 SR metaplot/adventure books |
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 Aug 7 2005, 12:17 PM
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#1
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Neophyte Runner  Group: Members Posts: 2,078 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 67  |
This isn't really a scientific poll or anything, but I'm kinda curious which format of books people prefer when it comes to moving the Shadowrun metaplot forward. Some are more hands-on than others: Brainscan clearly puts the runners right in the middle of the Deus plotline, but Year of the Comet, which focused less on the runners, was able to cover more material.
I'm just curious, I've actually been asking myself which I prefer the past few days. |
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Aug 7 2005, 03:35 PM
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#2
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Target Group: Members Posts: 47 Joined: 6-February 05 From: Spokane, Washington Member No.: 7,060 |
I picked the Adventure Pack's. Mostly because I just bought Super Tuesday! yesterday and been reading it from cover to cover every free moment I have. Good stuff. :cyber:
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Aug 8 2005, 04:08 AM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 289 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,625 |
Event Books, definately. Adventure books can really only be used by GM's, and even if a player does buy and read them for the meta-plot stuff, he completely screws anychance of the GM running it, since he knows what happens, where as Event Books are useful to everyone.
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Aug 8 2005, 04:09 AM
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#4
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Shadowrun Setting Nerd Group: Banned Posts: 3,632 Joined: 28-June 05 From: Pissing on pedestrians from my electronic ivory tower. Member No.: 7,473 |
Event Books.
Screw up the world all you want, but the characters' asses belong to me. However, I will grant it that Wake of the Comet has some of the greatest all time whacked-out Knowledge Skills I've ever seen anyone come up with. |
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Aug 8 2005, 05:42 AM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 109 Joined: 29-March 03 From: Tir Tarngiere Member No.: 4,353 |
I like both. Event books are useful because they can set up a slew of adventure hooks (Year of the Comet was great even if you ditched SURGE, because you still had the race to the comet metaplot, which was a nice starting place for newbie runner teams after the bloodbath of R:AS and Brainscan, from which only the best could survive.)
However, I like adventure books too. After all, not all meta-plot events necessarily lend themselves to hooks right off of the bat. Not to mention one of the adventures in "Super Tuesday" lent itself to a short story that I wrote for a class project in English (write a short story) my senior year in High School - a project I got an A on. |
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Aug 8 2005, 06:25 AM
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#6
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Shadowrun Setting Nerd Group: Banned Posts: 3,632 Joined: 28-June 05 From: Pissing on pedestrians from my electronic ivory tower. Member No.: 7,473 |
That's the one about the 2057 election, right?
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Aug 8 2005, 12:34 PM
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#7
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,078 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 67 |
It is, yah. Super Tuesday is a good example of an adventure pack that revolves around a metaplot event. Wake of the Comet is another.
As a writer, event books are probably my favorite, though campaign books do let me write along a process to a finish along a series of runs. There's a climax in campaign books--like the final fight with Deus from Brainscan--that are absent in event books. Then, of course, there's the tough part of coming up with new major, earthshaking events on a regular schedule. ;) |
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Aug 8 2005, 12:46 PM
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#8
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Chicago Survivor Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 5,079 Joined: 28-January 04 From: Canton, GA Member No.: 6,033 |
Gotta say, I'm not really interested in huge metaplot type adventure books. Little too Greyhawk for my tastes.
I prefer books with more street and a little above type plots, maybe involving a mid-level manager in a AAA but not GDs, IEs or the like. Just ruins the grit for me. Though I do like the early lynchpin type runs in Brainscan early on, small-time runs that involve little work but implicate the runners in a mad plot for domination. That was a nice build-up. The problem is, that first run should have only necessitated maybe 2 runenrs, a whole team is overkill. Some nice low scale runs that might require a whole team would be nice. |
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Aug 8 2005, 01:05 PM
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#9
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,078 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 67 |
This is actually something I've mulled over in my head. Would people still buy event books if the events were smaller-scale? The big giant events are fun, but I find they aren't something you can release on an annual schedule without the game getting a bit ridiculous ("what, the world is going to hell again?!?"). But is the event book format feasible for smaller scale events? A corporate takeover or an underworld crime war?
Do you mean the Gaeatronics substation run? That part is meant to be a cakewalk, really. To emphasize how their little, simple, cakewalk run actually turned out to be part of something much bigger. Something they wouldn't have expected from the ease of the run. And yeah, I'm a big fan of tying runners into bigger plots which they aren't knowingly responsible for and where they can't possibly save the day one hundred percent. It's that sort of out-of-control grey morality that really makes Shadowrun for me. |
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Aug 8 2005, 01:34 PM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 404 Joined: 22-June 05 From: Canada eh! Member No.: 7,455 |
I personally would prefer smaller scale. It seems that IEs, Deus, and GDs are the equivalent of Gods is Shadowrun, and that annoys me. The lethalness, and realism of shadowrun was what made the game appeal to me. Everything was pallatable, and dark, then all of a sudden plots start blowing magic out of scale. The adventures just refuse to define stats and say the character is unkillable really gets to me. If he is an initiated 15 mage with 20 spells quickened to him, gives him stats and makes the char pallatable, because it is defined and killable. The undefined status just gave me the feeling of being rail roaded. Instead of sourcebooks that can be added for colour, they decide to repaint the whole picture with each meta plot. |
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Aug 8 2005, 01:40 PM
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#11
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,078 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 67 |
Yeah, I don't disagree with the value of smaller-scale events. I'm just wondering if the event book format works for them. I mean, would people buy a 100+ page book that focused on a non-epic event? I'm trying to think of comparisons, but the only thing I can think of is Mob War. Mob War covered a relatively small-scale event--the criminal syndicate war in Seattle--in great detail. But it was a track-format book, not an event book. Would something like that work as an event book?
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Aug 8 2005, 02:22 PM
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#12
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Chicago Survivor Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 5,079 Joined: 28-January 04 From: Canton, GA Member No.: 6,033 |
Though if you are considering doing the small scale with large results type runs, make sure we have the proper notes for what happens when something didn't go right.
For example in the Gaeatronics milk-run, the kid that runs up during the initial attempt, what if the gun bunny in the party offs the kid with a silenced shot. That could have dire consequences later on. Maybe the kid was an unwilling data courier for the code to end Deus, and not without the head memory from the kid, the players are toast. That sort of interconnectedness can be cool. Maybe the kid is Banded and is acting as Deus's eye and ears for that run and he'll take it personal if they off the kid. |
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Aug 8 2005, 03:18 PM
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#13
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,453 Joined: 17-September 04 From: St. Paul Member No.: 6,675 |
I prefer the event books to a high degree.
I have never been a fan of the inherent railroading potential in the published adventures, although I will use them and modify the base events as required for the game that occurs around my table. I also find the legwork sections are typically useful. The bundled scenarios (Predator and Prey, Corporate Punishment) are fine for integrating into planned runs that deviate (into sewers or a Mafia stronghold for example). I guess I take the view of HB and Brainscan as event books with suggestions.... That being said, I try to run a unique game with self-designed NPCs and goals while incorporating the events and ideas from whatever I have read, be they adventures, bundled scenarios, etc. So there you go. |
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Aug 8 2005, 08:46 PM
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#14
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Shadowrun Setting Nerd Group: Banned Posts: 3,632 Joined: 28-June 05 From: Pissing on pedestrians from my electronic ivory tower. Member No.: 7,473 |
I guess it depends on what one considered "earth shattering", first. Second, I disagree that, "The big giant events are fun, but I find they aren't something you can release on an annual schedule without the game getting a bit ridiculous". If that was true, no one would watch 24, which is perhaps the most ridiculous television show I've ever had the displeasure of watching (and this is coming from someone who used to watch Renegade religiously). I think that any type of event book could work if it was written well enough. I prefer them because I can use them to help set the tone and setting of my games without having to do something like fighting Ghostwalker over Denver. I think that it is unrealistic to assume that big events aren't going to happen every year in a world setting that is more chaotic, unknown, and just plain dangerous than our own. There are plenty of things that have happened in real life in the last five years which are pretty massive events, and if somehow any of them were transplanted into Shadowrun with a Sixth World twist, I'm sure plenty of people here would get their panties in a bunch about how "unrealistic" and "too earth-shattering" and blah blah blah it is. But, personally, I'd rather buy one book like Year of the Comet than any of the last five books released. |
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Aug 8 2005, 09:48 PM
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#15
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Harlequin Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 331 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 861 |
I prefer to have severl types so that you can mix'em. Base it around the campaign version and add adventures from the other types.
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Aug 8 2005, 11:38 PM
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#16
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The King In Yellow Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,922 Joined: 26-February 05 From: JWD Member No.: 7,121 |
I actually like both, but as I am mainly a player, I picked Event book, because I wouldn't ever buy a campaign book to not ruin my GMs' chances of running it. I like how Year of the Comet/Wake of the comet and RA:S/Brainscan were paired, and also the old Hawaii setting book/adventure pack book (whcih I urgently need to get back!). Keep that up, and I'm happy.
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Aug 9 2005, 09:17 AM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 858 Joined: 25-August 03 From: Braunschweig, North German League, Allied German States Member No.: 5,537 |
I don't like pre-made adventure books because of the very low replay value.
I prefer event books with detailed background informations and lots of plot-hooks. |
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