how to convert D20 to shadowrun rules, any suggestions? Options

[child of insanit...]

i want to run a dragonstar campain, but my players hate D20. shadowrun on the other hand... anyone manage to pull this off? hints/tips would be appreciated.

[mfb]

offhand, i'd say the only big obstacle would be coming up with space travel rules. i forget, does Dragonstar use spelljamming? everything else is just a matter of swapping out the Dragonstar item/monster/whatever for its SR equivalent. the cyberware can, i believe, be largely left alone; just call it all "spellware". bioware will need some sort of conversion, maybe just turning it into spellware and having it cost essence. it's a matter of how closely you want to model the Dragonstar universe. do you want to actually have different stats for the various dragons? well, you'll need to write them up. do you want evil to be a definable presence, the way it is in D&D (this is important because it's the basic division between which type of dragon rules the universe)? you'll need to work on slapping an alignment system in.

[child of insanit...]

i don't like alignments as a rule, but i do like the presence of good/evil and making it palpable.
they use magic to travel. its actually teleportation using advanced nav computers. they have a type of cyber called spellware, and it costs xp vs. essence.
i'd like to model it pretty close to dragonstar. how do i stat stuff like mind flayers and such? and certain spells and items... part of dragonstar is the fact that anyone can use magic, and that doesnt' mesh with shadowrun. and the whole mage vs. sorcerer aspect of the universe... having a little trouble, as i said.

[mfb]

how do you stat mind flayers? by, well, statting mind flayers. human-average physical stats, higher mental stats, -1 TN to grappling attacks, the ability to kill someone automatically by grappling them for four rounds, various innate spells (manaball, read thoughts, etc.) as required to mimic their psionic abilities. mage vs sorcerer can be wholly replaced by hermetic vs shamanic.

[Smed]

I could see converting over to Shadowrun rules from D20 as long as you're trying for a game that simulates low to mid level d20 characters. Converting a high level d20 game is tough. In D20, a mid to high level character can usually just ignore the cannon fodder, not so with Shadowrun rules where anyone can be dangerous.

Personally I'd love to see more genres use the SR rules.

[BookWyrm]

First, take a crowbar. Then pry your skull open, remove your brain, replacing it with a rabid psychotic weasel dipped in chocolate while hopping on one hand (yes, you're upside-down) juggling a live fragmentation grenade, an active chainsaw, any 20-year deceased relative's intact corpse AND a champaign glass of toxic botulism without spilling it.

THAT'S how you convert D20 to SR.

( :rotfl: )

[Adam]

Admin post: BookWyrm, don't threadcrap. Your little joke isn't even relevant to the question -- child of insanity wants to run a d20 setting using the Shadowrun rules.

[Kagetenshi]

Choose what you want to keep. Do you want to keep the invulnerability of high-level characters? Do you want to keep spell memorization? Casting time? Material components?

Find what differences you want to keep, then adapt the SR rules to them. Not that that's simple, but you need to know what you're converting before you, well, convert.

~J

[will_rj]

[Kagetenshi]

It would mean that that joke would be connected to the topic. No more, no less.

~J

[BookWyrm]

I appologise. I thought it was funny. :(

[child of insanit...]

would D20 like magical items break the system too much? ie. anyone can use a magical sword, and anyone who can cast spells can use wands?
and i don't think a teleportation spell would break the system too much either, am i missing something?

[Caine Hazen]

Yeah, the magic items might just break the curve there.. as for a regular sci-fi style game, I've found that SR can be adapted easily. Are you going to try and use 3rd or 4th ed rules for this conversion though? Cause for magic weapons and suchnot in 4th, I'd just add extra dice pool, while with third, I'd use it to reduce target numbers...

[mmu1]

You'll need to consider carefully how you want to handle reach and modifiers for fighting multiple opponents, because that's one of the big things about SR that makes it incompatible with many high fantasy settings.

Unless you change or get rid of the mods, your PCs will never be able to fight a horde of weaker creatures, and very large creatures (which D&D - and by extension, Dragonstar - tend to have a lot of) will be completely unbeatable because of their huge reach. (Consider how tough a troll with a polearm is, then imagine how bad a giant would be)

[Fortune]

[Kagetenshi]

I'm pretty sure he meant the rules. The answer being no, IMO, though that depends on how you implement it. He's already not using the Sixth World.

~J

[Fortune]

D'oh! Forgot which thread I was in. :oops:

[mfb]

D&D-style magical items in an SR-based system might or might not be broken. it depends on how you implement them, how you implement the rest of the game world, and what you expect. it would make mages less useful, i think, since it would no longer be strictly necessary to have a mage in your party in order to take on magical threats. on the plus side, you get to play with stuff that SR players have been forbidden from having, like ranged weapon foci.

[child of insanit...]

that's exactly it. anyone can use certain items, but a lot of magical stuff are mages only. if you can cast spells you can use these items. much like D&D.
and if the players are dumb enough to attack a giant in melee they deserve what they get. that's what blasters are for:p
and i'm using SR3.

[Kagetenshi]

Did you ever figure out which parts of the D&D system were important for you to keep?

~J