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True, but on most targets the arrow/bolt is going to be better - after all, even at 5P for the light crossbow you'll need Armor + Body of 17 to have the odds (65% chance) completely soak it all (-1AP,6P with the one net hit). To get the 11+ you'll need to avoid the heavy injection bolt, you'll need to be rather tough and armored - at least in the 30s. In that case, against something VERY heavily armored, you are better off using the injection dart. Against most humanoid opponents, needing to get 3 net hits means you are not likely to inject them without being super accurate.
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Aug 15, 2013 21:54
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The downside is that you are lugging around a crossbow which isn't exactly discrete. Wouldn't you be better off with a Light Pistol with SnS or Gel rounds?
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Aug 15, 2013 21:58
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I originally did it as a low tech approach to B&E job with the crossbow having been tag erased and dumped in your cleaning supply cart. It wasn't electronic and you lacked ware and magic so pretty much nobody was going to give a poo poo about you. You would have impersonation, disguise, and acting to the max. Your job was to get in, maybe get a mental map of the facility and leave a window open for easy entrance for the rest of your team that night. The fact that you double as an amazing face and decent stealth character is all just bonus points. You create false identities and actually own janitorial businesses with those identities so that people don't get sly to the whole idea. Also you want a bunch of knowledge skills having to do with corps and their functioning so that you can edge those rolls and really know the nitty gritty of the Corporate world.
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Aug 15, 2013 22:27
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Bigass Moth posted:The downside is that you are lugging around a crossbow which isn't exactly discrete. Wouldn't you be better off with a Light Pistol with SnS or Gel rounds? Eh, a light crossbow should theoretically be as concealable as a light pistol, but since its only listed as +6 in the book, good luck with that. On the other hand, a light crossbow is availability 2, meaning you can walk into a Stuffer Shack and buy one still in the plastic, with Realistic AR Devil Rat and Halloweener Stick-On Targets. Stick and Shock, and Gel rounds, are both dramatically less effective at instantly dropping a target; they both make it HARDER to do, by lowering the damage etc. (though a SnS or Gel via a 14P sniper rifle should still work). Nacroject, delivered via dart or bolt, forces the target to not get any benefit from Armor, Bone Lacing etc. They'll only benefit from "Add this to Resistance tests" worded 'ware and magic, and nothing at all from Chemical Seal etc. The only real advantage of the crossbow is that you double up - you deal the bolt's stun or physical and then the 15 stun from the nacrojet. Plus it is silenced by default, makes no noise, produces no muzzle flash etc, and while it is technically hackable (everything is, including your pants),
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Aug 15, 2013 22:36
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Cyclomatic posted:Players might as well just shoot themselves in the head, because it is literally making it impossible for them to do anything. The technomancer isn't boned by what you describe, everyone is boned and boned harder. The Decker will get arrested because their illegal deck is found by the omnipresent oppressive searches. The Street Samurai will get arrested because of their illegal cyberware, the mage will get arrested for their illegal charms and spells, the face will get arrested because they have a pistol. Then maybe you shouldn't be strolling through the central security checkpoint at SeaTac with all your illegal poo poo and no excuses? Yes, that may very well happen if you try to board commercial flight whatever without either A). making arrangaments to ship your illegal crime gear separately or B). get your licenses up to date so you have a "reason" to be packing 5 essence worth of combat cyberware or a way-illegal hacking tablet. Or you find alternate means of transport. If Mr. Johnson needs you to fly somewhere then you tell him to book you a private flight and bypass that poo poo. Or you charter a private flight at an airstrip that specializes in that sort of thing. Trying to stroll through big security checkpoints with your standard shadowrunner loadout should be a bastard and a half. Like Conskill said, this isn't "boning the players," this is forcing them to not be completely stupid (or to kit themselves out with some appropriate advantages beforehand). Complaining about major airport security being super invasive and difficult to breeze past when you're carrying guns and chrome and glowing in the astral like it ain't no thing is like being a Paranoia player and complaining about how all those R&D inventions keep killing you when you try to use them.
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Aug 15, 2013 22:41
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Emphasizing the illegality of a runner's bread and butter equipment can also create an interesting vehicle for oppression. So a low-level team gets some kit to do their job and suddenly they aren't like normal people anymore. The magician can't eat at his favorite restaurant anymore because his quickened spells beat against its wards. The sammie can't go visit family elsewhere in the UCAS because he can no longer board a commercial plane. Of course Mr. Johnson can help fix everything... by binding themselves more tightly to the Man and becoming more dependent on his nuyen and his connections. The weak and the downtrodden suffer in the Dystopia of Tomorrow, and by trying to climb out of the gutters the runners marginalize themselves. For high-level teams this is barely an issue, since chartering flights to the exotic locale of today's run is going to be a standard operational expense when you're in the six-seven figure range.
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Aug 15, 2013 23:05
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The point is that it's easy to make it nearly impossible for players to operate by making security hyper-competent. All of those arguments are perfectly valid, but in this context all you have established is that its easier to screw a technomancer because you can't stop being one or get a high quality fake Being A Technomancer License. Which may well be the point of all the factors that imply that technomancers are hard to detect, but as we can see, people are very inclined to assume that security will just successfully try harder. (There is a lesson about real life security theater here).
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Aug 15, 2013 23:20
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None of that is helped by the fact that A). in-setting technomancers are supposed to be a big woah-scary YOUR NEIGHBOR COULD BE A TECHNOMANCER, HERE ARE THE SIGNS paranoia threat du jour, B). this is at least in part, supposedly, because technomancers are nigh-impossible to distinguish from the average citizen (THEY COULD BE ANYONE), and C). the game then goes and provides people with a way to distinguish technomancers from the average citizen (oh, uh, whoops). Like, if you want technomancers to be impossible to detect than just make them impossible to detect. Bam, done. Otherwise it remains a distinct possibility that Joe Security Mage at SeaTac is gonna roll his 5 hits on the day that Technomancer Terry decides he needs to grab a redeye flight and hit the panic button because TECHNOMANCER CYBERTERRORISTS WANT TO HACK OUR PLANES.
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Aug 16, 2013 01:41
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Kai Tave posted:Otherwise it remains a distinct possibility that Joe Security Mage at SeaTac is gonna roll his 5 hits on the day that Technomancer Terry decides he needs to grab a redeye flight and hit the panic button because TECHNOMANCER CYBERTERRORISTS WANT TO HACK OUR PLANES. I dunno, that sounds like it could be hilarious.
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Aug 16, 2013 02:41
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Might be. But as Hodgepodge points out it remains a distinct possibility that any technomancer who has to go through an area with active magical security, and I'd definitely imagine that a major airport qualifies, is going to get screwed on a "well statistics say it was unlikely" roll of the dice and there's nothing they can really do about it. You can't turn off being a technomancer, there's no such thing as a technomancer license to fake, and in-setting technomancers are the hot new thing to be afraid of. Should it happen all the time? No, but when it does happen there's not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it, nor can you take steps to mitigate it beyond "don't go through SeaTac in the first place," which is kind of lovely compared to pretty much everyone else who can at least take a stab at bullshitting their way out of trouble or flashing a decently rated fake license or something, and technomancers are already kind of a questionable payoff for the costs and hassle involved as it is.
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Aug 16, 2013 02:59
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You are sinless and you are hosed. Steal a jet. Use your contacts to get from place to place under the noses of the corps. Black mail the security mages. Hack the Gibson and add security exceptions to your fake sin. You are meant to be the exceptional few who beat the odds by breaking the rules, be a god drat Shadowrunner.
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Aug 16, 2013 03:15
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One other issue of Resonance detection via magic. Just because a magician detects it doesn't mean he understands the implications. Being severely depressed, living in a hosed-up part of town or having a terrible caffeine addiction can all gently caress with your aura in a way that's way more detectable than being a technomancer. I've always read the 5 hits to detect a technomancer as "5 hits if you're looking for it". Kind of like how it takes 5 hits to find subconscious facts you're looking for in a person's brain with Mind Scan. So, yeah, maybe if that dude gets singled out for a scan by the security Mage, he's in for poo poo, but there's no way to pick one out of a crowd or line or whatever. Also, mages looking for technomancers is seriously some BIGTIME "Not My Job". They're there to look for magical threats, like dudes that can blow up planes with spirits and mind beams and coercive ki shouts. Cyberware isn't their job, that's for the detectors. Hackers sure as gently caress aren't their job, that's for the boys in IT. But your mileage may vary. I generally agree with the "not enough mages to go around/too drat valuable for grunt work" concept and I tend to run games with checkpoints often monitored by year-and-a-day bound spirits, because they don't get tired and can stay focused on mundane rear end tasks for as long as their bindings hold. Spirits are even worse for detection than mages because they SPECIFICALLY don't have any frame of reference for technos. Excepting free spirits or maybe some spirits of man, spirits understanding technomancers is about on par with sprites understanding the taste of a good Philly cheese steak.
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Aug 16, 2013 03:53
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Kai Tave posted:Might be. But as Hodgepodge points out it remains a distinct possibility that any technomancer who has to go through an area with active magical security, and I'd definitely imagine that a major airport qualifies, is going to get screwed on a "well statistics say it was unlikely" roll of the dice and there's nothing they can really do about it. You can't turn off being a technomancer, there's no such thing as a technomancer license to fake, and in-setting technomancers are the hot new thing to be afraid of. I mean, flashing your Sammy's R5 "YES I MAY HAVE THIS ARM" license is just about as, if not more likely to set off the cyber-TSA's bells than the Technomancer is to get caught being a unique snowflake. Or your Adept's license to carry deez guns*kisses own bicep*. Technomancers aren't the only ones whose very existence is illegal, and they're a lot less likely to get noticed for it.
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Aug 16, 2013 04:39
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Laphroaig posted:Eh, a light crossbow should theoretically be as concealable as a light pistol, dirtycajun posted:You are sinless and you are hosed. Steal a jet. Use your contacts to get from place to place under the noses of the corps. Black mail the security mages. Hack the Gibson and add security exceptions to your fake sin. That's what smuggler contacts are for.
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Aug 16, 2013 04:52
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Er, my main question regarding Mr Lucky was how well it works out. But it sounds like it can work out really drat well! I'd probably go Attributes A, Skills B, rather then vice versa, but overall it sounds like you can make a perfectly normal human guy with no magic and little to no augmentation, and just the biggest guts you can find, who pulls off unbelievable poo poo because he just happens to be that good and that lucky.
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Aug 16, 2013 05:54
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Things out at GenCon for Shadowrun: Shadowrun 5E (regular and mayan edition) Firing Line (another Missions compedium, dual statted for SR4 20th Anniversary and SR5) And I am somewhat happy to report that Shadowrun 5E is one BEEFY book. I'm talking about 0.75 on the Hero 5E Size Scale. One of the meme's about 5E Hero is that it could absorb a bullet and not go through.)
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Aug 16, 2013 06:20
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Zereth posted:I dunno, the business parts of the crossbow sticking out to either side would seem to make it really hard to stick one in your pocket. We make versions now that have sides that fold up. They would be about as big as....hmm, a heavy pistol. In theory there is nothing stopping future developments from making something stronger and more durable that could come in light pistol sizes. Gameplay-wise there it shouldn't be too horrible to make a concealable crossbow.
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Aug 16, 2013 06:20
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Here are some crossbows that were actually intended to do what y'all are talking about. The Big Joe, designed for assassinating targets up to 200 meters away.  Here's a modern replica demonstrating how it could be folded up.  And here's it's brother, the Little Joe.  You can see how the arms could collapse inwards making it no bigger than a normal pistol when not in use. And modern day crossbows could probably do better with weird non standard shapes and intricate pulleys and whatnot. 
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Aug 16, 2013 06:56
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7c Nickel posted:Here are some crossbows that were actually intended to do what y'all are talking about. I don't care if it's practical or not, but those make an awesome gimmick for a character.
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Aug 16, 2013 08:31
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So on finally buckling down and reading the foci rules, qi foci are like 300% better then I thought they are, because they give the adept somethign the adept has always lacked: Versatility. You can have a number of foci equal to your magic (so for the VAST majority of adepts, that's 6), each one for a different power. There's two catches. First, if the total power of your foci is greater then your Magic, you start rolling addition, so if you don't want to be addicted, chances are, your foci are going to all hold between 1-1.5 PP, depending on if you have a weapon focus too. Second, you can activate or deactivate them. That means you want your 100% always useful, all the time powers to be the ones your Adept learns on his own, and your more situational ones on your qi foci. So take Light Body 6 - that one's perfect, it's not something you always want or need on, and it takes up precisely 1.5 PP. PERFECT for a qi focus. On the other hand, Improved Reflexes are something you likely always want - it increases a stat with a ton of uses, and it's something you want for every combat, no matter what. So that's one you'd learn as an adept. I can see qi foci becoming more and more important as new powers are released in the inevitable Magic poo poo book to help cover the more "fun" or not always useful (but REALLY useful when they are) powers.
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Aug 16, 2013 08:40
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ProfessorCirno posted:Er, my main question regarding Mr Lucky was how well it works out. But it sounds like it can work out really drat well! I'd probably go Attributes A, Skills B, rather then vice versa, but overall it sounds like you can make a perfectly normal human guy with no magic and little to no augmentation, and just the biggest guts you can find, who pulls off unbelievable poo poo because he just happens to be that good and that lucky. How well it works is up to your character build, but it's important to note that Edge is STUPIDLY powerful in this edition. Using Seize the Initiative or Blitz on any combat removes the need to IP boosting ware, and lets you do fun stuff like take cover immediately or check status destroying grenades at the threat. Push The Limit lets you add your Edge (Mr Lucky would have 7 or 8) to a roll BEFORE or AFTER which is insane and also removes limits AND gives you exploding 6s. Obviously Mr. Lucky would be better with ware/magic but a mundane can absolutely do it in this edition.
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Aug 16, 2013 11:28
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Thought experiment time: You are a technomancer, you see riggers and deckers and you just feel useless and underpowered. Understandable really, considering how lovely you are in the grand scheme of the Priorities screw over. What are you to do? Well, you call your sprite buddies of course! Why are they useful you ask? Well lets see... Sprites are much like spirits of the matrix, and by much like I mean they flat are. They gently caress deckers and riggers and spiders right the gently caress up by nuking them with noise via electron storm. Well that's cool I guess, what else are they good for? Well if there is a single thing electronic in the area you can just kiss it's functionality goodbye because it is getting gremlin-ed. Pray that they don't set up a critical glitch. They stop your party from being accidented to death. All pretty good, but really you can do better. Well, how about I one up it? Let your Sprites do all of your matrix actions for you. But that requires a mental stat you say, that should be impossible! Unless of course sprites had mental stats because they have device ratings... "If a device is completely unattended, the Device Rating stands in for any Mental attributes an icon needs but doesn’t have." So by this you might infer that your sprites can now straight murder people via brute force and hack on the fly because they can be summoned at whatever resonance you are ballsy enough to attempt it at and they effectively get double that in a dice pool. I personally recommend 7 or 8 because you are a human edge machine that really likes having stupid good sprites and you have a wizard boosting your willpower to absurd levels for a time being so that you resist the fade. The best part is that you can get them to do these absurd checks with one service for the number of initiative passes they get. So minimum 2, most likely 3-4, possible 5. You can own a building if you have enough sprites working for you and you quickly switch all electronics to being under your control via sprite spammed marks (they still have to hand the marks to you.) Oh, and you don't have to re-summon sprites, just effectively re-bind them, so that drain sink is gone. This whole build basically requires you to be able to eat drain and have high enough charisma to command a small army of sprites. I like elves and humans but dwarves aren't bad either. You need few skills because you will have the two resonance skills (compiling and registering) at 5 and your sprites will do your actions for you better than you. So Magic A, Attributes and Metatype at B or C, Skills D, Resources E. I am now looking for a good way to have sprites ride around in drones after I realized that while they had the attributes they won't have the skills to use them (which made me sad.)
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Aug 16, 2013 11:38
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Bigass Moth posted:How well it works is up to your character build, but it's important to note that Edge is STUPIDLY powerful in this edition. Using Seize the Initiative or Blitz on any combat removes the need to IP boosting ware, and lets you do fun stuff like take cover immediately or check status destroying grenades at the threat. Push The Limit lets you add your Edge (Mr Lucky would have 7 or 8) to a roll BEFORE or AFTER which is insane and also removes limits AND gives you exploding 6s. The two caveats I see are that both Seize the Initiative and Blitz only work for one combat turn rather then the entire fight, and that if you Push The Limit after you roll, the exploding 6's are only for the Edge dice. That said, Edge is overall extremely good in SR5, far more then SR4, and I like that the recharge bit encourage you to actually play as someone with more luck then sense.
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Aug 16, 2013 12:11
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ProfessorCirno posted:The two caveats I see are that both Seize the Initiative and Blitz only work for one combat turn rather then the entire fight, and that if you Push The Limit after you roll, the exploding 6's are only for the Edge dice. That said, Edge is overall extremely good in SR5, far more then SR4, and I like that the recharge bit encourage you to actually play as someone with more luck then sense. With 7 or 8 initiative you can use edge every round if you need to, but if you throw a Pepper Punch grenade in your first action there probably won't be a second combat round.
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Aug 16, 2013 12:30
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dirtycajun posted:"If a device is completely unattended, the Device Rating stands in for any Mental attributes an icon needs but doesn’t have." Stop right there. Sprites have a device rating but they are are not devices.
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Aug 16, 2013 12:56
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They have skills. If they couldn't use them, they wouldn't have them. Check out the example on page 254. It has a L3 courier sprite rolling matrix perception (a matrix action! [intuition + computer]) on six dice. So SOMEHOW a L3 courier sprite has six dice to do that with. I suggest that the sprite's skills are equal to it's level. That would leave 3 dice to come from somewhere, probably it's device rating.
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Aug 16, 2013 13:10
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Gobbeldygook posted:Stop right there. Sprites have a device rating but they are are not devices. oh no it's the fun police If I as a GM want it to work that way it does, and it's not like technos need the implied nerf of going full RAW (which is a dumb concept because people aren't robits).
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Aug 16, 2013 13:20
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OB_Juan posted:They have skills. If they couldn't use them, they wouldn't have them. Check out the example on page 254. Alternative response: 1. pg 236 posted:Your marks are specific and connected to your persona and whatever you’ve marked, so you can’t just give them out for others to place or transfer them to other people. 2. Build assumes there's a group expending their power to make the technomancer not suck at his job (mage who has increase willpower who can/will sustain it on him). That would be like Mr. Lucky assuming there's a mage that will sustain Force 6 Increase Reflexes on him so he's not actually at any disadvantage to anyone. 3. Roll to compile Roll [sprite level] Roll fading soak Roll register. Any damage you didn't soak will still be with you at this point as you must register before the sprite his 40 overwatch, which occurs in about 80 minutes. The max number of dice to Register at chargen is 16, so if you're trying to register a rating 8 sprite you have a 50/50 chance to fail unless you spend an edge here. Roll [sprite level*2] Roll fading soak. A force 8 sprite averages 5 hits (10 damage), but there's a 1 in 4 chance of 7+ hits. Your soak pool is, best case, 15 dice or an average of 5. In any case, you're going to take some physical Fading damage unless you spend (more?) edge here. Roll your medicine or someone else's. Roll body*2. Your body is probably like 3, so 2 hits/day. Repeat until healed. Repeat during downtime until the other players/GM get sick of it and ask you why you couldn't just play a decker.
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Aug 16, 2013 13:53
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You're talking about rolling six handfulls of dice and determining the results (then your character takes a nap). Maybe two need the GM. You can probably do this while the group is doing anything else. Or while waiting for Captain Late to show up. Or while the mage is talking to his mentor spirit, or while the adept and sam are arguing who has the biggest dicepool. It really doesn't have to slow the game down.
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Aug 16, 2013 14:12
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Gobbeldygook posted:fun hating -Actually nevermind there is no rebuttal here, I keep forgetting 3 marks does not equate to ownership. I apologize. 2. It doesn't assume it, it is just nice to have. Use all your edge instead. 3.Okay I will give you this one, my original idea and one I forgot to mention is that at character creation you spend one karma per resonance level 7 sprite that you want to get them with one service. You would then proceed to re-register them at your leisure and not have to survive two tests. So in retrospect all having a bunch of spirits is really good for is murdering all the Matrix users in the area, forcing them off their devices, and spending your time surreptitiously gaining three marks on a thing then format/rebooting it and laughing as it permabricks on a lot of devices at a time. dirtycajun fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Aug 16, 2013 |
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Aug 16, 2013 16:25
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There is an opportunity cost to Sprites, but once you have paid that cost (generally ahead of time, keep in mind) you have a set pool of tasks. Even if you make lesser power sprites, keep in mind the following facts: As a Technomancer, you can follow the party around in ARO/VR, essentially constantly hotsim'ed. You probably want to be at home with an IV drip in your arm and Doc-Wagon on speed dial, though, because Matrix Damage is just straight up real damage to you. On the plus side, it means aside from Body you really don't care about your physical stats. You can interact with the 'real world' via the Matrix in a way that an Astrally Projecting mage simply can't, if only because of Drones etc. Technically mages could make homunculi and eventually they'll put out the rules for golems, and mages will once again Rule Supreme, but until they can astrally direct their construct and spirit horde, you can do a close approximation via Drones and Sprites. Tasks increase action economy. In Shadowrun, the biggest problems Deckers have is being poo poo in combat due to the fact that other actions take precedence. An action you could take bricking a gun is an action you could take throwing a pepper punch. A sprite in a drone with a wireless detonation pepper punch grenade is a free combat action you are not spending your own to do, allowing you to go about other business. Outside of combat, the Sprites can take Matrix Perception actions for you, allowing you to focus on the business of Technomancy instead of constantly searching for hidden devices like Deckers are forced to. Essentially you have to abuse the action economy of Sprites because that is the leg up you have over a Decker; you have the tasks and actions and the Decker does not. If you just try to make a Technomancer who is a 'living deck' and thats it, yes, you are worse than the Decker in every way. If you make a virtual ghost who lives in the matrix and summons sprites and registers them all the drat time and casts matrix spells that have no Decker analogue, you have your own niche that you can be very effective at.
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Aug 16, 2013 18:06
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As someone completely new to Shadowrun, thanks to Returns, I'm looking for more lore on Ares Macrotech, Zeta-Imp Chem, and Cyberzombies. What would be the best source/splatbooks to read to get an idea for what these companies would and wouldn't do and the process of going from a corp runner to a chromed out corp asset to a full blown abomination?
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Aug 17, 2013 01:26
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OK, I've run three sessions of 5e, and these are some things I hate: 1. The initiative system's kinda horrible. People are constantly moving down due to wounds, lightning damage, etc. Fine if you're a major NPC or a player, but it's a pain to keep track of when you're running a squad of goons. Also, the sheer value of having a high initiative score is so enormous that unenhanced characters might as well stay home. Why hire a squad of guards with D6+8 initiative, when you can get a drone at a fraction of the cost that gets 4D6+8? I guess you could drug them up, but that doesn't seem very sustainable and it adds on even more expense for bringing along human security. 2. Everyone has to roll too many dice. Basic actions requiring a roll of a pool of 15 dice is a bit of a joke, and it's only going to get worse as my runners get more powerful. I've taken to simply dividing the number of dice my NPCs have by 3, then rolling a single D6 - if I get a 1 or 2, they lose a hit, if I get a 5 or 6, they gain a hit. Speeds stuff up a lot. 3. Recoil is a pain in the rear end for the GM. I've taken to arming everyone with single-shot weapons so I can ignore it. 4. Just buying illegal gear (99% of the stuff you buy, in short) is a pain in the rear end. You have to roll dice to see if you can find every item, which means you can't just give your players a bunch of cash and let them come back next week with a bunch of new kit, you have to sit there while the face character rolls dice. Alternatively, you just say, "You can find anything under availability 12, bug me if you want something big". 5. The organisation of many parts of the rulebook is pretty bad. Try finding out how to cast a lightning ball spell. First you've got the spell description in one place, you have to look in another for how you resist drain, another for how area spells scatter, and yet another for what lightning damage does. In the end I just rewrote the rulebook so the spell description actually told you how to cast it and what it did. I still can't find how long it takes for a heal spell to "become permanent". In short, I still love Shadowrun's setting, but the rules really don't want me to enjoy myself.
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Aug 17, 2013 01:56
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Gort posted:OK, I've run three sessions of 5e, and these are some things I hate: 1. Keep track of your "goons" in a single initiative pass if that's a problem. If you're taking generalizations and shortcuts (shortcuts are often very important in GMing--this is not a dig) for other things, there's not reason to get detailed on this. That's one of the reasons why drone riggers are typically employed by security firms: they are very effective at what they do. A good security team will have many drones that can go toe-to-toe on initiative passes, but likely not on damage output or capabilities. What most drones generally don't have is a real physical presence outside of a gun and a camera. In many instances you still need the metahuman touch to ensure that intruders are routed, interrogated, arrested, etc. 2. It is true that everything in Shadowrun uses boat-loads of dice. To me that's half the fun, but your system sounds like a fine way to go so long as it works for you. 3. Very much in the way you're generalizing other things, if you slip up and add/subtract some dice incorrectly due to recoil when using an assault rifle or something no one is going to notice. Unless you're intentionally hitting your targets with pinpoint accuracy on your third initiative pass of going full auto I don't think it will matter in the long run. Make it fair and fun. 4. For general gear, letting them purchase from the book can be okay, but buying most supplies, weapons, etc. in Shadowrun is a lot more important than buying a Shortsword +2. It takes a minute, but you can make a fun roleplaying experience out of having vendors and contacts deal with your people. You can ever make side-jobs for supply runs and doing people "favors" for equipment. Maybe occasionally offer them experimental or insanely dangerous stuff off-the-books, like a sawed-off rocket launcher for half off. What a deal! 5. Everyone is in agreement that their editor was either phoning it in or drunk.
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Aug 17, 2013 02:49
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Just glancing at it, the recoil preservation across multiple action phases or initiative passes or whatever the Hell (look, they're turns) seems silly. Has anyone played without that particular rule, to see if it really hurts anything? The idea of the following action sequence still carrying a recoil penalty on the second shot is kinda dumb: Turn 1: Free Action to send a text, Simple Action to snap off a shot from a SA pistol, Simple Action to dive behind a couch. Turn 2: Free Action to yell out a witty taunt. Simple Action to pop up over the couch. Simple Action to fire a SA pistol shot with a recoil penalty from last turn.
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Aug 17, 2013 03:22
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1. Don't take PierreTheMime's suggestion. This only works with small numbers of weak grunts. After a point, running with every enemy going on one init can result in the entire group being wiped out in one initiative pass. Drones have high init but terrible defensive stats. If they are controlled by a drone Pilot, their dice pools are terrible and they are easily confused (drones need to spend a complex action and roll whenever they encounter something strange and surreal) 2. Don't do that. Swingy results keep combat interesting. Make players roll their own dice and count their own hits. You may find it helpful to put some green nail polish on 5 & 6 and red on 1. 3. Yeah gently caress the new recoil rules. Until they errata it into something useable, I highly recommend just going back to old recoil: Recoil comp is per initiative pass and does not loving carry over between passes. 4. You may want to try the SR4 Missions rules which were created for exactly that reason (everyone hounding the Face to buy them crap at the end of the run): quote:If you utilize your contacts to get an item, each contact can I was often a bit mushy with the rules for availability for playability reasons in SR4 and I'd hand out new contacts pretty freely. Like if they met a yakuza-affiliated gun runner once, they could just call them later when they wanted guns and often he would just have them on hand. He wouldn't necessarily have what they wanted (I'd roll for that), but he wouldn't just say, "welp even though selling guns is literally my job I don't have guns for you to buy right now sorry  "
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Aug 17, 2013 03:22
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Gort posted:.... Pretty much what Pierre said. My two cents. I pretty much agree with your gear buying approach and do something similar. Even if they gently caress the roll, I tend to let them throw something like an extra 50% or double or something appropriate to the legality/availability to get it anyway so long as I'm not terrified by the implications of their purchase. For heal (or any other permanent) spells becoming permanent it's after sustaining the spell for (Force) combat turns. You can take hits off of healing to knock the time down by 1 turn per hit used. So, if you get 6 hits on a force 6 spell, you could heal 4 boxes in 4 turns. [rules on p. 283, at the DURATION section in that tail end of Spell Characteristics at the top]
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Aug 17, 2013 03:23
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Geekkake posted:Just glancing at it, the recoil preservation across multiple action phases or initiative passes or whatever the Hell (look, they're turns) seems silly. Has anyone played without that particular rule, to see if it really hurts anything? The idea of the following action sequence still carrying a recoil penalty on the second shot is kinda dumb: That's not how recoil works. See, the wording is really dumb in the book. "Recoil penalties are cumulative over every Action Phase and Combat Turn unless the character takes, or is forced into, an action other than shooting for an entire Action Phase." Basically everyone read that as ""Recoil penalties are cumulative over every Action Phase and Combat Turn unless the character takes, or is forced into, an action other than shooting (for an entire Action Phase.)" I.E., you had to spend a full action phase not shooting for it to reset. However, the developers have stated that is not correct. The actually way that sentence should be read is "Recoil penalties are cumulative over every Action Phase and Combat Turn unless the character takes, or is forced into, an action other than (shooting for an entire Action Phase.)" All you have to do to stop recoil from accumulating is to take a simple action to do anything else.
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Aug 17, 2013 05:40
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When rolling Hacking on the Fly, it's defended by Intuition + Firewall. What does this mean if you're hacking a vehicle? What would the vehicle roll in defence? I'm guessing Pilot???
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Aug 17, 2013 06:01
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 20:58 |
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children overboard posted:When rolling Hacking on the Fly, it's defended by Intuition + Firewall. A device rolls its device rating as the attribute if it's completely unattended, or the user's intuition. For a random car, that's going to be a 2 (see page 234).
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Aug 17, 2013 06:12
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