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Bigass Moth posted:Is that something you've ever seen in other game systems? Ellimenster? Or however his name is spelt?
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Jul 23, 2012 19:05
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At least for 4th Edition, the metaplot cast seems to have been pretty stable since the beginning. There's the Jackpoint regulars that have been around since the player's guide and Emergence, and the occasional "guest" depending on the subject of the source book. I haven't noticed any self-insert characters unless I'm completely blind (which is possible). Speaking of source books, I seem to recall people here saying to avoid "War!" Any particular reason why?
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Jul 23, 2012 21:52
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Bigass Moth posted:I've got a question for you grogs who play multiple systems -- Let me tell you about R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk or Palladium's Rifts.  Seriously, if you see stats for someone outside of an adventure and they aren't the most generic thing (like say "police officer" or "supervillain mook"), chances are that they're some developers' personal character. Or, if you're lucky, some playtesters' character who did someone astonishing enough to be remembered. PunkBoy posted:Speaking of source books, I seem to recall people here saying to avoid "War!" Any particular reason why? Magic's broken in that book and some really offensive poo poo involving spiritually-assessing Auschwitz.
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Jul 24, 2012 02:24
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I have a rules question: Can grenades from grenade launchers be dodged at all? I can't find anything about dodging grenades in the books. If you are in the radius of a grenade, is that just how it goes? Do hits on doge reduce the damage of the grenade? If anyone could help me out it would be great, because I've been wondering this for a while.
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Jul 24, 2012 06:08
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SerCypher posted:Can grenades from grenade launchers be dodged at all? The official FAQ also have a same question and the answer to that was "Anyone in the blast radius has until the next IP to get out of the way." So I guess if it isn't things like impact explosion grenade, then everyone have until next IP to dodge it with -2 modifier.
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Jul 24, 2012 15:21
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IIRC you can only dodge grenades that are aimed at you. The cheesy way to use them is to aim them at the ground near the enemy, since by the rules it can't be dodged.
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Jul 24, 2012 17:42
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Bigass Moth posted:The cheesy way to use them is to aim them at the ground near the enemy, since by the rules it can't be dodged.
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Jul 24, 2012 20:13
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So I guess if you are in the blast radius of a air burst grenade or something, you just have to suck it up. Also the whole one IP for grenades seems sort of dumb to me. All grenades in Shadowrun have chips just like everything else, I would think people would set them to detonate as soon as they landed.
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Jul 24, 2012 22:42
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SerCypher posted:I have a rules question: You can dodge grenades aimed at you, and each net success causes the grenade to land further away from you, while you remain stationary. But if the grenades are aimed at a location then no one gets to dodge. Grenades can go off in one IP, on impact, or as an airburst. Grenade rules are stupid.
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Jul 25, 2012 00:32
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Mystic Mongol posted:You can dodge grenades aimed at you, and each net success causes the grenade to land further away from you, while you remain stationary. But if the grenades are aimed at a location then no one gets to dodge. Grenade rules are awesome for exactly this. Nothing like a hover drone with a 12 round grenade launcher on it dumping out white phosphorous.
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Jul 25, 2012 05:29
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As dumb as the grenade rules are, the chunky salsa rule remains one of my favorite things in an rpg ever
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Jul 25, 2012 07:09
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I've got a couple of questions about Shadowrun, coming from a group with a large Pathfinder background. First off, what's a good amount of BP to give to the players after they finish an encounter/mission? I've been giving out between 10 and 20 BP after each session, depending on how they handled the encounters, but I haven't seen any kind of baseline in the core book. Second, how do you handle 'loot'? I mean the, 'I pulled this gun off the CorpSec guy we gunned down, how much do I get for it?' kind of loot. My players are all big D20 players and tend to spend a lot of time rifling through bodies for anything worth even a few credits. I've been lead to believe that's not a thing in Shadowrun, could anyone explain why?
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Jul 31, 2012 03:16
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Well, one, they're probably tagged to hell and back so their resale value on the black market is probably pretty low. Second you probably want to get the hell away from somebody whose biometric monitors are now reporting they've been killed to corporate. His gun is probably also reporting his position to them. Third why are you taking his lovely gun when you could be taking his body to the organlegger and selling his intact organs and cyberware?
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Jul 31, 2012 03:21
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Generally because they're enemies are way Still, nothing wrong with grabbing a rare gun off a corpse and blasting your way out of the corporate enclave with it.
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Jul 31, 2012 03:22
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Magic Rabbit Hat posted:Second, how do you handle 'loot'? I mean the, 'I pulled this gun off the CorpSec guy we gunned down, how much do I get for it?' kind of loot. My players are all big D20 players and tend to spend a lot of time rifling through bodies for anything worth even a few credits. I've been lead to believe that's not a thing in Shadowrun, could anyone explain why? This may be the hardest thing to get your players to stop as it's a particularly aggressive D&D-ism that doesn't really exist elsewhere. Runners aren't just random-rear end common criminals. They're big thing is that they're semi-professional criminals for sale. Stealing a gun means a few things. First off, it's a hell of a lot easier to track you. Guns are tagged to hell and back. They also tend to grab your biometrics when you use them. The more poo poo that traces you back to a crime scene the worst - remember, you're supposed to be anonymous. Besides, the black market is the first place the corps are going to look. Secondly, it means you can't be trusted. Who's going to hire a guy who screws up a mission just to steal like some two-bit thief? Unless your mission is to steal something, grabbing the merch could screw up whatever job the Johnson actually wants you to be doing, which comes back to haunt you hard. It's as unprofessional as it gets. Third, who are you stealing from? You grab a few chips to sell off easy and find out you've taken from one of the Triads and your life is about to become one billion times harder, and not in the cool "Oh good more adventures" way. Fourthly, the answer could easily be "You can't sell this back. It's hot, tagged, low quality merch. Who the hell is going to bother buying this and risk cleaning it for the smallest profit imaginable?" I get that D&D assumes you can just easily sell more or less anything, but there's an actual assumed economy in Shadowrun, and pawning off a dead corpsec's gun isn't going to get you poo poo. What fence or pawn store owner is going to buy that? And lastly, it just isn't the style. Cyberpunk has been characterized as style over substance, and searching a dude's pockets for two nuyen is as unstylish as it gets. The best advice is to just tell your players that this isn't D&D. Stop rifling through people's pockets, goddamn. It's not how the game or the genre works. It's just kinda dumb.
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Jul 31, 2012 03:53
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Well, there is something called "paydata" in the books. It could be blackmail material, interesting but ultimately ancillary information on an arms shipment, a map of a secure compound...basically any sort of digital information a criminal might want to pay for. You'd have to redirect the looting instinct towards the commlinks instead of the weapons, but if the group refuses to stop looting the dead and you don't feel like going the "now the Corp has a trace to you, oh ho ho!" route, you could consider peppering encounters with some low-paying paydata, to "satisfy" them. Though I agree with Professor Cirno that the best route would be to have them get "in-genre" and not do something so hilariously unprofessional.
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Jul 31, 2012 04:40
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ProfessorCirno posted:This may be the hardest thing to get your players to stop as it's a particularly aggressive D&D-ism that doesn't really exist elsewhere. Most of this boils away if they're just grabbing weapons for their own arsenal. Nothin' wrong with tossing a few AKs in the back of a pickup truck, and sooner or later you'll be in a rough situation and the solution will be walking into your garage, turning on the lights, and admiring the five hundred assault rifles you've built up over the runs.
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Jul 31, 2012 08:12
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Magic Rabbit Hat posted:I've got a couple of questions about Shadowrun, coming from a group with a large Pathfinder background. First off, what's a good amount of BP to give to the players after they finish an encounter/mission? I've been giving out between 10 and 20 BP after each session, depending on how they handled the encounters, but I haven't seen any kind of baseline in the core book. Regardless of the "loot" being tagged, hot, corp property, and all that, SR4a page 312 gives you the details on fencing items. 30% of it's original price. Page 287 of SR4a goes into a bit more about using a contact to sell your loot. Of course you can fiddle with consequences of selling freshly stolen goods, especially if murdering rent-a-cops occurred while acquiring said goods.
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Jul 31, 2012 09:21
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ltr posted:Regardless of the "loot" being tagged, hot, corp property, and all that, SR4a page 312 gives you the details on fencing items. 30% of it's original price. That's the base, 30% is where you start at when the fence or fixer opens negotiations to clear out the stuff. It goes down dramatically if the players are trying to fence Also, if you use a fence to sell poo poo, they take a finder's fee chunk out of it proportional to their connection rating. So, if your players are going to use that Connection 6 fixer friend of theirs, then they're looking at having to pay out 30% of the gross to keep them happy. Wouldn't the Street Cost modifiers also have an effect?
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Jul 31, 2012 10:34
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Tag Erasers are your friends folks. Burn those tracker bugs right out. Anything that it can't burn out, doesn't have the kind of transmitting range for them to follow you after you get off the grounds. That said, it IS extremely gauche to be rifling through pockets like a common thug. You're a professional, take "trophies" if you're going to steal anything at all.
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Jul 31, 2012 13:49
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Young Freud posted:That's the base, 30% is where you start at when the fence or fixer opens negotiations to clear out the stuff. It goes down dramatically if the players are trying to fence Instead of saying why you don't spend a lot of time on your run scrounging for loot, I'm just pointing out where in the rulebook it deals with selling stuff. Yeah and the finders fee stuff is listed on page 287 like I said. I'd also say if it's not clean as in tag erased and cleared as any other identifiable markers, drop the starting point to 20-25% of base cost since their fence will have to do that. And if they start bringing in 6-10 weapons every week to the same person, start dropping the price even more to represent the surplus of low end weapons this guy now has to deal with. I see no problem with runners taking weapons/commlinks off of opposition they encounter. Now if they're stripping off the body armor, taking their flashlights and handcuffs to sell that is excessive. Same with going through every desk they come to looking for the commlink or whatever minor item a wage slave forgot at work. Don't give them the time to do that. Have common areas of a building swept every 5 minutes by security so they need to move quick. If they just kill all the guards, then start making consequences such as less lucrative runs offered, have the johnson upset at them for their killing spree and being noticed, bonuses for the run being unnoticed, etc. Magic Rabbit Hat posted:I've got a couple of questions about Shadowrun, coming from a group with a large Pathfinder background. First off, what's a good amount of BP to give to the players after they finish an encounter/mission? I've been giving out between 10 and 20 BP after each session, depending on how they handled the encounters, but I haven't seen any kind of baseline in the core book. Going back to this, BP is not for giving out after they finish an assignment. You give out Karma and 10-20 is a huge amount. Looking at a couple of the SR missions, it looks like 4-7 karma would be more appropriate. 1 to 4 of that based on how well they completed the assignment then up to 3 more for good play, getting out of a tight situation, pulling off a crazy idea, pushing the game forward, etc. SR4a page 269 goes into awarding karma. It says average of 4-5 and no more than 10 per adventure.
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Jul 31, 2012 18:23
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ltr posted:Going back to this, BP is not for giving out after they finish an assignment. You give out Karma and 10-20 is a huge amount. Looking at a couple of the SR missions, it looks like 4-7 karma would be more appropriate. 1 to 4 of that based on how well they completed the assignment then up to 3 more for good play, getting out of a tight situation, pulling off a crazy idea, pushing the game forward, etc. SR4a page 269 goes into awarding karma. It says average of 4-5 and no more than 10 per adventure. These rule are always dumb, btw. Figure out Karma awards based on how quickly you want the game to progress skill/stat wise. Alternately, in every one of these god-forsaken increasing xp-cost games I wind up, and recommend, giving dots away. So after a you could give 1 dot in a stat and 2 for skills along with the resource bump.
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Jul 31, 2012 20:36
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Why are we going over all this when a proper Runner would just plant it on some Gangers who've been bothering them and take out two birds with one stone?
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Jul 31, 2012 22:53
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404GoonNotFound posted:Why are we going over all this when a proper Runner would just plant it on some Gangers who've been bothering them and take out two birds with one stone? Mostly because D&D-style play doesn't take place in the same mindset as Shadowrun, thus the question. With regards to Karma awards, I tend to set very low base rewards. 1-2 Karma for completing a run, 1 per optional objective accomplished where applicable, etc. I am, however, pretty liberal with Karma rewards during play for things like creative or elegant solutions to problems, good roleplay, or anything else that might enhance the experience for everyone, myself included. By way of example, in one of the earlier tabletop experience threads, I described how a street sam in one of my games became fixated on a red, blinking light in the upper corner of an elevator. Finally, he turned to the gunslinger and asked, "So... should we shoot it? Or what?" Everyone pretty much thought this was hilarious, so I awarded him one million Karma for suddenly becoming the living embodiment of the archetypical street samurai, and then subtracted 999,999 Karma for the same reason. Contacts can be a great way to mitigate some of the drive of D&D-minded players to loot everything. In D&D, looting is pretty much your sole means of financial gain in an average dungeon-crawly campaign. Shadowrun affords money-making opportunities aside from "standard" runs. I tend to hand out contact opportunities like crazy, because I spend a fair amount of prep time for my games making NPCs that may or may not end up being used otherwise. These can't be bought with Karma, of course, but the runner can take advantage of the opportunity to add the contact through roleplay, or even just the explicit expenditure of time/resources during downtime. Having access to lots of contacts can sometimes offset the tendency to loot everything on-site, because there's always the opportunity for side-jobs during downtime to make extra scratch. If you don't feel like writing up quick, half-dozen-roll downtime missions to make extra cash, the PCs can always strike out on their own and start running their own scams and schemes: hijacking trucks, extortion (if they feel like tangling with organized crime), independent heists, whatever. Contacts can be handy here, as well.
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Aug 1, 2012 00:10
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Man, the year of shadowrun is still going.. SR having one of the most active years I can remember, progress wise (SR2050, for example, Shadowrun Returns getting huge amounts of funding, and now Shadowrun Online coming this close to being funded with 12 hours to go (It's really 50/50 if they get funded, hopefully someone with big pockets kicks in $10K or whatever they need in the last minutes..)
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Aug 14, 2012 06:45
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So it's been a while since I looked up anything Shadowrun and when I browsed through a local comic book store I was amazed (but not surprised) to read that the universe it's taking place in 2070, which makes sense. Anyways, the last time I played anything Shadowrun in pen and paper format we were still dicking around in 2058. I love the background of the game and I'd like to catch up on some of the major events that have taken place over the last 12 years. Is there anything online that can help me fill in some blanks in regards to story lines/major corporate dealings and such? I feel like what I know about the Shadowrun world is horribly out of date and I kind of hate that.
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Aug 16, 2012 03:23
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the official forums (at shadowrun4.com I believe) are usually pretty good with helping you out with specifics. Most important is the fact that A) a new crash has occurred, turning the entire matrix wireless, a meshed network, and confusing as hell, and B) That a new breed of Otaku has showed up, able to interface with the wireless Matrix without commlinks (that's what we call decks now.).
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Aug 16, 2012 13:58
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Shadowgoon with photoshop skills sought! As some of you know, Kowloon Walled City in SR 4th Eds sixth world did exist in real life, but was torn down in 1993. I'm looking for a good take on how the place would have looked in 2071, if the lack of housing codes, Triad-based government and lack of basic amenities had continued (wholly or in part, this is Shadowrun after all) - based on existing photographs of the place, which google has aplenty. I'm flat broke, but am an prolific gamer and GM, so I will happily 'pay' in creative company.
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Aug 28, 2012 14:39
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Bump, since: I also require 1-2 players for the IRC game that's about to start. The players who haven't gotten back to me have a week to respond, or I'm signing up newcomers. Quick rehash: - IRC-based, so you're guarenteed at least one whole night of playtime before it tanks. - Standard character generation, but subject to approval to avoid stupid poo poo. - Game set to be a campaign in 2071, where you work for an international group of fixers.
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Aug 29, 2012 13:15
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Tias posted:Bump, since: I also require 1-2 players for the IRC game that's about to start. The players who haven't gotten back to me have a week to respond, or I'm signing up newcomers. What night do you plan on running?
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Aug 29, 2012 14:07
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I don't know yet. It'd have to mesh with my time (CET+1), and probably in the start of my day or a weekend night so we can get some stuff done.
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Aug 29, 2012 14:52
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CET+1 is GMT +3 right?
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Aug 29, 2012 16:09
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+2. Or, depending on where you are, you might think of it as British Summer Time +1. CET is GMT+1. Bobfly fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Aug 30, 2012 |
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Aug 29, 2012 17:09
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I live in GMT+1 (Copenhagen), that much I am sure of. Must have gotten CET wrong, then.
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Aug 30, 2012 12:02
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It's official, I need at least 2 more players for the IRC campaign. We have a utility/combat mage and a tricked-out hacker/rigger type, so think in terms of capabilities the team doesn't have. First come is first served, so drop me a private message if you want in ASAP - Talmonis, you have one of the spots if you want it.
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Sep 2, 2012 19:54
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Tias posted:It's official, I need at least 2 more players for the IRC campaign. We have a utility/combat mage and a tricked-out hacker/rigger type, so think in terms of capabilities the team doesn't have. I don't have PMs, but I'd be interested if it works with my schedule. Feel free to email me at ryharkness (at) gmail (dot) com. Note that I'm at GMT -6.
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Sep 2, 2012 22:14
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Tias posted:It's official, I need at least 2 more players for the IRC campaign. We have a utility/combat mage and a tricked-out hacker/rigger type, so think in terms of capabilities the team doesn't have. I don't have PMs either, but I'd be interested. non_Ay_mous (at symbol) yahoo (period) com. Is your mage the Stunbolt blaster type or the "I cast Assault Rifle" type? The former means Street Sam, the latter probably also means Street Sam, but could also mean Dr. Demolition Shaman. Or a Face. That always works.
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Sep 2, 2012 23:08
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SerCypher posted:So I guess if you are in the blast radius of a air burst grenade or something, you just have to suck it up. Also the whole one IP for grenades seems sort of dumb to me. All grenades in Shadowrun have chips just like everything else, I would think people would set them to detonate as soon as they landed. As for setting grenades to detonate on impact, yes, you can do that… but after a while you recognise a very good reason not to: doing so means that when you roll poorly and get scatter at a weird angle or very close to the thrower, what has happened is that the thing has hit a wall or the ceili…BOOOM! Dead thrower. You set it to timed to have a chance of surviving your own mistakes. …and when you do, the dodging becomes a matter of having movement left before the next IP so you can round a corner and once again gamble on that barrier rating. Also, if you look beyond the rules, setting it to impact detonation also means you can't really roll them around corners to herd people, or under things (e.g. the car the pesky gangers are hiding behind).
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Sep 3, 2012 00:27
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Tias posted:It's official, I need at least 2 more players for the IRC campaign. We have a utility/combat mage and a tricked-out hacker/rigger type, so think in terms of capabilities the team doesn't have. I'm not that tricked out. Pretty good at shooting, driving, being lucky as hell, hacking.... Okay, maybe a little tricked out.
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Sep 3, 2012 22:50
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I'm not sure what time you would be running Tias, as I'm on the US East coast.
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Sep 4, 2012 13:13
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