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The lead designer seriously wrote that? I'm only finding a dumpshock forum post as a source. Also, the example of a force 4 spell cast in a rating 9 void in the book clearly doesn't have the force reduced by 9, as it starts at force 4 and isn't immediately destroyed, so presumably that is incorrect. But anyway. Gobbeldygook posted:Your interpretation has the bizarreness of some but not all spells having their force reduced and I would be very interested to hear how this was justified in-world. His does not and it applies to all spells equally; a spell that enters a background count is reduced by its value. Fin. The alternative is that background count does not bother spells at all so you are free to powerball craters in the moon and shoot down passing satellites with powerbolts, ignoring the rating 12 mana void between you and the target. Anyway, projecting energy from a manipulation spell is an effect--the spell is still cast and powered by the mage, instantaneously. Then, fire. But a sustained spell becomes sustaining attached to the aura of the subject, so it's maintained beyond the instant it comes into existence in the same location as the subject. Technically, the mind-control spell would last for a whole instant, and THEN be reduced / probably destroyed. Meanwhile the fire spell is also dispelled, but who cares, everyone is burnt and there's fire everywhere now. E: I don't know why you can't project spells at the moon. Presumably the rules for mana voids are slightly more complex than for background counts? I don't even know why we have rules for mana voids. I miss the days when the developers just said, "Gaiasphere" and called it a day, no mages in space except for Zurich Orbital which had a hearth spirit. Mystic Mongol fucked around with this message at 12:38 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 12:35
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Gobbeldygook posted:-Drakes, AIs, and free spirits are underpowered and/or completely unplayable. Drakes give you the option for a massive amount of free power at the expense of never advancing again in the campaign Since I'm currently putting together a drake character I'd really like to know more about the never advancing thing. Is there rule for reducing karma or something? I'm gladly going post it later to have goons ridicule it and sperg why it's terrible (I strongly suspect it is). 
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May 7, 2012 13:05
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There's an advantage, Latent Dracomorphis, for 5 BP. At some point during play, you may awaken as a drake. If this happens, they gain the Drake race, all the drake stat mods, and the 1 point of magic for being an awakened creature. You then owe 120 (!!) karma, and until you pay off your debt you can't advance any more. You'll only pay off that kind of debt in a high-power game, but you shouldn't play a drake in any other kind, so hey.
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May 7, 2012 13:15
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Ah, thanks. I went with the expensive variant because I wanted to have all the drake stuff from the beginning. For example the elemental attack is kinda useless if you don't put any ranks in it and no sane gm would ever let you take ranks in it without having the ability.
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May 7, 2012 13:31
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Here's my terrible ork adept drake kickboxer runner. Using the 500 bp option, because my group are all chronic power gamers, as well as 50 karma I was allowed to transfer from my current character. We have a houserule that you can buy initiation ranks from start at the cost of 1karma=1bp. I know that I technically have 15 more quality points than normally allowed, but I plan to blatantly ignore it because I know nobody in my group will care and are doing similar stuff anyhow. The bastards.pre:race: Ork Drake Qualities: Human Looking Adept The Warrior's Way Exceptional Attribute, Strength Martial Art, Kickboxing (rating 2, +2 DV unarmed attacks)* Martial Art Maneuvers: Full Offense* Kick Attack* Finishing Move* *doesn't work in drake form Negative Qualities: Allergy uncommon/moderate (nuts?) Amnesia (I've never actually ever used this before when roleplaying) Combat Monster Stats: Body 7/9(13) Agility 5/6(9) Reaction 5/6(9) Strength 8/9(13) Charisma 3/5(7) Intuition 4/6(9) Logic 2/6(9) Willpower 3/6(9) Edge 2/6(6) Magic 7 Initiation 2 +Masking +??? Adept Powers: rating Critical Strike 7 -25% cost Improved Reflexes 3 -25% cost Combat Reflexes 2 -25% cost Attribute Boost Agility 2 Improved Ability Unarmed 3 Skills: Unarmed 6 +2 kickboxing Exotic Ranged (breath) 4 Dodge 2 +2 ranged Pilot Ground Craft 1 Computer 1 Perception 3 +2 sight Negotiation 1 +2 bargaining Escape Artist 1 Tracking 1 Infiltration 1 +2 urban Skillgroup: Athletic 1 Knowledge: (15 free) English 5 Underworld fightscene? 4 (no idea) 6 Junk: amount Honda Spirit (car) 1 Sunglasses 2 +vision magnifier +vision enhancer 2 +thermographic vision +flare compensation Lined Coat 2 +chemical prot 1 +insulation 2 +fire res 2 +non conductivity 3 Gasmask 1 Credsticks 2 Tag Eraser 1 SIN rating 3 3 Commlink Sony Emperor with Iris Orb Contacts: Bar owner 3/2 Custom Moderate Lifestyle at 3200 a month Attacks: dice DV AP range special unarmed 16 13S +1reach claws/bite 14 16P +1reach fire spit 9 7P -half LOS fire (+2 dice from attribute boost not included) Don't need any normal ranged attack since the other group members have insane ranged attacks. Even with only 2 edge I'll be tied with the highest amount in the group as no one ever uses any. Don't know why as it's quite good to have. But I could barely afford the one increase in it. No point in etiquette as it has never been used in our group. Don't know why, again. I went with the lined coat as I figure it would be easy and quick to throw off when shifting into a drake. Also it covers a lot of the body afterwards. Please judge it harshly. I'm not entirely sure what I am doing but I should mention that all my attempts at trying to make what I think is classical runner types have failed miserably. Once tried a dwarf biker and a troll bounty hunter/hunter with a top hat, monocle and elephant gun. My current Egyptian themed mage (Digital Grimoar book for the win) has worked fine so far, but just abusing Levitate, Improved Indivisibility and Magic Fingers gets awfully boring after a while. 
Poil fucked around with this message at 14:37 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 14:31
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Poil posted:Here's my terrible ork adept drake kickboxer runner. Not gonna go into any detail on the sheet, but the main thing that jumps out at me is all you can do is hit people. What are you going to do in between combats?
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May 7, 2012 14:47
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Poil posted:Even with only 2 edge I'll be tied with the highest amount in the group as no one ever uses any. You're all goddamn fools. Edge is the, 'Don't lose' stat. It represents your character's ability to survive in situations when he should die five times over. You're fine as long as you're engaging in honorable duels in a dojo, but the moment you're trying to repair a set of waterlogged bass speakers on board a dinghy at night while stonespitters strafe the party, you'll take a look at your emergency stat and see a 2 looking back at you. Also an allergy to peanuts is a bitch-rear end disadvantage. Take an allergy to soy and have it matter a tiny bit, in that it still doesn't matter at all and you're still taking free points but at least it's tied to the setting. If you don't know what to take as your second initiate power, why not just buy a magic of 6? I'm sure the second level of initiation + the cost of raising your magic from 6 to 7 costs more in karma than the 25 BP of the sixth point of magic.
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May 7, 2012 14:48
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Thanks guys.Piell posted:Not gonna go into any detail on the sheet, but the main thing that jumps out at me is all you can do is hit people. What are you going to do in between combats? Mystic Mongol posted:You're all goddamn fools. Edge is the, 'Don't lose' stat. It represents your character's ability to survive in situations when he should die five times over. You're fine as long as you're engaging in honorable duels in a dojo, but the moment you're trying to repair a set of waterlogged bass speakers on board a dinghy at night while stonespitters strafe the party, you'll take a look at your emergency stat and see a 2 looking back at you. I couldn't think of anything good to put as the allergy. Soy is an excellent idea. Wait, the sixth point in magic costs 25 even if you have initiation to increase the cap? We've been using the ruling that it works like stats and it's only the capping point that costs the extra 15. Since my character has magic 7 with a maximum of 8 there shouldn't be any 25bp magic cost. Losing 1 point of magic means losing adept powers and 1 little point of damage for the drake fire spit, so I'd rather not. Somehow I'm getting the feeling that my group is playing the game wrong. Poil fucked around with this message at 16:07 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 15:23
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Poil posted:Wait, the sixth point in magic costs 25 even if you have initiation to increase the cap? We've been using the ruling that it works like stats and it's only the capping point that costs the extra 15. Since my character has magic 7 with a maximum of 8 there shouldn't be any 25bp magic cost. Losing 1 point of magic means losing adept powers and 1 little point of damage for the drake fire spit, so I'd rather not. See, at this point you're spending BP at BP costs after having turn BP into Karma to pay for post-chargen initiation chargen during chargen, and you're basically engaged in white collar crime. I'm not going to be able to help you with cooking your books, because I love Jesus.
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May 7, 2012 16:37
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Doesn't anybody in this thread like to make well-rounded characters who do 2 or more things?
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May 7, 2012 16:51
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At least one person does. Serious answer: Absolutely, 100% of the time. Even Paints-By-Numbers had relatively high, balanced stats that made him useful in a number of roles, as well as roughly seventy unspent points with suggestions on how to use them on how to flesh out a character. If a character isn't amazing at something, what's the point of sharing him with the thread? I'm sure you can make a tepid, uninspiring character on your own.
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May 7, 2012 16:56
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Gobbeldygook posted:If your argument to a badly-worded merit is, "I am going to make up that some secret organizations stalks the world searching for those with a small area of background count and murder them with such extreme force no-one ever thinks of taking it", you and your argument are both poo poo. See, you're attempting to form an argument based on rules-as-written in Shadowrun. Please don't, it makes no sense at all. The flaw is clearly meant to be a big impediment (10/15 BP), and right in the loving description the background count the characters astral presence is likened to that of a cyberzombie. Please tell me again how this is just the awakened equivalent of a passionate love affair  pw pw pw posted:Doesn't anybody in this thread like to make well-rounded characters who do 2 or more things? Sure. I make sure my players has at least some social skills and can at least pick up one sort of weapon. Imho, Perception, Infiltration and Dodge are good to have, too. Now, with regards to specialization, it really depends on what you want to combine. Rigger/Hacker is a good "dual-class", as is Face/Mage or Samurai/Weapon Spec. Some things just stack badly because of BP or nuyen costs.
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May 7, 2012 16:58
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I forgot about that. God bless you, piell, I am gonna run something like that someday. Actually I'd probably load him up with skillwires and stuff, cuz I always throught that was a cool concept and have never made a character with it.
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May 7, 2012 16:59
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Cost of a rating 4 active skillsoft: 40,000 nuyen. Ouch. That's almost a sixth of the maximum money, and while you're technically saving on BP, you're squandering precious, precious starting cash on it when you could be buying poo poo like the Hyperthyroid Gland or Muscle Toner rating 4.
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May 7, 2012 17:02
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Yeah that's kind of my point, dude, there are a ton of cool concepts that you ignore because they're suboptimal. I'm well aware that skillwires kinda suck - I said I liked the concept of them. It's a cool thing. Like that thing they do in the matrix, with the helicopter. Remember that? That's pretty cool. For me, Shadowrun is about skating around on your rollerblade feet with bayonets on your revolvers and a torso compartment full of c4. edit: the revolvers probably have something like "CUT" and "RUN" engraved on them. Ignite Memories fucked around with this message at 17:08 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 17:04
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Mystic Mongol posted:See, at this point you're spending BP at BP costs after having turn BP into Karma to pay for post-chargen initiation chargen during chargen, and you're basically engaged in white collar crime. I'm not going to be able to help you with cooking your books, because I love Jesus. Oh, I've never thought of it as converting bp into karma. We've just ruled that the first initiation rank costs 13 bp, the second 16, etc. It's all done before karma comes into play.
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May 7, 2012 17:12
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Poil posted:Please judge it harshly. I'm not entirely sure what I am doing but I should mention that all my attempts at trying to make what I think is classical runner types have failed miserably. Once tried a dwarf biker and a troll bounty hunter/hunter with a top hat, monocle and elephant gun. My current Egyptian themed mage (Digital Grimoar book for the win) has worked fine so far, but just abusing Levitate, Improved Indivisibility and Magic Fingers gets awfully boring after a while. Ok, let's start with the obvious: What are you actually getting out of being a drake? Elemental attack (Fire): You have a fire attack that doesn't cost drain and has line of sight range! That's nice. So do spirits of air or fire, their dice pools are bigger than yours in every way, and they don't take a cut of the loot. Enhanced senses (hearing, low-light, smell, thermographic): This is, at best, a point of adept powers OR 1000 nuyen worth of contact lenses and hearing aids. Hardened Armor 4: You ignore DV 4 attacks. So what this actually means is you just get +4 armor. Mystic armor: 4 Natural weapon (bite/claws str/2+2)P AP: This is like having a handblade you can't conceal. Shift (Drake): I am assuming you chose Common Drake for +1 reach, +5 strength, +4 body. You're paying 65 BP for a sub-par cyber/bioware suite with some extra body, but the extra armor you get is counterbalanced by not being able to actually use good armor. Also known as "bupkis". This was recently hashed over...a lot...but melee characters are generally really weak in the metagame because they can drop no more than one opponent per round, they need to actually run over to the bad guys to hurt them, and their opponents have unusually large defense dice pools. So really just two questions: A. What do you actually want to do? Do you want to be a Real Combat Monster that murders the poo poo out of people? Do you really want some unique hook like a weird and dumb race from runner's companion? Do you really want to play a melee face-puncher or is ranged fine? What about being some form of magician? B. Are there any other custom char gen rules in place? If the standard 12 availability limit and 250k nuyen limits are still in place, traditional street samurai are pretty much garbage and you have no choice but to be an Awakened of some stripe.
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May 7, 2012 17:25
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Thank you.Gobbeldygook posted:Ok, let's start with the obvious: What are you actually getting out of being a drake?  . I'm currently playing a magician so there'd be no point in just making a new one. One of the other guys in the group has plans for a mage anyway so I'll just be superfluous (I mentioned wanting to play another character before he did).That's exactly why I picked common drake yes. B. Yeah, availability and money are the same. Also the 500 bp start makes it a lot easier to afford high magic for all the awakened stuff. Hmmmm, using guns would be a lot smarter. By taking the oriental drake form instead I could rebuild into a gunslinging drake but that would be really stupid as I lose access to all -ware in drake form (but also a cool idea in my opinion, can you get some form of glasses or something that would work in both metahuman and drake forms for a smartlink?). As much as I want to play a drake, because of my preference for stupid crap, it might be better to make sure my character won't be useless. The only other character idea I have at the moment would be to recreate my attempt at a troll hunter type (tracking, survival, knowledge about critters and paracritters, etc), with the elephant gun (it's not a good gun but I just can't help myself from loving it). But playing as a troll has a lot of problems.
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May 7, 2012 18:18
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So I'm a complete newbie to Shadow, and I'm trying to make a hacking character for a game my friend is running. I haven't started picking out gear yet, but I was hoping someone could look at what I have so far and tell me if I'm making any dumb mistakes. I think I could use some pointers on my stats and skills in particular. Also, more generally, is some sort of hacker/rigger hybrid a good combo? It seems like the two roles would synergize pretty well, but I don't really know. I was basically hoping to make a hacker who uses drones to fill out some of his weak areas as far as sneaking into places, doing surveillance, and fighting especially. Our gaming group is almost totally new to Shadowrun and played mostly DnD before this, so I'm expecting that we'll probably end up bumbling into situations where having some combat drones to watch my back would be handy (or at least fun). quote:Uses 400/400bp Talky fucked around with this message at 21:47 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 18:51
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Razin posted:So I'm a complete newbie to Shadow, and I'm trying to make a hacking character for a game my friend is running. I haven't started picking out gear yet, but I was hoping someone could look at what I have so far and tell me if I'm making any dumb mistakes. I think I could use some pointers on my stats and skills in particular. Hacker/Rigger is a combo that falls together pretty well. The character you've posted is pretty decent, though I'd break up the Cracking skill group so that I can get 6 Hacking to start. Also, you need Vehicle skills - Pilot Groundcraft and Aircraft at the least. You also need Gunnery to shoot enemies while in drones. Also, you'll want ware - Cerebral Booster, Muscle Toner, Encephalon, PuSHeD, Wired Reflexes, Hot-Sim Module, Simsense Booster, and Control Rig is a setup that will serve you well. Piell fucked around with this message at 01:31 on May 8, 2012 |
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May 8, 2012 01:07
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Piell posted:Hacker/Rigger is a combo that falls together pretty well. The character you've posted is pretty decent, though I'd break up the Cracking skill group so that I can get 6 Hacking to start. Also, you need Vehicle skills - Pilot Groundcraft and Aircraft at the least. You also need Gunnery to shoot enemies while in drones. Thanks for the tips! All that ware looks really helpful, but I can't seem to find PuSHeD anywhere, and googling it isn't working since it's an actual word. Is it an acronym for something, or if it isn't do you remember which book it's in? edit: Never mind, I found it! Talky fucked around with this message at 01:59 on May 8, 2012 |
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May 8, 2012 01:48
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I'm about to start running a game of this here Running of the Shadow type. Is there anything I really have to avoid to stop breaking the game altogether?
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May 8, 2012 07:55
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Magic x 2 Spirits and Emotipets. Beyond that, just be up front about the kind of game you're trying to run.
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May 8, 2012 08:00
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So in the game I'm going to be starting soon, one player decided he wanted to make a Face and has all the fun pheromones and first impression that give him the big fun dice pool that hovers around 14 or so on most interactions. On top of that he then decided to grab suprathyroid gland and muscle toner and now has a ridiculous pool for shooting things too. I feel like it was way too easy for him to just pick up being able to decently shoot people, the only thing he lacks for actually being good at combat is IP's (of which he only has 2.) Am I missing something, or is crossing roles like this supposed to be that simple?
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May 8, 2012 21:52
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Hey guys! There's been a lot of rules discussion for a few pages, it's time for post-game reports and recaps! Remember that street level campaign I asked for some advice with a few pages back? I had some basic plans for gang warfare and carving out turf and smuggling drugs around. We rolled up 300 point characters and I've run the first two games and things have gone completely off my carefully built railroad tracks! Dramatis personć The Dark Passenger1: Elven 'mage' with Lilith as his mentor spirit. All his spell effects are actually performed by demons he calls forth. Fears going back to prison after his stint for arson. He's also our face. Troll Taxi: Third generation Appalachian Mountains Troll. Sent into town for supplies long ago, found TV and never came back. Weak for a troll but focused on being the fastest trog you never see. Doesn't use guns due to a run-in with a buck deer and a gun misfiring that nearly cost him his life. Loves his cyber-swords and is moderately addicted to the home shopping channel.2 He's our heavy hitter. The Mundane: No cyber, no magic, just human potential and a Chameleon Suit. Focused on stealth and melee combat with some pistols thrown in. His player doesn't seem to be doing much other than trying to rip off the metal gear series for excuses to min/max without pulling any of the interesting characterizations from the game. Spam: Dwarf hacker with a 'focus' of being a 'Hack of all Trades' kindof tech wiz and scoring his next fix of some brain-boosting drug. His player enjoys RPing and get's enjoys the planning stages of the run a good bit, but will be moving to another city soon. Vector: The Other White Hacker™. Vector is focused more on using hacking to augment what his team is doing in meatspace. Hacking the oppositions PANs for GPS info and adding their location to the team's AR overlay, dicking with enemy comms and 'offensive hacking' like filling someone's AR with goatse and making smartguns eject their clips. GZG: Insane pimp I gave everyone as a common contact. Based in part on Rick James; his delusions include that he is the leader of the "Seattle Pimpocracy" by a birthright extending back to the 1700's and that it is his responsibility to construct an "International Pimpspiracy" to ensure that 'no matter where a man or woman goes in the world, they can always have fun'. He is obsessed with making sure everyone 'has fun' and 'knows his name' (has proper respect for his reputation) and enjoys turtle-based AR and VR themes for his comlink. Roughing up a rough jon. GZG has been calling upon the PCs for odd jobs, but this will be the first time he's ever pulled them together to do anything together. Rebecca, one of GZ's girls, was put into the hospital. The team is told to find the guy who did it and put him into the same shape he left her in, with a promise that GZ will make their reputations soar based upon how they pull off this job, but it must be done tonight. "You do this for me, and I make sure everybody knows your name." The team questions Rebecca and get's the following leads: -The Jon is lean, wiry human with no obvious cyber, red hair and a tattoo of a "broken shield and a knife" --Some research shows that variations on that theme of tat are used by two gangs and a UCAS special forces unit. -Directions to the bar she found the jon in, and that he had a friend at the bar who probably knows where to find him. -They 'conducted business' at The Usual Hotel. Taxi "Sounds easy to me. Let's just have a 'friendly chat' with his buddy and pay him a visit and tear apart anyone that disagrees." Passenger "No, GZ said he's gonna let the world know about how this goes down. Do you want to be known as just another thug or as a professional with a capital P. Spam "Pro's make more money." Taxi "And I kinda need to capital P, so let's go with that one." Mundane ... Passenger "Cool, I say we do this as a precision strike. No witness and only the target get's hurt. That means not even his friend at the bar can know we were looking for him." Vector "Sounds hard, let's do it." Thus our heroes go to the motel. GZG has an understanding with this hotel, meaning that they get rooms no questions asked and the manager get's his fee high enough to ensure that the security cameras don't see customers entering/leaving their room. They don't want cops asking questions though, so they scrubbed the room down with the most horrifying of commercial cleaning agents the moment they found blood all over the place. Passenger gets the bright idea of whistling up a low force spirit of man that inhabits the room they used and we all spend a few minutes trying to pull useful information on an assault, out of a whiteness that does not actually understand the concept of violence. About they only useful information they get is that the tattoo was red, narrowing their suspect pool down to the Rusted Stilettos. Half the team are relieved to not be going up against a special forces guy, while everyone that played the SNES game is happy for the chance to put a beating on a member of the Stilettos. The spirit described the perp as a 'bright man' who did not use any weapons in the assault, this has them worrying that he might be an adept. They don't have enough time to check all the gang's known hangouts, so they split up into 3 teams to cover ground faster. Passenger and Troll Taxi drive around, sending watcher spirits to check out their flop houses.  Cabbage Head, go in there and look around for our guy. Sure thing boss!...  You forgot to tell him to come back when he was done. Goddammit!Vector and Spam drive past a self-storage place used by the gang for reasons. Spam hacks into the security cameras and confirms that their boy is not there. Before they go, they browse the recordings for anything interesting real quick.  Sure thing. *dice clatter* You find grainy footage of a man in a suit giving the Stilettos a credstick and taking a brown paper package in exchange. He looks like your local rep on the Seattle City Council. Hooray for blackmail!Solid Snake clone 42719C is assigned to check on the out of business garage they use as an "office space". I describe what of the layout he can get from driving around the block and leave the floor to him. There's a open garage with two workbays and the main office/parts storage area. Bullet holes can be seen in the cheap tin siding and roof, as well as the plywood covering the windows.  ... What you gonna do? Is he here?Insert about five minutes of futilely trying to get him involved in playing the game, but yea, he's here with six other goons. Everyone sneaks into the alley behind the building Passenger astrally buzzes the place and confirms that the target doesn't look like an adept and orders his watcher, Cabbage Head to keep an astral watch on the target and manifest visually above the roof, to act as a kindof radar. They begin making plans through local text chat. "He's takin' a dump boss... do I hafta keep watching?" "Yes!"The plan changes instantly. Passenger peeks through a bullet hole to poltergeist the storeroom, driving the goons away from the target. Troll Taxi laps to the roof and uses his cyberswords to carve through the tin roof over the bathroom just as... Spam and Vector hack the target's comlink, take over the AR visual and audio. They fill his vision with photos of the prostitute in the hospital and crank the volume of his earbuds to 11 while playing a clip of GZG screaming "You know my name!" over and over again. Until he get's his contacts out he'll be blind and deaf. Taxi pulls the target up by his hair and throws him into the alley, where the rest of the team beat-down and drag him into their van before the other gangers can even run around the building. They throw him out the moving vehicle onto the curb of a hospital, after beating him nearly to death. The aftermath of this is that the Stilettos are on the warpath for whoever made them look like fools, but don't know who actually did the dirtywork. GZG is having fun playing up the "I've got a secret" bit of being the only person who knows who did the job for a couple weeks to pre-build their rep before letting it out. Everyone get's bonus karma for playing Mr. Clean when I had planned for a blood-bath. Next week opens with Passenger being sent to speak with John Long, Puyalup's rep on the Seattle Council. It's an election year, so even grainy footage like this could be dangerous. The background for this guy is that a combination of voter fraud and extremely low voter turnout mean that he was in no real danger of ever losing his position, and used his local influence to collect bribes and skim municipal funds into his own coffers and those of his friends. In his mind, a certain amount of blackmail is just the cost of doing business. The elven mage goes to his meeting while the hacker pipes his comlink video to the safehouse trid. The rest of the team makes popcorn and flops on the couch.  Councilman John Long opens the bidding at ťťĄ5k; rolls are made, and John succeeds in standing firm at that number, but get's a glitch. I decide that he'll let his racism slip through a bit and roll to see just how much he controls himself. Critical Failure. He comes to the conclusion that not only is Passenger a human, but he was at the Humanis meeting at the museum last month. He relaxes and starts up a conversation that is about 50% racial slurs about how he's glad the money's staying in the good ol' boy's club and not to some sub-human scumbog born greenskins and their daisy eating butt-budies.  Dwarves belong underground; six feet would be a good start. I had to leave early for business, did I miss anything? Hell boy, you didn't hear? I just engineered the greatest legal win we've seen in twenty years?*Explains the inner working of a few recently passed laws that look innocent enough, some even help metahumans in an affirmative action/tax incentive to employ them way.* Now here's the good part. Alone, all this does nothing, but in 64 days, Prop fsa1850 will pass into law. It's an anti tax-evasion bill targeting agricorps. What it does is make all things that are registrable as farm equipment for tax purposes actually be permanently recognized by law as farm equipment. Under the letter of the 'Affirmative Taxation' laws, that list will include orks and trolls. Greenskin bastards will fall in the same category as a donkey, and under Seattle law, have the same rights.Rest of team:  Passenger get's back home and arguments break out about what they're going to do. Everyone wants to kill him, but they want to make him suffer first; the question is "how?". The first order of business is, who of the people running against him should they leak the tape to? It would ruin his chances of winning instantly and make the person they choose into the top runner in the now-open election. I give them three choices: -Hippytron 3k: AI with an eco-agenda. "Make the Emerald City shine again." -David Lowe: Dwarf running on a pro-meta rights platform. "Equality for all." -Robin Harker: Human running on an anti-crime platform. "Make our streets safe again." They decide to put GZG into the race. His campaign slogan will be "Have fun!". The press conference to announce he was throwing his hat in the ring had free liquor, coffee and hot-wings for the press. At 7:15AM he ended the proceedings by commanding the tide to withdraw from the beach as a promotional stunt, and the ocean obeyed. Tonight they enact the first part of their plan to actually ruin John Long's career, eliminate part of the competition and make GZG into a joke candidate with a chance to win. Sorry about the wall of text
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May 8, 2012 21:55
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Bear Enthusiast posted:So in the game I'm going to be starting soon, one player decided he wanted to make a Face and has all the fun pheromones and first impression that give him the big fun dice pool that hovers around 14 or so on most interactions. On top of that he then decided to grab suprathyroid gland and muscle toner and now has a ridiculous pool for shooting things too. I feel like it was way too easy for him to just pick up being able to decently shoot people, the only thing he lacks for actually being good at combat is IP's (of which he only has 2.) Am I missing something, or is crossing roles like this supposed to be that simple? Shooting things is something that every character is supposed to be at least passable at. Don't worry about characters being good at combat and something else, they are much less of a problem in game than characters who are only good at combat.
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May 8, 2012 22:20
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So I'm reading these rules. I'm gonna need like 30 D6's aren't I?  I can just use a dice roller on my computer and stuff but the players not so much
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May 8, 2012 22:52
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Solus posted:So I'm reading these rules. I'm gonna need like 30 D6's aren't I? You can buy bricks of D6s for cheap, just go to target or walmart or someplace.
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May 8, 2012 22:56
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Moto42 posted:I give them three choices:
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May 8, 2012 23:08
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Bear Enthusiast posted:So in the game I'm going to be starting soon, one player decided he wanted to make a Face and has all the fun pheromones and first impression that give him the big fun dice pool that hovers around 14 or so on most interactions. On top of that he then decided to grab suprathyroid gland and muscle toner and now has a ridiculous pool for shooting things too. I feel like it was way too easy for him to just pick up being able to decently shoot people, the only thing he lacks for actually being good at combat is IP's (of which he only has 2.) Am I missing something, or is crossing roles like this supposed to be that simple? Nope, it's that simple. I have one nitpick though: Starting characters cannot start with equipment greater than Availability 12, and a Suprathyroid Gland is 20F. Solus posted:So I'm reading these rules. I'm gonna need like 30 D6's aren't I? 
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May 9, 2012 00:10
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Tias posted:Nope, it's that simple. I have one nitpick though: Starting characters cannot start with equipment greater than Availability 12, and a Suprathyroid Gland is 20F. Restricted Gear for that and the rank 4 Muscle Toner. Should I not allow that quality?
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May 9, 2012 02:46
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Bear Enthusiast posted:Restricted Gear for that and the rank 4 Muscle Toner. Should I not allow that quality? I usually think it's fine, but they have to take it separately for each item. Also adepts can get stuff like 4 initiative passes from the get go, so I think it's kind of unfair to not let cyber characters get the chance as well.
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May 9, 2012 03:10
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Hey so I'm statting out a Gunslinger Adept (incidentally for Bear Enthusiast's game), and I'm trying to inject a little flavor into him right now beyond "kills people using guns." How feasible/useful would it be to try and make him work as a mage-killer type? I know adepts can get Astral Perception and Spell Resistance but I don't know much beyond that. Edit: I've spent drat near all my BP so far on general street survival skills, some contacts, and a lot of gunplay - max Improved Reflexes, lots of Pistols skill, and other adept powers like Attribute Boost (Agility) and Quick Draw, plus the Ambidextrous quality. But I'd definitely sacrifice a good deal of pure combat effectiveness to make him do some other things and being more interesting/fun to play. Also any tips on gunslinging adeptery in general would be great since this is my first time ever with Shadowrun and I'm kinda in over my head. Pancakes by Mail fucked around with this message at 03:25 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 03:23
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Pancakes by Mail posted:Hey so I'm statting out a Gunslinger Adept (incidentally for Bear Enthusiast's game), and I'm trying to inject a little flavor into him right now beyond "kills people using guns." How feasible/useful would it be to try and make him work as a mage-killer type? I know adepts can get Astral Perception and Spell Resistance but I don't know much beyond that. Post your sheet so we can what you've done. And any kind of background you thought up since it'll give people ideas of what else you can do. First suggestion to drop Ambidextrous. It's not very good. It may sound cool and all to dual wield pistols but you still split your dice pool so it just takes the off hand penalty away.
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May 9, 2012 03:36
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ltr posted:Post your sheet so we can what you've done. And any kind of background you thought up since it'll give people ideas of what else you can do. Dual wielding is a totally valid life-choice. Quick example: Adept with 5 agility, 6 pistols skill+3 from improved ability, +2 modifier from specialization, and a pair of yamaha sakura fubuki's loaded with ex-explosive rounds. If he splits his attribute+skill+ evenly, he will end up with 10 and 9 dice (8+2 and 7+2) dice on the first and second attack. Meanwhile, his opponent will be getting to essentially roll his defense and soak twice. The adept is throwing out 7P/-1 AP, so unless an opponent has either a really sick defense pool or over 22 armor the adept will come out on top. It's a great option for mook mass murder. If you're up against a high-force air spirit or something like that, dropping 4 attacks/pass into it will wreck its defense pool and make it easier for the people who can actually hurt it to do so.
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May 9, 2012 03:51
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ltr posted:Post your sheet so we can what you've done. And any kind of background you thought up since it'll give people ideas of what else you can do. I'll do it! Though I warn you dual-weilding pistols might be one thing I can't say no to, even if it's mechanically garbage. Anyway- Brief background is he's an elf, born in Tir Tairngire. His Dad up and abandoned the family one night for Seattle and the dude's been looking for the old man ever since. Here's the sheet as it is so far - it might be a little hard to read and I do apologize. Numbers following a skill or attribute is its value, and the numbers after that in parens are the BP cost (assuming I did the math right). Éamon “Osprey” Catháin Attributes Agility 6 (40) Body 4 (30) Reaction 5 (40) Charisma 3 (0) Strength 2 (10) Intuition 5 (40) Logic 2 (10) Willpower 4 (30) Magic 4 (30) Edge 3 (20) Elf (30) Positive Qualities (10): Adept (5) Ambidextrous (5) Negative Qualities (-35): Allergy (Pollutants) (Common, Mild) (-10) Incompetent (Software) (-5) Lost Loved One (Father) (-5) In Debt 3 Ranks (15K Nuyen to the Yakuza/Other Entity TBD) (-15) Adept Powers (4): Attribute Boost (Agility) 2 (.5) Improved Ability (Pistols) 2 (1) Improved Reflexes 2 (2.5) Included in table above. Contacts (14)(These are literally from the stock character - good/bad?) Arms Dealer (Connection 2/Loyalty 2) Fixer (Connection 3/Loyalty 3) Knight Errant Detective (Connection 2/Loyalty 2) Skills (112) Active Skills Athletics Skill Group – 3 (30) Automatics – Agility 3 (12) Pistols (Semiautomatics +2) – Agility 4 (Improved 6) (18) Dodge – Reaction 2 (8) Perception – Intution 4 (16) Tracking (Urban +2) – Intuition 1 (4) Etiquette (Street +2) – Charisma 1 (6) Con – Charisma 2 (8) Pilot Ground Craft (Car +2) – Reaction 2 (10) Knowledge Skills (21 Free) Street Seattle Street Gangs – Intuition 4 Seattle Syndicates – Intuition 3 Seattle Arms Dealers – Intuition 2 Academic Botany – Logic 1 Professional Arms Manufacturers – Logic 3 Firearms Design – Logic 4 Interests Sinsearach History – Logic 2 Language Skills Sperethiel N English (Cityspeak +2) 2 Japanese 2 19 BP left to spend (assuming numbers are good, again) Gear 2 Colt Manhunters (600 Y) Concealable Holsters (150Y) Smartgun Systems (600 Y) Extra Mags x12 (60Y) 10 Clips Regular Ammo (320Y) 2 Clips APDS (210Y) 2 Clips Explosive Rounds (150Y) Colt America L36 (150Y) Concealable Holster (150 Y) Extra Mags x3 (15Y) 4 Clips Regular Ammo (80Y) Silencer (200Y) As you can see I haven't really done my gear yet, just scratched the surface. And 19 BP is a fair amount left to spent so there's hopefully a little room to add some mage-killing to my repertoire. Totally open to respeccing so have at it and thank you!
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May 9, 2012 03:53
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ltr posted:Post your sheet so we can what you've done. And any kind of background you thought up since it'll give people ideas of what else you can do. I always use ambidextrous because my gun slinging weapon of choice is the Ruger Super Warhawk. Since they are single shot anyway I just alternate between actions. What I like to do is take warhawks with enlarged cylinders and ammo skip, and basically be gun slinging batman. It's pretty cool to have a tracker bullet, or capsule round filled with glue or paint and such ready at a moment's notice. Beyond that I would focus on what your character can do out of combat. Actual shooting and killing, while important, is usually only a small part of a run, if you have any BP left over try and give your character another skillset that will be useful to your group. Also for adept powers, commanding voice is probably the best .25 magic you can ever spend. edit: Hey man for your character sheet, you probably don't need to get dodge, as the rules let you use gymnastics to defend against attacks. Double edit: I would also consider taking the influence skill group instead of just etiquette. Triple edit: You might want to consider putting a point from willpower into something else. SerCypher fucked around with this message at 04:03 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 03:57
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Pancakes by Mail posted:Adept Powers (4): Drop Improved Ability. In return, pick up Muscle Toner 2 and whatever other miscellaneous ware you want to fill up to 1 point of essence (Synthacardium, maybe, which means you can lower your Athletics skill and still keep the same bonus). You can then plow the extra points back into magic and pick up Improved Ability again. Attribute Boost isn't worth it IMO. You'll probably want to start out with 6 in Pistols skill as well. Also drop dodge, it's really worthless since you have gymnastics - you could pick up Unarmed instead if you wanted a melee blocking skill, and then you could get shock frills on your armor or shock gloves.
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May 9, 2012 04:02
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SerCypher posted:Beyond that I would focus on what your character can do out of combat. Actual shooting and killing, while important, is usually only a small part of a run, if you have any BP left over try and give your character another skillset that will be useful to your group. Thank you! I'm already making some changes (plus I noticed I cheated in the skills section and didn't charge myself enough BP in a few spots). Dodge is out, Commanding voice is in. Worth it to take Astral Perception and some Spell Resistance, among other things? I also have no idea what kind of gear would be good for a mage-geeking sort.
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May 9, 2012 04:04
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Pancakes by Mail posted:My character Just on another note, I'm not sure if you are counting your improved reflexes into your Reaction stat but 5 reaction is not so hot. You have to spend a whole turn dodging, so most of the time you are just going to be rolling your reaction to not get shot. If you have a really combat oriented character, you should either be a damage avoider or a damage sponge, and since you aren't a troll, you might want to get a few more reaction so you don't have to worry about mook pegging you with a Ares Predator. That's just my style with gunslingers though. edit: If you really want to kill mages, (which actually don't show up that often in most games), it might be worth it to be a mystic adept, so you can take counter-spelling. 4 points in counterspelling is going to make you pretty hard for most mages to make something stick to you. Double edit: The rules are kind of vague about whether mystic adepts can take counter-spelling, but I would think they could. SerCypher fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 04:07
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