Hi,

Although I like SR, in general, there's one thing that I find problematical.

There seem to be NO Shadowrun adventures being produced.

There are lots of sourcebooks being produced, but nothing for Players to actually do..
..Ways to get new people in, but very little for them to do once there - apart from read rules, and write their own scenarios.

Plot hooks, sourcebooks with adventures in them or adventures available via 3rd parties [or via the SR website] don't really count.

There were lots of scenarios produced for SR1-2 and a few produced for SR3..
..But that was several years ago [and yes, I know many of them are available as PDFs].

Is there anyway we can get whoever now owns SR now to actually get some made and sold ??


This isn't just a personal matter [I use source material from all over the place, as well as using scenarios from all the place], but as something that might affect the longterm survivability of SR as a whole..
..After all, is it a coincidence that AD&D has lots of scenarios and a good market share, whilst Traveller had almost no scenarios [bar the original ones] and died off.

Obviously, the above is a simplification, but the message is that without SR scenarios, SR won't do as well as it could.


Any thoughts ??

Have a good time:
Shadowrun Missions

Oh, sorry. hehe... This is what happens when you skim entries. My apologies. :embarrassed:

Personally, I would prefer that they continue with the route that they're taking; the missions are free, the books are not, and they're coming out with regularity, and I'm sure that more missions will be coming up the pipe soon (we did have On The Run last year, and while it did have some errors and was overkill for a beginner group, it was still decent).

...Before Catalyst took over the Shadowrun property, Fanpro mentioned that they were not looking for submissions of new run modules at the time (the term "Adventure" is more fitting for that "game that shell not be mentioned here"). So far, only On the Run has been released, though I understand there are to be some ideas for run hooks in Emergence as there were in System Failure. With the change in ownership It is hard to say if new run modules may come out in the future. Right now, Catalyst appears to be primarily interested in getting more source materials out first to expand the game beyond the original core rules.

As for any new SR3 run modules, most likely there will be no more unless some enterprising third party comes along. However, with the release of SR4 even this seems but a remote possibility. First of all, there is a licensing issue. Even to use the name "Shadowrun" on a module, not much less any of the SR canon, will require negotiating terms with the owning party (Catalyst). Obviously the real marketing push is for SR4, so I would see them reluctant to authourise any new "pre-crash" materials as they have no interest in maintaining the older edition line.

This leaves it to "on line" offerings such as Missions and "homegrown" runs that those of us submit links to through DS.

I don't see the production of modules as being necessary to the survival of a game line.

There are a lot of games that thrive well without releasing modules. The World of Darkness is an excellent example of that. They release a lot of source and story material but they don't release modules.

I think that the current approach to shadowrun is a good one. Putting out free modules on the internet is good because having access to the free material actually encourages otherwise stingy gamers (like me) to spend money on the actual source and plot material. I haven't bought street magic or emergence yet but I will by the time I'm actually running my SR game plus whatever other material is out by then.

I'm pretty sure SR has turned away from straigth-up modules in favour of "idea books" like System Failure and Emergence. I don't think modules sell well, as they are pretty limited in scope. You run THAT mission and that's it. If you're not interested in the mission synopsis, you don't buy the book.

But idea books have a bigger market. Firstly, they detail the metaplot, so it's of interest to most SR fans. Second, they pack A LOT more ideas than a single mission book. Most GMs can handle making a few maps and a few NPCs to flesh out a given idea.

It's really just a marketing thing. And as tangently pointed out, the community can produce modules perfectly well on it's own, so no need for the developers to step in and make their own.

I'll add that whenever the topic of Printed Adventure Modules came up before, it was pointed out that they did not sell very well. Consider a gaming group. Only the GM and those players that collect all SR product are likely to be interested in the purchase of the printed adventure. Ok, and the metagaming player that feels the need to cheat.

Also, there are problems with printed adventure modules, like the aforementioned power level of On the Run. I think I have every adventure ever published for SR, and I can point out several of them that have holes in them when one tries to run them. Some require a big plot hammer to get the players to follow anything resembling the predicted route the printed material takes. Others contain NPCs that are illegal according to the rules, or that make little sense, or that mistook how the rules read. Just look at the vampire character with cyberware and off the charts Quickness due to the creator figuring the run multiplier was an Attribute multiplier for that critter. Weapons with silencers and gas vents, NPCs unable to take advantage of smartlinked weapons carrying smartlinked weapons, etc..

Nearly all printed adventures need tweaked in some way. (I will give props to the SR Missions guys for giving many ways of doing this well, at least as far as all the scenarios I have played through.)

There is also the problem of creating scenarios that are going to be of interest to a wide audience that do not come off as generic.

Lastly, there is a bit of elitism among GMs who would rather create their own adventures than run a printed one. So one of the main marketing targets is not even interested in the product, further hurting sales.

I remember having had serious WTF moments reading some 1st edition modules I'd purchased from a comic store out of personal curiosity. I forgot the title of the module but there was one where the PCs had to abduct members of a rock band so they could play music in some evil ritual. One of the band members was in a convienience store that was guarded by wolves which stayed inside the store after it was closed. I also remember an encounter with guys on motorcycles who had assault cannons mounted in the nose of each motorcycle.

Total Eclipse

I suppose that they're house-trained and have a little self-flushing dog-toilet in the back of the store. That'd deal with the pee and poop mess. The biggest advantage that wolves present over other security systems is the automatic, safe, and environmentally-friendly disposal of burglar-bodies. The wolves will eat any intruder's corpse, leaving only half-chewed cyberware and a bit of blood for the staff to clean up.

Of course, it is highly impractical to have man-eating wolves as a security system, but it does have a certain style. Certainly, it is better than an alligator-moat.