In which Mr. Johnson chats with Mitch Gitelman of Harebrained Schemes about Shadowrun: Hong Kong, Necropolis, Golem Arcana, and Battletech! Plus, answers to loads of listener questions, a new Critter Corner, Masked GM segment, and Storytime!
Show Notes:
Opti’s PC and NPC artwork from Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Artwork from Maria Mercurial run, provided by our listener John
Character sheet for Gorilla Mask
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Registering sprites takes Sprite Level hours, even if it is a failed test. When compiling and registering, technomancers take two damage per hit sprites roll on compiling/registering tests (that is resisted with willpower + resonance). So let’s say as Resonance 6 Willpower 5 technomancer (who has had to take pretty serious investment in Resonance and/or Meta Priority and Attribute priority), has skills 6 in registering and compiling (another investment) tries to register a level 6 sprite, there is a fair chance of not only not succeeding, but also taking enough stun damage to pass out. Let’s say Resonance is only 5, trying to compile/register that level 6 sprite could be deadly. For lower resonance technomancers, high level sprites are just not feasible, limiting their bonus potential anyway. So I really don’t see sprite use as cheaper or more unfair than leadership skill bonuses that rely on only one stat (as opposed to Machine Sprites relying on 2 stats), one skill (as opposed to machine sprites requiring 2 skills), can be performed by any mundane, awakened, or emerged character (as opposed to having to specialize at a hefty priority cost as a technomancer to attempt sprite compiling/registering), can assist whoever on whatever test (as opposed to # of registered sprites limited by technomancer logic stat and use in electronic devices), and can be done from safely out dangerous situations (as opposed to sprites if spotted being able to be attacked and/or the devices they are helping being bricked and/or putting on a lot of hurt just attempting to compile/register).
Your table, your house rules….
I forgot to add that even after risking death for a potentially unsuccessful sprite registration, even if a technomancer succeeds in registering a high level sprite, the sprite probably only has a few or even just one loaned task. To use diagnostics, the machine sprite gets one roll per/task to effectively add bonuses. If they get a bad roll, all of that work to register could be for nothing.
Could someone just post what they said about the upcoming Battletech :/ 1 hour 23 minutes is a lot if there are only 2 sentences about it in there :/