Rule Modifications

These are the various modifications to the standard set of rules presented in the Dresden RPG.

Character Aspects
Character Aspects are the most-important detail of all characters. Be sure to review and know those aspects completely.

Lower Power Levels (Scrubs)
Not everyone is a heroic-level character. Whether through inexperience, environment, or nature, some characters are simply less-powerful than the starting player character. These characters begin play with less Refresh and Skill Points than normal. Collectively, these characters classified as Scrubs, and detailed out as a generic type of character rather than a named individual. These characters also have fewer Aspects (including ones tailored to their more-generic nature)

Confrontation with Scrubs
Scrubs have 1 less Stress box in all tracks than normal (see below), and cannot take Severe or Extreme Consequences. When suffering a Consequence, Scrubs will typically cash out unless they invoke an Aspect to remain in the fight. Each type of Scrub shares their Fate Points, rather than have their own individual pool.

When attacking a Scrub, a Non-Scrub can spend an additional Fate Point to make an additional attack against another Scrub with the same action, provided the nature of the attack supports it. Automatic gunfire naturally fits this case, as would melee combat with two or more Scrubs in the same Zone or even spellfire delivered at a distance.

Standard Power Levels
To have an idea of where each stanrda Refresh Power Level fits into this, here is a copy of that chart with terms:

Higher Power Levels
Some characters are more than just heroic, with skills and abilities that are simply legendary.

Character Advancement System
To keep it clean, characters earn experience in the form of Game Sessions. Each Game Session counts towards the Milestones for a character's achieves.

Maximum Skill Level
The maximum skill level a character may have is derived by their total number of Skill Points:

Improved Fortitude
The world of Shadowrun is one where conflicts occur frequently, leading to a hardy breed of folk able to take more Stress than standard Dresden characters. The base Stress for all characters with 20 Skill Points or more is 2, with relevant Skills adding directly to the Stress total (minimum of 1). For Scrubs, their base Stress is 1, again modified by relevant Skills.

Characters still gain an additional Mild Consequence based on higher Skill Ranks.

Improved Weaponry
Weapons have had to evolve to keep pace with the deadly spellfire that can come flying out from any Wage Mage out there. As such, weapons follow this guideline for Weapon Rating: Additionally, Breath Weapon and Claws powers provide Weapon Rating 3 rather than just 2.

Stun Effects
Tasers, rubber bullets, tear gas, and similar effects are designed to stun/suppress targets rather than cause permanent harm. Such effects may gain a free +2 shift on their Damage Rating, but suffer a -2 shift on their Damage Rating when attempting to inflict permanent damage.

The State of Armor
While weaponry is stronger, Armor technology can hardly keep up. Still, having body armor might make the difference between insult and injury.

Income
While Resources represent a character's general level of material comfort, Shadowrunners get compensation above and beyond this for the work they do. This is represented by a currency called Coin. The precise form of Coin is not significant in most cases: it might be actual precious metal in coin form, gemstones, rare magical ingredients, encrypted credits, or anything else which is valuable and relatively easy to transfer. Whatever the form, when Shadowrunners are being paid for their work, they receive it in Coin.

Pay for Jobs in Coin
Technically, there is no connection between what characters do and getting paid for it. Many times characters might end up working for no Coins on a job. However, as a default, characters should be able to equate the pay of the job directly to how many Fate Points the GM has for the Story.

Upkeep
Shadowrunning is rewarding, but also taxing on those who live the life. As such, at the start of an adventure, each character must pay an Upkeep Cost in Coin equal to their Total Skills - 20 - their Resource Rating. If they do not have the Coin to pay they must either get a loan or make up the difference by converting over Fate Points to Coin.

Converting Coin to and from Fate Points
At the start of an adventure characters may convert any available Coin to Fate Points at the rate of 3 Coin per Fate Point. Conversely, they may also convert Fate Points to Coin at the same inverse rate. During play this same conversion can occur, but requires the character spend a scene to draw upon an aspect and make an appropriate Skill Roll equal to the number of Coin being converted to or from Fate Points. The Skill used will vary based on the character and aspect: it might be a simple Resources roll for taking funds from a bank account, a Guns roll for someone stocking up on firepower and ammunition, a Lore roll for a mage brushing up on spellpower, or even a Scholarship roll for a Decker tuning up their hardware.

Consequences
Shadowrunning is great adrenaline fun for everyone ... until someone gets hurt by taking Stress. At this point, Shadowrunners aren't going to punk out right away, as Stress fades soon after the encounter ends. However, when Shadowrunners take Consequences, they need to actually think about what they are doing and question if they should stay involved with it. Mechanically speaking, this is done with an Injury Roll.

Gumption Rolls
When a character suffers a Consequence, they must make a Gumption Roll to stay in the fight despite their injury. The difficulty is equal to the number of Stress soaked in the Consequence (i.e. 2 - 8 depending on severity of the Consequence). If they fail this roll, the character is taken out of the encounter right then. Any character may invoke an Aspect to stay in the fight even if they fail a Gumption Roll.

Character Death
Characters can only be permanently dispatched when an opponent spends a Fate Point to invoke an aspect for the kill. Otherwise, enemies vanquished in battle will still be taken out of the conflict, but will ultimately live to see another day.

Dead to Rights
Sometimes you manage to get the drop on a target, and are ready to kill them ... if they don't cooperate. For these cases, you have them Dead to Rights.

First, to have a target Dead to Rights, you must establish a Maneuver on them to put them in a position to be threatened with immediate physical violence. This may involve taking them by surprise, overpowering them, or perhaps even out-gunning them in a showdown. After the Maneuver is established, you must spend a fate point to invoke an aspect to establish Dead to Rights. From there, maintaining a Dead to Rights requires a Supplemental Action each turn to maintain, and does require some focus on your behalf. However, you do not suffer the Supplemental Action penalty, and gain an additional +2 on any rolls, made against the target of the Dead to Rights. The target can spend their own fate points to invoke aspects to counter the Dead to Rights as well, even without removing the Maneuver used in the first place. If the aggressor decides they need to carry out the threat of violence they must roll initiative vs the target of Dead to Rights, but do still gain the +2 bonus on this roll and their subsequent enactment of their threat. If they hit their target they also apply +2 Weapon Rating to the attack again above the bonus from the Dead to Rights. However, if they miss, the target is no longer subject to the Dead to Rights.

Miscellaneous Details
These are just additional minor rule details I wanted to keep, but didn't want to group above.

Hexing
Shadowrun is a world where magic and technology co-exist. Though the Illuminati and the Technocracy certainly do not agree on their vision for the world, magic and technology itself cooperate just fine with one another. (They in fact have many things in common, including an obsessive appreciation for the value of Gold.) No Hexing applies, nor is Deliberate Hexing an option for most (though it is still possible through the Mage Static presented in the Dresden RPG).