Shadowrun X.07

The time is 50 years in the future. Cities have become megaplexes, satellites are all around us, and much of humanity lives with half of their mind in the matrix, connected by the cyberware inside their brains. The Owners -- old families, immortal elves, great dragons -- live lavishly on the last remaining pristine places on Earth. They control the megacorporations and the media, and influence the governments which are tasked with keeping the people in check.

In this world, you are either part of the economic value chain, a valued citizen with a SIN (system identification number): Managing, researching, producing and marketing the consumer experiences and products of tomorrow. Or a less valued citizen tangential to the value chain but still with a SIN, cleaning, grooming, repairing, reporting, entertaining and selling to the more valued citizens. But if you are outside the corporate world, there is no SIN, no voting and no voice. Should you show aptitude, you can recruit with the megacorps and leave your old life behind -- and if you cannot, there is still crime, for the valued citizens have wants and needs not within official doctrine.

And there is one equalizer: Magic has returned to the world, and it seems to come more easily to those wild at heart. All around the world, native tribes and mystic communities have taken back their land, aided by the spirits who live there and who have revealed themselves to the shamans. The megacorps have recruited as many magicians as possible but mostly manage only to retain a few hermetics, whose orderly thinking fits the corporate culture at least a little bit. Megacorporate money still controls much, but the fight for the human soul seems far from over.

With magic, metahumans have come back: First elves and dwarves, then orks and trolls. Apart from a shift from skin-based racism towards metatype-based racism, it has not made much difference: If you are a corporate-born troll, augmentations and cosmetic surgery will make you fit in just fine -- and if you are a gutter-punk elf, all you got is a glamorous look to complement your dejectedness. And there are more arrivals on the streets: Ghouls, devil rats and the occasional vampire or shapeshifter also live here, trying to survive just like you.

Based on Shadowrun, Simplified and shorter remedies for SR5, SR4 and SR2-3.

Who You Are

There are a lot of ways to be useful as a SIN-less person. You could be a:

... or really any job that involves the expertise outlined above and more. A detective, negotiator/face, bounty hunter, aspiring simsense star, gang member or just a starting "hazardous material" courier.

A combateer trains much of her time in all aspects of warfare. To cope with the psychological effects, most adopt a code like the samurai Bushido, religious guidance or just professionalism with humanistic ideals. Physical superiority is either reached with cyberware enhancements or with its magical equivalent, adept powers. A life of warfare requires strong focus and anyone indulging too many vices quickly burns out.

A mage can see the astral plane, a parallel dimension full of emotions and mana. In shaping the mana using his willpower, a mage builds and casts spells whose effect can range from invisibility to fireballs and super-fast healing. Shamanic magicians can also talk to the spirits of a place, negotiating favors in exchange for good deeds, while hermetics can conjure powerful but comparatively simple-minded elemental spirits who excel in combat.

A decker sees all airwaves and in them, the underlying code of the matrix as it streams through the cyberdeck in her skull. As naturally as thinking aloud, she uses a wide array of exploits to intercept communications, change camera images, find hidden information, and alter what a person with an active simlink sees and feels.

A rigger has enhanced his consciousness with tiny drones that live on his shoulder or under his long coat. With the same effortlessness as a decker, he sends them out as if they were his natural limbs. And the drone does not have to be tiny. After all, a tank is just a really big drone.

All this raises a big question: If you are so useful, why don't you work for the megacorps and make a nice salary and comfortable living? And the answer is either that you have not the least bit of culture in you, or more likely that you have some ideals. Of course you still work indirectly for The Owners, but you get to keep a part of your dignity... or at least that is what you are telling yourself.

Attributes

You have three physical and three mental attributes, all ranging from 1..6 for humans.

NPCs are described with B/M only, and spirits have a Force (F) encompassing both. Vehicles have Str/Qui only, translating to stability and speed.

Core attributes are:

Metahumans have the following modifications.

Attributes serve two purposes: They are rolled together with skills, or they form pseudo-skills.

And then there are three special attributes:

Character creation attribute levels depend on your campaign:

SR1-5 balancing note: Body was removed because Bod/Str always felt interlinked. Magic is replaced by Wil. Dex is probably close to SR4-5 Agi. Qui encompasses SR4-5 Rea. Perception has no business being a skill. Initiative is 4+1D6, no fucking around with Qui or Int anymore. Choices restricted for more well-rounded characters.

Skills

Skills range from 0..6 and are rolled together with an attribute, where each 5 or 6 on a die counts as one success. More than half of the dice being 1 is a glitch; when no successes are in, it is a critical glitch.

Core skills are:

Then there are knowledge skills with the classic smart-ass effect: Know everything, cannot do anything. Rolls with Int. Use for flavor, because any active skill above already includes the relevant knowledge, including build and repair.

You get the following amount of skill points, depending on your campaign:

Regardless of campaign, there are freebies:

SR1-5 balancing note: Bring back broad skills like SR1 to ease the SR4-5 focus on attributes. Magic brought to Wil as in Shadowrun Returns (SRR) games. Uncluttering of Int, with Survival and Demolitions moved to Dex. Close Combat moved to Str so that characters do not need to max Str AND Qui; punching a Troll becomes as dangerous as it should. Enchanting in Sorcery because nobody had Enchanting anyway. Electronics and Mechanics merged because of less importance in the wireless world.

Qualities, Handicaps and Rumors

There are certain innate qualities you can have, and handicaps in other areas. The qualities should lead to "I can't believe she is that good at this" moments, and the handicaps to embarrassing and funny situations. You get +3 quality points and -3 handicap points (or less of both, at your choice).

Qualities:

Handicaps:

And then, there are rumors about you:

SR1-5 balancing note: No enhancing attributes or full skills. No handicaps that hinder gameplay too much. Added rumors for flavor. Dice reduction only when permanent, otherwise threshold adjustment.

Augmentations

You can have cyberware and the more expensive bioware to boost attributes and skills. Like all gear, they have an availability from 0..6:

You might think that corporations could always wipe you out. This may be true from a pure availability perspective but is not even remotely cost effective. It is also the rationale behind the megacorps making governments or more precisely the citizens pay for the most ridiculous firepower.

Depending on your campaign, you have access to the following availability levels:

Cyberware and bioware cost Essence and money. We start with character-defining cyberware. This cyberware covers brain and spine, and is the only one that cannot be removed without killing you; it can be upgraded though by paying the difference.

Bodyware is cybernetics and bioware outside your head. Bioware is grown instead of built, Essence friendly but also much more expensive.

Headware is cybernetics and bioware inside your head.

Essence loss has consequences. Each rounded point of Essence lost reduces your magical abilities by one die; the rounding means that up to 0.5 Essence loss have no effect yet. When lost by obvious cyberware (e.g. cybereyes/limbs/torso, dermal plating, muscle augmentation), each rounded point confers -1 Talking (Negotiation, Con) but also +1 Talking (Intimidation).

Cyber- and bioware count as "natural" because you paid Essence for it, so e.g. natural, bioware and cyberware lowlight vision are equally effective. Cyberlimbs take away from many full-body enhancements: Each cyberarm or leg reduces the effect by 25%, but does not reduce Essence loss. So e.g. one cyberlimb would reduce +3 Str (e.g. by muscle augmentation 2 and suprathyroid gland) by 25% to ROUND(+2.25) Str = +2 Str, and e.g. two cyberlimbs would reduce the same +3 Str augmentation by 50% to ROUND(+1.5) Str = +1 Str. For purposes of augmentations (and adept powers), 0.5 is considered 0.5- and rounded to 0.0.

Augmentations come in grades. Lower grade ware can be upgraded to higher grades by paying the difference. Cyberlimbs must be upgraded together with all accessoires, an expensive operation.

Cyberware generally cannot be decked into because fast-signal wiring through the body is used. The only exception are simlinks, cyberdecks and riggercontrols because they must send and receive data and are thus vulnerable to malicious data packets. Unlike external wireless devices, they can be used directionally on a target in line of sight, and are only vulnerable from that direction then. If used on an out-of-sight target through the matrix, they are vulnerable from everywhere.

SR1-5 balancing note: Costs adapted to campaign levels. Datajack encouraged. Decking and rigging completely rethought with extra actions, preventing disconnect from the real world. Skillwires removed because always felt odd. Eye/ear mod now often require cyber replacements. Wireless removed, and attacking decks/rigcontrols discouraged. No jumpiness for wired reflexes to avoid Magicrun.

Calculation: +1 Attribute is worth 0.5 Essence (10K), +1 Armor/Initiative/Skill 0.3 Essence (5K). Cyberlimbs cost /3, Bioware costs *3 and 60% Essence; temporary boosts have 60% Essence and cost. When possibly overpowered through stacking, cost up to *2 and Avail 4.

Adept Powers

If you took the Adept quality, there are powers filling the remaining Essence with magic. All powers are intrinsic and always on, but can be switched off at will. Maximum available levels differ by campaign:

The list below uses Ex-Elite maximum levels; adjust for other campaigns.

SR1-5 balancing note: Mostly like SR5. Costs slightly more than cyber, but then again adepts can have cyber too. Removed reflexes because that should be cyber's unique selling point. Fire more dangerous than electricity, so has prerequisities.

Calculation: 0.5 for +1 skill/armor, 0.25 for rare uses or less useful abilities.

Spells

If you chose the Magician quality, spells are the most direct way to channel mana from the astral plane into the physical world. Spells affect primarily living beings who have a presence on the astral plane, and cannot transform objects although moving them is possible. Like drugs, spells can only have crude neurological effects.

You can choose the spell force F up to Essence+Initiation. A high-force spell takes multiple actions to build: Two F per action. So you can cast an F 2 spell immediately, an F 4 spell in the second action, an F 6 spell in the third action, and so on. In each round, you can either pulse the spell by casting at its current F and then building further for another +2 F; or you can omit pulsing and just build the spell, avoiding drain for the moment.

Before casting, you have to see the target directly by non-magical means, e.g. Clairvoyance does not count. Glass panels do not hinder spells but may provide armor if the spell starts at the caster, usually applicable for area effect spells. Unlike conjuring, spell casting is possible when using astral perception or projection, but only astral or dual-natured targets can be affected.

Upon casting, roll Wil+Sorcery+F. The target usually resists with Wil+Astral Armor unless otherwise noted. A nearby defending magician may take a -5i disruptive action to roll Wil+Sorcery to reduce your successes further. Your net successes can be used for two purposes: Affecting the opponent and reducing the drain.

Drain is spell-dependent and stun damage, and always at least 1. Any drain above Essence is physical and cannot be healed by magic or Biotech. After the run, a hospital may help though. That is why Essence loss is especially bad for magicians: Less force, and more physical drain. Base drain is F/2, rounded down; this means odd F is good for drain, but bad for the required number of spell building actions.

A spell can affect more than one opponent or friend at once. For each additional person, add +1 drain. Some spells need to be sustained. As long as this is the case, the caster has +1 harder on all skill tests. Only one spell can be sustained at a time.

Spells come in five categories.

All magic including spells can be felt in the physical world and outright seen on the astral plane. On the worldly plane raised hair, an electric feeling, or the impression of something heavy whooshing by are common. On the astral plane magical threads glow visibly, depending on size which in turn depends on force.

Characters versed in magic theory can determine the spell from mundane effects with Perception (Magic) and subsequent successes in Knowledge (Magic Theory) where more successes provide more detailed information. Seeing on the astral is much easier, conferring -2 easier to detect. One notable exception is that targets convinced by illusion spells always forget to look at their feelings.

Spell mana threads exist between caster and target on the astral plane, but only at the target in the worldly plane, with the lone exception of area effect spells because they transition from the astral to the real world at the caster. Shamans are also overlayed with the shamanic mask proportional to F during spell crafting; the totem is obvious to any observer.

SR1-5 balancing note: Spells are very powerful, but take time to build now, adding urgency to "kill the mage first". Removed direct effect on things. Removed mana/physical distinction. Drain/effect balance can now be chosen by caster. All area spells are indirect. Detection spells are always passive. No "moving zone" for area spells because it always felt awkward. Increase attributes removed to make cyber more valuable. Mind probe and control thoughts removed because too involved in neuroscience, and to make Talking more useful. Limits by F used for motivating higher F.

Calculation: Spell base drain F/2, touch -1, area +2 (starts at caster), mental or stun -1, physical +1, elemental +1. Animal Str micro 1, mini 2, small 3, medium 4, large 6, huge 9, van 13. Drone Str micro 1, mini 2, small 3, medium 5, large 7, huge 10, van 15.

Q: Rather Cha/Int+Wil+Sorcery instead of Wil+Sorcery+F? When hiding from detection spells behind astral barrier/Concealment, should both parties roll an opposed test instead of comparing F?

Q: For faster combat round resolving, abandon build-up over actions and just roll Wil+Sorcery, to split between F (also affecting drain) and drain reduction?

Totems

If you are a shaman, you were chosen by a totem, a spirit guide you meet in your dreams. As long as you follow their path, they confer advantages to you, in the form of additional dice. Totems are opposed to cyberware, and reduce their advantages by half if bioware Essence loss is above 0.5, or if any cyberware is installed. This means that shamans are usually easily identifiable by their lack of simlink.

The following totems are known:

Other magical traditions may have their own versions but they are mostly variations of Bear, Cat, Dog, Eagle and Raven.

When a shaman casts a spell, her features are overlayed with the shamanic mask, momentarily making her more similar to her Totem and adding -1 easier to detect. This means that hermetics are less easily identifiable and better suited to stealthy spell casting.

SR1-5 balancing note: No spirit guides for hermetics to encourage more role-playing shamanism. No spirit advantages to keep things simple. No spirit guides for adepts since it was always awkward to roleplay.

Drones & Vehicles

As a rigger, drones are part of your identity, acting as extended limbs and felt in your body. Vehicles are just very big drones. Both have just two attributes: Str which indicates robustness and damage if used to ram; and Qui which determines the speed at which it can move. Vehicles can also have armor which aids in rolling defense.

Drones and other gear come in many sizes, affecting detectability.

Like cyberlimbs, drones are -1 easier to detect when moving, unlike their quieter biological counterparts. On the other hand, their hardness counts as armor, and from a certain size on they are stronger too. Vehicle sprint speed at Qui*4 is the maneuvering speed; their maximum speed during chases is Qui*8.

When walking around, a rigger will usually hide the following micro, mini or small drones. Micro drones can fire a single narcoject dart and are legally restricted because they are very hard to detect. Mini drones can hold and have the size of a light pistol, while small drones can mount a heavy pistol or SMG and are the last size to fit in a shoulder-slung bag. All drones come with a camera, recorder, memory and navigation devices, and can be fitted with infrared etc. at cyberware cost.

The next drone size is medium, smaller than 1 cubic meter. They can be lifted but not carried well and are +1 harder to detect. A sport or assault rifle can be mounted. Medium drones are typically armored in the expectation to be shot at. They are often used outdoors because indoor maneuvering must be very careful. A medium drone fits in the trunk of a car, or takes two seats.

Motorcycles and quads count as large drones and are +0 normal to detect. They always have one seat; a Troll would need a two seat equivalent. The seat can be replaced by a larger ammunition repository. Large drones can fit an LMG, sniper rifle or grenade launcher but the weapon is still obvious. Armor protects only the vehicle, not the driver. A large drone fits in the back of a van, or takes 4 seats.

Cars are the next larger size and are -1 easier to detect, like Trolls. They have at least two seats, or one Troll seat, and can fit a HMG or rocket launcher. When giving up one seat, the weapon is within a retractable turret.

Vans are -2 easier to detect. They have 2 seats in the front and 6 in the back, unless otherwise noted. Can mount a retractable turret with an HMG or rocket launcher without giving up one seat.

Trucks are -3 easier to detect. They have 3 seats in the front and either 12 in the back or 20 in a trailer. They can fit two retractable turrets with heavy weapons.

Vehicles of at least car size have the following optional equipment:

All drones have System 2 and roll Sys*2 for navigation, perception, firing etc. when not steered by a metahuman. They also use their Sys against decking attempts, including forgery on their whereabouts.

All vehicles have a directional transmitter with a range of up to Str*100m when unobstructed. The driver directs the transmitter by a mental feedback loop via simlink, and both only send data and receive commands from that direction in a 5° cone. A driver must be able to see the drone, otherwise it either switches to auto pilot or re-connects through the matrix. As long as directional transmission is active, an enemy decker must stand roughly between drone and cyberware to deck either.

All vehicles are legally required to be present in the matrix, broadcasting their position and id, and providing emergency overrides for firefighters, ambulances and police. Drivers without simlink use the matrix per hand-held comlink to access their vehicle. Through the matrix, vehicles can be steered from far away, though latency adds +1 harder to drive per intermediate matrix node, typically with 1 node per km distance.

When sitting in a vehicle, a rigger will use a wired connection which always exists as backup solution for everyone with a datajack/simlink. Remember that the vehicle is still legally required to be connected to the matrix. A non-connection is immediately obvious to any observer due to the absence of augmented reality (AR) information.

Vehicles and drones can come in security (Sec) and military (Mil) variants, only available to NPCs. Sec drones are hydrogen powered and can have double armor without losing any speed; the tires of ground vehicles are completely covered, and they have Sys 3. Mil drones are fusion powered and can have triple armor without disadvantages; they have Sys 4. Both variants are excessively expensive and immediately obvious to an observer. Unlike civilian vehicles, they make a mess if destroyed: Sec drones count as grenade with 2*Str damage, and Mil drones count as grenade with 3*Str damage, both losing 1 damage per meter.

An example of Mil only vehicles are panzers, vector thrust tanks that can fly fast as well as hover. Stealing one is answered by a global corporate hunt.

SR1-5 balancing note: All vehicles are assumed rigged to encourage riggers. Removed handling. Wireless for rigger controls harder to deck. Ram damage at sprint speed (Qui*4) made comparable to tackle damage; now related to animal attack damage.

Calculation: Str micro 1, mini 2, small 3, medium 4-5, large 6-8, huge 9-12, van 13-16, truck 17+ (rat, eagle, cat, wolf, jaguar, bear, rhino, elephant). Armor like Str; /2 for climber and aircraft, *1.5 for marine, *2 for submarine. Qui micro..truck 2-3-5-6-8-10-8-6; *2 for land or rotor, *4 for winged. Cost micro 100Y, mini 500Y, small 1K, medium Str*0.5K, large Str*1K, huge Str*1.5K, van Str*2K, truck Str*3K; *1.5 for climber or marine, *2 for aircraft, *3 for submarine. Mods: Either Armor or Qui can have multipliers 0.5..2.0, also multiplies cost; unmanned drones can re-balance by reciprocal.

Gear

Apart from your body and head augmentations including drones, you will use a lot of external gear. Availability ratings are the same as for cyberware. Gear always comes with wireless but without cable connection; this means anyone with a simlink can scan gear using matrix perception unless wireless is disabled. While simlinks provide directional transmission to distant targets, equipment held near or worn on the body must be addressed in omnidirectional mode. Gear is usually connected to the comlink, enabling steering through the matrix.

First up are wireless external augmentations. They have Sys 1 unless otherwise noted.

Security devices are a must for a shadowrunner team. Being power-hungry, they are generally half the size of a brief case and have an effect radius of L*5 meters. Run by the press of a button with a Sys equal to L, and -L easier to detect when active. Wireless connection for diagnostics.

Break & Enter gear is also frequently needed. Optional wireless functionality with Sys 1.

When the characters have to hold a prisoner, or are themselves prisoners, restraints are applied. No wireless.

When hurt, medical gear will help.

Lastly, characters will need survival gear.

SR1-5 balancing note: Reduced number of items. Wireless advantages reduced. Worse than cyber because of omnidirectional matrix access. Fake ID "goodness" was always weird, so removed.

Armor Clothing

Now you are equipped for the job, except for when you are shot at. That is where armor clothing comes in. Clothing can also aid in hiding gear, adding +1 harder to detect for items up to a specified size.

Additional protective items are:

SR1-5 balancing note: No armor modifications anymore. Armor values somewhere between SR4 and SR5. Heavy armor affects perception.

Weapons

And finally, you will want to hit back. We start with Firearms. All of them include wireless smartlink and can be outfitted with a wired smartpad for 500Y. Like drones and gear, carried weapons have a detectability rating. Once used, they gain two additional ones: At the target, and at the handler. Both replace the detectability of the weapon once used, so weapon size is only important during carry, not during firing.

Base detectability of weapons when carried are analogous to all other gear. Some are easier or harder to "notice", which means the firing; the malus or bonus is added to the total detectability. Weapons also have a given short range, a medium range of (short*3)m, a long range of (short*10)m, and an astronomical range of (short*20) m.

Then there are weapons that are fired from the hip, using Heavy Weapons. When used with a bipod, Str requirements are reduced by 1. Drone firing requires Firearm (Gunnery).

For more stealth, use Projectiles. Cannot be used from drones.

And for even more sneaking, go to Close Combat. Clubs cause stun and blades physical damage. Unlike firearms and projectiles, close combat causes knockdowns when the damage received is above the recipient's Str. Cannot be used by drones.

Lastly, explosives can be your stationary friend. Demolitions damage is not linear, with increasing kg needed to multiply output: 1kg produces base damage, 1+2kg to produce double damage, 1+2+3kg to produce triple damage, and so on. A character can typically carry Str/2 kg explosives among her other equipment; drones can too but are slowed down and are -1 easier to detect.

SR1-5: Rules for weapon visibility again. Minimum Str to determine who can wield a HMG and who cannot. Detectability for carry, firer and impact specified, so we can play stealthy shooting. Clear stun/physical distinction for close combat weapons.

Calculation: Mostly taking SR5 as basis and balancing weapons against each other. Costs chosen by intuition. On both accounts, better balancing is most probably required.

Safehouses

Armed and armored, you can now survive a fight if it comes your way. Sometimes you will also want to fortify your position, usually a safehouse. This is essentially the same what corporations do. All safehouse gear communicates wirelessly, usually with Sys L.

Building a prefab house is easy, with expenses determined mostly by structural Str which determines how hard it is to break through. Costs are per sqm of building space and pure material prices; double for inclusion of skilled labor. At least 1 Mechatronic (Building) success is necessary for 1 sqm per hour, more successes accelerate the process. Security versions have Str armor, civilian zero.

Like people and drones, structures roll Str+Armor against attacks. Also like drones, damage locally reduces Str, and yields a ram-sized hole when Str is reduced to zero. Bullets and other piercing attacks do not destroy structures but make them count as armor instead; demolitions, ramming or striking is required to produce holes. A structure collapses with sufficiently large and numerous holes, decided by the GM.

Renting a safehouse costs anywhere from 1K a week for a slightly secured warehouse to 10K a week for an upper class condo with swimming pool and tight security, assuming space for the entire team. Since runners usually have no permanent residence, this counts as temporary home after a run. Costs: Squatter 1K, low 3K, middle 6K, high-life 10K, luxury 30K per week. Over prolonged time, the lifestyle affects the general appearance of the characters such that NPC can tell which lifestyle the PCs belong to.

SR1-5 balancing note: Written such that runners would want to buy it. Each with remedy to crack it. Walls are harder than vehicles, balanced to be destroyed by it.

Q: Instead of requiring L successes, would it be more fun (albeit slower to play) if locks et all rolled with Sys*2? Exception for chainlink fence too complicated?

Drugs

What would a great house party be without drugs? Chemical compounds have short-term effects, come with the risk of long-term addiction, and can cause effects from trippy experiences to combat readiness; effect duration is some hours unless otherwise noted. Everytime a drug dose is taken, a Str+Wil roll determines whether you become addicted.

Escapist experiences are not created by chemicals anymore, because BTL (Better than Life, "Beetle") chips have taken over the role of Heroin: Simsense experiences with deactivated limiters can induce highs and escapes not achievable with the rather crude neurochemical way drugs work. BTLs are slotted into the simlink, burn out after one use, and have Addiction 4, Avail 2, and Cost 100Y. Police will focus on them over chemical drugs because BTLs are more disruptive to workforce productivity.

SR3-5 balancing note: Reduced drug effects and provided negatives because SR5 enticed players too much. Worse boni compared to cyber. BTLs have no positive effect.

Contacts & Connections

You are now fully equipped to go shadow running -- what is left is: How do you actually get hired for a shadowrun? That is where contacts come in, spanning a web of connections.

Contacts have a power rating from 1..6 that mirrors availability ratings, except that there is no power 0 contact save for the occasional squatter or BTL addict. Contacts generally have access to gear with an availability equal to their power.

At character creation, you get 4 contacts with your own power, i.e. 2..4 depending on your campaign. Sacrificing skill points to get more contacts is also possible: Each skill point less yields one contact of your power. The power points can also be "split", giving you more but less powerful contacts, so you can know a cleaning crew member in every major megacorp main tower in Seattle. You define a back story detailing the relation between your contact and yourself; they may feel very loyal to you, but this has to go both ways, should be rare, and constantly role played.

Popular contacts include:

Of course, neither your fixer nor street doc will directly lead a group of 50-5000 people, but they negotiate and operate on persons with their respective power level, and thus have access to information, activities and gear of that level. Conversely, it is also on that power level that contacts will want to achieve something, and this is were you come into play.

SR1-5 balancing note: Power aligned with availability. No loyalty rating anymore, is now based on story.

What You Do

As a runner, you go on shadowruns to earn nuyen and do good if possible, or at least to perpetuate your legend and strike fear into the heart of your opposition. Runs can take a number of different shapes and forms, following a story line the game master (GM) has envisioned for the player characters (PC), usually involving a number of non-player characters (NPC). A typical outline would be:

One note to the GM at the beginning: Maximize character (PC or NPC) interactions and prioritize them over technology-oriented solutions. Even a classical break-in should have a social component, making the run lively instead of mechanistic.

The Big Picture

As GM (game master aka the world simulation), thinking in terms of a campaign can be useful to create epic adventures. Think about a group of people with morally questionable goals: Making laws that benefit them, conjuring an inspect spirit hive for magical power, or just getting ahead in a criminal or corporate organization by outperforming their peers. Standard conspiracies.

These goals should take a number of runs to materialize, giving the PCs a chance to glimpse behind the scenes, because no secretive plan is ever foolproof -- a lot of people have to know aspects of the plan to get things into motion. A run can be as simple as creating a diversion, negotiating or intimidating people preferably at seemingly secure places to unsettle them, bringing a contested item from A to B, aiding or destroying magical rituals, or stealing data, items or persons. Naturally this involves interacting with opponents who also may have some glimpse of why they are doing it.

And there will always be opposition, having partial insight in what the perpetrators are doing. Working for the opposition is also possible and sometimes ethically preferable. Sometimes runners inadvertently work for both in succession, creating interesting insights.

Runs should be tailored to the abilities of the group, especially necessary for tables with rotating GM. There are always many moving parts to a plan, so the characters should not get a part they are ill equipped to solve; that would be stupid of the fixer or Johnson too, so they would most likely choose other people for that task.

For something smaller, random encounters with single persons having some injustice done to them, relatives abducted, friends threatened, or corporate behaving in a lawless manner are also good motives to get involved. These kind of runs usually confer a lot less money but more karma, and are good for a starting runner team. Usually in the neighborhood, these kind of adventures also help weaving a denser network of local connections that might be handy later on.

Rolling dice with 5 or 6 on a die a success is tested against a limit with default 0; any successes higher than the limit are net successes or hits. Each +1 harder raises the limit by one, and each -1 easier lowers the limit by one; if the limit falls below 0, each -1 easier confers +2D6 to the roll instead. On resisted rolls the attacker creates a +hits limit modifier for the defender; once the defender reaches a tie on the limit, the attack is "grazing", i.e. has not the desired effect. On opposed rolls both sides compare their hits, with a tie on equal hits; for maximum suspense NPCs should roll first so that the limit is known to the player in advance.

For easier GM dice rolling, henchmen may roll 1D6 and divide the result by two, indicating the number of successes; round down. When a 6 is rolled, add another 1D6. Slightly more elaborate opponents get an L of 3-6 and roll L*2 for everything, just like spirits. Gangers and civilians would get 3, trained people 4, professionals 5 and veterans 6; note that 12 dice are already quite a formidable challenge for players.

Consider optimizing all encounters for humor. Whether eating snails in an uppity restaurant with Ms. Johnson, clients that keep stumbling over their own feet or cannot keep their mouths shut, knives being stuck in cybereyes due to a glitch, or exaggerated characters having one misunderstanding after the other, we are all here to have fun. So keep the PCs alive, strike them with inane little misfortunes if they act out of line, and sprinkle little success moments for everyone here and there.

Q: Statistics of GM rolling? Is (1D6-2)/2 more appropriate? Rather without rule of 6?

Organizational Actors

On the highest conceptual level, the characters will work both for and against syndicates, gangs and policlubs, but megacorporations foremost. Each megacorp is capable of running the economy of the entire planet alone, but they excel in different areas and have cultural oddities. Internally, each of them consists of multiple international companies that are bound together by a common board.

Characters will never meet one of the board members directly, but their strategies affect every person on the planet and, since space exploitation is performed by all megacorps, even everyone beyond Earth. Most likely, pseudonymal Mr. and Ms. Johnson, Tanaka, Schmidt or Wang will contact the PC from a national organization, with mostly local goals that nonetheless tie into a global strategy, and often include local organized crime.

At a street level, gangs often work with organized crime and indirectly for the megacorps.

On the non-profit side, policlubs have their own agenda, sometimes interfering with and sometimes aiding runners.

So while characters will always interact with individuals, the above organizations define the framework they live within.

Individual Actors

Interactions are not always with some Ms. or Mr. Johnson: Magical creatures are now also part of the scene and some can be encountered in city or corporate territory, while others are rare and hidden but immensely dangerous. Some are frequent companions of security personnel. Creatures roll Str+Qui or B/M unless otherwise noted.

Further up in intelligence, characters may meet magical NPC with their own motives.

And sometimes humanity is its own worst enemy.

Finally, some individuals are just a number too big for the characters. As a GM, use them sparingly and do not put them in a position to directly oppose the PC.

As a GM, you should strive to spice every encounter with either magic, cyber or augmented reality aspects; this will make the world of the characters feel different from today. And remember, every creature has a life, motives and objectives, where runners can be of help.

SR1-5 balancing note: Powers often treated like spell without drain, but with limited repetitions. More elemental effects. Vampires more on social powers. Earthdawn horrors as story hook.

Obtaining a Run

A contact, most likely your fixer, calls you and sets up a meeting with a client usually called Ms. or Mr. Johnson. This is the most common way a shadowrun gets started, though surprise visits, seemingly random encounters and flash abductions are also not unheard of. The talking usually happens on neutral or client grounds, where a specific subculture holds.

Upon arriving on the scene, social stealth is the first order of the day: Roll +0 normal Etiquette (Subculture). Depending on the cultural similarity between your and the prevalent subculture, you might get bonus dice, with typical subcultures being street, tribal, gang, organized crime, corporate, military, academic and socialite.

The average number of successes within the runner team is the Perception (Social) limit for anyone determining if you are out of place.

As soon as you want to do something, doing it in a socially appropriate manner means holding back social dice, up to your team successes because of group dynamics. If what you are doing is very inappropriate, the GM might adjust your judge modifier and NPCs can re-roll Perception to notice it, or Defiance to not tolerate it. Forgetting to withhold dice forfeits your judge modifier entirely, while withholding too few dice reduces the judge modifier.

Invisible actions like decking and rigging still require withholding social dice to not act unnatural all of a sudden. Social stealth does not work on the astral plane or in the matrix.

Talking in all its forms requires withholding dice only if you want to pretend you belong to a subculture as part of impersonation or con, otherwise it does not affect either the opposed rolls of negotiation or seduction, nor the more one-sided intimidation or interrogation rolls which are resisted by Defiance.

If unsure on how to approach a social situation, use social stealth succcesses as learning effect: Successes gives characters insight from the GM telling the players how best to proceed. Each success should increase the quality of advice given by the GM; a glitch should lead to the GM giving bad advice and the characters believing it to be the right course of action. Heeding said advice should always be extensively role played.

Negotiation is a friendly chat with the goal of making both parties happy (or at least equally unhappy) about the result. It is used on Johnsons, business partners and connections, and is just an opposed Talking roll, with limit modifiers the larger the goal gets. The winning party may dictate the terms to some extent but will usually concede smaller things (e.g. the characters agree to give up all paydata to the Johnson for free in exchange for a higher base rate; or the Johnson lowering the price but agreeing to pay damages up to some extent). A tie means the status quo is accepted by everyone. If there is no status quo, it ends in "let's agree to disagree"; in some cases this means negotiations are called off, but the parties are still friendly towards each other.

Con is used for reaching short-term goals at the expense of long-term happiness. Unlike negotiation, your target may get suspicious about what you are doing, leading to a break-off and possible retaliation. Roll Talking (Con), adding limit modifiers for extra outragous proposals or for asking for very sensitive information; the target resists with Defiance. More hits mean the target does not regret helping or telling you for a slightly longer time. A tie means you do not achieve your objective, but the target is not suspicous either.

Impersonation is the apex of con work, challenging due to faking relationship as well as conversation subjects: +0..3 harder to sway depending on how good the target knows the impersonated person, with +3 close friends/lovers/relatives, +2 friends/distant relatives/close colleagues, +1 in the same group, +0 almost unknown; and +0..3 harder to sway depending on how intimate the conversation is, with +3 shared secrets, +2 personal matters, +1 business matters, +0 administrative or other side matters. However once you succeed, any subsequent Talking (Con) becomes -1 easier to sway for each modifier.

Intimidation and interrogation both definitely evoke a hostile response. Roll Talking resisted by Defiance. The roll may be extended cumulatively by adding to the threat level; roll only the new bonus dice determined by the GM, and otherwise pretend that the same test is still going on. For intimidation, certain characters gain advantages: Each full two points of Str superiority confers +1D6, so a Str 11 troll intimidating a Str 5 ganger gets +(11-5)/2=+3D6 on Talking (Interrogation or Intimidation). This might be on top of dice advantages due to obvious cyberware.

Being a magician or adept with the astral perception power can be useful for interrogation while on the parallel dimension called the astral plane. Here, living beings are bright and reflect feelings and health, making emotions -2 easier to read; while objects are dull and largely bland, confering +2 harder to detect. The core reason is mana, the magic that is imbued in all things living, including plants and natural earth itself, comprising the gaiasphere. Higher in the atmosphere, mana becomes thinner just like the atmosphere, and vanishes above the stratosphere, making astral perception above 10km height lethal.

Seduction is a special case of negotiation that is heavily dependent on the situation and on Cha differences. For the Talking (Seduction) roll, the less charismatic partner adds +1 harder to charm for each 2 points of charisma difference. If you do not care about political correctness, add another +1 harder to charm for men when initiating. All this makes seduction very much a game of luck. Now if the target person is principally willing, just roll an opposed Talking test. Any (non-glitch) result leads to both parties being amiable, and the winning party has the other one more "around her/his finger". If the target person is neutral or has some minor objections, roll Talking resisted by Defiance to win the other party over. A target person with major objections (e.g. not sexually attracted to your gender; your sworn enemy) cannot be seduced; you have to be in the mood at least a little bit.

Asking around for restricted information is negotiation if the other party is complicit, and con if the other party is oblivious. Forceful asking is intimidation, turning to interrogation if the target is abducted and placed in a prison situation.

In summary:

With the initial meet complete, the characters can start planning the run.

SR1-5 balancing note: Etiquette and subculture use finally formalized with cultural similarity and social stealth. Talking mostly without social stealth because cumbersome. Group successes and dynamics for easier handling and including all players.

Observe and Learn

After navigating the sometimes treacherous first meeting, usually a retreat to a safehouse is in order to plan the run. Most often this entails first matrix searches to get an overview, followed by on-site physical, drone, astral and matrix observation to get a familiarity with the target region and its creatures.

Almost every coarse information about the world is represented in the matrix. Finding them is a +0 normal Computer roll unless very specific information is required. Maps and satellite imagery, public appearances, canalization or electric grid layout, opening times and official purpose of each building is limit 0 information. Coarse means that only the approximate location but no details are known. Sometimes finer details can be retrieved with 2..4 or more hits.

Semi-public information such as location of city-run cameras, police patrol intervals and planned repairs of municipal infrastructure are +2 harder to find, with more details for additional hits. Corporate territory is notably exempt: Such information is never public and requires decking to get a hold of. While presumably the decker rolls Computer, each PC can supportively roll 1D6 and pile on successes with more or less helpful advice.

An example would be preparing to extract willing corporate key personnel.

Learning about the corporate site itself will require a personal visit. In a bad neighborhood, finding an observation spot is easy, in more posh areas more difficult. Most corporations and the police have a floating blimp, so use Stealth to stay hidden and Perception to observe the routines of the place and its people. In the case of an extraction, maybe learn what car the target uses, at which time he arrives and leaves, and when following him, which restaurants or clubs he frequents.

Stealth and Perception works similar to social stealth in that characters roll Stealth against a limit adjusted by metatype and cyberlimbs, then hold back stealth dice to perform actions as silently as possible, while opponents roll Perception with +hits harder to detect. Medium visibility, movement and distance is assumed as default; perception limit modifiers include -1 easier to detect for near distance, mechanical or fast movement; and +1 harder to detect for being distracted or far away, target being in a crowd or standing perfectly still while hidden, and darkness or heavy rain/snow. Exaggerated conditions like in front of your eyes may warrant -2 easier; and being distracted by a slap or a km away, target in a dense concert crowd, pitch black or storm conditions +2 harder to detect.

Sometimes characters are seen and try to re-hide, confering -3 easier to detect if opponents know you are there. Another -1 easier results from someone pointing in the right direction, -2 for being marked on a comlink by someone else, and -3 for being able to track you the entire time. And spending some more minutes searching repeatedly gives -1 easier to detect, depending on the area to search.

When learning of people connected to the target person, you can also try asking around as in obtaining a run to tap into restricted information. However this might draw attention to your plans, so characters are advised to be careful and not raise any attention.

The three other kinds of recon you can use are drones, decking and astral recon.

SR1-5 balancing note: Matrix searches remain basically the same. Stealth formalized as holding back dice, with re-hide option given. Asking around still not really formalized but should depend on leads anyway.

Drone Observation

The smallest of drones are exceptionally hard to detect, particularly by a corporate blimp with Sys 2, giving it 4 dice on a Perception roll. However, all corps routinely scan the airspace for signals, so a rigger needs to use directional transmission which requires the drone to stay within line of sight, which is usually rather restricted in an urban environment.

Every camera, usually with Sys 1 or 2, rolls Perception (Matrix) once per minute to detect drone signals. Similar to mundane stealth, a rigger can roll Stealth and withhold dice for +hits harder to scan as illegitimate, making sleeved drones much stealthier than normal ones. Unless directional transmission is off, the camera must also be between rigger and drone to have any chance at all.

Faraday foil implies that all employee signals are routed through an official telco gateway that everyone can use, but that is probably watched. For a rigger, the most immediate effect is that directional transmission must be switched off.

Or the story could continue like this.

In general, flying drones into a target environment should be quite feasible for low-level runs and hard for high-security sites.

SR1-5 balancing note: Finally a typical rigger advance with drones. Line of sight to keep rigger with team, routing through matrix made dangerous to avoid solo runs. Re-hiding more difficult in close spaces.

Astral Observation

Shamans and hermetics have an additional set of options including astral projection and spirits. Where mundanes use binoculars, riggers drones and deckers signal detection, the first choice for magicians is detection spells, which can be counter-acted by astral barries like living tiles in safehouses. Spells can be detected quite easily so using astral stealth is advised, holding back Stealth dice as usual.

The second, somewhat riskier choice is to astrally project, leaving your hibernating physical body behind and becoming a purely astral being. Your attributes remain the same, as does movement speed. The big difference is that flying and moving through objects is possible, except for earth which is considered part of the gaiasphere. Movement through water is also slowed down to diving speeds, 1km/h.

While distance to the physical body is no concern, there is always a mana link trailing from the astral body to the physical body location, which is +3 harder to feel (mini) on the worldly plane and +3-2=+1 harder to detect in the astral. You can stay on the astral plane for up to Essence minutes before being violently snapped back into your body. Snapping back as opposed to peaceful re-entry yields (Essence)P damage which cannot be resisted; so dont get trapped!

Cyberware is not translated to the the astral plane, so e.g. having a cyberleg makes you appear as amputee there. With emotions being obvious and very much visible in the astral, sociopathy and corrupted psyches produce a "smell" to other astral beings, most noticable in blood spirits, insect spirits or Horrors, who also induce a strong feeling of "wrongness" on the mundane plane.

Lastly, various magical creatures such as ghouls, vampires and the corporate-friendly hellhound are dual-natured, meaning they perceive both astrally and normally at all times and cannot switch any of it off. When astrally perceiving, characters also become dual-natured and therefore vulnerable both from the astral and mundane.

The third option is spirits. Every place has one or more spirits who live there and can be conjured by shamans, but not by hermetics who can conjure elemental spirits instead. Sometimes, powerful spirits of places also manifest spontaneously, but usually they either roam the astral plane or are at home in their respective meta plane which is normally inaccessible to magicians.

Like any other person, a spirit of a place has a life, opinions, and sometimes its own agenda. Luckily for shadowrunners, spirits tend to not appreciate the typical actions of corporations, which rarely improve on living in a natural manner. Being conjured is appreciated by many spirits, because crossing to the material plane is difficult for them. Spirits have to vanish to their metaplane at sunrise and sundown.

A shaman conjuring a spirit of a place must prepare a ritual circle of F meters diameter with tokens that fit the spirit, taking F minutes, with an F up to Essence+Initiation. Afterwards, the shaman sings, intones and dances for another F minutes, and rolls Wil+Conjuring+F dice afterwards, with F/2 drain. Up to F successes can be used for spirit L; or successes can reduce the drain which is always based on the intended F, not the resulting one. A glitch means that the spirit will be hostile.

A shaman uses Talking on the spirit just like any other person. Since shamanic cultures tend to respect the spirit world, negotiation should be the main method of interaction.

Spirits of places have various powers, but can only use them within their domain, which they rarely leave. A domain is usually around 100m in diameter, e.g. an extended building or river section, and never larger than a city block. Spirit of places' powers are:

Hermetics can conjure elemental spirits, that is fire, earth, water or air spirits. The element must be nearby, so water spirits require at least a sink full of water, earth spirits being on street level, air spirits being outside at height, and fire spirits some burning like the after effects of a fireball. The size of the element determines the maximum F of the spirit.

Unlike spirits of places, elemental spirits are not bound to a domain, but they also lack knowledge of any domain. Once conjured, they prefer to stay in the physical world just like spirits of places, often being playful on every occasion.

Elemental spirit powers are rather combat oriented. Like spirits of places, only one power can be active at a time.

When the area or element is heavily polluted, spirits can turn toxic. Toxic spirits add the toxicity, usually 1-3, to their F. All Talking attempts are +1 harder per level of toxicity, so good luck with getting a toxic spirit to cooperate. Also, the things they ask for in return might be disturbing.

For each area, only one spirit can be conjured per magician. Spirits can stay in our world until next sunrise or sundown, but usually leave earlier because they have lives too. What on Earth did they promise the fire spirit to guard this forsaken corporate place?

Vastly more powerful spirits exist too, but they cannot be conjured and can cross to the mundane plane at will. Rumors say they can open astral gates such that mundane characters can project as well, and prolong the time spent there considerably. They would probably provide big advantages but ask for great sacrifices in return.

SR1-5 balancing note: Wards replaced by living tiles. Spirits with greater agenda than before. No Int for magicians necessary anymore. Spirits have no direct link to their creator (this should be reserved for ally spirits). No watchers. No number of services anymore, treating spirits more as NPC than as beings to be commanded. No funky rituals anymore because boring mage-only activity.

Q: Make +(living tiles - successes) harder to detect? Or require living tiles L successes to see through?

Matrix Observation

Like a technological pendant of the astral plane, the matrix is a crafted parallel dimension accessible through simlink cyberware and a comlink, or alternatively through a cyberdeck. Every person and every company, every vehicle, road sign and street segment provides augmented reality (AR), creating a brand and providing information and advertisement. Going without AR is possible but highly suspicious and, in the case of vehicles, even illegal. From such an entry point, you hop from node to node.

Rolling Stealth and withholding dice means shaping matrix traffic to appear legit. As in drone observation, directional transmission allows only nodes between decker and target to detect the signal. Portable matrix nodes usually have a range of 100m and are +0 harder to detect by default; telco towers and Sec or Mil beam antennae have a greater range of 1km in cities and over 10km in the atmosphere; they are also the only matrix devices who do not require line of sight to connect.

Decking into nodes requires a Computer roll against limit L of a node, usually 1-2 for everyday equipment but 3-6 for mainframes or other hardened hosts. While almost all systems except the most secure ones are wireless to forego the cost of cabling, safehouse measures like Faraday foil are common, forcing the decker to go through heavily protected gateways.

Once inside a node, reading is +1 harder to deck, while writing is +2 harder to deck. Hits over 1 also count as extra stealth during the activity, while all hits count as limit for forensics. For every non-concurrent read/write occuring, nodes can roll L*2 Perception dice to recognize the decker as illegitimate; for concurrent actions the one with the least number of hits counts. Additionally, nodes can re-roll perception every minute but unless the decker is lingering, this is an eternity in matrix time. Deckers and IC can also roll perception upon decking entry.

From within the node, a decker can see adjacent nodes and hop to the next one. Just going through a node does not require decking at all unless it is a secured node, and most nodes including gateways are used by people everyday. Any non-legitimate reading or even editing does require decking though, and the most perceptive node on the way does the Perception (Matrix) roll.

While staying in a node, any matrix user has a persona which can be identified later on if already seen. So deckers will frequently change their persona, which requires a reboot of the simlink taking one combat round. IC can do this as well as other devices, e.g. a vehicle persona change is also frequently advised. A persona vanishes after the combat round of the decker's last action, or earlier when leaving as a dedicated action. When performing multiple actions per combat round, the persona appears in all affected nodes.

SR1-5 balancing note: Simple hacks now limit-based. Main danger is being detected, more probable over more hops. How many dice needed to access classified information still mushy, but no encryption or other hindrances. And no technomancers because contributing to Magicrun.

Infiltration

Armed with the information from the target observation, the next step is usually physical infiltration. Given that the opposition will always outnumber and outgun you if prepared, a stealthy approach is needed, using either physical or social stealth. Both enable clandestine combat and matrix infiltration.

Physical stealth is classic break & enter, hiding under an invisibility spell, using fence cutting gear, decking into camera hubs to make them believe nothing happens, and deploying micro drones and astral projection for scouting. This approach can be impromptu, and hinges on the Stealth rolls of everyone involved.

Social stealth requires a bit more preparation: Identifing and decking into an outsourced cleaning company, making your team new employees; backmailing or bribing an employee to get you an invite for touring the facility; or any other way to make your appearance on the ground plausible. This approach hinges on the Etiquette rolls of everyone and the Talking of at least one team member, but is usually easier to pull off than physical stealth.

Breaking in is usually aided by Mechatronic using fence cutters, crowbars or laser welders, while Demolitions is more recommended for wrecking jobs.

Or in an alternate world, the team might go the impersonation route.

How often patrols may make a Perception test depends on the scenario. In a classic dock scene, maybe a 1 on a 1D6 per minute should warrant a patrol looking, whereas a high-security site teeming with guards may use Perception for a 1-5 on a 1D6. Guards on choke points cannot be avoided at all.

Once at the site, characters generally need to do many thing stealthily, including sedating personnel. In addition to withholding stealth dice, the perception modifiers of used tools like weapons and gear are taken into account.

When it is prudent to act simultaneously, characters with a simlink can synchronize their actions.

Often, the target is not a person but a piece of paydata. When decking into the system, the file always counts as unencrypted because the decker impersonates a legitimate user. If a comlink with the file is stolen, the comlink can be normally decked into to impersonate the user; that makes physical data storage on necessarily low-L comlinks dangerous. If only the file is present, but not the environment of the legitimate user, the encryption level is the limit for a Computer test, usually twice the campaign level.

When unable to reach the limit, you cannot try again. Find someone with more expertise.

So there you have it: Running the shadows is putting together the various kinds of Stealth and Perception sprinkled in with Etiquette, Talking and Computer or Mechatronics. Piece of cake.

SR1-5 balancing note: Just putting the above together. Encryption simplified as limit, and decrypting penalized as opposed to decking into a device.

Chase

During infiltration or legwork, sometimes you chase someone or they chase you. Who catches whom either horizontally or vertically is determined by maximum movement speeds. Characters can walk at Qui meters per combat round (equalling Qui km/h for combat rounds of 3.6s) and run at Qui*4+Athletics (Running) km/h. Similarly, a vehicle's Qui is quick-parking speed, Qui*4 the full-on sprinting or sliding around curves speed, and Qui*8 is the maximum escape speed on an Autobahn with starkly reduced maneuverability.

Reaching targets within Qui m can happen within an action, while targets within Qui*4+Athletics (Running) m are reached at the end of the round. Leaping Qui+Athletics (Jumping) m can also happen in an action. Rolling Athletics uses up your action, and accelerating a drone uses up a Driving action. You can only either accelerate or ram, even with a secondary action.

Qui*4 can be reached instantaneously for tackling or ramming with (Str)S. Drones can have multipliers M higher than 4, taking one combat round each and adding +25% Str, so a vehicle reaches maximum (Str*2)S and Qui*8 in combat round 5. You need at least the current Qui*M m of straight, clear street to reach the next M. The ramming vehicle takes the target's (Str*1..2)S as impact damage. Both participants resist with Str+Armor; a vehicle is crashed after taking Str damage.

Chasing a target on a plain, clear field is resolved easily: Having more Qui automatically wins the race. However in practice there will be a standard speed either given by general traffic or by difficult terrain. A typical market will have people moving at an average Qui 2 km/h, a street scene at 4 km/h, a bicycle lane 10 km/h, a side street 20 km/h, a main road 40 km/h, and an Autobahn 80 km/h. Note that this typical speed includes turning, merging, sunday driving and all the other factors that impede free movement.

Given that both escaper and chaser have Qui exceeding the baseline, the escaper can choose to recklessly increase the speed by some limit modifier +1..4 corresponding to 25% increases of typical speed, within the bounds of her own Qui*4. This requires a Dodge or Driving roll for both parties, and anyone not having at least one more success stumbles and loses. Rolling is not necessary when using a superior movement modality like flying vs ground targets or wall walking.

Catching a target requires more successes than the escaper, while the latter must be unable to further increase speed. Should the escaper reach open field though, it boils down to a pure Qui comparison.

Vertical motion like going up roofs can make chases more interesting. A character can jump Qui*1/3m high from standing or (Qui+Athletics (Jumping))*1/3m with at least Qui m lead-up for some Parkour moves. Add the character's height for final vertical reach. Once on the roofs, leaping to other buildings covers Qui+Athletics (Jumping) m with at least Qui m preparation.

Going in a ground vehicle is essentially the high-speed, high-risk version of the chase on foot. Leaping between buildings becomes extra dangerous and requires ramps.

So in essence, chasing is a game of chicken relative to surrounding traffic.

SR1-5 balancing note: Finally a formal "who catches who" recipe. Max speed only useful relative to traffic.

Combat

There are many reasons for combat. Maybe a ganger attacks you. Maybe you were detected during an infiltration. Maybe the shadowrun was a double cross, and you got ratted out. We start with close combat including grappling and drone ramming; move to firearms under various ranges which also affects grenades but not demolitions; and then to matrix and magic warfare, sometimes on drugs.

Causing wounds is a primary objective of combat. Each character has 10 physical and 10 stun damage boxes. A light wound is 1 box, a medium 3, a severe wound 6 and a deadly wound 10 boxes. Full 10 stun or physical damage results in unconsciousness, and additional stun damage is converted to physical damage at a 3:1 ratio. Deadly physical damage continues to get worse; if a character does not get a trauma patch, medical attention or a healing spell, every minute adds one overflow damage box, and if the overflow damage exceeds Str, the character dies on the spot. So always have a trauma patch ready!

Wound modifiers arise from partial damage. Every 3 damage boxes impose +1 harder on all skill tests excluding Dodge, Perception and Defiance. Only the higher of physical or stun damage counts, so at 9 damage boxes on both meters you still have only +3 harder on everything. While drones have Str damage boxes like walls, spirits and IC have 10 damage boxes; all of them get wound modifiers. In the case of vehicles, this is cumulative so a wounded rigger with a damaged drone gets the limit modifiers of both during Driving.

To start combat, roll initiative which is additive instead of counting successes: 4+1D6 or more for characters with wired reflexes; the result holds for all coming combat rounds. Each character gets one primary action per combat round. However if you roll above 10 or 20 or 30, you can replicate that action, e.g. attack a target multiple times or multiple targets once. You also get a secondary action for things like talking, looking for something or moving within Qui m per combat round.

Close Combat can be used for striking and for grappling. Both require that you saw the target with Perception. To hit someone with or without a weapon, roll Str+Close Combat (Striking) while the attacked person rolls Dodge, the latter adding 1D6 per point of comparative reach advantage; reach disadvantage does nothing. Equal number of successes mean a grazing strike that does no damage but is visible on the target, and can be used for bragging. Each remaining hit of the attacker increases the base damage by 1. The defender can then reduce the damage by rolling Str+Armor. If the final damage is higher than the defender's Str, he is knocked down and loses grip on all weapons.

Close Combat (Ram) or tackling is an intermediate technique, used to initiate a grappling phase in which striking is only feasible for the combatant with the grappling advantage. Ramming does base damage, and you need to be within leap distance to initiate, usually Qui m. Elemental spirits use it to start Engulf.

Close Combat (Grappling) restricts the opponent's movement by holding from dominant position. For this, Close Combat successes can be divided between holding and damaging when in dominant position; the other fighter must use all Close Combat successes to remove the hold or endure +holding successes limit on all skill tests. The maximum holding is Str, such that escape remains possible even after many rounds of tightening.

Drones can engage in combat like anyone else, rolling Sys*2 for Close Combat (Ram) or Dodge. If a rigger is sleeved into the drone, use Driving to replace both. Speed multipliers M higher than 4 increase ram damage but give the other party +M dice on Dodge.

Drones cannot engage in grappling, although it is rumored that all megacorps are researching subduing combat robots. Drones can, however, use Firearms just like the rest of us.

Medium range and visibility conditions are the default; short range or van-sized target confers -1 easier to shoot, -2 easier for point-blank shots or airliners; long range, good cover, micro targets or heavy darkness/rain/snow/fog lead to +1 harder to shoot; +2 harder for astronomical range, trenches, nano targets or pitch-black/storm. No aimed shots onto parts though; think about what happens if opponents did headshots to you.

Close and ranged combat as well as ramming gets easier in multiple-on-one scenarios: Each additional attacker gets a -1 easier to hit for up to three times, while the defender Dodge roll is unaffected.

Grenades work similar to firearms except that they do area damage and are harder to dodge, but successes cannot increase base damage, similar to missiles and chemical attacks. Characters roll Projectiles when hand-thrown or Heavy Weapons when using a laucher, while drones roll Sys*2 in either case, or Firearms (Gunnery) when sleeved.

Getting shot at in a closed vehicle provides additional armor, at the cost of the vehicle going to shreds.

Setting up an ambush with Demolitions can use successes to make a trap deadlier. Explosives can react to wireless signals, a timer, or be combined with some sensor.

Strikes and shots at a structure destroy its Str only locally, and provide damage back for unarmed attacks when at least half your Str, so better use at least some knucks. When shooting through a structure, its Str counts as additional armor as for vehicles above, but without substantially weakening the structure. However when hitting or ramming, a hole needs to be created first, subtracting full Str from the damage.

Combat actions can be delayed until a specified event, meaning a character tenses to explode into action upon the event happening. Waiting for something a teammate does is the classical case. Mutual delays like a stand-off require rolling 1D6 to resolve; characters with multiple initiative dice take the highest result.

SR1-5 balancing note: Hit and grapple defined. Dodging is a binary decision but still reduces damage if not successful, as before. Wounds are harsh, adding limit modifiers, but ameliorated by only counting phys or stun. Drone and metahuman Str in one system, ram damage from both unified. Missile damage without area, but large.

Q: Is -5 disruptive parry needed? Or full evasion?

Magic Combat

A magician, spirit or dual-natured being such as a hellhound can fight both on the mundane and on the astral plane. Initiative stays the same on the astral plane, even without a physical body. To cast a spell in the mundane world, you must at least be partly mundane: astral-only spirits or projecting magicians can only affect targets on the astral plane.

Casting a spell means weaving the mana threads required for it. In each action and replica, 2 F can be built, so a burned-out mage with wired reflexes can weave much faster, but has a much lower Essence+Initiation limit.

Spirits can fight on both planes but usually prefer to stay on the mundane plane the conjuring brought them to; once de-materialized they cannot return without another conjuring. Only powerful free spirits are rumored to have the ability to materialize or de-materialize at will.

Options to further protect against spells are the Shield spell for astral armor and a nature spirit's concealment power, or retreating to a room with living tiles. A riot shield with living tiles will not help though because mana can go curves like a morning star flail.

SR1-5 balancing note: Spell buildup reduces ridiculous force levels. Disruptive actions make effective force lower during combat. Not having a mage still sucks, but at least the samurai are faster now that Increase Reflexes spells are gone.

Matrix Combat

Deckers are busy shaping the matrix plane during a fight. Even with enemy simlinks all gone directional, there is still much to do: Finding a way into their cones, thwarting opposing attempts, blocking distress calls, and manipulating the surroundings. Equivalent to magicians, deckers can take a -5i disruptive action anywhere on the team's nodes to defend against decking attempts with a Computer roll.

Finding radio cyberware like riggercontrol and cyberdecks, or finding sleeved drones, requires getting a bounce within the directional radio cones. Mostly, this means cooperating with a rigger to plant a drone between enemies or between them and drones and bounce the signal off it. Alternatively, any wireless device can be thrown to a bounce-able location. Unlike during observation, signal legitimacy is no longer the question, so signal scanning can be dropped entirely in favor of direct decking.

A riggercontrol has Sys equal to its rating*2. When reading with limit 1, an enemy can see everything both rigger and drones see. With writing with limit 2, the enemy can control the drones. Both are immediately obvious to the rigger who feels it in her body. In her next action, the rigger can disable wireless on the riggercontrol, which automatically evicts the decker. This gives the enemy decker exactly one steering action, and the drone one action to execute that command.

A cyberdeck also has Sys of rating*2 and is considered the pinnacle of decking into because reading allows seeing everything the teammates and drones see. Writing can send all kinds of false information to the entire team and should be handled like a powerful illusion spell. Again any access is obvious to the decker so the fun lasts only for one action and its replicas. A simlink has Sys 2 but does not have the same reach as a cyberdeck, restricting read and write to the simlink's owner and her wireless devices; once more intrusion is felt.

Because of the neural connection, radio cyberware is defended with an instinctive Wil roll. There is no equivalent to astral armor though. External devices do not have direct neural access and can only be monitored by a team decker, who rolls matrix perception to uncover decking attempts; nodes even further from the team receive +hop harder modifiers. A non-decker would have to spend an action for the same matrix perception roll.

Characters without cyberdeck can also deck, but they have to use their omnidirectional comlinks, opening them up to retaliation. They also cannot take -5i disruptive defense actions.

Decker vs decker combat can happen in any of their respective nodes, provided they notice the decking or read/write attempt. Potentially being in multiple nodes at once, there are also multiple persona instances that can fight, though damage is always unified. As in matrix observation, a persona vanishes at the end of the combat round unless actively staying in the fight. Matrix combat pits Computer against Wil. IC has initiative Sys*4 with one action only, and is locked to the node.

When detected by IC, counter decker or cyberware owner, no read/write action is possible before the opponent has been defeated or withdraws, otherwise both count as "locked in combat". Non-decker characters can also fight, particularly in their cyberware, but must spend their real-world action to do so.

Connections to the larger matrix can be used for distress signals. While in directional transmission combat, only a cyberdeck can connect to the matrix; non-deckers require a comlink, where enabling wireless takes one initiative pass, meaning they can use it in the next combat round but everyone else can attack it first. Catching and neutralizing a distress call is only possible by previously modifying the sending behavior.

Non-cybered opponents can be decked on sight if they use wireless equipment, which is almost always the case unless you go against professionals: Paranoid people go cyber. While it is theoretically possible to wire gear to the comlink and the comlink to the datajack, in practice the cabling would incur +2 harder on all skill tests because it makes every move cumbersome.

Finally, surrounding infrastructure is generally in omnidirectional matrix mode -- how would anyone unlock their car otherwise?

SR4-5 balancing note: High-power opponents harder to deck due to radio cone, while lower-power opponents can be had fun with. Removed no-suspense scanning during combat. Use of surrounding equipment practically guarantees deckers are not bored during a fight.

Combat on Drugs

Sometimes you are outgunned, outmagicked and outdecked; it might be time for combat drugs. Although addictive as hell, they can raise attributes like only cyberware does. Similar effects cannot be combined with cyber though, so e.g. steroids have no effect on muscle augmentation, Jazz or Kamikaze no effect on adrenal pumps, and so on.

Addiction limit L varies, with a Str+Wil roll of at least 1 hit required to avoid adding L "addiction damage boxes" to a cumulative meter; L 0 drugs add 1 addiction damage box. If you are addicted, one box means a dose needed weekly, two a dose needed every other day, three once a day, four twice a day, five thrice a day, and so on. Addiction damage never heals by itself.

Addiction is annoying, so characters will want to go into withdrawal to reduce the accumulated addiction damage boxes to zero. One step is simply not taking a dose, accepting +1 harder on all skill tests, and waiting out the full dose interval. At the end of that interval, roll Str+Wil against limit of addiction boxes; any number of hits reduce the accumulated addiction by one box. Less successes than the limit mean an immediate relapse and drug use, while a tie means no reduction, but no compulsive dose either.

Addiction caused by handicaps cannot be healed by withdrawal, but the drug does not add addiction damage boxes either unless excessively taken; drug effects are almost zero and just contribute to normal functioning. Characters can still get addicted to other drugs, though.

SR4-5 balancing note: Less benefit for higher addiction, so not "equal to cyber" anymore. Addiction formalized such that the point of "forced cold turkey needed" can be reached quite quickly with some bad luck.

After the Run

So you survived to tell the tale, and hear the epilogue from your GM. Lucky you! The first order of the day is usually a hospital or its illicit variant, a street doc treating wounds and damaged cyberware, while a mechanic repairs drones and equipment. Any wound state can only be healed once, by magic or first aid, but not by both. A street doc will first use Biotech or a Heal spell on wounds that have received no treatment. The remaining wounds need to recover the slow way, with 1 day per box even with top-notch medical care.

Merely resting at home, each damage box of a light wound takes 1 day to recover, each box of a medium wound 1 week, and each of a severe wound 1 month. Deadly wounds never recover without clinical treatment. When not resting, wounds do not recover; any strenuous activity on a day negates the recovery. Stun damage is much easier to recover from, at a rate of 1 per hour of sleep.

Repairing equipment requires Mechatronics. Limit and duration depend on the extent of the damage, with limits typically 0..3 estimated by the GM. Lighter damage requires just some portable tools, more extensive damage a workshop costing up to 100K. Part costs are relative to damage, up to Str damage boxes: The first half (rounded up) is armor-only damage and cheap to repair at factor 0.1, while the last half is expensive structural damage at factor 2. Equipment without armor has factor 1.

Cyberware is usually healed with the body as part of a clinic's services. Only externally visible cyberware such as limbs and dermal plating may be damaged in the equipment sense, requiring Biotech and Mechatronic rolls. Here, part costs are in the 100s of Nuyen range, because the expensive part of cyberware is the neural wiring.

Recovery and repair time is also neat to keep your head under while the corporate or other goons think there might be a chance you still have what was theirs, but at this point you should have handed whatever it was over to an anonymous Ms. or Mr. Johnson. A few days are usually sufficient to make further search not cost-effective, and street docs protect their clients' privacy fiercely with bribes, automated weapons and extensive secret tunnels. And all syndicates and corporates go for cost effectiveness; any manager not respecting the sunk cost fallacy will have difficulties keeping their job. Good for you!

SR1-5 balancing note: Extended tests always sucked and were pretty arbitrary, so replaced by a shorter and still arbitrary system. Cyberware repair costs contributed to magic run, so made negligible. First aid and Heal spell still mutually exclusive.

Ramifications

With recovering and counting your remaining Nuyen, you probably also earned Karma for good deeds and daring, which can be used to improve the character: Skills, attributes, mundane and magic initiations, enchanting consumables, bonding foci, and gaining access to graded cyberware. All these options will make you more powerful and ready for even more daring adventures.

The most regular use is improving skills, costing the new rating in karma; or learning new spells, costing 3 karma each. The maximum skill rating is 8, while the number of spells is unlimited. Knowledge skills and languages are easier, with increments of two.

Raising attributes or edge costs 3x the new rating, because an attribute is linked to 3 skills on average. Metatype modifications are subtracted for calculation, because a Troll raising Str from 8 to 9 is the same effort as an Elf or Human raising Str from 3 to 4. This also applies to the Human Edge modifier.

Characters can learn special moves or reach higher magical capabilities, requiring initiation in either the magic or mundane sense. Initiations cost 6+grade karma. Adepts use initiations to gain a power point to spend on powers. Only magician initiations contribute to magic activity dice.

Magician initiations provide extended limits on F and one metamagic: Absorption, Centering, Masking, Psychometry or Shielding. Absorption metamagic allows hosting a spirit with F up to I, protecting the spirit which only takes damage when your body is already deadly wounded. Centering metamagic adds +I dice to spellcasting, but requires loud chanting during F build-up that may not be suppressed by Silence spells or masks. Masking metamagic adds +I stealth in astral space, without the need to hold back stealth dice. Psychometry metamagic allows Perception to sense long-ago feelings within a place, e.g. a murder having happened there. Shielding metamagic adds +I dice when taking a -5i disruptive action to ward against spells.

Mundane initiations can be used to learn special or signature moves, bound to skills. Run-sliding through an opponent's legs and resume running away is an Athletics move, rolling against the opponents Qui. Sweeping an opponent in Close Combat is a damage-less knockdown and is rolled against Dodge but 1 hit suffices, while more hits make for more spectacular sweeps. Curveball allows throwing grenades and other Projectiles along gentle curves, requiring 1..4 successes depending on the angle steepness. Trickshot is a Firearms move that pits hits against an opponent's Str roll to keep the weapon in hand. U-turn is a Driving move to make a 180° turn at full speed, with 1 success required for basic sprint speed and 2..5 for every +25% increment thereafter. Bike jumping and Bike on stairs are other Driving moves that work with motorcycles only. Aerial roll is an extremly cool Driving (Dodge) maneuver with +2D6, usable once per chase. Shocking but funny can be used in Talking to make the other party laugh, +1D6 for seduction and friendly negotiations, but sometimes also for gruff gang confrontations. Polterdeck is a Computer move that makes nearby siblings of a decked device weave and bob erratically without being explicitely decked, great e.g. for cameras along a floor.

Magicians can also use karma for Sorcery (Enchanting) magical supplies like healing potions. Enchanted items can only be used once and only affect the user, so beneficial spells it is unless you want to build a trap. Roll Wil+Sorcery+F to give the enchanted item as many dice as successes, take the full drain, and seal the item with 1 karma point. Once used, the magic item rolls its dice, and no drain is caused; sustained spells hold for F minutes. Enchanting requires a ritual circle of F meters diameter, and F hours time; the hosting item must be low-tech and capture the idea of the use, otherwise the magician gets +1..4 harder to enchant.

Artifacts and arcane foci do exist and have tremendous powers, but so far no one has been able to enchant them yet, and all existing ones seem to be more than 5000 years old, often using metallurgy not thought possible during that time. To use them, careful bonding is required, costing twice as much karma as the F of the artifact. The effect is always dice for a non-technological specialized skill roll.

Cyberware in alpha or beta grade with their increased availability may be out of reach for characters. A mundane initiation can be used to decrease the availability again, but not below the minimum availability for that grade. The karma spent would represent the extrordinary effort required to acquire such restricted ware.

An evening of playing should yield around 2 karma points per character, and around 2K per karma point at street level, 5K at syndicate level and 10K at ex-elite level. A run in a campaign normally takes 2 to 4 evenings, so the yield of a run should be sufficient to at least buy some cyber and raise a skill, such that players can see a steady progression both in ability and equipment.

As for story ramifications, the GM should rarely reveal everything, but can mention events reported in trideo news, rumors circulating on the streets, and strange dreams induced by totems to reveal a glimpse of the truth. And then it is on to the next adventure in the campaign!

SR1-5 balancing notes: Generally lower karma costs. Initiation concept for mundanes and magicians alike. Special moves to feel special, possibly close to Earthdawn talents. Enchanting and foci reduced to avoid Magicrun.

Glossary

Assense - Switching your eyesight from the mundane onto the astral plane, only observing there. Emotions and mana are much more vivid, and things and technology gray and uninteresting.

GM - Game Master, the one simulating the world and everyone in it.

PC - Player character, what you usually play.

NPC - Non-player character, all of them personified by the GM.

Nuyen - Standard global currency, mostly available wirelessly as crypto currency but also on anonymous certified credsticks.

Sample Characters

Samurai Sue (Ork): "What are you looking at? Nails have no gender, and neither does tough-as-nails. Physical problems? I am your gal. Lets see some cred and a good story on why doing your thang would be the honorable thing to do." A street samurai is a modern warrior, trying to live with a straight spine in a world full of compromises. Though never succeeding completely, the best approximation of an honest life will do.

Rikki the Rat Shaman (Human): "The spirits of the city have led you to me. A grave injustice needs to be rectified... tell me of your needs, and we shall see what can be done. This will cost something, but the price will be fair and something you can afford." Walking the line to the spirit world, a shaman reconciles mundane and spiritual needs, and tries to help both worlds as much as possible. And sometimes himself too.

Silver Skye (Elf): "Modern problems require modern solutions, and I have 'em in my head, or I know how to get them. Information is my business; creating misinformation for my opponents my second business. So show me a challenge and some cred, and off we go." Driven by a superiority complex and pathological curiosity, a decker has her electron head in a lot of places where it doesn't belong, looking out for creative modifications wherever she flies.

Hermetic Henry (Dwarf): "Short? I'll tell you whats gonna be short, your life if you keep up that condescensing look! So you have an interesting case -- seems I am the investigator you are searching for. Tell me your problem, and we will see what my talents can do for your cred." Impossible cases are the domain of the mage detective -- talking to spirits and using astral surveillance, he can get further than others do.

Rigger Rae (Human): "One with the wind, one with the machine, there is no way to describe what I feel. Stronger than steel, with the power of a taifun, the vastness of a flock of birds. Or the stealth of an ant colony. We can go everywhere. So where do you want us to go? A good placement in time is worth a lot of cred." A rigger is several bodies at once, once meat and more mechanical, be they small or large, and always in need of the next rush.

Ninja Nasuke (Troll): "Not every strong person must be loud. Politeness and stealth win a lot of people over, and a certain finesse contributes to the joys of feeling alive. You probably have a hard and hidden problem, or you would not have come to me. Show me your objectives and we will devise a plan." A secret operative is the less brash version of the street samurai, more discreet and not as obviously honor-bound. And probably more fun to be around.

The above sample characters are not optimized for one specific roll, so further min-maxing might be desirable for extra wow-effect; but they won't embarrass any player either. In any case, they should give some intuition on how a character could be conceived.

SR1-5 balancing note: Money is deliberately somewhat tight, so being non-metahuman means significantly better cyberware and equipment. Otherwise metahumans encouraged, to add world feel.

Design Guidelines

The roleplaying system above is build on the following core principles:

On a more detailed level:

Practical consequences are:

Other considerations:

PCs roll their dice, preferably against fixed threshold (for easy cameras, cars, walls or henchmen) or against enemy rolls (for mainframes, IC, vault doors and protagonists). In this sense, as many tests as possible should be opposed.

Assume moderately challenging conditions for every roll, e.g. medium range, slightly dark or rainy. Only give +1 or more threshold for truly horrible conditions and give +2D6 if everything is easy, e.g. short range, clear sunny day.

Note to CGL: If you want to hire me as game designer, write me at shadowrun@land-of-kain.de to start a conversation.

EOF: 2023-01-25