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[SR5] Rules Clarifications and FAQ

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Gratuitous Boom

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« Reply #1320 on: <10-24-14/1658:27> »
How should the range of Spirits be handled while a mage is astrally projecting? Is the distance measured from his body, his projection, or both?
Also, would the positive effects of a Circle of Healing (such as Circle of Increase Willpower) fade as soon as a mage's projection leaves the circle or would they continue because his body is still within it's bounds?

Ursus Maior

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« Reply #1321 on: <11-16-14/1011:05> »
I got two questions from yesterday's session.

A: When mages and matrix-users change from the physical world into the astral or matrix (and vice versa), how should their initiative be modified. 1) Do you reroll initiative (and presumably deduct 10, 20 etc, from it depending on the phase) or 2) do these characters generate seperate sets of initiative scores all the time, simply "just in case" or 3) something diffrent?

B: How do you dodge grenades launched or hurled at you and any other forms of attack with a blast radius. Specifically: What kind of defense allows you to get out of the blast radius (and to what degree?) and how does this attacking with blast weapons really work at all? I think I did not fully grasp the mechanic...
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8-bit

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« Reply #1322 on: <11-16-14/1254:30> »
I got two questions from yesterday's session.

A: When mages and matrix-users change from the physical world into the astral or matrix (and vice versa), how should their initiative be modified. 1) Do you reroll initiative (and presumably deduct 10, 20 etc, from it depending on the phase) or 2) do these characters generate seperate sets of initiative scores all the time, simply "just in case" or 3) something diffrent?

Page 160 of the Core Rule Book has the answers you want.

Quote from: Core Book of SR5; page 160
In some cases, a character’s Initiative Score or Base Initiative Dice may change in the middle of a Combat Turn. A player might gain Initiative by activating an augmentation, for example, or could receive a boost from a drug or spell or other enhancer. Conversely, a character who is wounded or whose vital equipment (weapon, augmentation, etc.) takes damage might lose Initiative.

If a character’s Initiative attribute changes, immediately apply the difference as a positive or negative modifier to the character’s Initiative Score. This new Initiative Score applies to all remaining actions in that Combat Turn. So a character with Initiative 8 and an Initiative Score of 11 who activates an implant that changes his Initiative to 10 (+2) immediately raises his Initiative Score to 13 (11 + 2).

If the number of Base Initiative Dice available to a character increases, that character immediately rolls the extra Initiative Dice and adds the sum to their current Initiative Score for that Combat Turn. So a magician with 1d6 Initiative dice who takes his first action to astrally project (2d6 Base Initiative Dice) gains the die (and the change in Initiative) for their Astral Initiative during that Combat Turn. (In this case, the magician would also replace their Reaction + Intuition for Physical Initiative with Intuition x 2 for Astral Initiative.)

If the number of Initiative Dice available to a character decreases, then that character immediately rolls the number of lost dice and subtracts the total from their Initiative Score (along with any decrease to their Initiative Attribute).

Initiative also changes when a character or NPC is injured. Wound modifiers are applied directly to the character’s Initiative attribute. These changes are made immediately after the injury occurs and can affect the initiative order even within the same Initiative Pass. These changes do not allow the character to act again; they simply change their Initiative score.

If a character enters combat after it has already begun, they should roll for their Initiative Score as normal and then subtract 10 for each Initiative Pass that has already occurred. This means they may get an Action Phase during the current Combat Turn or they may not, but at least they have a chance.

So, to use your example.

A Decker is in AR, his initiative is Reaction + Intuition + 1d6. Let's say it's 3 + 5 (+3 for the die) to equal 11. He then switches to hot-sim VR. His initiative is now Intuition + Data Processing + 4d6. We keep the Intuition (5), the first die rolled (3), and then add Data Processing and 3d6 to his score. The end result is his hot-sim VR initiative. If he switches back to AR, we simply remove his Data Processing, roll 3d6 and subtract that, and add back in his Reaction (3 in this case). Thus, we end back up at his AR initiative, however, this is likely different than his original AR initiative.

A Mage has initiative equal to Reaction + Intuition + 1d6 in the meat world. We'll say its 3 + 5 (+3 for the die) to equal 11. He then astrally projects. His initiative is now Intuition (5) times 2, and we roll 1d6 to add to the final result. If he stops projecting, we simply use Reaction + Intuition as his base, and roll 1d6 to subtract from his initiative score. We end up back in meat world initiative.

B: How do you dodge grenades launched or hurled at you and any other forms of attack with a blast radius. Specifically: What kind of defense allows you to get out of the blast radius (and to what degree?) and how does this attacking with blast weapons really work at all? I think I did not fully grasp the mechanic...

Currently, the only method of dodging grenades or Indirect AoE spells is on page 125 of Run & Gun; the new interrupt action "Run for your Life". You can also attempt to throw a grenade back with the "Right Back at Ya!" interrupt action on page 124 of Run & Gun.

Ursus Maior

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« Reply #1323 on: <11-16-14/1306:45> »
Thanks man, we missed both things apparently yesterday.
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8-bit

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« Reply #1324 on: <11-16-14/1307:41> »
Thanks man, we missed both things apparently yesterday.

No problem. The first one is hidden away and most forget about it; and the second one is horribly unexplained in the Core Book. It's not really explained very well in Run & Gun either, but at least there are options there.

Ursus Maior

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« Reply #1325 on: <11-16-14/1615:44> »
Yeah, I figured so. As I'm the GM I focus on the story for most of the part, leaving rules-knowledge to my players. Yesterday however one of my well versed (rules-wise) players was missing and the other had no clue on that matter. I also almost TPKed the whole party for sheer lack of well balanced enemies (and the missing player not factored in and bad preperation on their part).

Well, it ain't fun, until you earned it...
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Michael Chandra

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« Reply #1326 on: <11-16-14/1619:44> »
In SR5 Core they deliberately did not allow for dodging grenades. R&G fortunately added a rule for getting out of their range (and that of AoE spells). 1 downside: You run away from the INTENDED target, so if it scatters it may bounce after you.
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Tarislar

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« Reply #1327 on: <11-17-14/1105:43> »
1 downside: You run away from the INTENDED target, so if it scatters it may bounce after you.
Or it could just be making you move out into the open for you to be shot at by bullets.  That's called a Lose/Lose scenario, hehe.

Kincaid

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« Reply #1328 on: <11-17-14/1459:40> »
1 downside: You run away from the INTENDED target, so if it scatters it may bounce after you.
Or it could just be making you move out into the open for you to be shot at by bullets.  That's called a Lose/Lose scenario, hehe.

Yeah, the dodging grenades thing lasted for about one session.  Now folks lay down suppressive fire beforehand.
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Ursus Maior

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« Reply #1329 on: <11-17-14/1715:38> »
1 downside: You run away from the INTENDED target, so if it scatters it may bounce after you.
Or it could just be making you move out into the open for you to be shot at by bullets.  That's called a Lose/Lose scenario, hehe.
That's the idea. :)
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Ramlatus

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« Reply #1330 on: <11-21-14/0050:40> »
Do my characters have to buy multiple copies of a given autosoft/program? If I have 3 drones can the all have the same clearsight Rating 6 installed or do I have to buy 3 copies, one for each drone. Can you or can you not also keeps copies on another device or data chip as a backup to loosing the device the program is on?

8-bit

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« Reply #1331 on: <11-21-14/0054:33> »
Do my characters have to buy multiple copies of a given autosoft/program? If I have 3 drones can the all have the same clearsight Rating 6 installed or do I have to buy 3 copies, one for each drone. Can you or can you not also keeps copies on another device or data chip as a backup to loosing the device the program is on?

Unless you are running the autosoft on an RCC (See Noise Reduction & Sharing; page 267), yes, you do need to buy multiple copies of autosofts/programs.

What you are saying with backups makes sense, but is currently unavailable (and thus, impossible) within the SR5 rules. Sorry.

Darzil

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« Reply #1332 on: <11-21-14/0523:27> »
What you are saying with backups makes sense, but is currently unavailable (and thus, impossible) within the SR5 rules. Sorry.
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Herr Brackhaus

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« Reply #1333 on: <11-21-14/0700:35> »
Do my characters have to buy multiple copies of a given autosoft/program? If I have 3 drones can the all have the same clearsight Rating 6 installed or do I have to buy 3 copies, one for each drone. Can you or can you not also keeps copies on another device or data chip as a backup to loosing the device the program is on?

Unless you are running the autosoft on an RCC (See Noise Reduction & Sharing; page 267), yes, you do need to buy multiple copies of autosofts/programs.

What you are saying with backups makes sense, but is currently unavailable (and thus, impossible) within the SR5 rules. Sorry.
I would disagree with this assessment. As the owner of a file (in this case, let's say a Clearsight Autosoft, since it isn't specific to any one make or model) you can make a copy of it. The only rules on copies of programs are specifically listed as applying to running multiple copies of the same program on the same device.

SR5 page 243:
Programs (technically cyberprograms if they’re for the Matrix) are files you can run on your deck. While a program is running, it makes your deck better or gives you more utility. You can’t run more than one program of the same type on your deck at once (and no, changing the name of one copy of a program to run two copies doesn’t work, chummer). You get the benefit of a program while it is running on your deck; as soon as you end it or swap it out for another program, it stops providing those benefits.

There is no mention of Copy Protection as there was in SR4A / Unwired. As such, I would argue that a single copy of a program can be copied across multiple devices, with the caveat that a Model or Weapon specific program can only be used with the Model or Weapon for which it applies.

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #1334 on: <11-21-14/0748:51> »
Do my characters have to buy multiple copies of a given autosoft/program? If I have 3 drones can the all have the same clearsight Rating 6 installed or do I have to buy 3 copies, one for each drone. Can you or can you not also keeps copies on another device or data chip as a backup to loosing the device the program is on?
((There are currently no copy restrictions, though those may be added in Data Trails in the future. It was the same in SR4, no copy restrictions in Core, which were introduced by Unwired. Unwired also came with illegal cheaper downloads and downsides to cracked software in the form of over-time degradation.

So I'd argue that just like in SR4 Core, you currently simply are restricted in 2 ways: No running the same program twice, and programs are either made for drones+rccs or for cyberdecks, so you cannot copy from one to the other. Keep in mind that Data Trails will likely add restrictions to this and your GM could take a glance at Unwired for a temporary houserule if they deem it necessary.))
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