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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Shadowrun Reboot?

Posted by: DrScheme Feb 24 2007, 05:17 AM

Have there been any attempts to take the SR3 universe as it exists in, say, 2056 and retcon the fifty years from 2006-2056, removing some of the more blatant stupidities (say, anything that happened in CalFree, etc, etc...?)

Posted by: Rajaat99 Feb 24 2007, 07:21 AM

The game 20+ years old, so as I'm aware, the backstory is set in stone.
However, as the GM, you can change whatever you want. Don't like CalFree, then make it part of the UCAS, or Aztlan, or Tir Taingire. Don't like Dragons? Take them out. As a GM, you can change anything.
A small example I can think ofis this; I didn't like how some pirate queen changed the name of Puerto Rico, so I didn't have it changed.
I'm changing the storyline majorly after 2063, when my game gets that far.

Posted by: Kyoto Kid Feb 24 2007, 07:47 AM

...yeah, I took GM license adding a great deal of detail to the northern Balkans during the last campaign I ran dating back to the post Euro War era. Can't say much more since I am rerunning the campaign with a new group of players.

Posted by: knasser Feb 24 2007, 08:01 AM

I haven't changed much. There was no Dunklezahn saga, that's about it. Initially I was terrified that the players were going to pin me down and demand to know who was elected president in UCAS in 2057 and walk out of my game when I couldn't answer. But as it turned out, they were mainly interested in blowing things up and working out how much karma their ally spirit would cost.

The reason for this? I want to preserve the "realism" of Shadowrun. If you played the game through from 1st or 2nd edition, then you have time to adjust to some of the more fantastical ideas of the setting. But if you come straight into fourth and your first impression is "dragon president" then I think most people's brains are wired to go straight into High Fantasy mode. I don't want that.

I've made a few other changes. Chicago hasn't happened yet because I want to spring Insect Spirits on the group as a nasty surprise. In a little while, they're going to be asked to kidnap a young SIMsense starlet called Euphoria. It's going to be fun.

Posted by: Platinum Feb 25 2007, 06:24 PM

QUOTE (knasser @ Feb 24 2007, 04:01 AM)

Please tell me you at least ditched the horrors tangeant and wake of the comet as well.

Posted by: Rajaat99 Feb 25 2007, 06:26 PM

Horrors tangent?
What's wrong with WotC?

Posted by: knasser Feb 25 2007, 06:56 PM

QUOTE (Platinum)

QUOTE (knasser @ Feb 24 2007, 04:01 AM)

Please tell me you at least ditched the horrors tangeant and wake of the comet as well.

Not officially. I started in 1st edition as a player and ran through most of 2nd, but I was out of the loop by the time 3rd came out and I missed most of the story arcs in that one. Now I've come straight back in at 4th edition and I guess Haley's Comet passed and weird crap happened, but I haven't based anything in the game on it and players aren't spontaneously asking about Surge or anything.

As to the Horror arc, Harlequin is in the game (not introduced yet, though) so I suppose the Horror arc probably is, but how much of that happend in the public eye? There's no reason for modern players to know lots about what happened. And the fact that I ditched Dunklezahn would mean alterations anyway.

Who needs a big scaly hero to make your players look unneeded, inmo?

Posted by: the_dunner Feb 25 2007, 09:55 PM

Well, this little company by the name of Microsoft tried to do something along the lines of a reboot recently, but I'd say it hasn't been well received.

Posted by: Arethusa Feb 25 2007, 11:17 PM

Considering how unrelentingly disastrous the new BSG has been since episode 4 or 5 of season 3, it's unfortunately not a good model for this.

Posted by: DrScheme Feb 26 2007, 02:02 AM

QUOTE (Arethusa)

Considering how unrelentingly disastrous the new BSG has been since episode 4 or 5 of season 3, it's unfortunately not a good model for this.

Ssssh!

(I'm just hoping that RDM gets back on his game. I would argue that most of season 2 after Resurrection Ship also sucked.)

Posted by: Arethusa Feb 26 2007, 02:13 AM

It did, but the finale pulled it all together rather strongly at the end. Once the NC stuff was over, the show turned into Battlestar Trek: Voyager, and it's been painfully shitty ever since. The episode Olmos directed was a lone semibright spot, but the show is beyond saving and basically dead to me.

Posted by: hyzmarca Feb 26 2007, 02:28 AM

The problem with the latter episodes of BSG is that they basically hit a premise wall. They've done all they can do without drastically changing the nature of the series. They have to bend over backwards to maintain the status quo as a result.

Shadowrun doesn't have this problem unless you take the Horrors arc to its logical conclusion. The status quo naturally maintains itself and there are no Threats with the power to completely destroy metahuman civilization.