Shadowrun 6E Combat cheat sheet
Turn order, actions, and reminders. At-the-table reference for Shadowrun 6th Edition.
Shadowrun 6E combat: d6 dice pools, Major/Minor actions, Edge economy, and two damage tracks. Positioning, gear, and teamwork matter as much as raw stats.
Initiative
- Roll
- REA + INT + 1d6 (Initiative Score; sets turn order)
- Actions per turn
- 1 Major Action + 1 Minor Action, regardless of Initiative Score
- Augmentations
- Wired reflexes and similar grant bonus Minor or Major Actions, not extra passes
- There are no initiative passes or -10 subtraction in 6E: everyone acts once per Combat Turn, in Initiative Score order.
- Delayed actions: you can hold your action to act later in the turn.
Action economy
- Each Combat Turn: 1 Major Action + 1 Minor Action (no Complex/Simple split, no per-pass budget).
- Major Actions: Fire Weapon, Cast Spell, Sprint, melee attack, most skill uses.
- Minor Actions: Take Aim, Change Weapon Mode, Quick Draw, Use Simple Device.
- Free actions: Speak, Drop Prone, Drop Object.
- Movement: covered by your Minor Action; Sprint (a Major Action) adds extra distance.
Ranged attack
- Attack test
- Attacker's Agility + Firearms (or Exotic Weapons) opposed by the defender's Reaction + Intuition (Defense Test)
- Damage
- Weapon's Damage Value (DV) + net hits (attacker hits minus defender hits)
- Attack Rating (AR)
- Per weapon, by range band (unarmed: Reaction + Strength)
- Defense Rating (DR)
- Defender's Body + armor
- Edge
- Compare AR to DR: whichever side is 4+ ahead gains 1 Edge
- The attack itself is resolved as an opposed test, not by comparing AR to DR: attacker hits vs defender hits, and net hits add to the weapon's DV.
- AR vs DR is a separate comparison used only to award Edge for the exchange.
Melee attack
- Attack test
- Attacker's Agility + Close Combat opposed by the defender's Reaction + Intuition (or a counterattack with Agility + Close Combat)
- Attack Rating (AR)
- Per weapon (unarmed: Reaction + Strength)
- Defense Rating (DR)
- Defender's Body + armor
- AR vs DR decides Edge for the exchange, the same as ranged combat; it doesn't resolve the attack.
- Reach: longer weapons get +1 die per reach advantage.
- Charging: bonus dice if you moved toward the target this turn.
Damage and soak
- Base damage = weapon DV (Damage Value) + net hits from the attack.
- Soak roll: defender rolls Body alone. Armor doesn't add soak dice; it's already counted in the Defense Rating that decided Edge.
- Each soak hit removes 1 point of damage; the remainder is applied to the Physical or Stun condition monitor.
- Damage types: Physical (P) fills the Physical track. Stun (S) fills the Stun track.
- 6E has no Armor Piercing stat modifying the soak roll.
Condition monitors
- Physical
- ceil(BOD / 2) + 8 boxes
- Stun
- ceil(WIL / 2) + 8 boxes
- Wound modifiers
- -1 die per 3 boxes filled on either track
- Overflow
- Physical track full: overflow = BOD boxes. Past overflow = dead.
- Stun track full: unconscious. Further Stun damage overflows into Physical.
- Wound modifiers stack from both tracks.
Edge
- Max Edge
- Equal to your Edge attribute (typically 1-7)
- Gain Edge
- Situational advantage, superior position, gear advantage, GM award
- Lose Edge
- Situational disadvantage (opponent gains instead)
- Edge actions spend Edge for a named effect: rerolling a die, adding a die to your pool, boosting initiative, and similar.
- 6E doesn't have 'Push the Limit': that's a 5E Edge action tied to the Limit mechanic, which 6E dropped.
- Bigger Edge spends buy bigger swings, up to rerolling all failures on a test (Second Chance).
- Edge does not persist between encounters: use it or lose it.
Healing
- First Aid: Logic + Medicine vs threshold (1 per 2 boxes). Must be within 1 hour (golden hour).
- Stun recovery: 1 box per (BOD) minutes of rest.
- Physical recovery: 1 box per (BOD) days (halved with medical care).
- Magical healing: Heal spell (Force = max boxes healed, Stun only unless Physical is chosen).
Common mistakes
- Attack Rating vs Defense Rating doesn't resolve the attack: it only decides Edge. Hits come from the opposed test (attacker Agility + Firearms/Close Combat vs defender Reaction + Intuition).
- Wound modifiers apply to all tests, including soak rolls. A badly wounded character soaks less.
- Edge resets between encounters, not between actions. Spend it each fight.
- Glitches happen on 1s, not on low rolls. A pool of 2 dice with both showing 1 is a critical glitch even if one was a hit (impossible: both 1s means 0 hits = critical glitch).
- Full-auto suppressive fire forces a Willpower test, not a dodge: it is a morale mechanic.
- Soak is Body alone: armor is already counted in the Defense Rating, it doesn't add soak dice too.