Cerebral Paladin
First Post
I ran a game set in the Shadowrun setting but using D&D 4E rules at my favorite convention (AnonyCon) last weekend. The game was a great success, I think, both as a game and at getting the Shadowrun feel through the D&D rules. I thought other people might be interested in hearing about it.
I started off with an idea for a Shadowrun game that I thought would be fun to run, but when I started looking at the rules, I decided that it was just way too complicated to get up to speed. So instead, I used the D&D 4e rules, but I "reskinned" everything to give it a Shadowrun flavor. I renamed powers, changed descriptions, and listed feats as being based on "cyberware." From a mechanical standpoint, the characters were (almost) exactly equivalent to standard D&D 4E characters. The only major difference is that I increased most ranges--in particular, I would give an assault rifle (mechanically a longbow) a range like 20/200, meaning that with a range penalty they can shoot anything on the map.
I designed all of the characters. My method was to start with a Shadowrun concept, then identify a class that I thought could represent it well, and then build a character to fit the concept. So, the first character was a street samurai, a standard rifle-wielding, chromed up combatant. I built that character as a bow ranger, renaming and redescribing powers along the way. A more complicated example was the idea of a heavy weapons specialist--I built that character as an invoker. In each case, as I picked powers, I always asked myself, "how can I reskin this power so it fits the concept?" If I couldn't, or if it was a stretch, I just picked a different power. I then filled them out with feats and D&D equipment, and then I reskinned that equipment so that it fit the Shadowrun feel. A magic bow that gets a bonus on missed attacks? That becomes a rifle with a Smartgun link and Ares AutoAimCorrect. Neck items were sorta the hardest, since the PCs need them to make the math work, but they don't have a clear analog--so those tended to become bioware, except on magic characters, where they became foci and minor magic items. I've attached the mechanical parts of the characters, so anyone who's curious can check them out.
When in doubt, I would reskin things. The players always can see the D&D underpinnings of the character, so you always want them to have ways of thinking about it that keep them immersed in the Shadowrun feeling. The Hunter's Quarry power is actually perfectly reasonable as-is, but every time they say "I make them my quarry" they feel like they're playing a ranger in the dungeon somewhere. When you reskin that to "I activate my tracking computer and designate that Renraku corp security guard as my target," it feels like Shadowrun. Similarly, I encouraged the players to narrate their actions as often as possible--the goal is to get the imagination focused on "I fire my Predator heavy pistol twice" instead of "I use my Twin Strike at will power, ho hum, still just D&D."
Party role mix (and monster mix) is also different. In Shadowrun, healing is generally scarcer, and ranged combat predominates. That means you want a lot of strikers, some controllers (who can be either magical or martial in feel, whatever class they are in mechanical terms), and few defenders or leaders. That makes combat faster and deadlier, which again, fits the feel that you're going for. I didn't try it, but mods that reduce monster hp and increase damage would also likely work well. For enemies, use lots of artillery, lots of ranged minions, and relatively light amounts of melee oriented enemies. Brutes are typically better than soldiers. Don't worry about what the monster's description is--look for a monster that fits the right role and figure out if you can reskin its powers. So a Gnome Entropist became a Renraku Red Samurai rifleman, with some of its powers represented as flash-bang grenades and a smoke canister for invisibility. The fit doesn't have to be perfect--just make the narration and description get the right feel, while having the mechanics close enough.
Also, write an adventure that fits the feel, not D&D norms. Shadowrun games are typically heists: you get hired to do something, you research the target and plan the run, you start the run, it all goes to pieces and you scramble to make it out alive and to finish the mission anyway. So for a Shadowrun in D&D game, follow the same pattern. You don't want it to feel like a dungeon crawl in a corporate facility. Skill checks and skill challenges are your friends.
Anyway, I thought it was great fun and a successful experiment. I look forward to trying it again in the future. It would be a lot harder to run a campaign in this style, but I think still doable. The biggest problem is that whoever is building the characters has to accept that some powers may be effective, but if they're too hard to reskin, they shouldn't get picked. But that also provides motivation to come up with good justifications--if you can justify that new power as being the result of your awesome piece of cyberware, that's great. If I were doing it again, I'd want to check out the Gamma World stuff--there's probably some useful stuff to steal. Also, there are some obvious examples of other character types to build (bow warlord or laser cleric for a ranged leader, a wizard character representing a Shadowrun mage, etc.)
I started off with an idea for a Shadowrun game that I thought would be fun to run, but when I started looking at the rules, I decided that it was just way too complicated to get up to speed. So instead, I used the D&D 4e rules, but I "reskinned" everything to give it a Shadowrun flavor. I renamed powers, changed descriptions, and listed feats as being based on "cyberware." From a mechanical standpoint, the characters were (almost) exactly equivalent to standard D&D 4E characters. The only major difference is that I increased most ranges--in particular, I would give an assault rifle (mechanically a longbow) a range like 20/200, meaning that with a range penalty they can shoot anything on the map.
I designed all of the characters. My method was to start with a Shadowrun concept, then identify a class that I thought could represent it well, and then build a character to fit the concept. So, the first character was a street samurai, a standard rifle-wielding, chromed up combatant. I built that character as a bow ranger, renaming and redescribing powers along the way. A more complicated example was the idea of a heavy weapons specialist--I built that character as an invoker. In each case, as I picked powers, I always asked myself, "how can I reskin this power so it fits the concept?" If I couldn't, or if it was a stretch, I just picked a different power. I then filled them out with feats and D&D equipment, and then I reskinned that equipment so that it fit the Shadowrun feel. A magic bow that gets a bonus on missed attacks? That becomes a rifle with a Smartgun link and Ares AutoAimCorrect. Neck items were sorta the hardest, since the PCs need them to make the math work, but they don't have a clear analog--so those tended to become bioware, except on magic characters, where they became foci and minor magic items. I've attached the mechanical parts of the characters, so anyone who's curious can check them out.
When in doubt, I would reskin things. The players always can see the D&D underpinnings of the character, so you always want them to have ways of thinking about it that keep them immersed in the Shadowrun feeling. The Hunter's Quarry power is actually perfectly reasonable as-is, but every time they say "I make them my quarry" they feel like they're playing a ranger in the dungeon somewhere. When you reskin that to "I activate my tracking computer and designate that Renraku corp security guard as my target," it feels like Shadowrun. Similarly, I encouraged the players to narrate their actions as often as possible--the goal is to get the imagination focused on "I fire my Predator heavy pistol twice" instead of "I use my Twin Strike at will power, ho hum, still just D&D."
Party role mix (and monster mix) is also different. In Shadowrun, healing is generally scarcer, and ranged combat predominates. That means you want a lot of strikers, some controllers (who can be either magical or martial in feel, whatever class they are in mechanical terms), and few defenders or leaders. That makes combat faster and deadlier, which again, fits the feel that you're going for. I didn't try it, but mods that reduce monster hp and increase damage would also likely work well. For enemies, use lots of artillery, lots of ranged minions, and relatively light amounts of melee oriented enemies. Brutes are typically better than soldiers. Don't worry about what the monster's description is--look for a monster that fits the right role and figure out if you can reskin its powers. So a Gnome Entropist became a Renraku Red Samurai rifleman, with some of its powers represented as flash-bang grenades and a smoke canister for invisibility. The fit doesn't have to be perfect--just make the narration and description get the right feel, while having the mechanics close enough.
Also, write an adventure that fits the feel, not D&D norms. Shadowrun games are typically heists: you get hired to do something, you research the target and plan the run, you start the run, it all goes to pieces and you scramble to make it out alive and to finish the mission anyway. So for a Shadowrun in D&D game, follow the same pattern. You don't want it to feel like a dungeon crawl in a corporate facility. Skill checks and skill challenges are your friends.
Anyway, I thought it was great fun and a successful experiment. I look forward to trying it again in the future. It would be a lot harder to run a campaign in this style, but I think still doable. The biggest problem is that whoever is building the characters has to accept that some powers may be effective, but if they're too hard to reskin, they shouldn't get picked. But that also provides motivation to come up with good justifications--if you can justify that new power as being the result of your awesome piece of cyberware, that's great. If I were doing it again, I'd want to check out the Gamma World stuff--there's probably some useful stuff to steal. Also, there are some obvious examples of other character types to build (bow warlord or laser cleric for a ranged leader, a wizard character representing a Shadowrun mage, etc.)
