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Crasical
Apr 22, 2014

GG!*
*GET GOOD
Sorry, I should have been more clear. The discussion about Restrodes had me fiddling around with a kung-fu technomancer in 4e, and I ended up with low strength and body scores for concept reasons~.

Basically I can touch-of-death someone and will basically be eliminating one or two targets per initiative pass, but I'm curious what's the usual standard for mitigating the 'glass' in glass cannon characters like this.

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Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib

Crasical posted:

Sorry, I should have been more clear. The discussion about Restrodes had me fiddling around with a kung-fu technomancer in 4e, and I ended up with low strength and body scores for concept reasons~.

Basically I can touch-of-death someone and will basically be eliminating one or two targets per initiative pass, but I'm curious what's the usual standard for mitigating the 'glass' in glass cannon characters like this.

Beyond stacking on as much armor and/or defensive cyberware you can? Not really anything. Glass cannon characters tend to get by on avoidance more than anything else, so high Reaction, Agility, and defensive skills along with a high Edge are going to be your best bet.

Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




Crasical posted:

Connections 6 might be more the type to call in missile strikes instead of being a guy with a gun.

Any tips for not dying if you're trying to run a concept that's got a low body stat? Aside from the fairly obvious 'stay out of combat'.

Don't draw fire and have plenty of Edge in case you do. Pretty much the end all/be all there.

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
I just wanted to point out that in real life there was an actual cabal of Hollywood firms and studios working in less then legal territory to attack Google, with poo poo like "Project Keystone" aimed at investigative actions and information gathering. Or how they used a pocket DA and did poo poo like give him "evidence" that he can just so happen to find entirely coincidentally while doing a live demonstration.

Tell me this doesn't read like a literal Shadowrun job.

ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Dec 19, 2014

Doc Dee
Feb 15, 2012

THANKS FOR MAKING ME SPEND MONEY, T
Don't forget that the US government is giving land that is culturally significant to Native Americans to foreign industrialists.

Doc Dee fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Dec 19, 2014

SirFozzie
Mar 28, 2004
Goombatta!
and the run faster... ie the shadowrun companion for 5e book is out on drivethrurpg. haven't grabbed it yet because i just spent a week in hospital

Ryuujin
Sep 26, 2007
Dragon God
Yeah so skimmed Run Faster. Some interesting stuff, but no Drakes, Spirits or AI. Has three new character generation methods. One is Sum to 10 where you have 10 points to distribute as you wish. A costs 4 points, B 3, C 2, D 1 and E 0. Another is point buy, which is basically you start with 800 karma, spend karma on your metatype, your attributes start at your minimum listed value, then you spend karma as you would normally on upping your attributes, gaining skills, and other things like that.


The third character generation is similar to point buy. This one is called Life Modules, and it comes with 750 karma instead. But the packages you pick up are supposed to make up for the lower karma. Again you pick your Metatype and set your attributes to minimum. Then you start picking Life Modules that give you various things for karma. The first one you pick is Nationality, all of these cost the same 15 karma, and this gives you a native language, 1 rank in a second language, some knowledge and general skills, and many Life Module have a subchoice that further differentiates things. Options are UCAS, CAS, NAN, and TÍR TAIRNGIRE.

If you pick UCAS you get: Primary Language English (N). Secondary Languages: (choose one language with 1 rank): Spanish, German, Italian, French, Mandarin, Polish, Yiddish. Universal Skills: Computer +1, Knowledge: History +1, Knowledge: UCAS +1. If you pick Canada for your specific region you get: Body +1, Navigation +1, Survival +1, Etiquette +1, SINner (5).

The next section is Formative Years, which all cost 40 karma and take you to about ten years old or its equivalent. Arcology Living, Corp Drone, Farm Living, Fugitive, Isolated Rural Upbringing, Military Brat, Orphan, Rich Kid, Street Urching, and White Collar. Some of those don't really sound right to me for a kid, but maybe they mean that is what your parents are.

If you pick Isolated Rural Upbringing you get: Attributes Body +1, Strength +1. Qualities: Uncouth (14), Uneducated (8), Toughness (9). Skills: Blades +1, Outdoors skill group +2, Running +1, Unarmed Combat +1, Knowledge: Farming +2.

Next comes Teen Years, each cost 50 karma and takes you to the equivalent of seventeen. They include Corporate Education, Farm Living, Gang Warfare, High School, Home Tutored, Isolated Rural Upbringing, Magical Education, Military School, Prepatory School, and Street Kid.

If you pick Isolated Rural Upbringing again, because hey you still live out in the sticks, you get: Attributes Body +1, Willpower +1. Qualities: Incompetent: Electronics (5). Skills: Blades +1, First Aid +1, Gymnastics +1, Longarms +1, Outdoors skill group +1, Perception +2, Sneaking +1, Street Knowledge: Critters +2.

The next section is Further Education. This one seems to be optional, as in you can take a Further Education Life Module, that takes you to nineteen or twenty and each has a separate karma cost, or you can skip it and go to the next section right away. Options include Community College (55), which gets a science discipline and an art discipline it looks like, and specifically states when you finish it you can also go to State College or University package instead of having to go straight to the next section; Ivy League University (80) gets some universal skills and also gets to pick a science and art discipline and it looks like some of the skills it gets may be higher than Community College; next is Military Academy (115) and specifically requires you to take a Tour of Duty with one armed force or another after you finish it, again you pick an art and science discipline, and like Ivy League you get some unniversal skills except you seem to get a lot of them and they are rather military/combat oriented; next is State University or College (65), gets some universal skills and can again pick a science and art discipline, individually it an Community College are kind of weaker than the others so far but together they get you quite a bit of skills and attributes; next is Trade School/Technical College (40) is the only one that only gets 1 attribute point, gets a few general studies skills but mostly picks a Vocation.

That was long so say you went Military Academy you get: Attributes Body +1, Reaction +1, Strength +1. Qualities: Military Rank (20). Universal Skills: Firearms skill group +1, First Aid +1, Leadership +1, Navigation +1, Swimming +1, Unarmed Combat +1, Academic Knowledge: Military History +2, Professional Knowledge: Military +3. Science Disciplines: Mathematics Computer +1, Etiquette +1, Software +2, Academic Knowledge: Mathematics +5. Arts Disciplines: Literature Artisan +1 (also add Writing
specialization), Computer +1, Academic Knowledge: Literature +5.

And now we move on to Real Life. Each takes 4 years and costs 4 karma, and in mentions skills cannot go above 7 in this process so if something would bring a skill above 7 the excess is lost, so keep an eye out for that. Ah it actually says if the skill is not part of a group transfer the extra points into another skill with the same linked attribute. It specifically says you can take more than one Real Life module, but you cannot take the same one twice. Remember each time you take one of these it costs 4 years and 100 karma. The options are Bounty Hunter, Celebrity, Combat Correspondent, Corporate, Covert Operations, Drifter, Ganger, Government Agent, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Political Activist, Postgraduate Studies, Private Investigator/Detective, Regular Job, Shadow Work (Shadowrunner), Street Magic, Terrorist, Think Tank, Tour of Duty (Mercenary), Tour of Duty (NAN), Tour of Duty (Tir Tairngire), Tour of Duty (UCAS, CAS, and CFS).

So if you selected Tour of Duty: Mercenary you get: Attributes Body +1, Reaction +1, Strength +1. Basic Training (all branches): Firearms skill group +1, First Aid +1, Navigation +1, Professional Knowledge: Foreign Military +3. Branches: Army Armorer +1, Blades +1, Free-Fall +1, Heavy Weapons +1, Pilot Ground Craft +1, Running +1, Survival +1, Swimming +1, Throwing Weapons +1.

Once you have picked all your Life Modules you subtract their karma costs from your starting karma, and adds up all your abilities and skills. Then you spend any leftover karma on rounding your character out. The Life Modules are basically designed so your skills will probably be pretty high, but your attributes will probably be fairly low so it suggests that you might want to focus your karma on increasing those.



So yeah most of this post was about the Life Module system, because it seems like an interesting way to build your character. So like I said the book doesn't have AI, Free Spirits or Drakes. But it does have critters like Pixies, Centaurs, Naga and such. It also has Shifters, which can be kind of expensive karma wise, and don't seem to have Regeneration anymore as far as I can tell. Critters all seem to start with 1 Magic, not sure if they have any limit or if it is dependent on if you go Adept or Magician, Shifters seem to have a range of Magic that ranges from 1 to 5, except for the tiger and lion Shifters who max out at 4, would assume a Magician or Adept who Initiates can still increase their max Magic by Initiating. Shifters also seem to max out at 4 Edge. Shifters seem to have different attributes in Normal and Metahuman form, the stats one builds normally are the Normal attributes, for the Metahuman form you take how many points were put into an attribute and add that to the Metahuman form's base stats. This helps explain why non Human Metahuman forms have a karma cost. A few of the Metahuman racial traits don't actually transfer to the Methuman form of the Shifter but it is fairly rare, mostly things like Minotaur Goring Horns unless you are a Bovine, or the Fomorian Arcane Arrester thing. The easiest way to select any of these things, or the variant metatypes, would be to use one of the Karma character generation methods. But the book does have an extended Priority table. Each "Metatype" lists what Priorities are required including how many special ability points they get, but they also generally have a karma cost that is in edition to the Priority cost, these generally max out at say 25 karma. Like a Tiger Shifter, or a Naga costs 25 karma and is available at that cost at Priorities A, B,and C with 4, 2 or 0 specialty ability points. While a Nartaki or Dryad has no karma cost in the Priority system and can be Priority A, B, C, D or E with 8, 6, 4/3, 2/0, 1 special ability points. Yeah the Nartaki and Dryad have the same in the highest two priorities but the Nartaki has 1 more in C, 2 more in D and still has 1 at E. Think I may have found a typo since Hobgolbin and Oni seem to cost karma at higher priorities, then at lower priorities it adds a + in front of the karma cost.

The book does have Changelings. It costs karma, 10 for Sugre I, 15 for Surge II and 30 for Surge III. It seems that the level of Surge is mostly for how much control you have over your Surge Effects. It seems Surge III get full control over picking their positive and negative Metagenic Qualities. Surge II select the Positive Qualities to the karma level of their choice, then must roll randomly for Negative Qualities to balance them out. Class I Surge characters roll all qualities randomly, and should roll all Positive Qualities until they have what they believe is a sufficient amount (to a maximum of 30 karma for any of the 3 Surge Classes) then roll Negative Qualities to balance out the Positive Qualities. It seems when picking Metagenic Qualities they must balance out the Positive and Negative so that they either add up to the same karma cost, or are only 1 point off in favor of the Positive Quality side, at which point they pay for the 1 karma out of their free karma pool. For the Classes that require random rolling there is a Random Positive Karma Value chart with a d6 roll with each result on there a range of possible karma. You roll on this, get the karma range, then go to the chart that has that karma range and roll however many dice it says to learn what quality you got. And then it has similar charts for the negative qualities.

There are Infected in the book. You purchase a Quality to become infected, at creation at least, it does not count against your maximum possible karma in Positive Qualities. , but the Negative limit is still in place and apparently this means that you can only select Mutaqua, which I believe is new, at character creation if the character is already Awakened. Newly created Infected PCs are assumed to be recently infected and do not have the full power an infected can eventually reach. Each infected quality lists physical and/or mental attributes that can be improved by the infection, the player picks to increase two of those physical attributes by 1 point each or one of those physical attributes by 2 points. They do the same with the mental attributes that they can increase. Each infected type also has new minimum and maximum attributes. Each infected begins with specific powers and weaknesses, generally not all of the ones available to their type. Many have optional powers that can be bought with karma , they do not start with any of these optional powers it seems and can only grab one every two ingame months. So even if you got a huge backload of karma you can just dump it all on gaining a bunch of vampire powers. And of course you can only buy optional powers if they show up on your infected types optional power list. Apparently Infected can gain augmentations, though they have to keep an eye on the balance of their magic and essence, and if they have Regeneration they can only get high-quality (deltaware) augmentations so their body doesn't just spit it out..

Of course the book also has new Qualities. It also has some gear packages, each built out of a multiple of 2000 nuyen it seems.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Neat, I want to try out those infected rules.

No drakes. :(

Crasical
Apr 22, 2014

GG!*
*GET GOOD
At a very brief glance, The lifepath stuff is pretty cool, the Infected rules seem okay, 'Changeling qualities are random unless you buy the most expensive level' is bullshit.

Also some of the new qualities that stuck out to me are 'FEEL MY HATE' as a mage quality (+2DV for direct spells, but increased drain), and 'Hobo With a Shotgun' as a negative quality (You aren't comfortable at lifestyles greater than Squatter'

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
I didn't get Feel My Hate for a long time ("don't must spells to DV equal to your force? Why not just raise force by 2?") until I realized it also applied to direct spells, which suddenly makes it way more powerful, since those don't get any soak. Casting Manabolt at someone, and you're rolling probably 14 vs their 3 (since they only get Body to defend), and you're doing net hits+2 damage without any chance to soak. You probably won't one hit kill anyone like you could with a dramatically overcharged lightning bolt, but it's guaranteed damage, and a fairly large amount of it. Or if you're racist, combine it with Slaughter x and now you're doing it to a whole group of baddies.

Ronwayne
Nov 20, 2007

That warm and fuzzy feeling.
Man, sum 10.

Attributes A
Skills A
Human C/Edge 7
Magic+Nuyen E

Hail the hobo ubermensch. This guy is the polar opposite off all the untrained, unskilled yahoos who still have half a million in cyber in them.

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!

Ronwayne posted:

Man, sum 10.

Attributes A
Skills A
Human C/Edge 7
Magic+Nuyen E

Hail the hobo ubermensch. This guy is the polar opposite off all the untrained, unskilled yahoos who still have half a million in cyber in them.

Combine it with Hobo with a Shotgun disadvantage

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
That guy doesn't even have to be a hobo really. "Hi, I'm a totally brand new shadowrunner here for my first exciting foray into the world of freelance mercenary work, and as soon as we're done with the GM's introductory adventure I'll probably have tripled my starting budget in one fell swoop."

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!

Kai Tave posted:

That guy doesn't even have to be a hobo really. "Hi, I'm a totally brand new shadowrunner here for my first exciting foray into the world of freelance mercenary work, and as soon as we're done with the GM's introductory adventure I'll probably have tripled my starting budget in one fell swoop."

Hobo with a Shotgun disadvantage has you growing increasingly uncomfortable (both inwardly and towards others) when forced to be in any Lifestyle higher then the absolute lowest.

There's another disadvantage that's the opposite - you grow increasingly irritated and irritable while in a Lifestyle lower then High.

A party with both would be magical

Doc Dee
Feb 15, 2012

THANKS FOR MAKING ME SPEND MONEY, T
Just picked up Run Faster, reading about the new options for Code of Honor, in the runner chatter about the Wuxia option:

Plan 9 posted:

Tang Wu ain’t nothin’ to gently caress with.

:golfclap:

EDIT:

Ryuujin posted:

Think I may have found a typo since Hobgolbin and Oni seem to cost karma at higher priorities, then at lower priorities it adds a + in front of the karma cost.

I don't believe that is a typo, the book says that some options actually provide extra karma.

Doc Dee fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Dec 20, 2014

Bigass Moth
Mar 6, 2004

I joined the #RXT REVOLUTION.
:boom:
he knows...
I haven't read it ,but that life modules section sounds hilariously overcomplicated.

gyrobot
Nov 16, 2011
So what good is farming knowledge for as a shadowrunner anyway? Artisan lets you create or appraise knockoff paintings for example.

grah
Jul 26, 2007
brainsss

Bigass Moth posted:

I haven't read it ,but that life modules section sounds hilariously overcomplicated.

Reading it over it looks like optimization is pretty hard with it, but it's a neat way to build story-first characters. Which admittedly, is not really what the Shadowrun system typically does well, but if the whole party and GM all buy into it it can probably be fine.

SirFozzie
Mar 28, 2004
Goombatta!

gyrobot posted:

So what good is farming knowledge for as a shadowrunner anyway? Artisan lets you create or appraise knockoff paintings for example.

Off hand, a lot of the urban collective folks don't normally need a 450,000 nuyen Combat Monster 's services very much, but if you can save their neo-tomato crop, you have a holdout doss for life?

It's a thought at least. :)

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib
Random goofy-rear end knowledge skills wouldn't be quite as questionable if SR5 hadn't cut the number of points you receive to put in your knowledge skills for some unexplained reason. Just give people more knowledge skill points in general.

gyrobot
Nov 16, 2011

SirFozzie posted:

Off hand, a lot of the urban collective folks don't normally need a 450,000 nuyen Combat Monster 's services very much, but if you can save their neo-tomato crop, you have a holdout doss for life?

It's a thought at least. :)

Funny thing is that someone made some rurslpunk runs.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=37293

Babby Formed
Jan 2, 2009
Did they seriously drop the spirit summoning domains for shamans and the elemental lodge summoning for hermetic mages? Ugh it's the little things about this edition that make me hate it.

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!

Babby Formed posted:

Did they seriously drop the spirit summoning domains for shamans and the elemental lodge summoning for hermetic mages? Ugh it's the little things about this edition that make me hate it.

I don't actually know what this refers to!

Tippis
Mar 21, 2008

It's yet another day in the wasteland.

ProfessorCirno posted:

I don't actually know what this refers to!

The classical restrictions for where, when, and how shamans and hermetics can summon their respective spirits, presumably?

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!

Tippis posted:

The classical restrictions for where, when, and how shamans and hermetics can summon their respective spirits, presumably?

Man, that's been gone since SR4!

Babby Formed
Jan 2, 2009
The more you know I guess. That is what I meant.

Still hate it. At least it won't be that terrible to force back in.

Doc Dee
Feb 15, 2012

THANKS FOR MAKING ME SPEND MONEY, T

Babby Formed posted:

The more you know I guess. That is what I meant.

Still hate it. At least it won't be that terrible to force back in.

Yes it would. Impose the restriction on yourself, I happen to like the Unified Magic Theory just fine. The fact that you have to use different stats for drain leads to enough difference between shamans and hermetics.

Bigass Moth posted:

I haven't read it ,but that life modules section sounds hilariously overcomplicated.

It's not really, but unless you make the exact right choices for what kind of guy you're thinking of you're going to end up with a lot of skills at lower ranks, but I guess that's what all the extra karma is for. It's hard to describe, but I basically went through picking the choices that most closely resembled the backstory for one of my characters, a B&E/Pistols adept, and here's what I got before spending additional karma:

pre:
Human, Adept, Denver (UCAS), Street Urchin, Street Kid, Drifter, Shadow Work - Street Samurai

BOD: 4
AGI: 3
REA: 3
STR: 1
WIL: 3
LOG: 1
INT: 2
CHA: 1
EDG: 1
ESS: 6
INI: 5+1d6
MAG: 1


QUALITIES:
SINner (5)
Paranoia (7)
Flashbacks (7)
Uneducated (8)
Toughness (8)
Bad Rep (7)
Enemy (10)
High Pain Tolerance (7)
Sense of Direction (3)

KNOWLEDGE/LANGUAGE SKILLS:
English N
Spanish 1
Knowledge: History 1
Knowledge: UCAS 1
Knowledge: Denver 2
Street Knowledge: Denver 7
Street Knowledge: Grey Market 4
Street Knowledge: Black Market 4
Street Knowledge: Any 3
Street Knowledge: Safe Houses 3

ACTIVE SKILLS:
Negotiation 4
Ettiquette 2
-Clubs 3
-Unarmed 4
-Blades 4
Firearms 2
Heavy Weapons 1
Perception 4
-Running 4
-Swimming 2
-Gymnastics 2
-Sneaking 4
-Palming 1
-Disguise 1
-Con 4
-Performance 2
-Impersonation 2
Intimidation 1
First Aid 1
Escape Artist 1
Pilot Ground Craft 1


Starting Karma     |750
Lifestyle Modules  |125
Positive Qualities |
Negative Qualities |
Attributes         |
Skills             |
Contacts           |
Nuyen              |
Misc.              |
----------------------
Total Karma        |625
625 is a LOT of karma to work with, but this seems just a bit too D&D, "pick the right options at chargen" for my personal tastes. The Priority system works just fine for me.

EDIT: On another note, I do like how now the metavariants each have their own starting attributes and maximums, so they're not all "[metatype] but with this too." Except for the Nartaki, although I think having four arms is rightfully offset by sticking out like a sore thumb.

Doc Dee fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Dec 22, 2014

Tippis
Mar 21, 2008

It's yet another day in the wasteland.

Doc Dee posted:

Yes it would. Impose the restriction on yourself, I happen to like the Unified Magic Theory just fine. The fact that you have to use different stats for drain leads to enough difference between shamans and hermetics.

I don't know… as much as I keep coming back to the system modularity design, I think the drain stat difference is a laughably cheap copout that hurts the game world. The structure vs. dynamics; planning vs. improvisation; cash vs. actual-risk-of-having-summoning-failure-become-a-problem-as-you-move-across-18-domains-in-5-minutes differentiation made 1-3E summoning a choice that actually mattered, not just in mechanical terms but what it said about the character.

Was it balanced? No, but that was a fixable problem and didn't leave a taste of “oh gently caress, we forgot about those… ehm, let's hack something in” design in your mouth.




…wow, that came off way more acerbic than intended.

Gort
Aug 18, 2003

Good day what ho cup of tea
Yeah, I also think that there should be much more to distinguish shamanic and hermetic traditions than what drain stat you use.

Doc Dee
Feb 15, 2012

THANKS FOR MAKING ME SPEND MONEY, T
I'm just saying, based on the drain stat you're going to want to pick entirely different skills that also use that particular attribute, leading to way different characters anyway.

Babby Formed
Jan 2, 2009

Tippis posted:

I don't know… as much as I keep coming back to the system modularity design, I think the drain stat difference is a laughably cheap copout that hurts the game world. The structure vs. dynamics; planning vs. improvisation; cash vs. actual-risk-of-having-summoning-failure-become-a-problem-as-you-move-across-18-domains-in-5-minutes differentiation made 1-3E summoning a choice that actually mattered, not just in mechanical terms but what it said about the character.

Was it balanced? No, but that was a fixable problem and didn't leave a taste of “oh gently caress, we forgot about those… ehm, let's hack something in” design in your mouth.

…wow, that came off way more acerbic than intended.

You basically explained my problem with it way better then I was ever going to. Also thanks to the guy above for telling me how to run my own game you'll never have to see or play.

edit: I am bad at words :downs:

EDIT: I don't even see the point of having defined traditions at all now RAW, just let people pick their own mental drain stats and don't even bother to explain it.

Babby Formed fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Dec 22, 2014

Crasical
Apr 22, 2014

GG!*
*GET GOOD
Did 1-3e have 'Shaman/Hermetic' as a binary choice? Because you can pry my norse tradition mages from my cold, dead hands.

I vastly prefer having the freedom to fluff my character's magic how I want, as a reflection of their personal beliefs, is what I'm saying.

I think the life paths are cool. Spending a hundred or so nuyen to get a nice, fluffy foundation to build a character on is worth it, and it helps some with second-guessing myself at 'Wait, if my character's backstory was that they dropped out of medical school, they really should have a few more ranks in medicine, shouldn't they? Oh, wait, the medic NPC here in this other book only has this number...."

Tippis
Mar 21, 2008

It's yet another day in the wasteland.

Crasical posted:

Did 1-3e have 'Shaman/Hermetic' as a binary choice? Because you can pry my norse tradition mages from my cold, dead hands.

I vastly prefer having the freedom to fluff my character's magic how I want, as a reflection of their personal beliefs, is what I'm saying.
Kind of.

There were other traditions, of course, but for the most part, they tried to fit them into some broad category of “essentially hermetic” or “essentially shamanistic” in terms of how the summoning would happen. It wasn't necessarily that you summoned nature spirits or elementals — some traditions had their own type of spirits — but rather what type of equipment was needed.

To be fair, that was probably why it went away: by 3E, the traditions they wanted to support had grown to such a large number and the nature/element split had become increasingly artificial and restrictive and even nonsensical in many cases, but they didn't want to add in even more special rules to support all those other variants.

ProfessorCirno
Feb 17, 2011

The strongest! The smartest!
The rightest!
I don't recall how previous editions added other traditions, but at least in the core book, shamanism and hermeticism had more differences then just "choose one stat." Shamans HAD to have a totem (Similar to 5e/4e mentor spirit but always an animal) and required a spirit lodge to learn spells, couldn't share lodges between different totems, and the lodge had to be in their totem's preferred area. Mages used libraries to learn spells AND raise Sorcery (aka spellcasting) but any hermetic mage could use any library. Shamans summoned nature spirits, but had to summon them in their appropriate domain, and they only had power there - and YOU could only be in one domain at a time. So if you're hanging out outside and summon a sky spirit, then enter a building, they can't follow you, nor do they owe you any more tasks. If you're hanging out outside and summon a Sky Spirit to do something, then summon a mountain spirit to do another thing, that sky spirit no longer owes you tasks, because you're no longer in it's sky domain. That being said, nature spirit summons happen immediately; much as in 4e/5e, it takes one turn to summon a spirit. Lastly, nature spirits could not be bound; they owe you so many tasks/favors when you summon them, and are gone by sunrise if you still have any, the end. Mages summoned elementals. These require hours to summon, and you needed both a library of the appropriate force, and a summoning circle of the appropriate force to summon inside of. Elementals didn't owe you jack poo poo when you summoned them either - you HAD to bind them to your will. On the bright side, that means they lasted longer then just sunrise, and you could have multiple elementals bound to you. Lastly, spirits could do different things; the nature spirits all had a variety of more versatile spells and abilities they could use, while elemental powers largely boiled down to "MURDER THIS DUDE," but could help the mage with other stuff, like giving extra dice when casting or learning spels (each element corresponded to a type of spell, like fire elements helping combat spells), or sustaining spells (though this could end up killing the spirit).

Basically the differences weren't that deep on the spellcasting level; it was more a big difference between nature spirits and hermetic elementals.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and they actually didn't have different drain stats. Your drain stat was Will. That's it. Just Will.

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW
Any games running right now that need players, or new ones starting up? Thinking about getting back into this.

Also playing with an idea for a rural campaign based on some stuff on this page and a short cyberpunk story I'm working on right now. Would anybody be interested in playing something like that?

grah
Jul 26, 2007
brainsss

Crasical posted:

Did 1-3e have 'Shaman/Hermetic' as a binary choice? Because you can pry my norse tradition mages from my cold, dead hands.

I vastly prefer having the freedom to fluff my character's magic how I want, as a reflection of their personal beliefs, is what I'm saying.

I think the life paths are cool. Spending a hundred or so nuyen to get a nice, fluffy foundation to build a character on is worth it, and it helps some with second-guessing myself at 'Wait, if my character's backstory was that they dropped out of medical school, they really should have a few more ranks in medicine, shouldn't they? Oh, wait, the medic NPC here in this other book only has this number...."

The life modules are neat, I've test built a couple of PCs (minus gear) and some things stand out--

1: Unless you go out of your way to avoid it, you will have a solid computer score. Which makes good sense--but if you try to focus too hard on taking the hacker-y options you'll end up wasting points and hitting the 7-skill rank cap.

2: Charisma is the easiest stat to max by far.

3: If you take certain options that flow together really naturally (like say being born a street urchin and growing up as a fugitive or whatever) you end up stacking on the same negative quality quite a few times, which forces you to either pay the qualities off in Karma or choose an equally valued negative quality. And this gets sort of tedious and sometimes quite expensive.

4: You'll end up with a lot of skills you'd probably never otherwise take, which isn't bad but is inefficient. Everyone needs to be on the same page with the fact that you are not going to have an optimal group of PCs.

5: Gear is somehow even more of a pain in the rear end (unless you want very little of it) because nearly all of your stats and possibly even many years of your life are directly convertible into cash. It is tough to get the overall balance quite right.

6: If you don't obsessively tweak, it is much faster than traditional character creation, and tends to lead to better rounded characters. You can still min max certain things pretty effectively, and without even necessarily trying that hard, but you will have some harsh consequences.

7: Military Rank, and rank generally, is really, really badly explained.

Ryuujin
Sep 26, 2007
Dragon God
I really like the idea of the Life Modules. Kind of want to play in a game that uses them now. Also a bunch of options are available now that weren't even a few weeks ago, still no Spirits, AI or Drakes of course.

pre:
Shifter (Ursine), Adept, Canada (UCAS), Isolated Rural Upbringing, Military School, 
Military Academy, Tour of Duty (UCAS), Tour of Duty (Mercenary), Shadow Work (Street Samurai)

BOD: 13
AGI: 2
REA: 5
STR: 11
WIL: 1
LOG: 1
INT: 1
CHA: 2
EDG: 1
ESS: 6
INI: 1+1d6
MAG: 1


QUALITIES:
Military Rank (25) - Captain (Military Rank (5)+Military Rank (20))
Code of Honor (15)
Code of Honor (15)
SINner (5)
SINner (5)
Uncouth (14)
Uneducated (8)
Toughness (9)


RACIAL TRAITS:
Broadened Auditory Spectrum (Ultrasonic)
Keen-Eared
Low-Light Vision
Natural Weapon (Bite: DV(STR + 2)P, AP –2; Claws: DV (STR + 3)P, AP –1, Reach +1)
Shift (Metahuman Form)
Uneducated
Vomeronasal Organ
Movement (x1/x3/+2)

KNOWLEDGE/LANGUAGE SKILLS:
Academic Knowledge: Law 5
Academic Knowledge: Military History 5
Academic Knowledge: [Any] 1
Language: English N
Language: French 1
Language: [Any] 6
Language: [Any] 5
Knowledge: Farming 2
Knowledge: History 1
Knowledge: UCAS 1
Professional Knowledge: Foreign Military 3
Professional Knowledge: Military 10
Professional Knowledge: Strategy 1
Street Knowledge: Safe Houses 3

ACTIVE SKILLS:
Armorer 2
Athletics skill group 1
Blades 6
Computer 1
Demolitions 2
Electronics skill group 1
Etiquette 3
Firearms skill group 6
First Aid 4
Free-Fall 2
Heavy Weapons 1
Leadership 2
Navigation 4
Negotiation 4
Outdoors skill group 2
Perception 4
Performance 1
Pilot Ground Craft 3
Pilot Watercraft 2
Running 2
Sneaking 3
Survival 3
Swimming 2
Tracking 1
Unarmed Combat 5


Starting Karma     |750
Lifestyle Modules  |
Positive Qualities |
Negative Qualities |
Attributes         |
Skills             |
Contacts           |
Nuyen              |
Misc.              |
----------------------
Total Karma        |160+20+15+40+50+115+100+100+100 (700/750)
So still have 50 karma, going to need to spend it mostly on upping those low stats, also need to see about whether Code of Honor can be taken twice or not, if not need to switch one of them over to another 15 karma negative quality. Need to take 1 point out of Professional Knowledge: Military 10 and add it to another Knowledge skill. It doesn't seem to specify what to do if the Life Modules put a stat above the max, but I assume it is like with active skills that go over 7 or knowledge skills that go over 9, where you take the extra points and put them into another of the same kind. If so the Body stat is 2 points above maximum, so moving those to another stat or two will help, also Reaction is at max, so that probably needs to be lowered by a point as well so that only one stat would be maxed. Which would give me 3 attribute points to redistribute. I found that the system does not give you Magic/Resonance points so you need to save some karma if you go that way. Also it seems kind of difficult to focus on Unarmed. Was hoping to build toward that but in the end ended up with Firearms Group and Blades higher than Unarmed.

All in all ended up with a nice spread of skills, even if it was less of a focus on the one skill I wanted, but man those stats are mostly low. But that is why you save some karma.

grah
Jul 26, 2007
brainsss

Ryuujin posted:

All in all ended up with a nice spread of skills, even if it was less of a focus on the one skill I wanted, but man those stats are mostly low. But that is why you save some karma.

Have you purchased any gear yet?

Ryuujin
Sep 26, 2007
Dragon God
No. Definitely needs to up stats, particularly magic, and spend some karma on getting nuyen. But the character is a bear shifter adept that would probably focus on unarmed, even though his other combat skills are better. So probably doesn't need more than maybe 10 karma worth of nuyen.

The character would have another 60 karma if it was just a troll, though 100 karma for a troll is still up there. Also could gain another 100 karma by dropping the Shadowrunner module. That would mean losing out on: Agility +1, Reaction +1, Athletics skill group +1, Blades +2, Firearms skill group +2, Heavy Weapons +1, Negotiation +1, Perception +2, Pilot Ground Craft +1, Sneaking +1, Unarmed Combat +1, Street Knowledge: Safe Houses +3, Code of Honor quality (15).

It might be worth it for the extra karma.

Ryuujin fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Dec 23, 2014

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Doc Dee
Feb 15, 2012

THANKS FOR MAKING ME SPEND MONEY, T
Considering the cost of raising an Attribute is 5*(New Rating) karma PER POINT (1 to 3 would be 10+15=25 karma for example) you may want to make those adjustments. 25 karma remaining should likely be enough to buy all the gear you need, since that gives you 50k.

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