Shadowrun 4th ed. Questions

[Mark Hall]

Originally Posted by Seerow

It's been 3 weeks, but I don't think that's necroing yet. I'd rather keep this thread up than make another SR topic that'll die after 2-3 replies, if that.

The Mod Wonder: 6 weeks is the cut-off. You're cool.

But like I mentioned, it's been a couple of years since I played, so a lot of little details and quirks are lost to my memory. So I'm looking for any general advice. Particularly in terms of what spirits/spirit powers might be useful (as that's something I had relatively little knowledge of even when I was playing regularly, my group usually focused on the spellcasting end of things)

Of the standard spirits, my favorite is Man, for the Specific Spell power. Summon a spirit of Man, give it a spell, and tell it to Cast it and Maintain it. Give it Heal Wounds and tell it to "Heal any of these people (your team) when they get injured." Boom. One service, many Heal Wounds.

I like mostly the human-associated spirits... Combat, Tasks, Ancestors, and Man. They have a good array of neat powers, and it's neat to be able to Summon a spirit of Combat, give it the bad guy's AK, and have it go to town. The only default tradition that summons those is Voodoo, but making a new tradition is relatively easy.

[Seerow]

Originally Posted by Mark Hall

The Mod Wonder: 6 weeks is the cut-off. You're cool.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Of the standard spirits, my favorite is Man, for the Specific Spell power. Summon a spirit of Man, give it a spell, and tell it to Cast it and Maintain it. Give it Heal Wounds and tell it to "Heal any of these people (your team) when they get injured." Boom. One service, many Heal Wounds.

I like that. Though I assume it will take drain from casting. Is this one of those powers that is going to piss off your bound spirits and give the GM justification to make life hell on an aspiring summoner? Or is it generally accepted?

I like mostly the human-associated spirits... Combat, Tasks, Ancestors, and Man. They have a good array of neat powers, and it's neat to be able to Summon a spirit of Combat, give it the bad guy's AK, and have it go to town. The only default tradition that summons those is Voodoo, but making a new tradition is relatively easy.

I'll have to take a look at the other traditions. The only ones I'm really familiar with are Hermetic/Shaman. I'm thinking regardless, I want a cha based tradition (for more bindings!). I doubt a custom made tradition will be accepted though.

[Mark Hall]

Originally Posted by Seerow

I like that. Though I assume it will take drain from casting. Is this one of those powers that is going to piss off your bound spirits and give the GM justification to make life hell on an aspiring summoner? Or is it generally accepted?

That varies with the GM, and, I think, with what you're asking. In my case, Spirits of Man were tied to Healing spells, so it worked well.

Heh. Just realized I could've had it maintaining an Increase Reflexes spell on me all day. That's when the GM shoots you (or banishes the spirit).

I'll have to take a look at the other traditions. The only ones I'm really familiar with are Hermetic/Shaman. I'm thinking regardless, I want a cha based tradition (for more bindings!). I doubt a custom made tradition will be accepted though.

I'm not a fan of most of the traditions, but I do like the Int based traditions for more skill points in knowledges... my summoner had Accounting and Small Business skills to complement his Day Job (as a freelance magician; he'd summon a minor spirit to clean your house, or look into something more in depth, or rent his enchanting shop).

[Seerow]

Originally Posted by Mark Hall

That varies with the GM, and, I think, with what you're asking. In my case, Spirits of Man were tied to Healing spells, so it worked well.

Heh. Just realized I could've had it maintaining an Increase Reflexes spell on me all day. That's when the GM shoots you (or banishes the spirit).

Heh, well to be safe I'll stick with a sustaining focus for that :x. My spell list is mostly standard utility stuff. Wish I had the ability to pick up more than 10 to dive into some of the more situational ones, but that's what post-character gen is for.

I'm not a fan of most of the traditions, but I do like the Int based traditions for more skill points in knowledges... my summoner had Accounting and Small Business skills to complement his Day Job (as a freelance magician; he'd summon a minor spirit to clean your house, or look into something more in depth, or rent his enchanting shop).

Well Logic provides extra knowledge skill points as well, and applies as a bonus to more skills. I like intuition because perception is always a good thing, but Logic is fun for all the random active skills for crafting stuff.

But in this case I think being able to have 5 bound spirits will be worth it. Going full on poke-master (somebody shoot me), 1 spirit of each type I can summon bound, with me playing mostly support.

[Herr Swags]

Alright, I'm playing a Technomancer in a game and we just got slightly over 100k for our payday and after weeks and weeks of saving I have about 31 karma.

My initial goal is to Submerge, and use the echo to grab Biowires. I'm highly specialized in Threading, and I want to be able to run and gun if needed. That'll put me at Resonance 6, Submersion 1.

However, a lot of people are telling me I should really check out some of the Bioware that's available and buy that instead. My main question is about how Bioware would affect my Resonance/Submersion type stuff. If I get Bioware, and my Essence goes down to 5.4 or something, my Resonance goes down to 5. Then, since it's not at 6, I can't submerge, right? I can't figure this out or find any official rulings, so help would be most appreciated.

Additionally, my technomancer is very much the face of the party (Dryad Cha-based tradition) and I was wondering what kind of bioware/cyberware would be useful for that sort of thing.

[Andrewmoreton]

I don't remember the rules on Resonance so I can't help there.

For a face Tailored Pheremones is probably the top bioware

[wadledo]

Originally Posted by Herr Swags

However, a lot of people are telling me I should really check out some of the Bioware that's available and buy that instead. My main question is about how Bioware would affect my Resonance/Submersion type stuff. If I get Bioware, and my Essence goes down to 5.4 or something, my Resonance goes down to 5. Then, since it's not at 6, I can't submerge, right? I can't figure this out or find any official rulings, so help would be most appreciated..

Like with magic, if you take anything that reduces essense, your Resonance goes down, and the total needed to submerge also is reduced by that amount.
So if you have 6, then it would go down to 5, and the resonance needed to submerge goes down to 6.

[Talos]

Greeetings users,gamers, humans, a.i., skynet, and those who are unspoken
I will be starting a Shadowrun campaign. My team and I are not all that familiar with the rules set yet. We will be running 4th. As Gm, I wll be playing a fixer. I say playing, because The story will start with her. She is from Denver and was a well respected Fixer there. She had three or four teams she regularly used. She thought she was on top of the world. In the span of about two months, her teams were eleminated, her accounts were frozen and contacts and friends people she relied on either went missing or quick speaking to her. At this point she, took what money she had cut all ties and ran ended up in seattle. Fast forward two years, She has laid her ground work networking and is finally ready to put another team together. She finds the PC's and a few other potential prospects. She will have dossier's with as much info about each member of the team. Based on their skill set She will set up a introductionary job for them. (audition if you will) ( will give the GM and PLAYER time to go over the rules in a milk run) Once this is done, she will make her choices and we will play as a team. I will have 4 or 5 players. ( as GM i wanted to take each of them aside and do a simple run to get aquainted with the rules and iron out any problems with charactors or what ever)

As the story progress' she will find more info about what happened in Denver. She will use the team as her personal tools against whom ever did this to her. Maybe 1 in 10 missions will be towards this goal. The team will find out more about her as they progress. then they will have to decide if they still want to work for her or not.

For the street sams folk, I wanted them to escort teenie bopper for a week while daddy is gone on business. She is a genius, and a thrill seeker and is rebelling against daddy. She is 17 in college at a prestigous school. Several companies are looking at her to recruit. her specialty is Chemical and biochemical engineering. She loves to Base jump and has a Orc B/F cause daddy doesn't approve.

The rigger types will have to steal a prized car from a high profile combat biker and deliver it to a undisclosed location.


Hackers will have to break into a security firms annex and take some data and plant some. they will encounter a lazy Technomancer on duty for security.


Awakened charactors will have to deal with a street shaman who has a paracritter sidekick. trying to scratch out a name for themselves in the shadows.

ANy advice or ideas that might help us along would be greatly appreciated.

[Kaun]

If they have a face you could have them try to obtain information from a Yak street boss, with out giving them anything to barter with.

You could have an infiltrator plant a bug in a high security apartment complex.

A mage try and subdue a powerful renegade spirit in an abandoned subway station.

A rigger run an illegal package across state lines.

[Talos]

From what the players have told me, I will have a dryad face adept, a human street sam, orc rigger/hacker,Formorian Street sam and a gunslinger adept.

I have ran D&D games mostly but want a new flavor of game. so my group decided on Shadowrun.

I want to do a few milk runs to get everyone aquainted to the rules. Then start doing real missions. I am going to have an on going underying plot plus many side plots letting each player shine for a while.

My orc rigger/hacker has an indepth backstory. I can do alot with his background to make life interesting for him and the team.

Is there anything powergaming wise i should look out for?

I do have a question about vehicle mods. where does it say how much space in the vehicle it takes up? I.e mods vs seating space?

[Poil]

Originally Posted by Talos

I do have a question about vehicle mods. where does it say how much space in the vehicle it takes up? I.e mods vs seating space?

Should be a size number for every mod (unless that number is only in Arsenal) and the maximum you can put on is the vehicle body rating x2, if I remember correctly. Don't think any mod takes up seating space by default but I suppose that's up to the GM if a player wants to go above the limit or not mount a drone rack on the roof or something.

[Anterean]

As Poil said, mod sizes are listed in Arsenal at the table starting at p. 133 (of the first printing anyway).

You can install a number of "mod slots" equal to your vehicles body value (so a body 6 vehicle could have a size 2 mod, and four size 1 mods) with no ill effect.

You can go over this number up to twice the vehicle's body value, with some extra effort, and "penalties" (in lack of a better term) like increased signature, decreased seating, speed and acceleration etcetera at the game master's discretion (see "overmodification" at p. 129 of Arsenal)