What are everyone's House Rules?

[velinion]

Kind of curious what everyone's House Rules are in Shadowrun. Figured we could toss around some ideas from implementing them in HL, if we wanted, but mainly interested to see what everyone else was using, and why they had decided to use them.

I know their are a couple threads for individual house rules already out there already, but figured this would give everyone a central thread to discuss them.

Without further ado, here are mine.

1. Flechette ammo doubles target's armor, APDS halves it.
Reasoning: Under the stock system, certain ammos are ALWAYS better or worse, no matter what the situation. This is because, on average, each point of armor blocks 1/3 of a damage. Therefore, Flechette does 1.33 damage to Regular's 1 damage, and APDS does 2.33, as does EX Explosive.
By making Flechette and APDS act as armor multipliers, they become effective in certain situations, which gives players motivation or carry different ammo types, and actually use gun mods like ammo skip, or two clip.

2. In Karma Gen, player gets 1/2 off Knowledge skills up to the number of points that would be free in BP Gen.
Reasoning: I found that players tended not to bother with knowledge skills under Karma Gen otherwise.

[Kesendeja]

Enemies don't count towards Negative Qualities.

[Canis]

I haven't put any of these into HL, partly because I haven't been bothered but also because I'm trying to keep HL relatively 'real' (until I find a way of turning off house rules aside from deleting the .user file).

However, I have lots of house rules:

1) Ammo is calibre specific not weapon category - a heavy pistol and SMG can swap ammo, an Assault Rifle and LMG can swap ammo, a Battle Rifle and MMG can swap ammo, and a HMG and Barrett Model 121 can share ammo. Some things aren't included but I rule on those as an when, usually based on fluff descriptions of ammo type etc.

2) White Phosphorous doesn't exist. Napalm doesn't exist. Reason being, sure we're shadowrunners and we'll gladly shoot someone in the face, but some weapons are designed to harm and NOT kill. None of those exist in my universe. Ever.

3) Reinforced weapon mounts only needed for truly heavy weapons. If something's man portable, a standard mount will hold it.

4) Can upgrade gear beyond +2, but cost is x10. Vehicle Sensor attributes don't suffer the cost increase (i.e. can go from 1 to 6 if you can justify it).

5) Immunity to Normal Weapons only counts as Force not 2*Force versus melee attacks by mundanes - on the astral, intent is power, so 'intending' to fight a spirit gives you benefits. Versus drones, no changes are applied (including Cyborgs).

6) Certain weapon and vehicle mods don't cost capacity (remove trigger for one, so long as it's a smart weapon).

7) AT rounds are -12 AP versus vehicles.

8) Penetrator ammunition (caseless and electronic firing required) - Ballistic armour = 0, DV + 4, vehicle armour *0.5, ignores Smart armour, DV is not increased by net hits versus vehicles of Body 8+. Minimum range 2m Availability - cost 200k for 10 rounds. Only available from one supplier, must have as contact of loyalty 5+

9) Turbo Penetrator ammo (gauss weapons and assault cannons) - same as Penetrator but all armour ratings = 0, range doubled, minimum range 10m.

A quick note on Penetrator/Turbo Penetrator - these are rocket assisted mass reactive projectiles. The reason for now allowing net hits to increase the DV is simple - sure you can shoot a 10mm gauss rifle at a MBT, but you'll over penetrate said MBT and leave a 10mm hole through it. Enough will kill it, but not especially quickly if you don't hit anything vital. And this goes double for warships - a 10mm hole is 30s work for a half trained seaman.

10) Military armour comes with Life Support 1 and insulation 6 as standard.

11) Dragging Mental Attributes - You must spend Karma on skills linked to mental attributes equal to twice the Karma cost of increasing said attribute in order to be allowed to increase a mental attribute. For example, let's say you want to increase your Logic and it'll cost X Karma to go to the next rating. In order to be allowed to do that you have to spend 2X Karma on Logic linked skills. Some specialisations and knowledge skills count against attributes they're not linked too (magical skills are always willpower). If you completely resist a spell based on a mental attribute then you may ask the GM for a bonus point - for example resisting an illusion spell or taking no damage from a Manabolt.

12) Any active sensor (Ultrasound, Radar etc.) can be set to passive mode, at which point they function as directional detectors.

13) Feed the GM - by bringing food for the GM, the universe smiles upon you. I almost never allow metagaming (thank god for tactical networks!!!), and 'the universe' is excessively harsh should it happen (auto critical glitches are common, if it happens). However, by feeding the GM you can gain a special benefit - once per game session, you may turn a critical glitch into a failure (not even a glitch), ignore -6 dice pool modifiers on one test, or gain a free use of Edge. You get one per session, not one of each.

This house rule came about from a dear friend of mine (who has since passed beyond to the great gaming store in the sky – and knowing him is correcting Gygax as we speak :oD) who had a similar house rule - you collect food for the group (collect a pizza order prior to play starts, collect cash during breaks etc.) you gain a free '20'. We were playing D20 Modern and Earthdawn so you could either gain a D20 on a roll or claim a natural 20. Again once per game session.

14) There must always be a spare chair, in memory of departed friends.

15) Tick over Karma - should real life dare to intrude, a player's character doesn't have to suffer. For each adventure missed for RL reasons (being away at university was the reason this house rule started), you gain a third of the Karma award for that adventure, to a maximum of 5. The idea being group members don't have to miss out just because of major real life issues such as major system failures or university semesters. This 'tick over karma' is awarded to the PLAYER so they may split it amongst any characters they wish (see rule 16).

16) Multiple characters - even the most loved character gets stale from time to time. To that end, a player may have a stable of characters to play and will bring any one to the first session of an adventure. Changing out is not possible (except for character death) during an adventure. If you miss the first session, the group will decide which character you're playing and said character will be NPC'd for that one session.

It should be noted that I allow my players to GM in my game too, so I can play from time to time. I have a stable of 4 characters I use from time to time, however Canis (initiate cybered wolf combat shaman) is my primary character (in case you hadn't guessed) :o)

[cryptoknight]

Hmmm the "nobody takes knowledge skills" thing... just bugs me... I think as a GM you need to bring them in.

for instance, while listening to the players trying to make plans to infiltrate a facility, I calmly asked them to make a Knowledge Security Procedures roll... Based on the number of hits the players generated, I gave them hints and tips as to good ideas and ideas that would lead to horrendous deaths.

I've done other ones about social situations, and other things. It can make them very useful in that regard.

[Canis]

My group started in SR3, where knowledge skills gave you bonus dice and stuff so I never have that issue.

You've got players without knowledge skills?

[velinion]

Originally Posted by Canis

You've got players without knowledge skills?

Well, don't have any games running at the moment, but I've found that the free knowledge skills in BP gen tend to create a more varied and eclectic set of knowledge skills for players than the "you must buy them" of karma. I think the players would actually tend to come out a little ahead using Karma than BP, even with the same skills, but having to "pay" for them, rather than them being
"free" makes players take less knowledge skills, and tend to choose only those skill they think might be directly applicable to their character's role. With BP "free" skills, the player will choose some odd knowledge skills if they just don't know what to do with the rest of the points.
I think the random skills chosen "just 'cause they're free" tend to create better rounded and more realistic characters. The more focused selection caused by Karma gen makes the characters seem like they have been training to be a Shadowrunner since birth.

I haven't actually tested the second house rule listed above yet. If I find a group of people interested in playing, I will try it out on them during chargen and see what the results are. Other ways of dealing with it is simply reject characters without a diverse set of life experiences (which is what knowledge skill help to represent), or x many "odd" skills for every "knowledge chemistry" or "knowledge security procedures", etc.) I don't really like these approaches as they seem heavy-handed, and I prefer to guide rather than force players into role-playing. If the system makes them create realistic, well-balanced characters without them realizing that they are, that is ideal.

EDIT: Just to note, knowledge skills are the one area of BP gen that seems to result in better-rounded chars than Karma gen. Elsewhere, Karma gen results in better-rounded chars.

[Canis]

Ah right okay. I haven't got a group at the moment either - working exclusively nigth shifts is hard on one's gaming life :o) And I've honestly not read the karma generation chapter, it was too early to be proofed but I was away for that summer so didn't have a group.

I suppose it's all about the carrot and stick. I always make a character that's based on a theme or concept, I despise min/maxing (too many hours playing Epic D&D) and prefer flavour. Sure I've taken knowledge skills that give bonus dice, I've even ruled some give bonus dice when they didn't before. But I've also spent karma on improving them or learning new ones, and you'll always see at least two 'interests' on my characters :o)

[JDDyslexia]

My biggest one: No more than one Incompetence Negative Quality per character.

My next biggest one: If you take a negative quality, I as GM will screw you on it in some way, eventually. I've seen too many players take obscure/random negative qualities for the points thinking they will never come into play, but oh no. Not on my watch.

[betterwatchit]

The only house rule I have is that trading Karma and Nuyen is possible. If you want to buy or sell Karma, it's worth 3D6*100 nuyen.

[RavenX]

My group is on Street Level games. 300 BP. We use some of the grittier rules in the game's sidebars. For instance, edge makes 4s count as hits and doesn't add dice. My players actually like having a better probably of getting hits rather than actually gaining a small amount of dice.

Damage from Combat takes longer to heal naturally.

Since we're at the street level, latent awakening qualities are required for spell casters and technomancers. They must RP out the horror of the transition they make as it happens. This creates some interesting plot points in itself.

Starting Gear cannot exceed 50,000 nuyen. Street level game, with runners just starting their careers, with no professional experience so they don't get as much starting gear. Availability can't exceed 4 or 4R, nothing of Rating 4 or higher.

Each character must have at least one negative quality. No one is perfect, even with all the augmentations you can add on to your body, there are downsides to everything. Players need to weigh their choices.

Since we're mostly dealing with gangs in game, the connection rating of any contact can't exceed 4, and the loyalty can't exceed 3. Gangs are fickle and will sell you out to get their own ass off the line, especially if runner teams become well known to law enforcement. Some will sell you out just for the bounty on your head.

They have to pick their fights as well. One of the player characters had to be retired from play for picking one too many fights with Lone Star. They finally caught him during a run and let his comrades escape, the bounty on his head was more than enough to satisfy them. (Not a house rule but as Chris Rock says, "if the police have to come and get you, they're bringing an ass whooping with them." All GMs should follow this advice for players that kill cops in their games, remember that the cops have better weapons and armor in the future, and they will use lethal force to stop someone that kills one of them.)

I award Karma differently than the modules do it, it is awarded at the end of every game session based on criteria I set up that is similar to World of Darkness. At the end of each successful mission I add in additional criteria Karma for the characters as well, such as objective completion.

I tend to run things in an earlier time period as well, back just before Knight Errant took over the policing contract in Seattle and Lone Star is in charge.

For calling in a contact, the character must roll Connection + Loyalty and get hits equal to or greater than the connection rating of the contact, instead of the one die method.

Players can spend 20 Karma to gain back 1 point of Edge during a game session, this can only be done once per game session. Otherwise they have to wait for the edge pool to refresh. (Sometimes you have to just eat a glitch, I don't always allow the players to negate glitches with edge.)

I have found that these rules work out nicely for my games and my players tend to enjoy them a great deal.