The problem is: Cybermancy mechanically "sucked" pretty much ever since rules for it were provided. Now your suggestion moves cybermancy from being the only way of exceeding the absolute barrier created by Essence and turns it into an even less desirable "quick and dirty" form. And you suggestion even brings about the question of Cyberzombies returning to "life" by regaining Essence with your mechanic.

Thats apparently a common problem with most of the "special" races (Cyberzombie, Shifter, Drake, HMVV ...). Only SURGE seems have been accepted well (because of the MinMax potential).
Personally I do not care, but groups who tend to play "on the limit" likely won't see any of those characters.
But then, I would like to see rules which would discourage minmaxing as (only?) valid way of gaming anyway.

I wouldn't blame "MinMax potential" but rather the fact that originally all these concepts were designed to be NPC-only and - at least in case of cyberzombies - were mechanically vastly inferior in comparison to what they were supposed to be on "fluff"-levels (both in p&p material and in novelizations). Oh and SURGE originally wasn't accepted well at all ...

-- So no loss. The cybermancy rules were a very ugly kludge to get around the Essence mechanic - which itself was just a game balance stat to add a "fun" element of resource management and prevent cybered reign of terrors.
-- The less "fun" resource management elements the better.

I wonder if there ever was anything new which was received well...

Essence is a reflection of a very important fluff point, I'd even say, one foundational to the setting. It's truly puzzling how you can't see it.

So, new blog post up, talking about artwork.
Disregard the link title, it may be misleading. Unfortunately, the linked picture isn't ... well, linked.

http://www.shadowrun.com/shadowrun-tableto...er-as-the-hero/

The image is properly included at the original blogpost: http://www.shadowruntabletop.com/2013/04/s...er-as-the-hero/

Yep, found that, too, about a minute ago

Well, judging by the name of the image, I guess this is our first look at the character portraits for the Pre-gen character sheets. So far lookin' good.

And if that's supposed to be an MCT Fly-Spy drone, kinda not what I expected them to be...slimmer? Although I guess that's one other layer of camoflage if the drone actually looks like a fly from a distance...

Which book is the Infusion Focus in? I don't recall having seen it, of course I haven't purchased all of the books either.

Infusion Foci are in the Digital Grimoire.

The Infusion metamagic is in Street Magic.

Nice, thanks guys. I do have both of those books, I just never noticed the Focus before.

Dmiller:
They're also far less expensive to bond than power foci.

I really like the flavor of the infusion metamagic as well... it's like turning on the nitrous funny car boost to the adept... for that short term boost in power with the attendant downtime.

Effectively the infusion focus is 3 karma per 0.25PP it gives you access too... far cheaper than raising magic or initiating provided of course our initiate grade is high enough to make use of it....

But especially if you allow PP for initiating on pure adepts... initiations are cheap (and even preferable) to raising magic for adepts. Adept centering goes off initiate grade... as do many other things...

I rather liked the art. My wife loved it. That's her kinda ork.

Hey, like I said, I like it too. Hell, apparently my current players STILL have it in their heads that all orks and trolls are ugly as sin, and hence why no one wanted to play as one.

Also, who's the artist of this piece, if I may ask? The art style looks the same as the guy who did the pre-gen sheets for runners in the 2050 sourcebook...is is the same guy?

Thanks for the info. Infusion is really cool, except that it becomes almost unusable later in the game. Oh well, guess it's back to increasing my Magic for PPs.

Not at my taste. It make me think of Hawkmoon's idiotic jumping frog technologie from Shattered Island (old scenario from the 90s).

I mean: either they are supposed to look like flies for camoufage and then the pic has a problem with proportions, either they are really 10cm long drones and then, beeing modeled to look like a fly is idiotic.

DMiller... that can be fixed fairly easy if you allow the adept to 'dial down' the infusion power in a manner similar to how a mage can cast at force 8... but can easily dial it down to force 4.

Also the point of the infusion foci is they don't count against that power for drain purposes, the focus is merely unusable while it recharges quickly. So infusion foci even with the rules as strictly written continue to work well by taking the edge off.

SR1?

Street Sam's Catalog and Neo Anarchist's Guide to Real Life.

Last I checked it was for the setting, not necessarily the rules for gameplay.

I freely admit that I loves me my gear porn!

Seattle source book. Best fluff book ever...well in the top 3.

Weapon Foci Hardliner gloves?

Highly debated.

It has been just a game balance resource from the start, with some fluff about it being a reflection of your holistic sense of self. I'm a bit puzzled as to how you consider it foundational or even particularly relevant given the direction the game has taken since Third Edition. Particularly, take note of what it actually does mechanically and how you lose it. People have created fluff surrounding it that amounts to role-playing notes, but you don't need the Essence mechanic itself for that.

It's a kludge, just a less offensive one than the Humanity mechanic from CP2020.

HSSSS .... beware, lest you summon the Demonic Hordes ...!

(Supposedly this is not possible. I don't agree, but .... *shrug* ...)

Sure, you could do it. You would, however, count as using a weapon and therefore not gain the benefit of adept powers that boost Unarmed damage or add other effects.

^^^ See what I mean? ^^^

Not acording to my printing, the focus doesn't count for burn-out, but it does count for drain, so the higher your magic attribute gets the less likely you are to want to use Infusion in any way.

SM p61, Infusion

DG p8, Infusion Focus


The Infusion focus says nothing at all about drain.

The Infusion Metamagic becomes less useful as the (Mystic)Adept becomes more powerful. So early in the game when Magic scores are low, Infusion is great but later as Magic scores increase it becomes much less useful.

Yeah just reread that... I had that wrong. The focus stops the burnout... not the drain...

For some reason i was thinking the burnout and drain were related. They're each an independent effect though.


So chalk that up as a cool idea which I like in theory... but which is seriously flawed in practice. If the rewrote it to be more like... gain 0.5PP per initiate grade. Then resist say 1 drain for each 0.5PP gained at the end... it would be quite usable.

I agree, I think that would completly un-bork Infusion.

Yeah, Infusion desperately needs some sort of "downscale" for the Drain. Perhaps it would be better to use the amount of power points gained as the basis for the Drain value?

You know what I'd really like to see happen in 5th? Playable AIs get a resonance attribute. I'm pretty sure AIs are made from the same stuff as technomancers. So I think it'd make sense fluff wise. It'd also allow AIs a way to actually grow more powerful and not be stuck at a static initiative, kind of like how they are now. They can go, and get some echoes, and be better and faster in the Matrix.

I know this might start to make AIs too similar to Sprites, but make it so that its very difficult for AIs to travel to the Resonance Realms, like mancers. I'd like to think Sprites shouldn't be able to interact with magic too, but they can't really anyway... It'd be kind of like how Spirits can't use AR or the Matrix. But if Sprites can't be effected by Magic, then we'd have the worlds greatest security spider with something like a Free Sprite being able to see through all illusion spells, and that'd just be game breaking. I guess it could work the opposite way; a Sprite can't resist any spells so all magic effects a Sprite. While an AI can at least make a resist test to see through magic.

...or, maybe open up the possibilities of PC Free Sprites in the SR5 Runner's Companion?

If technomancers and AI's were "made from the same stuff", AI's would already HAVE a Resonance score.

*sigh* yes.... yes I do.

What about Weapon foci titanium bone lacing?

Very Expensive and Very Difficult.

.... and a bit painful, I should think.

A collected list of 4th + 5thED pre-order listings on amazon for SR. I'm curious if 4thEd listings will get rolled over or are canceled.

Character/NPC-Reference-Sheets
Ballots of Bullets

Malevolent Ends #1: Hunt the Black Lodge
Requires Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition; this book is the first in the Malevolent Ends series of adventures, which entwines players in the clandestine plotting and conspiracies of the secretive groups filling the Sixth World's shadows.

Malevolent Ends #2: Scalpel's Edge

Splintered State
Stolen Souls
Sprawl Wilds
Run Faster

Well, don't trust Amazon, as Bull said elsewhere
They don't get their info from CGL

Then you're gonna love SR5.¹ There's a lot more conceptual distance between weapons in the same category, so it actually matters which heavy pistol you pick for your character.

¹Yes, this entire message is one freelancer-in-the-know talking to another freelancer-in-the-know, but I gleefully take every opportunity to mention the weapon thing. It's pretty cool.

Oh yea I fondly remember the fiction that never was.

It's going to depend, again, on who you ask - there's a certain logic to the idea that either you are using a weapon, or you are not. You must use a weapon to benefit from a Weapon Focus, you must not use a weapon to benefit from powers like Critical Strike. After all, the entire point of those powers is to make up for the fact that Unarmed Adepts don't get weapon foci.

You know, I am always surprised by the whole "nobody likes anything new" argument. It seems like the last straw lazy writers grasp. Did you not like SR when you first read it? Did you say "Well, I've read Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, and those were awesome, but frag this Two Towers thing"? I can continue with examples, but I think you get the idea: if what you're getting is good, you're not dropping it simply cause it's new.

Also, AIs are not Resonance creatures, they're just infinitely complex code systems gaining sentience. Not all creatures are either Awakened or Emerged.
If anything, e-ghosts would be the ones requiring Resonance, but apparently they're brought to life by some other phenomenon.

It would be a way to give them more growth potential. Right now PC AIs are out classed by deckers and technomancers, and their roles are even more limited then both those archetypes.

...on the other hand, you can't kill an AI in cybercombat or with Black IC (meaning that suffering from dumpshock is nowhere near as bad as what deckers and TMs have to deal with), and that the only to kill them is to physically destroy their home node.

I admit I'm not looking at AIs and their development long term, but I dunno, those are some pretty big advantages they have over their meat counterparts.

Oh, and the fact that if they have the appropriate quality, they can FREAKIN' EAT AGENTS, IC, OR OTHER AIS!!!!

I fix this by allowing them to install hardware that emulates metahuman implants into their home nodes.

Negated by sucky primary pools, imo.

...especially since in my current game, I have a guy that managed to get about +10 programs that were all Rating 6 for his AI...counting his inherent programs...and thus far outstripping the other decker and the TM.