Been a while since I been here, ages really. Just getting back into Shadowrun once more but sticking with 3rd Edition as I like it much more then 4th Edition, mainly changes in the rules and how firearms are handled.

If you don't know the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. look it up in a wiki or even go get it from your game store from the discount shelf, play it and then get some mods. The mods is what makes it really shine, on in particular I suggest. Oblivion Lost 2.0 with Arsenal Mod 1 = FTW

Anyways, I am a rather big fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games(I still like the first title SoC better then Clear Sky.. but not why I am posting this). And seeing how its all merc's, loners, ex military types and such, I got the idea of running a game in that setting. Been working a lot on getting various guns spec'ed out for the game ahead of time with the help from Rayguns(Who has most if not all the usual stuff that was already in the game and then some more) site, but one thing that I was thinking about is the odd artifacts that are strewn about that lovely containment zone around the old Chernobyl NPP. Perhaps make the odd artifacts bestow Adept like powers along with the fun of rad poisoning and all the stuff that comes with the more common artifacts? Or should I just start making stuff up? Id rather stick things that are already listed in the book(s) then go ape shit crazy with overly custom stuff.

So, only picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. recently and haven't played it too much yet, but from what I've seen, most of the artifacts wouldn't be that hard to replicate. The 'hard to hit' ones give you something similar to the deflection spell. Healing maybe gives you a very low powered regeneration power. I don't remember what all else there is, but I'm sure you could find equivalent spells fairly easily. As for handling the radiation... well I suppose you could just keep a counter for it for the players and have it go up X points every Y time based on what artifacts they are wearing. Pick out reasonable penelties for glowing, and slap them on them when they pass certain marks.

Be sure to provide access to that rad-away.

You'll want Arsenal for the Armour enhancement rules (in particular, you'll want to steal the "Mil Spec" Armour enhancements for Powered Armour). The Gauss Cannon/Railgun thing is easily represented as a Thunderstruck (probably with lower damage and shorter range) and you can represent the rest of the guns using existing weapons with the mods from Arsenal. You also want Arsenal for the hostile environment rules.

Artifacts can be represented in a number of ways. Some of them are going to give you Critter and Adept powers, but others are best modeled as Anchored Spells that don't deplete. For example, isn't there a Porcupine artifact that causes you damage but removes toxins/radiation or something? That's totally an anchored spell that also gives you drain.

For weapons and armor I am trying to stay away from spells or enchantments, though in Clear Sky I do know they use artifacts in some of the top tier upgrades for weapons but... Trying to stay away from that sticky issue there.

Weapons wise I am sticking to Rayguns stuff even if I do go to 4th ed rules, his weapons are already there for a majority of the weapons would find out in the zone and has pretty much works all the kinks out of them already. I'm particularly fond of the Ak107/108 rifle with its BARS recoil compensation system, pratically makes recoil a after thought in small bursts and quick strings of automatic fire(About six rounds or so). Main issue I have is the fact that I dont have most of the core books like Arsenal or the one for magic and critters.

Pick up the SOX Sourcebook if they ever translate it in english (somebody know if it's available in french?) or learn german.

It's STALKER in Shadowrun. With some differences.
Also you may want to read through Running Wild on Toxic and Mutated Critters.

I actually just last week got back into STALKER. I had an old saved game on the original, and hadn't beaten it yet, so I went ahead and solved the game. Doing that got me back into it sufficiently to go and pick up the Clear Sky sequel. Not too bad. A little easier than I remember it, and very graphics intensive. I actually had to turn the detail level to medium! I haven't had to do that on a PC game in years! Still looks great besides the mutant warthogs though. They look terrible.

ANYWAYS, definitely a fun game.

I think STALKER is a better first person shooter version of "Fallout" than the latest Fallout is. Yes, I'm a Fallout purist. The 3rd game was laughable in comparison to the first two.

I can't say I've played around with any mods for either game though. I wasn't aware there was a mod community out there for these games. I might check them out. I'm enjoying Clear Sky so far.

Reminds me of the developer's comments when they were working on Fallout 3. Everyone would give very vague statements about what the new version should have, but then qualify it with 'You better not mess it up'. Personally I miss the old TB overhead view. I suck at FPS and I don't like having to be good at FPS to play my RPG. Still, very much spirit of Fallout, maybe not the genera I would have preferred, but still very must Fallout at heart. (Also oblivion )

One of my larger beefs with Fallout was that the roleplaying wasn't nearly as good as the first two games. The roleplaying was about the same quality as Oblivion, which is to say very little. Most NPCs weren't very memorable, and the storyline doesn't have any meaningful choices for the character other than a few choices letting that character be a paragon of good or a force of pure evil.

They could have done a LOT worse. They could have ditched the SPECIAL character system, perks, traits, Super Mutants, Power Armor, and the like. They made a half-hearted attempt to appease the non-FPS crowd by putting the VATS system into the game. It had its good points and bad.

I enjoyed Fallout 3 for about 8-10 hours worth of gameplay... AFTER I installed a bunch of mods.

Personally the turn based combat of Fallout was one of my favorite parts of the game. It was almost as good a turn based combat simulator as X-Com.

Fallout would make a really cool RPG. I remember when I was younger I actually wrote a few pages worth of a rule book based on the stats I could pull up from Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics. I don't know how well it would have really worked out, but I think it could be real fun.

Oh I agree, and I'd totally play that game. The SPECIAL system would work really well for character generation. You'd probably have to make a lot of adjustments to the Skill system, but you could still easily stick with a percentile based system so that you could use D10s for gameplay. You'd probably have to add a lot more skills to the game, especially for social interaction which would be roleplayed much more in a pen and paper game than a video game. That wouldn't be too hard though.

Now I'm actually surprised that no one has DONE that yet.

It has been done AFAIK. I think Steve Jackson Games did it.

whoops double post

I think there is a D20 make of Fallout since the people at GURPS where rather put off by some of the choices your could make in the Fallout series (AKA blasting away children like a some heartless robot). D20 kinda makes the Fallout world less scary as .50BMGs become not so scary and the same with 7.62mm NATO sniper rifles.

Funny thing is, I remember when a thread here would derail and all hell would break loose with other yelling about derailing the thread. Seems to lightened up around there it seems, which is rather cool and refreshing.

But anyhow, anyone try to use material from SR3 source books with SR4 rules? I hear and have read it does not exactly mesh well with how things have changed.

I've seen a few threads about it (one in particular recently) about using the the SR4 rules and SR3. I didn't really look into it much, but what I did see seemed to suggest it wasn't that hard to do. Just take out the wireless and your done (Is what I heard).

Maybe when my L4D game is done I'll see about running a Fallout based one. Could be interesting.

Alright, have to ask... Having finished my first play-through of Fallout 3, what are the 'must-add' mods?