Mfb:

Instead of blowing two points on that power, but try pitching "balance augment" (sense power. 25) and apply it to gymnastic tumbling (Athletics).

Then use Athletics with all your enhanced skill dice to substitute for Dodge.

-Siege

that will be one of the sense augs i pick up, actually. along with ultrasound, select sound filter, and... crap, what's the one that helps you locate the direction a sound's coming from, or somesuch?

The blood splatters generally tell me what direction the sound came from.

Well, for all the trouble I've caused, I'm probably not going to take it right away. I'm looking to get my Acrobatics rolls up to some spectacularly high levels, and right now I have none...

as far as astral perception goes (and some house rules too), i have some physads who find it indispensable. it's kind of important to know that most of my gaming sessions (when i'm GMing...or playing too actually) tend to not be very combat heavy, so skills that help me avoid combat and such are more useful. i think there's a lot to be said for AP helping with people skills (negotiation, interrogation, assensing truthfulness) and recognizing someone (may not come up often in some games, but it makes the disguise skill useless).

as far as house rules go, i've got two that may set off a powderkeg of replies:

a new power called "bullet sight". it costs two Ppoints and essentially shows the physad the path a bullet will take via a "laser-like" line in his field of vision. however, it's also sensing the person's firing so that the lines are of actual bullet paths, not theoretical. that may make no sense at all, but all it really does is give an added dodge check. currently it's only applicable to an NPC, so i haven't figured exact rules yet, but it just evens out the fact that he fights without any weapons.

i've also allowed this NPC to use a form of astral percep in the matrix. i figure astral percep is seeing a person's aura and i extrapolate that a person puts pieces of themselves in their icon programs and that since the programs are directly connected to the person's brain, some of their aura will bleed into the matrix.

neither of these things are player usable yet, as they can be very unbalancing, but it fit the story-line for this NPC very well.

also, a great way to start a campaign is to play a shadowrunner before they became a shadowrunner. it give incredible background to use and also creates enemies/emnity without any legwork other than roleplaying. it's also a lot of fun for the player to go from being a relative mundane to having these new "things" (cyber, magic, guns) that they've never had before and what they are going to do with them. anyhow...

If you mean that he can see the path the bullet will take from the gun, that could be reasonable, if potentially gamebreaking.
If you mean the path a bullet in the air will take, it doesn't matter. Even if his brain processes the info fast enough, he won't be able to dodge.

~J

Specializations
Skill Specializations may be purchased at arbitrary levels with Karma. However, a character may not have more separate Specializations in a single base Skill than the base Skill’s rating. Thus, a character with Edged Weapons(3) could not possess more than three separate Specializations of Edged Weapons, although each Specialization could be arbitrarily high. When increasing the level of a base Skill, subtract 1 from the Karma Cost for each Specialization in that Skill, as this knowledge is ‘absorbed’ back into the new level’s enhanced general understanding.

I think he's offering his house rules, considering that this is the "house rules" thread

Ah, my bad. Thanks.

Yikes, I feel into this topic late. This might have already been said.

To Sphynx:

I think that nearly everything you changed has a reason for being that way (I.E. not needing to be particularly awesome).

Adepts (washouts/groggies) should need to spend more than .5 points on Astral Perceptions. Maybe 2 is too much, but 1.5 should be the least (w/o a geas). Why? Because the force is weak with them; the astral plane is just not that easy to access for someone who is only accustomed to magic in a homeopathic way. The physical does not translate so easily over to the emotional.

Why not give drones hardened armor? If it's because Drone Riggers are running riot, remember: it works both ways; enemy drones have it too. If it's because Drone Riggers are butchering PCs, don't send good drones after them untill they get AV ammo. Sure, an Ares Predator can take down a light drone, but my Uzi III should have nothing but a hard time cutting into a Steel Lynx, even with Full Auto.

My goodness, those costs for Cyberlimbs are certainly forgiving. They aren't realistic (it's not just adding one or two things; it's an involved process to make a cyberlimb faster/stronger.)

Increased Reflexes isn't supposed to be able to compare to WR3 or BR3+SA or MBW4 or any of that. It's supposed to be just alright, not awesome. The ability to geek 5 guys in one shot is enough of an advantage, in my book.

I wasn't aware that Cyberguns used CyberImplant Combat. If it does, I agree with that change. THAT makes no sense.

As far as mixing drugs, I'd let then get all the affects, but give them the GM discretionary side effects after the fact. Much more fun and evil and wrong that way.

Sorry to sound like Mr. Negativity here, but I just wanna add my $.02. I'm not gonna come to your house and make you play canon. I welcome your defenses and tomatoes.
--------------------
beauty
was the allure that brought me close to you
loneliness
was the bond that made me stick like glue

The sound location cyberware is called Spacial Recognizer, IIRC, and is in M&M towards the front.

With a shock hand it'd make perfect sense to use CI Combat, as you're learning how to bring your hand into contact with people in a very specific way.

~J

Is that 'way' different than using Shock Gloves?

Is the way to use CyberSpurs different than Forearm Snap Blades (before you say yes, read the description)?

As for the mention of pistols, despite the description saying that it combines unarmed techniques with edged weapon techs, we've encountered enough people who 'interprete' that any cyber-implanted-weapon uses the skill to House Rule, if for no reason other than interpretation.

Sphynx

CI and unarmed combat directly default to each other, so the question isn't "is it different" but rather, "is it different enough?"

Er, I know this is the house rules thread, but don't drones have hardened armour anyway, if they're armoured at all? Unless something specifically says they're mounting ballistic armour instead of vehicle armour, then its normal vehicle armour which IS hardened. So its not a house rule, its an actual rule!

that's one of the reasons why they all have fairly low armour ratings (load being another biggie). The fact that its a vehicle at all means you divide the power by 2 and drop the damage level then compare it to the armour rating. If the now halved power isn't greater than the armour then unless its mounting AV, not APDS ammo it pings off. If it IS greater, you drop the damage level AGAIN, take off the armour rating, and the vehicle soaks with control pool from the rigger if she's directly controlling it. If its' one of deus' creations then the damn thing could have tried a dodge too.

I think drones are more survivable than you give them credit for just as they stand, Morphling! Of course there's the called shot option that Sphinx gave, but have I missed something? Did I read the rules totally wrong all this time? How come you're suggesting hardened armour as a house rule?

If I'm a boxer (for example), I know how to throw punches. Now, if I know I've got a set of brass knuckles on one hand, I can jab and feint to set up a right hook (with the brass knuckles).

Since SR unarmed combat doesn't emphasize individual techniques like punch from kick from knee from elbow, it's reasonable to assume that someone with Karate could focus on landing attacks from a specific body part.

Now, I will grant you that some unarmed combat styles will focus on a specific set of techniques (kicks over punches, or punches exclusively) but to create a combat style exclusively on, say, the left punch is just...absurd?

-Siege

There are precedent rules for making a touch attack. Under Spells>Range, P178 SR3, it states -

"to touch an unwilling target, the caster must make a normal unarmed attack as part of the complex action of spellcasting. The attack is made at -1 because the caster only needs to touch the target.One net success is sufficient for the caster to touch the target."

So surely the basics of that would hold true for a touch attack? The attacker makes an unarmed combat attack at -1 TN. If they touch the attacker, net successes will stage up the damage of whatever it is they're touching them with as normal for shock attacks (because the actual touch isn't doing damage, but WHERE you touch them will affect how badly it affects them - bearing in mind its a non-hit location damage system, this is purely a 'game effect' not actually a hit somewhere specific but for dramatic effect purposes a GM could say 'yep, you caught him in the throat. Down he goes!' or something).

one net success - base shock damage minus half impact as normal plus any insulation modifiers.

Does that sound reasonable?

There are a few house rules that I felt really helped my game. Among them are my old autofire rules...

1. Dice Pool = standard SR3.
2. TN = standard SR3 TN for firing, but without recoil penalties.
3. First success = 1st bullet hit.
4. Additional successes tell how many more rounds hit, as per recoil effects.
4a. 1 success/round for compensated rounds.
4b. 2 successes/round for uncompensated rounds.
4c. 3 successes/round for uncompensated rounds from heavy weapons.
4d. compensated rounds are accounted for before uncompensated rounds.
5. Each successful round hitting adds one to the power of the attack.
6. Damage Code is raised through standard staging rules.
6a. Damage Code is not raised once/3 bullets as in SR3's autofire rules.
7. Dodging TN is per standard SR3 rules.

And my alteration of pistol damage to 6M for light pistols, 7M for most heavy pistols, and 8M for the highest-power heavy pistols. This brought pistols inline with SMGs, which share the same ammo and probably should share the same damage codes.

[edit]

I forgot to add that I modify die pools so that if you use dice from one pool, they also come off all other usable pools. So if you use 3 spell pool dice to resist drain, you also lose 3 dice from your combat pool. This was done to balance magic-using characters in combat so they couldn't dodge or resist damage freely while simultaneously using spell pool. Karma pool is exempted.

One house rule that i use is -2 Power for heavy handguns.

Cos i feel that a basic human in a vest should stand a good chance of getting away with only a cracked rib from a hundgun. Puts them in line with smgs also. (thank's bwdemon for reminding me)

A bit of a drastic house rule, but one that seems to work a bit better for my games:

Burst-fire and Autofire (p.115, SR3; p.103, CC)
Rather than staging up the Power and Damage Level of an attack, a burst adds a number of dice equal to the number of bullets being fired to the attack test. Thus, a 3-round burst would add 3 dice to the attack test, while a 15-round burst would add 15 dice to the attack test. This makes bursts much harder to dodge, and somewhat easier to hit with ‘spray and pray’ tactics, without having to compute and compare different attack Powers for armor and barriers. Successes from these dice stage damage up normally, and must be overcome by any Dodge test for the target to completely avoid damage.

Recoil (p.115, SR3; p.103, CC)
A character receives a base amount of Recoil Compensation equal to the sum of the Strength of each arm being used to hold and brace the weapon, divided by five (round down). If after firing a burst from a weapon, the total Recoil modifier exceeds twice the Body of the firing character, the character must make a Strength test vs. (½ Recoil – Body) to avoid Knockdown.
Gyrostabilization provides up to the gyro’s level in bonuses for Recoil Compensation and Movement Modifier; add both together before subtracting the amount of stabilization. For every 3 full points of actual compensation (Recoil + Movement) provided, remove 1 from the character’s remaining Combat pool to reflect the gyromount’s inertia counteracting the character. If no Combat pool dice are remaining this turn, there is no further effect. Thus, if a character has 10 points of gyrostabilization available, and runs (+2) while firing a Full Auto Burst that adds +5 Recoil (total +7), the gyrostabilization automatically reduces the To-Hit modifier by –7, and removes 2 dice from the character’s Combat Pool before the shot is resolved. If the character were standing still (-1) while firing a burst that added +12 Recoil (total +11), the gyrostabilization would reduce the To-Hit modifier by –10 and remove 3 dice from the character’s Combat Pool before the shot is resolved. Factor in all other Recoil modifiers before determining the effect of gyrostabilization.

And even if it doesn't penetrate it'll cause trauma.

~J

On guns vs body armor

Anyone here ever wear or train with body armor? I think it would be safe to say that we could treat the improvements in technology as scaled up versions of today's military grade. So the AP is going to be a large bore high power handgun. Now colt just started making a 75 cal pistol in today's market, it's a very very special gun because of the recoil involved. So lets assume that the AP is a 75 cal with technical and material improvements.

Match a 75 to today's high end kevlar and steel plate armor and the gun will win most of the time. The damage will be reduced and the trauma spread out but the slug will still make it through the armor. Just like a round from a standard high powered rifle would on a direct hit.

Scale up the armor to 2063 standard and you still have the problem, there is just not enough material in the armor vest to stop the round completely. Unfortunately for cops and military this as been the case for most of history, the armor is never better than the high end weapons that can be brought to bare against it.

In my games I keep the HPstl rules as they are, wits and intelligence will always keep you safer than the armor vest. The vest is just there to help you survive the mistakes.

Finally.

Opinions, please:

My SR3 House Rules (Still in progress)

That was kinda my point. you would take a light- medium under my rules, but with the basic rules it's a medium to serious. Now granted im not say with BA you would take nothing, But (to me at least) a bruised/ cracked rib is a light - moderate wound.

Even under SR rules the maths back me.

Power 7 minus 3-4 (vest with/ without plates) target is 3-4 depending.

Either way you look at it, it's a light - moderate wound. Slighted depending of cause.