Shadowrun 4e newbie questions

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:46 pm

Silent Wayfarer wrote:
virgil wrote:Are there any stats for size, concealability, fire mode, & ammo for the HERF gun?
Don't think so. It's basically a glorified Tag Eraser anyways.

From the way it's written, it comes off more as a single-target perma-jammer.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:03 pm

I'm not terribly well-versed on Shadowrun's metaphysics, but is there an advantage to setting up an 'artificial' manasphere on a space station (high density algae farms or whatever to support enough life or whatever) for magical R&D? Independent of the research on the feasibility of developing artificial manaspheres; because I don't actually know if that's doable in the setting.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:09 pm

The advantage is that your magicians get to cast in space. You get to summon spirits in space, Shape Metal the holes in your spaceship, Levitate the stuff you want from ship to ship, etc. You also get to do research on the local astral space and artificial manaspheres.
Artificial manaspheres do exist - Ares has one on their space station and EVO has one on their marsian colony.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:24 pm

They're also favored for things that may end really, really badly, like attacking Insect spirits in their home metaplanes.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:53 pm

Technically, if you are a strong enough magician, you can still cast in space somehow. Because space is a ... i want to say -12? Mana Void. So if you have a Magic Attribute of 13+, you are good to try. Of course, you also need to cast force 13+ spells that will drain you as if they were force 25 and only have the effect of force 1 spells, if i remember the numbers correctly.
The technically easiest way to do it is actually to have the torso of a cyberzombie strapped to your back. He creates a bgc of positive whatever his negative essence is, so if his negativ essence is -1, then you operate in a BGC of 1.
I am not entirely sure about this overriding the void though, because as far as i know, how mana void and bgc interact with each other were never detailed anywhere.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 8:02 pm

You don't remember correctly. As a Magic 13 guy in Mana Void 12 you have Magic 1, so you can cast F1 and F2 spells that drain you normally.
I'm pretty sure cyberzombies create a negative background count, which wouldn't affect the void in any way. However, in SR4 you can take the Astral Hazing negative quality, which gives you a permanent positive background count of 4. That would replace the -12 penalty with the much more manageable -4.

Rasumichin · Post by **Rasumichin** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 8:48 pm

No, cyberzombies create astral hazing as well. At least Astral Hazing is the header of one of the side effect paragraphs in Augmentation.

Whatever the ambient mana conditions are, the cyberzombie always stands at the heart of a Rating 4 background count that extends a number of meters from her body equal to her total negative Essence. If she remains in one place for long, that background count will expand at the rate of about a meter in every direction every two or three hours.

So if you want a magic space station, cybermancy isn't the worst option.

That may be different in other editions than SR4, but i don't care about those.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:03 pm

While something I can work with, it feels...off; to have independent background counts from something like cybermancy to override the astral void of space. Granted, it's got a greater foundation in the explicit rules than the currently arbitrary number of potted plants needed to generate a mana-bubble.

EDIT: Related question. Is there a limit to how large a cyberzombie's astral hazing aura will grow? Because in about a month, you've got a background count half a kilometer wide.

Rasumichin · Post by **Rasumichin** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:16 pm

virgil wrote:While something I can work with, it feels...off; to have independent background counts from something like cybermancy to override the astral void of space. Granted, it's got a greater foundation in the explicit rules than the currently arbitrary number of potted plants needed to generate a mana-bubble.

Well, it's a void. The maximum negative BGC there is not a result of space having any special qualities, it's a result of space having no astral qualities whatsoever. As long as you have something that holds your tiny portion of hazed astral space together instead of just letting it dissipate into the surrounding nothingness, i don't see a problem with just filling parts of that void up with whatever generates an astral something.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:15 pm

Rasumichin wrote:No, cyberzombies create astral hazing as well. At least Astral Hazing is the header of one of the side effect paragraphs in Augmentation.

Whatever the ambient mana conditions are, the cyberzombie always stands at the heart of a Rating 4 background count that extends a number of meters from her body equal to her total negative Essence. If she remains in one place for long, that background count will expand at the rate of about a meter in every direction every two or three hours.
So if you want a magic space station, cybermancy isn't the worst option.

That may be different in other editions than SR4, but i don't care about those.

I went and double checked, and they don't say if the count is positive or negative, but the word "domain" is used, and Street Magic says that domains are positive. So I guess you are right.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 2:07 am

@Virgil
I THINK the cyberzombie BGC is limited by his negative essence in meters as well, but it's been quite some time since i read up on that. That was what set it apart from the astral hazing "quality" if i remember correctly, which only says it spreads and makes no mention about it stopping ever. So, if you live in a city, think twice about running with that stuff. As soon as you live somewhere for half a year, it has extended to cover a good part of the city and by then every magical active user in the affected area is probably looking to get rid of you.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 4:50 pm

Is the Parabotany book any good?

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:43 pm

Not really. It's 50 pages long booklet, 1 plant per page, and rules for making magic potions out of them. Unless your campaign is heavily centered around awakened plants or you can get the book for free - don't bother.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:17 pm

I understand its narrow focus makes the content itself of mediocre value. The question is whether the material, given its context, is any good. If the plants described are unbalanced, incompatible with the rules from Street Magic, or something else, the product can be described as a failure at its goal.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:53 pm

Street Magic, p.56 wrote:Divining
Mechanically, with the subject or a suitable link at hand, the diviner declares her intent to use Divining and enters a mild trance (–2 dice pool modifier to all actions). She may then ask one question about an event in the subject’s future—divination is only useful in answering questions about events, not personal details or histories. The diviner always receives some vision or sign, though its meaning might be unclear.

How long is the trance supposed to be?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:05 pm

if i had to hazard a guess: just long enough to ask the question and get another question as the answer probably . .

Rasumichin · Post by **Rasumichin** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:12 pm

Stahlseele wrote:if i had to hazard a guess: just long enough to ask the question and get another question as the answer probably . .

Well...my guess is that the trance would have to last at least that long.
Maybe the technique needs prep time (laying cards, runinng an astrology program, cutting a sacrifice open and looking at the entrails) and maybe the trance applies to that as well. Or the mage just enters the trance state briefly at the end of the ritual.

BTW, i'm not much into this whole burn a metamagic to get cryptic bs deal. If somebody actually goes for divining instead of masking and filtering and invoking, they should get at least one halfway useful clue per run out of it.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:26 pm

I went for Divining as an adept's fourth metamagic, taking ability to see the future in place of Traceless Walk (or anything else worth 1PP)

Silent Wayfarer · Post by **Silent Wayfarer** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 6:10 am

Korwin wrote:
Longes wrote:What's up with the Free Spirit chargen rules and is it possible to make something playable? I assume that step 1 is to take Possession and not Materialization.
If playing an Free Spirit, you get the choice, either play something underpowered or do some rules lawering and play something overpowered.

Both Options are IMHO so out of whack to be considered unplayable.

Okay, how would you make an OP Free Spirit?

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:10 am

Silent Wayfarer wrote:
Korwin wrote:
Longes wrote:What's up with the Free Spirit chargen rules and is it possible to make something playable? I assume that step 1 is to take Possession and not Materialization.
If playing an Free Spirit, you get the choice, either play something underpowered or do some rules lawering and play something overpowered.

Both Options are IMHO so out of whack to be considered unplayable.
Okay, how would you make an OP Free Spirit?

You take the Pact power, take a group contact for the initiation group that's taking your pacts, and then sit at home rolling in karma and not playing the game.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 7:40 am

Are there official guidelines for how much it adds to one's lifestyle to keep a biodrone, such as a Shiawase Cybertooth Tiger?

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 8:58 am

virgil wrote:Are there official guidelines for how much it adds to one's lifestyle to keep a biodrone, such as a Shiawase Cybertooth Tiger?

Check Running Wild, if something exsits - it's probably there.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:00 pm

Would there be a good chance of corporate runners on call with movement running on a high end aircraft to get somewhere within three minutes as a high threat response team? Would they be the right response to getting the alarm for 5-10 million nuyen in assets being threatened?

Seerow · Post by **Seerow** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 8:19 pm

Lokathor wrote:Wait what? All Concrete in the 2070s is actually metallic Ferrocrete? Well... so just about every large building wall ever is composed almost entirely of metal-type materials? Sounds sweet. So I guess if you had Shape Metal, Shape Plastic, and Shape Glass then you could shape like 80% of all the stuff you'd ever find. I looked up for some errata, the SR4 to SR4A PDF lists "1, 2, 3, 5+" as the category values, which seems much more doable.

As far as Initiation goes, my guy is on the run and in this GM's setting basically all mages are controlled by ether a corp (Hermetic) or a government (Shamin). So I can't really join a mage group to get a discount. I was looking at a rite I could do to get one, and the only one that seemed doable for my character was the Meditation, until I looked at the second extended task required. For me, it comes out to, 10 (1, 1day) and 6 (12, 1day), both Within 4 days. Are the two tasks performed in parallel or something, because I don't really get how I'm supposed to get 12 successes on 6 dice in 3 rolls without a mega edge score or something.

I seem to remember Thesis being a relatively easy one to do for a discount on first initiations.

kzt · Post by **kzt** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 2:22 am

virgil wrote:Would there be a good chance of corporate runners on call with movement running on a high end aircraft to get somewhere within three minutes as a high threat response team? Would they be the right response to getting the alarm for 5-10 million nuyen in assets being threatened?

There is a real time issue in SR. Everything in SR happens in super speed and everyone is good with this. Except for the cops showing up, people can get all bent out of shape when the cops show up at a thematically appropriate moment. Look at a video of an actual modern firefight, it isn't done in under 10 seconds like SR has it. The whole getting killed bit tends to make most people damn cautious, plus in reality, even well trained people tend to miss a lot in combat, and the average minimally trained thug will very, very rarely hit unless the targets are caught by surprise or the target is very close.

In reality, the corp runners would have to be fully geared up, in the aircraft, with the engine on and cleared for immediate take-off and be within about 5 miles. This is rather expensive, as the bird burns fuel and you can only sit in the seats for so long. So you would need multiple aircraft and teams rotating pad alerts every hour or two. Which in practical terms means that there is going to be another team or two about 2-5 minutes behind them.

Another interesting thing is that physical security systems are rated by how long it takes a team of experts to defeat them. In reality you are not going to open a jewelry safe in under an hour without someone giving you the combination (and possibly the keys) or making it pretty damn obvious to the casual observer that something really unusual is going on on. You might have notice that it doesn't work this way in SR.

Now given the whole superspeed thing, if it's thematically appropriate for the response team to show up 30 seconds after the alarm goes off you can just do that. They can magically move really fast, you can have the aircraft hidden by a big concealment spell while circling the site or whatever.

Given that the teams and aircraft cost more than the target they are protecting, I'm not sure this makes much sense, but do what you think is best for your game and don't worry to much about "is it reasonable?".