 Converting characters, How do our old chars fit in the new SR? |
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 Mar 16 2005, 12:01 PM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 633 Joined: 16-March 05 From: 51° 16' North 7° 11' East Member No.: 7,168  |
After on night of sleep, SR 4 sounds like dream becoming real. But what will happen to our old, beloved characters? It was easy to convert a character from 1st Ed. to 2nd. From 2nd to 3rd was a bit harder due to some changed skills and the new knowledge skills. But it looks like we’re facing a huge change now. Sounding like “create your character anew, spend your karma again and perhaps he’ll be a little bit like the old one was”. Thus far there’s no problem one couldn’t possibly mange. But what about the time jump? Five years can be a long time for a shadowrunner. What did he do during this time? Obviously not much for he gained no karma. But how did he pay his lifestyle in these years when he wasn’t working?
Will we be able to take our characters with us to the year 2070? |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:16 PM
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#2
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The King In Yellow Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,922 Joined: 26-February 05 From: JWD Member No.: 7,121 |
Yes, I'd love to hear something on that too, since it's my biggest worry about those streamlined rules. Especially with Rigers and Deckers, that'd be something really in need of answering.
And I do hope we'll get a MASSIVE module covering these 4 years. Maybe a triology of modules. Would pay for FanPro (gamery buying the module) and fans alike, as we'd have a smoother transistion from SR3's to SR4's world |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:19 PM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 875 Joined: 16-November 03 Member No.: 5,827 |
Don´t play your character stricly in the timeline?
My mage, for example, jumps between 2057 and 2065 ... I play in several groups (because of my work) but not regulary. In SR4 I will jump between 2050 and 2075 with the same character (who will be still the same age) ;-) SYL |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:15 PM
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#4
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The King In Yellow Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,922 Joined: 26-February 05 From: JWD Member No.: 7,121 |
That worked with SR2/3, since the world wasn't completely redone there ... but with SC/CE and the new technogame approach to the "hacker" type character, there'll be massive inconsistencies then, if you time warp between 2050 and 2070. I'm not even considering equipment and other stuff. Like a 2070s nanotech medkit in 2050. |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:24 PM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 875 Joined: 16-November 03 Member No.: 5,827 |
Oh, you know something we don´t know? ;-) => First, we should wait for the SR4 basic book before saying "it is possible vs. it is not possible". Even with a large technological gap, I think, it will be possible. The gab between 2057 and 2064 is also very large. I am playing a Chaos-Firemage, something introduced in MitS ... and yet one group is playing 2058 (with SR3 rules, but pre-SR3-timeline) SYL |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:42 PM
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#6
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 633 Joined: 16-March 05 From: 51° 16' North 7° 11' East Member No.: 7,168 |
Well, actually not. We do play some old runs like “Mercurial” or “Paradise Lost” but by some wicked kind of magic they’re all taking place in the 2060s, for my character was definitely born in 2042. - Okay, not a perfect argument, I know. I’m not concerned about using old Runs, but the whole jump to 2070 itself. And this still leaves the problem that the character was not played during the critical time. He still might have done something, but how do you want to reflect this in his bio? ( By the way, wouldn’t it be easier for both of us to talk this over at FanPro’s forum? ;) ) |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:56 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 875 Joined: 16-November 03 Member No.: 5,827 |
You didnt ask the question there ... ;-)
Well, what did the character (of course only if you want to define it)? Perhaps just the same thing as everyone else: hiding, crying and trying to survive? Its the same with the Renracu arcology, Super Tuesday, Bug City, Denver etc ... you can play strictly in one timeline or you can just adapt the character each time. In my case, I didn´t define a birthday but a "run-age" somewhere in the middles-twentys, so whenever he is playing Harlequin-1 or System Failure, he will be something between 21 and 29 ... SYL |
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Mar 16 2005, 12:53 PM
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#8
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The King In Yellow Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,922 Joined: 26-February 05 From: JWD Member No.: 7,121 |
Well, I can, for example, read. As in "An all-new augmented reality overlays the real world, unleashing hackers to be (...) mobile digital wizards". Now, the decker type character isn't either mobile or wizard. Does that sound like a gradual change for the hacker character? Well, it doesn't for me, that's for sure.
Possibly, but that'd leave all the American and generally non-German folks out, wouldn't it? |
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Mar 16 2005, 01:11 PM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 633 Joined: 16-March 05 From: 51° 16' North 7° 11' East Member No.: 7,168 |
It seems to me as if SR4 hasn't yet really hit the folks over there.
Yes, indeed. This was a half serious comment. It's just a little bit strange to start a topic in this board and end up talking to the same people I'm discussing with at FanPro. |
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Mar 16 2005, 01:26 PM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Württemberg, AGS Member No.: 2,068 |
Oh my gosh, this'll be the first time I'll have to convert characters to a new edition... I'm so excited! :wobble:
On one hand I somehow hope they don't go too far overboard with changing the system, in order to keep old characters convertible, on the other hand a thorough streamlining ought to do good. I think my opinion comes down to "ignore compatibility, revamping the system has priority". Players will still be able to somehow reconstruct their favorite characters. It's a game, not a stock exchange - we don't have to be that exact. |
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Mar 16 2005, 01:20 PM
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#11
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Great, I'm a Dragon... Group: Retired Admins Posts: 6,699 Joined: 8-October 03 From: North Germany Member No.: 5,698 |
Yeah, i really want to know how they explain the 5-year-gap and come over with logical conversion rules.
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Mar 16 2005, 01:37 PM
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#12
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 193 Joined: 26-February 02 From: East Jerusalem Member No.: 2,022 |
I fail to see the point, really. Continue playing your campaign after System Failure. I mean, you have tons of material in a score of sourcebooks to feed your run ideas. Go with the flow, play the SysFail, then whatever you want afterwards. When 2069 comes around, you can think about tweaking the rules and adapt your character to the new situation. Why jump these 5 years ?! |
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Mar 16 2005, 01:34 PM
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#13
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Karma Police Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 1,358 Joined: 22-July 04 From: Gothenburg, SE Member No.: 6,505 |
I hope they ignore compatibility. I haven´t been able to think about anything else than this new edition sence last night. They better make it good, now that they´ve managed to drive up my expectations with opening such great possabilities. I mean, they can now make it so your either techno inhanced, magic inhanced, both or neither. All the wierd special cases could be gone, you´d just decide which "realm" (techno, real and magic) you would like to have access to, and then decide what you would like to be good at (fighting, sneaking, driving, hacking...). Simple and oh so sweet!
My campain will continue with renewed strength and ride out the storm with this system crash thing. I will make sure it really takes the wind out of the players. When it´s done they will make new characters, with the option to make them 5 years older versions of their old characters, with a karma bonus to reflect the experience. All new characters would also get the bonus. |
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Mar 16 2005, 01:37 PM
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#14
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 212 Joined: 30-November 04 Member No.: 6,858 |
If your character is convertible... We may lose Deckers and Riggers completely
I suspect that the gap is to allow GM's to play out unconvertible characters. |
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Mar 16 2005, 01:42 PM
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#15
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Karma Police Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 1,358 Joined: 22-July 04 From: Gothenburg, SE Member No.: 6,505 |
ThreeGee: Make them burnouts with a lot of useless ware and gadgets. Make it so they have picked up the slack in the 5-year gap. Take them in a new direction. Play them with a lot of cynicism.
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Mar 16 2005, 01:43 PM
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#16
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 248 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Note Calonna Member No.: 241 |
I suspect the gap is to allow for the massive upheval in technology that will allow them to make vast changes to how things work and the rules, while still keeping the same game world.
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Mar 16 2005, 01:58 PM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 212 Joined: 30-November 04 Member No.: 6,858 |
As my current campaign has just reached 2061 and my players are about to be involuntarily involved in the probe race it doesn't bother too much, I've got lots of time to play with.
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Mar 16 2005, 02:02 PM
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#18
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,144 Joined: 22-September 04 Member No.: 6,690 |
Five years is a long time for runners to keep living, so I don't think direct conversion rules will be a big feature, but there will be guidelines for bringing beloved characters into the current system). Deckers are defintely not going to be able to make a straight conversion, but I don't think the setup of SR 4 is going to leave them completely out in the cold. There is going to be some interesting backstory as to how they change over during the 'Time of Troubles' to be current with 'modern' decking technology.
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Mar 16 2005, 02:18 PM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 875 Joined: 16-November 03 Member No.: 5,827 |
Wireless Hacking was already possible (and for me standard) in SR3/Matrix3. Wireless Matrix was describes normal in the SSG ... SYL |
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Mar 16 2005, 05:56 PM
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#20
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The King In Yellow Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,922 Joined: 26-February 05 From: JWD Member No.: 7,121 |
Apple, we seem o read different things into this ... to me, it looks like they plan to overlay Matrix and physical world. Now, if this will be different from what we now know as Matrix, or whether it will BE the new Matrix isn't known, but in the lattter ccase, it won't be anything like the Matrix
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Mar 16 2005, 08:46 PM
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#21
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Freelance Elf Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 7,324 Joined: 30-September 04 From: Texas Member No.: 6,714 |
Here's hoping we at least get a page or two with some suggested/optional conversaion and/or timeline manipulation rules. I guess we could work something out based on the "one job a month" principle combined with the "average pay" chart from whatever book that was in (though it's universaly considered to pay less than is reasonable)... But I, for one, would like to be able to still feel like my character's been doing something for the five years or so of fill-in-the-blank time that we're gonna get.
But, ah well. We'll shake our fists at that bridge when we get to it. |
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Mar 17 2005, 05:25 AM
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#22
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,532 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Calgary, Canada Member No.: 769 |
well the two longest running characters turned qasi NPC's that my on and off campaign has had will be approching 47 years old for the troll and a antiquated 64 for the human Desert Wars vet :eek:. I expect that the two of them will probably fade into retirement giving up the work they began doing as fixers traveling to some small caribbian island nation with no extrateritoriality agreements (possibly because they bought it) and sipping margaritas and trying to figure out if it is possible to tan a full conversion cybernetic body. Between the two of them they've ammased over 15 million :nuyen: over the course of their carriers at least 10 mill of that was working as fixers for up and coming runners.
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Mar 17 2005, 06:01 AM
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#23
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Man In The Machine Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 2,264 Joined: 26-February 02 From: I-495 S Member No.: 1,105 |
Im more concerned about the raw math of it all. I was there for the AD&D to 3.0 conversion, and that was ugly enough. From the sounds of it, this could be just as nasty. But, hey, with all the new toys, come new and wonderous ways to abuse the ever loving hell outta them.
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Mar 17 2005, 02:52 PM
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#24
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,453 Joined: 17-September 04 From: St. Paul Member No.: 6,675 |
There has been nothing mentioned about changing the character creation rules, or even the gear rules. Converting a character may have more to do with reordering/recompiling skills and making sure your Karma spent is correct.
I don't think you need to fear the gruelling maths until we have more concrete information. |
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| Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_* |
Mar 17 2005, 05:02 PM
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#25
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Guests |
Since when did geeks fear math, anyway?
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