[X] My Assistant

[kzt]

Scopes on pistols are common for hunters.

See http://www.leupold.com/hunting-and-shootin...handgun-scopes/

[Malachi]

[Hartbaine]

Agreed, I'd rather have a lower threshold then extra dice most of the time.

[Garrowolf]

REAL hunters don't use pistols - they use knives!

[jklst14]

Here are a few of the house rules we use:

1. No matter how many IPs a character has, when they use AR, I only allow 1 matrix action per combat turn. That way, a hacker in VR is always faster than a samurai using AR.
2. I let characters with cyberlimbs do physical damage on unarmed attacks.
3. When using Perception to search for weapons, rather than apply Concealability modifiers, I just change the threshold, depending on the size of the item.
4. I usually don't make characters roll language skills. Instead, we have a table that says how proficient a character is, based on his skill level.
5. For called shots to vulnerable areas, I give +1 DV for every -2 to the dice pool.
6. For some Extended Tests (like availability tests and data searches), I limit the number of rolls the player can make.
7. For some Extended Tests (like matrix data searches and decryption), I'll lengthen the interval with every die roll attempt. For instance, first die roll has an interval of 1 combat turn. Second interval is 1 minute. Third is one hour. Fourth is a day. Fifth is a week. This way, if you can do something in one roll (like decrypt a file), it'll take just one combat turn. However, if you need four rolls, it'll take 1 day 1 hour 1 min and 3 seconds of in game time to decrypt the file.
8. I've doubled the thresholds needed for the spell Improved Reflexes (2 hits per extra IP as opposed to 1 hit per extra IP). That means to get 3 extra IPs, the spell caster has to roll 6 hits which means the caster has to cast it at force 6.

I'm sure there are more but that's all I can think of right off the top of my head.

[MaxHunter]

hey fellows! I am back again, probably working too much this week but willing to contribute with my beloved "Suerte o Muerte" downtime table. Actually, half of it, because now I can't seem to find the file which has the complete thing. Maybe tomorrow after I have had some decent sleep I will be able to think proper.

Before I go on: Two things;

First, any of my players beware, this may spoil some fun, read at your own risk and don't trust your eyes.

Secondly, these are supposed to provide some guidelines and ideas to add "colour" to runs, they might seem crunchy but actually even I never use them as they are posted here. I also change the table every once in a while so I do not get bored. (hence the currently missing file)
Results are here to help character development, maybe focusing on aspect of the runners lives that not so often come up in play. Also to portray a more dynamic, "realistic" gameworld.

Basically I roll for characters at the end of a run, once every three or four runs and use the first ten-twenty minutes the next session before the new run to get them up to speed.
I roll 2d6 + (unspent) edge to find out what Fortune has in stock for each character...
I do not stick much with the mechanics, sometimes I put numbers in a hat and take one or whatever.
Usually results 2-7 are negative events, 8-9 are non events and 9+ are positive ones. I do change the odds every once in a while and also have a stock of more events to replace "used" ones. Now I have only the first half.

[ Spoiler ]

SR4 Downtime Generator.


Negative Outcomes (Ignore critical hits for results 2-7)

2- Breaking and Entering.
"You come home to find out the unthinkable, door busted open, your things messed up, you have just been robbed!"
Roll Edge (+3 if luxury, +2 high, -1 low, -2 squatter, -3 street, +1 to +4 if character has taken in-game measures and spent resources to provide security to her doss).

- Two hits means that the security corp/alarm/gang/neighbour's pet devil rat has noticed the break-in and foiled the thieves' attempt.
-One hit means that the thieves had to run before they could lift all your possessions. (They just stole/broke/ruined property worth 1/2 month lifestyle)
-No hits means that the really pulled it off. (Roll as in The nuyen shuffle to calculate the character's losses)
-A glitch means the previous result applies AND that the thieves have caused some other complication. For example, the cops are coming to investigate, the took a valuable piece of data/gear, they saw something they should not have seen, etc.
-A critical glitch means that the previous result applies and GMs are encouraged to be a tad nastier. (i.e: they took something important, the thugs are mafia- related, an uncontrolled spirit was left haunting your place, the neighbour was killed on their way out and the body is cooling on the doormat, etc.)

3-Bullshit! "You meet with the contact under the dark cover of the smoke-filled barl. He has hit some valuable information for you"
One of the character’s contacts (or a FoF) meet him to pass some valuable info for her. This could be a piece of valuable intel about the character’s future run or info about something that happened in the past (i.e. nemesis location, past employer, etc.)
This could happen before or in the course of the following shadowrun as best fits to story . Unbeknownst to the contact ot not (Gm’s choice) the information is false and perhaps dangerously misleading. Roll Edge
Two hits: Minor inconvenience / easy to disregard as false. “The security guards arrive at 10pm.� (They come earlier)
One hit: Inconvenient but not dangerous. “Mr. Johnson works for NeoNet� (misleading but false, he works for Evo)
Zero hits: Inconvenient and possibly dangerous “The security cameras have not yet been installed� (Was true yesterday, the technical crew just came today and fixed it)
Glitch: add something bad “The backdoor guards are really lazy, they would take bribes from just anyone� (They are actually yakuza and would feel quite offended.)
Critical glitch: “The dragon’s lair is empty just now“ (Need I say more?)

4- Slander. “You enter the bar and can’t help noticing the uneasy glances the regulars give you, somebody has been talking about you in your back, and they didn’t say anything pretty�
Someone (an enemy, a rival shadowrunner, envious people, a deceived contact) has made the wrong comments about the character, temporarily affecting his rep.
Roll Edge.
Two hits. No effect. “You caught the rumour before it caught up, but someone has been talking dirt about you.�
One hits. + 1 notoriety for one month. “You know, that sam over there is the one who blew up the Mistuhama run�
Zero hits: +2 notoriety for one month “…And she likes dating big trolls with nazi tatoos�
Glitch: . Plus some extra complications. (enemy awareness, unwanted investigation, possible enemies) “Yes Mr. Johnson, that’s the one that blew up your facilty last month�
Critical Glitch: +2 notoriety. Unless the runner takes serious measures, this effect could affect his street rep permanently. “Good morning Seattle, we are about to show you images that could be shocking in it’s content, it seems that this so-called shadowrunner…�

5-Down with the flu. “You don’t feel very well this morning...�
The runner’s just caught something .
Roll Natural Body +Edge. (plus appropriate toxin resistance/weakness modifiers, plus lifestyle modifiers –see “2� addictions, allergies and other qualities may also give penalties )

Two+ hits. No effect. “You take the pills and you start feeling better…�
One hit. You start next run with 1 box stun damage “The hangover is killing you, may be you drank too much last night.�
Zero hits: you start next run with 2 boxes stun damage (need Medicine to heal) “Your eyes are crying, you have a runny nose, just hope Mr. Johnson does not notice�
Glitch: This could get worse if not taken care of. Add a disorientation effect. This effect applies until the character (or his doctor) succeeds in a Logic + Medicine (2) roll “Man, you look terrible. What truck ran over you?�
Critical Glitch: A nasty one: V.I.T.A.S, the big C, etc. Treat as a rating 5 disease (physical), speed 1 day, with the disorientation effect (pain). This effect applies immediately no matter the result of the toxin resistance roll “Mr Smith. I am afraid I have bad news for you…�

comment/ this was written before augmentation, now the options are broader. One character who was nastily addicted to nicotine rolled this up (a port from SR3, now it wouldn't fly) She ended having her lungs replaced... -constantine, anyone?

6-Out of town
"Sorry Mr. Flashbang, the number you are trying to reach is momentarily unavailable"
One of the characters contacts had some business to attend and won't be available for this run. Save it for one contact the character is going to call today.
Roll Edge
Two+ hits. No effect, but the contact is in a hurry. “You caught me at the airport, spill your beans quickly �
One hit. Contact available but as in above and will ask for more money/favours "...yes, my flight takes off in five. Whatever you want get the credstick ready because I really don't have much time…�
Zero hits: Contact unavailable for this run "leave your message after the tone�
Glitch: add complication: somebody is chasing your contact, police investigation in progress, another fixer is trying to steal influence from yours, etc. “hoi there chummer, looking for Johnny?�
Critical Glitch: Long term effect: Contact dead or missing, kidnapped, in hospital, in jail, quit the shadows, fell back into old addiction, under AIs control or new insect spirit host. Possible run ahead. "Yessir, I saw the men in coats taking him, he was kicking and screaming all the way, poor Mr Johnson�

7-Bad Spirits "I have a bad feeling today..."
Bad karma man, Lady Luck is one bitter slitch and nothing good is coming your way today.
Roll Edge:
Two+ hits. No effect, the feeling is passing. “luck is for the unprepared�
One hit. Minor effects. Describe a couple unhappy incidents, with no game effects
"I got up and it was raining inside the apartment, then the elevator broke and a while back my nuke-em burgers tasted sweet, so you better tell me the location of the case now because I am a very pissed off ork today"
Zero hits: As before and reduce edge by one for this session "The spirits are angry at you mr. Samurai�
Glitch: add complication: Gremlins 1 or similar quality “click, click�
Critical Glitch: This could be dangerous. As with zero hits and also once in the run have an Accident happen as the spirit power with a force equal to the characters Edge. Be sure to have some omen coming at the character before anything happens "Ok, Now quick, cut the blue wire...�

Other Negative Results -now shifted out of rotation and missing somewhere in my comp were: "Sellout" a contact tempted to sell characters info, "Delays" meaning either traffic jams, matrix glitches, background count or a pollution alert and "Crackdown" i.e. increasing police/system alertness

Neutral Non -Events usually involved some descriptive fluff involving: "blast from the past" characters backstory, "awakening" mystical events, "unwiring" matrix events and "newsflash" corporate, criminal, media and otherwise world events that might colour the run. Examples were a novahot rockstar concert in town, somebody's former co worker frequenting the same bar, a hacker gang crashing AR downtown, etc, etc.

Positive events are also lost momentarily, I remember some titles like:

"New Acquaintance" a new contact or a temporary increase in connection of one
"On Fire!" extra edge for the run
"Friendly Tip" like "bullshit" but truthful
"Good Word" the opposite of "Slander"
"Milk Run" A job between games when nothing notable happened. courier job and not attacked, security to a meet, surveillance, data mining, astral backup; maybe you saw something interesting/met someone/knew a new interesting place. -Think the mob guys in "Enemy of the State" + depending on the roll, some money earned like in "robbed"
"Foreboding" mystical or otherwise insight into the future.
"Learning" the chance to learn a point in a new knowledge skill

And that is all for today! I am sorry I didn't find the complete file, I am afraid I might have erased it by saving the partial one I found on top of the other. Well, maybe it's time for us to add more things and rebuild. I hope you like my ideas, please notice that these are intended just as additions to bring light to some games and take the backseat to actual running. Cheers!!

Max

[CyberKender]

[MaxHunter]

I use the same cover rule. Really liked the IP/movement factor of four up above, maybe I'll try it.

Cheers,

Max, still not sleeping

[blakkie]

[noonesshowmonkey]

Badass, MaxHunter.

I like it.

/yoink

;)

- der menkey

Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter.
~Ernest Hemingway

[Fortune]

[eidolon]

Max, that's really nifty. Consider it yoinked. :)

[PlatonicPimp]

Contacts cost loyalty TIMES rating in my game, but you get charisma + ettiqutte free BP for buying them. I also have enemies, which have a negative loyalty rating, and thusly give points back. In my game, BP and Karma are interchangeable, and so things cost the same at character creation and in game.

Trolls don't have awesome movement. They have the same movement as dwarves. Their legs are proportionally short and they aren't built for running. Troll movement rates have seen a creep with editions, and I prefer the old school numbers.

Languages never require a skill check. You are either passable (rating 1) which means you can communicate concepts but not well, giving a -2 penalty to checks involving communication. Next is conversational (rating 2) which has no penalty. For every rating point above 2, you are fluent in a specific dialect of the language, able to pass for a native speaker. This can eliminate penalties when talking to xenophobes, or aid in disguise.

Technomancers don't have a built in radio. They have a biological skinlink, that works with any device they touch, even if the device is not skinlink-enabled. They can use the signal rating of any device they are touching, routing their persona through it. I just like the feel of it better.

I have general guidelines for signal repeating, actually: and for connecting with the cell network to use it's rebroadcast capability. Repeating a signal counts as one program running on that node. Response is limited to the lowest rating in the chain. The cell network can be accessed by any device with a signal of 1 or greater, and can rebroadcast your signal indefinately with no slowdown, but someone can locate your signal on the cell networks node, possibly tapping it. It's less secure than direct linkage. A lot of people participate in a "frequency-share" program, where they dedicate a certain amount of their commlink's processing power to rebroadcasting other people's signals, kind of a bittorrent approach to access. It's more secure than the cell network but much less reliable, something like your response rating is limited to the result of an edge check.

[Moon-Hawk]

[Ophis]

I tend to do something like the the multiples of 4 movement but have dropped the numbers rather than raising them as the rate as per the BBB make it worryingly easy for a character to hit olympic running speeds. I also always spread movement over four passes.

I have changed Karma costs a bit...

Skills New Rating*1.5
Skill Groups New*3
Knowledge Skills New
Attributes New*3
Complex Forms 5 karma (rating equals resonance and cost 3 in char gen)

I'm toying with limiting Program rating with logic

Wired Reflexes cost 1.5 ess and 15000nuyen/level

Adept initiative boosts cost 1.5/level
Adept attribute increase cost 0.5

Free Contacts equal to Cha*3

[Yoan]

Thanks MaxHunter! Going to tweak it towards my needs/mood. Now get some fraggin' sleep, while ya? ;)

[blakkie]

[Redjack]

I love the idea of the movement rates by pass....
How about the order of the passes though...? Like 4,1,3,2..
That makes shakes it up a little and spreads it out? Doesn't quite give us sr2/sr3 actions every 10 counts, but it spreads the extra passes out a little better....

[DTFarstar]

I do 4,2,3,1 myself, Redjack. It has worked well so far, except that normals are even more boned without at least one extra pass. I now let people go full defense unless surprised even if they haven't gone yet and it's the first initiative pass.

Chris

[Dashifen]

@DTFarstar:
Actually, characters can declare full defense as an interrupt action at any time. See the bottom of the first column on page 151 of SR4 for more information.

[Kyoto Kid]

...Jaid, Moon-Hawk & Blakkie. For now we are going to stay with the Skill + Attribute capped by Programme. This is a trial to see how well it works (or doesn't) in various circumstances. Our take on the RAW regarding hacking is that it is the only skill test that does not use the standard mechanic. If the game was intended to be streamlined, all skill tests should be the same (Skill + Attribute +/- modifiers).

Another variant we tried was using programme rating similar to how a medikit works with First Aid but that made for totally outrageous DPs.

[blakkie]

[DTFarstar]

Huh, thanks Dashifen. When I was typing that it felt slightly wrong. Oh well, at least I was doing it correctly if for the wrong reasons. I guess it was just a memory carry over from DnD. That damn game sublet a huge portion of my cerebral cortex with all of it's damn rules.

Chris

[Moon-Hawk]

[Malachi]