General House Rules
Surgery
Shadowrun: Denver maintains a heavily houseruled surgery ruleset. All relevant information can be found in +info surgery and +info gear tools medical.
Training other players in skills.
Training as it is in the books is pretty much useless because of the need of that high Instruction skill. Therefore, the following modifications are added. As a note, only the *base* ratings of all skills are used in these calculations. Mods from bioware, cyberware, or adept powers do not count. The only exception is the Mnemonic Enhancer's bonus to Language skills.
You may train someone in a skill if one of the following is true:
| a | Description | You have the skill at a higher rating than they do. |
|---|---|---|
| Formula | teacher skill > student skill | |
| b | Description | Your Instruction Skill plus your rating in the skill is higher than their current skill, AND Both your instruction skill and your rating in the skill being taught is at least half of their desired skill level. |
| Formula | teachers instruction + skill > students skill AND teachers instruction >= (desired skill rating / 2) AND teachers skill >= (desired skill rating / 2) |
|
| c | Description | The skill being taught is an active skill, AND Your instruction skill plus the rating of your corresponding background skill is at least two greater than the skill being taught, AND Both your instruction skill and the background skill being taught are greater than half the desired skill level, plus one. |
| Formula | Active skill taught AND teachers instruction + bg skill >= (students skill + 2) AND teachers instruction > ( (desired skill rating / 2) + 1) AND teachers bg skill > ( (desired skill rating/2) + 1) |
At the end of the process, the trainer must make an Instruction test versus a target number of the new skill rating (modified as below). This test has a base time of the time it would take to raise the skill to the desired rating normally. Successes divide this base time. The trainer may default to the skill being taught at a +2 TN penalty for this test, or default to the corresponding background skill (if an active skill is being taught) at a +3 TN penalty. Under no circumstances may the time be reduced below 10% of the base time.
The time required may either be used to learn the skill sooner (e.g. the training time replaces the usual wait time since the last skill raise), or to reduce the time delay before the next raise of that skill.
Successes may be spent from this test to reduce the cost of raising the skill. Every two successes spent reduce the cost by 1 karma point, to a minimum of 1 point. Successes spent in this way do not help reduce the base time.
This table lists the bonuses and penalties applied to this test. Modifiers marked with (c) are cumulative with one another.
| Using skill being taught instead of Instruction skill (c) | +2 TN |
|---|---|
| Trainer is using background skill to teach active skill (c) | +1 TN |
| Trainer's Instruction Skill is above desired rating (c) | -1 TN |
| Trainer's skill is above the desired rating (c) | -1 TN |
| Trainer's corresponding background skill above desired rating (c) | -1 TN |
- Example: Jack wants to train Jill in Pistols. Jack has Pistols 6, and Instruction 2. Jill has Pistols 5, and wants Pistols 6. Since Jack's skill is higher than Jill's, he can train her. Jack will roll his 2 instruction dice against TN 6 (the desired level), with no modifiers. He rolls his 2 dice vs TN 6, and luckily gets 1 success. Jill will learn the skill in 6 weeks (base time: 1 week times new rating). Jack could also have rolled his Pistols skill of 6, versus a TN of 8 (+2 penalty for using the skill being taught).
- Example: This time, it's Jill's turn to train Jack in Stealth. Jill has an instruction skill of 4, and a stealth skill of 4. Jack has a Stealth skill of 6 already, and wants to raise it to 7. Jill's skill is less than Jack's. However, Jill's skill of 4, plus her instruction skill of 4, is greater than Jack's 6 (and each of them is greater than half of Jack's desired skill of 7), so she can train him. She rolls her 4 Instruction dice against a target number of 7 (New rating of 7). She gets 1 success, karmas, and gets another success, totaling 2. This divides the base time of 7 weeks down to 24.5 days.
- Example: Jack wants to train Jill in Athletics. Now, Jack isn't really an athlete, himself, but he's an avid fan, and familiar with coaching programs. He has Athletics Background at a 5, and Instruction (he raised it from before) at a 4. Jill has Athletics at a 5 at present. Jack can train her because his Instruction Skill of 4 plus his Athletics Background Skill of 5 is greater than Jill's desired level of 6, plus 2 (4 + 5 > 6 + 2). He'll roll his 4 Instruction dice against a target number of 7 (Desired level 6, +1 using background skill to teach active skill). He'll get 1 success, karma, and get another success. Jill will get her Athletics 6 in 3 weeks.
- Example: Jack wants to learn to be a better fighter. Right now, he has Kung Fu at rating 8, and wants it at a 9. He seeks out that guy who kicked his ass at the dojo last week. That guy has rating 10 in the skill, and is incredible. The guy agrees. He has no instruction skill. Still, he can teach Jack. His target number will be Jack's desired rating of 9, +2 for using the skill being taught instead of Instruction, -1 because his skill is above the desired rating, for a final TN of 10. He rolls his Kung Fu skill against this target number, and gets a single success, karmas twice, and gets 2 more successes. Jack will have to compensate this guy well, but in just 3 weeks, he will have learned his new Kung Fu skill at rating 9.
Skill List
| Action You Wish To Perform | Primary Skill | Complementary Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Getting Equipment | Etiquette (A) | Applicable Knowskill |
| Getting Equipment Cheaply | Negotiation (A) | Gear Value |
| Designing Spells | Spell Design | — |
| Learning Spells | Sorcery (A) | Magic Background |
| Writing Programs | Computer (A) | — |
| Searching the Trix for Info | Computer (A) | — |
| Getting Rumors | (Type/Area) Rumors | — |
| Knowing Other Shadowrunners | Shadowscene Players | — |
| Shooting Someone | <Weapon Type> (A) | — |
| Fixing your Gun | <Weapon Type> B/R (A) | <Weapon Type> Background |
| Gathering Magical Materials | Talismongering | <Applicable Knowskill> |
| Designing a Focus | Enchanting (A) | — |
| Enchanting a Focus | Enchanting (A) | — |
Note: The 'Activity' is NOT THE SKILL. Please look under the 'Primary Skill' column to see what Skill you should take to perform that activity.
Skills marked with (A) are active skills. All others are knowledge skills. This is not a complete list of knowledge skills; anything can be a knowledge skill. These are just a partial list of those that are used inside the game that players might be unfamiliar with.
Secondary Education
Custom Contact: Secondary Education
When taking a Secondary Education Contact, the player is signifying that their character is attending a specialty college of some kind. You select the school, with the 5000 yen cost signifying your initial tuition/enrollment. This contact cost may not be lowered with a run. A level 1 Secondary Education contact can train skills up to 6, a level 2 may train skills up to 9, and a level 3 may train them up to 12
Once your character has the contact, he may use the school as an instructor for related knowledge skills. Whether a knowledge skill is related to a specific school is up to the GM. Active skills are not affected by this system.
When raising a related knowledge skill, the player will pay a cost equal to the desired level squared, and multiplied by 100 nuyen. He will then receive a trainer with an skill level and instruction skill level equal to the desired rating, and thereafter follows the rules in '+hr general training' normally.
Schools must be individually approved through the Custom Queue, and will be publicly available to all.
Disallowed Specializations
Sorcery (Spellcasting) is no longer allowed.
Conjuring (Summoning) is no longer allowed.
You may not specialize in 'Hermetic' or 'Shamanic'.
Defaulting in Skills
You can default from any skill to any other skill, regardless of those silly itty bitty boxes in SR3 - as long as you can provide a reasonable justification of how that skill applies/is similiar to the skill you are using. Standard penalties to pools applies, along with target penalties.
You may not get skillsofts for Active Magical skills. No. Bad mages. ;) You may still get them for magical knowledge skills, like Paranormal Animals or Magic Background.
Just to let you know - we're using pretty standard rules here regarding
skills. If there's any activities you'd like detail on, just let me know.
— Craig
You can type '+hr general skill-list' for a partial list of skills.
Off Grid Property
Players may purchase a bit of off-grid property for a one time, non-negotiable fee of 38,000 =Y=. This off-grid property is not for RP, not for hanging out, cannot hold shops/facilities, nor is it a safehouse for players. This property is for only one of two function. Shamans may set up a lodge there (for those that can't find a suitable location on-grid in Denver), or a player may choose to store certain items there. For this, a player puts in a role queue to purchase the location, what they're getting it for, and staff will put a +gmnote on the player to show what it is for.
Should a player elect to purchase this off-grid space for storing gear, that gear will be listed in the +gmnote along with the voucher number, and that gear is unavailable until the player goes to get it either taking the time to travel and pick it up in a plot (not advisable if you do not have much time to do the job), or putting in another roleplaying queue to pick them up/switch out gear.
Open Tests
When rolling for Open Tests, what are normally +TN are treated as -Result. For example, if you have a +2 TN penalty for maintaining a spell, your Open Test for Stealth would have a -2 applied to its highest die.
For info about rerolls, see hr gen karmapool.
Surge Effects
It has been decided that cosmetic surge effects can be taken in CG, any of them, but the changes do not change stats in any way. Tails don't give balance, claws dont cut, osteopustis doesn't make your punches stronger, or give you pain resistance.
Furthermore, you may have one alt that is surged at any time. Surge effects that let you see the astral, etc, do not apply to this.
