Well looks like I can play my Windling Phys Adept... errr I mean Pixie, yeah that's it

Mind posting them here? If anything, it will give players a decent idea of what, for instance, base levels of group/matrix connections represent, which I think I am not the only one at a loss about. It is, after all, a wholly differnes scope than with ordinary contacts.

So.

Like several other times with the other books coming out, we have MORE ways to change the world in Sr4.

Example: (Prime Runner to deal with the frigging annoying Adept who did about the same as below... minus the extra arms)
Troll. Adept, Path of the Warrior.
Bone Density.
Shiva/Kali Arms, x2.
????????
Hilarity?

The group I am running are very big into min-maxing and power gaming (to the point where they often pick squatter for BP and just sell everything they can pick up on a run to have cash.)

The idea came from the new Planet of the Apes, with the big black armored gorilla ones rushing forward... so I made them look evil and gave them extra arms. Too much?

While I like not having limits to making imagination into characters, when is enough enough?

Hermit: The intent is for the players and gamemaster to work out what Connection rating is appropriate for the specific contact the character actually possesses. As such what follows are the simply sample Connection ratings John Dunn prepared for the Group and Virtual Contacts in Runner's Companion and my notes on the subject in yellow.

• 9x9 - Connection: 2(10) (Base 2 + Membership 6 + Area 2) A specific cell in the organization rather than the group as a whole might have a lower membership or area of influence.
  Anarchist Black Cross (AB+) - Connection: 3(17) (Base 3 + Membership 8 + Area 6) Again this is an in with the AB+ network, a local cell will have lower Membership and Area ratings.
• Argus - Connection: 6(20) (Base 6 + Membership 6 + Area 6 + Magic 1 + Matrix 1) These stats might be reflect a character who possesses an Argus Intelligence Service Subscription.
• Atlantean Foundation - Connection: 6(26) (Base 6 + Membership 8 + Area 6 + Magic 6) The high ratings in membership, Area of Influence and Magic here reflect a contact with the organization's inner circle and international leadership rather than the Renton Atlantean Foundation branch.
• Humanis Policlub (international network) - Connection: 3(8) (Base 3 + Membership 4 + Area 1)Unlike the example above the Membership and Area of Influence stats here reflect a local chapterhouse/policlub as a contact rather than the Policlub's international network.
• Komun'go Ring - Connection: 4(11) (Base 4+ Membership 4 + Area 2 + Magic 1) Local syndicates and second tier gangs are good examples of Groups which are less likely to have variable connection ratings. The stats here represent the Komun'go Ring as a whole in Seattle.
• Project Monad - Connection: 5(12) (Base 5 + Membership 2+ Area 1 + Matrix 4) A corporate think tank or research group is another example of a low variability connection rating.
• Rusted Stilettos - Connection: 3(8) (Base 3 + Membership 4 + Area 1) As a small time gang the Stilettos represent a group with a relatively small scope of operations and consequently a pretty straight forward Connection rating.
• TerraFirst! - Connection: 3(7) (Base 3 + Membership 2 + Area 2) In this case the contact refers to a Terrafirst local cell, connections at higher levels would increase the Area of Influence and Membership ratings.
• The Unseen - Connection: 6(18) (Base 6 + Membership 2 + Area 4 + Magic 6) A specialized magic group has a fixed Membership, Area of Influence and Magic resources.
• The Exchange - Connection: 3(17) (Base 3 + Membership 8 + Area 2 + Matrix 4)Virtual networks particularly those that are far-reaching will not have low Membership, Area of Influence and a minimal Matrix Rating.
• The Outpost - Connection: 3(16) (Base 3 + Membership 6+ Area 6 + Matrix 1)
• ShadowSEA - Connection: 2(11) (Base 2 + Membership 6 + Area 2 + Matrix 1)

To exemplify how individual contact's Connection rating might vary for large groups let's take something like the IOND:

• Illuminates of the New Dawn (Outer Circle /local chapter) - Connection: 3(8) (Base 3 + Membership 3 + Area 1 + Magic 1) The Membership and Area of Influence stats here reflect a local chapterhouse/policlub as a contact.
• Illuminates of the New Dawn (Inner Circle/international leadership) - Connection: 3(25) (Base 3 + Membership 8 + Area 6 + Magic 6 + Matrix 2) These stats might reflect a contact with IOND North American leadership and its resouces.

Delta56: Runner's Companion is the last of the corebooks and brings into play all the options that were available in previous editions and expands them with a number of unique ones (AIs PCs would not have been appropriate in Shadowrun before Emergence introduced the second generation AIs). In other cases we included a built in balance mechanism to avoid abuse, for instance with SURGE, you incur Negative Metagenetic traits when taking different levels of SURGE and if the gamemaster believes the player is simply out to exploit the rules, the rules suggest the gamemaster pick what Negative Metagenetic traits express.
We've attempted to diversify the options available while maintain game balance as much as possible, that said I do not advise unleashing all the advanced options in Runner's Companion on every group—they might simply not be appropriate to all games and power levels regardless of game balance issues.

Pixie seems like an incredibly efficient BP purchase, even if you spend the 20BP to buy off Uneducated. For 55BP, you get 100BP of stats (assuming Pixies start with edge 2, its implied yet unclear), astral perception without dual natured and concealment.

Yes, they have some major downsides in certain fields and roles, but body and strength 2 aren't uncommon in human PCs and they more than make up for it with superhuman limits on 6 of 8 stats. I can see them becoming more common than I'd like.

Take into account there are no production-line gear, armor, weapons or indeed clothes for their size. Well, maybe doll clothes: consider a pixie wearing a Barbie or Action Man outfit to a meet...

One thing I was kind of uncertain of:
Infected and Metavariants: are those costs on top of or inplace of the Race BP cost?

Also: If one takes Surge Qualities, does one get those Metagenic Qualities required by the Surge Quality Free? Or are they in addition, and the Surge Quality just enables you to take that many?

Yeah, when I made the comment on the new character race stuff being out there, I was just thinking of "the possibilities".

I am glad they are covered, because now its cannon, and some folks want to be "different". I don't think the majority of players are going to want to run a centaur, but its good to have it out there.

Honestly, I am loving the book. Kudos guys.

Thanks for posting those, Synner!

I notice that several of the Infected and all the shape shifters have a Vulnerability weakness, that doesn't seem to appear in the BBB though, any idea what book I should look for it in.

Looks like we might have lost a Weakness in editing! Treat it as a Severe Allergy for the time being.

Hmmm, that works okay for the Infected, but the shifters have both Allergy(Silver) and Vulnerability(Silver).

Yeah, in the old rules they did different things and in the new rules they are supposed to as well, but we'll have to wait a little bit to fix it.

Definitly deconded. Many thanks! That helps a bunch.

This is clearly noted in the intro sections of each "Creating a XXXXX" entry.

Runner's Companion takes two distinct approaches to the various character options available:

• "Racial" options (including metavariants, the sapient species, shifters, AIs and Free spirits) taht are "exclusive" have a racial BP cost that replaces the typical metatype BP cost at CharGen.
• "Changed" options (including Infected, changelings, drakes) are treated as Qualities, since they are cumulative with different metatype choices. They are bought independently of the metatype BP cost (meaning a changeling character pays to be an Ork and then pays for the appropriate level of SURGE). As noted in the text, exceptionally, such qualities do not count towards your 35 BP limit.

Buying one of the three levels of the SURGE quality (5 to 15 BPs) enables you to spend the additional BPs values listed on Positive and Negative Metagenetic qualities (and those alone). Note that gamemasters may reserve the right to assign your Negative Metagenetic quality BPs themselves to ensure balance.

Hmmm would I be right in assuming buying the magician quality for a race/option/etc with a natural magic points doesn't get another free? As it would seem a little off game balance wise for a Shifter adept to pay 5BP and have another magic point to throw around (hmm and on the subject do the innate magic points give adept powers? Or is it only additional ones you pay for which do?)

I have so say that I'm enjoying the RC so far, nice art and plenty of interesting character and rule options. Glad I went through the trouble of making a paypal account to pick it up.

No, buying the Magician/Adept/Mystic Adept, etc. quality doesn't net you another Magic point for free. On the other hand, you can now initiate which is a good thing.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! Great book!

I can't say I'm too happy with alot of the art in the book. But insofar as the rules, crunch, and content goes, I'm very happy.

I really wish Mist Form and Regeneration had been stripped away from Vampires, though. Those powers really should not be given to PCs.

Other than that, very good book. Catalyst ought to be proud of it.

Keep in mind that Regeneration isn't as unbalancing in SR4 as it was in previous editions and that it does balance out some of the 'ware rejection issues. Both powers were kept for steamlining and consistency with NPCs. I do believe they're no more unbalancing than some spells that any magician can possess (and more expensive in the end run).


Thank you. A lot of good people put a lot of hard work into this book, my thanks to everyone.

The BP cost to be Infected balances the Regeneration power, which as Synner just pointed out is less overpowering than it was in earlier editions.

Will there be an Errata updating soem of On The Runs NPC, including the final encounter guy, to RC rules?

Oh lord. Don't tempt me.

"Oh frag! Why didn;t someone tell me GI Joe's gun is only PLASTIC!!"

<grin>

Maybe I need to make a new character for Missions... But... be damn hard to do up a costume for the Scramble...

Bull, if you show up to the Scramble wearing Tinkerbell wings, I'll give you a free Karma/Gear/Contact/etc. transfer. But, I NEED pictures.

Actually, if I was playing a pix' at a Scramble event, I'd wear one of those (real-life) bunraku full-body suits and interact with other players through a pixie-sized puppet.

I'm pretty sure you could get small kids clothes to fit a pixie. They're meant to average ~45cm so shopping in the 3 year olds aisle is on the cards.

I would maintain that having no arms or legs is a bigger disadvantage in the sixth world. That house in Caerleon really must be an engineering marvel.

Out of curiosity, how many three-year-olds have you met that are a bit shy of 18" in height?

According to this birth chart, almost all (non-premie, I assume) newborns are over 45 cm when they're born. So in theory a pixie could get newborn sizes, but the proportions would be way off.

45 cm is actually about the height of a newborn baby - which would relegate pixies to wearing just bibs, onesies and little t-shirts that say "World's Cutest lil' Shadowrunner"

Children are much larger than I thought.



But Dwarf babies are that size! Honest!

Desktop Forge + Edit Program = Pixie-sized clothes

Hah! I may take you up on that

Actually, my thought was... Make a Sprite character, and take a 6/6 contact that's basically a full time bodyguard. And for the LARP, *I* would actually be the NPC Bodyguard, but I'd have a little puppet or maybe a GI Joe/Barbie Doll for the actual Sprite character

<grin>

Bull

I am loving the Changlings - a lot of customization & specialties you can do with it while still remaining "human". However, there seems to be one Metagenic quality missing - you have available a tail, horns, extra arms, additional organs, etc, but no wings. As such, I intend to make such a Metagenic quality, but would greatly appreciate developer input on appropriate costs & balance issues.

As an initial rough-draft, I have the following:

Winged
Cost: 10 or 15 BP
A pair of wings grow from the character's shoulders or back; these may be scaly (like a dragon), feathered (like a bird), or leathery (like a bat). At a cost of 10 BP, the character is capable of flight at a rate equal to their base land speed. At 15 BP, they can fly at twice their base land speed. A character with this quality gains access to the Flight skill.

Flight in a man-sized creature is extraordinarily difficult from a physics perspective, suffice to say a pair of wings alone wouldn't do the trick. Dragons only manage it through an innate lmagical ability.

It could very well be possible with a specially adapted muscle structure in said wings & shoulders, along with alterations to the bones for lighter weight. Regardless if it is fully possible through biology or not, many of the SURGE traits are not purely mundane anyways, so such a character could very well have a magical ability similar to that of a dragon to assist.

EDIT: Okay, not nearly as many obviously magical SURGE qualities as I first thought, but still 3 by my count that cannot be attributed purely to biological mutation.

OK stupid question: If you have a cat girl, is she a anthropomorphic cat or is she human with cat ears and a cat tail? If it's just the ears and tail, what trait (positive &/or negative) does the ears?

A changeling cat girl would probably be a Class II or III SURGE example and what traits you give her might vary with the level of expression. Assuming the ears are functional she would probably have the Broad Auditory Spectrum or Keen-Eared quality (for Positive qualities I'd also give her Low light, Claws, Balance tail, Vomeronasal Organ and possibly Satyr legs, for Negative qualities I'd give her Unusual Hair for the cat fur and one Distinctive Style for each glaring cat feature). If the ears are not functional, just assign her a Distinctive Style Negative quality for them.

Y'know, there's a bounty on those in Japan.

you say that as if the rest of the world doesn't have people with catgirl fetishes...

Depends on how you do the counting on those cat girl bountys, japan simply has more bounty offers per square mile mmm sucking chest wound...or fan boys/girls....

No with cheap travel most if not all anime lover moved to japan as the contry began rounding up catgirls and such.

New question regarding this - what happens to a dragon's ability to fly if their Magic is reduced to 0 for whatever reason (most likely Background)? Is their 'Innate' magical ability not affected by Background, as it is from them & not ambient mana, or do they draw said ability from the mana & thus can loose it?

If a Dragon is in that sort of condition, the lack of flight is probably the least of his/her worries!

If a dragon is in that kind of condition, their ability to fly may be the difference between life & death.

or anthropomorphic animals in general...

with at least one graphical chatroom thats run by a couple that married in their "fur" (how i know this puzzles even myself), and one pen and paper rpg with that as a theme, i would say that the japanese interest in cat girls are just a tip of the iceberg.

not that im sure how much this has to do with SR...

Are we going to have an errata thread or should we just post here? The survival tips section introductory fiction on page 20, fifth paragraph last sentence seems to just stop in mid-sentence.

As for the book itself I've only just started skimming through it so I'll leave off commenting for a bit.



Oh good Christ no, please don't encourage him. I'd have to drink a hell of a lot extra booze to help block that image out and considering what the average baseline intake for alcohol is at GenCon that's saying something.

bah, who needs alcohol when one can have a psychedelic trip by just walking the floor?

Well given how dragons are connected to magic, I would assume they would either die or go into a coma, it would be like having a zone with 0 mana and you toss a few meta's in to live, the follow generations in a 0 mana area would all be human, no mana, no metas, no mana, no dragons

There's no place on earth that's "zero" mana, and while paracritters whose Magic is reduced to 0 lose access to their paranormal powers, they are not otherwise injured or limited.

While I do seem to remember reading somewhere that Paracritters die if their Magic ever reaches 0, I cannot find where, and it also does not really fit with the Infected, who are technically considered Paracritters. If you happen to know where this came from, please provide a quote.
EDIT: Answered Above, but still does not answer my original question - Is a dragon's flight considered a paranormal ability that they can loose from reduced magic?


Also note that being in a Background Count strong enough to reduce a dragon's magic to 0 does not necessarily need to be a Void; A Surge/Storm could work just as well, or a Mana Static spell.