How to use teamwork with an extended test

Rule: All parties face the full reduction penalty in an Extended Test


If you’re doing an Extended Test, you lose 1 die each roll. This signifies the limit of your abilities. In the end you’ll risk screwing up more. So what would happen on a Teamwork test? And what happens if someone joins in after a while? Would they still contribute their full dicepool, letting you cycle assistants? Or would you already be at the point where they too cannot properly contribute anymore?
The proposal here is simple: All parties involved face the full penalty. If you’ve rolled 4 times already, everyone, no matter whether they’re fresh assistants or not, will face the -4 penalty. Say your teammember has 6 dice on Hardware and helps you with whatever you’re doing. The second roll they’re at 5, the third at 4, the fourth at 3, and after that the chance is too great that their aid will get in your way (critical glitches!) so you thank them for their help and finish without them.


Ref.:  The rule is an entire quote from https://shadowlandblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/houserules-teamwork-tests/ .  We had used this exact same rule in-game and we think it makes sense.

How many initiative dice does a player have in the astral?

Players have [Int x 2] + 2D6 of initiative in the astral. This is the most consistent value found in the core rulebook and other more recent shadowrun tools.


Ref.: The core rulebook is inconsistent on this matter e.g. it's sometimes +3D6 (Street shaman archetype has +3D6, see also Astral attributes table p.314),  and sometimes +2D6 (Occult investigator has +2D6, see also character creation rules p.101).

Can you hear in the astral? Rules about astral and senses.

A character in astral perception is still in her body.  She can still hear or feel everything in the real world.  She can touch things and use all of her senses except her sight, which is 100% in the astral plane.  This means many dead objects are not transparent to her (e.g. windows).  Also, the dual-natured character can touch the items in the astral plane, which means she could be stopped by solid astral items.

Trying to make an action in the real world while perceiving the astral gives a -2 dice penality to the player.  If any action are made by another character in the real world to help this player, she will also suffer the same penality (e.g. team work, leadership).

A character in astral projections is not dual natured.  She can only hear blury sounds from the real world as if her head was underwater.  All her senses are transfered to the astral plane.


Ref.: Core rulebook p.312