I have never had a culture shock problem. Those players who haven't had experience with other games still saw the difference in genre, and chose accordingly.
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Shadowrun Adventures and Campaigns
- Thread starter Umbran
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I have never had a culture shock problem. Those players who haven't had experience with other games still saw the difference in genre, and chose accordingly.
Then you are lucky. As I said the D&D players I introduced to SR had some trouble in the beginning. But to be honest, they were kinda passive as players, only waiting for the NPCs (which they trust unquestionably as NPCs don't lie ever in their mind) to point them to a dungeon to be cleared, no matter the system.
Not exactly the best way to play Shadowrun.
By the way, as the 5E core book is a bit close lipped when it comes to history you might find this document useful when introducing new players (it was released to introduce the players of the recent SR video game to the setting)
http://harebrained-schemes.com/shadowrun/primer/
Its a bit old though and only goes into the 60s.
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
[MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION]: I realize it's a little out of the Shadowrun cannon, but if (when) I were running a future game, I'd have the two worlds: real and cyber. And most people in the real world would have head jacks at birth, ala The Matrix. So in the real world, the decker is the nerdy guy, and you have the other PCs. But some missions (Runs?) require the whole party to enter the Matrix, where the decker becomes the Paladin (or what have you) and the other PCs do a flip-flop, becoming the nerds. Everyone sticks together, but the tables get turned.
[MENTION=2518]Derren[/MENTION]: your link's destination expired. But I find it fascinating that you get one mind-set from D&D players, and another from Shadowrun players. I've seen lots of D&Ditis, where the players sort of wait around for the plot to throw itself at their feet. My best tool, so far, is the NPC sidekick who interjects GM-like wisdom, but in a game-world sort of way.
[MENTION=2518]Derren[/MENTION]: your link's destination expired. But I find it fascinating that you get one mind-set from D&D players, and another from Shadowrun players. I've seen lots of D&Ditis, where the players sort of wait around for the plot to throw itself at their feet. My best tool, so far, is the NPC sidekick who interjects GM-like wisdom, but in a game-world sort of way.
I can open the link just fine. No idea what happened.
And not all D&D players are so passive, just mine were. I just mentioned it because in the SR community some people start to chuckle when you mention that you play with D&D players as there have been several stories (true and made up) where expecting D&D gameplay in SR lead to "interesting" situations.
One story is that a previously D&D DM gave out Karma like XP in D&D so that the group had several hundred of them after the run and then complained how powerful the PCs were (you normally only get 1-3 Karma per run).
The issue isn't about canon. It is about the mechanics of the game as written, and what works in play at the table.
What you describe would be fine in the movies, or a novel. Heck, it is the basic shtick for "Sewer Urchin", a character in The Tick animated series. But in play, at the table - you can't have anyone sitting around being useless for any period of time. At least, not for the vast majority of players. Nor is it really cool to then turn around and make most of the party useless so that previously useless character can show off. Maybe you can pull that sort of thing off in a short campaign of a few sessions, but it isn't supportable in the long term.
And the mechanics of earlier editions had deckers largely useless in meatspace. They could be of great use in cyberspace. But, if we were playing D&D, it would be like literally having one character in his own dungeon, and the rest of the party in another dungeon, and first occasionally having impact on the other, but not always. You know the rule, "Don't split the party,"? Well, with deckers, the party was almost always split.
I am hoping we break that down a little with the new edition - give deckers some things to do in meatspace, and keep the excursions onto cyberspace short.
One of the big things the new Matrix changes intended to make decking into hit and run operations.
Basically as soon as you do something illegal outside of a node GOD starts to track you. And when they find you (which is only a matter of time as you can't really do anything to delay them except not screwing up so they find you faster), GOD will dump you (no check, no defense) and track you.
Inside of a node there are less repercussions as GOD is not involved in there, but as soon as you leave the clock continues.
coyote6
Adventurer
The decker in my game is quite useful in meatspace - hack locks, work tech, and in combat, I almost dread the phrase, "Using Fork, I Data Spike the guns of this guy and that guy."
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
Funny, one of my fellow playtesters just brought up the useless-character issue. Taken to one extreme, the solution results in Forry: all characters have comparable at-will, encounter, and daily powers, which do an excellent job of washing out character identity.
But I digress.
Characters don't have to be useless when changing worlds. My first idea was to swap ability scores around between worlds, and you know that many characters wouldn't have a useless score to swap to. But what I'm thinking now: each player could have an alternate character to use once he jacks in, or have some sort of idealized version of his normal character. "Residual self-image."
If the SR designers have been doing their homework (what, now, four editions later?), they'll have enough playtest data to show that deckers need a hand.
Yes, you do.
When one of the mods is having a discussion trying to learn about an entirely different game, engaging in D&D edition warring should seem to be one of the more boneheaded maneuvers one could make. I would not recommend anyone continuing on that line.
Clear enough? I hope so. Moving on...
It seems to me that the bulk of the characters should not have to change worlds at all. Broadly speaking, a character should be able to engage in their specialty without taking the whole darned party with them to do it!
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