Evangelion Kun
12-16-2002, 01:52 AM
With Shadowrun long dead and buried (And replaced by the World of Darkness and the Call of Cthulu, feh), those of us who grew up with it (in my case, the end of it.) Remember more than a few things. This is just an amusing reflection, hoping to start a bit of nostaliga induced amusement. So sue me, I'm bored.
First of all: I love Shadowrun's world. If it's one thing Fasa did right, it's make for an interesting world. The surface premise is simple; mix an amalgam of magic, fantasy creatures, even Dragons and suddenly deck them out with a tecnophile's wet-dream worth of technology, throw in them in a typical Cyberpunk-realm and let 'em rip, but there was a LOT to dig into to. Fasa was "wiz" (...I'll get into the rant about some of the buzz words used later, which would be under "The down side") when it came to making worlds, and all the pieces were there. From the criminal world to Political games to the kind of games corps play, a good GM could make one helluva campagin. I've been part of campaigns where we've played everything to Shadowrunners to competing corporate heads, and all of it was a blast. There's a bit of something for everyone in SR, Mage files, computer nuts, gearheads... All forms of nerd can enjoy it! I LIKED how sarcastic the world was. Characters didn't complain, they dealt. That seperates it from the angsty teenage-fest of WoD (Which, sadly, I confess I did try out. Never again). Hell, the source books, though full of cheese, was almost immersive. Each one told a unique story (for those interested; I'd suggest looking up the Renraku Arcology shutdown or Portfolio of a Dragon, and for amusement--the Street Samurai Catalog). All in all, Shadowrun could be a blast... The world, that is.
But ya know, nothing's perfect--Shadowrun is far, FAR from it. The first would be it's... let's say... Political correctness.
We all know that back in the days of SR, RP had to watch it's step. For some reason, RP got a far worse wrap than I noticed it gets today. Believing it to be demonic, and lead kids astray (D&D the primary culprit-spawning bad movies on kids turning bad because of it), and because of this, there were lines you simply couldn't cross. The first is that Shadowrun is somewhat... clean, for being gristly. The most obvious example? Naughty language. I've read it for years, and I still think i'ts just plain dumb. Reading lines of dialogue like "Frag this drek! It's all null sweat, chummer, I find the Paydata, jack out, and everything's wiz!" Makes me wince. I don't even mind a few things "Paydata" is fine. Wiz--ehh.. but Frag and drek bother me a LOT. It's hard to take a character seriously spouting every other word out.
But that's a small thing... Does anyone remember how mind-numbingly asisine the dice were? I swear, Fasa could get worlds right, but don't expect it to make anything workable. To give you and example of the sort of thing a GM had to do...? Here we go.
A GM has 4 PCs, engaged with 6 NPCs (Gotta balance it out with a slight numerical advantage). Among the PCs are a Street Samurai and a Merc, both with Wired Reflexes. One of your NPC has it, but at a lower raitng. One Street Samurai is INSANELY powerful.. so here goes.
You roll the initiative, and add the reaction, at the start of the new turn. Let's say.. the Street samurai, and the Merc roll a total of 45, and 32, respectively. the other 2 PCs rolls 10 and 7. The NPC with good reflexes rolls 20. The other one? 8. So here's the score.
According to the rules. There are 45 combat phases. 45! Here's the order it has to keep up in. SS Denotes Street Sam, M for Merc.
SS: 45
SS: 35
M: 32
SS:25
M:22
NPC1: 20
SS:15
M:12
G:10 (Tie)
PC3: 10
PC4:7
SS:5
M:2
ONE TURN, people! In EACH phase, a person get's up to two simple actions, or one complex. Problem number one. Do some elementary math, and you will realize that the GM has to , at once, process, resolve, and record the results of over 28 SEPERATE actions. Obviously, having an insanely high Initative is also the key; when playing with guns, this can thereotically mean (as is my understanding: The rules in SR read like a techincal manual for some complicated machine, and it's your first day on the job). That he can fire an INSANE amount of time with his guns in the same turn. This also can mean mage's run into a few problems if caught outside astral space; The idea of a Street Samurai getting to fire up to 8 shots at you before you're spell gets off is unpleasant, and makes Mage's VERY dependent on their other characters. But most of all, this can make Combat insanely difficult to go through. I have been in a game where a single combat phase took 3 hours: Nobody stays interested in one combat for that long. Sadly, this is one of the EAISIER parts. Decking was inane (I hear VR cleans it up a lot, but... Ouch.) and insane. I LOVED the idea of Decking, but the concept of playing a Decker was enough to make the GM want to do mean, mean things to you (like break your deck...)
Last but not least: It was cleaned up in 3rd edition, but it was SO easy to make powerful characters. With a little work, you can make a Human street Samurai capable of handling a huge group of Trolls armed with Panther Assault Cannons and HMG, mow them down, have enough body to sustain an hit from one Assault Cannon, and SHRUG IT OFF (Old rules: Put on some dermal plating, and replace limbs; according to the "letter"--damn rule lawyers), you'd get extra popints of dermal plating, PERIOD, for having them--increasing your body rating. Suddenly a human has almost 2-3 times his racial maximum for body, and can soak up insane amounts of damage.) And only be vulnerable to magery (which didn't matter-Street Sam's wanted high Willpower for Reaction anyway--so it already covers them a little) and makes healing magic less valueable (When you can hardly be hurt...) Hell, it was hard to see why NOT to make a Street Samurai, ESPECIALLY in 2nd edition. Honestly, Everyone whose been part of them has had at least one, and to those who don't... My kudo's for not worrying about the powertrip. (I tried to make some unique ones, some really interesting ones, that kinda thing, but ultimately, I'd get frustrated with having one among 3 or 4... Blargh).
Anyway, any thoughts?
45
First of all: I love Shadowrun's world. If it's one thing Fasa did right, it's make for an interesting world. The surface premise is simple; mix an amalgam of magic, fantasy creatures, even Dragons and suddenly deck them out with a tecnophile's wet-dream worth of technology, throw in them in a typical Cyberpunk-realm and let 'em rip, but there was a LOT to dig into to. Fasa was "wiz" (...I'll get into the rant about some of the buzz words used later, which would be under "The down side") when it came to making worlds, and all the pieces were there. From the criminal world to Political games to the kind of games corps play, a good GM could make one helluva campagin. I've been part of campaigns where we've played everything to Shadowrunners to competing corporate heads, and all of it was a blast. There's a bit of something for everyone in SR, Mage files, computer nuts, gearheads... All forms of nerd can enjoy it! I LIKED how sarcastic the world was. Characters didn't complain, they dealt. That seperates it from the angsty teenage-fest of WoD (Which, sadly, I confess I did try out. Never again). Hell, the source books, though full of cheese, was almost immersive. Each one told a unique story (for those interested; I'd suggest looking up the Renraku Arcology shutdown or Portfolio of a Dragon, and for amusement--the Street Samurai Catalog). All in all, Shadowrun could be a blast... The world, that is.
But ya know, nothing's perfect--Shadowrun is far, FAR from it. The first would be it's... let's say... Political correctness.
We all know that back in the days of SR, RP had to watch it's step. For some reason, RP got a far worse wrap than I noticed it gets today. Believing it to be demonic, and lead kids astray (D&D the primary culprit-spawning bad movies on kids turning bad because of it), and because of this, there were lines you simply couldn't cross. The first is that Shadowrun is somewhat... clean, for being gristly. The most obvious example? Naughty language. I've read it for years, and I still think i'ts just plain dumb. Reading lines of dialogue like "Frag this drek! It's all null sweat, chummer, I find the Paydata, jack out, and everything's wiz!" Makes me wince. I don't even mind a few things "Paydata" is fine. Wiz--ehh.. but Frag and drek bother me a LOT. It's hard to take a character seriously spouting every other word out.
But that's a small thing... Does anyone remember how mind-numbingly asisine the dice were? I swear, Fasa could get worlds right, but don't expect it to make anything workable. To give you and example of the sort of thing a GM had to do...? Here we go.
A GM has 4 PCs, engaged with 6 NPCs (Gotta balance it out with a slight numerical advantage). Among the PCs are a Street Samurai and a Merc, both with Wired Reflexes. One of your NPC has it, but at a lower raitng. One Street Samurai is INSANELY powerful.. so here goes.
You roll the initiative, and add the reaction, at the start of the new turn. Let's say.. the Street samurai, and the Merc roll a total of 45, and 32, respectively. the other 2 PCs rolls 10 and 7. The NPC with good reflexes rolls 20. The other one? 8. So here's the score.
According to the rules. There are 45 combat phases. 45! Here's the order it has to keep up in. SS Denotes Street Sam, M for Merc.
SS: 45
SS: 35
M: 32
SS:25
M:22
NPC1: 20
SS:15
M:12
G:10 (Tie)
PC3: 10
PC4:7
SS:5
M:2
ONE TURN, people! In EACH phase, a person get's up to two simple actions, or one complex. Problem number one. Do some elementary math, and you will realize that the GM has to , at once, process, resolve, and record the results of over 28 SEPERATE actions. Obviously, having an insanely high Initative is also the key; when playing with guns, this can thereotically mean (as is my understanding: The rules in SR read like a techincal manual for some complicated machine, and it's your first day on the job). That he can fire an INSANE amount of time with his guns in the same turn. This also can mean mage's run into a few problems if caught outside astral space; The idea of a Street Samurai getting to fire up to 8 shots at you before you're spell gets off is unpleasant, and makes Mage's VERY dependent on their other characters. But most of all, this can make Combat insanely difficult to go through. I have been in a game where a single combat phase took 3 hours: Nobody stays interested in one combat for that long. Sadly, this is one of the EAISIER parts. Decking was inane (I hear VR cleans it up a lot, but... Ouch.) and insane. I LOVED the idea of Decking, but the concept of playing a Decker was enough to make the GM want to do mean, mean things to you (like break your deck...)
Last but not least: It was cleaned up in 3rd edition, but it was SO easy to make powerful characters. With a little work, you can make a Human street Samurai capable of handling a huge group of Trolls armed with Panther Assault Cannons and HMG, mow them down, have enough body to sustain an hit from one Assault Cannon, and SHRUG IT OFF (Old rules: Put on some dermal plating, and replace limbs; according to the "letter"--damn rule lawyers), you'd get extra popints of dermal plating, PERIOD, for having them--increasing your body rating. Suddenly a human has almost 2-3 times his racial maximum for body, and can soak up insane amounts of damage.) And only be vulnerable to magery (which didn't matter-Street Sam's wanted high Willpower for Reaction anyway--so it already covers them a little) and makes healing magic less valueable (When you can hardly be hurt...) Hell, it was hard to see why NOT to make a Street Samurai, ESPECIALLY in 2nd edition. Honestly, Everyone whose been part of them has had at least one, and to those who don't... My kudo's for not worrying about the powertrip. (I tried to make some unique ones, some really interesting ones, that kinda thing, but ultimately, I'd get frustrated with having one among 3 or 4... Blargh).
Anyway, any thoughts?
45