Shadowrun

[konmanrocks]

I was wondering if anyone else here plays, or has played shadowrun. its currently the system i am most attached to, and i play with a pretty large group. basically creating a post for discussion on SR any of the editions, and also, im wondering for all of those who have played, what they think of certain book adventures.

[dragonus45]

I have what i think is the book for the 4th edition and im in love with every aspect of it, but my group of players is rather small and dislikes new things. Would anyone happen to know of theres an easier to learn edition?

[Allandaros]

I happen to like SR3, but SR4 seems to be widely acknowledged as having the best ruleset for Shadowrun.

(I'm a fan of all Shadowrun, actually. It satisfies my desire for crazy gonzo kitchen-sink-itude and ridiculous guns without being RIFTS.)

[Sethram]

A lot of people say this as an insult, but if you like rolling tons of dice, especially in combat, then Shadowrun is the game for you. It's really fun if you play with a group of munchkins who maximize their damage output but didn't invest in any skills. Being the one person who's character was more utilitarian meant I was a lot less expendable than the rest of my GUNZ AND LIGHTNINGZ team. By the end I was the only original surviving character and a lot of it was due to teammates putting themselves in the line of fire. Cyberpunk is definitely one of my favorite settings.

[dragonus45]

Cyber punk is great, but the guy who decided to throw it in with high fantasy should really get a nobel prize.

[Allandaros]

Man, that reminds me of the old DRAGON Magazine article I saw reviewing 1st Ed. Shadowrun, Dark Conspiracy, Spelljammer, and Space: 1889. (Or maybe just 3 of those. Or something. Point is, wacky kitchen-sink games of GREAT FUN.)

[konmanrocks]

iono, right now im playing shadowrun 2nd ed. it seems to be pretty enjoyable to me, and the group dynamic makes this game( the idiotic plans my group comes up with are great). anyone know of any good adventures in 2nd ed?

[Jubal]

I played a short shadowrun campaign a while back, can't remember what ed. It was pretty funny, although the campaing was very short (bad, bad news for my dwarf character who had mostly invested in research kit and contacts).

[Mikalyaran]

I've never gotten the chance sadly. I had a friend who used to run it all the time at our gaming guild butI was also running so an opportunity never came up. It seems like an amazing world though.

[Pax]

Bigtime Shadowrun fan, here. I've payed every edition ever published, to date - and GMed for 2E and 3E. Will GM for 4E soon, too.

I happen to like SR3, but SR4 seems to be widely acknowledged as having the best ruleset for Shadowrun.

Well, the one thing that 4E finally, finally managed to do was get "the computer guy" out of his hideout, and physically on the run with the rest of the team ... instead of the Matrix beign an entirely separate campaign in it's own right. Something the prior three editions had never quite figured out ...

I once GMed a split team for a single run - and I got high compliments for my efforts to keep the computer specialist (a skinny runt of an otaku kid) and the physical team engaged and entertained at the same time, in essentially simultaneous action. But good gods, was it DRAINING, jumping back and forth from Matrix to Meat and back again, keeping the action fresh and well-described, giving each side enough action to stay entertained ... but not so much, that the OTHER side got bored waiting for their turn.

4E makes that a lot less necessary, and for that, I am intensely grateful.

[Bobby Archer]

So how exactly did 4th Ed pull that off? I haven't played much shadowrun myself, but that always seemed to be a disadvantage to having a player "computer guy". I haven't gotten around to reading any of the new stuff (most of the people I game with tend more toward D&D and White Wolf, anyway), but I've been curious about how they made it less a "there's one guy playing essentially his own game" situation.

[Pax]

Inherent in the new "Wireless MAtrix". To hack most doors, alarms, and whatnot - the Hacker (yes, Hacker, no longer Decker) or Technomancer needs to be on-site, and preferably within ten or twenty meters of whatever s/he wants to fiddle with (signal strength, and all that).

Also, Hacking now happens at the same timing-pace as physical actions; even going into full "slump over and drool" VR like the pre-4E days, only buys you an extra Initiative Pass. In less total immersion - where the Hacker can still walk around the physical world without being led by someone else - it takes as long to perform a Matrix action, as a physical action. So the Hacker's choice becomes "hack the door lock, or shoot my pistol at the security guy".

The whole world is now hackable, too. Wireless computer network control is pervasive enough that everyone has a PAN - that's "personal area network" - centered on their CommLink ... which serves as PDA, phone, and control interface for much of the user's software, and carried gear. Even, possibly, GUNS. So the Hacker has even another choice: "Hack the security guy's gun, and lock it in 'SAFE' mode". Or, possibly - if the Security guy wasn't smart about securing his PAN - "Hack the security guy's cybereyes, and turn them off!"

Shadowrunners have to consider the same issues, of course. But there ARE options for PAN security ... bit of gamespeak: equip all your cyberware, and possibly worn electronics - AR glasses and the like - with SkinLink capability. Then pile your cybernetics together into a single meta-Node (so for Matrix actions, it all acts like a single system/target). Subscribe that meta-node exclusively to your SkinLink-capable CommLink, and load the beefiest FireWall program your wallet can handle onto that CommLink. It's not perfectly secure, but it's definitely "a hard nut to crack" - without the inconveniences of turning the connectivity of your cyberware off.

...

Oh, almost forgot .. that mention of "AR glasses" ...? Even the non-Hackers get a small taste of the Matrix, because "Augmented Reality" is literally everywhere. As you walk down the street, you are treated (subjected?) to visual phenomenon that don't exist in the real world - signs, pop-ups, and so forth. If a road is closed for construction, you might see (in AR) a big flashing yellow WALL closing that street off. If you have a GPS-and-directions service, you don't have to look aside to see the map and it's directions ... you will see the very road(s) you should be following highlighted or outlined, right in front of your eyes. And hear a voice giving you direction, in your own ears. And noone else sees or hears either of those, unless they've hacked into your PAN.

It's really kind of neat, overall. As if the Matrix and the "meat world" are overlapping a bit, blurring together at the edge.

[Bobby Archer]

Very cool. Thanks for the info, Pax.

[Pax]

Never a problem - SR is one of my all-time favorite games, and settings. I love to yammer on for hours and hours about it, given even the flimeiest of excuses.

[Zeus]

Wait, they call Deckers "Hackers" now?

That's like renaming Shadowrunners to "Mercenaries".

Lame.

[OneHugeTuck]

I happen to like SR3, but SR4 seems to be widely acknowledged as having the best ruleset for Shadowrun.

Wha?? By who?

Everybody I talk to hates SR4.

Personally I like the evolution of the world. I've always loved the SR world and timeline.

I DON'T like that Deckers are now Hackers. WTF? That pretty much killed it for me. Hackers?!?? As has been said....LAME.
Lots of people don't like the new game mechanics, I don't care that much.
I DON'T like that Shamans and Hermetic Mages are exactly the same now. I don't like that the magical hackers, technomancers, do everything matrix-wise magically, and that it's essentially mapped onto the magic system, summoning and what not. I haven't looked at it in a good while, but I remember that being really dumb.

Lotsa cool stuff though. I'd play it.

[DevilDan]

I always loved the ideas behind the game. I only got to play the CCG, but it gave me a peek of the fun and amazing possibilities of that world.

[Zeus]

I always wanted to play the card game, but I never ran across a starter deck.

Shadowrun has a great setting. There's a ton of SR novels out there, ranging from really good to meh, depending on the author.

They also made a couple of awesome video games, back in the 16-bit days. Forget the cheesy Microsoft 360 game -- Shadowrun for Genesis was an incredible open world action RPG with a running narration (DM-style descriptions of buildings, etc) and truly random encounters that changed each time you hit one. (You find a man covered in blood lying on the street. Do you help him, attack, or walk away? He could be an innocent crime victim... or he could be a vampire. Mwah hah.)

[OneHugeTuck]

Oh God.

The Microsoft game.....I was all like WTF!?!

That game was SO not even close to being anything like Shadowrun.

[DevilDan]

That's one reason it pays to stay abreast of new games: you know when a zeppelin-sized sack of suck is coming.