[Aaron]

Thanks for the reply--a quick follow-up/clarification regarding sensor cost.  Page 445 states, "most vehicles and drones come factory-equipped with a sensor array (at a rating listed with their stats)."  I took this to mean that all drones have a sensor array (3) as part of their off-the-shelf cost.  Since an array "includes up to eight functions listed on the Sensor Table," I read this as meaning that all drones have up to 8 things from the table at rating 3 for free, even though it's a little strange to have a 3,000 nuyen array in a 1,000 nuyen drone.  Drones have arrays, arrays are specific things, ergo drones have those specific things.

The manufacturer gets a bulk discount on most drone parts. If you're willing to buy sensor arrays in 50,000 count lots, you could probably get that kind of a discount, too. =i)

[Ryo]

1: Do the effects of a Stim Patch wear off, or are the effects permanent?

So if you have 6 stun damage, and use a Rating 6 stim patch, after 60 minutes, what happens?

A: You take Rating+1 damage, so you now have 7 stun.
B: The effects wear off, and then you take Rating+1 damage, so you now have 13 stun, and probably overflowed into physical.

2: How does the Indirect Touch spell, Punch, work?

According to page 282, to hit an unwilling target of a Touch spell, you must make an Unarmed attack.
According to page 283, Indirect Combat spells are Spellcasting + Magic [Force] vs. Reaction + Intuition.

So do you roll Unarmed + Agility [Physical] vs. Reaction + Intuition to Touch the target, then Spellcasting + Magic [Force] Vs. Reaction + Intuition for the actual spell? This seems weird to me, since it means the target is dodging twice, the second time after you've already touched him.

3: Punch/Clout/Blast are Physical magic spells that deal Stun damage. Shatter/Powerbolt/Powerball are Physical magic spells that deal Physical damage. These two groups of spells seem to be parallels to eachother, but the first group is Indirect, the second group is Direct. There are no Indirect combat spells that deal non-elemental Physical damage. Is this a typo?

[martinchaen]

Thanks for taking time to answer us, Aaron, that takes care of all of my questions for now

And my bad on the presumption; I was thinking about Noise, which does not affect defense and resistance tests.

[Cormroc]

4. Can you give an example of a Matrix action that would share a bonus with a Vehicle action (p. 266, under "VR and Rigging")?  For example, does the +1 die to Vehicle and Matrix tests while using hot sim (p. 266) stack with the +2 dice to Matrix tests (p. 231) since "any bonus you get to Matrix actions also applies to Vehicle actions."

4. Yep, your example is correct. Rigging is awesome (until you get hacked or totaled).

Reading p266 again I still am of the opinion that the +1 bonus and the +2 bonus are the same bonus, either p231 should  have been +1 or p266 should have been +2. The entire paragraph in question is summing up the primary matrix VR bonuses that riggers can apply to vehicle tests while jumped in, I don't see how the phrase (clause? I'm not particularly good at grammar) in question could be interpreted any differently. I lean towards the +2 being correct as any changes made during development were probably applied to the Matrix chapter and the Rigger chapter was overlooked as no one remembered that the applicable bonuses were restated there.

If the +3 pool modifier is correct then there definitely needs to be an errata for that section (p266) because that is not what it currently states.

[martinchaen]

Q: Does the simple action "Stand Up" count as "Movement" for the purposes of Interception attacks?
In other words, if Character A knocks Character B to the ground with a melee attack during A's initiative phase, and Character B stands back up during B's initiative phase, can A take an immediate Intercept Action (decreasing his initiative by 5) to attempt a melee attack as per page 194?

[Noble Drake]

There are no Indirect combat spells that deal non-elemental Physical damage. Is this a typo?

There are no spells which create a cutting or puncturing attack, so why would there be an indirect combat spell that deals non-elemental Physical damage?

My opinion: you want to inflict physical damage with good armor penetration at range, use the Enfield AS-7 loaded with APDS rounds spell.

[Aaron]

1: Do the effects of a Stim Patch wear off, or are the effects permanent?

So if you have 6 stun damage, and use a Rating 6 stim patch, after 60 minutes, what happens?

At the end of 60 minutes you take 7 boxes of Stun damage that you can't resist. The 6 boxes you used to have were removed by the initial effect of the stim patch.

2: How does the Indirect Touch spell, Punch, work?

In the specific case of a touch-range combat spell, the Spellcasting test takes the place of the Unarmed attack. So you only need to make the Spellcasting Test, which is defended against by the target's Reaction + Intuition.

3: Punch/Clout/Blast are Physical magic spells that deal Stun damage. Shatter/Powerbolt/Powerball are Physical magic spells that deal Physical damage. These two groups of spells seem to be parallels to eachother, but the first group is Indirect, the second group is Direct. There are no Indirect combat spells that deal non-elemental Physical damage. Is this a typo?

Nope, not a typo. At this time, the spells listed are the ones available. Look for more spells in future source books.

4. Can you give an example of a Matrix action that would share a bonus with a Vehicle action (p. 266, under "VR and Rigging")?  For example, does the +1 die to Vehicle and Matrix tests while using hot sim (p. 266) stack with the +2 dice to Matrix tests (p. 231) since "any bonus you get to Matrix actions also applies to Vehicle actions."

4. Yep, your example is correct. Rigging is awesome (until you get hacked or totaled).

Reading p266 again I still am of the opinion that the +1 bonus and the +2 bonus are the same bonus, either p231 should  have been +1 or p266 should have been +2. The entire paragraph in question is summing up the primary matrix VR bonuses that riggers can apply to vehicle tests while jumped in, I don't see how the phrase (clause? I'm not particularly good at grammar) in question could be interpreted any differently. I lean towards the +2 being correct as any changes made during development were probably applied to the Matrix chapter and the Rigger chapter was overlooked as no one remembered that the applicable bonuses were restated there.

If the +3 pool modifier is correct then there definitely needs to be an errata for that section (p266) because that is not what it currently states.

I had assumed that you were talking about stacking the hot-sim bonus and the control rig bonus. They do stack.

Q: Does the simple action "Stand Up" count as "Movement" for the purposes of Interception attacks?
In other words, if Character A knocks Character B to the ground with a melee attack during A's initiative phase, and Character B stands back up during B's initiative phase, can A take an immediate Intercept Action (decreasing his initiative by 5) to attempt a melee attack as per page 194?

Good question. I'd say that it looks like as long as all you're doing is changing your stance from prone to upright, you're not susceptible to an Intercept attack. If you're trying to get away while scrambling to your feet, then you're askin' for it.

[T-Hatchet]

Am I correct in thinking that a Physical Barrier spell is extremely unlikely to stop bullets because bullets are a penetrating attack and will only do one damage to he barrier created if they have a DV greater than the armor of the barrier reduced by AP with the rest going through to hit the intend target?
It strikes me as odd that the barrier created by a Physical Barrier spell seems to be the only one with armor equal to structure. All the example barriers had double the structure in armor.

[martinchaen]

Q: Which specialization applies to cyber guns?
The Automatics and Unarmed Combat skills both list Cyber Implants as possible specializations, while Heavy Weapons (for the Grenade Launcher cybergun), Longarms (for the Shotgun cybergun), and Pistols (for the Holdout, Light, and Heavy Pistol cyberguns) do not.

The section for cyber melee weapons lists Unarmed Combat as the skill to use, but the same section for cyberguns do not. In other words, will a Longarms (Shotgun) specialization apply to the implanted Shotgun cybergun, or would one have to take Longarms (Cyber Implants) for this to apply?

[spoiler=Personal Opinion]
While Unarmed Combat (Cyber Implants) seems to be the most sensible choice for cyber melee weapons, I don't think the same applies to the ranged firearms categories. For one, all four implant weapons (hand razors, hand blades, spurs, and shock hand) benefit from this specialization, whereas the same is not true for ranged weapons. Breaking it down by category;
Automatics: 2 total (SMG and machine pistol)
Heavy Weapons: 1 total (grenade launcher)
Longarms: 1 total (shotgun)
Pistols: 3 total (holdout, light, and heavy pistol)
Unarmed Combat: 4 total (razors, blades, spurs, and shock glove)

By forcing the player to specialize in Heavy Weapons (Cyber Implants), for example, the cost effectiveness (and thus game balance) of this compared to the much more common Pistols (Cyber Implants) is dramatically offset. Spending 7 karma and a month of training (in game) for +2 dice for ONE weapon is hardly comparable to that of gaining it for multiple ones.

Furthermore, a character that is highly trained in Unarmed Combat (Cyber Implants) is also highly trained in unarmed combat, subdual combat, and knockdown. The same is not the case for any of the other weapon categories.[/spoiler]
I believe that the specialization for each subcategory should apply to ranged cyberguns, which seems to be the case by RAW except for everything except Automatics.

Thoughts?

[ve4grm]

So - did we ever get any clarification from Gen Con... Did players get to take a defense test [of some sort] against grenades and indirect LOS (A) spells?

Yes we did: there's no defense test against grenades, indirect LOS (A) spells, and other "zones of damage." The defense against these attacks is to take precautions against them. This is really really really true, and been confirmed by multiple sources inside the company. So unless there's been a meeting somewhere to which I wasn't privy, you really really honestly and truly don't get to make a defense test against grenades or indirect LOS (A) spells.

Very well. Then can we please get an explanation as to how counterspelling is meant to be used against area spells? The text goes out of its way to describe how you can give the bonus to multiple people, but counterspelling only adds to defense tests, and area spells like Fireball have no such tests.

(Additionally, the spellcasting example on page 283 has an unidentified defense test being made in it against a Blast spell, and the counterspelling example on page 295 specifically uses a fireball as the example of group counterspelling. This section has left me very confused.)

[Novocrane]

Stupid question, but I couldn't find the answer. What happens when you purchase more than one lifestyle quality at chargen?

[Xenon]

Q Does an imaging device (p.443) digitizes the visual input for you (p.281) or will it act as a transparent object (p.281) if you turn off visual enhancements.
(can you use low light vision goggles to target spells through if you turn off low light).

Stupid question, but I couldn't find the answer. What happens when you purchase more than one lifestyle quality at chargen?

You can buy a secondary lifestyle to use together with a fake SIN or to use as a safe house / hiding.

[Michael Chandra]

Q. The devices releasing the spam are RFID tags, so Device Rating 2, does this mean that with the Static Noise of 3 from the rain, they lose their broadcasting functionality, lowering the spam noise by 5?

No, because broadcast functionality is not a wireless bonus. Only wireless bonuses are affected by noise, not basic functionality. For example, you can still browse the Matrix and send messages, even in that nightmare Rating 11 noise you've got in the previous question. However, your grenade's wireless trigger wouldn't work.

Does that mean Sprawl Wilds Ashes needs to be errata'd, since it says the blanket of Military Grade Jammers blocks wireless communications, resulting in only infrared LOS and cables as possible communication measures?

[martinchaen]

Q: How far does a character need to move to be considered running for the purposes of A) making a running jump, and B) making a charging attack?

[spoiler=Physics Breakdown]
To provide some real world examples, look at this and this article examining acceleration and the human body. Physically, at least, the fastest acceleration attainable is 9.8m/s; although the book indicates a falling rate of 50m in the first combat turn, followed by 150m in the second, and a terminal velocity of 200m per combat turn (240km/h, which is a little less than real world skydivers can attain), realistically this will be much less. Usain Bolt managed to clear the first 10 meters of his record setting 100m dash in just 1.685 seconds; in other words, going from 0 to 5.935m/s in one second.

Using equal scores for Agility, Body, Reaction, and Strength, and assuming that a trained runner could get maximum hits allowed by physical limit, this would put Usain Bolt at just below an attribute rating of 3 in Game Mechanic terms:
3 AGI/BOD/REA/STR gives a base running rate of 12m
Add an additional 8m from sprinting (Physical Limit of 4 x2, assuming 4 net hits)
For a total sprinting rate of 6.666667m/s (20m/3 seconds).

The fastest man of the modern world, then, can accelerate to 21km/h in just over 1.5 seconds, whereas in the world of Shadowrun even a complete weakling (1 in all physical stats) can manage to hit nearly 10km/h in just 1 second.

Interestingly, an AGI10 BOD/REA/STR 6 character with Running 12, Hydraulic Jacks Rating 6, and using Edge 6 to get rule of Six on 30 dice (Run rate of 40m + (Sprint = Physical Limit of (16+6)*2 = 48m)) could reach speeds as high as 88m/second (an astounding 316km/h, or, if using the more conservative 3 second combat turn measurement, 29m/s or 105km/h); such a character would be surpassing the modern day cheetah in terms of acceleration by a factor of three (and possibly breaking the laws of physics in the process), and demolishing it's maximum speed as well.

With the current rule of having to exceed walking rate, I am imagining an Agility 10 character doing a warm up lap, running 10 meters away from the enemy just so he can turn around and charge 11 meters back (effectively counting as running).

As Agility directly impacts how far a character can jump it makes sense to require that a character attain a certain speed for the purpose of a running leap, but a charge move seems to be all about acceleration in order to increase momentum and thus the force of an attack.

Since even the slowest character can achieve a running speed of 4m/s in one action phase, it seems odd to penalize high-agility characters who could potentially achieve as much as 40m/s speeds in one action phase.

Given that an increase in velocity results in an equal increase in momentum, even the slowest character moving at 4m/s can attain a quadrupled momentum which in effect quadruples his/her mass (a 60kg character impacting with a momentum of 240kg-m/sec in the direction of movement). The faster character in effect multiplies his/her momentum by 40, which could lead to potentially catastrophic consequences (imagine the same 60kg character sprinting at a rate of 40m/s, effectively impacting with a momentum of 2400kg-m/sec in the direction of movement). By comparison, a 100kg linebacker in the NFL can hit approximately 35km/h, meaning that if he was to hit an immobile target he would impact with an approximate momentum of 980 kg-m/sec.[/spoiler]

[Csjarrat]

Q: please can you clarify the options for driving a vehicle for non-riggers?
PG 201, Sr5:
If the pilot is driving with the aid of Augmented Reality,
increase the limit of any tests by 1, and if the pilot is
driving using Virtual Reality, increase limits by 2. If the
pilot is equipped with a Control Rig and is controlling
the vehicle while Jumped In, decrease the threshold of
tests by the rating of the Control Rig (to a minimum of 1).

to me it looks like you have the option of driving in meat, AR and VR (is VR the "control device" matrix option or an at-seat driving option?).
it the book also reads that rigged control is VR only and grants different bonuses to VR/AR driving, being totally separate.

Sub question: if you can drive in VR as a non-rigger, can you ride a bike in VR or does your limp body fall off everytime you make a turn?