5E Wish List, Or 'What I want for Christmas'. Options

[Tanegar]

I definitely like the idea of specialized wares that are ONLY available as Beta or Delta. Things that are the cutting edge, that take things up a new level of power, but that have to be specially built into the person using them, at great cost and difficulty.

~Umi

+1

[NiL_FisK_Urd]

There is one already, the CCU for Cyborgs is considered Deltaware.

[Umidori]

Aren't player characters normally forbidden from being cyborgs, much like Twisted Mages? And even if they weren't, there's still the problem of cyborgs having crippling mental health issues and insanely short life spans.

Now if Ghost In The Shell style cyborgs were possible? Maybe it'd be something to even consider aiming for. As it is, there's very little real reason to want to play a cyborg. First, convince your GM to let you play one, despite the books telling the GM outright that it's a bad idea. Then, cope with the high costs and availabilities. Then, cope with the psychological negative qualities as well as the negative social repurcussions of being a jarhead. Then receive expensive and hard to acquire weekly maintenance to keep you from going to pieces. Oh, and also make a monthly Sanity test to see if you get even more negative qualities.

Then die.

Unless you're building a suicidal timebomb for a one-shot kinda deal, I don't see the appeal, especially when a non-cyborg character with the Borrowed Time quality will give you greater bang for your buck.

~Umi

[_Pax._]

Honestly, you'd do better to build a Pilot-origin Metasapient AI than a cyborg, IMO.

[NiL_FisK_Urd]

A Pilot-origin Metasapient AI that seized a cyborg and killed the brain inside - or a cyberbrain gone e-ghost inside his cyborg.

[Umidori]

That... that actually works.

That negates the mental health issues, the maintenance requirements, the sanity checks, the short lifespan, and to some degree the GM allowance. You'll still have to cope with the costs and availabilities of the cyborg drone body, as well as social modifiers for your not-quite-human appearance, but it's a much better balance of costs and benefits, I feel. Plus, now you're actually a Ghost in a Shell. Win-Win.

~Umi

[Fatum]

Or if you want to play a cyborg you could just use the fan supplement written for that.
Juuuust saying. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Umidori]

This is the very first I've ever even heard of such a thing. And you suggest this fan supplement, but then fail to provide a link or even a useable google search term. So uhh... yeah.

~Umi

[bannockburn]

or you could click the link in his sig (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Umidori]

If he said "my" fan supplement, maybe I would have thought to. Otherwise, why the fuzz would I bother with his signature link?

As it stands "the fan supplement" suggests there's some well known semi-official work that I should be aware of, rather than some obscure homebrew from someone who I can't tell from Adam. Please stop treating me like I'm an idiot for not being in the know about his personal house rules collections.

~Umi

[bannockburn]

Please stop exploding?
In no way did I mean to question your intelligence. I know that a lighthearted tone does not come across easily via the internet, that's why I've put up a smiley. Thanks, and have a nice evening.

[Kyrel]

Hmm...Off the top of my head as a wishlist for changes to 5th ed., I think I'd like the following:

Easier and more accessible rules for hacking, and a better description of how hacking and drone control actually functions in the game.
Going into and out of full VR taking a full minute each way, or causing severe disorientation (i.e. -6 dice pool on all actions until the brain and senses realign). Goal being to keep the players in the same world.
Change to the rules for breaking encryption. Basically stating that you can't break an encryption with a higher rating than the program you are using to decrypt it with.
Longer times to break encryption. I.e. a threshold equal to Encryption Rating^2.
Complete redo of Ritual magic so that it becomes useful and not inferior to using a high force spirit with the spell you want to cast at the target.
Changes to some of the essence costs for purely cosmetical stuff.
Higher Drain cost for Stun spells.
Bonus dice to defend against magic for people with lower essence. (If it's harder to heal them, why not harm them as well?)

Probably a few more things, but these are what I can think of just now.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Hmm...Off the top of my head as a wishlist for changes to 5th ed., I think I'd like the following:

Change to the rules for breaking encryption. Basically stating that you can't break an encryption with a higher rating than the program you are using to decrypt it with.
Longer times to break encryption. I.e. a threshold equal to Encryption Rating^2.
Complete redo of Ritual magic so that it becomes useful and not inferior to using a high force spirit with the spell you want to cast at the target.

Ummmmm...
Decryption is already a Threshold of Encryption Rating x2 with a 1 Combat TURN (not pass) Interval.
Also, Ritual Magic is a LOT more useful than a Spirit casting a Spell already. Also, the Spirit is not likely to be able to trace a target using Search halfway across the world before your Ritual spell takes effect, since your threshold for locating the target adds the number of Kilometers away the target is. At a range of several thousands of Kilometers, good luck on that one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Draco18s]

Bonus dice to defend against magic for people with lower essence. (If it's harder to heal them, why not harm them as well?)

Actually, it makes perfect sense already: you don't have to work as hard to kill flesh when half of it is dead already.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Actually, it makes perfect sense already: you don't have to work as hard to kill flesh when half of it is dead already.

Indeed.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Umidori]

That doesn't make sense. Magically speaking, healing someone is no harder than harming them. You're using mana to effect a change in their physical form. If 'ware gets in the way of using mana to rebuild flesh, it should also get in the way of using mana to damage or destroy it.

~Umi

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

That doesn't make sense. Magically speaking, healing someone is no harder than harming them. You're using mana to effect a change in their physical form. If 'ware gets in the way of using mana to rebuild flesh, it should also get in the way of using mana to damage or destroy it.

~Umi

It has always been easier to destroy than to repair. Makes perfect sense to me. *shrug*

[Lionhearted]

Ware can make you quite resistant to magic... if you get too much enough of it.

[All4BigGuns]

Seems to me that that's just another case where the ones who primarily play Awakened want Augmented nerfed to oblivion. That said, you see the other side always wanting Awakened nerfed to oblivion too, generally on that side they use things like accusing people of playing "MagicRun" for not liking something that nerfs Awakened.

[Nath]

That doesn't make sense. Magically speaking, healing someone is no harder than harming them. You're using mana to effect a change in their physical form. If 'ware gets in the way of using mana to rebuild flesh, it should also get in the way of using mana to damage or destroy it.

That's when the second law of thermodynamics get some air-time. It's always easier to go to a random disorganized state than to return to a given organized state. Magical healing of a lung requires to rebuild a complex tree of bronchioles, large enough for air to circulate and thin enough for oxygen to pass into the bloodstream. Magical tearing of a lung is always going to be simple in comparison.

So actually, if it had to make sense, harming should always be easier than healing, before even factoring Essence in. Then, the magical healing of any organs connected to highly artificial microelectronic components is going to be even harder.

I nonetheless considered giving additional dice to resist spell equal the missing Essence, but that was only for game balance considerations.

[Stahlseele]

That's when the second law of thermodynamics get some air-time.

That went out of the window once magic was introduced.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Hmm...Off the top of my head as a wishlist for changes to 5th ed., I think I'd like the following:

(1) Easier and more accessible rules for hacking, and a better description of how hacking and drone control actually functions in the game.
(2) Going into and out of full VR taking a full minute each way, or causing severe disorientation (i.e. -6 dice pool on all actions until the brain and senses realign). Goal being to keep the players in the same world.
(3) Change to the rules for breaking encryption. Basically stating that you can't break an encryption with a higher rating than the program you are using to decrypt it with.
(4) Longer times to break encryption. I.e. a threshold equal to Encryption Rating^2.
(5) Complete redo of Ritual magic so that it becomes useful and not inferior to using a high force spirit with the spell you want to cast at the target.
(6) Changes to some of the essence costs for purely cosmetical stuff.
(7) Higher Drain cost for Stun spells.
((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) Bonus dice to defend against magic for people with lower essence. (If it's harder to heal them, why not harm them as well?)

Probably a few more things, but these are what I can think of just now.

1: Yeah, this would work.
2: Dear sweet demon fuck in hell, no! No, no, no! Not only no because OMGWTF this is terrible for the game, but no because it makes absolutely retardedly no sense for technology which worked perfectly well in the past to suddenly stop working that well in the future.
3: Errr, how about no, because suddenly all a corp has to do to have their encryption be basically unbreakable for a chargen hacker who isn't a TM is to just have a server with a rating 7 Encryption program.
4: How about no, unless you're talking about initiative passes? That just makes the game un-fun.
6: Agreed. Preferably an Essence cost of 0.00.
7: It should probably be equal to the drain for lethal mana spells.
8: I'll agree, but only for mana spells and healing spells. Physical damage spells do their damage by setting you on fire or crushing you with force or something, that doesn't give a damn about how whole your soul is. It should be exactly as hard to attach a positive spell to someone with low Essence as to attach a negative one to them.

[Nath]

That went out of the window once magic was introduced.

Only because magic doesn't try to make sense. Which was my point, even if
disgressed a bit.

[DuckEggBlue Omeg...]

Having wrapped up an SR3 campaign recently due to people moving away, I thought I would try SR4a+2050 since the more straightforward core mechanics of 4th would make it easier to get new players. That's now on hold pending 5th, but what I'd like is some rules in the book about running a 2050 game (assuming it's not compatible with 2050). Not heaps, maybe just a short chapter on fluff, feel and gear/magic/ware limitations.

[Dolanar]

for what its worth, the problem for healing always seemed more of a Mana inhibition problem, the Cyber & the "unnatural" aspects in the body made it more difficult to allow the positive effects to work.