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More Shadowrun!

   
I don't know if this really qualifies as Shadowrun or not for some people, but I have been trying to run a game that is using The Window for mechanics and the Shadowrun 4E material for inspiration.

I developed a guide for how I intend to handle character generation and converting the various aspects of SR4 to be simplified in The Window.

I am still facing issues with attrition, as we try to get off the ground. But I hope the simplified mechanics will help streamline gameplay so it doesn't get so bogged down in pitfalls.

If anyone is interested, shoot me a PM.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Tempest View Post
This is just something ive noticed in the game ad section, but I think a lot of people really wanna start playing Shadowrun again. Is there anyone here who knows how to DM it really well?
There's one other problem to this. People want Shadowrun and ONLY Shadowrun. The idea of running for example, a Pathfinder game using the Cyberware and advanced weapons rules is out of the question. When I asked if there was a "D20 Shadowrun", due to the fact that I know the D20 system well, but don't know the insanity of complex and new rules that Shadowrun was, I got a ton of elitist replies, simply because it wasn't "pure shadowrun" or whatever.

This is actually a problem I have with a lot of players, they want specific things, and ONLY specific things. No changing of it by the DM in any manner. Running a homebrew evil game instead of way of the wicked, running AEG Empire instead of Kingmaker, and so on, is met with scorn and calls of essentially heresy.

And this is why you lack Shadowrun DM's. It's a hard system to learn, and no one can learn it, because no one is Dming it, combined with the fact that people will ONLY play Shadowrun, and not some other Cyberpunk system that might even be easier for the DM to run, say reworked and houseruled pathfinder, and you have a horrible combination that scares DMs away from running it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyber_Goddess View Post
There's one other problem to this. People want Shadowrun and ONLY Shadowrun.
Yeah, who'd have thunk that people wanting to play Shadowrun -- which describes both the rules and the setting -- would actually want to play Shadowrun? You know, kind of like the original poster in this thread is clearly wanting to do.

"I'd like to play Shadowrun, anyone willing to run it?" "Sure, I'll run d20 Modern with some magic thrown in." "Wait what?" "That's it, no one will ever run Shadowrun because of this oppression I'm under!" "Wait what?!"

Quote:
This is actually a problem I have with a lot of players, they want specific things, and ONLY specific things. No changing of it by the DM in any manner.
Really? Because I got almost universally positive feedback when I asked if people were interested in something a little off-kilter from the norm for Shadowrun. Who knew?

And the two most recent editions of Shadowrun are too hard to learn? And you can only learn it by playing for some reason? <brain melt>

Anyway, that said, Blue Tempest, I am in the process of putting a game together (the one mentioned in the link above), though it's still at least a month or two away as my plate is kinda full at the moment. There'll definitely be an ad up for it at some point, however.

Honestly? I love the Shadowrun setting but I hate GMing it because there's always that one person who solves problems with C4. The most fun I had with the system was when everybody was trying to make an awesome Mission Impossible type heist for our jobs. It wasn't the most practical OOC solution, but it was the most practical one the characters saw and, more importantly, it was freaking amazing when we pulled it off. We infiltrated a top-secret facility with a sleep spell, an illusory gopher, and a fishing pole. But most of the games I've seen, people play to win. Which is the same problem that D&D and Pathfinder and Exalted and every other system can have; some people want to win and some people just want those moments where you punch a dragon in the face or infiltrate an "impenetrable" facility.

And Fandango, the best way to learn a system is to have someone play with you. And I'd like to point out that learning to GM Shadowrun is a nightmare for some people because you are managing not one but three planes of existence at all times on the off chance that you need to use them for anything.

Well if the characters tend to solve problems in a way that interferes with what you're going for or the setting in general, as a GM shouldn't you just punish them for it/ have horrible consequences for taking such actions to prevent them from doing it in the future?

Quote:
Originally Posted by z3r0gamer View Post
And Fandango, the best way to learn a system is to have someone play with you.
I never claimed otherwise. You can, however, also learn it by GMing it and working with the players to learn it, too. If no one could learn a system without playing it, no one would have ever learned it...

Quote:
And I'd like to point out that learning to GM Shadowrun is a nightmare for some people because you are managing not one but three planes of existence at all times on the off chance that you need to use them for anything.
In that case, D&D must be a truly horrific nightmare, especially 3e/d20 with all the random and hidden (and often contradictory) rules encompassing something like 50 books, plus the, what, 20-30 planes of existence (each with their own unique rules) that you apparently have to monitor at all times on the off chance you need to use them for something. Especially if you have a caster in the group who can access any of them at a moment's notice.

And yes, that's my way of saying that I'm not really sure why you think that makes GMing Shadowrun as complex as you're implying.

I'd love to DM Shadowrun, but getting into a game and finding the time to learn the myriad rules and learn how to play is daunting in and of itself with whats going on in my life. Translating that into learning all of the rules, coming up with missions, and running a game is just beyond me at the moment. Toss in the fact, I want nothing to do with the computer end of things, makes me hesitate even further. I don't want to deal with the hacking and the cyberware and the rest. Which is a large part of the system and setting. Just not my play style. I'd need to learn that which can get complex and just rules heavy for handling the game.

Good points made though. You can have a bunch of infiltration experts who plan to sneak into buildings and do things passively. Then have a crazy ork who lobs nitroglycern at anything that moves. Causing infighting and chaos within the party and bringing down the whole city on their head for causing a disturbance. Leading to a gangland shootout between the stealth group and the powers that be, illicit or legitimate both for having some crazy ork whipping bottles of explosives in every direction.

I like cyberware, but I have yet to find a cyberpunk/SF system that deals with computer hacking in a good and flavorful way. Either it's something like d20, where hacking is a couple of skill rolls and it's very easy to pick up hacking on the side while being primarily something else (which doesn't really seem to be a thing in cyberpunk system) or it's in the other direction, where hacking is a minigame or side adventure that only the hacker gets to indulge in.

The only way I've come up with to do it well is to well and involve everyone is really to embrace the metaphorical side of things, to bring everyone into cyberspace and essentially make the hack into a dungeon crawl. That requires a group, however, that can go from the neon glitter cyberpunk to existing in feudal Japan or an orbital habitat or a post-nuclear wasteland and keep the characters and relationships intact the whole time.

Aye, part of I think is I want to run a game for this time period, in my home town using the system. So having basic computers and hacking in a basic fashion would fit. Cyborgs and technomancers would be a stretch. Big part of the game though, and if I included the various race options, and the magic and adept aspects, to be fair I would need to include it all.

It's that complex for me because I don't like having to deal with Astral combat, Matrix combat, and meatspace combat at the same time and working with the difference timescales.




 

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