General Shadowrun Questions III: Ya like that, Chummer?

[LibraryOgre]

Heh, I'm still deciding what sort of plushie she'd hide her drone in, but I think that's the polar opposite of what she'd want, even as a disguise.

Taser darts hidden in the eyes!

A flash pack in the stomach, which she activates with "CARE BEAR STARE!"

[comicshorse]

Cthulhu plushie ! Mono whips in the tentacles !

[BisectedBrioche]

The possibilities are endless!

EDIT: I was actually thinking of making it a smaller, cutesy version of an Ares Cheetah!

[BisectedBrioche]

Also, I've had the idea that my character hides her surveillance drone in a charm for her mobile comlink.

Does anyone know if 5e has any special rules for hidden bags/compartments that aren't cyberware?

[Eurus]

Regarding the drug "Slab" (Chrome Flesh, page 184):

Is there any roll to resist, or are you just straight up knocked out after 2 turns? Also, it has a listed "Power" rating, which no other drug seems to have, and I'm not sure what that means. Finally, is there an antidote that works on the stuff?

[DeTess]

'Power' is a property of toxins, as described on page 408 of the phb. It sets the amount of successes you need on your toxin resistance test to fully resist it. Given that this drug has a power rating, resisting it is probably treated the same as for any other toxin.

[Eurus]

'Power' is a property of toxins, as described on page 408 of the phb. It sets the amount of successes you need on your toxin resistance test to fully resist it. Given that this drug has a power rating, resisting it is probably treated the same as for any other toxin.

Aha, I was looking in the wrong place (and "Power" isn't a very useful word to ctrl+F for). Thanks!

[DigoDragon]

I've recently finished the second session of a cyberpunk campaign set loosely in the same vein as Shadowrun. The first session was a mission to rescue a young girl from an abusive father and unite her with her grandmother. Quite successful (and I learned that the Runners hate teal-colored bathrooms).

In the second session, the team looked into the murder of that little girl's mother on their downtime and found out that she was a disgruntled scientist working on a new bioware project. Planned to hire a team to steal her own research while she got out of the company. Well it didn't work out, but the players were too curious not to check this lab out.

I'm rather proud of myself; the players are genuinely worried and scared of the secret lab they are now exploring. Everyone is dead and they're piecing together the last few days from recorded audio logs in various computers. The mystery is turning into a "Color out of Space" moment.

[BisectedBrioche]

Well, it's not cyberpunk until you get a vague sense of cosmic horror.

[The Glyphstone]

SR5E: I'm a bit unclear on something - are Defense tests capped by Physical Limits for non-drone/vehicle targets? I know Soak tests aren't capped.

[DeTess]

SR5E: I'm a bit unclear on something - are Defense tests capped by Physical Limits for non-drone/vehicle targets? I know Soak tests aren't capped.

If you go to page 174 of the core rulebook there are some examples there that state that there is no physical limit on defense tests because defense tests do not involve the use of a skill. The more general rule for this is on page 47.

[The Glyphstone]

If you got to page 174 of the core rulebook there are some examples there that state that there is no physical limit on defense tests because defense tests do not involve the use of a skill. The more general rule for this is on page 47.

Does that also apply to a drone, or a Rigger jumped into one? I was under the impression that Data Processing or Handling served as an artificial Limit in that case.

[DeTess]

Does that also apply to a drone, or a Rigger jumped into one? I was under the impression that Data Processing served as an artifical Limit in that case.

It might? If you assume a drone with a rigger jumped in functions like a piloted vehicle, then it doesn't, it uses the piloted vehicle rules. If instead you assume that a jumped in rigger is just spamming the 'control device' action then it would. The rules for riggers on page 266 do make a reference to 'vehicle actions' being separate from 'matrix actions'(which control device would be), so I assume that a jumped in in rigger would just count as directly controlling, which means they ignore the data processing limit for the 'control device' action.

A non-jumped in drone (which I'm assuming to mean any autonomous vehicle based on context) uses handling as the limit though (see page 205).

I'm afraid I couldn't find a more definitive answer in the time I spend searching. Unfortunately, this is not particularly unusual for 5th edition, or shadowrun in general in my experience.

[The Glyphstone]

If they function like a piloted vehicle, wouldn't that mean Handling becomes the limit instead?

[DeTess]

If they function like a piloted vehicle, wouldn't that mean Handling becomes the limit instead?

Not for avoiding getting hit, which is a limitless intuition+reaction test according to page 205, probably for the same reason the physical limit doesn't come into play when trying to avoid getting hit while on foot.

[Kyrell1978]

Where are the creation rules for a "Physical Magician" in 2e? In Awakenings all I can find is a paragraph or two of fluff

[comicshorse]

I'm not sure they ever did actually create rules for it in 2nd Ed. I think the first times rules came up were in 'Magic in the Shadows' (p22) for 3rd Edition

[Kyrell1978]

Cool. Thanks. I was actually surprised to even find the fluff for it in 2e. I had thought they were a 3e creation myself.

[Telwar]

Question...how often do people actually get new gear in your games?

Thinking back to post-college games, I cannot remember ever getting anything substantially better for any of my characters, and some of those were in significantly long campaigns.

The longest one, a 2/3 game, my troll samurai got a new rifle custom built using the rules in the Cannon Companion, but that was it. I think I did burn through most of my cash on cash for karma, though.

[Telwar]

Cool. Thanks. I was actually surprised to even find the fluff for it in 2e. I had thought they were a 3e creation myself.

The rules are in Awakenings, page 119, with the other adept rules. There's an amusing warning that GMs might want to restrict them to NPCs only. Of course, modern nomenclature is that they're mystic adepts.

[Kyrell1978]

Ok. One more 2e question for the week. LOL. Does the VCR come with the datajack needed to run it? I know it does in later editions but I couldn't find anything concrete on it in the books.

[Lord Torath]

Ok. One more 2e question for the week. LOL. Does the VCR come with the datajack needed to run it? I know it does in later editions but I couldn't find anything concrete on it in the books.

Pretty sure this is a "Yes, the VCR comes with a datajack."

In Rigger II, I think, they talk about needing a regular datajack if your rigger wants to play at decking. (They also say that your VCR interferes with Decking. Why? No plausible reason was given, so I think it's to prevent the Rigger from stepping on the Decker's toes. Totally unnecessary 'conflict' in my view.)

[LibraryOgre]

Pretty sure this is a "Yes, the VCR comes with a datajack."

In Rigger II, I think, they talk about needing a regular datajack if your rigger wants to play at decking. (They also say that your VCR interferes with Decking. Why? No plausible reason was given, so I think it's to prevent the Rigger from stepping on the Decker's toes. Totally unnecessary 'conflict' in my view.)

I think there was discussion that decking and rigging datajacks were installed differently. Standard/decking datajacks tended to be in the temple and deal more with the frontal cortex, while rigging datajacks were behind the ear and tapped more into the limbic BUT I also think this may have been fluff.

[BisectedBrioche]

Does anyone know how practical it is to make a rigger technomancer in 5e? I know there are rules for technomancers to have abilities similar to a control rig in Data Trails, but I can't find much else.

[DeTess]

Does anyone know how practical it is to make a rigger technomancer in 5e? I know there are rules for technomancers to have abilities similar to a control rig in Data Trails, but I can't find much else.

The machine sprite thing can be really, really powerful (diagnostics for using the device to add a lot of extra dice for along period), but in my experience it works best when a technomancer and mundane rigger cooperate in my experience. I couldn't find the rules you refer to in data trails, but in my experience that book is a bit of a mess (its lack of a readable table of contents or an index is just the start of its sins). You'd definitely need to get a couple of submersions to take the 'mind over machine' echo (page 258 in the core rulebook), so it'd require a lot of karma to get online.

[BisectedBrioche]

The machine sprite thing can be really, really powerful (diagnostics for using the device to add a lot of extra dice for along period), but in my experience it works best when a technomancer and mundane rigger cooperate in my experience. I couldn't find the rules you refer to in data trails, but in my experience that book is a bit of a mess (its lack of a readable table of contents or an index is just the start of its sins). You'd definitely need to get a couple of submersions to take the 'mind over machine' echo (page 258 in the core rulebook), so it'd require a lot of karma to get online.

Looking at it, Mind Over Machine (from Core) and MMRI (from DT) seem to basically be the same echo with a different name. O_o

[The Glyphstone]

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the DE-only Schattenhandbuch 2? I'm curious about the fluff details about the Gambler mentor spirit but I don't speak German.

[LibraryOgre]

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the DE-only Schattenhandbuch 2? I'm curious about the fluff details about the Gambler mentor spirit but I don't speak German.

If someone has it, I can hazard a translation for you, Glyphstone.

[BisectedBrioche]

So, broad question, but: Is 6th edition really as bad as everyone says?

[Ignimortis]

So, broad question, but: Is 6th edition really as bad as everyone says?

Broad answer: Yes.

Somewhat more detailed answer: CGL did not achieve anything people desired from the new edition.

There is marginally less complexity, but you still routinely resolve things with three rolls per action, almost every action is preceded by "can I gain Edge from this?", and general capabilities of many archetypes that weren't mages were diminished in favour of making Edge actions (new type of action, sort of a movie stunt where everything goes as you planned and you do something impossible by normal rules) the way to actually win combat and stuff.