So for a Shadowrun d20, or cyberpunk d20, what kind of elements would be required for it?
For shadowrun, the five races: Humans, Dwarves, Elfs, Trolls and Orks.
Magic and a completely new spellcasting system that simulates the system as presented in Shadowrun itself, so there wouldn't be as many spells as in d&d, but each spell would have a Force Rating and Drain would have to be included to simulate the reality of the Shadowrun world.
The Technology would have to be there: cybernetics, biotics, riggers, deckers and the virtual matrix. Corporations and Mega-corporations, street gangs, but all of these are just story elements really.
The element of the game that would probably cause the most trouble for coversion is the health and damage system of the d6 version. It's assumed that all d20 games have to be leveled based and hit point based, and that is a falacy of our way of thinking about the d20 system as a whole. To keep the feel of Shadowrun, the health and damage system would have to be kept on par and practically the same. Since the original game has ten health points (for lethal damage and for subdual type damage), then the d20 version can also keep this. Heck, even modify it based on the CON MODIFIER of the person. Who says all d20 games have to be hit point based.
For damage, keep the same categories of damage values as in the original system. So, if a weapon does M damage, then they lose M points off their health monitor. The only question would then be about the weapon power associated with the category. What to do with a weapon that does 9M and one that does 5D, and how to simulate the resistance involved when someone gets hit??? I think that is the only true hickup in coverting Shadowrun over and keeping the feel of the game the same. Everything else is easy to convert over.
