The Gaming Den

What that means is: if there is a security decker overwatching a system, he will make an Locate Decker test in each of its passes until he locates the intruder. But its worst actually, because the test is two-fold, as described above, instead of a single roll like in 5e. So we could have the same &...

Having the sneak test stay fixed doesn't help as long as the detection test isn't. If either of them is rolled each time, then the drones spot the hacker. Here's how it works:... ...and this is true for all previous editions too. So how come this edition is supposedly unplayable while previous ones...

While making sure everything is slaved (usually by ignoring system) helps, it doesn't actually fix the core issue I mentioned. In particular, every drone forces one roll per network per in game second. You need to roll multiple wireless tests for every instant of game time. If played by RAW, the mat...

Though I agree with many of Silent Wayfarerer's and Longes' points, I think the most important way that SR5 hacking is fucked is that if you are wirelessly active at all they you're guaranteed to be spotted by any reasonably competent security designer. A drone + agent combo can use the analyze prog...

There's no in game justification that will make all wireless all the time work well for your team. They could decide to be a group of tribalist neo-luddites who only interact with burner commlinks. I solve it at my table by explicitly telling people that wireless is on for everyone all the time by g...

The Candles Remain (ex) When you make a successful melee attack with a slashing weapon, you may choose to not deal the damage immediately, but instead make a note of it, creating a Cut Pool tied to that target which may be increased with further such attacks. At any point, you may, as a swift actio...

My solution is to get rid of the perception skill entirely. A character that wants to stealth rolls the stealth skill at the beginning of the scene. Guards start at awareness rating of 0. Depending on the actions the sneaky character takes the guard awareness rating rises. When their awarness ratin...

Re: physical mask There are neither explicit rules forbidding it nor permitting it. A very solid justification for not allowing it is based on the non-sentience of spells and the non-interaction of magic and the matrix. Generating a fake wireless profile requires that you measure and respond to inco...

Conjure Woodland Beings is a 4th level spell that allows you to conjure 8 pixies. All of whom can cast the 4th level confusion, 4th level polymorph, dispel magic, sleep, and have innate superior invisibility. Not as broken, but thoroughly ridiculous: Polearm master lets you use a quarterstaff to rec...

And I hope those 14 dice are the pool and not the skill. It would be pretty nuts otherwise. Catalyst has been notoriously bad at editing, and labeling a pool as a skill is the sort of thing I'd expect from them. Incidentally, I use pools to spec. all my NPCs now. It is way faster to write down the i...

It's still worth having counterspelling around in case you get into a mage duel on the astral. Spirits will target your astral combat, but mages will probably hurl stunbolts to try to disrupt you. On astral, you presumably only have yourself to protect so the effect is the same in SR5 as SR4. For ev...

The rules are cagey about this, but neither invisibility nor improved invisibility will work on the astral plane. Improved invisibility is a physical spell, so its out, and normal invisibility would conceal your aura but not its own. So you'd still be visible as a sustained spell floating around. If...

Sneaking is a gem, I recommend it highly. I like specializing sneaking for astral when I'm playing a mage. Etiquette and astral combat are good defensive skills in case you have to make an "oh shit" social roll or go a round with an elemental before you can get a spell off. Counterspelling...

Say my character has a screwdriver and both a drill and wire cutters. In a few minutes of fairly easy work he can make a device that doesn't have an antenna, ... I'm in the industry and I don't think that would work with a lot of modern devices. There are big trends towards patch antennas, which ar...

... when they provoke an AOO from entering your whips range ... In 5e "you can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature you can see leaves your reach." So the monster can walk right up to you and even behind you without provoking. This play doesn't work unless you have a juicier...

Flatline, this set of Dumpshock house rules might scratch your itch. There's a set of "hacking strategies" which are reminiscent of Spycraft's maneuvers.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=31131

Playing faces is tricky because a lot of your build points get devolved to the GM if you invest heavily in contacts. They're only as good as the GM lets them be. There are two tricks to making contacts sing. The first is picking contacts that the GM thinks are cool or powerful. The second is pre-neg...

You can get a similar fluff benefit using a datajack and knowsofts. If you're already getting cyberwear then that might be a cheaper option. A pnemonic enhancer is another fairly cheap way to boost language skills, combining it with linguistics expert/linguitics might be particularly batty. I think ...

Got it, the only point I'd like to make is that you can't pile on targeting for shooting the gun: drones use pilot + targeting if shooting on their own, riggers get the sensor + gunnery if jumped in. I don't think drones can use the smartgun system since there aren't rules for installing a smartlink...

I don't remember that rule specifically, and it sounds wrong from what I recall. IIRC you're stuck with the vehicle mod rules in Arsenal for upgrading sensor. There are some rules that relate sensor ratings to the sensors on a vehicle and they live somewhere in the bowels of Arsenal or Unwired (or R...

Influence is a very good spell depending on how the GM interprets it. Otherwise, the spell list looks awesome. Other spells that only need a few successes to be effective are fashion, makeover and analyze device. Shape plastic might also be a good call. I wouldn't take increase intuition, but that's...

Do the BP add up right? 160 att 148 skill -- total 308 50 gear -- total 358 -15 net qualities -- total 343 That leaves some points to play with before you hit 400. Some should go to contacts, but I assume that's in the cards since the build looks a bit skeletal. Your pilot skills seem low for a rigg...

None of an air sprit's powers say they do fire damage, though I think they can pick up innate spell (lightning bolt) as an optional power. Fire spirits specifically note that their engulf does fire damage, which I assumed would be the tool of choice for lighting up ammunition. A generous GM might al...

Whoops, response + intuition for full VR matrix initiative, not system.

Edit: and while I'm putting up stuff I forgot in the first post -- spirits of man are great because they get one of your spells as an innate spell. It's a good way to outsource drain costs.

Matrix initiative doesn't rely on reaction: it's system + intuition. You don't need to make up your own tradition to get an intuition based one, buddhist and wiccan traditions from street magic let you do that. A homebrew tradition might be subject to spot nerf if the GM is touchy, but using a Stree...