[Shadowrun] Mixing Source Books

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Mon Mar 03, 2003 9:29 pm

this has probably been posted before, but I can't find anything in the archive... so here we go.

what other gaming system mixes well with Shadowrun? anything that wouldn't take a complete overhaul of the rules and character building would be nice. although I'm open to anything right now. it doesn't have to be serious or anything. a totally whacked out game mixed with Shadowrun could produce some cyberpunk looney tunes!

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Mar 03, 2003 9:59 pm

Old D6 system (Indiana Jones, Star Wars)

The backgrounds rules worked reasonably well, within limits.

paladin2019 · Post by **paladin2019** » Mon Mar 03, 2003 10:28 pm

Considering that, in theory, SR & WoD use a very similar engine, skill values carry over fairly well from one to the other. With an off the cuff conversion of stats and the equipment rules for the new system, the chars are fairly portable with the numbers given. Maybe a +1 die for skills and stats when going from WoD to SR (because WoD's nominal avg and max are 2 and 5 compared to SR's 3 and 6). Oh, and dice pools. Imported WoDdies will need to have dice pools figured.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 7:01 pm

Concept-wise, Call of Cthulhu (old style, not that d20 abomination) can work well.

Ever played Toon?

:plode

paladin2019 · Post by **paladin2019** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 8:02 pm

Patience wrote:Ever played Toon? :plode

Zippy the Wonder Slug? You betcha.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 8:20 pm

Toon?

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 8:27 pm

Toon. Published by Steve Jackson Games. It's toons - as in, Looney Toons style - roleplaying.

Naturally, it's something that is funny, but pointless. :-)

Matt McS · Post by **Matt McS** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 9:16 pm

Immensly enjoyable for when you need to blow off steam. West End had a couple of good games for that (Paranoia and Ghostbusters International)

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 9:22 pm

You need a specific game for silliness? Oh. We just kinda made some very stupid Amber and D&D characters (The Slightly Misplaced Realms) and had at it

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 9:44 pm

Wildfire wrote:You need a specific game for silliness?

Need? No. But IMnsHO, I think it's better to keep silly and serious seperate in gaming [I have virtually no interest in 'silly' in, well, nearly anything] simply because it keeps everyone on the same page all the time. "This week we're playing Toon, so it's silly." "This week we're playing Forgotten Realms, so it's serious."

/me inserts some GNS stuff here.

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 10:14 pm

If you say so, IMnsHO a round of silliness in your normally serious world helps immensly in reminding everyone why you like the game or its setting

Whether its wacky generated characters or just a silly session where everyone tries to blow the crap out of each other with their normal characters and it doesn't count in the storyline, its a change of pace and an opportunity to play totally non viable games or do things with characters that you would normally never get to do in a real game. I see no point in a game being silly because the rules say so.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 2:14 am

I'm not talking rules at all, I'm talking theme.

Cash · Post by **Cash** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:00 pm

Wild:: Try Toon. The game rocks.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:24 pm

If we're talking Beer-And-Pretzels games, try Tales from the Floating Vagabond. I heartily endorse this event or product.

Re the SR crossover question, WoD stuff works really nicely - especially vampire and werewolf; just be aware that combat-oriented Garou will be /the/ toughest critters in the entire world except dragons and some of the bigger free spirits.

Also, obviously, Earthdawn - only really good if you're playing a historical, interdimensional, or time-travelling game, but excellent under those circumstances if you are.

I've heard of people using Deadlands for crossovers, too. Can't remember who, though.

Ryan Murphy · Post by **Ryan Murphy** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:48 pm

On that specific note, I've experience with converting WW:tA to SR 3rd. Lemme just say that someone who switch between (effectively) human, ork, and troll forms (as well as "mutant sized" and conventional wolf forms) will probably fuck shit up.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 6:59 pm

so could just about any D6 system work?

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 7:35 pm

Just because a game uses D6s doesn't mean it's compatible with other D6 games. Shadowrun is a dice pool system. You have a pool of dice that varies depending on the skill/attribute/equipment rating and you roll against varied TNS.

GURPS, for example, is a d6 system, but you always roll 3D6, normally against your attribute or skill rating.

In BESM, you roll 2D6 against a varied target number.

All the above systems use D6s, but all use them differently.

paladin2019 · Post by **paladin2019** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 9:01 pm

To second Adam, look for games that use dice pools (where each die is compared to a target number indiviually) rather than just d6's as the primary mechanic. WoD games use dice pools, West End's Star Wars does not, for example. The tweaking will come into play when adjusting numbers of dice to bring the average person stats into accord and in adjusting target numbers if the variables are based on a different die than a d6.

If you want powersuits, you might look at Heavy Gear for these reasons. Though that system will need a little more work as it is not strictly a dice pool game.

Basically, WoD's engine is the closest I've seen any game come to SR's.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 3:00 pm

ah. thanks for setting me straight guys.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 8:37 pm

Seconded on the WoD thing. It's, mechanically, by far the easiest to convert.

Going in the other direction, our group played quite a successful 0-level-character D&D game using the SR system.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 8:45 pm

does the entire WoD system work for meshing or just Werewolf?

paladin2019 · Post by **paladin2019** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 9:26 pm

It all works, mechanically speaking. Whether you want all that in your game is something else.

Ryan Murphy · Post by **Ryan Murphy** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 9:46 pm

I would say it all works fairly well EXCEPT Exalted, which is a slight deviation from the other systems. Couldn't tell you about Demon, though.

Hunter/Demon Hunter X are two that would work pretty well in SR, come to think of it.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:45 am

SR works well with the old Nexus: the Infinite City book.

;Course, I mainly mix nexus with GURPS.

Kwyndig · Post by **Kwyndig** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 4:30 am

Well yeah, but you can mix anything with GURPS.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 11:14 am

Ryan Murphy wrote:Couldn't tell you about Demon, though.

Demon is, mechanically, most like Vampire. It'd work fine in SR.

Daki · Post by **Daki** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:32 pm

Thank you all for giving Gunny such evil EVIL ideas. This means, of course, that I have equally evil ideas as GM.

Imagine... you are on a run to eliminate some person. You do the deed and leave. A few years later (in game time) you find yourself on someone's bad side. Turns out, the person you had killed before turned into a Kuei-jin.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 8:11 pm

*cough*Year of the Comet*cough*Shedim*cough*Threats 2*cough*beentheredonethat*cough* ;-)

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 9:28 pm

Gee, Adam, sounds like you've got something in your throat?:P

Be careful, you might be Running a fever!