Shadowrun

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I think it was due to skill based builds being more favored in previous versions of shadowrun due to the fact that skills are easier to obtain than attributes. The very concept of limit seems to put attributes back on top but that ignores the plethora of limit increasing items and augments.

So whats the point of attributes if skills are more important?

Like, if stronger puncher does less damage than skillful puncher, well, any point having strong and skillfull puncher?

...Okay, my morning tiredom is hitting again, let me phrase that in another way:

Whats point of having hostiles be of the metatype that is supposed to be big burly strong one if they are just as easily beaten by martial artist elf as other metatypes? :P Like, if their 8 stat strength means nothing to level 6 martial artist with 3 strength, whats the point of using trolls that aren't martial artist experts as well?

edited 3rd Oct '14 9:26:03 PM by SpookyMask

Say, how are the relations between the UCAS and the CAS within the playable timeframes of the setting (i.e. 2050s to 2070s, at least 2 decades after the CAS's secession)? Do their citizens face any particular problems (e.g. discrimination) whenever they cross the border through legal channels?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I'm thinking about running a game of Shadownrun soon-ish, any advice? For SR or a new GM in general?

Well, played in Shadowrun 5e one shot month ago, it was great fun and we managed to get through whole thing without ever actually starting up combat No clue how the heck we managed to do that

So from that I guess... Well, if it makes sense and isn't the explicit goal of the mission, let players avoid combat if they are smart about it :p

It also kinda depends on what you want, do you want more action movie type of thing or more mysterious were players don't have full picture of what insidious science stuff is going on but they have to act on what they intepret like the oneshot I played in was like? There is more than one type of game you can have in this game even though its pretty combat heavy

edited 21st Oct '14 11:16:53 PM by SpookyMask

Fair enough. I'm still trying to gauge interest and see if I can get a group going. Then I have to come up with a campaign and characters.

I don't know but down the Shadowrun games such as the recent Shadow Run Returns are supposed to be pretty faithful to the table top game.

I don't know might be worth checking out if you want to get a feel of the 'Play' of the universe.

hashtagsarestupid

Oh I have both Shadowrun Returns and the expansion, Dragonfall. Love both, which inspired me to check out the tabletop.

Oh kewl well you have a pretty good idea then of the gameplay and tone.

I can't think of anything to offer then other then pack a lot of 'em Dsixes and make sure the people you play with are actually likeable enough to be considered friends outside of the tabletop.

hashtagsarestupid

Well, as a fellow newbie DM and one who is also in the process of starting a Shadowrun game, one very, very simple rule: do not expect to get much of anything accomplished during the first session, and probably for one or two more after that, as everyone will be trying to sort out their characters. Also, a handy trick that I pulled was simply using simsense for a 'practice run' for combat and whatnot so that my players could get used to the system.

^Eh, wouldn't be so sure <_< Shadowrun isn't really sandbox game, its all about doing missions given to you in the time, so unless you let players do whatever the hell they want, you can assume they will get one mission done in first session

One can totally sandbox Shadowrun, when your players develop their own plots and intrigues. And your players deciding what they do when business is low.

I mean, a Shadowrun game shouldn't just be about the Johnson missions after all, but the runners getting stuck in some scheme they need to entangle and such,

Shadowrun has a scenario that exist specifically for getting used to the combat system: Food Fight. A bunch of Gangers attack a gas station / corner store as the Runners are there to get food.

(Some editions even come with random table where you roll what mess happens when bullet miss by rolling on three tables. ie: "Green Sticky Fluid")

edited 28th Oct '14 12:40:03 PM by CobraPrime

Ha. I like the most light-hearted elements in SR. Yeah food fight is good. I like mundane introduction to mission. Like like running the glass of water mission in paranoia.

edited 28th Oct '14 1:57:17 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

^^Yeaaaaah, but my point was that shadowrun lends well for quicker sessions were more things happen unless you decide that "Okay, if players want to ignore all jobs and do nothing fine", so having first session were everyone is introduced to each other and have mission together should be fine :P

edited 28th Oct '14 9:56:12 PM by SpookyMask

So what's this that I keep hearing about a huge war between the Great Dragons ending with several of the big names dead or otherwise out of the big picture (for now), Aztlan/Aztechnology getting back into Denver, some sort of "Sybil virus" wrecking havoc on nanotechnology (and by extension, genetic modification), famous runners like FastJack and even Villiers' right-hand man Miles Lanier being "infected" by some new malady that is threatening to overtake their minds, and other stuff that I may be forgetting to mention, and new Matrix protocols forcing the return of physical cyberdecks to the frontlines of shadowrunning?

edited 29th Oct '14 4:19:38 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

The book Storm Front deal with changes to the metaplot as the game transitioned to 5th Edition.

Sirrug lost his cool with Aztechnology and obliterated two major Aztlan cities before AZT counterattacked. They brought massive amounts of firepower and managed to bring him down, but he pulled a That Battle Didnt Count through a magical ritual that teleported him away.

Aztechnology occupied southern Denver while Ghostwalker was dealing with a civil war apparently led by Harlequin (with technical support from Puck). The Second Treaty of Denver (which I believe forbade Aztlan or AZT assets from setting foot in Denver) had expired and the parties eventually sit down to draft a third treaty. I don't know if it has been ratified yet.

Lofwyr has finally had enough of Alamais's man-eating and leads a massive force against his GeMiTo compound. When the dust settles, Alamais is dead and GeMiTo is even more trashed.

After all this nonsense, the Great Dragons meet in a private location to deal with their problems. Sirrurg is imprisoned for his indiscriminate slaughters, Hestaby is stripped of her holdings for discussing internal Great Dragon affairs with mortals, and Lofwyr passes the Jewel of Memory and position of Loremaster to Celedyr, who sets December 26, 2075 as the expiration date for all Great Dragon grievances with metahumanity; after that date, all such issues will be considered settled.

I don't know the story justification for it, but between 4th and 5th Editions, nanotechnology mysteriously stops working and stuff made with it falls apart.

Something is possessing people, including FastJack, calling back to odd, seemingly out-of-character Shadowtalk comments he's made in the past. He turns over control of the network to Bull, Glitch, and Slamm-O! so he can devote his full attention to taking his mind and body back. I think Stolen Souls deals with this plot thread.

The new Matrix protocols are a story justification for the change to the Matrix rules from 4th Edition Anniversary to 5th.

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What I gathered from some threads is that there's a mysterious computer virus specifically targeting nanotech that has spread like wildfire across the globe; whatever nano-manufacturing plants and nanotech shops it didn't directly screw over, were shut down indefinitely (or are about to) in fear that the virus has already spread, eluded detection, and is just dormant. It seems to be called the "Sybil virus", and nobody could figure out how to deal with it.

And I don't really understand the out-of-universe justification for removing nanotech from gameplay.

What those thread made me think happened, however, is that Lofwyr actually died in his effort to kill Alamais. All that ambiguity of "Lofwyr is no longer the Loremaster" and such phrasing, you know?

edited 9th Nov '14 4:43:27 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

My issue with the nanotech plot is the fact that nanofabricated materials and structures are falling apart; that's why I potholed to No Ontological Inertia.

To compare: my father's an aerospace engineer. He fabricates aircraft parts with a colossal cutting tool (I'd say the whole machine is as tall as a two-storey house). If that tool were decommissioned and scrapped, would the airframes he helped build spontaneously crumble? No, of course not. Why is that the case with nanofabrication when the only difference is the scale of the engineering?

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I don't know wizards may be?

Did nano materials explicitly need active nano things to maintain integrity? Maybe the virus just program them to act in reverse and disassemble previously assembled items?

hashtagsarestupid

The virus could be nanotechnology in itself. From a narrative standpoint, the problem with nanotech is that it can do almost anything. Including destroying other nanotech.

Yeah, nanomachines themselves are going haywire, not falling apart. That means they could do anything from stop working altogether, to running amok a la the typical Grey Goo scenario.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Yeah it could be some sort of anti nano machine nano machine programme.

Like in the end of Deus Ex Invisible War. if you side with the Knight Templer they have you reprogram JC Denton forced uplift machine so it reprograms everyone is bio mods so to permanently bring the human race back to a baseline level.

edited 10th Nov '14 4:11:04 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

On another note, how old is this "complete secularization of marriage" thing that was implemented by the legal/judicial system of the UCAS when it was formed, which automatically legalized same-sex marriage and polygamy/polyamory/non-monogamy (yes, you read that right^note the text says "contracted multi-partner marriage", which sounds like obvious legalese for polygamy)? Heck, I'm quite interested in knowing just what motivated the UCAS government to do this, given that Shadowrunner comments indicate that societal opinion was far from universal acceptance of such changes, hence lots of social commentary and even conservative lobbying to the "modern day" (i.e. 50s/60s, depending on the edition).

I've so far tracked it down to 3rd Edition, in the Sprawl Survival Guide (check for "Love Without Boundaries"); it's mentioned again in 4th Edition's Sixth World Almanac, in the UCAS country profile; however, my search efforts are stumped at finding anything relevant for 5th Edition, though it might be more because I haven't gotten my hands on a setting-centric sourcebook that expands upon the societal elements of the Sixth World.

edited 25th Nov '14 11:59:27 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Was it the dragon president who passed that?

... He wasn't anywhere close to being president at the time. I did say that the laws were passed when the UCAS was formed, didn't I?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.