The Bullshit Flag:
I am a big proponent of keeping game play moving, particularly in combat situations. Because of this, I am frequently faced with situations where a rule is in question, and three solutions are available: Consult the appropriate book, ask around the table, or make a judgment call. As I said, I like to keep play moving. Because my player’s grasp of the system isn’t as deep as mine, consulting them frequently results in a lot of shrugs and strange looks. These two truths being the case, a lot of calls are made on the fly.

This is where the ‘bullshit flag’ comes into play. Every player may opt to dispute one ruling per session. When disputed I will consult the appropriate book. This is a way for me to limit rules-mongering and keep play moving, while it still allows the players recourse against my human, and therefore sometimes flawed, logic. So far the response from my players has been positive, so I plan to continue this system. Just for shits and giggles I usually toss them a point of karma, 2 if it was somthing REALLY obscure.

HullBreach’s 3 commandments of thrown grenades:
"Thy grenades shalt not defy Sir Issack Newton"
- A thrown grenade cannot scatter more than ½ of the distance it was thrown. The only exceptions to this are situations where a grenade can roll down some kind of incline.

"Thou shalt dropeth thy grenades without fear of their exodus to another zip code"
- A grenade that is dropped (i.e. dropped out of a second story window) may only scatter ¼ of the distance it fell. These are heavy chunks of iron, not rubber balls. The exception to this is if the falling grenade strikes an angled surface (45degrees +/- 15 degrees), then it may scatter up to 100% of the distance it fell.

"Thou may return the grenade one hast thrown at thee"
- Grenades can be thrown back. Grenades detonate on the same initiative number they were thrown on during the following initiative pass. If a player can get to the grenade during this period, they can make an athletics (or other appropriate) test to attempt to pick it up. Now just picking up a grenade with an active fuse isn’t a good idea, so they'll need to pitch it. This whole process consists of two simple actions, and GM's should make it a bit tougher if the player really has to dive for it.

The "thunk" factor:
A grenade (or other heavy, solid object) thrown at a person or object that it directly strikes it should be treated as a blunt impact doing damage roughly equal to a club(-1 power per range band beyond close,). The GM can consult barrier ratings if they like, but I usually just make a judgement call based on the material involved. This is to determine whether or not the grenade embeds itself into the surface (if I deem it possble, I flip a coin to see if it sticks). My players absolutely love this house rule, and a certain overly muscled (and enthusiastic) player actually managed to embed a grenade in a car door on one occaision (I swear on my stack of rulebooks, he made the rolls).


More to come if you guys like these! They were adapted from my old Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, but they suit SR quite well too.

EDIT: Just found this gem digging through some old files on the HDD

Side-Saddle Shell holders
A common accessory that I was surprised not to see in the vast majority of table top RPG's that I play, but a real life saver in a pinch. These guys make some sweet examples:
http://www.mesatactical.com/sc_index.php?c...bfc7511e42a5199
In game terms, these double the speed of loading a shotgun by a character by freeing them from having to fish shells out of a pocket or pouch, and pre-aligning them in the users hand.

In one of my freinds campaigns I made a character who used Kunai as a backup weapon. Well he got this crazy idea one day, and with the help of a weaponsmith friend of his started producing hollowed out Kunai bodies that he then killed with high explosives and a compact radio detonator (which matched up beutifully with his detonator plugged into a datajack).

I dubbed them Kunades.

What's a Kunai?

one of those pointy throwing-thingies all the ninjas use.

And the gardeners. But I repeat myself.

~J

I loved the Japanese version of Naruto, and the creative usage of Kunai with steel wire nicely translated into SR.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the expanded adept powers from SR4 seem to hit on a lot of the ninjitsu from that series?

Yeah. When MitS and SOTA64 came out.

I kinda mostly missed 3rd edition. I'm still playing catchup on whats cannon to the 'story' of the game.

as for a sticky nade. make it a expendible anchoring folci with gecko on it.

but yea... 3lb iron slugs bounceing half a football field. Mmm... no...

Maybe just a grenade covered in gecko tape? You could wear gecko-tape-resistant *handwave handwave* gloves.

or just dip your hand in water before picking it up to throw.

Or you could always do them like the grenades in 5th Element with the pop-out spikes. I mean your going to blow the guy up anyways so why use a humane adhesion method?

Not if they're the uber leet spikes ninjas use on their arrows to create zip lines and tightropes between buildings.

The Bullshit Flag: I love it, I wish our group could do that. If I ever run a game again, this rule will make it in.

Instead of spikes or glue or whatever the hell else, how about impact detonation? Same effect, a shitload easier to make.

Yes, it's a stupid idea until such time as unrelated research gives us some proper substance, if ever. Does that result in an impact-detonated grenade having the "same effect"? No.

~J

Easy solution: a Covenant battle cruiser crash lands in the SR world and all hands are killed. Left behind are boxes and boxes of plamsa grenades.

if you could turn the stickiness on by remote, maybe it'd be handy--not for throwing, but for setting distractions, defensive perimeters, etcetera. it'd change it from a grenade to a multipurpose explosive, one with a variety of applications (literally), albiet applications that all involve exploding.

I'm with Kagentenshi on this one. A weapon is only stupid and useless until it becomes economical to make, and you find a use for it. Saying, "People don't make them now, so it'll never be useful" is a cop-out argument. Sometimes it just takes some guys going, "Hey, Major... my boys need Wierd Object X to do this specific mission easier, safer, faster... Can we get something like that?"

If nothing else, that's how the Higgins Boat got made. They needed a variation on what they'd used up to that point. Hell, that's what inventions are, in large part. Something useful for a niche market becoming cheap to manufacture.

From Ares Arms 2065 Catalog

The sticky grenade modification:
Using a modified version of the popular "Gecko tape" our researchers have developed a way for that hand grenade to stay with its target. Once the spoon breaks contact with the grenade an electrical charge is sent through the shell of the grenade, activating the adhesion of the gecko tape, causing it to become "sticky". The back side of the gecko tape is rubberized to prevent detonation.

* Note the head of the grenade is not covered

Cost:
Standard Grenades: 100
Splash Grenades: 200

Wouldn't you just rip it off you and throw it back? It seems like this would make it easier to return grenades to the owners...

edit: Ooops. It would probably stick to your hands. nevermind

Always have a couple of towels, in that case. You never know when you need to go hitchhiking.

You know, I have the same eye condition that the marine in Doom 3 has. Its true. I see the world as if it was poorly lit and covered in cling-wrap.

Sticky explosives are among the best things I remember about Red Faction.

I was floored when I threw a remote explosives pack and managed to stick it to a bad guy. He then proceeded to run around screaming to his buddies, "AUUGH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!". His buddies would move to get away from him, and start shooting at him to either stop him or set off the explosive before he got too close.

Joy.


-karma

Remember my Kunade example from earlier?

These were used by a street-sam of mine who had a radio detonator jacked in to one of his datajacks (nice piece of custom electronics made by another player).

The Kunades were made active by pushing a small button inside the ring at the base of the grip. Because there was only one operating channel that all these worked on, the user could stick these things wherever he wanted, then simultaneously detonate them.

Do to the well balanced and aerodynamic nature of the weapon, this could be used for field expediant demolishion work against hard to access spots within throwing distance. Another nasty trick is to withdraw from enemy contact, sticking a few of these along likely pursuit paths, and blowing them when the enemy attempts to advance on you.

Well heres some good news for you folks who liked my rules:

I started a website that I will be loading with all of my content over the next couple weeks. It's mostly empty now, but feel free to drop by and comment as it grows. In the tradition of the old shadowrun sourcebooks, particularly pertinant comments will become a part of the entry's description!

EDIT: The URL would probobly help:

http://www.heavyangel.com

Try it, then get back to me

~J

A miner's helmet works great, as does a headlamp. An ordinary tube-shaped flashlight taped to your head/shoulder/etch doesn't so much It's not just weight, it's the hassle of getting the tape to stick, getting the flashlight pointed the way you want it, and getting it somewhere where it won't be knocked off easily.

Also, IIRC, against all sense the marine in Doom 3 does not actually have a helmet.

~J

well, here's the thing. if we're talking about sense and Doom 3, where's the sense in him lugging all those gigantic, heavy weapons? and assuming you can solve that, where's the sense in only being able to find one flashlight on the entire base? there's five million shotguns and three million BMGs, but only one flashlight?