I will be pulling Thaden back as a contact and ripper clinic. The fact that I will be footing part of the bill for that clinic is no mean feat.
Where will we be sitting on the Magic timeline? Is this before metamagic has been implemented? Can we (still) use Gaesa? Are we using SR3 or SR4 spell formulae?

Also, just to check, I assume that we are also playing chronologically before Year of the Comet?

If we do this, it would be pre-metamagics and geasa, pre-YOTC.

We'd use the spell formulas as already described in the rules thread. If we agree to change formula rules, that would apply to. (I'd like to explore a timeline and shifting technology market, but a change in mechanics :P)

Realistically, I won't have time to put together a new character until sometime on the weekend.

I forgot the custom magic rules. I'll read up on them if I need to.

So I found the perfect profile pic for a male (elf) covert ops specialist, especially when the rest of the team is idiots. Male Soldier, p3 bottom row, fourth from right "mms093" (I think that's CPL Hicks). If it doesn't change, then I used it on this post.

Also, how much karma are we starting with (if any)?

I'll base my selection of type of character based on what others indicate.  I can play a mage again, but happy to play other things too.

Presume the game environment is going to be typical Shadowrun - if you make too much noise, leave too big a mess or piss off the wrong people, you're going to regret it for a very long time (and that's presuming you're lucky enough to actually last for a very long time)?

Use your old characters for Drop Bears. (Or any character. Character-sheet optional :P ) Drop Bears will buy time for me to see how many people are playing, how many new PCs I need to pick up, make character sheets, etc.

I'm planning that the default is, yes, keep it quiet when you can. But there will always be exceptions to the rule.

FF, I trust no-one as a mage more than you.
I'm going Dwarven (Koro-pok-kuru) physad infiltrator/medic. I will branch out here or there, but that will be my main job. He won't be as durable as Thaden was, but perhaps that's a good thing (don't want BB dropping nukes on the party).

Also, BB, I'm going to be running back and forth on chemicals with you. Mostly knockout drugs, nothing to lose sleep over (heh). Main goal being I will want my knives to have chem reservoirs or treated sheaths that could deliver injection-vector compounds as I stab people. Ideally, I would be able to wound people enough to make them vulnerable to the compounds, and figure out some way to deliver consistent take-downs in short timeframes. (will also be investing in a lot of DMSO and slap-patches)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:42, Tue 14 Jan 2014.

Fully understand "exceptions to the rule".  And as always, the objective is "try" - things have a way of blowing up anyway.

FF, I am looking over the "Lone Wolves" PM thread, and am thinking about a ninja mage. I think I'm smiling a little too wide for this to be healthy.

Note that SR1 tends to be a little more Pink Mohawk than SR3. Expect that in 2050, the chaos of the fall is still heavy enough that corps don't have their act together, and runners have a lot more leeway in their actions. As time goes on, that freedom will get shut down.

For chemicals, I prefer you pull stuff from actual SR materials first, then from SR fan materials, then if you can't find it from that, I'll stat it up myself. But the less work for me, the better. Kage or Plastic Soldiers may have some stuff.

This is probably a good place to start:
http://www.shadowrun.us/materi...equipment%20list.pdf

I do have a physical-adept assassin type I could bring in.

It's so nice flipping through my (very old) books.

Funny thing, no adepts in the SR1 core book. We can discuss if we'd like to bring them in anyway, if you guys really have your hearts set on them.

You said SR3R rules.  Are adepts "gear"?

Well .. adept powers sorta-kinda are. We'd have to custom-build what 2050 adepts are (probably rolling back to SR2 rules). Like I said, flipping through the SR1 book, there's no reference to them. They probably came up in the grimoire or something.

If we are strapped for gear, I would much rather have the opportunity to play Physads. Especially if we are still running off of 3rd-ed rules, it's not like it's impossible to work around the advantages (and disadvantages) they bring to the table.

What exactly is the objective with rolling back to SR1 stuff?  Is it because we're going to be playing some of the old missions and we want to ensure balance with the older threats?  Is it because we want to run a more low-powered campaign?  I think we can accomplish both of those objectives without trying to retrofit SR1 stuff to SR3R rules.  If it's because we want to more strictly adhere to the world timeline, then that's fine.  If being a metahuman sucked and magic was underpowered and cyber was clunky and physical adepts and metamagic etc. hadn't manifested in the 2050s, then I'm ok playing that way.  Though I'd still be tempted to go with SR3R gear lists and just prune out the newer stuff and/or increase costs.

For example, needing to learn a spell at each drain level smells like a rules change to me rather than a magic change.  But I'm fine if we say that the drain level of all spells is upped by 1 and that we're constrained to the spells from the main book or something like that.

Would second that train of thought. What's the major purpose we have going on here? If it's a historical examination, I'd much rather have SR3R rules, because I know them and can focus a lot more on the world. I'd say it is a lot easier (and smarter) to pro-fit (is that a word?) the kitsch into 3rd than it is to try to retrofit to 1st if we don't have to.
And honestly, the versatility of magic is one of those things I respect SR for a lot more than other games. The idea of power-level spells is interesting, true, but it's not what I look to SR for. Unless I know for a fact that we are going to be getting more karma and these more abundant spells will be available, I'm actually more in favor of the SR4 version of spells cost more, but the "buying up to [power]" is gone so a wizard can nuke themselves with backlash if they choose to and cutting the extraneous bookkeeping.

My plan was to play through the 2050 "world", which I for one missed out on, then advance the timeline (if we keep running long enough). I do also plan to at least double the karma output from runs. I'm normally a miser, but it gets pretty ridiculous to get 5 karma after playing for 6 months. I'd like to aim around the 10 karma mark per run.

Just so we're clear, I am in fact reading the SR1 spell list as though it were a gear list. There's a Staging Level: 1 attack spell, Staging Level: 2, Staging Level: 3, etc. then the same for stun and for healing. That just "is" the equipment list. I'm ignoring the mechanics change (staging levels) and translating that to the Damage Level (L/M/S/D). We don't have to go with it, but my concern is that the street sam will be suffering, as the available tech keeps moving forward, but the spell list from SR1 is otherwise the same as the list from SR5.

The only other big change in magic is new traditions, which you can't take after chargen (unless I kill you guys a lot).

I'm happy to do the SR4 magic rules if that's what people want. The 'roll to learn the spell' thing was always a PITA anyway.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:13, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

If we stick with the SR3R rules, require spells to be limited to those on the SR1 list and up the drain, that should keep things balanced while not messing with the rules.

I would say that nerfing mages through spells won't fix the problems that Streetsams have. If there's a way to get Essence back, that would resolve a lot of the problems. Steetsams get most of their utility from their modifications, but unlike mages, they can only ever have six points (technically less), and with the Essence loss from critical damage rules as they stand, Streetsams have a much shorter life span by default.
Ironically, I think that the karma boost will end up helping the street sam as much if not more than the mages. A sammie branching skills into, say, Rigging or Decking would let them have entire units of drones at their command. Dropping the essence cost on a VCR could sidestep a lot of the essence cap issues (or figuring out some other sidestep instead). Improving cyber concealability would also help a sam stand toe-to-toe against Physads in infiltration/undercover scenarios.

What essence loss from critical damage are you referring to?

I do run with the Essence Hole rules. Remove 4 points of cyber, you can get 4 more points installed with no essence cost.

BTW, I'm planning to let any of the old players jump in if they're interested, with the note that this is the PLANNING HEAVY SHADOWRUN, so expect PLANNING HEAVY (and the counter-note, I will be limiting how much RL time can actually be spent on planning).

However, I'm expecting we'll get, at most, 4 old players, including the two of you. I'll wait until Monday, then put something in Players:Wanted for 4 new players (I expect a 50% drop-out rate). That gives us 4-6 players.

You guys are welcome to post in the Drop Bear Adventure thread whenever you like. That's like the cartoon before the movie starts. If other people come in, they can jump in whenever they like too.

Reading up, Adepts were introduced in the Grimoire, which I don't have, however their abilities were mostly linked to physical things, not so much the skill boosts we see with later editions.

It's surprising me looking back how none of the equipment has really changed in 20 in-game years. Same Viking motorcycle and FN-HAR rifle. Bioware comes out in the Street Samurai Catalog.