Old Adventures vs New Options

[gmanjkd]

I have 2 directions I could take my SR campaign. I can use the old adventures or jump into 4th ed and use the Horizon/artifact adventures. Are the older 1st/2nd ed adventures better than the 4th Ed adventures? Just to clarify Im only asking about full adventures not campaign books that require the gm to do a lot of wrk.

Are older adventures better than the new ones?

Do they have different flavor/themes?

Better written or more complete?

More or less variety?

Any other opinions are welcome.

Thanks

[Machiavelli]

IMHO the old ones had more...let me say: "spirit", but i had some problems adjusting them to the WIFI-generation. The new ones are ok, but the authors tend to overreact some times (especially at Ghost Cartels). This is not a new experience, but it was not so drastic in the older adventures (just my impression). But anyway: have fun.

[gmanjkd]

Would those old adventures like universal brotherhood, harlequin, DNA/doa be usable with 2050 source book?

[hermit]

Would those old adventures like universal brotherhood, harlequin, DNA/doa be usable with 2050 source book?

Certainly, that'd make it easier. Conversion must still happen, of course, everything that has stats will need to be restatted. Some NPC builds may just not work anyway.

Personally, I found the first Horizon adventure unusable with SR4, simply because it assumes a naivity with commlinks no SR4 player in their right mind has. I did run ist as a post-64 SR3 adventure, which worked quite well. working up a few house rules and grinding trhough deck creation with Matrix for some commlink-like devices proved less tedious than forcing my players not to ditch their links once the adventure's main point happened. Never tried to run the others.

Artifacts doesn't depend on the wifi world much, but quality of the advantures is sometimes low, especially of New Dawn.

Ghost Cartels is a campaign that, like others (Brainscan, Shockwaves), will make any character used in it unplayable after it's conclusion, and that also has some dramaturgic problems. The other standalone adventures - On The Run (which ties into an old one, One Stage Before), the Boardroom Backstabs - are mediocre and rather badly balanced; On the Run's climatic fight will likely result in dead-or-worse PCs, it's just impossible to survive Damage Control, and Sacrificial Limb's ending basically needs to be entirely (re)written by the DM.

Jet Set, Twilight Horizon and Corporate Intrigue are more collections of notes that can be worked into adventures, and pretty random NPC stats that aren't all that helpful, and require at least as much preparation as adapting old school adventures. Some of the ideas are pretty neat, others are pretty ridiculous.

That said, you can of course convert old school adventures to SR4. You'll need to adapt the setting a bit and be prepared to deal with the WiFi world, as well as rewrite all stats, and generally do a lot of preparation, but most of them do not specifically demand any timeframe (story relevant campaigns like Bug City nonwithstanding). Some - especially old stuff like Ivy&Chrome, Mercurial, Double Exposure, Elven Fire or Imago - work better with SR4 than others.

The main SR4 Missions seasons, both New York and Seattle, are of good to outstanding quality with few exceptions and easily runnable in SR4, make good use of the setting and are varied, well written and easy to run. If you want to run canned adventures for SR4, do yourself a favor and start with Missions. Elven Blood, which technically also is a Missions product, also is highly recommended, and ties in with old adventures too, like Elven Fire.

[Machiavelli]

Ghost Cartels is a campaign that, like others (Brainscan, Shockwaves), will make any character used in it unplayable after it's conclusion, hly recommended, and ties in with old adventures too, like Elven Fire.

What? I am playing it right now. We are one session or two before the big finale. What do you mean with "unplayable"? My main-char is participating. *shudder*

[gmanjkd]

The SR Missions idea sounds very appealing. What really appeals to me about the older adventures are the big earh changing events like Bug city/ Universal brotherhood. Do the SR missions adventures provide an overall story arch or are they more single serving fun but also generic?


Thanks
Gary

[Larsine]

The SR Missions idea sounds very appealing. What really appeals to me about the older adventures are the big earh changing events like Bug city/ Universal brotherhood. Do the SR missions adventures provide an overall story arch or are they more single serving fun but also generic?


Thanks
Gary

SR Missions Series 4 has two different overall story archs:

Buried Underground: SRM04-01, SRM04-03, SRM04-05, SRM04-07, SRM04-09 & SRM04-11

Artifact Rush: SRM04-02, SRM04-04, SRM04-06, SRM04-08, SRM04-10 & SRM04-12

But as far as I know they can be played independently.

[hermit]

What? I am playing it right now. We are one session or two before the big finale. What do you mean with "unplayable"? My main-char is participating. *shudder*

I don't want to spoiler, but ...
In the end of Brainscan, Renraku (resp. Sherman Huang) hates you and becomes your mortal enemy and will hunt you to then end of the world.
In the end of Shockwaves, several corps want to kill you because you know too much and will hunt you to the end of the world.
In the end of Survival of the Fittest, you have pissed off half the world's dragon population no matter your choice.
In the end of Harlequin Returns, you may choose between noble and ignoble death.

Those epic campaigns in Shadowrun are always meat grinders for characters. Because grimdark, see. Many GMs changed that or left it out entirely, of course, but thats how it's written in the books.

[Machiavelli]

Ah ok, you are talking about pissing the world off...not a problem for us. We do that all the time. This is the only thing our GM is not very strict at. Especially because we all think that you shouldn´t take too serious what the authors sometimes write. ^^

[DuckEggBlue Omeg...]

In the end of Harlequin Returns, you may choose between noble and ignoble death.

There's a third Harlequin adventure? What edition was it for?

[gmanjkd]

Im going out on a limb here but i think i remember reading that one of the 4 Artifact adventures from 4th ed included Harliquinn.

But don't quote me on that.

[Critias]

The main SR4 Missions seasons, both New York and Seattle, are of good to outstanding quality with few exceptions and easily runnable in SR4, make good use of the setting and are varied, well written and easy to run. If you want to run canned adventures for SR4, do yourself a favor and start with Missions.

*thumbs up*

Elven Blood, which technically also is a Missions product, also is highly recommended, and ties in with old adventures too, like Elven Fire.

*two thumbs up*

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[hermit]

There's a third Harlequin adventure? What edition was it for?

Uhm. Sorry. Harlequin's Back would be the title. That's what happens when you only own the translated version and simply backtranslate the title. There wasn't a third major Harlequin adventure. And befre you ask, I wasn't spoilering. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[sk8bcn]

Uhm. Sorry. Harlequin's Back would be the title. That's what happens when you only own the translated version and simply backtranslate the title. There wasn't a third major Harlequin adventure. And befre you ask, I wasn't spoilering. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

By raw, they don't end dead at the end of Harlequin.

just saying.

[DuckEggBlue Omeg...]

By raw, they don't end dead at the end of Harlequin.

just saying.

That's why I thought it must be a new one. If I remember correctly death isn't even the choice, it's being eternally trapped in the wherever-it-was protecting Thayla. And then they get to go home anyway.

[nezumi]

Your post isn't too clear; is your choice between PLAYING SR1/2/3 and running SR1/2/3 missions vs. playing SR4 and SR4 missions? Because if the question is how fun is it to play an SR1 mission using SR4 rules, the answer is ... it isn't.

You're going to have to re-stat all of the weapons, all of the NPCs, all of the spells, all of the mission pay-outs, and the matrix rules are going to be useless. If you're looking to avoid the GM doing a lot of work, stay clear.

If you're already running SR3, 90% of SR2 works (but not the matrix stuff, so either make sure you know the SR2 matrix rules, or tell the decker to play a different character), and maybe 50% of the SR1 stuff works (weapon codes you can replace with the current version, matrix issues as before, but a lot of the technology, names, and methods don't carry over).

[sk8bcn]

***The thing hidden***

Exactely!

[sk8bcn]

Your post isn't too clear; is your choice between PLAYING SR1/2/3 and running SR1/2/3 missions vs. playing SR4 and SR4 missions? Because if the question is how fun is it to play an SR1 mission using SR4 rules, the answer is ... it isn't.

You're going to have to re-stat all of the weapons, all of the NPCs, all of the spells, all of the mission pay-outs, and the matrix rules are going to be useless. If you're looking to avoid the GM doing a lot of work, stay clear.

If you're already running SR3, 90% of SR2 works (but not the matrix stuff, so either make sure you know the SR2 matrix rules, or tell the decker to play a different character), and maybe 50% of the SR1 stuff works (weapon codes you can replace with the current version, matrix issues as before, but a lot of the technology, names, and methods don't carry over).

Tbh, when I read this forum, I find out that my gamemastering-technique is somewhat...lighter. Most of the time, I stat on the fly. It bores me so much, even when I write a scenario.

[Larsine]

Your post isn't too clear; is your choice between PLAYING SR1/2/3 and running SR1/2/3 missions vs. playing SR4 and SR4 missions? Because if the question is how fun is it to play an SR1 mission using SR4 rules, the answer is ... it isn't.

There is no such thing as SR1 missions.

Series 00-01 was for SR3.
Series 02-04 was for SR4.

http://rpggeek.com/rpgseries/2498/shadowrun-missions

[nezumi]

There is no such thing as SR1 missions.

Do you prefer the term 'adventures'?

[Larsine]

Do you prefer the term 'adventures'?

Yes, if that's what you mean. There is a big difference between mission adventures, and non-mission adventures.