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**************************************** * SHADOWFAQ * * Frequently Asked Questions * * for the Shadowrun RPG * **************************************** As of: Sept 1, 1994 Version: 3.1.9 Compiled by: Wordman (lward@husc.harvard.edu) This post is posted monthly and is meant to answer some FAQ (frequently asked questions) about FASA's Shadowrun and to suggest some house rules which hope to fix some of Shadowrun's deficiencies. These deficiencies have become much fewer in number since Shadowrun II was released, and most of the rules in here are meant to be used with SRII. Some common fixes for SRII are still included for use with SRI, for those of you odd enough to be using it, and these will be tagged with <OLD>. Entirely new rules systems and/or long, radically different rules are not included in these posts, for the sake of brevity, if nothing else. So, you will not find, for example, rules for martial arts or new types of spirits. The house rules were put together from the posts of the people posting to rec.games.frp, rec.games.cyber and flashlife. This post contains the entire FAQ, divided into categories. The categories are: general -- questions about real world stuff armor -- most of these are for SRI, as armor in SRII seems OK. combat -- guns, melee and initiative decking -- matrix, decking, deckers, decks magic -- sorcery, phys ads, enchanting, conjuring mechanics -- dice, metahumanity, misc. Generally, each entry in this post starts with a general FAQ, then attempts to answer the question under vanilla Shadowrun rules, if applicable. Following this are house rules relating to and/or answering the question or concern. Many of the house rules go very well with other house rules. The intent of these posts is to modularize each house rule into simple components which may be mixed and matched. CHOICES: Where two very similar house rules existed, either the more complex of the two was used, or two sub-variants were listed. Some subtleties were left out to cut down on the length of this post. FEEDBACK: The vanilla answers to some FAQs may be in error or dispute. Usually an SR rule is specific as to meaning, so conflicting interpretations of a rule should be rare. If you disagree with a vanilla answer, mail lward@husc.harvard.edu and state your alternate case. Please note that this is if you disagree with the listed vanilla INTERPRETATION of a rule, not the rule itself. An attempt was made to give vanilla answers in the way which seemed to be consensus when disscussed on rec.games.frp If you disagree with a posted house rule, please do NOT send mail to lward@husc.harvard.edu. Just don't use it. If you have a house rule that seems reasonable, please post it to rec.games.frp. If it is general enough, it will find its way onto these lists. PERSONAL NOTE FROM THE COMPILER: My apologies for not including the names of the authors of the house rules. I feel that this had more cons than pros (not the least of which was, quite honestly, my having to keep track of who did what). I do not necessarily agree with or use the house rules in these posts. I have attempted to take my opinions out of these posts all together, but I'm sure they seep in anyway. Again, my apologies. Enjoy, Wordman lward@husc.harvard.edu ********************************** * OUTLINE * ********************************** I. General A. Titling posts B. About NAGEE C. Internet Shadowrun resources D. Kage magazine E. Shadowrun Products II. Armor A. Weakening Armor (for SRI) B. Layering Armor III. Combat A. Initiative 1. Slowing down mages a. Stacking initiative increases. 2. ...and the rule of 6. B. Hit location. C. Grenades D. Modifiers E. Narcojet weapons F. Flechettes IV. Decking A. Starting decker's costs B. GMing Deckers C. Persona programs D. Hacking pool E. Examples 1. Sleaze with auto-exec 2. Sleaze without auto-exec 3. Black IC F. Sensors V. Magic A. Increase Initiative Spells B. Spell Locks 1. Grounding spells 2. Locking vs. Quickening 3. Karma for locks 4. Turning off locks C. Foci 1. First Bonding 2. Masking Foci D. Physical Adepts and metemagic E. Superiority 1. Mages vs. Shaman 2. Physical Adepts vs. Samurai F. Alienation G. Grounding 1. Through Quickenings 2. Through astral magicians 3. Using damaging manipulations H. Glass in astral space I. Spirits 1. Nature Sprits and Manifest VI. Mechanics A. Dice 1. The Rule of Six 2. High rolling B. Stacking skillwires C. Concentrations and Specializations D. Karma Awards ********************************** * GENERAL * ********************************** ******* G1: How should I title my posts? ******* Please, please, please put a header on your post identifying it as a Shadowrun post. The most common way of doing this is by putting SRUN: or SRII: in front of the post name. Of all the things in this post, this is the most important. Just do it. Everyone will be happier. ******* G2: Where can I get the Neoanarchist's Guide to Everything Else? ******* This net.book (not to be confused with the FASA product "The Neoanarchist's Guide to Real Life) contains SR articles of every description. Issues 1-4 were compiled by Jerry Stratton. Issue 5 was compiled by Tony Moller. The NAGEE is available by anonymous ftp from cerebus.acusd.edu in the /pub/Role-Playing/Shadowrun/NAGEE directory. The last issue of NAGEE released was number 5. ******* G3: What other SR resources exist on Internet? ******* Flashlife: Send name and email address to flashlife-request@kpc.com FTP Archive: ftp.umd.umich.edu /pub/frp/srun This is where to find the Equipment list and the character sheets that I did. It is also a good archive, so send stuff there if you need to. CyberRPG: (mailing list of rec.games.cyber postings) Bunch o' stuff: archive-server@veritas.com Send a mail message with a body of "send help" on one line and "send index" on the next Jayhawk: Mary Kuhner's fiction at ftp.white.toronto.edu /pub/frp/shadowrun/jayhawk Discussion Group: shadowrn@hearn.bitnet Mirror archive for Australian runners: yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au /pub/frp/shadowrun. For information mail ftp@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au NERPS: cerebus.acusd.edu World Wide Web: http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mark/ http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~wigs/shadowrun.html ******* G4: Where can I get Kage? ******* Kage is a magazine licenced by FASA to provide new stuff at a constant rate of once every three months. Subscriptions are $20 (add $4 for postage to Canada or Mexico, and $6 to overseas). Checks payable to AWOL Productions 2101 West Broadway #305 POBox 6018 Columbia, MO 65205-6018 USA Also, those interested in the Official Shadowrun Fan Club, write to: Shadowrun Network P.O.Box 6018 Columbia, Missouri 65205-6018 ******* G5: What Shadowrun products are absolutely necessary to play? How much of this stuff do I need to buy? ******* This question comes up about every other month. The response is basically that you only absolutely need the main rulebook. The Grimore is also usually recommended as a must if you deal with magic significantly. In the list of prducts below, the results of a survey are listed. The survey asked a)if the responder owned the product, b) a rating from 1 to 10 of it, and c) a rating from 1 to 10 of how necessary the responder found it for their game. The first column listed is the percentage of total respondants who said they owned that product. The middle column is average rating given to the product of those who rated it. Note that not all respondants rated all products. The last column is an average of how crucial the respondants found the product. Again, the average is out of those who gave a crucial rating. As you can see by the lack of datal listed, this is not intended to be a deeply scientific survey. ******* G6: What are all the Shadowrun products currently out? What are their product codes? ******* See the above entry for what the numbers mean. RULES & TECHBOOKS: Shadowrun II, Softcover [7902] 100% 8.60 9.93 Downtown Militarized Zone [7111 53% 5.25 2.50 Fields of Fire [7114] GM's screen for SRII [7903] 80% 6.25 5.36 Grimore II [7903] 93% 7.93 7.85 Paranatural Animals of North America [7105] 87% 6.62 4.58 Paranatural Animals of Europe [7112] 67% 7.20 4.70 Rigger Black Book [7108] 93% 6.93 6.29 Shadowbeat [7109] 73% 6.36 4.00 Shadowtech [7110] 93% 8.14 6.85 Sprawl Maps [7401] Street Samurai Catalog [7104] 93% 7.07 7.00 Virtual Realities [7107] 100% 6.80 5.53 OUTDATED OR NO LONGER PRINTED: GM's screen First Edition 67% 4.70 2.14 Grimore First Edition [7106] 87% 6.92 4.36 Shadowrun First Edition [7100] 100% 7.13 5.58 Shadowrun II, Hardcover [7900] 100% 8.60 9.93 Sprawl Sites [7103] 80% 6.42 5.38 SOURCEBOOKS: Corporate Shadowfiles [7113] Denver Box Set [7212] London Sourcebook [7203] 60% 7.44 3.80 Lone Star Sourcebook [7115] Native American Nations Volume I [7202] 80% 6.50 4.83 Native American Nations Volume II [7207] 60% 6.67 4.67 Neoanarchist's Guide to North America [7206] 67% 6.40 5.27 Neoanarchist's Guide to Real Life [7208] 87% 7.54 5.69 Germany Sourcebook [7204] 6.90 8.14 Seattle Sourcebook [7201] 87% 7.54 6.50 Tir na nOg [7211] Tir Tairngire Sourcebook [7210] 67% 7.70 5.80 RUNS: Bottled Demon [7305] 67% 7.00 4.00 Celtic Double-cross [7315] Dark Angel [7313] 33% 7.20 5.40 Double Exposure (run/sourcebook) [7319] Dreamchipper [7303] 53% 6.25 4.25 Elven Fire [7310] 47% 6.00 3.83 Eye Witness [7316] Harlequin [7306] 80% 8.75 6.17 Imago [7309] 47% 7.57 4.67 Ivy and Chrome [7311] 60% 5.44 3.89 A Killing Glare [7314] 33% 5.80 2.75 One Stage Before [7312] 47% 6.43 4.83 Queen Euphoria [7304] Paradise Lost: Hawaii Sourcebook [7317] Total Eclipse [7308] 53% 5.38 1.86 Universal Brotherhood [7205] 53% 8.00 5.13 OUT OF PRINT RUNS DNA/DOA [7301] 67% 5.90 3.50 Dragon Hunt [7306] 53% 5.13 2.29 Mercurial [7302] 53% 7.00 5.00 FICTION: [ISBN codes] Instead of a crucial rating, here the last column gives an average (from 1 to 10) of how accurately the respondent felt the novel described the universe in which he or she ran. 2XS 60% 7.56 7.00 Changling 53% 6.88 6.63 Choose Your Enemies Carefully 60% 5.33 6.00 Find Your Own Truth 60% 5.00 5.88 Into the Shadows 60% 8.00 8.88 Never Deal with a Dragon 60% 5.56 6.00 Never Trust an Elf [0-451-45178-3] 53% 5.38 5.38 Night's Pawn [0-451-45310-7] 40% 7.67 7.67 Shadowplay [0-451-45228-3] 47% 7.29 7.14 Streets of Blood [0-451-45199-6] 40% 8.33 7.67 Striper Assassin [0-451-45313-1] 27% 5.25 5.00 Lone Wolf [0-451-45367-0] Fade To Black Nosferatu UPCOMING PRODUCTS: (titles may not be exact) The numbers for these products indicate a projected rating average, and an average of how likely the respondant is to buy it (1 to 10) Ares Security Catalog 2054 7.27 9.54 Bug City (new UB run) - Jan '95 Burning Bright (novel) - (Sep 94) Burnt Offering (novel) - (Mar 95) Corporate Security Guidebook 6.91 9.33 Divded Assets [7318] (run) - Nov '94 Harlequin's Back [7320] - Sep '94 9.17 8.92 Prime Runners (NPCs) - Oct '94 Running Short 7.27 8.08 RUMORS: (These have all been mentioned as being in production, but the validity of such claims is unknown). In the future "a major city will be vastly changed." "...and there's something in Tibet that you guys may never find out about." Neoanarchist's Guide to Europe 7.00 7.75 France Sourcebook Amazonia Sourcebook (a long way off) Africa Sourcebook (a long way off) ******* * G7: What are some good books for background reading? ******* Above and beyond the standard cyberpunk books (Neuromancer, et. al.) here are some books for specific facets of Shadowrun. Rigging: _Hardwired_, Walter Jon Williams Gangs: _Do_Or_Die_, Leon Bing, ISBN 0-06-092291-5 also, _Monster_, "Monster Kody" Shakur Upper-crust/political social gatherings: _The_Crown_Jewels_, Walter Jon Williams, ISBN 0-812-55798-0 U.S. State/City/Downtown Maps: _U.S._City_to_City_Atlas_for_the_ traveling_professional_, Pinstripe, ISBN 0-933162-45-6 Folklore, American Indian: _American_Indian_Myths_&_Legends_, Erdoes & Ortiz, ISBN 0-394-74018-1 Folklore, Mayan: _Popol_Vuh_, Dennis Tedlock, ISBN 0-671-61771-0 Magical Groups: _The_Historical_Illuminatus_Chronicles, Robert Anton Wilson Street Living: _Shade_, Emily Davenport, ISBN 0-451-45062-0 also, _Virtual_Girl_, Amy Thomspon, ISBN 0-441-86500-3 ********************************** * ARMOR * ********************************** ******* <OLD> A1: Armor is too powerful. What is to be done? ******* HOUSE 1: Treat the current autosuccesses from armor as auto-sixes. HOUSE 2: Armor does not give auto successes. It gives it's rating in dice (used as body dice) to damage resistance. VARIANT 1: Light armor gives 1 autosuccess in addition to dice. Heavy armor gives 2 autosuccesses in addition to dice. Form-fitting just gives dice. HOUSE 3: Armor as vanilla, but impact of attack can bruise. Resist damage with Body and dodge. If this does not get rid of the damage, then armor reduces damage. If any real damage gets through armor, the person takes that wound as normal, but if the armor absorbs all remaining damage, the character takes a stun wound equal to one wound category less than the damage that the armor cancelled. HOUSE 4: Armor gives no autosuccesses or dice. Instead it subtracts its rating from the Power of the attack. Zero power attacks do no damage. HOUSE 5: Armor degrades one point (permanently) if a) a weapon hits with a deadly damage code (regardless of whether the character resists the damage or not) or if b) the character inside the armor takes any damage at all. Note that both conditions can be satisfied from a single hit, degrading the armor by 2 points. This is the most that armor can be degraded by a single weapon hit. HOUSE 6: Roll a number of dice equal to armor rating. Add them together and divide power level of the attack (dropping all fractions). The result becomes the number of autosuccesses. ******* A2: If I wear a lined coat over a secure jacket, do I get the benefits of both? ******* VANILLA: No. Only the highest rating is valid. Armor is not cumulative. VANILLA (optional): Almost. You can layer armor, getting the rating of the highest, plus one-half (round-down) the rating of the next highest. Usuyally, you can only layer a jacket or coat over clothing style armor, so the lined coat/secure jacket ensamble is out. [This rule is on pg. 94 of the Neoanarchist's Guide to Real Life, which came out after SRII, giving it precidence.] HOUSE 1: Each additional suit adds 1 to the rating of the toughest armor. If the additional armor has no rating in the category it is resisting, it gives no bonuses. ********************************** * COMBAT * ********************************** ******* C1: How do I stop magicians with Increase Initiative Spell Locks from riding circles around cybered people? ******* VANILLA <OLD>: Since you are limited to a maximum of four actions, characters with very high initiative scores will likely run out of actions, dodge dice and defence dice very early on in combat, leaving them open to multiple attacks resisted without aid. PSEUDO-VANILLA: While not actually in the rulebooks, the following has been mentioned by Paul Hume and Tom Dowd: when "stacking" spells over cyberware, only the highest rating holds. Reaction enhancements are not cumulative. This doesn't answer the question, but is important. In SRII, there are no cyber versions of Increase Initiative spells. HOUSE 1: Disallow Increase Reaction spells. HOUSE 2 <OLD>: Change Increase Reaction spells to only gain one die for every TWO levels of the spell. Thus Inc. Reac. 2 is equivalent to Wired 1, Inc. Reac. 4 is equiv to Wired 2. HOUSE 3: Change the number of phases between a character's actions from 10 (7 in SRI) to a variable number, based on cyberware/spells. Everyone gets only one die for Initiative. The value of the roll is added to Reaction (cyber/spell adjusted). Normal characters get an action every 7 phases, other characters by this table (for SRI, subtract 3 from each of these values: wired boosted Increase Physical _level_______reflexes____reflexes____Reaction____Adepts__ 1 7 8 9 8 2 6 7 8 6 3 5 6 7 5 4 - - 6 4 VARIANT 1: This same idea, but limiting the Reaction bonuses of the types of cyberware and/or spells as well (+1 per level of wired, for example, instead of +2). VARIANT 2: Don't use the table, but say that each extra die acts as a -1 decrement from the 10 base cycle rate. The extra dice are not rolled for initiative. HOUSE 4: Much like house 3 above, this uses an alteration of the base instead of extra dice. The normal time between actions is 8. All normal bonuses to reaction add a flat +2 to whatever their normal value is. Each extra die provided by an augmentation under normal rules reduces the time between actions by one. ******* C2: Does the rule of 6 apply to initiative? ******* VANILLA: No. Initiative is not a test and the rule of 6 applies only to tests. [This can be found in the eratta sheets]. HOUSE 1: Yes. HOUSE 2: Yes, but only to the natural die (the 'free' die that everyone gets for initiative; extra dice from cyber are as normal.) ******* C3: Shouldn't there be a hit location system? ******* VANILLA: The amount of damage done by shooting someone in SR is based on a skill roll. The more skill you have, the more damage you are likely to do. Since the amount of skill you possess does not change how hard the bullet hits, the only way to explain this is by saying that the more skill someone has, the more likely they are to shoot someone in a vital and/or exposed location. Therefore, a hit location system of sorts is built-in to the system. HOUSE 1: Use DMZ-like hit location system. Mark two damage tracks (one mental, one physical) as follows: +1 +2 +3 +4 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 D When a character is injured, roll 2d6 to determine where on the track the damage is applied. Wounds do the same number of "boxes" as in Shadowrun. For example, a Moderate wound with a 2d6 roll of 6 fills in boxes 6, 5 and 4, giving a +2 modifier to all the character's die rolls thereafter. Skip any boxes that are already filled in. At 0 the character is just unconscious; at D, comatose (mental) or dead (physical). Additional boxes on the Mental track wrap onto the Physical track. ******* C4: Why are grenades so wimpy? ******* VANILLA: SRII allows the number of successes to stage up damage as well as accuracy [SRII pg. 97, col. 2]. Also, use repurcussion rules. [SRII, pg. 97-98]. HOUSE 1: Increase the base damage of grenades to D. ******* C5: Where are the more obscure combat modifiers found? ******* Most of the modifiers to combat are on page 89 of SRII. Others are: Reactive trigger <OLD> extra shot for single shot weapons (Street Sam pg18,20) This is standard equipment on any gun that can use it in SRII and is basically ignored/incorporated into the combat rules. Ultrasound Sight negates visiblity mods (Street Sam, pg 36) Image Magnification (SRII pg 90, 240) ******* C6: How to narcoject weapons work? ******* VANILLA: Roll combat pool dice against "the target number". Then "if the test succeeds, the target makes a body test" against the toxin [SRII, pg 277]. The problem here is: what target number? While narcojet toxin is given a power rating, narcojet weapons are not, so... HOUSE 1: Attacker A rolls firearms dice normally. Target T rolls combat pool against A's firearms rating. T's sucesses are subtracted from A's. If the net sucesses are greater than one-half (round-down) T's impact armor, the dart penetrates and T must resist the effects of the drug with Body dice (not-including Dermal Armor, but some toxin fighting cyberware may apply). HOUSE 2: Give Narcojet weapons a power of 6 for the purposes of determining if the dart penetrates impact armor. Each success from the combat pool of the attacker increases the power. Each success of the combat pool of the target reduces the power. If the power is not reduced to 0, the toxin is injected, and the target must use body dice to resist the toxin. ****** C7: As written, the Viper is a powerful pistol. How do I stop it? ****** VANILLA: The Viper has a damage code of 9S(f). However, it is also capable of burst fire, giving a damage code of 12D(f). Against an armored target, this becomes 12S, which is rather a lot for a light pistol with a concealabililty of 6. HOUSE 1: Drop the Viper's base power to 6 instead of 9. HOUSE 2: Make the Viper incapable of burst fire. HOUSE 3: Unrealated to the above, a suggestion is made to make the viper an inherantly silent weapon that does not use bullets, but rather sprays the flechettes directly. This would make gas venting useless, but would likely reduce recoil anyway. It would also make ammunition expensive and unique. ********************************** * DECKING * ********************************** ******* D1. Using Virtual Realities rules, how does a starting decker use Tech to get a deck? Does he pay street costs? What about programs? ******* VANILLA: Continue to use the prices in the original rules for purposes of beginning equipment. HOUSE 1: Use street costs in Virtual Realities for decks and programs. Remember street decks do not come with MPCP chips. HOUSE 2: Use tech money to buy street cost equipment and the necessary hours of deck-making/programming time needed to build equipment and software. 100Y will give you one day of time. There are no skill rolls to cut the time nor can time overlap (i.e. no saving days by designing one component while another's chips are cooking). ******* D2. How to you keep non-decking players from being bored while decking is happening and vice-versa? ******* VANILLA: Use the quick and dirty resolution system from Virtual Realities. HOUSE 1: The Practical Approach: Create deckers that have combat or other skills. This keeps them in the action. HOUSE 2: The Practical But More Limiting To Your Players Approach: Use only NPC deckers. Have all decking happen behind the scenes. HOUSE 3: The Theatric Approach: Handle decking as a role-playing encounter, rolling dice only occasionally. A creative GM can keep all the players interested in the description of the place (use lots of sculpted systems) as well as have the decker interact with the Matrix the way it is intended to be -- on a human level. HOUSE 4: The Intellectually Unsatisfying but Very Effective Approach: Have the decker character run by himself. Literally. Give the player the node map (or make him make one up using the random tables in SR) and let him make all rolls for himself as well as IC. This requires trust- worthy players, but works well for many campaigns. HOUSE 5: The Multi-tasking Approach: Shift between Matrix and real action. This takes practice, but once the timing is down, it can be good. HOUSE 6: The Forethought Approach: Have the decker show up an hour or two early. Tell him in the vaguest possible terms what his objective in the matrix is. Keep careful track of the times of all significant events. When the appropriate moment comes in the regular gaming session, play out the events the decker caused to occur. ******* D3: Do Persona programs take up storage space? ******* No. They are hard-coded into optical chips in the deck. The size ratings given in the rules are useful only when you are writing one of these programs. ******* D4: What, exactly, makes up the hacking pool? ******* Hacking Pool = Natural React + Skill + (2*Response Increase Level). Cyberware (except for some of the new goodies in Shadowtech like the Math SPU) has NO effect on hacking pool. This includes cyberware which increases reaction unless otherwise stated (e.g. Wired and Boosted reflexes don't help at all). ******* D5: How the hell does decking work? ******* This example uses full Virtual Realities rules, including modes and load. Decker with Reaction: 5, Computer: 6, Intelligence: 6, Hacking Pool: 11 Deck: MPCP: 6 Attack: 6 (72Mp) Bod: 6 Auto-Execute: 4 (16Mp) Evasion: 6 Deception: 4 (32Mp) Masking: 6 Sleaze: 4 (48Mp) Sensors: 6 Hardening: 3 Response: 0 [Note, this deck is actually illegal. The sum of the persona ratings can't exceed 3 times the MPCP (in this case, 18). This error will not be fixed to keep the numbers a bit more managable.] NOTE: Whenever pool is mentioned, remember that the number of dice from the pool cannot exceed the rating of the utility being run. (SRII, pg 85.) Decker loads all utils to start with. Enters in Masking Mode with MPCP set at 6. This gives effective ratings of: Bod/Eva/Msk/Sen: 3/3/9/3 Load: 5 (MPCP/2 + (Mp in active mem)/100)) Decker tries to sleaze into a Green-4 SAN with an Access-4. SAN Green: 2 Threshold Rating: 4 Max Load: 8 IC Load: 2 Decker enters node to contact range, Load goes to 7 which is 'normal load'. SLEAZE with Auto-exec: Execution Test: none. SAN Rating - Auto-exec rating = 0. No T# penalty. Opposed Success Test Decker IC # of Dice 4 (Sleaze Rtg) + pool 4 (IC Rtg) Target Number 4 (Node Rtg) 9 (Deckers Masking) Decker wins if Her Succ - Node Succ > 2 The node wins if the same value is < 0 All other results (difference being 0,1 or 2) are 'ties'. SLEAZE without Auto-exec: Execution Test: Decker Node # of Dice 4 (Sleaze Rtg) + pool 4 (Node Rtg) Target Number 4 (Node Rtg) 9 (Deckers Masking) Decker wins if Her Succ - Node Succ > 2 The node wins if the same value is < 0 All other results (difference being 0,1 or 2) are 'ties'. Then as Opposed Success Test above. Pool does not refresh. Next situation: Datastore with Black IC:4. Black IC swarms out and attacks. This situation will almost never happen. The Black IC needs a trigger, like Access or Barrier or it will either a) never activate, or b) always activate when anyone -- even legitimate users -- enter the node. It could also come in, activated by an alert. If activated by alert, the Black IC acts as Probe IC, and would interrogate the decker when it found her. For the sake of the argument, let's say the decker failed to sleaze or deceive the Black IC. Since she was in a datastore scanning for data, she was probably in Sensor Mode. All utilities are still in active memory, giving her a load of 7. Let's say the Black IC has Shifting Defence (VR pg.22) When the IC activates, its load gets added to the node's. Assuming that its load rating is 2*rating, its load is 8; however, it also has Shifting Defence which increases the rating (ONLY for the purpose of determining load) by one, making the rating 5, giving a 10 load. When the IC activates, this 10 load is added to the 7 of the decker. 17 is 2 more than the Maximum Load of the node (see below). This sends the node into overload. This triggers a passive alert (but since the decker is being attacked, this is somewhat academic). IC behaves as if it were 2 rating points lower than normal, as do utilities. For simplicity (too late!), the events of this paragrph will be ignored in the following example. Datastore Orange: 3 Threshold Rating: 5 Max Load: 15 IC Load: 10 COMBAT Initiative: Decker gets 1d6 + Reaction. No pool. IC gets 7 (Orange Node) + 4 (IC's rating) = 11 (IC probably wins) IC Attack (The VR Black IC says "once the Black IC scores a hit the decker may Hang Tough or Jack Out." I take this to mean that the IC needs to score a hit in normal combat before it gets nasty; like having to touch someone for Poison Touch to work. This is not explicit in the rules, but my guess is the IC needs one net to start its process and DOES, incidentally, damage the DECK when it does so): Resisted Success Test: IC Attack: T# = 3 (Deck's current Bod (in Sensor Mode)) dice = 4 (IC Rating) Decker Resist: T# = 5 (Node Rtg) dice = MPCP + pool. Deck's hardening gives 3 auto-successes. If Decker gets more successes, no damage, Black IC hasn't got hold of her. Decker gets to attack. If the IC gets more successes, net successes apply to the damage track of the deck, Black IC gets hold. Black IC Effects (see below). Decker Attacks (w/ Auto-exec) Decker's pool refreshes Execution Test: none. Node Rating - Auto-exec = 1, so +1 to all Decker's T#s with the attack utility. Opposed Success Test Decker Attack: Decker IC # of Dice 6 (Attack Rtg) + pool 4 (IC Rtg) Target Number 8 (5(Node Rtg) + 2 due 3 (Deckers Bod) to IC's Shifting Defence + 1 due to Auto-exec) Side with greater number of successes damages the other. Decker must overcome threshold, IC must overcome hardening. If the attack program had a staging and Decker did damage, the damage would be the staging plus the net successes. If the Black IC hits, it gives the net successes in damage to the deck. Black IC Effects (see below). Decker Attacks (without Auto-exec) Decker's Pool refreshes Execution Test (aka Aiming): T#: 5 (Node Rating) dice: pool Total successes - 3 (for Node Threshold) add to the Attack Program's Rating for next step. If 0 net successes, attack misses. Resisted Success Test for Damage Decker: T# = 5 (Node rating) dice = 6 (Attack rtg) + # successes from Execution test + remaining pool. IC: T# = 6 (Decker's Computer skill) dice = 4 (IC Rating) Net successes apply to IC. If the Utility had a staging, the damage would be base staging plus net successes. Black IC Effects Decker's pool doesn't refresh Hang Tough Resisted Success Test IC: T# = Decker's Body (not Int in Virtual Realities) dice = 4 (Rating) Decker Resist: T# = 4 (IC Rating) dice = Her Body + remaining pool, Hardening Auto-succ. IC net successes do damage (one box/succes) to Decker. Jack Out Unresisted Test Decker: T# = 4 (IC Rtg) dice = willpower Any successes and she's out, but must use Body to resist 4M2 stun damage. Then she must resist Dump Shock (SR 102). ******* * D6: What good are Sensors? ******* VANILLA: Sensors only take part in play against other deckers. HOUSE 1: The Sensors rating is used as the number of dice for perception tests in the matrix. HOUSE 2: Any programs which rely on Sensors (like Analyze) cannot generate more successes than your Sensors rating. HOUSE 3: Change the target of IC resisting Sensor programs to Sensors rather than Evasion. ********************************** * MAGIC * ********************************** ******* M1: How do Increase Initiative spells work? ******* VANILLA: Each level of the spell adds an extra die to the caster's Initiative. The number of successes scored on the spell sucess test is irrelevant. HOUSE: For ways to control this spell, see the Reaction section of the Combat section. ******* M2: How does grounding spells into a spell lock work? ******* VANILLA: Spells and spell locks behave like living things on the astral plane. When they come in contact, they fight. If the spell wins, it grounds into the lock. Spell locks fight with a rating of 1 (regardless of what force the spell they are locking was cast at or how many successes were made during the casting.) If the attacking spell was a mana spell, the astral portion of the lock is destroyed, and the spell it was locking dissapates; the lock itself will have to be rebonded, but is intact. If the attacking spell was a physical spell, it grounds into the lock (in real space), destroying it. If the attacking spell was (in addition to being a physical spell) an area spell, the spell effects those around the lock in a normal way. Note that this is not astral combat as in SRI, but a single opposed success test [SRII, pg 139, 149- 150]. ******* M3: What is the difference between spell locks and Quickening? ******* VANILLA: Only Initiates can use Quickening; any full magician can bond a lock. Locks have and astral rating of 1; quickened spells have a rating equal to the force they were cast at (actual force, not how many die were used). Quickened spells have no physical component. ******* M4: Can anyone pay the karma for bonding a spell lock? ******* VANILLA: No. The same magician must a) cast the spell to be locked, b) lock the spell, and c) pay the karma. The magician does not have to lock the spell TO himself, however. There is an astral link between the caster and the lock. ******* M5: Can spell locks be turned off without making them useless? ******* VANILLA: Yes. A bonded focus does not have to be an active focus; for a focus to be active, however, it must be bonded. Locks can be turned off and on by the magicgan that created it using a Simple Action [SRII page 138 col 2]. ******* M6: The rules for First Bonding in the Grimore II (pg. 26) allow PCs to bond powerful foci for nearly no karma if enough Arcana and Orichalcum is used. How can that be stopped? ******* VANILLA: Remember First bonding only applies to foci that have never before been bonded by anyone: foci just produced, (in most cases) specifically by and/or for the bonder. Second, Arcana and Orichalcum are really expensive (wether the cost is measured in nuyen or time). Making foci can take a long time. HOUSE 1: Apply the modifiers to final cost of the foci, not to the base cost. That is ((base*rating)-modifiers), not ((base-modifiers)*rating). In other words, bonding a power foci rating 3 using 4 units of orichalcum would cost (7*3)-4 = 17, not (7-4)*3 = 9. HOUSE 2: Keep the rules as is, but make the First Bonding mean bonding the magic to the focus, not the focus to the magician. In other words, the First Bonding makes the focus a focus (gives it it's astral presence and abilities), then the focus needs to be bonded to the magician as per the tables on the next page (pg49). ****** M7: Can foci be masked? ****** VANILLA: Yes. An Initiate can mask a number of rating points in foci up to his grade. (GrimII, pg 46) ****** M8: Can Physical Adepts use metamagic? ****** VANILLA: The Grimore II finally answered parts of this one. Centering: Yes, for Physical Skills (Grim II, pg 43) HOUSE 1: Quickening: No. Can't cast spells. Dispelling: No. Cannot use sorcery skill in that way. Sheilding: No. PAs have no magic pool. Masking: Yes. Anchoring: No. Can't cast spells. HOUSE 2: Masking: Yes, but only if the PA has Astral Perception. ******* M9: Which are better, Shamans or Mages? ******* VANILLA: Just the facts: _category_______________________Shaman_______________________Mages_____ Spells Cast identical Sorcery Bonuses Totem dice, always avail elemental service Category By totem only by elemental type Sorcery Penalties by totem none Conjure Nature Spirits Elementals Time of summoning One action Force * hours Length of service Until sun rises or sets continuously or until services used or until services used Abilities Limited Extensive Range Limited to domain summoned in no limits Types restricted by domain by materials used Initiation Extras Grade added to totem dice <OLD> Great Forms can cross domains Astral Quests to totem plane to all elemental planes ******* M10: Physical Adepts vs. Samurai ******* [This argument comes up about four times a year, it seems like. Usually all the different opinions are expressed within the first four or five posts, then the net degenerates into extended point/counterpoint for a long time for no apparent reason. The following is a list of some of the opinions expressed during the last time this topic was discussed.] PhysAds can beat up on samurai. No they can't. Yes they can. No they can't. Yes they can. Physical Adepts have trouble competing in a high-combat, high-tech campaign or in a power escalation situation. Physical Adepts are much harder to abuse than street samurai. No they aren't PA's are cool if played in the right way. It is very difficult to make a survivable PA using the current rules. No it isn't. Yes it is. PAs have more style. Look, I'm telling you, PAs can kick sammy ass. No they can't. Yes they can. No they can't. Yes they can! NO! YES! NO! Well, this .particular. samurai can beat any PA ever. No he can't. Yes he can. No he can't. Yes he can. [Etc.] This is getting old. No it isn't. ******* M11: Can an alienation victim move? ******* VANILLA: Not specified. In a novel, however, a character does cross the street while alienated. Remember that spirits cannot cross domain lines. HOUSE 1: The person can only move if the spirit allows him to. HOUSE 2: No. You cannot move while alienated. HOUSE 3: Yes, but only at walking pace, and even to do that requires a Willpower roll against half the spirit's Essence (round-down). HOUSE 4: Yes. Character abilities are not effected, though no one can see the character, so he can get plowed by friendly fire, a moving object (e.g a bus) and so on. ******* M12: Can spells ground through quickenings? ******* VANILLA: Not stated either way. However, because there is no other aspect to a quickening besides the spell itself, the answer is no: spells cannot be cast at other spells. HOUSE 1: Yes. The astral circuit which is created acts as a bridge into realspace. ******* M13: Can spells ground through astrally perceiving/projecting magicians? ******* VANILLA: They definitely can ground through perceiving magicians [SRII, pg 146, col 1]. It is never actually stated that spells can ground through projecting magicians, though it is strongly implied [Neo- Anarchists Guide to Real Life, pg 21], and never refuted. ******* M14: Can damaging manipulation spells ground? ******* VANILLA: No. No maniuplations may ground, becuase they are slightly different in nature (SRII, pg. 139, col 1). Basically, manipulations travel through real space as well, not exclusively astral space like other spells. HOUSE 1: One way of getting manuiplation spells mechanics to jive with normal spells is to say that damaging manipulations (DMs) are targeted on the .caster., not the ultimate target. DMs, instead of being spells which cause elemental explosion, then can be viewed as spells which 'energize' the caster so that she can toss out an elemental effect. In this way, the spell does exist only in astral while en route from the caster to the target, like any other spell; however, in this view, this route is short, beucase the caster is the target. When the spell hits the target (the caster), it takes effect. The effect in this case is to allow the magician to project (solely in real space) an elemental effect. An implication of this is that DM can only really be cast on the caster (though the resulting elemental effect can be directed towards anyone), which means that grounding such a spell is basically impossible, as it can only affect the caster. ******* M15: Is glass transparent in astral space? ******* VANILLA: Yes. Anything transparent in real space is transparent in astral space, due to "reflected light". (SRII, pg 145, col 1). HOUSE 1: Yes, but light and photons in real space have nothing to do with it. Glass is transparent because that is its nature. It was manufactured, intended to be transparent. Because astral space is a realm of intent and purpose, this simple intent carries over and glass's aura is transparent as well. ******* M15: Can nature spirits Manifest? ******* VANILLA: "To use its powers on [anyone other than the shaman who summoned it], a nature spirit must manifest." (SRII, pg 140, col 1). However, the power Manifestation is noticably absent from any and all lists of Nature Spirit Powers (SRII, pp.228-9,235). On the other hand, "When they do manifest, it is often in a form that reflects their home terrain". (SRII, pg 228). PSUEDO-VANILLA: There is a difference between nature spirit's ability to manifest and the Manifestation power. By "Manifest", FASA means all the abilities listed by the Manifestation power, but by "manifest" it means solely a visible and tangible form the spirit can take, but this form does not gain the advantages of the Manifestation power. [This has some problems when trying to decide how one combat's "manifesting" nature spirits. HOUSE 1: Give all Nature Spirits the Manifestation Power (described in SRII, pg 219). ********************************** * MECHANICS * ********************************** ******* Q1: Are a six and seven (or 12 and 13, etc.) Target number the same? ******* VANILA: For the most part, yes; howvever, if someone has, say a +2 modifier to do something, six and seven become 8 and 9, which is quite a differece. This works both ways -- with target number of 4, a +2 modifer is effectively the same as a +3 modifier. Six and seven are can be different in opposed success tests, as well (rating 7 IC is different from Rating 6 IC because it rolls more dice). HOUSE 1: The rule of six is altered. When 'rerolling' sixes, the value added is five instead of six. A six on the reroll adds 5 + a new die under the same rules. Thus (with one die) rolling a 6 then 4 yeilds 5 + 4 = 9. Rolling a 6 then 6 then 4 yields 5 + 5 + 4 = 14. ******* Q2: When your target number is 4, but you roll an 18, do you get any bonuses? ******* VANILLA: No. Only the number of successes matters, not the highest number rolled. HOUSE 1: You gain an extra success for every multiple of six over the target numer. Thus T# + 6 is two successes, T# + 12 is three successes. HOUSE 2: Multiples of the target number are extra successes. With a T# of 4, an 8 gives two successes, a 12 would give three total. VARIANT: Only applies to target numbers 5 or greater. ******* Q3: If I have level 3 skillwires with a rating 3 firearms skillsoft as well as a firearms skill of 5, when I slot the chip is my firearms skill 5 (normal skill level) or 8 (the sum of the chip and normal level)? ******* VANILLA: Neither. Your skill is 3, the level of the skillsoft. Skillwires override existing skills. The normal Shadowrun guideline is when two skills/systems are operating at once, use the highest of the two, do not sum the ratings. For example, a samurai with Wired Reflexes 2 and a Increase Reaction +1 spell on him only gets two extra dice (from the higher of the two systems), not three. Note that Skillwires are an exception to this rule as they .always. use the skillsoft rating. ******* Q4: How do concentrations and specializations work? ******* VANILLA: The mechanics of concentrations and specializations (c/s) differ widely depending on when in a characters life they are used, either during character creation or after character creation. During character creation one concentration can be chosen per skill (if desired). This gives the character what amounts to two skills. For example, Bob spends 6 skill points to buy Firearms 6. He then decides to concentrate in Pistols. Bob now has a Firearms 5 skill and a Pistols 7 skill. A character can also take one specialization per concentration. Bob chooses to specialize in the Preditor II, giving him Firearms 4, Pistols 6 and Preditor II 8. Note that no extra skill points were spent to get these concentrations and specializations. After character generation, the only difference between normal skills and c/s (apart from the narrowness of focus, of course) is karma cost to improve them . Treat the normal skill, the concentration and the specialization as different skills. Bob has some karma points. He could increase any and/or all of his normal or c/s skills. In SRI, to increase his Firearms to 5, he'd have to spend 8 karma (current rating (5) x 2 (normal skill)). Bumping his Pistol skill to 7 would cost 9 points (current rating (6) x 1.5 (concentration)). Moving Preditor II to 9 would take 8 points (current rating (8) X 1 (specialization)). Note the increasing any one of these skills has _no_ effect on the other two. In SRII, the deal is the same, except you use the new rating, not the current one. So Firearms to 5 would be 10, Pistol to 7 would be 11 and Preditor II to 7 would cost 9. ******* Q4: How much karma/cash do you usually award? ******* VANILLA: A recent survey conducted on the subject indicates the average karma/cash award for a run is 5.45 karma and 35,000 nuyen.