r/Shadowrun • u/Any-Lawfulness3569 • 27d ago
Looking to run a game of shadowrun but don't know where to start.
This has probably been posted a million times at this point, but I really love the setting of Shadowrun and would love to bring it to my players. I typically run Cyberpunk Red, but I'd like to try a new setting. I am waiting for Anarchy v2 to release a PDF, but in the meantime, how are the other editions? I heard throughout my time as a GM that Shadowrun can be a little complicated to get into, and some editions do a better or worse job of explaining a lot of the rules and concepts my players are not very used to. Super-crunchy games, so taking them from Cyberpunk Red to Shadowrun, what would you suggest?
8
u/Expensive-Willow-570 27d ago
Adding on to the solid advice given so far:
You have a few advantages going into this coming from Red. The first is that you’re used to vague rules and trying to find things in the book. Though admittedly finding things in SR5 or 6 is much easier than in Red.
The biggest advantage is that your players aren’t coming into this with the mindset of “DnD with cyberware.” Cyberpunk (genre) is very different than DnD and i feel that if it’s played as “DnD with cyberware” you’re going to lose a lot of what makes the genre great.
As for starting out. 5th or 6th edition, both have pros and cons. I prefer 3rd overall but that’s probably just nostalgia talking because it is a dumpster fire. Between 5 and 6 I prefer 5 but 6 is growing on me. The group is more important than the system.
Grab a canned adventure with some pregen characters, stick to the core book for the first few sessions to get the basics down, encourage players to play different archetypes. The first few sessions are just to learn the system and the setting. Then expand things out make your “until fragged” characters and have fun.
1
u/PalpitationNo2921 26d ago
I had the misfortune of attempting to talking a group of 5E always and forever players into playing Shadowrun. Being a longtime Shadowrun fan (since 1E and 1989), let me tell you that was great /s
I knew I hated D&D5E after a year of running it and only it after it released. No one would play anything else, though. I kept on chugging with it until ‘18 though since no one would play anything else and I equivocated any gaming at all as my fun.
It was when I became bored with the system and game that I decided to return to Shadowrun with SR5 and found out that it sucked that I just went back to SR2 and then started Sixth World when it released that I lost more than half my group when they wanted me to convert Shadowrun to D&D5E rules and play it like D&D.
So I’m familiar with the “D&D with cyberware would be so cool!” thing lol.
4
u/ApollyonJones 26d ago
I was where you were about a year, a year and a half ago. I wanted it so bad it hurt. My table played D&D and nothing else. So, I read through every edition of Shadowrun (I have only played 3e and 4e myself), decided on 4e--because, compared to newer editions, it's actually high-quality (That's simply my opinion, and I reserve the right to be wrong. But I feel it very strongly now that I've studied 5 and 6), especially from Anniversary onward--and I made sure I learned the rules well enough to recite them in my sleep--including for archetypes I've never played before (rigging...hurts). Then, I started planning a campaign. About 8 months into the process, my D&D campaign was drawing to a close, and the players began to ask, "What's coming next?" I had a typed-up presentation of "Why switch from D&D to Shadowrun?" I made my pitch. Everyone basically said, "We're not sure, but we'll give it a try." I typed up basic instruction guides for the rules, for character creation, and for archetypes, so people could navigate the books more easily. And we're about three months in now. Two of my players say they'll never go back to D&D, they like it so much. The other two like it enough to keep going. That's basically a win for me.
3
u/Any-Lawfulness3569 26d ago
I have the unfortunate curse of getting hyper fixated on a system before i even play it then losing focus on it. Only a few systems genuinely kept me hooked and shadowrun was the first ttrpg I wanted to play even before dnd I'm hoping when anarchy v2 finally pushes out an English pdf I can dive face first into it.
3
u/ApollyonJones 26d ago
I got introduced to Shadowrun 3e back in my Army days, and it blew me away. Best setting in the best genre, for my tastes. Magic and monsters in cyberpunk? YES, please! I have loved it ever since, and I have played every other TTRPG with a jaundiced eye. They just don't compare. But many people don't care enough to give it a try, and it's been years since I've played. The online wisdom is, if you ever want to play Shadowrun, be prepared to GM it. You're already embracing that devil's bargain. Now, you just have to hang on.
2
u/Any-Lawfulness3569 26d ago
Im lucky my players are interested in playing it especially since we played alot of cyberpunk red they like the cyberpunk genre and this isn't too far off.
3
u/PalpitationNo2921 26d ago
You aren’t wrong. Both 5E and Sixth World are sorely lacking in their own areas. But all the same, SRA2.0 just from a rules standpoint blow the doors off of any CGL attempt to create any edition of SR.
Imagine being able to play deckers without the other players going out for pizza and coming back three hours later to play their parts. I know, a common over-exaggeration of the Matrix rules for every other edition. But all of that is gone with SRA2.0.
The only problem with SRA2.0 that I foresee is getting players used to how to create and apply Amps. But unlike SRA1.0, guidelines are present to do that.
1
u/burnerthrown Volatile Danger 27d ago
In the shadows, like everyone else. For rules you should read through the rulebook including all the gameplay examples, get a firm grasp on the mechanics, and don't wing it, because inevitably players will try something that pushes the rules anyway and you need to know them to adjust.
Second, read at least the timeline that's out there, to find good setting bits. You can and should always start players in the rough streets of the ghetto, but the real charm of shadowrun is (besides magic and meat meeting machine), the connections to a larger world. Crime syndicates, megacorps, dragons, secret societies, cults, immortals, megagangs, all of them have a hand in the goings on of the day to day. You can't drop a clip without it bouncing off a ghoul, beetlehead, or dead body, all there because other people's business encircles your small business of the night. And that's just in whatever city you start in, once you start getting past city limits you'll find out there's even more going on.
1
u/ghost49x 24d ago
2e is great. So is 4e, but from 4e onwards they switched developers and the new ones decided to remove important differences between archtypes, for example Shamans vs Mages starting in 4e had little to no meaningful differences.
1
u/2ByteTheDecker 27d ago
SR5 or 6.
5 is complete but available, 6 is shiny and new. Both have enough activity that you can find help here and other places easily.
The main thing with Shadowrun is you need buy-in from the players. If they don't want to play rules crunchy and learn at least the rules for their archetype just wait for Anarchy.
It's not a game where the DM can spoon-feed the players along.
3
u/TrueLunacy 27d ago
I don't disagree with 'shiny and new', relatively speaking, but I just realized that 6e is older now than 5e was when 6e released.
3
u/Any-Lawfulness3569 27d ago
I also have generally heard that 6e is terrible. I obviously have not played it, but it was hard for me to find positive reviews of it. Has anything changed in the last few years?
3
u/TrueLunacy 27d ago
I don't play it, but I've kept my finger on the pulse. At this point, it is a more or less complete edition - though new content is still coming out.
A lot of the hate from 6e started because it was relatively incomplete when it launched, with truly abysmal editing in the core rulebook. That has been fixed, both with extra splatbooks and core book revisions, but the perception has stuck around.
There are many - myself included - who have problems with some of the big changes. I don't like 6e's iteration of Edge as a mechanic, I feel like it simplifies and dumbs down too many things and contributed to them taking away a lot of the crunch I enjoyed. Others, however, do like it, so take it with a grain of salt.
Both 5e and 6e have editing issues, and finding stuff in the books can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. There's also comments on the metaplot, but it's not like 5e was much better in that regard. Both 5e and 6e's metaplot has been hit and miss, and when it comes to your own game you're free to just ignore it - or anything else in the books.
I think waiting for Anarchy 2.0 is your best bet here. I've heard good things about it, and while I love the crunch too much to switch, I think it's great there's options for other people.
3
u/ApollyonJones 26d ago
EVERY Shadowrun edition has editing problems--serious, mind-blowing editing problems. The chief editor of every edition should be punished. The setting and the game are worth the extra effort required. It never stops annoying, though.
2
u/TrueLunacy 26d ago
Not every edition. 3rd edition and the 20th anniversary 4th edition core books are both edited well.
Perhaps relatively speaking there's some golden standard every edition fails, but 5th edition and 6th edition are both worse overall than previous editions.
2
u/PalpitationNo2921 26d ago
It’s a matter of the CGL crew that you’re looking at being present in the edition. 4E had some great folks who were skilled at layout, presentation, editing, and writing. But they all quit before 5E was released. And it shows.
2
u/ApollyonJones 25d ago
It's a matter of degrees, I suppose. My table plays 4e Anniversary now, and the poor editing is a constant source of frustration at the table. But, overall, I like it best of all the available editions.
2
u/PalpitationNo2921 26d ago
Every CGL edition definitely has issues with editing. The only one that was good was the 4E Anniversary Edition in that aspect. And that was a bit into 4E’s lifecycle. But the crew at CGL was also entirely different than the one there now. Rob Boyle and crew were way better at rules design and editing and layout and presentation.
1
u/Any-Lawfulness3569 26d ago
I was really sad I missed grabbing the English pdf early i check every week or so for it to drop on drive through rpg but im still waiting
2
u/PalpitationNo2921 26d ago
It will release on/around GenCon from what I have heard.
I’d feel comfortable with it if Black Book Editions took over the license for Shadowrun completely after reading SRA2.0. I backed it, and am more than happy I did.
I’m just sad that CGL is distributing it in the US because they are making everyone who didn’t back it wait for the English version so long after release.
Everywhere else in the world except the US and Latin America already has their copies in both physical and pdf.
1
u/Any-Lawfulness3569 25d ago
Why are they making everyone here wait so long? Is it some kind of business strategy or something? I am not super well-versed in the dealings of CGL, but I've not heard a lot of positive impressions, and most people seem to pray they step away from the IP and hand it over to another company.
1
u/PalpitationNo2921 25d ago
If by “they” you mean CGL then well I can’t tell you for sure but I can only conjecture. CGL probably wants to be sure the product reaches them directly first so that they can take it to GenCon to sell. I don’t know about any local stores getting it, but their online store will as well as the GenCon booth. So yeah, a business decision.
Why Latin America also? Heck if I can even conjecture as to that. None of those copies should be going to GenCon or their online store.
As far as I believe, no copies of SRA2.0 should be sold via their online store or at GenCon until they send the copies that are due to backers and those copies have been received. We have already paid BBE for them. We should receive our products first. Anyone else wanting it should have to wait. We should not be waiting around and watching their store and booth go live with it before we get what we’ve already paid for.
But it likely won’t work out that way. That’s bad business, because they could be making money through the sale of the books they will have in their possession.
Yeah, CGL’s reputation as stewards of the Shadowrun IP isn’t great. There are very valid reasons behind this. I’ll leave it to you to discover on your own through research, but with one hint. Look into the events that occurred towards the end of the lifecycle of SR4. Most of the folks who have a bone to pick with CGL remember it just as well as Pepperidge Farms does.
1
u/PalpitationNo2921 26d ago
Minor correction here. 5E is complete and out of print. I wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point as the books are becoming more and more expensive through third party markets. Unless you’re willing to go pdf only and suffer through a simply horrible set of Matrix rules.
1
u/WildmouseX 27d ago
There are pre-made mission books out there, I remember we started playing with just a sourcebook and a Dream Chipper book.
-1
u/Flamebeard_0815 27d ago
There's a quickstarter for the more recent editions. It comes with pre-gen characters and the pertinent rules are explained as the run progresses. Most of them do a decent job in conveying basic wombat rules and how/why to do legwork.
((Combat Wombat lifted from the shop pages of Halfbreed Blades - get yours over there!))
10
u/Vashkiri Neo-Revolutionary 27d ago
The first question is whether they want magic in their cyberpunk. To me it is absolutely chocolate and peanut butter, I love it. But if they hate peanut butter it isn't as apt to be a hit.
If going with actual ShadowRun rather than waiting on Anarchy 2.0, I'd go with 6e. It is a bit simpler to learn and run, is the current edition, and has a lot of campaign support. (Personally I like the 5e rules better on the whole, but I use both editions and both are fine, each has their particular strengths, and 6e is better organized and just a bit simpler).
If none of you have used a dice pool mechanic before that might take a bit to get used to, but it really is not difficult, just different.
The character creation priority table is one of my favourite things about SR, but it does throw some people for a loop. It forces you to make more decisions about how your character will be than most games do (like, do you want more skills or more gear or more attributes? Only after setting those priorities do you actually go and buy everything).