[Seeker]

So, I'm formulating a new campaign in my head, and I'm going to run the system for a few friends.
 I have a few limiting factors I'd like to throw in, and as the topic asks, I'm wondering if I'm being too limiting.

1.  Dice pools for newly-created characters are limited to 15.  This is to ensure that my low-combat game isn't dominated by one person who mops the floor with goons before anyone else has even a chance to sweat.  I believe it also breeds a sense of new-ness to the characters and the group.

2.  Stick and Shock is fixed damage.  Because... waaaaay too powerful otherwise.

3.  Emotitoys only add +1 to social checks, and only if you take the highest rank of them.  Otherwise it's a flat bonus based on rank for Judge Intentions check.  A lot of people might like these toys, and I can see the software being useful.  But, I said useful.  Not necessary for every hardened Shadowrunner to have a pink unicorn crawling around on his chest.

4.  Restricted Gear positive qualities only works to 16F availability.  Balance issues.

5.  Require at least 10BP spent on contacts unless you've taken Hung Out to Dry.  Keeps people from taking a single fixer, and saying... "Um... I'm new in town."

6.  1 rank in etiquette is required, unless you have uncouth.  Otherwise, why haven't you been shot yet in a city like Seattle?

7.  I'm trying to decide if I like allowing second-hand cyber/bioware, or more likely, requiring a quality to take it.  (This is one of my lesser problems, I might just allow it for sake of simplicity.)

Thanks in advance for any criticism or enforcement of these views.

[CanRay]

All sounds legit to me.  I'd suggest the Second-Hand 'Ware restriction to only Alpha-Grade.  Second-Hand Standard Grade has some serious costs to it that go beyond mere nuyen.

[Chrona]

6.  1 rank in etiquette is required, unless you have uncouth.  Otherwise, why haven't you been shot yet in a city like Seattle?

Living in the Barrens/gang member till you started shadowrunning - You aren't well travelled enough to have a clue on the wide variety of etiquettes in Seattle but aren't uncouth.
Maybe let them default on etiquette with full CHA for natural ability and common sense. It could be that thy need Common Sense 5BP quality to not have etiquette if you want.

[Seeker]

6.  1 rank in etiquette is required, unless you have uncouth.  Otherwise, why haven't you been shot yet in a city like Seattle?

Living in the Barrens/gang member till you started shadowrunning - You aren't well travelled enough to have a clue on the wide variety of etiquettes in Seattle but aren't uncouth.
Maybe let them default on etiquette with full CHA for natural ability and common sense. It could be that thy need Common Sense 5BP quality to not have etiquette if you want.

My argument would be that even as a gang member, you learned how to act around certain people.  Different gangs have different customs, and you knew not to wear red or spit on the ground at this particular place.  And this was universal between the bum on the corner, the mother just trying to make ends meet, the gang member, and the shadowrunner.

Almost everyone knows that the best thing to do in an uncomfortable situation is sit tight, shut up, and try not to do anything.  Sure the suit is itchy, and you might be used to jeans; but don't scratch...  that guy might be watching.  That's almost universal.

If you are uncouth, I'd argue that it isn't that you don't know.  It's that you don't care.

Now, defaulting on full charisma is a very good idea.  But, I could almost see those four points blown on 1 point of etiquette being the entry fee to even being a runner.  You have to survive your first meet with the fixer somehow.

[Walks Through Walls]

Seeker if you are going with the logic of etiquette 1 because you had to survive that first meet with a fixer somehow then you almost should outlaw the uncouth negative quality. In for a penny in for a pound after all.

It doesn't look too harsh to me. Especially if you are looking for a more street beginning type feel.

[Seeker]

Seeker if you are going with the logic of etiquette 1 because you had to survive that first meet with a fixer somehow then you almost should outlaw the uncouth negative quality. In for a penny in for a pound after all.

It doesn't look too harsh to me. Especially if you are looking for a more street beginning type feel.

Fair point.

[Blond Goth Girl]

Played a lot of games and no you're not being too harsh.  It's better to take a firm hand and prevent issues than letting them happen which wastes your and other player's time.

[Malex]

You could make this alot easier on yourself and just limit the BP value to like 300. Then they have to make hard decisions on how to spend those points. Plus then you can begin a game where they're newer to the Shadows and might be crawling out of the Barrens and it would also make them less ready to dive into combat (assuming they care about staying alive).

[Glyph]

Personally, I find that limiting things like availability and dice pools do a lot more than lowering build points - I kind of prefer 400 build points, which lets you create a lower-powered but well-rounded newbie runner.  The trouble with 300 build points is that 150 build points to spend on Attributes means that metatypes, with their Attribute bonuses, will be significantly more powerful than humans.  And skills will suffer, too, because Shadowrun has a lot of "must-have" skills such as perception and dodge.  It's nice when the players can buy those, and still have some points left to differentiate themselves a bit more.

[Crash_00]

I've gotta agree, capping dice pools an availability is much more effective at getting a beginner feeling character than lowering the Build Points. Lowering build points tends to just make the character feel...incomplete rather than restricted.

[Seeker]

Another thought I've had is about electricity damage.

After running a few mock combats with a friend, I'm thinking I'd rather have the resist for falling unconscious after taking electricity damage be a cumulative test.  After a Humanis Goon owned the Troll Enforcer because of a grazing hit because he only rolled two successes on his resistance test, this seemed a bit much.

I don't mind the RAW for goons, but for PC's or Primes I think I want it to be something like...

The threshold is one for every 3 levels of electricity damage you take.  You get damaged for 6Se, it is a [2] threshold.  You have to take 3Se to even be required to make the roll, and that's at a [1].  Grazing hits half the stun value of the damage.

[baronspam]

On the requiring 1 in etiquette-  you have to keep in mind what skills mean.  Someone with a 0 in a skill doesn't have no skill in that area, they have the same skill level as a typical member of society.  The vast majority of people don't have any ranks of etiquette. Even a 1 means you are better than average at something.  Someone without ranks in social skills are not social morons (unless they took Uncouth).  You understand basic social rules and customs, you don't make and idiot of yourself when you have to interact with someone.  A character with ranks in etiquette has a chance to influence people by making them believe they belong is a particular setting.  The character without etiquette can walk into a bar and order a drink and some soywings without a problem.  The character with etiquette can walk into the same bar, order his drink, take a look at the customers and the decor, realize that the place is a hangout for fans of a particular combat bike team.  He can modify his language, demeanor, and attitude to fit in and make friends, maybe getting the bartender to spill some information of to get the patrons to say if they saw a particular ork in her on Tuesday night.  They guy with no etiquette probably won't have much luck trying that, (unless maybe he has a knowledge skill to bring into or something similar)  but he isn't going to drop his pants and sing the national anthem of Quebec either.

[Seeker]

On the requiring 1 in etiquette-  you have to keep in mind what skills mean.  Someone with a 0 in a skill doesn't have no skill in that area, they have the same skill level as a typical member of society.  The vast majority of people don't have any ranks of etiquette. Even a 1 means you are better than average at something.  Someone without ranks in social skills are not social morons (unless they took Uncouth).  You understand basic social rules and customs, you don't make and idiot of yourself when you have to interact with someone.  A character with ranks in etiquette has a chance to influence people by making them believe they belong is a particular setting.  The character without etiquette can walk into a bar and order a drink and some soywings without a problem.  The character with etiquette can walk into the same bar, order his drink, take a look at the customers and the decor, realize that the place is a hangout for fans of a particular combat bike team.  He can modify his language, demeanor, and attitude to fit in and make friends, maybe getting the bartender to spill some information of to get the patrons to say if they saw a particular ork in her on Tuesday night.  They guy with no etiquette probably won't have much luck trying that, (unless maybe he has a knowledge skill to bring into or something similar)  but he isn't going to drop his pants and sing the national anthem of Quebec either.

I could make the argument that to be even be a runner, one would need to be able to find a fixer and this means fitting into one portion of society.  This doesn't make much a difference for groups (where the face is your in), but my real defense of the Etiquette 1 is that your group has to fit together with your group.

This makes little difference if your group belongs to the same gang, but when you've got a dwarven Native American mage, a former wageslave hacker, a deserting UCAS soldier, and a ganger who learned how to make his charm work for him all working together...  You learn a bit more than your average Joe about blending in to different cultures.

[Kontact]

Etiquette isn't used to keep you from putting your foot in your mouth.
It's used to help you remove it.

Really, the skill is not what you think it is.

Other than that, stick-n-shock is only particularly good against low tech baddies.  Just give any real opposition some non-conductivity.
Hung Out to Dry with no contacts means free points.  It makes no sense to excuse them from that expense.
You might consider making emotisofts give a +2 bonus, like the smartlink.  There really are no other bonuses for social pools outside of being an adept.

[farothel]

If you want to limit gear, you can do what one of my GMs does: nobody starts with an F rated item, except for fake SINs (because you can't really live without them).  The rest is like the regular rules.  And it's not that much of a problem, because you can do a lot with R rated items.  Beginning shadowrunners simply don't have access to sniper rifles and such things.  Small exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis, but it's not often done.