Shadowrun!
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There's got to be some people here who've played Shadowrun MU*'s in the late 90's/00's. That aren't Shadowrun Denver (not that there's much wrong with that). Ideally, some people who didn't hate me. I'm feeling nostalgic.
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I played Shadowrun Seattle, Detroit and London, yes even Denver.
Names are escaping me now.
My first Mu was Shadowrun, I played a yakuza soldier with the worst stats ever, can't recall her name. The next character I had was a French Canadian elf named Maria, she was an infiltrator. The only run I remember was the one where I opened a door with rigged explosives because everybody hmm'd and hawed around it and I dodged the blast. Someone on my team wrecked my car after that.
On Shadowrun Detroit, I played a single mom mechanic. Her name is escaping me. Then I played Natty, a big ex soldier street Sam. I think I played Natty the most because he was a combat monster. After he got nuked for inactivity, I played Sukanya, a middle aged combat medic. She was also a combat monster, had a lot of fun with her too. Then the game went down.
On Shadowrun Denver I played Sabra, an Israeli phys ad. I think I initiated once with her on there and I beat the crap out of some Troll in a pit fight. I want to say I won a tournament with her, but I think someone who was even more twinked up beat me, but the dice we were rolling were epic.
On Shadowrun London I played Minerva, a Jamaican merc. It was a pretty low powered game. All I remember doing on there was beating up a PC in a bar and taking all of his weapons, because he was a dick.
I miss Shadowrun... -
I also played ShadowRun. Various games.
Denver when it first was opening and before it went completely batshit elfbian mafia.
Seattle but it was already full of dinosaurs when I started on it. Also helped with the 4th edition Seattle game that never went fully implemented. Probably because 4th edition was so broken in that you could make uber skilled characters at cgen with very little upwards mobility.
I also played on Detroit but not for long, only had a couple of characters.
There is a 5th edition game, but they need a coder and picked a code base I am not familiar with and so can't help them. I've considered coding up my own, using the lifepath system so that everyone was balanced (relatively) and chargen could be automated since I don't know a lot of mu'ers anymore these days.
I'd also need help staffing stuff but... there would be some setting changes. I dislike the AI in your brain nanite disease arc they've been pushing in 5th so I'd just get rid of that entirely.
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I had a character on Seattle, but never got to play. I still play on Denver, but mostly because there is nowhere else to go.
I would staff the shit out of a SR mu, if it's code worked similarly to Denver's. When I worked there, I did minimum 2x the job-work than everyone else combined, but got fired cause I griped on pub-chan about stuff. It was fun.
As for setting, my vote would be a rewind to 2050, but use 5e rules, because the tech curve is the tech curve, but older editions had some bonkers plot arcs. Granted, most veteran players will know what happened, but just like you can know Palpatine gets killed at Endor, you can still play a Star Wars game set during the Rebellion.
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I'd be willing to help out on a Shadowrun Mu*. I built a grid for a Shadowrun New York that never happened. I haven't mushed in a long time, but I'd be willing to help out.
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Yeah I've considered that too, going back to 2050'ish timeline but you'd need to completely re-work deckers and the matrix because everything in 5th edition is set up for wireless rules. You'd have to ditch technomancers also (Which, honestly, is not that bad a thing they kind of muddy the water matrix wise and are hard to make valid for anything /but/ matrix stuff). Hmm... Now I am really intrigued by just how much alteration would be necessary to fix the matrix to be wired again.
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Or just make it wireless matrix. Still have the option to plug in because bandwidth.
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Wired matrix is a total dealkiller for me, honestly. I don't want worse computer technology in my sci-fi than my smartphone.
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Cyberpunk != Sci-fi.
Cyberpunk is alternate universe, where technology evolved differently than in our own.
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You go in wired for when bandwidth is super-important. Gives some mechanical bonus or something. Not /required/, but helpful. Plus there was the Crash of 29 that made people anti-tech for a bit. Or something. Theme can be hammered out!
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I'm with @tragedyjones on this one. Sure, you can do whatever you want to theme to make anything you want happen, but that's not the point.
@Admiral Cyberpunk is absolutely sci-fi and there is no stricture whatsoever on technology evolving "differently" in order to qualify as cyberpunk. Your restriction is merely an example of defining setting elements or theme in order to promote why there is a wired matrix. Just like @Jennkryst's.
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You're free to be wrong all you like Glitch. Don't let me stop you.
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So define sci-fi in a way that makes it clear that cyberpunk isn't sci-fi.
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@Admiral said:
"alternate universe, where technology evolved differently than in our own."
Still sci-fi.
@Misadventure said in Shadowrun!:
So define sci-fi in a way that makes it clear that cyberpunk isn't sci-fi.
Except it is. lulz.
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I would call cyberpunk a sub genre of sci fi.
You can do cyberpunk without a wired matrix, though I do prefer it with wired seems lower class that way.
If the tech gets too slick it ceases to be cyberpunk. take SR 4 for example, it is the best edition of Shadow Run U have played, (have not gotten to try five yet) but I do not get the cyberpunk feel from it which might be why i can tolerate the magic in it more then in previous editions. -
Define sci-fi.
Otherwise you're just saying "nu-uh".
My personal, non-academic definition of sci-fi is anything that explores in a reasoned and at least moderately rational way, how humanity might be changed as a a culture, and/or in personal experience by the advances of technology and the effects of that advancement.
For instance, the Alliance Union Space setting by CJ Cherrhy qualifies to me as it postulates the effects of distance=time lag for culture in a limited FTL setting , producing an exaggerated lag time in communication, which speeds human culture change. The author likewise tries to convey a reasonable and rational change in human experience by very small culture sets in ships and the limits and necessities of living in space where you may not return to a given place for years on end.
As a counter example, I feel that the Humanity loss of Cyberpunk 2020 and similar thinking is usually so simplified as to be clearly a game balance mechanism rather than an exploration of what is human, and how can a changed body and capacities alter or expand it. Eclipse Phase deals with that topic better. EP is science fiction gaming in my opinion. CP2020 and ShadowRun are Science Fantasy, even before you include literal magic.
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@Admiral said:
You're free to be wrong all you like Glitch. Don't let me stop you.
Cyberpunk is definitely a sub-genre of Scifi. You're free to be wrong all you like, though. Don't let me stop you.
Wikipedia says it is, too, but here's a link from some people with a stake:
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/scifi.html
I encourage you to do your own research.
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I see the Matrix as so much information that it just seems like EM polution in cities like that would have drastic interference quality and make hot matrix just silly with wireless matrix for anything serious. I also like wired matrix because I grew up with a wired Matrix, so this shift to wireless is like a hole different genre to me, less gritty, more flash, it's like it gave up some of it's identity by making technomancers and a wireless matrix made it feel less ShadowRun to me.
So sorry got rambly there.
Wired Matrix = Higher Data Transmission, less packet loss and corruption, etc.
Wireless Matrix = World of Social Media. I hate Social Media.
Your Mileage May Vary.
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I haven't found my 1e copy of the matrix book just yet, because moving sucks, but I did find 2e; though cell and radio networks weren't things, Sat uplinks were. In 3e, we definately add in cellular LTGs and other options. So wireless is there, but it runs on the wired infrastructure. I'd say that usin 5e mechanics on a 1-3e setting should be doable, but we keep the option for wireless there, because shiney. EM polution and signal degredation are even taken into account for doing long-range wireless stuff. I envision it as it is today - wireless routers/cell towers/whatever everywhere, tied into a wired grid. You could hop from device to device without the need to go through the wires, but it will by no means be the only way.
As for gritty, shadowrun was always supposed to be flashy-grit. Mohawks everywhere! The super cereal ex-military folks who dress in their BDUs and are super cereal is a playstyle, sure. But they're right there next to the latest Karl Kombatmage wannabe.
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