The Gaming Den

From SR4a p. 121 Only one specialization is allowed per skill, and specializations are not allowed for skill groups. From SR4a p. 270 A character may only know one specialization per skill, and specializations may not be applied to skill groups. From SR4 Official FAQ http://www.shadowrun4.com/game-r...

I'd go with unarmed + shock glove. You could also attack by modding your armor with Shock Frills - they do even more damage than a shock glove. Monowhips are good, but highly illegal, so you won't always gain the benefit of those skill ranks. Unarmed will be more beneficial in a wider range of circu...

(1) You are thinking of capsule rounds not gel rounds. I highly recommend Stick and Shock ammo for non-lethal takedowns, or just for winning the game in general. The problem with using toxins like Narcojet to takedown opponents is the onset time. Narcojet, which has an onset time of "immediate,...

Would you be willing to join a gaming group via skype? A couple of my regular players have recently become regular absentees. I was supposed to go looking for replacements/supplemental players this week but somehow it's Friday night already! Let me know (in this thread, not via PM) if you have any i...

Yeah, aside from some cyberware wonkiness the sapient critter rules actually work. Infected are crap, AIs and spirits basically unplayable, and and SURGE/metavariants is pointless, but centaurs and pixies aren't too ungodly terribad. I mean, at one point early on we were arguing whether magical cri...

From Shadowrun, Fourth Edition FAQ Version 2.0 Last Updated: 17 February 2012 When a spirit uses Possession or Inhabitation on a character, are the dual entity’s attributes limited by the character’s maximum augmented attribute values? Yes. The dual entity’s Physical attribute + Force of the spirit ...

Wait, why are Task spirits only okay for a materialization tradition, but better for possession/inhabitation? I was thinking it was the opposite because you don't need to use someone's body to get stuff done. Oh I bet this has something to do with those weird ass rules on what a spirit can and canno...

Did they bother to incorporate errata into the reprints?

I seem to recall hearing that the latest (third) printing of Street Magic was missing all the errata incorporated by Catalyst when they did the second print run.

I'm not sure why you feel that you have to choose between spellcasting and summoning. It's perfectly feasible to be good at both. At chargen, you can have one skill at 6 and all other must not be higher than 4. Set spellcasting to 6. Set summoning to 4. You should also be able to afford binding at 4...

Savage Worlds is terrible. That is all. Can you talk about why? (I have a GM who wants to run Savage Worlds.) From what I've been able to pick up from searching the Den, the exploding dice combined with higher skilled characters roll larger die means can a character can either be lucky or good. Thi...

And you can avoid this problem AND avoid one-roll SoLs by using condition tracks with base conditions that also don't damage the target, or requiring additional Charisma/social checks to make enchantment spells stick. Could you talk a little more about what this condition track with base conditions...

So the apparant BBEG in our campaign plans to bring it hard against the Megacorps. We don't know all the details of his plan, nor the full extent of his resources, but our party is making progress in uncovering all that. When it comes down to the big showdown, I don't want to win by putting a bullet...

I have a character in a Shadowrun game who the mayor of one of Seattle's districts. I wanted the Den's advice on what you guys would do with a character in that position to to try and make the world (or at least a small part of it) a less shitty place. I would also like to know what you guys think a...

Ehhhh. My recommendation: Go STR/WIS, with a Bugbear. Your stats should look like: STR: 18 CON: 13 WIS: 16 DEX: 13 CHA: 10 INT: 8. Righteous Brand is your money-maker. Aren't 4e bugbears +2 Str/Dex not Str/Wis? I think that the Shifter race is the Str/Wis one. I don't know if that changes things up...

If you are thinking of going Rogue, you might want to pull in the Lords of Madness rulebook for access to the Darkstaker feat. That's to prevent creatures with blindsight, tremorsense, etc from auto-detecting you. You would also want access to the Hide in Plain Sight class ability. With LoM and Core...

7. What legal status do "non-standard" sapient entities have in the UCAS and CAS? Are centaurs, dragons, and spirits considered to have rights? I know that Dunkelzahn the dragon got elected President, but I wanted to know how "universal" this idea is. 9. What rights do SINless p...

[citation needed]? http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberhi/0134.html [just the abstract] www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=ADH_101_0033 This is full study that you can read. Urban mortality is the typically the catch phrase for this kind of information. It's not just a US issue, it's a worldwide h...

Big corporations took over and screw the 99%, Neo-Anarchists and anti-establishment dudes are rebelling against the system, and metahumans and magicians demand rights and fight against government exploitation and control. I dunno if that's how I'd describe the transition of power from nation-states...

Constitution often feels like a "survival tax." Basically you have to throw points into some kind of durability stat, often labeled "constitution", in order to be able to tell your character's story for a long time. Otherwise your character may die really, really quickly. Unfortu...

Yeah the idea is that essence is the ultimate constraint on how much you can augment your body with 'Ware. You can pay to relax this constrain by purchasing higher grades of Ware, but at crippling expense (Delta grade ware costs 10x list price to save you 50% off the essence cost). Unfortunately hav...

TheFlatline wrote:
I forgot universal recipient. Is that AB positive?

Yes.

FrankTrollman wrote:
Brain transplants basically don't happen and are almost impossible.

-Username17

I don't know much medical science: Are you referring to SR-4 jarheads, or in Real Life?

Well, at the risk of ridicule, I'll assert that this an area that the Alternity games system handled well. Alternity had wound penalties, but these penalties only generate a moderate impact on your ability to get an "ordinary success" on anything you attempted, but a much more detrimental ...

Spells that aren't Stun Bolt/Ball are pretty marginal. If direct spells cost a lot more drain, I just wouldn't use them. Lightning Bolt is a very niche spell that I almost never use, and lowering the drain wouldn't change that. I can already get unlimited functionally identical lightning bolts by s...

@Chamomile Basically either damage or status-affect spells can both move you down a spectrum that ranges from perfectly fine to um.... swoon. At each step along the track, you become more vulnerable to attacks of any kind, and less capable in any actions you undertake. You are defeated once you run ...