What rules don't you bother with?, C'mon, everybody does it... Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Switch to: Outline Switch to: Standard Linear+

[Deadeye]

So, just out of curiosity, which rules do you tend to ignore in your game, and why? I know there is no way to run a game completely by the book, and I wonder which rules people find most expendable.

I tend to ignore the increased heal times for bioware and cyber now that the two have been errata'd to effect essence the same, though I still do some other excessive bioware stuff. Decking and Rigging have never been popular with my players, but I usually have at least one who dabbles, so I tend to speed the former up (similar to MJLBB) and simplify the build and control rules on the other.

Thoughts?

[Wounded Ronin]

I don't use the advanced martial arts rules because they are the towering height of unrealistic bullcrap. I just stick with the basic melee rules which are a lot easier to swallow because they're so abstract rather than specific and wrong.



I can't believe that you guys don't use knockdown. In my opinion, knockdown is one of the most important rules. If you aren't using knockdown, then the places where your fights take place aren't interesting enough.

Knockdown is all about knocking characters off of ledges, into hazardous surfaces, or over 10 meter drops. You have to think of all kinds of creative things to dump the characters in...in the past I've put vats of natto, processed meat material, and boiling tar on my maps in places where people might get knockback/knockdowned into them.

Knockdown is just one of those things that you hope fervently will happen every time you play if you've set up your maps right.

Of course, the coolest knockdown/knockback incident I ever heard of was from the CLUE files, where someone got knockbacked out of a skyscraper window. Now *that* is utterly, humungously, amazingly cool, and it would be my transcendant, radiant dream for that to happen ENTIRELY by accident without anyone having thought of it beforehand during one of my games. That would be so hilarious and cool that it would make flowers spring from the desert.

[Kagetenshi]

The rules I mentioned not using are all rules that I have neglected, not (with the exception of Maneuver Score, which I recently changed my opinion on) ones that I have deliberately not used.

That being said, unless the windows were already breached, that was a bad CLUE file. They make those windows damn sturdy for exactly that reason.

~J

[Wounded Ronin]

It was. The guy swung in commando style through that very window, and got shot right back out. IIRC.

[Silverserpent]

I hate the purchasing rules to fraggin pieces. A char with a low etiquette skill shouldn't even bother with having a fixer as he's a basically useless contact. Basing wether you can buy an illegal item on how well you can sweettalk your fixer is the stupidest damn thing i've ever heard in my life, it's a fixer after all he shouldn't give a flying damn as long as you have the yen to pay for what you want and he has it in stock. I've just adopted the fact that all the fixers in my game have a procurement skill of 5 and if you want something i'll roll that to see if he can get it for you, makes sooo much more sense to me.

[Shrapnel]

[Stumps]

I think if I actually made up a list of all the rules that I would rather not use...
It woud be easier to ask me which ones I do.

That's not entirely true, but my old group really only used most of the basics found in SR3, a few in CC, the build points in SC, and pretty much nothing else.

We never bothered with:
-driving rules unless in a serious situation of chase or get-away driving.
-matrix rules
-movement (we had our own simpler version)
-some of the guys GMed without care to ammo

Generally speaking, I GM without care to the rules anyway.
Not to mean that I don't use them. I just don't care if I obey them. I'll break rules all the time, as GM, for my players sake, and for my own sake.

I'll make exceptions to rules often just because a player wants to do something with their character that can't otherwise be done.

I'll add and remove different rules all the time for no other real reason than to see what kind of impact it has on the game.

[Halabis]

Ditto to pretty much everything stumps said. I only use the rules that seem appropriate at the time. Basicly I use init, the basic shooting and soaking rules from SR3, and the basic magic rules, and oretty much wing everything else. Trying to beat someone at something? Contested rolls of the most relivant skill!! Trying to ourtun someone, both make athletics tests! Wanna climb a sheer cliff? Roll athletics and tell me your highest number! Wanna lose some guy in traffic? ROll drive and get more successes than his drive. It pretyt much all breaks down the same way.


That and fixers have a get stuff skill for all the diffferent types of stuff. They roll that. Ettiquite for fixers is dumb to sell you stuff is dumb. Wow its late. Im gonna og pass out now.

[Fortune]

Oh yeah, that reminds me ... I definitely have done away with all the inane Open Tests.

[algcs]

[Sokei]

my group generally manages to keep their contacts in good terms so I almost never use those upkeep rules. After one campaign where a character lost a lvl 2 contact due to complete neglect (6 months in game without so much as a hello). Now everyone seems to at least speak with contacts once or twice a month in game.

martial arts rules have cause a little bit of an issue, mainly with players that nit pick or want to pull matrix shit all the time.

matrix rules have been tossed out , at least for now, I've only ever had 1 decker and he was a computer science grad/ programmer in RL and thus decided he was going to talk technical gibberish in order to get his way, would frequently use the line "i can do it in RL why cant i do it here with a computer 6 score", thankfully a short lived character.

[iPad]

[U_Fester]

[Voran]

I kinda like the idea of continuing to use paper/hard currency rather than credsticks all the time.

[U_Fester]

But how do you justify it in such an electronic age?

[Jérémie]

[PiXeL01]

I dont use KnockDown, since I keep forgetting it and it slows down te game a bit. Never bothered with stress points of any kind either, too much micro maneging.
Deckers I consider a time sink, so they are not allowed, nor do I use the vehicle combat rules

Think that's it hehe

[iPad]

Knockdown rules are ace. Its the only way to quickly gain an edge over an equal opponent.

I once kicked a door in, rolled in onto the floor ready to blast away and got set upon by a razor boy, and my hth combat character found it nearly impossible to even get to his feet against the target numbers being prone put me on.

[Brazila]

Knockdown get used, but we forget about half the time.

The SOTA upkeep rules got dropped.

We use contacts Ettq skill to get gear, with the PCs as complementary.

We adjust max starting rating and Avail to PC power level, right now rating 7 and avail of 9.

Seldom use chase scenes, but when they happen no manuever scores, but now that we have a rigger PC that someone is sticking with I plan to include them more.

We refresh karma pool per run, not per 24 hours, as it helped keep high karma pools from being crazy, and also helps keep balance between lower KP characters and higher ones, since the difference only helps them once per run instead of per day.

We also cut out the implied rule that 1/2 the Yaks or Triads are physads.

[Shockwave_IIc]

[JongWK]

I curse the day someone decided every f***ing Shadowrun's rules should try to stick to reality as close as possible (and I'm pointing at vehicles, stress and routers). Some parts of the game should be fast paced, dammit! Whatever happened to playability anyway? *shakes fist*

There. I had to get it out of my system.

[Omer Joel]

[apple]

[JongWK]

You're not getting me. I obviously appreciate realism, but there is a moment when the rules to emulate this become an interference to actual gaming.

[DarkShade]

hmm.. we ignore all number rules when deemed not too important for speed of play <especially for riggers! if non critical and on an avg roll you would succeed, no need to roll if skill =3+> , we ignore movement rules and move / initiative <ie you can move 20 m? and rolled an initiative of 40?-> , if you want to move 10 m you will get there at initiative 20 etc etc>
we ignore stress , unless in very specific situations. we ignore cyber damage unless odd situation; we absolutely ignore the flaws/perks system at creation, ignore some of the more odd metahuman `races`like minotaurs, we ignored the comet plotline & some others to keep the world more similar to ours.
we ignore some vehicle design rules, some weapon design rules, largely ignore ruthenium rules, oh yea biggest of all we ignore the surprise rules as written <houseruled differently>, we ignore martial arts rules. we sadly ignore knockdown, I wish we didnt but there are already way too many dice being rolled and my players are not fast dice rollers, I hope to implement them when this improves.

DS

[Link]

Since knockdown seems popular yet tedious why not stick with 1 body test.
This variant uses the soak roll to determine knockdown, using combat pool dice of a different colour would help.
For simplicity the power of ranged attacks isn't halved and armour is considered (shock absorbtion?) so you basically count body dice successes for damage resistance and knockdown.

Knockdown tests with no extra dice roll:

If a target makes a soak test against an attack, compare their successses (body dice only) with the threshold listed below. Failure means they are either knocked prone (KD) or stagger back a metre from the impact.

Attacks with gel/stun ammo or failed charge attacks increase threshold by 1.
Threshold
Wound level* Stagger KD
Light 0 1
Moderate 1 2
Serious 2 3
Deadly Auto

Wound level takes into account any effect of the current attack.

Please consider?