Plan is mainly as part of Arsenal. They want to keep the vehicle rules supplement much, much smaller.

I will not use that rule, as you would effectively loose more dice as you get better. Are there similar rules for bursts and auto-fire?

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. Those 4 are going to be the 4 Advanced Core Rulebooks, and will likely be done in hardcover as well.

Any advanced rigging rules will likely be in Unwired, since they're part of Hacking. Vehicles and vehicle customization will be in Arsenal.

Rob noted at the GC Seminar that there likely won't be full vehicle creation rules, but rather would likely be just customization/upgrading rules. He also noted that this time around tehy will be excluding things like Battleships

Bull

Accessories must be the same grade as part they are put in..

Thanks for the info!

Splitting the pools seems a lot harsher than the SR3 rule where you would only really lose your smartlink bonus if you have Ambidexterity 8. You had to allocate combat pool separately to each attack, but it still meant that a guy with two guns could be really dangerous. Still is twice the bullets though, and with the new armor rules, I guess it means a guy shooting at you with two guns is much more likely to knock you out than kill you, whereas with one gun, the superior aim might make you meet your Creator sooner than expected. Makes sense.

I'll miss the killer bonus Ambidexterity gave in melee combat though. AAAAAAnd I really can't wait to see SR4 martial arts rules. My physad didn't have particularly high melee skills, but he had quite a few and a decent list of maneuvers. It made melee combat really fun as I actually had to come up with a strategy to, let's say, bring down that annoying little bugger with the weapon focus.

For burst-fire and full auto, isn't there a rule for wide versus narrow bursts? With wide bursts giving more dice and narrow bursts increasing the DV, if I recall correctly... So I guess if you have two SMG's with half-decent recoil compensation, then you can really make sure you don't miss whatever it is you're trying to hit, which would also make sense. I mean, if you fill the air with lead, your chances of hitting something should reflect that, shouldn't they? I always thought it was an area in which SR3 rules were a bit lacking. Bonus dice and decent recoil compensation could even (finally) make untrained shooters a bit of a threat when they shoot at you at short range. (I hope.)

Hmmm... Lots of interesting new rules, but I guess I'll have to wait until I get my hands on the BBB and play a few games before I can assess how good (or bad) a job FanPro did. Overall, I'm quite happy though.

So much for consolidation so you don't need to flip back and fourth between multiple supplements for the rules.

There are no rules for Martial Arts per se in the BBB, but you can get a specialization of Unarmed Combat into a Martial Art that adds +2 to your Unarmed Combat when using that Martial Art (any time you aren't using Subduing Combat or a Cyberimplant Weapon, I guess).

I don't see anything in the Called Shot rules that forbid it entirely, although it does limit called shot to single shot, semi-auto, and burst fire (full auto not allowed). Of course, there's text in there that says "The gamemaster decides if such a vulnerable spot is accessible.", which means it's up to the GM. While I personally wouldn't allow shotguns to target specific areas at range, if you were point-blank with a ghoul and wanted to pull a "Night of the Living Dead" on it, then I might allow it.

The Ingram White Knight has 5 points of RC, using a special built-in Gas Vent system. However, you'll effectively only have up to 4 points (3 points for the Gas Vent, 1 point for the stock) max for most weapons. Gyromounts are an option for large arms (6 points of RC), and tripods (6 points) and bipods (2 points) are still around.

Erm, really? This is what my p112 of SR3 BBB says:

It's not doubled in SR3 and it's not doubled in SR4 either.

Thanks... BTW, what are the Dodge penalties for being fired on by burst (not full-auto) fire and shotguns using shot rounds?

It costs 2 Build Points (1 for Knowledge skills) or 2 Karma to "create" specialization. You may not make a specialization on a skill that's in a skill group. A specialization does not lower the skill it is enhancing, but it simply adds a +2 to the base skill. You may only have one specialization per skill, and any new specializations on a skill overwrites the old one (GM discretion). You can't improve specializations.

Wide burst is -2.

Shotguns I know I covered already, but again:
narrow spread - no mod
medium spread -2
wide spread -4

It is effectively doubled in the quote you made. If you use two guns you will fire twice as many bullets and get twice as much recoil, because any uncompencated recoil from one gun applies to the other as well. (you count recoil comp twice off course, but my first comment wasn´t made to be exact. I thought you would understand what I meant) This is just one of the things that limits firing with two guns already. Splitting the pool makes the penalty grow progressively as you get better, which is not a good thing imo.

If you´re firing at multiple targets I could see that splitting the pool represents dividing your attention.

10. Just like SR3. There are a TON of things that haven't changed from SR3. There are no HV guns in SR4, but probably will come out in Arsenal.

*drool*

Handling goes in the opposite direction now though, right?

How about Body, is it used for determining the boxes in the vehicles condition monitor? What is the formula? Are penalties to using the vehicles accumulated with vehicle damage?

indeed

man, this is starting to sound like blue planet. a clean dice system, hardcover books, all im missing now is a uplifted dolphin

Hey, as long as I only have to roll d6's, it's clean in my book.

heh, compared to what was before, yes
not as clean as the one in blue planet tho

nah, not precisely, our beloved citymaster has a handling of -1, so basically you can say that handling 4 becomes handling 0, handling 3 becomes handling +1, while handling 5 becomes handling -1; handling rating is added to reaction far dodging attacks against vehicles..

other stats have been changed as well, original amor ratings seems to have been doubled, body seems to have been changed completely body bike 2 --> 4, body medium transport 5 --> 16. There are now two acceleration ratings, probably for accelerating and breaking.

Identical to characters (8 +1 per Body/2, round up).

Hrm, may house rule that so that it just gives you extra dice depending on how many points you put into it (a value that i'd probably have to tweak). Would give a bit more expandability on a character. Not 100% sure if i'll do this or not. But I think it might help the 'max human ability' thing people are complaining about...though probably not.

So is the Exotic Melee Weapon skill one skill that covers all the weapons or a whole load of skills that you take individually for each weapon. Kinda seems a bit weird that whips and polearms are the same skill.

Hehe...i don't suppose there's an Exotic Weapon (Improvised) or Improvised Weapon speciality for all those Jackie Chan wannabes?

Well, this is to say, they use the Exotic Melee Weapon skill, but two separate skills much be purchased to use each of them. I.E to use the monowhip, you need Exotic Melee Weapon - Monowhip or simply Whips if your GM is kind, and to use a polearm you need Exotic Melee Weapon - Polearm.

Reference- p112

You have to specify what weapon you're taking Exotic Weapon Skill for, it's not a broad spectrum skill. It would basically boil down to having the Monowhip Skill, and you can't specialize.

i wonder how late that was put in

btw, is stun overflow still?

and do this gun do stun or physical (or maybe i have a techie overload it )

It does special damage and has special rules. Non-lethal weapon creates intense pain like the target is on fire (or maybe in a microwave getting cooked?)... treat as a toxin attack with power 8... target resisits with Body + half armor rounded up... If the modified power exceeds the target's willpower, the target must spend her (only works on girls apparently ) next action phase doing whatever it takes to get away from the pain. (They say usually means running away, but if this weapon is new and she feels like she is on fire, wouldn't she strip?).

The attacker can continue to hold the beam on the target (even though it is listed as SS, I guess it is sustainable) with a complex action (I am not gong to bring it up). If the target cannot flee (or is busy stripping she is incapacitated with pain and suffers a dice pool modifier equal to the modified power on all tests for as long as the beam is trained on her.

How about a monofilament chainsaw for 300 nuyen. It even has a pcture. Unwieldy as a melee weapon so -2 modifier to its own Exotic melee weapon skill, reach 1, 5P, -2AP. When used as intended against barriers, double its DV.

Grapple gun uses Exotic ranged weapon, does 5S, doesn't give how much weight the internal winch is capable of lifting, gives pulling up small loads as an example.

Damage boxes/3 round down. Thus, 1 or 2 boxes of damage give no effect. 3 to 5 boxes of damage give -1 dice to all actions (including Initiative). 6 to 8 boxes give -2, and it keeps climbing as high as the damage track will allow.

So basically you don't want to take 2 weapons in against an opponent if they ony have one. Is that the case ?

Hmm seems a bit dumb though. Unarmed combat you assume to be 2 fist 2 feet, no penalties. Stick a knife in either hand and BANG your penalized. Hmm I'll wait to see the proper rules, but this may be my first house rule tweak.

It doesn't work that way, really. You can stick a knife in each hand or have a spur in each arm. You just don't have to use both at the same time. It's not like you have the penalty instantly... hell, I don't even see any rules for using two melee weapons at the same time, just two firearms.

Each race has a walking rate and running rate in m/Combat Turn. It is not dependent on Attribute.

Characters may attempt to increase their running distance by spending a simple action and making a running + strength test. Each hit adds 2m to running rate.

I like this. Under the old rules, characters without damage compensators were initially afraid of getting even the smallest wound, since even a Light wound made a huge difference to target numbers. At higher wound levels, on the other hand, another Light would hardly made a difference.

Now the wound modifiers are a bit more spread out, which is a good thing IMO.

I completely agree, I can remember many times when I've used lots of karma just to avoid a light wound because of the difference it would make on my target numbers. But only a -2 for 8 boxes. That seams a little light, but maybe they are trying to down play wound modifiers compared to SR3.