Hey everyone,

So after several years hiatus I am returning to the shadows as it were. After running an sr4 game for 3 and 1/2 years I was terribly burned out. I am finding recently though that I really really really! have that itched to punish my players with panther assualt cannons again.

That being said the last time I played was deep in the midst of sr4, which I really liked but had its issues. Overall I am finding the Sr5 fixes allot of those issues but I am wise enough to know that there will always be something that needs a house rule. So give me the warning shots! What is broken about sr5? What character builds should I be on the look out for? What rules just don't make sense or I might need to take a second look at? Generally what do you think needs a house-rule?

Finally I do have one growing concern with Defense not having a limiter. I know that SR has always been really favorable to defense and armor rules, but its really hard to tell if Defense being unlimited hits wise balances out with the modifiers in the game...I notice that there seems to be more penalties but I have yet to see it in play so its hard to tell from the armchair.

Thanks for the help and its good to be back!

(repost from reddit)

This is what I did to help my game simply work better for when I was running 5e

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...dryd+houserules

Oh wow thats quite good summury of houserules.

Did they remove DNI and Slaving devices to your comlinks? That's the way wireless devices where always protected in my games during 4th... (I have only given the matrix section a brief skimming not a thorough read as of yet)

DNI is kinda gone unless you pay extra for it RAW (the cyber book has the upgrade and extra costs) Slaving devices to Com-links is limited to Device Rating (or maybe DRx2) in devices to a single commlink and you cannot create a PAN and slave it RAW as that already has a master.

SR5 is where hackable wireless functionality gets crammed down people's throats with a rusty crowbar. You are essentially given a choice between gimped devices/'ware and broadcasting your existence/being vulnerable to hacking. The latter makes no sense for any self-respecting shadowrunner, so expect to see less smartlinks, wired reflexes/reaction enhancers combinations, etc.

Note that wireless bonuses are not a bad idea, but the horrible, illogical implementation of it caused a big backlash from many players. Ghost in the Shell is often cited as an inspiration for wireless everything, but read the manga and in the first story, watch this elite team of hacker/commandos, backed up by an AI, switch to "autistic mode" (turn off wireless) at the first hint of an enemy hacker!

Augmented characters tend to suffer most from the wireless rules. On top of that, 'ware has increased in cost to a higher degree than resources have gone up, meaning you can afford less of it. Which is good, because with the change in the Essence rules, you can't get as much implanted in you, either. Tank builds (skin/bone augmentations) are a lot more viable, though, and cyberlimbs are also improved. Used augmentations are a separate grade now, and alphaware is cheaper, so a judicious mix of the two with "standard" grade can help improve a build.

Magic is a real mixed bag. Overall they are gimped less than mundanes, except for the horrible, horrible rules for background count, which pop up too easily and go way too high. Spell-wise, direct combat spells have been nerfed to a niche role, so mages will tend to switch to indirect combat spells as their go-to default option. But while spellcasting is weaker, spirits are stronger - summoning is one area to watch out for. The other thing to watch out for is mystic adepts, who front-load their abilities but then improve more slowly. In other words, they become more balanced during the course of a campaign. At the start, though, they can seem a bit OP, basically a full mage with 6 points of adept powers.

The Matrix, less my area. I will only say that the popular consensus is that technomancers were over-nerfed (note that the erratas try to fix this).

Overall:
Shadowrun has always been a game where the strength of character creation is also its weakness. Namely, that it lets you create characters with widely varying levels of ability and versatility. SR5 does not change this! Some specific things are more or less optimal than before (for example, humans are better, orks and trolls more expensive), but overall, characters still have the same potential for power levels that go up and down the scale.

The default character creation is supposed to be priority, which seems like a good idea compared to throwing a pile of points at a starting player and saying "do what you want." The problem is until you have high system mastery, you're going to have to get halfway through character creation before you know what priorities to assign everything, then have to start over. Possibly multiple times. Creating a few characters for the players up-front with similar dice pools is easier for everyone the first time.