shadowrun

Zed

Rogue Chimp
I've been looking at the 4th Edition and trying to get my head around the rules etc. Does anyone fancy a quick PBF shadowrun game to help me sort my head around the rules system?

i have a couple of adventures that would normally take an evening to play so for us itll take about a month or so to run through. Standard provided characters as well (basically that samples ones from the 4th ed rules)
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Zed, take a look at Taslorians (SP) Cyberpunk, it knocks spots off Shadowrun, which I found had a really silly system. We spent 3 sessions (crap DM, admitedly) where the players bought gear, and two sessions conducting a fight which lasted 12 seconds in game time. (During that 12 seconds one character carried out something like sixty actions). If you have a decker and he wants to go in to the matrix your game splits in to two seperate ones.
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
I just found Cyberpunk an easy, logical system. The Shadowrun system, while the background is top notch, the actual ruleset seemed overcomplicated, arcane and most of the time just didnt make sense. Mind, I also think the same about their other game, Earthdawn. Sometimes, it seems to me, companies feel a need to stand out from the crowd with a complex, intricate rules system. It's as if they dont have enough faith in the actual gameworld they produce to keep it simple.
 

Sorontar

Full Member
I just found Cyberpunk an easy, logical system. The Shadowrun system, while the background is top notch, the actual ruleset seemed overcomplicated, arcane and most of the time just didnt make sense. Mind, I also think the same about their other game, Earthdawn. Sometimes, it seems to me, companies feel a need to stand out from the crowd with a complex, intricate rules system. It's as if they dont have enough faith in the actual gameworld they produce to keep it simple.

Oh the Shadowrun rules were a bit dice intensive and a little over complicated as well but to me the gameworld used to make it worthwhile.

TBH I wouldn't mind if they converted it to d20 Modern/Cyber.
 

Zed

Rogue Chimp
the 4th ed makes it much simpler. Everything needs a 5 or 6 on a d6 to be counted as a success. No real dice explosions (6s count and roll again etc) all penalties and bonus add to the dice pool. DM sets number of successes to succeed and bam off you go.
 

Zed

Rogue Chimp
Absolutely.

So i want this to be easy and clean fro ma start point. in the 4th Ed rules are a number of precanned characters. Im proposing people pick one from the list and we go from there.

So the options are: (all are 400BP characters)

1. Bounty hunter (Troll): Likes knives and guns oh and carries a bow. just because
2. Covert ops Specialist (Human): infiltration is the game. Sword, silenced weapon. sneaky sneaky sneaky
3. Drone Rigger (Dwarf): Short stocky dude with a liking towards Drones and a large van to keep em in.
4. Enforcer (Troll): Bit dodgy but likes to sort trouble out - usually with a fist, Gun or sword.
5. Face (Dwarf): She can talk the hind legs off a donkey then convince it to walk 500miles.
6. Gunslinger Adept (ork): So, Whadd'ya want? Guns, Lots of guns.
7. Hacker (Ork): Pwned yer comm link dude
8. Smuggler (Elf): Rides a bike. Smuggles shit. nuff said.
9. Street Samurai (human): More cyberware than a cyberdine1000 and lots of guns.
10. Weapons Specialist (Elf): Wanted guns eh? Gimmie a clue here? Rifles? revolvers? Piddly little 1 shots?

for now ive left out the spell casting builds to keep it easy on me. So choose your character and ill get a character sheet for the build over to you.
 

Requiel

PVC Love God
Would like to be the Ork gunslinger adept if poss. I'll pop out at lunch sometime this week and see if I can track down a rulebook at Forbidden Planet.
 

Medivac

Doggin' at a spot near you
Shadowrun was one of my fav's after Mechwarrior, and rules IMHO are a guide line, anyone quoting rules at me would have a very bad time, when I was GM'ing.:p
 

Sorontar

Full Member
Shadowrun was one of my fav's after Mechwarrior, and rules IMHO are a guide line, anyone quoting rules at me would have a very bad time, when I was GM'ing.:p

God Mechwarrior, another old RPG with a pap rules system but a brilliant backstory :)
 

Medivac

Doggin' at a spot near you
Didn't mind the rules in Mechwarrior, worst IMO was starwars, you needed a bucket to carry your D6's in.........laser rifle damage 43D6 +3 :p
 

Sorontar

Full Member
Didn't mind the rules in Mechwarrior, worst IMO was starwars, you needed a bucket to carry your D6's in.........laser rifle damage 43D6 +3 :p
Tunnels and Trolls was bad for a dice induced hernia I recall as well. Oh the good old days when all I had to worry about was what lolly I was going to get from the shop with my 10p spends after I had bought my football stickers :)

*wipes the tears from his eyes*
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
The worst two for me, apart from Rulesmaster which is the God of overcomplex game systems, were Bushiodo and Space Opera. Space Opera needed a mainfraim the size of a small planet to work out the complicated math involved in doing absolutely anything.

Oh and an honourable mention to Chivalry and Sorcery, which while not overly complex, had rules and tables for stuff like how many eggs your chickens laid. :)
 

Sorontar

Full Member
Loved Rolemaster as making a character was an event that you poured your soul into (well it took you two days if you had the Companion books and were using synergies for your skills :D )

I even loved the Standard Rules they brought out and ran some nice games in Middle Earth using them.

One of the craziest things that happened in a RM game involved us running away from a group of bandits in a tower and my mate trying to close a door behind him with his heel.

Well Manoeuvre Tables were brought out and he ended up shattering his knee and I had to stand over him and fight them at the doorway :)

Oh and the Hero system is another that you can really spend some time making up a character with all the variations you can have on powers.
 

Requiel

PVC Love God
Role Master is beautiful, elegant system as long as you have a GM who knows that rulebooks are full of guidelines not laws and who is happy to leave things to a moving manoeuvre roll rather than look up the exact table for a situation that only happens once every ten thousand sessions.
 
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