Edge is gained in combat or when your character gets an attack or defense rating 4 higher than an opponent. A player can get up to 7 edge points and can only use one edge point per action if they choose. A glitch means that something unexpected (and most likely a failure) happens.Įdge is a special attribute that Shadowrun has that “measures the undefinable combination of luck, risk, fate, and ignorance of danger” (quick start rules pg 3). The GM will describe what happens when there is a glitch. Glitches happen when more than half the results are 1’s on the dice. The quirkiness and rules about tests can be found on page 5 of the quick start guide.

When you roll your dice you make note of any 5’s and 6’s that you roll for these are called hits and need to be equal or greater than the threshold to be a successful attempt for your character. Of the four normal they are split 4 by 4 for physical and mental attributes. There are 10 attributes for Shadowrun 8 that are classified as normal and 2-3 special. Depending on how hard a task is will determine what number of dice you need to roll for specialization and expertise. If you are rolling to see where you are in the lineup for combat, you roll initiative which is labeled 4 on the character sheets. When it is time to roll the dice in the game there is either an attribute (in labeled box 3) or skill (in labeled box 7) that it goes with. Taking some time with the quick-start rule book next to your player dossier with your GM is another great way to get to know the game. If you are familiar with the terms above you can go ahead and skip down to the next section otherwise here is a bit more about the things on the character sheet. The number of dice you roll is is determined by your skills and attributes that can be found on your character sheets.Ĭombat, spellcasting, an other complex or difficult actions will require dice rolls to determine outcomes.Īs someone who loves learning about and exploring new ttrpgs it can be a little stressful trying to figure out what all the information above truly means. Basic routine things (walking, talking, breathing) don't require tests.Ī test is a roll of dice to try to get enough hits to meet or exceed ed the actions threshold. Players use six sided dice to see if their actions are successful or not. It gives the following information for each: Their Corporate Court Rank, status and slogan, where their world headquarters are, who is the president and what they are known for. The back page of the Instant Guide gives you the Big Ten that your players will come into contact with to help make them more familiar to new players. Just know that no one in this world is your friend and you will have a target on your back. The idea of Shadowrun is your players are not the sheep that the megacorporations push around in the world they literally own. The 'Instant Guide' also introduces the megacorporations who want to put the entire world under their thumbs. Besides costing money, putting technology and artificial parts into your body in large amounts also puts you at risk of losing who your character was. The guide then talks about augmentations that can bring improvements to your character for a cost. In the instant guide the first page is a copy of the first page of the quick start rule book. Personally, I'd stick with Chummer if you're a player, but Hero Lab is a great idea for a GM since it allows for easy mass-management of NPCs, combat overhead, and that kind of thing.This box was my first look into Shadowrun, where we play criminals and gangsters running heists to make money while the world is controlled by big corporations.

That means HL is able to provide a ton of extra functionality, including rules excerpts for each trait/item, user-friendly 'custom content' scripting, a tactical 'Combat Management' screen, and 'advanced' sheets that include stuff like tick-boxes for ammo, auto-calculated dice-pools for just about everything, and separate sub-sheets for your drones and vehicles. Hero Lab, on the other hand, is licensed, and costs money. It's also capable of 'live' character management, complete with Karma and Nuyen Add/Spend logs, if you're more inclined to keep things digital using a netbook or laptop. It's capable of printing out the sheets, already fully filled-out with your stats and skills and inventory. It's everything you could want in a bare-bones character generator. Also, let me recommend using either Chummer or Hero Lab as an excellent source of Character Sheets and Character/Combat Management.Ĭhummer is un-licensed freeware, but very well done.

Shadowrun character sheet test