Shadowrun: sell it to me!

[randomling]

I've heard some good things about Shadowrun, but honestly know very little about it. From what I've heard it sounds like "high fantasy meets cyberpunk in the near future" - which sounds pretty good to me. Am I right about that? Is it any good? What's the system like? (I hear tell of many d6s.)

So come sell it to me. Alternatively, tell me why it's rubbish and I shouldn't buy it, depending on what you actually think.

I'm a diehard d20 girl but I'm willing to try other systems and this sounded good.

So should I spend my money?

 

[Sabaron]

It's really early in the morning for me, so I don't have the clarity of thought necessary to evaluate a game system for you (I own the book). I'll give you my first impression: could be a lot of fun, but my group is die-hard d20 and didn't like the system enough to try it past the first adventure. Also, shotguns are broken.

I promise I'll post more once I've gotten some sleep and it's a reasonable hour.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

(Disclaimer: I haven't played the newest edition. I own, and have somewhat played, the first editon. This post also has many cranky exaggerations, owing to the late hour.)

Awesome setting, neat ideas, very funky rules-heavy system. Tons of dice rolling. Character creation was loooooong. Everyone carried a shotgun. Cast a sleep spell, and you might die from the backlash damage. Cyberhacking was everything it shouldn't be, i.e. complicated and confusing.

My advice? You are an avowed D20 girl, right? Well, Shadowrun has all of your basic fantasy tropes like dragons, dwarves, trolls, etc. Get a copy of Digital Burn, your PHB or D20 Modern, maybe Savage Species for the tougher metahuman races, and a map of Seattle. Poof, Shadowrun D20.

 

[Cedric]

First edition Shadowrun...while a unique concept and setting, was...well, nothing to write home about.

On the other hand, the current release of the rules (and maybe final release, but who knows), Third Edition...is a very good game.

Many parts of the game are streamlined and more easily handled. The game is not as deadly, and there are optional rules to handle how deadly you want it to be.

You can control how much technology, mysticism, realism and everything else goes into the game very well.

The setting is phenomenal.

If you want some Shadowrun Specific forums where you can get a lot of your questions answered, try here

Let me know if you have any questions also. But I want to share this thought as well.

I like the d20 system. It's simple, but well thought out...with nealy limitless capabilities for expansion and imagination. But it is NOT the end all and be all of gaming.

There are many good systems out there, don't get so locked into one system with multiple settings that you lose sight of some of the other great systems. Hero being a prime example.

While it's certainly not D20...Shadowrun is a very fun system stacked onto a great setting.

Cedric

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Loved it.

Problems that I had with it:

decking (computer hacking) and astral travel meant that one chracter dominated play for about 30 minutes of the game. I had to re-write the decking rules so that all computer activities were based on one roll rather than "roleplayed". And I simply put the kibosh on astral trave. It didn't add that much to the game and it created a lot of problems.

The 3rd edition really cleaned up a lot of the problems from editions 1 and 2.

 

[Bagpuss]

To counter Tarrasque Wrangler comments, character creation can take seconds if you select and archetype or minutes if you have any experience with the system, but yes it does take a long time if you have never played before and insist on designing a character from the ground up rather than modifying an archetype. When I was regularly playing I could design a Street Samurai from the ground up, with all his cyberware/bioware and weapons in under 3 minutes.

You can die from casting spells (but you have to be casting a very difficult spell at well above your normal power level when already injured) you would only ever take that sort of risk if you were already going to die if you didn't cast the spell. You can however be knocked unconcious, but again this is only if you insist on stretching yourself too far, you can cast most spells with no problems what so ever. The magic system is actually pretty cool.

My advice go for it, Digial Burn is stupidly expensive and having looked at it doesn't offer anywhere near as much detail, options or production values.

Shadowrun is a great first step outside traditional D&D fantasy.

 

[DMScott]

Shadowrun's basic background is that it's a near-future cyberpunkish setting, but between now and then a big supernatural event occurs that brings magic back to the world. Lots of people "awaken" as traditional fantasy races - orcs, elves, dwarves, and others - and cultures that have retained a connection to ancient magical rituals suddenly discover they have access to incredible power. Most nations as we know them basically collapse, but cyberpunkish megacorps and aboriginal/magical nations fill the power vacuum. The collapse of central authority makes cutthroat corporate espionage a whole lot rougher, and corps also got into the magic business.

So you end up with a loosely regulated culture with the normal heavily-armed mercenaries on corporate-sponsored black ops (a "shadowrun") that you'd find in Cyberpunk and similar games, but with fantasy races and magic added in. The main selling point is the setting rather than rules, and people use all sorts of systems to run games (GURPS is very popular). Almost all the supplements are very fluff-heavy, so it's easy to pick up Shadowrun adventures and sourcebooks then run them using your favourite rules. d20 Modern would work great, you'd just need to come up with some cyber-hacking rules.

 

[reapersaurus]

it's like collecting a spool of thread, and once you think you're getting most of it, it just keeps trailing away from you - BTW, to keep collecting the thread it gets harder and harder to pull it up.

It's too complicated, too tough - the rules are strewn all over the place, and some things are overly dominant.

But great flavor and feel!

 

[Artimoff]

What really scared me about shadow run was just how plausable it seemed . I'm talking about the aspect of global corperations running America as if they were mini governments in sort of a cold war. Each Corp. developing an security force to protect they property/identity when the U.S. Government couldn't. Prety soon their security forces are armies.

If you or any of your gamers distrust large Corperations as much as some tinfoil hat wearing militia men distrust the U.S. government, then this game is for you.

 

[ScyldSceafing]

Shadowrun? Love it.

The short version is I really dig Shadowrun, and would tell anyone who enjoys the idea of a mix of fantasy and cyberpunk.

The slightly longer version is that the system is quite a bit different than d20. When I ran a Shadowrun campaign, I had to spend quite a bit of time on my own figuring out the system. I think that effort paid off, though, because I found I liked it once I understood it.

So. Everyone digs the setting, and some people dig the system. Shadowrun's fun.