House Rules, What do you house rule? Options

[evilgoattea]

Hello all!

I finished running a shadowrun campaign a few months back and I am gearing up to do my next one. I am working out some house rules now to make combat roll out easier and what not and I was just wondering if you guys have any suggestions for good house rules.

Thanks.

-Josh

P.s. If there is another thread that is similar to this one please feel free to point me in that direction but I couldn't find any with the search function.

[kzt]

There are several existing threads on this already....
1 2 3

That being said, we used Franks character design rules and banned mind control magic. We also generally hand waved the matrix, as none of us could stand the arguments that trying to use the rules caused.

[Fuchs]

I generally drop exact money amounts and go for using lifestyles for that, assuming anything normal is gotten easily, anything more expensive has to be gotten through a run or similar venture.

[klavis]

This is only my second time running a 4th edition campaign. I ran quite a few in the last edition and I always changed things to stream line it. I haven't tinkered with this edition nearly as much.

The only house rule that I have imposed for my current campaign so far is a limit on how many times someone can do a data search on a particular topic. Neither myself or the decker in question could find a cap in the book so I limited it to no more rolls than the total of the skill and attribute modifier combined. I still consider that a bit high, but at least now there is a cap so they can't just data search the hell out of every topic. He also suggested that if he glitched he could no longer find any information or the search time was greatly increased, which is what I'll most likely do. He also thought no cap was pretty crazy.

The last time I ran 4th edition I changed the target number to 4 and added exploding 6s as per 3rd edition. It was one of the suggestions in the 4th ed book, they called it a "cinematic game style". I'm not doing it this time. I'm also not a fan of the skill cap being so static, I know in that last campaign I just didn't put a cap, and the numbers didn't get to out of hand, but I know they could have. I'm thinking this time I might change it to maybe be something like a "racial limit" based on your attribute score or some such, kind of like how they allowed you to exceed your racial attribute limit back in 3rd edition, but I'm not sure if I will or not. I don't want there to not be a limit, but I hate having such an arbitrary static cap for skills.

[Muspellsheimr]

House Errata - Arsenal
House Errata - Augmentation
House Errata - Digital Grimore
House Errata - Runner's Companion
House Errata - Shadowrun 4
House Errata - Street Magic
House Errata - Unwired
Karma Character Generation
Technomancers

At this time, they are all undergoing revisions / updates. Several were considered incomplete to begin with. Assuming I remember, I will update them once the revisions are complete. I do not yet have errata done for Shadowrun 4 Anniversary; it will primarily be simply the Shadowrun 4 errata with different page references though, so easy enough to convert.

The last time I ran 4th edition I changed the target number to 4 and added exploding 6s as per 3rd edition.

While I have considered using the Rule of Six, I have not personally tested it myself. I strongly recommend against the Target Number 4 rule however, as it creates a huge discrepancy between Dice Pools of different size (the larger the difference, the greater the discrepancy) - for example, the chances of 6 Dice succeeding in an opposed test against 9 dice drops from 30% to 10% (numbers used as an example only, not as the actual chance).

I'm thinking this time I might change it to maybe be something like a "racial limit" based on your attribute score or some such, kind of like how they allowed you to exceed your racial attribute limit back in 3rd edition, but I'm not sure if I will or not. I don't want there to not be a limit, but I hate having such an arbitrary static cap for skills.

Again, I would strongly recommend against this. One of the greatest failings of any RPG system is to have skills (a developed trait) be directly affected by the characters species (a natural trait). If you want to adjust or remove skill maximums, go right ahead - I think it's a dumbass idea, but it's your game. Just do not have it determined by the character's race.

[klavis]

I didn't say based on their race, I said like exceeding the racial limit in 3rd ed. The cap would be based on their attribute, or I might just increase the cost as it goes beyond the normal cap.

[Tachi]

Sorry klavis but that was how I read it also. No offense, just, slightly more clarity would be appreciated. Not that I have much room to talk, I occasionally drink and post, trying to make sense of those can be a chore, even for me.

Oh, and uh, welcome to Dumpshock.