NationStates Jolt Archive

Hi there. I was wondering, since General seems to be teeming with thousands of people with lots of knowledge and ideas, if any one of you had heard of the RPG known as 'Shadowrun'?

I recently heard about it, and it sounded quite interesting; however, apart from knowing that its a bit techno-punk and set in an Alternate Universe, I know very little about it. I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me or tell me about it?

Any infor, however small, is welcome; however, if you have any links on the subject, could you plese TG them to me instead of placing them in here? That way it doesn't look like site-whoring or attention-grabbing.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Rather interesting little RPG, really. It works on a d6 system that went on to inspire Old White Wolf, though the new edition will be working on a mechanic ripped off from New White Wolf. Who says history isn't cyclical?

Anyhow, think ye of a William Gibson-style cyberpunk dystopia - big nations collapsing, megacorporations that are beyond the law, all-encompassing information culture. The wealthy live in unspeakable decadence, the corporate white-collar drones in their happy little middle-middle class overly-sanitised gated communities, and the rest struggling in slums that are more akin to war zones.

Okay?

In 2011, magic came back. Noone's really sure why, but on Christmas Eve, a great dragon crawled out of Mount Fuji, babies starting getting born too tall and skinny or exceptionally dwarfish, and the Native American Nations asked for their land back, backing their claims with hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanos.

It's been fifty years since that. The United Canadian and American States are a shattered remnant of the continent-spanning powers, controlling only bits of the northeast, as well as the rather influencial cities of Seattle and Denver. Racists no longer harp on skin colouration or ethnicity, but on the 'freakish' and 'mutant' elves, dwarves, orks, and trolls, as well as the small part of the population that can wield magic. Not that most of this concerns you, though. You're a Professional, an expert in espionage, sabotage, kidnapping, computer hacking, and whatever else is needed by the megacorporate executives who hire you both for your skills and your discretion - if you screw up, they've never met you. Not that you would screw up, of course. Being outfitted with the very latest in cybernetic enhancements, or being able to call upon the elements or the spirits of Nature tends to up your odds of survival. And really, you're getting paid far too much to fail.

OOC: That is so cool! I can't wait to start playing it, thanks for the info!

Have a cookie!

Anyone else have any info?

What we all have to remember is Lestressia is insane.

Oh, wait.... I'm being told by the gnomes that wasn't the point I was here to make.

Ahhh, yes, Shadowrun. The above summerization seems to be correct in most parts, and since I play on a MUSH with the esteemed and previously mentioned insane person, would be good not to bitch about it too much.

Shadowrun is often what you make it, and I think one of the big differences between SR and CP is that Shadowrun requires a protagonist, and some sort of hope. Sure, corps rule the world, but Countries still pull influence. The UCAS Army bitchslapped the Japanese Megacorp Renraku after there Seattle Arcology was 'taken' (won't spoil it for anyone), and Seattle itself is using good ol' capitalistic competition with Lone Star. And the Federal District of Columbia still uses /real/ cops.:)

Over all, Shadowrun is diverse. You can play an amoral bastard, you can play the protagonist, you can play everything inbetween. As a world and as a game system, its big enough so that you don't have to play a Shadowrunner at all, and in fact, sometimes the game seems wasted on them. :)

System wise, with 3rd edition, its not horribly complicated, though its annoying that I have to dig out the books to get a real variety of items.

SR4 is a big dark spot. The fixed TN could work, or fail...

But yeah, fun, you should give it a shot. Even got the addy for a few MU*s if your intereasted. :)

I don't know what an MU is, but yes please, I'd love that, thanks. If you could TG me with them, I'd be extremely greatful, thanks.

Good premise. Ludicrous amount of dice-rolling to do anything. It took us 90 minutes to work out 6 seconds of combat at one point, and that was pretty much the end of my dabbling with it. Also, there are too many potential areas to play in, so it's likely the gamers are going to be idle a fair bit in a mixed group.

I like my RPGs to have short and simple combat resolution and lots of role-play. Shadowrun didn't quite live up to its billing.

It has the problem that most cyberpunk style games have, the hackers kinda suck. Unless you're running solo it's a giant hassle of split attentions. But really, good story telling can over come that and clunky rule mechanics. Any time any game gets bogged down in trying to figure something out remember this: WWBC? What Would Be Cool? I'm not saying toss out the dice and let the GM rule the day, but the reality is you're looking to be part of a good story, not 'Master of Probability, Lord of Dice.' Dice isn't jumping a chasm until you knead it into the story.

The split decision with Shadowrun makes it interesting, as well as the slippery moral scale of the base characters. It's not magic, it's not fantasy-it's exactly as much of either as you want. So that's cool.

When I RPed I played that game a lot and had a lot of fun. It doesn't really have any problem that any other system might not.

My comments:
The slipstream cyberpunk/D&D cross-over setting was interesing.

The 1st ed. rules were an eyewateringly, hair-pullingly horrible mess. I really didn't like the basic underlying mechanics (most especially the whole dice pool system). I haven't seen the other editions, but I understand they simply cleaned up the basic mechanics.

The material seemed to me to be bent more towards hack-n-slash than RP, which has lent it a bit of a D&D set in CP 2020 reputation.

It has the problem that most cyberpunk style games have, the hackers kinda suck. Unless you're running solo it's a giant hassle of split attentions. But really, good story telling can over come that and clunky rule mechanics. Any time any game gets bogged down in trying to figure something out remember this: WWBC? What Would Be Cool? I'm not saying toss out the dice and let the GM rule the day, but the reality is you're looking to be part of a good story, not 'Master of Probability, Lord of Dice.' Dice isn't jumping a chasm until you knead it into the story.

The split decision with Shadowrun makes it interesting, as well as the slippery moral scale of the base characters. It's not magic, it's not fantasy-it's exactly as much of either as you want. So that's cool.

When I RPed I played that game a lot and had a lot of fun. It doesn't really have any problem that any other system might not.

Totally true. Running a decker equipped party is like trying to run two games at once. If you try to streamline his specialty, he doesn't get to play with his reassuringly expensive cyberdeck and it's suite of programmes. If you run it full, everyone else gets bored quickly. A real dillemma.
Speaking of money and dillemmas, the day to day concerns of Shadowrun make it for me. Sure you get a big payoff, but if you spend it all on equipment and cyberware, the you have squat all left to live on, and will probably be in no shape to do the next run. If you live la vida loca, you don't have any decent equipment or ammo. The balance makes it really interesting.

Good premise. Ludicrous amount of dice-rolling to do anything. It took us 90 minutes to work out 6 seconds of combat at one point, and that was pretty much the end of my dabbling with it. Also, there are too many potential areas to play in, so it's likely the gamers are going to be idle a fair bit in a mixed group.

I like my RPGs to have short and simple combat resolution and lots of role-play. Shadowrun didn't quite live up to its billing.
Pretty much my experience, although I did have an enjoyable time on one run with a DM who afterwards admitted to using a variant of the Paranoia Dramatic Tactical Combat Resolution System.

Never really caught on among the people I've role played with, it's a nice read but has too much chrome to really work as a RPG straight out of the box. Probably good for those people who like character tweeking, but I'm not one of them.

OOC: Thats a lot of useful information everyone, thanks. Just Bumping this to see if anyone else has any more information.