Harlequin, Or other old modules Options

[CanRay]

It was easier to do the Dystopia back then. People remembered the Cold War and the economy destruction that happened right around the time early Shadowrun was coming out.

Of course, if things keep going the way they are...

[ggodo]

I miss the feel of the old books, I got Renraku Arcology Shutdown and Germany at my bookstore, and Renraku Arcology Shutdown is now my favorite story arc in SR. I think if they ever make another Shadowrun Video game it should be in the Arcology.

[Mercer]

It was easier to do the Dystopia back then. People remembered the Cold War and the economy destruction that happened right around the time early Shadowrun was coming out.

Of course, if things keep going the way they are...

That's the beauty of it, the world always seems like it's on the precipice of some great disaster. We're just scared of different things than we were back then. Those fears seem quaint now (whether it was the Soviets or the Japanese who were going to take over) and in a few years, the things we're scared of now will seem quaint. Unless we're talking about animatronic sharks. Those things will always be terrifying.

[cryptoknight]

Personally I'd love some good conversions of the old mods... I have them... gathering dust on my shelf.

I can convert critters easy enough from edition to edition... I was never very good at matrix conversions... the matrix changes so much from one version to the next that I keep trying to build the old 1st edition system maps... and kicking myself for even thinking down those lines.

At the same time, the idea that a business is really not much more than a really big commlink or series of them, bugs me.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Personally I'd love some good conversions of the old mods... I have them... gathering dust on my shelf.

I can convert critters easy enough from edition to edition... I was never very good at matrix conversions... the matrix changes so much from one version to the next that I keep trying to build the old 1st edition system maps... and kicking myself for even thinking down those lines.

At the same time, the idea that a business is really not much more than a really big commlink or series of them, bugs me.

Actually, the System maps from 1st Edition are a good way to visualize/construct a complex series of Nodes forming a target System you might want to raid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Layered protection is a better solution than a Single node...

[snowRaven]

Actually, the System maps from 1st Edition are a good way to visualize/construct a complex series of Nodes forming a target System you might want to raid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Layered protection is a better solution than a Single node...

100% Agreed!

[Neurosis]

Has anyone updated Harlequin to 4th Edition? Or, similarly, any of the other classic modules?

I seem to recall a thread talking about that once upon a time, but my search-fu failed me and I couldn't find anything.

I'm going to be introducing a whole new group to Shadowrun and was just trying to think of some stuff that might be a fun intro. So, if someone has other suggestions, I'm open to those as well.

FYI, I'm trying to stay away from the Dark Artifacts stories because I keep hoping I can convince someone else to use them to GM so that I can actually play.

I ran Harlequin as a 4th Edition adventure SORT OF. I didn't really adapt it for 4th Edition, though. I had the PCs go back in time to (a metaplane containing echoes of) their past lives and experience the events as dream-like echoes of their past lives using reworked 1st Edition Rules so the campaign alternated between 4E and 1E. The thing that sent them back in time was a magic carousel a la Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the carousel was located in Knasser's Carnival, which is a fan-made adventure/setting that I wholeheartedly recommend; the Carnival part of the adventure climaxed with the PCs and Harlequin taking out the extremely nasty black magician leaders of the carnival. It was all extremely mysterious as it was happening. Even if the players were Shadowrun veterans (they weren't) I mixed things up enough and turned the weird to eleven enough that I don't think they'd have had any inkling what was really going on until well into the campaign.

The above events--which believe it or not ran co-terminously with and tied into an epic hunt for surviving fragments of the three main pre-Crash 2.0 AIs--comprised my second successfully completed, full length Shadowrun campaign ever. A bizarre frankencampaign being played in 1E and 4E simultaneously with two different sets of characters.

An upcoming book that I'm dying to work on but not technically allowed to talk about might make things like actually updating Harlequin (and 1st Edition in general) to the 4E rules a lot more possible.

I really love the adventure Harlequin because you get to do a lot of shadowruns. I'm less excited about Harlequin's Back because, while I love Harlequin, you don't *really* get to do any shadowruns, and that's a LONG campaign to play through in a game called Shadowrun without getting to do any.