Qualities

These are possible qualities you can use in Shadowrun. Positive qualities have a Karma cost that you must pay in character creation; negative qualities come with a Karma bonus you can spend during the creation process. There is no limit to positive or negative qualities, however players should be aware that too many qualities may be difficult to track and could complicate an otherwise easy character.

Purchased

New negative qualities cannot be "purchased" in an effort to get more Karma after character creation, but negative qualities the character already has can be eliminated by paying twice the base Karma bonus unless otherwise specified.

Earned

Both positive and negative qualities may be earned through role-playing. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and both positive and negative qualities can be awarded based on how a character acts in the world around them.

Negative Qualities

Sometimes these are the horrifying consequences of your actions, other times it's something as simple as a debt or something imposed upon you by others. Negative qualities impose gameplay penalties but also give bonus Karma during character creation.

Accident Prone

When bad things happen, you're generally a little worse than others at finding your way out of it. You're also really good at finding your way into it.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: If you roll a Glitch or a Critical Glitch, you may not influence the outcome by spending Edge.

Achilles' Heel

Whether or not you know it, there's a certain kind of damage that you are especially vulnerable to inside of the Matrix.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Choose one:

Data Spike actions
Resonance Spike complex forms
Resonance entities
IC

Whenever you suffer Matrix damage from the specified source, you may not reduce the damage with a soak roll.

If you are a technomancer, your registered (and ally) sprites share your vulnerability.

You may only choose this quality once.

AIPS

You're diagnosed with Artificially Induced Psychotropic Syndrome which you acquired during the Matrix Crash 2.0.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you enter a spam zone you receive -1 Dice Pool Penalty to all Perception tests per level of the local Noise level to a maximum of -6.

Additionally, in non-stressful situations you may be required to make a Composure test equal to the Noise rating of the spam zone.

Albinism

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 result in white colorations, the lack of pigment in the eyes results in pink or crystal blue rises with bright red pupils. Due to the lack of melanin, characters with this quality lack ultraviolet light protection making them very photosensitive and prone to sunburn.

Bonus: 4 or 8 Karma

Game Effect: Characters with this quality face a -1 Dice Pool Penalty to all actions when working in regular indoor lighting as well as during a bright but overcast day, and a -2 Dice Pool Penalty when working on a sunny day.

All glare modifiers are also increased by 1 level, and normal compensation methods work to mitigate the modifiers, such as goggles, contacts, and glasses.

Due to the lack of protective pigmentation in their skin, chracters with this quality suffer sunburn more quickly, and characters who gain cybereyes at any point in the character creation process gain only 4 Karma, and any character with albinism gains cybereyes during play, they must buy down this quality to the 4 Karma level as soon as they have the Karma to do so.

All Business

Your sense of professional detachment is reassuring to most clients, but you rarely form close relationships.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: None of your contacts may have a Loyalty rating greater than 3.

When interacting with a professional client (such as a Mr. Johnson), gain a point of Edge on any Influence (Etiquette) tests.

A Lifetime of Rejection (1 - 2)

The transgenic treatments did not go well. Your body is rejecting the new RNA code and you are now stuck with a lifetime of non-rejection medication.

Bonus: 4 or 8 Karma

Prerequisite: Transgenic Infusions

Game Effect: Characters must pay (quality level x 500¥) per month in medication.

Failing to pay for the medication runs the risk of cancer, organ failure, or death.

Always Late

It doesn't matter how many alarms you set or how many times your teammates call you to remind you; whether you're constantly distracted or can't drag yourself out of bed, you just cannot show up anywhere on time to save your life. Most of the time you shrug it off, when you have an appointment with your team it can make you all look sloppy.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: You always arrive at least 15 minutes late for any scheduled event.

When the event in question includes meeting with a prospective employer, your entire team suffers a -1 Dice Pool Penalty to Social tests against Mr. Johnson due to your unprofessional behavior.

Antipathy

Your parents always told you to think about how others feel but whether you wanted to or not you don't really know how.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Suffer a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to all opposed Social tests.

AR Vertigo

Whether it's just too much information, a focal issue in your visual field, or just an inability to focus when there's so much to look at, you get dizzy and nauseated when utilizing augmented reality.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge while utilizing AR of any sort.

You also gain the Nauseated status while using AR and for 1 hour after you exit it.

Asthma

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, major distractions from shadowrunning.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you suffer the Fatigue status effect, the Dice Pool Penalty is doubled. For example, Fatigue I would offer a -4 Dice Pool Penalty to all tests besides Damage Resistance.

Astral Beacon

Whenever people talk about someone having a "bright soul," they make it sound like a good thing. You know it's not. Your bright aura makes you stick out like a sore thumb on the astral. You have a hard time hiding or masking your aura, you can't hide your feelings worth a damn, and attempts to locate you magically can be managed by first-year dropouts from Hagerstown Community College's Arcane Studies program.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: You're considered Untrained for all Stealth tests in the astral plane.

You can never take the Masking metamagic.

Assensing tests made against you get a free Edge, and all thresholds are reduced by 1.

Astral Tracking tests made against you gain 2 Dice Rerolls and all thresholds are reduced by half.

AVRse

The character knows too many hackers who have been taken out while in VR, and they never saw it coming. They see VR as a trap - how can you get out of a bad situation if your consciousness is not firmly inside your body? Unwilling to take that sort of risk, the character has made AR their mode of choice.

Bonus: 9 Karma

Game Effect: When in VR, the character suffers a –4 Dice Pool Penalty to all actions if they are not in a secure location (such as a secured lair or safehouse).

This location must be a place that they believe will not offer access to anyone besides themselves and their closest allies.

Bad Back

You have a tendency to throw out your back, sprain your leg, or otherwise impede your mobility when your body suffers strain.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you suffer from any wound modifiers, you also gain the Hobbled status. The status goes away when the modifiers do.

Bad Credit

Money has never flowed easily to you. You didn’t have a network or friends and families with money who could help you out in hard times, and landlords and employers always seemed to take one look at you and rescind their offers, or make the terms much worse. In order to survive, you had to fall in with the type of lenders and financiers who charge scandalous interest rates and ruinous late fees. All that has resulted in black marks that seem to follow you wherever you go, no matter what names or SINs you use.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Prerequisite: Troll or Ork

Game Effect: Your lifestyle costs are 10 percent higher than they would otherwise be, and Availability for all pieces of gear is treated as 1 higher than it would otherwise be (note that this effect does not apply to gear purchased during the character creation process).

Bad Luck

This character is just flat-out cursed - their own luck often turns against them when they need it (or want it) most.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Glitches occur more frequently. Count dice both showing 1 and 2 for determining normal Glitches. This does not affect Critical Glitches, only regular Glitches.

Bad Memories

You can't enjoy all those trids where the main character "faces their inner demons" because they hit a little too close to home. Some nasty drek happened in the past and it's lurking around even today, popping up when you least expect it - and at the least convenient times.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: When you take (or are assigned) this quality, choose a subject of your Bad Memories. Whenever you're required to be in the presence of that subject, you may not use Edge in any related tests.

Bad Rep

You have a dark and lasting stain on your reputation. Maybe you're a former Knight Errant cop known to be particularly brutal with shadowrunners, or word on the street might be that you killed someone on your own team. Whether they're actually guilty of any wrongdoing is not relevant, what people believe has permanently tainted the way they see you and how they deal with you.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge on social tests.

If you engage in a teamwork test to assist a social test, no one can spend Edge and the opposing individual gains a point of Edge.

This can only be removed by confronting and resolving the source of the bad reputation.

Basement Dweller

The character didn’t have a lot of friends when they were a kid … and now they still don’t have that many. What friends the character has tend to be on the Matrix, and the character’s social anxiety prompts them to keep it that way. Basically, people in real life are unpredictable and scary, and the character would rather interface from the comfort of their home.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: The character suffers a –2 dice pool modifier for all Social tests when meeting a someone in person for the first time. This modifier does not apply to second and subsequent encounters.

Bermuda Gremlins

Them be some special gremlins. They like to play with GridGuide and mimic the voice of the Pilot agent. Good luck on finding that hardcopy map in the glove compartment. They used it 2 rest stops ago.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you are piloting a vehicle, roll 2D6. If either one rolls a 1, the gremlins have spoofed you somewhere along the route and you've missed a turnoff. Now you are late as you try to re-route. Roll 1D6 and consult the table to determine the duration of the delay.

1 - 2: 10 - 20 minutes late.
3 - 4: 30 minutes to an hour late.
5: 1 - 2 hours late.
6: 2+ hours, but you also found a new little eatery to enjoy.

If both dice on the initial rolls are 1s, you might have wandered into enemy/forbidden territory and will face significant hostility as you try to get out.

Bi-Polar

A character with this quality flucuates between periods of deep depression, stable moods, and manic mania.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: At the beginning of a character's day, roll 1D6. On a 1 or 2, the character is in a depressed state. On a 3 or 4, the character is in a manic state. On a 5 or 6, the character is in a stable state.

During a manic period, the character gains a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to any tests involving Agility or Reaction and a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to any tests involving Logic or Intuition.

During a depressive period, the character gains a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to any tests involving Agility, Reaction, Logic, and Intuition.

Medication to help balance BPD is available at an additional 500 nuyen per month but a prescription requires a SIN and are available at 100 nuyen per dose on the street.

Big Baby

Pain is a fact of life in the Sixth World, and shadowrunners know that better than most. While most runners accept that they are going to get hurt and are prepared to deal with it, others flinch from the possibility of damage, and this gets more severe each time they actually get hurt. When they’re out on the job, if they are burned, shot, zapped, punched, or otherwise damaged, the character becomes extremely reluctant to rejoin the fray.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: When a character with this quality is dealt Physical damage, they suffer a –1 Dice Pool Penalty in combat until the enemy or obstacle that dealt the damage is overcome or destroyed.

Big Regret

At some point in the character's past they did something serious that they regret; maybe they spent time as a bunraku puppet, a political affair, or were involved in an unethical corporate project but it has to be something truly unpleasant and could result in blackmail if the wrong person knows the truth.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: The character cannot use any Edge or dice rerolls on social tests against anyone who knows about their past.

Binary Mentality

Some people are good at some things and not others, and that's just the way it is - or so you believe. Your self-limiting mindset limits your capabilities.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Choose either Electronics or Cracking. You believe that no matter how much you try, you'll never quite get the hang of that skill. When using the specified skill for Matrix Actions or complex forms, you may not use Edge.

Blank Slate

This character has abused personasofts to the degree that they no longer have an original personality. They are easily led unless they have a personasoft running to give them a personality and for all intents and purposes the original personality has "died" and only the digital ones remain.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: Without a personafix chip loaded, the character does not have a personality and simply can be led around and convinced to do anything. This can come with or without the Amensia negative quality.

Buying off this quality can mean either that the original personality, buried under the shock of the personafixes for a long time, finally emerges or that a persona installed through a personafix has become the new permanent personality.

Blighted

The long-term effects of radiation and pollution have caused lasting damage to the character's system and it drastically affects their every day. Whether they grew up in a bad part of the sprawl or were forced into them for an extended period they carry those poisons with them in their body.

Bonus: 5, 10, or 15 Karma

Game Effect: At the beginning of each game session, make an Edge (3) test. Success means no complications and failure means they feel the pain of their rough living in a harsh environment full of excess chemical or radioactive exposure. The penalties that come from Blighted can be interpretated as organ shutdown, muscle spasms, cancerous growths or more!

6 Months (5 Karma): -1 Dice Pool Penalty on all Physical actions.
12 Months (10 Karma): -1 Dice Pool Penalty on all actions.
24 Months (15 Karma): -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all Physical actions. -1 penalty on all other actions.

Blind

Characters with this quality are - through whatever means - visually impaired and cannot perceive through the visual spectrum.

Bonus: 15 Karma (5 Karma for characters with access to Astral Sight)

Game Effect: You cannot perceive anything visually. You also suffer a -4 Dice Pool Penalty to all general Perception Tests, and a -3 Dice Pool Penalty on all Surprise tests.

You also suffer a -6 Dice Pool Penalty for all ranged and melee attacks.

The character cannot use cybereyes as the blindness is a nerve issue, leaving them incapable of processing any visual stimuli, regardless of the source.

Characters with astral sight gain the customary -2 Dice Pool Penalty to all actions on the physical plane while perceiving the astral, including combat spells, and should keep in mind the differences between astral and physical perception.

Borrowed Time

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.

Bonus: 25 Karma

Game Effect: At the beginning of every session (after your Edge refreshes), roll your Body or Willpower (whichever is higher) plus Edge, with a threshold of 1. After every session, increase the threshold by 1. You may use Edge on this test. If you ever fail this test, you will die this session. The very first thing that happens that might be fatal to you ... is fatal. Murphy’s Law at its worst.

If no event occurs during the session, you will collapse and die at the end of the session.

You may choose to burn a point of Edge to avoid your death this time, but unless you buy off this quality, surviving the next session is going to be even more unlikely.

Bounty

An individual or organization has placed a bounty on your head. Unlike a legal warrant for your arrest, this is an open invitation for professional bounty hunters to collect a big pile of nuyen if they can bring you in alive.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: When your personal Heat is 17 or higher, bounty hunters close in on you. You’re forced to dodge the bounty hunters, always looking over your shoulder, never able to let your guard down. You begin every session with zero Edge in your Edge pool.

Brittle (Attribute)

This character’s living persona is just not efficient at a particular aspect of operation. They’ve tried everything to try to boost it it, but they can’t find the right technique to make it perform as well as it should.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Game Effect: The player selects a Matrix attribute when this quality is selected.

That Matrix attribute always functions at 1 lower than its assigned attribute level.

This quality may be taken multiple times, with a different Matrix attribute chosen each time.

Buddy System

You don't feel safe enough to concentrate without someone to watch your back.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you are alone, you may only use a maximum of 1 Edge for as long as you are alone.

If you are in astral space, only astrally active allies are considered company for the purpose of this quality, but a summoned spirit is all you need to prevent this penalty.

If you are in VR mode, only allies in the Matrix with you make you feel less alone, but having an agent program or sprite nearby, or even a SimShare hitchhiker is enough to prevent the penalty.

Bull in a Ceramics Store

You are a hacker equivalent of a combat monster, reveling in Matrix destruction.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend Edge on Matrix actions and complex forms that do not have the potential of causing Matrix damage. Brute Force hacking is the one exception to this.

Chronic Dissociation Syndrome (CDS)

CDS is the most common psychological ailment affecting those with excessive augmentation. The primary symptom is a sense of indifference and detachment toward one’s surroundings, relations, and interests. Even a functional Invoked Memory Stimulator will not stop the intense apathy and depression associated with CDS taking hold.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Must have less than 3 Essence. These characters suffer a -3 penalty on any Willpower tests other than Spellcasting and Damage Resistance tests.

Chronic Pain

You frequently suffer from a condition that flares up sometimes, causing you pain.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: At the beginning of each session (after your Edge refreshes), roll your Body plus Willpower with a threshold of 3 plus the number of sessions that you have not suffered from your chronic pain.

If you fail the test, your pain flares up. Throughout the entire session, you suffer a –1 die penalty on all tests except for damage soak rolls.

Drugs, spells, adept powers, and other effects that reduce wound penalties, including pain editors, have no effect on your chronic pain.

Close-Minded Summoner

You just have an aversion to a certain type of spirit. Maybe you've never seen them before, maybe you're prejudiced against a certain type, or maybe - just maybe - you're guilty of the worst sin of them all: just being plain ignorant.

Bonus: 3 Karma per level

Game Effect: With each level of this quality, you give up the ability to summon, bind, and banish one of the 10 standard types of spirit: air, beasts, earth, fire, guardian, guidance, kin, plants, task, water. This quality can be taken up to five times, selecting a different type of spirit each time.

Codeblock

A character with the Codeblock quality always has trouble with a particular Matrix action.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Receive a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on a specific Matrix action. This action cannot be one that doesn't require a test and characters cannot apply Codeblock toward hacking actions they are never likely to take.

Combat Junkie

You’re always ready to throw down, and you find it difficult to back off when it would be wiser to avoid a fight.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: When someone attempts to goad you to resort to violence, they gain a point of Edge on their Influence or Con tests against you. You may not gain or spend Edge on any Judge Intentions tests except during combat. Unless you have taken at least 6 boxes of damage, you may not retreat from a combat without suffering a penalty.

If you run away from a fight, you may not gain or spend Edge until either you enter combat or the next session begins.

Combat Paralysis

No matter how many times the street sam takes you to the range you can't help but jump and freeze that first time they start shooting. Sure, you recover but you always feel a half step behind in the fight.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Your Initiative Score is divided in half at the start of combat. You cannot take a Move or Sprint action in the first round and you act last in that first Combat Round. Your movement is restored to normal after the first round but your Initiative Score remains unchanged.

Compulsive Archivist

You’re the data equivalent of a pack rat. Loath to delete anything, you keep incriminating files on your devices far longer than is wise, and instead of deleting them you back them up on offline datachips and stash them away in hidden caches. You almost never refer back to these files, but the very thought of deleting or destroying them seems incredibly wrong to you. Inevitably these files get found by someone, whether a random hacker digging through your ’link for paydata or a curious individual who finds one of your caches - it’s a matter of when, not if.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever the gamemaster makes a Heat roll at the end of a run, your personal Heat modifier is increased by +1 for every full 50 total points of Karma that you have earned (rounded down). Unspent Karma from character creation does not count toward this total. This Heat modifier only applies to you, so it is possible that you might gain personal heat while your fellow runners do not.

Computer Illiterate

There are characters who aren't tech-savvy and characters who 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 electronics devices. They have difficulty performing even simple tasks such as making commcalls, sending e-mails, instant messaging, and programming a trideo recorder or doing a Matrix search.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: The character has a -4 Dice Pool Penalty to all tests that involve a computer, electronic device, or Matrix-connected system of any kind. This includes any non-analogue weapon modifications and radio equipment and even the use of simple electronics may require a skill test to be used.

Corporate Scapegoat

Corporate politics are cutthroat, and when a ladder climber makes a bad decision, someone else is going to need to take the fall. You were on the receiving side of some corp politic games that left you on the outside.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Anytime you are present for social interactions with members of your former corporation, your team is unable to spend Edge.

When operating in that corporation’s controlled region, treat all security zones as one level higher.

Creature of Comfort

The rewards of the job well done are the finer things in life. Unfortunately, one can quickly get attached to the comforts one has acquired and make the fall seem ever so much higher.

Bonus: 10, 17, or 25 Karma

Game Effect: At 10 Karma, the character is used to a Middle Lifestyle. At 17, a High Lifestyle and at 25 a Luxury Lifestyle.

For every day that the character must spend "slumming it" in a lower Lifestyle category, the irritable character suffers a -1 Dice Pool Penalty to all social and healing tests per Lifestyle category below their chosen level.

Curiosity Killed The Cat?

A character has an unrelenting compulsion to grab protected data, crack it, and see what's in it. Whenever the character encounters protected files, they just need to see what's inside!

Bonus: 5 Karma per level (maximum level 3)

Game Effect: If you discover a file that is encrypted or protected by a data bomb, you may not spend Edge on any tests except those made to crack the encryption, defuse the data bomb, and access the file.

If you leave the file alone, after each hour passes you may make a Composure test with a threshold of 2 + the level of this quality. If you succeed, you may let it go, in which case you spend Edge normally.

After each failed test, you gain a bonus die on future Composure tests to overcome your curiosity, with no limit to how many bonus dice can be gained in this way other than time and lots of bad dice luck.

But why not just see what’s behind that file protection?

Cyber Psychosis

Your extensive augmentations have made you something more than just metahuman. In your case, this results in a sense of detachment, occasionally interrupted by bouts of intense and out-of-context emotions.

Bonus: 8 Karma per level (maximum level 3).

Game Effect: You must have an Essence of 1 or less to take this quality. Whenever your Edge pool reaches zero, you begin to lose touch with your situation and surroundings.

Either you become detached and listless, or you become filled with an intense emotion that seems to come out of nowhere. Until you regain Edge, you have one less Minor Action per round for every level of this quality

Cyber-Snob

There are augmentations and then there are augmentations. If you're going to stick a chunk of metal or hunk of flesh inside your body it's gotta be nothing but the best!

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: 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.

Data Hog

Not all hackers are efficient, god-like beings of the Matrix. Data Hogs are particularly inefficient with their code, which leads to making a big ripple in the Matrix. This means that GOD can track their location more easily, leading to a reduction in the threshold for Convergence.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Instead of Converging when Overwatch Score reaches 40+, the threshold for the character with this quality becomes 30.

Data Liberator

Some would say you're fighting the good fight while others would sneer that you won't last long in the business. Many more would just simply kill you 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. They disseminate the data to news outlets, screamsheets, shadowrunner data boards freely.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: The character is compelled to give away for free any gained paydata, intelligence, or secret from any missionthey 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.

Dead Emotion

Abusing BTL-level moodsofts has left you numb and you can no longer feel a specific emotion under any circumstance.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: One specific emotion such as happiness, anger, or fear cannot be felt under any circumstance. This may affect interpersonal relationships and roleplay.

Dead SIN

Dead men tell no tales. But in the Sixth World, cheating death has become an art. Whether you faked your own death or miraculously recovered from something that should have killed you, everyone thinks you’ve passed on. Being “dead” may have advantages, but it has problems as well.

Bonus: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Add a Rating 3 Fake SIN to your inventory, with 4 Rating 3 fake licenses. The SIN and licenses aren’t fake because they aren’t you, they’re fake because you are supposed to be dead.

If this SIN is ever flagged as fake, you must immediately buy off this quality, spending any Karma you have available first, then going into Karmic debt if you don’t have enough.

In addition, a SIN scanner will report this SIN as fake on a tied roll vs. the threshold of the SIN.

Dead Stick

This driving thing? It may not be for you. We're not saying you're bad at it but cockatrices don't even try to cross the road when you're behind the wheel.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: Gain a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all Crash tests.

Deaf

Characters with this quality are completely deaf and can perceive no sound at all.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: 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 Penalty for general Perception tests, a –3 Dice Pool Penalty for Surprise Tests, and any other modifiers at the gamemaster’s discretion.

Decaying Dissonance

A character with the Decaying Dissonance quality has been infected with Dissonance. This is not a well understood thing and it's not exactly like a mental illness and not exactly like a virus - instead it's a state of being that changes in one's core and makes them almost incomprehensible to everyone except themselves.

Bonus: 25 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Game Effect: Whenever in a stressful situation, the character's communications become nonsensical. To restore this, the character must succeed a Composure (2) test. Failure means any attempts to communicate result in gibberish, but they can understand what others say.

Outside of combat, they get easily distracted - which can be offputting. They gain a -1 Dice Pool Penalty to all social tests. It also affects their ability to remember things. Even a single glitch dice on a Memory Test results in a Glitch.

Lastly, when in a host the character must pass a Composure (3) test or start randomly using edit file on data around them. The edited data is gibberish.

This quality can only be bought off as part of Submersion, with the associated Karma cost on top of any Karma expenditure associated to the Submersion.

Defective Attribute

There's just something about you that makes one of your Matrix attributes less effective.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a Matrix attribute: Data Processing or Firewall.

No matter what device you use - even if you have a living persona - that Matrix attribute can never be boosted by cyberprograms, complex forms, echoes, or sprite powers.

You may only take this quality once.

Delusion

The character has a firmly held belief that has no basis in fact. No amount of logical argument or persuasive charm will dissuade the character from this belief.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: The delusion will result in the character gaining the Confused 2 status in most social situations or during a shadowrun when encountering the subject of the delusion. Anytime they are confronted with reality contradicting their delusion, the character needs to come up with an explanation as to why the delusion appears to be false. Examples of a delusion include an imaginary friend or foe, belief in the power of a lucky charm, or knowledge of a global conspiracy between dragons and elves. Should this delusion be forcibly broken, the character who is unable to rationalize this is put under extreme stress. They must make a Composure (4) test or suffer a mental breakdown, which may lead to a new delusion or other equivalent negative quality to replace the Delusion.

Dependents (1 - 3)

Children, lovers, or something or other, you have people relying on your for financial support. They live in your doss, eat your food, use your trid account, and generally cost you enough nuyen to keep you looking for that next score.

Bonus: 4 Karma per level

Game Effect: Choose a level for the dependents. Level 1 dependents are the equivalent of a family member who does not live with you but still needs support. 5% of any score goes to this person. Level 2 dependents are more stable costs like the support of a high-maintenance significant other, a child, or a small family. This level costs 10% of any score. Level 3 dependents are rare in the shadows because most runners don't have a regular family and a second life outside the shadows, which is what this level entails. This level costs a runner 25% of all scores.

A "score" is any income that comes their way. Job payments, fencing goods or paydata, or even gambling winnings. The people important to you prosper when you do!

Did You Just Call Me Dumb?

This character cannot resist camouflaging insults into well-spoken words. They get satisfaction from feeling superior to everyone else. Unfortunately, once in a while, people will notice and get pretty upset.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: If even a single Glitch die is rolled on any social test then the test is considered a Glitch.

Dimmer Bulb (1 - 3)

Maybe it was one too many hits to the head, maybe the character's mother dropped them as a baby or maybe they just never got the vibe of that whole "thinking" thing. Whatever the cause, they do not tend to shine in the mental area.

Bonus: 5 Karma per level

Game Effect: For every level of this quality the character suffers a -1 Dice Pool Penalty on all tests involving Logic of Intuition.

Divergent Essence (1 - 3)

Your body doesn’t match your aura. This includes people who are assigned the wrong gender or metatype at birth, as well as more obscure divergences. While this has led you to explore new and different areas of your life, your aura is noticeably dimmed, but is stable. This can be taken alongside the Leaking Essence quality.

Bonus: 5 Karma per level

Requirement: The player must describe the nature of the divergence.

Game Effect: Your starting Essence is reduced by the level of the quality.

In addition to paying the Karma cost of buying off this quality to restore the lost Essence, the character must undergo adjustments to their body to resolve the divergence. When using cyberware or bioware to make these adjustments, there is no Essence cost for the specific implants used to correct the divergence. Once both conditions are met, any Essence lost due to Divergent Essence is returned.

Discombobulated

Whoever thought up simsense was a genius. A character with this quality doesn’t want to imagine life without it, especially because everything is a little too real. Characters who suffer from discombobulation experience feelings of disorientation whenever they work in the physical world, without virtual reality to steady their all-too-tactile hands.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: The character receives a –2 dice pool modifier to all tests when acting outside of AR or VR.

Distinctive Style

You only fit in when you're in places where no one fits in. The way you dress and look are unique to you. This can be flashy augmentations, a color-coordinated themed outfit, a peculiar or out-of-place way of speaking in the area you live in, distinctive scars, gang insignia, or non-metahuman SURGE traits or modifications like lizard skin or a tail.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge when you're not rocking your distinctive style.

Others get a +2 Dice Pool Modifier when conducting a Memory test to recall your appearance or remember if they have seen you before.

Doesn't Quite Fit

Your transgenic alteration makes it difficult for you to use or wear certain unmodified items.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Prerequisite: Transgenic Infusions

Game Effect: Add 25% to the cost for clothing and equipment that would be used in that transgenic area: pants for altered legs (or tail-holes), helmets for horned heads, gloves and weapons for clawed hands, etc.

Down the Rabbit Hole

The character is a sucker for clickbait, even when it’s obvious that it has nothing to do with the search they’re pursuing. They’ll start searching for building schematics for a heist, and end reading rumors about Dunkelzahn’s assassination. How did the search lead them there? No idea, but at least they learned a lot of rubbish along the way.

Bonus: 2 Karma per rating (Maximum level 4)

Game Effect: For each level of Down the Rabbit Hole, reduce the number of 1s necessary to roll a Glitch by 1 whenever the character attempts to search the Matrix (so that on a roll of 8 dice with 2 levels of the quality, the character can Glitch with only three 1s, instead of the normal 5).

The gamemaster may also require the character to make Matrix Search tests that would otherwise succeed automatically to see whether or not a Glitch occurs.

Driven

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 something like finding a disappeared loved one, discovering a hidden truth, or getting revenge.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: 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 that new information.

Unless the character succeeds, they will sacrifice anything and anyone to get to the truth in this single-minded obsession.

As long as the character is actively working a lead they gain a +1 Dice Pool Modifier.

Drone Animosity

People say that computers hate them. In this case, drones really do give you attitude. Something about you annoys their algorithms. No one believes that the traffic drones are making you sit at the light longer than normal. But they are. They always are.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: In combat, drones tend to target you if given the choice. Your drones cop an attitude, no matter how many times you've reset their dogbrain.

When not jumped into a drone, you cannot use Edge to pilot them or when they are assisting you (for example, when gaining help from a pit crew or Engineering kits). For every other drone, it's only you they dislike, so it's hard to prove or pin down.

Dry Addict (1 - 6)

Some people manage to kick a habit - even if just for a little while. The addiction you once had still exists but you're currently well past withdrawals and trying to live a life separated from that particular substance.

Bonus: 2 Karma per level

Game Effect: 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 high-stress 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, -4, -5, or -6 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.

Players must select the level for this quality that is the same as the former Addiction quality.

Dying Cyberware

Your cyberware is just about dead, and nothing can be done with the hardware other than to nurse it along and hope it doesn’t fail at a bad time.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Designate an implant that costs one or more Essence. This implant is out of warranty and failing. A good mechanic or cyberdoc can identify problems with visible implants with a visual inspection.

When using the implant, one die in the roll is replaced by a wild die.

The runner must make an Edge test each month; if this test glitches, the implant fails and doesn’t function. If this would be lethal to the runner, the runner may survive but cannot succeed in any physical or mental test. They can call a friend to come and help them. An implant that has failed this way cannot be repaired, but it can be replaced.

If the implant is successfully hit by a called shot, it is permanently disabled as if the runner had glitched the monthly Edge check.

If a runner replaces the implant without buying off the quality, designate another implant as Dying Cyberware

Earther

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.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: When not in Earth-like gravity, the character suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to all Physical actions.

This quality cannot be taken in campaigns that do not face the environments it is designed for without gamemaster approval.

Easy Mark

No matter how hard you try to focus and keep an eye out for trouble, people always manage to find a way to avoid your notice.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend any Edge on Perception tests when opposing a Stealth test.

Echo Chamber

The character has a trusty source or two who align with their social, political, psychological, and criminal aims, which makes some information gathering a cinch. Finding info outside of your echo chamber, however, is pretty hard work, especially when wading through all the idiot drek that’s out there.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: When Matrix Searching as an extended test, the character benefits from a +2 Dice Pool Bonus, but the number of rolls needed to get a Glitch is decreased by 1

Electronic Witness

The character is a part of a movement that records 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 but if you archive it, maybe you'll spot it later.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: With this quality the character must acquire gear to record video and audio and wear it all the time. This gear must always be on and the character must not turn off wireless functionality at any point. If the character has the Day Job quality, they meet the conditions of the job by virtue of simply selling their recordings to specialized data brokers and they can make their money this way. If they opt not to take the Day Job quality, then they can do whatever they wish with it.

In a situation where their recording software is turned off of wireless then they feel especially agitated and suffer a -1 Dice Pool Penalty to all actions.

Elevated Stress

Years of having mainstream society look down on you has taken its toll, as has the long-term stress associated with it.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Prerequisite: Troll or Ork

Game Effect: You take –1 dice pool penalty on any Addiction and Toxin Resistance tests due to the strain on your health system.

Elf Poser

You may have been born human or ork but your ears, cheekbones, and hoity-toity attitude are all elf. A surgery here and there, maybe a Sperethiel class on the Matrix and a lot of time watching footage of the Tír princes has you all set to join those you feel you truly belong with, no matter how round your ears or broad your tusks were at birth.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: Elves, orks, and trolls gain a free point of Edge on Influence (Etiquette) tests made against you.

Emotional Attachment

This character has an irrational emotional attachment to a piece of gear. They will always use this item, even if presented with a better option. Furthermore, if the item is lost in some manner, the character will do everything in their power, up to and including risking their life and the life of their teammates, to retrieve the item.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: If the piece of gear is irretrievably lost or damaged then the player must spend Karma to buy off the quality or suffer a -1 Dice Pool 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.

Emotional Flatline

All these implants have made you more machine-like. You have become cold and calculating in social situations, so much so that it’s off-putting to others you interact with. This can be an advantage for scaring people.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: When attempting any opposed Con or Influence test (except for Intimidation), your opponent always generates a point of Edge for each test due to your inability to appeal to them. When attempting to Intimidate, you generate a point of Edge for your callous disregard for your subject.

Emotion Leak

Sometimes those with large amounts of cyberware have a difficult time containing their emotions; other metahumans know instinctively how these characters feel. This is disadvantageous during negotiations, cons, gambling, and any other face-to-face interactions where deception is important.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: The runner cannot use Edge on Con tests or Influence tests.

Escaped Custody

A character with this quality escaped a megacorporate experiment, and they have the scars to prove it. These scars are not necessarily physical, and while they’ve done their best to heal and move on, when faced with their former captors they have a tendency to lose control.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Prerequisite: Records on File

Game Effect: The player selects any megacorporation with which the character has Records on File; when dealing with that megacorporation, they receive a −2 dice pool penalty on Composure Tests.

This quality can only be taken once.

Evil Twin

A character with this quality frequently gets mistaken for someone else whose reputation is even worse than his own. Perhaps this person is a crooked politician, a well-known Humanis Policlub member, or a criminal that got significant media coverage.

Bonus: 14 Karma

Game Effect: Mothers with young children cross the street when they see the character coming, police drones frequently stop them, and there’s always a hassle when they run their ID.

They get little to no service in restaurants.

Electronic flyers are spread to all their neighbors when they moves, warning them about them.

Whenever the character’s doppelganger commits another crime, or gets caught in another political sting, the character gets media camping out on their doorstep and occasionally gets hauled in to the police station by surly officers (who never apologize later).

Ex-Con

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 a few drawbacks from their societal "indiscretions."

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: The local police corporation has a full file and rundown on the character. 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 Legal or Illegal augmentations, as the prison system removes them.

Secondly, 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. The PO can choose to make a house call any time they want. Whether the GM wants the character to have a sleazy or a squeaky clean PO is up to them but each creates their own bundle of problems.

Thirdly, 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 themselves, this quality must be bought off or replaced with other negative qualities of equal or greater value

Faceless

You have worn disguises so frequently and for so long that being out in public wearing your real face makes you feel vulnerable.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: You suffer a –2 Dice Pool Penalty 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.

Family Curse

Your parent(s) liked their drugs. So did their parents and so did their parents before them. To say that addiction runs in the family is like saying Lone Star officers enjoy clubbing punks.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: When making Addiction tests, the character receives a -2 Dice Pool Penalty.

Faraday Himself

Maybe it's your diet - too much iron, isn't it? - or maybe it's your cyberware causing some extra interference. Whatever it is, you are a bit of a problem. Whenever you are near, the static on the line goes up.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: Anyone within 10 meters of you (including yourself) suffers +2 Noise at all times. This effect is cumulative with whatever noise penalties that would normally apply.

Anyone outside of that 10 meter radius who is attempting to connect to you does not suffer this extra noise penalty.

Finesse

You prefer to accomplish your goals with subtlety and find brute force tactics unnerving.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend Edge on any action that would obviously generate a Heat modifier. If you do not personally generate any Heat modifiers, apply –1 to your team’s Heat modifier.

Fine Young Cannibal

You have acquired a taste for metahuman flesh due to your transgenic infusion. You are not an Essence eater like a vampire, or even an obligate cannibal like a ghoul - you’re just in it for the meaty bits.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Prerequisite: Transgenic Infusion

Game Effect: Characters with this negative quality who are in hand-to-hand combat must make a Willpower (2) test to successfully resist trying to eat their opponent during or after combat.

If any blood has been shed in hand-to-hand, take a –2 Dice Pool Modifier on this roll.

Reduce this penalty to –1 if the character has fed on metahuman flesh in the last 24 hours

Flashbacks

You haven't been able to leave behind the effects of a trauma you experienced to the point where certain triggers make you relive the whole experience. This goes beyond just having a recollection of the occurrence - you really feel you are there and any other reality drops away.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a specific event that is the subject of the flashbacks. At least one, possibly more, specific triggers should be identified. This should be a specific multi-sensory experience so that it is not invoked too regularly but not too rarely.

When they are subjected to the trigger, they must make a Composure (4) test or enter the flashback for 3 minutes. When in a flashback, a Composure (3) test may be made to recognize they are in a flashback and endure it.

While in a flashback, they receive a -4 Dice Pool Penalty involving all physical tests for the duration. If they fail the second test they cannot do anything but ride the flashback out.

Force of Chaos

Planning is great - for others. You prefer to throw yourself into whatever is happening and see what you can pull off, which makes you chafe against plans.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: When other players try to assist you on a Teamwork Test, the dice bonus you receive is equal to half their hits, rounded up.

Frostbite

The character tussled with Black IC, and it got the better of them. They lost something to it that they can never get back.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: Select either Electronics or Cracking. The selected skill must be one in which the character has ranks in.

The character permanently suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to either to that skill whenever IC (besides Patrol IC) are active in a host they are occupying.

Fuzz Magnet

When you do something wrong on the streets, people tend to notice. Especially the wrong people.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you're driving recklessly or erratically, roll 2d6 dice. If both come up as hits then you are noticed by local traffic police.

Gear Acquisition Syndrome

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping, or so they say. Well, it’s certainly what you say!

Bonus: 5 Karma per level (maximum level 3).

Game Effect: You must have at least 1 skill Specialization or Expertise to be eligible for this quality.

You are driven to purchase at least 1,000 nuyen per level of this quality in gear every month. If you fail to keep up with this, you become anxious or sad. Until you can satisfy your need to shop, you do not gain any bonus ranks from any skill specialization or expertise.

The amount you must spend per month doesn’t increase if you fall behind.

Glass Jaw

It doesn't actually take much to lay you on your hoop. You could never take a punch and the whole world knows it.

Bonus: 4 Karma per level

Game Effect: You have 1 less box of Stun for each level of this quality, down to a minimum of 2.

Glitchy

Unexpected, unlikely, and unfortunate things happen to you on a regular basis.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you Glitch, it counts as a Critical Glitch, with no hits, regardless of how many hits you may have rolled.

Gourmand

You loathe eating food that does not delight your sophisticated palette.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you eat food that is not up the standards of a high-level lifestyle, you gain the Nauseated status for one hour.

Fast food, Stuffer Shack fare, instant meals, and generally anything that costs less than 20 nuyen per plate will cause you unpleasantness.

Gremlins

Commlinks freeze, guns jam, car tires blow, electrical systems short. Any and every thing that could go wrong with some fidgety bit of tech in your hands has gone wrong at one point in your life.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you use any device, roll 2D6. If you get a 1 on either die, it means the device fails to function correctly and can be treated as a Glitch.

The device can be quickly reset with a Minor Action and used again.

Rolling two 1's means the device fails catastrophically and the roll is an automatic Critical Glitch. The device is done for good and you might be in for a bit of hurt from shock or biofeedback.

Hallucinations

The mind can be a fragile thing, and one stressed to the limit can create visions of things that aren’t there.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: In stressful situations, the character must pass a Willpower + Logic (3) test or be subjected to hallucinatory visions. These visions may come from past experiences, nightmares, or even the media. They may also reflect a failure to observe something that does exist. To the character, these seem every bit as real as the physical world around them and must be addressed appropriately. These visions exist only within the mind of the character. They have no astral or Matrix component. The visions will persist until the character successfully passes another Willpower + Logic (3) test; the gamemaster determines when such tests are made. Another character may assist the hallucinating character by using Influence (Leadership) + Charisma (treat as a teamwork test).

Hard Luck

No matter what you do, you can’t get ahead. Life never treats you fairly, and you seem destined to live in poverty and destitution. This character suffers from chronic hardship.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: As the result of the character's constant hardship, they must pay lifestyle costs 1 level above the one they have chosen to reflect those unforeseen costs that plague the character throughout their life.

Harrowed

Sometimes dying isn’t the worst thing in the world. A character with the Harrowed quality has seen the other side but was too tough, too mean, or too stupid to stay dead. While they may have survived to tell their tale, they live a haunted life straddling the line between the living and the dead.

Bonus: 15 Karma (20 for Awakened)

Game Effect: The character gains the metagenic qualities Critter Spook and Nasty vibe as well as the Spirit Bane Negative Quality (Spirit of Kin)

In addition, the threshold for any healing and stabilization tests performed on the character, including those by magical means, are increased by 1.

Hobo With A Shotgun

This character has survived on the streets for so long that anything else makes them distrustful, uncomfortable, and suspicious. The character will not choose to stay in accommodations above squatter.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: If forced to stay somewhere above Squatter, the character will be at a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to all of their Mental attributes as they are agitated and uncomfortable.

This applies to even squalid Low Lifestyle motels, and the character will choose to simply find a comfortable alley to sleep in than bear this "luxury."

Once they are able to stay in a Squatter or Street lifestyle for a night, the detriment fades.

Hooder

You're driven to do what you can to help others.

Bonus: 5 Karma per level (maximum level 3).

Game Effect: You must donate at least 1,000 nuyen per level of this quality every month. The donation cannot go to other members of your team or family members.

You may use this nuyen to purchase favors from your contacts or to Work for the People.

If you fail to keep up with this, you feel anxious or guilty. Your opposition gains a situational Edge on any opposed rolls against you.

The unpaid nuyen maxes out at 1,000 nuyen per level and does not accumulate every missed month.

Hung Out To Dry

Welcome to the world of social shunning. For some reason, unknown to the character, their contacts have suddenly clammed up and stopped answering their calls and new connections dry up when they get wind of their social pariah status.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Only the gamemaster is aware of the reason why no one will converse with the character and it is up to the character to try and figure it out and, if they want to, clear their name. These could result in a story arc or a few side jobs here and there.

If other members of the team start to ask around as to why the character is on the outs, their contacts get a little tight-lipped and may even clam up until the situation is resolved.

Hunted

Someone wants you dead, and they have the means to get it done.

Bonus: 5 Karma per level (maximum level 5).

Game Effect: Whenever your personal Heat is 15 or higher, assassins catch up to you. You always seem to manage a narrow escape, but you never get away unscathed.

At the beginning of every session (after your Edge pool refreshes), roll Body to resist 7P damage, with +1 DV per level of this quality.

You may treat this wound using any available short-term healing (first aid, medkit, heal spell, etc.), but you may not take advantage of any long-term healing before the session begins.

Impaired (Attribute)

Some folks are just not meant to be naturally talented in a specific area. A bum knee, poor genetics, or an illness as a kid has you lacking the maximum achievement level of your peers.

Bonus: 8 Karma per level

Game Effect: For each level, the character's maximum for a chosen attribute decreases by 1, up to a minimum of 2.

Impassive

Nobody can see what you've seen and not have it affect them. Some would have gone mad, but you simply grew cold.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: The character cannot use Edge on any social tests except for attempts to intimidate another character.

Implant-Induced Immune Deficiency

Cyberware and bioware users sometimes suffer from a number of health problems as the natural balance of their metabolism is thrown off by modified organs and systems. The demands of their augmented biologies and the body's continuous attempts to adjust to implants can lead to decreased immunity to pathogens, poisons, and other compounds.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Prerequisite: Bioware and/or cyberware implants and an Essence of 5 or less.

Game Effect: The character suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all tests involving diseases, drugs, toxins, and other compounds.

In Debt

Sometimes to get cash you need to owe cash. You've built up a bit of debt trying to get a foothold in the shadows.

Bonus: None

Game Effect: When you spend Karma for cash, every point of Karma you spend gets you 5,000 instead of 2,000 nuyen. Each point of Karma spent also puts you 5,000 in debt with someone dangerous and capable of collecting.

You must pay a monthly interest rate of 500 nuyen per Karma spent, in addition to any payment to the principal.

If the interest is not paid, the lenders come searching for you. This quality can be bought off purely with money: if the principal is repaid, the quality is eliminated.

This quality can only be obtained during character creation.

Incompetent (Skill)

No matter how hard you practice and how much you try to figure it out, there are some skills you just can't manage to get right.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: When this quality is chosen, select a Skill. You are unable to gain ranks in that selected Skill.

You cannot be incompetent in Skills you have no chance to perform - so you cannot choose this quality for Magic Skills if you have no Magic rating.

This Skill may only be selected once.

Incomplete Deprogramming

A character with this quality was once mentally programmed to be a deep-cover agent for someone. 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.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever this character faces a stressful situation they must make a Composure (4) test. Failure means that their 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 and another stressful situation can call for another Composure (4) test. This can occur over the same firefight.

During the cover identity, the character forgets their badass runner persona and the skills that go with it and turn into a mild-mannered, everyday joe. A second character sheet is recommended for when this quality is chosen.

Also, if all that was not bad enough, these behaviors look a lot like CFD and people are going to potentially think you are a headcase.

Indecisive

You have trouble making snap decisions.

Bonus: 11 Karma

Game Effect: You must have four Minor Actions per combat round to take this quality.

Unless you have at least 5 points of Edge available, you may not trade Minor Actions to gain another Major Actions.

Infirm

Characters with this quality often think "I should hit the gym" but rarely get past buying the membership or they're on a downward slope of life, or maybe they're just too old for this drek.

Bonus: 5 to 25 Karma

Game Effect: For every 5 Karma, the character drops all of their Physical attribute maximums by 1.

This quality can be taken up to 5 times but no attribute maximum can be dropped below 1.

Along with this natural cap, the character cannot have their Physical attributes modified beyond this maximum by any source - magic, machine or otherwise - as their body is too frail to handle the stress.

Information Auctioneer

Now and then a hacker will grab some data that’s outside the lines of the job. Everyone will pay to keep their secrets, and this data will end up with whoever is willing to pay the most for it.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: The character earns a minimum ¥1,000 extra per job during which they collected paydata. Their Matrix persona is familiar to any former auction attendee. When interacting with a character with this quality, an NPC may make a memory test to recognize the character’s persona; the NPC gains +1 to their dice pool for every ¥10,000 they spent buying data.

If the NPC recognizes the player character, the gamemaster may decide if this NPC was slighted or aided by one of the character’s auctions - that is, whether they are angry at or happy with the character. Either way, the recognition should cause a disturbance.

Inhuman (1 - 2)

Your alterations have taken you away from what is generally accepted as a human or metahuman appearance, and you pay the price for this.

Bonus: 6 - 8 Karma

Prerequisite: Transgenic Infusion

Game Effect: Your alterations have taken you away from what is generally accepted as a human or metahuman appearance, and you pay the price for this.

Injury Prone

Whenever you get hurt, you get hurt badly.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you suffer damage from any source, take one extra box of the same type of damage (Physical or Stun).

Insomnia

Sleep? What's that? It could be nightmares, brain damage, funky biochemistry, or a psychological disorder but no matter the reason, you just can't get a good night's rest.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: Without proper rest, you cannot spend Edge as much as you'd like. Each day the runner must make a Body + Willpower (3) test to get a successful night of rest. If they fail, they cannot spend more than 2 Edge during any given session.

The purchase and use of a sleep regulator reduces the threshold on the test to 1. The runner may also purchase medication (50 nuyen/dose) that reduces the threshold to 2.

K-Puppet Trauma

You thought you were heading out on the town for a fun time, but your trip to the red-light district left you disturbed. The bunraku puppet pulled apart your psyche before stitching it all back together with some new tics.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: When dealing with suspected or known Yakuza, bunraku puppets, or Seoulpa Ring members, you are unable to spend Edge.

Killer

When it comes to combat, you prefer to kill your enemies and leave no witnesses or anyone who will later seek revenge.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend Edge when using an attack or spell that deals Stun damage.

Know Your Limit

This technomancer has experienced some serious fade, and omae, they never want to do that again. But fading is a part of a technomancer's life and past battles with it seem to have left their scars.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Game Effect: The character suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to resist Physical fade damage.

Lack Of Focus

Characters suffering from Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have difficulty focusing on a dedicated task for long a lot of the time. So do people who just find themselves easily distracted.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: When making any extended test with an interval greater than 5 minutes and shorter than 1 day, the character must make a Composure (3) test each interval after the first. The dice pool is cumulatively reduced by 1 for each of these tests.

Failing the Composure test indicates the character can no longer focus and must take a break for a minimum of 1 interval.

Latest And Greatest

The character just really loves their tech. Really, really loves it. 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 their gear.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Every month, the character must spend at least 60% of their earnings on these upgrades. It is possible to earmark earnings for a specific purchase down the road, but if they are saving up for a particularly shiny new toy but this money is unavailable to the charater until then.

Lazy Fingers

Never overextend - the risks aren’t worth the rewards. Reckless runners are dead runners. That’s the basic code of characters with this quality.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever the character attempts to use the Brute Force matrix action the user suffers a -6 Dice Pool Penalty.

Leaking Essence

Your aura is changing in such a way that it is beginning to diverge from your body. This is not immediately debilitating, but is certainly a long-term concern. Note that this divergence can occur at any age; it is only when the divergence becomes too great that the connection between the body and Essence starts to break. This is uncommon enough that an aura with this condition will be strange and unusual to anyone who can sense auras.

Bonus: 0 Karma

Game Effect: At the beginning of each month, you lose 0.1 Essence.

At the end of each month, you gain 3 Karma.

At any time, a player can declare that their Essence leak has stopped. This removes this quality.

Optionally, if a runner has undergone significant stress, the gamemaster may have a conversation with a player about whether they would like to take this quality.

Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins

Planning is not your strong suit. Following other people's plans is not your strong suit. Rushing in swinging with both fists and screaming wildly is the only "plan" you've ever needed.

Bonus: 20 Karma

Game Effect: The character must succeed a Composure (3) test to resist attacking any identified threat immediately. They do not care about the odds and even if the attack is downright suicidal or just plain stupid, they will still attack. The attack can be any sort of attack - even spells, drones, or assaults against a persona on the Matrix.

Critically, they will also not bother to share their attack plan with anyone. If they are able to recognize they are losing and back out of a right but only after a minimum of 2 Combat Rounds have passed.

If the character roars their name as a free action right before the first blow is struck, they gain a +1 Dice Pool Modifier on their first attack.

Liar

Everyone around you knows that you're a compulsive liar and even when you manage to tell the utter truth, you just sound false and insincere.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: Receive a -1 Dice Pool Penalty on all social skill tests.

Also, whenever the character addresses someone the GM rolls a 1D6. On a 1, the target of the conversation calls bullshit and assumes the character is lying no matter what they're saying - trust is lost, conversation over.

This test 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 when that 1D6 lands on a 1 or 2. If it happens a third time, the NPC's loyalty is reduced by 1 (if they were a contact) and the character suffers a -1 to their Reputation.

Lightweight

On the bright side, it does mean that going out for a night and getting hammered is easy, cheap, and maybe a little more fun than most trolls. On the downside, it may just be a little easier to get addicted to various chemicals.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: The threshold for all addiction tests is increased by 2.

Like a Boss

You consider yourself a professional hacker with finesse and disdain the crude, brute force approaches.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend Edge on any test that has the possibility of inflicting Matrix damage.

Limited Attributes

You haven’t had the resources or opportunities to focus on developing your strengths.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: This quality may only be taken at, and only applies to, character creation.

You may not start with any attributes at your metatype’s maximum.

Limited Skills

You’ve never been motivated to master any specific skill.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: This quality may only be taken at, and only applies to, character creation.

You may not start with any skills at their maximum starting rank.

Loss Of Confidence

Imposter syndrome, a single traumatic failure, or just one too many rejections or small-time failures in life have left you doubting yourself at every turn.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: During any encounter, the character must make a Willpower (2) test as a Minor Action. Failure means they cannot spend Edge for the entire encounter.

Lost Loved One

The character is obsessed with the unexplained disappearance of someone near and dear. The person - defined when the quality is taken - vanished under mysterious circumstances and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: When taken, establish a lost loved one who has disappeared. The character feels compelled to find the missing person at any cost.

They must succeed a Composure (2) test to resist following any lead put in front of them, regardless of whether it is a solid lead or red herring.

Low Pain Tolerance

You have sensitive nerves or generally a sensitive nature. For whatever reason, you are more affected by injuries and discomfort.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: All wound modifiers are doubled.

Malware Infection

Somewhere along the way the character got pinged as an easy mark for spam adverts and messages and horrible visits that bring to mind questions about the worth of humanity. The character’s view is always at least slightly obscured by pop-ups that definitely have to be closed as soon as possible.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: The character suffers a –2 penalty to all Matrix Perception tests.

Matrix Troll

The character can’t help but plant misinformation when given the opportunity. In fact, it’s their method of choice when interacting with foes. It’s hilarious when it’s harmless fun with friendlies. Or when it’s something they do to total strangers. They have a problem controlling it, is the point.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: The character must make a Composure (3) Test to stop from spreading some detrimental misinformation or pulling a Matrix prank, even if it’s to the disadvantage of the character’s friends.

Maybe You Missed Something

You can never take anyone's word for granted - after all, people make mistakes or even intentionally "miss" things if they're trying to set you up for failure. With threats lurking around every corner, the only person you trust to spot danger is yourself.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you're in a potentially dangerous situation, you must take any feasible steps to search out potential threats. If another member of the team has already done so, you must spend as much time as they did completing the same task.

Meat Surrogacy

Not all bioware can be grown in a vat. Some of the most cultured bioware must be grown inside a living host, and you volunteered for such a procedure. You have a mysterious piece of inert bioware growing within your body, and once it is removed, you stand to make some decent money. Because the bioware is not for you, it takes a little out of you to carry it around. But hey, it’s worth it for the sweet, sweet nuyen you stand to make.

Bonus: 2 Karma per level (max 3 levels)

Game Effect: Characters may take this negative quality in up to 3 levels. Each level taken costs 1 point of Essence. That Essence is considered occupied until this quality is removed. Six months after this quality is taken, if bioware still is in the runner, they report to the doc who implanted it, have it removed, and receive 20,000 nuyen per point of Essence used in this way. When the procedure is complete, the character is left with an Essence hole equal to the levels taken in this quality. Once completed, this negative quality is removed.

There is a risk that the incubating bioware could be damaged or removed forcibly. If this is the case, the runner is responsible for the damaged bioware, and its total will be taken out of the amount received at the end of the period. Should the runner take more than 6 boxes of Physical damage from a single attack, make a Body test with a threshold equal to the level of this quality. If the threshold is passed, the incubating ’ware is safe and undamaged. If the test is failed, reduce the final payout of this quality by 10 percent per instance of 6 boxes of damage from a single attack. If the bioware is forcibly removed, the runner will not receive any payment.

Misaligned Souls

This was a bad decision. You can feel it in your bones, in your soul. You were never meant to be changed like this. Whatever transgenic infusion you chose, it’s making you feel wrong on the inside.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Lose 1 point of Essence permanently when you are infused. Additionally, spirits (particularly animal or nature spirits) do not like to be around you, resulting in you being unable to spend Edge on social interactions with spirits.

If you engage in a teamwork test to assist a social test against a spirit, no one can spend Edge, and the opposing spirit gains 1 point of situational Edge. Misaligned Souls cannot be taken in conjunction with Chimeric Soul.

This quality can only be selected when the character is about to receive a transgenic infusion, and they must go through with receiving it.

Mode Lock

Whether it’s AR mode, cold sim VR, or hot sim VR, you have a clear preference. Those who prefer cold sim VR have probably seen the effects of biofeedback damage on someone they cared about, or perhaps had their own brain fried once or twice. If AR is your preference, you are most likely an on-the-go sort of hacker who dislikes losing awareness of their physical surroundings. Hot-sim VR is the preference for hackers who go all-in when it comes to the Matrix. Whatever your reasons, you find using any mode other than your preferred one unwieldy and distracting.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a preferred mode: AR, cold sim VR, or hot sim VR. Unless you’re using your preferred mode, using Edge on any Matrix actions costs double.

Momentous Misfortune

You just can’t catch a break, and even when you do, it seems to make little or no difference.

Bonus: 25 Karma

Game Effect: You may only use 1 Edge per full Combat Round.

Motion Sickness

Yes, there is a strong benefit from being able to move from place to place but the journey does not agree with you. Rolling down the window just isn't enough to help; if it goes on too long, you'll have to wash the car out later.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: Any time you are in a moving vehicle for longer than 30 minutes, you gain the Nauseated status. This status doesn't go away until 10 minutes after the vehicle stops moving. The Nausea test to recover is only temporary while in a vehicle, lasting Net Hits minutes.

Nerdrage

You're a little more comfortable with machines than other individuals. Whenever you mess up in a social situation or fail to convince someone you take it extremely personally and feel deeply humiliated by the encounter. You subsequently build bitter feelings against the individual.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: 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 Pool Penalty to all Social tests. However, the character can remove this penalty by getting back at the target character by hacking 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, then that works too.

Non-Lethal

Even though you may have to fight, you prefer not to kill.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: You may not gain or spend Edge when using an attack or spell that deals Physical damage.

Night Blindness

No one understands how dark the shadows are quite like you. Your natural vision does not adjust well into poor lighting conditions. All glare modifiers are one category worse for the character with the exception of full light.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: The character's vision doesn't adjust to poor lighting conditions. All Light/Glare modifiers are one category worse for the character.

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 cyberware or bioware. If they do not have enough Karma to buy it off, then they cannot get corrective gear or surgeries.

Oblivious

You will consistently fail to notice the troll in the corner with a Panther XXL cannon... even after they've fired the fragging thing!

Bonus: 6 or 10 Karma

Game Effect: At the 6 Karma level, the character has a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to all Perception tests including standard, astral, and Matrix.

At the 10 Karma level they suffer the same detriment and all Perception thresholds are increased by 1 for them.

On the Wagon

Winners don’t use drugs! That’s what you’ve been told your whole life, and it has been your guiding principle. Maybe you experimented with mixing drugs and the Matrix at one point and decided you hate it. Maybe you have decided that the Matrix is a confusing enough place without adding a layer of confusion to it.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Restriction: Incompatible with Addicted, Codeblock, Wires User, or any variant of Incompetent that affects Matrix-based skills.

Game Effect: When you are not sober, you take −2 Dice Pool Penalty on all Matrix actions.

One Of Them

Unless you've been living in the middle of the SOX 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 erases a person's identity and takes over their body. It can strike anytime, anywhere, regardless of wealth or social class and there are no means of prevention or cures.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: Word on the street is that you are a headcase, as CFD-afflicted individuals are colloquially known. No amount of reasoning has thus far convinced your friends and acquaintances that these are baseless rumors.

None of your contacts will agree to meet you in the flesh and 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.

Ork Poser

Your blood may be human or elf but your ears, jaw, tusks, and rough attitude are all ork. A surgery here and there, maybe an Or'zet class on the Matrix and a lot of time watching documentaries on the Seattle Underground has you all set to join those you feel you truly belong with, no matter how round your ears are or thin your frame was at birth.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: Elves, orks and trolls gain a point of Edge in Influence (Etiquette) tests made against you.

Paranoia

It's only paranoia if they aren't out to get you. In the shadows, being overly cautious is often mistaken for paranoia but there's a dramatic difference between the two.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: The character suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all social tests involving contacts with a Loyalty less than 4 or generally any unfamiliar person.

The character will also refuse to give out their address or any information on where they live and must change living spaces every few months to ease their fear of being found.

Paraplegic

Characters who have this quality are paralyzed from the waist down. They can perform any physical task that does not require the use of their legs and locomotion usually occurs via wheelchair or some form of drone. The character is fast due to the mechanical motor assistance, though they are slower with stairs and narrow forms of traversal.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: The paraplegia 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, this quality has to be bought off.

To reflect additional expenses to make the world more agreeable, the character's Lifestyle cost is increased by 10% and vehicles need to be modified, increasing their price by 5% or have a Rigger Interface for DNI control.

This quality does not affect the character's abilities in astral space or the Matrix.

Perforated Firewall

Maybe it's just bad luck or maybe it's because you keep hitting the wrong links on the Matrix but any firewall you touch seems to start to crumble.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you must make a test using a device's Firewall, your opponent gains a free point of Edge.

Permanent Damage

Your connection between your body and Essence is incomplete or damaged.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: This quality cannot be taken by a runner who has 6 Essence.

This quality can only be bought off when a runner has 6 Essence.

This quality can be taken after character creation when Essence is lost with the agreement of the GM.

A person with this quality cannot fill an Essence hole with more augmentation.

In addition, any Essence or magical Revitalization takes four times as long to restore Essence or Magic.

Pie Iesu Domine. Dona Eis Requiem

You are a flagellant, believing in causing yourself pain to serve a greater good. Perhaps you seek clarity through pain; perhaps it's an act of constant contrition for your past deeds.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: The character gains the High Pain Tolerance quality but always must start the day with 1 box of Physical damage.

These wounds may cause questions in certain social settings, should anyone notice.

Possession Tradition

The conjurer never learned to summon spirits in a way that allows them to manifest in the physical realm or - for some reason - consciously abstains from doing so.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Spirits summoned in this tradition have their Materialization power replaced with the Possession power.

Prank Warrior

The character has an ongoing prank war with another hacker, but the proportions are a little bit out of hand. What started as a joke is now as funny as a serial killer with clown makeup. The other hacker will now randomly track you down and mess with you and your team, even when (and especially when!) in a dangerous situation. The hacker will never quite go all the way - just enough to make you sweat rather profusely.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: The character's nemesis will randomly show up during dangerous situations and mess with you and your team - but never quite all the way - just enough to make you sweat profusely.

Typically this is just a few Data Spikes at your gear, enough to half-brick it, or they'll contact security of the facility you're invading and tip them off that someone is infiltrating but without giving them your identity. They may hack your cybereyes - but only to make you see things that aren't there. And if you turn off Wireless? That'll just make them escalate.

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

Pregnant

Even in the darkness of the shadows, the miracle of life can happen. A character with a uterus - whether transplanted or if they were born with one - is going to spend the next three trimesters with a varying degree of downsides and a child growing inside of them.

Bonus: 9 Karma

Game Effect: A new character choosing this quality gains the Karma benefit and starts the game as newly pregnant, having to proceed through 3 trimesters of roughly 3 months each, depending on the metatype of the child.

Each trimester, the character gains an additional negative effect as detailed below.

First Trimester: Gain the Nauseated status if the character has not eaten within the last hour.
Second Trimester: As above, plus every [Body] Combat Round of vigorous, the character gains an automatic box of Stun damage.
Third Trimester: As above, plus all Physical attributes are temporarily reduced by 1 until delivery.

When the character gives birth, this negative quality must be replaced with either the Dependents, Big Regret, or Lost Loved One quality. Characters may still become pregnant after character creation, they simply do not receive the Karma bonus.

Prejudiced (Group)

You have some deep-seated views and beliefs about a certain group and no matter what anyone says you know they're no good. Your opinion of them is so negative and distracting you just can't keep focused on other things while they're around.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Select a group or type of people.

You are unable to use Edge while the object of your prejudice is present - unless you're directly opposing them.

Program Dependency

You've become superstitiously attached to the use of a specific cyberprogram - like most hackers, you can't go anywhere without your baby!

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a cyberprogram.

Whenever your cyberdeck is not running that cyberprogram, you become fixated on its absence.

For each Combat Round that you wish to take any Matrix actions other than using reconfigure device to load the cyberprogram, you must first take a Minor Action to focus.

Pusillanimous Summoner

Be it because of an unpleasant experience in the past, or the peculiarities of their arcane upbringing, whenever summoning a spirit the magician is stricken with awe. Sensing the discomfort, the spirit gains the upper hand and tends to execute the conjurer's demands precisely by the word - no more and no less. Along the way, the spirit may display either a very twisty or snotty behavior depending on the magician's tradition. A pusillanimous summoner has to be precise in their wording unless they don't mind the spirit giving them the runaround.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Spirits summoned by the magician try their best to misinterpret the summoner's orders.

If the magician wants to make sure there are no loopholes in their instructions, they have to sit down beforethe conjuring and perform a Conjuring + Intuition (8, 5 minutes) extended test to think those instructions through.

Quasimodo

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.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Suffering from a significant physical deformity that affects motor functions, the character suffers a -3 Dice Pool Penalty on all Social tests not done in the Matrix and a +2 dice pool modifier for all intimidation-related tests.

Records On File (1 - 10)

One of the Big 10 know who you are. Better yet, they're really good at their record keeping. With the use of facial recognition and the proliferation and saturation of identification systems to track consumer habits, representatives of the megacorp that has your number just have an easier time finding you if they want to.

Bonus: 1 Karma per level

Game Effect: For every point of this quality, one of the Big 10 AAA megacorporations possess a relatively up-to-date record of the character's SIN, biometrics, personal, and medical data.

They gain a +2 Dice Pool Modifier on tests to track down or locate the character whenever they are in an area with C or better security rating.

This quality is incompatible with the Erased quality.

Remote Pilot

Driving is a fine thing to do - unless you're actually inside the vehicle! That's where all the movement is way too disorienting. You prefer to drive at a remote, motionless, location.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend Edge while piloting a vehicle unless you are not physically present within the vehicle.

Resonance Burn

Fading always hurts real bad, to the point that you are incredibly careful to avoid it.

Bonus: 13 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Game Effect: Whenever you suffer Fading damage, it is always Physical damage.

Resonant Burnout

Whether willingly or not, the character’s body has been implanted repeatedly. You may not have a lot of cyberware in your system right now, but you’ve had a lot put in and pulled out over time.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Game Effect: As a result of all this modification, you treat all Resonance lost to Essence loss as 20% worse than normal.

Fractional Resonance is rounded down.

Road Rage

You've braved the roads of the Sixth World long enough to be perpetually on edge when you're out there. If someone does you wrong, you snap and can think of nothing more than getting them back.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: If the vehicle or drone you are piloting takes any damage, you may only spend Edge on opposed tests against the target that damaged you until either the encounter ends or your target is defeated.

Scorched

A Matrix, simsense, or BTL experience has fried your neurons to the point of perpetual frazzle, causing trouble when you're logged on to any device, even when it's just in Augmented Reality.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge while accessing the Matrix.

This includes through the use of commlinks, smartlinks, and any other source of data coming in from the ether.

Sensitive Nose

People with this quality are particularly vulnerable due to their acute senses of smell.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Prerequisite: Transgenic Infusions

Game Effect: When exposed to an inhalation vector drug/toxin/gas, characters receive a –2 Dice Pool Modifier to any test involving a physical attribute in addition to any penalties suffered due to the presence of the toxin.

The character also cannot use Dice Rerolls on Perception tests involving scent.

Sensitive System

It could be latent unexpressed arcane talent or just a hyperactive immune system but the result is the same. Your body does not like to have anything grafted or merged with it that isn't part of its natural-born code.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Essence costs are doubled for all cyberware, bioware, and nanoware. Geneware suffers no ill effects.

You cannot have this quality if you have a Magic or Resonance rating.

Sensory Overload Syndrome

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.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever the character enters an area of high ARO saturation 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 silent mode, but these last two options create issues in areas where identification is required or suspicious when not broadcast.

Signature

For some reason a character with this quality feels it necessary to leave their calling card to announce their involvement in a job. The signature is usually a specific item, symbol, or technique the character uses that identifies their participation.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Anyone performing a test to identify the character's handiwork or track the character is given a Dice Pool Modifier equivalent to the character's Reputation and a free point of Edge.

Simsense Dependency

You slotted one too many BTL chips. Okay, more than one too many. Or maybe your brain got fried real bad by some bad IC. Now you feel out of place when experiencing life through your own senses. When you are not using simsense in some way, you start having problems.

Bonus: 16 Karma

Game Effect: When using hot-sim VR, you feel fine. Cold-sim VR is almost as good - though you can still spend Edge! This doesn’t prevent your Edge from refreshing at the beginning of a session.

AR mode helps you get by when you have to move around in meatspace, but it doesn’t feel good. While in AR mode, you can not spend Edge on Matrix actions. Any Edge actions or boosts on non-Matrix actions cost 1 more Edge than usual.

When you can’t even run AR mode, you’re in a bad way. You start to get the shakes, and everything starts to seem unreal. Until you can get back to using AR or VR mode, you gain the Dazed status.

Awakened characters cannot take this quality.

Simsense Vertigo

Somewhere inside your brain, you've got some neural pathways crossed. Whenever you log into the Matrix in VR, your disorientation is nauseating.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge while accessing the Matrix via VR.

You also receive the Nauseated status for one hour after you log off the Matrix.

Sloppy Code

No matter how hard they try, the character can never get their icon to look quite right in hosts. A red fedora in a room full of g-men, a cat in a dog park, no matter what, there’s always just something off. Blending simply is not their thing.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: The character receives a –2 dice pool penalty to Hide tests when they are in hosts.

Sloppy Coder

You write code fast, but you cut corners. Fixing bugs is not something you waste your time doing.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever you make a programming test for any reason, reduce the interval to half the normal time.

Any time the program is used, it causes a Glitch regardless of how many 1s are rolled.

A Critical Glitch causes the device running the software to reboot, unless it is being run on a host, in which case the host deletes it instead.

So Jacked Up

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 their own moods and must alternate between mind-benders to get cranked up or bring themselves down.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: While the character is encouraged to use drugs such as Cram, Deepweed, and so on this is not strictly necessary as they can be assumed to take generic uppers or downers.

Downers cause -1 Reaction, +2 Logic and uppers cause +1 Reaction, -1 Logic.

If the character has the wrong mood at the wrong time, they incur a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to all social tests. It takes 30 minutes to switch between moods.

Social Stress

There is a social situation that simply does not work for you, like being in large groups, talking to new people, being the center of attention, being out of the spotlight, or a myriad of other situations that some folks find totally normal but you find ridiculously stressful.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Select a specific social stressor.

When encountering your social stressor, you must make a Charisma (2) test as a Minor Action.

Failure means you cannot spend Edge until you succeed.

You can also choose not to take the test but if so, any tests against you have a bonus point of free Edge.

Sore Thumb

Simply put, no matter where you end up going you stick out like a... sore thumb.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: You may not use Edge on Stealth tests.

Specialist

You have some hard-earned skills but they also came at a price. There is one thing you're particularly good at but the focus there made you less good at something else.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: Choose one of your skills.

When using that skill for anything not covered under a specialization or expertise, you may not use Edge.

Spirit Bane

You may have angered them with how you treat their fellows, killed a powerful and respected member of their kind, or been born under a bad sign and marked as an enemy to entities like them. The reason doesn't matter - what matters is the fact that a certain type of spirit has an inherent dislike for you.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a type of spirit. Spirits from that category gain a point of Edge when you attempt a Conjuring test against them.

This quality can be taken multiple times, selecting a new class of spirit each time.

In combat, the chosen spirit type will attack you first and relentlessly, often to the point of savaging a dead body.

Spirit Pariah

Something you did slotted off the spirit world something fierce, so spirits really don't like you. In order to even get their attention, you need to make additional offerings to get them to even show up in the first place!

Bonus: 14 Karma

Game Effect: A character with this quality must expend (Force x 5) drams of reagents to make a Summoning test.

If the character cannot expend enough reagents, the test automatically fails.

The summoner also suffers a -1 Dice Pool Penalty on all Conjuring-related tests involving spirits.

Sprite Bane

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a type of sprite. Sprites from that category gain a point of Edge when you attempt a Compiling test against them.

This quality can be taken multiple times, selecting a new class of sprite each time.

In combat, the chosen sprite type will attack you first and relentlessly, often to the point of bricking a device.

Sprite Combustion

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.

Bonus: 13 Karma

Game Effect: 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.

Stim Patch Allergy

You have an unfortunate allergic reaction to stim patches.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: If you are affected by a stim patch, you gain the Dazed condition until it wears off.

Superhuman Ego

When you can be faster, stronger, and tougher than pretty much everyone else, who’s to say you aren’t actually a superhero? Runners with superhuman abilities, such as those granted by magic or other augmentations, can start to feel as if they are above other mere metahumans.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Runners with this quality see normal metahumans as beneath them. They have absolutely no qualms about killing such lesser beings. Also, they are not too concerned when being attacked, as they feel indestructible: they cannot use Edge on Defense tests.

Characters with Superhuman Ego may not take any quality that prevents them from killing another metahuman or makes them see others as anything other than lesser beings, such as Hooder or Honorbound.

Superhuman Psychosis

Characters who find themselves with supermetahuman strengths, such as those granted by augmentations or Awakened powers, can start to feel detached and alienated from metahumanity. They start seeing everyone around them as no greater than cattle, as if they're playing life on easy mode and the challenges provided to them are dim and uninteresting. They also seek out others like them to see how far they can go and push themselves.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Restriction: Incompatible with the Honorbound quality.

Game Effect: Superhuman Psychosis has several side effects. The character has no moral qualms about killing people, seeing it as their right. They won't go out of their way to murder people, they just don't value the lives of lesser beings.

In addition, their general lack of concern for others gives them an automatic +1 Dice Pool Modifier in melee combat.

This is balanced by the fact that they have difficulty disguising their contempt for others, leading to a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all Social tests.

When facing threats of a Professional Rating at 5 or above, the character is interested as this is a true test of skill and will not back down. They require a Composure (3) test to withdraw from such fights and opponents, regardless of the situation.

TLE-X

TLE-X stands for temporal lobe epilepsy with complications. Once thought to be related to the implantation of move-by-wire systems, it has since been found to occur in anyone with invasive implants. Those with TLE-X sometimes fall into seizures when under pressure due to the stress caused by these implants.

Prerequisite: Must have at least 3 Essence worth of augmentations.

Bonus: 10 Karma.

Game Effect: When a character with TLE-X experiences a sufficiently stressful situation, they must make a Body+Willpower (4) test. Failure of this test means the runner falls into epileptic seizures for (5 – hits) minutes.

TLE-X is treatable, and the biomedical AEXD (¥80, Availability 4) grants +3 dice on the resistance test to prevent the onset of TLE-X seizures. The damage to a character’s system remains present even if the implant that caused the condition to manifest is removed. It may be fully cured with brain surgery or gene therapy, but removing the actual quality still requires Karma expenditure.

Target Fixation

You are super-aware of who is coming after you in a fight, which limits your overall situational awareness and sometimes makes you forget who else is out there.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: If you attack, you may not spend Edge on Defense tests except made against the target of your attack for the remainder of the Combat Round.

Taint of Dissonance

Despite an extreme effort on your part to avoid the Dissonance, it seems to follow you around wherever you go. Not quite like Gremlins, this little trace of Dissonance has no impact on your normal day-today operations. However, when dealing with Resonance entities like sprites, they can sense the taint of Dissonance on you.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Suffer a -1 Dice Pool Penalty on any opposed test with a Resonance entity such as a sprite.

Too Much Data

With a few vehicles under your control everything is fine. Once you get too many vehicles moving at the same time, all of which are sending you information on what they are doing, where they're going, and who is shooting at them, you start to feel overwhelmed and flustered. Your effectiveness drops.

Bonus: 3 Karma

Game Effect: Anytime you are directing 4 or more vehicles and/or drones that are in motion, you receive a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all piloting-related tests for those vehicles.

This applies even when those vehicles are on autopilot - the data stream is just too distracting.

Tough And Targeted

You're a well-known badass on the streets. However, one way to make a name for yourself is to be known as the person who kills the latest badass. At least once a month or so you're randomly attacked by an up-and-coming rival looking to make a name for themselves.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Once a month, the character comes under assault by an up-and-coming rival looking to prove themself.

The Professional Rating of the person who comes looking for him is equal to the character’s Reputation.

Should the character with this quality be defeated by their rival, assuming they 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 Reputation resets to 0.

Nobody likes a loser, chummer.

Toxin Susceptibility (Specific)

You are particularly susceptible to a common toxin.

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: Choose a specific Toxin.

When you are affected by the toxin you are susceptible to, increase the toxin’s Power by +2.

You may not spend Edge on any Toxin Resistance tests against the toxin.

Trog Traitor

Maybe you were a security executive in Renraku. Maybe you had some hints that the Mr. Johnson you were working for was funded by the Human Nation, but you decided to take the money and not ask too many questions. Whatever it was, other orks and trolls look at you with suspicion.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Prerequisite: Ork or Troll metatype

Game Effect: Your Heat is considered to be 5 higher than its actual value when you are in ork- or troll-majority neighborhoods.

Trust Issues

You’ve been burned too many times and are always watching closely for signs of betrayal.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: You may not spend Edge on any Influence (Etiquette or Negotiation) and Judge Intentions test.

None of your contacts may have a Loyalty rating higher than 3.

If you join a magical group, your maximum Loyalty is 3.

Twitchy

You’re always ready for danger. Perhaps a bit too ready.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: You suffer a –1 dice pool penalty on all Composure tests for every initiative dice that you are able to roll.

Uncontrolled Metastasis

The drugs that keep a heavily cybered individual from rejecting the massive amounts of implants they have can keep tumors alive too, not just their subject.

Bonus: 10 Karma per level (max level 2)

Game Effect: A character with uncontrolled metastasis develops a lot of cancer. At 10 Karma, tumors grow at a steady but slow rate, and the patient must undergo regular surgery or nanotech treatment every month to remove cancerous growths or become violently ill - which effectively incapacitates them. This adds ¥1,000 per month to their lifestyle costs. At 20 Karma, the metastasis is such that tumors and cancerous tissues are simply impossible to eradicate entirely with the requisite monthly surgeries (though these must still be performed). The resulting physical deformities and growths saddle the subject with a permanent –2 dice pool modifier to any tests involving in-the-flesh social interactions. Additionally, increase the character’s lifestyle costs by ¥2,000.

Uncouth

At some point in life, the filter between your thoughts and mouth disappeared. You consider yourself brutally honest but others tend to see you as rude and abrasive.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge on any Charisma-related test.

Uneducated

Maybe book learning just wasn't your thing, or maybe you were just never exposed to the vast quantities of information solely for the sake of expanding your knowledge base. Either way, you have a definite lack in your basic education.

Bonus: 6 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge on any test using Logic.

Unsteady Hands

Nervous tics, excessive caffeine intake, or a general clumsiness might be the cause but the results are all the same: you can't draw a straight line to save your life. You also have a real hard typing, tying your shoes, and keeping a gunsight on a target.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge on any test using Agility that directly involves your hands such as a Stealth test to pull off sleight-of-hand, or with a weapon held in the hands.

Vendetta

A character is involved in something best described as a blood feud with an individual or group. No matter the initial cause, this is now an issue of honor, reputation, and revenge and the character has a difficult time resisting a confrontation with their foe.

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: Whenever the character encounters the target of their ire, they 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.

'Ware Intolerance

In a world full of cyberware, bioware, and nanoware, it seems that augmentations are nearly impossible to avoid. A character with ’Ware Intolerance, though, needs to avoid them all like the plague. Their system is especially sensitive to any kind of invasive ’ware.

Bonus: 15 Karma

Prerequisite: Technomancer

Game Effect: All Essence lost to cyberware, bioware, or nanoware is 20% worse than normal.

Wanted

It feels so good to be wanted but in this case it probably doesn't. Though most runners are probably wanted for questioning in more than a few cases, this is something different entirely.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: When the character takes this quality, they work out why they have a bounty or a contract on their head.

The bounty should be worth at least 25,000 nuyen or 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 if the character is turned in or they clear their name - the quality must be bought off with Karma.

Wanted By GOD

You've attracted the wrong kind of attention. You have somehow made it on GOD's Most Wanted list - and in case you're wondering that is very, very bad.

Bonus: 5 Karma per level (maximum level 4)

Game Effect: Your maximum Overwatch Score before convergence occurs is 5 lower per level of this quality.

This means that GOD converges on you when your Overwatch Score reaches 35 at level 1, 30 at level 2, 25 at level 3, and 20 at level 4.

When you are converged on, the first response is a high threat response team that treats you as an extreme threat. If you take any illegal Matrix Actions during a run, increase your Heat modifier by the level of this quality at the end of the run. This Heat modifier only applies to you, so it’s possible for you to gain personal Heat while your teammates do not

Weak Immune System

Perpetual sniffles are annoying to both you and your team but a poorly timed sneeze or a sudden need for a bathroom can mean the end of a good run. You're sick almost all the time. It may just be a minor cold, or it could be a nasty case of influenza or worse but you've never met a bug, infection, or bacteria that didn't want to take home and hang out with you for a bit.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge to resist the effects of an infection. The threshold for fighting off any infection you are exposed to is increased by 1.

While suffering the ill effects of any illness you suffer a -1 Dice Pool Penalty to all tests.

Well, Actually...

The character has a deep drive to settle disagreements the only way they know how - by checking the facts on the Matrix.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: Any time the character disagrees with another character (friend or foe), they must spend time, up to 30 minutes, searching for something they will accept as the correct answer to the argument. During this time, the character is multitasking and counts as distracted.

The distraction time might be short if the information is fairly concrete and easy to find, but more obscure and obtuse data will require more searching.

In cases where existing canon or reality does not determine the correct answer, the gamemaster acts as the final arbiter as to what information is correct.

Will to Die

An individual with very low Essence is continually walking the line between life and death, as their spirit’s hold on their body has become tenuous.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Prerequisite: Essence lower than 2.

Game Effect: Characters with this quality find themselves slipping into real death easier than normal. The character has two less damage overflow boxes.

Wired User

Winners don’t use drugs! That’s what you’ve been told your whole life. It was all a lie. You got that first sweet taste and decided to take it a step further by using while you were jacked into the Matrix. Now, you don’t know what you’d do without the drug cocktail you rely on while in the Matrix

Bonus: 5 Karma

Prerequisite: Addiction

Restriction: Cannot be combined with Codeblock, On the Wagon, or any variant of Incompetent affecting Matrix-based skills.

Game Effect: When you are sober, you take a −2 Dice Pool Penalty on all Matrix actions.

Addiction (1 - 6)

Some habits just can't be kicked. It might be as simple as a need for a drag off that nic-stick to cool your nerves, or as life-twisting as a need for something better-than-life, but whatever it is? It has a firm grip on you.

Addiction (1 - 6)

Addiction tests take place as soon as the substance wears off. Even one hit is more than enough to crave the substance once more.

Bonus: 2 Karma per level

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge in any form while suffering withdrawal. Withdrawal times - the time that passes before you need your next hit - and requirements are based on the level of addiction. When in withdrawal, take a -2 Dice Pool Penalty on all tests; increase that penalty by 1 each time you pass another withdrawal period.

Aged

Aged characters have been around the block a time or two and lived to tell about it. They have made mistakes, but they were tough, smart, or just plain lucky enough to survive them.

This quality may only be taken at character creation.

Aged (50 - 59)

Bonus: 7 Karma

Game Effect: The character gains 5 bonus Knowledge skills, but Physical attribute maximums are reduced by 1.

Aged (60 - 69)

Bonus: 14 Karma

Game Effect: The character gains 10 bonus Knowledge skills, but Physical attribute maximums are reduced by 2.

Aged (70 - 79)

Bonus: 21 Karma

Game Effect: The character gains 15 bonus Knowledge skills, but Physical attribute maximums are reduced by 3.

Allergy

Maybe it's a runny nose and poorly timed sneezes from pollen or a full-blown anaphylactic reaction from some of those rare natural peanuts. Whatever it is, you suffer some level of discomfort from a substance found in the Sixth World.

Bonus: 2 to 20 Karma. The highest bonus is for a Common Allergy, with a Karma bonus of 20.

The Allergy Table lists a bonus modifier for each type of allergy. A severe allergy has a -3 modifier, while a common allergen has a -6. These two combine to a total of -9. Subtracting the -9 with the 20 makes the bonus from an Uncommon, Severe allergy an 11.

Game Effect: Select in allergen and severity to determine the Karma value of this quality.

Mild

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge when exposed to your allergen. You experience a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to any test involving a Physical attribute while an allergen is affecting you.

Moderate

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge when exposed to your allergen. You experience a -4 Dice Pool Penalty to any test involving a Physical attribute while an allergen is affecting you.

Severe

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge when exposed to your allergen. You experience a -2 Dice Pool Penalty to any test involving a Physical attribute while an allergen is affecting you.

You also suffer 1 box of unresisted Physical damage for every minute you're exposed to the allergen.

Extreme

Game Effect: You cannot spend Edge when exposed to your allergen. You experience a -6 Dice Pool Penalty to any test involving a Physical attribute while an allergen is affecting you.

You also suffer 1 box of unresisted Physical damage for 30 seconds you're exposed to the allergen.

Amnesia

More than just one night of drunken partying or a few days' blackout from a healthy dose of laés, this level of memory loss is far deeper and more profound. This can be from injury, magic, drugs, or something unknown and sinister and it can either be simple surface memory loss or a complete neural deletion.

Surface Loss

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.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: The GM determines a backstory based on the character the player character creates and notes their Knowledge skills.

As a Knowledge skill becomes relevant to the game, the GM can make a secret roll for the character and provide the information in a flash of realization.

These skills don't just appear out of thin air for nothing. In order to access a Knowledge skill normally, a character needs to decide to buy it.

If the Knowledge skill is already on their list, the Karma cost is reduced by 1 and a small bit of their history can be revealed. If the Knowledge 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 GM, or simply build up their new identity with what they learn on the streets.

Neural Deletion

The player starts with a very limited level of knowledge as to what their character can do with this level of amnesia. They are a blank slate, with no memory of their skills, knowledges, abilities... or even who they are. They do know the basics such as their physical attributes and observable details, but everything else? It is a mystery.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: 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 GM 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 GM designs.

Compulsion (1 - 6)

Some people alleviate their suffering by stuffing themselves to the gills with illicit substances. You've got another way: a behavior you can't help but indulge in that's less poisonous but equally toxic. This can represent anything from psychological addictions like gambling, Matrix gaming, comfort eating or a developed disorder like obsessive compulsive disorder.

Compulsion (1 - 6)

From gambling, Matrix gaming, to arranging items in a particular order or compulsive handwashing, a compulsion is any activity that must be done every so often - at least that's what you think.

Bonus: 2 Karma per level

Game Effect: You must indulge in your chosen activity for a specified amount of time per day, depending on the level of the quality. Failing to do so results in you suffering withdrawal, inflicting a –2 Dice Pool Penalty on all tests, increasing by 1 with each withdrawal period that elapses.

As with the Addiction quality, you cannot spend Edge in any form while suffering withdrawal. However, like the modified Addiction quality, characters do not suffer the effects of the Paranoia negative quality or any negative quality relating to depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, or other mood-related mental conditions (which can be taken via the Illness negative quality) while indulging their compulsions.

The player and gamemaster should work together to decide whether the character is capable of performing any other acts at the same time as their compulsion.

Illness (1 - 3)

A character with the Illness quality has a chronic medical condition that requires ongoing treatment to prevent complications and possibly annoying effects.

Illness (1)

Bonus: 5 Karma

Test Frequency: Monthly

Dice Pool Modifier: -1

Treatment Costs: ¥1,000 per month

Game Effect: The character must periodically succeed in Body + Body (3) Test or their Illness will flair, causing negative dice pool modifiers affecting all tests. If the character keeps up with the necessary medical treatments (pills, injections, inhalers, potions, procedures, etc.; the gamemaster can develop a specific regimen based in the illness), the threshold for this test is reduced by 1.

At the gamemaster’s discretion, the Illness quality can be removed permanently through a combination of surgery and genetic therapy at a cost equal to 12 times the monthly treatment cost.

Illness (2)

Bonus: 10 Karma

Test Frequency: Weekly

Dice Pool Modifier: -2

Treatment Costs: ¥500 per week

At the gamemaster’s discretion, the Illness quality can be removed permanently through a combination of surgery and genetic therapy at a cost equal to 12 times the monthly treatment cost.

Illness (3)

Bonus: 15 Karma

Test Frequency: Daily

Dice Pool Modifier: -3

Treatment Costs: ¥100 per day

At the gamemaster’s discretion, the Illness quality can be removed permanently through a combination of surgery and genetic therapy at a cost equal to 12 times the monthly treatment cost.

Phobia (Object)

You have an immediate negative reaction to a certain object, thing, or phenomenon to the point that you will do whatever is in your power to avoid the thing in question.

Common Phobia

Common phobias are easily encountered, everyday occurences and include things like ants, cats, dogs, heights, certain metatypes, "unlucky" numbers or superstitions.

Bonus: 12 Karma

Game Effect: You will never willingly go near the subject of your phobia, and if you are compelled to be near it (meaning the subject is close enough for you to believe it can affect you immediately) you cannot spend Edge, and you experience a –2 Dice Pool Penalty to any test besides Damage Resistance tests while the Phobia is in effect.

You also must make a Composure (3) test every five minutes or else shut down entirely, making you curl into a ball and hope the subject of your Phobia somehow goes away.

Uncommon Phobia

Uncommon phobias are easily encountered, easily avoided but seldom everyday occurrences and often require a person to happen upon them personally. Examples include Awakened people, confined spaces, snakes, or specific gangs.

Bonus: 9 Karma

You also must make a Composure (3) test every five minutes or else shut down entirely, making you curl into a ball and hope the subject of your Phobia somehow goes away.

Rare Phobia

Rare phobias are far from an every day phobia and it doesn't require much to avoid them. Examples include Awakened critters, Dissonance, HMHVV infected, spirits, technocritters, technomancers, and specific types of telesma.

Bonus: 6 Karma

You also must make a Composure (3) test every five minutes or else shut down entirely, making you curl into a ball and hope the subject of your Phobia somehow goes away.

Very Rare Phobia

Very rare phobias are so uncommon that most people spend their entire lives without encountering them. They are both easily avoidable and seldom encountered to begin with and require an active effort to seek out, like vampire fangs or dragon scales.

Bonus: 3 Karma

You also must make a Composure (3) test every five minutes or else shut down entirely, making you curl into a ball and hope the subject of your Phobia somehow goes away.

Reduced (Sense)

One of your five (or six, for you Awakened nuggets) senses is about as sharp as a butter knife.

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.

No character can have Reduced (Sight) and Blind at the same time or Reduced (Hearing) and Deaf, as well as any other combination of a Reduced (Sense) and a negative quality that also removes that sense.

If the sense is ever repaired or corrected, the quality must be bought off.

Reduced (Taste/Smell)

Bonus: 2 Karma

Game Effect: Upon selecting this quality, choose between Taste or Smell. Any test involving the chosen sense suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty.

Reduced (Hearing/Sight/Astral Sight)

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Upon selecting this quality, choose between Hearing, Sight, or Astral Sight. Any test involving the chosen sense suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty.

Reduced (Touch)

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: Any test involving the chosen sense suffers a -2 Dice Pool Penalty.

Representation

Some arcane teachers offer their students auxiliary techniques, called representations, to support their learning. While many students, becoming more and more confident, overcome those techniques little by little, others decide to maintain them, finding them both comforting and helpful.

The magician defines a clearly visible or audible act - gestures, spoken words, chants, and the like - that must be performed whenever they use arcane powers. Alternatively, there's a special garb or outfit that must be worn. The act or garb can't be casual or misinterpretable (e.g. as colloquial clothing or a fashion statement) but should raise suspicions, even with mundane people, that something mojo-related is going on.

These qualities are not available for adepts.

Representation I

In this quality's form, the magician can abstain from using their representation, but at a penalty.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: If abstaining from using their representation, the magician suffers a -4 Dice Pool Penalty on all Astral, Conjuring, Enchanting, and Sorcery rolls.

Another drawback to this quality is that it points out to the magician's enemies that they are the "dangerous one," and if enemies follow the old credo "geek the mage first," this puts the magician in potentially mortal danger.

Along with all those downsides comes an upside: once per day, when the magician uses their representation while using arcane powers they gain 1 point of situational Edge that can only be spent for that test.

Representation II

In this quality's form, if the magician is unable to use thei representation (e.g. if they are gagged, hands are tied, their garb is removed), they are effectively hindered from performing any magic.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: If the magician is unable to use their representation, then they cannot use the Astral, Conjuring, Enchanting, or Sorcery skills.

Day Job (1 - 3)

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. 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.

During a session, roll a D6 at the beginning of each day to determine if your character is supposed to be at work. On a 1, you’re scheduled for a shift and won’t be able to actively participate in the run unless you either skip work or gain one level of Fatigued. Each consecutive day without a shift adds 1 to the next D6 result that will trigger a shift (1–2 on the second day, 1–3 on day three, 1–4 on day four, etc.), which resets after each shift. For each shift you choose to skip, your next monthly lifestyle payment goes up by 100 nuyen x Lifestyle category (representing the lost income).

Each time you skip a shift, you also need to make a Charisma + Edge (1) test, and this threshold increases by one for each time you skip work. On a failed test, you’re fired from your job and may not take the Day Job quality for at least one month. On a glitch, your Heat modifier goes up by one due to nosey and suspicious co-workers. On a critical glitch, one of your co-workers has discovered that you’re a shadowrunner. They must be dealt with (a bribe of 500 nuyen x Lifestyle category will do, or you could do something more drastic), or else they’ll turn you in to the authorities—burning your lifestyle and its attached SIN.

Also, if anyone is looking for you and scores at least 4 hits on a legwork-related test - including a Matrix search - they’ll be able to connect you to your place of employment and may try to intercept you there. If they can figure out when you work.

Day Job 1

Bonus: 5 Karma

Prerequisite: Rating 4 SIN or SINner Negative Quality

Salary per Month: ¥1,000

Hours per Week: 10

Day Job 2

Bonus: 10 Karma

Prerequisite: Rating 4 SIN or SINner Negative Quality

Salary per Month: ¥2,500

Hours per Week: 20

Day Job 3

Bonus: 15 Karma

Prerequisite: Rating 4 SIN or SINner Negative Quality

Salary per Month: ¥5,000

Hours per Week: 40

SINner

Unlike a lot of runners, who have either no SIN or a criminal SIN, you have a legitimate SIN that links back to biometric data. You have enough attachment to it, whether for your own or family purposes, that you can’t just burn it. A legal SIN is required for any legal purchase in the entirety of the Sixth World. This makes them very useful things to have, so those who are SINless generally get by with the use of fake SINs just so they can participate in society.

Because it’s impossible to completely erase your biometrics from every place you go or every sensor that police might review the records of, having those biometrics on file makes staying anonymous inherently more challenging than it does for the SINless. No matter what SINner quality you have, you suffer a +1 Dice Pool Modifier when checking to see if Heat increases.

Buying off any SINner Positive Quality involves more than just faking your death, since the SINs and biometrics of the deceased are supposed to be retained indefinitely. Removing a SIN from the system once it’s been established requires assets beyond the scope of shadowrunners.

At the GM’s discretion, a character may buy off a National or Corporate SIN for 3 x Karma cost. Removing a criminal SIN requires 4 x Karma cost. This expenditure represents serious and numerous favors being expended on behalf of organizations or individuals. Thank-yous back to the recruiters will be expected.

National SINner

The character's parents were legal citizens of a nation (such as the UCAS or CAS) and they were born as a citizen of that nation from birth. They have the right to vote, qualify for passports issued by their 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.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: The cost of a SIN comes as a 10% increase in the cost of all of a character's Lifestyles, even if they're associated with a fake SIN.

Due to data within the Global SIN Registry, you are easier to track or identify, giving opponents a point of Edge every time they attempt a Trace Icon Matrix Action against you.

Criminal SINner

These unfortunates have been convicted of a serious crime and have been stripped of many civil rights as a consequence. It is difficult for criminal SINners to find legal work, and in the eyes of the law they are always the first to be suspected of any wrongdoings

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: The cost of a SIN comes as a 10% increase in the cost of all of a character's Lifestyles, even if they're associated with a fake SIN.

Due to data within the Global SIN Registry, you are easier to track or identify, giving opponents a point of Edge every time they attempt a Trace Icon Matrix Action against you.

In addition, interacting with law enforcement or law-abiding members of the Sixth World, your reputation is treated as being 10 points lower than it truly is.

This includes checks to see if Heat increases.

If this quality is taken during character generation, gain an additional 3 points to spend on contacts’ Connection and Loyalty to represent the chummers you made while incarcerated.

Corporate SIN

Corporate SINners are the Sixth World’s analogue for royalty; only the most trusted and elite corporate officers are granted supranational citizenship. However, your intrinsic tie to “Big Brother’’ renders you untrustworthy in the shadows, where you are viewed as a sellout or worse.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: The cost of a SIN comes as a 10% increase in the cost of all of a character's Lifestyles, even if they're associated with a fake SIN.

Due to data within the Global SIN Registry, you are easier to track or identify, giving opponents a point of Edge every time they attempt a Trace Icon Matrix Action against you.

When interacting with any members of the shadow community, your reputation is treated as being 10 points lower than it truly is.

On the upside, your above-the-law connections grant you bonus Edge when acquiring gear.

Stolen Gear (1 - 4)

A mentor of yours once said, “You are a shadowrunner. Why buy what you can steal?” Taking their words to heart, you went out and took what you wanted, and damn the consequences. Might not have been the best of ideas, chummer, because someone wants their stuff back.

Unfortunately, you lifted it from someone with the means to hunt you down and get it back. I mean, what did you expect after stealing from someone who could afford to leave such nice gear lying around? Not only will these folks be hunting you themselves, but they’ll be putting a large bounty on your head (worth at least 25,000¥) and sending other runners after you. The more you stole, the more they’ll want you found. And once they catch you, odds are you’ll be a smoking pile of meat after they’ve reclaimed their goods. Maybe if you’re lucky, you can convince them to let you live if you work for them to pay off what you stole.

Hope you’re a smooth talker, chummer.

Stolen Gear (1)

Bonus: 1 to 5 Karma

Typical Bounty: ¥5,000

Hunted Frequency: Once per 4 Game Sessions.

Game Effect: You start with a Heat rating of 2 if you took this at character creation, or increase your Heat rating by 2 if you acquire this quality later.

The player and GM must decide on the exact details, but the benefit is that for each point of Karma (up to 20) spent on Stolen Gear, the character gets ¥10,000 (see below) to spend on gear, cyberware, and/or bioware during character creation. These points are spent instead of the normal Karma for extra cash (not in addition to), and extend the possible additional funds to ¥150,000.

The character can buy this quality down in increments to represent that the people/organization/ corp hunting them are starting to give up, as they begin to spend more hunting the character than the gear that was stolen from them is worth. Once the character buys off the quality entirely, the hunters have given up. If the character is captured by the people hunting them, the gamemaster may allow the character to live if they agree to work for their unwilling benefactor. Good role-playing and high Influence rolls are recommended.

Stolen Gear (2)

Bonus: 6 - 10 Karma

Typical Bounty: ¥5,000

Hunted Frequency: Once per 3 Game Sessions.

Game Effect: You start with a Heat rating of 2 if you took this at character creation, or increase your Heat rating by 2 if you acquire this quality later.

Stolen Gear (3)

Bonus: 11 - 15 Karma

Typical Bounty: ¥10,000

Hunted Frequency: Once per 2 Game Sessions.

Game Effect: You start with a Heat rating of 2 if you took this at character creation, or increase your Heat rating by 2 if you acquire this quality later.

Stolen Gear (4)

Bonus: 16 to 20 Karma

Typical Bounty: ¥10,000

Hunted Frequency: Once per Game Sessions.

Game Effect: You start with a Heat rating of 2 if you took this at character creation, or increase your Heat rating by 2 if you acquire this quality later.

Poor Self Control

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 action.

Poor Self Control: Braggart

No one has ever done it bigger or better than you. You'll always try to top anyone else's claim of success even if it means you need to lie about it. This may result in being ignored, considered infantile, or challenged to prove your superiority.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: You must always brag whenever a chance presents itself and someone else seems superior. Without succeed a Composure (3) test, you cann't back down from a brag even if called out on it.

Poor Self Control: Thrill-Seeker

It's all about the rush. The character will always take the most dangerous and risky option in any situation.

Bonus: 4 Karma

Game Effect: In any given situation, the character must pass a Composure (2) test or else they choose the most dangerous and risky option in any situation. There is a slight payoff, as the adrenaline rush provides a +1 Initiative Score for 5 Combat Rounds.

Poor Self Control: Vindictive

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.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: A character must make a successful Composure (2) test to resist the urge to make instant payback for any real (and imagined) slights against them. Even when resisted, a character must add the offender's name to their payback list in the future.

Poor Self Control: Combat Monster

The red rage blinds you to all but victory. A character with this quality loses much of their self-control once a fight has begun. They'll fight until all their opponents are disabled, even if they're outnumbered and losing.

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Unless the character can make a Composure (3) test, the character cannot clear their head enough to break off the fight.

Poor Self Control: Attention-Seeking

The spotlight is the character's natural habitat, like a fish in water - and they suffer just as much as when they're not in it. They go out of their way to be vivacious and gain approval from others.1

Bonus: 5 Karma

Game Effect: Unless the character succeeds at a Composure (3) test, the character seeks to be the center of attention whenever possible.

Poor Self Control: Sadistic

You inflict pain and suffering on those around you whenever you possibly can, be it physical suffering or mental torture. Sometimes it can even be to their disadvantage - like when the face is trying to talk their way out of a firefight.

Bonus: 8 Karma

Game Effect: A Composure (3) test is required to stop the character from inflicting some form of pain whenever the character has a reasonable chance to do so without incurring danger, even when it might interfere with their own safety.

Honorbound

Whether they're practical or not, a good many shadowrunners - and people shadowrunners interact with - follow their own code of conduct or "code of honor. You also may choose to make your own code of honor if the ones below do not appeal or apply, but there must be a significant enough stricture so that an infraction is at least probable within the shadows.

Honorbound: Assassin's Creed

You believe that you may kill for money but only for money. You will never resort to indiscriminate mayhem or hurting any innocent people or unwary bystanders.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Game Effect: You cannot spend or earn Edge for 24 hours after you break a tenet of your code. If the same tenet is broken multiple times or broken again during the 24 hour period, each infraction adds another 48 hours onto the initial 24. If a different tenet is broken, it’s 24 hours for that one added to any current infractions, and the same rules apply for additional violations.

Only kill if the death is bought and paid for.
No innocent bystanders may be hurt by your actions.
No unwary bystanders may be hurt by your actions.

Honorbound: Avenging Angel

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.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Do not kill anyone who doesn't deserve it.

Honorbound: Black Hat

A Black Hat character believes in looking out for themselves first. If they do not see gain for themselves in an action, they won't do it. Altruism is for suckers. That doesn't mean they'll automatically abandon or turn on their fellow team members but ethical qualms over whether a job is the right thing to do are completely foreign to them and they won't go out of their way to help innocent victims because those words have no meaning to them.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Look out for #1.
Only express effort if it directly benefits you somehow.

Honorbound: Bushido

Righteousness, courage, compassion, respect, honesty, honor, loyalty, and self-control are the key principles of the Bushido code. While there is room for interpretation, the meanings are generally pretty clear.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Act in accordance to the Bushido values: righteousness, courage, compassion, respect, honesty, honor, loyalty and self-control.

Honorbound: Bushido 2.0

Old-school bushido is built around the eight different virtues that are all mostly equal in importance, although meiyo (honor) is talked about more than others. Bushido 2.0 focus instead on chugi (duty and loyalty) and ramp it up by degrees and most fanatics do dishonorable deeds like lie, break a promise, and make sneak attacks as "do the right thing" has become "what you were told to do" under this neo-code.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Must always follow the commands of superiors, regardless of personal cost.

Honorbound: Code Duello

The central belief in Code Duello is that interpersonal conflicts of a certain level should be settled one-on-one in a duel of honor.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Settle interpersonal conflicts in an honorbound duel.

Honorbound: Khalsa

A code followed by Sikh warriors, Khalsa has four prohibitions: no cutting one's own hair, no halal meat, no cohabitation with anyone besides a spouse, and no alcohol, tobacco or drugs. The duties include honesty, fairness, loyalty and resisting tyranny and persecution.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Act with honesty, loyalty, and fairness.
Resist tyranny and persecution
Do not cut your own hair.
No cohabitation with anyone besides a spouse.
Do not consume halal meat, drugs, tobacco, or alcohol.

Honorbound: Like A Boss

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 skill, a true devotee of the lifestyle will show perfection in their actions.

Bonus: 10 Karma

A hacker must not use an action that will cause matrix damage except Data Bomb.
Must find other means of defeating one's enemy in the Matrix.

Honorbound: Omertà, The Code of Silence

You've probably heard of this from wiseguy trids but although omertà originated with the mafia, most other criminal syndicates have similar oaths of loyalty and so on. The main difference with omertà and other syndicates' codes is the specific prohibition of violence against police.

Bonus: 10 Karma

May not kill police officers.
May not oppose a superior in the Family.
May not give information to legal authorities.

Honorbound: Pirate Code

Based on some of the ideals and concepts from eighteenth century pirates, this changes from person to person but the most common elements are generally a crew-based merit mentality.

Bonus: 10 Karma

All team members have an equal voice.
All team members get an equal share.
No stealing or dishonesty between team members.
No abandoning the team.
Always be prepared.

Honorbound: Pacifist (1 - 4)

You are one of the few people remaining in the Sixth World who not only believes that violence isn't the answer but who actively tries to avoid violence whenever possible - even against people who may want to smack you.

Bonus: 5 Karma per level

Level 1: You may only initiate violence to stop a clear, imminent threat to another character. You may take actions that would result in inflicting Physical damage but only if they can reasonably survive the damage.
Level 2: You may not initiate violence under any circumstances but you may attack targets who have already proven themselves to be a threat to you or others. You may take actions that would result in inflicting Physical damage but only if they can reasonably survive the damage.
Level 3: You may not initiate violence under any circumstances but you may attack targets who have already proven themselves to be a threat to you or others. You may not knowingly take actions that would result in inflicting Physical damage to a target but you may still take actions that would result in inflicting Stun damage to a target.
Level 4: You may not knowingly commit a violent act for any reason, even in defense of yourself or others.

Honorbound: The Akichita Code

Akichita - or "warrior society" is a new and controversial code. Originally a Lakota creed, it's branched into neighboring communities and has been notably embraced by younger members of the Cascade Orks in the Salish-Shidhe Council. A follower is expected to protect their community against all threats and give their life to save innocents. They are further expected to help make their comrades strong and test them for weakness and push them to higher levels of personal ability.

Bonus: 10 Karma

May not show fear.
Must challenge your strength against worthy foes.
May not allow yourself or your loved ones to fall into weak or decadent behavior.
May not harm the weak or innocent.

Honorbound: The Code of Wuxia

Wuxia is named after the legendary Chinese adventurer. The basic tenant is that a martial hero's life is one to bring retribution to the ignoble, remove oppressive lords and to use their strength to protect those unable to protect themselves. Wuxia followers and those with the Dragonslayer mentor spirit get along quite well.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Fight against all errant authority.
May not harm the innocent.
May not accept bribes or misuse authority.
May not serve the corrupt.

Honorbound: The Paladin's Code

Known as Mes ti'Belestresa in Sperethiel, the Paladin's Code follows the usual chivalric tenets like fighting against evil and injustice and maintaining loyalty to the crown and nation, although "crown" and "nation" are open to interpretation. The main difference between this and other codes is that elven nations appreciate beauty the same way that they appreciate honor, justice, valor and other knightly virtues.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Fight with honor in the pursuit of justice.
May not break one's word.
May not allow art or beauty to come to harm.

Honorbound: The Soldier's Code

Many modern soldiers adhere to a stricter code than most shadowrunners. They accept that the mission always comes first and that a job might require some jumping through a morally questionable hoop. They also are beholden to the policies and procedures set before them and that breaking them can lead to a long stay in the stockade.

Bonus: 10 Karma

Must obey orders from superiors.
May not loot the dead or allow them to be looted.
May not lie to superiors.
Must maintain honorable conduct and obey the rules of war.
May not harm or torture prisoners.

Honorbound: White Hat

This code is actually one of the simplest of them all: people cannot die as a direct result of your actions.

Bonus: 10 Karma

People cannot die as a direct result of your actions.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse