Shadowrun d20???
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Cergorach
The Laughing One
I'm not saying that the mechanics don't have any influence in the 'feel' of the game, i'm just saying "We have the technology, we can rebuild him, bigger, better, faster!". ;-)Thanee said:
I'm not saying it would be easy, but i think that there are enough elements on the D20 market to create a frankenstein system that would essentially have the shdowrun system feel, atleast to 75% of the shadowrun fans (and i'm not talking about some of the rabid SR fans that float around on dumpshock). No one is talking about replacing SR D6 with SR D20, but just the oppertunity to play SR D20 for the people that would want it, let the people that want and love SR D6 have SR D6.
Of course i don't see any official SR D20 in the near future, but i do see an alternative (i won't be scalling it SR ;-). I've already made a little list of the mechanics i want to use, some are from UA, the core pretty much from SpyCraft/Stargate, some from the Psychics Handbook, D20 Modern SRD, etc.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Cergorach said:
If I were going to make it as popular as possible, I'd use the Spycraft system too; it has some pretty sick damage combos at higher levels to counteract the complaint of "d20 not lethal enough" (the whole thing on dumpshock about "can d20 model a sniper with a barrett .50 cal and depleted uranium shells vaporizing a mark?") - with Spyrcraft and the sniper feats, you can, indeed make super-sniper at higher levels. For magic, I would more likely use believe it or not the sorceries from Mutants and Masterminds, but putting Shadowrun style drains and limitations on them.
I'd still like to work in some kind of homage to ABCDE, though - I like the idea of it, though level adjustments would work as a poor man's stand-in.
Oh, well, I've committed enough sacrilege for one day. Thanks, chummers.
Cergorach
The Laughing One
Well, i was just talking about nothing really special, just the core rules (he was just a human) with some additional equipment. Specialized in a single gun, and some bioware, the guy wasn't even using any cyberware. You might want to call it powergaming, but something to that extreme isn't really possible with the core rules, a starting character with one shot one kill i mean.Thanee said:Well, every system can be powergamed.
Like Weretiger Physical Adept crazyness with 30+ dice for melee attacks.
But it's not like you cannot do anything similarily silly in D20.
The point i was trying to make is that with shadowrun you can have a rating of x + or - 25 and with D20 that is reduced to x + or - 10. The average character isn't any less powerfull, but the extremes are just a little less extreme, which imho is a good thing. Give someone the amount and extend of options SR D6 offers and eventually people will use those options, because it makes the character kewler. It only takes a 'weak' character moment in a year long campaign to disrupte the power level.
Of course some groups like to play that way, some naturally don't or don't play in campaigns that last very long, drekcetra. But a lot of us SR fans do have these problems, and instead of getting frustrated by all the 'troubleshooting' we GMs have to do to keep it fun and interesting we would rather have a system where we can control the power level a bit better.
You can have your opinion that it isn't going to work or it isn't going to be 'true' SR, but why bother? Even if Fanpro would release a SR D20, it would never stop supporting SR D6. I also highly doubt they would do a dual stat book. So why bother at all, your not going to loose 'your precious', but you might actually gain new comerades that would find SR kewl, meaning more money to support the main SR line (which is SRD6).
Henry
Autoexreginated
Cergorach said:
I had an identical discussion with the game designer and a very strong fan of another, very good, non-d20 game, and the basic response was that they refused to do so - whether it was a perceived loss of control of property, just a genuine dislike of d20, or based on general principles, I do not recall. But between that, and many vocal fans threatening to leave or boycott Shadowrun on Dumpshock, it's no wonder Fanpro shows no interest in doing so. Shadowrun, being a niche product, is not likely to pick up a tremendous amount of interest from d20 players to "cross over" to the SR game system, other than that one book. Those who are interested in Shadowrun, will play Shadowrun. Gamers who are in our position - liking the world but disliking the system - are left to our own devices.
But then, it doesn't bother me overly much, because I have far too many d20 products to play now that I'll never see, much less the non-d20 ones.
Henry said:
I had the same basic discussion with another fan of a very bad, non-d20 game. For them, it was a perceived loss of control of property to Wizards, their thorn in their side. Another point is that the rabid Fans said that they will totally abandon said company, even though the potential in money making was far greater. Then there is the head of said company: who is paranoid and egomaniacal in the extreme and is so attached to one of his beloved game worlds that he is deluded into thinking that all of his fans are Green-Eyed Monsters.
As for Fan-Pro Adam Jury, the guy is very nice when you talk to his GoO side about d20. His Fan-Pro aspect just lays down the law about Shadowrun, though. And I think it's okay that they don't want to. Fan-Pro Adam Jury understands the OG License perfectly since his GoO aspect is involved in making GoO d20 products; the others just don't want to make the change over.
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Ogrebear
Explorer
The more I have thought about it over the last few days the more I have realised that SAGA would be best system for a Shadowrun convert.
Reasons:
1) Its fast to play. The card mechanic uses lots less time that dice.
2) Using Marvel SAGA gives you a universe/rules for lots of tech already.
3) Its classless
4) It already has an influance system.
5) No levels.
6) The stats for the races already exist.
7) Shadowrun should be cinemagraphic as well as gritty. In my experiance SAGA can do both. Want Matrix? Easy. Want Platoon? Easy.
8) Less conversion than D20, less rules too.
9) Easier to learn than D20 or orginal Shadowrun.
10) Improvisational Magic!!!!!
Just my thoughts.
Reasons:
1) Its fast to play. The card mechanic uses lots less time that dice.
2) Using Marvel SAGA gives you a universe/rules for lots of tech already.
3) Its classless
4) It already has an influance system.
5) No levels.
6) The stats for the races already exist.
7) Shadowrun should be cinemagraphic as well as gritty. In my experiance SAGA can do both. Want Matrix? Easy. Want Platoon? Easy.
8) Less conversion than D20, less rules too.
9) Easier to learn than D20 or orginal Shadowrun.
10) Improvisational Magic!!!!!
Just my thoughts.
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