I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but it seemed to fit. In any case, I wanted to find a way to give a little something back to the community here, and this is all I can come up with. These are the "fixes" that I've come up with to the problems that have been most common in my own games, and a lot of these are aimed towards addressing a power disparity in PCs when a couple have a significantly higher degree of system mastery. Figured a few people might want to use these, or maybe a few vets can spot problems in these changes that I have missed. In any case, here are the changes I've made to RAW in my games since the inception of SR5, along with explanations as to why I felt the need to make the changes.
Changing Nuyen to Karma
Everyone needs karma, but some need more than others, and most of the time those guys don't need that much nuyen. Between runs, you can pay out nuyen to get a special type of karma (We're just calling it Special Karma) that cannot be spent to increase skills or standard attributes (this is good for increase Magic or Resonance, learning new spells and binding foci, submersion or initiation, picking up new qualities, etc...). You gain 2 points of special karma for every 2500 nuyen spent, and cannot spend more than 10,000 nuyen in this way between runs. This expenditure is represented in-game as donations to charity, spent on special training, or invested into special reagents that may accelerate meditation.
Running Programs on Commlinks
A commlink can run standard (non-hacking) programs. It can run a number of programs equal to 1/3 its rating.
Changes to Slaved Devices
An active commlink or deck CAN slave devices.
Changes to Technomancer
Right now, technomancers are gimped to the point of having exactly one playable build, and that build is still usually not as good as a decker. The following changes to their creations rules should open up some options for them. Generally speaking, a technomancer under these rules will be less versatile than a decker, but more consistently potent in the areas in which they chose to focus on. A decker will likely also have a higher upper limit in a single Matrix Attribute at a time, while Technomancers will usually have a few Attributes that are always almost as high, while being more vulnerable in the Attributes they neglect.
A technomancer's matrix attributes are not derived from their mental attributes. Instead, a newly created technomancer gets a number of points to distribute among these attributes equal to their Resonance x3 +3. No attribute can ever be higher than their mental limit. This limit is ignored by the attribute-enhancing submersion abilities. Whenever their Resonance attribute increases, they gain 3 more points to distribute.
A technomancer is capable of learning special complex forms that essentially duplicate the effects of programs, but they cannot utilize as many as a decker. They can learn a maximum number of these programs equal to half their Resonance (rounded up), and cannot learn any of the attribute-enhancing programs or the configurator program. These programs require no check to run, and do not need to be sustained, but he can only learn a total number of programs equal to half his/her Resonance. Note that these programs are generally not as powerful as actual complex forms, so learning them is a less efficient use of resources for the technomancer, but sometimes a specific program may be crucial to a build or playstyle, and this allows a player to acquire that program without having to go through submersion.
Finally, a technomancer's abilities stand up slightly better to essence loss than a mage's, and they do not take penalties to their Resonance score until AFTER they have lost one full point of essence. It is very common for technomancer to get an implanted datajack to allow them to make direct connections.
Split to Sneaking (Urban) Specialization
The sneaking specialization of (Urban) is just way too good considering that you're almost always in a city. It is being split into (streets) and (indoors). The former applies when you are moving through an outdoor urban area, the latter when you are attempting to sneak while inside a building.
Run-And-Gun Combat Styles
These are cool, but I think they're just a little too expensive. Each trick of a combat style costs 3 karma each, and it costs you 5 karma to pick up the first trick in a style.
Hard Cap on Die Rolls
To keep things from ever getting crazy out-of-hand, and to encourage versatility over extreme specialization, you can NEVER roll more than 25 dice for a check, after modifiers. Your base die pool can exceed 25 dice, but once that happens, you are essentially gaining free dice to spend on tricks that result in penalties, that might soak up some extra AP, or you might split your die pool so you can get them all. In a nuthsell, one roll will NEVER be more than 25 dice, with a possible exception made for great dragons.
Free Skills
Everyone automatically starts off with 1 rank each in Pistols, Perception, Sneak, Etiquette, and Computer. These are skills no shadowrunner should ever default on, and cost you no points to obtain. They can be improved normally, but you cannot pick up a specialization in them until your rank has already been improved to at least 2.
Free Fake SIN
A fake SIN is an absolutely critical item to shadowrunning, but they are quite expensive, and represent an enormous tax on anyone who wants to choose Priority D or E for resources. The same priority for nearly any other aspect is far less crippling, so to give the poor a little bit of love, everyone has a free Rating 4 Fake SIN.
SINer Negative Quality
The Corporate and Corporate Limited SINs return far too many points for what they do. You gain 5 Karma back for having a Corporate Limited SIN, and 10 Karma for a Corporate SIN. Furthermore, if you have either of these qualities, it means that you are still in a corporate database and on at the least friendly terms with that corp, because if you had pissed them off they just would have burned your SIN. This means such a quality is an important part of your character's backstory. You may even still be on corporate payroll. Finally, if you chose the basic SINer quality (a national SIN) you must chose which nation you are a citizen of.
Physical Adepts Starting Conditions
If you chose a priority for being a physical adept that would grant you free ranks in an active skill, you may instead chose to learn a fighting style from Run & Gun. You must chose a single style, and you know 1 technique from that style for each rank in an active skill you would have otherwise gained.
Also, the Ways in Street Grimoire go a long way in making adepts playable, but still feel just a little bit costly. It costs 15 karma to follow a Way rather than 20.
Also, the Astral Perception adept power has what I think is a bit of a vaguery in it, and I want to clarify how I interpret it here. It DOES allow you to engage astral beings in Astral Combat, but their astral form must be close enough to yours for you to reach them as you would in the physical world. Since you cannot project, your astral form is tethered to your physical form, which means that it is relatively easy for astral entities to avoid you if they are capable of flight in the astral plane. Of course, if there is any sort of astral cover, this works in your favor as well, since other creatures cannot attack you through it, normal.
Mystic Adepts and Power Points
Right now, Mystic Adepts are just too good. More importantly, they're too predictable, so I'm making a targeted strike at the very common build of a Mystic Adept who takes level 3 Improved Reflexes and Astral Perception to effectively become a magician with +3d6 initiative dice. I don't mind seeing Mystic Adepts in the game, but I'm hoping that making the more powerful adept abilities more costly for them will lead to a greater variety of builds, while also letting Physical Adepts retain more of a niche by making those powers quasi-exclusive to them.
Instead of the usual 5 karma per power point, a Mystic Adept buys power points on a gradient scale, paying a cumulative 3 karma per power point. For example, their first power point costs 3 karma, their seconds costs 6 additional karma, their third costs an additional 9, etc... This, combined with the change to Astral Perception, ensures that while they can still be potent, they are not as astrally versatile as a dedicated magician and that the most powerful Adept powers are now the domain of dedicated Physical Adepts.
Summoning Smackdown
Summoning spirits is currently one of the most overpowered things in the game. A single skill gives you access to a diverse variety of spirits who are all extremely potent in a variety of areas, allowing a specialized conjurer to do basically anything, especially when you factor in the fact that they continue casting spells at their enemies once the spirit is summoned. There are a couple of measure that I am taking to try to reign in the potency of players using spirits.
First, when you summon a spirit, you must invest a portion of your own magic to keep it grounded in the material world. When it manifests (or possesses someone, in the case of possession-based traditions), you temporarily lose one point of Magic that is returned to you when the spirit is returned to its home plane for any reason. If you bind a spirit, you bypass this limitation, as the karma you spend in the binding process is enough to sustain your spirit. This should help to make binding a more viable option.
Secondly, I want to focus on reigning in the “do everything” ability of summoning rather than a spirit's power to perform in its intended role. To that end, a mage must learn to summon each individual spirit type, just as they would a spell. They can do this by learning the spirit formula and spending karma, or by using their spell slots at character creation.
I am making it riskier to summon spirits with very high forces. This risk kicks in whenever you attempt to summon a spirit with a force greater than your post-summoning magic score (so a magician with Magic 6 would risk this mishap when summoning any spirit with a Force of 6 or greater). If you try to summon such a spirit and fail to obtain any services, the spirit is summoned as an uncontrolled free spirit. In addition to having very unpredictable immediate consequences, this will negatively impact your reputation in the local magical community in a large way.
Finally, please keep in mind that summoned or even bound spirits are not under your direct control. You use a service to tell them what to do, and they fulfill that service to the best of their ability. If you have a poor reputation in the spirit world, spirits will do what they can to twist the wording of your commands.
Buff to Aspected Magicians
Currently these dudes sucks major ass. We're gonna work on changing that. Based on which priority you choose, you receive a set numbers of ranks in a relevant skill group, and bit of free stuff based on which skill group you take. Spellcasting skill group grants free spells and rituals, Enchanting skill group grants free alchemical formulas and artifacing recipes, and Conjuring skill groups grants spirit formulas and a number of free bound spirits. These spirits have a Force equal to your Magic -1, and owe you a number of services equal to your starting ranks in the Conjuring skill group. Here is what you get:
Priority B: 6 Ranks, Spellcasting (8 spells + 4 rituals), Conjuring (5 spirit formulas + 3 bound spirits), Enchanting, (8 alchemical formulas + 4 recipes)
Priority C: 4 Ranks, Spellcasting (6 spells + 2 rituals), Conjuring (3 spirit formulas + 2 bound spirit), Enchanting (6 alchemical formulas + 2 recipes)
Priority D: 2 Ranks, Spellcasting (3 spells + 1 ritual), Conjuring (2 spirit formulas + 1 bound spirit), Enchanting (3 alchemical formulas + 1 recipe)
This skill group does NOT count against the standard limit on skill groups, and note that Priority B even allows you to bypass the usual rank cap on skill groups for new characters. Also, aspected magicians can astrally project, just like a dedicated magician.
SMG and Recoil
Mechanically, there is very little reason to use an SMG – they are barely more concealable than an assault rifle, and they do significantly less damage while lacking the armor penetration. This give them a bit of oomph, all SMGs have 1 extra point of natural recoil compensation to account for the fact that their larger frames can more easily handle the pistol-caliber bullets they typically fire.
Machine Gun Damage Boost
It's really weird to me that a lot of the machine guns in the game are actually worse than their lighter assault rifle cousins, so they're going to be getting a sizable buff. For starters, all LMGs have -3 AP, MMGs all have -4 AP, and HMGs have a whopping -5 AP, unless any specific gun already has a higher AP rating (as is the case with the vidicator minigun). They pack a punch, but they aren't subtle and usually require heavy investment in recoil compensation to use effectively. There are going to be weapons that can shoot bullets faster, weapons that do more damage, or weapons that pierce armor better, but I want to make this class of weapons king when it comes to marrying the three. They are the loud, unwieldy workhorses of killin' folk As for damage, that is being updated on a case by case basis as follows.
Ingram Valiant – 11P
SA Nemesis – 10P
Stoner Ares M202 – 12P
FN Mag-5 – 11P
Utlamax MMG – 12P
RPK HMG – 14P
Ruhrmetall SF-20 – 13P
Ultamax HMG-2 – 12P
Minor Flechette Ammo Buff
Flechette ammo is cool as hell, but as written, it gives you what is BARELY a statistical buff to damage because of the bonus an armored target gets to resist. I'm scaling this bonus back just a notch to make the advantage of this more expensive ammunition type more consistently noticeable. Flechette ammo gives a target +4 AP instead of the RAW +5.
Increased Availability on OP Weapons.
There are a few items (generally weapons) that, while technically being available to new characters, are objectively the best items in their class, outperforming even some of their more difficult to obtain “upgrades.” I am increasing the availability of the following weapons, which also puts them beyond the reach of new characters.
Ares Alpha Assault Rifle – 16F
Enfield AS-7 Shotgun – 15F
Mossberg AM-CMDT Shotgun – 14F
Ares Thunderstruck Gauss Rifle – 24F
