![]() Shadowrun allows for an unprecedented amount of freedom in how you build your character. You want a character versed in the ways of stealth, but always begins combat by sneaking around behind your enemies and unloading on them with rocket launchers and mini-guns? Done. You want a magic type character that can heal and throw fireballs but is a giant, face punching troll as well? Done. You can develop your character in a infinite number of ways, that is only limited to your imagination (and obvious DM approval!). Shadowrun however, there are no “classes” like in most RPGs. Clerics are healers and holy men (in general) so its a loose framework for character creation. How you play your Rogue is ultimately up to the player, however most Rogues follow the same basic tenants: stealth, subterfuge, and skullduggery. For DnD, knowing before you make a new character you are going to play a Rogue narrows down the process to a manageable level. In every tabletop RPG I’ve ever played, there has always been predefined classes that gave you the framework of how your character was supposed to operate within the game world. This isn’t a complaint, but more of a word of warning. It is more important in Shadowrun than pretty much any Pen and Paper game I’ve ever played. So without beating a dead horse, just keep in mind for anyone interested in playing Shadowrun, KNOW YOUR HISTORY. The player didn’t really understand what he did wrong until after the game I gave him a very basic explanation of why. In one such case, relatively early in the game, one of my PCs was pulled over by some Lone Star police officers (which in the interest of being fair, lead to some pretty funny moments). ![]() One thing that consistently came up was people not fully understanding how the game’s society works. After we decided that we were at a solid stopping point, we sat around and talked about the game as a whole as well as the adventure. The world of Shadowrun is extremely vast and complex and without a basic working knowledge of the world’s story, it definitely detracts from the overall experience of the game. On more than one occasion, I had some of my players scratching their heads as to why NPCs were behaving certain ways, which was a direct result of their lack of knowledge about the game world. ![]() To be fair, this one is somewhat my fault as a DM. Make Sure Everyone is Familiar With the Game’s History/Background PnP’s are PnPs right?” As a group, we all decided that before we attempted to play another game of Shadowrun (so we could finish our first adventure) everyone should be MUCH more familiar with the basic rules and how to do things within the game.Ģ. Not surprisingly, no one really bothered mostly because they figured “How hard could it be? I can already recite most of the DnD core books by heart at this point. Before we even sat down to create characters and play, I made sure everyone had at least a PDF version of the core manual and told them to read through it at least once. how to make a test, how many actions are allowed per combat turn, what does every single abbreviation mean on the character sheet, etc. I can’t tell you how many times I had to explain how basic rules worked: i.e. Having everyone familiar with HOW to do things and make various tests/checks is crucial. All of those games run on d20 systems, however Shadowrun is a d6 system and is wildly different than anything else I’ve played before. We have all played every version of DnD to date as well as Star Wars RPG, among others. The group I played with is just as, if not more, experienced than I am in Pen and Paper style games. Make Sure Everyone is Familiar With the Rules However, what I did learn is a few tips for anyone looking to get into playing Shadowrun or DMing their own Runs.ġ. Moving on, our game session last night started around 6:00pm and we didn’t finish until about 2:00am, and we did not even finish the adventure I had prepared. The group of people I play with plays mainly 3rd edition DnD, however I do have experience with 4th edition DnD. My tabletop game experience consists of about 10 years of Dungeons and Dragons. However, by default that made me the resident expert in my group for Shadowrun since no one else had ever played it, thus I was unanimously elected DM for the session. I had only played Shadowrun once before in my life, many years ago. Last night, a group of my close friends and I decided to play a game of 4th edition (labeled as 4e from here on) Shadowrun. Now, let’s move on to the point of this post: Shadowrun! However, that being said, I’m going to try and make an honest effort to be slightly more active. It has been a while since my last post, however school has swamped me with work so I’ve been rather busy, and will be fairly busy for the next 2-3 weeks as the semester winds to a close.
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