Exilian

Off-topic and Chatter: The Jolly Boar Inn => Tabletop Games - The Game Room => Topic started by: Clockwork on January 31, 2016, 10:48:49 AM

Title: Shadowrun 3E
Post by: Clockwork on January 31, 2016, 10:48:49 AM
I got a digital third edition of Shadowrun and have been going through it over about a week. Already being familiar with Shadowrun setting and to a very lesser extent, lore, it was pretty simple to understand. I did not expect this to tell the truth, so many people say it's overly complicated but hey, whatever.


The ruleset is very open to DM and player interpretation. Not to say that there aren't flat rules but when it comes to character creation you can have any skill or knowledge you like and it'll probably have a use at some point during a campaign. In shadowrun you roll against a target number for skill checks and so slightly related skills can provide a small reduction to the target number and the exact skill can provide larger reductions with specializations providing larger reductions still.


E.g. My mechanic has the repair skill specialized in drone repair, I'd get a small bonus to deactivating a cyberlimb due to it being mechanically related, I'd get a decent bonus to repairing a microwave and I'd get a large bonus to repairing a drone.


I don't know how standard that is for an RPG as I only played an early version of DnD and can't remember that being part of it.


Anyway the mechanics are sound and the setting is fantastic.


Here's the start of a playthrough of 1E (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KMenSIb9EU&list=PL-oTJHKXHicTdbGTF_9uNvrE_ehvI8eJ-&index=1) but it's similar to 3E. 4 and 5E are noticeably different though.
Title: Re: Shadowrun 3E
Post by: Pentagathus on January 31, 2016, 08:38:46 PM
We played a very brief and (IIRC) unfinished campaign for shadowrun back in the school club, I don't remember what edition it was though. Was good fun even though we were hindered by short game times and inexperience with the system (or any RPG system for most of us.) My character was a were-seal magician, sadly I never got the opportunity to make any use of my sealyness.
Title: Re: Shadowrun 3E
Post by: Clockwork on February 01, 2016, 07:40:18 AM
The possibilities with that character are endless, who else can save a marina from malignant water spirits? ;)


So far I've only powergamed an Elven prodigy.


You may or may not remember about the priority system for creating a character where you get attributes (str, agi etc), skills, race, magic and resources. Then you assign each of those a priority from A-E. Magic has to be either A or B to be used, if not then E. Race is E if human, D if Orc or Dwarf and C if Elf or Troll. The rest can be put anywhere those 2 slots aren't taken.


Anyway to powergame the system I assigned them in order of Attributes, Magic, Race(Elf), Skills, Resources which made for a character who always has at the very minimum 4 dice to roll for each test thanks to the high attributes and use sorcery instead of skill checks for a few things and when combat starts, 4 points in pistols, rifles and edged weapons should be enough to reliably land hits.


I'd never use the character, just wanted to see what could be done with the system. Even with powergaming, the character still will have a really tough time if he gets infected with anything or needs to pierce armour or hack or blow anything up due to low resource priority which means I couldn't afford good living space to help recover or any decent equipment other than a burst fire pistol, knife, armour and cellphone.
Title: Re: Shadowrun 3E
Post by: Jubal on February 01, 2016, 08:06:07 PM
My character in that Shadowrun game was great - Dugan Taxsyn, dwarf private investigator. Basically no special skills at all, walked around with a slivergun and an axe, because what cyberpunk needs is more good old fashioned hand to hand. (It was actually quite useful, because it turns out the people who make fancy futuristic doors don't always count on people literally hacking them off at the hinges).