Hi,
I am happy to join your forum, I'm just now reading the rules of shadowrun, and can't wait to start the game.

I'm 30 years old, and have played and actually DMed d&d my entire life, and for the last 16 years I played solely dark sun, in ad&d (2ed) ruleset (ya, I know they're not good rules, but it was fun so what the heck ), I DMed a couple of very successful and enjoyable Dark Sun campaigns. A player pointed me in the direction of shadowrun, and I'm grateful he did it as this is just the game I needed to envigorate my love of RPG.

So I'm getting back to lurking now, I need to read a LOT of old posts, and see you around after I read, learned and hopefully soon started playing.

I intend to start the game at a location different then the runner havens I understand there are (seattle ETC.) . Maybe New York, or LA, but there is still a bit to do before I decide...

It's back a few pages but,

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=18106

might be useful for you.

Welcome braxat2000

Back when I still played AD&D, I had toyed with the idea of making a Dark Sun/Shadowrun mashup. Basically, it would have been the Dark Sun setting but several hundred years in the future, so you'd get evil Sorceror-Kings running megacorporations, thrikreen shadowrunners, cannibal halfing gangers, half giant mercs with cyberware and all other manner of craziness.

Welcome to DSF and welcome to Shadowrun!

Finding a setting and your style is half of the fun of running a game - and SR is a lot of fun.

Welcome aboard, Brax.

Bull

As far as location goes, I'd say make sure to start in a place that none of your players knows. There's nothing quite like having someone stop game play to start bitching about geography

Other than that, be sure to spend a while really getting to understand the history of the setting. It makes a huge difference, considering that SR has one of the most comprehensive storylines I've ever seen for an RPG.

Other than that, don't let the rules bog you down, and have fun.

You can have things set somewhere that the players know. Just be sure to wield your "It's 70 years in the future" hammer strongly. I've also had some success with having things set in buildings your players know well. Saves on a lot of mapping.

That being said the reason why a lot of us play in Seattle is because of the depth. If you've been playing since first or second with their great books you actually have a fair handle on the geography and you can describe everything from the renraku arcology to council island to Dante's inferno.

Regardless of where you want to put things I would suggest focusing on depth as opposed to breadth. I've had a bunch of D&D GMs go on about how they created a world and stuff. But it's shallow. Your players could visit a town but there is no detail, it's just a place, and maybe it has a blacksmith. Whatever.

It's a totally different experience when the players know the gangs, the clubs, the movers and shakers and so on. When they actually have a grip on the world.

Ewwww.... quiet you.

i dunno. i mean, DS is basically a post-apoc setting, which is fairly closely related to cyberpunk in both style and theme. i think Planescape would work a bit better; you wouldn't actually have to change the setting in the least, just focus on certain aspects over others. if you cyberpunked DS, you'd lose a lot of the raw survivalist feel, but you'd gain... well, cyberpunk. as someone who's strongly considering making a Tolkienesque fantasy/cyberpunk mashup, i can't bring myself to call that a bad thing.

Well, one thing is that it would completely go against the resource rarity that drives the world of Athas. There's supposed to be barely enough water for the populace of the cities to survive. There's also almsot no metal available to speak with. That combination would make it pretty hard to get things like development in tech. You've got a version of megacorps in the great merchant housesloke House Shom already. People have to take care of basic survival before they can worry about advancing tech. Basic survival is what you're working on haalf the time in Darksun. Perhaps it's just my narrow narrow POV, but I don't see the two jiving very well.

I think it could make a great combination, especially if little worry is given to "how did this happen" and more to "how can this be cool?" History, especially in game worlds, is often overrated. I'm much more interested in the world my character is running around in than the world over the last 1,000 years that all I can do is listen to stories about without ever being able to make a dent.

A simple "it's out there for you to learn if you really want to know" would work for me, as it leaves the stuff I don't know OOC as stuff I don't know IC, and gives me an avenue to assuage my curiosity if I got the urge.

Yuck!

Hey, thanks for the warm welcome,
To be honest I did my best in the last six months to setup a Dark sun group, but when that failed a player suggested to try Shadowrun, and that was a great thing too, as I feel like the old days when reading RPG books was exciting. It seems that today nobody wants to play 2ed, and I couldn't bring myself to like 3ed d&d. 2ed may have a bad reputation, but I was able to read it, the 3ed feels so heavyyyy, and I hated the computer killing games attitude they have with all that powers and whatever.

I love Dark Sun setting, and that is an extremely rich and complex world, with amazing history, and some similarities to SR for instance in the way it treats dragons.

I don't see a smooth combination of the two settings, there are no resources left in DS, and in a thousand years I fear that not much will remain of the population. I think that DS should be left unique, the setting is about survival, and struggling against all odds, but also about hope.

Regarding the depth and scope of the game:
There are only 7 known city states there, of 30000 people each (more or less ), so as someone here suggested is of a small scope and can be developed.

My players knew where to eat in each city, how the guards' attitude towards new arrivals, and what are the most important rules. I plan to do the same in SR. I am going to develope a new place from scratch, because it will be quicker to me than reading all the source material. And in any case I like to personalize the settings.

The posts you sent me to read where very interesting, I do plan to incorporate everything, and limit what the players are exposed to by starting with a small mision.

But, knowing myself, it will not be very long before I toss the players into a cauldron of uber conspiracies and corporate scheming

Exxxcellent. We can always use another good conspiracist.

Belated welcome to the game and to the forums, braxat2000.

Hehe, Braxat, if you happen to live in Utah, maybe you can set up a game with another of our posters here, Rajaat99. Let me know if you decide to do any online Darksun. Or if you happen to live in northern California.

There is only one Conspiracy-----THE ALMIGHTY DBC. If you truly want to revel in all that is Shadowrun Braxat2000 read the Holy Writ in the General Gaming section. http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=8806