Newbie needs help! Options

[78coolbreeze]

Hi all. I just picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition of the game. I haven't played this game in almost 15 years so I am pretty much lost at starting to be a GM once again. I do however recall that Shadowrun was the best RPG I have ever played and I have been waiting for an mmorpg to come out ever since I first played Everquest 1.

I have bought just about all of the books released for 4th edition and have many from the earlier editions. As a GM I am trying to figure out a way to determine which adventures we play. I found a list of adventures on wiki and will post them below.

My first question is can I play any of the adventures prior to 4th ed, including 1st and 2nd by using the conversion system on shadowrun's website? If so, which order should I play the adventures below to keep continuity?

I am wanting to start with the First Run mission and then possibly go on to the first adventure in the list, but I saw someones review of The Universal Brotherhood and they said it's best if you play Total Eclipse, Queen Euphoria, and Double Exposure first. So I think the order of the books below is listed chronologically for when they were released and not the best order to play them in.

Since this is the first time in a long while my friends and I have played we would like to start from the beginning if possible. To make sense of the story line for my player characters I am thinking of having them make runners that are all in their teenage years so by the time they get to the 4th edition adventures they will be around their 30's.

If anyone can help sort these adventures out or knows of a site that has the best play order I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

* 7205 Universal Brotherhood
* 7301 DNA/DOA
* 7302 Mercurial
* 7303 Dreamchipper
* 7304 Queen Euphoria
* 7305 Bottled Demon
* 7306 Harlequin
* 7307 Dragon Hunt
* 7308 Total Eclipse
* 7309 Imago
* 7310 Elven Fire
* 7311 Ivy & Chrome
* 7312 One Stage Before
* 7313 Dark Angel
* 7314 A Killing Glare
* 7315 Celtic Double Cross
* 7316 Eye Witness
* 7317 Paradise Lost
* 7318 Divided Assets
* 7319 Double Exposure
* 7320 Harlequins Back
* 7322 Super Tuesday
* 7323 Shadows of the Underworld
* 7324 Predator and Prey
* 7325 Missions
* 7326 Mob War
* 7327 Blood in the Boardroom
* 7328 Renraku Arcology: Shutdown
* 7329 First Run
* 7330 Corporate Punishment
* 7331 Brainscan
* 26003 On The Run
* 26302 Ghost Cartels
* 26400 Dawn of the Artifacts: Dusk
* (upcoming) Dawn of the Artifacts 2: Midnight
* (upcoming) Dawn of the Artifacts 3: Darkest Hour
* (upcoming) Dawn of the Artifacts 4

[Dreadlord]

Yikes! Man, that is AMBITIOUS!!!

I too have wanted to pull out some of the old adventures and start from the beginning, using the new rules set. I actually ran some Corporate Punishment scenarios.

The problem I quickly ran into was trying to match up gear to its proper time to prevent anachronisms, and of course some gear is not even in the new rules at all, such as cyberdecks. Do you just fake up a "commlink" that is the size of a briefcase?

To that end I started trying to update Wordman's Ultimate Weapons and Gear list, which turned into a MASSIVE amount of work despite the fact he had done most of it before! Man, I really appreciate what he did now!

After that "prep" work, I lost all motivation to continue, as my free time is not that free!

I would LOVE to see a gear list (including Vehicles!) with SR4 stats with a YEAR entry, and some stats and rules for old tech that has become obsolete by the 2070's. Hm, maybe I should take up that project again and try to get that added to the updated Wordman Sheet I already have.

[78coolbreeze]

What's a wordman sheet?

And yeah I may be diving into the deep end. Figured it would be simple if I could use the conversion guide on the main website. After all a story is a story no matter what edition. But I guess I am going to have to think things out a bit more. I just wish their was some way to play the old ones easily. After all it's ashamed all those great adventures can't still be enjoyed.

[sgtbarnes_ky]

You would need to redo Karma rewards to as the character improvement costs have increased in 4Ea rules. My advise would be just to start with 4E

[78coolbreeze]

If I knew what editions the older missions were, would it be possible to just start with 3rd edition missions and convert just those?

[78coolbreeze]

I am really wanting to start with First Run since it's meant to help newbies. I would rather play with the Runner's Toolkit adventure to get started but who knows when that is going to be released.

[Stahlseele]

What's a wordman sheet?

And yeah I may be diving into the deep end. Figured it would be simple if I could use the conversion guide on the main website. After all a story is a story no matter what edition. But I guess I am going to have to think things out a bit more. I just wish their was some way to play the old ones easily. After all it's ashamed all those great adventures can't still be enjoyed.

Wordmans Character Sheets:
http://rpg.divnull.com/srun/srunsheets.html
Also, i hope you have MUCH time for playing . . this batch will take you about 5 years i'd guess O.o

[78coolbreeze]

Hmm, would it be plausible to start with the 1st Edition rule book and play through the adventures. Then upgrade the players to the 2nd edition and so on when the adventures change edition?

If so this could possibly work.

[Udoshi]

Hi all. I just picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition of the game. I haven't played this game in almost 15 years so I am pretty much lost at starting to be a GM once again. I do however recall that Shadowrun was the best RPG I have ever played and I have been waiting for an mmorpg to come out ever since I first played Everquest 1.
* 7303 Dreamchipper
* 7304 Queen Euphoria
* 7305 Bottled Demon

Hey! Welcome back. I can't speak for the others, but I recently read a -really- good Actual Play over on RPG.net that included those three modules.

The first thread is Here.
And the second campaign is Here.

The thing I like most about them is at the end of each post, there's a Lessons Learned update, which explains rules pitfalls or things that came up in the course of casual play. If you don't mind a bit of spoilers, its a remarkable read on how the system works, examples of actual gameplay, and insight into how the game should work to be fun. If you're new to the system, its well worth your read to peruse. Not to mention entertaining.

[78coolbreeze]

Cool I will check that out. Thanks for the links. I probably could use all the help I could get learning to GM. It's not an easy task to undertake when you have no experience.

As far as plans for the adventures I mentioned, I don't see any reason things couldn't be played out by starting with the first edition rule books and working my way through them. That eliminates the need for converting the rules to 4th edition and such.

My only question now is, I want to start with the mission First Run. Since it is intended to be used with 3rd edition rules, how would I go about converting just this one adventure to 1st edition?? o.O

[78coolbreeze]

For anyone interested in the answer to my original question I found a page with chronological order of the adventures.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/shadowrun/adventure%20dates.html

[Acidsaliva]

Welcome !
Was just about to post that link for you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)