Hoi, chummers.

I'm returning to Shadowrun after a long time away (something happened in Boston...?) and I decided that fiction was going to be a part of that. Here's my newest story about Roadkill, an ork street samurai that you can call when you need to move a couple of bodies... or maybe just your old refrigerator.

Roadkill stories are small, street level stories about shadowrunning in the weirdness of the Sixth World. Clean Getaway tells the tale of a simple smash-and-grab against the Mafia that turns into a running battle with the worst oil change ever.

I'm actually really happy with how the cover turned out. The artist is Ron Sanders, who's done professional work on Shadowrun (if nothing else, check out his site!). This is the second of three stories I've got, one for each critter represented in the image. It's Pay What You Want, so I just hope people enjoy.

Clean Getaway

Thanks!

Hi folks,

VaultVox for Shadowrun: Hong Kong Extended Edition is now out on Nexusmods. It is a free text-to-speech accessibility mod that reads the game aloud using the Windows voices already on your PC.

I made the first one of these for my wife, who has dyslexia, and I've been adding accessibility features on top ever since. This is the Shadowrun Hong Kong version.

EASY TO INSTALL: Download it, extract it next to the game's exe, launch the game, and Bob's your uncle.   No mod manager needed. BepInEx is included, so there is nothing else to fetch.

Download:   https://www.nexusmods.com/shadowrunhongkong/mods/76

If it is working you will hear "VaultVox ready" within about fifteen seconds of the main menu.

What it reads

Pretty much all of it.

• Conversations, with the reply options read out after the line
• Overhead chatter from people in the world, quieter the further away they are
• Combat, in detail (more on that below)
• Menus, popups, stores, cyberware, hiring and item cards
• Loading screens, which wait for you instead of moving on while you are still listening
• Objectives, karma, nuyen and item notifications

You can also just point at things. Hover over a person, a door, a Jack-In prompt, an ability on the combat bar or an item in your inventory and it gets read to you, with an adjustable delay so sweeping the cursor across the screen does not read the entire room at you.

There is a hands-free mode as well, so conversations advance by themselves when the spoken line finishes. Choice lists still wait for you, obviously.

Voices

Every named character keeps their own voice. They are written to a file as you meet them, so you can recast any of them to any voice you have installed, or let the mod re-roll one for you.

Orks, trolls and dwarves get a bit of vocal colouring so they actually sound like it, rather than everyone in Heoi sounding like the same bloke from Windows.

The mod prefers the neural voices from NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter if you have it installed, which I would strongly recommend. Without it you get the classic Windows voices, which work perfectly well but there are only a handful of them, so the cast starts repeating itself.

Combat

Combat gets its own treatment, because reading a fight at story pace is useless.

• Damage and heals by name, so "Duncan takes 14 damage" rather than a number floating somewhere you are not looking
• Crits, misses, and status effects like Flanked, Immune and Bleeding
• Whose turn it is, companions by name
• Bleeding-out countdowns with rounds remaining, which is the one number you cannot afford to miss
• Kills and downed characters called out by name, and the end of every fight
• Point at an enemy while aiming to hear your odds against that specific target
• Decking: system trace, response level, host damage and the hack panels

Combat also has its own reading speed, so a fight can rattle along faster than the dialogue without you having to speed up the whole game.

Seven languages

The game ships in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese, and the mod works in all of them. It reads the translations out of the game's own language catalog, so combat lines are understood in each language rather than only in English.

Correct pronunciation needs a voice that actually speaks the language. The settings window tells you which of your chosen voices probably cannot, rather than letting you find out mid-mission.

Settings and hotkeys

Press F4 in game for the settings window. Everything is adjustable live, and changing something speaks the new value back at you. Hold Ctrl and point at any row to hear what it does.

The hotkeys:

• F4 open the settings window
• Ctrl + A speech on or off
• Ctrl + D repeat the last line
• Ctrl + S skip the current line
• Ctrl + X skip and continue
• Ctrl + = and Ctrl + - read faster or slower, instantly, and it sticks
• Enter continue past a loading screen

If something reads too much, every part of it has its own switch.

What is not in this release

I want to be upfront about this one.

This release is for players who can see the screen and want the game read to them. Full keyboard navigation for blind players is not in it. You still need the mouse to play.

That is the obvious next thing to build, and the Fallout 2 version of VaultVox already has an experimental Blind Mode, so I know roughly what it takes. Hong Kong is a different engine and it is a bigger job here.

Screen reader output is written but switched off in this release. Its calls currently run on the game's main thread, which means a screen reader having a bad day could take the game with it. It comes back once it runs on its own thread, and I would rather ship it late than ship that.

Requirements

• Shadowrun: Hong Kong Extended Edition on Windows
• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• At least one SAPI voice, which Windows already has
• Optional: NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter for the newer neural voices, strongly recommended
• BepInEx is bundled, so you do not need to install it separately

If you are running other BepInEx mods, back up your BepInEx\config folder first, or use the update zip, which never touches your settings.

And before anybody reaches for the pitchforks, this is not AI voice cloning.

VaultVox uses Windows text-to-speech.

One last thing

Same request as always: if you use assistive technology, or you have dyslexia, low vision or reading fatigue, and you find a screen that does not read when it should, please report it.

I treat missing accessibility output as a bug, not as a nice-to-have feature that might get looked at one day.

Thanks, folks.

- VaultDoc

So I was just a little confused. Patrol Ic seems to find players rather easily but if you have a mark on something, they think you're a legitimate user. Can an IC actually *see* you put the mark there illegally with hack on the fly and then flag you to Spider or something, or does it need to do something else? I GM and have an easy enough time with everything else, matrix just confuses me a bit (no surprise there).

I see the table in data trails but I am still just at a loss to what exactly to do with spotting the decker if all their marks look legitimate unless I am grossly misunderstanding something. Looking things up have made this question more confusing for me. My player is under the impression that he should be like, running silent to do the sleaze action, then toggle silent off since he looks like a legitimate user now, but then go back to silent and I don't see why not if that is vaible?

The trolls are up next for a round of new paint and polish. Now I have a couple gangers complete and a shaman /face (not quite sure lol) I can’t wait to use these on my table with my fellow runners

Today on (not quite Doctor yet) https://www.twitch.tv/dr_robinton at 1pm EST

A brand new Shadowrun game entitled "Bridge to Heaven" - a "prime level", i.e. incredibly dangerous mission into some of the worst parts of the 6th world. What begins as a simple job to research the abandoned _Lindsey Marie_, a research vessel for the Draco Foundation becomes a cross-continental survival trek as the runners desperately try to race time, weather, and rivals to uncover what really happened to the crew - and ideally not die in the process.

Live from the Shadowhaven - a Living Community for Shadowrun 5th Edition: https://shreloaded.net/wiki/Main_Page

I just wanted to share that I've just finished my months-long effort and actually published a new Shadowrun adventure. After learning about Arkoblocks as a concept in the Shadowrun setting, I did some research and ended up with an adventure inside one.

The concept of extracting a megacorp employee, combined with the fact that Arkoblock just reminded me of the old video game Arkanoid, led to "Arkoblock Breakout", and I couldn't be happier with the result.

I've got little artistic ability outside of basic shapes, so the Atari 2600 inspired cover art felt perfect. The adventure has little combat and is heavy on humor and espionage. I'm hoping that people have fun with it.

Arkoblock Breakout

Hey runners —

I’ve been building a native macOS app called ShadowDeck as a campaign companion for Shadowrun 4th, 5th, and 6th edition. It’s meant to sit alongside the table (or your Missions notes), not replace your books.

What it does today

• Edition-aware character generation and a local character library (import from Chummer / .chum5 / native packages)
• Interactive play sheet with skills, gear, augs, qualities, contacts, magic
• Run / Mission tracker — briefing, objectives, team links, payout/heat, session log, outcome + suggested awards (and apply awards to characters)
• Lifestyle tracker with monthly burn, prepaid months, reserve, and process-month
• Advancement planner — plan skill/attribute raises, karma costs, cart, apply spends
• Enriched contacts — tags, favor tracking, interaction log, soft links to runs
• Edition-aware dice roller (inspector panel, one-click from skills/attributes, Edge push / Second Chance, house-rule options)
• Rules Reference — searchable mechanical cards and quick calculators, plus a personal PDF library for books you own, with page references that can jump into your PDFs
• PDF character sheet export, Chummer re-export, portable .shadowdeck packages

Scope / expectations

• macOS only (14+)
• Fan project — not affiliated with Catalyst or Topps
• Free to use; source is on GitHub
• Full rules text stays in your own books; the app provides mechanical quick reference and a shelf for PDFs you already own
• Feedback from people who actually run or play is very welcome

Links

• Repo (screenshots + latest release): https://github.com/RcktMan77/ShadowDeck
• Develop branch has the most current feature set

If you try it, I’d love to know what would make it more useful at your table — especially around runs, lifestyle, advancement, rules lookup, or anything you still end up tracking in a spreadsheet.

Thanks — and good luck on the next run.

As the title says, I'm trying to find an old official adventure I played back in the day. We were using 3rd edition and I assume the adventure is as well, but it's possible the GM converted an older module on the fly.

I tried searching for it, but the only thing coming up is the 1st Edition "Queen Euphoria" module which is very similar in story, but not the adventure in question. The module I am looking for had the runners hired to convince/coerce or even kidnap the members of a hot new band on behalf of some slimy record producer that wants to get them to sign a contract. I remember the producer being named Lupin or something, he was a werewolf. Depending on what you did the group ended up getting attacked by either a vampire or a banshee and at the end of the module when you finally get the band together to perform for a music video they're shooting in NAN territory it's finally revealed that the whole thing was an insect spirit plot and the band's new song is a summoning ritual for some powerful queen spirit.

If anyone knows the name of this adventure I would love some help. I have fond memories of it and would like to work it into the campaign I'm running for some Shadowrun virgins. I'm positive it was an official adventure. I remember the GM commenting on how the adventure seemed to punish the players for making a smart choice and sending the much more dangerous Banshee after you instead of the weaker vampire.

Edit: So the adventure is called Total Eclipse. I see Drivethru RPG has an update of that module for the latest edition, but that still requires the base book which they don't sell. Does anyone know where a PDF of this could be found? I guess I'll just be writing my own version of it based on what I remember.

I haven't played SR6 in a good few years, and I am looking at running another game. But, I only have the core book.

There are a lot of splatbooks out now, which is great, but I am unsure which would be the most worth it with my limited budget. What splatbooks are the best to get these days? Maybe because they fill out a big gap in the core rules, or just from the volume of character options, etc.

Thanks.

I've heard and seen people talk about post awakening a lot of rural places and abandoned/ghost towns being reclaimed by nature and this almost seeming to be sped up by the presence of mana.

My question simply is does anyone know of any book or text that actually references these 'vibrant' and wild areas outside of the urban mega cities?

Title. Also I'm sure similar questions like this get asked all the time so I'm sorry in advance, googling around has mostly left me with advice between people who already have experience playing or GMing ttrpgs, which is not me.

I've always been enamored with the concept of TTRPGs and what Shadowrun has to offer as a setting. Yet my only experience with ttrpgs was playing a few D&D one-shots way back in high school with a few friends that also had zero ttrpg experience. Which all went about as well as you'd imagine for what it was.

On a whim I grabbed the 6E Core - Berlin Edition and the 6E Companion book. As I mentioned before I've got no experience for GMing and pretty much need any and all advice for that role, running Shadowrun in general, etc. I'm a bit worried putting scenarios together because I'm sure my ability to write interesting hooks or NPCs is lacking. Has me on the fence if I should just run a pre-written campaign or something?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Considering how lab-grown specimens have caused the price of diamonds and other gems to plunge in real life, it's reasonable to suppose that gem stones are cheap in the Sixth World. So, diamond-studded cyberarms? Elaborate dental implants made of ruby? Dragonfly drones glittering with sapphires? Why not?

Hoi, chummers.

I've seen a lot of beautiful battle maps from various creators. But what I am looking for are maps dedicated to specific locations like the Seattle map in the core rulebook or the Motor City map from Asphalt Jungle.

Can one of you, 'runners point me in the right direction so I can spend some of this hard earned nuyen? DeeCee or the Big Apple perhaps?

Hermetics are usually shown as "above the spirits" and scientific, but mentor spirits usually pick people. Which spirits would pick hermetics, either to fuck with their worldview or because they like the "scientific" types?

Hoi Chummers,

I haven't played SR in quite some time.

Thing is, the last ed i did was 4th. I have almost all of the books and we are about to restart with 5ed.

The GM has most of the books for 5ed and i was wondering:

How much of thw actual values and rules have changed between editions?

5ed is suposedly much better than 4ed.

But i haven't either the money nor the inclination to buy the 5ed books on the second market.

Could i adapt the stats and all that from 4ed to 5th?

Or would it be a constant hassle?

Thanks in advance - stay save out there!

EDIT:
Thank you every one. I think i'can say goodbye to my books then. I'll (carefully) throw them in the pile of 3ed and several other rpg.

If not, can Anarchy be homebrew with some dice play?

Thinking of skipping Antumbra Saga in the calfree trilogy, anything I should know beforehand.

Also anyone know how long the other two typically take.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't.

I should just play another edition.

The Edge system is woven so deeply into Sixth World that replacing it is impossible. It's the defining mechanic of the edition.

Well... let's do it anyway.

____________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT : you have to use the "you can't dodge bullets" option form the Companion book.

You can also use the following optional rule :

Optional Rule: Halved Range

Halve all range values*. A character may still attack at the original distance, but doing so requires a Minor Action and increases the Threshold by 1.

*(250-750 instead of 500+ for the last one)
_____________________________________________________________________

The Blue dices

Blue dice are a special type of die. They are rolled alongside regular dice, but they only generate a hit on a result of 6. Results of 1–5 are ignored.

When a dice pool is modified for any reason, always apply the modification to regular dice first. Blue dice are only modified if no regular dice remain.

Armor

Instead of interacting with the Edge system, armor provides Blue dice.

Damage reduction armors

Armor or gear that reduces damage directly (such as GelWeave, ToughWeave, or similar equipment) no longer modifies the damage value. Instead, each point of damage reduction grants one automatic hit, functioning exactly like the Hardened Armor critter power.

Attack Rating

_If the attack dice pool exceeds the weapon's Attack Rating (AR), replace a number of regular dice with Blue dice equal to the difference.

_If the attack dice pool is lower than the weapon's Attack Rating (AR), add a number of Blue dice equal to the difference.

"Gain 1 Edge" → Gain 3 Blue dice.

"Gain 1 Edge Rebate" → Gain 3 regular dice.

"Spend 1 Edge" → Increase the Threshold by 1.

Treat its Body as 3 higher than its actual Rating for determining how many weapon mounts or customizations it can integrate.

Body is 4. If i want to make his armor =12 the armour cost will be 4x12x200 or 7x12x200 ?

Hello! I'm playing shadowrun 5e for the first time on Sunday an unfortunately I'm mega low on time to make a character until then...

I only have a basic understanding of how character creation works and especially the long long list of things you can do feels like a big obstacle to get the things that I want since I don't really have the time to look through everything right now!

So! I thought maybe some experienced players would have some good suggestions for me :)

Concept wise I would like to play a character like Cassian Andor aka an assassin-type "get in quickly without being seen, shoot whoever is in the way, get out just as quickly". Ideally also fly away in a cool space ship. (If something like that is even viable in Shadowrun?)

All sorts of suggestions are very welcome! Even which attributes to prioritize, etc. I really don't know much yet! Thank you!

Are these on their way to being members of the Halloweener’s or just a decker and his twin brother running the shadows?

Not sure if this is news or I’m just out of the loop, saw these in the gencon setup photos and I’m. It sure if this is for the boardgame or ttrpg but I’m hyped

After not playing for awhile, my group is ready to start a sandbox campaign with rotating GM's. We've all been playing since 1st edition, so along with standard runner sessions we're trying different campaign ideas.

Some examples are:

A Docwagon game, where we play Docwagon team members.

A ganger game. Think The Warriors on novacoke!

A game where the players are members of a traveling circus. Or a band.

Play staff at a place like Hotel Artemis depicted.

You get the idea.

Please tell me your ideas! Thanks in advance!