idols, Rappers, Bands, whatever.
They're definitely part of the fluff.
>Have you guys ever ran a game completely based around this?
Game, no. Run, yes.
>I've always wanted to play an adept rapper face, who, outside of runs, is trying to get his rap career off the ground, with all the drama that entails.
Mechanically it's easy to represent: Fame and Day Job qualities. You'll need to determine why exactly your character risks throwing away all that they already have by running, though. Shadowrunner is a career choice few take willingly, expecially if they have something legit(imater) on the side.
>>47110919
Most rappers love spouting about the illegal shit they did in their songs (or taking credit for shit).
This anon's rapper could be taking that to an almost literal sense, writing raps about his crimes for maximum street cred.
(And then get jumped by lonestar for the suspiciously in depth knowledge he has on recent crime sprees...)
How would you rate my backstory /srg/?
"I was born into a corp-family, mom was an up-and-coming business woman, and dad was a fairly successful programmer.
When I was a girl of eight, mom left me and dad to, “Pursue her true empowered self.” or so I was told. It was some self help drek that made her decide the we were holding her back from achieving a higher place in the corporation. All it meant to me was dad had to hold me till I cried myself to sleep in our big empty bed. I missed her then, don't even remember what she looks like now...
When I was ten, dear old dad decided he wanted some payback. I looked through some old files on his data-drive, he'd been planning it for almost two years before hand. Guess he found the perfect time to open the floodgates. I'll spare the details, but dad got some information to the right people and suddenly mom and several other employees were taking the fall for a disaster level PR scandal. Too bad they traced it back to him.
Dad burnt his life savings to get us out of the country and got us smuggled into the US, or what's left of it anyways. We ended up here, and dad scraped together enough nuyen doing some programming for us to get by, we ended up sharing a lot of Soy Bars. The only comfort I had during that time was an old flat screen TV and VHS player dad had scrounged up one day and managed to get working again. Sloting hell, the flat must have been from the early two-thousands, the player from earlier, how they survived is still a mystery to me.
Well, I did what kids normally do as time passes, I grew up. Learned how to live SINless, found a brother, claimed the best scaving spots, lost em to gangers, picked up a deck to helped with the bills, got taught how to shoot a gun, practiced the corp lingo I needed to do “Freelance” coding, found out how to be exploited by some low level code monkeys for five percent of the value of my work, spent some time on the shadownet, and now... now I'm here."
>>47111162
Slot, I already see where I hosed it, but it's not too bad.
>>47111162
Just a piece of advice, omae. You might want not to tell people what you father did, even in such vague terms.
>>47111162
Eh, I'll give it a solid 5-6 out of 10. 5 if you're standard, 6 if you're street. If you're standard, there's a lot of handwaving for your success as a shadowrunner, but street, you've got a good place to start.
The story feels vague. What was the shit your mom left your family for? Stick a name to it (your gm could throw it in as a hook later).
You moved to the UCAS (i'm assuming) where were you before? Why did the corp suddenly stop chasing you once you were past the border? (If they're still chasing you, throw something in there about efforts made to keep evading them, or how difficult it's made life).
You've got a lot of generics in your story that make it seem same-y. It's not BAD, just kinda generic. Throw some paint on that bitch to make it your own.
Don't say "found a brother" say "met Silus, an ork, real scrapper. Pulled me out of a bad situation when I first moved in, and we've been like siblings since." It gives a who, a what, a when, and a why. This is also a character the GM can use in his games if he isn't already a contact.
Don't say "found a good scaving spot" give me a name, or a reason it was good.
Don't say "lost it to Gangers" say "one day the Glitch Mob decided they wanted to expand, and suddenly we were on their turf. Rather than fight a whole gang over the land, we kinda just had to find a new place". Again, giving a who, and a why. More things the GM can use, as well as giving you more to work with and give your story some uniqueness.
The last half of the last paragraph is really vague, and I'm really wanting some more details.
It's like... "A young boy wanted to go to art school, but he was kicked out. One thing led to another, and Adolf Hitler later became the commander of the 3rd Reich."
You don't need to be a special snowflake to have a unique background, just enough fluff to call it your own.
>>47111162
Is she a cute loli elf? If not, fix that. Otherwise it's decent/10.
>>47111254
Hey chummer, I'm really only good at writing in first person, so I just imagined her talking to the DM directly. Don't worry, she's not a drek head.
>>47111287
Thanks for the advice angel, to answer a few bits,
>Street?
Yeah, it's street level.
>Mom
Mom left to further her career, she saw her family as holding her back.
>Moved? Corp Chaseing?
Yeah, that's the bit I sloted up. ment to say they caught up to dad one day somewhere.
>Brother?
The DM said he was going to make me a Big Brother type character for me. I said, "Shure, I guess." so I was leaving it to him.
>Scaving, Gangers?
Really, it was just flavor I threw in to make it seem like time was passing.
>Last Bit
Her day job is to code for some corp assholes and they pay her less then 1/10 of what it's worth.
She's finally hit the point where shadowruning is the only way to keep her tiny apartment and VHS buying addiction afloat. I figured DMPC Bro would introduce her to a party of runners.
What would you guys say is the best way to make an ent?
Surged troll?
>>47111460
I was more referring to the "self help drek."
I was gonna ask about her dad too, but ya cleared it up.
If that's the case with the DMPC, then... I guess that's fine? I dunno your gm so I'll leave it as his call.
Adding in flavor and stuff is good, but don't go half assed. I could pass the scav spot easily enough, but at least give a name to the Gangers that kicked you out. Make one up or just say "The halloweeners" or some other generic gang.
If that's the case, how did she even get the job? What corp? What kind of coding?
For Street level, it's not bad. It could use some work, but nothing is perfect. Well done.
>>47111532
Yep.
>>47111532
Troll (Giant metatype for extra tall) SURGE with Dermal Alteration: barkskin, Photometabolism and Symbiosis qualities.
>>47111565
>>47111547
Hope I get an open GM, then.
I quite enjoy being a huge tree man.
>>47111541
Thanks again for the help angel.
I'll do some more work on it, definitely put in some bits about what gang, and the fact the corp caught dad.
Should I just pick a corp? I don't really know much about the setting outside the video games. Was thinking Renraku.
I'll try think of something for the "self-help" bit like the cult from Shadowrun Returns.
She doesn't really have a job, some low level ICE coders are just sending her their work and they give her next to nothing. Guess I'll have to put that in too.
>>47111611
Glad to be of service.
Picking a corp would be a good idea (maybe she could have a prejudice vs. That corp. "Oh, of COURSE. Ares guns always fragging jam..." "uhg... all Renraku suits are money grubbing pricks."), however, in this case, ask your GM for help. He might have a plot idea, and it might work better if you had poor relations with a specific corp (I had a game where the GM had a really neat plot set up, working with a lonestar Johnson for off the book work... and one of the players' characters was effectively the victim of extreme police brutality from lonestar, with a heavy prejudice against them, not knowing the gm's plan).
As for coding, that works. It doesn't have to be complicated at all.
Hey /srg/ what is the best way to prevent players from making completely overpowered characters?
I mean, yes, talking to them, but most of my players only know how to make fully optimized characters, so it's also a mindset. So, just want to know if there's any tricks I could do to help make my players characters weaker (or at least, less optimized, without just making it for them).
One friend suggested "Sum to ten, but they can't have any A ranks" but that... doesn't seem to solve anything in my opinion, but I could be proven wrong
>>47112180
Optimizers gonna optimize; sadly. And no, sum to 10 but no A won't really change anything since the go-to is BBCDD.
The best advice I can give you is to put them in situations where they have to use their brains and can't just roll dice at the problem. Once they realice high dicepool isn't the be-all end-all of Shadowrun, they'll be a lot more open to less optimized, more fluffy characters.
>>47112180
Walk them through it from before chargen.
Talk to your players and ask them what they want to play, asking questions about their preferred character. Spoil them a bit as long as they don't go murderhobo or min-maxed, and try to help them towards making a character that they like without minmaxing.
If they start worrying about getting killed (this is usually a sign of bad previous GM experiences, by the way), tell them that you'll be balancing the game according to their characters when you start, and that there's no need to worry about getting killed right away unless they really do something stupid.
If they still end up making min-maxed characters, tell them that you're balancing the game for a lower power level (invoke other players' characters if they're a lower power level), and that you'll have to step in with their min-max death machine. Bribe them with Edge if need be. Only threaten to make their character for them at the last opportunity.
What >>47112246 is saying is partly correct, but a lot of players get overprotective of their characters because they've had killer GMs in the past or have played too many high-lethality games. Try to give them an opportunity to play what they really want, keeping the power level appropriate, and put a little bit of extra care into the roleplaying just to make the players feel like their characters' quirks and non-optimal aspects matter. Challenge them with strategy and mind games instead of having them hit their numbers against other strings of numbers all the time.
Thanks for the advice guys. I'll sit down with the guys and just try to explain it best I can. I really don't want to stifle their characters since they're usually pretty good with their characters, but I don't want to worry about power escalation from day one.
>>47112302
>a sign of bad previous GM experiences
I'd like to add something about 'black trenchcoat' games here. I know that some people like having fun in ways that other people don't, but I was in a game where 'black trenchcoat' translated to 'if you fail even one roll ever, everyone knows about you and you don't get paid and everything is bad forever'. It was no fun for anyone involved-and it forced everyone to make really boring, really minmaxed characters.
After the GM realized that nobody was having fun, and the whole party called them out on it, they changed to a less stupid premise. Unfortunately, none of the other players believed him, and kept with their stupid, boring, minmaxed characters. So...yeah, shit's fucked. Don't be a ''challenging'' GM, you're just ruining players.
>>47112520
Black Trenchcoat =/= if you fail even one roll ever, everyone knows about you and you don't get paid and everything is bad forever.
There's being challenging, and then there's going full retard. What's described above is going full retard. Because, guess what, even ther most min-maxed of characters will fail a roll once in a while.
How effective would it be to disperse a viral pathogen in a place a few days before a run so all the guards call in sick on the day of?
Are sick days a thing in the cyberfuture? How bad of a disease do you need to cash one in?
Also, unrelated, but is it wise to base encounter design around how expensive guards are?
>>47112734
>How effective would it be
Not very, IMO. There's no practical way to affect all the guards and only the guards, no way to make sure that all the guards are exposed, and if all the security agents suddenly fall ill they're going to lock the site down and call in some heavies in environmental suits to take over, because something is clearly up.
Sick days probably still exist, but your loving corp would want to see the medical records to ensure you were properly treated for whatever illness kept you from working.
And I'd say that factoring in cost is never a bad idea in Shadowrun; not everywhere is going to have a HTR team on standby and a combat mage in the building, because maintaining that is expensive.
>>47112180
Honestly bro life modules or karmagen is the only way to avoid ridiculously optimized characters. If you sum to 10 you need to assume optimized character unless you have a social contract in your group that people are going to build less powerful characters with smaller dicepools
>>47112816
>Life modules
Into the trash it goes.
But Shadowrun is a game where you should always talk to your players about what their primary dicepools should be, because the system is so swingy that people could think they were building correctly and have primary pools ranging from 12 to 16 to 20+. Sum to 10 doesn't guarantee optimization to any particular level, any more than karmagen ensures no optimization.
>>47112848
Primary dicepools in karmagen especially if you limit attribute totals to no more than 50% of the starting karma totals are almost guaranteed to be in the 10-12 range at chargen simply because of the increasing costs of high attributes.
Yes you can still build a elf gunslinger with agi 9 + automatics 6 + reflex recorder + smartgun link but you are virtually guaranteed to suck outside of your specialization.
Life Modules by default kinda suck because CGL can't into design but if you add in some additional life modules you can avoid the problem of building hackers with 10,000 skillpoints in academic skills
Guys I've never played shadowrun or touched this system before. All I know is that I want to make the most slavic character possible, can anyone help me with this task?
>>47113596
I guess Russian N with Vory Fenya specialization would be a must. Also Distinctive Style: Counterfeit Tracksuit.
>>47113596
>Performance 6 (Squatting), Knowledge 6 (Squatting)
>>47112578
>Because, guess what, even ther most min-maxed of characters will fail a roll once in a while.
And they should pay the ultimate price for their failure, because otherwise how will I maintain MUH IMMERSION
>>47113596
It's mostly a roleplaying issue.
I'm not sure all the prerequisites exist in the Sixth World, but you can probably get foul cigarettes, plastic-bottle soy alcohol, malt-based beer substitutes in brown 2-liter plastic bottles, three-stripe Umbro tracksuits, flat caps, semkas, Nokia-brand commlinks from ten years ago, battered diesel-burner family cars from the 90's with zebra-print upholstery and rye-substitute bread with synth-pork spread even in the 2050s to 2070's.
Couple that with a Low lifestyle (commieblock apartment where your grandmother still lives, with a garage out back where you drink with your junkie friends and try to fix up your perpetually broken BMW), and you're pretty much there.
For character archetypes, a human edgeomancer with Distinctive Style would probably work well. Remember, there's no such thing as enough Jazz.
>>47113748
All jokes aside that dude could show king goobs a thing or two about skateboards.
>>47113596
Play Alexander Perchov from Everything is Illuminated.
Inspirational content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szwx_K9JBm0
Cyberbump.
What exactly does defaulting on a skill mean?
>>47116585
It means attempting to use a skill despite not having any training. (Mechanically speaking, not having any ranks in said skill.) You 'default' to your Attribute value -1 die due to you having no clue as to what you're doing.
You can default on most skills, but some are simply too intricate to do so.
So time for a new edition of Shadowrun: English Channel Edition: Episode 2.
"Fucking Irish, Fucking Ireland."
Our GM put the first mission up a week ago. I can post the complete PDF, but for now, here is the tale. I am the player of the Intrepid Charlie Foxtrot, Elven Phys Adept and infiltrator. Beyond that, our group contains segFault, our Decker, Lizard, our Mage/Face, and Shockjock, our rigger.
---
After our last adventure, we settled in for a bit of a rest. Lizard, our mage, decided to think hard about seeing things, and discovered that with a bit of effort, he could be slightly less blind then a bat (went from Perception 0 to Perception 1.) The rest of us went about our daily lives. For Segfault, this presumably meant eating and drinking nothing without comparing it to its far superior french counterpart. For ShockJock, this meant doing his day job at the Junkyard. Charlie... Charlie stayed in his box on the Breakwater and was miserable. However, pretty quickly, our Fixer got back to us. It turned out that someone wanted to ship a box from Jersey, our home base (the tiny island in the English Channel, not the state by New York) to Cork, Ireland. It was given to us in a box. We weren't to know what was in the box. We weren't to open the box. And we weren't to let the box get damaged.
(cont.)
>>47116585
this >>47116651
It's why it's a good idea to put a point into running, swimming, etc., so that if you ever need to use it you aren't going to get totally fucked (because if you don't have a point in it anyways, you're probably some pasty-ass decker, and you can't take a -1 to your attribute).
>>47116689
Step one was to drive down to the abandoned building the box was being kept in.We gave the box a good looking over, both in Matrix and Astrally, to make sure the thing wasn't emitting a tracking signal. After that, we set about guessing what was in the box. Our Decker dug around the Matrix, and pulled up some info on the Johnson. He, and most of his friends apparently wore a bunch of crucifixes, or had them tatooed. Also, no Elves anywhere. They didn't look like choir boys, and being that the Catholic and Protestant Churches are outlawed in Tir na Nog, we determined that very likely we were likely delivering guns or explosives to some revolutionaries against the Tir na Nog government. I should mention, two members of our party are Elves, and one of them is from Tir Tangiere.
Nevertheless, we decided to continue with the job, because fuck racist theocracies, and yay money. The team splits up then. One member, Charlie Foxtrot, the Infiltrator/Pistoleer Physical Adept, will go to Ireland, and handle getting a van, getting the drop location from our contact, etc. Before he goes, he gives Lizard a duffel bag. He informs Lizard to not open the bag, or really do anything with it. The bag contains, among other things, a Ruger Superwarhawk that has been made insanely illegal with concealment mods, and 3 kg of Plastic Explosives. Lizard takes the bag, and decides he has no itention of opening the bag. The rest of the team will get on Shockjocks boat, and ferry the Package to Ireland, where Charlie will meet them. Then, Shockjock will drive the van to the drop off, the other two will take the boat to the docks, meet up with them, and head back to Jersey. The drop is elected to be done at some godforsaken forlorn beach. Only, the team doesn't tell Charlie this, since this was not decided till he was on the Boat for England.
>>47110017
The only people who say this are people who haven't interacted with the Interlock system. While I do love R. Talsorian Games simply because they have a lot of enthusiasm for the stuff the put out; nope, not gonna run it even with the Roadstrikers from Mekton Zeta being put in.
>>47116705
Our brave threesome sets out getting the box onto Shockjocks boat. Now, some explanation is needed. Shockjock doesn't have a Cabin Cruiser, or a workboat.He has the Aztech Nightrunner, a boat which screams “I AM BEING USED FOR ILLEGAL THINGS.” It is highpowered stealth motorboat. Now, one of the things it is not good at? Fitting large pieces of cargo that cannot be removed from their casing, and settled into the boat. Segfault has a genius idea, and gets out some rope and duct tape. They secure the box to the front of the boat that way. Considering this a job well done, Shockjock and crew hop into the boat, and Shockjock immedietely floors it. Remember, this was with the box secured only with Duct Tape and rope. Segfault and Lizard do their level best to not vomit during the 120 MPH speed boat ride through the English Channel.
Meanwhile, Charlie arrives in Ireland. It is 3 AM. He's tired, pissed off, and calls up the contact, who is tired, pissed off, and unintelligibly Irish at him. Charlie tells him to get back to sleep, and to please be prepared at 8 AM, because Charlie is a Professional. Charlie is a hobo who lives in a box on the Breakwater, and is carrying 3 fire arms with him. Charlie is carrying half the teams expense account, so he decides to crash at a coffin hotel. At 8 AM, he awakens with about 4 and half hours of sleep, and rings up the contact again. After a short conversation with the contacts brother, he speaks to the contact, who... has no idea where he can put the box. After some prompting, he decides on 'his nan's shed.' Charlie is extremely relieved by this, and hangs up, going to get the Ford Econovan (missing only 'free candy' on the sides) and drives down to the meeting place. Or at least attempts to.
>>47116724
Charlie only notices it when he drives through Ballyfeared the seventh time (everything is named fucking Bally something!) Apparently, the Roads of Ireland have decided to fuck with him. 4 hours of driving later, he is contacted by the team, who have arrived at the meeting point. Charlie has no idea where he is, except that it isn't the meeting point. The team decides to meet up with him in Cork, or do the job without him if his soul is devoured by the roads. Also, they know he's only been driving for two hours, so the fact that his internal chronometer says four means either he's very bad at time, or the roads are fucking with him even more. Charlie eventually parks somewhere he can see the Ocean. It is called the Funkytown Adventure Park. The Funkytown Adventure Park consists of an abandoned sailboat, a Kayak, and a rowboat, and a boat ramp that leads down to the ocean/silty flats that are exposed when the tide goes down. The team shows up, and hugs are had. The box is transferred to the Van. Shockjock gets in the van, and he and Charlie drive to Nans, while Lizard and Segfault drive up to Ringaskiddy. The Van is also carrying two Rotodrones mounted with Ares Alpha Assault Rifles with Underslung Grenade Launchers.
>>47116747
The Box is delivered to the Contact's Nan's. They are met there by the contact. The contact informs them that they can't store the box at his Nan's, and he has no idea where they can store it. The part of the team in the boat begins cursing. Charlie rolls composure to avoid shooting him. The contact will 'call up the lads and they'll fix it.' Charlie gets back in the Van, and pulls out (one of) his Gun. The Contact comes over, and tells Charlie and ShockJock that his nan is inviting them in for tea. Charlie decides to stay with the Box, while Shockjock, the guy with the Bright Orange Mohawk, goes it for tea. Nan serves him tea, being chatty. Shockjock is unable to understand anything she says, it all being in some accent that verges on being a different language from English.
>>47116706
On the other hand, the Lifepath system was great. The lives of CP2020 were action-packed for only being in their late teens.
>>47116766
Meanwhile, the Van starts. Charlie did not start the van. Charlie is unhappy about this. He calls up Segfault and tells him to fix this. Segfault looks into it, and finds that someone has done something, leaving marks that look like a Lizard. He informs Charlie he probably can't fix this quickly. Charlie flips his Savalette Guardian to Burst fire, and releases bullets directly into the engine till the van stops. He manages to break well enough to stop the car from flipping. Charlie jumps out, screaming about American Made Pieces of Shit, in Sperethiel. Shockjock attempts to fix the van, and discovers that the Van is informing them that it is 7 Hours overdue, and is attempting to return to the rental agency. Charlie remembers having the Van for 5 hours, and had it at an hourly rate, meaning that something has gone seriously wrong. Charlie decides to blame it on fucking Ireland. Charlie calls up the rental company, and gets them to agree to give him a refund. This refund will never be collected. The lads show up, and are riding a tractor. Of course they are. Charlie calls up the Fixer, and makes the contact tell him the box is delivered. Charlie then abandons the Van. Shockjock decides to follow him. Charlie points out that the Drones are still back there, and they fly back to the boat. Charlie, Shockjock and the Drones arrive and board the boat. Charlie immedietely passes out on the boat. Segfault sets up a news alert for “dead in violent explosion Ireland.”
>>47116785
The team gets their cash, and goes back to their lives, after being informed by Juke that their next job will be a bit down the road. Charlie takes the profits, and decides to move out of his container, and to some place that didn't constantly make him sick. His Landlord is still the Jersey Mob though. His new house is a tiny single room above a pub near a public beach. But it isn't a random cargo container, and it isn't in Ireland so he's happy. Segfault and Lizard decide to become roomies, and set about repairing and selling a couple of Firearms we got from foodfight. Shockjock decides to install a smuggling compartment on his boat, hoping to avoid future adventures in Duct Tape.
---
Thus ends the tale of our Intrpid Irish Adventure.
>>47116693
This drives me crazy about 90% of the builds that show up on /srg/. Pretty much everyone is going to have 1-2 ranks in athletics and electronics and some other skills.
>>47116915
Why is that so ridiculous? Mechanically it's a good idea, and fluffwise anyone who wants to seriously run the shadows should do a bit of cardio. There's no reason for someone not to have a bit of basic athletic skill, or amateur talent in a couple of fields. Helps round out the character better than Captain MinMax.
>>47117244
I think you are agreeing with the previous poster.
>>47117312
Ah, I thought he was complaining that /srg/ builds did put points into those things, but he could also be saying that /srg/ builds don't and that bothers him.
Why don't we speak Esperanto, again? It's 2077, people.
>>47117419
Yes it bothers me which is why I go Karmagen since priority gen is so stingy with skill groups. I also like a modified life module design where characters don't have you wonder why people didn't die in childhood because they don't have basic skills.
>>47103256
>A lot of interesting roleplaying opportunities, being forced to work with people they would usually take in, not being willing to murder cops/security personnel, etc.
I always figured it was a good policy to kill as few people as possible - even responding FAST teams - not just because every opportunity for you to shoot at them is an opportunity for them to shoot at you, but because it's the best way to limit how many real enemies you make. Shadowrunners get away with what they do because they're often intermediaries for corp fuckery, both between corps and between *factions* inside corps. Extraterritoriality can cut both ways - they get to write the law on their land, but by the same token, it's theirs and theirs alone to enforce; the government don't give a shit. It always struck me as a kind of tacit agreement - you corps want to fuck each other in the ass, you go right ahead - but leave the common joe out of it. If they want to sign up to work for you, fine, that's their choice - but they DO have a choice.
So there's no point in hunting down individual Shadowrunner teams for doing your average smash'n'grab or data theft where only property damage and some very healable injuries were inflicted - because that's just business as usual for megacorps. It'd be like taking revenge on your rivals lawn-mowing contractors. It doesn't make sense.
So given that dynamic, it makes a lot of sense not to go around killing anyone if you can possibly help it. Business should stay business - because there's at *least* as many incentives to cut one's losses and go find someone else to fuck over as there are to try and double-cross any one shadowrunning team. But revenge? If you whack some paper pusher that was popular with his coworkers, even corporate office drones are capable of taking up a collection and hiring someone to hunt you down, or make your life difficult.
>>47117720
>I also like a modified life module design where characters don't have you wonder why people didn't die in childhood because they don't have basic skills.
As someone that has never played 5e before this interests me. Is that core? If not I'd like to know which books to look in to find it.
Okay, real talk /srg/.
How much money would a corp ACTUALLY dedicate to security?
Anything that's not like, a high security research area or something seems like it should have incredibly sparse security personell.
>>47119988
Life Modules are from Run Faster, and scattered throughout later books. It's basically the 'play out your life up to this point in 10 minutes' method of generation you see in stuff like Traveller. Good for RP purposes and getting a feel for the character, shit for actually ending up with something usable or balanced with other characters that used Life Modules.
>>47120008
Speaking as a former security guard, there's usually very few for a given property. The Splintered State module had a high rise corp building with 3 guards per floor, with an additional 1 every ten, for a total of 160 ish guards. That's fucking ridiculous. A high rise like that is going to have maybe 10 at the max since the primary thrrats are on the ground level and can be dealt with there add a choke point. If they can't get in the stairs or elevators, they're golden.
That said, shadowrunning being more prevalent in 2075, is likely that security is beefed up a bit. Just know that each guard probably costs between 30k to 90k depending on what they're guarding, the company they work for (of contracted), and what augmentation they have. Security is incredibly expensive.
If go with around 5 minimum to no more than 30 max, depending on the place. Remember, all that security is trying to do is stall the runners until HTR gets there.
>>47119988
The life modules as they are currently written are pretty much garbage.
I've played around with implementing a modified version in chummer which basically results in characters having most of the common skills and decent attributes at chargen with x amount of karma left over for customization.
>>47120008
With the exception of corporate headquarters and black sites who probably have on-site HTR squads if not more insane security I tend to go pretty light on physical security.
A moderate security office complex will probably have 2-4 lightly armed and armored security guards in the primary access areas such as an entry lobby where the elevators are located.
They generally have armored vests and light pistols but tend to use stun batons and tasers first.
There is also generally a security station in the basement where the security spiders hang out monitoring camera feeds and badge RFIDs. This is also where the security chief of the facility hangs out. During the day there is also typically 4 security guards here that will be dispatched to escort visitors or respond to alarms. For the most part they are typically just like the lobby security guards but have an armory in the basement where they have SMGs and CS gas and security armor.
Individual executives might have an individualized security team that functions like bodyguards. They have a much higher chance of being chromed.
At night the security guards are typically supplemented by shit like cyber-mastiffs and drones like dobermans that patrol in patterns.
Most of the time the security guards focus on not dying and locking down the facility so that the KE HTR team 5-10 minutes away can deal with the miscreants.
>>47120334
I agree with this fellow, though I'd probably say that a lot of places with viable Shadowrunning targets probably have a number of armed Drones. While a NTC Roto Drone or Steel Lynx is costly, over time it is much cheaper then a human guard. Are they going to be guarding the Warehouse where they keep office supplies? Probably not. But having a few packs of them roving around a moderate security area? Thats probably worth the expense.
>>47120026
>>47120515
That's too bad. I find that having to take "necessary" skills is kind of a drag. It's seems overly fiddly dealing with things everyone should know how to do. So far I'v just been houseruling out the -1 penalty for defaulting, it just adds insult to injury for trying something outside of your normal speciality.
>>47120887
Why even get those kinds of drones? Just get those guns-on-rails and make sure the rails go throughout the facility.
>>47120919
Because Drones are easier to move in, maneuver, and generally patrol. Also, probably less expensive then putting rails everywhere in the building. Honestly, the same reason we all have cars, instead of each of us having a rail line to our house.
>>47096189
You talking about Boris? Bless his soul.
>>47120821
>>47120334
yeah, that's what I gather.
No security to little security.
>>47120983
I dunno, the rail drones are AWFUL cheap and strong.
And the rails are handy for other things too.
>>47120887
Drones are great and all, but how do they open doors? Is every single one automation capable? It's great fid a warehouse, but for a high rise, I honestly think the rail idea the other anon had is better.
Is it possible to copy a clearsight program between your drones or nah?
>>47121232
AFAIR that's not RAW, but it's a very good houserule/interpretation to say you can
>>47121207
>Drones are great and all, but how do they open doors?
RFIDs and digital commands. That's how everything works in the future. Even with the rail drones, they mention how the tracks go through special ports that can be closed to seal up rooms after the drones go through, preventing someone from using them for easy access around the facility or just as a handy way to throw grenades into the next room without exposing themselves.
For getting around multiple stories, either rotodrones or specialized elevators to move them around.
>>47112812
>not everywhere is going to have a HTR team on standby and a combat mage in the building, because maintaining that is expensive.
We know this already; multiple HTR teams oversee multiple sites, while mages use spirits and magesight goggles to do similarly.
Any particularly good module series to run for 5e? Think I finally have time to grab a couple friends for some sessions.
>>47121269
Thanks anon, I'll ask my GM.
>>47121848
I find that it should be based largely on what is going to be protected and how far from a central dispatch site the facility is.
In downtown seattle for instance most facilities are within a reasonable response radius of a KE or Lone Star facility so they can generally depend on KE to provide HTR services. In situations where there is no desire to have KE respond to a site that is extraterritorial the corp in question will typically have on-site teams with awakened assets within a reasonable response radius.
A single security mage can handle a decent number of facilties if they are only expected to investigate in the astral and/or dispatch a spirit. The major issue with this sort of response is whether or not part of the facility is warded from astral mages.
For an average corporate office building there is generally no need to ward most of the floors.
Hmm. Are the Rigger 5.0 life modules not in chummer or am I just dumb? I know I have it checked, I can see the vehicles like the falcon-ex bike. Using the newest nightly 197.850 release
So, if I want to do non-leathal stuff, is there like, a sim-sense chip I could slip someone to send them off to dream land?
>>47123643
Not sure if there is anything specifically like that but moodchip/tripchip BTLs would be close to what your looking for.
>>47123518
Probably not, the guy that put in the data generally doesn't do life modules and I've been super lazy lately.
>>47123643
With the right simsense input in their DNI, you could create a sensory blackout, disable them with crippling nausea or vertigo, or all manner of other things.
>>47124091
Looks like everything in rig5 but the life modules are in so it's nothing to worry about really.
Thanks anyways Yekka.
Does anyone have a decent alt-history setting for use with SR?
I'm tempted to basically redo the timeline since it's pretty much completely fubar at this point in time and so I can limit some of the pants on head retarded shit that has been incorporated with countless shitty freelancers but my desire to do it by myself is pretty limited.
Is there a drug that can make mundanes astrally perceive?
