The Ends v4.01

[Lokathor]

Yes I did word that badly. Two questions got smashed into one.

If a Technomancer has a 3 in all stats, and he adds a commlink with a 1 in all stats to his network, is his network unchanged because his technomancer matrix stats are generic, or does his network get weaker because his technomancer stats aren't generic so his network now has to use the generic stats?

The other question: If a technomancer has 3 in all stats, and then he buys a commlink with a 6 in all stats to improve his matrix stats, can he use complex forms using his network's new higher stats? Or does he have to buy actual programs and use them like anyone else does?

[Lokathor]

Hello all, I've made another PDF of all this (in LaTeX this time) that folks can use if they care to.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B91 ... NjE5&hl=en
(EDIT: link update to the current PDF)
(table of contents links don't work with the google viewer, but they'll work if you save it and view it offline).

The main difference from the other PDF is that this one is 12pt font, single column, uses a sans serif font for most of the text, and it has a more in depth Table of Contents (3 levels instead of 2). This makes it easier to read if you're like me and don't do well with double column text, but the increased font size also expands the pagecount from 62 to 129. Bigger.

Also To Frank, edits and questions:

Your TOC in the first post doesn't list "Matrix Attributes" as being a chapter, which might confuse people trying to look stuff up.

Also, in both sections of the ruleset, you have a chapter called "Technomancers", but in your TOC you called the second section "Technomancy: Echoes and Sprites", which again makes things hard to find.

In the "Jedi Trick" program explanation spoilerblock, Hardware is spelled "Harware"

In the "Types of Sprites" section you have a stentence that reads "and registered sprites of that type can assist a technomancer in learning or sustaining Complex Forms of that is appropriate to the category that the Sprite applies to.", but it probably shouldn't.

You've got the signal table twice, but the one in the "Signal" section doesn't list the -2 range.

In the Echoes section, you suggest "Reset" as a mythical Echo or Advanced Echo, but you've already got a Decompiling form with this name. This seems to be in violation of your complaint about NWOD and not making thigns with the same name but different function.

Physical Attributes
When skills call for one to use physical attributes through a VR or BTL interface, you use your Mental attributes instead, precisely as if you were astrally projecting. So while the Forgery and Gunnery skills nominally utilize Agility as the linked attribute, when used through VR interfaces, Logic is used in lieu of Agility. Charisma stands in for Strength, Intuition stands in for Reaction, Logic stands in for Agility, and Willpower replaces Body. When interacting with an AR

An exception to this rule is VR initiative, which is Intuition + Response + Reaction (this being your actual Reaction attribute).

The sentence "When interacting with an AR " just stops, and probably wasn't intended to stop like that.

Should Icon condition tracks be 8 + 1/2 System rounded up like other health tracks are? I assume so but it's not specified.

Resonance Nodes, does their firewall effect add to the firewall of any network inside (stacking), or does a network just use the higher of its own firewall or the Resonance Node's firewall (not stacking)?

And my question on Technomancers and Matrix Attributes stands: Are a Technomancer's Matrix Attributes dedicated or generic? Or does it not matter since Technomancer always use their own stats regardless of what hardware they bring into their network?

Miracle Shooter, Krank Kall, and Joke of The Day don't have descriptions. Care to write some, or do you mind if I add my own in my version of the PDF?

When you get a drone, does the price not include any software at all? Or do you get a rating 1 copy of each program type or something like that?

A Signal 6 Sat Link module costs 2,000, but a Signal 6 commlink costs 3,000. This seems a bit odd. Does my commllink need to be at least Signal 6 before I can use the satlink at all? Is the Sat Link module unable to perform the normal signal duties of the commlink?

[Quantumboost]

A Signal 6 Sat Link module costs 2,000, but a Signal 6 commlink costs 3,000. This seems a bit odd. Does my commllink need to be at least Signal 6 before I can use the satlink at all? Is the Sat Link module unable to perform the normal signal duties of the commlink?

I expect the answer is along the lines of:

Also, remembered my other question. A signal 5 commlink is 3000 nuyen, while a signal 5 directional retransmitter is 1000 nuyen. Aside from the fact that it's in your head in the case of an internal commlink, what's the point of shelling out the extra 250 nuyen for the signal 5 commlink, instead of getting one with no signal and using a retransmitter?

Size. The retransmitter is a handheld device. You pay a substantial and proportional premium to link devices together.

-Username17

In which case, the difference is "you can have a Sat Link as your signal transceiver, OR you can pay 1000 nuyen more and your commlink can actually fit in your pocket/skull".

[Lokathor]

Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah I forgot about that. Consider that question withdrawn then.

How big is a commlink anyways? Just like a modern cell phone sized thing? Like a poke-dex? Like a Star Trek communicator badge?

[Username17]

How big is a commlink anyways? Just like a modern cell phone sized thing? Like a poke-dex? Like a Star Trek communicator badge?

Comlinks are usually portrayed as being iPhone or perhaps iPod sized and shaped.

And yeah, typos abound. I am not sure when (or if) I will have time to go back and fix them. EotM was really a rush job, in response to the painful horror that was Unwired. The fact that since this was written they overhauled the matrix rule again and made them even worse is basically just a giant advertisement to not let Aaron write things.

And it's still not as creepy as him wanting to write in a 13 year old sexy elven multi-ethnic hacker girl as one of the Jackpoint commentators.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

Okay, I'll just fix all the stuff in the PDF to the best of my ability; fill in text for sections that drop off, clean up word order, etc.

Filtering it down to just mechanical questions:

Should Icon condition tracks be 8 + 1/2 System rounded up like other health tracks are? I assume so but it's not specified.

Resonance Nodes, does their firewall effect add to the firewall of any network inside (stacking), or does a network just use the higher of its own firewall or the Resonance Node's firewall (not stacking)?

My question on Technomancers and Matrix Attributes stands: Are a Technomancer's Matrix Attributes dedicated or generic? Or does it not matter since Technomancer always use their own stats regardless of what hardware they bring into their network?

When you get a drone, does the price not include any software at all? Or do you get a rating 1 copy of each program type or something like that?

[Username17]

Should Icon condition tracks be 8 + 1/2 System rounded up like other health tracks are? I assume so but it's not specified.

Yeah. I think that's specified outside the matrix chapter in the basic book under chargen or something. But yes in any case.

My question on Technomancers and Matrix Attributes stands: Are a Technomancer's Matrix Attributes dedicated or generic? Or does it not matter since Technomancer always use their own stats regardless of what hardware they bring into their network?

Technomancers function as a comlink, so they can take over their whole network and use stats in the generic fashion.

When you get a drone, does the price not include any software at all? Or do you get a rating 1 copy of each program type or something like that?

Drones only come with the software and weapons they say they come with. This does not prevent some drones from costing a lot less than some of the software and hardware packages they come with. But that's a different problem.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

Alright, cool.

Should I keep posting questions and rules edits and working on the editing process and posting updates? I dunno how busy you are with AWOD and school and stuff. And since I'm not the primary writer then my fixes would be best guess kinds of things.

I could also keep a giant changelog of it all if you like.

EDIT:

Hugely important question: When a Technomancer uses a normal program as a complex form, what is the fading involved? None? Half Rating? Do I have to pick a value for each program based on how good it is? If normal programs used as Complex Forms do have Fading, then what does a sprite roll to resist fading (since they don't have a Resonance)?

[Ganbare Gincun]

And it's still not as creepy as him wanting to write in a 13 year old sexy elven multi-ethnic hacker girl as one of the Jackpoint commentators.

Uh, wut?

[Username17]

Normal programs as CFs do not have Fading (or rather, are Fading 0).

And it's still not as creepy as him wanting to write in a 13 year old sexy elven multi-ethnic hacker girl as one of the Jackpoint commentators.

Uh, wut?

Her name was supposed to be "/dev/grrl" and she was part Carrib, part Salish, part Tir na nOgian.

/dev/grrl is a prodigy and she knows it, although in truth she still has a lot to learn. Thus far, her exuberance and tenacity has seen her through, and she's a fast learner. She is well aware that her age is constantly held against her, and overcompensates by obsessing over professional behavior. She gets angry when her ability or professionalism is called into question, or is called a child. /dev/grrl is the daughter of NeoNET execs, and grew up in Boston. She started working with the Matrix just after the Crash 2.0 at eight years of age (she is fifteen in 2071), and took to it like a pro. By age 14, she had created a new identity for herself and started working the shadows. She now splits her time between high school and her team, always seeking another way to prove herself. /dev/grrl first appears as a Shadowtalker in Feral Cities.

So sorry, she actually was written into the game. And it's retarded and creepy as hell. My only solace is that it looks like CGL may not hold the SR license for more than a few months.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

Might it be appropriate to write up an Ally Sprite kind of ability, similar to an Ally Spirit? Or does the fact that you can ReRegister a Sprite for free as much as you want in your spare time mean that it doesn't really matter?

[Username17]

Might it be appropriate to write up an Ally Sprite kind of ability, similar to an Ally Spirit? Or does the fact that you can ReRegister a Sprite for free as much as you want in your spare time mean that it doesn't really matter?

One could do something like that. I suggest using the Ally Spirit scaling cost I actually wrote instead of the broke-as-fuck version that Rob replaced it with in editing for no fucking reason.

It was supposed to be that the first force point was free, and each increase cost 5 times the current force. No idea why Rob changed it. He still has not given me a satisfactory answer, nearly five years later

-Username17

[Lokathor]

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B91 ... OWMw&hl=en

New version, with more minor edits and fixes. Also this is the last version before I start adding new content like filling in more background programs and other fluff text, or adding Ally Sprite rules and more Echos and Great Form Powers and such. And yeah, I saw that stuff at the bottom about needing a triangular BP cost for allies. The concept of ally sprites and spirits remind me of Glitch from ReBoot, and Glitch was way cool.

I finally looked at the Echoes in the core book Frank, and these are my thoughts on each one:
```Firewall Upgrade: This should be an Echo that adds your Submersion Grade to your Firewall at Connection range. That makes it work kinda like an alternate form of Aegis, and everyone is happy.
```NeuroFilter: This should be a Deeper Echo (requires Firewall Upgrade) that adds your Submersion Grade as a Biofeedback Filter. If someone wants the super super beefy protection against biofeedback effects, why not allow it?
```Overclocking: This is good and should be used, I don't know how else you can get extra IP in VR.
```Resonance Link: This is shit, and need to go.
```System Upgrade: Mostly shit, should probably just go.

[Surgo]

Maybe offtopic here, but what's the difference between FanPro and Catalyst in terms of holding the license? When did FanPro lose it? Which guys fucked it up really badly, in terms of material?

edit: Asking so I can determine which guys to actually support with my dollars.

[Username17]

Maybe offtopic here, but what's the difference between FanPro and Catalyst in terms of holding the license? When did FanPro lose it? Which guys fucked it up really badly, in terms of material?

edit: Asking so I can determine which guys to actually support with my dollars.

To a very real extent it doesn't matter who you send dollars to, because both companies are defunct (or nearly so).

The story is that FanPro licensed Shadowrun from Topps after FASA went under (itself a complicated - and frankly stupid tale of espionage, egos, and corporate malfeasance). FanPro was actually a company that was pretty much made out of the FASA people who had not either quit or gone on to work for Microsoft (taking the rights to make Battletech, Crimson Skies, and Shadowrun computer games with them). And they made some 3rd edition books of various quality: Cyberpirates was stone cold awesome and Dragons of the Sixth World was a flaming piece of shit. You know how it goes.

FanPro made 4th Edition, which was on the whole a very massive improvement. It had problems of course, like the fact that the Matrix rules basically did not make any sense, and spirits are too powerful, and skills cost too much. But seriously, it's fixable. Which is more than can say for most game systems. In fact, it's so much more than I can say for most game systems that I went and signed up to work for them.

So FanPro made a couple of SR4 books. But then it had a huge slow down. There was a big rift between FanPro Deutshland and FaPro USA. And no, I don't know what the fuck that was all about. The end result was that all the books got held up for nearly a year and everyone in FanPro USA (including me) went to work for Catalyst, and the SR license transfered with us. Catalyst was a company that was essentially created by a Battletech novel author. And for a while, things went along basically OK. Augmentation was produced, ad while there is some stupid shit in it, as a whole it's a quality book. Arsenal is pretty good too.

And now we come to the twin pieces of feces. The first is Unwired. Basically, I told Peter straight up that there was absolutely no way that I could make the Matrix any good without contradicting the core book, and that if I didn't get a green light to change the core assumptions I would wish him the best of luck and go to medical school without retaining position as a freelance writer. He insisted it could be done and recruited people who agreed with him to help him do it - and they failed. Badly. And worse, he then had himself a cadre freelancers who thought it was OK to go ahead and write Unwired. And they wrote Runner's Companion which was even worse.

And well... even Peter doesn't work there any more. The Catalyst president promoted various other Battletech authors into positions of power and the lead developer for Shadowrun is seriously Jason M. Hardy now. Sigh.

But none of it really matters, because there is another fight brewing over financial shenanigans. Basically the company suddenly doesn't seem to have several hundred thousand dollars and Loren Coleman has been billing the guys doing tiling on his family's house as "freelance writers." Various people with a financial sake in the company are threatening to sue people (mostly Loren), and it is honestly doubtful that the company will retain the SR license when it comes up for renewal in a few months.

So the long story short is that Street Magic is a great book, Arsenal is a great book, and Augmentation is a great book. And I personally even contributed to two of those books. But no one who worked on them will see a dime from you buying copies of those books, because everyone was either a freelancer or no longer an employee of the company. And Runner's Companion was one of the worst books I've ever seen or heard about, and purchasing it for money still doesn't affect the pocket books o the people responsible - because again they were freelancers or left the company or both.

And I wouldn't bet five dollars against Shadowrun's license getting transferred to yet another made up company in the near future. And I can't think of anyone but Jenna and maybe Robert Derrie who would actually move on to go do that with whatever the new company is. Adam Jury maybe?

The fact is that every company that has ever had the Shadowrun license ha appropriately enough been destroyed by theft. But I can't really see the universe allowing Shadowrun to simply go and stay out of print - because running the old FASA intellectual properties apparently allows your company to have $850,000 or so to steal over three years. And yeah, that's more than the company can lose and stay financially solvent - but it's also more than I am looking at making in three years as a doctor.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

As someone who is highly concerned with game balance, I feel compelled to ask what your thoughts would be to make spirits not be too powerful.

[Username17]

As someone who is highly concerned with game balance, I feel compelled to ask what your thoughts would be to make spirits not be too powerful.

1. Make ItNW less berserk. A good start is to make Hardened Armor into automatic hits and halve the amount of Hardened Armor that they have.
2. Make Spirit Skills less heug compared to mortal skills. If Spirits got Skills equal to half force (rounded up) instead of full force, then Spirits would leave mortal dicepool ranges at Force 13 instead of Force 8, and that's a really big deal.

But yeah, in general, the things in SR4 that are a "big deal" of a problem tend to be the kinds of thing that I could solve with one sentence if I was allowed to do so. Except for the stuff in Unwired and Runner's Companion, where the only one sentence fix to any of that shit it "Do not use that book."

-Username17

[Lokathor]

I've seen the first one before, that's in your houserules. The second is new.

I take it Sprites would also get the same skill ranks adjustment?

[Surgo]

But no one who worked on them will see a dime from you buying copies of those books, because everyone was either a freelancer or no longer an employee of the company.

I suspected that was the case. Blah. I *want* to support good writing. The universe needs more of it.

It's a shame a print version of The Ends (probably) can't be sold legally.

[Lokathor]

But no one who worked on them will see a dime from you buying copies of those books, because everyone was either a freelancer or no longer an employee of the company.

I suspected that was the case. Blah. I *want* to support good writing. The universe needs more of it.

It's a shame a print version of The Ends (probably) can't be sold legally.

If someone sat down and made a public domain alternate set of mechanics (like AWOD), then you could put out The Ends with that, assuming you edited it to also be free of the various SR Intellectual Property. We should maybe do that eventually if the SR license lapses into the wrong hands and we get more bad books. We might get lucky though, maybe the next guys won't suck.

Ally Sprites and a new Echo

New Echoes:
``Luminal Reflexes: You can dodge bullets, but only in your mind. Add your Submersion Grade to all of your defensive Cybercombat rolls.
``Spare Process: The technomancer gains a basic Rating 1 Ally Sprite based on one of the sprite types he has access to. Additional BP can be spent later to improve the sprite's rating and abilities, see that section for the full rules.

Ally Sprites
An ally sprite is a personification of the Deep Resonance projected out "through" the technomancer. It assists and protects its master, and is fed by the technomancer's connection to the Deep Resonance. If the sprite would be for any reason dissapated or disrupted, it instead immediately returns to the technomancer's location, restores its Icon if necessary, and then goes through the reboot process (following the technomancer as necessary during this time). Once that is done, the sprite is at the technomancer's side and is ready to begin acting again.

Ally sprites always start at Rating 1 when you buy the Spare Process Echo. Each additional rating point costs 5 times the current rating in BP. So getting a Rating 5 Ally costs 0 + 5 + 10 + 15 + 20 = 50 BP. The ally sprite can use any stat line of a sprite type that the technomancer has access to, chosen at the time of creation. The sprite begins with no powers, and only the Datasearch skill. It doesn't know any complex forms. It can gain skills and sprite powers for 3 BP each. The ally sprite's skills are always equal to its Rating. The ally sprite can gain complex forms that it's master knows for 2 BP, or that its master does not know for 3BP. The ally sprite does not have a Resonance stat, however, and cannot learn any Skills from the Resonance skill group, or use any Resonance based Complex Forms.

Ally sprites use the normal rules for Registered sprites, but do not count against the technomancer's limit of how many sprites they can have Registered at once. Ally sprites can perform any number of tasks without dissipating. However, if an ally sprite has a number of tasks removed from it within a single turn equal to its rating, it returns to its master and reboots as described above.

Ally sprites are extremely loyal and they try to be helpful when possible, but if they are mistreated they will become vengeful and angry. They must always follow tasks to the letter, and can never attack their master, but whenever their master falls unconscious from physical or stun damage, they have a chance to break free and become a free sprite. The sprite rolls twice its rating against the master's Resonance + Registering. If the sprite wins, it's free, and it can do whatever it wishes.

[Lokathor]

Well, taking the lack of reply to be a "That looks good enough to not criticize", which makes sense since I mostly just ganked the Ally Spirit rules directly into a sprite format, here's a PDF with the Ally Sprite rules and extra Echoes included:
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B91 ... NjE5&hl=en

[Lokathor]

Hate to triple post like this, but the PM system seems to be down.

In SR4, a Magical Foci costs 1BP per force point to get at creation (seemingly regardless of type), but then later on each type has separate costs based on the type of Foci and the Force you want it at. How would you price Magical Focuses?

[Username17]

There isn't going to be an open-source Shadowrun, because it's too specific. You could make an open-source cyberpunk, and people have. But it wouldn't be SR. Although with Catalyst messily imploding, there is a noticeable chance that open source books like EotM will be the only new products for a while.

You seem to have missed the number one purpose of an Ally Spirit: giving bonuses to casting.

Magic items I charge bonding cost based on their bonding cost, regardless of whether it's chargen or not.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

Oh crap, did I leave a hole there? Aid Form is a task normally allowed to Registered Sprites, so I thought that the Ally Sprite would be able to do that automatically by saying that it can do anything a Registered Sprite can do.

I do think that an open source "Magical Cyberpunk" would be a cool project to work on, but an open source fixed up 3e/3.5 would probably be a more worthwhile task (if that could be done). SR4+EotM doesn't really have anything more to add to it because it's already one of those flexible point building systems that some of us all love.

3e/3.5 needs something that's not like Tome, where everything is just turned up to 11, because most players honestly just can't handle that as a playstyle. Only two people I've ever talked to outside of this forum have been happy with it. Most players want something where everything is around the "Rogue Balance Point" (as the forum's wiki puts it). Or as this Class Tier System puts it, with everything hovering around the Tier 3 spot. But that's at least a whole new PHB (even if lots of the MM referencing that revised PHB doesn't necessarily have to be changed), so that's at least a whole new other thread, if not many many new threads.

[Smeelbo]

But no one who worked on them will see a dime from you buying copies of those books, because everyone was either a freelancer or no longer an employee of the company.

I suspected that was the case. Blah. I *want* to support good writing. The universe needs more of it.

Then do what I did, and give Frank money directly.

At least the world gets another Doctor that way.

You need a PayPal account, Frank, seriously, so people can support you along the ShareWare model, e.g. download the work for free, if you like it, send $25 or whatever.

Smeelbo
Abuser of BBCodes