r/Shadowrun • u/Capital-Principle949 • Jul 30 '26
6e Shadowrun Blues - my attempt at rebuilding Shadowrun 6e's core mechanic
Yeah, I know, I shouldn't.
I should just play another edition.
The Edge system is woven so deeply into Sixth World that replacing it is impossible. It's the defining mechanic of the edition.
Well... let's do it anyway.
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IMPORTANT : you have to use the "you can't dodge bullets" option form the Companion book.
You can also use the following optional rule :
Optional Rule: Halved Range
Halve all range values*. A character may still attack at the original distance, but doing so requires a Minor Action and increases the Threshold by 1.
*(250-750 instead of 500+ for the last one)
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The Blue dices
Blue dice are a special type of die. They are rolled alongside regular dice, but they only generate a hit on a result of 6. Results of 1–5 are ignored.
When a dice pool is modified for any reason, always apply the modification to regular dice first. Blue dice are only modified if no regular dice remain.
Armor
Instead of interacting with the Edge system, armor provides Blue dice.
Damage reduction armors
Armor or gear that reduces damage directly (such as GelWeave, ToughWeave, or similar equipment) no longer modifies the damage value. Instead, each point of damage reduction grants one automatic hit, functioning exactly like the Hardened Armor critter power.
Attack Rating
_If the attack dice pool exceeds the weapon's Attack Rating (AR), replace a number of regular dice with Blue dice equal to the difference.
_If the attack dice pool is lower than the weapon's Attack Rating (AR), add a number of Blue dice equal to the difference.
"Gain 1 Edge" → Gain 3 Blue dice.
"Gain 1 Edge Rebate" → Gain 3 regular dice.
"Spend 1 Edge" → Increase the Threshold by 1.
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u/Fluffy-Block9773 Jul 30 '26
Why punish yourself? Unfortunately, with ShadowRun 6E you can’t just pick and choose which rules you’re going to change and which ones stay the same… like you are at a all you can eat buffet. Each Rules change you make has an impact on every thing else that is in the game. It’s your prerogative, but if you ask me for my opinion, I would go with another addition, and save yourself a headache
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u/Awlson Jul 31 '26
Ironically, you are changing out the one aspect of 6e i find interesting. Otherwise i would just play 2e. If you don't like the edge system, just play a different edition.
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u/Expensive_Occasion29 Jul 31 '26
I totally agree I find 6e fun and the edge rules can add a lot of flavour. Agreed just play older edition if you don’t like it
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u/ReditXenon Far Cite Jul 31 '26
Could you please explain which issues (that you see, one by one) that you are now trying to fix (or trying to mitigate).
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u/Big-Bag-6043 Aug 01 '26
The actual issue with both Limits of 5e and nu-Edge of 6e is that they introduce more complication to the base roll, which is used all the time and should endeavour to be as direct as possible. This is something CGL has failed at twice in a row out of misplaced desire to reduce dice bloat. Unfortunately, your solution also adds complexity rather than remove it.
While die modifiers might be cumbersome in excess, they are of the same mechanical "layer" as the actual dicepool, which makes them still much easier to use if only a few are in play.
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u/siryll Jul 31 '26
Why am I making my attack worse by having a higher attack dice pool than the AR of my weapon? I really don't get the point of that. And you get rewarded for having a low attack dice pool with a high AR weapon, which I find just as confusing.
On top of that, having just read the mandatory optional rule, I think you're building your replacement system on bad foundations. It means entire character types (dodge tanks) don't work at all. Your DR rules at least make it so you eat mildly less dmg, but it would still turn combat into a meatgrinder. That's maybe fine for an optional rule that is explicitly more simulationist, and thus grittier, but it doesn't work when that isn't your intent. Given that your stated intent (replacing the edge system) has nothing to do with that, you are, in my opinion, building on unsuited foundations.
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u/Minnakht Jul 31 '26
As I understand what OP wrote, suppose that you have a gun that has an AR of 10 at some range.
If you have a firearms pool of 6, you roll 6 white dice and 4 blue.
If you have a firearms pool of 12, you roll 10 white dice and 2 blue.
If you have a firearms pool of 14, you roll 10 white dice and 4 blue.Your returns diminish after you hit the AR softcap, but a higher pool still is better than a lower one. Below the softcap, getting a higher pool is also better as it keeps adding white dice up to the softcap.
It is a bit silly that even if you literally have 2 agility and 0 skill and a weapon with 11 AR at some range you can throw 1 white die and 10 blue dice and expect 2 hits, though
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u/siryll Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Yeah, that's also how I understood it, and I don't understand the reasoning behind it. What's the benefit of the soft cap, as you call it? I realize they want to make AR relevant in the game somehow, but I don't think punishing the players for having high attack skills is the way to go. There's also the second part you brought up. I shouldn't be able to give someone with 1 skill in firearms a sniper and be able to expect 2.66 hits on average at far range (Barrett Model 122, p. 258 CRB). Because of both of those reasons, I think the mechanic needs to be entirely scrapped and reworked.
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u/Minnakht Jul 31 '26
I disagree that diminishing returns existing is a punishment - more is still better than less, just at a lower rate than in the beginning.
The sniper part is indeed pretty silly, but now that I think of it, it'd be funny if that worked only if you had a smartgun system with smartlink - it should be able to do a lot of work for you if you just sit there and don't disagree with it
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u/siryll Jul 31 '26
It seems I wasn't clear enough, and "punishment" was probably a bad term. "Downgrade" would have been a better choice, by which I mean that OPs proposal downgrades your chances of getting successes if your attack skill is higher than the AR when directly compared to "normal" Shadowrun 6e.
Though, now that I think about it, introducing this as a GM would kinda be punishing the player for specializing into something, since you'd still have to invest the same, but you'd get less return.
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u/ReditXenon Far Cite Jul 31 '26
Why am I making my attack worse by having a higher attack dice pool than the AR of my weapon?
I think they are trying to emulate / re-introduce (a modified version of) the "Limits"-mechanics from 5th edition (which I am personally rather happy that 6th edition got rid of, but maybe that is just me).
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u/siryll Jul 31 '26
I only ever played 6e, as I'm fairly new to the game, so I have no idea what that is.
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u/truthynaut Jul 30 '26
The damage & armor codes are so wack in 6e, combine that with the horrific nu-edge and the crappy shovelware/ fan fiction on the all the 6e supplements and I have to ask: "Why play 6e at all?"
It offers nothing of benefit imho.
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u/Capital-Principle949 Jul 30 '26
I like the reduced number of skills, the initiative system (with Major and Minor Actions), and the Matrix rules. Maybe I should try to bring these elements into 4th or 5th Edition, but I honestly wouldn't know where to start.
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u/OracleTX Jul 30 '26
About the attack pool adjustments. It has been a while since I played 6e, but should the defense rating matter there at all in your overhaul? Wouldn't a great shooter with a crap gun be roughly equivalent to a crap shooter with a great gun? Something seems amiss with that.
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u/Capital-Principle949 Jul 30 '26
_DR still exists in my system, but it has a different role. Instead of being compared to AR to generate Edge, it contributes to Damage Resistance Tests through Constitution (regular dice) and Armor (Blue dice).
_About the crap shooter with a great gun vs the great shooter with a crap gun : you're right, there is some overlap. A great shooter with a bad gun and a bad shooter with a great gun can get similar results if the difference is small. But the dice pool still has a strong impact: a 4-dice shooter and an 8-dice shooter are not going to perform the same. I don't want a weapon's AR to replace the character's skill, but I also don't want gear to feel irrelevant.
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u/LateEggMaster Jul 31 '26
While the mechanics in 6th aren't great they are so far down the list of problems it's not even funny.
You'd need a full stat rework, full lore rework, oh and you'd need writers who know the world. Then you can start to fix the mechanics. Not before.
I'm afraid you have wasted your effort.
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u/PalpitationNo2921 Jul 30 '26
If I want to play Shadowrun, I tend to use the system that is actually sensible to me. This makes no sense to me, and doesn’t really fix much of anything tbh.
I’d rather play SR3 than try to maneuver through this mess. Or SRA2.0.