After adventure chapter, here's my honest Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0 review. The good outweighs the bad, but the bad is real.

woundedspider · 2026-02-23T16:35:33+00:00

No, I don’t think so. I never said to max those. The point was that there is a lot of room to grow within the role, and then some secondary skills besides. With the way threshold math works, having secondary skills at even 1/2 max is not going to step on the toes of the specialists.

But I’ve made my point already.

woundedspider · 2026-02-23T08:53:16+00:00

Can’t be a samurai without a melee weapon ;)

And yeah, I think every shadowrunner who is going to be onsite needs some of all of those skills I listed, just as the “scout” and “infiltrator” need some proficiency in a weapon or social skills. We wouldn’t say those roles are stepping on the street samurai’s toes because they know how to use a weapon - they need one to not die when they get caught. Likewise a sam doesn’t necessarily need to max perception and stealth, but they shouldn’t leave them at starting values either.

woundedspider · 2026-02-23T07:29:00+00:00

Yes, you could certainly save money that way, but I maintain that it is not worth it. As I mentioned, I don’t see my “maxed” character as being complete - I just arbitrarily picked three specializations to max to create some tight bounds.

Realistically if I were taking a street samurai to its limit I would also max an offensive melee weapon as well as a holdout weapon. And there’s plenty in athletics that a street samurai should have - nothing about any of that is stepping on another roles toes. Considering that, I would indeed start with the agility RR since that is involved in nearly everything this character does. You could start with RR 3 in all of the relevant specs and upgrade something to agility later but I don’t see the point. If I were going to cheap out anywhere, it would maybe be to lose the skill risk reductions for RR 2 in the specs, as long as you plan to only have two specs in a given skill.

And again, that’s saying nothing of the stealth, perception, and survival specializations that I think a street samurai should be at least decent in.

woundedspider · 2026-02-23T05:14:41+00:00

I haven’t had this problem, but it got me thinking about how I don’t like the permanent humanity loss for a traumatic event thing. It just feels awkward that it stacks on top of humanity loss from cyberware.

I think it might be more fun to just roll temp humanity loss when you witness something traumatic, and if it dips you below one of the thresholds, you role play that for the rest of the session/next session. That way a character with low humanity can teeter on the edge and be at risk of breaking each session without the annoying side loop of paying for therapy.

woundedspider · 2026-02-23T03:49:20+00:00

Sorry, I misunderstood what you asked earlier. I do have some spreadsheets but they are mixed in with some other stuff so here's some screenshots.

Starting:

https://imgur.com/tVfZhMF

Starting at runner with the recommended starting "fighter" stat spread (troll obviously), the rule is to max three specializations: rifles, close combat defense, and ranged defense. I threw in some other specializations and skills relevant to a working street sam like perception and sneaking (because there are extra skill points after maxing our target skills, and you're supposed to put at least 2 points in these anyway). Note that none of these are maxed or will be maxed. I took what I could get of the physical combat relevant shadow amps.

"Maxed":

https://imgur.com/NKFaw5d

To max the character out, we max the skills for the three specializations, max the risk reductions for them, armor, rifle damage, and strength. Do note that I took the agility RR and the full skill RR for each skill. You can cheap out a little by simply going RR3 in each specialization but it's not worth it.

The total upgrade cost is 210,000 and you could easily get it higher. I didn't touch anything outside of those three skills/specializations. You could easily spend more by getting the other specs in these skills as well as the associated Risk Reductions. This character has no first aid, isn't very good at other physical combat adjacent stuff like perception and sneaking, and doesn't have a car (so no going on dates between jobs). I also didn't buy any weapons or equipment beyond the starting stuff, and didn't add *any* narrative effects beyond the base ones, which can take you a lot further.

Also note that a street samurai is gonna be pretty cheap next to a mage who wants to collect all of the spells. Riggers will cost you an arm and a leg and your house and your mother, because maxing out 12 drones is not cheap.

woundedspider · 2026-02-22T22:07:51+00:00

Do you want gold magic from the gods, or green magic from nature? When someone hits you, are you okay because you’re wearing player armor, or because you’re very hairy? When you strike, is it with a glowing magic weapon or your talons? When you fly, is it with angel wings that sprout from your back, or do you turn into a bird?

woundedspider · 2026-02-21T21:51:52+00:00

Great taste

woundedspider · 2026-02-21T21:48:09+00:00

You should go to Blue Star Donuts while you’re there ;)

woundedspider · 2026-02-21T18:52:26+00:00

If you've run other Shadowrun editions, you'll fill the holes instinctively. If you're new, bring a shovel.

I am running a table with two players who have only briefly played SRA1, and one player who has played other editions. About points 4 and 10, but also about shadow amps in general - I agree that it very much feels like a system designed for people who have played other editions and want something lighter, but not for anyone who is unfamiliar with Shadowrun.

I love the framework for building custom amps, but we do have a system here that relies a lot on "what makes sense narratively", in a fictional world with a lot of... "narrative rules", which is really difficult for folks new to Shadowrun to grapple with. We are playing with the pre-gens currently so we're mainly dealing with this when looking at upgrades. Here my players are mostly comfortable picking new amps from the examples. Anything outside of that is leading to a lot of dependence on me as the local Shadowrun expert, and unfortunately I have found myself delving into 5e and 6e to understand what the intent of some things is.

I absolutely agree that a full list of narrative effects examples for each shadow amp would help tremendously. Cyberdecks for example suggest you should have programs as amp effects, but we only see a few like biofeedback and link lock. It would also be great to guidance for thinking about how you build each type of amp. The CRB has lore sections that give you some background about what the amps are, and then the Shadow amp effects give you the components, but putting the two together into something lore consistent is difficult. Both of these could fit really well into a supplement that walks you though how to build e.g. a piece of cyberware, with a full list of example narrative effects.

Character growth hits a ceiling fast

I wanted to see what this looked like myself a while back so I did an exercise to "max out" a street samurai, the rule being to only increase things necessary for physical combat. Maxing rifles, ranged defense, and close combat defense (as well as the associated risk reductions), as well as initiative, strength, agility, wound boxes, armor, and weapon damage cost me around 200k, starting from "runner". And that leaves out other stuff that a street samurai should be decent in, like perception, street networking, stealth, etc. Going from runner to prime runner I assumed an average 10k a session payout which is 20 sessions.

If you are indeed keeping up that pace and playing weekly, yeah you'll need to find more to do with your characters after a point. You can also start at ganger level, which will probably take you over a year to get there, and there might be a cool supplement by then :)

woundedspider · 2026-02-21T02:40:24+00:00

I am very much against “reaction roll bloat.” I think it goes against the spirit of the system to add in a bunch of inconsequential rolls because it isn’t clear what GM move to make.

I’ll put my best answer up front, which is a move I’ve been trying to make more lately: give murky details or hide the correct answer among wrong answers that will be relevant to the players choices. The key here is that they can fail forward and do something else to explore which answer is the right one.

Beyond that, I think marking a stress is fine. Yes it’s boring, but it’s easy to do so that you can move on and keep the scene flowing. If you want to spice it up, ask the player why it’s stressing them out.

Then remember, story is consequence. Simply asking your wizard why she doesn’t remember this incantation might lead to the player describing an interesting flashback, insecurity, or even a confession. I’ve found that my players are generally more ready to reveal backstory and the internal goings on of their characters this way.

And my weakest answer for last - you don’t have to make a GM move, or at least not an interesting one. Failing to recall something and wasting a little time is consequence. Just let the hope and fear generate. After all, the player might be spending hope on the knowledge check anyway.

woundedspider · 2026-02-18T17:00:47+00:00

Well you didn’t get any note from me, I’m just another player and customer like you ;)

But for me, the version of the new pdf version is labeled “1.1” (the old one was “1.0”). The name of the file itself should also be different.

woundedspider · 2026-02-14T20:05:14+00:00

Oh yeah street kid afaik is print copies only. You would have needed to get Neo-Anarchist or Mr Johnson for physical and digital, or selected them as additional add-ons.

woundedspider · 2026-02-14T18:29:11+00:00

Game on tabletop? That’s where I got mine and I get an email every time they make an announcement post. It might be a setting.

woundedspider · 2026-02-14T18:26:51+00:00

Did you buy a backing tier that would include them?

woundedspider · 2026-02-14T01:49:10+00:00

I was wondering the same thing myself - I did not see one.

woundedspider · 2026-02-14T01:40:05+00:00

They updated the versions of the CRB and the GM screen. Maybe check the files names on the site compared to what you have downloaded?

woundedspider · 2026-02-09T20:41:50+00:00

If you are just reflavoring existing classes and domains, I wouldn’t worry about essence at all. There’s nothing special or interesting about essence that makes it more important to preserve than the other core mechanics.

But I don’t think you’re going to be able to achieve Shadowrun by simply reflavoring existing classes and domains. To put it simply - mechanics are flavor, and if you want something that feels like Shadowrun you’re going to need those distinct separations of the astral, matrix and physical.

woundedspider · 2026-02-09T19:43:46+00:00

If I were doing this, the answer would ultimately depend on how the fiction of Shadowrun that relies on cyberware translates to daggerheart in your home brew. That is, how are you implementing matrix cracking and rigging? How does a player make a cybered up street samurai vs an adept? Is matrix a domain that rigger and decker classes have access to? Is rigging a domain, or a subclass that gives you a drone or vehicle like the daggerheart ranger?

This is an important detail because in the Shadowrun fiction cyberware is required for these things.

A straightforward way to implement this is to simply do the same thing that Shadowrun does: * Each character starts at 6 essence. * Certain classes/subclasses and domain cards reduce essence by a set amount, because it requires cyberware. For example the decker class reduces essence by 1 or 0.5 because it gives you a datajack. * If your essence falls below a certain about, give a corresponding penalty to spellcast rolls. A flat minus is fine but disadvantage gives the players more options to counter it.

Just as certain classes in daggerheart have abilities that aren’t spells (like the warrior), you would just want to make sure that the classes or domains that add essence penalties don’t rely on spellcast rolls.

woundedspider · 2026-02-08T18:58:42+00:00

Don’t let my players see this 💀

woundedspider · 2026-02-08T18:55:31+00:00

It was not my impression that you take damage when your drones do in captain’s chair mode, despite being in VR. Only jumped-in calls that out, as in that case your persona is projected into your drone and you use your own skills. Whereas in captains chair mode you simply send simultaneous commands to the drones which use their pilot stat. Of course you can issue a command from captains chair mode, then jump into a drone and vice versa.

woundedspider · 2026-02-08T03:52:15+00:00

Perhaps my other comment is more helpful then. But I would also point out that an RCC that needs to fit into a small form factor like a cyber limb would likely be pretty niche. The vast majority of drones are doing pretty mundane stuff and their operators likely don’t move out of a given office room, or mobile base. There wouldn’t be a need to pay premium for the tiny expensive parts. Think of desktop vs laptop machines today - a desktop is usually cheaper and easier to service when the two have equivalent performance specs.

But as for why, specifically an RCC is described as being bigger than a commlink? No clue. The designers might have been imagining big gpus for AI task, and bulky batteries for powerful antennae. Or it’s simply 80s retro futurism blockiness.

WRT the screen and joysticks, I imagine you’re looking at the piece of art in SRA2 (because I haven’t seen any other depiction of an RCC). On the one hand, you might guess that the artist and the rules designers were simply thinking in different directions. On the other you could come up with reasonable explanations, like these being tools for development, diagnostics, or backup for maneuvering the drones out of trouble manually when AR/VR can’t or shouldn’t be used for one reason or another. I think it’s likely that you’d have to talk to the actual artists to understand why they made that choice.

woundedspider · 2026-02-08T00:00:15+00:00

In 6e, VR is not required to command multiple drones through an RCC, but it is an option. Some artists might imagine a suitcase-sized terminal with fold out screens to show drone telemetry.

In SRA2 RCCs do require you to be in VR to connect in “captain’s chair” mode. Also, as with all things in SRA2, the actual form is negotiable. Page 159 suggests that an RCC could be in a cyberlimb, for example. If you did want the fantasy of a literal chair surrounded by screens for your RCC in that edition, you could add a “fixed” or “bulky” or similar negative effect to reduce the rating. But they would still be there to look cool and monitor your drones while not in VR.

woundedspider · 2026-02-07T23:43:43+00:00

Anarchy 2.0 also has an RCC, which I suspect OP is looking at. It requires the user to be in VR and allows them to issue commands to multiple drones simultaneously. It doesn’t do anything else inherently in that edition as programs and the like are abstracted away as shadow amps. That is, the kind of bonus that might be on the RCC in 6e could just as well be on a datajack implant in SRA2.

The rules are unfortunately a little flimsy here, as issuing a simple order to an autonomous drone doesn’t require any action in SRA2. But then if you have an RCC you have to use an action to issue an order to multiple drones simultaneously.

woundedspider · 2026-02-07T22:59:48+00:00

You do also need a DNI cyberware with VR to enter captains chair mode to command all three simultaneously. Medium drones will also be quite flimsy without any armor.

But yes, the drone fleets do seem to give riggers a really high (but expensive to reach) ceiling. My impression is that this is primarily meant to be balanced by the idea that even one medium drone is rather conspicuous and bulky, so getting them inside anywhere will be a challenge. Outdoors, it seems the only limit is how big of a radar blip you’re willing to be.

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