[Game a Day 19] ShadowRun

[Nightchilde-2]

I gotta say, seeing this thread and reading about the improvements made in 4E has made me pretty tempted to find a copy and pick it up. From out of nowhere, it's like I've got these great SR plot hooks all of a sudden.

And (of course) right after my big rant to my gaming group about how I would never GM anything outside of True20 conversions again.

SR4 is my favorite version of SR, and I've played all the editions. It's the most streamlined, and no longer does the rest of the team have to sit by while the Decker/Hacker does his/her thang.

Though I do miss the older versions' character generation rules....

 

[Umbran]

(getting ready for the flames)
But it really wasn’t very cyberpunk in the end. Now I’m not saying it isn’t damn cool, but the resurgence of native magical traditions, the introduction of elves and dragons, and the awakened species taking over areas and healing the earth of the damage wrought by corporate western civilization just doesn’t have the flavour of cyberpunk for me. And it seems that at least one of the influential cyberpunk literary authors agrees.

No flames. Just a reading suggestion: Svaha, by Charles de Lint, is a very good melding of such themes into the cyberpunk genre. It might help you see a way it can work well.

Other than that - Shadowrun is one of my all-time favorite games, and I played a whole lot of it in the 1e and 2e days. Unfortunately, what i hear about 4e makes me think they've gotten rid of many of the mechanical bits that made it work in a unique way, which saddens me.

 

[Nim]

I love the Shadowrun setting. I don't even mind the rules too much, and I played 2e and a bit of 3e. I'm sure I'll pick up the 4e book sooner or later...SR books are fun to read for the setting details, even when I'm not actually playing in a campaign.

But you know what SR needed in 2e and 3e, even more than an update to the rules? Better hints on how to run a campaign that was more than just a series of tactical exercises. Of all of the games I've played, SR is first on the list, hands-down, of games most likely to devolve into a series of CRPG missions. More so even than D&D, amazingly enough. It's built right into the assumptions of the setting: you're a team of specialists. You get hired by shadowy corporate figures. You go on a mission for them, then you kick back to spend your ill-gotten gains while you wait for your next employer to show up. The setting background is GREAT, and the rules are actually pretty fun. But breaking out of that 'next mission!' mindset and actually keeping an ongoing plot of some sort going is a challenge for the GM, because it's sooooooo easy to just take the path of least resistance and run a series of totally unrelated runs with no continuity at all.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I played and ran 1E back in the day and we all loved it. The only real reason we stopped was the lack of adventure support and my ever-reduced time to come up with my own adventures. Shadowrun was the only game I could wing 100%. I've DMed many more hours of D&D than Shadowrun and have never been able to completely wing an adventure and still make it fun.

SR was also my biggest success running at GenCon (back in Milwaukee). My Scavenger Hunt adventure was a huge hit. After the first slot word got around and I had to turn numerous players away (I tried to get other GMs from my gaming club to pick up the excess, but they declined). The second year became a two-part tournament, Scavenger Hunt 2. The winners of the first round were a group of FASA playtesters that had heard about the Scavenger Hunt scenario the year before. They had a blast. One asked how much prep I had done. The answer: Four index cards with four items listed on each.

But then life responsibilities took hold. Work stress took hold and to this day has lodged a huge block in front of my imagination. Little bits filter through, but not enough to keep a campaign going without others helping in the adventure-writing process.

 

[Umbran]

Shadowrun was the only game I could wing 100%. I've DMed many more hours of D&D than Shadowrun and have never been able to completely wing an adventure and still make it fun.

I found rather the opposite. One of the wonderful things about Shadowrun are the many-layered and wonderfully twisted corporate machinations that drive the runner's activities in the published adventures. I have yet to find a GM that can wing those and keep them self-consistent and plausible.

 

[Felon]

To me, DEFINITELY. To a lot of the experienced Shadowrun gamers, DEFINITELY NOT. As noted, the biggest change is no variable target numbers; a 5 or 6 on d6 is a success, and you just count successes, not both. The second biggest is that scores are valued somewhat differently, and karma got changed to a much smaller "pool" called Edge.

And... gone is my beloved ABDCE chargen, replaced with a point-buy. *sniff*

But it's a very (pardon pun) runnable system, from a lot of the fans I've read online. It's about a 60/40 split though, dislike vs. like, unlike what happened with D&D 2e/3e, and it bodes very badly for the future of the game. On the other hand, they picked up quite a few new players, but it doesn't look like as many as who stuck with 3e and didn't move on.

I bought 4e. The system appears very solid mechanically. Easily superior in that respect.

The main downside? It's unnecessarily bland. The spells, the adept powers, the skills, the cyberware, the deckware, you name it, it's all very perfunctory. There's no attempt to provide any interesting, fun, new toys. I read a review about adepts being able to run up walls. In the book, adepts basically do the following: they can buff an attribute, bufff a skill, buff attack rolls, buff damage, buff defense, and heal damage. Those are like MMORPG abilities. Powergamers should be satisfied, but there's little flavor to it.

The production values are the lowest yet for any Shadowrun book. Not only is there very little color, but there's this annoying green tone used in conjunction with all of the blank-and-white that only serves to underscore how little color there is otherwise. Normally I'm fine with this, but Shadowrun books were among the first to showcase how a few choice pieces of eye-candy could really stimulate a gamer's appetites.

The idea for PAN's and wireless decking were damned fine improvements.

 

[Treebore]

Shadowrun is my third most favorite game to play. I play any edition, anytime, as long as it is a good GM, because the stories rock, baby!

 

[ForceUser]

God, Shadowrun.
I loved that game.

Me too. If I wasn't wrapped up in running two D&D campaigns, I'd love to finally sink my teeth into GMing Shadowrun. Definitely have to have the right group, though.

 

[Terwox]

I've always loved Shadowrun, although mainly because of the sega genesis game... such cool stuff, really got me into the world, and I was young enough to think the talk was cool. Heck, I'm open enough now to still somewhat enjoy the odd linguistic stuff, though after reading Gibson and such it just feels wrong without typical swearing.

I've got my SR4 hardcover, and a friend of mine is actually willing to RUN the game, which is so excellent. It's a great game, and I'd really love a chance to PLAY it for once. But yeah -- it's less dark than Cyberpunk -- but I don't really think I'd enjoy playing Neuromancer as a game, rather than a story... it's fun to read, but it would be a little too dark (more bleak, really) for me to roleplay and have fun with.

 

[Felon]

I've always loved Shadowrun, although mainly because of the sega genesis game...

One of my favorite games of all time. I rented a SG just for it, spent an entire spring break doing nothing but playing all day, going to sleep, getting up and playing some more. Bought an SG immediately after finishing it thinking I'd find more RPGs like it, and returned it 10 days later crestfallen with disappointment.

I'd pay good money just to get the soundtrack.