Bay 12 Games Forum

BP Advancement

It is undeniable fact that the Karma system of advancement fits rather poorly with the Build Point system of character creation. Some things that you might by with BP cost more BP than they would with Karma (ex.: buying your Strength to 2 would cost 10 BP or only 6 Karma), while others cost tremendously more Karma than BP (example: buying a skill from 5 to 6 would cost 4 BP or 12 Karma). That leads to very real and very large discrepancies between characters who min/max their initial BP and those who don't. And frankly, that's bad. We want people to make organic looking characters rather than worrying over much about BP/Karma efficiency or any of that crap.

There are two obvious ways to deal with that. You could either make people create their characters with Karma in the first place, or you could make people advance their characters by gaining additional BP. The former has optional rules which are either available from Serbitar or in the upcoming Runner's Companion, and you are welcome to use them from either source. Personally, I prefer to use the smaller and more linear numbers of BP Advancement, so that's what gets written up here.

So here is how it works: your character is made with BP as normal, but when you would gain Karma you gain about 2/3 as many extra BP instead. I suggest that you usually not allow people to purchase ¥ or contacts with these BP, but even that rule is up for grabs (for example: if someone wanted to spend some BP to introduce a new NPC that was a childhood friend they were re-establishing contact with or something, that could b pretty cool). Some things in the game have costs listed only in Karma, and need to be converted back into BP. In general, these costs are simply half Karma, rounded up (5 -> 3, 10 -> 5, etc.). Exceptions follow:

    Magic and Resonance do not cost extra BP to raise to the natural maximum. If your current maximum is 6, bringing Resonance to 6 costs 10 BP. If your current maximum is 8, then bringing it to 8 costs 10 BP. This is to prevent people from saving or losing double digit piles of BP depending on the order that they advanced their attributes and Initiations/Submersions.

    Initiation and Submersion cost the full value, and are not reduced. This is because under the normal rules you're looking at spending 21 Karma to raise Magic to 7 and 13 Karma for the Initiation. Now it's only 10 BP for the stat but still 13 BP for the initation (although you can still take groups and ordeals to lower costs by nearly half).

    Skill Group Transitive Property is now in effect. This means that if you buy one skill up in a skill group, and you buy another skill up in a skill group, that you can buy up the rest of the skill group to match at the remaining cost. Since all the math is linear, we no longer have to screw people who break up their skill groups and later want to put them back together.



Alternate Costs

Skills: Skills cost way too much in the standard rules. I can draw you a diagram, but basically I think it's pretty obvious that if you spend 10 BP for +1 to some of your Agility related skills when you can spend the same 10 BP for +1 to all of your Agility related skills, then something is rotten in Denmark. My solution is to halve the costs of all skills. This puts us at:

    Skill 1-6: 2 BP/rating.
    Skill 7: 4 BP
    Skill Groups: 5 BP/Rating
    Specializations: 1 BP each.
    Knowledge Skills: 1 BP/Rating



Attributes: The game works slightly better if the final attribute point costs 20 points instead of 25. Furthermore, the point beyond the racial maximum should cost 20 points as well. This eliminates some of the high end attribute shenanigans.

Magic and Resonance should cost a flat 10 points whether they are the current maximum or not, and require Initiation/Submersion to get a new maximum (unlike other attributes, they cannot be purchased past the Racial Maximum).

Adept Powers: When the schedule for expected numbers got changed all around in SR4, Adepts apparently did not get the memo, in many cases keeping absolute costs as holdovers from books written in 1990. Some of those are not especially reasonable in the current environment (where, for example, an Adept does not get 6 power points for free).

    Improved Ability This power should cost just .25 points regardless of the type of skill.
    Improved Physical Attribute This is way too expensive. Sure it doesn't cost Essence, but it may as well, and having it cost more than the cheap and Essence unfriendly ware is off the hook. It should cost only .5/level. Even then it's pretty sketchy compared to the actual high end ware like delta grade Muscle Toner (.4 Essence for +4 to a physical attribute). But at least it doesn't come up on a blood test.
    Natural Immunity This ability is incredibly unattractive, a victim of the current power rules. Every level should reduce the power by one rather than increasing the resistance dicepool by one.
    Pain Resistance: Damage penalties are a lot less exciting than they used to be, as they no longer modify target numbers. Paying 1.5 Power Points for a conditional +1 die is just silly. Pain Resistance should reduce damage modifiers rather than altering the number of effective damage boxes you've sustained. So a character with Rating 2 Pain Resistance should be able to sustain 6 boxes of damage with no penalty.

    Distance Strike I happen to know that the authors were way too cautious on this one. This is a game where people have guns, the ability to punch someone from across the room is kin of assumed. 2 Power Points is completely absurd, and was unfortunately deliberately chosen to screw people who wanted this power for thematic reasons. It should cost .5 Power Points, and it's really not that exciting even then.
    Elemental Strike There is absolutely no reason to keep people from combining this with distance strike, that was just simple asshattery.
    Gliding This costs too much, an should be reduced to a .5 power.
    Iron Guts No idea why this happened when Natural Immunity exists. The new version costs .5 and gives the character straight Immunity to Ingested Toxins.
    Iron Lungs 30 seconds is physically impressive for a normal human mortal, but seriously this is a world with compressed air tanks an Oxygenate spells. The new version costs .5 Power Points and straight up lets the adept get by without breathing at all.
    Quick Draw This power straight up does not exist. People can just do this in Shadowrun 4th edition, there is no reason for a power to even exist.
    Traceless Walk This costs too much and should be reduced to a .5 power.
    Wall Running This costs too much and should be reduced to a .5 power.

Spirit Allies: The linear Ally costs lead to some deeply unfortunate things happening at high Forces. I know, I wrote the Spirit Ally rules with a non-linear cost and they were changed in editing and that was a bad thing. A better price scheme would be:

    Force: Force 1 Free with the Metamagic, Each additional Force Point costs 5 x Current Force. So getting a Force 5 Ally costs 0 + 5 + 10 + 15 + 20 = 50 BP
    Powers and Skills: 3 points each.
    Spells: 2 for known, 3 for unknown.
    Rituals of Change: Enhancing an Ally should cost exactly the same as conjuring an ally in the first place. I know why the alternate costs happened, but it was wrong.



Qualities

Aspected Magician: Aspected Magician is a positive quality. Being an Aspected Magician costs 5 or 10 BP, and such characters begin play as a level 1 Initiate, having one metamagic and an enhanced Magic attribute cap. An Aspected Magician is a Magician except as noted below:

    Aspected Conjurers Cannot learn Sorcery skills, cast spells, or provid Counterspelling. They can astrally perceive but cannot astrally project. They can can use other magic skills (most notably conjuring skills). This quality costs 10 points.
    Aspected Sorcerers Cannot learn Conjuring skills, summon spirits, or Banish. They can astrally perceive but cannot astrally project. They can can use other magic skills (most notably Sorcery skills). This quality costs 10 points.
    Path Aspect Must choose 2 categories of Magic and the associated spirits according to their tradition. The character may only cast spells or summon spirits of those two categories/types. They may still use Banishing and Counterspelling against any target. They may still conjure Watchers and Allies. They can astrally perceive but cannot astrally project. This quality costs 10 points.
    Astral Aspect Cannot cast any spells on Physical Targets, nor can they conjure any spirit that has Possession or Materialization (Watchers are still OK). They can still cast Mana spells on Astral Targets. The threshold for their Assensing tests is reduced by 1. This quality costs 5 points.

Astral Sight:: This quality is extremely shitty. Removing it from the game entirely is too kind.

Exceptional Attribute: This quality is unnecessary given the other revisions. It is better off removed.

Lucky: This quality is unnecessary given the other revisions. It is better off removed.

Alternate Resolution Rules:

Spirit Allies
The spirit ally rules I wrote got mangled by well-meaning but ultimately confused editing. I mean seriously, Spell Binding? Why is that even in there (I know why, but's it's still dumb enough to allow a rhetorical question)? So to get things back on track, make the following adjustments:

    Materialization Allies should have a stat line. Pick the stat line of the type of spirit it supposedly is based n its Native Plane, and use that. So if you have an Earth Spirit ally, it will have a lot of Strength and a low Agility.
    Remove Aid Sorcery, Spell Binding, and Spell Sustaining from the list of services. The “Aid Sorcery and Aid Study” heading on page 105 of Street Magic should apply only to Aid Study.
    Allies should do what they used to do: provide a dicepool bonus to Magic dicepools while within LOS and Magic x 10 meters.


    Behind the Scenes: What the Heck?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    Giving a bonus to all Magic sounds like a big deal, because it is a big deal. It's just like having an expensive Power Focus that you can have in addition to your normal Power Focus. And that's very powerful. But it's also very simple to explain, and frankly not as powerful as some of the many valid interpretations of whatever Rob intended to happen when he hashed up the Ally services to use normal services. I mean seriously, Ally spirits might have been supposed to act as an unlimited umber of strength infinity sustaining foci. I can't even tell. Spell Sustaining, Spell Binding, and Aid Sorcery don't really work well for a spirit that has no spell category assignment and no services, that's why Free Spirits can't do those things.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Hardened Armor
Hardened Armor's all or nothing approach is unfortunate. A better system is to have Hardened Armor provide half its rating in automatic damage resistance hits, and half its rating in regular damage resistance dice. AP reduces the automatic hits first, making a good AP value much more important against Hardened Armor.

Exotic Weapon Skills
The Shadowrun Weapon skills are too specialized across the board (recall that this is a game where driving a motorcycle or a big rig with a steering wheel or a joystick is all the same skill), but the only place where this is genuinely a problem is the Exotic Weapon skills, which flat don't make sense. I mean seriously, who is going to take an Exotic Weapon skill in an improvised weapon? That fails basic interactivity tests. The best answer is to have weapons all fall into the basic weapon skills, even if that's kind of a stretch. Then, have some weapons be “Exotic” which means that people suffer a -1 dicepool penalty when using them unless they happen to specialize in it. So congratulations, a Shield Bash is a “club,” a glaive is a “blade,” a set of fangs is “unarmed combat,” a flare gun is a “heavy weapon” and so on. There is also a new melee combat skill called “Flexible Weapons” and it's part of the Close Combat Group.

Saving Time on Extended Tests
Extended Tests can be quite time consuming, and often rather pointless. A good solution to this is to simply make a single test and multiply. One gets the same result in terms of total time spent (although individual tests will be much longer or shorter often enough), but it saves a lot of time at the game table.

quipment

Hacking Equipment

Trodes A trode net has a signal of -1, and can only make contact with a brain which is within a few centimeters. Also in the case of any serious Static, a trode net will be disrupted completely, potentially cutting the person off from their network.

Nanopaste Trodes Nanopaste has a signal of only -2, but when in contact with skin it burrows in, making a connection that is again disrupted when subjected to any severe static.

Commlinks Commlinks come in a wide array of models custom and standard. It would be hilariously pointless for us to pretend that there are some finite number of possibilities for Commlink types that Shadowrunners might use. For convenience, despite the fact that the actual price point of commlinks varies tremendously based on market conditions and perceived brand reliability and such, we assume that a better Commlink will cost more. Any particular commlink will have a Response and a Signal. The cost in ¥ will be the price of the Response and the Signal added together, while the availability will simply be the higher of the two.

    Signal Ranges
        -2 10 µm
        -1 10 cm
        0 3 m
        1 40m
        2 100m
        3 400m
        4 1km
        5 4km
        6 10km
        7 40km
        8 100 km
        9 400 km


Code:   
Rating Response Signal Availability
1      50¥      20¥     Always
2      300¥     50¥     Always
3      700¥     100¥    Always
4      2000¥    500¥    4
5      5000¥    1000¥   8
6      14000¥   3000¥   15
7      48000¥   8000¥   24
8      175000¥  200000¥ 30
9      750000¥  1.2M¥   36   

    Commlink Names: Just because you're using a SONY Emperor doesn't mean that you're using the Fall '71 Emperor sunlight with a dual-quad optical recoder. Indeed, the basic model name of a commlink basically tells you close to nothing about what the commlink's actual capabilities are. So commlink names are basically NERPS. Here is a list of prominent commlink families put out by your favorite companies:
    Chantico Home Appliances: Buena; Maize; Jaguar; Quetzal
    CMT: Clip; Hammer; Rod
    Erika: Elite; Prima; ! (this one is hard to pronounce)
    Fairlight: Caliban; Gilgamesh
    Hermes: Ikon; Magister; Tornado
    MCT: Bureaucrat; Hub; Meta Link; Sage
    Novatech: Airwave; Mastermind; Pocket Secretary
    Sony: Assistant; Comman; Emperor
    Transys: Avalon; Luna; Oz




Credsticks A Certified Credstick costs just 25¥ and represents a connection to a bank account which is not tied to any particular SIN but to a passcode (which can be changed by anyone with the current passcode). It is for this reason that Credsticks are often used as cash by criminal types. The effective dedicated firewall of a certified Credstick is 5. Various banks issue credsticks to members which are tied to SINs, and these generally have dedicated firewalls of 6 to 8.

Retransmitters A retransmitter is a device which has a high density signal output. So long as it is part of a character's network, signal range can be traced from the retransmiter (though LOS cannot). A Retransmitter weighs about a kilogram, has a signal of 3, and costs 25¥. More powerful retransmitters are available. You can get a signal of 4 for 125¥, or a signal of 5 for 250¥.

Microtransmitters A microtransmitter is a retransmitter which is small enough to fit into things. They cost twice as much as regular retransmitters and have an availability of 6.

Directional Retransmitters Just because you can have a secondary device send your data off, doesn't mean that it can be used to draw LOS. A directional retransmitter is like a Retransmitter in size. It costs three times as much as a Retransmitter and has an availability of 6.

Sat Links Satellites circle the globe in staggering number. Most communication with LEO satellites is done with low density signal. These transmitters usually have a signal of 6 and may actually be incapable of being used to send high density signal. There are three kinds of portable satellite link-ups. One is a dish which is itself non portable. One is portable but only with effort as it weighs in at four to six kilograms. And the last is a module which can be plugged into a commlink with ease (weighing 300-500 grams). In any case, sat links which are capable of actually projecting a Signal rating of 8 are substantially more expensive. Sat Links are also rating 1 Receivers. Most Satellites themselves have Signal 10.
Code:   
Sat Link     Cost     Availability
Fixed (6)    250¥     Always
Portable (6) 500¥     4
Module (6)   2000¥    6
Fixed (    20000¥   10
Portable ( 50000¥   12
Module (   150000¥  20


Receivers The signal range is the range at which a system can project high density signal to affect a device which is not otherwise receptive to the signals. It is coincidentally the range at which large amounts of high density signal can be sent through an open connection to a device with a rating 0 receiver. These rating 0 receivers are cheap and plentiful, and every commlink is assumed to have one. More powerful receivers exist, but have constraints as to size. Game mechanically, they add their ratings to the signal of other devices to determine range to the receiver. Satellites usually have a Rating 3 receiver on board, which allows a Signal of 8 to send high density signal to LEO satellites and low density signal to Geosynchronous satellites despite their very high altitude.
Code:   
Receiver     Cost     Availability
Fixed (1)    100¥     Always
Portable (1) 200¥     4
Module (1)   600¥     6
Fixed (2)    14000¥   10
Portable (2) 20000¥   12
Fixed (3)    100000¥  15
Fixed (4)    1500000¥ 24   


Programs

Operating Systems Jokes aside, Windows ME is not exactly the same as Windows Vista, and there are a bewildering number of alternatives for the consumer of Operating Systems in 2071. Like commlinks, it is assumed that characters will be savvy shoppers and purchase the more expensive versions of Operating Systems which are better rather than the ones which are merely slight NERPS modifications on existing technology.

An Operating System affects an entire network, but it still is designed to be run on a specific network hub. Transferring an OS to a different commlink is doable, but degrades performance (reduce ratings of System and Firewall by 2 until someone makes a Logic + Software (12, 8 hours) test to reoptimize it for the new system).
Code:   

Rating System   Firewall Availability
1      50¥      20¥      Always
2      300¥     50¥      Always
3      700¥     100¥     Always
4      2000¥    500¥     Always
5      5000¥    1000¥    4
6      14000¥   3000¥    8
7      48000¥   8000¥    16
8      175000¥  200000¥  32
9      750000¥  1.2M¥    36   


Operating Systems for Dedicated Systems Most dedicated systems have a System of 1. This is because they don't ever need to be utilized in orchestrating spare processor cycles on other devices. If a genuine network is used, the device's OS will fade to the background. In general one can expect decent dedicated firewalls on most high grade devices. A Device should be expected to have a dedicated firewall equal to its device rating.

Rated Programs: Cost/Availability

    Analysis Programs 500¥/Rating – 2/Rating
    Attack Programs: 2000¥/Rating – 2/Rating
    Communications Programs: 1000¥/Rating – 2/Rating
    Exploit Programs: 1500¥/Rating – 2/Rating
    Operations Programs: 500¥/Rating – 2/Rating
    Pilot: 500¥/Rating – 3/Rating*
    IC: 500¥/Rating – 2/Rating
    Pilot Accessory: 100¥/Rating – 4/Rating*


(*): Pilot and Pilot Accessory programming (Clearsight, Targeting, Maneuver, etc.) are purchased for individual devices. Pilot Accessory programming is capped in rating by the Pilot rating, Pilot is uncapped. These programs cannot be optimized for other systems.
Most Program ratings are capped by the system of the network they are running on. IC is an exception and is instead limited by the Firewall of the Network or Device it is running on. Programs set up for one OS work very poorly (-2 to rating and dicepools) when used on another OS until someone reoptimizes it for the new system with a Logic + Software check (10-System Rating, 2 hours).
Dedicated programming generally costs half as much.
The Rating of a program caps the number of hits (not net hits) that can be scored with a program.

Matrix Interference Technology

Sometimes you don't even want to hack or browse the latest news feeds, you just want to shut the Matrix down and move on with your life.

WiFi Blocking Paint
A marvel of modern technology, WiFi blocking paint reduces the strength of signal going through it by its Rating. If the modified signal is not sufficient to cross the actual distance, then signal range is not attainable. This is not a form of jamming and cannot be circumvented with ECCM. A can of WiFi blocking paint is nearly 4 liters and covers an area of 30 square meters. It costs 20¥ per rating per can, and is available in ratings up to 6.

Faraday Cage
A basic fact of physics, a topologically complete covering of high conductivity redirects the vast majority of incoming radiation, effectively locking all but the most powerful signals. A Faraday Cage reduces the effective signal across it by 4 times its rating, and is available in ratings of 1-4. Faraday Cages are purchased in square meter surface units. Flat squares cost only 5¥ per meter, and the flexible meshes cost 20¥ per meter. The transparent units for use in windows cost ten times as much. A Faraday Cage ceases to function if the topology is opened. So for example: if you made a car into a Rating 2 Faraday Cage it would block out all signals of rating 8 or less, but only so long as all the doors and windows were closed. A typical car can be fitted with a Faraday Cage in 16 square meters, 6 of which are transparent.

Faraday Suit
A Faraday Suit is a full body covering flexible mesh that modifies an existing full body armor (that must include a helmet). It costs 500¥ per rating point.

Head Jammer
The Head Jammer or “Faraday Hat” actually functions by canceling incoming signals rather than diverting them, so the term “Faraday Hat” is actually not physically accurate. A Head Jammer reduces the signal rating of transmissions going into or out of the head. Setting one up takes just a complex action, and its rating can be temporarily increased (up to double its current rating) with a complex action (rolling Logic + Electronic Warfare and increasing effective rating by hits). ECCM is effective against this. Cost is 250¥ per rating point and availability is 6R.

Rigging Equipment

Sensor Packages
Sensors in 2071 can meet or exceed the capabilities of the human sensory abilities. And they can do so with objects which are even smaller than the sense organs of a human body, but it costs a fair amount of money to get equipment that can do that. Size categories are in reference to the size of the object they are supposed to fit into. A microdrone is small enough to fit into a wallet, so sensor packages that are small enough to fit into them are very expensive. A minidrone is small enough to fit into a palm or a human eye socket. A small drone is roughly the size of a human head, and its sensor packages cost precisely as much as putting sensors into real metahuman head (you can use cyberware prices). A medium drone is about the size of a dog. A large drone is the size of a human. A huge drone is about the size of a car. A titanic drone is the size of garbage truck or larger. The base availabilities and costs are those of cybernetic senses from SR4 and Augmentation. Note that the senses available as cyberware take sensory information in at full simsense levels, and that mere 20th century cameras are much cheaper. Drones can get multiple sets of single sense types and toggle between them.
Code:   

Size     Cost      Availability
Micro    x10¥      +4
Mini     x2¥       +2
Small    Standard¥ Standard
Medium   half¥     Standard
Large    half¥     +2
Huge     quarter¥  Standard
Titanic  1/10¥     +4   

    Example: Outfitting a Doberman
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Glitch wants her attack drone to see as well as she does, which means that it should be capable of seeing at a metahuman level in both normal and infrared spectra. The doberman itself only costs 3000¥. The thermographic vision and smartlink that she wants will take up only 3 capacity and thus will fit in a Rating 1 eye system. The total package would cost 2500¥ in a metahuman skull, but in this case it's built for a drone that has a lot less squishy bits. Sensor packages for a medium drone cost half human cyberware price, so the sensor package is just 1250¥. Together with the drone, Glitch is out 4250¥ and has a drone that can send her visual inputs just as good as her own.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Reduced Vision The basic 500¥ vision package assumes that you are getting human-level simsense quality vision, which is actually pretty good. You can purchase vision packages which are less good in a number of ways for less money. You can get a non-realtime still camera for ¼ price (this can nonetheless get normal vision enhancements, though things like smartlinks are fairly useless on such a device). You can get a low quality video feed for a base of 100¥, you can get a grainy low quality video feed for a base 40¥.

    Reduced Hearing The basic 500¥ hearing package assumes that you are getting fully functional human level hearing – like a metahuman's. If you don't need full simsense, you can get a low fidelity audio feed for 50¥, and a low fidelity audio feed with some heinous distortion for about 10¥.

    Minimal Pressure Sensors The basic 1000¥ touch package assumes a human level of proprioception and tactile sensation. If you don't need full smsense tactile ability out of a drone, you can get much lesser packages. A basic motion sensor costs only 50¥, and a basic orientation unit costs 100¥.

    Sensor Systems
    New Sensor handling hardware can be installed on a drone, increasing its sensor rating. Cost is 500¥ per rating, with an availability of 4x rating.

    BattleTac System The surveillance state isn't just the United Kingdom anymore, now it's everywhere. But actually viewing all of those cameras is essentially impossible for anyone. However, data mining large numbers of sensory recordings for positional information to derive tactical advantages is well within the capabilities of extremely powerful computers. The BattleTac system is a set of hardware that extracts tactical information from multiple sensory feeds. So long as multiple viewpoints are available, the system can assist the combat abilities of all users in the system. In order to contribute to the system, a user needs to send it high density simsense feed, but benefiting from the BattleTac's conclusions requires only a display link. In game terms, the effective rating of the system cancels out penalties for being attacked multiple times and cover provided by allies in the system. The BattleTac's rating limits the amount of such penalty it can cancel, and the unit's effective rating is capped by how many viewpoints are contributing to it. A user operating in Hot Sim operates as if the BattleTac's rating were one higher.
    Code:   
    Rating   Minimum Units  Cost      Availability
    1        2              15000¥    8F
    2        4              30000¥    12F
    3        8              90000¥    16F
    4        16             160000¥   24F   

        Step By Step: Using a Tactical Computer
        Click here to see the hidden message (It might contain spoilers)
        Chun the Unavoidable has a Rating 2 BattleTac system and 2 drones with him. He is currently running his display link in BTL because that's how he rolls. He has his own SimRig and one of his two drones is providing SimSense quality feed, while the other is not. This means that he has 2 contributing members on the BattleTac and thus the system is capped at Rating 1. So both of his drones will not lose a defense die the first time someone attacks them. However, Chun himself is running in Hot Sim, so he is getting it at an effective rating of 2, canceling the first and second multiple attacker penalties to his defense pools.

    Pilot Systems

    Rigger Adaptation
    A device which has a pilot rating can have a new pilot software installed that makes it more awesome for the cost of the better software. A device that does not have a pilot in the first place has to be adapted to remote operations. A Rigger Adaptation gives a device a Pilot of 1, and costs 500¥ per size of the new drone (Micro: 500¥, Mini 1000¥, Small 1500¥, Medium 2000¥, Large 2500¥, Huge 3000¥). And yes, in many cases it is flat cheaper to buy a modern device that already has a pilot in it and upgrade from there.


    Cyberware

    Retinal Duplication
    Sorry, the one on page 333 is extremely expensive and don't actually work. The proper cost should be 15000¥ with an availability of 12F, and no rating at all. The device displays a simsense quality Retina, once you've gotten a copy from somewhere an electronic device cannot tell the difference. If you are programming it in with a less than perfect knowledge of the retina you are copying, then your copy is only as good as your information. In general, one can make a Logic + Computer test to attempt to fool scanners if you have nothing but an image of the appropriate retina from an archive.

    Internal Commlinks
    Internal Commlinks are of primary use because of the direct wired connection they have to the user's brain. This allows the user to wirelessly communicate with their network through EUE and severely limit the ability of hackers to take their network away. The system is set to send information in and out, and bypasses a need to have a Sim Module. The Internal Commlink costs .2 Essence and 2000¥ plus the cost of the commlink itself. If you get it at a higher rating, you only need to pay the extra cost for the 2000¥ installation feed, not the cost including the commlink itself. When installed, the Commlink can either be Hot Sim enabled or not. Enabling BTL is illegal in many places, but not doing so will not necessarily prevent you from using it. However, if a wired BTL path is not established when the device is installed, Hot Sim sensory information will have to be sent wirelessly, at which point the Internal Commlink will act just like a set of trodes while the network is running hot. Hot Sim enabling uses up no more Essence and doesn't cost a different amount, it literally just changes the legality.

    Internal SimRig
    An Internal SimRig is a direct attachment to the sensory and emotive portions of the neurophysiology of the user. This not only gives the user the best possible sensory bonus to Matrix Perception, but also allows the user to send full simsense feed out. But perhaps the sneakiest part of all is that the hardware itself is legal and can be manipulated in software to produce BTL sequences. This means that it can be used for Hot Sim (by routing sensory data through those emotive and interpretive tracks) without actually showing up as illegal hardware on a medical scan of any invasiveness. This makes it the number one piece of hacker hardware. It costs .5 Essence and 5000¥.

    Internal Sim Module
    This device translates external data feeds into sensory feeds, and it does so inside the body after it's too late for snoopers to intercept the transmission. This may seem like a small subset of what an internal commlink can do and it is. It's basically the “input” section of the input/output of an internal commlink. It costs 1000¥ and .1 Essence, and can be set up for Hot Sim making it illegal.

Autogun: This rifle was chambered in a 6.7mm match grade cartridge for excellent ballistic performance.

Type: Basic Range: 100m RoF: S/3/10 Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+3 I Clip: 30 Reload: full Special: - Weight: 3.5kg Availability: Average

Marksman's Rifle: A conversion of the X-COM Autogun, prioritizing range over rate of fire.

Type: Basic Range: 150m RoF: S/-/- Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+3 I Clip: 10 Reload: full Special: Accurate Weight: 5 kg Availability: Average
 
Shotgun: The X-COM shotgun is a magazine fed, semi-automatic 12 gauge model.

Type: Basic Range: 30m RoF: S/-/- Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+4 I Clip: 8 Reload: 2 full Special: Scatter, Reliable  Weight: 5 kg Availability: Common

Assault Shotgun: A shotgun with a drum magazine. Doomguy wishes he had something this awesome.

Type:Basic Range: 30 M RoF S/3/- Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+4 I Clip: 18 Reload: Full Special: Scatter Weight: 6 Kg Availability: Scarce

Autopistol: This automatic handgun is chambered in .32 ACP. Low powered, but easy to control on full automatic, even with oen hand, due to it's advanced design

Type: Pistol Range: 30m RoF: S/-/6 Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+2 I Clip: 18 Reload: full Special: - Weight: 1.5kg Availability: Average

Stub Automatic: a basic semi-automatic handgun, firing a a 9mm +p round.

Type: Pistol Range: 30m RoF: S/3/- Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+3 I Clip: 9 Reload: full Special: - Weight: 1.5kg Availability: Plentiful

Stub Revolver: A revolver variant of the previous gun, more reliable at the expense of ammo capacity and rate of fire.

Type: Pistol Range: 30m RoF: S/-/- Pen: 0 Damage: 1d10+3 I Clip: 6 Reload:2 full Special: Reliable Weight: 1.5kg Availability: Plentiful

Hand Cannon: Firing the mighty .50 AE round, this handgun imposes a -10 penalty on basllistic skill unless fired using both hands.

Type: Pistol Range: 35m RoF: S/-/- Pen: 2 Damage: 1d10+4 I Clip: 5 Reload: full Special: - Weight: 3kg Availability: Average

Heavy Stubber: A machine gun firing belted 7.62mm AP cartridges. It can optionally fire from a magaine, reducing clip size to 40, but reducing reload time to one full action.

Type: Heavy Range: 120m RoF: -/-/10 Pen: 3 Damage: 1d10+5 I Clip: 200 Reload: 2 full Special: -  Weight: 35 kg Availability: Average

Rocket Launcher: *THOOM* *WOOSH* *KABOOM*

Type: Heavy Range: 300m RoF: S/-/10 Pen: Varies Damage: Varies  Clip: 1 Reload: full Special:Varies Weight: 35 kg Availability: Average

Grenade Launcher: A simple grenade launcher that can fire any of X-COM's grenades a greater distance than normal.

Type: Basic. Range: 60m RoF: S/-/- Pen: Varies Damage: Varies Clip: 6 Reload: 2 full Special: Varies Weight: 12kg Availability: Average

Autocannon: An enormous weapon firing gigantic shells, the Autocannon is the largest man portable ballistic weapon. May cause severe awesomeness.

Type: Heavy Range: 300 m RoF: S/3/- Pen: 6 Damage: 3d10+8 I Clip: 20 Reload: 3 ful; Special: Mech Usable, Reliable Weight: 40 kg Avaliability: Very Rare

Bow: It's a stick and some string and it fires sharper sticks at people. This is true even if it's carbon fiber and firing the sharpest of steel darts. You can carry 10 arrows per "magazine" of space

Type: Basic Range 30m RoF S/-/- Pen 0 Damage 1d10 R Clip 1 Reload Half Special: Reliable Weight: 2kg. Availability: Plentiful

Scalpel Long Rifle: Cold loaded flechettes covered in biotoxin. DOsen't get better than this.

Type: Basic Range 150 m RoF S/-/- Damage 1d10+4 R Penetration 2 Clip 4 Reload: Full Special: Accurate, Felling (2), Toxic (0) weight: 3 kg Availability: Scarce
(Incomplete, more will be added shortly)

Flamer: Spray hot, flaming death over a wide area. A fan favourite. A backpack fuel source can be attached at no additional cost, doubling the clip size and weight. Popular amoung bad shots- you don't even need to aim!

Type: Basic Range: 20m RoF: S/-/- Pen: 2 Damage: 1d10+4 E Clip: 6 Reload: 2 full Special: Spray, Flame  Weight: 6 kg Availability: Scarce

Heavy Flamer: I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Type: Heavy Range: 30m RoF: S/-/- Pen: 4 Damage: 1d10+5 E Clip: 12 Reload: 2 full Special: Flame Spray Weight: 45 kg Availability: Rare

 A case of six grenades counts as one unit
Frag grenade: A misnomer, this grenade wounds by force of blast alone, to minimise risk of team-injury via shrapnel

Type:Grenade Range: Strengh Bonus X3 RoF: S Pen: 0 Damage: 2d10X Special: Blast (3) Mech Usable Weight 0.5 KG Availability: Infinite Quantity

Krak Grenade: Designed to "Crack" open fortifications, the Krak grenade has a smaller blast radius, but deals more damage. You may carry one in place of a frag grenade

Type:Grenade Range: Strengh Bonus X3 RoF: S Pen: 6 Damage: 2d10X+4 Special: Mech Usable Weight 0.5 KG Availability: Infinite Quantity

Bloodfire Grenade: This grenade reacts with alien biochemistry to cause sustained spontaneous combustion of the tissues, cooking them from the inside out. This grenade ignores armour and toughness

Type: Grenade Range: strength Bonus x 3 RoF S Pen: NA Damage: 1d10+3 E Special: Toxic (2), Blast (5) Weight 0.5 KG Availibility: Scarce



Rocket: A basic munition for Rocket Launchers. Make the bad alien fall down go boom.

Pen: 3 Damage: 2d10+2 X. Blast 5, Weight .5 kg. Availability: Average

Crystaloid Shardcaster: This strange weapon is wielded by Crystaloid warriors, and seems to function similarly to a shotgun, producing large quantities of immensely sharp crystal.
Type: Basic Range: 40 m RoF S/3/- Damage: 1d10+4 R Penetration: 4 Clip: 60 Reload: 6 full Special: Scatter, Tearing. Weight: 5kg Availability: N/A

Longshot Rifle: this variant of the Marksman's rifle gains the High Impact, Crippling (2), and Overheats qualities. It is one grade more rare due to it's specialized ammunition
Model C Incinerator: This variant uses a cheap, heavy design. It can be used be MEC's, is an effective club, and has 10 meters additional range, in addition to being easier to acquire in high quality versions. It weighs an extra 2 kilograms, and Common Quality versions count as Poor due to leaky hoses.

Cybernetic limbs: These replace a missing or existing limb. They add 2 to your toughness bonus at that location, and adequately fufill all functions of the original. Higher craftsmanship ones grant bonuses to agility and strength. Availability: Scarce

X-COM Jumpsuit-This basic, light jumpsuit provides 1 armour in all locations
Medi Kit: A wide variety of painkillers, stimulants, cortisteroids, anti-venoms, astringents, anti-toxins, coagulants, sprayskin, and other useful checmicals grant +20 to medicae tests. Availability: Ubiquitous

Combat Knife: Basically a machete. A diamond edged, stabby machete.
Type: Melee/Thrown Range: 5m thrown Damage: 1d5+3+SB R Special -  Weight 1kg Availability: Plentiful

Sentinel Scout Walker: A heavily armoured combat walker, with attached heavy weapon. Availibility: very rare

Envenomed Arrows: These arrows have the Toxic (2) quality. They come in Quivers of 20. Availability: Plentiful
Expander: These rounds expand inside their targets. Simple, but lethal. They add +1 to both damage and penetration, and can fit in any slug firing weapon. Availability: Scarce
man-Stopper: These rounds penetrate armour. So really, more like tank stopper. Adds 3 pen, and can fit on any existing bullet firing weapon. Availability:Scarce
Slug: a simple self rifeling lead chunk. Adds +1 to shotgun damage and penetration, but looses the scatter quality. May replace buckshot on a 1-1 basis.
Inferno: Shells of white phosphorous and napalm. Shotguns inflict energy damage with the flame quality while armed. Availability: Common
Explosive arrow: Arrows that Bloody explode. They do explosive instead of rending damage, and gain +3 to damage and penetration.
Tracer: Tipped with illuminating chemicals, these add 1/2 extra degrees of sucess on a full auto attack(rounded up), and gain the flame quality at point blank range. Availability: Common

 Begin research into primitive energy weapons, to better oppose the enemy

Punch through armour, with electromagnetic projectiles.

We have ways of making them talk.

 Some sort of sphere?

Some sort of blade?

It's a spear that injures tanks!

 It's a handgun, and it cut off both of a man's arms

 Deadly, Shard Spitting menaces

 The boys at the lab have taken to calling them "Crystal-lids"

After today's field performance, it has become clear that manipulation of morale can sustain us in the worst of times

Make armour form the UFO hull

Move beyond the possible to kick reality to the curb. Augment the human flesh

Research sharper knives that penetrate alien flesh better.

Guns that fires /missles/. Can't get better than that.

Research new and improved ways to set the world on fire

Fix that pesky thermal degredation issue.

Select an existing weapon. The boys at the lab will do their best to make it kill people faster. Can be done in addition to any othr research project. Repeatable.

Research upgrades that can be applied to weapons. Funny how that works

 The Cavemen bow and arrow'd them to death. Why not us?

An Assortment of gear suited to fighting opponents underwater or in space

Funding is an abstract represenation of how likely the X-COM Council is to approve expenditures. You can increase it by performing well, or lose it by not responding to alien threats. A d100 roll is made, and rolling under your funding gets you the requesition. Their are modifiers to this roll, as follows:
Availability
Ubiquitous        +70
Abundant         +50
Plentiful           +30
Common          +20
Average           +10
Scarce              +0
Rare                 -10
Very Rare         -20
Extremely Rare -30
Near Unique     -50
Unique             -70

Avalibility is also modified by how much you request

One   +30
2-9    +20
10-30 +10
31-100 +0

This is further modified by craftsmanship

Poor +10
Common +0
Good       -10
Best         -30

Craftsmanship has the following effects:

Poor Quality guns are Unreliable, and poor melee weapons are at -10 to hit
Common Quality has no bonus or penalty
Good Quality are reliable, or if a melee weapon, +5 to hit
Best Quality never jam or misfire, or +10 to hit and +1 damage

 

 2 Hand Cannons
1 Auto Pistol
Flamer
2 Common Quality Crystaloid Shardcaster
4 Unknown Crystal grenade
1 Unknown Crystal weapon
Alien metal
10 Shardcaster  Ammunition blocks
6 Unknown Alien Pistol
         10 Unknown Alien grenade
         6 Unknown Alien Rifle
         6 Crystaloid Corpses
         1 Unknown Collosal Crystalline Anthropod Corpse
         3 Unknown Alien Blade
         3 Unknown Alien Polearm
         24 Alien Pistol Ammo
         36 Alien Rifle Ammo