Why do you like SR? Options

[emo samurai]

My reasons are that the game world is incredibly rich and detailed, the rules system allows for really high lethality coupled with high power levels, and the magic system is very complex and yet logical. How about you?

[Shrike30]

Force of habit :P

[Thanee]

Various reasons. :)

I especially like the style and that it is close enough to reality to be easily related to.

Quite realistic and still fantastic. Good mix.

Bye
Thanee

[Anythingforenoug...]

Now it's mostly nostalgia-so many great games in the past that it has a warm place in my heart, its become more than just the current supplement and the current game-good times with good friends (I started playing when the first edition of the core rules book was the only thing in print) are bound up in how I think of the game.

Which is not to say that the things I loved about the game when I first picked it up I do not still love-mostly things still related to the atmosphere and setting. Up until played Shadowrun the only RPG I had played was D&D, so the idea of taking fantasy elements and setting them not in a quasi-historical world, but in the near (dark) future of Cyberpunk was a big deal to my middle-school psyche (the games general attitude had no difficulty finding a place in my heart then either). And the fact that Neuromancer was (and still is) one of my favorite novels probably had something to do with it.

AFE :nuyen:

[hobgoblin]

our world gone slighty into the twilight zone or something ;)

[Firewall]

One of the biggest things is the sense of mortality. After months of D&D with paladins who can smite dragons with single blows and survive falling hundreds of feet, it is nice to have a game with some tension. If you frag up in SR, you might not make it out and even if you do, there is a chance you will leave limbs behind...

I like fantasy. I like magic and elves and dwarves. I also like cyberpunk and futurism. Shadowrun is lethal fantasy cyberpunk...

[emo samurai]

"Gag me with a spoon."

[Kyoto Kid]

...considering I live in the PNW and was a former resident of Seattle in RL was what first attracted me to the game. I especially like the fact the system allows players generate more personalised characters (Particularly after the SR companion came out with the BP system) instead of depending on random dice rolls. I have always been a big fan of playing the character you like.

The world setting is definitely one of the best I have seen. It has a rich backstory which still allows plenty of latitude for personalising a campaign.

[Butterblume]

When I first came to play SR in 1994, I just loved the background.
I still do.

Edit: Oh, and what Kyoto Kid was just saying. I really liked it that the game wasn't level orientated like every other RPG I played until then. Another thing I liked was the lack of manapoints/memorized spells/whatever.

[eidolon]

[Grinder]

Where Man meets Magic and Machine.

[SL James]

[emo samurai]

It's more often "Magic or Machine," but yeah, I know what you mean.

[Shrike30]

[Grinder]

[Eugene]

For me, it's a lot of things: the world, the mixing of tech and magic, a basic set-up that can be done with endless variation and still stay fresh, being a fan of Snow Crash and Gibson's stuff, being a fan of "caper" or "crime" movies (Italian Job, the Sting, Derailed, etc.), the focus on the evolving relationships between people (not just PC to PC but with contacts and other recurring NPCs), and the contextualization of all the stuff that as an RPGer you're wont to do anyway (i.e. steal and kill).

[eidolon]

[hobgoblin]

[lorechaser]

I like the weirdness. It's elves with guns, mages with cybereyes, chrome and nano and Orks.

It's a goofy world that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is hella fun.

And it's handfuls of dice. Mmmmm.

And yeah, regardless of your opinions on Gibson's work, the guy's kind of an asshole.

He also claimed that ebay would never take off.

[emo samurai]

How else is he an asshole? I want to know more.

[eidolon]

Google is your friend. Decide for yourself if he's an asshole. Don't take our word for it. :D

[Wounded Ronin]

I like it because all the trolls are extremely animatronic.


What? They are! If you had to portray a troll back in the 80s you'd be forced to make it animatronic!

[Black Jack Rackh...]

Here it is 4th Ed is out and I am JUST starting to learn about how cool SR is. Back when I started gaming, I was always the one who initiated new games so whatever I read/saw/heard about was what we played. For some reason SR just never crossed my path.

But here as an adult, I can see the similarities to the darkness of SR and our own world. It's a wonderfly complex world with a simply awesome amount of history (and as far as Im concerned a well thought out history too). So that's one reason to like it so much.

Another is that VERY briefly I encountered Rifts. I was on my way out of being a power gamer so it lasted but a short time. What stuck with me, however, was the combination of disparate worlds. I thought even at the time, geeze if only SOMEONE could mix this correctly...

Anyway, my 2.989704862 cents worth.
Mark

[RainOfSteel]

I find the basic SR mechanic, d6, w/one die per Rating point against the Rating of whatever else for everything to be quite elegant.

The rules are comprehensive* (if you've got all the books), the setting widespread, and specific locales are frequently written by locals.

I was a big fan of Daniel Keys Moran's The Long Run and Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired (I'd read Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, and Count Zero by William Gibson, but honestly, they paled in comparison.)

For some reason, Cyberpunk 2013 RPG just wasn't what I had wanted.

The discussions in the LA Origins 1989 panel on Shadowrun sold me on the game.

It was cyberpunkish dystopian SF futurism crossed over with Fantasy elements.

I ate that up.

------------------------------

* Yes, I'm aware there are flaws in the game and especially in the earlier editions.

[nezumi]

I play for the chicks.

Seriously though, I love cyberpunk, I dislike CP2020. I don't like the magic aspect of SR that much (I like it, but I'd like it more if it were toned down). The background of the world is great though, and I generally just love cyberware and everything cyberpunk.