What would you change?, Making the most of your reality Options

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

We're being threatened by the government because the corps tell them to do it.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

I agree that life's not fair. That's why I think I should be able to retreat to a role-playing game and be able to play a street samurai without the guy next to me having a mage and instantly being the star around which the game revolves because not only can he do everything I do, he can also do astral recon and be the only one who can effectively fight spirits.

As for what, I'd have little things like a .1 essence piece of cyberware that prevented magical mind probes, cybereye mods equivalent to low-light that could see astrally, that sort of thing.

And at the high end, I'd include something that costs hundreds of thousands of nuyen that just flat out makes you immune to magic.

[BitBasher]

IMHO If in your game the mage can do everythign the sammy can do, you're doing something very, very wrong.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

I probably am, then. But what abilities do street sams get that can't be duplicated by a spell?

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Cyberware which can detect astral presences is inevitable given the tech (thanks, Deus). But completely immune to magic? That's insane.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

I'm insane. I thought the thread was about how you would change the game if you were willing to depart radically from canon.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Ah, well, I prefer to keep the game generally intact.

Allowing for null magical effects is as illogical as allowing someone to not need to breathe--ever.

[BitBasher]

[Herald of Verjig...]

[FrostyNSO]

I think I understand what CircutBoyBlue is talking about. A mage with a good spellset being played by a player who takes every possible opportunity to cast a spell can make the 'mundane' shadowrunners seem a little like 5th wheels. Especially when paired with a GM who maybe doesn't know any of the tricks to screw over (sorry for the term, but that's about what it comes too :) ) magic-wielding characters.

I don't think the problem CBB is with the game, but with your group's particular game.

Oh yeah, there is a way to make yourself resistant to magic with cyberware. Cybermancy. A whole lot of it :)

[BitBasher]

Yeah, I've only ever seen mages pull that off in the games where the GM doesn't enforce the drawbacks of magic use.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

[Kagetenshi]

If you're looking for permanent solutions, dead people don't breathe much.

~J

[BitBasher]

[Anymage]

Nuke the whole setting, WOD-like. For the same reason, really.

The basic idea is wonderful. The game is kind of choked by metaplot and backstory, and quite frankly the rules need rebalancing as well. (I don't care if life isn't fair. If that's really your attitude, play the Stuffer Shack clerk. Me, I like to play powerful/compotent characters, and I assume others do also. And when I think that a concept is cool, I don't want to be "punished" by being the sidekick, thank you much.)

Streamline decking and astral recon rules. If we're going to make most of the team sit around doing nothing, best to get it over with quickly.

Avoid power-players like the plague, especially ones with too clear a moral stance. Certain background details like major corporation names are all well and good, but making me pay too much attention to who's doing what in the fiction line stunts my ability to do as I damn well please in my game. (Yeah, I know I can do that anyways. It's nice when the only options aren't that or have progressvely less use from every new book to come out.)

To piss off the CP2020 fans, play up the parts that aren't shit. You have slums and barrens, and you have robber barons, but most people in between are just ambling along. Leave that to contrast the extremes one often sees as a 'runner.

Highlight that while the characters are professionals, they're at the lowest rungs of the professional ladder. (Which still puts them ahead of most "runners", mind you.) And for the love of baby Jesus - as hard as this'll be for writers to do - remember that the outside world doesn't give runners/running much if any thought.

(And as a flavor issue, remember that starting runners come in two types; the idle and foolish rich, and those without other choices. Again, play up the disconnect with regular society subtly. Even while remembering that the PC's are worlds apart from the gutter trash usually hired as "deniable assets".)

And on the gun issue, remember the concealability rules folks. I wouldn't mind if it was expected that people walked around armed, with businesses having their own metal detectors and gun-check rooms. But walking around visibly armed in any but the worst neighborhoods should get some reaction. (Plus, it offers nice opportunities to host "deprived of your heavy gear" runs without looking damned silly.)

[Synner]

[Birdy]

[Adarael]

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Funny. That says, "Lame GM" to me.

POV.

[hobgoblin]

streamlineing decking any more becomes like the rules in jlbb or something, one skill test and either the ic gets you or you get the data. where is the fun in that? and if you play out every datahunt the decker does then you need to rethink, thats not what the sr3 main rules are for. they are for overwatch in the security system while the rest of the team do their job. want data searches then use the jlbb system, or the rules in matrix covering datasearches (with those even non-deckers can do it, deckers only do it better).

the astral recon stuff dont have any real rules outside of a ton of perception tests and a timeframe of (magic rating)hours...

some posts in this thread makes me wonder why people play sr at all...

[Birdy]

[Birdy]

<double post>

[Ved'ma]

I'd start by throwing out the fantasy crap and replacing it with something darker than cute little elves and dwarves... Vampires and Chuthlu all the way, so we can lots of bloodsucking and virgin sacrifices. I'd rework cyberware more like the chrome in CP2020... I mean, what good are wired reflexes if you don't have a cigarette lighter and subdermal kill counter? Not to mention full cyborg bodies, Brain hacking and other GitS style stuff, oh and rules for insanity. Speaking of rules.. I'd throw those out, too... every last one of them and rewrite them all from scratch. Really, that's what it comes down to, I'd throw the whole game out and start over.

[hobgoblin]

if that is their problem birdy then they have not looked around any good. i have a setting (and system)sitting on my shelf that in many ways rival most other cyberpunk style setting out there, blue planet.

its fast (1-3 d10), its simple (damn close to wod simple), and its set to a frontier world with a lot of water (allowing you to play sentien dolphins and killer whales!).

still, if your looking for a mix of fantasy (ie the ability to play elfs, thats what seems to attract anybody and their cat these days. lotr movies be damned!) and cyberpunk then i guess sr is what you get. unless you go with gurps or try to make something out of the 101 d20 books out there (hmm, comboing d&d races with cybernet rules?).

oh and ved'ma, take a look at chutulupunk, its a sourcebook for gurps i think ;)

[Ved'ma]