Alignment

Alignment is relatively non-existant in Shadowrun. Partially this is because morals are not absolute (as in D&D), and runners tend to be operating outside the law, which sometimes makes an alignment system superfluous. Reputation is generally good enough to have an idea about a runner- but what happens when runners go out of their way to be holy... or unholy?



Saintly- The runner goes out of his way to help others. He tries to avoid using force at all, and then tends towards nonlethal unless lethal force is the only option. He is willing to fail missions (or abandon them) if he discovers that he is doing something evil. While he's not above stealing information from one company to give to another, he can justify this by the fact that corporations are not people, and there is no moral obligation to them at all. He is the person that might blow cover during surveillance to stop an unrelated spousal abuse in process.

Sinner- The runner cares about nothing except his own agenda. He will fire for lethal, snipe out children, or do whatever it takes to succeed on a mission (unless he doesn't want to do the mission anymore). This is not to say they must be monsters, but they just don't let complications get in the way of their mission. Some may have personal codes of honor or justice they follow, but the core of the sinner is that he puts no special value on life, and may use torture, murder, extortion, or other means to get what he wants.

A runner can have a sinner or saint score based on how he accomplishes his missions. Having a certain level of these scores can provide benefits. For one, you're likely to gain a reputation, with its own benefits and drawbacks, but you qualify for alignment perks based on your score. A runner begins with a Sinner Score of 0 and a Saint Score of 0. The DM tracks this. 100 is the max score in either. Generally as one score goes up, the other goes down.

Powers: You can learn special perks by meeting a certain saint or sinner score requirement. Each power costs 5 karma points to learn. You keep the power even if you later lose the prerequisite saint/sinner points, but you may only "use" it when the prereqs are meant (meaning you don't have to pay to learn it again if you dip below and come back up).

Saint Powers

Luck of the Faithful- (Requires 25 Saint Points): You are blessed with good luck (usually called karma, but for the XP system used). You have an extra point of karma pool that you can use each session.

Blessing of the Holy- (Requires 50 saint points): You can cast the treat spell as if you were a mage with a force equal to your charisma. You must resist drain using your charisma also. If you have sorcery dice you may use that instead if you wish.

The Left Hand of God- (Requires 75 saint points): You may call in a lesser hand of god favor by "burning" 1 point of karma pool. While this is not guaranteed to save your life or get you out of a tight jam, some piece of good luck will go your way to "help" save you. Maybe the enemy runs out of gas, maybe for one turn you get missed by every bullet, but some minor miricle happens. You may use this on behalf of someone else if you wish, though you are the one that loses the karma pool point.

Moon-Granted Wish- (Requires 100 saint points): You may ask for a blessing from your allies. (Non-action) Any ally can then say something inspiring about you, and grant you use of either their karma pool, their spell pool, their combat pool, or they can sacrifice health boxes of damage to restore the same number of boxes to you (meaning that they can take 3 physical damage to heal you 3 physical damage). While the pool dice last only for the round (and must not have been used up by the allies), the damage is as standard damage (as is the healing), and the healing is not limited by how "new" the wounds are. Allies may willingly do this without being asked at any time. Any time this ability is used it costs a point of karma pool, as if you used it, so you must have at least 1 point of karma pool available.

Sinner Powers

Bullet Curve- (Requires 25 sinner points): You may twist your gun in a strange way when you fire, and the bullet will curve, going around cover, or possibly hitting 2 targets with the same bullet. Distribute your dice between 2 targets (if you want to hit 2). The 1st target is normal, the 2nd target grants a +2 TN penalty. If the 1st target dodges or takes damage, the bullet continues to the 2nd target- however if he resists all damage then he also blocks the bullet from going to the 2nd target. If you're just trying to avoid cover, take a +1 TN penalty to the roll and eliminate all cover from the defender. Using this ability costs 1 point of kama pool.

Headshot- (Requires 50 sinner points): You may spend 1 point of karma pool before rolling your action and determine that a given shot will be a "headshot". The shot does +2 power and +1 damage level, and ignores all armor on the part of the target (even if he wears a helmet- you found a weak point in it). The target may use dodge and resistance normally otherwise.

Heart of Evil- (Requires 75 sinner points): You may spend 1 karma pool at any time to make an immediate recover check against any stun damage you have as you demonstrate movie-monster super recovery. This does not help you overcome physical damage, but does help overcome drain. Alternately you can spend 1 point of karma pool to ignore all wound penalties for the round.

Blackguard- (Requires 100 sinner points): You may fire a bullet (or use a melee attack) infused with the power of your own soul. When firing the bullet, you automatically take an amount of damage of your choice. (Up to 10 points, or more if you have overflow boxes). The would penalties do not apply to this shot. The shot bypasses any kind of natural weapon immunity, and automatically deals to the opponant an amount of damage equal to the amount you took BEFORE they roll to resist damage (but only if it hits, if they dodge this doesn't help you).