If Shadowrun got the reboot treatment, what sacred cows (mechanics/setting) would you put up for slaughter?

[innerdude]

Once I discovered the Interface Zero 2.0 campaign setting for Savage Worlds, any possible need/desire to look at Shadowrun again fell away like so many dropped TCP packets .....

Apropos of nothing, even if you have no desire to try Savage Worlds, you really should check out the Interface Zero 2.0 campaign setting. It's easily one of the top 3 RPG books I've purchased EVER, for any system or genre.

 

[Umbran]

Once I discovered the Interface Zero 2.0 campaign setting for Savage Worlds, any possible need/desire to look at Shadowrun again fell away like so many dropped TCP packets .....

I happened to like the admixture of magic and machine in Shadowrun, which Interface Zero doesn't seem to have.

 

[BrokenTwin]

Once I discovered the Interface Zero 2.0 campaign setting for Savage Worlds, any possible need/desire to look at Shadowrun again fell away like so many dropped TCP packets .....

Apropos of nothing, even if you have no desire to try Savage Worlds, you really should check out the Interface Zero 2.0 campaign setting. It's easily one of the top 3 RPG books I've purchased EVER, for any system or genre.

How does Interface Zero 2.0 compare to Nova Praxis? Similar concept, but NP is more transhuman, and I think IZ2 is more cyberpunk?

 

[Beleriphon]

What would I dump? Astral, Matrix, and regular combat all using different rules. I'd have one rule set, with variants about how they interact, but at the base they all work the same way.

There's no rational reason that Astral combat should work different than Matrix combat since they're ultimately emulating two difference versions of the same thing: non-physical confrontations in real world adjacent realm.

 

[innerdude]

I happened to like the admixture of magic and machine in Shadowrun, which Interface Zero doesn't seem to have.

Yeah, there's not a ton there on the magic front, admittedly. They do hint at various places about the possible presence of "psionics" in the game world, however you choose to define it. But there's no full-out setting rules specifically around its use. It seems to be assumed that if you want to include psionics/magic in the game world, you'll take the core Savage Worlds rules around it and tailor to suit.

How does Interface Zero 2.0 compare to Nova Praxis? Similar concept, but NP is more transhuman, and I think IZ2 is more cyberpunk?

I've never read Nova Praxis, so can't comment specifically, but IZ2 very much leans to cyberpunk/dystopia---technology has its uses, but is definitely abused by the "powers that be" in the gameworld. That said, IZ2 has really fun, flavorful rules around cyborg-style implants, and genetic mutation/modification for creating stuff like Wolverine's claws, avian-themed characters, etc.

 

[Umbran]

Oh, as to what goes on the chopping block - the irrationally complicated rules for autofire weapons. The damage rules, in general, could use a simplification.

 

[Raduin711]

To clarify, by beef with Essence has less to do with the idea that there is a cost associated with cyberware, and more about the form that it takes.

If I replace my arm with a cyberarm (or I never had an arm to begin with) that prosthetic reduces my essence. In other words, I am less... myself. If I keep replacing parts, eventually my score hits 0 and I cease to exist and in my place is a murder robot. Why? Who knows.

It's like Theseus gets on a ship and goes out to sea. He replaces parts of the ship, part by part, until the final part gets replaced, and then the ship comes to life and eats him.

While the "luddite mage" idea is a cute balancing concept, I think the idea that I am, in some way, my arm is kind of odd, and maybe a little insulting to people who did not have limbs to begin with... that by getting a prosthetic they would lose essence and somehow become less themselves.

I find the idea that someone who has cyberware installed might have to spend time and experience for the whole physical therapy process to be preferable and more realistic and a better balancing mechanic, and in some ways better exemplifies the "magic meets machine" aspects of the setting. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Derren]

The matrix is imo too ingrained, both in the setting and genre to remove. As for the astral, maybe the projection but not completely.

I stand by it that SR needs no big revisions. Its far less complicated than what many people believe.
Imo instead of removing stuff they should bring back the diversity from earlier editions for example the split between shamans and hermetics.

 

[Umbran]

If I replace my arm with a cyberarm (or I never had an arm to begin with) that prosthetic reduces my essence. In other words, I am less... myself. If I keep replacing parts, eventually my score hits 0 and I cease to exist and in my place is a murder robot. Why? Who knows.

I don't have my rulebooks next to me, but my recollection is that the "Why?" question is answered within the rules. The connection of the person to the Astral (and thus to all things spiritual) is through the nervous system. Human alterations to the nervous system are... not up to snuff, spiritually speaking. So, each piece of cyberware (and other things, like Stim Patches) damage the spiritual connection. Do that enough, and you have no connection to the spiritual left.

This is in line with the old trope of the fiction that one can become "more machine than man". In SHadowrun it is implemented with Essence, in the Cyberpunk game, it is "cyberpsychosis".

It's like Theseus gets on a ship and goes out to sea. He replaces parts of the ship, part by part, until the final part gets replaced, and then the ship comes to life and eats him.

That seems weird if you assume that the replacements are (spiritually/psychologically) as good as the originals. The point is that they aren't in genre. The genre takes as a point that the mind and body are not independent, so if you alter the body, you also impact the mind. Those artificial bits are good enough to keep the body going, but they are not exactly like the originals...

 

[Umbran]

Its far less complicated than what many people believe.

Having played every edition up through 5... I say it is quite as complicated as I believe it to be. Thank you.