Shadowrun: sell it to me!

[Tsyr]

Never played/ read/ heard about Witchcraft, so I've no comment there.

Well, good news! Much like Ars Magica, Eden Studios has recently released the Witchcraft core book for free on the 'net!

http://edenstudios.net/witchcraft/

I encourage anyone interested in an alternate, slightly less intimidating modern occult/magic game than Mage, or one not quite so 'out there' as Unknown Armies, to check it out. What have you got to loose?

 

[isidorus]

I cannot say much more then people here have already. I always thought it was a cool system and did I ever love the magic system. Now if I could only get me current gaming group to play it!

 

[KenM]

My only problem with Shadowrun was that you had to take improved reflexes or whatever it was that gave you more actions in a combat round, or you were hosed. If you did not have it it was possible for everyone else to have 2 or 3 actions before you got to go once in a combat round. But this was a game system thing, you can easily use the setting with a different system.

 

[Vocenoctum]

My only problem with Shadowrun was that you had to take improved reflexes or whatever it was that gave you more actions in a combat round, or you were hosed. If you did not have it it was possible for everyone else to have 2 or 3 actions before you got to go once in a combat round. But this was a game system thing, you can easily use the setting with a different system.

In 3rd edition they changed it. Everyone goes through one action before everyone gets any extra actions they have.

Besides, most people that aren't wired are mages, and they can end a combat quickly enough anyway.

 

[Dragonblade]

Re: ooops...

Snipped hilarious story!

That is too funny! I can imagine what the GM was thinking when Player 2 shot Player 1!

 

[Umbran]

hmmm. forgive me if im wrong, but in third ed, most pools are limited by you skill in whatever you are doing.

Actually, that change was already in place in 2nd Edition Shadowrun. For the vast majority of tests, you cannot add more dice to the test than you have points in the skill you're using.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The good:
A fairly gritty combat system which nonetheless doesn't make every game a slaughterfest. Interesting rules for magic which make it seem that little bit more 'real'. The feel of the gameworld, and the amount of possibilities it offers (there's very few campaign styles which would be impossible while remaining within the world of SR). Artwork - it's cool. Australia! It's there! And it's written by aussies! Adventures and adventure paths which are useable and interesting.

The bad:
Character generation takes quite a bit (primarily due to spending resources - personally I'd make up some 'package deals' for the next time character generation is needed). Some of the available adventures assume that your team of materialistic mercenaries will just decide to be heroic for the hell of it...

The ugly:
Inconsistent mechanics - SR lacks a core mechanic like d20 has, and I think it hurts it. New players will take quite a while to find all the little nuances which apply or don't apply from situation to situation, and typically distinctions made serve no real purpose. Vehicle rules are awful - lots of unnecessary complexity, which leads to unplayability and some truly bizarre scenarios. Layout - someone really needed to point out to fasa that the equipment section is NOT the place to put rules on armour stacking, just as an example. Now that wizkids is doing things, layout seems much better.

As for doing SR using d20M? Unless you seriously alter the combat rules for d20m, you won't get the same feel. In SR, almost every fight is decided by who has the superior position. In general a fair fight in SR is a no-go. In d20m, you'll really fight to scare your players without just killing them all.

 

[Umbran]

The bad:
Character generation takes quite a bit (primarily due to spending resources - personally I'd make up some 'package deals' for the next time character generation is needed).

Shadowrun has had these in every edition. They're called "archetypes", and appear in every SR core rulebook, and in many of the supplements as well.

 

[Dirigible]

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said :

Love the char gen system. Flechette rounds confuse and abuse the heck outta me. Armour rules too, too much.

But, in the end, you gotta love a game where an elven master swordsman jams a brick of C4 onto the spine of a cybered-up, brain-dead troll with built in tazer skin and runs for it...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Shadowrun rocks. It takes something extremely goofy (putting elves, orcs, and dragons into a cyberpunk setting) and transforms it into something that against all the odds hangs together fairly well.

I'm currently the GM for my Shadowrun group, and we currently have two "campaign threads" running. In one, the PCs have to deal with the aftereffects of a run where they failed to prevent the detonation of an enchanted nuclear warhead (which caused a major rift into the astral plane, major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the Pacific Rim, released a horde of vengeful zombie spirits, and generated all sorts of major political repercussions...). The second one deals with a rogue artificial intelligence which has taken over a major arcology and toys with the lives of tens of thousands of people.

You can stick pretty much any story idea into Shadowrun, and make it work. And that's why I love it.