New Shadowrun Rules & Systems

Occassionally I found myself in a position of having to come up with new material in order to continue game play the way we (me and/or players) wanted to.  These were rare instances, after all, FASA did a pretty good job of covering most of the ground you would expect to cover.  Then again, occassionally someone asks that question or does that thing that leaves you having to make it up as you go along (and remember it later when they ask you to explain how that worked...)

Combat

Persistent Damage
Because some damage cannot be resolved with one roll of the dice, a system called "Persistent Damange" was developed. Persistent Damage refers to any damage taken which, due to its nature remains present in a way that continues to cause pain to the subject beyond one combat round. An example of this kind of damage is mace (approximately 5M (Stun) damage). After the target is hit with the weapon, they resolve the damage taken the first time, bearing in mind Level scaling and anything which alters the Power of the damage. Afterward, they must resist against that damage every Combat Phase, subtracting one (-1) from the Power every Combat Turn. Although the damage taken never increases beyond what was suffered when they first took the damage, resisting it uses up one Simple Action every Combat Phase. They must resist against the damage until the Power has been reduced to 0.

Herr Fenster is hit with mace (a base of 5M (Stun) damage). After scaling and power adjustments, he resists the damage at 6S, and suffers only a paltry Light Stun wound. However, he has one Combat Phase left in this turn, and so must expend one simple action to resist it, choosing to run for cover with the other action. During the next Combat Turn, he rolls an 18 Initiative, and so must roll against the Persistent Damage's Power (now reduced to 5) during both of his Combat Phases, using a Simple Action each time. This continues for four more Combat Turns, until the Power Level has become zero and while he still has the Light Stun, he will again be able to focus clearly enough not to be resisting the damage.

Weapons which inflict Persistent Damage include most "street level" chemical irritants such as mace, pepper spray, and tear gas. Shock weapons also inflict Persistent Damage.

Bioware & Magicians

Because bioware is technically Essence friendly, then a magician has the option of attempting to have bioware installed, though not without complete impunity. In order for a magician to have the implanted bioware cause no loss of Essence, then they must abide by the following restrictions and follow the below procedure.

("But wait!" you say, "isn't this a modified rule?"  Well, sort of.  But I felt it was substantially different enough from the FASA rules to qualify as "something new.")

Creating New Meta-Types

That is covered here...

Mutants and Other Genetic Anomalies

That is covered here...

Regular Contacts

During the course of the run the runners are going to develop a series of "friends" or contacts that they consult with regularly. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation. A couple rules develop out of this.

Location Code
Contacts are people, too. They've got places to go and people to see. They're not necessarily on call for information whenever the runners need it. By that rationale, each "regular" contact is given a location code comprised of two parts. The location code is the equivalent of their Availability. The first number in the code represents the target target number rolled again (how hard is it to find this person?). The second number in the code is the amount of time in days or hours (how fast can you find this person?).

  1. The character then makes an appropriate Etiquette Test to find this contact.
  2. Divide the number of successes into the base time to determine the actual time taken to locate the contact.

Location Code Modifiers

Contact's location is known: -2
Contact is in the same city: 0
Contact is in the same county/region: +1
Contact is in another country: +2
Contact is being pursued: +4
Contact has been missing: +8

Contact Karma Scale
In the cases of certain "dynamic" non-player characters, the Game Master may opt to institute the "Contact Karma Scale." In this system, the player contributes a point or so of Good Karma to the relationship in order to strengthen it. (I suggest liberal Karma distribution when using this variation on the system, though.) However, the Game Master might also wish to keep track of this number secretly and independently, generating "relationship Karma" without the player's knowledge. The following can be used as a general scale to gauge the terms of the relationship of the PC and the NPC with this rule:
negative points:
Poor, possibly hostile.
0 points:
Neutral.
1-3 points:
Respectful, PC & NPC maintain a professional relationship.
4-6 points:
Amicable, PC & NPC work well together and acknowledge each other as decent company.
7-9 points:
Friendly, PC & NPC maintain a good relationship that may actually be called a friendship; they're not just contacts anymore.
10+ points:
Devoted, PC & NPC would trust each other with their lives.

New Matrix Technology

The new rules to accompany the new technology is detailed here... 

New Weapons

The rules for flamethrowers appear here...
...and the rules for plasma weapons appear here...

New Magik Rules

The rules for void magic appear here...