the poor mans guide savage worlds shadowrun

The Poor Man’s Guide to Savage Shadowrun

I say poor man’s guide, because I do not have any rights to any of the Shadowrun materials, so I

cannot make any monies from their work. This is merely an exercise for my own gratification because I

love a game.

The Shadowrun Universe is a lovely setting in the not too distant future, a dystopian Cyberpunk

chronicle produced first by FASA, and then later Wizkids. I don’t know if the rights have passed on to

another producer since then, but it has a deep and voracious following that will not let it die. Most of

this Guide will be from the point of view of pre-fourth edition Shadowrun, as those are the versions I

have the most experience with, and 4th edition SR was really vastly different than the previous versions.

I will concentrate on making SR fit into the already voluminous Savage Worlds rules, rather than twisting

Savage Worlds to Shadowrun.

“Oh good, another dystopian Cyberpunk setting…” I know we’re living in the age of mash-ups, (Achtung Cthulhu!), and but Shadowrun was the first

in gaming circles to merge a fantasy/magic setting with the dark dystopian future of cyberpunk. It has a

very rich and long storyline that has been added to for 20 years. The premise is that the world

experiences magic in waves, during some ages, magic is low, and others, magic is high. Usually it is

somewhere in between. In 2011, magic rose to a point where races and creatures that require magic to

survive finally had enough ambient magic to return to the world. Most of them had been hidden

dormant human beings. Few of these peoples knew before the return of magic that they were

supernatural in any way, so to their great surprise they suddenly started mutating. Many died, some

survived. Suddenly there were a hole smorgasbord of new races and monsters in the world, and the

lines of racism were redrawn along xenophobic lines.

Along with the supernatural races, those human beings that had a closer connection to magic

before the surge suddenly found themselves sporting real magical powers, and a new age of wizards and

shamans arose. Cultures with high belief in magic suddenly had an edge and split away from the

cultures had oppressed them for years. This along with a rise in Mega-corporate interests diminishing

the relevance of state governance caused a break-up of most large countries and a vast array of wars

followed. All the while, technology has gone forward at a dizzying pace, allowing for technical and

biological alteration of any part of the human body.

“But first! The Prostitutes!” I always make characters for a game before I read all the rest of the book. I learn system’s more

organically that way. So before getting into all of the overwhelming deliberations on the system, setting

and what have you, I’m going to cover enough that you can make any kind of SR character within the

Savage Worlds system.

Races Any character that isn’t fully genetically Homo Sapiens falls into the category of Subhuman. The

Shadowrun Universe has been expanded by a number of expansions to a whole slurry of races, but the

core races defined in the main SR book are Elf, Dwarf, Ork and Troll. The Savage Worlds Deluxe source

book also lists comparable races, but they need to be tweaked slightly. First, All subhuman races have

the Outsider Hindrance and suffer a -2 Charisma modifier to all dealings with anyone not of their own

race.

Elves in Savage Worlds suffer from the All Thumbs Hindrance, but this is not the case in the SR world.

Instead, Elves should suffer from the Delicate Build (-1 Toughness)

Dwarves should have Infrared Vision instead of, Low-light vision

There is no Ork race setting in Savage Worlds, but the Half-Orc rules should suffices with the minor

change of suffering from the Hindrance: Ugly.

There is nothing even remotely like the SR Troll in the savage Worlds races, so using the Race Building

Rules, I have produced:

Troll – Yada yada yada, read the SR book for race descriptions….

Strong: D8 in Strength and may raise it to d12+2 via normal advancement

Vigorous: D6 in Vigor

Thick Skinned: +2 Armor (reduced by AP weapons)

Huge: +1 Size

Thick Skulled: Raising Smarts cost 2x points at character making and costs 2x Advancements

during Character Advancement.

Hideous: -3 Charisma

Clueless: Major Hindrance

Beginning Characters One of the great things about Shadowrun that was unlike most other game systems was that

you began play with a completely competent character. You didn’t start as a bumbling peon that could

cast one spell and then was done for the day. You could choose from 4 different specializations; Magic,

Money, Skills, or Attributes. But by the time you finished spending all those points, you could stand

your own in just about any situation by yourself. In Savage Worlds, sadly the opposite is true.

Beginning characters really barely start able to do anything. Beginning mages start with 2 or 3 powers

and enough power points to cast maybe 2 or 3 spells. You can handle it in one of three ways; Double

everything at character creation, Double one Section, or start your characters as Seasoned or Veteran

characters.

Double Everything: This means that a basic human character begins with 10 attribute points, 30 Skill

points, 2 Edges (1 if you are a subhuman) and $1000 Nuyen. Mages start with 20 Power Points and 6

spells.

Double one Section: as with Double Everything, but characters only get one section to Double. One

character might start with Double the Attributes, and another might choose to have Double the Skill

Points.

Start as Seasoned or Veteran: So once you have a basic character laid down, then you advance them as

though they were Seasoned or Veteran characters. This means that they have all of their basic

attributes, skills and edges, but then they also have 4 or 8 more Advancement Points to spend for

fleshing out of edges and attributes and skills. To reflect a long work history, you should be provided

$500 extra Nuyen for each Advancement Point. The disadvantage of this is Savage Worlds characters

only have 6 advancement phases to go through, … if you use them up at character creation, there is less

lifetime for your character…

Free Stuff: Make a normal character, and then give 8 free Advancement Points, with the caveat; they

have to be spent on character-type related purchases and marked as such. So the Advancement Points

used by a Street Samurai, Rigger, and Matrix Runner would be used for Cybernetic enhancements.

Mages would have to use them for magical enhancements like added powers or spell points or magic

related Edges, or even Foci for spell casting. Of course, since you are giving them away, the characters

are not yet Seasoned or Veteran, so they still get to go through all of the normal Character

Advancements, they do not get all the Action Cards, they can’t take the upper level powers, etc.

The Greatest of All Evils Money. In SR, one of the 4 character creation pillars was money. It allowed the Street Samurai

to buy all of the cybernetic implants necessary to give them an edge on the streets. It allowed the

Matrix Runner (Hacker) to buy a competent deck giving him an edge on the ‘Net. It allowed a Rigger to

buy a decent vehicle and throw a few armored plates and weapons on it. Savage Worlds is not gear-

centric right out of the box. Some of the expansions get really involved in it, but it adds to the

complexity of the game, making it more bulky and unwieldy. Even doubling the paltry sum of money

that SW gives at the beginning wouldn’t get you the most meager of cars or computers, and definitely

won’t buy you any Cyber.

In SR, while you got Karma to enhance your skills and attributes in the normal manner, you also

used money to buy tech to enhance your character. The purpose of Cyberware and Vehicle Rigs and

Matrix Running Computers and Software is to use technology to enhance your poor mortal frames; to

make them do thing special; something superhuman. In this way, instead of bogging you down with a

huge equipment list and trying to capture every possible thing that might ever be invented…, you will

instead use your money;

To buy Advancements!

Advancements should cost around $20,000 Nuyen each. They should a.) provide some extra

function the character would not normally have on his own, or b) provide an Edge from the book as a

piece of tech or and implant or c) give a +1 to die type to a Skill or Attribute or d) give a -1 to some Skill

Use.

In the future, tech will be designed to provide advancements in all walks of life, so technically

(with the final approval of the Game Master) any Advancement could be reproduced with a piece of

technology. Generally, this will be limited to 3 Advancements of its type; i.e. Street Samurai can buy the

Advancement Smartgun Implant (Cyber) 3, which will allow him to buy or mod a gun with smart sensors

that give him a +3 die levels (Shooting) to all Shooting Rolls made with a Smart Gun. It would cost him 3

Advancements purchased with money. He could buy it at a rank 1 for 1 money-purchased

Advancement; Increased strength 3 (Cyber) would cost 3 Cyber Advancements, and would raise a

normal D6 strength to D12. This would be indicated on the Character Sheet as Strength D6 (D12).

Generally, a level 3 Advancement in this manner would be out of scope of a street level operator

to acquire, as it would be cutting edge tech, and only available in the Cyber clinics of the rich and

powerful. To reflect this, Level 3 Advancements will only be available to characters at the Veteran Level

or higher. There is also a restriction on Bioware Advancements of Level 2 as explained in the Arcane

Background [Bioware] section.

As implants go up in Level, so too does the obvious visibility of bulk of the implant. Level 1

Subdermal Armor can general be hidden under clothes. Level 3 Subdermal Armor visibly distorts all

clothing put over it. Level 1 Retractable Blades (Cyber) (Fingertips Str +D4 damage) are much simpler to

conceal than Level 3 Retractable Blades (Cyber) (Swords in your forearms! Str +D8 damage)

Non-Implant Advancements

It’s all kinds of sexy to talk about implants and magical powers, but at the end of the day,

sometimes you want a piece of tech to give you an Edge, but you don’t want to have it invade your body

for various reasons.

The tech is illegal, and you want to be able to put it away from you when you need to travel or

go into a situation where it might create difficulties.

The tech is bulky and messes up the cut of your jig.

The tech is only needed on rare circumstances.

The tech is worth a lot of money, and every organ-legger in town knows you have one. Watch

you back in dark alleys!

So it may be that you wish to acquire some ablative tech. This category includes things like

Rigger Vehicles and Drones, Decks for running the matrix, as well as Smartglasses (for gun targeting,

long range vision and VR manipulation), Exo-frames (Strength Enhancing exo-skeletons), Health

Scanners, Maglock Pickers, etc. These follow nearly the same rules as the Cyber and Bioware

Advancements except they are not embedded in your body. This means that you cannot really hide

them, they are usually pretty obvious, You often have to move your attention to them to operate them,

providing a -2 to Notice rolls when using them (some cases may ignore this rule) and They are subject to

destruction … anytime a person with ablative tech is involved in a blast, that tech is broken until it can

be repaired (an extra Advancement can be paid to make the tech Rugged, adding to the bulk, but giving

the object the Toughness of 10).

What You’re Really Here For Arcane Backgrounds are those things that allow a character to step beyond normal

human/metahuman boundaries. They are a thing that makes people special. As the name

implies, most of them are related to the supernatural, the magical plane where all magic energies

come from and allow magical creatures and men with magical powers to exist on the Sixth

World.

Included in this section though for continuity and as a control device for character

balance, are the Cyberware and Bioware backgrounds. These MUST be taken before any Cyber

or Bioware Advancements may be taken, though they may be taken as Cyber or Bioware

Advancements or just a regular Edge. While it is impossible to have more than one of the

Hermetic Mage/Shamanic Mage/ Physical Adept arcane backgrounds, Cyberware and Bioware

backgrounds and advancements can be added to a character that has any of the others. But

beware, adding Arcane Background [Cyberware] to a character with any of the magical

traditions can possible destroy their connection to the magical realm.

Arcane Background [Hermetic Mage]

Arcane Skill: Spellcasting (Smarts)

Starting Power Points: 20

Starting Powers: 6

Description: Magicians range from powerful wizards to vile cultists. They draw on raw

supernatural energy to fuel their eldritch fires. This energy often infuses the worlds in which they

live, and is drawn forth with elaborate rituals, words of power, runes, or perhaps even dark

sacrifices.

Wizards are often quite weak early in their careers, but are forces to be reckoned with as they

become powerful sorcerers.

►► Clean Living: Violations of the body, i.e. getting cyber installed, drug addiction, etc. may

destroy the magical connection the character has to the magical plane. Whenever acquiring

cyber, the character must roll his Spirit die. If he rolls a 1 his Spellcasting die is reduced one

level. If his Spellcasting die drops below D4, or he has more Cyber Advancements than his

Spirit die, his connection to the magical world is broken and he becomes a burned-out mage.

►► Tenuous Connection: Mortal Wounds (i.e. Incapacitated) that cause a permanent damage

to the Holy Body may destroy the magical connection the character has to the magical

plane. Whenever suffering a Mortal Wound, the character must roll his Spirit die. If he rolls a 1

his Spellcasting die is reduced one level. If his Spellcasting die drops below D4, or he has more

Cyber Advancements than his Spirit die, his connection to the magical world is broken and he

becomes a burned-out mage.

►► Backlash: When a wizard rolls a 1 on his Spellcasting die (regardless of his Wild Die), he

is automatically Shaken. This can cause a wound.

Arcane Background [Shamanic Mage]

Arcane Skill: Spellcasting (Spirit)

Starting Power Points: 20

Starting Powers: 6

Description: Shamans range from powerful druids and warlock to vile witch doctors. They draw

on their attunement to the natural world and its energies to fuel their great Changes. This energy

often infuses the worlds in which they live, and is drawn forth with prayers and rituals,

invocations of spirits, runes, or perhaps even dark sacrifices.

Shaman are interlopers often quite weak early in their careers, but are forces to be reckoned with

as they become powerful sorcerers.



cyber, the character must roll his Spirit die. If he rolls a 1 his Spellcasting die is reduced one

level. If his Spellcasting die drops below D4, or he has more Cyber Advancements than his

Spirit die, his connection to the magical world is broken and he becomes a burned-out mage.




his Spellcasting die is reduced one level. If his Spellcasting die drops below D4, or he has more

Cyber Advancements than his Spirit die, his connection to the magical world is broken and he

becomes a burned-out mage.

►► Backlash: When a shaman rolls a 1 on his Spellcasting die (regardless of his Wild Die), he

is automatically Shaken. This can cause a wound.

Arcane Background [Physical Adept]

Arcane Skill: Chi (Spirit)

Starting Power Points: N/A

Starting Powers: N/A

Description: Physical Adepts are magically active humans or meta humans whose magical

energies express as superhuman abilities rather than spells. Through deep meditation and

rigorous physical training, the Physical Adept can tap into the energies of the magical plane a

draw the Chi of that plane into their bodies to make them truly a force to be seen.

-Can choose any Edge regardless of level; Since the Physical Adept gives almost the entirety of

their lives to the pursuit of advancing themselves, along with their supernatural connection, they

all receive the

-Receives 8 Advancement Points to be tagged with (Physad)



cyber, the character must roll his Spirit die. If he rolls a value less than or equal to the

Advancement Points of the violation (half for Bioware) or the level of the drug addicted to, he

then loses 1 non-refundable Advancement Point worth of Physad abilities.




he then loses 1 non-refundable Advancement Point worth of Physad abilities (instead of the

horrible disfigurement normally rolled on these occasions).

Arcane Background [Cyberware]

Arcane Skill: N/A



Description: To follow the theme of the Weird Scientist, Cyberware is being implemented as an

Arcane Background even though Cyberware is not Arcane, and is in fact the antithesis of the

Arcane World.

Physical Adepts are magically active humans or meta humans whose magical energies

express as superhuman abilities rather than spells they????.

Shaman are interlopers often quite weak early in their careers, but are forces to be reckoned with

as they become powerful sorcerers.

Advancement Points purchased with Nuyen or Beginning Character Advancements must be

tagged with (Cyber) so an accounting of the Advancements spent on Cyber can be made, and

also so it can be determined if Cyber is damaged when a character takes an Incapacitating

Wound. Cyber Advancements must also be assigned to a place (or places) on the body; head,

torso, right arm, left arms, right legs, etc; so it can be determined if they become damaged.

►► Breakable: Mortal Wounds (i.e. Incapacitated) that cause a permanent damage to the

Character’s Body may destroy Cyberware embedded in the area of the body the wound took

place on. After rolling on the Injury Table and a body location, if that body location has any

embedded Cyber, roll a D6 vs. the number of Cyber pieces one that body part. If he rolls less

than or equal to the number Cyber implants, the GM determines which of those Cyber

Advancements stop working. Repairs can be made to the Cyber if a full Cybernetic shop is

available at a -4 and D6x1000 Nuyen in parts, or if you pay a Cybertech at a rate of D6x1500

Nuyen.

Arcane Background [Bioware]

Arcane Skill: N/A



Description: As with Cyberware; Bioware are enhancements to the body or mind by implant, but

instead of violating the body with a foreign piece of machinery or computer chips, bioware

reflects enhancements made by genetically altering tissues grown from the host to create better

abilities more natural to the body. These vat grown parts do not count as violations against the

magical connection to the body, and will not cause magic loss or burn-out. The catch is that

Bioware cannot be factory made and so costs much more to produce and is never available on

the street level. Generally only corporate, government or wealthy zones have the kind of moxy

to produce Bioware grown from a person’s own flesh. As such, this kind of Advancement costs

twice as much in Advancement points, and Bioware enhancement are limited to only 2 levels, so

Enhanced Strength 3 is not available to Bioware recipients.

Advancement Points purchased with Nuyen or Beginning Character Advancements must

be tagged with (Bioware) so an accounting of the Advancements spent on Bioware can be made,

and also so it can be determined if Bioware is damaged when a character takes an Incapacitating

Wound. Bioware Advancements must also be assigned to a place (or places) on the body; head,

torso, right arm, left arms, right legs, etc; so it can be determined if they become damaged.

►► Breakable: Mortal Wounds (i.e. Incapacitated) that cause a permanent damage to the

Character’s Body may destroy Bioware embedded in the area of the body the wound took place

on. After rolling on the Injury Table and a body location, if that body location has any

embedded Bioware, roll a D6 vs. the number of Bioware pieces one that body part. If he rolls

less than or equal to the number of implants, the GM determines which of those Bioware

Advancements stop working. Bioware heals itself at a rate of 1 week/level.

Edges While the expansions for SR deliver a number of different paths to magic use, they boil down to

variations of 3 paths: Hermetic Mage, Shamanic Mage, and Physical Adept.

Hermetic and Shamanic Mage traditions are variations of Arcane Background: Mage. The distinctions

are as such:

Totemic Guide

Requirements: Arcane Background [Shamanic Mage] or Arcane Background [Physical Adept]

????Shamanic Magi yada yada yada

damaged.

Initiation

Requirements: Veteran, Arcane Background [Hermetic Mage] or Arcane Background [Shamanic

Mage]


damaged.

Initiate Group


Mage]


Damaged

Bound Spirit


Mage], Initiation 1+


damaged.

Profession: Decker

Requirements: Novice, Hacking D8+

The illustrious Decker is a person who eats, sleeps and drinks computers and computer

related subjects. Some people can program, and some people can hack with borrowed scripts,

but a Decker lives and breathes this stuff with his entire being.

People with the Professional Edge of Decker treat all matters dealing with computers and

related tech as Common Knowledge and gain a +1 to rolls involving the fixing or creation of

new code (Hacking).

Profession: Rigger

Requirements: Novice, Drive D8+

The Rigger is a geek when it comes to vehicles, cars, planes, boats, what-have-you.

Some people can fix cars or knows a few things about airplanes, but a Rigger lives and breathes

this stuff with his entire being.

People with the Professional Edge of Rigger treat all matters dealing with vehicles and

drone tech as Common Knowledge and gain a +1 to rolls involving the fixing or creation of new

vehicles and functions of vehicles (Repair).

Powers While the expansions for SR deliver a number of different paths to magic use, they boil down to

variations of 3 paths: Hermetic Mage, Shamanic Mage, and Physical Adept.

Summon Elemental

Rank: Arcane Background [Hermetic Mage]

Rank: Novice

Power Points: 3+

Range: Smarts

Duration: 3 (1/round)

Trappings: Summon Elemental

Hermetic Magi yada yada yada damaged.

Summon Spirit

Rank: Arcane Background [Shamanic Mage]

Rank: Novice

Power Points: 3+

Range: Smarts


Trappings: Summoning Nature Spirit

Shamanic Magi yada yada yada damaged.

Materialize

Rank: Only Spirits

Rank: Novice

Power Points: 3+

Range: Smarts


Trappings: Summoning Nature Spirit

Shamanic Magi yada yada yada damaged.

Hack in a Box There are simply no rules in Savage Worlds for anything to do with computers. One could I

guess add computers as a Repair Skill, but Repair is quite simply highly biased towards dealing with Cars,

and inelegantly bringing in Planes and Boats as an afterthought.

????

Since it would be nice to have things in one place, I am including Decker related Gear here in the

Hacking Section as well.

CyberDecks

A Hermetic Mage uses the trappings of rituals and incantations

Deck Mods


Rigger Black The Savage Worlds Deluxe game has a decent section on Vehicles and Vehicle Rules. For the

most part, these same values apply to the Savage Shadows setting. The greatest advancements in

vehicle technology for the everyday Joe is that most vehicles by default have at least minimal AI, Sensor,

Self-Driving and GPS capability. If you do not have stressful driving needs, anyone can hop into any car

(they have rights to drive) and ask the car to take them to any location. The vehicle will make its way to

the desired location by the least tine-requiring and most law-abiding route, if the requestor has the right

to go to the location. In fact many people have cars and do not have drivers licenses, because they

would never do something so pedestrian as “drive their car”. Even flying vehicles and boats have the

ability to pilot to any location reachable by its mode of travel. Planes without VTOL of course will have

to go to the nearest airstrip.

Most ground vehicles in this day and age are electric, or hybrid electric/IC (internal combustion).

Most air and water vehicles are hybrids. There are some enthusiasts that are still completely IC, but the

fuels costs are prohibitive. The default ranges for vehicles are listed in parens () after the vehicle name

for its chassis. Range can be improved by vehicle modification.

But for the people who need to have more control, to go places they are not supposed to, to go

faster than the optimized speed for the road, there are some serious vehicle options. Riggers can have

their vehicles outfitted with a Vehicle Control Rig, and their brains outfitted with a Rigger Interface

(Cyber) 1 - 3 which is basically a fully VR immersive connection between the Rigger and his vehicle.

While immersed, the Rigger experiences all of the Vehicle’s sensory input as if it were his own body, in

fact, the immersion is so complete, that the Rigger is no longer able to receive sensory input from his

meat body. This immersion gives the Rigger great advantage over normal AI’s and old style manual

driving. You may have noticed the tag (Cyber) after the Rigger Interface mention above. To have the

ability for immersive VR experiences, a bunch of chips and wires needs to be integrated with the Rigger’s

neurological pathways. Where is no Bioware variation of the Rigger Interface, and just having VR

goggles is not enough either. There is no ablative alternative for Rigging.

Since it would be nice to have things in one place, I am including Rigger related Gear here in the

Rigger Section as well. Most of the vehicles you will need for your shadows will be variations of the

vehicles in the SW Deluxe book, just modernized versions, so give them new exciting names like the Ares

Dragon or the Mitsubishi Nightsky.

All Vehicles come with Artificial Intelligence, making your vehicles technically to be Allies. They

have the following attributes (Smarts D4, Agility D4, Spirit NA, Strength (by chassis), Vigor (by chassis);

Driving(or Piloting or Boating) D6, Notice D4, Knowledge (GPS Position) D10, Knowledge (Repair) D8 ) by

default. The Rigger can upgrade the AI with Advancements Points to a maximum of D10, but since that

is a 3rd level of advancement, it is limited to military or megacorporation use. Strength and Vigor are

replaced by vehicle stats; Acc/TS and Toughness. They are defined by the default vehicle values listed in

the Savage Worlds books. Acc/TS and Toughness can be upgraded up to 30% with Advancement Points

using the Vehicle Mods below. Chassis 4 – 6 (except limo) are generally limited to militaries, security

forces, governments or large corporations.

Drones are all the rage. And while the AI on all vehicles technically make everything a drone,

drone in this context are ????

Vehicles

Chassis 1 (1 Advancement Point) – 1 light Drone (10 hours) or 4 micro-drones (10 hours) ,

compact car (200), light motorcycle (200) or small boat (200)

Chassis 2 (2 Advancement Points) – Car (300) or crotch rocket (200)

Chassis 3 (3 Advancement Points) – Van (200), truck (200), light plane (400), or light helicopter

(400)

Chassis 4 (4 Advancement Points) – APC (300), military helicopter (500), limo (300),

Chassis 5 (5 Advancement Points) – Tank (200)

Chassis 6 (6 Advancement Points) – Jet Fighter (1500)

Vehicle Mods

VTOL – Vertical Take-off and Landing - While not necessarily “new”, the ability for VTOL

(Vertical Take Off and Landing) has become more commonplace in the Shadowrun world. It is

still uncommon for the average person to have a vehicle with VTOL capability, but it is more a

more common application for military and security forces, and high level VIPs to have VTOL

Personnel Carriers, Tanks, and Limousines. As far as Speed and Handling, VTOL has about the

same stats as a AH-64 Apache from the SW Deluxe book, the only advantage being an enclosed

fan-base, making it less dangerous to bystanders and more versatile in urban environments. If

the VTOL is on a winged plane, it also has the advantage of being able to take off without an

airstrip.

Improved Smarts – 1 die per Advancement (max 3). At level 3, vehicle is technically a Wildcard.

Improved Agility – 1 die per Advancement (max 3)

Improved Skill – Driving (Agility) or Boating (Agility) or Piloting (Agility)… 1 die per Advancement

(max 3)

Improved Acceleration/Top Speed/Climb – Larger engine gives 10% increase in ACC/TS and +1

to Climb (flying vehicles only) per Advancement (max 3)

Improved Toughness -

Armor Plating –

Fighting/Shooting Skill – Vehicles do not by default come with this skill unless they are

military/security in nature. Military vehicles will have this at a default of D8, and may be

improved to D10. A Rigger can make illegal modifications to his AI’s to provide this functionality,

for a cost of 1 AP for a D4, and can improve it up to a D6. More requires sponsorship. The key

point here though is it is illegal.

Mounted Weapon, Light - While it’s pretty simple to A-Team one of your Assault Rifles to the

hood of your car, it’s also dreadfully obvious, and will get you pulled over by any authority you

care to mention, it only points one direction, and you have to have a gunner to fire it. For 1 AP,

you can take any normal weapon used by a man (plus the cost of the weapon) and mount it

onto your vehicle with an actual mount, and have it swivel on a 60 degree arc (180 degrees if

you have the space to add a turret). It can be controlled by the Rigger Interface or by the AI.

For another AP, it can be submerged into the vehicle, with a motor to pop it out for use,

allowing it to be hidden from casual notice (need a raise on a Notice roll). Pop-up Weapons

consume at least one crew space on the vehicle. For another AP, the weapon mount may be

enhanced with stabilizers to prevent the -2 Unstable Platform modifier applied to shooting from

vehicles.

Mounted Weapon, Vehicle – There are a number of Vehicle Mounted Heavy Weapons in the

Savage Worlds Deluxe book but they are really only suitable for vehicles in the 4 – 6 Chassis

level, meaning corporate or military or security sponsorship is necessary.

????

Appendix A: Things That Go Bump The Savage World Deluxe Book has a few examples of Creatures and Antagonists, but you really

need the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion and the Savage Worlds Horror Companion to really get

your hands on some interesting Normal and Paranormal Creatures and Antagonists. Any of the

monsters in these books should be thematically compatible with your Savage Shadows campaign, and

you should consider that many Corporations have taken to using these new denizens as watchdogs and

security systems. But beyond all that, many corporations and militaries have also begun experimenting

on enhancing these creatures with Cyber and Bioware, so feel free to Juice up your encounter by adding

a few unexpected enhancements so you can keep your rules-lawyers on their toes.

The other thematically significant change to your Bestiary is the HMHVV virus, which turns any

normal human/metahuman into its vampiric equivalent. Under this law, only normal humans turn into

Vampires. Dwarves mutate into Goblins, Orks Mutate into Wendigo, Elves mutate into Beansidhe and

Trolls mutate into Formori

Stats for most of these beings can be found in the books listed above; The remainder will be

listed here; ????

Spirits

Spirits are created by Shaman from the raw substance of the plane of magic. At

summoning time, the Shaman visualizes the kind of spirit he would like to summon, then the

creature forms before him in the Astral Plane. By peering astrally, the mage can give commands

that he hopes the spirit will be able to perform.

To appear in the real world, the spirit must have the Power of Materialize. Otherwise, he

remains in the spirit world and may only be affected by other Astral Beings (Projecting Mages,

Other Spirits, Spells, Magic Weapons).

Spirits summoned by Shaman are always spirits of a place, whether that be in nature, or

civic, domestic or even toxic if you go that way. Some examples are Hearth Spirits, Water

Spirits, Forest Spirits, Building Spirits, Street Spirits, Toxic Spirits, Storm Spirits, Air Spirits,

Beast Spirits, etc.

Attributes: Any; Force x Die Ranks (i.e. a Force 1 Spirit uses a D4 for all actions, D6 for Force

2, D8 for Force3, etc)

Skills: Spirits can perform any of the following skills at the same die level as his Attributes die:

Climbing, Fighting, Intimidation, Investigation, Knowledge (Astral Plane), Notice, Spellcasting

(Spirit), Stealth, Streetwise, Swimming (if water spirit), Taunt, Throwing, Tracking

Powers: Materialize, Armor, Barrier, Beast Friend, Blast, Blind, Bolt, Boost/Lower Trait,

Burrow, Burst, Confusion, Damage Field, Darksight, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Entangle,

Environmental Protection, Fear, Growth/Shrink, Havok, Obscure, Pummel, Slow, Wall Walker

Power Points: Force x5

Pace: Force x5 Parry: (Force x2) +2 Toughness: (Force x2) +4 (+ Size Modifier)

Special Abilities:

Force Rating: Spirits have a Force Rating when they are summoned. The higher the

Force Rating, the more powerful, larger, and more effective the spirit becomes.

Rank: Spirits have an equivalent Rank equal to their Force, i.e. a Force 1 Spirit is a

Novice, a Force 3 Spirit is a Veteran for all intents and purposes.

Powers: Using their Spellcasting Skill, at summoning, the spirit according to its theme,

will have access to a number of Powers from the Power list above equal to its Force. A spirit

may not choose a Power that is not available to its Rank.

Domain: Spirits are tied to the Domain (boundary) from which they are summoned, and

cannot leave that area. A water spirit summoned from a pond from her pond will not be able to

act outside of that pond. A forest spirit summoned in a park, will not be able to move or use

Powers outside the park. All homes and buildings have spirits in them, but they cannot act

outside of their Domain. A street or neighborhood spirit will not be able to follow a Shaman into

a house, nor can they affect the house in any way. A shaman may only summon a spirit from

within its Domain.

Trappings: Spirit Powers use the Trappings of their Domain. A Street spirit will

Obscure his summoner with piles of garbage or flashing lights. A house spirit may might Barrier

with piles of Furniture. A Forest Spirit will Entangle with vine and root, while an Office spirit

might use power and network cables…

Size: Whether in the Astral or Material planes, Spirits appear with a Size baseline of -2

(housecat sized) for Force 1 and then scale up from there (-1 (medium dog) for Force 2, 0

(human size) for Force 3, etc. ). Truly powerful spirits may achieve Leviathan levels (Spirit of

Denver), but no Mages have been known to have achieved the ability to Summon on this level.

Services: Nature Spirits will perform 1 Service for the Shaman, and then disappear. If

the service lasts beyond the boundaries of dawn or dusk, the Spirit will stop his task and return to

the Astral whence it came.

Bound: Spirits are slaves, bound by sorcery. As such, given a chance, they will try to

escape, kill their masters, or both. If a Shaman is knocked unconscious while in control of the

spirit, it becomes a free agent and if it can it will try to kill his summoner and/or flee from the

vicinity.

Elementals

Elementals are created by Hermetic Magi from the raw substance of the plane of magic.

At summoning time, the Magi visualize the kind of spirit he would like to summon, then the

creature forms before him in the Astral Plane. By peering astrally, the mage can give commands

that he hopes the spirit will be able to perform. The Elemental summoning process is a long and

involved ritual process, at the end of which, the Magi will have a connection to the Elemental.

The Elemental will be bound to him until it has performed all of the Services the Magi has

achieved by the summoning. Until the Services are rendered, the Elemental must come to the

Mage instantaneously when called.

To appear in the real world, the spirit must have the Power of Materialize. Otherwise, he

remains in the spirit world and may only be affected by other Astral Beings (Projecting Mages,

Other Spirits, Spells, Magic Weapons).

Elementals come in 4 types: Earth, Air, Fire and Water

Attributes: Any; Force x Die Ranks (i.e. a Force 1 Elemental uses a D4 for all actions, D6 for

Force 2, D8 for Force3, etc)

Skills: Elemental can perform any of the following skills at the same die level as his Attributes

die: Climbing, Fighting, Intimidation, Investigation, Knowledge (Astral Plane), Notice,

Spellcasting (Spirit), Stealth, Swimming (if water elemental), Taunt, Throwing

Powers: Materialize, Armor, Barrier, Blast, Blind, Bolt, Boost/Lower Trait, Burrow (through

own element), Burst, Confusion, Damage Field, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Entangle, Elemental

Manipulation, Environmental Protection, Growth/Shrink, Havok, Obscure, Pummel, Slow

Power Points: Force x5

Pace: Force x5 Parry: (Force x2) +2 Toughness: (Force x2) +4 (+ Size Modifier)

Special Abilities:

Force Rating: Elementals have a Force Rating when they are summoned. The higher

the Force Rating, the more powerful, larger, and more effective the elemental becomes.

Rank: Elementals have an equivalent Rank equal to their Force, i.e. a Force 1 Elemental

is a Novice, a Force 3 Elemental is a Veteran for all intents and purposes.

Powers: Using their Spellcasting Skill, at summoning, the spirit according to its theme,

will have access to a number of Powers from the Power list above equal to its Force. An

elemental may not choose a Power that is not available to its Rank.

Trappings: Elemental Powers use the Trappings of their Element. A Fire Elemental will

Obscure his summoner with smoke or heat waves. An Earth elemental will Barrier with an

embankment of earth. A Water Elemental will Entangle with strong currents or underwater

vegetation…

Size: Whether in the Astral or Material planes, Elementals appear with a Size baseline of

-2 (housecat sized) for Force 1 and then scale up from there (-1 (medium dog) for Force 2, 0

(human size) for Force 3, etc. ). Truly powerful spirits may achieve Leviathan levels (Volcano

Elemental), but no Mages have been known to have achieved the ability to Summon on this

level.

Services: Elementals will perform 1 Service per Rank of the Summoner, +1 per raise on

the Spellcasting roll. Once all of the services are performed the Elemental will disappear.

Services generally have limited boundaries for time. You cannot ask an Elemental to guard a

place indefinitely.

Bound: Elementals are slaves, bound by sorcery. As such, given a chance, they will try

to escape, kill their masters, or both. If a Magi is becomes Incapacitated while in the vicinity of

the elemental, it becomes a free agent and if it can it will try to kill his summoner and/or flee

from the vicinity.

Appendix B: Sample Cyberware Conversions Because the Cyberware in this game are being reflected as Advancements (Cyberware) that you

have the ????.


are as such:


Appendix C: Sample Gear Conversions Because the Cyberware in this game are being reflected as Advancements (Cyberware) that you

purchase for you character, the possibilities are essential boundless, and you can really go to town on

making up interesting Cyberware to enhance your character. Needless to say, the Shadowrun system is

hardly so free form, but a lot of interesting pieces of Gear exist in the SR system and its supporting

books. Since some of them are truly iconic, I have decided to make an effort here to address some of

the most popular and the possible Advancement interpretations that might reflect these objects in

Savage Shadows.

The Savage Worlds Deluxe book has a number of weapon descriptions within it and the Fantasy

Companion has an even further expanded list of melee weapons and medieval weapons. Weapons in

the Shadowrun universe should use these stats as a base and then allow for alterations to make them

more futuristic. Technically, the weapons of the future still use chemical reactions to launch bits of

metal your opponent. The areas where the guns of Shadowrun differ are in a handful of areas; most

ammo is caseless and most guns can be made Smart. There are a handful of outriders, like bulky early

generation Laser Rifles (Savage Worlds Deluxe has rules for futuristic Lasers, but the SR version should

be large, low clip, and require a bulky power pack), Narcoject Pistols and the like. Of Melee weapons,

most are the same as their medieval counterparts, but may be modded for an additional cost. The most

common being the addition of a monofilament edge, shock or vibro additional capabilities. There is a

couple of truly new melee weapon technologies, like the Monowhip, which will be described below.

Concealability is a definite concern in the Shadowrun world. General only Light and Holdout pistols

can be concealed in a pocket. A holster may allow for carrying some weapons in a jacket, but still the

fact that a person is carrying is a relatively easy Notice roll. Some short rifles, machine pistols and short

swords can be hidden in a long coat, but the majority of them will not be able to be concealed

effectively. Even smaller pistols if they have been modded with Smart systems, Scopes or Laser Sights

will quickly become unconcealable by anything smaller that a long coat. The GM can be as hard-assed

or lenient as he likes in these occasions.

Weapons: Guns

Remington Roomsweeper – A favorite of Mages everywhere, (Since the Shooting Skills of Magi

are usually pretty low) This is a short semi-automatic shotgun with a pistol stock, small enough

to be hidden in a long coat. You can use Sawed-Off DB shotgun values except with a Shots value

of 8.

Ingram Smartgun -

Gun Mods

The SW Deluxe book already covers such things as Bipods, Scopes and a variety of ammunitions.

Below are some Shadowrun flavored mods beyond what is already available in the system.

Smart – Smartgun technology involves the integration of cameras, and target tracking chips and

wireless communication with either Smart Goggles or Smartgun (Cyber) to provide ????

APDS ammunition – APDS rounds stands for Armor Piercing . Cost : 70 Nuyen /10

EX ammunition – EX rounds are explosive ordinance, they add a D6 of damage, but lose any AP

value the gun normally has. Cannot be silenced. Rare. Cost : 50 Nuyen /10

Flechette ammunition – Bursts of tiny packed metal slivers, flechette rounds spread like the

shotgun round to make hitting easier (+2 to Shooting), but like the Shotgun round, they lose

force with distance and spread, so damage at range is 3D6/2D6/1D6. Flechette Rounds are

great against unarmored opponents, but armor is doubled against them. Cost: 100 Nuyen/10

Gel ammunition – gel rounds were developed as a non-lethal way of crowd control. At a

distance, gel rounds cannot inflict more than Bumps and Bruises level of damage. They also

never have an AP > than 0. They do impose a -2 modifier on the target while they are being

struck by gel bullets for the next 3 combat rounds and the target must immediately save vs

Intimidation(6) or seek the nearest cover. Cost: 30 Nuyen/10

Tazer ammunition – These rounds have capacitor and metal hook net arrangement to pierce

the flesh and dump a huge burst of electrical charge into the target’s body Cost: 50 Nuyen/10

Weapons: Melee

Monowhip – The monowhip is a handle, a spool of mono-molecular wire stabilized by an

electrical charge, and a weight. The monowire is well able to cut through most materials like a

hot knife through butter, but the implementation as a whip can be highly dangerous. Using a

monowhip unskilled should just end with the GM describing the violent removal of the one of

the wielder’s limbs. Wielding the monowire by default gives a -4 modifier to Fighting. If the

target OR the wielder is operating in a crowd, a roll of 1 or 2 on the Fighting die resolves in a

bystander hit much like a shotgun. Also, the roll of double 1’s indicates the monowire has not

only missed, but is erratically travelling back at the wielder causing him 3D8 (AP 4) damage.

Damage: 3D8 (AP 4) Weight: 4 Reach 2 Cost: 3000 Nuyen (Very Rare)

Melee Weapon Mods

Monofilament – All edged weapons can be enhanced with a monofilament edge. This doesn’t

increase the damage of the weapon, but does provide 2 levels of AP. Cost: 400 Nuyen

Shock – Blunt weapons can be modded to include a Shock Option

Armors


Cyberware


Bioware


Vehicles


Vehicle Mods


CyberDecks


Deck Mods


Appendix C: Lifestyle Dealing with the day to day expenditures .


are as such:


the poor mans guide savage worlds shadowrun

Documents

savage shadowrun

return of magic

magic rose

ambient magic

edition shadowrun

shadowrun universe

supernatural races

shadowrun materials