Rules Clarifications

This thread can be used to clarify rules discrepencies, correct any rules I gloss over during play, and ask questions.

Okay, so Indirect Area spells seemingly being unable to be dodged or avoided at all... seems to be right.

However this brings about the question of what do we do about counterspelling? In this case I plan to allow casters to add their counterspelling dice to the damage resistance tests (rather than traditionally the defence test or opposed rolls). Simply put, normally you get your counterspell added to dodge or opposed, because area spells don't get them you can add it to soak rolls.

Thoughts, counterpoints and questions welcome. (Now I just need to remember all the other things I hand waived)

==Bricking a Gun==

Seemed kind of easy, it might be that powerful, it might be meant to be harder. I'll look it up and post results here, later.

Just for bricking, I went and had a look and I think I know why it was so easy. The problem was standard Shadowrun formatting where the answer is scattered across a few different pages so it's not especially easy to reference at the table.

So to deal Matrix damage to a device such as a gun, I have to Data Spike it (pg. 239). The test for this is:

Cybercombat + Logic [Attack] v. Intuition + Firewall

I think we may have accidentally skipped over the inherent Defense roll that the gun had. Just to clarify, pg. 237 says that when a defense test calls for a Mental attribute, it uses the owner's rating, which in the previous fight would have been the other Runner's Intuition. Devices that are isolated or not connected to a personal area network use their Device Rating in place of the owner's Mental attribute.

Firewall and the other associated Matrix Attributes are generally tied to the Device Rating of an object. Page 234 has a Device Rating table and it says that a common weapon as a Rating of 2. Further down the page, it says that most devices only really have Data Processing and Firewall as Attack and Sleaze is more closely tied to cyberdecks. These attributes tend to be equal to the Device Rating. So a stock standard gun tends to have Firewall of 2 and a Device Rating of 2.

This is where slaving devices to a master device (pg. 233) comes in handy because commlinks with ratings higher than 2 do not appear to be that hard to acquire. For example, a Rating 5 commlink also has a Firewall of 5. Slaving a device means that the attributes of the master device are almost always used in defense tests and the slave device's attributes don't stack with the master's.

If Data Spike scores more hits than the defense test negates, then it causes Matrix damage (pg. 228). This damage is resisted with Device Rating + Firewall, which for an unslaved gun is only 4 dice. I think we weren't especially clear on the standard Firewall values for guns so we may have accidentally ignored that part.

We did get the Matrix Condition Monitor correct as that is 8 + (Device Rating / 2), which for a gun (Rating 2) is only 9 boxes. Damage inflicted to a slaved device doesn't appear to transfer to the master device so there really aren't any downsides to slaving stuff to a commlink or a cyberdeck. The only downside that I could see is that getting marks on slaved devices also grants marks on the master device. This doesn't appear to go the other way though as it doesn't say that getting marks on master devices or hosts also grants marks on slaved devices.

There we go!

So Deckers help because they add their Inuition to the defence rolls. Well I rolled some dice in the game to try to decide if the guy was having a bad day, he decided that these simpletons hiring him wouldn't bring him a real challenge, hence forgetting to set up his gear correctly.

As it was he would have only gotten 3 more dice in his defence roll. Firewall 5 + Device Rating 2, as opposed to double Device Rating of 4.

So, area attacks are quite damned powerful and scary, but here is what you can do to avoid them.

DIVE FOR COVER, Interrupt Action (–5 Initiative Score)
Spend 5 initiative to instantly move up to 4m and fall prone.

DIVE FOR COVER:

RIGHT BACK AT YA!, Interrupt Action (–10 Initiative Score, Agility Test, Throwing Weapons Test)
Check rules for details, but you spend 10 initiative, move to the grenade, take an AGI(2) test to pick it up, then a Trowing Weapons test -2 to throw it.

RIGHT BACK AT YA!:

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE/DIVE ON THE GRENADE, Interrupt Action (–5 Initiative Score)
Spend 5 initiative, imediately use any movement you have left, move before scatter.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE/DIVE ON THE GRENADE:

Moving out of reach of an opponents melee (1m + 1m/point of reach) allows that opponent to take an interrupt action to attack you. If they do more damage than you have body you can't move away. You can gymnastics ninja past them too.

Interception rules:

Oh and incidentally, it looks like we were doing the availability correctly. It's your Negotiation + Charisma [Social Limit] rolled against the items availability as a dice pool. Makes me wonder about contacts usefullness in getting items, if you have a half decent face anyway.

Also, I put a stop to the idea of letting you have easy access to Deltaware because (despite it not being the absolute pinacle of 'ware anymore) it's still rare as hell to find a clinic that can get and/or install it. For Wired Reflexes Rating 3 (a particularly high essence cyberware) Deltaware is the difference between a reduction from 5 Essence to 3.5 Essence for Betaware, or 2.5 Essence for Deltaware. So, working towards getting a Deltaware clinic as a contact is doable, getting one that is not strictly Corp controlled may be a bit harder though.

Out of curiosity, is there any other benefit to acquiring Beta or Deltaware stuff other than the reduced Essence cost? I tried looking for something to justify moving towards a datajack over trodes but I couldn't see anything that actually made a higher grade datajack better than your common option.

Nope, higher grade gear just has lower essence costs, that's it. Also, Bear already bought you a Betaware Datajack.

Yeah Dom mentioned that. I'm still not really seeing a benefit to trade my trodes out for a datajack. The only benefit that I could see is the extra noise cancellation when on wireless and the fact that I'm extremely unlikely to lose a datajack.

So it occurs to me i don't actually have the book to check, What exactly does the Chameleon coating Do? I mean i can make assumptions but...

Pretty much what you were talking about...

CHAMELEON COATING
Not just for the flighty owner who can’t settle on a paintcolor for their vehicle, chameleon coating is an essential tool for keeping a vehicle used for shadow activities inconspicuous. A vehicle with the coating has its exterior hull covered in a specialized kind of polymer that allows it to display any kind of image sent to the system with an electronic signal. This can be as simple as changing the color of the vehicle, or as complex as covering it in moving advertisements and video. Changing the output of the coating is a Free Action. Particularly clever riggers have linked the video feed from their external sensors into the system so that the exterior of the vehicle mimics the environment around it, resulting in a crude (but effective) “cloaking” or blending system. When running in this mode, as long as it is not moving faster than its Walking rate, Perception Tests made to find the vehicle suffer a –3 dice pool penalty.