| From: | STEPHEN ESDALE <SESDALE@********.ON.CA> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Versitility of Shadowrun |
| Date: | Fri, 9 Jun 1995 15:17:19 -0400 |
a Shadowrun is a very slick game and probably the most versatile world you can imagine.
I'm kinda hitting myself that I didn't start playing Shadowrun years earlier. Anyways,
about versatility: We've done two runs already. The first was perfect cyberpunk
adventure, except for the Troll and the physical adept (that's me) it was Gibson cyber-
style at its best. Shadowrun is definitely cyberpunk (and this coming from a die-hard
CP2020 player). The end of the run we started to run into Aztechnology resistance and
suddenly our "pure" cyberpunk game turned into a techno-magical fantasy more in
line
with TORG and Palladium's RIFTS. A technomagical treasure, an experiment that
turned a character's cyberware into "living" bioware, and a magical symbiote
turned our
conceptions of Shadowrun on their ear. This wasn't bad, nor did it significantly alter
the Shadowrun universe. Our current run is an assassination of the head of Magicorp,
where we must only kill ONE person and no one else (not security or other guys). We
are all armed with stun weaponry and had the assassination weapon (a strange gun with
ONE bullet). When we were attacked by Cyberfurries (see NERPS Shadowlore) and some
mirror image guys that are like out of Terminator 2, things began to get REALLLY
strange (I won't even mention a room filled with 1000 mysterious thermal images or
gremlins like from the movie that attempted to sacrifice our Street Sam).
Anyways I learned a few things from this month-long campaign. These aren't the
last words on the subject. Just consider it the opinions of a long-time roleplayer and
a collector of many RPG's:
1. Don't peg down Shadowrun to a certain genre. Many of our players do it, FASA does
it, some guys on this list do it. Shadowrun is a cyberpunk game but it can also
cross
over into Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gothpunk (for all you World of
Darkness Fans), Spatterpunk (cyberpunk with all the chrome shaved off; mean and nasty
and very messy), Horror, and Techno-Horror. After playing with our GM I've experienced
alot of the above.
2. The golden rule (thou shalt not mix magic and tech) should not be followed
religiously. Just because FASA wants to keep the holy game balance shouldn't hamstring
your imagination. This is not to mean that you start handing out spell-casting
firearms, but it does mean that the enemy could have some nifty techomagical stuff
(such as TORG's Occultech or Aztechnology's weird black pyramid which appeared in our
game; highly technical and highly magical...though we never did figure out what it
did, but it sure scared those who did astral scans on it.).
3. Physical adepts are not too weak. I'm playing a kensai adept (basically a physical
adept specializing in swordsmanship). I get hurt more often that the Street Samurai
and he often beats me in initiative, but I heal a heck of a lot easier and fit into
most situations easier. Cybernetics mean that when you hurt you are down for while (no
magical healing) and that you are treated with suspicion in many establishments. And
with power foci I can also get more abilities (I don't think Street Sam get essence
foci hehehe).
Just my rare emerging from my necessary exile in the lurker abyss.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Esdale (sesdale@********.on.ca) |
-Last Roadblock on the road to enlightenment |
|
"Understanding is a Three edged Sword" |
-Kosh, Babylon 5 |
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