Shadowrun 4e questions

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Feb 27, 2011 8:56 pm

virgil wrote:I was contemplating various house-rules for SR, but I wanted opinions on the long-term effects. How important are strength minimums for weapons, as in, what would happen if I got rid of them for weapons? Doing so, I'd likely fold Strength into Body as one stat.

The basic rules don't have Strength Minimums. Strength is a dump stat. Even with Strength Minimums, it's still basically a dump stat. Strength and Body are both extremely weak stats, and merging them makes a lot of sense.

It changes how the stats add up though, and that effectively reduces the caps on other stats for starting characters unless you fiddle with stuff.

-Username17

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:05 am

What are NERPS?

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:11 am

I think it's a soda. or maybe a junk food. I think it's something you consume and they want you to consume it daily.

Shadowrun has a world with many cultures in it.

Is there... any easy way to introduce this to players? I've found myself that the biggest problem to getting people to play is getting them to imagine how a post-Awakening world with an often unregulated wireless matrix and no unified national force to keep everything together can even go on existing as a civilization. Instead they kinda drop the magic and matrix side of things and try to blow up office buildings with tank weaponry hooked on to the back of their stealth van. In one sense it's very very cool (I wish I had a tank gun), and in another it seems to be missing the point by a whole lot. Saying "oh but you forgot to account for ____, now you're dead" over and over until they learn all the ins and outs seems grossly unfair. Is that how people actually learn about the shadowrun universe? Is there some better way?

I mean in contrast, for DnD you just kinda say "you're a knight in a world of monsters, and most of them want to eat you, but if you become a bad enough dude then you can eat them instead, have fun". For WoD you just kinda say "you're a monster in a world of humans, and you're cool, but if a swat team really wants you dead then you're probably dead, so you gotta stay low most of the time". In both cases, people can already being to make semi-reasoned decisions about how to act with just a few sentences of explanation and a lot of imported knowledge.

So how would you introduce a completely green player to the universe and realities of Shadowrun? The "Welcome to the shadows" SR4 chapter does a shitty job of it, and I need something better to use, or at least an outline would be good.

kzt · Post by **kzt** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:22 am

Much of the issue is that the "world history" is intensely stupid in many ways and requires nearly complete suspension of disbelief. The underlying issue is that the original game violated the rule: "You only get one 'gimme' so don't waste it."

That 'gimme' was the magic returning. The other crazy crap just gets in the way of disbelief, so the players decide to just run around and amuse themselves because the rest of the setting requires that same suspension of disbelief that they used on the magic and they can't/won't do that.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:17 pm

RiotGearEpsilon wrote:What are NERPS?

Net Enhancements for Role Playing Shadowrun. It refers to an attempt by FASA in the late-'80s/early-'90s to collect contributions from Shadowrun players.

The first in-game reference I can recall was in either the Seattle or London sourcebooks. A fake ad declared "NERPS: It's not just for endomorphs anymore." It was probably an artistic in-joke about fat-ass gamers.

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:41 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Strength and Body are both extremely weak stats, and merging them makes a lot of sense.

Well, Body is very useful for being able to equip heavier armors without being encumbered; as your LMHS damage system is implemented, I imagine that will only increase the value of Armor, and by extension, Body.

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:25 am

What spells can I cast on people while I'm in Astral Form? Can I enter an area in Astral Form and start dropping fireballs? Can I use mind-reading while I'm in Astral Form?

kzt · Post by **kzt** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:08 am

Any mana spell, Only on people/critters with an astral presence.
No.
No.

Quantumboost · Post by **Quantumboost** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:38 am

Yup, kzt's right. The relevant quote:

SR4, page 173 wrote:A magician in the physical world can only cast spells on targets that are in the physical world. Similarly, a magician in astral space can only cast spells on targets that have an astral form (though the auras of things in the physical world can be seen, auras alone cannot be targeted). An astrally perceiving (or otherwise dual natured) magician can cast spells on a target in either the physical world or in astral space. An astral target can only be aff ected by mana spells—even if the magician is in the physical world astrally perceiving—as it has no physical presence.

A manifesting astral form isn't actually dual natured and can't cast spells on the physical plane, and physical spells don't do anything on the astral.

Surprised me since I'd always thought they could cast mana spells on the physical while manifesting, but that's apparently not the case.

kzt · Post by **kzt** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:20 am

Manifesting is essentially just a mental effect on the observer. Materialization is vastly more powerful, but only spirits can do that.

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:14 pm

Huh. I guess I owe my GM an apology! I was working under the assumption that I could suck information out of people's brains using Mind Probe while astrally projecting. Thanks for the cite, I'd missed it.

Lethe · Post by **Lethe** » Fri May 13, 2011 6:44 am

After taking a couple of months off from our main campaign for someone else to GM some D&D, my group is back to Shadowrun, and a few more questions have come up.

Does casting through a ward (not targeting it) alert its creator? And depending on the answer, what happens when your Detect Life range includes stuff on the other side of a barrier? The most related quotes I could find were:

SR4A 194 wrote:Should a magician try to cast a spell through a barrier, the target of the spell adds the Force of the barrier to its resistance dice pool.

SR4A 194 wrote:Any attack on a mana barrier or attempt to break through is immediately felt by the creator.

Street Magic 125 wrote:Alarm wards are designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and simply alert its creator when an intruding spell or astral form has passed through it.

I've seen it said that a spirit in astral form/astrally projecting mage can only cast mana spells, but is that actually spelled out? I know they can't cast spells to target things without astral forms, but could they cast a Physical spell on a dual-natured target?

What sort of area does Weather Control affect, and how big/where is its aura?