Shadowrun Fifth Edition: Same great Cyberpunk, now with 20% more Neon!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Shadowrun Fifth Edition: Same great Cyberpunk, now with 20% more Neon!

«‹›5 »

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

I remember one game (that never went anywhere) where we were strongly considering funding a very, very pink mohawk group to draw attention off our mirroshades jobs.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2013 13:03

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 18:10

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Forums Terrorist posted:

Would there be any interest in an IRC for talking Shadowrun, similar to what #acolyte does for warhams roleplayers?

Why yes! Perhaps it could be named #shadowrun, and run by somebody extremely handsome and awesome!

# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 17:59

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Laphroaig posted:

Eh, a light crossbow should theoretically be as concealable as a light pistol,

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.

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.

You are meant to be the exceptional few who beat the odds by breaking the rules, be a god drat Shadowrunner.

And yeah, getting through something like a major airport as a Runner, even if you ditch all your gear at the safehouse, is capital-t Tricky.

That's what smuggler contacts are for.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2013 04:52

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

You know.

If it works like this, how did life and civilization last 50-odd years after the return of magic? :staredog:

# ¿ Sep 28, 2013 06:52

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kai Tave posted:

Because the last 50 years haven't had vehicle rules that can best be described as completely loving stupid.

I figure this is one of those cases where the GM handwaving things and going "magic" is actually less a dumb copout and more "no, this is legitimately dumb, you get there really super fast but don't actually reduce downtown Seattle to a glowing crater."

Yeah, I just don't remember hearing about a massive in-world change in how magic works that suddenly made civilization-destroying cars a possibility.

Poil posted:

This is awesome and should be in the OP, along with the calculation posts for the addiction rules (where a guy who drank a cup of coffee everyday burned out and died in two weeks)

I think the guy was misreading things.

It takes something like 8 months for the coffee junkie to die, if he has one cup a week. :pseudo:

# ¿ Sep 28, 2013 23:52

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Prism posted:

No coffee junkie drinks only one cup a week. Clearly unrealistic.

Having more cups doesn't affect the frequency of the tests, if I remember correctly. If you have anywhere from 1 to 1000 cups of coffee a week, you're on the road to dying from your addiction.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 05:24

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

If I didn't have approximately zero design experience I would be so tempted to blackjack and hookers up my own Shadowrun knockoff. :doh:

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 09:26

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

I've often wondered how well a more Mirrorshades crew hiring some Pink Mohawk types to go cause a diversion to distract people from their job would work. Slip them some gas masks and K-10 chem grenades for their "job", or ask them to steal something and then give them a pile of explosives, that sort of thing.

That way all the attention of Lone Star and such would be focused on that mess while you go in smooth and quiet to do whatever the hell you're planning.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2013 01:58

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Poil posted:

Um, according to 4E vampires can get wared up. However they can only get deltaware or higher, can't use genetech plus a few over things and their bodies slowly reverse any plastic surgery. Also finding a place willing to install the ware is a lot more difficult.

... "or higher"? Since when does cyber go over deltaware? :raise:

# ¿ Nov 14, 2013 03:19

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Mystic Mongol posted:

Ignore Poil's dumb advice, you take a specalization in Demon Rats. Sure, Devil Rats are more common but they're pretty easy to herd anyway so who cares. Then you round up a few hundred and send them into corporate buildings to eat everyone alive.

Your games must be Pink Mohawk as gently caress, no way you'd get away with that in something heavily Mirrorshades. For that, you need goats, all the way.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2013 00:18

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Tippis posted:

That mainly left the universal problems of getting into close quarters in a firearms world to begin with�

Couldn't you deal with that by A: being an elf, and B: getting a lot of actions out of the init system so you could move your run speed every one of them? Wait now we're back to needing init bonuses again :v:

# ¿ Dec 3, 2013 16:44

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Deviant posted:

No, you only move a fixed amounte per combat turn, broken up over all your initiative passes.

We were talking about 2e, where I believe this was not the case, you just moved X per action you spent moving. So being wired to the gills meant you could move much, much faster.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 09:01

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Tippis posted:

That depended on the kind of movement you were going for and on a technicality in the wording, and it wasn't nearly as bad as it is often portrayed. The key sentence that everyone missed was that �characters with multiple actions may run only in one of those combat phases�. The wording (and a pretty silly GM that allows walking to be faster than running) would conceivably allow for multiple walk actions in a turn, but even then, you would have had to roll an initiative of 31+ to get more walk actions than the standard running multiplier� except that a running character could get a running test to increase their effective quickness.

Even using the walk-movement exploit, being wired (as in reflexes) to the gills only added a maximum of 24 above base on your initiative roll if you rolled all sixes, so getting 31+ to get a fourth opportunity to walk was rare in and of itself, and again, someone rolling a decent amount of successes on a running test would keep up.

I don't see what's preventing you from using non-run movement options on your other actions?

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 18:34

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Deviant posted:

the PhysAd powers who was technically kidnapped and dragged on this run, and is planning to put a bullet in her own head as soon as the team re-enters a Docwagon response zone (me)

Wait, DocWagon can fix massive brain trauma now?

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 18:38

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Deviant posted:

Putting up with the team is causing me massive brain trauma.

Well, either there's no point in waiting to off yourself or you should shoot yourself somewhere DocWagon can fix then!

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 20:21

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

My point is that I don't think shooting themselves in the head is likely to leave them in a saveable state.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2013 02:20

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Diaghilev posted:

The image provided in the book does not support the idea that this was meant to be an elephant gun of some sort. Also, the hell with it--if we're going to discuss a single gun from this book, I'll post the text of it. I don't expect posting a single gun out of the gun catalog will be a problem. Forgive the weird coloring surrounding the image, I copied this using mspaint.

Did the person who wrote that not know it is actually pretty easy to make non-auto version of autofire weapons? :confused:

# ¿ Dec 17, 2013 23:33

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Are there any guns in .50 BMG or the like in the books to compare damage to?

# ¿ Dec 18, 2013 07:38

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

ProfessorCirno posted:

Edit: Also as far as buying it...your call. I mean, I'd say don't buy it until errata is released, but even as messy as it is, I'd still take it WAY before SR4

Ah, damning with faint praise, just what I want to hear about a system! :v:

# ¿ Dec 18, 2013 21:25

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Veyrall posted:

Why do people apparently keep making Troll mages? I never saw anything particularly good about it except maybe having a tough mage, but all the mages I ever played were human or elf because the stats seemed to work out better. Did I miss something?

Drain resistance, maybe?

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 02:34

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Mystic Mongol posted:

Firing Line is an astonishingly stupid pdf.

Who are the Knights of the Dragon? Why do they have the resources to throw dozens of cybernetically advaced initiated adepts at the party with katanas, fanatical combatants who's only goal in life is to present a level appropriate challenge and have no fear of death? Seriously the party killed like 20 of them, where did they come from?

I'm pretty sure fluff-wise you shouldn't be ABLE to assemble dozens of cybered adepts because most adepts don't WANT to gently caress up their magical abilities because they don't get to read the rulebooks and think about things from a purely mechanical perspective.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 21:36

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

InfiniteJesters posted:

And then we have Deus Ex: Human Revolution where a 10mm pistol---that's basically a stronger .40 round, based on what I know---does less damage than a .357. Everyone automatically associates the word 'Magnum' with 'bigger than non-Magnum'.

You know the width of a bullet isn't the be-all end-all of how deadly it is to be shot with it right?

# ¿ Feb 11, 2014 20:36

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Poil posted:

Having a medkit built into the gun would be weird, but practical... I guess? Unless it makes it too bulky.

No, it's supposed to look like one on scanners.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2014 19:16

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

bunnielab posted:

Yeah, I do see that, but I think the theme of inevitable betrayal is a sound one. Even looking at irl organized crime and racketeering stuff, a huge percentage of the time these guys fall because of a betrayal of some sort. And I would assume that working as a deniable and disposable asset you would often run into issue with getting payed. poo poo, I am a non criminal freelance worker and I have issues with this poo poo.

How are there any shadowrunners if they never get paid, though? Their gear and stuff costs money, man.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 14:57

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Cyclomatic posted:

To be honest, I've found the Shadowrun rules work best when you avoid using them where at all possible.

Which really raises the question of what you're paying Catalyst for.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2014 07:05

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Tippis posted:

That's been the description all along, as I recall it. Delta capability is a prerequisite for cybermancy, not the other way around.

Is it "absolutely a requirement to even start" or is it just "if you can do cybermancy, you can afford deltaware and you should to get the most mileage out of your absurdly difficult expensive process"?

# ¿ Feb 23, 2014 23:27

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Mystic Mongol posted:

Shadowrun! (What the hell's the tone of this game again)

sure would be loving nice if they would ever decide that wouldn't it.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 09:19

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Mystic Mongol posted:

Which edition was the adventure where a woman tazers a member of the party, harvests his sperm while he's unconscious, impregnates herself, and threatens to shoot the runner's unborn child if he doesn't do the run for her? I think it was second.

This was seriously presented as leverage to force the PCs into the adventure, right? Not a "what the poo poo is wrong with this crazy woman"?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 10:45

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

bunnielab posted:

I have always though the idea of a game where in the players act as a Omar to the ncp runner's dealers would be fun. I bet setting yourself up as a fake Johnson and sending shadowrunner teams into ambushes would work a few times before someone figured it out and you got slaughtered. I think there a a ton of fun ideas using the setting in atypical ways that would work great for a one-off or short campaign.

I would totally play Cyberpunk Recettear.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2014 01:22

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

ProfessorCirno posted:

Shadowrun doesn't have in depth salesman rules for the same reason D&D doesn't.

I'd play D&D Recettear too.

Oh wait I did it's called Recettear :v:

# ¿ Mar 1, 2014 02:57

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Tippis posted:

Kind of, yes, but it wasn't really formalised until somewhere late SR2/early SR3 iirc. Still, the main point was that there was none of this individual-limb book-keeping. Modifications affected your entire body and your single attribute, period. In defence of the game designers, though, I think that some of it came out of bioware getting more common and accepted. The whole rebate system worked fine for cyberware but didn't make much sense if you implanted muscle toning in the meat portion of your body.

It still gives a rebate, since it's cheaper to tune up your arm to match your new rest-of-body strength than it is to bioware it up and it doesn't take any (more) essence! Simple! :science:

You are probably still in the hole essence-wise compared to the bioware option since you chopped off a limb, but maybe you wanted some feature that doesn't work at all on organic limbs.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2014 09:19

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

I stand by my assertion the last time we had this conversation, that you can turn off your wireless on your gear, but it's also illegal as gently caress and if anybody notices you anyway, you're basically wearing a bright neon "I AM COMMITTING A SERIOUS CRIME" sign. Even being able to is an illegal modification.

You'd probably even get hassled for using stuff that doesn't have wireless in the first place.

Plus shadowrunners are rare, so the tales about somebody getting their arm hacked and it choking them to death are just that: tales. Urban legends. Spooky stories people tell each other. Unless you're a runner and know it is in fact possible, you saw this poo poo-hot hacker do it once.

Tippis posted:

But yes, that. I'll maintain that it's in part a mechanics problem though, since there's pretty much nothing in the rules that even hints at this inefficiency and waste. Instead, it's presented more in the form of “you can also get [useless added functionality] if you really want to” without ever explaining why you'd want it.

Yeah. If turning your wireless off is something you shouldn't do much, the rules should reflect this in a combination of wireless bonuses it hurts to give up, and penalties for doing so like a security scan turning up a gun without a corresponding wireless signal and suddenly some men in armor want to have a discussion with you.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 05:58

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Deviant posted:

Got a page number? This sounds wrong.

No but I know this general conversation has happened before. Might have been in the 4e thread? :shrug:

Tippis posted:

Come to think of it, that ties neatly into a hand-wave we came up with for a one-shot weekend adventure our group ran a while back with some new players. They asked how on earth the game handled the fact that there is plenty of blatantly obvious cyberware that, no matter how restricted, is still something that ordinary people have. Yes, cyberarm gyromounts are forbidden, but a whole buch of corp security and military guys will have them. Does this mean that they will not be able to go and buy milk or have a drink at the bar?

What we concluded was that, no, they can live a normal life. It's just that when they go through a cyberware scanner, the ware will be set up in �legal mode� and will happily report its presence and device ID to the scanner along with a registration code. The scanner can then go to Teh Online Cyber Registration Database� and see that, yes, this is actually something this person is allowed to have. It also notifies the user that, �hey, we don't actually like your gear around here so if we lose the signal or if it suddenly reports itself as being activated, the alarms will go off� have a nice day�. If the scanner spots a piece of gear without this friendly wireless conversation, it will get really upset and the aforementioned men in armour will appear.

Now, we discussed it in the context of cyberware, but it really can apply to anything.

Yeah. And the usual way runners would get their gear in through this kind of checkpoint would be convincing the checkpoint that it's okay to have it and/or it's in a state where it can't easily be activated. Going Dark would be what you do when just being there at all will get you in such deep poo poo the extra poo poo from having your wireless illegally disabled is not an issue, what are they gonna do kill you twice?

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 06:29

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

bunnielab posted:

I guess coming from a "haven't played a game sense AD&D 1st ed and early WOD" perspective I just kinda assume that very group is going to have to house rule the poo poo out of any game system.

I remember thinking like that, but these days I prefer if I am paying some game designers money to not have to finish the job for them.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 06:36

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kai Tave posted:

That's probably because the writers and designers who decided to include technomancers in the game didn't really think about this stuff either.

This is why I don't actually own 5e yet. :sigh:

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 07:28

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Kai Tave posted:

In fairness Technomancers are a 4E invention. The 5E team didn't create that problem so much as inherit it.

I learned my lesson the hard way yes.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 07:32

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Doc Dee posted:

It's not "illegal as gently caress," but it's seriously frowned upon.

As in "law enforcement/corpsec will gently caress your poo poo up if you're not broadcasting a SIN" frowned upon.

Oh. OH!

No this was a proposed different way of handling it.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 10:02

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

MohawkSatan posted:

If that's the technical meaning of otaku, does that make me gun otaku?

It's a nasty insult, so.... maybe?

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 01:04

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

On the other hand, having higher Accuracy sounds like it should directly help you instead of just limiting you less.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2014 06:31

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 18:10

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Mystic Mongol posted:

Basically you turn, partially or fully, into some obscure Earthdawn monster because of a comet.

Which Earthdawn supplement had the catgirl porn stars in it? Because I don't remember those.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2014 22:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Shadowrun Fifth Edition: Same great Cyberpunk, now with 20% more Neon!

«‹›5 »