Progressive Recoil
Rule: Recoil requires an entire Action Phase without firing to reset.
Under the errata, recoil resets when a Simple Action is spent on something other than pulling the trigger. Since you can only fire once per IP, however, that quickly translates to Simple Action fire, Simple action something-else, repeat ad infinitum (7 IPs without wireless smartgun). Recoil isn't a problem this way unless you use Complex Actions, at which point it quickly starts stacking up.
Is this a bad thing? It might be. Before the errata, one reason to take up Longarms was that you'd be able to keep up firing longer than the Automatics user. You may hit less often but you'd be able to fire off more shots in a longer battle. After the errata it's a different tale altogether because the Automatics user can simply keep firing Simple FA Bursts. While Longarms do more damage, they also hit less. Comparing the Ranger Arms to the Ares Alpha with competent enemies is tough due to existing tools having a hard time with multiple layers, especially when only >0 results need to be continued. However, it suggests that the average damage after soak seems to still be in the advantage of the Alpha, because the decrease in defense dice translate to both a damage bonus and hitting more often.
The pre-errata situation also encouraged players to think tactically. If you had, say, 9 RC then you could fire a Long Burst (either as a Complex Burst-Fire or a Simple Full-Auto Action), switch to BF if necessary with a Free Action, and fire a Short Burst before your recoil was out. This would be a good choice for a battle where you really want to hit on the first attack and don't expect many enemies to be left standing after the second. If you wanted to get three shots off before your dice started to suffer, however, you'd have to use 3 Short Bursts instead. You could switch to SA-mode, throw a grenade or dive for cover in turns where you decide recoil is getting too much. This made it so that FA bwasn't always the mode to take.
Under the Simple-Action system, it basically doesn't matter. Sure you could do BF and then use Complex to get recoil issues, but then you could have simply fired in FA mode to begin with.
SR4 comparisons are made in this debate but run afoul on something important: In SR4 you needed more recoil compensation for continued fire, while you didn't get (Str/2) free points there. For a LB+SB combo you needed 8 RC, whereas for LB-forever in SR5 you only need 4 on top of 1~3 Strength. But if you enter Progressive Recoil, you'll suddenly need more than in SR4. So the difference between when it adds up (Complex Actions or subsequent Simple Actions) and when it doesn't is far more extreme.
There are of course bonuses to Longarms still. Their range is greater. However, only past 350m does it really start to matter, which is a range that hardly ever will be relevant in a run. A clean shot past 2 city blocks requires a rather rare situation to be possible. And cost-wise Longarms lose out, it'd take >500 IPs of APDS Long Bursts before the price difference is made up between an Alpha and the heaviest Sniper Rifles, which still lose out in DPS.
So the rule would be to require an entire Action Phase without firing to reset recoil. Negative consequences are that it penalizes Automatics users and also SA users who want to fire SA Bursts and easily reset it with a simple SA shot. Positive consequences are that it makes Longarms more viable and encourages tactical thinking over spray-and-pray.
Rule: Metahumans (not Drones) may use Take Aim solely to recover their natural recoil compensation.
While it's an interesting change to only let Recoil reset after an entire Initiative Pass of no firing, it makes sense that steadying your aim may help you at least partially recover from it. However, the gun itself would still be stressed. So as a partial solution, Take Aim would have a third possible benefit added, on top of the bonus and range-reduction effects one can choose between now.
Take Aim: Alternatively can be used to reset Natural Recoil Compensation.
This natural recoil compensation is the (Str/3)+1 part, and would not work on the recoil compensation provided by accessories, harnasses, etc. This means that a weak human can only recover a bit, whereas a huge high-Strength Troll can keep up the FA spam, rewarding their high Strength with something other than Melee ability.
This means high-Strength characters become far more dangerous than others in combat because they can afford to keep up the Simple-FA spam for quite a while. As long as they sacrifice their other Simple Action for solely recovering their Aim, that is, and Simple Actions have plenty of other tactical benefits. So it makes for more interesting tactical choices and rewards high-Strength characters, letting them suffer less under the consequences of overriding the Recoil Errata.
If functioning under the rule interpretation where Drones can fire as a Simple Action, this would make it far too easy for them to keep unloading bullets. And Vehicles would be able to keep firing all their guns without worry. As such, this rule should not apply to Drones (including Vehicles).
Rule: FA-mode cannot fire as a Simple Action.
Rather than making recoil harder to recover from, a more elegant solution is eliminating the most problematic case from the scenario. Since the only real concern is the Simple FA burst of 6 bullets, removing that would work as well. So while BF and SA mode both know Simple and Complex Bursts, FA would only be possible as either 10-round Complex Burst or 20-round Suppressive Fire.
This means it'd be far harder to use the FA mode as instakiller. One would need a solid amount of RC, go |cFA|sTA-sBF|sBF-sTA| in repeat to be able to regularly throw 10-round bursts out with a decent recoil. It also increases the pressure on getting a decent amount of Recoil Compensation, otherwise it'd make more sense to just use the 6-round Complex BF Burst and not have to constantly switch weapon mode with Free Actions. So this mostly eliminates the sFA-spam that make the recoil errata so problematic.
Note that additional houserules could be made, such as varying recoil for different weapons. However, there is no general consensus on what could be nice houserules, nevermind on how solid they would be. So such houserules would first have to be actively debated before they could be added as suggestions here.
Noise
Rule: Noise shuts down all wireless communication.
Under Aaron's clarification, Noise only shuts down Wireless Bonuses, not Functionality. In other words, any functionality using the Matrix that isn't actively described as a Wireless bonus, still works. Smartguns still transmit, commlinks can still make phone calls, and so on. To describe an over-the-top scenario, someone with a DR1 commlink, a rating 6 jammer next to them, buried in a container on the bottom of the ocean, would still have a signal. More realistically, Headjammers would not be able to do exactly what they are meant to do: "neutralize implanted commlinks."
This houserule basically follows the RAW of p421, rather than the RAI that Aaron told us about: "If there is a Noise Rating from a situation that is greater than the item’s Device Rating, not including distance, the item temporarily loses its wireless functionality (see Noise, p. 230)."
As a consequence wireless bonuses are easily lost since standard personal electronics would likely have a device rating of 2 (page 234, table partially contradicted by page 356 and the Rigger chapter). So if you walk into the Barrens or CCZ you'd normally be fine, but every increase would shut you down, and so would walking within 10m of a rating 4 (and 20m for rating 6) Area Jammer. An enemy could shut down a lot of your stuff with a directional jammer at up to 80m distance. This tactic goes both ways, of course.
Jammers will become a viable strategy this way, shutting down communication of any sucker with a bad commlink. They can now be used to prevent security from calling backup, or to block the wireless signal meant to blow up that grenade in front of someone's feet. A Street Samurai taking trips into bad areas of town will have to live with the consequences of not always having his wireless boni at hand, or invest into datajacks.
Of course this rule comes with its own consequences, so next we have these three:
Rule: Noise is split between Spam and Static effects.
There are two kinds of Noise Zones. Static Zones are places where signals are either blocked or far away, whereas Spam Zones are so filled with signals that processing info becomes hard since signals are drowned out.
The downside of communication shutting down at Noise >= Device Rating, is the Spam Zones. An Advertising Blitz comes with a Rating 3 Spamzone. While some RFID tags (used for AROs) are Device Rating 3, simple glasses with an image link aren't. This means that people would not be able to see the same AROs that the blitz is trying to show them. And even though a GM could say "commercial area noise only applies during peek hours and the Noise is less inside shops", this still means that nobody would ever be able to see the AROs from outside or likely even make a phone call while visiting a mall.
As a solution for that, Noise can be separated into two factors. There's the actual blocks that damage the signal, such as distance, all kinds of situational modifiers and the general environment (Static zones). Then there's the Spam zones, where the only real problem is the massive amount of data flying around.
Noise has 2 effects. A penalty on Matrix actions, and disabling your wireless. It makes sense for Spam zones to do the first, but it doesn't make sense for them to do the second. So Noise is split into two factors, Spam and Other. Spam+Other decides the dice penalty, whereas Other decides whether or not the wireless signal is powerful enough to get through whatever circumstances are in your way. This means all the offensive functionality of Noise remains, and trying to hack while you're in the frickin' Mall will be tough due to the signals around you
The question would be which kind of Noise is first reduced by Noise Reduction. It makes sense that the software would prioritize the signal loss, so the Other Noise, but a GM could easily decide differently, such as splitting it in two or making it reduce the Spam first.
Rule: Noise blocks communication but not one-way signals.
A different solution to the Advertising blitz is ruling that one-way signals still work. Think of it like streamed real-time video, even if you lose some data you probably can still make something out of it. Those RFID tags are simply broadcasting intel, and while your AR Goggles may not be capable of communicating with their environment, they may still be able to make sense out of the signals they receive. Since talking kinda requires a two-way street, while file transfers involve double-checking to compensate for packet loss, the Noise would still make this impossible. Meaning you wouldn't be able to get a call out, but you'd be capable to receive a text message.
So basically the total Noise would have to exceed the sender's Device Rating in order to block it from sending a message. If one side is fine and the other isn't, only one-way messages are possible. If the Noise exceeds both, they cannot communicate at all. In that advertising blitz RFID tags of DR3 would be able to send out AROs and the DR2 Goggles would be able to read them. In the Mall the local Hosts would send out the AROs and your commlink would be able to receive texts, but you'd need a good one to be able to send texts. And when faced with a Jammer, you'd still be in trouble.
Rule: Datajacks can only provide Noise Reduction for a single plugged-in device, and don't stack.
Datajacks provide 1 point of Noise Reduction as wireless bonus. Leaving aside RCCs, this is the ONLY non-magical form of Noise Reduction that can boost any piece of equipment. So if you are in a really bad part of the Barrens and stuck without a wireless Smartgun due to Noise 3 instead of 2, plugging your gun into the datajack can save your ass. It likely has DR2 as well, so past Noise 3 it's out of luck itself (unless your GM decides better-grades have a better device rating), but it basically lets you run a piece of electronics at 1 Noise higher.
Now Noise is a GM tool, so while running into Noise 3 rather than 2 may happen, it's quite unlike you suddenly run into Noise 4 unless you are getting hit by a perfect storm. This means that very likely this one point of Noise Reduction can be the difference between life and death! Nah, just kidding chummer, it's a difference of a dice or two. Or 6 in case of a First Aid kit... And that's a rather decent case where it IS a matter of life and death, so I'll grant you that.
Which brings us to Aaron's official clarification: He stated that a wireless datajack boosts all of a runner's equipment. In other words, that wireless datajack would cover your commlink, smartgun, vision enhancement, chemical seal, medkit and more at the same time. Heck it'd cover your grenades. Furthermore they stack, so a decker could spend 0.4 essence and 6 grand for 5 Alphaware Datajacks in chargen, and bam, any plausible Noise their GM throws at them will be easily nullified. This takes a GM weapon that should be used sparingly, and makes it completely irrelevant unless used in ridiculous excess.
The problem here is that Noise Reduction is really hard to get. Yet in the form of a Datajack it suddenly would become harmless at a cheap price, where only awakened characters and some street sams would have a hard time with the essence loss. To solve that problem the datajacks would be tuned back: They only provide Noise Reduction for themselves and whatever single item is plugged into them, and cannot stack with each other.
Consequences are that Noise can still be real dangerous this way. If a Street Sam wants their smartgun to still run in rating 3 Noise, they'd need a datajack. If they also want their Thermal Dampening to work, that requires a second datajack. It makes datajacks an important strategic decision, and in Noise 3 environments a tactical decision is required on which wireless bonuses you want to keep and which you drop.
These Noise rules all have 1 thing in common: They keep Noise a dangerous thing. This means that excessive use by a GM can spell trouble for players, so the GM should keep in mind that Noise is a GM tool that should be used sparingly, just like Background Count, and not as a weapon of choice for every run. The official rulings ripped out the sting, while these houserules keep it sharp and dangerous.
