Do you want the Shadowrun game to do well? Options

[mfb]

the most recent thead that delves into discussion about why SR4 blows sucks bites is less than satisfactory to some players is pretty sedate. it doesn't get into some of the really detailed stuff, but it is, so far, a decent overview of some of the complaints levelled against the system.

[Kagetenshi]

[Adam]

*holds stomach*

[mfb]

oh, come on, Adam. we all know SR4 was only put out so that you could get a new Porsche!

edit: i mean $R4!

[Kagetenshi]

I may be misinterpreting Adam's reaction, but I meant the developers working under Microsoft Game Studios and FASA Interactive.

~J

[eidolon]

You might be. He's implying that he's a starving employee of a tiny developer waiting for someone to buy a copy so he can eat dinner.

Good times. :D

[mintcar]

I've heard good things about it from people who like the genre and cares little about Shadowrun. If it's a good game it will generate positive asociations for the roleplaying game. I hope it does well. I hope it's the biggest success ever for Fasa Studios and they get to make a ton of follow-up games. They don't seem to have the expertice to make rpg's, but perhaps they can hire people who have for such a project if it ever comes to pass. I don't have high hopes for it, but I see no reason to wish this game to fail. I've gotten past my initial disgust and now I'm just oblivious myself, but I acknowledge that some will like it and that's fine by me.

[lorechaser]

[Kagetenshi]

You've pretty much summed it up. For anyone who still disagrees, consider this: Byron Hall (the maker of F.A.T.A.L.) may well also have a family to feed.

~J

[Fortune]

Well he ain't doing a good job and they're gonna starve, 'cause I can't find his damn book anywhere.

[Kagetenshi]

IIRC it's now only being sold as an e-book.

~J

[Fortune]

Can't find that either.

[jervinator]

I am seriously mixed. On the one hand, it has the SR name and thuss the RPG will benefit as a result... if the game does well.

On the other hand, it is SO far removed from SR that the name is about the only thing that's the same. Wrong decade, different world, changing an RPG to an FPS... so many areas that I kind of want it to fail for straying too far away from canon. Unfortunately, this might reflect poorly on the RPG.

Who here thinks that MechWarrior 4 hurt BattleTech? I mean, it's not like MS has been great at using FASA licenses...

[Adam]

Can't make FPS games out of an RPG? Man, next you'll be telling people that they can't make novels out of them! How about miniature games based on RPGs? Are they still allowed? ;-)

[emo samurai]

The problem is that it doesn't use the world as a whole. It's Far Cry with magic. Tropical setting, teleporting people, yeah. If it didn't have the SR name, it would be called "That magic FPS with cyberware." It doesn't have intercorporate warfare, it doesn't have urban settings, and the people fucking teleport. The magic in SR is supposed to be very limited yet powerful; it's not supposed to cause big paradigm shifts. And the main characters are supposed to be shadowrunners because that's the name of the game.

[fistandantilus4....]

[jervinator]

FPSs are not a bad spin-off for an established line, but I think that they tend to lack a little something as far as plot development goes, at least compared to an RPG or strategy game.

[SL James]

[Taran]

[Shrike30]

I had absolutely zero exposure to Warhammer 40k until the video game Dawn of War came out. The game was decent (although the single-player campaign was kind of bare-bones), it introduced me to a pretty interesting universe, and it got me into playing the tabletop game.

Well, specifically, the Veteran Sargeant and the Dreadnought in the opening cinematic sold me on trying the tabletop game, and that try got me playing. But that's just me :P

Dawn of War isn't a pure adaptation of WH40k by any means. Hell, you can build structures, gather resources, and reinforce squads in the field... hardly the tabletop game in that sense. It did, however, manage to convey some of the cool aspects of the game fluff, get the general point across, and (most importantly) get me interested in checking out the tabletop game.

I fired up my evil industry-killing pirate tools, and checked out a PDF of the 40k rulebook. I saw how the game's phases (movement, shooting, assault) and things like hero units worked, and drew the connections for how they managed to be implemented into the RTS. I went into one of the GW stores and tried out a really small-scale game. That was a year and a half ago, and I'm still buying their (too expensive) stuff. :P

My point is this: the Shadowrun FPS doesn't have to be a perfect representation of Shadowrun to get people checking out PnP Shadowrun. If it's a decent game in it's own right that maintains at least some of the flavor of PnP SR, you'll get people who are interested enough to go looking for PnP SR.

If there's enough resources out there (a good main site, links to fansites/resources like Dumpshock, some free basic rules and runs intended to get players interested in actually going out, grabbing the full BBB, and giving the game a shot), then SR PnP will get a huge boost out of the FPS, despite the fact that it's not a perfect duplicate. An incredibly basic writeup on dwarves might include something along the lines of "+1 Willpower: dwarves tend to be more resistant to stun damage and some magical effects." Someone coming over from the video game would say "Oh, okay, that's where that immunity thing in the videogame came from" and move on to check out the next bit of rules.

If they liked the FPS, and the resources that they can find when they go looking for the PnP are inviting, interesting, and expand on their seed of knowledge of the SR world that they've gotten from the FPS, then we should see a good boost in playerbase. Free advertising in the form of a videogame never hurts, and free advertising in the form of a successful videogame franchise is ideal. Hoping that the game fails just because it's a deviation from canon is shortsighted and self-centered. There's a synergistic potential between the FPS and the PnP, and we should try to take advantage of it.

[nezumi]

Related to Shrike's point, any idea if there'll be a Quick Start Guide for SR4? I know that book was awesome for getting people into SR3, and making it available for free was a very smart move IMO. If I were Fan Pro, I'd try to push that out before any of the splat books (and I'm sure there are plenty of people here who would be happy to help!)

[bishop186]

You raise a good point Shrike, though I'd have to disagree with the statement that "free advertising from a videogame never hurts." I mean, what if the game tanks and just isn't fun/involving/etc. When people see SR PnP they'll think "Oh, that game sucked." and pass over it.

Agreeing with nezumi, here, the Quick Start guide was very helpful. The first Shadowrun game I ever played I used the Quick Start guide and a lot of help from the GM. I hope they do put out something like that for SR4 if they haven't already.

[2bit]

[Adam]

[Shrike30]

Adam: my one suggestion with regards to the Quick-Start rules (and hey, I'm just some guy on the Internet) is that they be available by the time that the FPS ships, and that they be incredibly easy to find. Google searches for "Shadowrun" should, hopefully, turn them up in the first few hits. I'd also give the SR RPG website a bit of a polish (hopefully before the FPS ships) as - and I say this with no insult intended, simply an observation - it currently looks like some Half-Life modification's website. It doesn't need a complete overhaul, or a super-l33t flash animation, or anything... but at the moment it's got some oddball formatting errors, and I'd personally pass on listing the print and ebooks in the current fashion (as, at first glance, it looks like an accidental double-listing rather than two seperate categories). Maybe go with something along the lines of a "latest releases" with links to the print and ebook versions on the page you're taken to when you click on the image of the book?

I've got a screenshot of the formatting problems I see if you'd like to see it, but you could probably see them yourself if you set an IE window to be somewhere under 800 pixels across.