[Vxper]

My GM has broken the reputation in to four seperated ratings as follows:

Shadow Rep: Reputation for Getting things done quietly, this reputation is generally known only to employers and sometimes victims
Street Cred: Tough guys reputation. Being the top dog and the big bad. This reputation comes from being a loud braggart and having the muscle to back it. Known to gangers, other runners, employers, and victims.
Notoriety: Doing BAD BAD things.
Public Awareness: This is how well known you are to the average public person. This is comparable to fame in many way, but you still need the fame merit to get the other bonuses. Public awareness is a positive modifier for a witness to ID you.

[Psikerlord]

The thing you also don't really need to simplify all that much is the out of game stuff, cuz there's time to look through the books.  Combat does take a freakin long time in table top SR...I usually budget that every encounter, really no matter how small is gonna take minimum an hour.  Two encounters in one session can really wear the players down in terms of attention unless plotwise those encounters have really been built up.   ...Combat is the hardest to houserule though because so many people design their characters based around RAW strategy.

Ha! My group is just coming off playing D&D 4e which regularly takes 2 hours for a combat, so 1 hour sounds awesome. Course long combats are a common complaint in D&D4e. One of the things  I love about SR is the chance to down someone with one shot.  Having read the thread on stick n shock, we might houserule them availability 12 or something? maybe double cost ?

[Ten-Hex]

I've seen a few different house rules for SnS:

• shotgun-only round: the RL shock round that can be fired is a specialized shotgun round. Our group isn't currently using it, but I kinda like this house rule. Perhaps it is difficult to make SnS rounds that properly fire from rifled barrels, and since other RL shotgun rounds (shock lock and flares) are still restricted in function and form in 2070 there's a valid argument to houserule it this way. It sure takes care of the problem of hold-outs or BF lt pistols loading up SnS and being extremely powerful for their concealability. I would keep the shock round technology for gyrojet weapons as well if we ever switch to this house rule in my home game.
• availability increase: You could increase the avail above 12 to make them unbuyable in character generation. This would allow you to control the supply of SnS in the game better, since the GM is effectively in charge of black market supplies once the game starts. I personally don't like this option because it doesn't solve the inherent mechanics problem of the ammo itself.
• modified damage: This is my home game's current house rule. We gave SnS rounds a damage profile of DV-1S(e)/AP-half. The fluff reasoning was that larger caliber rounds could have electronics that provide a more powerful discharge. Mechanics-wise, it means that hvy pistol and SMG rounds are starting at 4S(e) dmg and hold-outs/lt pistols at 3S(e). I like this because it keeps the damage the same for shotguns (the only current RL example of this tech) but allows for small-caliber, rifled and rapid-fire (but less effective) versions of this round to have been developed in the next 60 years.
• no damage staging: I've heard of people limiting the ability for net hits on the attack to increase the electrical damage and/or not allowing burst fire to increase the damage. Never seen this house rule in use, so I can't offer an opinion on it. I honestly don't know enough about taser technology to know if this house rule has any basis in fact. (If three cops taser me, is it more effective than one because I'm going to drop faster, or is it more effective because I'm probably going to drop before I can rip out all three points of contact filling my body with electricity?)

[LonePaladin]

I like the modified damage rule. That seems like the most elegant way to nerf that ammo without obviously nerfing it.

[Psikerlord]

Hmm yeah ok I'm thinking availability 13 and the -1DV modified damage rule, that looks pretty good?

[Kid]

Don't like the Initiative rules. It makes no sense to me that a Street Sam with Wired Reflexes acts first, then the non-augmented Gangmember acts, and then the Street Sam acts two times.

I think about this house rule:

Determine when You can act in a combat turn:
(1) Determine Your Initiative Score.
(2) Divide the Initiative Score by Your IP (rounded down).
(3) Subtract the result determined in step (2) from Your Initiative Score. Do this as long as You have determined so many Action Phases equal to Your IP. In all that Action Phases (beginning with the Initiative Score) You have an Action Phase to act.

Example:
Johnny Clean has Initiative 14 and 3 IP.
(1) He rolls 14 dice and gets 5 hits. His Initiative Score is 19.
(2) 19 divided by 3 is 6 (rounded down).
(3) 19 - 6 = 13 and 13 - 6 = 7.
So, Johnny Clean will act on phases 19, 13, and 7.

If Joey Wachmann with Initiative 7 and 1 IP gets one hit and scores an Intiative Score of 8, Johnny Clean would act two times (19 and 13), before Joey Wachmann can act the first time.

Don't divide the Combat Turn into Initiative Passes any longer.

A character can move during none, one, or more than one of his Action Phases. He is free to move as he wants as long as he doesn't move more meters than his moving rate (meters/turn).

[bigity]

That is how older editions worked (sorda), and I believe it was a good game balance move to change it the way 3rd/4th edition does it.

Otherwise, non-reflex ware/magic having folk are just flat out dead meat in any kind of gunfight.  It was not uncommon to have sammies/adepts go 3-4 times before 'regular' people.

It works fine as a system, and it certainly makes trolls with Wired 3 or something a truly terrible force in combat, but it makes the game less fun overall IMO.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Having played every edition, I'll say this:  Previous editions did something similar to what Kid proposes, i.e. the fastest going first and going often.  This meant that the street sam or the adept would take all their actions and then...combat is over.

That's it.  The fast guys killed everyone who is NOT fast.  The mage, the hacker (then decker), anyone who wasn't augmented like the combat monsters did nothing.  It became an arms race to see who could get the highest numbers first.  And while the mage could get the spell to boost his reflexes, he either sustained it himself (thus gaining a penalty) or used a sustaining focus (which, in previous editions, meant that someone on the astral could drop a fireball on the group and cook them while remaining invulnerable).  This really left the slow folks out of the fight.

Here's an example:  In first edition, the limit to the number of actions in a round was four (similar to what we have now).  Our group had a physical adept by the name of Drenaline.  While we were in Vietnam on a mission (long story), our group noticed some bad guys up ahead.  Initiative was rolled, and Drenaline ran forward, killed everyone of the bad guys, found another group of baddies, killed them, and then climbed a tree to scout out more targets.  And this all happened in a single combat round before anyone else could take actions.

The current system works much better to allow people other than speed queens (or kings) to take part.

[Psikerlord]

Yep totally agree - the old initiative system meant if you weren't quick you were dead before you even got a turn. Being fast was all important. The current initiative rules are much more balanced, but still with obvious advantages to having additional turns beyond the first.

[Crash_00]

The only one that I have made so far (from my glimpse of the book) is that I treat a Skill Group as a Skill with regards to Specialization. Meaning that you can have one, and only one, specialization in a Skill Group without breaking it up.

I.E. Johnny Two Guns has the skill group Firearms: 5. Johnny decides that he really wants to be better with ARs but he doesn't want to split his group and he can't afford to raise the whole group to 6. Johnny can purchase a specialization making it
Firearms: 5 (Assault Rifles +2). Johnny can't pick up specializations for any other skills in the group without it splitting the group.

[Cynewulf]

I'll preface this by saying that neither I nor the rest of my group are gun-nuts, so this may be impractical in real life. However it is a fun couple of weapon mods that allow us to fool around with existing weapons and tailor them to our characters much better.

Increased Calibre
Slots: 2, Mod Cost: Weapon Cost
The weapon is heavily modified to chamber a larger round. The ammunition capacity is reduced by half (rounded up), recoil compensation is reduced by 1, Damage is increased by 1, and the armour penetration improves by 1. Incompatible with Decreased Calibre.

Decreased Calibre
Slots: 2, Mod Cost: Weapon Cost
The weapon is heavily modified to chamber a smaller round. The ammunition capacity is increased by half (rounded down), recoil compensation is increased by 1, Damage is decreased by 1, and the armour penetration worsens by 1. Incompatible with Increased Calibre.

Naturally we consider certain weapons to have one of these mods by default, for example the Rugar Super Warhawk, so it can not be added a second time.

[usefulidiot]

A house rule that our group started using is that if an adept takes the sustenance power then we also reduce the characters lifestyle cost by 20% since they are only eating one meal per day.

I like a few of the others I have come across on here and might try to work them into our group. Such as the build points for contacts at creation based on your karma and i also liked the one about defaulting on magical skills.

[Kot]

I took on a Houserule regarding Specializations. You can have as many Specializations in a skill as your rank in it, but every next after the first costs double. So, you could have 3 specializations on a skill that you have at rank 3, but the second one would cost 4 Karma, and the third 8 karma...  We'll see how that works out.

[FastJack]

I took on a Houserule regarding Specializations. You can have as many Specializations in a skill as your rank in it, but every next after the first costs double. So, you could have 3 specializations on a skill that you have at rank 3, but the second one would cost 4 Karma, and the third 8 karma...  We'll see how that works out.

Let me know how that works. I've been a believer of 1 skill/1 specialization, but if this works, I may change my mind.

[Crash_00]

I've added another house rule to my home games that comes straight from the older additions.

DEFAULTING TO A RELATED SKILL
Sometimes a character wants to perform an action that he does not have the skill for, but he has skills similar to the action. If a character wishes to perform an action with a skill that he does not have, but he has a skill in the same skill group, he may default to that other skill.

In such a case, the character still suffers a -1 die penalty to his attribute for the action, but he may now add half of the skill he defaulted to (round up) to his dice pool for the action.

EXAMPLE: Jake tries to shoot a goon with a revolver, but he only possesses the Longarms skill at 4. In this case, Jake still suffers a -1 die to his agility, but since he's defaulting to a related skill he may add 2 dice (half the skill) to the action's dice pool.