Based on the reactions from many vocal posters at the Dumpshock Forums (which is to Shadowrun as ENWord is to d20), many Shadowrun fans are ready to start a Jihad if a d20 version is ever published.
However, Fanpro's reaction is such that they will likely never do so. I'll never forget that 15 pahe thread over the problems of a d20 conversion - that was brutal in many places but informative in others.
Shadowrun is a game I'd LOVE to pick up as d20, because the dice pool system irks me as a player and DM (same way that d6 star wars did the same for me), and although it's not unplayable, it does seem VERY slow, especially when more than 4 people are playing at a time.
If d20 SR were done, it would need several things to keep the flavor:
- A character priority system (like the ABCDE system of SR)
- A wound system that allowed some sort of armor DR, but adding stunning and dying effects, and no VP or HP padding to fall back on.
- Working Attack and save progressions into feats or skills in some fashion. Levelling would still be keepable, as a good gauge of relative power of a team, and to tie max skills into, but there should be ability to get better without necessarily going up in combat ability.
- An action dice system a la Spycraft, but NOT like Modern's action points. They need to be renewable, but not necessarily every combat round.
- A new stat called essence or some such, to track cyberware mods, and to tie it into spell casting maximums.
- Spellcasting could be done very similarly to the new Expanded Psionics rules, but instead of augmentations, they are fueled by whatever passes for subdual or physcial damage.
That would be my vision: a game system without die pools, with levels for easier tracking of relative party power, and a single die resolution for all tasks.
