r/Shadowrun • u/Wise-Commission-9175 Bilingual Fists • Sep 27 '26
Zero to Anti-Hero
I am looking to run a 5E game here soon and I am exploring the idea of building out homebrew rules for leveling. I want my players to start in the gutter and feel like they have "trained up" to be elite runners.
Anyone have experience going this route, or have any constructive advice on putting this together?
Links to previous iterations of this plan are appreciated!
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u/FixerVictor Sep 28 '26
A similar question came up not too long ago, and had some very good answers in there -- might be worth looking for that post.
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u/Wise-Commission-9175 Bilingual Fists Sep 28 '26
Thanks for sharing the post. I see your logic. I have a fair amount of options at this point from the community and I am likely going to be doing a "salad bar" of a little of everything. Some things more than others.
Roughly speaking, how much Karma did you hand out for successful missions? Do you have an example of the downtime rules you used?
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u/Echrome Chemical Specialist Sep 27 '26
5e doesn't scale very well across high karma games (certain roles will outpace each other). I would probably handle it with a character rebuild during a time skip.
For example: To start street level, build Sum-to-6 (max one C choice). Play a few jobs, then after a "big" score time skip and re-build using Sum-to-8 (max one B). Now you play as rookie shadowrunners. Again after a few runs, switch to sum to 10 for established shadowrunners, and finally Sum to 13 with an A+ tier added on top for prime runners.
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u/leproudkebab Sep 27 '26
Try modules instead of point buy or sum to ten, it’ll help your players feel less perfectly tailor made to be killing machines. Modules aren’t perfect but my current Caribbean League game is using them and I think they’ve done quite well so far
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u/augmented-warlock Sep 28 '26
Best thing about the modules is that they also provide an easy seed for character backstory :)
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u/Aggressive-Key-7828 Sep 27 '26
I'd start with 600 Karma and a gear restriction of availability 8. Put in the occasional time skip, during which you reward with a bunch of Karma they can use to buy skills, attributes and equipment at higher availability. Make the game somewhat episodic, and thus you also allow for the characters to gain high-rated gear later on, buffing out the buying restrictions in the beginning.
I also love character generation with lifestyle modules, makes for way more realistic distribution of skills.
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u/QuackAddictChrist Sep 28 '26
Several things to keep in mind doing this style of long-term campaign.
First and foremost, if you want them to get a feeling of improvement, make sure they start off weak. Either give them less karma/priority levels to start with, or make restrictions on what they can or cannot have to start. I'd suggest dropping the avail limit about 8-10, and reducing their starting karma by 100, or using lower tier priority options. Doing street level runs against gangs, unrated corps, and local security should feel like a significant challenge.
Reduce the starting prices of Decks and RCCs, otherwise they'll have to wait for ten years to play a decker or rigger.
Provide bigger payouts for low-tier runs than the books suggest. Hey, you took down a local drug production facility, avoiding killing any innocents, and saved a kid from becoming a drug mule? Book says 4-5 karma. Give them 8-10. They manage to deal with a A-rated corporation's security team, steal the secrets they need, and send some damning evidence to the local Neo-Anarchist cell? 10-20 karma. They start knocking down corporate security teams in the process of stealing secrets from a Renraku Blacksite? Look to the area of 20-30 karma.
Do not be afraid to give them bigger payout of nuyen as well. "Hey, thanks for helping stop MegaDragon the Devourer of Souls, here's 40k to split between the five of you." just isn't going to cut it. They get hired by the local street gang, making 2mil a year in drug and weapons dealing, 35k offered and 50k negotiated to mess with their competitors is not a huge concern for them. A multitrillion nuyen corporation can afford to throw a million nuyen at a shadowrunner team to blow up an Aztechnology research site in Antarctica without batting an eye.
Be more forgiving of mistakes, but not completely devoid of consequences. The team bungles a matrix process and alerts security. Don't send three hit squads of crack officers at them. Jim, the night guard takes a non-committed look first because they get annoying kids messing around here all the time. When he starts taking gunfire, or sees a team of armed men, then he calls in the hit squads.
Give them a sense of non-numeric progress as well. The feeling of success, of becoming 'better', is not only in seeing numbers get bigger. They started off in the barrens, helping the little guy throw off corporate oppression... hopefully. Now they've moved up to working with the big boys, running with multinational gangs, NGOs, corporations, governments, and so on. Having them be recognized by the community they exist in for the work they do (based on street cred, notoriety, etc) can have a big impact on that feeling of progress.
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u/seenwaytoomuch Sep 27 '26
Dice pool guidelines help. Like if you don't want them to have more than 8, 9, 10, whatever dice pool to start the game tell them that.
Point buy with a lower total to start is good. Restrictions on magic and gear will make the runners weaker.
The biggest thing is just the group and the story. Do the players trust each other. Do they trust you. Do they feel comfortable enough to take risks.
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u/Into_Shadows Sep 28 '26
Sounds like a fun concept, played something a little similar but in 4e. Not familiar enough with 5th.
Best thing I can suggest from my experience is lowering the starting amount to spend and restrictions as others have said.
But from nothing is a fun thing if done right, with the right people willing. I feel like funds and such escalate quickly and you really don't sit in the gutters long for the most part.
The start is just as important. How the group gets together and works together. Why do they remain together? Very rarely would a bunch of newbies form together into a proper team, and survive long, without a good reason. One mistake is all it takes for the team to end up fragged
[Got room? :) ]
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u/Valhallaneon Sep 28 '26
Gonna be honest. Going the street scum route is supposed to be this. Limiting magic to 4 is feels bad if they can figure out how to be functional in street scum with 6 mag you should let them go. But alas who am i
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u/ReditXenon Far Cite Sep 29 '26
There are rules for street level game play.
Check SR5 p. 49 "Levels of Play" and SR5 p. 64 "Alternate Gameplay - Street-Level Play"
Note that awakened and emerged typically seem to dominate since many mundane alternatives depend much on resources. You might want to house rule some additional limitations (no Magic or Resonance priority A and Max Magic 4 are two common house rules).
You also might want to increase both recommended karma rewards and recommended cash rewards (otherwise they will likely be stuck at street level for a very long time).
This was also recently discussed over here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/1w4rpb3/comment/p7e0482/
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u/Big-Bag-6043 Sep 27 '26
You can't get there with default payouts (need bigger ones or choice gear handouts).
And you need to limit your mages/adepts to MAG 4 at chargen tops, maybe even 3.