Pen and Paper RPG II

Fourier

So D&D is going well and will probably last for a good while yet, so I won't be doing an RPG suited to a full on campaign like that until D&D is done.

So I've been looking for an RPG that functions as a series of one-shots, or episodic and we'd play an episode each week at an agreed time, e.g. Tuesday Evening or similar.

I've decided on Shadowrun.

World:
Shadow run takes place in a world where magic returned to existence on January 13th 2011 when the first elf was born to a human mother. Maternity wards across the world then started reporting babies with "Unexplained Genetic Expression", these turned out to be the first new batch of elves and dwarves. In December dragons reappeared around the world. Ten years later a percentage of the population goblinised and became Orcs and Trolls. Some normal humans gained magic powers. Other magic creatures returned over this period as well.

It is now the 2070s and the world has taken a heavy cyberpunk turn. Massive corporations rule most of the planet, cybernetics and mind-computer interface are common, robots have automated jobs, skyscrapers dwarf those today in supercities reaching to the sky.

Gameplay:
Players take the roll of Shadowrunners. Corporate espionage agents for hire. A typical mission might be to break into a high-security medical facility to steal data on a new drug treatment for elves. You client may be another corporation who may not even want the data to replicate the drug, but to correctly price it, or ruin its stock value from the impact of a publicised break in.

Playable Races are:

Humans
Orks
Trolls
Elves
Dwarves

Shadowrunners are often broken down into their specialities (from the Wiki):

Street Samurai: Technologically-enhanced physical combat specialist.
Adept: Magically-enhanced physical combat specialist.
Decker: Technologically-enhanced electronic warfare specialist.
Technomancer: Magically-enhanced electronic warfare specialist.
Rigger: Vehicle/drone control specialist.
Face: Social warfare specialist.
Mage: Hermetic Magic specialist.
Shaman: Shamanic Magic specialist.
Investigator: Stealth focused specialist.

Each session we do will essentially be a "run" (a mission). In between sessions, characters will be left in their home base, located in a rundown section of the city to chat to each other and buy gear for the next run.

Let me know if anybody is interested. I've narrowed the city list to:

Seattle (half of Shadowrun games are played here, it is the most detailed city)
Hong Kong
Tenochtitlan (Mexico City)
Dublin (often common to play what people know)

For the last one, Ireland is the most elven location on the planet and Dublin and Cork have merged into a megacity essentially. Japanese corporations have a major presence, especially Renraku, experts in magically enhanced quantum computers.

Necro

Hmmm... can Bandylegs translate to Shadowrun I wonder. Intrigued about this it looks different but also cool. Like the sessions being missions as such then down time to do the bits and pieces.

Fourier

An equivalent of BandyLegs would be easy enough, this time around a robodwarf is mundane! Of course BandyLegs the name is fine.

Tigger

the origin of tigger is a shape shifting shamen who justvwentvwild picking flaws for extra points
and here i am
ibsneezed and i gotvlocked in

Tigger

street samuri for the win tho

Fourier

Tigger wrote: »

street samuri for the win tho

I'm always a Street Samurai too! :cool:

Necro

Ah why not. Sign me up as Bandylegs the Dwarven Decker.

Tigger

Necrominus wrote: »

Ah why not. Sign me up as Bandylegs the Dwarven Decker.

cos your in the fbi ?

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

Ah why not. Sign me up as Bandylegs the Dwarven Decker.

Just so you know this'll be a lot less time consuming than D&D, I couldn't handle much more!

Also looking for 3-5 players.

Necro

Tigger wrote: »

cos your in the fbi ?

Yes, cos I'm in the FBI. Why the heck not :P

sKeith

sounds like fun. how many we need to 'in' to get show on the road?

Fourier

sKeith wrote: »

sounds like fun. how many we need to 'in' to get show on the road?

Three is the best for roleplay and a challenge, five is the most balanced and can take on the most missions.

Fourier

Sessions to start with will be once a fortnight. Unless people really like it.

Tigger

propper runs once a fortnight sounds ideal

Necro

Once a fortnight is perfect. Will probably tie in nicely with work etc. Although... most of the time I can play at work.. so... :P

Banjo

That sounds awesome. What's a "proper session" though? Is it an "episode starts at 9pm and runs till it's done"?

On the one hand I'm wary of contributing to the rpg threads becoming homogenised. On the other I want to be a technomancer.
If the timings suit and there are no other takers, I'd love to join up.

Tigger

Banjo wrote: »

That sounds awesome. What's a "proper session" though? Is it an "episode starts at 9pm and runs till it's done"?

On the one hand I'm wary of contributing to the rpg threads becoming homogenised. On the other I want to be a technomancer.
If the timings suit and there are no other takers, I'd love to join up.

yay banjos in sorta

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

That sounds awesome. What's a "proper session" though? Is it an "episode starts at 9pm and runs till it's done"?

On the one hand I'm wary of contributing to the rpg threads becoming homogenised. On the other I want to be a technomancer.
If the timings suit and there are no other takers, I'd love to join up.

Necrominus....

Necromancer.

Techrominus...

Technomancer.

Hands off :P (I've already picked Decker)

Banjo

Banjo
Banjo picker
Banjo's pecker
Desmond decker
Decker!

Maybe we both need to rethink?

BTW, would the more episodic nature of this one lend itself better to drop in/drop out play - e.g. the crew picks the best team for the job / the DM chooses a job based on the available crew members on a given night?

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

What's a "proper session" though? Is it an "episode starts at 9pm and runs till it's done"?

Basically.

Banjo wrote: »

BTW, would the more episodic nature of this one lend itself better to drop in/drop out play - e.g. the crew picks the best team for the job / the DM chooses a job based on the available crew members on a given night?

Actually yes. Five at most per run, but no need to limit the active players. The Boards team in general would just have a shared account from missions, in addition to individual accounts.

Any preferences for the city?

sKeith

Fourier wrote: »

Any preferences for the city?

for the first run? or do you want lock in a city now for all the runs?

Necro

I wouldn't mind starting in Dublin tbh. Keep it local (well for some, few of us from the Wesht :pac: )

Banjo

I know more about Seattle and Mexico City than Cork and the midlands

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

I know more about Seattle and Mexico City than Cork and the midlands

Having grown up going on family holidays to Cork... I can safely say I know sweet F all about the city :pac:

Fourier

sKeith wrote: »

for the first run? or do you want lock in a city now for all the runs?

First few runs.

sKeith

Seattle has the space needle. Mexico city has sewers and sewer people. Hong kong has Kai Tak runway, i could watch planes landing there all day long. I don't mind, but do you guys really want to role play in dublin/cork lol.

Necro

sKeith wrote: »

Seattle has the space needle. Mexico city has sewers and sewer people. Hong kong has Kai Tak runway, i could watch planes landing there all day long. I don't mind, but do you guys really want to role play in dublin/cork lol.

At least initially yes! Could be fun having to scale the spire to glide onto the rooftop of a building protected by armed guards :P

Taking a dive in the Lee to find an under river tunnel.

(I don't really mind truthfully though, just think it could be fun for the first place to go)

sKeith

Well, i don't think i want to get between a squat and his dream.

Banjo

Our first mission will be to move around the city using only the 30 unconnected luas routes which have risen up and replaced all roads, paths and cycling lanes in the years since the Awakening.

Banjo

Might be fun to start local before we become international jetsetters or get chased out of town by the Dundon family trolls.

Ok, is there a character generator? A starter guide? I have a madey-up-life shaped hole in my heart that demands to be filled!

Necro

Banjo wrote:

Ok, is there a character generator? A starter guide? I have a madey-up-life shaped hole in my heart that demands to be filled!

I'm on strike till Fourier signs up to my Werewolf game :P

(May or may not be true)

sKeith

Banjo wrote: »

Might be fun to start local before we become international jetsetters or get chased out of town by the Dundon family trolls.

Ok, is there a character generator? A starter guide? I have a madey-up-life shaped hole in my heart that demands to be filled!

it looks to be quite complicated. i'm currently running throught step 4 in a 9 step process.

Character creation involves many decisions, from
choosing the right skills to purchasing the appropriate
gear. It could take as little as an hour to build a character or
as long as an evening.

Banjo

Am I supposed to be daunted or drooling.

Tell me more about these steps

sKeith

Banjo wrote: »

Am I supposed to be daunted or drooling.

Tell me more about these steps

Well, it goes like this.

Creating a shadowrunner

1. choose a concept. hav an idea what you want your character to do and where their strenghts and weaknesses are.

2. choose a metatype. that human elf dwarf ork troll

3. choose magic or resonance, if neither skip this step

4. purchase qualities, this costs karma for positive traits (eg. invulnerability), and you get bonus karma for negative traits (eg. addictions or allergies)

as i said im on step 4 so cant expand these next ones yet for you.

5. purchase skills
6. spend resources
7. spend leftover karma
8. final calculations
9. final touches.

Fourier

I'll send on the rules to ye in a pm link to dropbox.

Tigger

can i have some rules as well

Banjo

Tigger wrote: »

can i have some rules as well

Spaces go between words. Don't hog the potions. Only shoot the bad guys.


@necro : there are 6 grades of robotic leg and 3 degrees of severity of the replacement. Per leg. You have plenty of options!

Tigger

Banjo wrote: »

Spaces go between words. Don't hog the potions. Only shoot the bad guys.


@necro : there are 6 grades of robotic leg and 3 degrees of severity of the replacement. Per leg. You have plenty of options!

i e given away more potions than ive taken and spaces are overated

Banjo

Tigger wrote: »

i e given away more potions than ive taken and spaces are overated

So you're saying you'll make an effort on the shooting people thing? To paraphrase meatloaf, I'll suck your dick for some biscuits in gravy one out of three ain't bad!

Necro

So when is the campaign to get Fourier to play Werewolf starting

Happy new year folks

Tigger

Banjo wrote: »

So you're saying you'll make an effort on the shooting people thing? To paraphrase meatloaf, I'll suck your dick for some biscuits in gravy one out of three ain't bad!

kimberly mccado or
coconut creams ?

Jasper Stone

Any room left? I'd love to play, it sounds deadly. I think Mexico City would be a really cool setting, imagine giant cyber punk Aztec pyramids.....

sKeith

Hi jasper. i think so, and yay, an extra vote to get outta ireland, yay

Tigger

Jasper Stone wrote: »

Any room left? I'd love to play, it sounds deadly. I think Mexico City would be a really cool setting, imagine giant cyber punk Aztec pyramids.....

your in

Fourier

We have our team.

So far we have Dublin and Mexico City. I'm knocking off Seattle, just not to be the typical Shadowrun city. sKeith and Tigger?

Core rule to follow.

Fourier

Just to mention, anybody interested can still apply. Next run could be a different team.

sKeith

i'll break the tie if it dub vs other for the other , other than that no real pref.

both hk and mex city sound like fun. (as seattle and the space needle are of the cards)

Tigger

mexico

Fourier

Mexico it is. I'll make missions for Dublin down the line.

Fourier

Dice rules in Shadowrun work as follows.

Characters have Attributes (innate traits, e.g. Intelligence, Strength) and Skills (things they have learned, e.g. Hacking, Pistols)

To see if you succeed at something you almost always (I'll mention exceptions in the game, not overloading you with rules now) roll a number of d6s equal to an Attribute + a Skill. I'll use an example.

Debby the Dwarf has the attribute Logic at 3 and the skill Hacking at 4. To see if she can hack she rolls:

Logic + Hacking = 7 d6 dice.

Note: I will always tell you the Attribute and Skill to roll, though it's usually what you'd expect.

Any dice with a 5 or 6 is a "hit".

So Debby rolls: 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 2, 2

She got two hits.

To succeed the GM says how many hits you need before you roll, the threshold.

2 hits is average difficulty.
4 hits is hard.

Though the threshold can range from 1 - 10 hits.

So if I said two hits were necessary, Debby would have succeeded.

Limits:
The amount of hits is capped though. You might roll seven hits, but only be allowed count five of them. The limit can be due to innate limits or limits of the gear you're using.

Innate limits are:
Physical limit: ((Strength x 2) + Body + Reaction)/3
Mental limit: ((Logic x 2) + Intelligence + Will Power)/3
Social limit: ((Charisma x 2) + Will Power + Essence)/3

So if Debby has
Logic: 3, Intelligence: 3, Will Power: 2
then her Mental Limit is 4 (you round up). She is not allowed more than 4 hits when hacking due to innate limits.

So if Debby rolls:

3, 5, 6, 3, 6, 6, 5

It'd still only count as four hits.

Most of the time it's the innate limit that matters, though in some cases, like hacking, gear limits override it. So if Debby is using an old hacking deck the stats on the gear will mention it causes a limit of three. In that case the roll above will only get three hits.

When I call for a roll, it will look like this:
Attribute+Skill [Limit] (Threshold)

e.g. for a hard hacking attempt:

Logic+Hacking [Mental] (4)

This means, roll Logic+Hacking amount of d6 dice, hits limited by your Mental Limit and you need 4 hits.

Glitch:
If more than half the dice you roll are 1s, then something bad happens, called a glitch in the rules. This might not mean failure. So if Debby is trying to hack open a door and I say:

Logic+Hacking [Mental] (2)

And she rolls:

1, 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, 3

She succeeded, but she got a glitch. The door opens, but she sets off the alarm.

If she had got:

1, 1, 1 ,1, 4, 4, 5

She would have failed and glitched. Didn't open the door and triggered the alarm.

1, 2, 4, 5, 2, 1, 1

Is just a fail. Door doesn't open.

Critical Glitch:
This is no hits and a glitch, something major goes wrong, e.g. for Debby

1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 2, 4

She triggers a feedback loop in the doors circuitry and fries her own hacking implant, nearly killing her.

Jasper Stone

sKeith wrote: »

Hi jasper. i think so, and yay, an extra vote to get outta ireland, yay

Definitely, Mexico is going to be deadly

Love the look of the rules too, glitches sound like a lot of fun story wise. Also the idea of limits on how well you can do is interesting, I've never seen that in an RPG before.

Currently thinking I might make an adept character, but not totally sure yet, and possibly a troll.....I like the idea of a magic troll throwing power balls, Dragonball style....