Difference between revisions of "Quick Guides"

Latest revision as of 14:11, 8 June 2009

Rough Guides

The main rules book can be quite wordy and confusing, so if there's anything that looks like it needs simpler explanations, they can be found here.

Driving About

First off, there are a few common misconceptions about how cars work in Shadowrun. For starters, if you are staying within city limits, you don't even need to know how to drive to be able to use a car for transport. Unless it is incredi-retro, your vehicle will have something called GridGuide, which is basically a GPS system that doesn't just tell you where to go, it will actually drive you there itself. It understands natural language for basic instructions, like "take me to this address" or "go home", so you don't even need to be that techy to use it. Of course, just because you *have* grid guide doesn't mean you need to use it. It is assumed in Shadowrun that all characters have, by default, everyday skills that are normal for a person to have. This includes the basic ability to drive, even if you don't take the appropriate skill. Its only when things get more tricky that skills com into play. When this happens, it normally calls for Chase Combat.

Chase combat is pretty similar to standard combat, in that it has rounds, phases, actions etc. There are a few additions, however. Its all explained in the main rules (page 169 of the 20th anniversary edition), but its not too clear, so here is the basics:

1. Opposed Vehicle Test. Everyone actively piloting a vehicle or drone rolls for their vehicle skills. The person with the highest hits gets to choose their location relative to the other vehicles (see below for details). If you score no hits, you have lost control of the vehicle. If *that* happens, you spend the rest of this round trying not to crash. If you score no hits two rounds in a row, you crash. Whoops!
2. Roll Initiative. Just like normal, unless you are driving via full VR, in which case you use your matrix initiative rather than your normal initiative.
3. Chase Combat Turn. This is longer than a standard combat turn, but because chase combat is designed for mostly driving, non-driving characters will find they are doing things slower than normal. Consider this to be the effect of things just being harder to do when you are bumping around in a rapidly moving vehicle. Other than that, it works *exactly* the same as normal combat turns.

Ranges in Chase Combat are a little simplified compared to normal. Instead of giving exact distances, range is split into Short, Medium, Long and Extreme. The driver who gets the most hits in the vehicle test gets to decide the range for that round. For the purposes of shooting, these ranges map directly to the ranges for the guns, regardless of the specific guns normal ranges. This is just to keep things simple.

There's a few special actions that drivers can take when in Chase Combat. They are:

• Break Off. This can only be done when you are in Long Range. Do a vehicle test. If you succeed three turns in a row, then you have escaped. Hurrah!
• Cut Off. This can only be done when you are in Short Range. Do an opposed vehicle test, then the target does a vehicle test with the opposed test hits as a target. If they fail, they crash.
• Maneuver. You can do vehicle test to try and get into a better position. Any hits over the threshold gives you an extra dice for the vehicle test at the start of the next turn.
• Ramming. Basically melee combat for cars. Its a bit complicated, so you best look at the book if you want to do it.

Step by Step Guides

These are quick, step by step guides to things you will be doing all the time in Shadowrun. Just combat based, to start with, but more will be added at a later date.

Shootin

1. Find your weapons DV and AP
2. Select the fire mode that you are using
3. Determine your base dice pool. This is your Agility + appropriate weapon skill
4. Apply bonuses from equipment such as smartlinks or sights to your dice pool
5. Subtract any wound modifiers from your dice pool
6. Determine the recoil modifier. This is number of rounds fired this phase -(recoil compensation +1)
   1. If you are using a heavy weapon, double the recoil modifier
   2. If you are using a shotgun in BF or FA fire modes, double the recoil modifier
7. If the recoil modifier is greater than 0, subtract is from your dice pool
8. Roll a number of dice equal to your dice pool. Note the hits (5’s and 6’s)
9. If fire mode is a wide burst, defender looses defence pool, inform the GM
10. Defender rolls their defence pool, and subtracts their hits from your hits. Results of 0 or less indicate a miss.
11. If the result of the previous step is greater than 0, add it to your weapon + ammos DV. This is the Modified DV.
12. If the modified DV is greater than the defenders armour – your weapons AP, it causes Physical Damage. If it is less, it causes Stun Damage.
13. If you are firing a narrow burst, add number of rounds – 1 to your modified DV
14. Defender attempts to resist damage.

Punchin

1. Find your weapons DV and AP
2. Determine your base dice pool. This is your Agility + appropriate weapon skill.
3. Compare your reach + your weapons reach to your opponents reach + weapons reach. Whoever has the higher reach may either add the difference to their own pool or subtract it from their opponents.
4. Subtract your wound modifier from your pool
5. Roll a number of dice equal to your dice pool. Note the hits (5’s and 6’s)
6. Defender rolls their defence pool, and subtracts their hits from your hits. Results of 0 or less indicate a miss.
7. If the result of the previous step is greater than 0, add it to your weapons DV. This is the Modified DV.
8. If the modified DV is greater than the defenders armour – your weapons AP, it causes Physical Damage. If it is less, it causes Stun Damage.
9. Defender attempts to resist damage.

Defendin

1. Choose whether to spend your current or your next Complex Action for Full Defence.
2. Determine your base dice pool. This is your Reaction. Remember to include modifiers from gear or spells.
3. If you are defending against Melee, add your Dodge skill to your pool.
4. If you are on Full Defence, you may add one of the following to your pool:
   1. Your dodge skill. If you are defending against melee, this does mean your dice pool will have your dodge skill added to it twice
   2. Your Gymnastics skill
   3. If you are defending against melee, your skill with your currently equipped Melee weapon can be used. This indicates your are parrying rather than dodging.
5. Subtract any Wound Modifiers from your dice pool
6. Count each prior attack you have defended against since your last action, and subtract this total from your dice pool
7. Add or Subtract modifiers as appropriate from the listing in the main rules book (page reference needed)
8. Roll a number of dice equal to your dice pool. Note the hits (5’s and 6’s)
9. Subtract your hits from the attackers hits. If the net hits are zero or less, you have avoided the attack
10. If the number of net hits from the previous step is greater than 0, add them to the attackers weapon DV. This is the Modified DV
11. If the modified DV is greater than your armour – the attackers weapons AP, it causes Physical Damage. If it is less, it causes Stun Damage.
12. Determine your damage resistance dice pool. This is your Body + (your armour - the attackers weapons AP)
13. Roll a number of dice equal to your dice pool. Note the hits (5’s and 6’s)
14. Subtract hits from the attacks modified DV. If the result is greater than 0, apply that number to the appropriate damage track.

Credits

Most of the content here has been basically lifted from the cheatsheets designed by Aaron Pavao, which I grabbed from his site, pavao.org. You can get the originals, in pdf form, there. All I have done here is reword them slightly to make them slightly clearer in places, and I will be adding linkies in to explain certain terms.