Doesn't exactly fit the tone of the post, but...

Initiative Passes: My group is relatively new to SR (they've only played 4th), and really hated the idea of IPs. We played with them for a year solid and the overwhelming consensus was to dump them and use a different system for reflex enhancement. So we did. The change seems popular enough.

Unwired: So far, this book has caused more problems with my group than it has solved. Even the players of our hacker PCs (two of them (!!)) hate this book and what it tried to do. Like the above change, I personally have no problem with the book, but my players don't consider anything in it an option.
Works for me - less to keep track of.

Other than those, everything background-wise goes. Though I do ignore much of the metaplot (didn't make use of Emergence or Ghost Cartels except as things happening in the distant background).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I didn't use Otaku, either, and for the same reason I don't use technomancers.



The reactors that popped should've been the ones built while containment domes were still mandatory. And while they might not be profitable, even a megacorp is going to realize that containment domes are useful in eras of eco-terrorists, NAN secessionists with military-grade hardware and a grudge against Whitey, and falling aerospace planes. The dumb containment dome is also not the expensive part of the power plant - a Pareto Analysis should indicate that it's not the place to cut costs in light of the fact that it protects the billion-dollar parts from the 10,000-dollar truck bombs.

Also, I'm not sure nuclear safety is unprofitable. A lot of the refined, safer Gen III and 3.5 nuclear reactor designs are simpler and cheaper than their predecessors (and they're safer because they're less complicated than earlier reactors). Lower reactor costs, less maintenance, and fewer failures (which can be extremely costly) equals better profits.



As always: whatever works in your campaign.

How are newer reactors getting simpler? I haven't kept up with SOTA, and I'm a curious kitty (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Well, off the top of my head, a quick example of simpler Gen III reactors would be a PBR (Pebble Bed Reactor) that uses standardized fuel molded into ceramic balls that circulate gas. That alone saves money on fuel (because it's all standardized), cooling, and redundant safety systems.

Oh yeah... I'd forgotten about those. I'd actually read about it, but it slipped my mind. IIRC it also creates less/more easily storeable waste.

I just go with whatever history stuff is going on. It's the tech that bothers me. Magical compounds don't exist in my world, nor do many magical "things". I grudgingly accept the existence of FAB in my world, but I never actually use it. That stuff all just seems so cheesy.

I also hate monofilament chainsaws.

For Magic and awakened monsters, I feel that is integral part of SR.

For NAN and CAS, I accept it as is, because it does not influence my campaign. We run in Europe (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

In my SR3 game we are running now in 2070 and use some background stuff from SR4, but I won't use TMs (I didn't use Otaku either). And generally the world looks more like the current world. L.A. might be in the PCC (my players don't care about politics and don't want to read too much material) but it won't be that much earthquake ridden. Furthermore, the level of pollution (in L.A. and world-wide) is less then in the canon setting.

In another SR4 game, TMs exist, although I'm not the GM, yet.

Edit: spelling

So no foci?

A lot of people seem to hate on having Technomancers canon. Lets a lot of fun and mystery that can go in to their existence, be them players or antagonists. Plus, i've already stated my distaste in removing major story elements. We have a technomancer PC in my group right now actually, who has a serious condescending attitude towards "normal" hackers since they can't really "feel" the matrix like he does. It's a really fun character to have about.

I like Technomancers, although in my professional opinion they are far larger karma-sinks than mages, by far. Analytical Mind (Runner's Companion) is a greatly appreciated Positive Quality for them to take, by the way.

I just think of Neo whenever I think of a technomancer. When I remind players of that fact, suddenly they don't want to play a technomancer anymore.

They're huge karma sinks, their rules when using the matrix are different (if not vastly so) over hackers, but enough to confuse people, but they have similarities to mages, but again work differently....

They're a mess and feel like they were tacked on to an already overburdened rules system (which they were).

Except that....Technomancers are nothing like Neo? Except for, of course, the word "Matrix".

How is that not like Neo?

Either you can't read, or you've never really seen the matrix. Neo and his group needed the chairs to connect to the matrix, and beyond that the matrix in SR is NOTHING like the Matrix from the movies beyond that it is a virtual world. In SR, the Matrix is basically a superior form of the internet. You also still need Complex Forms to do the jobs of programs, and Sprites to do the jobs of Agents.

If you've been telling your players that TMs are like Neo, you've been flat out lying to them. Especially because Neo could be more closely related to a Matrix combat then simple hacking, and it's much easier to make a Combat Hacker than a Combat TM; excluding that it's easier to get the Black Hammer CF. (I never used Black Hammer anyway, I just used Attack Deadly at the highest rating I can get it).

Seeing as most of my players never saw Lawnmower Man, Neo seemed like the next easiest comparison. But I see your point.

All you've done is lie to your players and misrepresent the games lore. Technomancers are hackers who can interact with the matrix without AR gloves or commlinks and, I think, without an image link. Some of the rules are a bit vague. The real fun in Technomancers is that they're a mystery though, nobody fully understands what makes them tick the way we do technology and magic. There's a lot you can do with it, and the interactions between Hackers and Technomancers in the matrix opens up a lot of roleplay opportunities.

Other great Matrix devices include Ultraviolet Nodes and rogue AIs. Also, I've seen Lawnmower Man. Many years ago though.

That just seems like Neo by the end of the third film, honestly (sans being able to jack into the Matrix wirelessly). I wouldn't call that "lying" to my players. Besides, as a GM, that mystical "nobody knows how it works" crap doesn't exactly help me run good games. My players look at me to explain a lot of stuff for them since many of them have never played Shadowrun before, and giving the explanation "nobody knows" or "just because" doesn't fly with them.

But...it's still nothing like Neo. In fact, the normal hacker would be more like Neo than a Technomancer would. I believe the books contain Technomancer theories and stuff. I think third edition had a few theories listed out of Otaku as well. But then again, I haven't really read all of Unwired or Emergence yet. All you're doing is gimping yourself by removing TMs from the canon.

When your players ask you to explain something, you should be able to explain it within the world's knowledge. They're studies and information available throughout the books. We're pretty sure it's not any form of magic, and we know that Technomancer's auras are different enough that keen or longterm astral perception from a mage can see it.

I don't remove them from canon, actually. None of my players, even the ones that liked the idea of being a Neo-type character, seemed particularly interested once they saw the steep BP and karma requirements for playing one. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to NPCing one (though I can just picture my players, who take kind of a caveman approach to things sometimes, offing the poor guy while he's busy meditating in his chair and bending the Matrix to his will).

So, I find it funny that you think of magic and NAN as suspensions of disbelief, but not essence. I mean is there anything that suspends disbelief more than the idea that having your bones replaced with titanium somehow damages your soul more than replacing it with plastic? Or that for some reason chopping off your arm doesn't hurt your soul at all, but as soon as you attach a prosthetic to it you're suddenly less human?

And then with hacking? That somehow it is possible to think and operate a program faster than the program actually operates? Or that indeed you can move faster than you can think?

What about the ability of a metal detector to not be able to detect a gun passing through it? Shall we get into the idea of 'doses' always being able to fit into the same sized capsule round, regardless of how large or small they might be?

Oh, and don't forget ultrasound being able to be used to hit targets at a range, that's fairly unplausable thanks to the several second delay you'll get at any reasonable distance.

And monofilament whips being able to break apart molecules? *shiver*

Honestly I think Magic and NAN are some of the least problematic issues of suspension of disbelief in regards to SR.

Edit: Also, I figure magic is one of the things that sets SR apart most from other sci-fi/cyberpunk/whatever settings, so ignoring it you may as well just go to another setting.

Ah, I'm glad you brought those up.



I use essence as a means of tracking how much cyberware you can cram into your body before you're no longer human, nothing more. It has next to zero effect in my games besides that.



I always figured hackers had a stash of pre-written programs that they use to bypass stuff. I honestly doubt any hacker worth his salt would write up code on the fly.



My players learned about metal detectors the hard way. Since then, they learned to send their gear ahead of them on flights so it'd meet them when they got to their destination. As for doses, it's never really come up, but you're absolutely right. Then again, concentrated doses of certain chemicals exist nowadays, so I don't see why that wouldn't apply in the future.



Maybe underwater.



Don't even get me started...



I disagree, but they're certainly not alone, as you pointed out.

Yes, but they have to think to use the code, start the code, and let the code run, and respond to the run, all faster than the code actually runs because a hacker in Hot VR can operate faster than an autonomous program can which means she acts faster than the programs that she is using.

It is kinda like being able to pull the trigger on a gun 10 times in 1 second, but the gun's mechanics only operate fast enough to fire 2 times in 1 second.

Edit: And on that note, isn't it funny how being able to react faster adjusts how quickly your gun spews out bullets when the trigger is held down?

Technomancers are like Neo on what concepts? They are capable of expanding already existing abilities to beyond-belief levels (aka: Threading), they can easily "overcast" their CF and achieve things no hacker can ever dream of.
The "I know kung fu" can be easily achieved with skillware OR after a technomancer "initiates" and gets that emulation echo.

Now, where technomancers and Neo don't mix?

technomancers don't need any tech to connect with the virtual world, where Neo does.