SR5:Negative Qualities

5th Edition Lists
Gear // Magic // Hacking // Skills // Qualities // Packs // Creatures

Positive Qualities	Negative Qualities	Martial Arts

Positive Metagenic Qualities	Negative Metagenic Qualities

Addiction

BONUS:4 TO 25 KARMA	Withdrawal Test Psychological:Logic + Willpower Physiological:Body + Willpower
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Addiction quality is hooked on chemical substances, such as street drugs (novacoke, bliss, tempo); technological or magical devices, such as better-than-life (BTL) chips or foci; or potentially addictive activities such as gambling or sex. Physiological Addictions affect the Body’s functions, producing pain, nausea, shakes, and other side effects that can impair the runner, particularly during withdrawal. Some possible effects of psychological Addictions include paranoia, anxiety, insomnia, poor concentration, mood disorders, and depression. For specific rules on Addiction Tests, Withdrawal Tests, and staying clean, see p. 414. The bonus Karma value of this quality depends on how severe the addiction is. Levels of addiction include: Mild, Moderate, Severe, or Burnout. Addictions get worse over prolonged periods of time without treatment. Each level of Addiction has a starting dosage level that tells the character how much of a substance or activity they must use for a craving to be sated. This level can be increased if the character has augmentations. The more severe a character’s Addiction, the more substance or time devoted to the activity he needs to satisfy his cravings.

At the lower end of the spectrum for the Addiction quality (Mild, Moderate), it is easier to hide the effects of an Addiction. At the most severe levels (Severe, Burnout), there are noticeable physical and mental signs of Addiction. These signs negatively impact his Social Tests even if he is not suffering the effects of withdrawal.

Mild (4 Karma)

1 dose or 1 hour of habit-related activity

Mild cravings occur once a month for the character. If a character fails his Withdrawal Test, he suffers symptoms of withdrawal and must actively seek out and use the substance or engage in the activity to find relief. On a run, this could mean delaying plans that the runner team may have meticulously put together for a job, especially if the character is busy gambling with a bookie or slotting a BTL instead of being available for the run. While the character is suffering withdrawal symptoms, apply a –2 dice pool modifier to all of the character’s Mental-attribute-based tests (if psychological dependency) or to all the character’s Physical-attribute-based tests (if physiological dependency). If the character succeeds on his Withdrawal Test, the character does not suffer withdrawal symptoms and does not need the substance or participate in that habit until the character makes their next Withdrawal Test (in one month). He is able to stay clean for that month.

Moderate (9 Karma)

1 dose or 1 hour of habit-related activity

A craving at the Moderate level occurs roughly every two weeks. If the character experiences withdrawal, he suffers a –4 to all Mental-attribute-based tests (if psychological dependency) or –4 to all Physical-attribute-based tests (if physiological dependency) until the craving is satisfied.

Severe (20 Karma)

2 doses or 2 hours of habit-related activity

The addiction is spiraling out of control. The addict experiences cravings once a week. If he fails a Withdrawal Test, he suffers a –4 dice pool modifier to either their Mental- or Physical-based tests (as appropriate for their dependency) while in withdrawal. In addition, he suffers a –2 dice pool modifier to all Social Tests, whether he is in withdrawal or not. It is all but impossible now for the character to hide his addiction, even when he’s had his fix. The physical and psychological symptoms of the damage caused by his Addiction are readily apparent to the close observer.

Burnout (25 Karma)

3 doses/3 hours (minimum) of habit-related activity

Burnout is the final progression of the Addiction quality. The addict exper iences cravings for their drug or habit of choice every day. Until they satisfy their craving with a fix, the character suf fers a –6 penalty to either his Mental- or Physical-based tests (whichever one is appropr iate for their dependency) while in withdrawal.

Because his Addiction is now obvious to even the most casual observer, the character suffers a –3 dice pool modifier for all Social Tests, whether he is in withdrawal or not.

The gamemaster has discretion as to whether or not she should call for Withdrawal Tests during an Addicted character’s downtime, depending on to what degree the gamemaster wants the addiction to impact gameplay for the character.

COMMON ADDICTIONS

• Better-than-life chips (p. 460)
• Alchemical preparations (p. 316)
• Alcohol
• Street drugs
• Foci (see p. 318)
• Augmentations

Allergy

ALLERGY TABLE

CONDITION	VALUE
Uncommon	2
Common	7
Mild	3
Moderate	8
Severe	13
Extreme	18

BONUS:5 TO 25 KARMA	Resistance Test -1 DP Modifier per Severity
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Allergy quality is allergic to a substance or condition found in their environment. The value of this quality depends on two factors. The first is whether the substance or condition is Uncommon (2 Karma) or Common (7 Karma). Next, determine the severity of the symptoms: Mild (3 Karma), Moderate (8 Karma), Severe (13 Karma), or Extreme (18 Karma). Add the appropriate point values together to find the final value. For example, the value of an Uncommon Moderate Allergy (Silver) is 10 Karma (2+8 Karma). If a character is attacked with a substance to which they are allergic, they lose 1 die from their Resistance Test for each stage of severity of the Allergy (e.g., 1 die for a Mild allergy, 2 dice for a Moderate allergy, etc.).

Uncommon

The substance or condition is rare for the local environment

Examples

silver, gold, antibiotics, grass.

Common

The substance or condition is prevalent in the local environment.

Examples

sunlight, seafood, bees, pollen, pollutants, Wi-Fi sensitivity, soy, wheat.

Mild

Symptoms are discomfiting and distracting.

Apply a –2 dice pool modifier to the character’s Physical Tests while under the effects of the Allergy.

Moderate

Contact with the allergen produces intense pain.

Apply a –4 dice pool modifier to all Physical Tests made while a character experiences the symptoms.

Severe

Contact with the allergen results in extreme pain and actual physical damage.

Apply a –4 dice pool modifier to all tests made while a character experiences symptoms.

The character also suffers 1 box of Physical Damage (unresisted) for every 1 minute they are exposed to the allergen.

Extreme

A character at this level, when exposed to the allergen, goes into full anaphylactic shock.

The character receives a –6 dice pool modifier for anything they do. The character is considered to be in excruciating agony.

The character suffers 1 box of Physical Damage (unresisted) for every 30 seconds they are exposed to the allergen. First Aid, Medicine, or magical means can stop the damage taken from the anaphylactic shock.

Astral Beacon

BONUS:10 KARMA	Assensing Test -1 Threshold for opponents Signatures last twice as long
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

The astral signature of a character with the Astral Beacon quality is like, well, a beacon—highly visible on the astral plane. The signature also lasts twice as long as it would without the Astral Beacon quality and others assensing it receive a –1 to the threshold of their Assensing Test for gathering information about it. Only characters with a Magic rating may take this quality.

Bad Luck

BONUS:12 KARMA	Spending Edge Can Glitch to opposite effect
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

This character is cursed—his own luck often turns against him. When the character uses Edge, roll 1D6. On a result of 1, the point of Edge is spent, but it has the exact opposite effect intended. For example, if a character hopes to gain additional dice he loses that many dice from his dice pool. If a character spends Edge to go first in an Initiative Pass, he ends up going last. If a character spent Edge to negate a glitch, Bad Luck turns it into a critical glitch. The character suffers Bad Luck on only one Edge roll per game session. After the character has suffered his Bad Luck, he does not need to roll the test for Bad Luck for any more expenditures of Edge for the duration of that game session.

Bad Rep

BONUS:7 KARMA	Notoriety +3 Points
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with a Bad Rep quality has a dark and lasting stain on her reputation. She may be a former Knight Errant cop known to have been particularly brutal in dealing with shadowrunners. Or word on the street might be that she once killed a member of her own runner team. If she’s Awakened and comes from a polluted region, it may be generally accepted that she’s a toxic shaman. Whether she is actually guilty of any wrongdoing is not relevant. What people believe she has done has permanently tainted the way they see her and how they deal with her. Whatever the reason, the character starts play with 3 points of Notoriety (p. 372) that can only be removed or decreased by confronting and resolving the source of the bad reputation. Only then may the Bad Rep quality be bought off with Karma.

Code Of Honor

BONUS:15 KARMA	Violence against Protected Group GMs roll 1D6. On 1 there is a complication. GMs Perception(4) for character to notice. Attempt to Kill Protected Group Charisma + Willpower (4) Protected Group Killed Lose 1 Karma per Kill
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

The character has a binding Code of Honor when it comes to killing members of a specific group; it’s a matter of unwavering principle. The character with the Code of Honor quality chooses a specific group that they will not kill or allow others to kill. Examples of this group could include women, children, innocent bystanders, or a specific metatype. A character can choose to protect specific paracritters, but only if the specified paracritter possesses the Sapience power.The gamemaster must approve the group that the character designates as being “off limits.” If the group (such as children) is not regularly encountered in campaigns, the gamemaster can reject the choice. If the player feels strongly about his choice, the gamemaster may allow the player to take two groups they will not harm, (i.e., women and children), one of which must be likely to be encountered in the campaign. A magician can legitimately choose to not destroy any type of spirit from which their Mentor Spirit bestows a bonus for summoning. This Code of Honor respects their Mentor Spirit and is worthy of the Karma. Characters can’t pick an obscure or non-existent group to acquire this quality—you can’t acquire Karma by vowing to never kill sapient hamsters, for example.

Any time anyone attempts to kill a member of the character ’s protected list, the character must make a Charisma + Willpower (4) Test. A failed roll means the character must immediately put a stop the violence against the member of their protected group. If the situation forces the character to take action against any of his protected group, he will always choose non-lethal methods. Killing a member of the group he has sworn to protect is a line he will not cross for any reason.

There are drawbacks to having a Code of Honor. For example, it can leave witnesses behind. For each person in the protected group the character leaves alive and who is in a position to remember them, increase the character’s Public Awareness by 1. The character’s job options are also limited—he will not take a job if the objective is the death of a member of his protected group and will have reservations about taking part in a mission with a high probability of causing collateral harm to members of his protected group.

There is always a chance things will go wrong whenever non-lethal force is used. A person may have a life-threatening allergic reaction to a usually harmless knockout drug, or a heart condition that makes a taser shock deadly. For this reason, each time the character takes a violent action or allows others to take violent action against a member of his chosen group, the gamemaster makes a secret roll of 1D6. On a roll of 1, there is an unforeseen complication from the use of non-lethal force. With a metahuman it could be a life-threatening medical condition; with a spirit, an attempt to banish rather than destroy may in fact set the spirit free. When a complication arises, the gamemaster makes a secret Perception (4) Test for the character to notice if anything has gone wrong.

If a person in the character’s chosen group is killed, whether intentionally or inadvertently, the character loses a point of Karma for that adventure for each person in their “protected group” that is killed.

The Code of Honor can take other forms as well. For example:

Assassin’s Creed

A character never kills anyone that they are not paid to kill. Being precise as an assassin, not leaving collateral damage, and being invisible are important hallmarks of those who believe in the Assassin’s Creed. Characters who take this version of Code of Honor lose 1 point of Karma for every unintentional and/or unpaid murder they commit, and their Public Awareness goes up by 1 for each such death.

Warrior’s Code

The character who follows a Warrior’s Code maintains a strict sense of personal honor. In 2075, this likely means a character will not kill an unarmed person, take lethal action against an opponent who is unaware or unprepared for an attack (i.e., a guard who doesn’t know the runner is there), or knowingly take an action that could kill someone who is defenseless (i.e., from a stray bullet or allow someone to be killed from a sniper shot). The character loses 1 Karma per unarmed or defenseless person that they kill or allow to be killed through their actions.

Codeblock

BONUS:10 KARMA	Predetermined Matrix Action -2 DP Modifier
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Codeblock quality always has trouble with a particular Matrix action. He receives a –2 dice pool modifier any time he attempts that type of Matrix action. Codeblock only applies to Matrix actions with an associated test; it does not apply to actions that do not require a test (p. 237). Characters cannot apply Codeblock toward hacking actions they are never likely to take.

Combat Paralyisis

BONUS:12 KARMA	First Round Initiative Test Half Initiative (round up) Surprise Tests -3 DP Modifier Composure Tests +1 Threshold Modifier
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with Combat Paralysis freezes in combat. On the character’s first Initiative Test, the character divides their Initiative Score for that round in half (rounded up). In subsequent Combat Turns, the character may roll their normal Initiative. Combat Paralysis also gives the character a –3 dice pool modifier on Surprise Tests. If the character must make a Composure Test while under fire or in a similar combat situation, the gamemaster applies a +1 threshold modifier.

Dependents

BONUS:3, 6, OR 9 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Dependents quality has one or more loved ones who depend on them for emotional support and financial aid. Dependents may include children, parents, a spouse or lover, a sibling, or an old friend. Meeting the needs of a dependent should take up a fair amount of the character’s time, as well as some of the character’s money. Increase the amount of time it takes to learn a new skill or improve an existing skill by fifty percent. See the Character Advancement section on p. 103 for more information on how long it takes to improve skills. Also increase the base time for any long-term projects by fifty percent. A dependent could also be a hindrance in other ways—getting underfoot, sharing living space, involving herself in the character’s work, borrowing the car, calling at the most inopportune moments, etc.

For 3 Karma, the dependent is an occasional nuisance: dropping in unexpectedly (such as when the character must go to a meet), needing emotional support, favors, or other confirmations of friendship/commitment, and occasionally money. Examples of dependents at this level include: slacker sibling, long-term boyfriend/girlfriend, or a child not living with the character but for whom the character pays child support and visits regularly. Raise the character’s lifestyle cost by 10 percent each month.

For 6 Karma, the dependent is a regular inconvenience: needing attention and commitment on a regular basis, getting involved in the character’s affairs, sharing living space. Examples of dependents at this level include: a live-in lover/wife/husband or family member, a child for whom the character shares custody and routinely has in his home (every other weekend, etc.), or a young child or close sibling for whom the character is responsible. Increase the character’s lifestyle cost by 20 percent each month.

At the 9 Karma level, the dependent is close family or a life partner and lives with the character. The dependent is a strain on the character’s time and resources, and/or requires special care and attention that limits the character’s availability for missions or specific actions. Examples of these dependents include large family sharing the living space, parents or grandparents with medical or physical needs, and full custody of any children. Increase the lifestyle cost for the character by 30 percent each month.

Distinctive Style

BONUS:5 KARMA	Perception Tests +2 DP Modifier to identify individual with quality Memory Tests -1 Threshold Modifier to remember individual with quality
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Distinctive Style quality has at least one aspect of his appearance, mannerism, or personality that makes him inconveniently memorable. Choices for Distinctive Style include, but are by no means limited to: tattoos that cannot be easily concealed, an accent or atypical manner of speaking, bizarre fashion choices, scars, gang or prison signs, flashy custom augmentations, or non-metahuman modifications like a tail. Note that what’s distinctive in one culture or location may not be in another.

Whatever Distinctive Style the player selects makes her character easy to remember. Anyone who attempts to identify, trace, or physically locate this character (or gain information about him via legwork) receives a +2 dice pool modifier for relevant tests. If an NPC makes a Memory Test (p. 152) to determine how much they recall about the character, reduce the Difficulty Threshold by 1, to a minimum of 1.

This quality is physical in nature and does not apply to astral searches. This quality may only be taken once. This quality is incompatible with Blandness.

Elf Poser

BONUS:6 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

The Elf Poser is a human character who wants to be an elf. She associates with elves as much as possible, talks like elves, and alters her appearance to resemble an elf. Characters with this quality may undergo cosmetic surgery to get elf ears and elf eyes, and they may successfully pass as elves and avoid any negative Social modifiers associated with being a non-elf.

Real elves consider Elf Posers an embarrassment, many humans think of them as sellouts, and other metatypes generally consider posers to be pathetic. If an elf discovers the character’s secret, the elf is likely to treat her with contempt and hostility (see Social Modifiers Table, p. 140). An outed elf poser may also face stigma from prejudiced humans as a “race traitor.”

Only human characters may take the Elf Poser quality.

Gremlins

BONUS:4 KARMA PER RATING	Glitch on Technical Device -1 rolled 1s required Per Rating
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:(MAX 4)
SOURCE:Core

Characters with the Gremlins quality don’t get along with technology. Devices malfunction inexplicably, software crashes unexpectedly, vehicles refuse to start, components become unusually fragile at his touch, and wireless links suffer faltering connections and odd interference whenever he’s involved.

For each Rating (maximum of 4), reduce the number of rolled 1s necessary to get a glitch (p. 45) by 1 whenever the character is attempting to use a moderately sophisticated device. For example, a character with a dice pool of 8 and Gremlins level 2 (8 Karma) would trigger a glitch if two or more 1s result from the test (instead of the normal 4). The gamemaster may also require the character to make a test for operation that would otherwise succeed automatically to see whether or not a glitch occurs.

When describing the effects of a Gremlin-induced glitch, gamemasters should play up the notion of a particularly weird mechanical or electronics malfunction. Some examples of Gremlin-induced glitches include: the magazine falling out of a pistol when attempting a critical shot, a keypad inexplicably burning out while entering a code to disarm an alarm system, or the commlink interface converting to Sperethiel mid-sentence when attempting to access a restricted node.

Note that Gremlins is a Negative quality—its effects hinder the character (and probably entertain others). The character cannot use his Gremlins quality to damage an opponent’s high-tech equipment merely by touching it. Anything the character attempts to sabotage using only Gremlins will function flawlessly. (Obviously, he can try any ordinary means of sabotage, but Gremlins will haunt his efforts.)

The effect only applies to external equipment and does not affect cyberware, bioware, or other implants.

Incompetent

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

An Incompetent character possesses a total lack of knowledge or ability with a certain Active skill group—or, perhaps worse, they have some vague knowledge or the skills contained in the group, but they have neither the coordination nor the comprehension to come anywhere close to carrying it off properly. No matter how much effort they put into this area, they simply cannot grasp it—it would take a miracle for them to somehow, someday advance to the level of “poor” in those skills.

Incompetent may not be applied to Language or Knowledge skills. The Incompetent character is treated as having skill level of “unaware” for all skills in the skill group (see the Skill Rating Table, p. 131).

In some cases, a Success Test may be required for tasks most people take for granted. Characters may not possess that skill group for which they have the Incompetent quality. If gear grants a bonus or requires the use of a specific skill in which the character is Incompetent, the character gains no benefits from the gear.

Gamemasters are free to reject any choices that would prove irrelevant or exploitative in actual play, such as Incompetent: Outdoors in a campaign based entirely inside an arcology. (This should go without saying, but just in case: Characters may never choose Incompetent for any skill group that they are physically incapable of using. A non-magician cannot take Incompetent in Sorcery, Conjuring, or Enchanting; a non-technomancer cannot be Incompetent in a skill that requires Resonance; and so on.)

Incompetent may be purchased only once.

Insomnia

BONUS:10 OR 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Insomnia quality has trouble falling asleep and seldom feels well rested. Usually, this is only an annoyance. For runners, however, this can become a major problem when they are dependent on being able to rest at every opportunity to remain sharp. Insomnia can lengthen the amount of time it takes for a character to recover Stun damage.

At the 10 Karma level, before a character rolls his Body + Willpower to recover Stun damage, the character rolls an Intuition + Willpower (4) Test. If the character succeeds on this test, the character is not impeded by Insomnia and the character regains Stun damage as normal. He also regains 1 point of Edge after 8 hours of restful sleep. If the character fails, double the amount of time it normally would take for a character to recover their Stun damage. So instead of healing a number of boxes of Stun damage in an hour, it now takes two hours per roll. If the character is affected by Insomnia, the character does not have his Edge refreshed and may not have it refreshed for up to another 24 hours.

At the 15 Karma level, a failed Willpower + Intuition (4) Test means that all efforts to regain Stun damage through rest are negated during that time period, and the character must try again later. No Stun damage is regained from the attempt due to the insomnia the character experiences, and the character must wait for 24 hours before their Edge refreshes.

Loss Of Confidence

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

The Loss of Confidence quality means something has caused the character to lose confidence in himself and one of his abilities. Though a skilled decker, he failed to hack into a Stuffer Shack host, or despite high Agility, he glitched an easy Climbing Test and fell into a dumpster—whatever the reason, he now doubts himself and his abilities. In tests involving the affected skill, the character suffers a –2 dice pool modifier. If the character has a specialization with the skill, the character cannot use that specialization while suffering a loss of confidence. The skill chosen for the character to have a Loss of Confidence must be one that the character prides himself in and has invested in building. Only skills with a rating 4 or higher may suffer the Loss of Confidence quality. Edge may not be used for tests involving this skill when the character is suffering Loss of Confidence.

Low Pain Tolerance

BONUS:9 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

Characters with Low Pain Tolerance are particularly sensitive to pain; they incur a –1 wound modifier for every 2 boxes of cumulative damage, instead of the normal 3 boxes. This affects both Physical and Stun damage tracks.

Ork Poser

BONUS:6 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

Influenced by Goblin Rock or over-hyped orxploitation trends, an Ork Poser is an elf or human character who alters her appearance to appear as an ork. Various cosmetic biomods—tusk implants, steroids, larynx alterations, etc.—allow him to successfully pass as an ork. Ork posers are an embarrassment to many orks, but some tolerate, if not appreciate, the compliment behind the effort. This means an ork who discovers the character’s secret may either become very hostile toward him or be willing to let the character join the “family”—provided he passes an appropriate hazing ritual to prove his “orkness.” An outed ork poser may also face stigma from other humans or elves as “race traitors,” if those humans/elves harbor any prejudice against orks.

Only humans and elves may take the Ork Poser quality.

Prejudiced

PREJUDICED TABLES

PREVALENCE OF TARGET GROUP	KARMA VALUE
Common target group (e.g, humans, metahumans)	5 Karma
Specific target group (e.g., the Awakened, technomancers, shapeshifters, aspected magicians)	3 Karma
DEGREE	KARMA VALUE
Biased (e.g., closet meta-hater)	0 Karma
Outspoken (e.g., typical member of Humanis)	2 Karma
Radical (e.g., racial supremacist)	5 Karma

BONUS:3 TO 10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

With this quality the character is Prejudiced against members of a specific group of people: metahumans, Awakened, non-metahuman sapient critters, or some other group. The character is not merely intolerant—he is outspoken about his beliefs and may actively work against the target of his prejudice. Depending upon the degree of prejudice, this quality can get the character into trouble for expressing his views or when forced to confront the targets of his prejudice.

The Karma bonus granted by this quality varies depending upon how common the hated group is, how often the character is likely to encounter members of the group, and the degree to which the character is openly antagonistic toward them. Refer to the Prejudiced Table to determine the Karma value of the quality based on the prevalence of the hated group and the degree of prejudice.

When dealing with the target of their prejudice, a character receives a –2 dice pool modifier per level of severity of the Prejudiced quality for all Social Tests. If negotiations are a part of the encounter, the target receives a +2 modifier per level of the Prejudiced quality. So if a character who is radical in their prejudiced views against the Awakened tries to negotiate with the target of their prejudice, they receive a –6 to their Negotiation Test while the target receives a +6 dice pool modifier.

Scorched

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A Scorched character is coping with neurological problems brought on by damage caused in some way by Black IC, Psychotropic IC, or BTL. The problem can manifest as short- or long-term memory loss, unexpected blackouts, frequent migraines, diminished senses (sight, touch, smell, etc.), and mood disorders such as paranoia and anxiety. The player chooses one specific effect of Scorched, and its effect should be pronounced enough to hinder the character and present potential plot hooks for the gamemaster. Whenever he enters VR or slots a BTL chip, the character must make a Body + Willpower (4) Test. On a failed roll, he experiences the specified physical effects for six hours. A glitch or critical glitch on this test results in suffering the effects for 24 hours. The only way to eliminate the Scorched quality is to get the medical treatment necessary to repair the damage, then spend the Karma to buy off the Negative quality. Once Scorched, though, the character remains susceptible to the condition. Another bad encounter with Black or Psychotropic IC or a BTL will bring this quality back. In addition to the physical side effects the character may experience from being Scorched, the character is vulnerable to damage inflicted by either Black or Psychotropic IC or BTLs. When faced with this IC, the character must make a Willpower (3) Test to be able to confront it without panicking. If he is able to confront the IC that caused their Scorched condition, the character suffers a –2 to Damage Resistance Tests when these programs are inflicting damage.

To take the Scorched quality for BTLs, the character must have at least a Mild Addiction to BTLs and possess the gear necessary to use BTLs.

To take the Scorched quality for Black and/or Psychotropic IC, the character must be either a decker or a technomancer.

SCORCHED PHYSICAL

SIDE EFFECTS TABLE

GAME RULES	EFFECT
Memory Loss (short term)	The character does not remember slotting a BTL chip. The character makes another Withdrawal Test immediately. A failed test means the craving comes back immediately, as do the symptoms of withdrawal. Character must slot another chip. For encountering IC, a character must make a Memory Test with a threshold increased by +1. A failed Memory Test results in gaps in memory and possible disorientation while in host.
Memory Loss (long term)	The same effects of Memory Loss (short term) apply. In addition, for the duration of the effect, the character loses access to one active skill. He simply does not remember how to use it (for example, the Pistols skill). Treat as unaware in that skill until symptoms abate.
Blackout	For the duration of the effect, the character retains no memories of events during that time frame. Memory cannot be restored by technological or magical means.
Migraines	The character receives –2 to all Physical and Mental tests, sensitivity to light, and nausea (p. 409).
Paranoia/Anxiety	Character must make Social Tests for even basic interactions. These are Success Tests with a threshold of 5. If no apparent skill applies, the character must default to Charisma –1. Failure means the character reacts with paranoia or anxiety in that situation for the duration of the effect.

Sensitive System

BONUS:12 KARMA	Drain/Fading Tests Willpower (2) before each Drain/Fading Tests +2 Drain/Fade on failure
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with the Sensitive System quality has immuno-suppressive problems with cybernetic implants. Double all Essence losses caused by cyberware. Bioware implants, regardless of how they are grown or designed, are rejected by the character’s body. This quality works differently for characters who are technomancers or Awakened and therefore never plan to take implants. Awakened individuals or technomancers remain fully capable of channeling mana or using Resonance, but they are potentially more susceptible to Drain or Fading. A magic user or technomancer with a Sensitive System must make a Willpower (2) Test before any Drain or Fading Tests. Failure on this test results in Drain or Fading Values being increased by +2 for that particular Drain or Fading Test, as the energy traveling through their body does more damage to their Sensitive System.

Simsense Vertigo

BONUS:5 KARMA	AR/VR/Simsense Use -2 DP Modifier
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

Characters who suffer from Simsense Vertigo experience feelings of disorientation whenever they work with augmented reality, virtual reality, or simsense (including smartlinks, simrigs, and image links). Such characters receive a –2 dice pool modifier to all tests when interacting with AR, VR, or simsense.

Sinner (layered)

BONUS:5 TO 25 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

There are four types of SINs that fall under the SINner (Layered) quality: National SIN, Criminal SIN (either Corporate or National), Corporate Limited SIN, or Corporate Born. Individuals with SINs are required by law to always broadcast their SINs. A legal SIN is required for all legal purchases. This makes them very useful things to have, so those who are SINless generally get by with the use of fake SINs (p. 367) just so they can participate in society.

NATIONAL SIN

At the 5 Karma level, the character has what is called a National SIN. The character’s parents were legal citizens of a nation (such as the UCAS or CAS) and he has been a citizen of that nation from birth. He has the right to vote, qualify for passports issued by his nation, enlist in the national military, or work in the national government. A National SIN is required for any national security clearance or any form of national military career. A character with a National SIN pays fifteen percent of their gross income in taxes. He is also in no way connected to any of the megacorporations. The main drawback to having a legal National SIN is the character is in the system. The nation in the player character’s background has the character’s biometric data (DNA, fingerprints, retinal scans) on file, and that biometric data is shared with law enforcement agencies through the Global SIN Registry. This makes it much easier to track a character should a job go sideways. Also, nations typically sell the personal information tied to the character’s SIN to corporations. Those with a legal SIN get nearly three times as much spam as those who don’t have a SIN or rely on fake SINs, and the spam messages they receive are disturbingly tailored to their preferences (based on their buying and browsing habits).

CRIMINAL SIN

At the 10 Karma level, the character has a Criminal SIN (either Corporate or National); his Criminal SIN replaces any previous SIN. At some point in his life, the character was arrested and served time for a felony-level offense and was branded a criminal for the rest of his life. He is legally required to broadcast his Criminal SIN at all times; failure to do so is a felony and can lead to re-incarceration. He is shunned by law-abiding society. Law-abiding citizens will, if they must, deal with a SINless character before they’d have any interaction with a known criminal. With his Criminal SIN, the character will experience prejudiced views, suspicion, and/or open hostility from most people with SINs. He will often be denied entry to certain locations (high-end stores, car dealerships, museums, galleries, etc.) and will have difficulty finding legal employment. He can expect to be brought in and held up to 48 hours for questioning anytime a crime is committed in his area. The judicial system in 2075 is more an assembly line than institution of justice. Suspects are treated as guilty unless proven innocent, plausible circumstantial evidence is often sufficient for conviction, and sentencing has more to do with the judge’s mood than the crime. In this environment it’s likely the cops will be more interested in closing the case than solving any crime; they may try to pin crimes on the character with the Criminal SIN whether or not she had anything to do with it. Some degree of “adjusting” facts and “interpreting” witness accounts to support allegations is common; fabricating evidence, if only to meet conviction productivity goals, is not rare. Magic users tend to receive much harsher treatment from the judicial system than mundane criminals. If the character is a magic user with a Criminal SIN, he is registered with local law enforcement. He can expect regular—but usually not scheduled—checks to confirm he lives and to ensure he is not using forbidden spell formula, foci, or other magical gear. The nation or corporation that issued the Criminal SIN will keep close tabs on the character, if he fails to update residential information or appears in any way to be trying to evade their oversight, he is subject to arrest. He is also required to pay a fifteen percent tax on his gross income to the entity that issued his Criminal SIN.

CORPORATE LIMITED SIN

At the 15 Karma level the character has the Corporate Limited SIN; he has somehow gained a position in a megacorporation from the outside. He may have been hired as a wageslave (or been the minor child of a person hired as a wageslave), or perhaps brought in by someone in the megacorp who saw advantage in his skill, talent, area of expertise, or some other useful attribute. Under most circumstances the Corporate Limited SIN replaces any National SIN. His Corporate Limited SIN becomes part of the Global SIN Registry, to which law enforcement agencies and security corporations alike have access. Many of these Corporate Limited SINs record whether or not the character is Awakened. The Corporate Limited SIN allows the character to be employed by the megacorp under most circumstances, and it replaces any National SIN that the character may have had previously. With the Corporate SIN, the character can be gainfully employed by the issuing megacorporation as a wageslave, a low-ranking member of the corporation’s security services, or an enlisted member of the corporation’s military. Though he could have a secret-level security clearance to perform his duties, he cannot rise to a leadership position, become an officer, or be part of the megacorporation’s Special Forces (such as the Red Samurai). As a group, characters that possess Corporate Limited SINs are believed to either know something valuable about the inner workings of the megacorporation or have a skill set rival megacorps would want; as such they are considered valid targets for extraction, even if they are no longer active with the corporation. Characters with the Corporate Limited SIN experience prejudice and hostility from those in the shadows who are SINless. The SINless believe the corporations deliberately keep them poor and powerless so they can be exploited. The character with the Corporate Limited SIN may find himself being personally blamed for his corporation’s actions—protesting he has no real authority and no connection with the actions in question usually does little good. To the SINless and neo-anarchists the character with the Corporate Limited SIN has sold out and chosen a corrupt and oppressive system over his own people. The character pays twenty percent of his gross income in taxes to his megacorporation.

CORPORATE SIN

At the 25 Karma level is the Corporate Born SIN. The character with this ID was probably born into a mega corporation, or belonged to one when it achieved extraterritoriality. At least one of his parents probably had the Corporate Born SIN as well. He grew up in the corporation, his social involvement, education, and almost every aspect of his life was managed by the corporation. His skills and aptitudes were evaluated constantly, and he was groomed for the career path to which he was best suited; his whole world was the corporation. Characters with the Corporate Born SIN had the potential and the opportunity to advance through the corporation hierarchy. He could have been a department administrator, a finance strategist, an agent of corporate intelligence, an officer in a megacorp’s military, or even a member of Corporate Special Forces (Renraku’s Red Samurai or Ares’ Firewatch). With a Corporate Born SIN, he could have enjoyed top-secret clearance within the corporation and access to nearly unlimited resources. Then something happened. An unforgivably costly mistake, the machinations of a rival, a supervisor in need of a scapegoat—something pushed the character out of the corporation and into the cold and unforgiving shadows. In the shadows a SIN that had been the key to opportunity is now a deadly liability. Most in the shadows see the Corporate Born as the privileged few, the aristocrats in the armored limousines who look down on them, oppress them, exploit them and deny them their basic rights. If the SINless discover the character’s Corporate Born SIN, reactions will range from deep suspicion to violent hostility; serious injury and death are real possibilities. The character’s loyalty to his corporation is never questioned, which can be an insurmountable liability in a culture that works against the megacorps. Would-be runners have been killed for holding Corporate Born SINs. Fortunately, Corporate Born records are limited to the megacorporation that generated them. Files in the Global SIN Registry can confirm she has a valid SIN, but do not contain any additional information. Those with Corporate Born SINs pay a tax of ten percent of their gross income to their corporation.

Social Stress

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

Whether as a result of loss or trauma or due to innate psychological makeup, the Social Stress quality burdens the character with emotions that interfere with his ability to interact with others. A specific cause and trigger for the Social Stress must be established. For example, if his Social Stress is caused by survivor’s guilt after the loss of a close friend, unexpectedly encountering someone who looks similar to the lost friend will heighten stress. When a character is using Leadership or Etiquette skills, reduce the number of 1s required to glitch the test by 1. Gamemasters should call for more Social Tests for characters with Social Stress to determine how a character reacts to others, particularly if a situation related to the cause of their stress arises.

Spirit Bane

BONUS:7 KARMA	Summon/Bind Spirit -2 DP Modifier Predetermined Type Banish Spirit +2 DP modifier for Predetermined Type to resist
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with a Spirit Bane really torques off a certain type of spirit (p. 303). Whether the character has a reputation for harming this sort of spirit or something about her aura enrages them, spirits of the type affected by the Spirit Bane are likely to harass the character when she is in their presence, and they may be reluctant to obey or per form favors for the character or her friends. If spirits of this type are ordered to attack a party that includes the character, these spirits will single her out and attempt to destroy her first. Affected spirits will always use lethal force against these characters with the Spirit Bane quality. If the character with Spirit Bane tries to summon or bind this spirit, she suffers a –2 dice pool modifier for the attempt. If the summoner tries to banish a spirit of this type, the spirit receives a +2 dice pool modifier for resisting her attempt. Watchers and minions do not count for Spirit Bane, as they are constructs that are not summoned like normal spirits.

This quality may only be taken by magic users. Magic users may possess this quality for a type of spirit that is not a part of their magical tradition.

Uncouth

BONUS:14 KARMA	Social Tests -2 DP Modifier to resist improper or impulsive actions
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

The character with the Uncouth quality has difficulty interacting with others. He acts impulsively, overreacts to any perceived provocation, and tends to do whatever pops into his head without considering the consequences (i.e., flipping off Mr. Johnson, calling a drunk troll a “Trog,” or responding to casual trash talk from a rival runner by punching her in the face). All Social Tests made by the character to resist acting improperly or impulsively receive a –2 dice pool modifier. Additionally, the cost for learning or improving Social Skills is double for Uncouth characters (including at character creation), and they may never learn any Social skill groups. Uncouth characters are treated as “unaware” in any Social skills that they do not possess at Rating 1 or higher (see Skill Ratings, p. 129). The gamemaster may require the character to make Success Tests for social situations that pose no difficulty for normal characters.

Uneducated

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

An Uneducated character is not mentally impaired—she just never had the opportunity to learn. Whether because she and her family were isolated squatters, or were SINless, or otherwise underprivileged, she was denied access to the education system. She has only a rudimentary knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Characters with the Uneducated quality are considered “unaware” in Technical, Academic Knowledge, and Professional Knowledge skills they do not possess (see Skill Ratings, p. 129), and they may not default on skill tests for those skills. The gamemaster may also require the character to make Success Tests for ordinary tasks that the typical sprawl-dweller takes for granted. Additionally, the Karma cost for learning new skills or improving existing ones in these categories is twice the normal rating (including at character creation), and it’s possible the character will never learn some skill groups belonging to these categories.

Unsteady Hands

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with Unsteady Hands has mild shakes that affect the dexterity and finesse in his hands. The character suffers a –2 dice pool modifier for all Agility-based tests when symptoms manifest themselves. The condition could be physiological (an untreated genetic disorder or damaged nerves, for example), caused by psychological trauma, or even be symptomatic of age. Certain augmentations or medications can mask these symptoms under normal circumstances. Under more stressful situations in the course of the run, there is a chance the Unsteady Hands condition can reappear. The character makes an Agility + Body (4) Test following a stressful encounter (combat, for example). A successful test means the character does not experience the symptoms of this condition (this time). A failed test causes the difficulties associated with unsteady hands to re-emerge, and they remain with the character for the remainder of the run.

Weak Immune System

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:Core

A character with a Weak Immune System has reduced resistance to infections and disease. Increase the Power of any disease by +2 for every Resistance Test. A character with Weak Immune System cannot take the Natural Immunity or Resistance to Pathogens/Toxins qualities. A Weak Immune System often results from immune-suppression treatments used in cybersurgery and bio-genetic procedures, so it is reasonable to believe that characters that have undergone extensive body modifications are more likely to acquire this quality.

Spirit Pariah

BONUS:14 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:SG

Something you did slotted of the spirit world something fierce, so spirits really don’t like you. In order to even get their attention, you must make additional offerings to get spirits to show up. A character with this quality must expend (Force x 5) drams of reagents in order to make a Summoning Test; reagents spent to increase the test’s limit do not count toward this amount. If the character cannot expend enough reagents, the test automatically fails. Also, Binding Tests require (Force x 30) drams of reagents, and the summoner receives a –1 dice pool modifier.

Combat Junkie

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:R&G

The character just can’t keep from starting fights. His first solution is always fight, and so is his second, third, and fourth. If someone suggests more options than that to the character, they’ve probably been punched already. The point is, no matter what the actual plan is, this character will always look for a chance to get a little combat on.

This quality manifests in two different ways. If the character is in a stressful situation, they must make a Composure (4) Test in order to restrain themselves from just punching their way out of the situation. If they are following a plan and an unexpected event occurs, their first reaction will be to opt for violence unless they succeed in an Intuition + Logic (4) Test and remember to stop and think about whether there might be a better option. The character is always free to not make a test and just give into their violent instincts—and deal with whatever consequences follow.

Blighted

BONUS:5-15 KARMA	6 Months = 5 Karma Characters face a –1 penalty on all Physical actions. 12 Months = 10 Karma Characters face a –1 penalty on all Actions. 24 Months = 15 Karma Characters face a –2 penalty on all Physical actions and a –1 penalty on all other actions.
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:R&G

This quality has multiple levels to represent the different long-term effects of radiation and pollution damage to the character’s system and how drastically it affects everyday life for the runner. The quality can be taken at character generation to represent a life growing up in really bad parts of the sprawl, or it can be gained by dossing down in those spots for an extended period.

The exact effects are not specified, only the effects it will have on rolls for the character. The penalties can be caused by organ shutdown, muscle spasms, cancerous growths, etc. This quality cannot be taken in campaigns that do not face the nvironments it is designed for without gamemaster approval.

Make an Edge (3) Test at the beginning of each game session. Success means no complications for that game session. Failure means they feel the pain of their rough upbringing in a harsh environment full of excess chemical or radioactivity exposure. (To be clear, you cannot spend Edge on an Edge roll.)

Earther

BONUS:3 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:R&G

Some people are just not meant to explore the stars. Space flight training usually weeds these people out, but most runners never go through an official space flight program. Characters who take this quality are especially inept in alternate gravities. They suffer a –2 dice pool penalty on all Physical actions taken in a gravity other than Earth norm. This quality cannot be taken in campaigns that do not face the environments it is designed for without gamemaster approval.

Albinism

BONUS:4 OR 8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

While the little white bunnies are cute, a character with this quality will likely get a moniker like Powder, Whitey, or Snowflake. Albinism is a genetic disorder that results in a partial or complete lack of pigmentation in the eyes, skin, and hair. While the lack of pigment in the hair and skin results in white colorations, lack of pigment in the eyes results in pink or crystal blue irises, with bright red pupils. Due to the lack of melanin, the compound that provides the pigmentation, characters with this quality lack ultraviolet light protection, making them very photosensitive and prone to sunburn. All ethnicities, metatypes, and metavariants can manifest albinism; in fact, all species can manifest albinism, including sapient paracritters.

Characters with this quality face a Weak Glare penalty to all actions when working in regular indoor lighting as well as during a bright but overcast day, and a Moderate Glare penalty when working on a sunny day. All other Glare modifiers are also increased by one level versus albino characters. Normal compensation methods work to mitigate the modifiers.

Due to the lack of protective pigmentation in their skin, characters with this quality suffer sunburn more quickly. Halve the duration between resistance tests when exposed to the sun for extended periods (p. 148, Run & Gun).

Characters who gain cybereyes at any point in the character creation process only gain 4 Karma at character creation. If an albino character gains cybereyes during game play, they must buy down this quality to the 4 Karma level as soon as they have the Karma, and cannot spend Karma on anything else until the quality is bought down.

Amnesia

BONUS:4 OR 8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

More than just one night of drunken partying or even a few days’ blackout from a healthy dose of laés, this level of memory loss is far deeper and more profound. The loss can be from injury, magic, drugs, or something unknown and sinister (cough … CFD … cough), and it can be either a simple surface memory loss or a complete neural deletion. The two levels of loss offer differing Karma values and differing levels of difficulty for the mind-wiped shadowrunner.

Surface Loss (4 Karma)

This character suffers from the classic movie amnesia where they don’t remember who they are or their life before a certain moment, but they retain knowledge of their skills and general abilities. They aren’t quite sure how they learned them, or where, but they at least have those abilities at their disposal. What they lack are knowledge skills. The gamemaster determines a back-story based on the character the player creates and notes their knowledge skills. As a skill becomes relevant to the game, the gamemaster can make a secret roll for the character and provide the information in a flash of realization.

But these skills don’t just appear out of thin air for nothing. In order to access a Knowledge skill, a character needs to decide to buy it. If the skill is already on their list, 2 Karma buys an additional rank of the skill and that small bit of their history can be revealed. If the skill is not on their list they pay for it normally. A player could choose to never buy back their skills and always be at the mercy of the gamemaster, or simply build up their new identity with what they learn on the streets.

Neural Deletion (8 Karma)

This is something that should be discussed and worked out with the gamemaster before choosing it, or can be part of a gamemaster’s plan for starting a new campaign with willing (note that word!) players. The player(s) start with a very limited level of knowledge as to what their character(s) can do. A nice gamemaster may allow for a list of skills they seem to know something about, or they can choose to reveal nothing but the basics, such as Physical Attributes and gear. Mental Attributes, skills, qualities, and even Edge should start as a mystery, and players learn about their character as they go.

One of the most important things to remember about choosing this is that your history is out of your hands and, at times, so is your character creation. If you want this level of Amnesia, talk to your gamemaster and then wait for your character sheet and hold on for dear life because you’re in for a bumpy and wildly fun ride.

The player can only fully regain control of their character by spending the Karma to buy off this quality and completing whatever in-game goals the gamemaster designs.

Asthma

ASTHMA EFFECTS TABLE

ALL EFFECTS ARE CUMULATIVE

1 box of damage: Wheezing; –1 dice pool modifier to all Physical Actions; Social Limit decreased by 1

2 boxes: Shortness of breath; –1 dice pool modifier to all Actions; Social Limit decreased by 1 additional point

4 boxes: Chest tightness; further Fatigue damage resisted with only Willpower

8 boxes: Wracking cough; –1 dice pool modifier to all Actions; Social Limit decreased by 1 additional point

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

When they gave you the street name Wheezy, you thought how awesome it was to get a classic but rare sitcom reference. Then you realized it was because of your asthma, and it wasn’t so cool. Whether it was in your genetic code, or forced on you by a virus or pollution, you’ve got the wheezes, more professionally known as chronic asthma. When it kicks in you endure wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. In other words, some serious distractions from hacking, shooting, fighting, casting, summoning, and just about anything else that requires even a modicum of concentration.

Characters with asthma suffer additional, and more rapid, effects from all forms of Fatigue. Whenever considering a Fatigue damage effect, the character faces the damage twice as often and suffers additional effects as soon as they start taking damage based on the Asthma Effects table.

Bi-polar

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

A character with this quality fluctuates between periods of depression, stability, and mania. During manic periods, the character gains a +1 dice pool modifier to any tests involving Agility or Reaction. At the same time, the inability to focus for extended periods of time results in a –2 dice pool modifier for tests involving Logic or Intuition. During depressive periods, the character is lethargic, unmotivated, and unable to focus. Apply a –2 dice pool modifier to any tests involving Agility, Reaction, Logic, and Intuition. During stable times, the character feels balanced and suffers no difficulties except for those they impose on themselves.

The gamemaster rolls a die to determine the character’s current mental state. This roll should occur at the beginning of the game session, whenever the character gets a shift in activity (sleep, after a run, during a long stakeout, etc.), or whenever the gamemaster feels like it, but at least once per day. On a result of 1 or 2, the character is in a depressed state, on a 3 or 4 the character is in a manic state, and on a 5 or 6 the character is stable.

Medication to stabilize Bi-polar characters is available at a cost of 500 nuyen a month, but requires a prescription and a SIN (a fake SIN is, of course, a viable option). Failing to take meds for more than twelve hours results in a die roll by the gamemaster. On the street, the meds go for 100 nuyen a dose.

Big Regret

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Mistakes happen. Sometime in the character’s past they did something serious that they regret; maybe they spent time as a bunraku puppet, maybe they were part of a major political affair, or they were involved in the wrong corporate project, but it has to be something truly unpleasant (gamemaster’s discretion). The character decreases their Social Limit by 3 against anyone who knows about their past. This could result in a case of blackmail if the wrong person knows the truth. The character cannot buy off this quality unless it becomes public, at which point she gains 1 point of Notoriety and must buy off the quality as soon as possible.

Blind

BONUS:5 OR 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

(5 FOR CHARACTERS WITH ACCESS TO ASTRAL SIGHT)

Characters with this quality are completely blind and can perceive nothing visually. This means they automatically fail all vision-based Perception Tests. They also face a –4 dice pool modifier for general Perception tests, a –3 dice pool modifier for Surprise Tests, Blind Fire when in Ranged Combat, Total Darkness in Melee Combat, and any other relevant modifiers at the gamemaster’s discretion. The character cannot use cybereyes, as the blindness is a nerve issue, leaving them incapable of processing any visual stimuli, regardless of the source.

Since astral sight is not a truly visual sense, Awakened characters who are blind can still use astral perception all the time and at least have some sense of objects in the world, but gamemasters should apply the customary –2 dice pool modifier to all actions performed on the physical plane while perceiving the astral, including indirect combat spells, and keep in mind the differences between the astral and physical worlds.

Borrowed Time

BONUS:20 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Runners face death on a regular basis, but usually they learn the best ways to avoid it. This quality makes avoiding it impossible; the inevitable is at your door, you’re just waiting for it to knock. It may be a fatal disease, a slow-acting poison, a precarious blockage, or a ticking cortex bomb, but no matter the source, death could arrive at any moment. There is no set time limit on the character’s expiration, only a deadly combination of three dice. At the beginning of each game session the gamemaster rolls three dice in secret; three of a kind means times up. At some point during that game session, at the perfect dramatic moment, the character dies.

This quality cannot be bought off. If the player changes their mind and wants their character to survive, the gamemaster can allow the character to survive, at a cost. When their number’s up (and not before), the character must burn all their current Edge to stay alive. The quality then goes away.

Computer Illiterate

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

There are characters who aren’t tech-savvy and characters who just don’t understand technology, and then there are characters with this quality. These characters have no experience at working with AR, computers, commlinks, and other electronic devices. They have difficulty performing even simple tasks such as making commcalls, sending e-mails, instant messaging, programming a trideo recorder, using a commlink, or doing a Matrix search. This quality provides a –4 dice pool modifier to all tests that involve a computer, electronic device, or Matrix-connected system of any kind. During stressful or tense situations, the gamemaster may require a Success Test, with the modifier, to complete tasks others would take for granted.

Creature Of Comfort

BONUS:10, 17, OR 25 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

For the character with this quality, the rewards of a job well done are the finer things in life. Unfortunately, one can quickly get attached to the comforts one has acquired, making the fall seem ever so higher. At the 10 Karma level, the character is used to a Middle Lifestyle, at the 17 level a High, and 25, it’s Luxury all the way, baby.

For every day that the character must spend “slumming” it in a lower Lifestyle category, the irritable character suffers a –1 penalty to all Social and Healing tests per Lifestyle category below his chosen level. For example, if the character takes this Quality at the High Lifestyle level and is forced to stay in a Squatter Lifestyle, he will suffer –3 to all Social and Healing tests. Life just isn’t worth living without Cognac.

Day Job

DAY JOB TABLE

KARMA VALUES	SALARY/MONTH	HOURS/WEEK
5	1,000¥	10
10	2,500¥	20
15	5,000¥	40

BONUS:5 TO 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

When running in the shadows, sometimes you need a way to fill your days, or to maintain your cover. This quality burdens a character with responsibilities and time commitments. While the regular income is nice, having a regular schedule and a boss to answer to doesn’t jibe well with the shadowrunning profession. The player and gamemaster should work together to determine the job, which is usually a pretty decent gig based on the pay rates, but the gamemaster should determine the shifts the character works. In order to establish the legitimacy of the day job, the character must possess a valid SIN (SINner quality or at least a Rating 4 fake SIN). If they have the SINner quality, the money from the Day Job quality is considered already taxed. If they are using a fake and it gets burned or connected to a crime, expect the cops to come down hard and the job is lost until the situation is cleared up.

When combined with the Fame quality, this could easily bring in enough money to support the character, so make sure they have a good reason to run the shadows.

The Day Job table provides the Karma, income, and hours breakdown for the quality.

During runs, the gamemaster should keep track of how many consecutive days are being spent on shadowrunning activity and whether the character can fulfill their day job responsibilities. If they can’t, they get a warning; if it happens again after a warning, they lose their job. Losing their job costs them 2 points of Street Cred (how can you be trusted as a runner if you can’t even hold a job as a fry cook?) and costs the character a month of salary due to purchases they made in anticipation of their pay.

Deaf

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Characters with this quality are completely deaf and can perceive no sound at all. This means they automatically fail all audio-based Perception Tests. They also face a –2 dice pool modifier for general Perception tests, a –3 dice pool modifier for Surprise Tests, and any other modifiers at the gamemaster’s discretion.

Did You Just Call Me Dumb?

BONUS:3 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The character can’t resist camouflaging insults into well-spoken words. The character gets the satisfaction of feeling superior to everyone. Unfortunately, once in a while people will notice and get pretty upset. Any Glitch rolled by this character on any Social test always counts as a Critical Glitch.

Dimmer Bulb

BONUS:5 KARMA PER LEVEL
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:(MAX 3 LEVELS)
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Maybe it was one too many hits to the head, maybe the character’s mother dropped her as a baby, or maybe she never got into that whole “thinking” thing, but whatever the cause, the character does not tend to shine in the mental arena. For every level of this quality, the character faces a –1 dice pool modifier on all tests involving Logic or Intuition.

Driven

BONUS:2 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The character has an obsession, something that drives them forward. Everything they do is designed to bring them one step closer to solving the enigma in their life. This can be finding a disappeared loved one, discovering a hidden truth about themselves, or even getting revenge on an old enemy. Whatever the cause, when faced with a clue or opportunity to advance their quest, the character must make a Willpower + Logic (4) Test to not immediately drop everything and pursue this new information. Unless the character succeeds, they will sacrifice anything and anyone to get closer to the truth. On the other hand, such single-minded obsession makes the character a tough nut to crack. As long as the character is actively working a lead, he gains +1 to his Willpower.

Emotional Attachment

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The character has an irrational emotional attachment to a piece of gear. The character will always use this item, even if presented with a “better” option. Furthermore, if lost in some manner, the character will do everything in his power, up to and including risking his life and that of his teammates, to retrieve his item. If the piece of gear is irretrievably lost or damaged, the player must either immediately spend Karma to buy off the quality or suffer a –1 penalty on all tests that would have used that piece of gear for a six-month period. After that time, they learn to love a replacement piece of gear, and the quality transfers to that item.

Ex-con

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Runners often brag that they’d go down in a blaze of glory before they let the pawns bring them down. The prison system is full of them. A character with this quality is fresh out of the joint and still on the legal leash, so they have several drawbacks.

First, the local police corporation has a full file and rundown on the character, including augmentations, magical training, known associates, biometric data, a material link, etc. This file is duplicated by the local prison corporation if they are different than the police force and is connected to their nice new Criminal SIN (sorry, no extra points there). Plus, the character cannot have any Restricted or Forbidden augmentations, as the prison system removes them to protect the other inmates and staff (and sell them to the black market).

Second, the character is on parole and has to check in with their parole officer (PO) twice a week via the Matrix and once a week in person. Plus, the PO can choose to make a house call any time they want. Whether the gamemaster wants the character to have a sleazy or a squeaky clean PO is up to them, but each creates their own bundle of problems.

Third, the character is known to be an ex-con and is limited in their choice of contacts. Street-level folks will still freely associate with the runner—hell, they might even commiserate while waiting in their mutual PO’s waiting room. Corp contacts will only associate with the character if they have a Loyalty Rating of 4 or higher, and law enforcement contacts only stick by the runner if they have a Loyalty Rating of 5 or 6.

If the character ever gets past their parole or creates a new life for him- or herself, this quality must be bought off or replaced with other negative qualities of equal or greater value.

Flashbacks

BONUS:7 OR 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Whether due to PTSD, mental torture, psychotropic IC, or just a scarring experience, the character suffers vivid memory-based sensory hallucinations. The flashbacks are triggered by a specific stimulus. Whenever the character encounters their trigger stimulus, they must make a Composure (5) Test or become incapacitated for (5 – hits) Combat Turns. During the flashback, the character is unable to perform any useful action and may instead perform physical actions reflecting their mental misperceptions.

During character creation, work with the gamemaster to determine the stimulus and Karma value based on how common that stimulus will be in the campaign. The stimulus can be any sensory input, including something on the astral plane or in the Matrix. A 7 Karma stimulus should come up about once every other shadowrun, while the 15 Karma stimulus should pop up at least once in every game session.

Hobo With A Shotgun

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The character has survived on the streets for so long that anything else makes them distrustful and suspicious. The character will not choose to stay in accommodations above Squatter. If, for example, the team elects to spend the night in a Middle Lifestyle hotel, or even a squalid Low Lifestyle motel, the character will walk out and find a comfortable alley to sleep in rather than bear this “luxury.” If forced to stay somewhere above Squatter, the character will be at –2 to all his Mental attributes as he becomes confused, erratic, and agitated until such a time as he is able to spend a day in a Squatter or Street lifestyle to rezone himself.

Hung Out To Dry

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Welcome to the world of social shunning. For some reason, unknown to the character, her contacts have suddenly clammed up and stopped answering her calls, and new connections she makes suddenly dry up when they get wind of her social pariah status. The gamemaster knows the reason no one will talk to her, and it’s up to the character to try to figure it out and maybe clear her name. These events could be the focus of an entire campaign or just a few side-jobs here and there that the character might need to convince her running mates to help her out on.

If other members of the team start to ask around as to why the character is on the outs, their contacts may get a little tight-lipped and may even clam up until the situation is resolved. Once the situation is resolved, the character will need to either buy off this quality or replace it with another of equal value as a result of the events.

Illiterate

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Though literacy is not really necessary thanks to the advances of the Sixth World, most folks can at least sound out “See Spot run.” Whether because she grew up in the wild (urban, rural, or otherwise), or just never had the opportunity, the character cannot read a lick. She can ask others, use an agent program, or get software on her commlink to scan and read things aloud, but anyone aware of this intellectual deficit will look negatively on the character, reducing her Social Limit by 1. The illiterate character also suffers a –2 dice pool modifier when working with computer/commlink systems and electronics other than her own due to her unfamiliarity with their iconography. Also, during character creation the character cannot choose any Knowledge skill that may have required even the most minimal of reading, and during game play all Knowledge skills that require reading cost double the Karma for the character until she learns to read and buys off this quality.

In Debt

BONUS:1 TO 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Whether it came betting the ponies or buying that new pony, the character owes money to an unsavory third party. The player and gamemaster must work out the details, but the happy thing is, for every point of(up to 15) spent to be In Debt, the character gets 5,000 nuyen to spend during character creation. These points are spent in place of the normal Karma for extra cash and extend the possible additional funds to 75,000¥.

Now it’s time for the bad news. The character now owes some nasty people the amount they borrowed, plus another fifty percent, and the amount increases by ten percent every month until it’s paid off. If the character misses a monthly payment, which has to be at least the interest for the month, they take 1 box of Physical damage for every 20,000 nuyen they owe. This can’t be resisted and can’t be healed until they pay their minimum as their friendly neighborhood lender sent the appropriate message and then leans on them until they get their money. They can also expect to be asked to do some discount work and maybe even a few favors while they have the debt hanging over their head.

The quality can be bought off if the character has both enough Karma and cash to pay the debt. If they only have the cash but not the Karma, they can trade for another negative quality of equal Karma. If they don’t want to do that, then the lenders suddenly become scarce, and the character is unable to make the payment until interest compounds again, leaving them deeper in debt.

Incomplete Deprogramming

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. A character with this quality was once mentally programmed to be a deep-cover agent for an agency. When they left, their deprogramming wasn’t completed properly for some reason. Since then the character has had occasional, often unexpected, shifts back to their cover identity.

Whenever this character faces a stressful situation such as an interrogation, combat, or even just an injury, they must make a Composure (4) Test. Failure means the cover identity comes out and takes control for either 1D6 minutes or whatever length of time the gamemaster desires. The altered psychological state is not stable, though, and another stressful situation can call for another Composure (4) Test and another personality shift. This can occur over and over during the same firefight.

During these states the character forgets their badass runner identity and the skills that go with it, and they turn back into mild-mannered everyday Joe. This includes loss of skills while the cover identity is in charge. The gamemaster can create a secondary character for the player to use during these times, ask them to step out while they run the NPC, or make them sit and watch in humiliation as their character screams like a child and runs for cover or simply wanders up to the guard booth, seemingly lost in the middle of the secure facility.

As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, behaviors like this look an awful lot like CFD, and people are going to start wondering if you’re a head case.

Infirm

BONUS:5 TO 25 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Characters with this quality often think, “I should hit the gym” but rarely get past buying the membership, or they’re on the downward slope of life and just too old for this drek. The quality represents some kind of diminished physical fitness aptitude. For every 5 Karma, the character drops all of their Physical Attribute maximums by one. The quality can be taken up to five times, but no Attribute maximum can be dropped below 1. Along with this natural cap, the character can never have a Physical Attribute modified beyond this maximum by any source—magic, machine or otherwise—as their body is too frail to handle the stress.

The effects of this quality stack with those of the Aged quality from Bullets & Bandages (p. 12), so characters need to be careful of not dropping any Attribute maximum lower than one.

Liar

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

You’d never make it as Pinocchio. Everyone around knows the character to be a compulsive liar, and even when she manages to utter the truth, she just sounds false and insincere. Let’s look at how this plays out. First, the character receives a –1 dice pool modifier to all Social skill tests. Also, whenever the character addresses someone, the gamemaster rolls 1D6. On a result of 1, the target of the conversation calls bullshit and assumes the character is lying, no matter what they are saying. Trust is lost, conversation is over. This occurs with every conversation the character takes part in. Any NPC who lost trust in the character this way continues to maintain a certain level of mistrust, and the next time they encounter the character, things go wrong on a roll of 1 or 2. If it happens a third time, the character gains a point of Notoriety, and reduces the Loyalty value of the contact by 1 (if it was a contact). If that means they hit Loyalty 0, then say sayonara to that contact.

Night Blindness

BONUS:6 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

No one understands how dark the shadows are like you. The character’s natural vision does not adjust well to poor lighting conditions. All Light/Glare Environmental modifiers are one category worse for the character, with the exception of Full Light/No Glare, which still has no modifier.

This quality is incompatible with any other quality that affects the eyes of the character and must be immediately bought off if the character corrects the issue with cyber- or bioware. If the character does not have enough Karma to buy off the quality, they cannot get the corrective gear.

Oblivious

BONUS:6 OR 10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The character with this quality fails to notice the troll in the corner with the Panther cannon … even after they’ve fired it! A 6 Karma level of Oblivious means a –2 dice pool modifier to all Perception Tests, including standard, Astral, and Matrix. On top of that, at the 10 Karma level, all Perception Test thresholds are increased by 1.

Pacifist

BONUS:10 OR 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

To hurt another is to mar the soul. This quality represents two levels of moral inflexibility that prevent the character from delivering, or allowing others to deliver, harm to another being. At the 10 Karma level, the character avoids violence not performed in self-defense. The character will not participate in runs involving wetwork and may try to dissuade other team members from doing so. Non-lethal attacks (gel rounds, tasers, flash-bangs, stun spells, etc.) are still considered “violent,” and may only be used in self-defense—after an opponent has clearly attacked the character, other team members, or innocent bystanders.

At the 15 Karma level, the character will not commit any violence regardless of provocation or threat to themselves or others. If the character commits any act of violence they are stricken with a powerful sense of guilt and suffer a –1 dice pool modifier to all tests involving Mental attributes until the character succeeds at a Charisma + Willpower (20, 1 day) Extended Test. If the character does not succeed at the test within seven days, they lose 1 point of Willpower or Charisma, whichever is higher. The loss is permanent, but the –1 dice pool modifier to tests involving Mental attributes goes away. If the character actually kills someone (or even thinks they did), the dice pool modifier becomes –2, the Extended Test interval changes to 1 week, and the character’s Mental Limit is decreased by 1.

Paranoia

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

It’s only paranoia if they aren’t out to get you. In the shadows, being cautious is often mistaken for being paranoid, but there’s a dramatic difference between the two. A character with this quality truly thinks everyone is out to get her. Whether this is really the case, or simply a matter of an overactive imagination, the character faces a –2 dice pool modifier on all Social Tests involving contacts with a Loyalty less than 4 or any generally unfamiliar person. The character also refuses to ever give out her address or any information on where she lives and must change living spaces every few months to ease their fear of being found.

Paraplegic

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Characters with this quality are paralyzed from the waist down. They can perform any physical tasks that do not require the use of their legs, and locomotion usually occurs via wheelchair or wheelchair drone. The character is fast, with a walking speed of Agility x 3 and running speed of Agility x 4, regardless of metatype (shadowrunners get the fast and agile wheelchairs of marathoners and murderball athletes, not slow and cumbersome chairs). They have trouble, though, with stairs and curbs, which can prevent them from getting where they need to go.

The paralysis can be permanent or a temporary condition while the character builds up funds to get surgery to fix the cause. Once the repair is done, the quality has to be bought off. The character has a lot of additional expenses to make the world more manageable. To reflect this, their Lifestyle cost is increased by 10 percent (cumulative with racial modifiers) and vehicles need to be modified, increasing their price by 5 percent, or have a Rigger Interface (p. 461, SR5) for DNI control.

The quality does not affect the character’s abilities in astral space or the Matrix.

Phobia

PHOBIA TABLE

CONDITION	KARMA	DESCRIPTION
Uncommon	2	The triggering condition is relatively rare, such as the smell of roses or specific insects.
Common	5	The triggering condition is commonly encountered, such as sunlight, trolls, insects in general, magic, the outdoors, or crowds.
SEVERITY	KARMA	EFFECTS
Mild	3	–1 dice pool modifier to all actions
Moderate	5	–3 dice pool modifier to all actions; Composure (2) Test or must get away from the source
Severe	10	–6 dice pool modifier; Composure (5) Test or must flee from the source for (5 – hits) Combat Turns

BONUS:5 TO 15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Fear is the mind-killer. It can also cause reactions from distraction to utter panic. A character with this quality has a visceral fear of some kind that shakes them whenever they are exposed. The severity of the fear determines their reaction to it and any modifiers they may face in its presence. That, combined with how frequently they may be exposed to their object of apprehension, determines the Karma value of the quality based on the Phobia table.

Mild phobias cause a –1 dice pool modifier to all actions while in the presence of their source. Moderate phobias cause a –3 dice pool modifier to all actions while in the presence of their source, and the character must succeed on a Composure (2) Test or feel a strong need to get away from the source of their fear. A Severe phobia causes the character to face a -6 dice pool modifier, requires a Composure (5) Test to stay in its presence, and if the Composure Test is failed the character must move away for at least (5 – hits) Combat Turns.

Pie Iesu Domine. Dona Eis Requiem.

BONUS:2 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The character is a flagellant, believing in causing himself pain to serve a greater good. Perhaps they seek clarity through pain; perhaps it is a constant act of contrition for their deeds. Whatever the reason, the character gains High Pain Tolerance 1 but always starts the day with 1 box of Physical damage. This box can be healed, but the character will seek to cause himself another box of damage as soon as possible. Note that the character’s wounds may cause questions in certain social settings, should anyone notice.

Poor Self Control

BONUS:4 TO 12 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF/SR5:CF

Whether they’re a boaster, an adrenaline junkie, or just can’t stand disorder, characters with this quality span a variety of mental ticks that all boil down to the inability to control one’s actions. The Karma costs vary based on the threshold of the Composure test involved in restraining the character’s actions. The quality can be taken multiple times, but only once for each form of control issue.

Braggart (5 Karma)

No one has ever done it bigger or better than her. The character will always try to top anyone else’s claims of success, even to the point of lying about it. This may result in them being ignored, considered infantile, or challenged to prove their superiority, but without a Composure (3) Test they won’t back down from the brag.

Thrill-Seeker (4 Karma)

It’s all about the rush. The character will always take the most dangerous and risky option in any situation if they don’t succeed at a Composure (2) Test. There is a slight payoff, as the adrenaline rush provides a +1 to their Initiative Score for 5 Combat Turns (meaning that is how long the bonus lasts, not that the character gets an additional bonus each turn).

Compulsive (4 To 12 Karma)

There is an order to all things that must be maintained, and the character feels the need to exert their sense of order on everything. The value of this mental malady comes from how severe the compulsion is and how much of a negative impact it can have on the character. Maybe she likes a tidy house, maybe she sees a necessary order to the items on the tables out in the world, or maybe she feels the need to practice her skills (be they hacking, casting, shooting, talking, stealing, sneaking, etc.) every chance she gets. The character must make a Composure (2) test to resist the compulsion. The base Karma value is (2 x threshold needed for Composure Test; must be from 1 to 4); then add 2 for things in the character’s personal environment (e.g., placement of furniture and minor appliances), 3 for a single aspect of the public environment (e.g., correcting bad apostrophes on signs, counting every Ford Americar they see), or 4 for a broad aspect of the public environment (e.g., touching every light post they walk by, hacking into every camera they see).

Vindictive (5 Karma)

Though best served cold, the thought of vengeance sure makes your blood boil. No matter how small the slight, it cannot go unreturned, and the escalation factor must always be considered. An insult may be returned with a calm threat, a threat might get the same or may require a payment in pain, and any injurious assault must be brought back upon your enemies two-fold (or more). To resist the urge for instant payback, the character must make a successful Composure (2) Test, and even when resisted, the character must add the offender’s name to their hit list for the future.

Combat Monster (10 Karma)

The red rage blinds to all but victory. A character with this quality loses much of her self-control once a fight has begun. She’ll fight until all her opponents are disabled, even if outnumbered and losing, unless she can make a Composure (3) Test to clear her head enough to break off the fight.

SR5:CF

Attention-Seeking (5 Karma)

The spotlight is the character’s natural habitat, like a fish in water—and she suffers just as much when she’s not in it. The character goes out of her way to be vivacious and gain approval from others. Unless

she succeeds at a Composure (3) Test, the character seeks to be the center of attention whenever possible (this may or may not include combat situations, at the gamemaster’s discretion).

Sadistic (8 Karma)

As a child, the character bullied others and tortured small animals. As an adult, she’s moved on to inflicting pain and suffering on those around her, physical and mental, whenever she has the chance. A Composure (3) Test is required to stop from inflicting some form of pain whenever the character has the reasonable chance to do so without incurring danger, even when it might interfere with her own safety, like when the team’s face is trying to talk their way out of a firefight.

Records On File

BONUS:1 KARMA PER RATING
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

(MAX RATING 10) For every point of Karma spent on this quality, one of the Big 10 megacorps possesses a relatively up-todate record of the character’s SIN, biometrics, person al, and medical data. The gamemaster and player can work together to figure out why they have this data or the player can leave that mystery up to the gamemaster. The data provides the megacorp’s agents a +2 dice pool modifier for any tests made to identify the character through their records. Due to the proliferation and saturation of facial recognition and identification systems used by the megacorporations to track consumer habits, representatives of the selected megacorps also have a +2 dice pool modifier on tests to track down or locate the character whenever they are in an area with a C or better security rating. No character can have Records on File and Erased at the same time.

Reduced (sense)

BONUS:2 TO 29 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

One of the character’s five (or six for certain Awakened folks) senses is about as sharp as a butter knife. Any Test involving the chosen sense faces a –2 dice pool modifier. This quality can be taken multiple times, reducing a different sense each time, and its effects are cumulative for tests involving more than one sense, such as general Perception Tests. A character with a reduced sense of smell or taste gains 2 Karma, while a reduced sense of hearing, sight, or astral sight is worth 5 Karma, and a reduced sense of touch is worth 10 Karma because it affects most Physical skill rolls due to lack of tactile sensitivity.

If the sense is ever repaired or corrected permanently, the quality must be bought off. If the character does not have enough Karma to buy off the quality, the intended repair cannot be made. No character can have Reduced (sight) and Blind at the same time, or Reduced (hearing) and Deaf at the same time.

Sensory Overload Syndrome

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

Sensory Overload Syndrome (SOS) is a growing epidemic in the world of ever-present AROs and excessive wireless sensory input. The condition is an offshoot of AIPS, and victims suffer similar epileptic episodes. Whenever a character with SOS enters an area of high ARO saturation (gamemaster discretion) or attempts to make use of sensory enhancement systems, they must make a Willpower + Edge (4) Test or enter into an epileptic seizure for (5 – hits) minutes.

The condition can possibly be prevented by deactivating enhancement systems, the character’s commlink, or running the commlink in hidden mode, but these last two options create issues in areas where identification is required or suspicious when not broadcast.

Signature

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

The origami swan can mean only one thing. For some reason, a character with this quality feels it is necessary to leave their calling card to announce their involvement in a job. The signature is usually some specific item, symbol, or technique the character uses that identifies their participation. For those who know the character and their signature, the signature is easily identified. Anyone performing a test to identify the character’s handiwork or track the character is given a dice pool modifier equal to the character’s Street Cred and Public Awareness combined.

Vendetta

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

This is some Hatfield and McCoy-level drek. The character is entangled in a blood feud with an individual or group, and no matter the initial cause, the vendetta is now as much an issue of honor and reputation as revenge. The quality means the character has extreme difficulty resisting a confrontation with her foe.

Whenever the character encounters the target of her ire, she must make a Composure (3) Test or else have no choice but to incite a violent confrontation. If the character should ever neutralize their nemesis, they have two options. They can buy off the quality, or someone new will pick up the vendetta, giving the character gets a new nemesis.

Wanted

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:RF

It feels so good to be wanted, or maybe not. Though most runners are probably wanted for questioning in a few cases, this is something different. When the character takes this quality, they work out why they have a bounty or contract on their head. The bounty should be worth at least 25,000 nuyen, enough to tempt even one’s own “friends.” The character should have to frequently deal with someone coming for them or finding out about the bounty and using it against them.

If for some reason the bounty ever goes away, like the character is turned in or they clear their name, the quality must be bought off with Karma.

Code Of Honor: Like A Boss

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:Minimum Hacking Skill Of 3 Or Technomancer
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

Bricking someone’s gear, that’s easy. There’s no finesse to it. Anyone can throw junk code around. A true hacker though—a true master of the skill, a true devotee of the lifestyle—will show perfection in his actions. A character with this quality will not use any action that would cause Matrix Damage, such as Spike or Brute Force (the character is allowed, however, to set Data Bomb traps). Instead, the character must find other means of defeating his enemy, such as using Hack on the Fly to gain marks to Edit or Reformat Matrix items, or perhaps just Jamming Signals. The character will lose 1 point of Karma per target that he willingly causes direct Matrix Damage to (aside from Data Bombs).

Curiosity Killed The Cat

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:Minimum Hacking Skill Of 3
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

Oooh, an encrypted file … you just know the data in it must be juicy! Let’s just take a quick peek, okay? The character has an unrelenting compulsion to grab protected data, crack it, and see what’s in it. Whenever the character encounters protected files (see the Edit File action, p. 239, SR5), he must succeed in a Composure (3) Test or attempt to Crack the File. The character is allowed to attempt to check if the file has a Data Bomb on it, and if so, to disarm it. However, the character cannot move on with his life until the file has been cracked and downloaded (he can read it later). Even if the character is in the middle of a host with IC trying to kill him and enemy hackers slinging at him, he will stop what he is doing and attempt to get that file.

But wait, it’s not all bad! You get +2 dice to all Crack File tests.

Data Liberator

BONUS:12 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

Some would say you’re fighting the good fight. Others would sneer that you won’t last long in this business. And yet many more would kill you on sight for what you’ve done.

The character is compelled to give away for free any gained paydata, intelligence, or secret from any mission they perform. The character simply disseminates the data to news outlets, screamsheets, shadowrunner data boards, etc. To anyone who will listen, really.

If the character was specifically hired to collect data, they may still chose to deliver the data to the buyer as normal, accepting or refusing the fee (player’s discretion). However, they will then immediately disseminate the data widely.

The character is likely to make friends as well as enemies fairly quickly doing this. Consider it playing a character on the “difficult” setting.

Decaying Dissonance

BONUS:25 KARMA
REQUIRES:Technomancers Only
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

It’s hard to tell when it started. Yesterday? A month ago? Or was it always inside you, and you just never noticed? But recently, it has grown. Sometimes, it’s the dissociative thoughts. Mr. Johnson is talking about robbing a data bank, and all you can think about is a longshoreman in an orange jacket. Focusing is hard. Sometimes it’s your makeup. Lipstick on the eyelids, eyeliner around the lips. But mostly, mostly, it’s the Matrix. Everything about it is starting to feel wrong. What others call data, you call broken thoughts masquerading as information. It’s put together wrong. It feels so, so much better when you put it the way it ought to be …

A character with the Decaying Dissonance quality has been infected with Dissonance. This is not a well-understood thing. It’s not exactly a mental illness. It’s not a virus. It’s a state of being, something that changes in one’s core. The character is starting to think that what others call clean and orderly feels wrong, very wrong. They want to see things put together all differently. They want to deconstruct everything, mix the pieces, and put it back in a way that makes sense only to them, and maybe others like them.

This quality manifests in several ways. Whenever the character is in a stressful situation (such as combat), the character’s communications become nonsensical. To restore order to his thoughts, the character must take a Simple Action and succeed in a Composure (2) Test. Success means the character can communicate normally for the rest of the combat. Failure means any attempts to communicate result in gibberish, though the character can understand what others say.

Outside of combat, the character can easily get distracted. This is off-putting to people speaking to him, resulting in a –1 die penalty to all Social Tests. It also affects his ability to remember things. Any glitch on a Memory Test counts as a critical glitch.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly of all, the technomancer has problems with the way the Matrix is around him, particularly while in hosts. When in a host, the character must pass a Composure (3) Test or start randomly using Edit File on data around him. Data affected in this way becomes gibberish, unreadable to anyone.

This quality can be bought off, but only as part of a Submersion. Eliminating this quality replaces the normally chosen echo. Note that the quality must be paid off with the regular Karma cost, on top of any Karma expenditure associated to the Submersion.

Electronic Witness

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

The character is part of a movement of people who constantly record everything around them. Always. All the time. The idea is that something interesting may eventually happen. Maybe it’s not something you’d immediately notice as interesting, but if you archive it, maybe you’ll spot something useful later. And you believe that, if everyone did the same as you, the world would be a much better place. And hey, you can sell your recordings too, so that’s always good.

With this quality, the character must acquire gear to record video and sound and wear it at all time (cybereyes and cyberears would be perfect, but sensors can otherwise be mounted in gear). This gear must always be on. The character will never turn off wireless functionality on their gear. If the character takes the Day Job quality, then they meet the conditions of the job simply by being, as they then sell the recordings to specialized data brokers and make their money this way. If they opt not to take Day Job, then the character can do what they wish with the recordings.

In any situation where the character cannot record or turns off wifi on his gear, then they feel especially agitated, suffering a –1 dice pool penalty to all actions.

Faraday Himself

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

Maybe it’s your diet. Too much iron in it? Maybe it’s your cyberware, causing interference. Whatever it is, you are a bit of a problem. Whenever you are near, the static on the line goes up. Anyone within ten meters of you (including yourself) suffers +2 Noise. This noise can be reduced in the normal way and is cumulative with whatever noise penalties would normally apply. It is worth noting that anyone outside of the ten meters who is attempting to connect to you (including attempts to hack you) do not suffer this extra noise penalty.

Latest And Greatest

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

The character just loves her tech. Really, really loves it. That is, until something better comes along. After all, the problem with getting things is that you get something you used to want, right? The character has an unstoppable desire to upgrade her gear. Every month, she must upgrade or buy a more expensive version of one of her most commonly used pieces of gear. For example, a hacker would seek to upgrade her deck or commlink. A street samurai would get a better, more expensive assault rifle, or, of course, cyber upgrades—such as the next highest rating of cybereyes with more accessories in it. Magic-users would want higher-rating focus or lodge. If all else fails, moving up to the next Lifestyle bracket is always an option.

The character must spend at least sixty percent of her earnings on these upgrades. It is possible to earmark earnings for a specific purchase down the road if she’s saving up for a particularly shiny new toy, but this money is unavailable to the character until then.

Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins

BONUS:20 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

Planning is not your strong suit. Following other people’s plans is not your strong suit. Rushing in swinging with both fists is the only plan you ever need.

The character must succeed in a Composure (3) Test to resist attacking any identified threat immediately. This attack can be conducted using any Combat skills, any Direct or Indirect Damage spell, drones that can be directed to attack the target, or assaults against the target’s persona or gear using any Matrix or Resonance action that causes Matrix, Stun, or Physical damage.

The character doesn’t care if the odds are against him, the attack is downright suicidal or just plain stupid: they will attack. Crucially, they will also not bother sharing their attack plan (such as it is) with their teammates.

The character can, however, recognize they are in a losing situation and back out of the fight, but only after a minimum of 2 Combat Turns have passed.

If the character roars his or her name as a Free Action right before the first blow is struck, they gain +1 die to their first attack. Good luck.

Nerdrage

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

This character is a little more comfortable with machines than other individuals. Whenever the character fails a Social Test—whether he initiated it, or was the target of one—the character takes it extremely personally and feels deeply humiliated about the encounter. They subsequently build bitter feelings against the individual (if it was a group of people, the bitterness targets the formal or nominal leader of the group). Distracted by their shame and rage, the character starts suffering a –2 dice penalty to all Social Tests. However, the character can remove this penalty by getting back at the target character by gaining 1 mark on their commlink and performing an Edit File action on it to deface it. The character does not need to perform this themselves—anyone doing this on their behalf is a-okay with them.

The character must “get back” at all characters that humiliated them before losing the dice penalty. If the character is able to confirm the target is now dead (such as by putting a bullet in their head themselves), then that works too.

This quality can be bought off following the normal rules at any time, the character having learned to let it go a little better.

Prank Warrior

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

The character has an ongoing prank war with another hacker, but the proportions are a little bit out of hand. What started out as a joke is now as funny as a serial killer with clown makeup. The other hacker will randomly track you down and mess with you and your team, even (especially) in dangerous situations. The hacker will never quite go all the way—just enough to make you sweat rather profusely. For example, the hacker may randomly fire off a few Data Spikes at your gear, enough to half-brick it, or contact security of the facility you are invading and tip them off that someone is infiltrating, but without actually giving them your exact position or identity. They may hack your cybereyes to make you see things that aren’t there, and so on. Don’t think turning off your wifi is going to help—that will just make the hacker escalate his offensive, while crippling yourself.

This quality should come into play at least once per play session.

Wanted By God

BONUS:12 KARMA
REQUIRES:Minimum Hacking Skill Of 3. Cannot Be Technomancer
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:DT

Chummer, I don’t know what you’ve done, but you attracted the wrong kind of attention. You have somehow made it on GOD’s Most Wanted list. In case you’re wondering, that’s not good.

You will suffer convergence when your Overwatch Score hits 30, instead of the normal 40. On top of that, seeing as you are a High Value Target, a High Treat Response squad from the authorities of whatever grid you just got kicked out of will always come bearing down on you. They may or may not be out to take you alive guess you’ll find that out when they come for you.

Accident Prone

BONUS:4 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:R5.0

This driving thing—it may not be for you. You have a talent for steering any vehicle you control into whatever wall, tree, or other vehicle may be nearby. You receive a –2 dice pool penalty on any tests involved in directing a vehicle.

Motion Sickness

BONUS:4 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:R5.0

Yes, there is a strong benefit from being able to move from place to place, but if your traveling comes with too much, well, motion, your stomach starts doing flipflops. Any time you are in a vehicle that is effectively accelerating at a rate of 3 or higher (that is, moving across three or more range categories) or moving at a Speed of 4 or higher, you experience Nausea (p. 409, SR5) until the vehicle’s Speed or Acceleration drops. Once the vehicle movement drops, the Nausea disappears in (12 – Body) minutes.

Too Much Data

BONUS:3 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:R5.0

With a few vehicles under your control, everything is fine. Once you get too many vehicles moving at the same time, sending you information on what they are doing, where they are going, and who is shooting at them, you start to feel overwhelmed and flustered, and your effectiveness drops. Anytime you are directing four or more vehicles and/or drones that are in motion, you receive a –2 dice pool penalty on any Pilot tests related to the movement of those vehicles. This applies even if some of the vehicles and/or drones are on autopilot—the data streaming in from them is distracting.

Antipathy

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Your parents always told you to think about how others feel, but whether you want to or not, you don’t know how. You suffer a –2 penalty to all opposed Social Tests.

Aips

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Diagnosed with artificially induced psychotropic schizophrenia syndrome after the Second Crash, an AIPS sufferer who physically enters a spam zone receives a –1 dice pool penalty to Perception Tests per level of the spam zone’s Noise Rating, to a maximum of –6. Additionally, in non-stressful situations, the gamemaster may require the character to make a Composure Test (p. 152, SR5) at a threshold equal to the Noise Rating of the spam zone.

Blank Slate

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

The character in question has abused personasofts to the degree they no longer have an original personality. They enter a near-fugue state, having nearly no willpower of their own. They are easily led unless they have a personasoft running to give them a personality. This can come with or without Amnesia (p. 152, Run Faster) of varying degrees. For all intents and purposes, the original person has “died” and only the virtual personalities remain. Buying off this quality can mean either that the original personality, buried under the shock of the persona fixes for a long time, finally emerges, or that a persona installed through a personafix becomes the new permanent personality.

Cyberpsychosis

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:Antipathy Negative Quality, minimum 5
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Essence points lost from augmentations It’s said that as more of the body is replaced with chrome, heavily augmented individuals lose part of what makes them metahuman. Whether that’s true or not, having more augmentations does make it more difficult to relate to others. During any Social Test, if the character glitches, they act in an inappropriate manner or violently overreact to their situation. If the character suffers a critical glitch, they suffer a psychotic break, essentially becoming an NPC until such time that the gamemaster decides they’ve recovered.

Note: Characters augmented heavily enough to risk cyberpsychosis may suffer negative social modifiers due to excessive augmentation. Any character with cyberpsychosis must also have the Antipathy Negative Quality to reflect the loss of empathy due to the disorder.

Cyber-Snob

BONUS:12 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

There are augmentations, and then there are augmentations, chummer. If you’re gonna stick a chunk of metal or hunk of flesh inside your body, it’s going to be nothing but the best! A character with Cyber-Snob will not accept any augmentations of a grade lower than betaware. A character must have at least 1 point worth of Essence of betaware-grade cyberware or bioware to be able to take this quality.

Dead Emotion

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

The character has abused BTL-level moodsofts and can no longer feel one specific emotion (e.g., happiness, anger, fear) under any circumstances. The player and the gamemaster are highly advised to work together to select the emotion, figure out how this will affect the character, and plan how it should be played out.

Dry Addict

BONUS:2 TO 13 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Can be taken at character creation or substituted for the Addiction Quality (p. 77, SR5) after the user has met the requirements for buying off an Addiction (see Withdrawal and Staying Clean, p. 415, SR5). The addiction still exists, but the character no longer suffers the penalties from being without the particular substance. Any situations that make the fix available require a Composure Test with a threshold based on the stress the character is currently under, starting at 1 for passive situations (offer of a social drink) to 5 for highstress situations (before, during, or right after a major life-threatening situation.) Based on the level of the quality (see below), players receive a 1, 2, 3, or 4 dice pool penalty on any Addiction Tests following the use of the substance they used to abuse to see if they relapse into full addiction again. If they do, this quality disappears and is replaced by the Addiction quality, but the player does not receive any Karma bonus for the change.

The Dry Addict quality includes the following levels, just like addiction: Mild, Moderate, Severe, and Burnout level. The Karma bonus is equal to half that of their respective Addiction levels, rounded up, meaning 2 for Mild, 5 for Moderate, 10 for Severe, and 13 for Burnout. Players must select the level for this quality that is the same as their former Addiction quality.

Family Curse

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Your parent(s) liked their drugs. A lot. So did theirs, and their parents before them. To say that addiction runs in the family is like saying Lone Star officers enjoy clubbing punks. When making Addiction Tests, the character receives a –2 dice pool penalty.

Implant-Induced Immune Deficiency

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Cyberware and bioware users sometimes suffer from a number of health problems as the natural balance of their metabolisms is thrown off by modified organs and systems. The demands of their augmented biologies and the body’s continuous attempts to adjust to the implants can lead to decreased immunity to pathogens, poisons, and other compounds. Characters with this quality suffer a dice pool modifier of –2 on all Body Tests to resist the effects of diseases, drugs, toxins, and other compounds (including Physical Addiction Tests and Disease Resistance Tests). This quality is only available to characters with bioware or cyberware implants and an Essence of 5 or less.

Lack Of Focus

BONUS:6 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Characters suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have difficulty focusing on a single subject for long. When making any Extended Test with an interval greater than five minutes and shorter than one day, or if repeated simple tests are made within a period of time (such as Perception Tests during surveillance), the character must make a Composure (3) Test each interval after the first. The character’s Composure dice pool is cumulatively reduced by 1 for each of these tests, like any other Extended Test.

Failing the Composure Test indicates the character can no longer focus and must take a break for a minimum of 1 interval, plus any other consequences that result. After the break, the character’s Composure dice pool is refreshed, and the process starts over again.

Lightweight

BONUS:6 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

On the bright side, this quality means it’s easy, and cheap, to get drunk. On the downside, it takes far less to get a person addicted to the various types of chemical drugs on the market. The Addiction Rating of any substance on the Addiction Table (p. 414, SR5) or any other related tables is 2 levels higher for the character.

One Of Them

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

Unless you’ve been living in the middle of the SOX Irradiated Zone for the last few years, you know that cognitive fragmentation disorder is a pretty serious problem. Mysterious and misunderstood, CFD can spread easily and essentially steals someone’s soul. It can strike anyone, anywhere, regardless of wealth or social class, and there are no cures, nor means of prevention. Plus, affected individuals can masquerade as healthy people for a significant period of time before being detected. Is it any wonder the world is feeling a little paranoid these days?

Unfortunately for you, word on the street is that you are a head case, as CFD-inflicted individuals are colloquially known. No amount of reasoning has thus far convinced your friends and acquaintances that these are baseless rumors—everyone is convinced you’re crawling with CFD. Bummer.

While this quality can be bought off with Karma as per normal rules, until this happens, all of your Contacts believe you’re afflicted with CFD. None will agree to meet you in the flesh for fear of being infected. If you drop in on them in person unexpectedly, they will either fight you or flee from your presence. Some may still agree to deal with you virtually, though ironically, their Loyalty works against you now. In order to do business with the character, the Contact must fail a Loyalty Test.

Quasimodo

BONUS:5 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

The Sixth World is full of things that endanger normal genome expression, including Awakened dangers, environmental pollution, unpredictable mutagenics, and secret experimentation. People with this quality are the extreme result of such genetic tampering, whether hereditary or accidental. Characters with this quality suffer an unexpected genetic disorder that manifests as ugly and visceral physical deformities. The character suffers a –3 dice pool modifier on all Social Skill Tests not done via the Matrix and a +2 dice pool modifier for all Intimidation Tests. The character and gamemaster should negotiate to decide on an effect that is suitably negative. Quasimodo characters might also have developed personality quirks or aggressive behavior from years of social rejection.

So Jacked Up

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

The character is deep down the road of artificial mood enhancers, whether those are BTLs or chemicals. The character has basically lost the ability to regulate her own moods and must alternate between mind-benders to get cranked up or bring herself down.

While the character is encouraged to use drugs such as cram, deepweed, and so on (using the description to determine if it’s an upper/stimulant or a downer), this is not strictly necessary, as the character can be assumed to be on generic upper/downer pharmaceuticals. Generic downers cause –1 Reaction and +1 Logic, while uppers cause +1 Reaction and –1 Logic.

In any case, the effect of this quality is that the character must decide whether she is “up” or “down” ahead of time. It takes thirty minutes to switch between conditions. Having the wrong mood at the wrong time can cause embarrassing social issues (for example, being on an up mood while at an oyabun’s beloved son’s funeral, or being down in basically any combat situation).

If the character has the wrong mood at the wrong time, they incur a –2 penalty to all Social Tests. What constitutes the wrong mood at the wrong time is largely up to the gamemaster, though characters can expect this to be “most of the time.”

Superhuman Psychosis

BONUS:2 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

When you can run faster than a car, punch through concrete, throw fireballs with your mind, and shrug off assault cannon rounds, you might start feeling that you’re more human than human. And if you’re more human than human, what are they? Does a person that steps on ants feel bad? If not, then why should you feel anything toward these lesser beings of the old human race? So slow, so weak, so dim.

Characters with superhuman strengths, such as those granted by augmentations, or Awakened powers, can start to feel detached from the human race. They start seeing everyone else kind of like cattle. Like playing a game on the easy mode, the challenges of life seem dim and uninteresting. Characters suffering from Superhuman Psychosis seek out others like them, to belong but also to test themselves, to see how far they can go, how far they can push themselves.

Superhuman Psychosis causes a few effects. The character has absolutely no moral qualms about killing people, seeing it as his right. They won’t go out of their way to kill people, but also won’t hesitate to kill anyone, even going up to mass murder—they just don’t value the lives of lesser beings.

In addition, the character’s general lack of concern for others (and their bullets) makes them pretty formidable in combat. This quality grants an automatic +1 die bonus in melee combat. The character is also less perturbed about puny mortals flinging lead at him, and so suffers only half the penalty from incoming Suppressive Fire.

This is balanced by the fact that they have difficulty disguising their contempt for others, leading to a –2 penalty on all Etiquette and Leadership tests.

When facing opponents equivalent to Professional Rating 5 or above, however, the character gets interested. This is a true test of their skills, and they won’t want to back down. The character must make a Composure (3) Test to withdraw from a fight with such opponents, regardless of the situation. If they fail the test, they must continue the combat.

Characters with Superhuman Psychosis cannot take any Code of Honor quality, as there is nobody they won’t kill.

TLE-X

BONUS:15 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

A neurological disorder from the Sixth World, temporal lobe epilepsy with complications results from the metabolic and neurological stress of excessive cyberware implantation, especially move-by-wire implants (note, though, that move-by-wire implants are not required for TLE-x to occur, nor do they cause it automatically). In appropriately stressful situations, the character must make a Body + Willpower (4) Test or fall into epileptic seizures for (5 – hits) minutes.

The biomedical AEXD (p. 179) grants a +3 bonus to dice pools to resist the onset of TLE-x, but the disease may only be cured fully with corrective gene therapy (p. 156) or brain surgery. Even if one of the latter two options is taken, TLE-x may recur if the cyberware that caused the initial onset is not removed. Removing the quality still requires a Karma expenditure, along with the procedure.

Tough And Targeted

BONUS:10 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:CF

The character is well-known as one of the biggest badasses on the streets. However, one way to make a name for yourself on the streets is to be known as the guy who killed the top dog. At least once a month or so, the character is randomly attacked by an up-andcoming rival looking to make a name for himself.

The Professional Rating of the guy who comes looking for him is equal to the character’s Street Cred. Should the character with this quality be defeated by his rival, assuming he lives (the rival will be satisfied so long at the character goes into overflow damage; death is not necessary), then this quality is removed without Karma expenditure, but the character’s Street Cred resets to 0 and he gains 1 point of Notoriety. Nobody likes a loser, chummer.

Code of Honor: Avenging Angel

BONUS:8 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:HT

You only accept contracts to kill those who you believe deserve death. You will not intentionally kill any person who you believe does not deserve it. If you accidentally kill someone who does not deserve it, you suffer a –1 dice pool modifer to all Mental tests for twenty-four hours, and you lose 1 Karma. Establish with your gamemaster what your character would consider “deserving of death” (see p. 79, SR5) for guidelines.

Faceless

BONUS:6 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:HT

You have worn disguises so frequently and for so long that being out in public wearing your real face makes you feel vulnerable. You suffer a –2 dice pool modifer on Social tests unless your face is disguised or otherwise concealed. It does not matter if this disguise is magical or mundane, just that you are unrecognizable. People you know and trust such as close friends, family, or teammates do not require a disguise to avoid the penalty.

Impassive

BONUS:7 KARMA
REQUIRES:NONE
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:HT

Nobody can see as much death as you have and not have it affect them. Some would have gone mad, but you simply grew cold. Your Limit for all social skills except Intimidation decreases by 1.

Sprite Combustion

BONUS:13 KARMA
REQUIRES:Technomancer
RATING:NONE
SOURCE:SR5:KC

The sprites the character compiles are never as stable as they'd like. The sprites tend to break down more easily and have fewer services tied to them than other people's sprites on average. A few have even exploded into code right in front of the character's eyes. It's almost as if the character did something to offend sprites.

When a sprite is successfully compiled, the character's sprites come with 1 less task than rolled, to a minimum of 1. The character suffers a -1 dice pool penalty when registering sprites.