Ehh… it’s definitely not an entry-level TTRPG. I’ve tried playing it once and bounced hard, though it was partially the fault of the GM…
It’s very crunchy, and complicated, and the rules aren’t laid out very well. Maybe now that I’m more experienced with TTRPGs in general I might have more fun with it. I remember doing some silly stuff that was a lot of fun, it was just bogged down by mistakes and misunderstandings and rules, and the way things are set up can often divide the party in a way that isn’t fun (the net, for example. Anyone not net-capable basically gets a lunch break whenever you’re doing anything in the net).
So, I regularly run Shadowrun as a “My first RPG” and as a “Wait, D&D isn’t the only game?”, but I do it by replacing the mechanics entirely.
If you want something official, Shadowrun Anarchy is actually pretty good. Otherwise, look at The Sprawl, or Runners in The Dark (A Blades in the Dark hack). And I guess at some point I’ll get around to actually releasing the custom system I’m using to run it for my current games.
Cities Without Number’s paid version has what is very clearly “Shadowrun without the Shadowrun rules.” I haven’t tried much of the system, and none with the magic stuff, but it might be pretty good?
That seems to be entirely missing the point of RPGs, to my mind. What exactly are the limits of this logic? If I use house rules, am I “not running Shadowrun”? What about if I use an older system? Shadowrun has 6 editions, some of them very different from each other, plus a complete alternate rules set. Anarchy is at least as different from 6E as anything I’m doing with it, so why does Anarchy get to be canonically Shadowrun, but my game doesn’t, even though neither of them are using anything like the mainline rules?
The decking/net-running problem is definitely a thing, tho. Doing it well requires the GM to build a really tight scenario, which is hard to do on a regular basis.
![Mechanics Included [Shadowrun]](https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/f32b5d22-7747-4ddd-ba48-2198018b16b5.webp){kind=link}
Ehh… it’s definitely not an entry-level TTRPG. I’ve tried playing it once and bounced hard, though it was partially the fault of the GM…
It’s very crunchy, and complicated, and the rules aren’t laid out very well. Maybe now that I’m more experienced with TTRPGs in general I might have more fun with it. I remember doing some silly stuff that was a lot of fun, it was just bogged down by mistakes and misunderstandings and rules, and the way things are set up can often divide the party in a way that isn’t fun (the net, for example. Anyone not net-capable basically gets a lunch break whenever you’re doing anything in the net).
So, I regularly run Shadowrun as a “My first RPG” and as a “Wait, D&D isn’t the only game?”, but I do it by replacing the mechanics entirely.
If you want something official, Shadowrun Anarchy is actually pretty good. Otherwise, look at The Sprawl, or Runners in The Dark (A Blades in the Dark hack). And I guess at some point I’ll get around to actually releasing the custom system I’m using to run it for my current games.
A lot of folks want a cyberpunk fantasy game with decent rules. Good luck
Cities Without Number’s paid version has what is very clearly “Shadowrun without the Shadowrun rules.” I haven’t tried much of the system, and none with the magic stuff, but it might be pretty good?
If you “run Shadowrun” by “replacing the rules entirely” you aren’t running Shadowrun. You’re running a different system with Shadowrun’s setting.
That seems to be entirely missing the point of RPGs, to my mind. What exactly are the limits of this logic? If I use house rules, am I “not running Shadowrun”? What about if I use an older system? Shadowrun has 6 editions, some of them very different from each other, plus a complete alternate rules set. Anarchy is at least as different from 6E as anything I’m doing with it, so why does Anarchy get to be canonically Shadowrun, but my game doesn’t, even though neither of them are using anything like the mainline rules?
The lore and setting are perfect.
The decking/net-running problem is definitely a thing, tho. Doing it well requires the GM to build a really tight scenario, which is hard to do on a regular basis.
Oh yeah, the setting is fine, but the rules of the RPG itself are tough to get into.
Yeah, I like it a lot better with an outside ruleset