ShadowRun 5E ... 2050

[Lithium]

Elves, orks, trolls, dwarves (And their variants) are all a part of the core ShadowRun setting. They all exist.

Since I am using a life path and point based system, being non-human costs a portion of your points, depending on the race you pick. Races have different maximum and minimum stats for example: Elves have a minimum of 3 Charisma, they have a cap of 8 Charisma. Trolls have a cap of 4 Charisma, but have a max of 10 strength. Humans are across the board normal with 1 minimum and 6 maximum (Before magic and cyberware) in all attributes except Edge which they get a bonus in that other races do no get.

Basically all the races are called 'Metahumans' and 'Metahumanity' because there is more than just humans, but they all originated from Humans in ShadowRun.

As magic began to come back, there were children born as dwarves and elves. When magic returned, A bunch of humans 'goblinized' by turning into orks and trolls, it was very traumatic and not everyone made it alive or with their sanity intact. The disparity between the races and humans is a key part of ShadowRun as a thematic element.

I am allowing most (not all) metavariants as PC's. I'm not allowing HMHVV positive characters. I'm also not allowing certain metavariants that don't make sense for an urban setting such as Dryads. I'm also not allowing centaurs, shifters, sasquatch, pixies, etc. (Though I might allow Pixies, I am still waffling on them).

[Woragarten]

@Tempest Mostly magical weeaboo elf princes with large jiggly breasts in trenchcoats and grannypanties, cyberdeck handbag optional.

@Lithium No leather faeries, please. Please remember they are french, too.

[FiranSurvivor]

Can I make an Irish IRA Terrorist who wants to take back the homeland from knife eared bastards?

Finished Hong Kong. You could easily set the game in there, the ending even drives the point home that what happened "Is just another Friday." Which was pretty awesome. Amazing game. Really really want a Shadowrun MU. Or really just bring back Cybersphere.... KINGFOX I SUMMON YOU.

[The Tree of Woe]

...As I understand it the 'take back Ireland' movement was something of a plot-point.

Elves aren't smug, salad-munching racist hypocrites except they totally are.

It would be fun to play a Troll who styles himself a Formorian. WE WERE THERE FIRST.

[FiranSurvivor]

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

...As I understand it the 'take back Ireland' movement was something of a plot-point.

Elves aren't smug, salad-munching racist hypocrites except they totally are.

It would be fun to play a Troll who styles himself a Formorian. WE WERE THERE FIRST.

Any chance you can point to a book or a link that explains Ireland and the Tir more?

[tragedyjones]

@FiranSurvivor said:

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

...As I understand it the 'take back Ireland' movement was something of a plot-point.

Elves aren't smug, salad-munching racist hypocrites except they totally are.

It would be fun to play a Troll who styles himself a Formorian. WE WERE THERE FIRST.

Any chance you can point to a book or a link that explains Ireland and the Tir more?

The most recent write-up of Tir no Nog would be in the 6th World Atlas for 4th Edition. I played a HUman Merc in 4E who was IRISH and left the island for the UCAS. I liked him a loit actually.

[JDCorley]

Hey everyone, nice to be on the new board.

As always, I'm here to derail everything and say "well actually" in a smug manner. Great to be back.

Well, Actually the key to Shadowrun MU* success is how you generate player content, or more specifically, how you permit players to generate their own content.

First, there should be systems in place to connected player characters to teams of Shadowrunners (or other sorts of teams if you want to branch out, but the team aspect of Shadowrun is key to the property.) Like, when I'm making a character I shouldn't just be making a hacker, I should be making a hacker who is already connected to a street samurai and a cool looking elf mage who smokes cigarettes. Partly premade characters will help here (partly premade characters are probably the way to get through the shitty over-complicated Shadowrun character creation in the first place).

Second, there should be systems in place for player characters to have a constant stream of problems and challenges thrown their way. Something along the lines of a random run generation system for Faces to interact with. "Well guys, looks like the ( YAKUZA ) want us to ( ROB ) a ( FLYING ARMORED CAR )". Put a range of difficulties and tests in the run generation system so that the characters can do well or badly, but let them run the run themselves. A staff-run shadowrun definitely should happen; another advantage of organizing your game by teams, since the staff can just notify the team "hey, let's do a shadowrun for you guys, see you on wednesday at 9" or whatever. But there should consistently be stuff that characters should be getting into without staff involvement.

Finally, I think the key thing to take away from the success of the recent CRPGs is that in those games something personal is at stake. You aren't hired by a stranger to do something to strangers in exchange for money. You need the money to get something that matters; you're hired by someone that matters to do something to someone else that matters to you. Personally. Probably more important than a scrupulously accurate SR5 chargen system is a way that teams can share with each other and staff "important shit that will fuck with my character personally right now".

Double finally, have you considered using the system from the CRPG instead?

[The Tree of Woe]

@FiranSurvivor said:

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

...As I understand it the 'take back Ireland' movement was something of a plot-point.

Elves aren't smug, salad-munching racist hypocrites except they totally are.

It would be fun to play a Troll who styles himself a Formorian. WE WERE THERE FIRST.

Any chance you can point to a book or a link that explains Ireland and the Tir more?

http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Tír_na_nÓg

Try that?

[FiranSurvivor]

On JDCorley's point of generating content. Heres an idea... kind of out there. Would require some dedication to initially code up and write up, but once it is done it could be a good source of RP and a generation of resources (mainly Nuyen) that would require minimum staff involvement.

Essentially everyone would have access to a once a week (to avoid abusing the system) pre-generated Run System. First they would decide how big their team is (up to a max of 5 and even allow for a team of one), the code would then choose a random story that has been pre-generated by staff. It then plays out like a choose your own adventure. You get the set pose, allow everyone to pose then the party leader hits the next button. The next pose comes out. They continue on with the story until they hit either a challenge or a fork, each with an accompanied pre-generated pose. If its a challenge they have to pass a roll or suffer a failure. (could be a simple as someone is injured, they fail part of the mission, or they fail the entire mission) A fork changes the outcome of the run or sends the run into a new tangent. (This could allow for a pregenerated system to have some extra life as not all runs will be the same) At the end of the run, depending on if specific objectives were met, rolls were passed, and what forks were chosen, the team gets a Nuyen award or maybe a favor or item they can use in future runs. Again these pre-generated runs would be limited to probably once a week. Maybe once every two weeks. You don't want everyone to just rely on this system. You still want staff runs and PRP to be an avenue.

This allows for a system that runs without any staff involvement except for its initial placement. It allows for groups to RP action based scenes without the need for an experienced storyteller or active staffer, and even allows for those lone wolf types to earn some money and develop a side story they can tell to their friends.

It allows the game to feel alive. You could code up a secondary system that could tie run results into a News Broadcast Board where some corporate mouth piece comes up with an excuse for a recent run and your players can smirk knowing theyre talking about them.

You can also make it so that your staff initiation for the game is they have to make a pre-gen Run, or allow players to submit pre-gun runs for a lil XP.

[The Tree of Woe]

@JDCorley I hadn't seen you online since Brave and the Bold. I thought you went to do grownup things in grownup places.

How've you been?

[JDCorley]

I've been great, doing grownup things in grownup places. But I did end up doing some game writing and fiction editing at various points. Thanks for the good wishes.

Before you even sort through the specifics of a system like that you need to figure out what money does in your game. (Interestingly, money's somewhat devalued in the CRPG compared to the tabletop game - you can't buy as much stuff and there's a lot of stuff you can buy that's not valuable to all characters.) In the tabletop game the main thing money does is enable shopping; fine as far as it goes, but if you're not going to lovingly replicate the endless streams of guns, ammunition, and brand types in your game, it's not going to hold much pull.

Lifestyle is more of what I think people MU* for - we want to have the cooler apartment and the awesomer threads to impress our virtual girl/boyfriend/harems with. So maybe instead of looking specifically to nuyen rewards it might be more fun to look at breaking down lifestyle into more tracks.

But again, if you're going to stick with the main system, some of these thoughts are not going to apply - you need to track each and every nuyen if you're going to try for that cycle of job -> shopping -> job that the game hits.

[The Tree of Woe]

A good GM will also come up with innovative ways to take your Nuyen.

One of the best counters to D&D style hoarding I saw was in the Mongoose Conan RPG. If players started hoarding treasure, the GM could call "High Living," which means that the PCs spend all their money on expensive inns, expensive drink, and expensive men/women.

[HelloRaptor]

@The-Tree-of-Woe said:

One of the best counters to D&D style hoarding I saw was in the Mongoose Conan RPG. If players started hoarding treasure, the GM could call "High Living," which means that the PCs spend all their money on expensive inns, expensive drink, and expensive men/women.

I know nothing says enjoyable gaming to me like the GM telling me what my character does with his stuff.

So many games would run so much smoother if players would just stop insisting they should make those sorts of decisions.

[Lithium]

I've already said what system I am going to use.

I've already said where I would, and would not, set the game.

I'm /not/ going to force people to have a connection to other people who they don't even know, don't know if they're even compatible time wise, rp wise, or even /like/ each other OOCly or ICly.

People will come together and make ShadowRunning Teams /without/ staff involvement. There doesn't need to be /coded runs/ this is not a mud. It's not a moo. It's not a muck. It's a MUX. I'm most definitely not going to code up some automated run creation system where /1/ person could go on some simulated run all on their little lonesome.

If you want to go on Runs, then wait for someone to run one. Or run one for someone else. Or wait for staff to run one you can get involved in.

Be proactive and don't expect /anything/ to be fed to you on a silver spoon.

I am using ShadowRun 5th edition, modified for timeline and location.

The End.

EDIT: And if /anyone/ ever manages to hoard enough money they don't need to go on runs anymore? Congratulations! You've made it off the streets and out of the life. Not many runners get that far! You've done it! Throw a party! Retire the character since clearly they're not a runner anymore.

[FiranSurvivor]

Was just an idea man to make the game seem alive without constant babysitting from staff 24/7. That's what I noticed in a lot of games these days. (Not just Shadowrun but EVERY game) Games can seem completely dead if staff aren't doing stuff. A semi-automated system can relieve some pressure from staff and make a staff run plot/run seem that much better when it does happen.

[Arkandel]

@Lithium, as you noted - repeatedly - this is indeed your game. As such you can indeed make every choice about it that you see fit.

However you posted about it on a forum for other people to comment upon, and if you don't mind me saying so you sound a bit defensive about anyone having different ideas than your own. That, too, is fine but it begs the question of why you brought it up here in the first place.

If it's for advertisement purposes only there's a sub-forum for that. Otherwise you should expect brainstorming because that's what we do here, and if you can't handle different ideas than what you've already decided on you'll end up frustrated. Well, or more frustrated than you already sound which seems like a non-inconsiderable amount.

[Thenomain]

I dunno, @Arkandel, I rearranged her response in my head to, "Yeah, imma do it my way, thanks", and left the attack/defense nature of her response, and your response to her response, as leftovers from some tone earlier in the thread. It's not like she told you that your responses were laughable.

This doesn't stop you from having your own discussion, so I don't know what your issue is.

[Arkandel]

@Thenomain Well, at a glance I'd say it's not exactly strange you can't find the issue if you edited the original post in your head enough. Hint: I wasn't commenting on the censored version but the actual one.

[JDCorley]

It's all good, if you've got it all figured out, you don't need anyone's help. I promise you your staff will burn out and with no other means to introduce content your playerbase will devolve into just drinking and fucking - nothing wrong with that, of course - but if you don't believe my promise, you can definitely get right to proving me a fool. I hope that you do. :bowtie:

[ThatGuyThere]

@JDCorley said:

I promise you your staff will burn out and with no other means to introduce content your playerbase will devolve into just drinking and fucking -

so you are saying it will be a mush then?