Lets try some systems!

[Lilcamper]

Hi guys, I’m a long time lurker, but first time poster.

I’ve been playing RPGs since forever, and I’ve always had a thing for more simulationist systems, like GURPS, which was my first RPG.
I was, since the beginning of my "RPG history" always the GM, and, during my youth, have GM'ed a fair share of RPGs, but nowadays, with work, family and daughters, I barely have the same time as before so, for the last five or so years, I've been mostly playing D&D 5e (as a player!), and, while it is great to play with my friends, I still have that "simulationist" itch, which I sometimes scratch GMing some "one shots" for my friends.
In one of those (which kind of escalated to a full blown mini campaign...) we are playing Shadowrun 5e, and, while at it, I've been thinking about how some of the scenes that we played would be played in other systems (and because some of the players is getting tired of rolling 20+ dice every time), and so I asked myself: well, why don't I play it again, alone, in some other systems?! This way I would be, in a way, playing a little more RPG, right?
Well, with that in mind, the last session that I GMed in Shadowrun I made some notes on the way, and I intend to write them here, first using Shadowrun 5e, as it was the original system, and then in some other systems.
- I'm thinking about replicating it in EABA, Gurps 4e and Savage Worlds, and, if there is any kind of interest, some others.

So, if reading about some random guy massacring the english language (it is not my primary language after all...) while he tries to translate the insanity that it is Shadowrun to some other RPG rules is your thing, hop up!

 

[Lilcamper]

We’ve been playing Shadowrun for about 8 sessions now - the characters had some increase in abilities, but are not that powerfull yet.
The system (SR5e) is serviceable, but the players are getting a little tired of so much dice rolling, and the ones not that invested in high initiative numbers feel a little cheated, as the ability to do extra actions in the same combat round is simply too good to pass.
Nevertheless, last session was the clímax of the last four sessions, with the players, after hunting for a NPC that has ties with their past, and finding that he is being held on a paramilitar base, scheduled to be transfered to an unknown (for them at least) location, decided that they needed to save him with haste.

They planned quickly, and decided to to a “daring rescue mission”, hoping for a quick extraction, but knowing that they have a penchant for ending their runs gun blazing...

The group consists on 4 characters, a CQB specialist (which will be the character that I will describe the actions here, henceforth called simply PC, for player character), a decker, which will stay near the base, but will attack the security systems, and was doing most of his actions by surveillance drones, a sniper, which got to a high position some 200 meters away from the base, acting as eyes for the group (and also using some drones), and an “assault specialist”, which tried to enter the base from another position. Yes, my players do love to divide my attention, wich can drive me crazy sometimes, but they are good players.

So, for the preparations, they noticed that there were a 8 wheeled truck and an Armored Personal Carrier – APC, poised to leave the base from a main gate, which was heavily guarded by 4 soldiers with weapons emplacements. The remaing of the base was encircled by a three meters high solid wall with razor wire on top of it, and consisted of two buildings. Not knowing in what building their target was, they decided that each one of the shooters (the PC and the assault specialist) would infiltrate one of the buildings at the same time.

The decker neutralized the razor wire anti-tampering system, while the sniper told PC that there were three soldiers guarding her target building – two at the front door, and a third circling the building at a 15 minutes interval. There was only one window at the opposing side of the door, turned to the wall, so a perfect infiltration point.

The sniper put an unactivated anti-vehicular mine about 10 meters from the gate, in such a way that he could choose when to give it a wireless command to detonate. He was also on overwatch for anything happening on the vehicles.

This is the base scenario, and next post I will state PC here, describe her actions, and roll the same dice as her player rolled, but considering the results that we got on actual play. But be warned, it was a combat-heavy session! I will skim over some things for ease of understading, and try to explain the rules at least a little, for increased comprehension and better understanding on the differences for each test.

After finishing, I will begin using other systems.

 

[Faolyn]

One of our table is starting a SWADE game tonight, I'm working on learning PbtA for a Root game, and another GM is going to turn an upcoming D&D into Cypher, his preferred system.

I'm finding PbTA surprisingly hard to learn in places. A lot of it I get, but some of it still feels weird to me.

 

[Lilcamper]

I GMed a short three session adventure of Star Wars in Savage Worlds, and, while it was really fun, and I will try it for these scenarios that I'm talking about, I don't think it is really my cup of tea. I bought Numenera when it was released, but bounced off it hard.

 

[Lilcamper]

Shadowrun

Now, for the system, Shadowrun is, in theory, really simple: you build a pool of d6, generally adding an Attribute, which varies from 1 to 6 for humans, to a Skill, varying from 1 to 6 for starting characters, but it can be as high as 12, add positive modifiers as extra dice (gear, circunstances, preparation), remove a number of dice equal to the negative modifiers, and roll the resulting pool, counting each 5 or 6 as a success.
In practice it starts slowing down as you have to roll too many dice (dice pool of 15-18 are common, and dice pool as high as 30 are not unheard of), and there is too many "moving pieces" - too many conditions, gears and tables of modifiers to remember, which is both a bless and a curse, as most situations are already covered by the rules, but you have to remember them, or remember where to look for them...

Nevertheless, it is the system that we are using for some time, and so lets see the original character (PC).

PC

This female character is a little better than an starting character in Shadowrun, but not by far. She was described by her player as a specialist in Close Quarters Battle, having, thus, good reflexes, and being good at getting close to her targets.

For Attributes, she has
Body 4, Agility 5 (6), Reaction 5(6), Strength 4(5), Charisma 2, Intuition 4, Logic 3, Willpower 3, Edge 5

The baseline human has 3 in each attribute, so we can see that she is very fast, moderately strong, but not that special on her mental attributes. Her reaction, agility and strength are further boosted by cyberimplants (values in parentheses). For secondary attributes she has Initiative 10+2d6 and 11 boxes for Physical Condition Monitor (hit points) and 11 boxes of Stun Condition Monitor. She has good initiative values (again, implants), but is not that resilient.

Her (relevant) Skills are Gymnastics 5(11), Longarms 5(11)+2 for shotguns, Sneaking 5(11), Clubs 4(10), Perception 4(

, Pistols 4(10), Unarmed Combat 4(10), Running 3(

, First Aid 2(5), Throwing Grenades 3(9).

In each skill the first number is her rating in it, and the second is the total dice pool, and skills higher than 7-8 are for very trained professionals, so we can see that she is good at close range combat, intrusion and moving fast.
One personality trait that is relevant is that she loves animals, would not harm them without needing it, and would absolutely not kill an animal.

For relevant Gear she has:
Silenced Predator V (think something like a heavy pistol, in 10mm auto or similar) with 2 extra magazines;
Stunbaton (a shock baton);
2 flashbang grenades;
1 tactical shotgun (think a “smart” shotgun, capable of quickly changing between ammo types);
1 Wire clippers.

Urban Explorer Jumpsuit (a suite of smart clothing armor covering her torso, groin and limbs, which harden on impact) plus combat boots.

For cyberimplants (called cyberware in Shadowrun) she has:
- Cybereyes with Flare Compensation (protection from bright lights), Nightvision (good vision in low light conditions), and Smartlink, which is a direct mental connection to her guns, giving her a bonus to shoot them, and allowing for some quick commands, like changing ammo type.
- Muscle Replacement (her Strength and Agility are increased, it's bonuses are already considered on the Attributes);
- Wired Reflexes (her Reaction and her Initiative are increased, it's bonuses are already considered on the Attributes).

Of course, we also need to consider her enemies, the soldiers on the base. Those are run of the mill security personal, not really a threat to an experienced shadowrunner, unless in great number, or special circunstances.

NPC Soldiers

Attributes
Body 4 Agility 4 Reaction 4 Strength 3 Willpower 3 Logic 2 Intuition 3 Charisma 3
Initiative 7+1d6, Condition Monitor 10.

Skills (Pool, not level)
Automatics 7, Perception 5, Pistols 8, Unnarmed Combat 7, Notice 7

Gear
Armored Jacket (standard security armor, something like a common bulletproof vest on chest, with soft armor on groin and limbs.
Security helmet
One weapon according to his role

Finally, with the next post we should start with the action!

 

[Lilcamper]

So, lets begin

Scene 1

PC tries to climb atop the wall. When playing I allowed her to automatically climb and cut the wiring, but now, seeing the corebook again I can see that there is, indeed, the need for a roll. More precisely, she needs to roll her Agility+Climbing, and she needs 3 successes to get to the top without hurting herself. She has Agility 6, but now I see that I forgot to put her Climbing skill of 1 on the list... I will edit, but anyway, she has 1 in Climbing, so she will be rolling 7 dice, hoping for at least 3 successes, not that easy, right? She rolls (5,2,6,1,6,4,1) - 3 successes, just enough!
So she climbs the wall without hurting herself on the concertina wire, and, using her wireclippers, she cuts a path through it.

She will then try to silently jumps to the ground, and run towards the wall, nearby the window that she intends to use to enter the building.
She has 11 dice for sneaking, and rolls (5,4,1,2,6,4,1,2,2,3,1) - 2s. As the soldiers are not actively waiting for intruders, only 1 success was needed, so she got it.

Unfortunately, before she can open the window wide enough for her to enter, the decker tells her that the patrolling guard is almost at the corner of the building, and will get to her at any moment.
She don’t like needlessly killing people, but this is a high stakes mission, and she can’t afford to be detected, so she draws her silenced Ares Predator V (her heavy pistol) and aims at about head level on the corner of the building. As soon as she levels her gun, the unlucky soldier enters her field of vision, and so she shoots!

The poor soldier has no chance of knowing what was waiting for him, left alone trying to dodge, so this is an unresisted roll. PC has 10 dice for pistol (plus 2 for smartlink), there is no penalty for darkness, and the soldier appears 4 meters from her, so there is no range penalty also. She rolls her full pool.

She gets (2,1,4,1,5,5,6,4,6,1,5,6) - 6s. In Shadowrun, successes go directly to damage, so she is doing her weapon base damage of 8 plus her number of successes. Actually, it is a little more complicated than that, as almost every roll has a “limit” on the number of successes, her pistol has a limit of 5, so she would not enjoy the full 6 points of extra damage, but her smartlink cyber increases its limit to 7. Long term short, she does 8+6 = 14 points of damage to the soldier, and it is his turn to resist this damage.

Resisting is done by rolling a pool equals to his Body (4) plus his armor (12,+3 for his helmet), minus the pistol AP (Armor Piercing) value of -1, for a total of 18 dice. He rolls (3,3,5,3,2,4,5,6,5,4,6,3,2,3,2,6,3,1) - 6 successes, and thus takes 8 points of damage. Since he is just a minion, and not a nemesis or other important NPC, he dies on the spot!

Now, since Shadowrun is about “action movie reality”, silencers really lowers the sound of a shot a lot, but it still can be heard, so we rolled to see if the other soldiers (inside the room and on guard in the front of the building) heard anything.

There is a table that tells us that noticing a silenced shot is Threshold 2 (you need two successes on a Notice test), and that, since the soldiers are all distracted, they roll at -2, with a further -2 because of the walls of the building. Each soldier has Notice 7, so each rolls only 3 dice because of the penalties, and none gets 2 successes.

Well, none of them heard anything, but, unfortunatelly, the same can’t be said about a guard dog that was hidden sleeping in a dog house 8 meters from PC! With a growl it lurched towards PC!
(Yes, I did it because I knew of PC fondness of animals, every time one characteristic of a character actually hampers him/her, I give the player 1 point of edge [luck, in Shadowrun], so the players generally like when things like this happens).

Without thinking, PC drops her pistol, and draws her stun baton, she would never shoot a dog, even when it is intending to bite her hands off! She receives back 1 point of edge because of the complication.

Now we will start a proper combat. The dog is 8 meters from her, and none of the sides are surprised, so they both roll for initiative - the dog rolls its initiative of 8+1d6, while PC rolls 10+2d6.

The results are: PC - (5,1) + 10 = 16. Dog - (4) + 8 = 12. PC is first, but not by much. She readies her baton and delays her initiative to act just before the dog attacks her, on Initiative 12.

The dog then charges at her, flaring its teeth, just as it is about to bite, she acts, striking it with her stun baton. She has 10 dice for Clubs, lowered to 9, because delaying your action penalizes you with -1 to your pool. She gets +1 because the dog is charging and there is no further modifiers.

She rolls (3,4,1,1,6,2,6,2,1,1) - 4 successes, she is hitting it, time for defense - the dog rolls its Intuition + Reaction, or 8 dice, getting (2,6,2,3,6,2,1,5) - 3s, it was hit.

The attack does a base 9 (stun) +1 from the remaining success, for 10 points of damage, which the dog resists by rolling its Body, or 4 dice. It rolls (6,5,2,1) - 2 successes, resists 2 points of damage, taking a total of 8. It is at -2 for all actions, plus -1 because of the electricity damage; those same modifiers are applied to its initiative, lowering it to 9. Still, it attacks!

It has 8 dice for unarmed attack, +2 because of the charge, -3 for all the other modifiers, or 7 dice - it rolls (5,6,2,4,3,3,5) - 3s.

PC can defend herself as a free action, using her Reaction + Intuition of 10 dice, or Parry to add her Baton skill, for a total of 14 dice, but at the cost of -5 initiative, which would cost her her last action. She chooses to use the base defense, and rolls - (1,5,1,2,6,3,4,3,2,1) - 2s, and was bitten…

The dog does a base 5 points of damage, plus 1 for the remaining success, for a total of 6 points, which she resists with her Body (4) plus her Armor (9), or 13 dice. She rolls (3,3,5,4,1,2,1,6,2,1,5,5,2) - 4 successes only, and thus takes 2 points of damage. Not enough to impose any penalty for her, but it hurts nevertheless, as the dog grabs her arm and thrashes it around.

At Initiative count 2 she can act again, and attacks at the dog one more time, rolling 10 dice (her base skill, no modifier this time). She gets (6,5,6,2,2,1,1,3,1,5) - 4 successes again, and the dog must defend itself with 5 dice this time, because of the penalties (yes, being hit in combat kind of puts you on a death spiral…).

The dogs rolls (6,1,6,6,1) for defense, getting 3 hits, and thus getting hit again for another 10 points of damage. As the rolls 4 dice to absorb the damage, it is safe to say that it was knocked out!

As soon as she knocks the dog down, she can hear the other soldiers noticing that something is wrong; even worse - there is sound coming from inside the building, through the window – there is more soldiers inside!

With it, we end Scene 1

End of Scene 1

Well, with the end of the first scene (there are 4!), we end this post. Is it legible? Is it an entertaining read? Would anybody like to add any comment or suggestion? Maybe some posters will notice that it is not the first time that I post this scenes, it started on the EABA RPG forum, because I'm trying to convert Shadowrun to this system, but now I have some more time to test them with another systems!

 

[GMMichael]

Hmm. I'll compare this to Modos RPG, and you decide if it allows more time for work, family, and daughters.

PC

This female character is a little better than an starting character in Shadowrun, but not by far. She was described by her player as a specialist in Close Quarters Battle, having, thus, good reflexes, and being good at getting close to her targets.

For Attributes, she has
Body 4, Agility 5 (6), Reaction 5(6), Strength 4(5), Charisma 2, Intuition 4, Logic 3, Willpower 3, Edge 5

The baseline human has 3 in each attribute, so we can see that she is very fast, moderately strong, but not that special on her mental attributes. Her reaction, agility and strength are further boosted by cyberimplants (values in parentheses). For secondary attributes she has Initiative 10+2d6 and 11 boxes for Physical Condition Monitor (hit points) and 11 boxes of Stun Condition Monitor. She has good initiative values (again, implants), but is not that resilient.

Her (relevant) Skills are Gymnastics 5(11), Longarms 5(11)+2 for shotguns, Sneaking 5(11), Clubs 4(10), Perception 4(

, Pistols 4(10), Unarmed Combat 4(10), Running 3(

, First Aid 2(5), Throwing Grenades 3(9).

In each skill the first number is her rating in it, and the second is the total dice pool, and skills higher than 7-8 are for very trained professionals, so we can see that she is good at close range combat, intrusion and moving fast.
One personality trait that is relevant is that she loves animals, would not harm them without needing it, and would absolutely not kill an animal.

For relevant Gear she has:
Silenced Predator V (think something like a heavy pistol, in 10mm auto or similar) with 2 extra magazines;
Stunbaton (a shock baton);
2 flashbang grenades;
1 tactical shotgun (think a “smart” shotgun, capable of quickly changing between ammo types);
1 Wire clippers.

Urban Explorer Jumpsuit (a suite of smart clothing armor covering her torso, groin and limbs, which harden on impact) plus combat boots.

For cyberimplants (called cyberware in Shadowrun) she has:
- Cybereyes with Flare Compensation (protection from bright lights), Nightvision (good vision in low light conditions), and Smartlink, which is a direct mental connection to her guns, giving her a bonus to shoot them, and allowing for some quick commands, like changing ammo type.
- Muscle Replacement (her Strength and Agility are increased, it's bonuses are already considered on the Attributes);
- Wired Reflexes (her Reaction and her Initiative are increased, it's bonuses are already considered on the Attributes).

Female CQB Specialist, level 4

A specialist in Close Quarters Battle, having, thus, good reflexes, and being good at getting close to her targets. GOAL: ? FLAW: Weakness for animals. Hero points: gets lucky when sneaking, flare compensation.

Physical score: 17
Mental score: 10
Metaphysical score: 8

Skills: movement 2, armed 1, parry 2

Perks: off the mark (wired reflexes), physical bonus (muscle replacement), owl's eye (nightvision), skill bonus (armed) (smartlink)

Gear:
Silenced Predator V d6 (3 mags loaded)
Stunbaton d4 mental
2 flashbang grenades (cast Blind 3, 1 action to arm and throw...)
1 tactical shotgun d8 (close range)
1 Wire clippers
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit d4
combat boots

Scene 1 comparison to follow. Sooner or later...

 

[Lilcamper]

Hey, thanks GMMichaels! I don't know Modos, it seems light! It is powered by FATE?
Nice build of PC!

 

[Lilcamper]

Now, continuing with Shadowrun.

Start of scene 2

Without wasting time, PC draws a flashbang grenade, and, reading her shotgun from her back, throws the grenade through the window, waits half a second for it to explode, and swiftly enters through the same window.
Now, when playing, I did it wrong, having forgot to ask for the player to roll to see where the grenade ended up, and to ramp up successes to increase the damage. It is too much of a hassle to correct it now, I just saying so no one acuses me of "doing it wrong!" (not that I am not doing all the rest wrong...)

As soon as she hears the grenade going off, she jumps through the window. Normally I would not ask for a test, but the windows was only half open, remember? I told the player that he could either spend a Simple Action to open it, or roll Gymnastics to “slide through” the gap. He chooses the last one, and rolls PC Agility + Gymnastics of 11, -2 because is moderately complicated to slide through the gap.

She rolls 9 dice, getting (5,6,5,6,1,2,3,1,6) - 5s, and easily moves inside the room, where she is face to face with two soldiers, both about 3 meters from her, 2 meters from one another, and with longarms in hand! They are still reeling from the flashbang, and, while one of them is using a standard security armor, the other is using a heavy combat vest!

The grenade is doing 10 points of stun damage, and both soldiers will roll their Body (4) to resist, with the soldier in heavy armor rolling 2 extra dice because of his helmet built-in flare compensation (another thing that I got wrong…)

The first soldier rolled (6,1,2,2) - for 1s, while the second rolled (5,2,6,4,1,4) - 4s. The first soldiers took 9 points of stun damage, while the second took 6. They now must make Surprise Tests, which are Reaction + Intuition tests, need 3 successes. They receive +3 dice, because they have been alerted in some way, but have respectively -3 and -2 because of their stun damage.

The first soldier rolls 7 dice (3,6,5,5,1,4,5) - 4 successes, and is not surprised. The second rolls 8 dice (1,3,6,2,3,5,6,3) - 3 successes, and is also not surprised, everyone rolls initiative normally.

PC initiative - 10+2d6 (5,5) = 20, soldier 1 initiative - 7+1d6-3 (wounds) (6) = 10, soldier 2 initiative 7+1d6-2 (wounds)(2) = 7.

PC is first at 20, then Soldier 1 acts at 10, followed closely by PC again, also at 10, and, after all of this, Soldier 2 acts, at 7.

PC moves through the window, touching the ground and pointing her shotgun at soldier 1 (least armored, easier to eliminate first). Her shotgun is semi automatic, and she fires a semi auto burst (three rounds) at her target.

For modifiers, there is no range or other type of penalty. She is strong enough to handle the recoil, so no penalty for it either. She rolls her full pool of 13 dice - (5,5,2,1,1,2,5,4,1,1,5,2,6) - 5 successes, and is doing 12 (base damage) + 5 (successes), or 17 damage!

The soldier, wisely, tries to dodge, rolling Intuition (3) + Reaction (4) + Gymnastics (2 - I forgot to write it…), -3 because of the stun damage, -2 because of the semi auto burst, -1 because of the spread of the flechettes, or 0 dice.. he is hit anyway… time to resist the damage.

He will roll Body (4) + Armor (15) + 4 because of the flechette, or 23 dice! The results are (4,5,1,1,3,3,6,2,3,4,5,6,2,6,3,4,4,2,4,2,5,6,5) - 10 successes, he lowers the damage to 7, but, as he was already wounded, with an almost filled stun track, he is knocked out of the fight.

At Initiative 10, is PC turn again (yes, high initiative is scary…), and she shoots at Soldier 2, this time with a single shot.
The same modifiers apply, so lets cut the chase and roll the dice - (5,6,4,6,2,4,5,1,6,2,1,2,1) - 7 successes, limited to 6 because of the shotgun limit.

The soldier will try to defend himself by dodging, rolling Intuition (3)+Reaction(4)+Gymnastics(2) -1 because of the flechettes, or 8 dice. He rolls (6,6,4,4,5,2,1,3) - 5 successes, a very nice result, but he still was hit, having to resist 13 points of damage.

For resisting he rolls Body (4) + Armor (21) + Flechette (4) or… 29 dice, and, since the modified damage is lower than his armor value, the damage is stun, and not lethal. He rolls (4,4,1,2,3,3,5,4,4,1,5,3,1,6,1,2,2,1,1,6,2,3,6,5,6,5,3,5,6) or 11 points of damage, and thus taking 2 points of stun damage, he has only two boxes of stun damage remaining, and it is at -3 on all rolls.

Hurt, but not knocked out, at Initiative 6 he fires at PC with his own weapon, an assault rifle! He lets out a short burst at PC. His base pool is 7, -3 because of the wounds penalties, and rolls his 4 dice - (4,4,5,5) - 2 successes!

Wanting to get out of this situation alive, PC has no option but to dodge, lowering her Initiative by 5, and rolling Reaction (6) + Intuition (4) + Gymnastics (5) - 2 (Short Burst), or 13 dice. She gets (3,2,4,6,5,1,6,6,5,6,2,1,6) - 7 successes, and swiftly evades the gunfire as she runs for the door, not keen on fighting someone heavily armored with her shotgun.
End of turn.

Next turn, both remaining characters roll initiative again; PC rolls 10+2d6-5(because of her dodge), while the soldier rolls 7+1d6-3(wounds). PC gets (2,4) - 6+5 = 11, while the soldier gets (3)+4 = 7. PC is first and runs through the door, while the soldier shoots at her general direction without aiming, while he goes help his downed friend.

End of Scene 2

 

[GMMichael]

Hey, thanks GMMichaels! I don't know Modos, it seems light! It is powered by FATE?
Nice build of PC!

Thanks! It's powered by itself, but has some things in common with Fate.

Scene 1, in Modos RPG:

Scene 1

PC tries to climb atop the wall. When playing I allowed her to automatically climb and cut the wiring, but now, seeing the corebook again I can see that there is, indeed, the need for a roll. More precisely, she needs to roll her Agility+Climbing, and she needs 3 successes to get to the top without hurting herself. She has Agility 6, but now I see that I forgot to put her Climbing skill of 1 on the list... I will edit, but anyway, she has 1 in Climbing, so she will be rolling 7 dice, hoping for at least 3 successes, not that easy, right? She rolls (5,2,6,1,6,4,1) - 3 successes, just enough!
So she climbs the wall without hurting herself on the concertina wire, and, using her wireclippers, she cuts a path through it.

Auto climb and cut is also an option, unless there's tension to be added by asking for a roll . . . which would be d20 + 3 physical + 2 movement, against the GM's d20 + whatever the objective Difficulty might be. Maybe a (1) smooth wall (2) topped by wire represents two levels of Difficulty (+4 each), so the GM rolls d20 + 8. If the PC wins, it's a good outcome, decided by the PC (mostly). If the GM wins, it's a poor outcome decided by the GM (mostly). I like to ask PCs what went wrong - they tend to have good, self-sabotaging ideas.

She will then try to silently jumps to the ground, and run towards the wall, nearby the window that she intends to use to enter the building.
She has 11 dice for sneaking, and rolls (5,4,1,2,6,4,1,2,2,3,1) - 2s. As the soldiers are not actively waiting for intruders, only 1 success was needed, so she got it.

Decisions might be interesting here. Does the PC race for the window, crawl slowly through the shadows, or hide in plain sight, trying to look like another soldier? The answer determines which attribute and skill will add to the PC's roll (again, if tension is needed). The option to add another d6 by using a Hero Point is there if the PC chooses the second option. The GM's roll looks like d20 + 0 (1 success = easy?).

Unfortunately, before she can open the window wide enough for her to enter, the decker tells her that the patrolling guard is almost at the corner of the building, and will get to her at any moment.
She don’t like needlessly killing people, but this is a high stakes mission, and she can’t afford to be detected, so she draws her silenced Ares Predator V (her heavy pistol) and aims at about head level on the corner of the building. As soon as she levels her gun, the unlucky soldier enters her field of vision, and so she shoots!

The poor soldier has no chance of knowing what was waiting for him, left alone trying to dodge, so this is an unresisted roll. PC has 10 dice for pistol (plus 2 for smartlink), there is no penalty for darkness, and the soldier appears 4 meters from her, so there is no range penalty also. She rolls her full pool.

A headshot from 4 meters on an unsuspecting target, (considering the PC) by a trained shooter with Smartlink? Someone's gonna die, but what kind of an outcome is it?

She gets (2,1,4,1,5,5,6,4,6,1,5,6) - 6s. In Shadowrun, successes go directly to damage, so she is doing her weapon base damage of 8 plus her number of successes. Actually, it is a little more complicated than that, as almost every roll has a “limit” on the number of successes, her pistol has a limit of 5, so she would not enjoy the full 6 points of extra damage, but her smartlink cyber increases its limit to 7. Long term short, she does 8+6 = 14 points of damage to the soldier, and it is his turn to resist this damage.

Resisting is done by rolling a pool equals to his Body (4) plus his armor (12,+3 for his helmet), minus the pistol AP (Armor Piercing) value of -1, for a total of 18 dice. He rolls (3,3,5,3,2,4,5,6,5,4,6,3,2,3,2,6,3,1) - 6 successes, and thus takes 8 points of damage. Since he is just a minion, and not a nemesis or other important NPC, he dies on the spot!

Damage isn't needed here, unless in an Extended Conflict. Either the PC or GM can suggest that the soldier dies...or lives. Were it Extended Conflict, the PC wouldn't need an attack because a surprised soldier can't defend against an attack unawares. The PC rolls d6 for damage, and the soldier rolls d4 for protection, or more likely, the GM takes half of that (2) and subtracts it from the PC's roll. The soldier probably has about 13 health (damage capacity), so the pistol attack wouldn't result in incapacitation, but the damage taken can take any form, like a "grievous facial wound."

Now, since Shadowrun is about “action movie reality”, silencers really lowers the sound of a shot a lot, but it still can be heard, so we rolled to see if the other soldiers (inside the room and on guard in the front of the building) heard anything.

There is a table that tells us that noticing a silenced shot is Threshold 2 (you need two successes on a Notice test), and that, since the soldiers are all distracted, they roll at -2, with a further -2 because of the walls of the building. Each soldier has Notice 7, so each rolls only 3 dice because of the penalties, and none gets 2 successes.

The quality of the attack roll (good or bad outcome) might suggest whether anyone heard the shot. Or heard the soldier react to the attack. Or it might suggest any number of things imagined by the PC and GM (or other PCs!). But there's no table for noticing suppressed shots. The only table is the Difficulty Table. If a soldier needs a roll to notice, it might be a d20 + mental bonus + detect skill (if any). The Difficulty might be pretty high, given the suppressor, so the Difficulty roll would be d20 + 8 or 12.

Well, none of them heard anything, but, unfortunatelly, the same can’t be said about a guard dog that was hidden sleeping in a dog house 8 meters from PC! With a growl it lurched towards PC!
(Yes, I did it because I knew of PC fondness of animals, every time one characteristic of a character actually hampers him/her, I give the player 1 point of edge [luck, in Shadowrun], so the players generally like when things like this happens).

Without thinking, PC drops her pistol, and draws her stun baton, she would never shoot a dog, even when it is intending to bite her hands off! She receives back 1 point of edge because of the complication.

I'd ask for initiative contests here - winning might give the PC time to holster her weapon instead of dropping it. Either way, the PC can earn a Hero Point back by making a sacrifice related to her Flaw. Like "I lose my pistol in the grass when I drop it," or "I hesitate to hurt an animal so long that I don't defend against its first attack."

Now we will start a proper combat. The dog is 8 meters from her, and none of the sides are surprised, so they both roll for initiative - the dog rolls its initiative of 8+1d6, while PC rolls 10+2d6.

The results are: PC - (5,1) + 10 = 16. Dog - (4) + 8 = 12. PC is first, but not by much. She readies her baton and delays her initiative to act just before the dog attacks her, on Initiative 12.

If the PC gets the higher initiative contest, her 3 actions per round take priority over the dog's. The dog can otherwise use its 3 actions as desired. Given the character concept, the dog isn't likely to do much more than attack or move with its actions. The PC can use an action to ready her baton, but delaying won't help her act before the dog, so she attacks with her second action. The dog, true to form, attacks as well, forgoing its option to defend instead.

The dog then charges at her, flaring its teeth, just as it is about to bite, she acts, striking it with her stun baton. She has 10 dice for Clubs, lowered to 9, because delaying your action penalizes you with -1 to your pool. She gets +1 because the dog is charging and there is no further modifiers.

She rolls (3,4,1,1,6,2,6,2,1,1) - 4 successes, she is hitting it, time for defense - the dog rolls its Intuition + Reaction, or 8 dice, getting (2,6,2,3,6,2,1,5) - 3s, it was hit.

The PC rolls her attack (d20 + physical bonus + armed skill points) and rolls her damage die (d4 mental). The contest isn't necessary to defeat the dog's defense, since it's not defending. However, unfavorable circumstances (possibly the dog's "charging") could call the quality of the roll into question, so the GM can call off the damage if it's a terribly low contest or fails to meet a reasonable minimum. 1 is a good default minimum contest.

So the GM rolls damage for the dog's attack as well, d6 physical, and the PC reduces that by her jumpsuit protection, d4 or just 2.

The attack does a base 9 (stun) +1 from the remaining success, for 10 points of damage, which the dog resists by rolling its Body, or 4 dice. It rolls (6,5,2,1) - 2 successes, resists 2 points of damage, taking a total of 8. It is at -2 for all actions, plus -1 because of the electricity damage; those same modifiers are applied to its initiative, lowering it to 9. Still, it attacks!

It has 8 dice for unarmed attack, +2 because of the charge, -3 for all the other modifiers, or 7 dice - it rolls (5,6,2,4,3,3,5) - 3s.

The dog takes (with taking half) 2 mental damage; PC takes 1. Either side can choose to roll dice to attempt higher numbers, but the dog will likely lose the battle if it continues at these numbers, so the PC might choose similar tactics while the GM might choose to start rolling dice (while the dog probably wouldn't vary its tactics beyond: "Am I hurt? Then keep biting!")

PC can defend herself as a free action, using her Reaction + Intuition of 10 dice, or Parry to add her Baton skill, for a total of 14 dice, but at the cost of -5 initiative, which would cost her her last action. She chooses to use the base defense, and rolls - (1,5,1,2,6,3,4,3,2,1) - 2s, and was bitten…

The dog does a base 5 points of damage, plus 1 for the remaining success, for a total of 6 points, which she resists with her Body (4) plus her Armor (9), or 13 dice. She rolls (3,3,5,4,1,2,1,6,2,1,5,5,2) - 4 successes only, and thus takes 2 points of damage. Not enough to impose any penalty for her, but it hurts nevertheless, as the dog grabs her arm and thrashes it around.

The PC can defend against dog attacks by ending her turn and using actions to defend when the dog initiates attacks. Regardless, each side has three actions to use, which puts a cap on the number of attacks or defenses in a round. If the PC didn't have the initiative (a higher initiative contest), she could forgo her turn (but not her actions) for that round and resume it at her discretion in the next round. Besides action priority, a turn also offers the chance to "combine actions," which means reusing your previous contest in the turn for a similar, consecutive action.

At Initiative count 2 she can act again, and attacks at the dog one more time, rolling 10 dice (her base skill, no modifier this time). She gets (6,5,6,2,2,1,1,3,1,5) - 4 successes again, and the dog must defend itself with 5 dice this time, because of the penalties (yes, being hit in combat kind of puts you on a death spiral…).

"Initiative count 2" would be the dog's turn, at which point the dog can initiate actions (if any remain), and the PC may react to those actions. No more than three dice are needed per character: contest, damage, and protection, and anyone can take half on any of these.

Taking damage carries no penalties, so no death tree occurs, but since choosing to defend means forgoing attack, defending characters can find themselves back on their heels from time to time. Defending is best coupled with a plan for success.

The dogs rolls (6,1,6,6,1) for defense, getting 3 hits, and thus getting hit again for another 10 points of damage. As the rolls 4 dice to absorb the damage, it is safe to say that it was knocked out!

As soon as she knocks the dog down, she can hear the other soldiers noticing that something is wrong; even worse - there is sound coming from inside the building, through the window – there is more soldiers inside!

When the dog takes over 11 mental damage (its Mental score), it becomes Unconscious. GMs are likely to use Rule 000 to call unconsciousness at 11 damage instead of over 11 damage.

End of Scene 1

Well, with the end of the first scene (there are 4!), we end this post. Is it legible? Is it an entertaining read? Would anybody like to add any comment or suggestion? Maybe some posters will notice that it is not the first time that I post this scenes, it started on the EABA RPG forum, because I'm trying to convert Shadowrun to this system, but now I have some more time to test them with another systems!

I'm fascinated to see how many dice are needed to resolve some Shadowrun situations. I'm actually a big fan of the death tree: start losing a battle, and you'd better find a branch that offers more than the others do. Modos RPG is easy to modify and add a custom, damage-penalty rule, if desired. I'm interested to read more scenes in Shadowrun if they feature different rules or mechanisms. Otherwise, I look forward to the next system you try!