Posts made by Lithium

@Jennkryst said:

Technomancers can be a thing, just slowly introduced. Otaku were things in older editions, and I know some of them weren't of the AI/Deus variety.

As for qualities... some can go, others should stay. If you have a lifepath that gives you a Criminal SIN, it should probably remain. Though, I suppose, there could also be a lifepath thing to get that deleted somehow. Should really re-familiarize myself with 5E.

Otaku were a thing in third edition. There's no Otaku just yet, and might not ever be. I personally like Decker's as the matrix cowboys and I feel technomancers dillute things and don't mesh well, what with their inability to do /anything/ really well, other than summon sprites to do the heavy lifting generally.

I'm not saying Technomancers can't be good, just that they're an aspect of the later settings I do not care for and one of the reasons why I am going back to 2050.

I used to have one back in my Firan days, but... I cannot for the life of me remember what I used now...

Japan has never lost control of San Francisco to my knowledge. Even when Japan technically didn't, it's been controlled by Mitsuhama and the other Japancorps.

EDIT: Apparently Japan lost control of San Francisco in 2061, but Saito, the military leader defected from Japan and created his own state backed by the Yakuza and various Japanese Corps. Eventually he was kicked out but... San Francisco is a hellish place, don't have your papers? Get shot on the spot. Be a metahuman in San Francisco? Get shot. So on and so forth.

I would guess that in a more modern setting after Ares and Cal Free managed to kick Saito out it might be a better city so... If San Francisco gets picked it's going to most likely be a split grid of San Francisco and Oakland/Berkely/Tri-County Area so as to all for a variety of locations other than the overarching: If you're not japanese human, you're fucked.

@Misadventure said:

I for one look for a game, not a game following a preset timeline of setting and events. Given that I doubt a game will last two or three IC decades, concern about where the setting was heading seems odd.

However, I am not a player who plays a certain property because it is that property.

I'm not going to follow set events, but I am all for removing hassles for myself. I don't want it to even be a /thing/ people expect. It's sort of like setting a game in the Matrix but before Neo. It could be done, it might even be able to be done well within the limits of that setting, but people would expect Neo to come along and everything would change and nobody's actions would really matter, because Neo.

I plan to run at an accelerated time ratio so it's entirely possible that the game could span a length of IC time and if I set it in Chicago (For example) Everyone would wonder when I would bring the Bugs.

So I am basically just making things easy on myself and on plot runners/ST's/GM's/Whatever by not tying the game setting to a pre-established location with it's story already told and we can tell all our own stories and take the world where we want it to go.

I hope that makes sense.

@FiranSurvivor said:

Why not Hong Kong? You could possibly pull in new players with the recent release of Shadow Run: Hong Kong. Which is fantastic by the way.

Regardless while I prefer straight Cyberpunk to Shadowrun, id play a SR MUSH in a heartbeat.

Could also do Chicago before the rise of the bug spirits and the big quarantine?

I'm avoiding Hong Kong because of the game actually. People are looking at Hong Kong now through the eyes of HBS's game and that is fine but I don't want people down the road expecting events from that game happening. Defeats the purpose of trying for a lesser used venue.

Also: I'd rather pull in people who were looking for ShadowRun rather than trying to extend on a setting that isn't my creation (Which is another reason I am going with an underused city/setting, because then there's less established lore to run into).

I put the options out there because those were my initial ideas, so I guess it is between Austin and San Francisco, both are very intriguing in their own right.

Keep the opinions coming! Right now I am working on CharGen. I am using the Lifepath system from Run Faster so that everyone can make a character that is functional without needing to know the ins and outs of 5th edition. I am modifying it (Namely removing attached qualities and just adjusting costs due to that, Qualities I think should be entirely optional, I'll make a 'suggested qualities' tag in chargen based on the lifepath options picked but this way people don't have to worry about buying/selling off qualities unless they want them) and I'm not using every last one (Mainly the technomancer ones). Hopefully it will work to a point where I won't need to go over each sheet individually and approval might possibly be automated if CharGen is completely successfully.

EDIT: Also avoiding non-North America settings because I've found that it creates a disconnect for a lot of players and makes them uncomfortable or less interested in a game because they can have trouble connecting to their characters/setting.

@Jennkryst said:

I'll need a quick crash course in build code, but I'd love to help with the grid-work, and other randomness. I'm best with grunt-work (+sheet changes, karma spends, eq purchases, and such), to let others do the actual plot stuff. The occasional plot might happen, though!

I'm not looking for other staff right now, am still getting base code done and setting up chargen and the like. I will keep you in mind down the road though!

Lol I would not stop runs from happening anywhere if that's what people wanted, so there could be all sorts of options available, but I am not building five separate grids. I also wanted to stay away from the UCAS because of the whole Dunkelzahn thing.

I also want to point out that I am updating the tech as is required by necessity of using 5e rules. So the Matrix will be Wireless and Wired both, with decks and comlinks and AR and trodes and all that, there will be GOD and demiGODS and the various noise and host/node rules etc. What I am removing/changing is setting information for the most part so that it /is/ the 2050 future still.

I am not saying 2050 is the holy grail of settings and that nothing is going to be changed, that's just not doable with 5e rules. So there will be wireless matrix. AI's won't be around yet (Publically), Deus, WinterNight, none of that will have happened yet, and may not depending on how the story goes. I am not changing gun stats, or cyberware rules (Other than removing beta and delta grade cyberware and upping the cost/availability on Alphaware).

So will the setting and game be completely /pure/ to 2050? No, it can't for the reasons I said above. The environment overall will be 2050, not 2075, outside of those necessary changes.

@HelloRaptor said:

@Lithium

Obviously some things are going to be right out (Technomancers), and others vastly limited (Bioware/Cyberware/Gear/Agents) to try and create the wild west of running, back before power creep and weapon bloat.

...create our own future that doesn't end up with stuff like nanites attacking and reprogramming our brains so that AI's can live in the meat (Good for a written book, not so good for a game setting in my honest opinion).

So... reverting Shadowrun to 'the future' as imagined by people a quarter of a century ago, instead of 'the future' as imagined by people from this decade.

That's disappointing.

It's still the future, and just because it is 2075 in 5th edition doesn't mean 2050 didn't happen, and that none of those things never existed, it's just further in the future.

I chose 2050 because I /like/ the setting better then. It's not using 1st edition rules, so there will be some changes. There will be the Matrix in 5th edition, with GOD, there just won't be Technomancers and Resonance Realms (Yet?), there will be plenty of cyberware, and magic, and limited Bioware, because Bioware will be the bleeding edge of this version of ShadowRun.

As for imagined by people from 25 years ago vs today?

New does not automatically mean better.

No game will please everyone, and I am not attempting to do so, I am making the game I want to make and know that I can code. If that's not to your liking so be it, I'm not going to apologize for my choices or try to appeal to the bleeding masses.

@ThatGuyThere said:

I would vote San Francisco out of those options. I would vastly prefer something West coast to get more of the Japanese influnce that is in cuyberpunk things.
for not on the list I would offer Chicago, not a lot of games set there and in 2050 it would not be Bug City yet.

I totally forgot about Chicago, you're right that it's not bug city yet, but I think I instinctively avoided it because we all know it /will be/, and I'm trying to avoid putting it near stuff people will expect, so as to make it a new story that will be both familiar, and different. If Chicago suddenly isn't bug city it would create a severe disconnect, in my opinion, that might not mesh well.

@Miss-Demeanor

I'm curious... why no Vegas or NYC? And why Austin over Dallas/Ft. Worth?

I'm neither angry nor ranty, just curious.

I wanted to avoid NYC because I think it's to tightly controlled by the corporations after the quake that it allows a lot less wiggle room for a wide variety of concepts. NYC is a place where the 'flash' of ShadowRun would get you in trouble very fast with local law. Wage Slave Heaven in my opinion, is not a good place for pink mohawks and go gangs. I just don't feel that it's a good setting for the versatility of concepts that ShadowRun can generate.

Vegas is firmly in the middle of Pueblo and that's also why I avoided Los Angeles, I am trying for places that have a lot of overlap and ideals so that things aren't so set in stone.

Anyone who wasn't playing an Amerind in a Las Vegas set game would automatically be an outsider for example much like playing a westerner in Tokyo. I'm trying for more melting pot cities which I think Atlanta (Being as it's a capital and corporate center) and Boston (What with /every/ corp being there, and huge slums etc) can more easily swing than Las Vegas after the NAN took over.

As for Austin, I picked it because it is a /Huge City/, lots of variety in setting, and it is literally on the border with Aztlan, which opens up Azzy based stories easier. Aztlan makes an /excellent/ foil to most ShadowRunners I believe because of it being owned by Aztechnology, which has such a dark reputation even /before/ we get to what would be discovered in play. It gives a good location for both white hats and black hats to have a wide variety of runs in.

I have decided to go full steam ahead and code one up and run one to the best of my ability. I make no promises as I am nowhere near Thenomain's level but I can do enough to make it work.

I'll need staff eventually of course, nobody can successfully build and run a game all on their own and make it a fun place to be for more than a handful of people.

While I know it'll never get Seattle popularity (Because lets face it, there's just not as many mushers these days as there were 10-25 years ago) I think it still could be done and well and be a place for people to have fun.

So I am moving ahead with my plans to create a ShadowRun MUX, set in the year 2050, but using rules from 5th edition. Obviously some things are going to be right out (Technomancers), and others vastly limited (Bioware/Cyberware/Gear/Agents) to try and create the wild west of running, back before power creep and weapon bloat.

My question for everyone who might be interested in such a thing (Since there seems to be some interest in a new functional SR MUX) is where would you like it to be set?

From the outset I am avoiding Seattle, Denver, Detroit, London, and Berlin because those games have been made, they've got their stories, and I want to take things back to the beginning, story wise, create our own future that doesn't end up with stuff like nanites attacking and reprogramming our brains so that AI's can live in the meat (Good for a written book, not so good for a game setting in my honest opinion).

Right now I have Four main cities in mind:

Atlanta, Capital of the CAS
Boston, New Home of the Stock Exchange and a lot of corporate power with it's own nasty slums and whatnot (Probably the easiest due to there actually being more source material, but that comes with it's own pitfalls)
Austin, On the border between the CAS and Aztlan, a volatile place, exciting in it's own right.
San Francisco, East meets West, literally, another great city for intrigue, culture clashes, national pride, etc.

So out of those four I'm just fishing for opinions as to what you guys would like to see. Feel free to pick one, or number them in order of most liked to least, or whatever, rant, rave, tell me I'm crazy, etc.

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.

I would have done that, but my phone is so ancient that it doesn't even have a sim card! Not sure how the transferring thing happens I try to do so much as add texting to my plan and they're like: NEED NEW PLAN! I suppose I could try to buy a brand new phone but really... the old one still works. I'll try and do that when my phone actually dies. Thanks for the info!

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.

I have an ancient smart phone, it only gets 3G, but I won't update it till the thing fucking DIES and dies so hard I have to buy a new phone because I have a grandfathered Verizon unlimited data plan with nothing stopping me from using it as a wifi hotspot for all the data, sure it's only 3G but 3G is good enough for most things, hell you can even game on it as long as you're not bothered by 140ms latency (Which, really, it's a fraction of a second, when is that going to really matter).

Every time I've tried to get an updated phone they keep trying to force me onto a new plan, well screw that, I work third shift and there are literally HOURS of dead time, without my phone to give me wifi to watch netflix, hulu, amazon prime, mush, or whatever I'd go batshit insane.

That said, Verizon network is really strong. I've driven across the country from east coast to west coast on Interstate-10 and never lost all my bars completely. I might be paying a bit much but hell, since I use well over 20 gigs of data a month on my phone (even with 3G speeds) it's worth it.

I play M:TGO and have never had it bug out on me so I don't know anything about all of that. I like M:TGO but I don't have the funds to get into it all the time because it is pretty pricy and I'd rather buy physical cards. The problem is I work third shift and so I can't ever get to a game store to do any playing at any reasonable hours for that sort of thing.

That also killed my Warhammer 40K addiction too, not being able to play on Saturday and Sunday mornings...

M:TGO I think requires a small 10$ investment to start, they give you a bunch of newbie tickets you can use to join newbie tournaments and such to win some additional cards and the like, it's really not so bad.

I've never tried the free option or the steam games though, I heard that there was massive hacking problems with the 2014 version.

That's my problem too, I don't have any real experience with SQL at all and so trying to work it into things is impossible for me. I just do what I can and hope I am going to make a game that people want to play and RP on, and works.

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.