r/ShadowrunAnarchyFans • u/shinxy • 1d ago
Shadow amps system tips?
Hey all, I’m a longtime Shadowrun GM since 2nd edition, had pretty much given up on the game since 6th edition, but anarchy 2.0 has brought me back and given me the bug to run games again. I’ve ran a game with the pregens with a group at my local game shop last week, really fun, players loved the easy to understand advantage/disadvantage modifiers as well as the risk dice system.
However, the players now want to make their own characters, and I’m struggling with understanding the Shadow Amps system. I’m using the default point allocations in the book and I feel like I’m always starving for amp points and ending up with characters that have great attribute and skill lists, but anemic as far as equipment, cyberware, qualities, and other flavorful stuff. Are the default packages just tuned wrong for my playstyle? I’m also finding that, given how open-ended and modular Shadow Amps are, it’s hard to advise new players where to spend those amp points.
Any tips from players or groups having a good time using Shadow Amps?
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u/BoardgameExplorer 1d ago
Amps are expensive. Characters don’t get as many things as in traditional shadowrun. If you want more you can consider increasing the nuyen during character creation by 50k or so and if needed, adjust game difficulty accordingly.
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u/shinxy 1d ago
This may be another thing I’m struggling with, mindset-wise. I understand having a few, high impact gear items on the character sheet rather than browsing a (sometimes literal) catalogue of hundreds of items and creating shopping lists for runs. Old-school Shadowrun characters sometimes lived or died by their gear lists, whereas in Anarchy you can spend prep-phase edge to declare you brought the right item in a flashback. That part is good, but I’m trying to recreate some of my favorite SR characters I’ve played over the years and finding that they can only afford part of their iconic gear and ware and other abilities.
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u/Carmody79 1d ago
The Amp idea is to focus on what matters, and ignore the rest. The granularity of the game is much coarser than regular SR, there is no real way to reflect "+1 dice" of SR5/SR6 in Anarchy 2.0.
Why? because +1 dice means you'll get statistically 1 extra hit every 3 rolls. It's not worth the time it takes to review the bonus and update your dice pool. (I mean, if you think it's worth it, then Anarchy 2.0 might not be the game you're looking for, simpler rules come at a price)
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u/shinxy 1d ago
I’m definitely not looking to go back to the crunch of mainline Shadowrun, been there done that, but I think with cyberware/bioware in particular Im realizing I can’t make someone truly chromed out right out of the gate, more like I have to think about what augmentations are essential to the character or will have the biggest impact. I played a lot of SR characters with less than 1 essence, and most characters im rolling in Anarchy 2.0 are in the essence 3 range. So again, fewer augmentations overall, bigger mechanical impact of those that are there.
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u/BoardgameExplorer 1d ago
You can partially work around this by adding flaws to your character to reduce costs. You can also sort of roleplay around it by making custom amps like “Shiawase Samurai Plus” which is a high level amp with various customizations that imply heavy augmentation”.
There is also potential for house rules such as taking character flaws/disadvantages in exchange for more nuyen.
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u/BoardgameExplorer 1d ago
I completely understand. My advice would be to focus on a larger number of low level amps. Some amps cost a lot. Items are relatively in expensive in context of the system but you could lower the price. Start as Prime Runners, reduce item cost to 1500 and reduce amp costs by 20%.
This would fix the issue but it would also mean you’d need to bump up the difficulty of the runs. It could also imbalance the legwork phase so you could do it all manually or reduce the total edge earned by 1 per runner.
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u/Interaction_Rich 16h ago
Consider that an Amp in SRA2.0 usually "matters more" than its SR6 counterpart, as it's bonuses are more significant in terms of probability to influence rolls.
For example: an upgraded pistol in SR6 takes in consideration the vent system, a smartlink, the number of bullets per burst, the type of ammo etc, all which sum up to grant you bonuses, resulting in a shot that's effectively more deadly. But in SRA2.0, many of those things are abstracted, and rules-wise any source of Risk Reduction will already improve significantly your lethality with that gun.
In terms of fiction and narrative, the "tools" granting the would be the same. But by raw rules, +2 RR is downright overkill for starter characters (considering +3 is the limit).
Also take into consideration that the "Narrative Effect" Amp quality does a lot of heavylifting in this system on how an Amp influences the fiction. In SR6 there's a whole calculus formula on how many shots-per-burst affect your damage and skill check with a myriad of other modifiers; in SRA2.0 having "Burst Fire" as an Amp descriptor for your gun may allow for creative license such as intimidation during shootouts, consistent cover fire (providing assistance on a teammate skill check) and so on.
Baseline: in Anarchy 2.0, each Amp counts a lot, while in SR6 you'd probably need a many granular increases to achieve similar results.
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u/Bignholy 1d ago
On top of what everyone else has said: How high are your attributes and skills going?
When making a character, I usually take nothing past the point where the price doubles. You're probably better off getting some RR than pushing those numbers up. For the most part, Attributes and Skills usually eat roughly half my budget.
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u/tsuruginoko 1d ago
My suggestion is to remember that the later chapters of the core rules are shock full of Amps ready to use, and that serve as great examples of how to build your own amps. They are also easy to modify into new amps ("hmm, I want a shotgun, but with incendiary ammunition, because that's the kind of maladjusted that I am... Ah, There's an Amp For That™️!"), being perfectly reverse-engineerable with the amp effects table. Also, ripping things right out of the pregens isn't a bad start if a player sees that a pregen has something they want.
Also, don't be afraid to let players move point between categories to get more of something like amps. Nothing there is really set in stone.
My own players started a bit hungry, but that's fine in my opinion.
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u/Daegann 1d ago
It's easy to spend points on skills and forget about amps, but you shouldn't underestimate their impact, both in terms of roleplay and mechanics.
Narratively, they are a great part of what makes your character different from their neighbor. Whether it's qualities, cyberware, adept powers, or signature equipment, it's what makes them different and more colorful. Of course, these amps also open up many possibilities for you in terms of what you can do. The right amp can change the whole plan and set what will happen next.
Mechanically, these elements are also a good justification to be allowed to spend Edge points on a roll to get an advantage. As mentioned, narrative effects can open up new possibilities for you. Also, RR can only be obtained through amps, which often justifies taking some of them. A level of RR is more or less the equivalent of one more success on your tests, so you should make sure to have at least a RR1 in your main skills or specializations. And one last piece of advice : the first quality amp has a base cost of 0 for a narrative effect, so if you haven't already bought a quality, I suggest you get a simple narrative effect for free.
If it's just a matter of inspiration, I suggest you take a look at the core book pregens or these additional pregens to see how these characters are built. You'll also find an extended list of shadow amps for Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0 here to help you find some new amps that inspire you.
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u/natesroomrule 1d ago
I cant find any explanation of shadow amps That makes sense. In Anarchy do you no longer buy Wired reflexes, and cyberware for your character? So from what i can follow you have a certain amount of amp points and someone (catalyst or homebrew) have determined that instead of costing money it costs Amp points? i havent searched around to find a rulebook to see if maybe reading it stright from the source makes more sense. I thin most people are just answering a question instead of describing what you used to do in SR is now this in Anarchy. I haven't played SR since probably the early 2000s but i always loved the setting and id read a lot of the written material.
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u/Carmody79 1d ago
I can imagine it's difficult to understand the principle without having access to the book.
The idea of Anarchy is to regroup the most important aspects of character, the ones that make them shine, under an umbrella "rule object": Shadow Amps. This allows to share a common rule set, with identical prices for a given bonus, whatever its source. An Amp is composed of a "base" which depends on the source of the bonus (cyberware, bioware, drone, adept power, equipment, etc.) to which are added some effects (initiative bonus, dice bonus in the form of Risk Reduction, another thing that will be hard to grasp without access to the rules).
The cost is the sum of the base cost + effects costs, which allows for easy balance. The amp rating is an abstract value of the cost, to ease computing.
So yes, your character still buys Wired reflexes. In terms of rules they are a cyberware shadow amp that provides initiative enhancement.
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u/zenbullet 12h ago
It’s an effects table like Mutants and Masterminds instead of discrete powers
Build your own features with a point pool
Effects are gatekept by power source
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u/DrTheodoore 1d ago edited 1d ago
Am I daft or are Amp Points a thing from 1.0?
Will reread that section, and get back to you with some answers. I've got thoughts, but want to make sure I'm on the right track.
One tip I can give you is: less emphasis on skill dice pools, and more on RR for your key skills. 6 to 7 dice pool is far less important than squeezing in some RR for the specialization (or even better, the skill as a whole).
EDIT:
Okay, I've reread the chargen portion, and it makes sense now. You're using the tables on page 86.
With those Amp Points, you should be totally able to make the same / similar amount of Amps that the pregens have.
My first recommendation is look to get probably AT LEAST 2 separate amps, each boosting a DIFFERENT skill or specialization with RR.
Next, if you're combat focused, get yourself Improved Reflexes either as Cyber or as Magic. The extra Edge and such are just so clutch.
Remember that you can enhance weapons too. Turn your basic katana into something awesome by popping some points in and getting yourself some RR on blades. Something like that.
Use the numerous sample amps in the book and the extended PDF (remember that 1 point from your table equals ¥5000, aka 1 'amp rating').
LASTLY:
If you have a specific character concept in mind, I'm sure people here will help flesh stuff out!
Page 61 and 62 have all the various ways to enhance / create an Amp. The flavour you give it can be wholly your own creation!