What, if anything, do leylines do in the tabletop game?

Question

I'm new to tabletop gaming and recently had my first Shadowrun session. I really enjoyed it and because my sessions are few and far between I bought the games for PC!

I noticed while playing through Shadowrun Returns that there are leylines dotted about battle areas every so often.

I can't seem to find out what they do ingame (there are arguments to reduced cooldowns, reduced AP cost, higher crit chance etc..), I was wondering if they exist in the tabletop version too? Specifically in Shadowrun 5e.

Is there some kind of online encyclopedia for Shadowrun 5e? In the games of Pathfinder I've played I could always use the Paizo website as a rule of thumb, so far I haven't been able to find anything like that for Shadowrun.

Answer 1

Leylines are covered by the magic core rulebook 'Street Grimoire'(p.35).

They are a special type of so called Mana Lines and do not work exactly the same like in Shadowrun Returns.

In the tabletop magicans may encounter magical phenomenons which produce background count. This is a positive or negative number affecting the magicians dicepool. Mana lines of all different types are concentrations of mana which result in specific background counts along those lines.

Magicans (especially geomancers) can allign and manipulate these lines to gain benefits (including better spellcasting) or to diminish the benefits another magicians might gain.

Answer 2

Leylines as presented in the various Hairbrained Schemes games have not existed in any version of the Shadowrun tabletop games.

When leylines (generally called manalines and/or power sites) do appear in Shadowrun tabletop, they're effectively aspected Background Count and in places of historical or mythological significance - Stonehenge, for instance (Magic in the Shadows and Shadows of Europe, both SR3, make mention of it).

Beyond the rules for aspected Background Counts, their use is generally reserved for story elements, rather than flash-and-bang combat enhancement like the leylines in the HBS games.