So, in 5e I'd say machine guns (You know, those automatic weapons used with the Heavy Weapons skill?) are pretty underpowered. The LMGs are outdamaged by most assault rifles, and even the HMGs (which presumably use something along the lines of .50 BMG) get outdamaged by higher end shotguns. So my house rule is that the base damage of all MGs is increased by two. Not only does this put LMGs on par with the higher end assault rifles, and puts the HMGs on par with heavy sniper rifles (which share ammo in real life). I think it adds to realism and game balance. Thoughts?

I think that one of the problem with LMG/HMG is that, from what I understand, they've got a completely different usage IRL from assault rifles. However, in Shadowrun the rules are mostly made for CQC battles. So the difference is hard to enforce with the rules as they stand.

If you just give them better DV/AP, then there'll be little reason for PC to carry assault rifles instead of LMG/HMG (unless you expect your players to be reasonable). They're better except for concealability but assault rifles are already pretty hard to hide in the first place so in most situations where you could take an assault rifle, you can bring an LMG/HMG.

So I guess you'd need to add rules for encumbrance and maneuverability in order to make this fix complete.

Well, in 5e, you need 8+ Strength to wield MMGs, and 10+ to wield HMGs. That ought to make characters think twice about building an HMG toting elf. As for LMGs, this houserule makes them only marginally more useful than assault rifles, as the only improved stat is range. Moreover, you can get more accurate assault rifles. As your the rest of balance, a top shelf assault rifle, the Yamaha Raiden, costs 2,600¥. By comparison, a decent-ish LMG (The Ingram Valiant) costs 5,800¥, and a higher end LMG, the SA Nemesis, costs 6,500¥. As your higher caliber MGs, they're even more costly. 7,000¥ for a Stoner-Ares M202 (which has no add-ons whatsoever) or 16,300¥ for a RPK HMG.

Moreover, I houserule the recoil rules for MGs. RAW, they all suffer double recoil. I'd houserule that LMGs have standard recoil, MMGs have double, and HMGs triple. After all, it's not easy even for a troll to keep a .50 cal MG on target.

And it bears mentioning that MGs and ARs use different skiils. Automatics and Heavy Weapons are used by different sorts of characters, as Automatics gives you concealable options and Heavy Weapons gives you access to grenade launchers and assault cannons and such.

It sounds like they changed the stats to put a kaibosh on power creep, and the number of street sams or other characters running around with heavy mil-grade firepower because it had a higher damage code.

Depending on what you want in your game, I say go for it. Disclaimer - have never read / seen a 5e rulebook - have no idea how it works. Happy sticking with 3rd ed at the moment
With that aside, change the rules as you see fit to make LMG / MMG and HMG work, to fit your game style. If boosting the power has that effect, then cool.

Which is ludicrous... I carried an MMG in the Corps, along with several hundreds of rounds, and I can guarantee you that I do not have an 8+ Strength.

Yes, but maybe you had your wireless ON?

And before any can complain that it doesn't make any sense, it makes as much sense as a lot of the wireless bonuses we have seen to date.

Well, No, I did not have my Wireless on... it is beyond stupid to transmit a signal which can be traced when you are on clandestine missions...

As an in-universe way of explaining that, maybe MMGs and such are larger because now it's often orks and trolls doing the heavy gunning in most militaries. Other than that, it doesn't really make sense.

My in-universe way of saying that is that is it utter BS. *shrug*

I know in theory it is ludicrous, but if the signal strength is low enough isn't it almost impossible to detect unless you are extremely close or the device is already hacked through the Matrix? I remember in SR 4, a Signal 1 device was practically impossible to detect unless literally ascendent to the user. If you need to get that close to hack a cyborg's arm, he is close enough to eviscerate you.

In 4th yes, it was that way, but thanks to the Magic that is the Matrix any device openly accessing it can be detected within 100 meters automatically and with a little work can find things anywhere in the world.



Running in low level dataflow to and from the matrix mode is what they call running silent in 5th and you can still be detected, just takes a bit more work is all.
You can see more on this on pg 235-236 in Core as well.

The logic is that to really get your full Matrixy bonus goodness you can not just be a receiver of the digital wealth that is the Matrix, you have to be giving back at the same time.

So your smartlink is not just taking in wind conditions and other details, but it is feeding it's own position and data into the Matrix so it can extrapolate optimal targeting angles and other such because apparently all that computional capacity was taken out of the toys.

The Matrix is a cool idea for society in general, like my siggie says it offers the world at your fingertips, but it also comes with the ultimate Big Brother looking over your shoulder all the while.
Which for the normal wageslave is nothing new and almost comforting to have that enveloping layer of protection around them, but for Runners it's suffocating and not really ideal since getting caught because your shorts are singing out to security is embarrassing.
But it also begs the question how a society operates when brown-outs occur or signal noise spikes and your pretty little Matrix is out of reach during those times because physical storage is not the norm anymore and someone cut a lot of corners with devices so how much they do themselves is questionable.

Add to it that the programming behind the Matrix is almost organic, not meaning there is a flesh and blood brain hooked into it, but rather the corps have torn chunks of digital bits out of something far larger than they can currently comprehend and cobbled the pieces into their little Matrix from it, which raises even more questions than it answers.
See Data trails for more teasers on this.

Alright that makes SR5 wireless even more stupid than I thought it was. Fix: Remove wireless except where needed (riggers, radio, cellular phones).

There was some things that SR5 fixed, but there was a LOT more that it broke!

The Cyber/bioware discount for the type that you had less of makes it so that Sammies are nerfed HARD.

The return of the Decker and their outrageously priced decks is another thing that is broken. In SR4, the Sammie could, if he wanted to, could branch out into hacking. Hell, if you wanted a well rounded character you could have a MAGE get into hacking. Was he any good? Not really, but he COULD do it.

In SR5, the deck is so disgustingly overpriced that no Decker would have one.

No runner worth the name should ever be using anything that's wirelessly accessible for anything important, unless they're a Decker. The SR5 rules are just too shitty otherwise.


Sure, I might look 'retro' with induction pads in my hands and fiber optic cable running to things, but I'm immune to noise and fuck dealing with security spiders.

Even my Technomancedr runs wired when she can... That is why she has a Data jack. As for running with anything transmitting on a run? That is a fool's option, and one that will get you killed.




Too very true.

Ah so you dont get to halve the lowest value in stacking essence loss anymore I take it. As for sammies not being able to be semi-hackers, I think thats a good thing IMO - the hacker in SR4 was turning into the D&D rogue - mostly useless and every other class/archetype can do his job to some degree if they want to. The older kind of decker needed heavy investment in both skills and nuyen to be able to pull it off, while otherwise the team would be dependent on either bypassing security physically, use maglock passkeys and using hardware tools to fiddle with wires. Plus you had the script kiddies.

I like the fact that you can be a streem sammie, decker or rigger, but not mix them without being incompetent or lacking resources to get the right gear.
There are other areas where you still can combine stuff maybe too easily, for example Face can be easily done by adepts or shamans without losing a lot of powers.

I disagree with you about that being a good thing. In my way of thinking, every Shadowrunner should know a little hacking, it's only the Decker and the Technomancer who should be able to make the Matrix his bitch.

As for the price for being a decker... the deck is WAY too expensive.

The deck is way too expensive, agreed.

But the point is keeping the Matrix like Astral Space. It's literally another world, and it takes significant investment to be able to operate in it.

Unfortunately they took that too far with SR5 technos, got lazy, and just copied the mage mechanics.