House Rules(Shadowrun 3e)

SR3 House Rules

So I figured I’d actually write up some of the houserules we run with, in case folks around would be interested.

I’ll even put a note at the end for some stuff for the later editions, though we don’t play them as much.

No Availability Limits at Chargen:

This is a rule we use in all editions, so I’ll start with it. The first time we played this game(SR2), with our first GM, we never used these limits, and it stuck. We simply believe ‘Buy stuff that makes sense for your character.’ If you’re playing a Former Company Man or a character with a background that made them loaded(or they simply got a lot of 'ware over time), then get it. Hell, with creativity an unlikely character can have some cool stuff. In our first game, a buddy of ours played what was basically a 50-something year old hobo with some hefty bio and cyberware. Not much in the way of gear(squatter lifestyle, a couple handguns, scruffy armor, cans of soup, a baseball cap, etc.) He was ex-Military though, had a lot of knowledge skills(you had to buy those with regular skill points in SR2), and really you didn’t even think about he was stuffed to the gills with 'ware(he hated fighting as well, due to doing so much of it in wars.)

Basically, for us, if you have a decent story for it, or even attempt to write a decent story for it, we’re cool. We like to open options, and if that means just taking off Availability limits, we do it. Even if we’re doing a lower level game, we just use the honor system, and it works.

Knowledge Skill Points from Cerebral Boosters

Another one used in any game, our reasoning is this: Unless the character got the ware like, five minutes before the start of the game or something, they likely had their Cerebral Booster for awhile, and the nature of such bioware(it’s cultured), is not something that’s just going to get removed without, well, probably killing the character or rendering them a vegetable, if you look at how it works in Shadowtech and how it’s installed. Thus, unlike an Encephalon and other 'hardwired’ type of stuff, it’s like, never going to get removed, so you don’t have to worry about that INT score dropping through those means.

As such, I felt it made sense to allow Cerebral-Booster boosted Intelligence scores to count toward Knowledge skills. It’s something that rarely gets abused, if it’s even abusable. (A player who wants more Knowledge Skills-like, skills that don’t actively help you shoot things better, but help you better make your character a character-and goes out of their way to install an expensive piece of bioware to do it? You don’t find that often. If at all.) If someone gets one, it’s likely for character purposes of wanting to be smarter for whatever reason. It’s worked out pretty well in our games.

Can break Attribute Maximums with cyber/bioware

This happens rarely, to be honest. Basically, each score has an 'Attribute Maximum’-which is usually 1.5 times the score. Generally speaking you can’t augment past this, but I rule with Cyber/Bio you can. It’s generally pretty hard to do anyway. (To hit, say, a 10 Quickness as a human, you either need to max the stat and take Level 4 Muscle Toner or something, or 3 Toner and a Suprathyroid-in any case, fairly nuyen intensive things. Or you need to get a 5 in the stat and get BOTH +4 from Toner and +1 from a Suprathyroid which is a decent chunk of nuyen and bio index.)

5th Edition actually has a thing here, where a stat can be boosted up to +4. This actually allows a human to get a 10 quickness if they max the stat out(or whatever.) It comes up so rarely that it’s never an issue, and it hasn’t caused any issue when it has come up, so I just say 'Let it ride, if you pay the nuyen and Essence/Bio Index, you get the bonus.’

Note you can’t increase an Attribute naturally past its Maximum still though. (In SR3, you could increase a stat past it’s Racial Modified Limit by paying 3x its new stat in Karma instead of 2x. Remember Karma awards trended lighter in the older days.)

As always, have a plan here. It’s much cooler if you do this for a character reason rather than 'just the numbers.’

Lower Costs for Cyberlimbs

Ahh, here’s a big one, and it’s for 2nd and 3rd edition specifically. I’ve mentioned it a few times. I feel cyberlimbs, especially in the 2050s era(and this might be some of the Cyberpunk in me talking too), are way too expensive. In my mind, augmentations run something like:

-Bioware: Top of the line. For the more well-off/professional folks.

-Some Cyberware: Middle of the road; stuff like muscle replacement isn’t as top of the line, but it works(though it’s heavy on the essence.) Decent cost to performance ratio. (Wired reflexes and stuff are nice.)

-Cyberlimbs: High essence cost, low performance. You only get 1 limb at a time and need to juice each one up separately.

Because of this, I feel something inherently wrong with a single cyberlimb with the following:

Str+3

Quickness +2

…and that’s it, costs 1 essence, 75k for the limb, 50k for each level of Strength and 30k each level of Quickness. 285,000 Nuyen. Mind you you can get Level 4 Muscle Augmentation/Toner for 180k and 3.2 Bio Index(leaving your Essence at 6.) That’s +4 to your own Strength and Quickness.

Hell, if you have a decent score in each(5’s in each lets say), 1 level of Muscle Replacement is 1 essence, 20k, and gives +1 to each.

Basically, cyberlimbs being so expensive makes them this sort of high-end thing which I feel takes away the 'feel’ of cyberpunk; the gangs who have a cyberlimb or two thrown around, and so on. Hell, I always imagine cyberlimbs being the choice of a middle class person over some sort of expensive type 0 clonal replacement(though maybe if they have a good Docwagon contract that’s not so bad.)
So after some fiddling, I decided to vastly lower the costs of cyberlimbs and their augmentations. it took some time, but I discovered a pretty  decent setup I feel.

For base obvious limbs(which still have a Strength and Quickness rating of Racial Average + 1 base):

Obvious Cyberarm: 20,000

Obvious Cyberleg: 30,000 (Kid Stealth variants are 50,000 each)

Obvious Torso: 35,000

Skull: 10,000

Strength and Quickness/Level: 10,000: 1-3 points

4+ points: 20,000/level and .2 Essence per point

Which is all considerably cheaper. It’s still not *cheap*, but given how nuyen works in Shadowrun(and how much you can get), they had to have a LITTLE bit of a cost. That, and they’re fairly affordable in their BASE variant(which I feel is an important thing.)

So here, a human could get 2 Obvious Cyberarms, with Strength and Quickness +3 each(for 7’s in each), for a grand total of 160,000 nuyen and 2 Essence. Yes, you can still get Muscle Augmentation/Toner 4 for barely more, but at least with this you can make a somewhat comparable setup. Cyberlimbs are still not optimized(and I don’t need them to be), but they’re at least something that you can see some more people running around with. If you want to play a lean samurai optimized machine, you’ll definitely still want to go with a cyberware/bioware mix, but this method at least keeps limbs more reasonable for how UN-optimized they actually are.

Also, built-in devices do not cost 4x the cost. They simply cost as they do as if you were installing it into your meat, nuyen wise. You already paid an essence for the arm, I don’t see why you have to double up.

Can trade your 2 free Level 1 Contacts for 1 free Level 2

Pretty simple, we’re cool with you doing this if you see it fit your character.

Essence Hole

If you remove a piece of 'ware, you keep the 'hole', and can get a new piece, making up the difference. This rule came a little later in SR's lifetime, but had popped up in supplements I recall(I actually would have to see the exact time it arrived), but I use it.

Can get Internal Smartlink(-2 TN) bonuses with a Datajack/Smartshades and Goggles

Generally speaking the external smartlink would give a -1 to the TN, with the internal/implanted a -2; we have decided that hooking smart shades into a datajack allows for 'internal' bonuses. Keep in mind that it's not necessarily a 'free .2 Essence', as you still need to A. Have the gun smartlinked at the cost, B. Have the smart goggles and shades at the cost, and C. have a datajack implanted to do this, and Cyberware smartlinks have the benefit of being overall less expensive in nuyen, and you can't get them taken away/lose them(normally, heh.)

But if you're playing a character who you can't really see with a full on smartlink but can see with a datajack that might want the bonus sometime, the option is there.