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Jeffrey Webb
post Oct 20 2009, 04:13 PM
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Last Friday I ran a simple snatch-and-grab 'run with some of my players using Shadowrun First Edition just because I hadn't run it since three of the players (16 years of age) were born. We had two Shadowrun vets from the SR1 days plus me, and I had spent the week re-learning the SR1 rules for this event. Now, my memory was not clear as to what was 'wrong' with the SR1 rules from way back when - since we had quite a bit of fun with them back in the proverbial Day™ when SR first came out. It was kind of like getting a new edition of the rules, since I was re-learning things I'd forgotten all those years ago in preparation for this game.

THE BOOKS

I find my love for Shadowrun rekindled by re-reading the original core books. All of the elements that made me fall in love with the Shadowrun universe were here. My views on Cyberpunk are that to remain true to the original Cyberpunk literary movement as it applies to gaming, it is the future as seen from the 80s. My tagline for the SR campaign I'm working on is actually "20 minutes into the future... of 1987". I loved the artwork, the look of the books, the decker commentary on all the sourcebooks, the Native American influences that seem to be forgotten in the newer editions, the pervasiveness of Japanese influence that has also lost its bite. There is something that can almost be called "quaint" about the SR1 books themselves when compared to the modern books, but it just so happens to be exactly what I'm looking for in an RPG.

THE RULES

Here are my observations on The Rules. About 70% of it is identical to SR2, which is my default Shadowrun engine. I feel that SR3 got too fiddly and SR4, while posessing the quickest and cleanest rules set has misplaced the feel of the setting entirely. The dice pools are markedly different from SR2, with no combat pool to speak of in an offensive manner, and two seperate defense pools for melee and ranged combat. I actually like this quite a bit as it tended to make the actual combat skills even more important since you couldn't just dump CP dice into them on attacks.

Variable staging numbers were kinda fun to play with again. While they did add a level of complexity (which is why they were removed IIRC) it did make the choice of weapons and attacks a little more interesting as it made some weapons quite a bit more difficult to resist damage from. One of the most interesting things about weapon damages in this older edition was something that must have been recognized by players and GMs back then that I don't recall having a particular problem with before - but it stuck out to me now. The average firearms in the hands of the PCs weren't doing much at all against opponents with any kind of armor. Armor, under 1e, gave "free successes" versus weapons fire. This means a Ballistic rating of 3 will automatically stage down most heavy pistols one damage level, and weapons with a lower staging are mostly useless without some real skill dice backing them up. Even the Ares MP LMG one character was using wasn't as destructive as one would thing against a moderately armored corporate security team.

Magic. Oh, magic. We had a Combat Mage archetype in the team, and the Aztechs had one on their side as well. I'll tell you this, the spellworms were a whole hell of a lot scarier in First Edition. All combat spells started with a base damage of L, with their staging determined by the type of spell. Now, to me this was kind of intuitive, but not really. See, I believe the original intent of the variable staging numbers was that higher numbers meant an attack was harder to soak. This is true. But it is also true that it makes it harder to stage the damage UP... resulting in more damage being done in this game with the lightweight spells like Mana Bolt and Power Bolt than with the Big Ass spells. Why? Our mage hit a Troll Street Samurai archetype on the other team with a Manabolt. The target number was his willpower, which was 1. Enough successes were rolled to stage the damage up to D+3. His one die of willpower and six dice of spell defense from his own team's mage weren't enough versus a TN of 5 to drop it back past D. Thus the troll bought it from a single manabolt. Dead. Graveyard dead. Unfortunately the next round the Aztech mage did the same thing to our team's troll. Low willpower was DEATH in SR1 much more than in later editions. And drain was a lot simpler to soak, too. The mage casted every single action during combat, and never took so much as a single box of drain due to a good willpower and some magic pool dice. Oh, and sticking mostly to manabolts and powerbolts.

Initiative was fun, with the wonkier numbers for multiple actions. Doing it by 10s is easier, and the passes system in 4e allows everyone to act before second and third actions come up, but damn I missed the combat monsters being monsters and acting a coupla times before the slower characters could. It wasn't as fair, and wasn't as fun for the slower PCs, but it really did underscore how inhumanly fast wired and spelljacked characters were.

All in all, I can sort of see myself playing 1e again a coupla more times just to see if any more cracks appear in the Old Game. I, myself, had a blast playing. It really took me back. And with a new crop of Shadowrun players who haven't been through ANY of the modules or read any of the later game books, hell I can whip out the UB on them. Bugs are bad, mmkay? Or any number of old modules I own.

It might sound crazy, it might even be heresy... but we enjoyed these old games back in the day. They were flawed, they were broken, but at the time we didn't care. We rolled dice, we ate pizza, we had fun. And I think that can be done again, as a serious campaign or just for nostalgia and giggles. I love showing these young whippernsappers in our game club how we rolled back before they were born. And the wierd thing is - they love it, too.
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Posts in this topic
- Jeffrey Webb   [Shadowrun 1e] A trip down Memory Lane   Oct 20 2009, 04:13 PM
- - Synner667   Mmmm The wonder of cyberpunk, with magic !...   Oct 20 2009, 04:35 PM
- - 3278   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 20 2009, 04:13 ...   Oct 20 2009, 05:08 PM
- - Malachi   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 20 2009, 10:13 ...   Oct 20 2009, 05:55 PM
|- - Platinum   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 20 2009, 01:55 PM) C...   Oct 21 2009, 01:26 AM
|- - ravensmuse   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 20 2009, 08:26 PM) ...   Oct 21 2009, 02:52 AM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 20 2009, 07:26 PM) ...   Oct 21 2009, 04:19 AM
||- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 20 2009, 09:19 PM) A...   Oct 21 2009, 04:54 AM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 20 2009, 08:26 PM) ...   Oct 21 2009, 09:34 PM
- - BlueMax   Malachi, I think there is less of everything when...   Oct 20 2009, 06:01 PM
- - Malachi   Thanks BlueMax... here's a follow-up question....   Oct 20 2009, 06:43 PM
|- - 3278   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 20 2009, 07:43 PM) A...   Oct 20 2009, 06:52 PM
- - Jeffrey Webb   Well... Showing some love with a sourcebook, ev...   Oct 20 2009, 07:03 PM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 20 2009, 01:03 ...   Oct 20 2009, 07:29 PM
|- - Jeffrey Webb   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 20 2009, 01:29 PM) S...   Oct 20 2009, 08:02 PM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 20 2009, 02:02 ...   Oct 20 2009, 08:24 PM
|- - Iduno   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 20 2009, 03:02 ...   Oct 20 2009, 09:37 PM
|- - MYST1C   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 20 2009, 10:02 ...   Oct 21 2009, 06:21 AM
- - PaulK   For me, I liked the old SR1-SR3 explicitives. ...   Oct 20 2009, 08:07 PM
- - Prime Mover   I loved 1st edition but having said that I have to...   Oct 20 2009, 08:23 PM
|- - Jeffrey Webb   QUOTE (Prime Mover @ Oct 20 2009, 02:23 P...   Oct 20 2009, 08:56 PM
|- - BlueMax   QUOTE (Prime Mover @ Oct 20 2009, 01:23 P...   Oct 20 2009, 09:13 PM
- - flowswithdrek   There’s no doubt that there has been a change in f...   Oct 20 2009, 09:08 PM
- - Synner667   It's just sad that the majority of Shadowrun m...   Oct 20 2009, 09:49 PM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (Synner667 @ Oct 20 2009, 03:49 PM)...   Oct 20 2009, 10:19 PM
|- - Synner667   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 20 2009, 11:19 PM) S...   Oct 20 2009, 10:48 PM
- - Thanee   SR1 is a real gem. Though SR2 really made Shadow...   Oct 20 2009, 09:59 PM
- - tete   While the flavor was great I would never run SR1 a...   Oct 20 2009, 10:26 PM
|- - tisoz   QUOTE (tete @ Oct 20 2009, 05:26 PM) Whil...   Oct 21 2009, 12:20 AM
|- - Platinum   QUOTE (tisoz @ Oct 20 2009, 08:20 PM) dit...   Oct 21 2009, 01:27 AM
- - Prime Mover   I miss the epic plots and colorful antagonists of ...   Oct 21 2009, 01:09 AM
- - 3278   QUOTE (Thanee @ Oct 20 2009, 09:59 PM) SR...   Oct 21 2009, 02:27 AM
- - Ayeohx   Bradstreet and Alexander set the mood for me; that...   Oct 21 2009, 03:33 AM
- - Skip   I bought the first edition books when they came ou...   Oct 21 2009, 04:57 AM
- - KCKitsune   You know I'm glad the NAN got diminished. I N...   Oct 21 2009, 06:21 AM
|- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (KCKitsune @ Oct 21 2009, 12:21 AM)...   Oct 21 2009, 06:46 AM
||- - KCKitsune   QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 21 2009, 02:46 AM) An...   Oct 21 2009, 08:49 AM
||- - Jeffrey Webb   QUOTE (KCKitsune @ Oct 21 2009, 03:49 AM)...   Oct 21 2009, 12:37 PM
|||- - Prime Mover   QUOTE Oh, and put me down in the "I miss Tom ...   Oct 21 2009, 01:35 PM
||- - Warlordtheft   QUOTE (KCKitsune @ Oct 21 2009, 04:49 AM)...   Oct 21 2009, 07:30 PM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (KCKitsune @ Oct 21 2009, 01:21 AM)...   Oct 21 2009, 09:38 PM
|- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 21 2009, 03:38 P...   Oct 21 2009, 09:52 PM
- - hobgoblin   i suspect its not so much the game that has change...   Oct 21 2009, 08:08 AM
- - BlueMax   Screw reality, screw reason. Someone was nice eno...   Oct 21 2009, 10:14 PM
|- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (BlueMax @ Oct 21 2009, 04:14 PM) S...   Oct 21 2009, 10:37 PM
||- - BlueMax   QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 21 2009, 02:37 PM) No...   Oct 21 2009, 11:45 PM
||- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (BlueMax @ Oct 21 2009, 06:45 PM) M...   Oct 22 2009, 12:19 AM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (BlueMax @ Oct 21 2009, 04:14 PM) S...   Oct 21 2009, 10:43 PM
|- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 21 2009, 04:43 PM) T...   Oct 21 2009, 11:04 PM
|- - BlueMax   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 21 2009, 02:43 PM) T...   Oct 21 2009, 11:50 PM
- - Paul   Malachi do you write for the game? Are you a freel...   Oct 21 2009, 10:59 PM
- - Joe Chummer   I might be in the minority here, but hear me out. ...   Oct 22 2009, 12:06 AM
- - Paul   Often in threads like these people mistake critici...   Oct 22 2009, 12:13 AM
- - Ayeohx   I prefer the dark and gritty. Laubenstein was fin...   Oct 22 2009, 03:45 AM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 21 2009, 10:45 PM) I ...   Oct 22 2009, 04:07 AM
- - Ayeohx   Go ask the folks from Shadowlands what they think ...   Oct 22 2009, 04:35 AM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 21 2009, 11:35 PM) Go...   Oct 22 2009, 05:04 AM
|- - Jeffrey Webb   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 21 2009, 11:04 P...   Oct 22 2009, 02:58 PM
|- - BlueMax   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 22 2009, 06:58 ...   Oct 22 2009, 03:54 PM
|- - 3278   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 22 2009, 02:58 ...   Oct 22 2009, 04:54 PM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Jeffrey Webb @ Oct 22 2009, 09:58 ...   Oct 23 2009, 12:39 AM
|- - tete   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 23 2009, 12:39 A...   Oct 23 2009, 07:37 PM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (tete @ Oct 23 2009, 02:37 PM) Depe...   Oct 25 2009, 11:42 PM
|- - Cryonic   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 25 2009, 04:42 P...   Oct 26 2009, 12:34 AM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Cryonic @ Oct 25 2009, 07:34 PM) T...   Oct 26 2009, 02:33 AM
- - Synner667   Good idea !! I think the success of the v...   Oct 22 2009, 03:38 PM
- - ravensmuse   Sweet jesus, this thread. It's like hanging ou...   Oct 22 2009, 04:39 PM
|- - Paul   QUOTE (ravensmuse @ Oct 22 2009, 12:39 PM...   Oct 22 2009, 10:51 PM
- - tete   Traditionally 4e is the biggest change to the rule...   Oct 22 2009, 04:59 PM
- - Paul   If I were the people at Shadowrun I'd tap the ...   Oct 23 2009, 12:47 AM
|- - Platinum   QUOTE (Paul @ Oct 22 2009, 08:47 PM) If I...   Oct 23 2009, 01:18 AM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 22 2009, 08:18 PM) ...   Oct 23 2009, 02:18 AM
||- - Tymeaus Jalynsfein   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 22 2009, 07:18 P...   Oct 23 2009, 02:31 AM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 22 2009, 07:18 PM) ...   Oct 23 2009, 03:17 PM
- - ravensmuse   Yeah, see, my rant was more directed towards peopl...   Oct 23 2009, 02:34 AM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (ravensmuse @ Oct 22 2009, 09:34 PM...   Oct 23 2009, 02:54 AM
||- - Tymeaus Jalynsfein   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 22 2009, 07:54 P...   Oct 23 2009, 03:00 AM
|- - Paul   QUOTE (ravensmuse @ Oct 22 2009, 10:34 PM...   Oct 23 2009, 12:58 PM
|- - ravensmuse   QUOTE (Paul @ Oct 23 2009, 07:58 AM) Sigh...   Oct 23 2009, 01:19 PM
|- - Platinum   QUOTE (Paul @ Oct 23 2009, 07:58 AM) Sigh...   Oct 24 2009, 09:33 PM
|- - Tymeaus Jalynsfein   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 24 2009, 02:33 PM) ...   Oct 25 2009, 12:05 AM
||- - Platinum   QUOTE (Tymeaus Jalynsfein @ Oct 24 2009, 07...   Oct 25 2009, 12:46 AM
||- - Tymeaus Jalynsfein   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 24 2009, 05:46 PM) ...   Oct 25 2009, 12:57 AM
|- - tete   [edit] post removed for misreading original post   Oct 25 2009, 12:39 AM
- - hobgoblin   OT like no other, but my understanding of those th...   Oct 23 2009, 04:27 AM
- - ravensmuse   Maybe we should move the Star Wars discussion over...   Oct 23 2009, 11:30 AM
- - tete   @ Joe It depends on how hard core you want to be....   Oct 26 2009, 03:07 AM
|- - nezumi   QUOTE (tete @ Oct 25 2009, 10:07 PM) @ Jo...   Oct 26 2009, 08:21 PM
- - i101   I have just read thru the thread. I am gonna keep ...   Oct 26 2009, 05:53 PM
|- - Malachi   QUOTE (i101 @ Oct 26 2009, 11:53 AM) No o...   Oct 26 2009, 07:47 PM
|- - Paul   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 26 2009, 03:47 PM) Y...   Oct 26 2009, 11:23 PM
|- - Platinum   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 26 2009, 02:47 PM) Y...   Oct 27 2009, 03:23 AM
- - Malachi   You know, one of the things I picked up on through...   Oct 26 2009, 10:36 PM
|- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (Malachi @ Oct 26 2009, 04:36 PM) Y...   Oct 26 2009, 11:20 PM
|- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 26 2009, 06:20 PM) Th...   Oct 27 2009, 02:59 AM
|- - Platinum   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 26 2009, 09:59 P...   Oct 27 2009, 03:17 AM
||- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (Platinum @ Oct 26 2009, 08:17 PM) ...   Oct 27 2009, 03:28 AM
||- - Joe Chummer   QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Oct 26 2009, 10:28 PM) Oh...   Oct 27 2009, 05:16 AM
|- - Ayeohx   QUOTE (Joe Chummer @ Oct 26 2009, 07:59 P...   Oct 27 2009, 03:26 AM
- - hobgoblin   on the topic of art, so far i think one of the bes...   Oct 27 2009, 05:42 AM
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