I've been tossing the idea around of trying to integrate some of the various World of Darkness (WoD) lines into Shadowrun, particularly Vampire, Werewolf and Changeling.

Just for the record, I'm fully aware of the weaknesses of White Wolf's rule system, and their penchant for overblown self-importance (one of their games actually has an angst stat), but their world construction is pretty nifty. One of the primary gimmicks that applies across all the various game lines in the WoD is that the various species keep their existence secret in various ways in order not to impact the "real" world. It seems to me that could be readily applied into the 6th World, without undue modifications to either setting.

Vampire:
The Masquerade, such as it is, is still needed in the 6th World. Humanity is aware of vampires, but view it as an awakened disease. The Masquerade's primary purpose is to keep the world unaware of the vampire's influence in the world, as well as the size of their population and potential powers. The Masquerade isn't about concealing the existence of vampires, but keeping the power of the vampires secret. Once you have a good reason for vampires to keep quiet, the rest of vampire politics falls (more or less) into place.

Werewolf:
The Delirium probably is weakened in the 6th World, but still would go a long way to keeping people unaware of werewolf society. Integrating the various tribes into NAN politics provides for a lot of interesting results, and casts the Ghost Dance War in a new light.

Changeling:
This is what gave me the idea in the first place, that and the mentions of the Fae in SoE. Instead of the moon landings opening the gates to Arcadia, have the Awakening and the Ghost Dance War be what caused the return of the sidhe. The ability of the various kiths to walk around undisguised is offset by the massive banality of the 6th world in the form of rigid corporate hierarchies and cyberware. The Dreaming and the Astral Plane could be one and the same place - it's just that the fae see something there that no one else does.

Now, I'm not entirely certain what you could do with this. I don't think you'd want to have WoD PCs on a team - just formalizing the rules conversion would be a pain in the neck. On the other hand, you could draw on the WoD books and things for ready-made conspiracies and plots.

Tossing out the idea for general consideration, discussion and comments (e.g. flames). I'm also curious if anyone else has tried it, or something similar.

- Runner Smurf

Steve Kenson did an article many a moon ago addressing this very subject. This link should take you there directly, or you can go to Steve's website and explore.

I've thought about this, and may try it sometime. The idea of an HMHVV-infected vampire utterly wasting a WoD vampire and Harlequin ripping some uptight Shidhe a new orifice is just too amusing to me.

~J

This has come up before in a different manner.

I've seen Shadowrun applied to Battletech. Mechwarriors with smartlinks and vehicle control rigs (thus -2 to all BT to-hit numbers and the ability to shoot several weapons per turn), "psionics" to explain magic and having elementals ("thought forms" or something) manifest in opposing mech's cockpits...bleh, not for me.

Linked Fire was merely something for the computer game, then?

~J

The only time that Battletech was limited to certain firing configurations was the decreased turn length in the Solaris 7 arena combat. In the normal turn combat, you had enough time to pick all the weapons you want to fire, but in the Solaris arenas, you were limited to the pre-selected firing groups for your mech.

Unless something has changed since then.

Eh - I don't like the SR mechanic enough to adapt it to another system.

But expanding the SR mythology - poser gang vampires (cybernetics), virus-strain vampires and WoD vamps (insert schtick here).

Sidhe exist in another rift or Meta-Plane that requires certain levels of mana to appear. Or the Sidhe are another, rare variant of the Elf meta-type.

You have to decide how you want to adapt the WoD mythology to the SR mechanic and move from there - packs of sentient werewolves? Shapeshifters abound. And they happen to worship this "Gaia" figure. And they all have a Phobia about some small chemical company called "Pentex."

One critical difference - vampires and werewolves oh my in WoD are shadowy figures, believed to be myth and folklore by the masses. Which adds a certain flavor.

SR werewolves and vampires have been scientifically analyzed, evaluated and you can find encyclopedia references if you really want to do a paper.

-Siege

Ah, you meant firing each weapon multiple times. That's just cheating.

That would make an interesting modification in SR - a weapon has a maximum number of times it can be fired.

With enough reflex boosts, you might be moving faster than your weapon can eject the casing and chamber a new round.

-Siege

Given that combat turns take three seconds, and that IIRC Raygun posted a link to a page listing someone who had managed to fire a handgun eight times in one second (and hit a target with all of the shots, no less), and given that I've never seen even the best twinkers manage to get a Reaction up above 110...

~J

We've had arguments about RoF limits, and the usual conclusion was that SR guns don't fire near as fast as RL counterparts can.

Heh, I've missed the RoF limits discussions.

Sorry, random thoughts.

-Siege

I think there's a full-color insert in the SR3 main book detailing such a crossover....

You mean the lame spider-headed medusa vampire thing vs. the Ash-wannabe and flamethrower ork guy?

I really don't think WoD and Shadowrun can mix well. You might have some success converting shadowrun to White Wolf's D10 system. or I could see a Shadowrun campaign wherein all the PCs are vampires, shapeshifters, or hidden mystic spirit critters, but the worlds really don't mesh well at all.

The monolithic evil that makes WoD so dark would be laughable. Pentex might, at best, be considered an AA, as opposed to the Aztechnology + Saeder-Krupp role it plays in WoD. The board would probably be helpless against the sort of crap the Villiers/Nakatomi/Yamana feud produced on a weekly basis, much less anything like the Corp War following the Big D's will. If the Camarilla were to exist in Shadowrun, they'd probably be quickly ripped apart by the Ordo Maximus politically, then literally. And with vast tracts of near-virgin wilderness across North America and Amazonia, there'd be no imminent threat of Apocalypse, so the Garou lose most of their drama, and Fae would lose their entire concept as the Awakening, then all sorts of social conflicts take Banality from first technology, then society. I mean, how many guys with mohawks run around through the Shadowrun world? Cyberpunk is many things, but banal really isn't one of them.

How many gutter punks rub armored shoulders with former spec ops, professional mercs and master thieves?

I think it's one of those "agree to suspend disbelief until dead" moments.

-Siege

Edit: Although a Toxic Shaman or similar corrupter might find it easier to work jerking the puppet strings of a corporation, depending on his or her agenda.

A friend of mine irl works at a tax firm where most if not all the senior execs are members of the same church. Coincidence?

I'm kind of incorporating Mage into SR, albeit simply as a plot device.