Little Preface: Iīm sometimes worried when posting houserules or homebrew stuff that this may lead to "blocking" a freelancer with a similar idea from using that in a supplement, especially when itīs a simple "no-brainer" solution that a lot of other people come up with as well. Cantīt really talk for the rest, but please, feel free to "steal" everything I post here
A lot of the stuff Xenon posted is quite neat, especially the human buffs. Thereīs two things that Iīd do slightly differently:
Imaging scope: When you are using an imaging scope at Medium, Far and Extreme range,
your target cannot gain Edge by having a higher Defense Rating., you recieve the bonus from the Image Magnification (+2 AR) and one Bonus die thatīs compatible with additional
Take aim Actions.
Improved Ability: At this point (I mean, isnīt Cracking also a Combat Skill as well?), Iīd rather renounce the distinction of combat and noncombat skills and go with 0.75 PP per rank for each skill. With skills being the equivalent of previous skill groups, 0.5 is too cheap for the boost, but 1.0 would be to strong since Attributes still have a bigger scope. 0.75 is the Sweet Spot here. Also, this Power can not be taken for Conjuring, Sorcery and Enchanting (If anything, this should need to be unlocked by something like an Adeptīs path in a future supplement)
OK, now for some
Character Creation/Advancement stuff:
Adepts: Adepts get have Power Points equal to their Magic Attribute. They get one when they raise it (even when doing so with SAP during Character Creation), and they lose them when lowering it due to Essence loss. (This oneīs RAW now. Good.) Mystic Adepts donīt get their Power Point right away, but get the option to "unlock" it for 5 Karma, and they canīt get additional Power Points through Initiaton. The amount of
additional Power Points that Adepts and Mystic Adeps can get through Foci and Initiation is limited by their Magic rating.
Spells: The number of spells that Magicians (and Mystic Adepts, Aspected Magicians etc...) get for free is still based on their pick in the Magic/Resonance Column. However, they
can learn additional Spells for Karma during Character Creation
if they also buy the Spell Formular for Nuyen.
Impaired Attribute:This Quality has no ranks. If you take it for an Attribute, you cut the maximum Attribute value in half (round down)
Specialisations: There is no limit on how many Specialisations you can take for an skill. However, the cost for additional Specialisations to increases by 5 for every Specialisation that a skill already has. At Character creation, you can use the Skill Points from the Priority table to buy a maximum of 1 Specialisation per Skill, the rest has to be bought using Karma. This true for the Exotic Weapons Skill as well.
Burning out: If you fully burn out (i.e. permanently reduce you Magic or Resonance to Zero), you lose your magical or resonance-based powers and canīt simply buy them back to 1 for 5 Karma (like Adepts and P.P., this really shouldnīt be "just a houserule" as well...). Completely burning out is
usually permanent - itīs up to your GM if you can find a way to get your powers back and how much you have to sacrifice to do so. There is no proven way to achieve this, only rumors of a few rare individuals who managed to do so. You might even find out that all your efforts are for naught, in the end...
My most important houserules:
Un-borking the Edge limitations:Edge-Limits: Whenever a Character earns Edge on a test (including defending against attacks), only the Edge that is safed for later uses counts against the Limit of 2 Edge gained per round. Consume it right away, and you donīt risk losing it. The same is true for the limit of 7 (8 for humans with Xenonīs houserule) Edge that can be accumulated by a single character.
Edge and Grunts: The rules above counts for grunt groups as well. However, there is no restriction on how often a group of grunts can spend Edge per round. In this regard, they count as individual characters that are just using the same pool of Edge. Grunts will
usually spend every newly earned Edge right away, f.i. for rerolled dices.
Cover and Edge: Shooting from Cover doesnīt prevent the Shooter from gaining or using Edge
if the shooter gives up the
Cover Status when performing the Attack. The shooter can then use a second Minor Action to re-enter Cover. (Note: One could argue that this is already
kinda possible RAW by using the Move or Stand Up Action to exit cover...)
Armor/Defense Ratings/etc... Edge-Boosts using Armor: Thereīs 3 additional Edge-Boosts that profit from high Armor. All of these are used on the Soak test:
- 1 Edge to replace Body with Armor for the Soak roll (pre)
- 2 Edge to roll Armor and convert Net Hits of Physical Damage to Stun Damage. Only possible if the Character has a Stun monitor in the first place (post)
- 3 Edge to roll with your full DR on the Soak roll instead of Body(pre)
Addition: Flechettes and Armor: Flechette Damage (i.e. the damage of Shotgun Flechettes, but also Needleguns and Fragmentation Grenades, often marked by a legacy (fl) tag in the rulebook) is less effective against highly armored targets. If the DR exceeds the AR of the Attack, add the difference as bonus dice to the Soak Test.
Attack and Defense ratings: To determine if the Attacker succeeds on a tie, compare the the AR and DR as well. If the DR is higher, the Attack misses; if the AR is higher, the Attack succeeds (dealing only the base damage if itīs an attack that deals damage). If these are tied as well, toss a coin. If the AR exceeds the DR by 8, the Defender canīt gain or use any Edge on the defense tests. The same is true in reverse if the DR exceeds the AR by 8. (So basically, a few more nuances to the AR-DR comparison. Note that these can apply to Hacking tests as well!).
Hardened Armor: Hardened Armor offers Bonus Dice to the Soak Test,
not Auto Hits. It still adds its full Rating to the DR.
Fragmentation Grenades: While these have high damage potential on higher ranges, Armor and Cover offers better protection against them as well. You may choose to soak the Damage of Fragmentation grenades with the DR instead of just Body. See above.
Lastly (at least for today):
Un-borking Melee and StrengthStrength and Melee Weapons:
If the Damage Code of a Melee Weapon is higher than the Strength of the user, the AR of the Weapon is reduced by the difference.If the Strength of the user is higher than the Damage Code, half of the difference (round up) is added to the Damage Code. (Seriously, do the math. It works surprisingly well, even in extreme cases )
This is true for all melee weapons with fixed damage codes, with a few exceptions: Shock Gloves, Shock Batons and other potential contact weapons, as well as Monowhips. Updated Version: - Add Strength to the AR of all Melee Weapons, or Reaction in the Case of Whips and similar Weapons (current RAW)
- The base Damage for unarmed Melee Attacks is 1 (1 less then the current RAW.)
- When performing a Melee Attack of any kind, you may reduce the AR by 3 to increase the Base damage by 1. You can do this a max. of Strength/3 (round) up times per Combat Turn, for either one or for multiple different Attacks.
Critical Strike (Adept Power): The Damage boost from this Power is limited by the Net Hits scored on each attack. You can take ranks in this power as often as you want, but you will want to score a really good hit (one might say: a
Critical Strike 
) to use its full potential.
