Hot answers tagged shadowrun-sr4
38
When I think of noir, I think about the following elements: crime, betrayal, temptation (often sexual), urban settings, pessimism, cynicism, and no-win situations. There's also a host of cinematic techniques that don't translate precisely into non-visual mediums, so I'll leave those aside for now.
Shadowrun has crime and urban settings covered, so that's ...
31
In general, guns are more powerful than swords, for a couple of reasons:
Range
A gun can be fired twice in one round
A gun can be used to do more damage, make it impossible to dodge, or attack multiple targets, using the burst fire rules
Guns can't be parried using close combat skill ranks
Swords have the following advantages:
Give enemies a penalty ...
31
Well, from a literary standpoint, I'd say it's because the games you mentioned represent specific genres in which the concept of cyber psychosis does or does not fit.
The cyberpunk genre is one in which, despite considerable technological change, human nature is proven again and again to be a nearly-unchangeable constant. This makes for some awesome 'human' ...
21
I'd add to this that some more setting/mood elements can help tip the game into the noir bracket.
rain, rain, rain — light mists, strong downpours (rain has it's own moods), slipping in combat, important papers getting wet, it's a damned inconvenience
everyone smokes — they're asking characters to bum a light, bars are filled with smoke, people carry ...
20
Several things you could do
Pair them with an NPC mage for a specific mission, showcase the things the mage can do for them then, alas, said mage has to go.
Face them off against a mage, the things that get thrown at them should impress and make them think about what more the group could do if they had one too.
Set them up against a mage-problem, something ...
19
Technomancers are powerful for three reasons: compiling new Complex Forms, overclocking existing Complex Forms on the fly, and sprites. Take a look at a Technomancer next to a pure hacker at character gen. Hacker's going to win the hack game every time. A TM needs to spend massive amounts of points into being good, because their abilities are spread out ...
18
N.B. I'm not particularly familiar with the hacking rules of Shadowrun. However, this is a general response on how you might structure your game for a more cinematic experience.
Try designing your missions so that the hacking and the rest of the job run in parallel. For example, the ultimate goal is to gain steal a piece of prototype hardware from deep ...
18
A few thoughts:
For most folks lower on the pecking order, especially in the 'Plex, everything is ersatz. A burger isn't beef, it's soy. Your coffee is soy. You don't want to know how that beer was made. Fruit? What's that? The shirt you bought a year ago is already tattered, because it was made to only last a year. Something hand-made of wood is a rarity, ...
18
Technomancers do not need a commlink.
SR4 p.69:
Technomancers are a new and unique character type in the Shadowrun
universe. Emerged characters are mysteriously able to interface with
the global Matrix via their "biological PAN' without resorting to
foreign hardware or devices.
SR4 p.93:
Technomancers can access and manipulate the Matrix ...
17
@Rob's answer has some good points, I'd take a different tack, mainly because if there is an NPC mage that they like, and your girlfriend's mage won't fill that same exact niche then there can be some hard feelings. A few ideas to get you started.
Send them against a strong magical enemy. Have the fixers say something like, "Normally I wouldn't throw this ...
16
I suspect that trolling would still be around in the 6th world--at least for us old timers.
UGE only started for elves and dwarves in 2011 (this year) and magic wasn't strong enough to change orks and trolls until 2021. So trolling, as an expression has another 10 years to set itself into the collective conscious.
For the younger set I would probably use ...
15
Integrating an artificial limb or organ in place of a lost original seems to be, according to the literature (in the "related scientific resources" sense, not in the "fictional accounts" one) prone to cause problems. I haven't dug deep into it, but even skimming the top google finds seems to suggest that organ replacement can (though not necessarily does) ...
14
We have been playing a Shadowrun 4th Edition game for a very long time now. I find the rules system to be much easier to understand/operate, and the dice rolling is pretty straightforward. I have been playing Shadowrun since 2nd Edition, and personally, I think 4th is the best yet.
Setting wise, the biggest new addition (as Numenetics stated) is the ...
13
I think there is very little to add to Bryant's response, but I think that one item is quite significant: the act of betrayal by the main character.
The feeling of this genre is often invoked by the atmosphere of disillusionment which pervades the actions and reactions of the main character, even if we do not know precisely what sin they have committed. ...
12
I have always run cyberpsychosis being due to the strange detachment that cyberware would impose on the character.
In many novels affects are mentioned like:
Eyes that never feel tired, when the rest of you is ready to drop (cyber eyes) (1)
Always feeling everyone is slow (due to cybered reflexes) (1)
Slightly wrong feelings from replaced nerves (cyber ...
12
How?
This is the easy part:
Detect Active/Passive Wireless Nodes (Core Rules 20th, p229): You automatically find all of the nodes within Signal range that are in Active or Passive mode.
And:
Detect Hidden Node (Core Rules 20th, p228) [First paragraph is about finding a specific node, less relevant] You may instead make a general search for Hidden ...
11
A resonance realm is described as feeling similar to a UV node for a technomancer. The following is a bit of fluff describing a resonance realm, but I feel like it could also be applied to a UV node:
There is a certain feeling that every
technomancer knows when diving through
the Matrix. It's more than the
constant buzz of data traffic in the
...
11
The current Shadowrun Missions are set in New York City. Catalyst Game Labs has published a 32 page PDF guide, Shadowrun: The Rotten Apple: Manhatten, which is available for sale from their web store for $3.95. There are nine adventures available also on the web store. The first one, SRM00 Everyone's your Friend is free. All of the others are $3.95.
11
SURGE is an acronym of Sudden Recessive Genetic Expression. It occurred in the 2060s with the return of Halley's Comet (SR4A, p. 32 & p. 54).
In 2061, a massive mana pulse affected revelers bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges. The traits expressed by some were unusual skin tones and a pair of extra arms. They are called the Nartaki (Dancers) in ...
11
Use suppression-fire exclusively. All recoil is bypassed. You're not really aiming, you're just spraying an area and hoping people are stupid enough to be there. You won't deal as much damage as focus firing will, but you'll hit a lot of people. The entire point of the miniguns, combat mechanic-wise, is that instead of base damage, they deal 1.5x base ...
11
You have to tailor "challenging" to the reality of your own campaign. Nonetheless, people with 15 dice in their pool are supposed to be quite rare in SR4 (the mechanics don't allow you to get many more than that), so if your players have reached such exalted heights, make sure you give them appropriate (high but not absurdly so) thresholds for tasks that ...
11
From what I gather, you want to 'punish' your team so they regret they didn't have a mage with them. Any mission where you add magical security such as watcher spirits or the like to the enemy's arsenal should have them screaming for some magical ordnance.
Example:Hostage situation
The team is hired to rescue a hostage held by terrorists in a derelict ...
10
Credsticks in general act like debit cards and the account behind them can be refilled. Certified credsticks work the same way but without an associated identity. The obvious answer is that if someone performs a transfer of 500,000 nuyen off a credstick whose color is only rated up to 50,000 nuyen, they are doing haxx0r tricks to rip you off. You still have ...
10
The splat book you want is Augmentation.
pp. 20-21:
Biocompatability (10 BP):
Reduce the Essence cost of either cyberware or bioware by 10 percent (choose one type). Does not apply to genetech. This quality may only be taken once.
Type O System (30 BP):
The character can't accept second-hand bioware; basic bioware is considered delta grade for purposes ...
10
For background material, everybody so far has had good ideas about films to watch (Blade Runner & Ghost in the Shell particularly). I'd add The Matrix, only because you've already seen it.
But Cyberpunk was born in the written word. Early William Gibson is probably the definitive thing to read, particularly:
...
10
How can I include a shaman as a bad guy for a run that the players need to deal with. Where can I read about Shamanism and their role in the setting?
My Shadowrun experience is mostly 1st and 2nd edition but I don't think the fundamental idea of a shaman is that different in any edition of SR.
In Shadowrun a shaman is, traditionally, defined by their ...
9
Rules for designing a new spell appear in Street Magic, pp. 158-162.
A couple of excerpts:
A shamanic formula may be an item such as a painting, a carving, a set of runes, or a medicine bag. Hermetic formulae are typically represented as written/digital texts or complex diagrams composed of many arcance symbols. The formulae contain the same concepts ...
9
So, as you said there are several cases. Lets go through them in turn:
As a GM, how should I handle stealth vs. a spirit or astral
projection?
There is some information on this on the Shadowrun FAQ (Under the Astral subheading), although it speaks only of dual-natured or projecting characters. For dual-natured characters, it is an opposed ...
9
I did not find a specific entry on returning a thrown grenade in SR4, (or 3rd or 1st) upon review. Everything needed is accounted for in the combat rules, however. An optional rule for this is presented in the SR4 release 'Arsenal' on page 163.
Grenade use is dealt with on p155 of the core book, presenting the scatter table, and noting the time frames for ...
9
The easy answer is yes. But there's a few things that you need to know about Hacking and assigning devices.
As a hacker, technomancer, or anyone with a commlink, you have a number of devices you can Subscribe to your PAN (Personal Area Network). These are the devices that are currently being monitored by your commlink and that you can directly interface ...
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