Ah...I think our table has done away with that rule unintentionally. Not that it's ever come up in play...

Assume you have 2 Essence Loss due to cybernetics, & 0 Essence Loss due to bioaugmentation.

Remove 1 Essence worth of cybernetics - you now have 2 Essence Loss total - 1 due to cybernetics, & 1 cybernetic Essence Hole. You can now install up to 1 Essence worth of cybernetics without any additional loss - anything beyond 1 applies normally. You choose not to get any replacement cyber at this time.

Install 1 Essence worth of bioaugmentation - you now have 3 Essence Loss total - 1 due to cybernetics, 1 due to bioaugmentation, & 1 cybernetic Essence Hole (can only be applied to cybernetic Essence Loss).


That is RAW - you calculate the Essence Hole separately for bioaugmentation & cybernetics. Now to explain why this is a bad thing.

You possess 3 Essence in cybernetics, & 1.5 (3 divided by 2) Essence in bioaugmentation, for a total of 4.5 Essence Loss. You install 0.01 Essence worth of bioaugmentation - the base value is now greater than the cybernetics, so cybernetics is halved.

You now possess 1.5 Essence in cybernetics, 3.01 Essence in bioaugmentation, & 1.5 cybernetic Essence Hole, for a total of 6.01 Essence Loss. You are dead. 1.5 Essence free to work with, and by installing Cats Eyes, you die from Essence Loss.

I have a lot of houserules, but I often forget to use them. Here are the simplest ones:

Bought contacts are "big" contacts : fixers/gangs/hackers/police inspector and so on. They are contacts who could find other contacts for you (doctors, armorers...). Players also get CHA*2 free contacts. Those contacts are friends or less useful contacts. They are mostly there to let the player add flavor to the world and his character and to avoid having a character who lived in the game's city for all his life but still doesn't have more than two contacts.

Even in AR, as long as a hacker uses a DNI to access the matrix, he can be targeted by blackhammer programs. But since the signal are less powerful, the hacker has a free cumulative rating 4 biofeedback filter. The downside is that actions requiring precise feedback (such as difficult rigging or cybercombat) suffer a -2 modifier.
If the hacker uses a manual input device, he suffers a -2 modifier (cumulative with the former modifier) for most hacking and cybercombat actions. The base time of all matrix action is also doubled in that case.
In combat situations, hackers can do "quick hacking". They are quick and dirty hacks that don't give the hacker an account on the target node but let him do one action. Basically they just roll either a logic+electronic warfare (target node) success test or an opposed logic+hacking (system+firewall) test depending on the conditions.

A light pistol can be used for suppressive fire. It won't cover an area as large as an automatic weapon but it's enough to force one opponent to take cover.

Stick&Shock ammo is only available for shotguns.

When a group of NPC fires at someone, it's considered as a suppressive fire. One roll is made for the whole group (using the average group's dice pool), with each shooter adding one die per 4 dice in his pool. Each net hits deals the base DV of the weapon.

When a PC is hit, the location of the hit is chosen (depending on the conditions and the damage). The character will suffer a -1 wound modifier cumulative with the general wound modifier for all actions using that body part. He also risks worsening the wound until it has received first aid. If the character gets more than 6 damage boxes in one hit, the body part is destroyed.

Rule 1: If a mechanical effect relies on a GM judgement call, it has failed & must be house-ruled (example being Fire damage, which I still have not come up with a satisfactory alteration to).

Rule 2: If it is a mechanical effect, balance is paramount. If it is overpowering or underpowering, it has failed & must be house-ruled (example being Adepts [underpowering] & Spirits [overpowering]). Note that the vast majority of changes made due to this are increasing the effectiveness of something.

Rule 3: If a rule makes no fucking sense at all, it has failed & must be house-ruled (example being Vehicle Combat - Ramming).

Right, and you have 1 initiative pass. I'm just saying that the main point was to make IP and Rate of Fire independent. It's still early in testing though.

It would probably work even better if we double it.

Our securetech PPP armour uses the standard armour stacking rules (ie not treated like a helmet/shield). We don't use the optional armour rules from Arsenal. We do use the optional drain rules for direct combat spells in SR4A (..mages can still blast the crap out of foes, but suffer a signifcant toll).

Why would anyone buy non-stacking 2/6 armor when he can get similarly concealable armor of 6/4 (armor vest, lined coat, chameleon suit)?

I was going to suggest single shot = 3, SA = 6, BF = 9, and FA = 30.

Interestingly enough that only effects people with 4 initiative passes and people using Long Bursts.

Generally they invest in as much social skills as they think their character would have and roleplay that level; most of us take a few social skills unless we're trying to play an inept character. After 10 years of roleplaying with the same friends, we know what we can and can't get away with. We have one person in our group who is banned from ever having a Charisma higher than 4. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) And, yes, maybe our group is idyllic. Because anyone playing a PC with a low Charisma and no social skills wouldn't try to talk their way out of, or into, anything; it'd be out of character. And a CHA 1 character would never survive in our group... (Which is why I said it was more a playstyle than a houserule.)

Ah well, having the same group of friends for that long explains a lot. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)




Oh you can't say that and not tell us how that came about! I'm sure there's a funny story in there somewhere.

Since I have one player in the group who almost exclusively plays Technomancers, I utilize the Advanced Technomancer Rules, as well as the sidebar optional Resonance rules (both from Unwired) to make TMs more useful.

I also allow characters to improve their contacts connection ratings with Karma, though they must improve loyalty through roleplay (usually backed up with cold, hard Nuyen).

The first time we ran a vehicle combat/chase scene, we found the rules to be lacking in a few areas and developed some house rules:

Ramming - ramming vehicles only take half damage against soft targets, or other vehicles that are moving in the same direction. Ramming head on, t-boning another vehicle, or hitting a stationary hard target causes full damage to the ramming vehicle.

Breaking Off - This needed some significant tweaks for a variety of reasons, suffice to say that comparative vehicle speed, and vehicle sensor/ECM ratings play more of a part in our house rule than do the number of vehicles involved on either side.

I can see why those rules are goofy.


That is a cool idea.

in the game I run, we don't roll intiative
i just ask for the highest intiative rating and go from there

it helps cut down on lots of dice rolling, and easier to keep track of when everyone goes

That was also suggested by Frank Trollman. Seemed to work ok.

House rules:

The GM's final decision is binding.
The GM has access to things that are not in the books.
THe GM may ask you to throw dice for what may be a random roll only to have it come back to haunt the player later.

I ask my players to cap their dice pools. For example, I might say: "Please limit your combat dice pools to 20, and your other pools to 15", and they generally do so. Once they reach the cap, players tend to focus on other aspects of their characters instead of trying to squeeze the life out of every last BP.

Since I'm only asking, I don't mind if someone accidentally develops a pool of 21. If they go over by a lot, I'll ask them to tone it back. If they refuse, then I know I have a potential problem player.

Shadowrun 4 - House Errata

The above does not include all my alterations, & does not take into account the Anniversary changes. Otherwise, it is a significant portion of my suggested alterations to RAW (the basic game mechanics are excellent, with a few exceptions, but the values &/or effects of many things are unbalanced - usually underpowered).

Fixing Fake Rules to conform with Livestyle rules - i.E. making fake SINs of Rating N automatically win against verification systems with Rating N-1:

Simply convert the Fake Rating to a Threshold in the verification test.

@ Dakka Dakka - you're exactly right ... it turns PPP armour into civilian NPC gear (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Not even NPCs would buy such armor, I think, because both the Armor Vest and the Lined Coat are cheaper and offer better protection, without running around in a helmet. Only the Chameleon Suit is more expensive, but its advantage is not usually something for your average civilian. The only use I can see is as sports gear, where nothing else is allowed because of the rules of the game.

What is your beef with that equipment? OK, you get a couple of extra dice for soaking combat damage, mostly Impact Armor which is not so signficant anyway, but there are still lots of ways to negatively affect an armored character. I don't remember who wrote this but Shadowrun is kind of like Rock Paper Scissors. If the guy is armored use SnS or direct combat spells or gas or... If someone is sealed in you can still use firearms or direct combat spells or..

While gas and combat spells probably are not in the arsenal of every CorpSec goon, a Stun Baton/Taser and a Firearm probably is.

This is the first time I've ever seen adepts listed as underpowered... I usually have to do things to reign them in from being overpowered.

Granted, there are some roles they don't fill very well, but the things they do, they do well.

Catalyst already took care of my #1 house rule by capping bows. The other one I would use is to delete Empathy software, or make it so it's only available for a Judge Intentions check, and nothing else.

I might also want to monkey with the damage to passengers rule, which seems to assume that passengers don't wear seatbelts, and ramming another vechile kills everyone in both cars. Which would make sense if nobody was wearing a seatbelt because they'd all break their necks, and possibly (probably?) be flung out the windows. Also, it assumes that impact armor specifically designed to help you survive crashes, like a crash helmet, is highly ineffective during a crash, which doesn't make a lot of sense. I would change the rules as follows: damage to passengers is resisted with full impact, not half. Wearing a seatbelt reduces the DV by 1/2, and the Passenger Protection mod reduces it by 3/4. Or, maybe it further reduces the damage by its rating, which means it could offer full protection from damage to someone already wearing a seatbelt. I mean seriously, modern safety measures see people walking away unharmed from crashes, which isn't just unlikely under SR4's crash rules, it's virtually impossible. Shadowrun is supposed to be futuristic, so I have to assume that cars are safer in 2070, not 10x more deadly.

One of the best changes I've seen is that the vehicle resists first, then the left over is applied to the passangers.

@Dakka dakka. You're right of course. I just think 8/6 or similar armour is plenty high already, and doesn't need an easy boost from PPP.

What about FormFitting Body Armour ?

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Medicineman