Shadowrun Conversions or Adaptations, Gaming with other Systems in Shadowrun Options

[TheQuestionMan]

Hoi Chummers, it's been awhile I thought to drop by and ask if you had ever gamed in the Shadowrun Universe using another Game System. I have seen a few online Coversions and Adaptations.


Here are a few;
1 - GURPS Shadowrun
2 - Shadowpunk (Hero System)
3 - Cyberpunk 2020 Conversions


Would you play Shadowrun using another System?


YES or NO? & Why?

Cheers

QM

[SL James]

Sure. It's called Fourth Edition.

[Critias]

No.

And by "a different system," I also count 4th.

[Kagetenshi]

No.

Why? Because one of the major things that attracted me to Shadowrun was the system, and because I'm enough of an old-schooler to believe that different games should have different systems. I've played a number of conversions over the years and ultimately found them unsatisfying; perhaps not coincidentally, this has been my experience with GURPS and D20.

~J

[fistandantilus4....]

I agree, it just wouldn't feel the same.


What the hell's a D20? :D

[Birdy]

Anytime anyone produces a good conversion to Gurps 3. Ed or FUSION. And a good conversion means:

+ Don't try to produce rules to rebuild an SR character

+ Don't try a 1:1 conversion of magic/cyber


Birdy

[Velocity]

Work's been done on a HERO System conversion for Shadowrun and if it ever came out in a coherent form, I'd definitely try it. HERO has solid chargen rules, a well-rounded (if slightly laborious) combat system and is wonderfully open-ended.

[hermit]

I'd be willing to try and use WoW or 4th Edition rules (WoW would have trouble with cyberware, though, I imagine). But I don't do that right now. So it's a 'No'.

[Jrayjoker]

No, no no, no, no, nonononononononononononononononononon


Rolling on floor, covering at ears, sobbing.

You can't make me!

[nezumi]

I voted no, but I could be swayed if the GM was excellent. I could also get sucked into a game and turn it into Shadowrun myself :P

A quick note, there's a difference between Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. I have and continue to play CP2020. But I can't imagine bringing magic into it.

[Mugzy]

No way.

One thing I really liked about SR, is the fact that a character actually got better at what they were doing according to the system, as opposed to having the same chance at critical success or critical failure (d20) no matter what.

The fact that everyone is on the same condition monitor is also wonderful...and beyond that, guns work in SR. They hurt, and can kill easily. Plus they are detailed more than in any other system I've seen.

I really wouldn't do it with the HERO system. Maybe it's my GM, but Ive been playing in a 5th edition HERO game doing a superhero campaign (He's a big comic nerd), and I have been continually frustrated with how combat is handled. Beyond that, the rule book is bigger than my calc book was, arguably more complex at the same time as being inexplicably vague.

Also, not being able to pick up a stick and hit someone with it, then keep it for a good long time without paying character points for it just seems wrong to me.

If it were my choice at that gaming table today...I'd ditch HERO and never look back, but that's more due to my unfamiliararity with it. The other guys insist that it's gold.

Maybe there are some fans of the system out there that can help me out a bit. I'm open to any insight they can provide.

[Capt. Dave]

Another system? You mean like White Wolf's WoD? I hear Fanpro's doing a neat conversion for that...

[Jrayjoker]

[Velocity]

[JesterX]

GMed Shadowrun with Gurps for some time...

We constructed racial templates and with the Cyberpunk sourcebook, It took a really nice direction... Every cyberware pieces was almost unique with plenty of models available... some more obvious than other... The feeling was almost as good as the 2nd edition (it was on those years...)

GMed Shadowrun with BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) for some time too... It was funny... Not very great but we had some fun doing it "Anime Style" .... ^_^

[Birdy]

[SkeevePlowse]

Some friends and I once stole the history and setting of SR for a couple of 2nd Ed BESM games.

It worked out decently well. The only thing we really had trouble trying to duplicate was the 'more cyberware equals less magic' thing.

[rozark69]

No and that Encludes Sr4 as I believe and hurdles in Sr3 can be fixed with inhouse logic.

[Stumps]

I like to convert other games to Shadowrun.

Does that count?

But I do like using a D10 (counting 0 through 9) for SR and just slide the test scales and racial maximums up in purportion. Got that idea from Vampire.

[TheQuestionMan]

[Taran]

I came into this thread thinking it would be the other way around, asking what systems we've tried to incorporate into the SR world/ruleset. I've recently been trying to unite Shadowrun with In Nomine. Long story short, the metaphysical issues are weird.

[Ed_209a]

I am currently running a GURPS Shadowrun game. (I call it ShadowGURPS)

Magic is one thing I do a lot of thinking about. This is largely because my group is 75% magic user of some sort. Conjuring has not come up yet. For the adepts, I just decided how many points being an adept was worth, then let the player pick 6 points of adept powers, just as if we were playing in the original system. I then make the conversions myself.

Spellcasting is easier, since spells are spells. I just find the GURPS spell that most closely matches the SR3 spell. I am still working on a mechanic to simulate the drain mechanic.

[lacemaker]

I suspect I'll generate some surprise by saying that I'm working on a rolemaster ruleset based SR total conversion - though I'm changing enough alon gthe way that it's really just the basic mechanics which are staying at rolemaster level.

Is a gritty system that's as detailed as you want it to be- I like it a lot.

Hero system's nice - without having used it much in other contexts it's my view that it works best for superhero campaigns, but it's also far and away the best ruleset for running them. The "stick rule" makes a great deal of sense in that context - superheroes run into cool pieces of equipment all the time, occasionally they'll even pick them up and use them, but they don't keep them from adventure to adventure, it's just a feature of the genre - and a necessary result of hero's excellent decision to treat abilities in terms of their effects rather than their source.

[Mugzy]

Well, I have been told that one of my problems I have when playing the superheroes game in the HERO system, is that I tend to think with my 'Runner mind, with SR style encounters, as opposed to as a more comic-bookish character. Having to think "Superhero" in a modern setting after 12 years of "Professional Criminal" can be a bit difficult. Apparently a superhero saying "its not my problem" is kind of a misfit in the group...

(We had captured an eastern European sniper who was working with the villains (find weakness + a sniper rifle is wicked I'm told) whom it was determined was a merc who was going to get screwed out of his money. Not having any contacts in Eastern Europe or in the villain's network, I let him go on professional courtesy, in exchange for his contact number should we ever need him, and some information on his crooked employer. The others didn't like the fact I let a villain go instead of taking him to jail....still the contact worked like a charm.)

Insofar as the system, the combat seems frustrating to me because it never seems to have a resolution. This may be another product of the superhero genre, but it seems we spend 3 hours in a combat, only to have the bad guys pretty much walk off or get away, and nothing in the status quo changes. The bad guy's defense just absorbs everything we can throw at them, reducing our damage to neglgible stun. It seems we could just not engage in these battles, and still do things just as effectively. This one I can probably chalk up to genre or GM though.

Another thing is that ranged attack penalties are obscene. I can be 6 "inches" away from a guy (on the map) and have so big of a penalty, my ranged attacks are practically nullified with a big minus to my OCV. I can understand a penalty for range, but these stack up awfully quickly.

The speed chart for initiative is innovative, but I dont like how battles always have the same order. Combat is always a chaotic, random thing to me... What is nice about it, is it can lead to some pretty devastating combination attacks, since you always know when your buddies are going to go, because it never changes. If you're the guy with a lower speed / dex, you can play clean up when your friends set the bad guy up with debilitators, specifically so you can nail him.


I'll admit the book itself is intimidating. I've been gaming for quite some time, and still, the HERO book makes me cringe, when I think of the sheer volume of rules the game has. As I play more and more though, I'm able to get through it a little quicker.

What I meant by complex, yet vague, was that the game has an exceptionally large book with a myriad of rules for all kinds of games, be they superheroes, fantasy characters, or whatnot. It has rules for how all these things interact with each other, and with the general world. For the most part, there is a rule for nearly everything, and my group is intent on looking them up as we need them.

What is vague about it, is that the system lacks the finer details that I've become accustomed to in ED and SR. Take thw wealth perk for example. Taking no points in it whatsoever, you automatically have a $75,000.00 working allowance per year. 15 Points invested in it says you have unlimited resources. Taking it as a disadvantage, you can get more character points for being broke. On the surface, the works just like the priority rules for SR, however, these perks carry over into the campaign, and continue along with the rest of the game, not stopping at character creation. Now, I know this perk wouldn't work in a SR-HERO conversion though.

With the "Stick Rule," I suppose it makes sense on the level of a superhero game, where a character couldn't invent themselves a power doubling suit or something like Velocity said. What doesn't sit well with me, is if we were to capture an enemy device, and want to keep it to use against another enemy in the future, we would have to pay points for it, even though we obtained it in the course of the game, as opposed to creating it. There was nothing inherant about the item with the character, and it can most certainly be stolen or broken. Maybe it's the packrat in me, but I don't want to give up a weapon I get today, because it may help me tomorrow...

Since I made my first post on this, another game night has passed. Things seem to be improving, as the system gets ingrained more and more. I think, that as I get more in tune with it, I'll be able to appreciate it much more, and will continue to try to be open to it. I think I might check out the HERO boards, and ask a few questions there.

For now, I still long for my Browning Max-Power, my wired reflexes, and my shady low lifestyle safehouses.

-Mugz

[Cynic project]