Electric guitar physad powers (SR3), Because Shadowrun is really about 1980s Options

[Wounded Ronin]

I've come up with a few electric guitar based physad powers for use with SR3. Because I don't have the SR4 rulebooks. These powers require that the physad have an electric guitar, a battery to power it, and a large speaker on him to produce the sounds. Of course, the guitar and accessories must work and be capable of producing complex music. The GM must be sure to punish the physad with lots of encumberance and make him fall down with a clatter as much as possible.

Riff of the 80s (2)

The physad spends the entire combat turn sacrificing all actions and instead riffing a riff about elves with pistols and leather jackets and mullets, Japanese maidens in pressed corporate suits with tantos, and Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Norris astride jet black (Wyld) Stallions leading a horde of Midwestern auto workers. At the end of the turn he rolls his electric guitar musical skill against a TN of 11 or a TN of 10 if he bought the highest quality guitar from the SR1 equipment lists. Keep track of the successes. Each time the physad succeeds at getting 2 successes during a single combat he is involved in (successes don't carry over from one combat to another) he gets a bonus karma point for being totally sweet. Thus if he gets 4 successes in one combat, he gains 2 karma points. This is designed to make the physad do nothing useful during combat to try and grub for karma and undermine the rest of the party by broadcasting their location to the amusement of the GM. It also encourages the physad to undermine himself by wasting precious power points on Improved Ability: Electric Guitar. The best part is that even though the player knows this because he read it right here he still wants to take it for the possibility of more karma. Note that this power is especially sweet for melee-specalized ninjas because in long-range situations where they aren't useful they can spend the entire combat riffing on their guitar and flipping out.




Song of the Support Weapon (2 points per weapon category; LMG, MMG, and HMG.)

While reading this power description, I recommend that you have Cyndi Lauper's "Shebop" playing in the background. This is because a M60 MMG is very much like female sexual response, which is a long plateau compared to spikey male sexual response. Just change the barrel every thousand rounds (because you'll need more than one male) and keep rubbing the trigger.

Hyzmarca, in his infinite military wisdom, has oft stated that the sublime celestial glory of operating a LMG to 80s pop would be sufficient to propel the questing pilgrim to enlightenment. The physad with this power is steeped in the wisdom of the 80s and small arms and, like a Bodhisattva, has the power to convey this enlightenment upon his teammates, at least while his soul-elevating music reaches out to touch the heart and cast light upon the nuggets left over from eating KFC back in the 80s contained therein.

The physad forefits all his actions in a given combat turn, electing instead to spend that combat turn playing his guitar. All teammates who can hear him and who are operating the appropriate category of weapon (LMG, MMG, or HMG, depending on which power(s) the physad purchased) gets the following bonus:

1.) He or she is treated as though equipped with a cyberwear smartlink and a smartlinked machine gun for the purpose of hitting the enemy and gun operation (changing fire modes, etc.), but not for the purpose of essence or magic reduction.

2.) The rounds flying out of the machine gun shine with the glowing spirit of the 80s; threat the rounds as having +2 Power, and also apply a -1 TN tracer fire bonus for every 3rd round discharged, which stacks with the above smartlink bonus because of the nature of the magic of the 80s.




Song of the Launch Weapon (2 points per weapon category; grenade launcher, mortar, and rocket launcher)

The theme song for this power is Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", since white phosphorous is symbolic of a clingy and self-centered girlfriend.

This power works in exactly the same way as "Song of the Support Weapon", but the bonuses are as follows:

1.) Treat the weapon user as though equipped with a cyberwear smartlink and a smartlinked, rangefinder-equipped support weapon for the purpose of hitting the enemy and weapon operation, but not for the purpose of essence or magic reduction.

2.) Calculate the damage caused by the weapons as normal. However, in addition, treat any targets who are successfully hit by the weapon (either by direct hit or by the blast) as though they were covered by white phosphorous, as per a direct hit by a white phosphorous grenade. This is the sizzling magic of the 80s clinging to them and burning with the fury of a thousand cans of hairspray. It is recommended that the GM play "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" in the background while he or she describes the willie pete'd victims running around screaming.

[September]

What, you can't get Power Chord and cause Fear?

[Wounded Ronin]

[Kagetenshi]

Next up, rules for the Combat Synthaxe?

~J

[Ancient History]

Ewww, bardic music adepts!

[warrior_allanon]

[Fix-it]

[Lindt]

My only addendum is that is the adept is female, she must wear 2 pairs of highly contrasting socks, rolled down to the top of her vintige converse's.

I seem to not recall 'Shebop' so I must go download it, and then gain some vast understanding for the fire support adept. Party on dudes.

[Kagetenshi]

If you'll excuse me, I need to go rewatch Masters of the Universe.

~J

[HeySparky]

Masters of the Universe and... JAYCE AND THE WHEELED WARRIORS!

Can I get an, 'Oh yeah?'

Funny stuff, Wounded. What about awarding karma if the player wails out his crunchy eighties rock on Guitar Hero?

[nezumi]

Wow. If you could make a hugely condensed version of all that (perhaps cut out all unecessary words and get the acronym from that), I'd like to put it in my sig.

ROCK ON!!

[Lindt]

[hyzmarca]

[stevebugge]

I would think most of these powers would require some materials Geasa: Things like Ripped Jeans, Jackets with the sleeves ripped off, Headbands, or Really Big Hair. If you happen to have a focus made from a Camarro or TransAm you are in great shape.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Hey, don't leave Riggers out of the mix!


Any Rigger flying any sort of chopper/VTOL T-Bird in ground-attack chopper mode should find his TNs reduced if someone is wailing out Iron Maiden's 2 Minutes to Midnight in his ears.

[Mr.Platinum]

"Because Shadowrun is really about 1980s"

Wow some one finnally see's it my way.

[Axe]

[Backgammon]

Jem and the Holograms!

Totally Outrageous!

[Fix-it]

[Mr.Platinum]

[Wounded Ronin]

Jem and the Holograms could totally be a team of shadowrunners. They even had an asian krotty chick.

[Vagabond]

Erm, Shadowrun was published in 1989. So for like 8 months ,yeah. It was all about the 80s. I will concede though that the entertainment aspect I've always pictured having that 80s glam to it- esp when you look at the artwork.

I've actually imagined if Shadowrun captured any decade, it was the 90s- first part still shaking off the tackiness of the 80s, and then later getting more into the grunge of the 90s...

To this day I play Downward Spiral during anything to do with Bug Spirits.

[Nomad]

Stick in "Ripe (with Decay)" off The Fragile for bug spirits as well. Especially for those calm befire the storm moments. Works great to raise tension just that little bit....:D

[nezumi]

Just because SR wasn't written 'in the thick of things' doesn't mean it was all about the 80's!! In fact, quite to the contrary, I think the wide range of 80's movies and music available in 1989 (which, it should be noted, was far more than the amount of 80's music available in say 1983).

I think Ronin has made an excellent case for SR being 'all about the 80's'. And I think this is precisely why SR4 has lost so much of the original spirit. Perhaps if SR4 included mechanics for big hair and Mr. T, it would be more popular with the older crowd.

[Herald of Verjig...]

[Shrike30]

That's all we need... bring in the Noise Marines for fire support some day...

[stevebugge]

[stevebugge]

For your 80's reference http://www.inthe80s.com/

[Wounded Ronin]

[nezumi]

WR - Are you going to put all your cool adept powers on a web page somewhere? I'd love to be able to stick a URL in my games and say 'these powers are all allowed, if you'd like them'. I'd enjoy an adept rocker putting his teabag on a downed enemy and rocking out.

[Wounded Ronin]

[Nidhogg]

[hyzmarca]

Nothing is more gritty or more serious than the 80s. There is no need to update a setting to conform to modern aestetics simply because a setting should have its own internally consistant aestetics.

And RF radiation causes cancer. We know that now. That's more than enough of an excuse to ban asbestos and program carriers. It is good enough of a reason to ban wireless internet.

[Kanada Ten]

[Nidhogg]

[Bodak]

[Foreigner]

WR:

How about an electric guitar with an LMG concealed inside it?
(Firing caseless ammo, of course.)

Talk about some interesting riffs.... :P

(Hey, it worked for Antonio Banderas's buddies in Desperado (1995, a/k/a El Mariachi), didn't it? IIRC, each had two guitar cases, containing rocket launchers and/or MGs of some sort.)

--Foreigner

[Kyoto Kid]

[Wounded Ronin]

[Kanada Ten]

They've never had antennas in SR, on anything but buildings. And now every corner has a whole array of antenna. Fashion has the largest section ever in an SR core book with 4, including how to have ultimate hair (flavor of the day is fiber optic). In fact, the only thing similar about of SR tech and 80s tech was the speed of vehicles (same) and memory requirements (changed, but replaced by processor concerns). In fact, I can't think of anything else that we had in the 80s SR that isn't in the new SR.

[The ubbergeek]

The world of Shadowrun is a world that change. Tech change, modes change. Everything change - just that Shadowrun took a major turn away from ours around the 90s, and 80s. It's not a world in stasis.

It's more about the spirit of the 80s than the look, really. Pocket cellphone or bigass ones, it will always be Shadowrun, the quirky cyberpunk/urban fantasy game taht we love.

[emo samurai]

[Wounded Ronin]

[James McMurray]

Silly me. I thought I was about to read a thread about guitar based powers for adepts. :)

Yes, Shadowrun was created in the 80s, based on ideas from the 80s, and heavily references books written in the 80s.

No, today's Shadowrun does not need the 80s. That's just one way to play it.

A game requires sales to prosper. Trying to sell the 80s in today's market is a bad idea. We all saw what happened to the That 70's Show spinoff That 80's Show: it died a horrible death, despite being written in a time when more of the target audience had been born in the 80's instead of the 90's.

I'd play in an 80's based SR game or a modern one. Many new gamers would look at a lot of the 80's concepts and laugh, then walk away.

[Wounded Ronin]

[Wounded Ronin]

Anyway, what the hell. If the idea behind "updating" Shadowrun was to stop prospective buyers from laughing at the absurdity and then choosing a different product then why did they not revise the firearms, add calibers, and have more realistic melee combat? I mean, the most milk-snorting aspect of SR is probably the blatantly incorrect way that firearms are represented. Is it too much to ask to be able to think in terms of caliber and barrel length and be able to lay suppressive fire that actually suppresses?

[James McMurray]

IMX most people that listen to 80s stations are not gamers. It's a different target audience. For the most part I think Shadowrun has already captured the portion of the market that loves the eighties, wants to play a scifi/fantasy hybrid, and buys gaming books.

IMX most gamers don't care about calibers, muzzle lengths, etc. They just wanna shoot stuff.

I'd love a more realistic firearms and melee setup if it could still be as fast and easy as SR4 combat is. When I want realism at the expense of speed I play Role/Spacemaster.

What the heck is Vice City?

[Kanada Ten]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (IIRC, version 4 of the game). Miami is the setting parody, with a big jab at Miami Vice.

[e] Note that the technology of Vice City is modern, even if the culture isn't. Which basically shoots Wounded's point out of the water.

[The ubbergeek]

Again, it still have the 'spirit of the eighties'... Just under a new guise. Plus ca change...

And for the count, I liked the 80s.

[Wounded Ronin]

[Kanada Ten]

[Wounded Ronin]

[Fresno Bob]

[Nidhogg]

[James McMurray]

[Kremlin KOA]

Only Commies laugh during Paranoia sessions

[James McMurray]

* Blows Kremlin KOA up for having a commie name *

The computer is your friend!

[Ophis]

*Blows James away*

You were not cleared to kill that orange clearence troubleshooter, troubleshooter.

[nezumi]

*Blows self up*

You were not cleared to think about troubleshooting THAT troubleshooter.

[James McMurray]

Clone walks in: Hey guys, what'd I miss?

* Self destruct mechanism activates *

Computer's voice: That is an unauthorized question

[Wounded Ronin]

[hyzmarca]

Don't forget remakes of He-Man and Transformers. Most people who buy Transformers toys today, including the $70 limited edition G1 Optimus Prime, are nostalgic young adults.

[The ubbergeek]

I think some peoples here forget an important cultural bit about cyberpunky worlds - the state of art and consomation/mode thing. The 80s surely died a LONG time ago in Shadowrun, even quicker than here. In Shadowrun, things evolve FAST.

It's all about SOTA and passé. It just took a different way from our world, and already two decades passed...

[James McMurray]

I haven't seen all of the Transformers remakes, but Micromachines is about as far from the 80s as you can get, unless you consider Pokemon the 80s.

[nezumi]