New SR GM with a buncha questions Options

[CountingGardens]

Hi, I'm new to Shadowrun and pretty much pen-and-paper RPGs all together. (Played some 3.5 a little but didn't really know what was going on) Pretty much the art style of the Shadowrun game on the 360 got me interested in the RPG and me and some friends sat down to play. They each built a character and pretty much, we have 2 Street Samurais (One Elf, One Human), a Drone Rigger (Dwarf), and a Hacker (Orc). While doing the characters (400 BP) everything was fine until I noticed that 1 BP is 5,000 nuyen, which seems a bit high. So, essentially everyone was buying nutso weapons like katanas and Ruger Super Warhawks from the start, which seemed a little odd, since the campaign we're doing has them at a Low lifestyle setting. I'm also finding it hard to employ the use of the Hacker in the mission. I mean, what exactly can he hack in fights to make it beneficial for his party besides lights? He uses his Skin Link to touch enemies and upload disturbing things to their commlink, which is neat. But can hackers mess with other NPC commlinks? Also, in the Shadowrun world, there are no laptops or desktops, everything is really just commlink right? We haven't really gotten into the Matrix yet since it's only been two sessions and a lot of what we've been doing is just practicing/rule fumbling in combat. Alright, sorry for the barrage of questions. Essentially here's how the campaign has been.


Players start off in low lifestyle apartment housing in an urban district. They're contacted by a mute Troll who gives them a random anarchy mission to destroy a pizza shop using a rocket launcher he mounts on the top of the Drone Rigger's van. They drive to the pizza shop and are being followed by a police car, since there's a crude rocket launcher bolted to the top of his van, but the Hacker hacks the police car's commlink and car distracting him by telling him there is a huge disturbance in another part of the city. Players get to the pizza shop, I have them make a combined dice roll in order to operate the huge mounted rocket launcher since it's hard to swivel due to the crude bolting job. Players blow up the shop, high tail it out of there. End of session.

Next session, players are told upon completion of that mission that they have more work ahead for them by the previous mute Troll's higher up. They're told to meet at a bar just beyond a police checkpoint (police are agro'd from yesterdays explosion) so they leave their weapons at home, except the Elf Street Samurai since he's got concealed throwing knives in his coat. Players arrive at the bar after getting through the checkpoint, some having to bribe the policeman based on dice roll. They get to the bar, end of getting in a bar fight with some drunk gangers with survival knives (in order to test out combat system) Come out victorious and meet with the Troll boss in the VIP section of the bar. Troll boss is also mute, and explains through commlink text that he's the leader of a Technocult which undergoes special rituals to disable vocal guards in order to give up one's voice to that of technology.


Alright, that's all I have so far. That's where we ended. How am I doing, and sorry for the long read. =P

[D2F]

While doing the characters (400 BP) everything was fine until I noticed that 1 BP is 5,000 nuyen, which seems a bit high. So, essentially everyone was buying nutso weapons like katanas and Ruger Super Warhawks from the start, which seemed a little odd, since the campaign we're doing has them at a Low lifestyle setting.

You are limited to a maximum of 50BP worth of ressources (250,000¥). Expensive weapons and ammo don't conflict with a low lifestyle. They can even be the reason for said low lifestyle.
The really neat stuff isn't even available during character generation, as said stuff has availability ratings higher than 12.
You should not be worried about the conversion rate. If you and your group want to further limit the money, lower the BP cap on ressources. I highly doubt it will be nescessary, though.

I'm also finding it hard to employ the use of the Hacker in the mission. I mean, what exactly can he hack in fights to make it beneficial for his party besides lights? He uses his Skin Link to touch enemies and upload disturbing things to their commlink, which is neat. But can hackers mess with other NPC commlinks? Also, in the Shadowrun world, there are no laptops or desktops, everything is really just commlink right? We haven't really gotten into the Matrix yet since it's only been two sessions and a lot of what we've been doing is just practicing/rule fumbling in combat.

Yes, hackers can hack NPC commlinks.
Aside from Commlinks there are also Nexi (large computers). More information on Nexi can be found in "Unwired" but it will not be nescessary for a starting campaign and you sholdn't burden yourself and your team with more rules than nescessary.
What can a hacker do? Eject clips from their smartguns, screw with their Smartlink display, disable cyberlimbs, jam their communication... there is a lot of stuff a hacker can do. All you need is a bit of imagination =) I am fairly confident there will be other posters here who can give you a lot more ideas than me, though. Matrix is not my forte.

Players start off in low lifestyle apartment housing in an urban district. They're contacted by a mute Troll who gives them a random anarchy mission to destroy a pizza shop using a rocket launcher he mounts on the top of the Drone Rigger's van. They drive to the pizza shop and are being followed by a police car, since there's a crude rocket launcher bolted to the top of his van, but the Hacker hacks the police car's commlink and car distracting him by telling him there is a huge disturbance in another part of the city. Players get to the pizza shop, I have them make a combined dice roll in order to operate the huge mounted rocket launcher since it's hard to swivel due to the crude bolting job. Players blow up the shop, high tail it out of there. End of session.

Next session, players are told upon completion of that mission that they have more work ahead for them by the previous mute Troll's higher up. They're told to meet at a bar just beyond a police checkpoint (police are agro'd from yesterdays explosion) so they leave their weapons at home, except the Elf Street Samurai since he's got concealed throwing knives in his coat. Players arrive at the bar after getting through the checkpoint, some having to bribe the policeman based on dice roll. They get to the bar, end of getting in a bar fight with some drunk gangers with survival knives (in order to test out combat system) Come out victorious and meet with the Troll boss in the VIP section of the bar. Troll boss is also mute, and explains through commlink text that he's the leader of a Technocult which undergoes special rituals to disable vocal guards in order to give up one's voice to that of technology.


Alright, that's all I have so far. That's where we ended. How am I doing, and sorry for the long read. =P

I'd say so far, so good. Especially considering your previous experience in PnP RPGs. You can also take a look at some of the official adventures to get an idea how to structure missions and how to include a few plot twists. That all depends on how you and your group would like to play and what you expect out of the game.

[nezumi]

How am I doing, and sorry for the long read. =P

If you are pleased, and your players are happy, then you are doing well. There is no other measure of success.

[Malachi]

Hi, I'm new to Shadowrun and pretty much pen-and-paper RPGs all together. (Played some 3.5 a little but didn't really know what was going on) Pretty much the art style of the Shadowrun game on the 360 got me interested in the RPG and me and some friends sat down to play. They each built a character and pretty much, we have 2 Street Samurais (One Elf, One Human), a Drone Rigger (Dwarf), and a Hacker (Orc). While doing the characters (400 BP) everything was fine until I noticed that 1 BP is 5,000 nuyen, which seems a bit high. So, essentially everyone was buying nutso weapons like katanas and Ruger Super Warhawks from the start, which seemed a little odd, since the campaign we're doing has them at a Low lifestyle setting. I'm also finding it hard to employ the use of the Hacker in the mission. I mean, what exactly can he hack in fights to make it beneficial for his party besides lights? He uses his Skin Link to touch enemies and upload disturbing things to their commlink, which is neat. But can hackers mess with other NPC commlinks? Also, in the Shadowrun world, there are no laptops or desktops, everything is really just commlink right? We haven't really gotten into the Matrix yet since it's only been two sessions and a lot of what we've been doing is just practicing/rule fumbling in combat. Alright, sorry for the barrage of questions. Essentially here's how the campaign has been.

As D2F pointed out, there are limitations on how many BP's a character can spend on resources and there is a limit on what they can buy at character creation. If you want your campaign to be more "low-powered" then simply put limits on the equipment they can acquire. However, I would point out that (as the background is written) warhawks and katanas would not be terribly usual among the criminal element in Shadowrun. It sounds like you've got a good start to things though... and I am glad that the gawd-awful 360 game did some good in the SR world... for once.

[D2F]

[...]and I am glad that the gawd-awful 360 game did some good in the SR world... for once.

Seconded! I am trying to to repress any knowledge of this abomination, but just like shit, it keeps floating to the surface!

[Wandering One]

Seconded! I am trying to to repress any knowledge of this abomination, but just like shit, it keeps floating to the surface!

Awww, guys, it was a good game. Had about as much to do with Shadowrun as cowpies do to powdered doughnuts, but it was a fun game.

@Gardens:
It almost seems like you're taking a GTA style approach to the missions which... well.. isn't a bad idea and probably helps keep some structure for your players.

For your hacker, they're not REALLY meant for combat. Yeah, okay, they can muck with things, but usually by the time they've hacked in/mucked gear up your street sammies have new heads for their poles. What you want to start thinking of is ways to include them in the fight via a few different methods:
- the fight is aimed around covering their butts while they do their real thing
- security spider - anti-spider (A spider is a security specialist/hacker who usually can control a building and all its electronics). Imagine two hackers fighting over if the door opens or closes while security is bearing down on your team JUST up that hallway.
- hacking enemy drones/etc.

Do this slowly, like anything else. You'll also probably want to start leveraging 'legwork' times into your runs, where your players can utilize their contacts for varying degrees of additional information that can help (or occassionally, hinder with rumors, if it's not a good enough roll) them plan and succeed in runs.

But, as someone already mentioned, if you and your players are having fun... you're good to go. Find the toys you like playing with and see if other things work as you go.

[CountingGardens]

Thanks a ton for the help guys. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for that 360 game I'd know nothing about Shadowrun. And hey, it's probably the only 12 dollar game that still has a community going for it. Thanks for the compliments on creativity, and yeah, I suppose it is kind of like GTA, heh.


I also had another question. When we were doing our practice fight, pretty much an unarmed bar brawl, the gangers were all drunk. I took that as a -1 penalty to dice rolls that involved reacting/attacking etc. When NPCs get hurt, I noticed there's a -1 dice roll penalty than a -2, etc, etc. When I roll for resist damage after the drunk gangers get successfully attacked do I apply a -3 modifier, since they're drunk and wounded? Or does damage resist get modified by either one of these? When NPCs are wounded what does the -1/-2, etc, apply to exactly?

[D2F]

I also had another question. When we were doing our practice fight, pretty much an unarmed bar brawl, the gangers were all drunk. I took that as a -1 penalty to dice rolls that involved reacting/attacking etc. When NPCs get hurt, I noticed there's a -1 dice roll penalty than a -2, etc, etc. When I roll for resist damage after the drunk gangers get successfully attacked do I apply a -3 modifier, since they're drunk and wounded? Or does damage resist get modified by either one of these? When NPCs are wounded what does the -1/-2, etc, apply to exactly?

The modifier applies to all dice pools except resistance tests. Healing seems to count as a resistance test, since the given excemple for healing shows no penalty to the dice pool.

[CountingGardens]

Alright, so what about him being drunk, that also wouldn't apply to damage resistance right?

[Wandering One]

I also had another question. When we were doing our practice fight, pretty much an unarmed bar brawl, the gangers were all drunk. I took that as a -1 penalty to dice rolls that involved reacting/attacking etc. When NPCs get hurt, I noticed there's a -1 dice roll penalty than a -2, etc, etc. When I roll for resist damage after the drunk gangers get successfully attacked do I apply a -3 modifier, since they're drunk and wounded? Or does damage resist get modified by either one of these? When NPCs are wounded what does the -1/-2, etc, apply to exactly?

Usually cumulative, yes. Think of it this way, stunned to -2 in the dark adds the -2 to whatever level of darkness the room is at (pitch black would be -6 without hearing or what not, blind fire basically, so -8 ).

Also, physical and stun do cumulative, so 6 boxes in one and 3 in another = -3.

Those modifiers apply to anything that doesn't specifically state skipping the effect, like magic drain tests. So a Perception(2) + Intuition (2) guy with 6 boxes of stun and 6 of physical is effectively blind unless he runs into the neon signs. A line of dancing pandas could trapse down the street and he wouldn't notice... although, with that much pain, not sure I'd care, either. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[D2F]

Alright, so what about him being drunk, that also wouldn't apply to damage resistance right?

No, it would not. Resistance tests are not affected by dice pool modifiers (with the exception of armor and armor penetration)

[CountingGardens]

Alright great, that definitely helps me out a bunch. Thanks!

[D2F]

Alright great, that definitely helps me out a bunch. Thanks!

You're welcome =)

[Yerameyahu]

Just out of curiosity, does a Skinlink actually work as he described? I'm not looking at the book, but I thought you needed links on both sides. Obviously, he can/would just hack wirelessly anyway, but I ask for my own edification.

[D2F]

Just out of curiosity, does a Skinlink actually work as he described? I'm not looking at the book, but I thought you needed links on both sides. Obviously, he can/would just hack wirelessly anyway, but I ask for my own edification.

I assume he talks about the Skinlink Echo for submerged Technomancers. If so, then yes. If not then no. the Skinlink Device modification simply allows the device to transmit signals through the biological electrical field. Both devices, the receiving as well as the transmitting deveice need to be equipped with a skinlink for that.

[Yerameyahu]

Ah, I thought so. Thanks. He said 'hacker', so I didn't consider Technomancer.

[CountingGardens]

Alright, sorry, my bad. Still new at this! hehe

[CountingGardens]

Been thinking about more and more stuff that I could fit in my campaign at some point.. Question, I know the book briefly mentions Dragons, specifically ones that are generally shapechanged as humans. Would a Dragon be a viable opponent for a boss and if so, what are the stats? Any suggestions, for that matter on how to create your own baddies, or should I just modify the samples in the 4E main book.

[Ol' Scratch]

You can find the stats for "typical" examples of dragons and great dragons in the main sourcebook, right after spirits are detailed. Just look up "Dracoforms."

As for using one as a boss, which I assume you mean in the video game sense of the word, sure you can use one. Just keep in mind that they're very powerful, cunning, and dangerous opponents. They're not the sort of thing you can just spring on a group and expect them to survive. They have to go in with intent, and stock up on the proper weapons and planning, to have a shot of surviving. I mean, if memory serves, even a basic dragon has Hardened Armor 8, Sorcery 8, and access to every spirit and spell in the game. And all but the youngest will have set up all kinds of contingencies and safeguards to boot.

Most usually have better things to do than meander around as a metahuman while toying with shadowrunners. They think bigger than that, and/or send minions to do such tedious work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Summerstorm]

Well... if you have skinlink and the other dude has skinlink too... Yes might happen. It just like splicing some cables together, or having a wirless network and you budging in on the frequency and start to hack.

Problem is of course to keep in touch... MEGAPUN... while you are hacking stuff.

My characters often have a skinlinked dataport which connect my internal comlink/eyes to my gun. If someone could touch me, and keep on me until he broke my comlink he could get my eyes. Not very nice.... but also foolish since he uses actions for grappling/hacking while i keep pumping him full of lead *g*.

If you can touch him you should just strangle and disarm him... its faster.

[CountingGardens]

Alright, so pretty much Shadowrun isn't really centered or focused around bosses so to speak. But on situations, average to hard groups of guys, and not just one main head guy, I think I understand. Dragons seem next to impossible as well, so I'll probably not use it until I'm more comfortable with the game.

[Ol' Scratch]

Oh, there can be masterminds. But they're usually far removed from the things the runners are doing. They use Johnsons, hired by other Johnsons, hired by some random guy off the street who later turns up dead, who's assassination and hiring was outsourced by two different Johnsons who hired other Johnsons to hire the runners to do their dirty work for them. etc. But on occasion you can get close to one, especially if they have a vested interest in something. It just takes a lot of care and detail to plan it out without it appearing too contrived or unlikely.

[tagz]

And the masterminds tend not to be combat-types themselves. They're typically businessmen, old syndicate leaders with gray hair, or politicians. Tend to make for a boring climactic fight if it's just them you're fighting.

[CountingGardens]

Ahh I see... That's kind of shame than. Not really any big combat climax to ending a session, though storyline wise there's room for a lot of rich opportunity.

[Ol' Scratch]

Eh?

I don't think you're quite getting the possibilities. Think of it like this. Say you have a 'mastermind' who dislikes a dragon because it's been meddling in his affairs. He goes through a huge chain of Johnsons and other hired goons in order to hire the team to interfere with that dragon's operations. Satisfied with the result, he continues hiring those runners for job after job, slowly attempting to decimate the dragon's holdingss until he grows tired of the games and sends the runners to kill the dragon once and for all.