Shadorun without the shadowrun rules

[cignus_pfaccari]

...I'm pretty sure that there's no way to get 6 points of reach, which is what you're describing. Off-hand, I'd say the most you'll get will be 3, and that's as a troll with a polearm.

Remember when I said SR 2/3? The rules were mostly 2, with a bit of stuff from 3, so Reach both subtracted from my TN and added to theirs (after the game was over, I noticed the change in 3).

This was with a Troll (Fomori, I was the faceman) using a bayoneted sport rifle. The bayonet description said "treat as Spear", which had Reach 3 IIRC; it might have been given as 2, in which case they only had to roll 7s, which means 6s, which is still annoying.

I FREELY admit to ramming trucks through loopholes. The GM's pretty brutal, and we needed all the help we could get.

Which is why you shoot trolls with polearms. With a grenade launcher.

One of my recurring paranoias in that game was having to drop/switch weapons, especially once, in our D&D game, the NPCs started fireballing dropped equipment and corpses. So, upon my purchase of the Cannon Companion, I started making weapons, such as the aforementioned bayoneted sport rifle and a melee hardened light machine gun. Most combats consisted of us shooting, and only rarely did it get to hand-to-hand, but I wanted to make sure I didn't waste actions and was able to get out very quickly.

Brad

 

[Andor]

Nothing was a bigger rules loophole than the Shadowrun 1 ammo rules.

Troll "Hah! Stupid street Sam! Why would you even bother trying to shoot me with that tiny little holdout pistol?"

Street Sam "Well, with this explosive ammo my damage stages up at one per success, but stages down per 3." Roll "So that's deadly +4, so if you roll 12 successes you will merely die. How big was that dice pool?"

Troll "Gurgle"

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Or since they have a better body than will hit them with mana spells or lets see how they like being enveloped in the embrace of a fire elemental.

That's why one maxes out one's Willpower, both to help with the Combat Pool, and to mess up targeting from the mages. You should also have your mage providing some cover with shielding.

Also, high Willpower helps when you're hitting the elemental over the head with a tree branch, combat axe, or tire iron.

Brad

 

[Arkhandus]

I love Shadowrun 3rd Edition.

If you can't/don't wanna try running Shadowrun 3rd Edition, then you could at least make a reasonable facsimile with d20 Modern if you use the right supplements.

I think picking up Grim Tales will give you a compatible magic system for use with d20 Modern as Shadowrun, but you might also look into Legends of Sorcery, True Sorcery, or Elements of Magic: Revised. Still, my first recommendation would probably be Grim Tales, or perhaps just Urban Arcana.

You'll need d20 Cyberscape and d20 Future for the cybernetics and other gear that fits in Shadowrun, though there are some things they don't cover (closest thing to Wired Reflexes is Cyberscape's Reflex Wires, which don't really compare despite being very obviously based on it). With a Feat Plexus or other feat implant, the character could get Heroic Surge as a bonus feat to get some occasional extra actions, at least. d20 Cyberscape has some rules for the VR Net that should be useable, though inferior to Shadowrun's Matrix rules of course. It also has some vehicle rigging cybernetics, at least. d20 Future Tech might also be a useful supplement, with more rules for robots and gear.

You might consider Blood & Circuits as an alternative for cybernetics; it's by Vigilance Press, but I don't know much about it.


I don't think Mutants & Masterminds would really fit SR when it comes to combat; even though you can tinker with the rules enough to make the kind of characters you want, it would take a lot of time I think and really, the combat system is designed for supers, not gritty gunfights and cyberspurs to the face.


......Someone, somewhere, has to figure out a decent way to translate SR's magic system into d20 to make a reasonable fit and work similarly. :\

 

[Achan hiArusa]

I vote Alternity. The Player's Handbook has rules for the net and cybernetics along with weapons. Its deadlier than d20 with a quirky but useable engine that runs much more smoothly than any d20 game and has conversion rules for AD&D. Get either the original Dark Matter or Beyond Science or both and you have a non-Vancian magic system and Dataware expands on the netrunning (or grid running) system and the Star*Drive Arms and Equipment Guide adds more cyberware. I knew a gaming group that ran a far future Shadowrun game using Alternity and it ran pretty well. And it can be found for download at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?filters=0_0_10131

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Re: Cyberpunk 2020 - it will be difficult to hook up a magic system.

Sorry Double Post. Actually, the Ars Magica magic system could be easily tweaked for use in Cyberpunk 2020, just add 5 levels to all spells and make damage 1d6 per Body Level.

 

[Wik]

No one's mentioned d6? FOR SHAME!

It's a very simple system that was used for the original Star Wars RPG. The rules nowadays are a bit weird, and I'd really suggest you pick up a Star Wars RPG book instead, and then just adapt from there.

Cybernetics would be easy to add (they're detailed in d6 Space), Magic pretty much works like it does in Shadowrun (I think it even has drain, and if not, it'd be easy to add in), and a bunch of other plusses. It's rules-light, and lots of fun.

Downsides are that it can involve a bit of number crunching later on (try adding 12d6 quickly), and the Wild Die rule can mean that 1 out of every 3 die rolls results in a spectacular success or failure.

 

[Twowolves]

I say Savage Worlds. Their sci-fi toolkit has rules for cybernetics and net running which are very similar to Shadowrun, and their magic system is very customizable. It is the polar opposite of rolling tons of dice, and it is easy to add onto. It'd be my choice hands down.

 

[Eytan Bernstein]

We (our group) really love the shadowrun world, we tried 4e SR and were less than impressed with the rules. Can anyone recommend a good ruleset to play SR with?

Here are ones that are crossed off the list

d20 modern - as the magic in d20 modern is quite weak

GURPS - it might be a great fit, however GM prep time scares me away.


Other than that give me your suggestions

For the longest time Shadowrun was my favorite game, so I understand your love of the world. I think Palladium might actually be a decent sysem for it, if you're not worried about character creation time. It has cyber and magic rules.

 

[pfooti]

I agree with everyone else here. I'm a long-time SR player, since 1st ed (and those stupid 4L1 pistols). SR 3 was really the "sweet spot" for me. Decking was too weird, and basically required a second, parallel adventure, but beyond that, I really liked the game and its balance. 4e had too much of the baby-bathwater phenomenon, they could have tweaked some stuff and had a great system, but they really borked it, sadly.

In the end, if it were me, I'd vote for either SR3 or GURPS. Both get to about the same feel, and both are good, solid, easy-to-run systems. They both take a while to actually make characters in, but beyond that, they're really good (and some people really like statting out characters).