The Player's Guide to Shadowrun House Rules

5/23/2018 The Player's Guide to Shadowrun House Rules

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Plastic Warriors


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3

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 7

Organization.......................... ................................ .............. 8Alternatives ........................... ................................ .............. 8Authors ............................ ............................... .................... 8

GENERAL RULES......................................................................... 9

Dice Pools ............................................................................... 9

Alternative ............................................................................. 9Dikote................................................................................... 9

Alternative ............................................................................. 9

Drugs & DMSO.......................................................................9Flesh Contact ............................ ............................... ............... 9DMSO Breakdown.............................. ................................ .. 10

Fractions & Rounding.......................................................... 10

Money ................................................................................... 10

Alternative ........................................................................... 11Exchanging Money........ ............................... ..................... 11Cost Of Living ................................................................... 11Bartering ........................................................................... 11Side NoteBeggars and Money ....................................... 11

Tests ...................................................................................... 11

Opposed Tests ..................................................................... 11Rule of One ......................... ............................... .................. 12Rule of Six ........................... ............................... .................. 12Alternatives ......................... ............................... .................. 12

Alternative One... ............................ ................................ .. 12Alternative Two.......................... ................................ ....... 12Alternative Three ......................... ............................... ....... 12

SOTA...................................................................................... 12

System Identification Numbers .......................................... 12

BIOWARE .................................................................................14

Bioware For Magicians ........................................................ 14

Alternative ........................................................................... 14Enhanced Articulation .........................................................14

Alternatives ......................... ............................... .................. 15Alternative One... ............................ ................................ .. 15Alternative Two.......................... ................................ ....... 15

Muscle Augmentation .........................................................15

CHARACTERS........................................................................... 16

Allergies ................................................................................16Allergies In The Points-Based Character GenerationSystem ........................... ............................... ....................... 16Number Of Allergies ............................................................ 16Alternative ........................................................................... 16

Attributes .............................................................................. 16

Increasing Attributes............................ ............................... .. 16Strength 1 Trolls ............................ ................................ ....... 16

Building Points System ........................................................ 17

Shapeshifters ............................ ............................... ............. 17Contacts & Enemies ............................................................17

Enemies ............................................................................... 17Location Times for Enemies .................................................. 17

Critter Powers.......................................................................17Regeneration ............................ ............................... ............. 17

Dice Pools ............................................................................. 18Calculating Dice Pools .......................................................... 18

Using Pool Dice.....................................................................18Edges & Flaws...................................................................... 18

Disallowed or Modified Edges & Flaws..................................18Addiction...........................................................................18Adrenaline Surge ............................ ................................ ...18Allergy...............................................................................18Blind ........................... ............................... ........................18Bonus Attribute Point ............................ .............................18Day Job ............................ ............................... ...................18Extra Contact......................................................................18High Pain Tolerance............................................................18High School Education .......................... .............................18Night Vision .......................... ............................... ..............18Technical School Education................ ............................... ..18

Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................18Bio-Rejection......................................................................18Focused Concentration .......................... .............................18Illiterate..............................................................................18Magic Resistance................................................................18Police Record ............................. ............................... .........19Registered Equipment........................................................19Sensitive System ........................ ................................ ........19

Edge & Flaw Development....................................................19Buying Flaws ......................... ................................ .............19Buying Edges ............................. ............................... .........19Being True To Edges And Flaws..........................................20

Taking Edges & Flaws With The Priority System .....................20Enhanced Attributes, Skills, Etc.. ....................................... 20

Enhanced Reaction and Reflexes............................................20Vision Enhancements .......................... ............................... ...20

Master Character Creation Table ....................................... 21

Adjusted Priorities.................................................................21Normal Priority Chart..........................................................21Humbling Priority Table......................................................21

Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................21Starting Resources.................................................................21

Money ............................. ............................... ...................21Bioware and Cyberware......................................................21Cyberdecks ........................... ............................... ..............22

Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................22CYBERWARE ............................................................................ 23Cyberears.............................................................................. 23

Cyberlimbs ........................................................................... 23

Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................23High-Grade Cyberware........................................................ 23

Vision Magnification and Tactical Computers.................. 23

KARMA .................................................................................... 24

Karma Pool ........................................................................... 24

Blocking................................................................................24Buying Successes .......................... ................................ ........24Dividing ......................... ............................... ........................24By The Book..........................................................................24Good Karma to Karma Pool...................................................24Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................24Maximum Karma for a Test....................................................24

TABLE OF CONTENTS


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CONTENTS

THE GUIDE TO HOUSE RULES 4

Refresh Rate ......................... ............................... ..................25Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................25Re-Rolls.................................................................................25Starting Karma Pool Size........................................................25Team Karma Pool ........................... ................................ .......25Usage....................................................................................25

Raising Skills ........................................................................ 25

Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................27Time Spent Raising Skills ........................... ............................27

Sourcebooks For Karma ...................................................... 27

MAGIC ...................................................................................... 28

Astral Space ......................................................................... 28

Astral Patrolling.....................................................................28Astral Perception & Projection...............................................28Astral Quest To Bypass Wards...............................................28

Auras ..................................................................................... 29

Objects and Auras.................................................................29Psychometry (Aura Reading)..................................................29Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................29

Conjuring .............................................................................. 29

Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................29Essence Loss and Magic Loss ............................................ 29

Foci ........................................................................................ 30

Focus Addiction ............................. ............................... ........30Magical Items For Mundanes.................................................30

Power .......................... ............................... .......................30Healing Elixir......................................................................30Magical Sword ............................ ............................... ........30Talisman For Safety In Travel ............................. ..................30Rejection ........................... ............................... ..................30Acceptance ............................ ............................... .............31Assensing ......................... ............................... ..................31Personality..........................................................................31Cursed Items......................................................................31Destruction.........................................................................31

Spell Locks............................................................................32Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................32S .......................... ................................ ............................... ..32

Initiation & Metamagic........................................................ 32Centering ............................. ............................... ..................33Centering vs. Penalties Against Shielding ............................ ..33Gradual Initiation...................................................................33Alternatives...........................................................................33

By The Book.......................................................................33Alternative One..................................................................33

Masking .......................... ............................... .......................33Physical Adepts.....................................................................33

Magical Misfires ................................................................... 34

Magical Traditions ...............................................................34

Magical Ability Breakdown....................................................34General Rules ......................... ............................... .............34Magician (20 Points)...........................................................34Adept (15 Points)...............................................................34Minor Adept (Cost Varies) ........................... .......................35

Physical Adepts.................................................................... 35

Extra Abilities........................................................................35Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................36More Powerful Physical Adepts ........................... ..................36Newly-Created Physical Adept Characters ........................... ..36

Physical Adept Powers........................................................ 36

Improved Ability ............................ ............................... ........36Increased Reflexes.................................................................37

Spellcasting .......................................................................... 37

Aiming Spells........................................................................37Drain ......................... ................................ ............................37Drain for Sustained Spells .......................... ............................37Elemental Effects ............................ ............................... ........37

Extended Spellcasting .......................... ............................... ..37Grounding.............................................................................37

Holding Spells.......................................................................37Last-Ditch Spellcasting ........................ ................................ ..38Learning New Spells ........................... ................................ ..39Noticing Spellcasting.............................................................39Reducing Area of Effect ............................ .............................39R...........................................................................................40Spell Defense Across Planes ........................... .......................40Spell Resistance Tests............................................................40Spell Signatures ............................. ............................... ........40Starting Spells With Force Modifiers ......................... .............40Sustained Damaging Manipulation Spells ........................... ...40Sustaining Spells ............................ ............................... ........40

Spells......................................................................................41Barrier Spells.........................................................................41

Barrier................................................................................41Blade Barrier .......................... ............................... .............42Blast Barrier........................................................................42Bullet Barrier .......................... ............................... .............42Mana Barrier .......................... ............................... .............42Spell Barrier ........................... ............................... .............42Spirit Barrier ........................... ............................... .............42Barrier Spells and Area of Effect..........................................43Personal Barrier Spells ........................... .............................43

Alternative............................................................................43Death Touch and Stun Touch.................................................43Healing.................................................................................43Alternative............................................................................44Levitate Person ......................... ............................... .............44Alternative ........................... ............................... ..................44Personal Barrier Spells ......................... ................................ ..44Sterilize.................................................................................44

Spirits .................................................................................... 44

Allies ........................ ................................ ............................44Allies and Drain..................................................................44Allies and Karma Pool ........................... .............................44

Elementals ........................... ............................... ..................44Permanent Elemental Spirits..................................................45Initiates & Conjuring ........................... ................................ ..45

Nature Spirits ............................ ............................... .............45Nature Spirit Area of Affect ......................... .......................45Bound Nature Spirits ........................ ................................ ..45

Miscellaneous Magic Issues................................................45

Mana Fluctuation...................................................................45The Mystery of Magic.. ............................. .............................45

MATRIX.....................................................................................46

Escher Loop...........................................................................46

Mainframe Computers .........................................................46

Basic Rating/Capacity System................................................47Spending System Capacity ............................ ........................47

Color Multiplier ........................... ............................... ........47SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE .......................... .......................47Normal Things....................................................................47Notes:................................................................................47

Unusual Things......................................................................48Subsystem Ratings ......................... ................................ .......48Using a Mainframe to Write Cyberdeck Programs..................48What About All Those Little Shops With OrangeSecurity?...............................................................................48

Matrix 1.0 to 2.0 Conversion Rules ....................................49

Host Layout ......................... ............................... ..................49Satlink Uplinks......................................................................50

MELEE COMBAT .......................................................................51

Defending ..............................................................................51

Full Defense ......................... ............................... ..................51Martial Arts Styles ................................................................51

Reach .....................................................................................52

Alternatives...........................................................................52

By The Book.......................................................................52Alternative One .......................... ............................... ........52


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Alternative Two.......................... ................................ ....... 52Second Weapon ................................................................... 52

Alternative ........................................................................... 53Ties In Melee Combat Tests................................................53

RANGED COMBAT................................................................... 54

Actions .................................................................................. 54

Announcing Actions ............................ ............................... .. 54Alternative ........................................................................... 54

Delaying Simple Actions................. ................................ ...... 54Standing & Kneeling ............................................................ 54Ammunition.......................................................................... 54

Gel and Stun Ammunition .................................................... 54Attacks And Targets ............................................................55

Autofire .................................................................................55

Barriers.................................................................................. 57

Table Notes ........................... ................................ ............ 59Penetrating The Barrier ......................................................... 60Vehicle Armor .......................... ................................ ............ 60

Table Notes ........................... ................................ ............ 62Critter Hardened Armor......... ............................... ................ 62Personal Hardened Armor .................................................... 62

Gel Packs............ ............................... ............................... . 63Armor Degradation .............................................................. 63

Barrier Ratings ...................................................................... 63Alternative ........................................................................... 64

Body Armor........................................................................... 64

Body Armor and Called Shots..... ................................ .......... 64Alternative ........................................................................... 64Variation 1............... ............................... ........................... 64Variation 2............... ............................... ........................... 65

Armor Degradation .............................................................. 65Alternative ........................................................................... 65Armored Boots and Helmets ................................................ 65Excessive Armor Penalties .................................................... 65Higher Armor Rating Than Power Level ................................ 65Alternative ........................................................................... 66

Called Shots.......................................................................... 66

Alternative ........................................................................... 66Combat Turn Sequence ....................................................... 66

All Dice Pools Refresh (First Combat Turn Only) ................. 661. Determine Initiative ........................... ............................ 662. Characters Take Actions.. ............................. .................. 66A. Declare Movement ....................................................... 66B. Declare Actions ............................ ............................... .. 66C. Resolve Actions and Movement .................................... 66D. Acting Characters Dice Pools Refresh.......................... .. 67E. Declare and Resolve Movement and Actions ofRemaining Characters ........................................................ 673. Begin a New Combat Turn... ................................ .......... 67

Damage .................................................................................67

Complete Miss ..................................................................... 67Falling Unconscious .............................................................. 67

Overdamage ........................................................................ 67Time Between Taking Extra Damage........................... ....... 67Alternative ........................................................................... 67Sleeping In Armor................................................................ 67Staging Damage............................ ................................ ....... 68Stun Damage And Knockback............... ............................... . 68

Unconsciousness From Deadly Wounds ............................. 68Alternative ........................................................................... 68Wounds Affecting Movement..... ................................ .......... 68Alternative ........................................................................... 68

Dodging................................................................................. 68

Alternatives ......................... ............................... .................. 69Alternative One.......................... ................................ ....... 69Alternative Two.......................... ................................ ....... 69Alternative Three ......................... ............................... ....... 70

Alternative Four....... ................................ .......................... 70Alternative Five ................................................................. 70

Firearms ................................................................................ 71

Gas Venting Miniguns ......................... ............................... ...71Point-Blank Range ......................... ................................ ........71Recoil....................................................................................71Rates OF Fire ............................ ............................... ..............71

Single Shot.........................................................................72Semi Automatic ......................... ................................ ........72Burst Fire............................................................................72Full Auto .......................... ............................... ...................72Comments ............................ ............................... ..............72

Shotguns...............................................................................72Telescopic Sights........ ............................... ............................72Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................73Telescopic Sights and Movement ............................ ..............73Telescopic Sights and Smartlinks ............................. ..............73Tracer Ammunition.......... ................................ ......................73Weapon Damages and Ranges ........................... ...................74

Exceptions To The Table ............................. ........................74Ammo effects ............................ ............................... .........74

Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................74Grenades............................................................................... 75

Air Timed Mini Grenades and Scatter ........................... .........75Damage ......................... ............................... ........................75

Alternatives...........................................................................75By The Book.......................................................................75Alternative One..................................................................75

Grenade Launchers Against Point Targets..............................75Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................76Scatter...................................................................................76

Hit Locations ........................................................................ 76

Alternative .......................... ............................... ...................76Armor................................................................................76Called Shots .......................... ............................... ..............76Called Shots For Melee Combat..........................................76Resisting damage...............................................................77Wounds ........................... ............................... ...................77Healing ............................ ............................... ...................77Optional Rule 1 .......................... ................................ ........77

Optional Rule 2 .......................... ................................ ........77Campaign Effects Of These Rules .......................... ..............77Initiative ................................................................................ 78

Actions In A Combat Turn ............................. ........................78Initiative Rolls........................................................................78Alternatives...........................................................................78

Alternative One..................................................................78Alternative Two..................................................................78

Initiative Ties ............................ ............................... ..............78Projectile Weapons.............................................................. 78

SKILLS....................................................................................... 79

Build/Repair and Theoretical Skills ................................... 79

Combat Skills ....................................................................... 79

Armed & Unarmed Combat .......................... ........................79Unarmed Combat..................................................................79

Defaulting ............................................................................. 80Partial Defaulting................................................................80

By The Book..........................................................................80Knowledge Skills ................................................................. 80

Language Skills .................................................................... 81

Education and Extra Languages.............................................81New Skills............................................................................. 81

Body Language.....................................................................81Other Skills............................................................................81

Metamemory ............................. ............................... .........81Read and Write ............................. ............................... .........82Perception Skill......................................................................82

Physical Skills....................................................................... 82

Ambidexterity.......................................................................82

Stealth...................................................................................82Social Skills .......................................................................... 82


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Etiquette ......................... ............................... .......................83Leadership ........................... ............................... ..................83

Leadership & Planning ........................... ............................83Leadership in a Run...........................................................83

Technical Skills .................................................................... 83

Biotech..................................................................................83VEHICLES..................................................................................84

Drones ................................................................................... 84

Batch Drone Control..............................................................84Drone Autopilot Initiative .......................... ............................84Subsystem Damage.............................................................. 84

Subsystem Damage Notes.....................................................85Vehicle Armor ...................................................................... 86

Case 1: Base Power Less Than Or Equal To VehicleArmor Rating......................................................................86Case 2: Base Power Greater Than Vehicle ArmorRating .......................... ............................... .......................86

Alternatives...........................................................................86Alternative One..................................................................86Alternative Two..................................................................86

Undercarriage........................................................................87INDEX ....................................................................................... 88

GREETS, in order of length of name:DvixenAdam J.

Joe CottonKillbeggarElle HolmesErik JamesonDanny Schog

Tobias BerghoffMark Steedman

Hilde HooglandMaurice FranckeMichel Platteeuw

Garmt MeulendijksMartijn Weezepoel

No books complete without them :)

TWO VERY SPECIAL GREETS:Ivy Ryan

Terry L. Amburgey

Because I know theyre just going to lovethis book

{display evil_grin}

CREDITS:

Written By

Blackjack David Buehrer Stephen F. Eley

Double-Domed Mike Elkins Fade Martin Gotthard Gurth Jonathan Hurley Leszek Karlik Steve Kenson Lady Jestyr Loki David R. Lowe Lucifer Ray Macey Chris Maxfield Andrew Mellinger

Susan Mellinger Damion Milliken Nurse Wratchett Ferri G. Pagano Justin Pinnow Marc A. Renouf Andr Selmer The Twilight Brigade WoLfM Wordman

Editing & Layout

Gurth

Copyright

The copyrights to each house rule are held by theoriginal author, who is credited with the rule inquestion.This compilation is copyright 1998 by Gurth. Unauthorized copying, hiring,lending, reproduction, circulation, distribution, etc. etc.etc. highly recommended, on the conditions that the fileremains completely unmodified, is distributed in itsentirety, and no profit is made by the distributor.Shadowrun and Matrix are registered trademarks of

FASA Corporation, IL 60608, USA, other book namesare trademarks of FASA Corporation, all used withoutpermission. Original Shadowrun material is copyright 1989-1998 FASA Corporation.


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INTRODUCTIONSomething big is coming, Im quite sure of it. I think

its still pretty far away, though.

Chris Berlini, just before being crushed by a

juggernaut

Unlike in many other Plastic Warriors books, in this one you wont find new stuff for

your characters to play with; instead, it gives stuff forplayersto play with. This book isa compilation of house rules from Shadowrungroups the world over. It got startedwhen I wanted to write up my own house rules for use by my group late last year, andremembered I had house rules by several other people sitting on my hard drive. So, Ithought, why not compile them into one file and make it a Plastic Warriors book?

I then spent some time looking through Shadowrun web pages and the messagesId saved from the ShadowRN list, and compiled them all into the book youre readingnow. Not every house rule I came across made it into the book, but most haveonlyvery inconsequential ones, or those that had been badly thought out, were left out.

A few words of warning are in order: first of all, some of the rules may contradictone another (though hopefully not themselves). This is, of course, because they dontall originate from one source, and also because I didnt try to make everything fitthat would go against the idea behind this book of putting as many good house rulesas possible into one place.

Second, Id advise inexperienced players to stay away from this book for now, asShadowrun can be complex enough without having to remember all kinds of rule addi-tions and alterations. Once youve got the basics down, only then its time to startthinking about changing them.

Finally, just because something is written down here doesnt mean you cantchange it. A function just as important as supplying ready-made house rules is, in

my opinion, that these rules can be the starting point for your own house rules, whichwill probably suit your particular group of players better than rules thought up forsomeone elses campaign.

That said, I hope everyone enjoys whats in this book, and makes use of it in theirgame. As always, Im open to comments, criticisms, and most other responses

Gurth , 16 March 1998.


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Organization

The house rules are organized into chapters dealing withdifferent topics, such as general rules, magic, skills, and soon. Within each chapter, the rules are ordered alphabeti-cally into sections, and rules within sections are again or-dered alphabetically.

In some cases, rules fit under two different headings;

they have been placed in the chapter or section whichseemed most logical, so if you cant find a rule in one partof this book, it may be in another chapter that is also rele-vant to the rule.

Before many headers, small circles are provided so youcan easily mark which rules you want to use.

Alternatives

Where different house rules are given for a single topic,one rule (the one that seemed besteasiest to use, mostcomprehensive, etc.) appears under the main heading, andthe rest are under the header Alternatives, following afterthe main text. The alternative rules are labeled Alternative

One, Alternative Two, and so on. If a FASA-publishedbook has an alternative rule as well, that is listed under theheader By The Book.

Authors

If you have a question about a house rule, send a mes-sage to the person who wrote the rule, not to the editor ofthis book (unless they happen to be the same person).The original author will know his or her house rules muchbetter, and should be able to answer questions about them.


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!Dice PoolsAndrew Mellinger & Susan

Mellinger Reference: SRII p. 84

Pools (Combat, Magic, etc but not Karma) refresh at 1die at the beginning of a characters action. A character canspend a Simple Action to regain 1/2 their pool or a Com-plex Action to regain the entire pool.

!ALTERNATIVE

David Buehrer Refresh everyones pools at the beginning of combat.

From that point on the characters pools refresh at the ENDof their action phases.

!DikoteJustin Pinnow

Reference: SRII pp. 184-185, Shadowtech p. 91

Dikote is hard to come by and is very powerful. Thus,Dikote has an Availability of 16, not 6. Also, in order tostart the game with any Dikoted items, you MUST have avalid contact who can provide you with this service. Thiscontact will most likely not be able to provide you with anyother items or services of any real worth. The contact willspecifically be for acquiring Dikoted items.

! ALTERNATIVEBlackjack

Dikote has an Availability of 21/24 days and is onlyavailable through special fixers. Weapons cannot be dikoted

during character creation. (Yes, I hate Dikote.)

!Drugs & DMSOBlackjack

Reference: Shadowtech pp. 87-88, 92, 96-100

People seem to have a love/hate relationship withDMSO and squirt weaponry. Generally, they love it whenthey use it, and hate it when its used against them. Despitewhich position people take, there seems to be a generalconsensus that squirt weaponry combined with DMSO is agame unbalancing conjunction. While I think its great thatpeople seems to knock people out with squirt weaponsmore often than they kill, the power of squirt weaponryseems to have caused more than one gamemaster head-ache.

Below are a few rule ideas and optional equipment de-signed to deal with the DMSO problem. Some are fairlydecent; some suck. Pick and choose as you wish. (Most ofthe equipment/chemical examples have rules with relate tomy Flesh Contact rule variation, below. Gamemasters arewelcome to design rules around the substance or objectthat are more suitable to the general Shadowrun rules, ortheir own house rule variations.)

Flesh ContactSince Shadowrundoes not generally work off a hit loca-

tion damage system, it can be difficult to tell whether or notDMSO managed to work its way to the skin. Vests withplates, hardened armor, and perhaps even raincoats havethe potential to stop the liquid before it damages anybody.If a target is wearing a security armor suit without a helmetthe only places the chemical could come in contact withskin would be the seams of the armor (if the suit is notsealed) and the head (if theyre not wearing a helmet). Ifthe target is fully armored and sealed, the odds of theDMSO hitting anything are about nil.

My DMSO/Squirt rules are a variation of my Called Shot

Rules (page 66). To review: My called shot rules get rid ofthe flat +8 modifier for hitting a specific section of a target,

GENERAL RULESNothing is written in stone. Nothing.

Its all on optical chips now.

Black Circle, decker


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GENERAL RULES


and instead modifies the to-hit target number by +1 forevery point of armor the attacker wishes to disregard on histarget. Basically, an attacker firing at somebody wearingheavy military armor could take a +14 modifier to his to-hittarget number and, if by some miracle he actually succeeds,the target doesnt get any armor benefits at all (just for thisshot, of course). The attacker could also take a +5 and, if hehits, the defender will have an armor rating of 9 for defense.Rather than aiming for the head the attacker aims betterthan he normally would, perhaps looking for seams in thetargets armor, lightly armored patches, etc. The actual hitlocation is still left up to the gamemaster. If the attacker didhit in the +14 example above, the gamemaster may verywell declare that the attacker managed to hit a weak spot inthe targets face plate and blow off his head.

The DMSO/Squirt variation of this rule takes a lot of thekick out of a weapon that, in its current state, is way toopowerful. One rule Ive gotten rid of is the combat poolnegation rule (or the Dodge pool, as its stated in Shadow-

techwhich came out before SRII.) Everybody else may wishto keep it; I simply got rid of it because, generally, I dont

use the Combat Pool in my games. Essentially, the pool rulestated that if combat successes exceed attack successesthen DMSO doesnt take effect.. I think its a pain in theass.

My rules are a bit simpler, although they may go to farin reducing the effectiveness of squirt weaponry. Basically, ifyoure firing against somebody with porous armor (kevlar,armor clothing, etc.) add 1/2 of this armors rating to thetarget number of the attacker. Only one success is needed,and the DMSO makes flesh contact. Id probably allowthe target to use their bio or cyber based armor as well, justto keep things simple.

If the target is wearing hardened armor (security suits,

military armor, etc) its a lot more difficult to get a goodflesh hit. For hardened armored targets, add the full ratingof their armor to the target number of the attacker. Again,only one success is needed for the DMSO to make fleshcontact.

Perhaps you can see how this system follows my basicCalled Shots philosophy. By adding 1/2 armor to the at-tackers to-hit roll, the attacker is, essentially, looking for adecent place on the body to hit. I believe, despite the po-rous nature of most armor, that a Squirt shot hitting some-body in his chest if hes wearing a jacket over clothing overform fitting would still have some difficulty making legiti-mate flesh contact. And even if this belief is false, some-thing has to be done to keep people from squirting every-body to hell and back.

The hardened armor aspect of these rules may seemharsh by, again, they follow my basic armor philosophy.Since you HAVE to hit exposed flesh if the targets wearinghardened armor, the task is much more difficult. If you havesomebody dressed in a suit of heavy military armor (minusthe helmet), youd have to hit him in the head (or get luckyenough to tag a seam in the armor.) If you hit them any-where else, the Squirt shot simply splashes.

!DMSO BreakdownGamemasters may wish to declare that DMSO loses its

effectiveness after being exposed to air for more than a fewminutes. This rule may solve a few problems, such as howdo you get out of a suit of hardened armor if its coveredwith DMSO/Cyanide?

!Fractions & RoundingJustin Pinnow

In the vast majority of cases, both non-player charactersand player characters round in their detriment whenever afraction comes up when figuring target numbers.

There are, however, a couple of exceptions to this in thestandard rules. To keep things simple, and to emphasizethe oppressive nature of the world of Shadowrun, alwaysround bad.

In other words, whenever you come up with a fraction,

adjust to the nearest whole number in whichever directionwould be worse for you. Thats life in the shadows, chum-mer. Dont worry, you should be able to take some comfortin knowing that the non-player characters have it just asrough.

!MoneyJustin Pinnow

The standard currency in the world of Shadowrunis thenuyen (). For the sake of simplicity, this is the standardcurrency all over the world. It is accepted pretty much eve-

rywhere. However, there may be some rural settlementsthat have their own method of trade and shy away from thiselectronic currency.

Also, there is no such thing as a partial nuyen. Think of itas having dollar bills, but no coins. Everything is boughtand sold in increments of 1.

Nuyen exists only on the Matrix. There are no paperforms of nuyen, and all paper money has been destroyedby the UCAS government. This happened shortly after theadvent of the Matrix. While all paper money was recalled,not everyone wanted to turn theirs in to be destroyed.Those who held onto their hard currency had their ownreasons for doing so, and this has had an interesting side

effect on the black market.Since the dollar (both American and Canadian) has beencompletely removed from society whenever possible, thismoney is also effectively untraceable. Whereas certifiedcredsticks are very hard to trace (about the same as tracinga dollar bill today), they can still be traced if someone isdedicated enough to do so. The paper dollar isnt at alltraceable.

This means that the paper dollar has a higher level ofvalue to someone in the shadows than certified cred. Thisgenerally amounts to a 10% discount in price, but this is byno means a hard and fast rule.

Some SINless individuals are more paranoid than others

about what they buy their guns and ammunition with. Oth-


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1 1 THE GUIDE TO HOUSE RULES

ers dont have much of a problem with certified cred anddont give discounts for paper money.

Possession of hard currency is a federal offense. If a per-son is found in possession of any paper money, it is confis-cated on the spot. Depending on the officer discovering thiscrime, that may be all that happens. However, if he arrestsyou and you are convicted, jail time is required. Smallamounts of paper money only warrant a month of jail timeor less, depending on the circumstances. Significantamounts can lead to investigation and significantly largersentences.

! ALTERNATIVEBlackjack

It seems I cant look at a Shadowrun book withoutcoming across something weird about the management ofmoney in the world of 2050. All kinds of screwy stuff aboutexchange rates and weird forms of currency and false credsand so forth. In my opinion, as both PCs and gamemasters,we have better things to worry about than whether thenuyen is worth $5.50 UCAS or $6.00. So, in my continuingeffort to mess with the rules to the point that they are nolonger distinguishable from the original, Ive come up witha new set that I normally use in my game.

Exchanging Money

90% of the time the nuyen is world standard and maybe used in any nation AS LONG AS THE CREDSTICK USEDIS CERTIFIED. This is out of the assumption that many back-woods nations do not possess the ability to do all of theidentification checking necessary to verify a SINed credstick.Very rarely in my game do we go through the steps neces-sary to change money to the various other exotic forms ofdenominations found throughout the world. If we actuallydo go through the exchange procedure we leave the ex-change rate at a constant, if a range is given this is usuallythe one in the middle.

Cost Of Living

I still use all cost of living tables.

Bartering

Sometimes in remote villages or independent urban en-tities such as the Ork Underground I use bartering as op-posed to cash. Although a player may barter using anything

of value the most common form of materials used as pay-ment are precious metals and gems. It is almost standardfor any runner who plans on venturing into remote regionswhich they know to be somewhat underdeveloped to pur-chase an amount of gold, silver, gems, etc. before goingthere. Simply use the price table for Enchanting Materials(raw form) for these exchanges. I even have a few under-ground moneychanger contacts roaming around the citywhich not only sell the materials but even press them intocoins, small statues, etc. for a fee. This visual appearancehas little effect on the materials value and is simply there tomake it so a runner can have a one pound block of silvervalued at 4,800 pressed into one hundred 48 coins.

Side NoteBeggars and Money

Without the use of a cash system Ive always wonderedhow street beggars survived. While previously a suit mayhave dropped a few dimes into the hat of a beggar, withthe advent of the credstick I could never really picture themwhipping out their Platinum valued at 2,342,423 andclicking over 50 cents. I have yet to solve this problem in

the corporate world but in the world of the runner a certainsystem has developed.First of all, shadowrunners very rarely use anything but

certified cred sticks. The few that do rarely use them fortransactions, mainly just transferring money to them fromtheir certified credsticks for storage. Over the years a sys-tem of managing certified cred has developed, centering onthe concept of the clean certified credstick and the dirtycertified credstick. The clean credstick holds a fairly largeamount of cash and is used for transactions between fixers,the purchase of expensive objects, buying a plane ticket,etc. The dirty credstick, on the other hand, rarely holdsmore than a grand and is used for small bribes, purchases at

the Stuffer Shack, and the simple charity of giving asquatter a few nuyen here and there. Since certified cred-sticks are fairly easy to get a hold of I dont see why asquatter wouldnt have one, probably the same grime cov-ered stick theyve been using for years.

Tests!Opposed Tests

David Buehrer

Reference: SRII pp. 30-32, 180-184

Except for Damage Resistance tests, all success testshave a base target number of 4. I have a few reasons fordoing this. When using the written rules for resisted tests(opposing target number equals opposing stat) a differenceof even 1 point results in the character with the lesser abil-ity losing 99% of the time. Changing the base target num-ber for resisted tests to 4 gives the weaker opponent achance. Also, changing the base target number to 4 for alltests speeds up the play of the game significantly. And I (asthe gamemaster) dont have to give away opponents stats.

Magus casts a Force 5 mana bolt at Fred (Willpower

3). Magus rolls 5 dice vs. a base 4 (instead of a targetnumber equal to Freds Willpower). Fred resists by roll-

ing 3 dice (Willpower of 3) vs. a 5 (the spells Force).Successes are compared to determine the outcome of

the spell.

Shamus is eating a ham sandwich. He puts it down

to turn the page of the book he is reading. A rat, whichhas been admiring the sandwich hungrily, tries to steal

it. The rats Stealth is 4. Shamus Intelligence is a 5. The

rat makes a Stealth (4) test, which is modified because ithas to run across some crumpled newspaper. Shamus

makes an Intelligence (4) test, which is modified due to

the rats small size and poor lighting conditions. Suc-


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THE GUIDE TO HOUSE RULES 1 2

cesses are compared to see if the rat succeeds in steal-

ing the sandwich without Shamus noticing.

!Rule of OneAndr Selmer

Reference: SRII p. 32

We use the rule that if more than 50% of your dice roll1s then its a fumble. So if you roll 16 dice, and roll 9 1s itsa fumble (and yes, this has been done before). We then roll2D6, the higher the worse the fumble. (Current best fumbleincludes rolling the above mentioned nine 1s, then rolling11 on the 2D6. The physical adepts attempted kick to atrolls chest failed, the Remington a pointblank didnt.)

!Rule of SixDamion Milliken


Havent you always hated it that all the FASA printedmodules give legwork tables that require 6+ successes toobtain useful information? Especially when your characteronly had an Etiquette skill of 4? Further, doesnt it strike youas odd that an average person with a Firearms of 2 is un-able to inflict a Deadly wound with a light pistol? To fix thisproblem, I employ a commonly used modified Rule of Sixwhereby additional successes may be obtained from a sin-gle die if the roll is sufficiently high. If a dies result is 6greater than the required target number, then an extrasuccess is generated. If it is 12 higher, 2 additional suc-cesses are gained. This pattern follows on further to higherrolls, 18, 24, etc. higher than the required target number.

Crystal is rolling her Firearms of 6 against a targetnumber 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 newrule of 6, it becomes 5 successes. The 11 is 7 higher

than the required target number, so that particular die

generates 2 successes.

I find that this rule makes for higher numbers of suc-cesses in general, and means where someone would havegenerated 6 successes they may now get 8. Fortunately,this applies to both NPCs and PCs alike, and in the case ofOpposed Success Tests usually offsets itself. It does how-

ever, allow for those really amazing one off super scoresfrom few dice that just cannot occur normally. Somethinglike a 6 success masterstroke from a 3 die roll.

ALTERNATIVES

!Alternative OneGurth

Divide each dies roll by the target number, roundingdown, to find the number of successes. For example, a rollof 3, 4, 5, 5, and 9 against a target number 4 counts as 5successes, because the 4, 5, 5, are three, and the 9 counts

as two (9 2 = 4.5, which rounds down to 4).

A problem here is that against low target numbers,characters with lots of dice will score immense numbers ofsuccesses.

!Alternative TwoThe Twilight Brigade

When rolling a five or a six, add four to another roll. Thisgives a similar probability distribution while removing thestep-like behavior that makes target numbers of 6n and6n+1 equally probable.

!Alternative ThreeAndrew Mellinger & Susan

Mellinger When the final number on a skill or attribute die, not a

die from a pool, is equal to or greater than twice the basetarget number or six greater than the base target number,whichever is lower, an extra success is generated. Subse-quent successes can be generated by continuing to double

the subsequent numbers. We do this so people with reallylow target numbers and few dice can still do amazingthings, because, It is JUST THAT EASY FOLKS! Think of acharacter with 4 Body dice resisting a Serious wound with atarget number of 2, Cant get it to zero, for example:

With base target number of 2, extra successes would

be at 8 (2 + 6),16 (8 !2), etc. In this case the first extra

success uses the add 6 rule because 2 + 6 is greater

than 2 !2.

With base target number of 8, extra successes would

be at 16 (8 !2), 32 (16 !2), etc. In this case the first

extra success is generated by doubling because 8 !2 is

greater than 8 + 6.

!SOTAThe Twilight Brigade Reference: Shadowrun Companion pp. 85-87,

Virtual Realities 2.0 p. 78

The State of the Art rules in the ShadowrunCompaniononly apply to fields in which baseline activities can be up-graded as part of the advance of the SOTA; only if the base-

line activities (such as ECM and ECCM working against eachother or deckers trying to break the latest Matrix security)do the SOTA mechanics make sense. (Arms broken duringa fall do not become harder to treat because the SOTAadvanced in a biological warfare lab, nor does Mana Dartget harder to invent because someone came up with ad-vances in Magic Theory. Body armor doesnt lose any abilityto stop ordinary slugs because armor-piercing ammunitionjust got better or cheaper.)


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!System Identification NumbersJustin Pinnow

Reference: Shadowbeat p. 86

SINs are rare in the shadows. This is because anyonewith a SIN is on this nice huge database owned by the

government and they can be identified on sight. Anyonewho is magically active in any way has it even worse. Theyalso have a tissue sample on file with the UCAS govern-ment. This has been justified as a means of locating anyrampant magically active criminals. And if the governmenthas your file, megacorps can get it. They have influenceeverywhere.

If you wish to avoid being this recognizable, you canchoose to start the game as SINless. You are a non-citizenand have virtually no rights in the eyes of the governmentand the megacorps. What few rights you are legally recog-nized as having are often ignored anyway. If you are ever

convicted of a crime, you are immediately assigned a SINaccompanied by a police record. This, of course, makes youmore recognizable in the future. If you desire your characterto be SINless, he can start the game with all traces of hisidentity permanently erased from all databases at no cost.This reflects the employment of a good decker sometime inthe past to eradicate your identity. Just not using your regis-tered credstick is not enough to make you SINless. You arestill on the database(s) and are just as recognizable. Justbecause your fixer doesnt know who you are doesnt meanthe law is equally ignorant.

If you do not have a SIN, you MUST buy everythingthrough underground/illegal means. Society views the SIN-less as criminals and will not tolerate them around wherethey live and shop. Thus, the vast majority of legal estab-lishments will require a SIN to even enter their premises.This way, the store owners can state that they are doingwhat they can to keep the scum of the earth away fromtheir businesses and customers. Thus, Street Index willalmost always apply when a SINless individual wants tomake a purchase.


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1 4

!Bioware For MagiciansDamion Milliken

Reference: Shadowtech p.5

Shadowtech states that bioware costs Essence for themagically active equal to the Body Index of the piece ofbioware, as well as giving the character a Body Index. Thismight seem reasonable, but after a little though it is obvi-ous that this klutz of a rule is lacking much reasoning be-hind it. Compare the following two situations to see what Imean:

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 target number for a

Treat Spell to affect him is 8 4 +22 = 5. Say Erg, amundane, has the same bioware kit. He has a Body In-

dex of 2, and an Essence of 6. For a Treat spell to affect

him, the target number would be 8 6 +22 = 3. Avery vast difference indeed. Even though both individu-

als have exactly the same bioware kit.

To remedy this double jeopardy effect, I implementwhat I think was the writers original intention with the rule.

That bioware damages the magical ability of a magicallyactive character. To this end, I subtract the Body Index ofthe character from the characters Essence, as the rule states,but only for determining the loss of the characters MagicAttribute. Bioware does not subtract Essence from magicallyactive characters, but it does frag with their Magic Attributeas if it did.

Irrumatee has 2 Body Index worth of bioware im-

planted. He now has a Body Index of 2, and an Essence

of 6, even though he is magically active. His Magic At-tribute, however, is now reduced by 2, as if his Essence

were really 4.

! ALTERNATIVEJustin Pinnow

As above, with the following additions:Cultured bioware is available as per the standard rules in

Shadowtech, with one exception. ALL listed bioware itemsare of standard quality, and therefore not Cultured. Thus,even neural bioware can be Cultured beyond the standardvalues.

There is also another version of bioware available that ismore magician-friendly. Very friendly, in fact. This person-alized bioware causes no loss of Magic Rating whatsoever(!) and doesnt add to the Body Index.

However, this technology is very rare and very expen-sive. The cost is ten times that of the standard version ofthe item being purchased. The availability is, shall we say,limited. If you desire to purchase this type of bioware, youmust discover, in game time, a person who can create andimplant it for you. These individuals are hard to come by,and generally only cater to the higher levels of society andto the military/megacorps. They will require a valid SIN (ora VERY solid fake one, if you get my meaning) and a back-ground check. This process requires the donation of severaltissue samples and several weeks to grow the biowarebefore surgery.

If you desire to start your character with personalizedbioware, you must have a strong background for your char-acter that would realistically allow for such a luxury.

!Enhanced ArticulationDamion Milliken

Reference: SRII pp. 70-72, Shadowtech p. 34

Enhanced articulation, as presented in Shadowtech isby far and away the most powerful bit of bioware that any-one could obtain. It adds an extra die to any test involving

any Active skill. Upon looking in SRIIto see what an Active

BIOWARESo this wont impact my physical integrity? Are you

sure?

Vanessa Stokes, mage, at a Body + Tech


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BIOWARE


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, Knowl-edge and Languages. Somehow I fail to see just how En-hanced Articulation manages to assist in the summoning ofelementals though. Or in the decking of computer systems.Or the fast talking of your fixer. My take on the benefits ofenhanced articulation is that it was supposed to give anadditional die to any Physical skills, meaning Stealth andAthletics, but that the author fragged up.

ALTERNATIVES

!Alternative OneAccording to Tom Dowd (the original Shadowrun line

developer at FASA), enhanced articulation adds one die tothe following skills: Armed Combat, Athletics, Firearms,Gunnery, Projectile Weapons, Stealth, Throwing, and Un-armed Combat. As it isnt printed in any FASA book, youcan make of this ruling what you will.

!Alternative TwoChris Maxfield

This bioware enhancement, does not benefit all activeskills. Rather it only increases the following skills by onelevel: Athletics, Stealth, Throwing Weapons, and Armed &Unarmed Melee Combat.

!Muscle AugmentationDamion Milliken

Reference: Shadowtech p. 35

I interpret the bonuses granted by Muscle Augmenta-tion to give the character +1 Quickness per level and +1Strength per level.


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1 6

Allergies!Allergies In The Points-Based Character Generation

System

Gurth Reference: SRII pp. 44-47, Shadowrun Companion

pp. 20-21, 25

For characters created with the priority table from the

basic Shadowrun rules, I let players select allergies fromthe table on page 46 of that book; in this way, the allergydoesnt count as a Flaw, and doesnt provide BuildingPoints.

Characters created with the Building Points system fromthe Shadowrun Companion, however, purchase allergiesas Flaws (p. 25 of the Companion) and do not use the tableon page 46 of SRII.

!Number Of AllergiesDamion Milliken


The rules on page 46 of SRIIstate: At the players op-tion, a metahuman character can be given an allergy duringcharacter creation. To me, this indicates that only a singleallergy may be chosen (an). Thus I do not allow multipleallergies to be selected.

! ALTERNATIVEDavid Buehrer

Characters may only start the game with one nuisanceallergy. Allowing a character to take more than one nui-sance allergy at character creation is munchkinous in myopinion.

Attributes!Increasing Attributes

Justin Pinnow Reference: SRII pp. 43, 190, Shadowrun Companion

pp. 50-53

Unaugmented Attributes may not be increased abovethe appropriate Racial Maximum, unless the character hasthe Exceptional Attribute edge to allow him to do so. Of

course, an augmented Attribute is only limited by the cy-berware/bioware/magical enhancement that is increasingthe attribute.

The Karma cost of improving an Attribute is an amountof Karma equal to the new Attributes rating multiplied bythe number of times the Attribute has been improved with-out augmentation (including the current improvement).Thus, a character raising his Strength for the first time froma 3 to a 4 would have to spend 4 Karma points. Raising thisAttribute again at a later time from a 4 to a 5 would cost 10Karma points (5 multiplied by 2-since this is the secondimprovement being made to the Attribute).

Also, increasing an Attribute requires proper roleplaying

and a certain amount of time dedicated to the improve-ment. This is done in a similar manner to improving skills.The rules for doing so are found in the Shadowrun Compan-ion.

!Strength 1 TrollsDamion Milliken


The rules pertaining to the allocation of Attribute points,and the modifying of Attributes with racial modifiers aresufficiently ambiguous as to be interpreted two ways. I donot allow metahumans to place 0 or negative values on

CHARACTERSHere, thisll help you build character.

Greg Holloway, bartender


17/94

CHARACTERS


their attributes that will gain positive modifiers due to theracial modifiers, thus gaining a final positive value.

Wimpy the Troll cannot assign 3 to his Strength At-

tribute, and then add the +4 racial modifier to have a

final Strength of 1. He must assign at least 1 point to his

Strength, thus forcing him to have a final Strength of 5

or greater.

Building Points System!Shapeshifters

Gurth Reference: Shadowrun Companion pp. 20 , 36-38

Since it was missing on the Building Points table, Iveset the Building Points cost for a shapeshifter character at20 points.

Contacts & Enemies!Enemies

The Twilight Brigade

Reference: Shadowrun Companion pp. 71-75

Enemies, in the Shadowrun Companion, are not basedon your Resources. (While one can argue that you might

have acquired your Enemies in the same way you acquiredyour Resources, or that people have figured out that youreworth that much and hence are gunning for you, this beginsto either strain credulity or limit ones character concep-tion.)

!Location Times for EnemiesRay Macey


I use the following rules for location time for enemies.This provides a loose framework for the enemies to find thecharacters that they so hate.

Enemies with a Knowledge Rating of 1 or 2, check every6 months. Every sixth month game time, the gamemasterrolls 1D6 for the enemy. For a Knowledge Rating 1 enemy,they have found the character on the roll of a 1. A Knowl-edge Rating 2 enemy finds the character on a 1 or a 2. Ifthe gamemaster determines that the enemy has found thecharacter, then the gamemaster determines when the en-emy finds the player in the 6-month period.

Enemies with a Knowledge Rating of 3 or 4 check everymonth. For a Knowledge Rating 3 enemy, the find theplayer character on a 1, for a Rating 4 enemy, they find theplayer character on a 1 or a 2.

Enemies with a Knowledge Rating of 5 or 6 check everyweek. Rating 5 enemies find the player character on a 1,and Rating 6 enemies on a 1 or a 2.

If the Enemy finds the character, it is up to the game-master to determine what the enemy does about it (this isrelated to the enemies motivation rating), and how exactlythe enemy found the character, whether through searching,or by an accident.

Critter Powers!Regeneration

Ray Macey Reference: SRII p. 219, Paranormal Animals of North

America p. 12, Europe p. 137, Shadowrun

Companion pp. 36-38

I didnt like the abstract 1D6 method of determining

whether or not a regenerating creature has been killed. Ialso had problems with the fact that the regeneration oc-curred at the end of the turn, and then completely healedall damage. I have changed the way they regenerate asfollows. Every action, the Damage Category of thewounded creature drops by one.

A weretiger takes Serious damage at phase 18. The

weretiger acts on phases 16 and 6. On 16, the creature

would drop to a Moderate wound. On 6, it would drop

to a Light wound. Then on its first action next turn, it

would be undamaged.

I count all overflow damage as 1 wound category, andDeadly without overflow as another. So a creature onDeadly damage with 4 squares of overflow would heal toDeadly in one action. It would then heal to Serious, downto Moderate etc., all the way to nothing.

These rules make regeneration extremely deadly onceyou combine them with the fact that I have done away withthe random 1D6 to kill rule. To ease this, I rule that to killa regenerating creature beyond its ability to regenerate, youmust do an instant kill. That is, in one hit, you must hit thecreature, and do enough damage to kill it (i.e. past its Bodyin overflow) in one hit (This is made easier by using deadlierDamage Overflow rules, see page 17). Doing multiple hitsthat take the creature past its maximum overflow does notcount, unless one of the hits is enough to kill by itself.However, if the regenerating creature takes Deadly dam-age, it still falls unconscious as does anyone else, making itquite easy to administer the killing blow if you can hit it intime. Also, when combined with my Falling Unconsciousfrom normal damage rule (page 17), regeneration doeshave a lot of its bite muzzled.

None of these new regeneration rules work with playercharacters playing shifters from the Shadowrun Compan-ion.


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THE GUIDE TO HOUSE RULES 1 8

Dice Pools!Calculating Dice Pools

David Buehrer Reference: SRII pp. 84-85

Combat Pool is calculated by adding Body, Quickness,Intelligence and Willpower and dividing by 3.

Magic Pool is calculated by adding Intelligence, Will-power, Sorcery and Magic and dividing by 3.

!Using Pool DiceMike Elkins

Whenever a character uses some dice from a pool, re-duce all pools by the same percentage, rounding againstthe character. This way, you can split your attention be-tween spell casting and dodging, but cant do both at

100%, and things you arent very good at take a lot moreattention (for the same number of dice) than things thathave become second nature to you.

Unfortunately, the math involved in this makes it un-likely to be a very popular house rule. It bogs down playtoo much.

Edges & Flaws!Disallowed or Modified Edges & Flaws

Gurth Reference: Shadowrun Companion pp. 24-35

In my game, Ive disallowed or modified the followingEdges and Flaws, for the reasons indicated.

Addiction

Disallowed. If a character wants to be addicted to some-thing, thats fine by me, but I simply dont want them toget points for it.

Adrenaline Surge

Disallowed, because I apply the Rule of Six to one initia-

tive die anyway (see Initiative Rolls on page 78).

Allergy

See Allergies In The Points-Based Character Genera-tion Systemon page 16.

Blind

Ive increased the target number modifier to +8, sincethis is the modifier that SRIIlists for blind fire (page 89).

Bonus Attribute Point

The cost has been increased to 2 points, because withthe original cost, buying 5 Bonus Attribute Points is a veryeasy way to essentially get 5 Building Points for free.

Day Job

Disallowed, as its just too fuzzy for my taste. I still ha-vent figured out whether its an Edge or a Flaw (Yes, Iknow the text calls it a Flaw.)

Extra Contact

Disallowed. Contacts are bought at 5,000 each, whichis usually a lot more expensive than a single Building Point.

High Pain Tolerance

The cost is equal to three times the number of boxes towhich this power applies.

High School Education

Disallowed, since I assume characters have such a levelof education automatically.

Night Vision

As this Edge doesnt indicate the exact bonus, Ive ruledit is equivalent to cybernetic low-light vision.

Technical School Education

The cost is increased to 2 points due to the relativelylarge bonuses this Edge provides.

!ALTERNATIVE

Justin Pinnow

Bio-Rejection

The Bio-Rejection Flaw precludes the effective implanta-tion of ANY cyberware or bioware. This includes culturedbioware and personalized bioware.

Focused Concentration

The Focused Concentration Edge is not allowed in thiscampaign. A high level of concentration and strength of willis already reflected in the Willpower Attribute.

Illiterate

The Illiterate Flaw has a rating of 2, not 1. Reading isfar too fundamental for illiteracy to be worth only 1 point.

Magic Resistance

The Magic Resistance Edge is not allowed. The only be-ings that have the ability to resist magic are magically ac-tive (meta)humans with spell defense and/or shielding andsome critters. There are rumors of nega-mages existing inShadowrun, but those are just rumors, right?


19/94

CHARACTERS


Police Record

The Police Record Flaw has a variable rating of 1 to 6.The higher the rating, the longer and more severe yourrecord. A 6 Flaw of this nature is pretty severe, and itwould make life extremely hard on the character. It is notrecommended that a character take this Flaw at a highvalue.

Registered Equipment

The Registered Equipment Edge does not exist. If youwish to have legally registered equipment, you will need tohave a valid SIN and pay an amount of money based uponthe equipment being registered. In addition, you will needto have a valid reason for possessing said equipmentor atleast a contact who could get you the necessary permitswith false data.

Sensitive System

The value of the Sensitive System Flaw is 1 for magi-

cally active characters, not 2. The value for mundane char-acters is still 3. Cultured bioware and personalizedbioware are not affected by this Flaw.

!Edge & Flaw DevelopmentBlackjack

Reference: Shadowrun Companion pp. 24-35I personally think Edges and Flaws are the best ideas

FASAs come up with since they blew up Dunkelzahn (I wasgetting sick of him.). Itd be a shame to leave them behindonce character creation is over. Generally, you pick upEdges and Flaws through role-playing and, once the game

has begin, you shouldnt need any rules to govern whatEdges and Flaws your character acquires. But it seems like alot of players tend to ignore all aspects of the game thatdont have a numeric system developed for their use. So Idecided to whip up a system for purchasing Edges andFlaws later on in the game. I havent actually tried this sys-tem out yet, so it may not work. Anyway, here goes:

Buying Flaws

Ok, so youre not really buying them. Its actuallymore of a refund. In any case, Im sure gamemasters havenoticed that, during the game, certain situations arise whichhave the potential for generating Flaws in characters; such

as the person is trapped, assaulted in some emotionallytraumatic way, and so on. Normally the character quicklyforgets about these experiences and in a very unrealisticmanner continues to go about their daily business as ifnothing had happened. By allowing the character to actu-ally declare, on paper, that their character has developed aFlaw they can lock themselves into its guidelines and arethus forced to role-play it. Some people really need thistype of an iron-clad contract with their disabilities in orderto role-play effectively. Its sad, but thats the way thingsare.

When a character has been involved in a situation thatcould cause a semi-permanent Flaw they have the option of

buying it. When they make this purchase they RECEIVE anumber of karma points equal to DOUBLE the value of the

Flaw. The player must then role-play this Flaw or face what-ever retribution the gamemaster utilizes to punish offend-ers. Flaws acquired in this manner can be role-played away,though with much difficulty.

Here are some more examples of situations which

may generate Flaws:

1. A PC is tossed into a vat of chemicals. As a resultthey may develop some kind of weird allergy.

2. A PC is smashed over the head with a baseball batand takes Deadly stun damage. When they awake

they may realize that they can no longer see colors,

thus picking up the Color Blind Flaw.3. In the situation above the hit may have instead

knocked a few marbles lose, thus giving the PC the

Oblivious Flaw. Man, ever since that troll whackedBenjy he hasnt been able to tell his ass from his el-

bow.

It is also possible for a character to pick up a flaw simplyby roleplaying it. I used to do it all the time. For instance, a

character who just lost a good friend in a fire fight maybecome depressed, spend a lot of time shut away in theirapartment, and thus develop a minor Infirm flaw. Or thecharacter, slowly losing it because of the endless violencehe or she faces, may decide that their character is going toflip out, talk to their gun all the time, and have visions ofkilling people at random, thus providing grounds for theCombat Monster Flaw. The possibilities are endless.

Buying Edges

This is where the gamemaster has to be really carefullest he or she wish to be faced with characters who haveevery Edge in the book. In order to buy an Edge the charac-

ter should have a really, really, really good reason; evenbetter than they would have to have for getting a new skill.The acquisition of the new Edge should involve meeting areally good teacher, suddenly coming across special infor-mation, being magically zapped my mysterious forces, andso on. The gamemaster may also decide that a player hasbeen roleplaying a particular aspect of their character sowell that they deserve to be offered the opportunity to pickup a new Edge. But, no matter what the reason, the charac-ter still has to buy it.

The karma cost for acquiring a new Edge during thegame is TWICE its value. And, again, the character shouldhave a good reason, a few of which may be:

1. The character is constantly the point man for hisgroup; listening, looking, and watching out for eve-rything while the rest of the group is usually looking

at their ammo counters. The gamemaster may wishto offer the character the Perceptive Edge. If the

character is smart, hell take it.

2. A character has been developing his Firearms skillwith the same instructor for many, many game

months. The player declares that hed like to acquire

an Aptitude in firearms. The gamemaster decides

that the characters teacher, after a month of further

training, is willing to give up his secrets of targeting,

thus enlightening the character to a new way of per-

ceiving trajectories.


20/94

CHARACTERS


Being True To Edges And Flaws

On a final note Id just like to emphasize how importantit is for gamemasters to insist that their players charactersstick to their Edges and Flaws. I personally plan on havingeach of my players information written on a piece of paperand taped to the gamemaster screen. This system was cre-ated for the purpose of creating fleshed out, complicated

characters. It also eliminates a players right to bitch when agamemaster states that theyre not roleplaying properly,which should stop a bit of the whining. Again, make sureplayers dont abuse this roleplaying tool.

!Taking Edges & Flaws With The Priority SystemGurth


The Companion says that the total points value ofEdges and Flaws should be equal when using the prioritysystem for generating characters. A slightly more complex,but also more satisfying, way is to allow players to ex-change Attribute, Skill, or Force Points, or Resourcesmoney, for Building Points and use those to purchaseEdges. Likewise, Flaws can be traded in for Building Pointsthat allow the player to increase other areas of the charac-ter.

The cost equivalents can be found on the Building PointsTable on page 20 of the Companion. For Resources money,its recommended to stick to the values given there anddont allow players to take in-between values.

Teddy the sorcery adept needs an extra Attribute

Point, so he takes a 2-point Flaw (say, Uncouth) andspends those to buy the Attribute Point.

Teddy now has a 2-point Flaw without needing totake an Edge to compensate for it.

Teddys player decides he also needs more skill

points and can do with less money, so his player ex-

changes Teddys million nuyen (Resources priority A) for

Building Points. That gives him 30 points, for which he

takes 650,000 (25 Building Points) and 5 Skill Points (5

Building Points).

Gamemasters should of course be careful that playersdont abuse this system; for example a player could trade in2 Attribute Points to get 4 Building Points, and then usethose to buy 4 Bonus Attribute Points. This sort of thing

shouldnt be allowed.

Enhanced Attributes, Skills, Etc..!Enhanced Reaction and Reflexes

Justin Pinnow For the sake of realism and simplicity, all reaction and

reflex enhancements may be turned on/off with the use of aSimple Action.

It is completely silly to assume that any doctor wouldinstall wired reflexes (for example) without also including acybernetic switch to turn them on and off! I mean, I guesssomeone could convince a street doc to install a set ofreflex enhancements without an on/off switch, but theyprobably would not live too long. After all, how manyfriends can you kill by mistake when they tap you on theshoulder before someone decides enough is enough?

This rule only applies to cyberware and bioware that areexclusive of other abilities. (A suprathyroid gland, for ex-ample, would not have this on/off switch because it is not

ONLY a reaction/reflex enhancer.)

Physical Adepts may also turn their Enhanced Reflexesand Enhanced Reaction powers on/off with the expenditureof a Simple Action.

!Vision EnhancementsJustin Pinnow

Reference: SRII pp. 45, 89, 125, 247, Fields of Fire

pp. 79-81

Any racial vision enhancements are always active.Therefore, a metahuman with natural thermographic visionsees the standard light spectrum AND sees heat signaturesat the same time.

Physical adept vision enhancements are treated asequivalent to their racial cousins in all ways, except thephysical adept version is considered to be more blatantlymagical than the racial version.

Cyberware versions of vision enhancements can beturned on and off with the use of a Simple Action. Thisaction also includes the time it takes for the eyes to adjustto the new type of sensory input (or lack thereof).

While the cyberware versions of vision enhancementssuperimpose thermograph

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The Player's Guide to Shadowrun House Rules

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