I have been playing Shadowrun for 20-22 years now and have experienced every edition with each of their flaws and complexities. Though I feel that 5th edition is the best so far, we all know the editing of the core rule book is appalling and a lot of the mechanics feel wonky. This is my very extensive attempt to consolidate, normalize, and simplify the mechanics of the game. In this attempt, I did not worry about the source book's fiddly-bits (like the price of commlinks or the balance of character creation or advancement). I looked only at the mechanics of PLAYING the game (the best part).

For my players, and my sanity, I have condensed the 475 page rule book into 24 pages of (what I feel are) concise, intuitive, and consistent mechanics for game play. This does not replace the setting/flavor, the character creation, the spell and gear catalogs, etc. so you still need to buy the book, but you may not need to reference it during game play.

SR5 House Rules - Notated
(Includes Initiative, Movement, Actions, Matrix Actions, Combat Resolution, Matrix Resolution, Vehicle Resolution, Combat Rules, NPCs)

SR5 House Rules Tables
(Charts for the above House Rules. There are four tabs. Be sure to look at them all.)

Also: I do not take credit for ALL of the concepts in this document, but I do take credit for painstakingly crafting and editing this document.

Let me know what you think...

[Edit] Included highlights for House Rules in blue. Other rules are simply re-stated, clarified, or interpreted.


Thanks!

I think I'll be printing that out at the first opportunity (I've already downloaded it and skimmed through).

The one thing that would have been nice for people who aren't you is some sort of mark of which parts are house rules, and which are simply concise summaries of the RAW. Some of the house rules jumped out at me (for example movement points and some changes to the Gearhead quality), but others, in parts of the rules that I don't know so well, I may not recognize. It would be nice to know the house rule parts, to be able to make that conscious decision of "Yup, like and will use."

Good point on the designations. I'll post a notated version of the doc in an edit soon. Thanks.

Each heading does have a description of what has changed but only in general terms.

[Edit] Done.

Your file has something like 20 extra blank pages. It might just be LibreOffice, but I am pretty certain the program isn't THAT bad with Word documents.

The main document should be a 15 page docx. The tables and charts turn up about 7 pages. I've tried it on my work PC, home PC, and tablet without issues but they all have Word.

Oh wow, thanks for this! I'm about to start back my old SR campaign and this compilation is pretty awesome. The only house rule I used last game was HRing "Probing the Target" back in from 4th ed but I see a lot of great stuff here.

Why not allow reckless direct spells? I can understand banning it for AoE spells, but direct spells are already fairly weaksauce, even when you cast two in a single turn. Double Flamethrower spells seems much more powerful in general.

Oh, you can cast AOE and direct spells recklessly. You can even cast two with one action if you split your Spellcasting pool. That is under Simple Actions, Cast Spell Recklessly.

I think where you are reading, "*Indirect, non-AOE spells only" is under the Call a Shot Free Action (Modifier). That just means you can't knock a gun out of someone's hand with a Stunbolt, or make someone Dodge a Powerbolt. I figure that those spells attack the person directly and can't be manipulated to do "trick shots" but maybe something to think about...

I made sure to exclude AOE spells from Called Shots for the same reason as grenades and wide choke shotgun blasts.

Ah I see. Well that only makes sense.