What is really stupid is that after going full retard on this crap in Chrome Flesh (but never concisely explaining it - you have to pick it up in bits and pieces - or giving rules for it. This is one of the core rulebooks essentially saying "Fuck you, buy this setting book if you want to know about it"), they still have nanoware! So there was absolutely no point to it all, other than to make cyberware even more stigmatized.

The point of driving instruction is that new drivers don't bring themselves (and others) into dangerous situations in the first place. But without a fair amount of routine, emergence situations still overwhelm most new drivers. There is a reason why people who just got their license pay vast insurance premiums, and it's not just because they are young and reckless.


Uh yes, that thing straight under the paragraph saying that you don't need to roll for those maneuvers...I must have successfully suppressed that stupid thing


Speaking of stupid things:

Well, the explanation in CF is that those new nanites are no longer capable of self-replication and have hardwired instructions with no possibility of reprogramming -- but the former was never possible (except for CFD nanites, because FFFUUUUUUU) and the latter is already forgotten a few pages down, where we get the rules for reprogramming nanites.

Another solution to the essence problem is to simply make essence cost doubled for the awakened. You want to add cyber to your mage? Go ahead, it just cost a lot more of that precious, precious essence and eats away at your magic faster. No need to adjust anything else and it should accomplish the same thing, keeping tech and magic mostly separate.

But this aporoach still prevents people from being able to have fully cybernetic bodies, an option we wanted to embrace. As Stahlseele pointed out, this helps level the playing field for the muggles (though as an open magic supremacist, I still consider this to be an inferior choice).

The biggest problem with combining technology and magic isn't the mage who gets cybereyes and cerebral boosters. It is the adept who gets some bioware and pulls ahead of the unaugmented adepts. This problem first cropped up in SR4. SR5's priority system makes an augmented adept have a higher opportunity cost, but it is still doable, and the prototype transhuman quality makes it even worse, letting adepts start out with a point of bioware without any Essence or Magic loss. The easiest fix, if you consider augmented awakened characters a problem, would be to use equivalent of the Sensitive System quality for awakened characters - bioware doesn't work and cyberware costs double Essence.

I like Janeesas ideas so much I am going to incorporate them into my game. Currently after reading through I do feel that mundane cybered folks are totally screwed as compared to any awakened characters. So I am lowerin the cost on ware and not incuring any penalty to zero essence and will just go use Janeesa's templets for vamps n ghouls. They should be targets and not snowflakes. I like that idea and if someone wanted to play that templet well they can go play another game.

I did not get a real answer on what is the deal with nano tech. Is it better than Cyberware? I have Chrome but I am reading core rules atm.

Truly the ultimate compliment!

I'm glad my work has been of use to you. Let me know how it works out at your table.

One thing I've considered, inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution, was to make a Type J System special quality. Obviously, the J in this case stands for "Jensen."

If you have a Type J System, your Essence does not diminish upon installing any form of augmentation; however, Type J system is mutually incompatible with any form of Awakened or Emerged qualities.

Mechanically, that's about the same as our approach. We just essentially assume that everyone who isn't Awakened or Emerged falls under this category.

So, something the GM for my current Pathfinder game did, which worked out really well.

Special Snowflake cards.

Step 1: Heavily restrict what counts as "core" (in the case of Pathfinder, this is easy: the core player's handbook)
Step 2: Make up a whole bunch of "snowflake cards" that each have a top half and a bottom half. You're going to need a minimum of 4 per player.
Step 3: Figure out the top and bottom halves. The top half should generally be a "major" effect (e.g. "be any ACG race," "start with one piece of equipment worth $1000") and the bottom half will be something minor ("get a +2 trait bonus to a skill of your choice," "add one of [list of tertiary books*] to your list of allowed source material")
Step 4: Deal them out to people. This will take a while and it works like this:

Going around the table, one at a time, each player draws 3 cards from the deck and secretly reviews them.
- One they keep face down
- One they hand to another player (face down, but that player looks at it)
- One they put back into the deck

People can announce what types of cards they want to be given, but you aren't allowed to say "oh I have a..." and figure out who wants it (each player may only receive 2 cards, everyone will end with 4).

Once everyone has 2 cards each, they pick one to flip face up and let the group know what it says.
Once everyone has 4 cards each, all are revealed and players then choose for themselves 1 Major snowflake and 2 minor snowflakes each from different cards.
The first card you give out also establishes some kind of background relationship between those two PCs, and some aspect of that relationship (e.g. giving someone the +2 trait bonus to some skill might mean that you ran into each other at some point and taught them some tips about said skill; doesn't have to be that rigidly defined, but allows for some creative ideas about why these people know each other).

As a group we still ended up super snowflakey, but not as much as we would have without restrictions (I had a weird race, someone else had a weird class, a third person had a legacy item...). The first card I drew and picked for myself was "be any ACG race" to which I went "yes plz, Kobold" but that precluded one of the other players from being a ratfolk. Inadvertently I ended up not giving him a card he was looking for for one of his other ideas, only because I hadn't realized that it was what he wanted.

Not quite sure how it might translate to Shadowrun, but maybe someone will give it a shot. For reference, while the link still exists, our snowflake cards are here (credit goes to bobson for the pdf and its exact contents, though he got the idea from someone else over on the Paizo forums), although it's a bit messy to read quickly, as the cards are bunched up next to each other with little distinguishing the top/bottom as being different than the dividing line down the middle. If anyone does take up this idea, post something over in house rules and let me know, I'd enjoy hashing out a few ideas.

*[Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Intrigue, Advanced Class Guide, or Occult Adventures] were the "main RPG line" from which everyone got to pick one for free, the minor snowflake was a second one, with a different Major snowflake that was "pick any Paizo book." Equipment in said books was purchasable by anyone in the party ("hey can you buy me a..."), classes, feats (etc.) were only for the one player.

I'm just very biased against Infected PCs. They have been a huge headache for me as a GM and fellow player in the past, and they almost inevitably become the focus of the game at the table to the detriment of the rest of the group.

Well then, I can only assume you like my approach here (and here).

Get a coffin you two.

Except right above the chart it specifically says that you only apply those chart rolls when you're in vehicle combat, not when just regularly driving. So yeah, the average person with a driver's license would have a relatively high chance of crashing if they're trying to suddenly stop while it's raining and drones are pelting him with bullets.

Well, being pelted with bullets while driving in the rain is not your everyday, normal driving occurence, now is it?
Don't know about you, but it was not a part of my driving test.