home home news news columns columns features features

<-- Back to rules

Damion’s Shadowrun House Rules

by Damion Milliken (dam01@uow.edu.au)

I have played Shadowrun since just after the beginning back in ‘89, when the Seattle Sourcebook was the latest thing out, and the sammy’s best friend was the Street Samurai Catalogue. Back when Physical Adepts were insanely powerful, and persons in heavy armour and cockroaches were the only things that would survive the holocaust. In the times when autofire was resolved bullet by bullet and required 100 dice hit the table per burst. I’ve kept fairly up to date with the Shadowrun world, and over the years I’ve generated, usually in collaboration with my players, various house rules. These house rules aim to either fix (what I think are) broken rules, to supply rules where published ones are lacking, to improve existing rules that can be made better, or to clarify my interpretation of any rules that are ambiguous.

1. The Rule of Six - Part Two (p. 32 SRII)

Haven’t you always hated it that all the FASA printed modules give legwork tables that require 6+ successes to obtain useful information? Especially when your character only had an Etiquette skill of 4? Further, doesn’t it strike you as odd that an average person with a Firearms of 2 and a Combat Pool of 3 is unable to inflict a Deadly wound with a light pistol? To fix this problem, I employ a commonly used modified “rule of 6” whereby additional successes may be obtained from a single die if the roll is sufficiently high. If a single dice result is 6 greater than the required Target Number (TN), then an extra success is generated. If it is 12 higher, 2 additional successes are gained. This pattern follows on further to higher rolls, 18, 24, etc. higher than the required TN.

Ex. Crystal is rolling her Firearms of 6 against a TN of 4 to cap some poor stooge in an alley behind a pub. She rolls 1,2,4,4,8,11. Normally this would be 4 successes. However, with the addition of the new “rule of 6”, it becomes 5 successes. The 11 is 7 higher than the required TN, so that particular die generates 2 successes.

I find that this rule makes for higher numbers of successes in general, and means where someone would have generated 6 successes they may now get 8. Fortunately, this applies to both NPCs and PCs alike, and in the case of Opposed Success Tests usually offsets itself. It does however, allow for those really amazing one off super scores from few dice that just cannot occur normally. Something like a 6 success masterstroke from a 3 die roll.

2. Skills

2.1 Unarmed Combat

The martial arts rules for Shadowrun are significantly vague that they can be widely abused. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, that there essentially are no such rules. Secondly because the only such mention of them is as Concentration of Unarmed Combat. Further, the capability of Specialisation in a particular strike technique (eg hand strikes) is widely open to munchkinous abuse. A character may select, for example, Unarmed Combat, Concentrate in tae kwon do, and Specialise in hand strikes. Now, in nearly all unarmed combat situations, the character will be able to use the hand strike Specialisation. By Specialising, the character has effectively gained two free skill points. Similarly with the martial art Concentrations, there is little opportunity for the disadvantages of Concentration to come into play. By and large, if the character ends up in an unarmed combat melee situation, they will be able to use their martial art or Specialisation. This is radically different to the situation for Firearms and other skills, where Concentration and Specialisation have significant drawbacks and players will not always choose them when creating characters.

To solve this problem, I require that upon selecting the skill Unarmed Combat, that the player specify what style of Unarmed Combat has been chosen (thanks for the idea Topcat!). For example, a character might choose Unarmed Combat (Brawling), or Unarmed Combat (Thai Kickboxing), or Unarmed Combat (Tae Kwon Do), and so forth. Concentrations of Subduing Combat and Cyber Implant Weaponry are still available. The Concentration of Martial Arts Style becomes the Concentration of Specific Technique, with its Specialisations becoming individual moves (much like individual weapons for Firearms).

2.2 Etiquette

The Shadowrun rules on Etiquette skills state that the skill requires Concentration (p. 72 SRII). They do not, however, explain just how one goes about handling the game mechanics of this, nor do the archetypes presented in the books clarify the matter an awful lot. The rule itself implies that upon choosing the general skill Etiquette, one must then Concentrate in a particular type. This sounds OK, but then we look at the archetypes and see that they have all their Etiquette skills as separate skills, rather than Concentrations of a general Etiquette skill. I run the skill as follows. When you choose Etiquette, you must choose what kind of Etiquette it is (Street, Corporate, Magical, etc.). Each Etiquette is a completely separate skill. However, when chosen, because of the fact that Concentration is mandatory, you receive the +1 skill point for Concentration to each separate Etiquette skill. An example will help:

Ex. Erif Gnab spends 3 skill points on obtaining Etiquette (Street). He now has the skill Etiquette (Street) at Rating 4. He then spends 6 skill points learning Etiquette (Pyromaniac), and thus has an Etiquette (Pyromaniac) skill of 7.

It is not possible to spend 0 skill points on an Etiquette skill, ‘natch.

3. Combat

3.1 Initiative Ties

I do not use the Shadowrun Initiative Tie resolution method on page 79 of SRII. If multiple characters have actions on the same Combat Phase, then the character with the highest Reaction Attribute gets to go first. If multiple characters also have the same Reaction Attribute, then the character with the highest Initiative total for that Combat Turn goes first. If even this cannot separate characters, then each character may roll 1D6. The highest number rolled goes first. If more than one character rolls the same number here, then they are assumed to act simultaneously. Characters act in sequential order, highest to lowest.

3.2 Delaying Simple Actions

Even though the Shadowrun rules for delaying actions (p. 80 SRII) are optional, I like them. However, they only allow the delaying of entire actions. I feel that it is useful to be able to delay a simple action (good pointer Marc Renouf!), and so I allow it.

3.3 Dodging

I’ve always loathed the Shadowrun method of using the Combat Pool for augmenting Damage Resistance Tests (p. 84 SRII). That the Combat Pool dice are rolled against the same TN as the Body dice really snots me off. I know that it was done for convenience, and to save on extra calculations and dice rolls, but it just bugs the hell out of me. To give an example of what I mean, consider the following example:

Ex. Paul is hit by a light pistol round (6L), and is wearing an armour jacket (5/3). He thus needs a TN of 2 on his Damage Resistance Test. Say he has a Body of 2 and the attacker scored 3 successes. Paul decides to throw in 5 dice from his Combat Pool. He generates 5 successes, 4 of which are from his Combat Pool. A complete miss by the rules. Now say Paul is whacked by a solid slug from a shotgun (10S). This time he needs a TN of 5 for his Damage Resistance Test. Using the same allocation of dice, Paul would probably score 3 successes, 2 of which would probably be from his Combat Pool. This time, the shot was not a complete miss, even though the attacker scored the same number of successes and Paul used the same number of dice.

To remedy this problem, I use a single standard, unmodifiable TN for “dodging” of 4, regardless of the attacks source. After all, why should it be so much more difficult to get one’s hoop out of the road of a shotgun solid slug as compared to a light pistol round? I use 4 because it is the Shadowrun standard, and I treat the use of Combat Pool in this fashion as a Damage Resistance Test, so that no TN modifiers at all apply. The latter stipulation is for two reasons. Firstly for ease of play, and secondly to stop the “damage snowball” effect whereby one either has live runners with Karma or dead runners with no Karma. By using a single TN of 4, which is fairly low, the Combat Pool becomes quite important and useful for avoiding damage. It should also be noted that the TN is 4 for “dodging” melee attacks, as well as bursts and fully automatic weapons fire. In the latter case, sufficient successes allow the target to dodge the entire volley.

3.4 Called Shots

With the advent of the graded partial cover rules from Fields of Fire (p. 78 FoF), the original Shadowrun Called Shot modifier of +4 (p. 92 SRII) has become obsolete. If an opponent were taking near full cover (+6), then it would be more advantageous to take a Called Shot than to shoot the actual target. I have simply moved the called shot TN modifier up to +6 to be in line with the cover TN modifiers. This means that the Called Shot modifier for Smartlink II is +4.

In addition, I dislike the way in which Shadowrun generalises the effects of Called Shots (p. 92 SRII) into merely increasing the Damage Code. I prefer to gauge the character’s intent, and use judgement as to the results. The most common reason for Calling Shots is thus to avoid a target’s armour (the infamous “kneecapping” or “head shot” attacks). Other effects can also be generated, for example shooting someone’s weapon from their grip.

3.5 Autofire

My second greatest gripe about the Shadowrun system has always been that autofire actually decreased your chances of doing any damage (p. 92-93 SRII). The idea of autofire is that one sprays the area, or releases a stream of bullets at a single target, in an effort to significantly increase the chances of doing damage, and hopefully hit with more than one would normally hit with, thus also slightly increasing the damage done. However, in Shadowrun, when one uses autofire, one drastically increases the damage done, and drastically decreases the odds of doing so. I have fiddled with many autofire systems over the ages, but the most satisfying ones were always far too complicated, convoluted and involved too much brain strain to be practicable (thanks Rick Bukowski anyhow). Those simpler systems I found unsatisfying (thanks anyway Topcat). I am open to suggestions. At this present time, I use a system based upon Igor’s “Homebrew” Autofire Rules and Brett Barksdale’s Autofire rules (thanks’ guys, yours are fairly easy to use and do a good job!).

The system basically works by comparing the best roll made on the firer’s skill test to the TN required for a single shot (SS TN) to hit, and the TN required for the automatic burst to hit (FA TN). If the best roll is lower than the SS TN, then no rounds will hit. If the best roll is higher than the SS TN but lower than the FA TN, then some rounds will hit. If the best roll is higher than the FA TN, then all rounds will hit. This system will also work for bursts (which are essentially smaller allocations of autofire), as well as for multiple targets.

  • Determine SS TN (the TN for a single shot to hit, ie including all modifiers except the recoil).
  • Determine FA TN. Unlike the Shadowrun rules (p. 1 Shadowrun II Errata) I do not apply a recoil modifier for the 1st round fired in a Combat Phase. Thus 10 rounds of uncompensated recoil from an assault rifle would give a +9 recoil modifier.
  • Note the successes rolled for the SS TN. This is the number of successes generated for the automatic burst. If no successes are scored at the SS TN, then the entire automatic burst is a miss. (Yes, this does mean that often many successes will be generated - nobody said autofire would be friendly to the target.)
  • Note the highest number rolled for the success test. This number determines just how many rounds in the automatic burst actually hit the target. If the highest number rolled is higher than the FA TN, then all rounds hit. If the highest number rolled is less than the FA TN, then only a portion of the rounds fired actually hit. The number of rounds that hit depends on the recoil modifier per round of the weapon that was being fired (eg +1 for normal small arms and firearms; +2 for heavy weapons, miniguns and Victory Rotary Assault Cannons; +3 for Vigilant Rotary Autocannons).
  • For normal small arms and firearms: Subtract the highest number rolled from the FA TN. This is the number of rounds that do not hit.
  • For heavy weapons, miniguns, Victory Rotary Assault Cannons and other weapons with a +2 recoil modifier: Subtract the highest number rolled from the FA TN. Divide this number by 2 and round up. This is the number of rounds that do not hit.
  • For Vigilant Rotary Autocannons and any other weapon with a +3 recoil modifier: Subtract the highest number rolled from the FA TN. Divide this number by 3 and round up. This is the number of rounds that do not hit.
  • Calculate the damage code in the normal Shadowrun manner (ie add one to the Damage Category for every full multiple of three rounds, and add one to the Power Level for each round in the automatic burst).
  • Whack target.

Time for a few examples:

Ex. Andrè is wielding an AK-97 SMG Carbine. He has a Firearms skill of 6, but is wussing out and saving his Combat Pool for later. He has the weapon loaded up with a Gas Vent III and a Laser Sight. Andrè is a strong fragger (Strength 9), and so from FoF (p. 83) he gets 3 extra recoil compensation points. The lucky target of Andrè’s 10 round FA burst is a quickly running (+1 TN) and very frightened ganger. It is fairly dim so a lighting modifier of +2 applies, and the range is Short. Thus Andrè’s SS TN is 4 + 1 + 2 - 1 = 6. His FA TN is 6 + 9 - 3 - 3 = 9. Rolling his dice, Andrè gets 1,2,3,5,5,8. This is 1 success at the SS TN. Andrè missed the FA TN by 1, so 1 round does not hit. The final damage code that the poor ganger suffers is 15D.

*Ex. Venus is wielding her trusty M22-A2, all fitted out with Gas Vent 2 and a Smartgun link. She’s feeling happy and decides to lay into the Jolly Roger security guard with a 10 round burst. Unfortunately for the guard, he’s not running, and lighting conditions are good. Venus has average Strength, so she gains no extra recoil compensation from this source. Her SS TN is thus 4 - 2 = 2, and her FA TN is thus 2 + 9 - 2 = 9. She rolls her Firearms of 5 plus 2 from her Combat Pool and gets: 1,3,4,4,4,5,8. This is 7 successes at the SS TN (remembering that the 8 counts as 2 successes due to the modified “Rule of 6”). She hits with 10

  • (9 - 8) = 9 of the 10 rounds. The final damage suffered by the now Swiss cheese impersonating guard is 17D with 7 successes.*

*Ex. Pyro the Fire Elemental Adept is in a bad way. He’s copped a Serious Stun from his last spell, the bad dudes are closing in and all he’s got left is his (ex)friends FN-HAR assault rifle that has no useful additions (except the Smartlink that Pyro can’t use). Pyro decides to lay in, and fires a 10 round spray in the general direction of the nearest wannabe Pyro executioner. Fortunately for Pyro (or perhaps not) the lighting conditions are good and the range is Short. Pyro’s SS TN is thus 4 + 3 = 7. His FA TN is 7 + 9 = 16. Rolling his dice, all 4 of them, Pyro rolls 4,4,7,11

  • not bad. This gives him 2 successes at the SS TN, and allows him to hit with 10 - (16 - 11) = 5 rounds. This generates a 13S damage code with 2 successes for the bad guy to resist.*

Ex. Bubba the troll has a gyromounted Vindicator minigun and a bad attitude. He decides to let loose at that pesky Lone Star Yellowjacket that’s annoyingly launching rockets in his direction. 15 rounds leave the weapon in the general direction of the chopper. Bubba has 5 points of recoil compensation from the Gyromount, and 4 from his high Strength. The chopper is at Medium range, but Bubba has a Smartlink attached to the gun. His SS TN is thus 5 - 2 = 3. His FA TN is 3 + (15 - 5 - 4 - 1)x2 = 13 (remembering that miniguns have a +2 recoil modifier and that the first round does not require recoil compensation). Bubba has a Firearms skill of 5, and decides the chopper worthy of 5 more dice from his Combat Pool (he ain’t ‘fraid o’ no rockets!). Bubba rolls 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. A Straight - pity he’s not playing Poker. Bubba thus has 10 successes for his burst (the 9 and 10 count as 2 each). The number of rounds that miss is (13 - 10)/2 = 2 (rounding up). Thus Bubba hits with 13 rounds, for a damage code of 20D backed up by 10 successes. Even with the reductions for the vehicular nature of the target and it’s armour, that helo is in a bad way.

If multiple targets are being engaged with the one burst, then the procedure is pretty much the same, but with a recalculation of the SS TN and FA TN for each target, based upon what has occurred before the attack on that target.

Ex. Trev Caligula is out of his element with an automatic weapon, but no matter, he’s going to hose as many of those Humanis gumbies as he can. Trev has an AK-97 with a Gas Vent II and a Laser Sight on it, and is strong enough to obtain 2 points of recoil reduction. He decides to open up on the Humanis scum when they’re a fair distance away (after all, discretion is the better part of valour and all that), at Long range. No other modifiers apply. Trev decides that Humanis scuzzbucket 1 deserves a 3 round burst, as does his buddy 2. Since Trev’s going for the maximum damage he can, Humanis scuzzbuckets 3 and 4 will each get 2 rounds sent their way.

Trev’s SS TN is thus 6 - 1 = 5 for the 1st Humanis dropkick. His FA TN for the 1st target is also 5 (the Gas Vent compensates for rounds 2 and 3 and round 1 doesn’t need recoil compensation). For the 2nd target, the SS TN is 5 + 2 = 7 (additional target), and the FA TN is 8 (Trev’s Strength can handle rounds 4 and 5 but not 6). For target numero 3, the SS TN is 8 + 2 + 1 = 11 (this would be round 7, which is not the first round of the Combat Phase, and thus requires compensation - something that Trev does not have left). Lucky number 3’s FA TN is 12 (there’s only 1 round after the first). The final Humanis slitch will have a SS TN of 12 + 2 + 1 = 15, and a FA TN of 16.

*Trev opens up, he has a Firearms of 4, and 6 Combat Pool dice to throw around. He allocates none to the first 2 rolls, and 3 each to the second 2. For his 1st target, he has a SS TN of 5, and a FA TN of 5. He rolls his 4 dice and comes up with 3,3,5,5, which is 2 successes. Target 1 has an 11S burst with 2 successes to weather. For the 2nd target, Trev needs 7’s for the SS TN, and 8’s for the FA TN. He generates 1,2,5,7, which is one success, and which misses out on the FA TN by 1. Thus target 2 cops a 2 round burst with 1 success, which comes to 10M. Target 3 is lucky, as Trev needs 11 for the SS TN and 12 for the FA TN. Trev only comes up with 2,3,4,4,7,8,10. Damn, oh well, perhaps the stray shots will hit another Humanis target. For the last target, Trev needs 15 for the SS TN and 16 for the FA TN. He rolls 1,1,3,5,8,9,15, which gets him 1 success for the SS TN and misses the FA TN by

  1. Thus target 4 only takes a single round with 1 success, ie 8M.*

Ex. Caligula is going to fire two bursts from his HK-227S at the corp types’ bodyguards. The lighting is good, Caligula has the weapon smartlinked, and the men in shades and long coats aren’t moving very fast. Since the range is Short, Caligula has a SS TN for the 1st bodyguard of 4 - 2 = 2. Caligula, not being terribly strong, has no recoil bonuses. Thus his FA TN for the 1st bodyguard is 2 + 2 = 4. For the 2nd burst, at the 2nd bodyguard, Caligula’s SS TN is 4 + 2 + 1 = 7 (due to the recoil and the additional target). The FA TN for this second bodyguard is 7 + 2 = 9. Rolling his Firearms of 3, and adding no Combat Pool dice, Caligula rolls 1,3,4, which is 2 successes, and all rounds hitting the first bodyguard, for a Damage Code of 10S. For the second bodyguard, Caligula adds 3 dice from his Combat Pool, and generates 2,3,4,4,5,8. This is 1 success, and Caligula missed the FA TN by 1, so 1 round misses. The 2nd bodyguard thus suffers a 9M attack with 1 success.

The only comments I have to make on these autofire rules is that they require a bit more mental gymnastics than the Shadowrun vanilla rules, and they make autofire quite a dangerous thing to contend with. As it should be.

3.6 Gas Venting Miniguns

Due to the requirement that a Gas Vent be located on the barrel of a weapon, and the fact that miniguns have multiple, closely spaced barrels, I do not generally allow Gas Venting on miniguns. However, should the venting be specifically designed to fit onto the weapon, then if each barrel is vented a cumulative recoil compensation bonus equal to the sum of the Gas Vent ratings may be obtained. This, if you think about it, is fairly logical, seeing as each barrel of a 6 barrelled minigun fires 2.5 times in a 15 round burst, then if each barrel has 2 points of recoil compensation then 12 of the 15 rounds will be compensated for (thanks for the explanation Ivy!).

3.7 Grenades

3.7.1 Scatter

One thing that has often annoyed me about the Shadowrun grenade scatter system (p. 96-97 SRII) is the relative ease with which a grenade can land behind the throwing or launching character if they are only aiming a short distance in front of them. This is particularly evident when characters begin using rifle launched grenades indoors. With a scatter of 3D6 meters, and characters launching them rarely more than 20m in front of themselves, it is quite possible for the grenade to land literally at the firer’s feet, or even behind his back. This situation, while humorous, is a little unrealistic. After all, if a grenade is thrown or launched only a short distance, decent accuracy can be expected, and it is just about impossible for the thing to go in the opposite direction to that which was intended.

To remedy this problem I do two things. The first is that I use the grenade scatter diagram from DMZ (p. 24 DMZ Rule Book), which is in my view a much better scatter diagram (ta Gurth!):

4-5 6-8 9-10 \ | / Target / |
3 2,12 11

Secondly, I base the distance scattered on the distance the grenade was supposed to travel. A grenade intended to go 300m will scatter significantly more than a grenade intended to go 30m. To this end, I roll scatter normally, and reduce the scatter by the successes generated by the thrower/firer as normal. I then multiply the resulting scatter by (Intended Distance)/100m. This is the distance actually scattered. It might seem like a fair bit of extra calculation, but with a handy calculator (or an even handier computer program), and a little practice it becomes very easy. And the satisfaction in the results is much greater.

3.7.2 Damage

I am unsatisfied with (gee I’m a whinger aren’t I? :-)) the Shadowrun grenade damage system. Per the rules on page 97, grenade damage can be staged up just like regular weapon damage. Most grenades begin at Serious damage. To me, the ability to stage up grenade’s damage is ludicrous. How? By aiming that explosive blast particularly well? What about if I use a grenade as a booby trap? Or drop it off a high building? To solve this problem I have decided that grenades cannot be staged up by the attacker. This however, makes it impossible to kill someone with a grenade, as they only do a base of Serious damage. So, I’ve simply upped the damage category of each grenade type by one. Now most grenades can do Deadly damage, even when set up as booby traps or “thrown” by 2 year olds.

3.7.3 Air Timed Mini Grenades and Scatter

The rules are unclear on the game mechanics of air timed mini grenades. However, with a bit of logic, and help from Robert Watkins, I came up with the following rules. The grenades are fired as normal, and scatter is rolled for and reduced by the successes of the Firearms test as normal. Once the “location” of the grenade detonation has been determined, one merely lays a straight edge from the position of the firer to this detonation point. At the pre-set detonation distance along this straight edge the grenade will explode.

3.8 Melee Combat

3.8.1 Reach

In Shadowrun ranged combat speed is king, but in melee combat Reach rules supreme (p. 100 SRII). In fact Reach rules so supremely that a mere +1 Reach gives a statistical advantage of 100% (ie that you could get by with half the skill or take on an opponent of twice your skill). This is because reach has a “double jeopardy” effect. It modifies both your TN to make it easier to hit, and your opponents to make it harder to hit. Upon a little thought by one of my players (thanks O’ Great One!), the following rule was devised and the logic behind this rule is thus. If one has a weapon with longer reach than one’s opponent, one can do two things with this reach advantage. One can Attempt to use it to wallop one’s opponent, or one can try to use it to keep one’s opponent at bay. The first would be represented by a decrease in your TN to hit, and the second by an increase in one’s opponents TN to hit. Thus the idea of taking the Reach modifier, and applying it to either (or both if it is greater than 1) decrease your TN, or to increase your opponents TN.

Ex. Koolant the troll has a Combat Axe. He thus has +3 Reach. When entering melee combat, he can use this reach to do one of 4 things: 1) Subtract 3 from his TN; 2) Subtract 2 from his TN and add 1 to his opponents; 3) Subtract 1 from his TN and add 2 to his opponents; 4) Add 3 to his opponents TN. What Koolant does is entirely up to him.

I find this rule easy to use, satisfying, realistic, and it lessens the overwhelming power of Reach in Shadowrun melee combat.

3.8.2 Full Defence

The Shadowrun Full Defence rules are ambiguous and can be interpreted in two ways (p. 84, 102-103 SRII). I interpret them as such: One can normally add Combat Pool dice to the Attack Success Test, but not the Damage Resistance Test. By choosing the Full Defence option, one is allowed to add dice to one’s Damage Resistance Test, but not to one’s Attack Success Test.

3.9 Vehicle Armour

Vehicle armour has to take the prize (over even Karma and Karma Pools) for the most difficult to understand and poorly written part of the Shadowrun rules (p. 99 & 108 SRII). I realise that Shadowrun is not about vehicles blowing each other away, but at least an understandable set of rules might have been generated. Anyway, I run vehicle armour like so:

Case 1: Base Power less than or equal to Vehicle armour rating

Nothing at all happens. You do not get to damage the armour, you do not get to reduce it like a barrier rating. You do nothing.

Case 2: Base Power greater than Vehicle armour rating

A] If the weapon is a normal weapon (not armour-piercing)

i) Reduce Damage category by one. If the weapon is rated at light, it does no damage.

ii) Subtract Vehicle Armour rating plus Body rating from the weapon’s power. (Minimum of 2. It is likely here that nearly all weapons will have a resultant of 2.)

Power-(Vehicle Armour+Body)

iii) Roll Body+(Armour/2) (rounding down) against the target number determined above.

Body+(Armour/2) vs. target determined above.

B] If the weapon is an armour piercing variety (eg, AVM/R, or half the weapons out of FoF)

i) Do not reduce damage category by one.

ii) Subtract 1/2 the Vehicle Armour Rating (rounding down) from the Power of the weapon.

Power-(Armour)/2

iii) Roll Body+(Armour/2) (rounding down) against the target number determined above.

Body+(Armour/2) vs. target determined above.

This set of rules makes vehicles fairly resilient to small arms, but almost instantly dead if some sort of armour piercing weapon hits them.

3.10 Essence Loss and Magic Loss

If a magician loses a Magic Point due to Deadly wound (p. 115 SRII) or for any other reason (eg summoning an Ally), I do not allow 1 Essence worth of cyberware to be place into the “gap” remaining. I interpret the rule on page 45 of SRII regarding the value of a characters Magic Attribute relative to his Essence as meaning that a characters Magic Attribute is equal to 6 - (6

  • Essence) - Losses from other sources + Initiate Grade. Remember that bioware subtracts from the Magic Attribute as if it costs Essence, but without actually costing Essence.

4. Magic

4.1 Learning New Spells

On page 124 of SRII, under the heading Hermetic Libraries, it says:

“A magical theory library is required to learn new spells (see Learning A New Spell, p. 132).”

Then on page 132, the rules say, under the heading Learning A New Spell:

“The mage needs peace and quiet and a sorcery library with a rating at least equal to the Spell Force.”

I have decided that since learning a new spell is a sorcerous activity, then the rule on page 132 is correct.

In addition, I allow spells to be “upgraded” in Force. According to the Shadowrun rules (p. 133 SRII) to learn a spell that a magician already knows at a low level at a higher level, the magician must pay Karma equal to the new Force at which the spell is to be learned. To me this seems a little silly, for if the character already knows the spell at a lower Force, then less effort (Karma) will be required to learn the spell at a higher Force. Thus I allow characters to pay the difference between the old Force and the new Force in Karma if they are re-learning a spell that they already know. This makes upgrading spells a viable and attractive option. The TN for re-learning the spell is the same as by the rules, however (twice the desired Force). As are the costs to be paid to the teacher.

4.2 Physical Adept Powers

4.2.1 Improved Ability

I allow the purchase of Improved Ability Dice up to the Rating of any applicable Concentration or Specialisation. However, the number of dice that may be added to any roll will be equal to the currently used skill rating. (p. 125 SRII).

Ex. Nick the Knifeman, who is a Physical Adept, has a Thrown Weapons skill breakdown like so:

Thrown Weapons 4
Non-Aerodynamic 6
Thrown Knife 8

Nick wants to get even better at throwing his knives, so he decides to purchase some additional dice using his Physical Adept power. He maxes out and buys 8. The number of dice he could add to any Thrown Weapons Test would be equal to the skill/concentration/specialisation that was applicable at the time. For example, he would be able to use all 8 when throwing knives, 6 when throwing grenades (non-aerodynamic) and only 4 of the 8 when throwing shafted thrown weapons.

4.3 Spellcasting

4.3.1 Drain for Sustained Spells

Shadowrun is a little unclear about when drain for sustained spells is to be resisted (p. 128 & 132 SRII & p. 44 Grimything II). I run it that the drain for sustained spells is taken immediately upon casting, which means that for some really hefty sustained spells, the caster may pass out before any noticeable effect takes place. This view is implied on p. 44 of the Grimything II (thanks for the research Mark Steedman!).

4.3.2 Spell Defence Across Planes

I allow an astrally projecting magician to provide Spell Defence to someone on the Physical plane so long as they are within the projecting magicians Line of Sight (LOS). Likewise, an astrally perceiving magician can provide Spell Defence to anyone in either the Astral or Physical planes that he has LOS to (p. 132 SRII).

4.3.3 Centering vs. Penalties Against Shielding

I allow Centering vs. Penalties (p. 44 Grimything II) to be used against an opponents Shielding (p. 45 Grimything II).

4.3.4 Restricted Use Spells

In my games it is possible to have both Fetish required restrictions on a spell as well as Exclusivity restrictions (p. 133 SRII).

4.3.5 Starting Spells with Force Modifiers

I allow starting characters to choose spells with Forces over 6 if and only if they do so by the use of Force Modifying restrictions (ie Fetish required spells and Exclusive spells) (p. 133 SRII). Yes, you can have that Force 10 Fireball, but only if it’s Exclusive and expendable Fetish required.

4.3.6 Spell Locks and Exclusive Spells

If an exclusive spell is placed into a Spell Lock, then because the focus takes over the task of sustaining the spell, the caster is no longer burdened with the Exclusive modifier (p. 133 & 138 SRII).

4.3.7 Ritual Sorcery and Damaging Manipulation Spells

Shadowrun makes special note that the only spells that cannot be cast by Ritual Sorcery are combat spells (p. 133 SRII). However, it seems to have been neglected that Damaging Manipulation spells require that a physical component travel from the caster to the target, which is something extraordinarily difficult to do when one is casting ritual sorcery halfway around the globe. Thus I do not allow the casting of Damaging Manipulation spells by Ritual Sorcery either.

4.4 Spells

4.4.1 Levitate Person

I have found that the spell Levitate Person is, by the book, by far and away the most powerful damaging spell available. One merely casts it upon an opponent and then proceeds to smash the poor sod against all manner of blunt objects before whizzing the beaten body up 20 stories and dropping the spell. Using the rules as given on page 107 of SRII for crashing, and the rules on page 157 of SRII for telekinetic manipulation spells and movement, damages can easily be as high as 10S. Using the falling rules on page 76 of FoF, damages can be as high as 50D. Either way, for the minuscule drain suffered by the caster, the spell is a bargain. I have simply made the spell a voluntary one (cool idea Robert Watkins!).

4.4.2 Personal Barrier Spells

The Shadowrun descriptions of the effects of Personal Barrier Spells leave a lot to be desired (p. 158 SRII & p. 123 Grimything II). I run the spells such that they can only be cast as a dome that is centred on the caster, but that they will intercept anything that they are designed to, whether it is heading towards the caster or not.

4.4.3 Sustained Damaging Manipulation Spells

The Grimything is very unclear (and contradicts itself on 5 occasions) on whether Sustained Damaging Manipulation spells are possible or not (p. 49, 118, 121, 122 Grimything II). I have decided that they are not, unless the Damaging Manipulation is some sort of sustained barrier or has trap-like effects. Sorry, no sustained Fire Bomb spells.

5. Karma

5.1 Raising Skills

If one is raising a General skill and one has an appropriate Concentration or Specialisation for that skill, one only need pay the difference in Karma to raise the skill (p. 190-191 SRII). Similarly if one is raising a Concentration and one has an appropriate Specialisation, one receives a discount equal to the Karma already invested in the skill.

Ex. Rigger Mortice has Gunnery 4, Assault Cannon 6, Panther Assault Cannon 8. To raise his Gunnery to 5 normally would cost 10 Karma. However, since Rigger has already invested 7 Karma in an Assault Cannon Concentration of 5, then he need only pay 3 to increase the skill. If Rigger were wanting to increase his Assault Cannon Concentration to 7, then he would normally be paying 10 Karma. However, since he has already spent 7 Karma on his Panther Assault Cannon skill, then he need only pay the difference, 3.

5.2 Karma Pool

5.2.1 Dividing

Since Shadowrun is extremely vague and ambiguous (and contradictory) about how to allocate Karma earned to Good Karma and the Karma Pool (p. 190-191 SRII), I’ve made my own decisions. I play that every 10th point of Karma earned goes into the characters Karma Pool. This can easily be kept track of by looking at the characters Private Reputation which is a total of all the Karma the character has earned.

5.2.2 Usage

The book is also somewhat ambiguous about just when a character can use Karma Pool re-rolls and whatnot (p. 190 SRII). I lay no restrictions on when or what for the Karma Pool dice may be used, even allowing the re-roll etc. of NPC dice rolls that have favourable outcomes directly relating to the character (such as DocWagon™ paramedic’s rolls to save the characters worthless hide).

6. Cyberware

6.1 Cyberlimbs

I use the Cybertechnology rules for cyberlimbs (p. 49-52 C-Tech) with one exception. The starting Strength of a cyberlimb is not equal to 3 (8 for Trolls) it is instead equal to the Strength of the character at the time of implantation. I use this modification so that PCs may have cyberlimbs, but do not need to pay 5 Essence or so for the privilege.

7. Bioware

7.1 Bioware For Magicians

Shadowtech states on page 5 that bioware costs Essence for the magically active equal to the Body Index of the piece of bioware, as well as giving the character a Body Index. This might seem reasonable, but after a little though it is obvious that this klutz of a rule is lacking much reasoning behind it. Compare the following two situations to see what I mean:

Ex. Claudius is magically active, and has 2 Body Index worth of bioware. By the rules he has an Essence of 4, and a Body Index of 2. Thus the TN for a Treat Spell to affect him is 8 - 4 +2/2 = 5. Say Erg, a mundane, has the same bioware kit. He has a Body Index of 2, and an Essence of 6. For a Treat spell to affect him, the TN would be 8 - 6 +2/2 = 3. A very vast difference indeed. Even though both individuals have exactly the same bioware kit.

To remedy this “double jeopardy” effect, I implement what I think was the writers original intention with the rule. That bioware damages the magical ability of a magically active character. To this end, I subtract the Body Index of the character from the characters Essence, as the rule states, but only for determining the loss of the characters Magic Attribute. Bioware does not subtract Essence from magically active characters, but it does frag with their Magic Attribute as if it did.

Ex. Irrumatee has 2 Body Index worth of bioware implanted. He now has a Body Index of 2, and an Essence of 6, even though he is magically active. His Magic Attribute, however, is now reduced by 2, as if his Essence were really 4.

7.2 Enhanced Articulation

Enhanced Articulation, as presented in Shadowtech (p. 34 Shadowtech) is by far and away the most powerful bit of bioware that anyone could obtain. It adds an extra die to any test involving any Active skill. Upon looking in SRII (p. 70-72 SRII) to see what an Active skill is, we see that Active skills include all the following: Combat, Physical, Technical, Magical, Social and Vehicle. The only skills not included are Build and Repair, Knowledge and Languages. Somehow I fail to see just how Enhanced Articulation manages to assist in the summoning of elementals though. Or in the decking of computer systems. Or the fast talking of your fixer. My take on the benefits of Enhanced Articulation is that it was supposed to give an additional die to any Physical skills, meaning Stealth and Athletics, but that the author fragged up.

7.3 Muscle Augmentation

I interpret the bonuses granted by Muscle Augmentation to give the character +1 Quickness per level and +1 Strength per level (p. 35 Shadowtech).