Importing ideas from other RPG's, When orks and dragons and elves aren't enough... Options

[baron_samedi]

anyone ever import an idea (character types, creatures, weapon, gear) from another RPG to SR to make it more interesting?

like i have been considering a short mission for my players where they run into the SR equivalent of Dog Boys from "Rifts". I will eliminate Mega Damage weapons/armor of course.

one other idea was to borrow a character class from a sci-fi rpg from 20 odd years ago and the name of it escapes me. but the character class was a creature that was part of a religious sect.
they were pacifists and their behavior was such that others around them would fight for them.

they had high charisma and were healers, but lacked magic.

lastly, i wanted to have a "WTF?" session by bringing in the team concept from "TMNT & Other Strangeness".
not necessarily a team of mutants, but just a group of characters who get bonuses for being brothers under the microscope, coming from the same lab experiment.

not super powered or cartoonish, but a bit altered from most people.

i am having fun expanding SR into other directions, just didn't know if you experiment as well.

[Ascalaphus]

A wghile back I played in a Vampire the Masquerade adventure where a bunch of vampires had become convinced they were Turtles, that the other vampires were Foot Ninja and so forth. It was hilarious.

[Medicineman]

I added Hobbits to the List of playable SR Metaraces

with a Dance in the Shires
Medicineman

[hermit]

I often use bits and pieces (or references to) the Warhammer 40K universe, and the Cthulhu Mythos. In fact, I've run a couple Cthulhutech adventures (from what will now be known as the Shadow war, for a lack of mecha, and it'S fight-the-dark-powers theme). I've also introduced, at the request of a player, stuff and ideas from a show called Huhntik, albeit strongly modified with more than a touch of the above mentioned 40K and Mythos.

Oh yeah, does Earthdawn count?

[Muspellsheimr]

The (new*) World of Darkness Tremere Lich is conceptually pretty fucking awesome as a 'psychic vampire' variant, that happens to fits perfectly with my single favorite character. Unfortunately, the mechanics are terrible. As such, I ported over the concept, but with different mechanics. Turns out Essence Drain/Loss is perfectly suited to represent an immortal who survives by consuming others' souls.


*In new WoD, the Tremere are actually a Mage Attainment, not a Vampire Bloodline.

[The Jopp]

I'm gonna add the Wee Free Men...

[hermit]

Turns out Essence Drain/Loss is perfectly suited to represent an immortal who survives by consuming others' souls.

Color me surprised. Because this is what shadowrun vampires are supposed to be about.

[Fortinbras]

The shaman I'm currently playing is a "drow."

Well, he's really just a human elf posuer who got SURGED with pitch black skin. He goes around referring to others as "mortals" and talking about his people and the Underdark.
All complete BS, but only a handful of the other players know there aren't any drow in Shadowrun/Earthdawn it's fun to gauge their reactions.

[Muspellsheimr]

Color me surprised. Because this is what shadowrun vampires are supposed to be about.

No, not exactly. Essence in shadowrun represents a few things, of which a 'soul' is thought of by some to be one of them. Shadowrun vampires, like most vampires, feed off a character's life energy, which just happens to result in essence loss. Granted, some believe they feed off the soul, but that really is just a theory with no backing.

Despite many similarities, the tremere are conceptually very different than vampires. Also, I actually use Energy Drain (Essence) rather than Essence Drain - the latter is just a specific version of the first, so this allows me flexibility in the transition method.

[baron_samedi]

what a relief to know that it's okay to tweak the game like that.
i suppose as long as i don't try to "GURPS" the game to encompass everything i want and wind up with things that just don't jive in SR, i am remaining faithful to the game's concept.

I do have one more question- i like the original WoD concept for "Mage:the Acension" that the mages are fighting to establish their vision of reality as the true reality of the world. In SR terms would a magic user that has that belief system, would he be someone who's got Flaws (Schizophrenic, delusional, etc) or could he just be a byproduct of the environment that helped develop his abilities?

hint: i'd love to have a Sons of Ether type running around trying to convince street sams that he has the answer, lol.

[hermit]

No, not exactly. Essence in shadowrun represents a few things, of which a 'soul' is thought of by some to be one of them. Shadowrun vampires, like most vampires, feed off a character's life energy, which just happens to result in essence loss. Granted, some believe they feed off the soul, but that really is just a theory with no backing.

Uh huh. Essence is cnsidered either life energies or a holistic oneness of body and soul, so it either is the soul or what's keeping the soul in the body (depending on which authors you ask). So it's reasonable to assume that eating essence seriouslymeses with the soul or is downright eating it. That even goes with the Mosaic idea of souls being entirely separate from the bodies that WoD so singularily subscribes to. So no, SR vampires either eat or seriously mess with the soul (which then implodes into the Astral). Either way they destroy it thoroughly.

what a relief to know that it's okay to tweak the game like that.
i suppose as long as i don't try to "GURPS" the game to encompass everything i want and wind up with things that just don't jive in SR, i am remaining faithful to the game's concept.

Well. You should stay the hell away from my games with any WoD crossover and sparky vampires who eat souls which totally is different from essence because vampires are special snowflakes, but if you're heavily into WoD, go for it. Sr4 is a very modular game and in fact comes close to ADD 4 in being pretty much open to anything (nevermind it'S mechanics being deeply flawed on principle in some areas).

There is no "true" SR, despite what angry purists like me like to say. If you feel crossing Cthulhu, WoD, or Spawn of Fashan into SR, the system probably can take that, and it'S your game. Just don't expect evertyone to be happy when you show up with a Cullen for a character (or a Hobbit).

Ah yes, forgot to mention: I am working on a viable Space Marine build in SR4. He's set to be just as powerful too, abusing the hell out of the exoskeleton in Attitude and that it never mentions what initiative is used wearing it fully rigged. 5 IP for the Space Marine (or, "how does something so big and heavy move so damned fast?!"). Even got it'S own thread here somewhere.

I do have one more question- i like the original WoD concept for "Mage:the Acension" that the mages are fighting to establish their vision of reality as the true reality of the world. In SR terms would a magic user that has that belief system, would he be someone who's got Flaws (Schizophrenic, delusional, etc) or could he just be a byproduct of the environment that helped develop his abilities?

It'S been SR canon ever since SR2 that the mage's belief systems shape how his magic works. Back then that meant differnet mechanics, which they dumbed down streamlined for SR4 because apparently it'S too much to ask of players to memorise three tables. Powerful NPCs like Harlekin or Great Dragons have a very divergent belief ystem and hence magic that works fundamentally different from SR's.

So, if I understand your question correctly, the magemakes the way the mana reacts for him, works for him. Reality, though, is not shaped by the mage, SR's world is, esentially, a lovecraftian, uncaring universe that doesn't give a toss about what people think of it (unlike the very anthropocentric, chrisitanity-influenced WoD, SR was originally written by New Agers heavily into Shamanism and Hindusim with a good dash of CoC). So no matter what your mage believes, the universe will not just bend over backwards because he believes. Your mage is, however, welcome to subscribe to the belief he can remake reality if he just believes enough. It's just, canonically, never gonna work for him.

There's no stopping you houseruling it does and going with the Mage:TA worldview, of course.

[Cenobite]

At one point I pondered how to stat up a Promethean as the magical equivalent to a cyberzombie, but I never really went anywhere with it.

[Jhaiisiin]

In our game, we had a crossover some time back where a single, capable Virtual Adept got pulled into the SR universe from his own. He had all of his own normal capabilities. In a nearly paradox-free environment, he was insanely powerful. Thankfully, he was a rarely used NPC for extremely dangerous missions.

Concepts and ideas port into SR from other systems with little issue, so long as one works within the SR mechanics to approximate that concept (as we've done on this forum innumerable times with superhero builds, iron man, Binky, etc etc etc).

[LurkerOutThere]

I've always found the otherworldly cosmic horrors in deadlands were far more compelling then the ones in Shadowrun and tend to borrow them on occasion.

[Medicineman]

I've always found the otherworldly cosmic horrors in deadlands were far more compelling then the ones in Shadowrun and tend to borrow them on occasion.

ImO Cthulhu Horrors, Deadland Horrors and Earthdawn Horrors are all the same
and can be exchanged easily

He who Dances with Cthulhu
Medicineman

[baron_samedi]

Well. You should stay the hell away from my games with any WoD crossover and sparky vampires who eat souls which totally is different from essence because vampires are special snowflakes, but if you're heavily into WoD, go for it.

i plan to avoid that, hermit.

i think i may simplify my mage idea bit. i may just make him a nutjob with lots of flaws, just like Robin Williams' character in "The Fisher King". he has magical ability, but was traumatized by his upbrining so much that he took something he read or saw and adopted it as his new reality.

he'll basically follow WoD rules- avoiding the use of vulgar magic, fearful of Paradox, etc. just to complicate things for him. Imagine a nerdy combat mage with Asperger's and knows 1950s-1970s sci-fi by heart.

i really want to have fun with him.

[hermit]

i think i may simplify my mage idea bit. i may just make him a nutjob with lots of flaws, just like Robin Williams' character in "The Fisher King". he has magical ability, but was traumatized by his upbrining so much that he took something he read or saw and adopted it as his new reality.

Perfectly viable. There was, in one of the 3E magic books, a few examples of such mages - one who practiced magic according to superhero comic books, one who practiced 'psionics' based on 1960s pseudoscience. And a friend's character's patron is a Transformers character (Starscream, of all things). Consequently, the character interacts with her patron by watching ancient cartoons, over and over. So that's perfectly in line with the basic ideas of Shadowrun canon.

My problem with WoD in principle is that it made Vampires no monsters but noble suffering angsty goth creatures whose enternal lives are spent in a perpetual state of Sturm und Drang and whining about their loss of humanity (a somewhat edgier version of Stephenie Meyer). I just don't like that. YMMV. Not attacking your character as a given, it's more a general dislike of WoD's principle world view. Rules-wise, nWoD and Sr are prettymuch compatible. I actually like that social combat system, for instance.

[Blade]

I've recently started reading again SLA Industries to help me get the 80s cyberpunk feel in my "old-school" campaign. But it's more about the feel and the setting than specific elements.

[hermit]

Well, I've also integrated some CP2020 stuff long ago. There were Chromebook conversions for SR3. Some of that stuff was pretty neat.

[Mäx]

My problem with WoD in principle is that it made Vampires no monsters but noble suffering angsty goth creatures whose enternal lives are spent in a perpetual state of Sturm und Drang and whining about their loss of humanity (a somewhat edgier version of Stephenie Meyer). I just don't like that. YMMV. Not attacking your character as a given, it's more a general dislike of WoD's principle world view. Rules-wise, nWoD and Sr are prettymuch compatible. I actually like that social combat system, for instance.

Personally i have nothink against WoD or nWoD vampires games and think that there are many nice thinks in the various books, but i have never felt a particular need to crossover anything from them into SR.
But i have spend sometime thinking about porting in some of the hunter organization from the nWoD hunters game, like Taskforce Valkyria, Maiden's blood sisterhood(Monster hunting sorority (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif) ) and few of the others.
But thats alongside of thinking about porting in Public Security Section 9, Dollhouse, Warehouse 13, Alpha Protocol, Global Frequency, Order of Hole Sepulchre, Sanctuary, The Guild of Companions and few others (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[nezumi]

I'm calling the Gaming Police on all of you guys.

[Ascalaphus]

I play more WoD than SR, and if your experiences have been mostly about angsting around - mine haven't.

Actually SR has crept into our Vampire. Our party basically does shadowrunning jobs (B&E, extraction, wetwork, deniable asset) for the vampiric establishment.

[hermit]

I play more WoD than SR, and if your experiences have been mostly about angsting around - mine haven't.

Well, it's not just the angsting (though that IS an issue, that and moronic power tripping). WoD tends to attract a certain crowd over here. Also, the game is fundamentally anthropocentric, the world is deeply moralistic, and the core of the (Vampire and Werewolf) game is moaning your loss of humanity while reveling in your outsiderdom (at least, that's the impression the VtM core book makes on me). There are other, much more interesting parts of WoD - Changeling, Hunter - but I just don't like, personally, this anthropocentrism and the biased, moralising nature of the world put me off at a fundamental level.

[Jhaiisiin]

Despite the massive powergaming that can result from Mage in WoD, my groups really enjoy the hell out of it. We manage to keep it very in check, and keep the threats always challenging. Of course, it helps to have a fantastic GM to weave a good and lasting story. But then, any game can be made or broken by the quality of the GM.

[baron_samedi]

i feel blessed that i have only once encountered the folks that were LARP-ing V:tM.
i like RPGs, but that got awkward pretty fast. LOL.

with WoD, i am used to the original system/story, not that reboot they pulled. and personally, i loved Werewolf. but the others didn't have enough to make them fun to keep going.
(i wanted to eat a Roomsweeper after reading Wraith and Changeling.)


damn, now the idea of using Cthulhu is sounding really great.
a good ghost story turned into nightmare fuel would be a blast.
and would it be too much to ask that players create new characters that are totally disposable, considering what they'll run into won't be at all reluctant to eradicate them?