I just picked up Shadowrun, and after reading the Core Rulebook cover to cover (probably at least three times all the way through if you include all the cross-referencing such a reading entails), I feel it is a game where the rulebook is more "guidelines" and the GM still has to arbitrate most rulings. I'm planning on picking up a game of with my usual Pathfinder group, who also have never played Shadowrun, but I usually GM so nothing new there.

So, what are your favorite houserules to implement on SR5?

I was just about to post a similar question. Here's some of the questions I have along with some thought:

So I’ve been reading through the forums trying to make some sense of the SR5 matrix / hacking rules. Is anyone out there using some house rules to address some of the following issues or have any comments on my thoughts below?

The effects of Bricking

I’ve read a good deal on the forums where people are worried about the effects of bricking cyberware because the rules and the fluff don’t quite line up. For example, bricking causes sparks, melting, etc. But would it do that to your cyberware internals? Can it really be repaired so easily … a tool kit and a little time … not likely with cyberware.
First of all, I find it hard to believe that most equipment is wired without any hardware safeguards. A reboot sure … melting, sparking wires, I just don’t see it (for everything). I kind of view this similarly to hot / cold VR. Most items, I imagine, are hardwired with safety limits (i.e. cold VR) that will temporarily shut them down (or reboot) when they get too hot or execute bad code. Some items are built and modified to push the physical boundaries without regard to safeguards (hot VR).

So what kind of benefits should a device get that’s running without hardware safeguards? Should the benefits be above and beyond what is listed for the wireless bonus for that kind of gear? Exactly what kind of gear could you reasonably expect to have no hardware safeguard strait out of the box?

Unfortunately I don’t have any really good answers for any of the above questions. Off the top of my head I would say that devices like cyberdecks and rigger decks would probably be wired to push the edge … basically anything that would actually allow you to go hot VR. Beyond that I’m guessing that the call would really go to the GM. Here are some bricking / hacking results that I was considering:

• Bricked cyberware causes a reboot and the player can’t benefit from it until it comes back online. Higher rated gear comes back online faster than the cheaper lower rated gear.
• Typical firearms (those that you can reasonable expect to function like firearms today) can still be fired as normal, but beneficial technologies on the gun reboot similarly to cyberware
• High-tech firearms that you (or the GM) could reasonably expect to be controlled by many electronic components could be taken out of commission and possibly be hard bricked (i.e require repairs) due to no hardware safety limits (maybe some do have hardware safely limits maybe not… your call)

Everything is wireless and is on the grid … really?

I get that there is a lot of benefits for a lot of devices to have a matrix presence. But for security professionals, shadowrunners, and other elite teams it simply makes no sense at all. Do I want that AR field of view sync up with my smartlink so that I can shoot more accurately – damn strait I do. But do I really need a matrix connection to do that? We could get into the semantics on how smartlinks work but that is not my point. It seems like it would make more sense that you could operate a PAN with all of your devices on it that is not accessible from the matrix. Could they still be hacked – sure, but it would require both parties to be within communication range of your PAN. An enemy decker half way around the world would not be able to touch you.

As for cyberware I can see the benefit of matrix access for the general populace. Average Joe-blow isn’t out on a run … he’s using his cyber arm to type up that TPS report. It makes sense for his chrome to be connected to the matrix for a number of reasons. Monitoring by his cyberdocs, firmware upgrades, mundane mechanical reporting, etc. But for security forces (runners or otherwise) it is simply too large of an attack surface. Even then I can still see how wireless would help for diagnosis, firmware upgrades, etc for security personnel chrome, but I would imagine that it would have a very small wireless footprint that is NOT accessible from the matrix. You would literally need to be right next to the cyber system in question with diagnostic gear as the signal would be so small … remember that both pieces of equipment would need to communicate to each other (no one way software pushes).

One last thought on wireless communication. I would imagine that, before anything can be hacked or modified, both devices would need to be able to communicate. So is the matrix supposed to have so many access points that you are always assumed to be standing next to one? If I have a device that can only communicate up to 2 meters away should the assumption be that there is always an access point right there? In downtown Seattle sure, but in the Barrens … not likely.

Anyway, any comments, suggestions, house rules, etc… would be greatly appreciated!

One sure would be the thing about wifi-boni.

Usually, when a device grants a raised limit and offers a wifi-bonus of dice, I switch these. So a Smartgun grants you extra dice to hit and then, should you be online with it, a raised accuracy.

It still is in the trial phase though.

Just as a thinking point; what if the sparking and melting is the safeguards kicking in? Why can't the reason you can repair it with *just* hardware be because you only need to pop out & replace the SR equivalent of blown fuses? However you look at it, though, SR tech does seem to have either a level of tolerance or multiple redundancies.

That could be the intent, but I was basing that on hardware designs today. For example, if I want my CPU to perform above and beyond what it is rated for then I will have to overclock it (modifying voltage levels, improve cooling, etc...). Even if I overclock it past it's capability the processor will still not be damaged. Maybe 15-20 years ago you could burn up a chip, but the hardware architecture of today prevents that.

With that being the case I kind of use that to project what future hardware safeguards might be. In my mind hardware shouldn't be susceptible to the level of destruction described in Bricking unless hardware safeguards were not present.

For my games I think I will assume that most devices simply reboot or shutdown (no sparks or smoking) and some devices are brick-able as per the normal rules. As a guideline I'll probably use the hot/cold VR capabilities to make assessments. Beyond that I think it would be a group decision that evolves over many gaming sessions as to what you can hard brick (sparks and melting) and what is soft bricked.

As far as bricking, our group changed the fluff (to not include any smoke/sparks/melting/etc) and left the mechanics alone. So far it's worked okay.

Edit: (adding our current house-rules)

Summoning Spirits: Use Astral Limit rather than Force
Watchers: The watcher ritual doesn’t require a Lodge

Way of the Adept Powers that need rebalanced: (We are still allowing most of the SR4 books)
Creative Eye -> 0.75/level to be in-line with other attribute powers
Keen Wits -> 0.75/level to be in-line with other attribute powers
Prodigious Physicality -> Remove Climbing skill from the list (skill removed form the game)
Unseen Hands -> Remove Shadowing from the list (skill removed from the game), change Infiltration to Sneaking

Bricking: Remove references to smoke, fire, sparks, etc from the fluff of bricking.

The German Book is out now, I'll be needing some time to read 500 Pages but I can compare some of your Houserules with the Errattaed Version (If You want )
I'll also post some Houserules but way later

HokaHey
Medicineman

Feel free, likely won't change our house rules, but would be interesting to see if there have been any real changes between versions.

The only thing we've done so far is related to Bricking which seems to be a common issue. I'm not going to call it a house rule though, more an 'interpretation'. The fluff AND rules can both be read different ways.

What we've gone for is something along the lines of this

Bricking will be assessed on a case by case basis. In most cases bricking an item doesn't affect it's basic mechanical function. Bricking a gun affects any electrical bits (internal smartgun / DNI fire mode change etc) but doesn't affect it's ability to fire - UNLESS the description of the gun says that it uses electronic firing. Bricking a cybereye in most cases doesn't affect the optical function of the eye. It still has a lense and still connects to the optic nerve. Maybe crit successes and such could damage the eye to the point of unusability (same for guns and any device).
In some cases bricking will be software damage, fixable in the same way as a formatted device (extended software test).

Karma chargen houserule
Without breaking priority system. I simply replace all priority levels with the karma equivalent for a human maximizing karma value. (Buying 1 max stat, the rest 5 until points are out for stats and only skills to 6 and then the rest in one skill and so on).

This gives players who do "standard" characters (dumping all stats that aren't maxed) no change whatsoever but gives a slight buff to those who spread out skills. It also eliminates the "Don't buy low skills for skill points, use your 25 extra karma for 1 in pilot ground craft, 1 computer and so on"-shenanigans that we see .

Interesting ideas, and thank you for the feedback! "Bricking" does seem a bit OP, especially as none of the archetypes besides hackers have the ability to destroy gear so easily, though putting it out of commission for a while seems to be fair. Also like the post about the unbalanced chargen, I had noticed when making the characters that while some characters are more powerful than others, and the game seems to unfairly penalize balanced, diverse PCs in that aspect

Anyways, my Houserule contribution: I was thinking as part of the "Resources" priority, you could also get better gear. I.e...
Priority A- 450,000 Nuyen, Max Availability 17;
B- 275,000 Nuyen, Max Availability 14;
C- 140,000 and Max Av. 12;
D- 50,000 and 10;
E- 6,000 nuyen and M.A. 10

... or would this throw off the "Character power" cap at creation? It just seems odd that someone starting out with half a million fragging dollars has never had access to military- and security-grade gear. Seriously, with that much money, street smugglers would be pushing and shoving to offer their wares.

Well, we've played Shadowrun since our first games *never* using Availability at chargen, and it's never thrown off our games in the least-because we play in a 'we get stuff that makes sense for our characters' method. Yes, the big game hunter has a Barret Model and a minigun. No, he doesn't bring them everywhere he goes. He brings them to big game hunts.


As for SR5 house rules(mind you, we're probably playing 3 more these days but here goes):

-Swapped the Limits/Bonus Dice wireless bonus myself.

-Bricking is not permanent. It fizzles for a short bit(still working out/testing the exact time, but not long), before popping back online. It doesn't take away the usefulness of a hacker in combat but it makes wireless less annoying.

-Lowered the prices of what I felt was some way-too-expensive 'ware. Some of it's more expensive than the older days, when you started with the million nuyen. Prices were increased from 4e in a way that was more appropriately lined up with the nuyen boost. (I kept the lower prices, though-I thought some price drops were quite nice.)

-Was fiddling with a Karmagen adjustment system, but given that we're working with 3e more often it's been slow.

That switching wireless limit/die bonus seems to be common houserule. Could you elaborate why you made that decision?

To me it seems that due to it being generally harder to get those bonus dices they should be a bit of an risk to get. For low skill character even a moderate accuracy, lets say 5, is most of the time enough and that little bonus from smartlink/laser sight is nice but doesnt effect things that often. The bonus dice on another hand are a big deal when your diepool is small so change is relatively big, but comes with risk.
For high skills that accuracy boost is more important and dices are nice, but relatively smaller change. Especially if die pools is already around accuracy*3 it they might not even be worth the risk.

From player perspective I'd like to have those dices, but from balance perspective I think the RAW way is good.


I too have been fiddling around with karmagen, but due to real life it has been in slow burn for a while. One problem has been that in any priority level the karma cost for different option vary wildly. Like in C the karma values between money and attributes is x3.5.
However most of characters that I have completed the karmacosts are around 725-775 karma. Then again of the 8 characers I have gone through 7 have some vagueness, confusion or blatantly dont follow the rules. Street samurai has 639400 NY worth of gear for example.

I found between 725-750 Karma on this side feeling ideal so far. So it's not far off!

As for the bonus? Here's my reason:

Adding bonus dice increases the chance you're going to hit the limit. Say I have Pistols(Semi-Automatics): 6(+2), Agility 5(7). I already average five successes a roll, WITHOUT a smartlink.

The accuracy of an Ares Predator is 5, 7 with a Smartlink.

When my average hits are hitting the limits as it is-why would I even want more dice? I *want* the Accuracy increase, so I can not waste successes and do more damage. Two more dice, without the Limit increase, is going to make it so all I'm probably going to do is roll over the Accuracy and not have them anyway.

So here's where I make a decision, run it hot, raise the accuracy by 2, and then get to use more hits...or not? It feels more like an actual decision with me. As of now, if I'm throwing 14-15 dice(which isn't even excessive-a 6 skill isn't even the max you can get in-game and a 5(7) agility isn't excessive, either), that 5 accuracy is probably all I'm going to need anyway. This goes even more for those low-Accuracy guns-improving Accuracy would be more of the benefit when using the Roomsweeper.

On the other hand, it helps people who aren't super-shooters a bit more, which I think is a benefit/feature, not a bad thing. I think yes, a smartlink SHOULD make life a little easier for the Pistols 3, Agility 3 person. They're not going to be shooting any apples off people's heads to begin with. It's not hurting balance one bit to let them get a little edge with a couple of dice. I just *feel* the system works better when using the Limit increases.

(I'm not a massive, massive fan of Limits in the first place, truth be told-I really didn't feel they were a necessity. I don't hate them, but I didn't think they were needed.)

We go with knowledge skills at Int + log x3, and we repriced most ware.

Also if an item is part of your PAN it gets a wireless bonus.

Though I don't get to play I'd push for this rule were I to start a house game. That and a hacker can subscribe his teammates PAN's under his protection (slave to master) counting as one item to his deck's DR limit. That way a Decker can actually protect his own and his team's gear like writers seem to have envisioned.

Or so I think.

Oh, god-I forgot to mention I houseruled up knowledge skills in SR5 games as well. That's a change that I don't see why it had to go through in the first place-I literally houseruled it a few minutes after I read the sentence. I usually wait on houseruling stuff-you know, to feel stuff out-but as soon as I saw Knowledge skills act the same? Yeaaaah, houseruled instantly.

Control Rig Cyberware increases a vehicle's "Walk" speed by 5% per point of rating instead of increasing speed by 1 per rating.

How does setting the Karma for a human affect other metatypes? Wouldn't that make it very difficult to raise an ork's strength from 4 to 9 = 175 Karma? Or a troll's from 5 to 10 = 200 Karma?

Also, what's wrong with buying low rating skills with Karma?

in the German BBB Control Rig only raises the Limits not the Speed,Handling,etc itself

HougH!
Medicineman

I had to wonder about this one. The CCDs in the retina would still be electronic. And the lens and Iris are electronically controlled. And the chips that translate the cybereye data into optic nerve signals are electronic. Bricked = no sight.

Short answer: The obvious "OP" races now have to pay for their superior stats, they still get them an order of magnitude cheaper and don't have to take exceptional attribute positive quality to get to 7. They still get a huge bonus from starting at higher values. A troll might have to spend more to get Strength 10, but he starts with 5 body AND strength, that alone costs a human 120 karma! (But, that is why Metatype is a priority, you get tons of free stuff as Metatype and you "pay" for it with a priority).


With low ratings for karma is not wrong, it just shows the big ugly gap in chargen vs karma when you use your "skill points" to get only 6:es and use your 25 free karma to get the skills to be a plausible character (to have some ranks in etiquette, Computer, etc.). To get 5 (Pistols) + 1 (Computer) in with skill points and then later raise it to 6 (Pistol) + 1 (Computer) costs 12 karma while starting at 6 (Pistols) + 0 (Computer) and then raising to 6 (Pistols) + 1 (Computer) costs just 2 karma.

Just 2 karma instead of 12 for the same result. The point of having point system is to keep some kind of balance, if you can get the same result for 1/6th the cost then that is clearly not very well done.

And, since karma is used post chargen anyway, why keep an old parallel system that is just for chargen that makes character choice smaller and favors one-trick ponies and over-focused character with maxed stats and skills?

Quick Note: This will create major interference (or at least majorly annoying interference) if you are using the vehicle combat/maneuvering rules in 5th ed later.

...as for our major House Rule coming out of 5th Ed so far...

Limits/Accuracy on Melee Weapons. It's crap, it plays like crap. House Ruled to where Melee Weapons "Accuracy/Limit" is the Accuracy in the book + the Physical Limit of the character.

Why? Because the Rigger with an Anthroform wielding a sword beats the crap out of an Adept Grade 8 wielding the same sword.

Out of curiosity, Why would that be? Weapon Accuracy should be the same for both, initially. What makes it More accurate for the Rigger than the Grade 8 Initiate?
If your answer is because the Rigger gets his Control Rig to boost the Accuracy of the Weapon (Swords is Gunnery Right? ), THAT would be your issue, not that they had the stupid Limit Mechanic to start with.

But then, I think Limits/Accuracy is pretty stupid, so... *shrug*

I've been compiling a list of things I'd change if I were ever forced (at gunpoint) to GM 5e.

Magic/Resonance Priority
So many things wrong with this priority.

• Knacks: Replace references to Spells with Knacks. One Knack can be used to purchase either:
  
  • 1 Spell/Ritual/Preparation
  • 1 Adept Power Point (Mystic Adepts only)
  • 3 Karma for Bonding Foci
  • 3 Karma for Binding Spirits
  • 3 Karma toward cost of Initiation
• Magicians: Magicians get 6/4/2 Magic, depending on Priority assignment (A/B/C). They get [(Magic*2)-2] free Knacks. They get two free Magical Skills (including Arcana, Assensing, and Astral Combat) at [(Magic)-2] rating. Can learn any Magical Skill.
• Mystic Adepts: Mystic Adepts get 6/4/2 Magic, depending on Priority assignment (A/B/C). They get [(Magic*2)-2] free Knacks. They get two free Magical Skills (including Arcana, and if not Restricted, Assensing and Astral Combat) at [(Magic)-2] rating. They may learn Arcana. If they possess the Astral Perception Adept Power, they can learn Assensing and Astral Combat, otherwise they are Restricted.
• Adepts: Adepts get 6/4/2 Magic, depending on Priority assignment (B/C/D). They get one free Active Skill at (Magic) rating. They get Power Points equal to their starting Magic. They may learn Arcana. If they possess the Astral Perception adept power, they can learn Assensing and Astral Combat, otherwise they are Restricted.
• Aspected Magicians: Aspected Magicians get 6/4/2 Magic, depending on Priority assignment (B/C/D). They get [(Magic*2)-2] free Knacks. They get one free Magical Skill Group (Conjuring, Enchanting, or Sorcery) at [(Magic)-2] rating. The remaining Magical Skill Groups are Restricted. They may learn Arcana, Assensing, and Astral Combat.

No Limits: Limits are unnecessary bookkeeping. I hate bookkeeping. Also, in the only time I've seen a Limit come into play, all it did was turn what would have been an awesome long shot into a disappointing failure.

Direct Damage Combat Spells: Roll Magic + Spellcasting +/- modifiers. Defender rolls Willpower(M)/Body(P) + (Counterspelling, Magic Resistance, Spell Resistance, etc.) is to 'defend' against the spell. If there are no Net Hits on the Spellcasting Roll, the spell fails to connect and inflicts no damage. If there are Net Hits, the spell inflicts unmodified, unresisted (Force) damage. Net Hits from the Spellcasting Roll do not increase damage.
(Note: I concede that this rule needs more testing, but in the three sample combats I've run, it does a good job of being dangerous, but not insta-win. I even had one magician go for broke, overcasting at Magic x2, only to glitch and kill himself with +2 DV to the drain. Oops. He got the bad guys though...)