First Post and Classic Shadowrun Options

[BluSponge]

Hey everyone,

I only recently registered and wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I'm a long time gamer and frequent poster on RPGnet and elsewhere. A good portion of my regular game group, myself included, has been on a break to welcome new additions to our families. We are looking to get things rolling again this year in late January now that all the babies are sleeping through the night. We've been playing Savage Worlds pretty regularly now for the last couple of years and, as a GM, I'm ready for a break from that system. Love it as I do, sometimes you need to stretch other parts of your brain.

I haven't played Shadowrun in some 20 years (since just before 2nd edition was released), but I've been rediscovering it lately and have convinced myself that it would be fun to run an episodic, if irregular, game. I've considered going to SR4A, but with the announcement of 5th edition, I'm convinced that if we do this, we're going to use the 2nd edition rules. I have a small collection of 1st/2nd edition sourcebooks and adventures and want to make the most use of that – at least until I see what 5th edition has to offer.

So does anyone know if there are any good SR2 resource sites out there? I've been having a devil of a time finding anything that pre-dates 3rd edition. I'm mainly looking for things like cheat sheets and other aids to help run the game. Also, where can I find good resources for building NPC/Contact backgrounds?

Thanks for the help! Looking forward to an interesting 2013.

Tom

[CanRay]

1^st Edition official PDFs for sale.
2^nd Edition official PDFs for sale.

Hope those can help you out at least a little bit. They make printing parts of the books much easier for referencing at the very least, and I think most are OCR for Copy-Paste your own tables. (If you're going to build your own GM Screen, I can highly recommend this that I picked up at GenCon, and use with my group in all kinds of games!).

Welcome back to Shadowrun, and welcome to Dumpshock, come for the headache, stay for the company, you masochist. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Bigity]

1^st Edition official PDFs for sale.
2^nd Edition official PDFs for sale.

Hope those can help you out at least a little bit. They make printing parts of the books much easier for referencing at the very least, and I think most are OCR for Copy-Paste your own tables. (If you're going to build your own GM Screen, I can highly recommend this that I picked up at GenCon, and use with my group in all kinds of games!).

Welcome back to Shadowrun, and welcome to Dumpshock, come for the headache, stay for the company, you masochist. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I need to buy VR2 and print and bind that sucker. My old copies are just trashed.

I'm still a little miffed that R3R isn't available.

[nezumi]

SR3 is basically SR2.5. They fixed up a few minor items to help gameplay. What that means for you is all of those SR3 resources apply to SR2 as well. The GM Screen also has a nice cheat sheet for you.

There are a number of SR2 players (or at least, players who remember SR2) around here, happy to help how we can.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

SR3 is basically SR2.5. They fixed up a few minor items to help gameplay. What that means for you is all of those SR3 resources apply to SR2 as well. The GM Screen also has a nice cheat sheet for you.

There are a number of SR2 players (or at least, players who remember SR2) around here, happy to help how we can.

SR2 is Awesome...
I just hate Variable TN's. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[BluSponge]

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

If you're going to build your own GM Screen, I can highly recommend this that I picked up at GenCon, and use with my group in all kinds of games!.

I do indeed have that. But since I already have the screen for 2nd ed I'll probably just use that for the time being. But yes, that screen is the best money I've ever spent. I can't agree with your recommendation enough.

The GM Screen also has a nice cheat sheet for you.

Is the cheat sheet part of the screen itself, or is it included in the package? Reason I ask is that the 2nd ed screen included a book of contacts and a set of figure flats, but I've never seen an instance where either of those were scanned or made available otherwise. Judging from RPGNow, the SR3 screen is just the screen panels, with the critter book separate. So am I missing something here?

SR2 is Awesome...
I just hate Variable TN's. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Eh. Variable TNs are fine. In fact, I kinda like that SR2 gives me multiple options in expressing difficulty. As the GM, I can either ratchet up the TN, or require a certain threshold of successes. So, for instance, I've been toying with the idea of some Mook rules (15 years of 7th Sea and Savage Worlds have made mooks a must in my book) that would eliminate some of the dice rolling involved in a fight. (Instead of rolling damage resistance, the player just has to roll a number of successes equal to the mook's 1/2 Body+threat rating (or something like that), with everything above that threshold being damage. I haven't ironed out all the details, but I want to minimize the die rolling on my (the GM's) part. The players can roll all they want.) Yes, I'm aware of the whole beating a 19 TN with d6s issue, but that's never been an issue in any game I've ever played in. No more than beating a number of successes has been. SR2 pretty much lets me do either or, depending on how I express the challenge.

Tom

[BluSponge]

Two more things:

Why is 2nd edition the only edition of the game NOT available in PDF? Anyone have a clue when CGL will be rolling that out?

How different are the numbers in the stat blocks between SR2 and SR3? If I'm taking a Contact from Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book, is there a shorthand way to make it SR2 compatible, or are the differences negligible? Not worried about critters, but I really like the collection of contacts in MJLBB.

Tom

[nezumi]

Is the cheat sheet part of the screen itself, or is it included in the package?

Should be on the screen itself. I could be misremembering (but I really don't think I am, unless it came out with SR3 and my GM bought it when it was hot off the press and used it for our SR2 games).

Why is 2nd edition the only edition of the game NOT available in PDF? Anyone have a clue when CGL will be rolling that out?

Don't hold your breath. My understanding is they don't have all of the files necessary to make a proper pdf, or do a clean scan. Until those are found, don't expect pdfs (and it's certainly not a priority for them, given everything else going on).

How different are the numbers in the stat blocks between SR2 and SR3? If I'm taking a Contact from Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book, is there a shorthand way to make it SR2 compatible, or are the differences negligible? Not worried about critters, but I really like the collection of contacts in MJLBB.

Negligible. A few pieces of ware have changed costs. Initiative is less important in SR3, so you may need to tone it down when transferring it over. SR3 will also use a single Etiquette skill, but multiple firearm skills. All your other character sheet information should be basically interchangeable.

[BluSponge]

Don't hold your breath. My understanding is they don't have all of the files necessary to make a proper pdf, or do a clean scan. Until those are found, don't expect pdfs (and it's certainly not a priority for them, given everything else going on).

Ouch! How odd.

Negligible. A few pieces of ware have changed costs. Initiative is less important in SR3, so you may need to tone it down when transferring it over. SR3 will also use a single Etiquette skill, but multiple firearm skills. All your other character sheet information should be basically interchangeable.

Ok, but if I'm using a SR3 contact statblock with SR2, I really don't have to change anything (except maybe the skill profile), right?

Tom

[nezumi]

I believe that is correct. I ran a bunch of SR2 missions for an SR3 campaign, and I don't recall any other issues than those I mentioned (plus now and again equipment stats changing, or more frequently, NPCs being outclassed because their equipment is out of date).