Shadowrun deserves better

[Thomas Shey]

The current approach seems to be for third parties to do things that evoke SR without actually being it. There were two of those that hit Kickstarter last year, but far as I know, they're still pretty obscure and I had distinctly mixed feelings about both.

 

[thullgrim]

About twice a year I get the urge to look at Shadowrun. I’ve got all of 4 and 5 and about a third of 6.

If I were going to run it I’d use Savage Worlds and the SR setting. Both Sprawlrunner and Interface 0 for Savage Worlds would do the job at least as well as anything Catalyst has done.

I will give CGL some credit. They still produce the Missions line for organized play and continue to do so and they keep moving the world along. They publish a bunch of ‘in world’ content that is fairly mechanically neutral.

 

[soviet]

All I ever knew of Shadowrun was i) the fantastic Larry Elmore cover that featured in every Dragon magazine at the time, and ii) the idea is a bit silly.

I played it once about 16 years ago and it was way too complicated, I don't know what the FASA editions were like. It also seemed to take itself silly way too seriously.

 

[500 Toads]

I haven't yet run SRA2.0 but it generally seems pretty well-designed. I do have hesitations regarding certain mechanics and lore (e.g. my inclination would be that GOD mechanics would tend to be replaced by the target organization's security, particularly for criminal organizations and for corporate facilities that are sufficiently dodgy or secretive they wouldn't want to risk having other corporations even aware of 'em; mechanically, I'm not a fan of purely narrative-driven combat initiative, either, particularly in a setting with serious reflex boosters etc).

Regarding how well the franchise is doing, or... not so well, I recall that one of the more popular answers to a Reddit thread re: "what would you like to see in a new edition of Shadowrun" was... a different publisher, with a lot of posters indicating that they didn't believe that Catalyst was being a particularly good steward of the IP.

 

[kigmatzomat]

My main issue with SR is the rules crunchiness. It refuses to change. No matter how much it changes it refuses to slay some sacred cows. D&D figured out it (though its still far to bloated), why can't SR?

You'll have to list the sacred cow SR hasn't killed.

They had like six pools in SR1, moved to around 3 pools in SR2/SR3, ditched pools and moved to Edge in SR4, skill ratings were boosted in SR5 to 12, limits were added, chargen went from priority to karmagen to build points back to priority, initiative has gone through several iterations, wound classes to damage, variable TNs to fixed TN, variable staging to fixed staging to incremental results, etc, etc.

I'm not sure of ANYTHING that hasn't been totally reworked, likely twice.

 

[Jahydin]

It was Interface Zero for Savage Worlds that made me not look back.

But I feel your pain, early edition Earthdawn is near and dear to my heart and wish it had a better go of things over the years.

 

[sevenbastard]

Somebody had had to make a Shadowdark version of Shadowrun right?

I also guess you could mix Mork Borg with Cy Borg to make Shadow Borg if someone hasn't already.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Somebody had had to make a Shadowdark version of Shadowrun right?

I also guess you could mix Mork Borg with Cy Borg to make Shadow Borg if someone hasn't already.

But would it be DarkRun or ShadowShadow? (Actually, DarkRun sounds pretty cool tbh).

I’d use Savage Worlds and the SR setting

I think this is the winner answer.

Other big problem, which is shared with Cyberpunk, is hacking. It's solo minigame on it's own. While hacker does his thing, rest of the players are sitting doing nothing. While hacking is integral part of genre, i have yet to encounter game that does it in both fast and interesting way while capturing danger of it.

This is the place where the game often breaks down. I wonder if hacking was treated more like an "approach" or a "feat" - not an entire class/archetype. Rigger the same.

early edition Earthdawn is near and dear to my heart

Sigh. I played Earthdawn 1e with one of the creators back in 1993 or 94, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Never played again, but it sure looked gorgeous and was an amazing setting.

 

[Fenris-77]

I think Cy Borg would be a great base to build a Shadowrun game on.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Somebody had had to make a Shadowdark version of Shadowrun right?

The name I would go with would be Shadowdrek.