Perhaps better phased as "No one with Gremlins would take up hacking". Its about making something that can in some sence "be believed", a youth who has school computers explode periodically, losses his homework assignments every 4-5 days etc. etc. etc. is going to fine SOMEthing else. So unless they pick up Gremlins later in life...
Suddenly though I have this rough idea for a Rigger who has Gremlins 1 or 2, a large-huge dice pool in their specialty "tech" skills so glitching (at least critically) isn't SO big a problem, but they will be dam#ed if they can get any other technology to work.

"You can make a car dance man, you some sort of a gift for tech, you should branch out, take up some hacking, mabye heavy drones?"

"No."

"Why not? We could cut out the dead weight if you could, streamline the group 'n stuff, bigger cuts for everyone."

"No."

"What the heck man?"

"All I got to say is: Don't cut off a gypsy convoy, no matter how big a hurry you are in. Ever. Their curses are mean."

I swear 90% of Awakened runners have the Sensitive System quality. It must be some sort of side effect of Magical talent...

I don't recall now if my drake had it or not, but if I did take it it wasn't because of the magic, but rather that I recalled that in 3rd Edition drakes (out of Dragons of the Sixth World) had double essence loss from cyberware, and wanted to keep that around. I don't remember if they had an innate Magic 1 or not, but I do recall that cyber/bio worked in both forms.

I actually didn't have this come up in my games - 5 or so magic characters to date, no "hozer" flaws, not sure how I'd respond to such things. On the one had its somewhere between slightly and quite lame, on the other hand if they later NEED cyberware owing to grievous injury I'd laugh all the harder.

Well, because of the fact that mages actually work well with cyber these days, it's actually a flaw, IMO.

Things like cybereyes, smartlinks, etc(if I recall, mages can only cast spells with augmented vision if it's implanted-remembering this might help), are commonplace even among mages, and these are all affected by this flaw.

Alternately, you can make 2 versions of this flaw-a -10 version and a -20 version. The first being Sensitive System as it is now, the latter the Bio-Rejection, which would leave them out of all non Delta bioware as well. I do believe in SR3, Bio-Rejection allowed you to have things as long as they were grown from your own body. I always thought Delta grade bioware was essentially that, but I could be wrong. In any case, being locked out of everything except Delta-grade Bioware is a pretty big hit.

However, I would not make these flaws worth less for magically active people-for the simple fact that mages/adept with 'ware are actually really, really good. The fact that you can mix and match cyber and bio for less Essence costs also plays in here. (For an example, I had built, for fun, a bio/cyber adept. I wanted to give him Bone Density, but it would have put him beyond 2 points of Essence loss. However, I picked up some bone lacing instead-and since he had less cyber than bio, this was halved, putting him at the 2 essence.)

As for those grevious injury replacement limbs-well, there IS a way around it-but it's it's either rather expensive-or rather gross. The former being them having to get one of their own limbs cloned(and full limbs take awhile and cost quite a bit), the latter being a secondhand natural limb. This wouldn't affect them Essence wise(again, with the flaw as RAW, not the houserule suggestion), but it might be an interesting thing with the party's mage trying to accept someone else's arm who may or may not have agreed with them taking it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I personally have used this flaw, but I also try to keep within the ''spirit'' of it-Bioware isn't affected, but I've never given one of my characters with this bioware either. I just figured for a character thing-if they were sensitive to one thing, they might not want to take chances with the other thing, etc.

Hey, your right... No Infiltration... Not sure where that came from, but she can still roll 4 dice to try to accomplish those abilities...

She also knows where to go to drop off those items that she is smuggling (Smuggler Safe Houses), and also, sometimes hiding things in plain sight works wonders...

not only that you are crossing a border not sneaking past an armed guard. How many border crossers are freakin ninjas nowadays. Knowing where to cross so you don't bump into security is a heck of a lot more useful than infiltration, and with electronic countermeasure and hacking(security cameras) you can get past a lot of places with automated security and befuddle near by local security. And again this is security for a border, not security for a 10' by 10' hallway.

I think it should be a 0 point side effect of being awakened. But alas you get 15 points for it.

I used to be leery of this Quality, but so much has been made here in Dumpshock about the logic of mixing tech and magic if you want to be a 'serious' runner, that I figured any time I make an Awakened character who does not have implants, this would be a reason why he is 'gimped' as a runner, and to hell with those who think it is cheesy.

You can't *get* to those safe houses if you don't have Infiltration. Otherwise, you're obvious to every border guard, security drone, and sattelite that's watching the area.


An average Joe border guard is still going to have Intuition 3 and Perception 3, enough to spot her. And her hacking and EW skills aren't great enough to bypass anything other than low-grade security. She's just not a very good smuggler.

She has Infiltration in SR4A. Although it may seem dumb, you roll your Infiltration skill when trying to "drive stealthy" with your vehicle.

Observers may get a bonus to their perception, if a car is out of place. Otherwise you're trying to pick out one car over another. Which one's trying not to be seen?

Driving at 55 in a 55 zone is probably a good thing to do to be inconspicuous. No cop is going to pull over someone not speeding, unless they know something's up.

I obviously wasn't clear enough. You are crossing a border that is many, many miles long. When you know the routes you aren't rolling infiltration since there is no one to hide from. And yes her hacking skills will only get her past low grade security, you know the kind of security you can have when its covering an entire border.

In such a case, I would still ask my player to roll Infiltration. And then use the Smuggling Routes(or similar) knowledge skill to determine whether or not a guard/sensor/satellite coverage is watching there. Higher the smuggling roll, the less likely a guard would be looking. If there is really no one watching, then fine, but the Threshold for the Smuggling Route roll for that result is going to be relatively high, unless the border is a reputedly porous one.

And what happens when you reach your destination? You'll need Infiltration or Con to get into the city.

Um, why??

I never was under the impression that every city or even most citys were guarded so people could not enter freely. Sure Seattle is to some degree since its a different country/city and same with Denver but that is about it. And in the case of Seattle I'd say there are plenty of places with just relatively light automated security, Denver I don't know enough about to really comment I read the box set once when it initially came out.

With this I am in agreement...

I cannot reiterate this enough... If you do not look illegal, you WILL NOT BE Stopped... so, complying with all the laws, even if you have a smuggling compartment, is the way to go here... as has been stated, pick out the one car smuggling among the 800,000 cars on the road... real hard to do... That is why it is so successful even in our modern world...

Which a good many borders are... Just look at the Mexio/United States border... or a good number of European Union borders...

And how many SR borders are so reputed? RL =! SR.

Seattle makes it a point to describe checkpoints. Guarded cities is a staple of cyberpunk; and even then, we're talking about entering with contraband. Odds are that you'll have to cross a border checkpoint at some point, and then what do you do?

What's more, what about Denver? The face was better at smuggling than the smuggler was. And that can represent all the border checkpoints you have to go through passing from one corp's territory to another.

TJ: The multiquote function works. Please start using it before I report you to a mod for post-pumping. One-sentence useless posts don't help anyone.

The archetypes aren't for n00bs, but rather for advanced players seeking a challenge.

Or for noobs to learn what to look out for when making their own PCs since the flaws of the archetypes are so obvious once play begins.

Toturi, yours is the eminently practical view, and I prefer Wounded Ronin's high-road mysticism.

Probably a good many... you can't reliably patrol borders that are hundreds, if not thousands of miles long... it is nigh impossible...