Hey /tg/ I want to start GMing some one shots or short campaigns in Shadowrun 5e. How do I find a good group or know I found a good group. What's a good place I can find players? I don't trust reddit, there has to be some other websites I can try.
 It's All Fucked Shirt $22.14 |
 Shopping Cart Returner Shirt $21.68 |
It's All Fucked Shirt $22.14 |
first of: is learning german a option for you?
I can try? I never tried learning German
If you're confused, online Shadowrun community is pretty notorious for being primarily based en de Deutsch. A lot of good supplements and wikis if you're willing to deal with Google Translate on the webpages, though.
Roll20 is a half-decent option and is free. Comes with a VTT, too. Downsides: you really need to vet who you're letting in (a lot of people ready to go with their mary sues/custom-designed broken bullshit), the groups are pretty notoriously volatile (either exploding due to drama or more commonly half your group just ghosting you) and you definitely get what you pay for on the VTT side. Shit is JANKY.
Damn, is it really that bad for Shadowrun fans out there?
I've been looking for a Shadowrun thread to pop up forever now, and this being the first statement on one in a long time is... not encouraging.
With the terrible treatment of SR5 (lmao wuts errata?) and the hasty release of SR6 (with even worse editing and sloppy copypasting of content from SR5) in an attempt to dumb it down further so it becomes more attractive for casual players (who are brainlets that tend to draw the line of acceptable complexity at DND5), the Shadowrun community took a heavy beating. Add to that the surge in popularity Cyberpunk got via the CP2077 game, anime and whatnot, plenty of players get their metal-limb-fix in Night City instead. It's not as bad here in Germany (we traditionally love Shadowrun), but it is noticable.
>the terrible treatment of SR5 (lmao wuts errata?)
... are you not aware they did errata for 5e?
I am, but I was exaggerating. The errata were few and took long to be published, even though players busily reported errors/issues. I recall referring to the Shadowrun Missions FAQ in lieu of actual errata.
Yeah, they did lean on Missions for solving stuff like the rainforest carbine being utter bs. Unfortunately Missions just made it shit instead.
*Which isn't to say Missions was overall shit. Though it was designed for ... well, Missions. Convention play with people who may be idiots or buttholes.
Sorry if this hijacks the thread, but I wonder if someone can help me with a Shadowrun 3e question: how do you build a rigger with a remote-controlled anthro drone?
A buddy wants to try GM-ing and wants to run a 3rd edition Shadowrun campaign, but I've never played that ruleset/setting before. My first character idea was to make a shadowrunner who basically sits on his ass at home and does missions by remotely controlling a human-shaped drone like it's a video game. Is it even possible to build that?
I've been looking at the rulebook along with Rigger 3 Revised, but there's just so much shit to read that I'm seriously considering instead just bringing something stupidly simple a troll mercenary who punches things.
Sorry, my post
fricked up.
There really isn't a great way to play a human infiltration drone while also being a hundred miles away. Now, if you are also a driver for a get away van that can help the crew ditch a job gone hot that would be pretty alright. But from what I remember about 3e is that most things Matrix-wise are physical connections so it's good to be near your very expensive toy if something goes wrong.
Now, can you do it? Absolutely, it just will struggle a bit until you get some more money and karma to even the field
3e allows short-range wireless because that's how basically all drones work, but actual decking generally requires a hard connection. Hardened facilities generally have a private net and aren't connected to the net at large, and secure facilities are ALWAYS their own network, often with a security spider either onsite or at least monitoring the building from elsewhere.
You will probably want to be nearby. In addition to the issue with long-distance wireless connections, if something goes wrong with your drone or the run, having an extra guy with a SMG or something is gonna be better than sitting on your ass and letting your friends get shot to death. The reason the rigger book is complex is also partly because there's two main styles of rigger that aren't necessarily super compatible with each other, the vehicle rigger and the drone rigger. If you want to do pure drone rigging, which is probably more useful overall anyway, you can just ignore most if not all of the vehicle-related stuff. (Vehicle rigging can be great, it's just that the VCR has such a huge essence cost that you really need to focus your entire concept around having an awesome battle van. Very expensive but worthwhile, assuming you take jobs that permit that sort of thing.) That said, focusing on a single super-capable drone is totally doable and a fun way to play, you'll just want to be watching TV from the van parked around the corner rather than from the safehouse.
A competent decker can trace your connection to the drone and fry you with IC, which is another reason you want to be close by so you can dome him before that happens.
Thanks, I do like the idea of driving a van that basically parks down near the action and can also be used for escapes.
>If you want to do pure drone rigging, which is probably more useful overall anyway, you can just ignore most if not all of the vehicle-related stuff.
I've still mostly just skimmed the book, but as far as I've seen drones are mostly built the same way vehicles are from a mechanics standpoint, unless I'm grossly misunderstanding something due to speedreading.
You need to combine Rigger 3 and Matrix to set up wireless control, and probably need to stay relatively close (but you can put your equipment in a van).
Generally if you're new to SR3 it's recommended to play a cybernetics or magic class first to learn how the game works, because Riggers are PAINFUL to figure out.
Maybe you'll start a good group here.
Gotta agree with , there are plenty of good players on /tg/. Personally I'm in a game that start here that's been going for 1 and 1/2 years now. My only real suggestion is filter your players and when you post your ad be detailed on what kind of game you want and the restrictions on made characters.
You could also go scrounge in a Discord I guess, but you REALLY need to filter through the responses from there.
OP here, I am looking for players that's for sure.
I'm thinking of running a hit and run mission or a kidnapping a corpo's son. Maybe starting with street level with 10k yuan to start. Still learning about the system but that's the basic idea for now.
Can I ask why you settled on 5e? 6 is current if you wanna play contemporary systems but 2e is quite good especially if you’re a new gm
I found a 5e book for free, so I thought to just try it. I played the game before and I like the world enough to try GMing for it.
5e has its problems but it's relatively accessible and it's not a literal dumpster fire like 6e is. 5e is overall probably the best edition other than 3e, so it's not really a bad place to start.
>6
Why would you ever recommend SR6?
SR3 = SR2 > SR5 > SR4 > SR1 > SR6
>SR2 anywhere that high
have a free focus
what's wrong with sr2?
Decking is a joke
Grounding is miserable
Cyberware is a mess
It had issues that needed to get ironed out.
>SR3 = SR2 > SR5 > SR4 > SR1 > SR6
now rearrange this by lore quality
SR2=SR1>SR3>SR5>SR4>SR6
What did SR4 do that makes it rank below SR5?
Jacked up the power level of the setting, pulled the ladder out from under average runners so you could only play super prime runners, deleted deckers, fricked with metavariants, and that's before we get to CGL's own ill thought out contributions like WAR!.
4 at least felt coherent with lore, with stuff like the Sixth World Almanac to give onboarding and broad strokes. 5e is practically written in code, dropping names from twenty-year-old splats like they are common parlance and assuming you are up to date on all the JackPoint drama of their stable of steel donuts. I remember trying to read the Cutting Aces bit about Constantinople, which should ostensibly be a chance for a clean-slate explanation of the city, and it assumes you are sitting at a table with a half-dozen sourcebooks from the last three editions so you can know who the frick Jazrir is and why his death 40 years ago means anything to whatever the frick an Alliance for Allah is.
>4 at least felt coherent with lore
4 had errors in its lore with gems like Free Cities not even trying to read Bug City to reference its description of Chicago.
>whatever the frick an Alliance for Allah is.
It actually explains it on page 58.
Sloppy writing is professionally inexcusable; someone working on a supplement should have read the foundational texts for that part of the setting. However, if you never read Bug City (a 2e book by FASA) you wouldn't know what Free Cities (4e book by CGL) got wrong. The picture of Chicago is still completely workable, albiet inaccurate to the larger lore.
Getting 8 pages into a section on a city before talking about the history of the place and defining one of the key groups (that was referenced but not explained before) is also sloppy writing. It's been 7 years since that book came out, I'm hazy on the details but I remember it being really poorly structured.
> However, if you never read Bug City (a 2e book by FASA) you wouldn't know what Free Cities (4e book by CGL) got wrong.
You'd get smacked in the face with it if you ran/played in 5e's Missions for Chicago which relied on it, only to have a smug writer who knew more tell you it was wrong and you wasted money.
>but I remember it being really poorly structured.
No shit, one of 5e's worst sins was atrocious editing which is why people tell you to read the german version so much. Some of its writers don't know basic history of the real world. But it does tell you. You can use ctrl+f.
steel donuts?
'do not steal'
... Probably needs more explanation than that. It's that special situation where someone creates a character and thinks it's so unique and wonderful they need to tell everyone they can't copy it.
5e is new enough that it gets players regularly, and isn't completely dog-awful. Especially if you use Hans' edit of the rules.
Set up a throwaway r20 contact point or something.
>street level
It doesn't work, chummer. All you're doing there is letting magicians win harder. Use standard if you're thinking of running a game.
I can't find that on the handbook, can you lead me to a source that has that?
Not that anon, but source on what? Source on street level creation rules is the sidebar on pg 64 of CRB. Source on street level play being iffy is personal experience. It's not the end of the world considering mages will be a LITTLE hamstrung with the karma restrictions, but mage power will definitely shine through heavily, with the potential to lap anyone going cyberspace or meatspace. One damage spell is still going to be leagues more powerful than whatever peashooter the ganger wannabe could afford.
Street-level sounds nice in that "starting from level 1" kinda way, but especially if you're new to the system, don't overcomplicate it. Cut your teeth on standard play, and consider diving deeper into the pool once you've already gotten your feet wet.
The standard was what I was confused about, sorry for not saying it clearly.
I really don't like roll20. but if that's the only option I don't mind using it. Yeah, and I don't want to find problem players.
Running a game will be within couple months since I still need to learn the system. It's damn confusing.
I'd strongly suggest you go comb through past discussions of shadowrun, it can help a lot.
If you're going to do street level or street scum 5e, then you'll also need to tinker with priority to take the absolute incentive to play awakened down a notch or ten.
>you REALLY need to filter through the responses
Really all you need to do is make every applicant post a video of them making 25 consecutive good form pushups. Like you wouldn't believe how much more functional groups I've had after implementing this.
JSYK 5e can drag a bit if you’re after a one shot. I’d aim for a short campaign if it’s your system of choice esp. if running first time.
Glory my beloved.
is shadowrun supposed to be goofy or am I actually supposed to take it seriously?
>is shadowrun supposed to be goofy
yes unless it's not
>or am I actually supposed to take it seriously?
yes unless you are not
that's the same setting that features funny gnome people ,catgirls and.... a undead cannibal nation's breeding camps
You can go Black Trench Coat (Black Lagoon, Neuromancer)
Or Pink MoHawk (Space Dandy, Samurai Shamploo)
Have your group decide what they want to play the most.
why is there a firefight inside her arm??
It's promo art for a videogame
What, chummer, you don't put video screens on your ware to show your last fight from a third person perspective as a tool of intimidation, negotiation and making impressions?
How many firefights can you show on the head of a shadowrunner?
In parallel or sequentially?
Or is that meant in the vein of "How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?"
Maybe
The same problems as finding players for any other system. Are you sure you can't try to wrangle some friends into playing? If you're rolling the dice on randos you could try here, there, roll20 or discord but always remember you'll be fighting to get a single session done.
I have a campaign of 6e going now. I didn't know 6e's reputation at the time. A local group I play with had a player who asked to DM a game while our normal DnD5e DM was out of the country. So, one day, the player had us draw filled out character sheets from a pile, then sent us a copy of the rules in a pdf. I think I was the only person in a group of four players to actually read the rules. One player pulled a d20 when the DM asked for a check. Same player also drew the one rigger character.
I'm enjoying myself. I drew a magician. I like the traits give interesting roleplaying hooks. Like, my character has a drug addiction, frail body, and combat paralysis.
If you have a local group, the best case scenario, and this goes for basically any system, is to basically force the issue. Get all the material. Give the players a pre-made character sheet, and slap them over the head with the rules because they're not about to read them.
>Give the players a pre-made character sheet, and slap them over the head with the rules because they're not about to read them.
This. Random draws are insane to me, there's way too much going on in SR to leave someone's character to complete chance. When I set up a group in university, I talked to the players about style of game first, then did up a few versions of every archetype that fit that style (helps that I like chargen) and dropped ~20 sheets on the table for us to go through together and make a crew.
Some people switched characters during the first few sessions, and everybody respecced the sheets once they had an idea of what parts of the game they liked, but nobody went in blind, and the sheets were all balanced against each other (12/8/6 diepools). A few rules primers that I made and we highlighted as we played and we were good to go.
>6e
>I'm enjoying myself. I drew a magician
Checks out.
You could try some of the online communities. Shadowhaven reloaded and runnerhub comes to mind that use 5e.
Thank you for the help anons, I want to run a oneshot one day so I'll leave my discord here
errantquester
Anons, I'm willing to spend momey, should I get a different edition?
Never, ever give CGL money.
Then edition should I get?
5kraut if you can handle german, 5e if you can't, 3e for old school, never, ever 6e.
Why not 6e? I hear it's easier to play.
Falling on your face is an easier way to get to the floor than sitting down, doesn't mean it's a better experience. 6e had enough missing rules at launch as to be effectively unplayable. It's been slowly patched togethet since then, but I haven't heard anyone say it's a smooth ride now.
So it looks like SR1 or 2 is a fair shot
>SR1
lolno
>SR2
Again, nope.
The only way to "fix" 6e is to gut it completely.
Then what's your advice anon? New Gm still learning the ropes with 5e.
If you learn 4e and then move on to 5e, you'll appreciate what 5e fixes and understand what 5e either forgot or failed to explain in full ... or have your own solutions, because you're beyond learning the ropes already.
No need to be rude anon I'm trying my best here. But I'll give your advice a shot.
You have a strange idea of what counts as rude. Or got stuck in your first thoughts of how to parse a sentence.
Anon, he literally couldn't remember what the post chain said. I think he's moronic.
You were right, 4th ed is a bit easier to digest, has there been an attempt to mix them together?
Yes, the edition that mixes 4th and some new stuff is called 5th edition.
Thanks anon, much appreciated
But seriously. While I think there's been some attempts to rewrite 5th, no one has been advertising them as worth looking into lately.
Some anons were butthurt over the reasonable changes to 'ware prices in 5th ... I wouldn't bring anything from 4th that isn't already in 5th until you really know what you're looking at.
Gotcha, thank you again anon. I think I'll crack the book and just read it more and see what I can mess with.
I like 4e. It lets out the most options and builds in my mind. It is messy and convoluted but if you cut your teeth on 3.5 or pathfinder 1 like I did it was not a problem.
that gif owns. are there any other good shadowrun fan artists?
I like the concepts, design philosophy, and basic fricking memory 4e devs were working with, but I'd rather jam a spoon through my soft palate than deal with some of its mechanical shenanigans.
>one of the writers freely admitted he still plays 4e instead of 5e or 6e
That explains why he keeps referring to old rules. Lazy c**t. This is the caliber of writer who shills 6e by the way.
>inb4 source
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/shadowrun-whats-going-on-with-shadowrun-these-days.914324/#post-24969788
>4th Edition: Seattle Edition
Is it tho?
Of course not. He's a moron.
>brainlet bumpgay doesn't know about autosage
top kek, instead of trying to have discussion he kept trying to resuscitate this with empty bumps