Pen and Paper RPG II

Just to mention, anybody interested can still apply. Next run could be a different team.

Dice rules in Shadowrun work as follows.

Characters have Attributes (innate traits, e.g. Intelligence, Strength) and Skills (things they have learned, e.g. Hacking, Pistols)

To see if you succeed at something you almost always (I'll mention exceptions in the game, not overloading you with rules now) roll a number of d6s equal to an Attribute + a Skill. I'll use an example.

Debby the Dwarf has the attribute Logic at 3 and the skill Hacking at 4. To see if she can hack she rolls:

Logic + Hacking = 7 d6 dice.

Note: I will always tell you the Attribute and Skill to roll, though it's usually what you'd expect.

Any dice with a 5 or 6 is a "hit".

So Debby rolls: 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 2, 2

She got two hits.

To succeed the GM says how many hits you need before you roll, the threshold.

2 hits is average difficulty.
4 hits is hard.

Though the threshold can range from 1 - 10 hits.

So if I said two hits were necessary, Debby would have succeeded.

Limits:
The amount of hits is capped though. You might roll seven hits, but only be allowed count five of them. The limit can be due to innate limits or limits of the gear you're using.

Innate limits are:
Physical limit: ((Strength x 2) + Body + Reaction)/3
Mental limit: ((Logic x 2) + Intelligence + Will Power)/3
Social limit: ((Charisma x 2) + Will Power + Essence)/3

So if Debby has
Logic: 3, Intelligence: 3, Will Power: 2
then her Mental Limit is 4 (you round up). She is not allowed more than 4 hits when hacking due to innate limits.

So if Debby rolls:

3, 5, 6, 3, 6, 6, 5

It'd still only count as four hits.

Most of the time it's the innate limit that matters, though in some cases, like hacking, gear limits override it. So if Debby is using an old hacking deck the stats on the gear will mention it causes a limit of three. In that case the roll above will only get three hits.

When I call for a roll, it will look like this:
Attribute+Skill [Limit] (Threshold)

e.g. for a hard hacking attempt:

Logic+Hacking [Mental] (4)

This means, roll Logic+Hacking amount of d6 dice, hits limited by your Mental Limit and you need 4 hits.

Glitch:
If more than half the dice you roll are 1s, then something bad happens, called a glitch in the rules. This might not mean failure. So if Debby is trying to hack open a door and I say:

Logic+Hacking [Mental] (2)

And she rolls:

1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, 3

She succeeded, but she got a glitch. The door opens, but she sets off the alarm.

If she had got:

1, 1, 1 ,1, 4, 4, 5

She would have failed and glitched. Didn't open the door and triggered the alarm.

1, 2, 4, 5, 2, 1, 1

Is just a fail. Door doesn't open.

Critical Glitch:
This is no hits and a glitch, something major goes wrong, e.g. for Debby

1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 2, 4

She triggers a feedback loop in the doors circuitry and fries her own hacking implant, nearly killing her.

Bit more of the rules tomorrow, the other game had me busy.

So the game will take place in Tenochtitlan. To start with you will a choice of four runs to go on. Your handler, the person who arranges the runs and contacts the clients, is a french immigrant named Mademoiselle Rolland.

Your base will be the hidden basement of a coffee shop in the Iztacalco district of the city. The basement can only be accessed by those who know its 12 digit code and is wifi silent with thermal absorbers built into the wall (cannot be seen on infrared scans of the area).

You will all be new to Rolland's team, her previous team having all been killed on a run, save Francesca, a locally born Elf, who was heavily wounded.