Rules Addendums

New Skills




Rules for Mobile Suit and Labor Operation

Mobile Suit

Mobile suits are cybernetically enhanced battle armor with flight capabilities. All mobile suits come with 10 hours of life support and require a datajack to use properly. Those with a vehicle control rig gain a bonus of 2 points per level for reaction and initative rolls. Those without either lose 1 point of Combat Pool for every point of armor over their Quickness attribute (as per armor stacking rules).

Mobile suits provide no bonus or penalty to ground movement rate. Mobile suits also imposes a penalty to all Quickness related skills of +1 per every two points of armor greater than Quickness. This penalty is ignored if one has the Mobile Suit Skill with a rating equal to or exceeding one half the wearer's maximum (augmented) Quicknesses or a minimum of 3 is required to operate the suit (4 for heavy mobile suit) whichever is higher.

Also, the Mobile Suit Skill is a complementary skill for athletics test when using the mobile suit.

Because mobile suits evolved from military grade battle armor, they can only function up to a depth of 300 meters. This is the current limit based on modern technology, mainly due to the limits in microminiturization and limitations in propulsion technology. However, research into cold fusion leads us to believe that deeper underwater travel will be practical within the next ten years. Affordability is expected to take several more. Note that a mobile suit can function in low and non-atmospheric conditions.

Weapons are used as per normal SR rules and don't require the gunnery skill to use. Sensory enhanced gunnery can be used if applicable.

Sensor suites serve as complementary dice for perception and surprise checks.

Mobile suits have a base strength equal to (body x body) and replaces the wearer's strength for purposes of damage determination of armed and unarmed attacks.

When determining damage from an attack, the GM should make a seperate damage check for the mobile suit as per normal rules. Because damage to the suit usually results in damage to "non critical" systems, refer to the damage tables in Rigger 2 for the results of any successful attack that does damage to the suit.


Labors

Labors are eight meter tall humaniod robots with either two legged bipeds or four legged crawlers. Bipedal models have two mechanical arms with a base strength of (body x body) with a lifting capacity of 50 km per strength point.

For non-weapon attacks (i.e. hand to hand), use the following formula to determine damage:
Hardened armor: Labor strength rating (as per above) minus twice armor rating.
Soft armor: Labor strength rating minus impact armor.

Otherwise, a Labor operates as a normal vehicle.



Reputation

How to get known without getting caught, the old problem. For every 20 karma earned, a character recieves a +1 to their reputation. All starting characters have a reputation of 1.

The Reputation "attribute" can be used as a multipler for determining the payment for a run. Generally better known runners make more money. As such, multiply the baseline fee (r.e. Shadowrun Companion) by the reputation in order to determine approximately how much money the character should recieve from the run.

For team runs, use the average of all the character's reputation (rounding down) and add +1 for every good reputation edge point and subtracting -1 for every bad reputation flaw point.

A group of three runners with the reputation of 6, 3, and 8 are to perform an assassination. The base cost of an assassination is 5,000. The average reputation of the group is (6+3+8)/3= 5.66666 or 5. However, one of the runners has a good reputation edge of 1, which is added to the multiplier for a total of 6.
Hence, the runners should get about 30k each for the job.


Learning without Karma

Because Shadowrun (TM) lacks rules for non-karma related learning tasks, I've located a good set of rules that I've found and made my own modifications.

Spells

Because magic consumes a very great deal of karma for a mage (karma that could be spent on initiation, ally spirits, or skills), I'm adding a set of rules for learning spell.

In order to learn a spell, the mage must first have the formula at the desired force (refer to SR3 for price cost). The base time to learn the spell is 7 days times the force of the spell. So, for a force 4 spell it takes a base of four weeks. Then you make a learning test with your Sorcery skill (as per learning spells in SR3 p. 180) with a target number equal to twice the force of the spell. If this test fails, you can attempt to learn off of the same formula with a bonus of -1 per unsuccessful attempt.

The maximum (adjusted) force of a spell that can be learned this way is a force of 6 with all modifiers for limited spells applying.

After a particularly nasty run where the group got badly shot up, Lynx wants to learn a force 8 Heal spell. Unfortunately, Lynx doesn't have the necessary 8 karma points available, so he chooses to learn the spell without spending the karma for it. Because the maximum force that you can learn without spending karma for is 6, Lynx chooses to learn the exclusive version of the spell. After a quick visit to his local talismonger to pick up a copy of the formula, he sits down and tries to learn the formula.
The player for Lynx makes his Sorcery test with a target number of twelve. The dice results are 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, and 8. So after six weeks Lynx doesn't feel that he's learned the spell sufficiently to use it and continues to study the formula. (He's got plenty of time given that the rest of the party is still recovering). So, the player makes another Sorcery test, this time verses a target number of eleven. The results this time are 1, 1, 4, 5, 8, and 11. After another six weeks, Lynx feels that he's got the spell down pat and not a moment too soon because he's got to go on a run in a couple of days.


Learning Skills

Because skills are usually learned either in the classroom evironment or by other forms of instruction, you can also learn skills without having to spend karma for them. You can aquire skill learning points (or lp) in place of karma for skill improvement. A skill learning point, unlike karma, can only be used for the skill (or concentration) that it was originally aquired for. Lp can be combined with karma for skill improvement.

In order to aquire a skill learning point, refer to the following:

Style of instruction Number of training days per lp
Boot camp 8
One-on-One instruction (human or learnsoft) 13
Taking classes (school instruction) 20
Guided research 20
Unguided research 30
Skill usage 40

Learnsofts are listed in the SR Companion (p. 52 Virtual Instructors). Note that the instruction skill must be at least half the rating of the skill being learned in order for the training to be effective.

Skill usage is only effective at 1.5 times the target number (rounding up). In other words, a task with a target number of 4 can only help you improve up to a skill rating of 6.

Lynx wants to pick up the Refining concentration of the Enchanting skill. With an intelligence of 6 and an Enchanting skill of 6, it requires 7 karma points to pick up a Refining concentration. Unfortunately, Lynx only has 5 karma points available for use (because he initiated recently) but needs to make some Orichalcum because he's getting ready to make a power focus. Because Enchanting is very time consuming, we are going to assume that Lynx spends 16 hours a day (4 training days) working on the enchanting process.
The target number for the enchanting process is a 5, which is effective up to a skill rating of 8. Because he's trying for a skill rating of 7, this is sufficient to earn lp via skill usage. So, after the 28 day enchanting process, Lynx has earned 2 lp which he adds to the 5 karma points he already has to pick up his Refining concentration of 7.


Overwork and Burnout

Because you can only work so much without risking burnout, the maximum "safe" time that you can work per day is [4 + (2x Willpower)] in hours. The maximum "safe" time for a week is [(3 + Willpower) x 10] in hours. Whenever you exceed that you, begin to suffer from fatigue and listlessness.

For every 40 hours of overwork (or 10 training days) that you put in, you aquire one box of stun damage. Thus a person with a Willpower of 3 working 80 hours a week accumulates 20 hours of overwork (5 "days"). Also, you lose one point of Willpower for every 80 hours of overwork.

This damage can only be removed at the rate of one box per day of vacation. Vacation is a day without working: no chores, training, or practicing anything. Lost Willpower points can only be regained at the rate of 1 point for every 5 days of vacation.

In our previous example, Lynx was working 16 hours a day for 28 days. With a Willpower of 6, he accumulates 22 hours of overwork a week for a total of 88 hours of overwork. At the end of that time, Lynx has taken 2 boxes of fatigue damage and lost 1 point of Willpower. As such, he must take 7 days (a week!) off in order to recover from his extended bout of overwork.

Sleep Deprevation

A person (for our purposes here) requires a minumum of 6 hours a day for sleep. For every day of sleep that you miss you could suffer from the effects of sleep deprevation. To resist the effects of sleep deprevation, make a resistance test using the average of your natural Body and natural Willpower (neither magic or cyberware will help) against a target number equal to one plus the number of days missed multiplied by two. If this test fails, the character suffers from a number of boxes of stun equal to the number of days of sleep missed and a penalty equal to the number of days missed for all tests.


This is a modification of the 'Learning Without Running' rules from the Twilightrun site.

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