Post by Mace Parshath on Jan 19, 2007 21:23:14 GMT -5
How to Play:
Rolling dice and determining the outcome is a bit different in this game than most (as far as I know, at least, and that ain't much). Your dice pool will depend on the action being taken. Normally it'll be Attribute+Skill, so if I have a 3 in Body and 2 in Swimming, my dice pool would be 3 + 2, allowing me to roll five dice.
Past that kid stuff, we have Hits and Thresholds. A threshold is the difficulty level. Hits are your accumulated successes of rolling a five or a six. The more 5s and 6s you have, the better your chance is of accomplishing a task. So if the task requires a threshold of 4, you have to get at least four 5s or 6s to complete it. If you get less than the threshold, you fail. If you go over and collect net success, meaning more than four successful hits, than you can add a little flair to your technique. Say, if you were driving a motorcycle and it broke down, and you're being chased down by sprawl gangers. If the threshold was 3 to fix the bike, and you score 5 net hits, you've just fixed your bike, taken a shit, and drove off before the gangers even knew which direction you went.
Glitches are if you get more than half of your dice pool to roll up as 1s. This is a mistake, fumble, error, or random fluke of God that causes the action to go wrong in some way or another. Though six hits and one glitch would just be a minor set back, depending on the action being taken. Though one hit and a glitch would fuck you up something horrible I'd imagine.
A Critical Glitch is when you score no hits -and- get a glitch. This can lead to fatal injury or even death. You can burn Edge to downgrade the extremes of this glitch.
Rule of Six: When you use Edge dice, if it lands on a six, you may re-roll it to attempt to get another hit.
Extended Tests are a series of tests that a character than perform over time. Say if you were fixing a shot up car, and had to get it fixed in twelve hours. There are intervals of time between each test. So if you have twelve hours to fix the car, you have twelve test to get a total threshold hit of 8. If the rigger get three hits in the first hour, that's 3/8. Next hour, he scores five hits. 8/8. He got the job done in 1/6th the time! AMAZING! Though if you're interrupted in the middle of the test, expect to have to do it all over again, unless it's like a car job where you can just put your tools down and stop. That's fine. But if you're working your way through a maze, and have to backtrack, you're not going to be able to hold on to those hits.
Combat Turns are about three seconds long, and the higher your initiative is (Reaction and Initiative added together) the sooner you get to act. Some implants or magic will allow you to act more than once in a turn, causing a break up of Initiative Passes. This means that the initiative order goes like before, but if you're able to act again, you'll act right after the last person in the order, then it starts over the initiative order again and you can take your initiative position again and continue the order, and act again after the last guy. This will keep going on until the battle is over.A character can have a maximum of four Initiative passes.
Within your action phase, you can take one Complex Action or two Simple Actions. (List Later) If you have an initaitive pass, you can get a Free Action. (List Later) There are also Delayed Turns where you can skip your current turn to act at any other time after that, or they can be carried over to your next initiative pass.
Attributes:
Physical-
Agility; represents fine motor control. Manual dexterity, flexibility, balance, and coordination. A character with low agility may be someone with an inner-ear problem, one leg shorter than the other, or simply a klutz. Higher Agility is among "natural" athletes.
Body; determines a character's resistance to outside forces. Endurance, immune system, how well they heal, tolerence to drugs and alcohol, and to some extent, muscle and bone structure and weight. Low Body could mean someone is skinny and frail-boned, or has bad eating and health habits. High Body means a better fed, tough-as-nails, strong boned person, with an immune system that just won't quit. Body doesn't necessarily correlate to physical size. A fat, out of shape character likely has a low Body, but a small character who is wiry and athletic may have a high Body.
Reaction; physical reflexes, how quick one reacts to a changing situation and how well she can dodge the physical slings and arrows that shadowrunners face. High Reaction means better positions to react to danger, while low Reaction will cause people to lag a bit behind.
Strength; muscle, raw lifting power, running speed. Somewhat dependent on the character's size and metatype. If you're five-foot-nothin' and 115 lbs, it's unlikely you've have an unaugmented Strength attribute of 6. On the otherhand, dwarves have a muscle density that rivals that of reptiles. CHaracters with low Strength may be small, skinny, or slight, or simply too busy to workout. A high Strength character may be tough and wiry, know how to use their body, works out every day, or is simply BIG.
Mental Attributes-
Charisma; is a nebulous attribute. More than just looks, Charisma represents a character's personal aura, self-image, ego, willingness to find out what people want and give it to them, and ability to recognize what she can and can't get out of people. A whiny demeanor, a me-first attitude, or an inability to read body language or subtle hints are just a few traits that can give a low Charisma to someone. A character with a high Charisma might simply enjoy entertaining others, may excel at making friends and/or manipulating people, or may be all flash and fun with whomever it is today. A high-Charisma character might deliver jokes at the right moment, have a sexy way of carring herself, or command respect because her timing is always impeccable.
Intuition; mental alertness. The ability to take in and process information, to read a crowd, to assess a situation for danger or opportunity. A character with little Intuition may be unobservant, may rarely think things fully through, or could simply be slow. A character with a high Intuition is adept at making the best of a bad situation, knowing when to leave before an encounter escalates, noticing small clues, and working fro minstinct.
Logic; memorizing ability and raw brainpower. How fast one learns, how much they can remember, how well they can execute a pre-planned sequence. A Logic-lacking character might get overwhelmed when confronted with a lot of details and may have a poor memory-especially facts or figures. Characters with a high Logic rating will likely be excellent book-learners, able to deal with computer and magic theory with ease, and capable of building (and tearing down) machinery and electronics.
Willpower; the ability to keep going, control of one's habits and emotions. Willpower determines if the character is willing to take control of their life. Low Willpower might defer to other people when big decisions made, for example. A high-Willpower character is more assured and possesses a never-say-die attitude. Such characters go down to the monowire because that's exactly the fragging point. Willpower also represents a character's cool under fire, their ability to resist intimidation and manipulation, and their resolve to stick to their guns when the pressure is on.
Special Attributes-
Edge; that special something that can turn the tide and save the day-a successful gut check, a moment of brilliant inspiration or creativity, or a once-in-a-lifetime physical feat. Edge is a combination of luck, timing, and the favor of the gods. Characters with low Edge are unlikely to get unexpected breaks in life, much less win the lottery. A high-Edge character, however, is graced with good fortune and has an uncanny ability to succeed despite the odds. Edge can be spent at certain points i nthe game to help tip the odds in your character's favor. Unlike other attributes, Edge provides Edge points that may be spent in certain ways-once used, these points are not to be regained until certain in-game evens occur, at the discretion of othe gamemaster, bitches. Booya.
Essence; life force, the body's wholeness. It represents the body's cohesiveness and holistic strength. Things that are invasive to the body, such as cyberware and bioware, reduce Essence. If a character abuses their body repeatedly with chemicals, toxins, or even just negligence over a long period of time, they may lose Essence as well. Long-time drug addicts and chipheads who have done permanent damage to their systems have lost Essence. Lost Essence can never be regained. When Essence declines, MAgic and Resonance decline by the same amount. All characters start the game with an Essence of 6.
Magic; ability to use magic and the body's attunement to the mana that flows through our plane. Those with strong Magic ratings are able to handle powerful magic and mana manipulation. Those with weak Magic ratings are more sensitive and more easily drained by use of magic. Those with no Magic rating have no magical capabilities and are tuned out from the magical realms. Serious damage to the body and invasive additions such as cyberware and bioware reduce the Magic attribute. Magic and Resonance are mutually exclusive attributes. A character with a Magic of 1 or higher cannon posses a Resonance attribute, and vice versa.
Resonance; special attribute for technomancers, characters able to manipulate the Matrix with their minds alone. Resonance is an attunement to the echoes and transmissions that mermeate the electronic world, an alignment with the wired gestalt. The exact nature of Resonance is even more controversial than magic- some claim that Resonance is a form of magic that has adapted to the virtual and augmented realities of the modern world, others claim that Resonance is some new stage in the evolution metahuman consciousness- but no one knows for sure. Resonance and Magic are mutually exclusive attributes. A character with a Resonance of 1 or higher cannot possess a Magic attribute, and vice versa.
Human Attribute Ratings:
Rating Description
1 Weak
2 Underdeveloped
3 Typical
4 Improved
5 Superior
6 Maximum Unmodified Human
Care must be made to distinguish between natural (unmodified) and augmented (cyberware, bioware, adept powers, magic) ratings. Generally, augmented ratings are in parenthesis. 4(5). Natural (Augmented). The maximum augmented attribute value for each metatype is equal to 1.5 times the natural figure, rounded down. This also applies to Initiative.
Karma can be spent to improve character attributes during gamplay. Improving an attribute increases both natural and augmented ratings.
Essence Rating: All characters have a starting Essence attribute of 6. Cyberware and bioware implants reduce this rating. No character may start with an Essence greater than 6. Under basic Shadowrun rules, characters can never have an Essence of 0 or less. If they do, they die. Characters with Magic or Resonance attributes are subject to penalties if they have an Essence lower than 6. For each point of partial point of Essence below 6, the character loses 1 full points from their Magic or Resonance and the maximum for that attribute is reduced by 1. The maximum rating for Magic is 6+ initiation grade; for Resonance the maximum rating is 6+submersion grade.
The maximum natural rating for Edge is 6 (7 for humans).
Magic & Traditions:
In Shadowrun, one must purchase certain Qualities to have magical ability. There's are:
Adept Quality
Magician Quality (Hermetic Mage and Shamanic Traditions)
Mystic Adept Quality (Hybrid between Adept and Magician)
Magicians frequently use Sorcery (spells) and Conjuring (summoning spirits). Both spellcasting and conjuring, as well as other magical activities, cause of type of fatigue to magicians called Drain.
Each type of spell or spirit has a Force Rating that begins at 1 and increases as its power increases, chosen by the magician and limited by their abilities, time, and money.
Traditions:
In Shadowrun, each magician follows a particular magic tradition. Traditions are the different ways in which magicians conceptualize and understand their magic- they are their paradigms, or personal outlooks. Whatever path the player chooses for their character, it is for -life-. There is no going back. The path of magic the character follows affects how they learn spells and what kinds of spirits they can summon. It may also impose requirements on how the character acts. The choice colors the character's outlook, relationships, and motives in studying magic.
Two traditions are presented in these cor rules, but characters can also invent their own (Not in this game, damnish!). A character who chooses the shamanic tradition is a Shaman. Shamanic magic is fueled through a link with the outer world of nature and the inner world of emotions, will, and faith.
A character who chooses the hermetic tradition is a Mage. Mages see the universe as patterns of force and energy then can control with complex symbols and formulae or power. Hermetic magic is more intellectual, relying on observation, theory, practice, and precise execution, rather than intuition and improvisation. Mages are scholars and often have elaborate libraries and equipment to assist their work.
Adepts have their own unique path, known as the somatic tradition. Adepts are concerned with the harmony and perfection of body and mind, focusing their magical power toward that end. Some Adepts take a hermetic-like approach to magic, while others follow the principles of shamanism.
A magician's link to magic may be personified by a spirit figure or totem, called a mentor spirit, which exemplifies their beliefs. Mentor spirits provide certain advantages and disadvantages.
Skills:
Skill Ratings are on a scale of 1 to 6, similar to attributes. A rating of 3 represents professional competency in a particular skill. Beginning characters can only start the game with either a single skill at the rating of 6 (and all others 4 or less) or only two skills with a rating of 5 (and all the rest 4 or less).
Specializations represents a focused field of training or education in one aspect of a Base Skill. For example, a character with Pistols skill can specialize in Semi-Automatics, improving their ability when firing any semi-automatic pistol. A specialization grants the character 2 extra dice on tests using that skill when the particular speciality applies. Only one specialization can be taken per skill. Can't be used in skill groups.
Skill Groups are sets of related skills that can be purchased and upgraded at the same time for a reduced cost per skill. The individual skills inside a group function identically to skills purchased seperately. Starting characters cannot have a skill group higher than Rating 4.
Qualities:
Beyond skills and attributes, characters have qualities-both positive and negative-that affect them in specific game terms. Qualities range from Magician (which provides characters access to magic in the Sixth World) to Bad Luck (which turns their own Edge against them) . Positive qualities must be purchased during character creation, wheras negative qualities provide more points to be used during character generation. Characters may not purchase more than 35 BP worth of positive qualities or take more than 35 BP worth of nagetive qualities.
Gear:
Some gear has ratings, beginning at 1 and increasing with the capability and sophistication of the item. In addition to cost, gear usually has an Availability, which determines how readily and quickly the item can be obtained. Weapons have a Damage Value that tells the player how much damage they do. The code consists of a number and a letter. The number indicates the base number of damage boxes the weapon inflicts. The letter indicates whether the weapon inflicts Physical (P) or Stun (S) damage. Some weapons also have an AP rating, which stands for armour penetration. The AP modifies the value of any armour used to resist the attack.
Cyberware:
Implanting Grades- The higher grades and bioware are known as alphaware, betaware, and deltaware. Alphaware is more Essence friendly than standard cyberware, but is more costly as well. Betaware and deltaware are even more Essence friendly and expensive, but are also harder to acquire and are not available to starting characters. Additionally, there is a higher grade of bioware that has been grown from the recipient's own cloned cells, known as cultured bioware. Cultured bioware is more essence friendly than standard bioware, but ism ore costly as well.
Contacts:
Contacts are NPC characters that will help out depending on their Loyalty Rating and Connection Rating. The higher the loyalty, the more they're willing to do for you. The higher the Connection, the more useful the contact is. The ratings can go as high as 6.
Spending Edge:
When you spend a point of Edge you can choose to have one of the following happen:
-You may declare the use of Edge points before rolling for any one test (or one interval roll on an Extended Test). You may add a number of extra dice equal to your full Edge attribute to the dice pool. All dice (not just Edge dice) rolled on this test are subject to the Rule of Six, meaning that if you roll a 6, you count it as a hit and roll it again.
-You may declare the use of Edge after you have rolled for one test. In this case, you may roll a number of extra dice equal to your full Edge attribute and add their hits to the test's total. The Rule of Six, however, only applies to the additional Edge dice rolled, not the original dice pool.
-You may re-roll all of the dice on a single test that did not score a hit.
-You may make a Long Shot Test even if your dice pool was reduced to 0 or less; roll only your Edge dice for this test (the Rule of Six does not apply).
-You may go first in an Initiative Pass, regardless of your Initiative Score. If multiple characters spend Edge to go first in the same pass, those characters go in order according to their Initiative Scores first, then everyone else goes according to their Initiative Scores.
No more than one Edge point may be spent on any specific test or action at one time. If you spent a point of Edge for extra dice and rolled a critical glitch anyway, for example, you cannot use Edge to negate that critical glitch since you have already applied Edge to that test.
Burning Edge: In certain drastic situations, even spending Edge may not be enough. A character can choose to burn a point of Edge-permanently reducing their Edge attribute by 1-for one of the following effects:
-Automatically achieve a critical success on one action. The character must be capable of carrying out the action- you can't buy a critical success for something you have no hope of achieving. (Note that you do not refresh a point of Edge for getting a critical success in this case.)
-Escape certain death. This use of Edge represents another shot at life-something the spirits are rare to provide. The streets have decided that they have a more uses for this character before they're discarded to the trash heap and miraculously pull them from the jaws of Death. Could be a sheer coincidence to the intervention of the gods. Note that the character is not necessarily unharmed by the actions; if shot in the head, for example, they may be knocked into a coma and appear dead to their enemies, but they will survive to get revenge another day.
Rolling dice and determining the outcome is a bit different in this game than most (as far as I know, at least, and that ain't much). Your dice pool will depend on the action being taken. Normally it'll be Attribute+Skill, so if I have a 3 in Body and 2 in Swimming, my dice pool would be 3 + 2, allowing me to roll five dice.
Past that kid stuff, we have Hits and Thresholds. A threshold is the difficulty level. Hits are your accumulated successes of rolling a five or a six. The more 5s and 6s you have, the better your chance is of accomplishing a task. So if the task requires a threshold of 4, you have to get at least four 5s or 6s to complete it. If you get less than the threshold, you fail. If you go over and collect net success, meaning more than four successful hits, than you can add a little flair to your technique. Say, if you were driving a motorcycle and it broke down, and you're being chased down by sprawl gangers. If the threshold was 3 to fix the bike, and you score 5 net hits, you've just fixed your bike, taken a shit, and drove off before the gangers even knew which direction you went.
Glitches are if you get more than half of your dice pool to roll up as 1s. This is a mistake, fumble, error, or random fluke of God that causes the action to go wrong in some way or another. Though six hits and one glitch would just be a minor set back, depending on the action being taken. Though one hit and a glitch would fuck you up something horrible I'd imagine.
A Critical Glitch is when you score no hits -and- get a glitch. This can lead to fatal injury or even death. You can burn Edge to downgrade the extremes of this glitch.
Rule of Six: When you use Edge dice, if it lands on a six, you may re-roll it to attempt to get another hit.
Extended Tests are a series of tests that a character than perform over time. Say if you were fixing a shot up car, and had to get it fixed in twelve hours. There are intervals of time between each test. So if you have twelve hours to fix the car, you have twelve test to get a total threshold hit of 8. If the rigger get three hits in the first hour, that's 3/8. Next hour, he scores five hits. 8/8. He got the job done in 1/6th the time! AMAZING! Though if you're interrupted in the middle of the test, expect to have to do it all over again, unless it's like a car job where you can just put your tools down and stop. That's fine. But if you're working your way through a maze, and have to backtrack, you're not going to be able to hold on to those hits.
Combat Turns are about three seconds long, and the higher your initiative is (Reaction and Initiative added together) the sooner you get to act. Some implants or magic will allow you to act more than once in a turn, causing a break up of Initiative Passes. This means that the initiative order goes like before, but if you're able to act again, you'll act right after the last person in the order, then it starts over the initiative order again and you can take your initiative position again and continue the order, and act again after the last guy. This will keep going on until the battle is over.A character can have a maximum of four Initiative passes.
Within your action phase, you can take one Complex Action or two Simple Actions. (List Later) If you have an initaitive pass, you can get a Free Action. (List Later) There are also Delayed Turns where you can skip your current turn to act at any other time after that, or they can be carried over to your next initiative pass.
Attributes:
Physical-
Agility; represents fine motor control. Manual dexterity, flexibility, balance, and coordination. A character with low agility may be someone with an inner-ear problem, one leg shorter than the other, or simply a klutz. Higher Agility is among "natural" athletes.
Body; determines a character's resistance to outside forces. Endurance, immune system, how well they heal, tolerence to drugs and alcohol, and to some extent, muscle and bone structure and weight. Low Body could mean someone is skinny and frail-boned, or has bad eating and health habits. High Body means a better fed, tough-as-nails, strong boned person, with an immune system that just won't quit. Body doesn't necessarily correlate to physical size. A fat, out of shape character likely has a low Body, but a small character who is wiry and athletic may have a high Body.
Reaction; physical reflexes, how quick one reacts to a changing situation and how well she can dodge the physical slings and arrows that shadowrunners face. High Reaction means better positions to react to danger, while low Reaction will cause people to lag a bit behind.
Strength; muscle, raw lifting power, running speed. Somewhat dependent on the character's size and metatype. If you're five-foot-nothin' and 115 lbs, it's unlikely you've have an unaugmented Strength attribute of 6. On the otherhand, dwarves have a muscle density that rivals that of reptiles. CHaracters with low Strength may be small, skinny, or slight, or simply too busy to workout. A high Strength character may be tough and wiry, know how to use their body, works out every day, or is simply BIG.
Mental Attributes-
Charisma; is a nebulous attribute. More than just looks, Charisma represents a character's personal aura, self-image, ego, willingness to find out what people want and give it to them, and ability to recognize what she can and can't get out of people. A whiny demeanor, a me-first attitude, or an inability to read body language or subtle hints are just a few traits that can give a low Charisma to someone. A character with a high Charisma might simply enjoy entertaining others, may excel at making friends and/or manipulating people, or may be all flash and fun with whomever it is today. A high-Charisma character might deliver jokes at the right moment, have a sexy way of carring herself, or command respect because her timing is always impeccable.
Intuition; mental alertness. The ability to take in and process information, to read a crowd, to assess a situation for danger or opportunity. A character with little Intuition may be unobservant, may rarely think things fully through, or could simply be slow. A character with a high Intuition is adept at making the best of a bad situation, knowing when to leave before an encounter escalates, noticing small clues, and working fro minstinct.
Logic; memorizing ability and raw brainpower. How fast one learns, how much they can remember, how well they can execute a pre-planned sequence. A Logic-lacking character might get overwhelmed when confronted with a lot of details and may have a poor memory-especially facts or figures. Characters with a high Logic rating will likely be excellent book-learners, able to deal with computer and magic theory with ease, and capable of building (and tearing down) machinery and electronics.
Willpower; the ability to keep going, control of one's habits and emotions. Willpower determines if the character is willing to take control of their life. Low Willpower might defer to other people when big decisions made, for example. A high-Willpower character is more assured and possesses a never-say-die attitude. Such characters go down to the monowire because that's exactly the fragging point. Willpower also represents a character's cool under fire, their ability to resist intimidation and manipulation, and their resolve to stick to their guns when the pressure is on.
Special Attributes-
Edge; that special something that can turn the tide and save the day-a successful gut check, a moment of brilliant inspiration or creativity, or a once-in-a-lifetime physical feat. Edge is a combination of luck, timing, and the favor of the gods. Characters with low Edge are unlikely to get unexpected breaks in life, much less win the lottery. A high-Edge character, however, is graced with good fortune and has an uncanny ability to succeed despite the odds. Edge can be spent at certain points i nthe game to help tip the odds in your character's favor. Unlike other attributes, Edge provides Edge points that may be spent in certain ways-once used, these points are not to be regained until certain in-game evens occur, at the discretion of othe gamemaster, bitches. Booya.
Essence; life force, the body's wholeness. It represents the body's cohesiveness and holistic strength. Things that are invasive to the body, such as cyberware and bioware, reduce Essence. If a character abuses their body repeatedly with chemicals, toxins, or even just negligence over a long period of time, they may lose Essence as well. Long-time drug addicts and chipheads who have done permanent damage to their systems have lost Essence. Lost Essence can never be regained. When Essence declines, MAgic and Resonance decline by the same amount. All characters start the game with an Essence of 6.
Magic; ability to use magic and the body's attunement to the mana that flows through our plane. Those with strong Magic ratings are able to handle powerful magic and mana manipulation. Those with weak Magic ratings are more sensitive and more easily drained by use of magic. Those with no Magic rating have no magical capabilities and are tuned out from the magical realms. Serious damage to the body and invasive additions such as cyberware and bioware reduce the Magic attribute. Magic and Resonance are mutually exclusive attributes. A character with a Magic of 1 or higher cannon posses a Resonance attribute, and vice versa.
Resonance; special attribute for technomancers, characters able to manipulate the Matrix with their minds alone. Resonance is an attunement to the echoes and transmissions that mermeate the electronic world, an alignment with the wired gestalt. The exact nature of Resonance is even more controversial than magic- some claim that Resonance is a form of magic that has adapted to the virtual and augmented realities of the modern world, others claim that Resonance is some new stage in the evolution metahuman consciousness- but no one knows for sure. Resonance and Magic are mutually exclusive attributes. A character with a Resonance of 1 or higher cannot possess a Magic attribute, and vice versa.
Human Attribute Ratings:
Rating Description
1 Weak
2 Underdeveloped
3 Typical
4 Improved
5 Superior
6 Maximum Unmodified Human
Care must be made to distinguish between natural (unmodified) and augmented (cyberware, bioware, adept powers, magic) ratings. Generally, augmented ratings are in parenthesis. 4(5). Natural (Augmented). The maximum augmented attribute value for each metatype is equal to 1.5 times the natural figure, rounded down. This also applies to Initiative.
Karma can be spent to improve character attributes during gamplay. Improving an attribute increases both natural and augmented ratings.
Essence Rating: All characters have a starting Essence attribute of 6. Cyberware and bioware implants reduce this rating. No character may start with an Essence greater than 6. Under basic Shadowrun rules, characters can never have an Essence of 0 or less. If they do, they die. Characters with Magic or Resonance attributes are subject to penalties if they have an Essence lower than 6. For each point of partial point of Essence below 6, the character loses 1 full points from their Magic or Resonance and the maximum for that attribute is reduced by 1. The maximum rating for Magic is 6+ initiation grade; for Resonance the maximum rating is 6+submersion grade.
The maximum natural rating for Edge is 6 (7 for humans).
Magic & Traditions:
In Shadowrun, one must purchase certain Qualities to have magical ability. There's are:
Adept Quality
Magician Quality (Hermetic Mage and Shamanic Traditions)
Mystic Adept Quality (Hybrid between Adept and Magician)
Magicians frequently use Sorcery (spells) and Conjuring (summoning spirits). Both spellcasting and conjuring, as well as other magical activities, cause of type of fatigue to magicians called Drain.
Each type of spell or spirit has a Force Rating that begins at 1 and increases as its power increases, chosen by the magician and limited by their abilities, time, and money.
Traditions:
In Shadowrun, each magician follows a particular magic tradition. Traditions are the different ways in which magicians conceptualize and understand their magic- they are their paradigms, or personal outlooks. Whatever path the player chooses for their character, it is for -life-. There is no going back. The path of magic the character follows affects how they learn spells and what kinds of spirits they can summon. It may also impose requirements on how the character acts. The choice colors the character's outlook, relationships, and motives in studying magic.
Two traditions are presented in these cor rules, but characters can also invent their own (Not in this game, damnish!). A character who chooses the shamanic tradition is a Shaman. Shamanic magic is fueled through a link with the outer world of nature and the inner world of emotions, will, and faith.
A character who chooses the hermetic tradition is a Mage. Mages see the universe as patterns of force and energy then can control with complex symbols and formulae or power. Hermetic magic is more intellectual, relying on observation, theory, practice, and precise execution, rather than intuition and improvisation. Mages are scholars and often have elaborate libraries and equipment to assist their work.
Adepts have their own unique path, known as the somatic tradition. Adepts are concerned with the harmony and perfection of body and mind, focusing their magical power toward that end. Some Adepts take a hermetic-like approach to magic, while others follow the principles of shamanism.
A magician's link to magic may be personified by a spirit figure or totem, called a mentor spirit, which exemplifies their beliefs. Mentor spirits provide certain advantages and disadvantages.
Skills:
Skill Ratings are on a scale of 1 to 6, similar to attributes. A rating of 3 represents professional competency in a particular skill. Beginning characters can only start the game with either a single skill at the rating of 6 (and all others 4 or less) or only two skills with a rating of 5 (and all the rest 4 or less).
Specializations represents a focused field of training or education in one aspect of a Base Skill. For example, a character with Pistols skill can specialize in Semi-Automatics, improving their ability when firing any semi-automatic pistol. A specialization grants the character 2 extra dice on tests using that skill when the particular speciality applies. Only one specialization can be taken per skill. Can't be used in skill groups.
Skill Groups are sets of related skills that can be purchased and upgraded at the same time for a reduced cost per skill. The individual skills inside a group function identically to skills purchased seperately. Starting characters cannot have a skill group higher than Rating 4.
Qualities:
Beyond skills and attributes, characters have qualities-both positive and negative-that affect them in specific game terms. Qualities range from Magician (which provides characters access to magic in the Sixth World) to Bad Luck (which turns their own Edge against them) . Positive qualities must be purchased during character creation, wheras negative qualities provide more points to be used during character generation. Characters may not purchase more than 35 BP worth of positive qualities or take more than 35 BP worth of nagetive qualities.
Gear:
Some gear has ratings, beginning at 1 and increasing with the capability and sophistication of the item. In addition to cost, gear usually has an Availability, which determines how readily and quickly the item can be obtained. Weapons have a Damage Value that tells the player how much damage they do. The code consists of a number and a letter. The number indicates the base number of damage boxes the weapon inflicts. The letter indicates whether the weapon inflicts Physical (P) or Stun (S) damage. Some weapons also have an AP rating, which stands for armour penetration. The AP modifies the value of any armour used to resist the attack.
Cyberware:
Implanting Grades- The higher grades and bioware are known as alphaware, betaware, and deltaware. Alphaware is more Essence friendly than standard cyberware, but is more costly as well. Betaware and deltaware are even more Essence friendly and expensive, but are also harder to acquire and are not available to starting characters. Additionally, there is a higher grade of bioware that has been grown from the recipient's own cloned cells, known as cultured bioware. Cultured bioware is more essence friendly than standard bioware, but ism ore costly as well.
Contacts:
Contacts are NPC characters that will help out depending on their Loyalty Rating and Connection Rating. The higher the loyalty, the more they're willing to do for you. The higher the Connection, the more useful the contact is. The ratings can go as high as 6.
Spending Edge:
When you spend a point of Edge you can choose to have one of the following happen:
-You may declare the use of Edge points before rolling for any one test (or one interval roll on an Extended Test). You may add a number of extra dice equal to your full Edge attribute to the dice pool. All dice (not just Edge dice) rolled on this test are subject to the Rule of Six, meaning that if you roll a 6, you count it as a hit and roll it again.
-You may declare the use of Edge after you have rolled for one test. In this case, you may roll a number of extra dice equal to your full Edge attribute and add their hits to the test's total. The Rule of Six, however, only applies to the additional Edge dice rolled, not the original dice pool.
-You may re-roll all of the dice on a single test that did not score a hit.
-You may make a Long Shot Test even if your dice pool was reduced to 0 or less; roll only your Edge dice for this test (the Rule of Six does not apply).
-You may go first in an Initiative Pass, regardless of your Initiative Score. If multiple characters spend Edge to go first in the same pass, those characters go in order according to their Initiative Scores first, then everyone else goes according to their Initiative Scores.
No more than one Edge point may be spent on any specific test or action at one time. If you spent a point of Edge for extra dice and rolled a critical glitch anyway, for example, you cannot use Edge to negate that critical glitch since you have already applied Edge to that test.
Burning Edge: In certain drastic situations, even spending Edge may not be enough. A character can choose to burn a point of Edge-permanently reducing their Edge attribute by 1-for one of the following effects:
-Automatically achieve a critical success on one action. The character must be capable of carrying out the action- you can't buy a critical success for something you have no hope of achieving. (Note that you do not refresh a point of Edge for getting a critical success in this case.)
-Escape certain death. This use of Edge represents another shot at life-something the spirits are rare to provide. The streets have decided that they have a more uses for this character before they're discarded to the trash heap and miraculously pull them from the jaws of Death. Could be a sheer coincidence to the intervention of the gods. Note that the character is not necessarily unharmed by the actions; if shot in the head, for example, they may be knocked into a coma and appear dead to their enemies, but they will survive to get revenge another day.