I honestly believe the most Shadowrunny thing is getting to describe how a Water Spirit has a heated fight against the Troll holding a machinegun with his cyberarms while you pull out your giant pistol and paints the floor with that nasty Elf's blood after blowing up all his Rigger Drones with a Fireball. It's just such a ridiculous setting that works so well, it's really funny how it manages to be both a great Cyberpunk game AND one of the best fantasy settings you could find at the same time!
Chummer, my fixer is totally reliable. Never steered me wrong. Some things are more important than nuyen. He said this next run is gonna be a cakewalk!
For me its definitely the sandbox and the mixing of genres. I had people who wanted to play but had conflicting and inconsistent schedules. Shadowrun proved perfect for drop in drop out stuff. Setting it all in the same world, and having them interact with each other was great. And everyone got to do what they wanted. The fantasy geek was able to create a sword magey dude. The sci fi geek was able to be a hacker. The real life gun nut was able to nut over guns XD. And everything in between. Only problem was so many rules. Took a while to get them into the flow. First month was just constantly introducing more and more rules to them gradually
Dice and the fact D6 is king. Whenever I introduce shadowrun, people are amazed that not even a D20 will be used. Also keep up the shadowrun content, appreciate it alot.
+elliott954 I thought about mentioning that very thing, but it didn't make the cut mostly b/c of some other semi-popular D6 systems like Fantasy Age and that Star Wars game that I THINK people play... eh?
I think the most memorable thing I can remember, is that a great success doesn't necessarily make you succeed in what you are trying... Firing a nanojet arrow to sedate a key target turned into an instant kill, ultimately failing the objective. In D&D or other game systems that couldn't happen.
Three hours of planning ... so true! This video hits a lot of the things that make Shadowrun so distinctive. I especially think of the freedom of the players - to make substantive decisions, build and play the characters they want to free of a class or alignment system, and find ways to complete jobs besides running in and shooting (although we do a lot of that anyway)
@@ComplexAction You can always sell your soul for corporation for moderate protection. I have 2 character like that, one is german elf face/tank/decker/rigger/sniper, which was build with amnesia of his past life, there where hints that he either was bit hinged Saeder-Grupp employer or possible even clone or something else even sinister. And Troll Shark Shaman who did sell his soul to Sader-Grupp to pass death penalty after botched run which ended him killing 80+ civilians, few endangered rare animals, couple squads of military, few (2-4) Lone Star swat squads and Lone Star commander and burning all of his Karma... And he did get new face etc and some mysterious cyberware. This was my longest played character, with several quickened spells and Magic12-13 with out power foci. And bad attitude.
"Freedom" also includes character independence because of their high power. You could start out with a vehicle, explosives, a scoped rifle, automatic weapons, several powerful spells, etc. With more tools, you have more choices you're able to make to overcome obstacles. Contrast with a typical 1st-4th level D&D character, even in the excessively indulgent 5th edition.
I remember a game where the group got separated from our dwarf street samurai on our way out of the job. He was just about to face off against a whole corporate security army by himself. I got into our get away car and started heading his way to try to save him. GM says if I can get a 20 or higher on an initiative roll, I can make it. 6, 6, 6, 6, 4! I came ripping around the corner and power slid through the whole group. It was pretty epic.
this 5 min video so efficiently explains everything i want to tell my friends about shadow run really quick n easy, now i can just link them this, thanks
You know...i like the fact that you have a very fluent and audible voice, most youtuber, even with high end recording system, they always had that voice that's...not very easy for my ears to digest...you had talent...you had talent mate! =D
Back in the days when my friends and me were sitting around a table thats moaning under stockpiles of Books heavier than my ATLAS from school, drawing out on DIN A1 paper the PLAN to break into the facility, take the hostage/geek the target/steal the asset AND darting out to the extraction point where the rigger is (hopefully alive!) waiting (plus the rigger was playing decker while not rigging!) while scatching boxes for mental or physical damage, counting bullets we shot a.s.o that is the P&P Shadowrun i loved ... we had the smallest dices money can buy from our local temple for NERD stuff like Warhammer miniatures, Magic the Gathering cards, and of course Shadowrun Rule books i love to read even TODAY! Hell yeah 4 hours or more to get ONE RUN starting and finished (if your game master is nice!). Then summing up, getting Karma points and developing the character-sheet over again... OH and talking about GANGs: One run planned by our Game Master totally went out of control when LONE STAR patrol was stopping our car on the highway and the lunatic guy lost his temper and shot the cop in a split-second-maniac just to get arrested so we had to burst him out FIRST then do the run... tick tock time is up and our GM in role as JOHNSON just called in the second (badass) Shadowrunner Team to get the job done... there is no fight harder than fighting other street sams and mages that maybe share the same lack of morality ... WOW priceless run, didnt get mad when my elve lost his leg and an arm but managed to survive
I wonder if that's from older editions. But I started with 5th ed, and a fullauto burst is a single complex action, you roll your DP once, done, your target roles defence, then soak, done.
I still remember a shadowrun play, there were myself, elf street samurai, a dwarf decker, a human mage, a human technomancer, and a troll weapon specialist. We were tasked with recovering a piece of data from a specific apartment terminal, then blow it up to cover the act. Little did we know the apartment was owned by Renkaru. I'll let you guys figure out what happened next ahahah We spent three entire sessions planning everything, but one tiny bit of information which escaped our scrutiny destroyed everything. And, to top it all, the fixer didn't want to pay (bad move, costed him his right hand, taken away by my street sam as a warning ahah)
Good list. Only note; it doesnt always rain in Seattle. But my guess is that almost a century plus of magic, tech and weirdness will fuck with the weather juuustt fine.
Fantastic, extremely helpful. I plan on hosting SR6 soon, this will help me to keep from slipping into D&D or the zombie apocalypse that I normally kill the party off with. (Well, at least I'll hold the Zombies in check for a while.)
I just recently started shadowrun. We were tasked with protecting a Stuffer Shack from a street gang. I used mob mind as they were rolling up to make them go get a snack. So, they holster their guns, and the adept goes and scoops 'em all up. We quickly dispatch of them (as they unexpectedly had to switch to their backup weapons), and now we have six gang members worth of guns and bikes.
Honestly, I drop the "outright screwing over" aspect that so many Shadowrun GMs seem to employ...when you're better off killing Mr. Johnson and stealing his car....the social system of Shadowrunning would break down. Now I wouldn't make Mr. Johnson necessarily all on the up and up but the outright screw out of the player's pay...no. Underselling how difficult it is, yes. Not giving critical details that are in the employer's best interest to not give...yes.
"Cyberpunk Dystopia" is kind of like "ATM Machine". Cyberpunk is inherently dystopian and usually fairly anti-corporate. That's where the 'punk' suffix comes from.
I played D&D for years before we switched to Shadowrun. This game is so much more fun, especially when you imagine and role-play through this chaotic and psychotic world with amazing characters with endless options. One rule is absolutely true for any GM: the plan has to fail to make the game a succes. This RPG deserves more credit. Thanks for this video, I agree for 100%.
To me, the core essence of Shadowrun, albeit the obvious magical cyberpunk settings, is the way it successfully mixes hardbuilt systems and softbuilt settings. You just throw around some rainy neon city, gangers, soycaf, and you are in Shadowrun. But try to use the Matrix, and you'll require to understand the whole functionning of the Matrix. Try to cast a spell, and you'll actually end up having to learn that spell. BUT then again, the Matrix foundation and resonance/dissonance realms, and the metaplanes. And the gods/mentors/paragons. It's both hard (very detailed and rigid) and soft (very vague and adaptative) at the same time. And that's because you can literally do whatever you want, it's possible in the setting nd the game has rules for it. Seriously. Try finding a SINGLE action (not implying a missing type of creature like aliens or angels, ofc) you can't perform in Shadowrun. It's just impossible. Take you bucket of D6's, your imagination++, and you're in da place. It's a hell to masterize, but it's worth it.
I think that what makes Shadowrun Shadowrun for me has to do with two things: mystery and lore. And they go together. Shadowrun's lore is massive by now, there's background on almost all corners of the world, all major factions and players, all with their stories, plots and conflicts that make the world really come alive (unlike Cyberpunk, for example, which has a very plain background with very little detail). And mystery goes in that lore since the begginning: who were the owners of the aircrafts that stopped the second EuroWar? Who were the powers that pulled the reins of the Universal Brotherhood? Even though many of those mysteries have been solved as time has gone on, it also happens that new ones have appeared. And mystery isn't only present in the lore but in every game: what was that prototype we stole from Ares? Why does the Johnson want those nobodies dead? And with mystery and lore in come consequences of choices, conspiracies, etc.
Sorry but the idea of simulation, was first in Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard and were originally published in 1981, that's where they got the idea for Matrix, the book shows up in the first movie where Neo gets the disc to give to the guy with the Rabbit tattoo girl.
I'm getting into Shadowrun with 5th edition. I'm currently making a human bounty hunter in the streets of Seattle and still studying the rules from the rulebook, chummer
That's why my campaign's set in Indianapolis; we only get rain about a quarter of the year. :) That, and we didn't have the excess baggage of keeping true to Seattle Shadowrun lore. And none of us have ever been to Seattle.
WEll, the first time someone mention the matrix (not by that name, but the body of the idea probably) was Philip K Dick (sci-fi writer) in MEtz, France in a well know speech (fortunately, they record the conference) He literally said, we live in a computer program machine. Back then, they thought he was crazy (maybe by abusing drugs XD) however, these days and all of its writings look more real than the fiction (or should iI say, sci-fi) he portraited through years.
1🇺🇸🌈🎄💪🥷🏽🏈 GATHER THE WATER AND HARNESS THE COLD...THE FUTURE IS HOT AND DRY...IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR GOD TO GIVE GIFTS ALONGSIDE WISDOM THANK YOU BEAUTIFUL VANITY...
Personally, its history is really unique and interesting and one of the main things that make it shadowrun. The awakening is one of my favorite stories. how everyone were humans before it and racism became super racism once people started mutating into dwarves, orcs, trolls, elves, undead, and more. how magic started awakening in people and spirits speaking to others. the corporations starting a NWO. mythical creatures started appearing and more so much crap happening and destruction because some dude realized he was actually a dragon. Metal as hell.
You know, I have never played this game. I was into the novelisations before a friend, a acquaintance of mine, turned up our usual meeting place. Loaded up with all the first or second edition books (or both, since this was in the early 90's.) in and told us he was going to run a game of this for us if we were interested. I know I was, since I was part of the way through one of the original book trilogies and fantasising about what I might become in this world. If can imagine that thefiifh or sixth world had heraldeda new age of magic to, the return of lord of the rings styled fantasy races. Random people having their DNA re-written. to Dwarf, Orc, Troll or Elf and then Shamans, and other spell casters. Real monsters have returned as well. This wasn't a complete overhaul, since the world was still in throes of dawn of information age of hi-techolgy. Virtual reality was being used for the acquisition, of sensitive data which the real power. Machine-body augamentation was starting to become very commonplace now. If they had the creds. I could go on & on, and I think novel I was on was "Choose Your Enemies Carefully" I am now assuming this person had been spying on me whenhe started passing the rule book and supplements around. We spent the entire weekend just on character creation. Since this game was significantly different from Advnced Dungeons & Dragons. I wanted to be some Troll thug type to capitalise on the strength and health bonuss I would be getting. Choosing to place him right at the pinnacle of those very attributes. I forget what name I had dreamed up for him, and as I was finagling him on the third day. I noticed everyone else had finished doing this already and had gone outside to play the age old game of ball. They might have started a demo session of the game before everyone else was ready to play. Yet, thatnever came to be, since their was problem with playing games that involved deadly firearms. The idea of being shot and still recovering almost immediately didn't seem right to the other guys. Atleast thatwaswhat I was told when it turned out we weren't playing after all the preparation. PerhapsI had got mine shot whilst I still doing the finishing touches. Doesn't matter much now. We never tired playing that game again. and still continued our other game of Dargonlance and then Forgotten Realms.
BTW, I hate for 4:08. I'm sure that has happened to me more times than I need it to. In real life, of course. Minus the criminal intent and the BS about fantasy races.
I would like to add one... Trading bad for worse? yeah you geeked some yakuza bosses but now you are forced into hiding from the now NEW yakuza boss and the power vacuum that ensues causing you to miss that left turn at Albuquerque and wind up in Tir Tangiers explaining through a hail of automatic fire why you are there in the first place.
Is twenty or more dice really a regular thing anymore in fifth edition? I think the only time any of us in my party ever cracked twenty was my exactly twenty dice agile dodge pool and my twenty-three armour pool. ... And there was that time I pre-edged an attack and ended up with a net twenty-five hits of physical damage.
Shadowrunner is a cyberpunk game, but is not Cyberpunk, the tabletop RPG by Mike Pondsmith. The inclusion of the Cyberpunk 2020 cover in your slides make know sense
The concept that Shadowrun always takes place 60 years in the future has kind of killed Shadowrun for me. I don't get to play a lot and I have no time to constantly stay up to date with what has happened in the universe and incorporate it into my game. I just got tired of it. That's why when I play Shadowrun these days as a GM I always set it up in the 2050s. Which was the most interesting period in the history for me anyway. The world of 2080 is just beyond ridiculous, to account for what has all happened and how many times the world was close to an end... Nanites, AI and whatnot. It feels impossible for me to convincingly display that world to the players and make it somewhat believable. And frankly when I visit other tables or watch sessions on YT I've never seen the world of 2080 as it is described in the Lore put into place properly. The Shadowrun universe is hard to put into place as it is, making players realize that the world they know has dramatically changed and almost nothing is the way it was in our day. Even in a 2050s setting. The constant dangers, the lawlessness. What I keep constantly seeing at tables is parties playing the game as if it was set in todays world, adding super powers to the characters through the means of magic and cyberwear. It's mostly played like a military simulator. That was what it was all about when I played it in my mid teens. As a grown up Shadowrun became more about the more "subtile" things. The corporate culture, the streets, the tribes, the fashion... what it actually means to live a life where you are basically denied citizenship because you're unregistered, a big part of the environment being utterly destroyed... all these "little" things that make the world immersive and threatening. But the further you go into the future the game feels more and more restraining and less open. Too many things you have to keep in mind when creating campaigns. Of course everyone can play the game however they want blabla, but I happen to be a lore enthusiast and I aspire to make the world look like it's intended in any PnP game. The second thing that killed at least the modern version of SR for me are the rules. In the beginning SR rules had a somewhat commitment to realism, or at least, that's what it felt like to me. Over the years that has shifted in favour of (allegedly) more liquid game play and fun and less clutter. But here's the thing: it doesn't feel like that to me. Try to figure out how to shoot something with sensor aided artillery in SR5 or 6 during a running game session and you'll know what I mean. You have to be really firm with it. Combat rules are a MESS. In SR1-3 I always felt like I don't need to know everything from the top of my head. I could just take a quick peek at the rule book. Ok, maybe not for grenades and shotgun spray radius ( that always was and still is dumb), but for about everything else including magic and matrix, yes. The rules felt like they somehow made sense to me. I don't find that in SR5 or 6. I don't get Edge and to me Edge is a game destroyer. In SR6 Edge even replaces Armor ratings. WTF? You have this one universal value and it comes into play all the time, it just doesn't make sense to me. Why even have skills and attributes? It's plainly dumbed down and not in a good way. The people I play with mostly agree with me. We really gave it a chance. I own all the core books up to 5. I always hope that they get it right with the next version, but it only gets worse. It's no fun. Maybe we have to much nostalgia for the old rules but this is what it feels like. /end rant
Nah I completely agree with you. I've never even gotten to play a tabletop rpg before but the whole concept of armor NOT reducing damage but EDGE CAN?!? is ridiculous. I gotta say it made me really sad reading up on shadowrun sixth edition after purchasing it and made me feel like I wasted a day. I'm up for the challenge, but sad that something so unique isn't given the proper treatment it deserves.
they just need to make it like the original game for sega same exact thing but improved graphics. i could develope a game so sick people would never put the controller down
If I were to start playing this on a regular basis, i would get a bunch of white dice and use colored markers to indicate hits and misses more quickly/clearly. I hate how they balanced/handled firearms in that they could have really simplified types and varyi quality, plus a few add ons. The roster they have is pretty arbitrary.
Out of curiosity - where do you get your dice? It looks like they have "Botch" written on the 1s. Couldn't tell if there was text on the 5s and 6s though.
I honestly believe the most Shadowrunny thing is getting to describe how a Water Spirit has a heated fight against the Troll holding a machinegun with his cyberarms while you pull out your giant pistol and paints the floor with that nasty Elf's blood after blowing up all his Rigger Drones with a Fireball. It's just such a ridiculous setting that works so well, it's really funny how it manages to be both a great Cyberpunk game AND one of the best fantasy settings you could find at the same time!
Been playing for 26 years, and I think I'll start using this as an intro video to new Chummers at my table.
What a great compliment!
+Complex Action Just keeping it real, Omae!
+Complex Action the compliment is deserved. this rundown is perfect length for a new player primer and I will be using it also
That's the same thing I was thinking.
If things don't go wrong on a run, you're not playing Shadowrun...
Chummer, my fixer is totally reliable. Never steered me wrong. Some things are more important than nuyen. He said this next run is gonna be a cakewalk!
For me its definitely the sandbox and the mixing of genres. I had people who wanted to play but had conflicting and inconsistent schedules. Shadowrun proved perfect for drop in drop out stuff. Setting it all in the same world, and having them interact with each other was great. And everyone got to do what they wanted. The fantasy geek was able to create a sword magey dude. The sci fi geek was able to be a hacker. The real life gun nut was able to nut over guns XD. And everything in between.
Only problem was so many rules. Took a while to get them into the flow. First month was just constantly introducing more and more rules to them gradually
Dice and the fact D6 is king. Whenever I introduce shadowrun, people are amazed that not even a D20 will be used. Also keep up the shadowrun content, appreciate it alot.
+elliott954 I thought about mentioning that very thing, but it didn't make the cut mostly b/c of some other semi-popular D6 systems like Fantasy Age and that Star Wars game that I THINK people play... eh?
I think the most memorable thing I can remember, is that a great success doesn't necessarily make you succeed in what you are trying... Firing a nanojet arrow to sedate a key target turned into an instant kill, ultimately failing the objective.
In D&D or other game systems that couldn't happen.
Three hours of planning ... so true! This video hits a lot of the things that make Shadowrun so distinctive. I especially think of the freedom of the players - to make substantive decisions, build and play the characters they want to free of a class or alignment system, and find ways to complete jobs besides running in and shooting (although we do a lot of that anyway)
Don't forget the freedom to have every megacorp hunting you down all at the same time. Oh the paranoia of getting a new job in Shadowrun!
@@ComplexAction You can always sell your soul for corporation for moderate protection. I have 2 character like that, one is german elf face/tank/decker/rigger/sniper, which was build with amnesia of his past life, there where hints that he either was bit hinged Saeder-Grupp employer or possible even clone or something else even sinister. And Troll Shark Shaman who did sell his soul to Sader-Grupp to pass death penalty after botched run which ended him killing 80+ civilians, few endangered rare animals, couple squads of military, few (2-4) Lone Star swat squads and Lone Star commander and burning all of his Karma... And he did get new face etc and some mysterious cyberware. This was my longest played character, with several quickened spells and Magic12-13 with out power foci. And bad attitude.
"Freedom" also includes character independence because of their high power. You could start out with a vehicle, explosives, a scoped rifle, automatic weapons, several powerful spells, etc. With more tools, you have more choices you're able to make to overcome obstacles. Contrast with a typical 1st-4th level D&D character, even in the excessively indulgent 5th edition.
Hoy Chummers, lovely video!
I felt in love with the setting a while ago. The pink mowalk and all the effort in expression were amazing for me.
I remember a game where the group got separated from our dwarf street samurai on our way out of the job. He was just about to face off against a whole corporate security army by himself. I got into our get away car and started heading his way to try to save him. GM says if I can get a 20 or higher on an initiative roll, I can make it. 6, 6, 6, 6, 4! I came ripping around the corner and power slid through the whole group. It was pretty epic.
this 5 min video so efficiently explains everything i want to tell my friends about shadow run really quick n easy, now i can just link them this, thanks
Shadowrun is dope af. This was a great video with nice images. :)
You know...i like the fact that you have a very fluent and audible voice, most youtuber, even with high end recording system, they always had that voice that's...not very easy for my ears to digest...you had talent...you had talent mate! =D
Thanks! I have plans to revive the "Diary of a Gamemaster" series in the near future.
Complex Action please do, your video had always been a great help for novice DM/GM like me and many other =D
Back in the days when my friends and me were sitting around a table thats moaning under stockpiles of Books heavier than my ATLAS from school, drawing out on DIN A1 paper the PLAN to break into the facility, take the hostage/geek the target/steal the asset AND darting out to the extraction point where the rigger is (hopefully alive!) waiting (plus the rigger was playing decker while not rigging!) while scatching boxes for mental or physical damage, counting bullets we shot a.s.o that is the P&P Shadowrun i loved ... we had the smallest dices money can buy from our local temple for NERD stuff like Warhammer miniatures, Magic the Gathering cards, and of course Shadowrun Rule books i love to read even TODAY! Hell yeah 4 hours or more to get ONE RUN starting and finished (if your game master is nice!). Then summing up, getting Karma points and developing the character-sheet over again...
OH and talking about GANGs: One run planned by our Game Master totally went out of control when LONE STAR patrol was stopping our car on the highway and the lunatic guy lost his temper and shot the cop in a split-second-maniac just to get arrested so we had to burst him out FIRST then do the run... tick tock time is up and our GM in role as JOHNSON just called in the second (badass) Shadowrunner Team to get the job done... there is no fight harder than fighting other street sams and mages that maybe share the same lack of morality ... WOW priceless run, didnt get mad when my elve lost his leg and an arm but managed to survive
"Number 10: Dice. You're gonna need A LOT of dice"
*laughs in Exalted"
I have just always loved the setting of Shadowrun since 1st edition.
You forgot the "guy sprays with his automatic rifle - 10 mins of intense D6 rolling until only that 1 action is handled"
I wonder if that's from older editions. But I started with 5th ed, and a fullauto burst is a single complex action, you roll your DP once, done, your target roles defence, then soak, done.
"It's always raining in Seattle, right?" As I sit here in the summer of 2021 in Seattle with 110 degree weather outside.
I still remember a shadowrun play, there were myself, elf street samurai, a dwarf decker, a human mage, a human technomancer, and a troll weapon specialist. We were tasked with recovering a piece of data from a specific apartment terminal, then blow it up to cover the act.
Little did we know the apartment was owned by Renkaru.
I'll let you guys figure out what happened next ahahah
We spent three entire sessions planning everything, but one tiny bit of information which escaped our scrutiny destroyed everything. And, to top it all, the fixer didn't want to pay (bad move, costed him his right hand, taken away by my street sam as a warning ahah)
Good list. Only note; it doesnt always rain in Seattle.
But my guess is that almost a century plus of magic, tech and weirdness will fuck with the weather juuustt fine.
So true... we always seemed to plan for three hours only to ruin said plan in about three minutes. Glorious.
I started in 1989. Love it still.
Fantastic, extremely helpful. I plan on hosting SR6 soon, this will help me to keep from slipping into D&D or the zombie apocalypse that I normally kill the party off with. (Well, at least I'll hold the Zombies in check for a while.)
I just recently started shadowrun. We were tasked with protecting a Stuffer Shack from a street gang. I used mob mind as they were rolling up to make them go get a snack. So, they holster their guns, and the adept goes and scoops 'em all up. We quickly dispatch of them (as they unexpectedly had to switch to their backup weapons), and now we have six gang members worth of guns and bikes.
I love the crazy image you used for the ork go-gang.
A setting we love systems we tolerate
A dystopia where megacorporations rule and you are constantly under watch
Don't you mean real life, but with magic and cybertech?
3:57 - Never Before Have I Been Offended By Something That I 100% agree With?
Honestly, I drop the "outright screwing over" aspect that so many Shadowrun GMs seem to employ...when you're better off killing Mr. Johnson and stealing his car....the social system of Shadowrunning would break down. Now I wouldn't make Mr. Johnson necessarily all on the up and up but the outright screw out of the player's pay...no. Underselling how difficult it is, yes. Not giving critical details that are in the employer's best interest to not give...yes.
1:42 lol that's a Netrunner card...which also happens to be a cyperpunk dystopian future game.
Netrunner is cyberpunk in it's core, a very classical cyberpunk at it too. So I think it fits really well.
"Cyberpunk Dystopia" is kind of like "ATM Machine". Cyberpunk is inherently dystopian and usually fairly anti-corporate. That's where the 'punk' suffix comes from.
I played D&D for years before we switched to Shadowrun. This game is so much more fun, especially when you imagine and role-play through this chaotic and psychotic world with amazing characters with endless options. One rule is absolutely true for any GM: the plan has to fail to make the game a succes. This RPG deserves more credit. Thanks for this video, I agree for 100%.
To me, the core essence of Shadowrun, albeit the obvious magical cyberpunk settings, is the way it successfully mixes hardbuilt systems and softbuilt settings. You just throw around some rainy neon city, gangers, soycaf, and you are in Shadowrun. But try to use the Matrix, and you'll require to understand the whole functionning of the Matrix. Try to cast a spell, and you'll actually end up having to learn that spell. BUT then again, the Matrix foundation and resonance/dissonance realms, and the metaplanes. And the gods/mentors/paragons. It's both hard (very detailed and rigid) and soft (very vague and adaptative) at the same time. And that's because you can literally do whatever you want, it's possible in the setting nd the game has rules for it. Seriously. Try finding a SINGLE action (not implying a missing type of creature like aliens or angels, ofc) you can't perform in Shadowrun. It's just impossible. Take you bucket of D6's, your imagination++, and you're in da place.
It's a hell to masterize, but it's worth it.
I think that what makes Shadowrun Shadowrun for me has to do with two things: mystery and lore. And they go together. Shadowrun's lore is massive by now, there's background on almost all corners of the world, all major factions and players, all with their stories, plots and conflicts that make the world really come alive (unlike Cyberpunk, for example, which has a very plain background with very little detail). And mystery goes in that lore since the begginning: who were the owners of the aircrafts that stopped the second EuroWar? Who were the powers that pulled the reins of the Universal Brotherhood? Even though many of those mysteries have been solved as time has gone on, it also happens that new ones have appeared. And mystery isn't only present in the lore but in every game: what was that prototype we stole from Ares? Why does the Johnson want those nobodies dead? And with mystery and lore in come consequences of choices, conspiracies, etc.
Excellent video. Very nice presentation! Also, it was a fun watch and I agree with everything you said.
Sorry but the idea of simulation, was first in Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard and were originally published in 1981, that's where they got the idea for Matrix, the book shows up in the first movie where Neo gets the disc to give to the guy with the Rabbit tattoo girl.
I'm actually listening to Neuromancer on audio book right now. I can see it's influences on Shadowrun.
Try Cyberpunk 2020 :D
What’s the difference between tripping and wireheading I don’t see any
I'm getting into Shadowrun with 5th edition. I'm currently making a human bounty hunter in the streets of Seattle and still studying the rules from the rulebook, chummer
when you get paid then looks at your destroyed vehicle and the price of fixing it
Having your device/rescué shot while leaving
Combat calculations. How many other games require this much math?
That's why my campaign's set in Indianapolis; we only get rain about a quarter of the year. :)
That, and we didn't have the excess baggage of keeping true to Seattle Shadowrun lore. And none of us have ever been to Seattle.
Great game! Never liked to use limits though.
I sometimes wish we lived in shadowrun I would be in the yakuza as a decker-shaman and a b.t.l dealer and my street name is known as dr bright
3:51 couldn't agree more
Omg. Now I want to play shadowrun again.. especially because of Cyberpunks game release (makes it te perfect time to play Shadowrun) 👍
I still have my First Edition hardcover
You nailed it chummer!
WEll, the first time someone mention the matrix (not by that name, but the body of the idea probably) was Philip K Dick (sci-fi writer) in MEtz, France in a well know speech (fortunately, they record the conference) He literally said, we live in a computer program machine.
Back then, they thought he was crazy (maybe by abusing drugs XD) however, these days and all of its writings look more real than the fiction (or should iI say, sci-fi) he portraited through years.
One of the first games I remember to employ the negotiator or face class. Someone that would rather talk than fight?
I gotta be honest: #8 - happens in every D&D game I’ve ever played. 😄
... thank-you...
"lots and lots of dice"
laughts in imperial army
laughs in ork army
I have a drone Rigger, that likes to stay close to the action and he alone rolls 40 dice for defense...
They need to work on their team in the Matrix. Everyone's a street Sam/ phys ad except neo who's also a mancer.
Well, the Deckers sit outside in a Van, naturally.
1🇺🇸🌈🎄💪🥷🏽🏈 GATHER THE WATER AND HARNESS THE COLD...THE FUTURE IS HOT AND DRY...IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR GOD TO GIVE GIFTS ALONGSIDE WISDOM THANK YOU BEAUTIFUL VANITY...
#8 Yes. It's the actual game (next to cahracter creation).
As much as I LOVE the setting, I HATE the game system. D6s and I don't get along.
We got riggers and deckers nowadays. Where oh where are the Street Sammies?
Personally, its history is really unique and interesting and one of the main things that make it shadowrun. The awakening is one of my favorite stories. how everyone were humans before it and racism became super racism once people started mutating into dwarves, orcs, trolls, elves, undead, and more. how magic started awakening in people and spirits speaking to others. the corporations starting a NWO. mythical creatures started appearing and more so much crap happening and destruction because some dude realized he was actually a dragon.
Metal as hell.
Please do a shadowrun vs cyberpunk
No NERPS? :P
Haha, totally should've put NERPS in there! Missed opportunity.
I want to East Coast setting of Shadow run. Something like in Miami.
Nice Resume!
the thing that made shadowrun what it is for me was the magic system
my group of chummers got mauled by a hell hound
1🇺🇸🌈🎄💪🥷🏽🏈 it's a carnivore environment...
1🇺🇸🌈🎄💪🥷🏽🏈 GATHER WTHE WATER IT WILL BE USED AS FUEL LATER...
You know, I have never played this game. I was into the novelisations before a friend, a acquaintance of mine, turned up our usual meeting place. Loaded up with all the first or second edition books (or both, since this was in the early 90's.) in and told us he was going to run a game of this for us if we were interested. I know I was, since I was part of the way through one of the original book trilogies and fantasising about what I might become in this world. If can imagine that thefiifh or sixth world had heraldeda new age of magic to, the return of lord of the rings styled fantasy races. Random people having their DNA re-written. to Dwarf, Orc, Troll or Elf and then Shamans, and other spell casters. Real monsters have returned as well. This wasn't a complete overhaul, since the world was still in throes of dawn of information age of hi-techolgy. Virtual reality was being used for the acquisition, of sensitive data which the real power. Machine-body augamentation was starting to become very commonplace now. If they had the creds. I could go on & on, and I think novel I was on was "Choose Your Enemies Carefully" I am now assuming this person had been spying on me whenhe started passing the rule book and supplements around. We spent the entire weekend just on character creation. Since this game was significantly different from Advnced Dungeons & Dragons. I wanted to be some Troll thug type to capitalise on the strength and health bonuss I would be getting. Choosing to place him right at the pinnacle of those very attributes. I forget what name I had dreamed up for him, and as I was finagling him on the third day. I noticed everyone else had finished doing this already and had gone outside to play the age old game of ball. They might have started a demo session of the game before everyone else was ready to play. Yet, thatnever came to be, since their was problem with playing games that involved deadly firearms. The idea of being shot and still recovering almost immediately didn't seem right to the other guys. Atleast thatwaswhat I was told when it turned out we weren't playing after all the preparation. PerhapsI had got mine shot whilst I still doing the finishing touches. Doesn't matter much now. We never tired playing that game again. and still continued our other game of Dargonlance and then Forgotten Realms.
BTW, I hate for 4:08. I'm sure that has happened to me more times than I need it to. In real life, of course. Minus the criminal intent and the BS about fantasy races.
I would like to add one... Trading bad for worse?
yeah you geeked some yakuza bosses but now you are forced into hiding from the now NEW yakuza boss and the power vacuum that ensues causing you to miss that left turn at Albuquerque and wind up in Tir Tangiers explaining through a hail of automatic fire why you are there in the first place.
links to the badass art or no like ,
awww , who am i kidding ...
great work to summary this awesomme game! sub won
I love it.
Is twenty or more dice really a regular thing anymore in fifth edition? I think the only time any of us in my party ever cracked twenty was my exactly twenty dice agile dodge pool and my twenty-three armour pool.
... And there was that time I pre-edged an attack and ended up with a net twenty-five hits of physical damage.
Nice.
1🇺🇸🌈🎄💪🥷🏽🏈 I don't want God to die...so she will not die...
Shadowrunner is a cyberpunk game, but is not Cyberpunk, the tabletop RPG by Mike Pondsmith. The inclusion of the Cyberpunk 2020 cover in your slides make know sense
The concept that Shadowrun always takes place 60 years in the future has kind of killed Shadowrun for me. I don't get to play a lot and I have no time to constantly stay up to date with what has happened in the universe and incorporate it into my game. I just got tired of it. That's why when I play Shadowrun these days as a GM I always set it up in the 2050s. Which was the most interesting period in the history for me anyway. The world of 2080 is just beyond ridiculous, to account for what has all happened and how many times the world was close to an end... Nanites, AI and whatnot. It feels impossible for me to convincingly display that world to the players and make it somewhat believable. And frankly when I visit other tables or watch sessions on YT I've never seen the world of 2080 as it is described in the Lore put into place properly. The Shadowrun universe is hard to put into place as it is, making players realize that the world they know has dramatically changed and almost nothing is the way it was in our day. Even in a 2050s setting. The constant dangers, the lawlessness. What I keep constantly seeing at tables is parties playing the game as if it was set in todays world, adding super powers to the characters through the means of magic and cyberwear. It's mostly played like a military simulator. That was what it was all about when I played it in my mid teens. As a grown up Shadowrun became more about the more "subtile" things. The corporate culture, the streets, the tribes, the fashion... what it actually means to live a life where you are basically denied citizenship because you're unregistered, a big part of the environment being utterly destroyed... all these "little" things that make the world immersive and threatening. But the further you go into the future the game feels more and more restraining and less open. Too many things you have to keep in mind when creating campaigns. Of course everyone can play the game however they want blabla, but I happen to be a lore enthusiast and I aspire to make the world look like it's intended in any PnP game.
The second thing that killed at least the modern version of SR for me are the rules. In the beginning SR rules had a somewhat commitment to realism, or at least, that's what it felt like to me. Over the years that has shifted in favour of (allegedly) more liquid game play and fun and less clutter. But here's the thing: it doesn't feel like that to me. Try to figure out how to shoot something with sensor aided artillery in SR5 or 6 during a running game session and you'll know what I mean. You have to be really firm with it. Combat rules are a MESS. In SR1-3 I always felt like I don't need to know everything from the top of my head. I could just take a quick peek at the rule book. Ok, maybe not for grenades and shotgun spray radius ( that always was and still is dumb), but for about everything else including magic and matrix, yes. The rules felt like they somehow made sense to me. I don't find that in SR5 or 6. I don't get Edge and to me Edge is a game destroyer. In SR6 Edge even replaces Armor ratings. WTF? You have this one universal value and it comes into play all the time, it just doesn't make sense to me. Why even have skills and attributes? It's plainly dumbed down and not in a good way. The people I play with mostly agree with me. We really gave it a chance. I own all the core books up to 5. I always hope that they get it right with the next version, but it only gets worse. It's no fun. Maybe we have to much nostalgia for the old rules but this is what it feels like. /end rant
Nah I completely agree with you. I've never even gotten to play a tabletop rpg before but the whole concept of armor NOT reducing damage but EDGE CAN?!? is ridiculous. I gotta say it made me really sad reading up on shadowrun sixth edition after purchasing it and made me feel like I wasted a day. I'm up for the challenge, but sad that something so unique isn't given the proper treatment it deserves.
they just need to make it like the original game for sega same exact thing but improved graphics. i could develope a game so sick people would never put the controller down
If I were to start playing this on a regular basis, i would get a bunch of white dice and use colored markers to indicate hits and misses more quickly/clearly. I hate how they balanced/handled firearms in that they could have really simplified types and varyi quality, plus a few add ons. The roster they have is pretty arbitrary.
If your most hated enemy is just too damn useful to kill, you are not playing Shadowrun.
1, 2. Cp too
3. 1/2 unique
4, 5 cp too
6 karma meta bs
7, unique
8, 9 cp
10. unique
when u get ur money and then begin to realize what the hell u had done
Nice
Out of curiosity - where do you get your dice? It looks like they have "Botch" written on the 1s. Couldn't tell if there was text on the 5s and 6s though.
+Jeff Halket Haha, that's just a bunch of Bycicle brand dice that I bought at Target to have as backups.
Nice! That must be the word Bicycle in reading. It totally looks like "Botch" from a distance. :)
Jeff Halket I need to buy some "Botch" dice for my players. >=D
11. Death. So... SO much death. especially death spiced with a healthy dose of irony or labelled with a "Serve Cold" tag.
The glass eye is distracting.
I get people need to script videos for organisation but try and not read 100% of the script as it's uncanny.
Was that a Cyberpunk 2020 RPG art I saw..:-)
TheByteknight Hush! It's hard to find anything other than the 4 typical SR images. =P
This guy is way more bearable AT 1.25 speed.
My only problem with Shadowrun is that I cannot play a dick or an evil character.
1🇺🇸🌈🎄💪🥷🏽🏈The rain is a gift by God...gather the water it will be used as fuel later...bye...ty..
Well except the fact the Matrix in the movie work nothing like the one in the game except that you plug your brain in it
I love playing shadowrun... It means I don't have to buy three hundred dollars worth of special dice.
I hate the fact that the dice thing has become such a meme.
1-3rd edition didn't have it.
Thats 15 years of s4ldom rolling even 10.
11. William Gibson's tears and bile.
Our Patron Saint of Cyberpunk does not like Shadowrun at all.
try 1987 or older
The few times that I've tried to play Shadowrun it ends up being more hack and slash then Dungeons & Dragons.
it all goes horribly wrong all the time.
Too crunchy to run, but ok to play...?
NOPE THATS NOT SHADOWRUN THATS A FAKE THING THE REAL SHADOWRUN IS AM X BOX 360 GAME
You have convinced me to try Cyberpunk 2020 instead
Glad I could be helpful? lol
@@ComplexAction Well, it was a bit of a surprise to see the cover image of Cyberpunk 2020 at 02:48 ;)