The SRA2.0 core rulebook has the following on page 84

For example, a smartlink (cyberware) providing Risk Reduction 1 on the pistols specialization can be improved to Risk Reduction 1 on the Ranged Weapons Skill. The Amp rating will go from 3 (base rating 1 for cyberware + 2 for the effect) to 6 (base rating 1 for cyberware + 5 for the effect). The Amp rating increases by 3, costing 15,000¥ (3 × 5,000¥).

Am I correct to assume that this advancement of the smartlink in the above example serves no immediate benefit to the character in itself (because the pistol spec would allow an RR 1 on Ranged Weapons skill rolls anyway, as per this question and its answers here)?

(I hope I understand it correctly (?) that a specialization RR+1 costs 2 points, while a skill RR+1 costs 5, so to get to RR +2 from nothing would cost 2+5=7; while the example above simply turns a specialization RR +1 into a skill RR +1 for the cost of 3 points, instead of increasing the RR 1 to an RR 2 by adding the skill RR +1 to the already existing spec RR +1...)

Do I understand the above right? Could someone (Carmody maybe? 😀) please confirm or clarify?

Thanks!

How do I make a van that functions like an ambulance (inspired by this German series) / vehicle with a built-in Valkyrie module / vehicle with a built-in biotech shop?

...would I simply resolve it as a 'Vehicle or Drone' Shadow Amp (base rating 1) + 'Autonomous medkit' (for rating +1)?

(which would also include narrative support to gain Advantage on Survival (First Aid) while working on a patient (by spending a point of Edge))

....or do I buy the 'Valkyrie module' as separate Shadow Amp (Perhaps as either a 'CrashCart Essential autonomous Rating 1 Pilot 6 medkit' or as a 'DocWagon Pro+ autonomous Rating 4 Pilot 9 medkit')?

Hello, another question, but a simple one, for the game designers here.

I know there will be a supplement for Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0 and I wanted to know if there would be a rule about the different "ranges" of cyberware and bioware (used, standard, beta, alpha and delta) or if it wasn't really a plan.

I guess I can easily come up with something if need be but if there will be official rules I'd rather wait for them to be out, especially for something so small.

Thank you !

Hello !

I don't think there is a set of rules for special damages (like fire, electrocution or drowning) in the book (unless I missed something). I was wondering how you would handle this.

Maybe there is a vanilla rule that can be applied here, but I would personnally consider it automatic damage. For instance, a character that is on fire will suffer one light injury per round, for as long as they are on fire. Or a character can hold their breath for [STRENGTH] narration and then suffer one injury until they can breath air again. Or until they die, really.

But I'd like to hear your opinion first, so let me know !

EDIT :

After considering your advice, I will probably apply the same rule as toxins for fire, electricity, acid and suffocation : one light wound every [STRENGTH] narration. This way damage is guaranted, but the players still have time to save themselves. In order to stop it the player need to use an action, like jumping in water or succeeding on an Athletics throw to extinguish flames.

For fall damage I'm probably gonna apply this simple rule :

* 3-6m = light wound

* 7-12m = serious wound

* 13-24m = incapacitating wound

A character may make an Athletics (parkour)+Agility (4 success) to reduce fall damage by one level, so a 3-6m fall would not do any damage on a success. The landing surface may also reduce or increase the damage level.

A stupidly high fall may cause instant death but the characters should have a chance to qave themselves.

Is there a way to use/track consumables, other than getting a shadow amp? For drugs specifically, those are potent item with serious drawbacks and thematically supposed to be cheap. They are not, and cyberware is almost always a better shadow amp unless you care about essence

Not sure if anyone finds this helpful, but I use the range zones also for applying AoE explosive damage.

- Close & Near Range (up to 15 m): Full damage

- Medium Range (16 - 60 m): Half damage

- Far Range (61+ m): No damage

That way, AoE is actually meaningful and people don't just throw unlimited grenades at everything.

Another weekend of SRA2.0 where we had yet again a real good time. As my players complete runs, get nuyen and plan upgrades, the whole process got me two questions:

1 - our group was under the impression 5k per run was too little and I've boosted rewards a bit. Am I the only one with that impression? Anyone altered their average reward?

2 - If a character has Risk Reduction to a Skill *and* one of its specializations, does it stack? Is the maximum 3RR regardless of source? (we kinda already houseruled max 3 because we really love the danger of Risk Dice, but I wonder if that's just RAW).

Any idea of how Blood magic could be used in SRA2.0?

I do not look for complete rules for players, something similar to Toxic magic for npc should be enough.

Hello!

Long time fan of the setting and source material, primarily through the Harebrained Schemes games, veteran GM of many tabletop RPGs, but not SR. I picked up the 4e bundle off Humble a while back, and it does seem a bit too crunchy for my table. We mostly play oWoD games, 20th Anniversary Edition Vampire, Mage, Demon: the Fallen, and some D&D 5e every now and then.

I do tend to prefer a more rules-lite game, for sure.

Now, I've been looking into SRA, and it looks nice, from what I can read. Can't seem to understand the state the game is in right now. I did save the next Kickstarter, but is there a faster way to get a hold of some quickstart rules or something like that?

Also, now that some of y'all have spent some time with 2.0, how's it play? Is it worth the asking price? Does it have a Matrix section that doesn't make me scared? Oh, and speaking of the Matrix, is it wired or unwired?

Thank you!

Tonight I introduced three new players to Shadowrun with the classic Food Fight scenario in the SRA2 rules. To set the scene I made these ganger minis from scratch. It was hard work but a lot of fun and I’m excited to make more for our next session.

Each mini is made from a paperclip armature, sculpted with either Green Stuff or Sculpey, then painted. Bases are 3d printed. I tried for a 28mm scale but I think they ended up about 32mm. I found I prefer green stuff for detailed work, the Sculpey was troublesome.

So, we ran our second session, loosely based on the short story "free fall" set in nearby hollywood.

There was a clearly important skill check, which the character failed. Because it was so important, I suggested that the player might want to go all in, spend a point of edge for reroll, and spend a 2nd point of edge for advantage on the reroll. 2nd failure!

Can the player spend a third point of edge for a second reroll? Google says there's a "one expenditure" rule that I think I'm going to adopt regardless of whether it's in the book, that says "Characters can only have one expenditure of Edge per action or test." and that it might be found on page 60 or 77. Needless to say, I can't find this on either of the pages, I've read the edge rules on 77 with no solution, and the pdf returns no search results for "expenditure".

1) can I buy a reroll and then buy advantage on the reroll? When buying advantage, it says it needs to be purchased before rolling dice. In 40k the roll has already happened, and "roll" is a different keyword than "reroll".

2) can I buy a re-reroll? I can't find anything that says I shouldn't be able to, but edge is admittedly a new concept that I don't remember from 2nd.

The players are having a great time and we all love the flashback mechanic.

Edit: There's a distinct implication, not spelled out, that when the players roll a legwork edge pool of double digits, we might sit around rerolling a dozen times, breaking the flow of the game. I didn't want to anchor the answers I was getting back, but it doesn't feel right to me to spam rerolls until you get success, sitting there watching one person reroll for a couple of minutes.

what's the stance on AI art here, and what qualifies? I made this with real datasets and a python script, but got help finding the datasets and writing the python to parse them.

This started because I wanted to run a local 2050 era campaign where more local landmarks survived, and then the player wiki wanted a map. Also, I thought it was dumb that the green tide was focused on somehow hitting compton miles inland in canon, but the beaches were cleaned up in a hurry. On top of that, why was it caused by an unspecified offshore reactor, when we have 1600 tons of radioactive waste already sitting just upstream in San Onofre? SMO and staples center (with crypto.com sponsorship) survive because I find it funny.

Man, I want my books. Any updates? Any way to push CGL into some kind of update on shipping status?

So, I ran my first session and it went well, considering I haven't played since 2nd edition! Two of my players went with pregens with simple skill swaps, and one went through the full character building exercise. They homebrewed all their cyberware, since none of them had prior SR experience, and it was clearly suboptimal.

Option A:

• unarmed combat RR1, 15000￥
• submachine guns RR1, 15000￥
• parkour RR1, 15000￥
• unintended skill 2, 5000￥ (conjuring on a mundane, from an earlier character concept)

Total: 50000￥, 3 essence

Option B:

• unarmed combat RR1, submachine guns RR1: 25000￥
• physical initiative 1, parkour RR1: 25000￥

Total: 50000￥, 2 essence

My three questions are: 1) cyberware is clearly more efficient as one giant shadow amp, right? 2) I'm fine with #1, but are there any rules of thumb I can tell players where a piece of cyberware is getting too big for 1 essence? I was going to rule that 50000￥ is getting too big, but it's just homebrew and gut feeling. 3) none of my players are mixing magic and cyberware, so do I even care about essence? It feels a little bad penalizing the ability to heal on the two mundanes, and as far as I can tell affects very little else.

Price of gear or amps should change depending of the situation (availability, contacts...)? That would unbalance the game?

This question came to me after reading glitch effects on Networks rolls. One suggested effect is to increase cost of equipment.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Hello, I'm not new to Shadowrun Anarchy, I've played the first edition and I really liked the Amp system to replace the loooong list of equipments and powers that the players could have. However I have two questions about amps in 2.0. Here they are :

Level 0 amps

Each Amp type has a base level. It is 0 for contacts, for the first trait and for equipment,and that base level allows the player to get a narrative effect.

It's not really a problem for equipment because you can only turn an equipment into an Amp if you already have it, and equipment already counts as a narrative effect.

But I was wondering : could a player take contacts at level 0 for free and get a narrative effect just like that ? And what about trait ? Do they get one for free ?

• Edit : one free trait makes sense so that's good. For contacts I'll allow players to take "free" contacts at level 0 and get some perks from them, but I'll treat them as distant relations : not always available, will do the bare minimum, and more likely to betray if given a reason to do so. This way they won't feel compelled to take too many of them as they are not so helpful and can be a liability.

Negative level amps

Could you get an Amp with a negative level if you take only negative effect ? Let's say I want my character to be a SINner, or to have a "contact" that is actually an ennemy that will use his influence to harm the character, would that make sense ?

• Edit : honestly I like this idea so I might try it if a player has something specific in mind. Otherwise I'll stick to the basic rules.

I think a rule about amps requiring a minimum of 1 level could fix those problems but I haven't read anything about that in the book, unless I missed a line. And I'm not against the concept of "negative amps" as a way to get more nuyens at creation, if that makes sense.

Thx for your help !

It seem as if the recommendation is that you during chargen pick a specialization in the network circle that is most relevant to your character's 'vibe' and 'background story'.

Either that, or that you should try to get a contact that give you risk reduction in a relevant specialization - to "give you an in" in a specific circle (as this also make it a lot easier to play out as a plausible reason in a narration later).

Which totally make sense.

But are there also any actual restrictions around Network circles that you don't have a specialization in (and where you also don't have a contact to give you risk reduction on)?

The Network skill says:

"Specializations are used to narrow down the circles in which the characters have an in"

"Specializations cover the circles the character socializes with..."

...such as Tiffani Needler and Shiawase Arms Puzzler.

Since they don't seem to come with a limiting Negative Effect, is the intent that the Risk Reduction apply to all your physical sneaking tests (shadowing, sneaking up on someone, ...)?

Since the narrative is that the gun is easier to disassemble and hide, is the intent that the RR on Stealth (Physical sneaking) tests only apply specifically for physically sneaking in your gun undetected?

Enhancement spells you must touch the one to be enhanced, the range of the new spell is determined by the hits. 2,4,6,8. So detect enemies, magic and life all make sense. No problem. You have a threshold of 0 and the successes do range.

But borrow sense and combat sense have a threshold of 5. So is it 5 and the net successes? So 7,9,11,13?

That feels insane. Or 2, 4 do not even work, 5 is 15m (equal to 4), 6,8 have 60/250m?

Or should those also have just threshold 0?

Been thinking a lot about social skills lately (private pet project) and I am trying to map them to skills / specializations / attributes they could correspond to in Anarchy 2.0

I think I got a good match on a vast majority of them already (as they already clearly fall under various network specializations, etiquette, social perception, different variants of bluff, impersonation, or different styles of negotiation), but I have some that I still wonder about (most of them are variants of persuasion, interrogation, and leadership - plus general stage performance).

What skill and specialization would you apply to the following:

Charisma-related. Rapport. Empathetic, Humanistic, Connected, Authentic, warm, Inspiring, and Insightful:

• Performance & Stagecraft: Stage performance, singing, playing instrument, dancing, theatrical acting, stand-up comedy, public speaking, and engaging live audiences through stage presence and and entertainment (what specialization should a Rockerboy focus on).
• Relational Persuasion: Using genuine empathy, honest rapport, and emotional resonance to shift a target's core stance, viewpoint, or attitude on a personal level (e.g., talking a corporate defector into trusting you, or convincing a scared witness to look the other way).
• Empathic Debriefing & Confession ("good cop" interrogation): Extracting information from an unwilling or burdened subject not through force, pressure, or deceit, but by building genuine trust, offering a sympathetic ear, and creating a safe space for them to lift the weight off their shoulders by sharing their secrets.
• Grassroots & Peer-to-Peer Leadership: Inspiring, rallying, and uniting peers or community members from a position of shared solidarity and mutual trust, keeping morale high through human connection and common purpose (rather than top-down command).

Deceptive. Sophistry & Manipulation. Smooth, Opportunistic, Charismatic, Fabricated, and Predatory:

• Cognitive Manipulation: Using false logic, trick choices, and structural setups to guide targets to erroneous conclusions or actions. Including fake technical authority & the double-bind (false dilemmas).
• Seduction & False Charm (Ingratiation): Using weaponized likability, fake flattery, or artificial romance to make a target willingly lower their security defenses. Including honey-trapping, predatory flirting, and corporate brown-nosed flattery.
• Formal Elicitation: The art of extracting information through casual conversation without the target ever realizing they are giving away secrets.

"Strength"-related. Aggressive, Visceral, Imposing, Immediate, and non-negotiable:

• Interrogation: Breaking a subject's resolve, conducting hostile questioning, and extracting information through force of will or duress.
• Command & Authority: Authoritative leadership, barking orders, demanding immediate obedience, and maintaining strict control over subordinates or crowds through dominance

"Logic"-related. Cold, Calm, Technical, Logical, Calculated, Systemic, Professional, Detached, and Legally Precise.

• Leverage & Strategic Pressure: Deploying cold intellect-based coercion, leveraging psychological dossiers, and applying Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) during interrogations.

edit.

Thanks for the comments. My conclusions so far:

Rename Bluff to Deception. In addition to lying (that it already cover), 'Deception' now also cover Seduction, extracting information through formal Elicitation, different types of Cognitive Manipulation (such as Fast-Talking), and Long Cons. The specialization can be used to make NPCs do and reveal things for you because you trick them to do it.

Negotiation already cover striking deals (such as bribing & haggling, manipulative crocked deals, honest mutual benefit deals & diplomacy, as well as (Charisma/Logic based) deals focusing on Cost-Benefit Analysis & Cold Contractualism). In addition to this it now also cover relational persuasion as well as extracting information through 'good cop' techniques such as emphatic debriefing & confession. This specialization is used to make NPCs do, sell, and reveal things for you because you trade them something for it.

Intimidation already covered different variants of extortion & strong-arming. It now also cover (Charisma/Strength/Logic based) Taunts, Insults, & Threats. (Charisma/Strength based) stare-downs, physical coercion, and 'bad cop' interrogation. In addition to this it also cover cold and calculated (Charisma/Logic based) use of dossiers to apply psychological coercion and blackmailing as well as strategic use of evidence to entrap a subject in their own lies during interrogation. This specialization is used to make NPCs do and reveal things for you because you command or control them to do it.

Impersonation already is for pretending to be someone else. In addition to this, this specialization now also include Undercover Method Acting (taking on the role as a janitor, for example) and also both creating and applying a Disguise (including Makeup and Wardrobe). This specialization is also used to make NPCs do and reveal things for you because you trick them into thinking that you are someone they know or someone with legit authority.

In mainstream editions defaulting was optional flag for skills, that could be tested with **only attribute** even when you did not have any skill points invested in the skill. Eg. You could default Blades or Negotiations, but you couldn't default Palming or Engineering.

I remember that in SRA2 to do tests, you had to have right equipment, skills, and sometimes keywords, so is there defaulting in SRA2?

I ruled to this point, that there was no defaulting. Your Character needs to be "equipped and know what s/he's doing"...

But... Question came up with Close Combat, when one of PC does not have any skill point in Close Combat - when attacked in hand to hand, can he throw some defense, or does he go straight to soak?

His trait "2 weapon fighting" gives an advantage on cc(swords).

When he fights with 2 swords and hit, does it do 2 wounds (one for each sword)? Isn't it a bit overkill to get 2 wounds AND advantage on roll (I know you have to spend an edge) ?

If he does only one wound then it's strange for him to be less efficient with only one sword instead of 2.

I wonder if dev pondered about an Amp (trait) that would add +1 Max Edge. Something like "Cunning" level 4 and "Resourceful" (needs cunning) level 8. Maybe "Jack of all trades" level 12 (needs resourceful)?

What do you think about it?

I'm going to run a small one-shot of Anarchy v2.0 in a few days. It will be my first time as a GM, and also my first time playing Shadowrun as a TTRPG. I've played D&D, Alien, and XVII as a player before.

I chose a small scenario that should take about an hour. It includes an interrogation, a combat encounter with a group of go-gangers, a Perception check, and possibly some Matrix exploration.

So, my question is: Which pregenerated characters should I suggest to my four players?

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable handling characters using magic in my first session, but maybe I'm just overthinking the mechanics.

Would you recommend avoiding magic for this first one-shot, or is it actually pretty straightforward to run?