Runner's Companion, Whacha think? Options

[hermit]

Pixies, maybe. Obsidimen, no.

Free spirits? Aren't Obsidimen supposed to be free spirits?

Except that Runner's Companion is NOT a core book.

Uhm ...

This core book for Shadowrun, Fourth Edition also introduces Metavariants, Changelings, and the Infected as player character options

Emphasis mine.

My only real complaint I can think of is the aura of mystery around some things, like the drakeforms - I understand no one really knows much about it, but one could have made it a bit more mysterious in detail than just 'we don't know jack'.

Aside from the dragons book already mentioned, the Earthdawn dragons pdf on Ancient's home page also contains info on drake genesis.

And now for my review.

The good
Lifestyles are back. WHEW. I so missed you! Some decent new toys in the lifestyle and survival section. A few questions left open, as always, and I seriously wonder why all those style advantages and disadvantages are gone (I miss terrific view and disgusting neighbourhood), but it's good to have them back regardless.

The new chargen systems are a nice touch too. Especially BecKS adds. Good stuff and, from what I can tell, decently balanced too.

New connection rules add to the fact that SR4 is the first edition with connection rules you actually can work with. Nice system for organisations and online communities, though it took me a bit figuring it out.

Qualities are nice too. Good to have the old stuff back. Not sure about the new ones, SURGE included, but I'll definitly place a bunch of Klobb somewhere in Germany. Most likely Troll Kingdom. I hate Baden anyway.

Metavariants are far better than I had initially feared. According to - thankfully insubstantial rumors - elf metavariants were to be stamped as whores regardless of character. I miss the second new elf someone wrote about, but dryads are back and as playable as ever. The new dwarfs are cute, being little monkeys and all. I bet there'll be seveal harumani physad chars called Roku soon, somewhere.

The bad
The new "character options".

Shifters and Drakes - meh. They seem okay, though innate magic ratings are a bit over powered - but then again, without being mages, they're not feasible at all. Still nothing I would allow, but not truly ridiculous either. The fun starts after their section.

Nonhumans. Either they're barely usable as shadowrunners (naga, centaur) or they're just attention hogs for the entire campaign. I can't see how centaurs or nagas can find acceptance as covert operatives, except maybe for operatkions in Amazonian jungles or Greece. Windlings and Sasquatches - maybe. But they're too very limited - either by being unable to communicate properly or because any deadly would will vanish the PC.

The Infected? Sorry, they're totally unbalanced. Yeah, I know, BP cost and all that. Big fucking deal. Just get the character infected after chargen! Buy an infected of appropriate type as a contact, have your character be a fan of this infected type, and bingo, you save between 35 and 150 BP. Also, don't waste money buying magic in your character, as the infected will get it for free - just buy latent awakening. Use your first karma to push magic a bit. It'll also allow you to act like a damn Mary Sue, whining about how your feats are really curses, and to go on killing sprees, stating your character just hasn't quite adjusted to the new lifestyle. Keeping essence above magic is no problem either, as you can most of the time pass for a normal metahuman with a SURGEling SIN, and can just mug NPCs like there's no tomorrow. Fun!

This stinks. None of the infected characters have any meaningful allergies or weaknesses any more, apart from locking them into a box and throwing away the key, which is GM fiat of the worst kind. This reads a lot like munchkins-r-us.

Free Spirits? Not only do they now gain KArma like PCs do, they also act as a group commander by default. Lucky Free Spirit player! He gets to be all important and degrades all other PCs to stooges by default! And not only that, as soon as someone wants to play a free spirit (and gain Karma), other players HAVE to chain their characters to the spirit till they die by favour of a spirit pact. As an incentive, they gain a second Hand of God. Now that's balanced. I guess spandesx suuits and flight powers are optional.

What about AIs? Oh yeah. Finally, I can play a dungeon, a washing machine, Spider Jerusalem's Maker unit with Beetle addiction or the iRobot robot. And not only that, but I also can have cool super powers that make technomancers seem balanced! Truly great.

Finally, this section begs the question why the majority of these ... things ... should go shadowrunning. But meh. I guess that can be justified given a sufficienty ridiculous background. If it floats your boat, fine. Of all this, only the sprite and the sasquatch MAY be useful - as NPCs in my games, possibly as PCs in others. Otherwise, it's pretty much space wastred that could have been used for more feasible game options.

The ugly
And by ugly, I mean "it hurtses our eyes, precious!" Seriously, CGL should start to do some art directing. The art in RC is significantly worse than n Unwired (which had decent to great art). Not only are the images partly technically sub par, they also just don't fit, style-wise, with one another.

Now, I don't claim to know publishing in the gaming industry, but can't you give art assignments by book, not by chapter? Is it really that expensive? I somehow cannot imagine, snce tiny niche stuff like DeGenesis can pull that off. So what is it with SR4 and art?

Conclusion
Now, RC does contain fun stuff. Connections, Qualities, Metavariants, all decet stuff and useful in converting old characters as well as building fun new ones. Lifestyles are back, and now we all can again buld a cllege dorm living decker nerd whose secondary lifestyle has living with parents, or a bling-bling gangsta orc lifestyle (do elf bitches count as roommates from heaven?).

But apart from Artwork between "heh", "meh" and "ohgodmyeyes", it does waste a significant portion of space on "character options" that any normal group would ban outright, or never allow to develop as it needs to. I kind of don't see the need for these things as PCs, especially AI and Infected. I don't see the need to waste several pages on vampy fluff and evey last MMVV variant playable, even those clearly identified as animal-minded before this book (refers to loup-garou, not wendigos), when sensible stuff like example ratings for example online and group connections and an allergy that is referenced in other parts of the book have to be cut due to space concerns.

That and the Artwork, which REALLY could use more attention on part of the developers so that it at least follows a common line of sorts, really drags down my otherwise pretty decent impression of this book. I'd give it a C-.

[Isath]

though innate magic ratings are a bit over powered

Also, don't waste money buying magic in your character, as the infected will get it for free.

Erm... I do not see how an initial magic rating of 1 would be unbalancing, but would be interested to hear more detail about it. Also every build that makes use of magic (adept, mage, mystic adept) is granted an initial magic rating of 1, so why should it be different with drakes, shifters or the infected. Aside form adding 1 die to the regeneration test the character will only have extensive use for magic if he buys the mage (adept, mystic adept) quality. Also the initial Magic rating of 1 does not add with the one prvided by those qualities. So vampire + mage still leaves you with a magic rating of 1, not 2.

[CanRay]

I have one complaint.

"Famous Free Spirits".

They forgot the most famous of them all, Buttercup!

Of course, she doesn't even need mentioning, does she? Being a CEO of a Mega and all...

[toturi]

I have one complaint.

"Famous Free Spirits".

They forgot the most famous of them all, Buttercup!

Of course, she doesn't even need mentioning, does she? Being a CEO of a Mega and all...

I thought she was just a major shareholder. CEO being an ork...

[CanRay]

I thought she was just a major shareholder. CEO being an ork...

Ah, misremembered. Yes, she's the major shareholder.

Still famous. She was given a bunch of comic books by Dunkie in his will!

[BRodda]

Likes: Lifestyles are back! Now I can actully have extra bolt holes and safe houses. Some of the qualities/disadvantages are just what I was looking for recently. The little story run at the end was great too. Nice artwork of some of the Jackpoint regulars.

Dislikes: I swear to $DIETY if anyone comes to the game I'm looking to start with a Dzoo-Noo-Qua Giant who is Class III SURGEd is getting chucked out the window... (I looked it over in the rules. Yes it looks like you can do this.)

[hermit]

Erm... I do not see how an initial magic rating of 1 would be unbalancing, but would be interested to hear more detail about it. Also every build that makes use of magic (adept, mage, mystic adept) is granted an initial magic rating of 1, so why should it be different with drakes, shifters or the infected. Aside form adding 1 die to the regeneration test the character will only have extensive use for magic if he buys the mage (adept, mystic adept) quality. Also the initial Magic rating of 1 does not add with the one prvided by those qualities. So vampire + mage still leaves you with a magic rating of 1, not 2.

Because you get the magican quality that metahumans and -variants have to buy separatly for free? In case of an infected character who is infected in-game (at no BP cost) for far less than the magican quality? you save 15 BP like that. Buy latent awakening, get infected, awake and thrive. No need to spend KArma on the mage quality for changing quaqlities, either.

[CanRay]

Dislikes: I swear to $DIETY if anyone comes to the game I'm looking to start with a Dzoo-Noo-Qua Giant who is Class III SURGEd is getting chucked out the window... (I looked it over in the rules. Yes it looks like you can do this.)

$DIETY or just whatever God you choose to believe in? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

And that's why Characters have to be checked by GMs before they can be played. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Cthulhudreams]

The designers seem have made an astoundingly moronic decision by including karma based character generation - which is very, very, very annoying - and not including a BP based advancement system. Because BP > Karma in every respect and method. Its like they are allergic to simplicity.

[Ancient History]

Free spirits? Aren't Obsidimen supposed to be free spirits?

No. They're closest to flesh form spirits but...different.

Nonhumans/Shapeshifters/Infected/etc. bitchings

A large part of RC was presenting character options. Not all of these options would be kosher at my table unless I knew the player could handle playing them, but they are things that many players wanted, so...there you go.

The Infected? Sorry, they're totally unbalanced. Yeah, I know, BP cost and all that. Big fucking deal. Just get the character infected after chargen!

That was always going to be an issue with a transmissable character type, which is why the Infected were generally relegated to NPC status. You'd probably see the same reaction if any metahuman that had sex with an ork turned into an ork. The door is open to abuse - I'll tell you about the all-nosferatu playtest party sometime - but honestly, I don't see many serious players attempting to work the system. If you want to go through that much effort to be a Special Emo Pretty Butterfly, you're probably playing the wrong game.

None of the infected characters have any meaningful allergies or weaknesses any more

Uh...what? Every one of them has weaknesses. Granted, I didn't clamp down on Logic to represent mental retardation from the transformation, but...

And by ugly, I mean "it hurtses our eyes, precious!" Seriously, CGL should start to do some art directing.

Freelance art is a minefield, that's all I'll say.

[Sir_Psycho]

I can't decide whether getting a writer who hates the infected to write the infected rules was a good thing or a bad thing.

[Cthulhudreams]

Is it just me, or do the free spirit rules suck absolutely in every way? 250 BPs is like.. ouch. Okay you get 100 BPs worth of free qualities, and free always on armour... but... can you actually make a playable character?!?! Plus you have to dump loads of points into magic and you cannot use conjurering which sucks.

I'm guessing stats don't scale with force automatically- the paragraph implies but doesn't state that.

[hermit]

That was always going to be an issue with a transmissable character type, which is why the Infected were generally relegated to NPC status. You'd probably see the same reaction if any metahuman that had sex with an ork turned into an ork. The door is open to abuse - I'll tell you about the all-nosferatu playtest party sometime - but honestly, I don't see many serious players attempting to work the system. If you want to go through that much effort to be a Special Emo Pretty Butterfly, you're probably playing the wrong game.

But why make rules for special emo pretty butterfly characters in the first place, then? Wouldn't, if this is to be largely an NPC section, it be better suited for Running Wild? And no, it's not the serious players I'd worry about here. It's those who might be attracted to SR4 because "finally, it has playable vampires!"

No. They're closest to flesh form spirits but...different.

Like, really? Okay ... always thought they were Earth Elementals spawned in a special way by spellcasting rock.

Uh...what? Every one of them has weaknesses. Granted, I didn't clamp down on Logic to represent mental retardation from the transformation, but...

Since orcs and trolls get that treatment (decreased logic and such), it would've been kinda fair to. A bit, at least. Also, lots of allergies have been scaled down, and all that. The weight on the Infected with allergies and weaknesses seems to have been relieved a lot.

Also, I am missing the Chupacabra and the elf nosferatu. If you include bandersnatches, why not them? Both are reasonably sentient either.

Oh yeah, kudos to whoever wrote the SURGE chapter on the Klobb. One of my more favourite lesser Races from ED.

[Cthulhudreams]

Astral hazing is the best negative quality in the game. Its so good it should pretty much be a positive quality. Holy hell.

Especially when you compare it to arcane arrester!


!!!!

Only thing it screws you for is heals. Go go orge cyber sammies. For that 20 bps of race and 10 BP of neg qualities, you are pretty sweet vs magic. Very sweet.

[Cardul]

Because you get the magican quality that metahumans and -variants have to buy separatly for free? In case of an infected character who is infected in-game (at no BP cost) for far less than the magican quality? you save 15 BP like that. Buy latent awakening, get infected, awake and thrive. No need to spend KArma on the mage quality for changing quaqlities, either.

Um...no, they do not get the Magician Quality for free. They still have to pay for it. And the rules for Latent Awakening would still apply, so that, even though they get Awakened,t hey still have to pay Karma for it. And, honestly, if you would allow that in a game you run(since you are suggesting it, you would obviously allow it), then
perhaps you should remember that most places still have being Infected as ILLEGAL, that is assuming they even have legal rights to begin with. If I had a player who wanted to play a vampire, well...they would be REALLY miserable, what with them being hunted and all...because, well..they STILL have to feed off of Essence. Stop and think about this: they have to, pretty much, kill people, rip PERMANENT bits of people's spirits and life force away just to survive. You really think there is not going to be some people hunting for them? Just because teh mechanics do not automatically make them all "Hunted"? Personally, I have a player attempt that, you know what is happening? Hung Out to Dry, Hunted, AND, of course, all that nice cyverware they got gets ejected from them as their body heals..and that is just off the top of my head. You get Infected, what little time remains of your shadowrrunning career will not be pleasant in the least...

[Cthulhudreams]

Its a game in which you play hired criminals who have huge numbers of guns and explosives and commit crimes on a regular basis

'Killing people' 'being hunted' and 'being illegal' are pretty much par for the course. Most of my characters are committing multiple felonies when they go to the pub.

[hermit]

Um...no, they do not get the Magician Quality for free. They still have to pay for it. And the rules for Latent Awakening would still apply, so that, even though they get Awakened,t hey still have to pay Karma for it. And, honestly, if you would allow that in a game you run(since you are suggesting it, you would obviously allow it), then perhaps you should remember that most places still have being Infected as ILLEGAL, that is assuming they even have legal rights to begin with.

Read the book? They have full civil rights now in all parts of the civilised world. I didn't make that up. I forgot to add it to my rant though, admittedly.

If I had a player who wanted to play a vampire, well...they would be REALLY miserable, what with them being hunted and all...because, well..they STILL have to feed off of Essence. Stop and think about this: they have to, pretty much, kill people, rip PERMANENT bits of people's spirits and life force away just to survive. You really think there is not going to be some people hunting for them? Just because teh mechanics do not automatically make them all "Hunted"? Personally, I have a player attempt that, you know what is happening? Hung Out to Dry, Hunted, AND, of course, all that nice cyverware they got gets ejected from them as their body heals..and that is just off the top of my head. You get Infected, what little time remains of your shadowrrunning career will not be pleasant in the least...

I'm thinking inside the rules here. In a game I run, infected characters would not be allowed at all. Still, a ruling on whether the Infected quality counts for a character's notoriety would be nice. A vamp who has notoriety of 20 on default, or a wendigo who gets at least 7, will just not be hired. The player can then feel ignored while the run is played. Maybe it'll tell them something.

Would also nicely explain your "hung out to dry" spree.

For the record, I am with you there. I just try and see this stuff as a special emo pretty butterfly player propably would.

Most of my characters are committing multiple felonies when they go to the pub.

Like how? Compulsion (Must Kill Humans), Severe Addiction (Child rape) and Dark Secret (war criminal on the run)? Huh? Please elaborate.

Also, kill-happy characters have short lives too, in consequently played games.

[FlashbackJon]

I would assume he's simply exaggerating, but he could be referring to massively restricted gear and 'ware without a license. Or worse, with a fake license. Y'know, normal illegal runner stuff.

[hermit]

Uhm ... where exactly does my character possessing cracked software in startling quantites kill people by default? Yeah, he propably is. Still, that doesn't mean he kills people by default like the infected do.

[Cthulhudreams]

Killing is standard shadowrunner behaviour. Think of the standard 'quick start' adventure. What do you do? Gun down some thugs. First adventure in shadowrun missions? Fraud, theft, murder, extortion, racketeering, trespass, break and entire, causing an affray, disorderly conduct, jaywalking, assault, assault and battery, aggravated assault, DMCA infringement, copyright infringement. Yeah. There are a bunch of property offenceses you commit too, and you may actually also impersonate a police officer 0 assuming hired security guards can be guys from lone Star and thus real police. You're a criminal. Get with the program.

Anyway, yeah, the pub was a joke about the illegal shite your character has and doesn't have licenses for. My last chracter, as an arbitary example was commiting the following offenses when picking his nose at the bar with a beer in hand:

Casting of unlicensed combat spells
possession of illegal weapons (LMG on drone in car)
possession of illegal weapon accessories (silencer)
possession of restricted weapons (Assault rifle and SMG) without a permit
possession of restricted equipment (foci) without a permit
possession of restricted equipment (ECM jammer) without a permit
possession of restricted cyberware without a permit
possession of illegal cyberware without authorization as a federal employee.
possession of illegal narcotics
Fraud (Fake licenses)
Fraud (Fake identity)
DMCA infringements
Copyright infringements
Several other computer crimes -for example my agent is spoofing my lifestyle, so I'm commiting fraud, some sort of hacking offense on the bank and the pub, and possibly some sort of anti botnet legisalation if my agent touches more than 10 computers while going about its business.

And thats just what occurs to me off the top of my head - in australia the firearms possession offenses alone could get you more than 14 years in the big house.

[Oenone]

Actually the Karma system works quite nicely for making a technomancer with it. You actually end up with enough points to spend on some stats and non-matrix skills, rounded selection of background skills and a bit of gear.

The new character options are interesting, admittedly that's mainly because I like using the BP system to stat up major NPC/Villians and the RC lets me make up suitably potent Prime Runners without having to convert the creatures from the BBB or just make it up from scratch.

The cover art is nice, even if some of the internal art isn't as good. But then to be honest I wasn't really paying much attention to the pictures.

Oh and the foreshadowing for Ghost Cartels in the stories at the back has me a lot more interested in the book than I previously was. I might even drop it into the game I'm running if the game is still going by the time it's out.

The downsides for me mainly are the priority system, but that's largely because it gives me less fine control for chargen. But then again it's only a few pages and it's always good to have more options as not everyone will enjoy the BP or Karma systems. So even though I personally dislike it I suspect I'd have to recommend it to anyone really new to the system.

[hermit]

Killing is standard shadowrunner behaviour. Think of the standard 'quick start' adventure. What do you do? Gun down some thugs.

Still, gunning down everyone isn't standard shadowrunner behavior, as much as it's not for mercenaries (well, excluding those operating in Iraq, apparently).

First adventure in shadowrun missions? Fraud, theft, murder, extortion, racketeering, trespass, break and entire, causing an affray, disorderly conduct, jaywalking, assault, assault and battery, aggravated assault, DMCA infringement, copyright infringement. Yeah. There are a bunch of property offenceses you commit too, and you may actually also impersonate a police officer 0 assuming hired security guards can be guys from lone Star and thus real police. You're a criminal. Get with the program.

I admit I have no idea what the first missions mission is about, but is killing someone mandatory there? If not, tranqing works about as well (or sleepcasting, which works even better). RC actually recommends that.

Yeah, runners are criminals. But criminals aren't all alike. And there is quite a difference between break-in artists who usually don't kill people and mass murderers who kill for food and eat souls.

Anyway, yeah, the pub was a joke about the illegal shite your character has and doesn't have licenses for. My last chracter, as an arbitary example was commiting the following offenses when picking his nose at the bar with a beer in hand:

Casting of unlicensed combat spells
possession of illegal weapons (LMG on drone in car)
possession of illegal weapon accessories (silencer)
possession of restricted weapons (Assault rifle and SMG) without a permit
possession of restricted equipment (foci) without a permit
possession of restricted equipment (ECM jammer) without a permit
possession of restricted cyberware without a permit
possession of illegal cyberware without authorization as a federal employee.
possession of illegal narcotics
Fraud (Fake licenses)
Fraud (Fake identity)
DMCA infringements
Copyright infringements
Several other computer crimes -for example my agent is spoofing my lifestyle, so I'm commiting fraud, some sort of hacking offense on the bank and the pub, and possibly some sort of anti botnet legisalation if my agent touches more than 10 computers while going about its business.

Committed under the same juristiction? If so, your own fault if that gets you arrested. Also, taking your LMG drone with you to your favourite pub seems a little ... odd ... to me, like waving a huge banner saying "kick me please", provided the pub is in a C zone or better. Propably, your game is a lot different from mine.

And thats just what occurs to me off the top of my head - in australia the firearms possession offenses alone could get you more than 14 years in the big house.

Isn't the right to arm yourself for self defense still in effect in the UCAS? I would leave the AR and LMG drone at home and insetad take a Pred, a taser and a drone mounting a hunting rifle - guns that you can more or less legally own.

The SINs shouldn't be too much of a problem. And I'd scrap the lifestyle spoofing and use the advanced lifestyle rules anyway.

Actually the Karma system works quite nicely for making a technomancer with it. You actually end up with enough points to spend on some stats and non-matrix skills, rounded selection of background skills and a bit of gear.

Yeah, thoughtb so too. One further step in making mundanes futile, I guess. Good for thchnoplayers who want to play Neo from scratch, though.

[Ancient History]

But why make rules for special emo pretty butterfly characters in the first place, then? Wouldn't, if this is to be largely an NPC section, it be better suited for Running Wild?

You misunderstood me; the Infected have in the past been mainly relegated to NPC status because of the transmission issue.

Like, really? Okay ... always thought they were Earth Elementals spawned in a special way by spellcasting rock.

It's complicated.

Also, I am missing the Chupacabra and the elf nosferatu. If you include bandersnatches, why not them? Both are reasonably sentient either.

The goat-sucker is a weird, bipedal lizard - not sapient. There was only one elven nosferatu, and he ate pretty much everybody else in the world that would qualify to become an elf nosferatu.

[hermit]

The goat-sucker is a weird, bipedal lizard - not sapient. There was only one elven nosferatu, and he ate pretty much everybody else in the world that would qualify to become an elf nosferatu.

So? There are only 35.000 sasquatches worldwide, that number cannot support more than a few hundred bandersnatches, and they got rules ...

And wasn't the goat sucher a weird bipedal sentient lizard alien? Or am I misremembering cyberpirates?

You misunderstood me; the Infected have in the past been mainly relegated to NPC status because of the transmission issue.

Ehm ... now you lost me ... ghouls were playable, and hat that transmission problem ... so ...?

It's complicated.

Has it been explained anywhere yet?

[Ancient History]

And wasn't the goat sucher a weird bipedal sentient lizard alien? Or am I misremembering cyberpirates?

Misremembering and putting too much faith in shadowtalker comments.

Ehm ... now you lost me ... ghouls were playable, and hat that transmission problem ... so ...?

I did say "mostly." Frankly, I never ran into the problem with all-ghoul parties, but I think that's because ghouls tended to suck.

Has it been explained anywhere yet?

A little bit, yeah. Earthdawn's Denizens of Barsaive, Vol. II. See, obsidimen are part weird earth spirit, but they also have actual flesh and a discernable anatomy approximate to most other Namegivers. Like I said, the closest SR parallel is a flesh form earth spirit, but that's not quite accurate in all respects.