Shadowrun on RPGX

[Imveros]

Welcome to the Shadowrun on RPGX community hub, your one-stop shop for the RPGX Shadowrun community! Here you can find other Shadowrun fans to discuss the game, setting, or your own characters with, you can also find games looking for additional players to join here and there's a collection of links to help you get started as a new player or a GM; Whether you're looking to start your first foray into the world of Shadowrun or are already an experienced Runner, everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion!

Beginners Because we all start from somewhere, right? This section is filled with links to helpful threads and guides by people in the Shadowrun & RPGX community to help you get started; The first thing you'll need to know before creating a character is context and information about the Shadowrun Universe and thankfully there's a number of resources you can use: 1. The Shadowrun Timeline The Shadowrun timeline here starts in 1980 and goes as far ahead as 2080, it's well maintained and even has reference points in case you want to pick up the associated books and take a peak for yourself. The vast majority of historical events and figures are appropriately cataloged and linked to from the timeline. It's historical research made easy! 2. Shadowrun Races Race is a... Complicated thing in Shadowrun as no longer is humanity limited to its wide variety of ethnicities and cultures, but there's also Elves, Orks, Dwarfs, Trolls and a whole slew of other things! There's a lot going on in this section, so for your first time, it might be wise to stick to the basic five. 3. Slang Terminology Since the dawn of language, there has always been slang; Well the Sixth World is no different! But look chummer, it's good once you have it down. This article is a pretty hefty comprehensive list of slang from around the world from Shadowrun, from the U.S to Germany. 4. Name Generator Names are hard and sometimes the name you think is perfect isn't all you originally thought it was cracked up to be, so why not throw a little RNG in there and see what comes up? Maybe the name you wanted all along will be buried in this generator. Or maybe it won't. 5. Fifth Edition Quick Start Rules Okay, so you're interested and now you're scratching your head - how are dice pools calculated? What kind of archetypes are there in a classless game? Well the QSR here will happily provide you with that exact information! Still no word on freely available Sixth Edition quick start rules. 6. Know your Game With Shadowrun, there are three particular categories you need to be aware of that should influence on how you build a character: Black Trenchcoat If Black Trenchcoat was a piece of music, it would be The Mission Impossible theme song; Stealth, under-handed deals, fast-talking, in-the-shadows. If you're applying for a 'Black Trenchcoat' game, chances are you want to leave the Ares-Alpha and grenades at home, these games are all about stealth, subterfuge, and staying unnoticed. Mirror Shades If we summarized Mirror Shades as a piece of music, it would quite easily befit the work of Simon Viklund, things are quiet and stealthy - until they aren't. The Mirrorshades is a game where you could be handling things subtly for one job, then the next you're lighting up a research lab. Things might even start stealthy then explode into a gunfight, just about anything is possible with Mirrorshades. Pink Mohawk Xenia Pax, Grandson & hell, possibly even the Venga Boys, if you're that way inclined, could be seen as musical comparisons for the Pink Mohawk. The Pink Mohawk is the game to bring your big guns - LMGs, Comet, Adept Accident, all sorts of things that go bang. A Pink Mohawk game is loud and violent, there's definitely going to be combat happening and you're likely not going to see a whole lot of stealth. It should go without saying that a character who prioritizes being a smooth-talking infiltrator won't be all that at home if they're in a Pink Mohawk game, or vice-versa. If you're making a character to apply to a Shadowrun game with, you definitely want to tailor the character you make to what's going to be appropriate for the game. If you aren't sure what's going to be necessary, be sure to ask the GM-to-be. 7. Chummer 5 Character Creation Tool So you're now familiar with the setting & basic rules, you might even have an idea in mind or even just a name, this is where Chummer comes in. Chummer is the widely accepted community Character Creation Tool (CCT, for short). Chummer handles a lot of the busy work and number crunching, allowing you to focus on the important stuff; it even notifies you if something is missing, requires reworked or is incompatible with other character creation options. Once you have created your character, Chummer can also be used to log your expenses and karma gain/expenditure; As well as helping you keep your character growth legal within the rules of SR5. 7.1 6e Runner tools We also have a SR6 runner creation tool as well, made by our own Arialles , the biggest name in Fixers for 6e content. You can find more of their stuff below! 8. Putting it all together This is my Shadowrun training game, sooner to be the latest edition to the NPSG pantheon. There are plenty of helpful links not listed above, as well as a slew of pre-generated runners in the subfolders. RPGX members not eligible for the solo game are free to message me to be added to the list of users to read the alpha game. Dont want to spoil the fun by keeping it public.

Experts Then there's the other side of the coin. Do you have HTR Teams for breakfast, lunch with Hans Brackhaus, and dinner on ZO? Well, then this section is for you! 1.The Shadow Files Looking to learn from those that came before you, see who the power players are, or get an edge on the current generation of runners? Then this is the place where all the action happens! Here is a list of almost all the past/present/future Shadowrun games are stored. We keep it sorted in reverse order to confuse the Grid Overwatch Division. Yes, sometimes it's that easy. Why else would all the active games be at the bottom of the list, Chummer? 2. Rules Questions Answered The rules are constantly changing, and you have to stay on the edge if you want to make it in the shadows. Dont worry though, we have your back, Omae. We have a slew of old-timers who are more than happy to have a newbie owe them one. Who knows, if you listen to them you may even stick around long enough to become one yourself! 3. Making the jump Are you ready to hang up those cyber spurs but not ready to stop raking in the cred? Then it sounds like it's time to become a Fixer yourself. Let the new meat take the risks while you sit back with your finder's fees. Feel free to connect with your fellow fixers here, or if you're ready, here's a list of foolproof runs looking for your touch. Season 1 Season 1 is the original Shadowrun Missions campaign. It takes place in Seattle, and the adventures were all designed for use with the Shadowrun, Third Edition rules. It'll take a bit of work to convert it to another edition, but we're more than happy to help if it means more games here on the crossing. Season 2 Season 2 took players into the heart of Denver, the Treaty City where they got tangled up in the gangs and crime syndicates, all the while dodging border patrols as they hopped through the various sectors. It's for fourth edition, but that's easy enough to port to fifth. CGL One-Shot Runs A series of adventures using Fourth Edition Rules (much easier to port to 5e) all revolving around the return of Halley's Comet and all the trouble that brings to a magically active world Friendship is Tragic An April Fools adventure about helping the Illinois Amish fight against their dreaded foe, a gang of centaurs known as the Bronies. It's silly but the rules are all in 5e, so, bonus points? Unconventional Warfare Another free April fools adventure, this time our runners are hired to stop a nefarious group from stealing all the definitely not GenCon exclusives so they can scalp them from crazy prices on the matrix. Silly fun all in 5e rules Drivethrough RPG Resources Trash? Treasure? You decide! This is what shows up when you search Shadowrun, PDF, Free! 4. Our Finest Hour Outplay is a community-wide effort to crown the site's best player. Through a coordinated effort, we got Shadowrun 5e on the main stage in 2020, and I couldn't be more proud of the results. Once again, we had to chop it up to keep G.OD. off our tracks, but it's easy enough to put the whole story together with the files in the archives section. Happy reading! 4.1 And again in 2022 While we used Outplay the System this year, the story is still set in trusty Seattle with plenty of Shadowrun goodies for all to enjoy!

 

Welcome chummers. It's me, Imveros, your friendly neighborhood fixer. Let me be the first to welcome you to the Shadows of RPG crossing.

This is where your fellow discriminating security professionals and fixers talk the trade and shoot the drek. Click last page and say hi. We dont bite. Well, not since we solved our ghoul problem anyway...

Here are some handy links to get you settled into the shadows.



Here is a link to the Shadowrun rules discussion. All editions all welcome, and we have a whole slew of knowledgeable chummers to help you out.

Here is a link to a little starter game I've been putting together for a while. You'll find links to player resources, sample runners, and an example run with hefty footnotes on the rules and the setting.

Here is a link to a tutorial on using the most common runner generation tool, Chummer5a

Here is a link to where the action happens, the list of active Shadowrun games. Quick note, the active games are at the bottom of the list. Dont let the long-dead games at the top detour you!

Here is a link the shadow community at its finest, in our annual player contest featuring Shadowrun 5e in 2020. Dont forget to check the archive folder for the earlier rounds! I'm a bit biased, but I think we made something special here. <3

Here is a link to a community made Shadowrun 6e content!



As always, feel free to ask any questions or shoot me a message. My PM box is open to any runner in need.

Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.

~Street Proverb

 

Recently, I saw that Shadowrun 5e was the fourth most popular game on RPGX for 2018. First off, that's awesome, way to go local showrunners! Second off, I want third place for 2019!

That brings me to two questions aimed at two different groups of people.



Group 1) People who have heard of Shadowrun.

What would it take to get you to take the leap and give Shadowrun 5e a shot?

Group 2) Established Shadowrun players.

What would it take to convince you to run a Shadowrun 5e game?




I have a few solutions to those on my end

For the players, I'm currently writing up a rules-light NPSG-esk intro to Shadowrun. *crosses fingers* With any luck, that will go live in the next few weeks! I've also started compiling a list of fan-made resources and quality podcasts to help people with the heavy rules.

For the GMs, I have an extensive list of free (and legal) pre-published runs to help take some of that burden off their shoulders. I also plan to compile my notes from the above adventure and freely share them with my fellow SR GMs. I also gladly offer my experience/services to anyone considering running a game with any questions about the setting or the system.

So what do you think hivemind? Think we have a shot of dethroning 3.5?

I do!

[Phettberg]

Originally Posted by Imveros

What would it take to convince you to run a Shadowrun 5e game?

I've thought about it often actually. But let's say I loved Shadowrun the most as a Gm was when I still had it cooking with my local group, so a part of me would prefer to recreate some of that if I was to ever Gm Shadowrun on the Crossing.

But that might be difficult. We set the action where we all were at the time, Vienna, artfully stealing a google map from some reddit post and changing and enhancing it while we fairly regularly played for the following three years. And it is a detailed map, much larger than the one that is still handed around on various sites (actually more in line with the proposed size of Vienna in the last material on it somewhere in the fourth edition - Shadows of Europe I think), with a fairly large amount of information to go with it, and somewhere I still have the table for over a hundred npcs and all that jazz.

So that's fun, but it'd be hard to bring to this site. I'd have to translate the map at some point, a task that could only be undertaken bit by bit. I'd have to set up a scenario that made available characters from around the world, and a good reason to keep in that one place over another. And I suppose maybe fewer people would bother than if it was set in north america or at least another english speaking country - but who can be sure on that account.

As for scenarios - we ran some of the previous seasons adventures, but I can't even begin to remember which ones. And as we never really had a clear break between runs as things just spiralled out of control I don't remember it as a mission by mission thing. We'd have to see if I still had the mojo to come up with interesting runs on the regular.

[BiBo]

Originally Posted by Imveros

What would it take to convince you to run a Shadowrun 5e game?

I'm already running a Shadowrun pbp game (albeit not here) that has my plate pretty full. I might be tempted to do some minor short term something if I get the time, but only if I can run it in my homebrew world.



One of the problems I've always had with Shadowrun (and established settings in general, regardless of the system) is that there is so much information about the setting out there that the players can always look up something you've overlooked and start making assumptions based on information you as a GM didn't even known about. Then you either have to find a way to incorporate it or deviate from the established lore, especially if the players are experienced and know a lot about the lore. I once ended up getting into a lot of trouble over something obscure as the color of Dunkelzahn's scales as it was something I had no idea about but was describing on the fly in a live game, yet my players apparently knew. They also knew the exact year and date that various events happened which forced me to do weird things with the calendar and it all blew up into something really stupid.

Anyway, that's why I always take the general feel of a setting and then homebrew everything. I make up all the npcs, companies, countries and what have you. It's a lot easier for me to build from scratch than to memorize an endless amount of established lore that is scattered in random bits across countless books and 5 editions. I love the premise of Shadowrun, but don't want to have to have a history degree in Shadowrun lore just to run a game.

[Phettberg]

I don't really do the canon either, I like to mostly do my own stuff. That being said, I never truly did away with megacorps or the broad strokes of the history established. Just playing somewhere that is not or barely mentioned in splatbooks or novels is enough for me.

Anyway - as for taking Shadowrun higher up the ladder of systems advertised: That also depends how well the games that have been recruiting 2018 fared. I'm sure there is a certain critical mass of shadowrun players on the site, and if they were all still playing an ongoing game then at some point new ads would not garner that much interest anymore. That's assuming people don't want to play in multiple shadowrun games simultaneously. Some might, but I guess it's only a fraction of the total players.

[Imveros]

I've been fearing critical mass as well, that's why I've recently started shilling for the site on all of my favorite Shadowrun related pages. I chose now to try this because two games recruiting at once makes for a good advertisement. I've snagged two newbies so far and I'm hoping for more.

I'm also putting a lot of faith in the training game I'm working on. With any luck, I'll be able to convert people over to our dark ways

If you're curious BTW

 

Greetings chummers,

It's me, Imveros, your friendly neighborhood fixer with the opportunity of a lifetime for you!

Has business been slow lately? Have you recently gotten a shiny new piece of chrome and your loan shark is already threatening to break your kneecaps? Are you an aspiring employer looking for reliable, discreet, "security consulting personnel"? Then leave your plex and come to The Crossing.

Who am I you ask? I am but a humble fixer who has built a shadow community at The Crossing. We've gone from one team to six in the last few months with two more coming online in the next few weeks. Three of those teams have been running that shadows for near on a year now!

Do you want a piece of the action? Our Mr. Johnsons, have two jobs available and are far from done discussing talent with their fixers. The field is ripe for outside talent to break into the scene.

Worried about making the jump to a new plex? I understand you, but I've got a man on the inside that will get you settled in faster than a dragon settles a score. Same goes for you prospective Johnsons. My inside man knows everyone worth knowing in the shadow community here at The Crossing. If you have a job, you'll have pros lining up for repeat business. You can take that to the bank chummer. You know, that place you'll be bringing me for my finders fee!

So what are you waiting for?!

[Retry]

Originally Posted by Imveros

Group 1) People who have heard of Shadowrun.

What would it take to get you to take the leap and give Shadowrun 5e a shot?

I've been interested in Shadowrun since my childhood when my best buddy got the '93 SNES game for it. Never could get far when We were like 7yrs old, we didn't understand anythingwe played it but heck if it wasn't interesting/cool!

Since arriving at the site the only thing that's been stopping me from taking the leap is my short attention span when it comes to getting through the core handbook so I'm not a (complete) bumbling fool when I make the jump.


A NPSG would be absolutely amazing though!

[Unko Talok]

Originally Posted by Imveros

that's why I've recently started shilling for the site on all of my favorite Shadowrun related pages

I support shilling for DnDOG RPGX at all opportunities.

Originally Posted by Imveros

Group 1) People who have heard of Shadowrun.

What would it take to get you to take the leap and give Shadowrun 5e a shot?

The big barrier for me (Currently I've got urgent reasons to learn DnD 5E, Fate Core, and Monster of the Week, and I'm planning a tabletop campaignaside from the fact that it'll be a while before I have the time) is the impression / memory that Shadowrun is a relatively crunchy system. I love the feel of the system and the world. But I've found as I've gotten older and as my career / other endeavors take a bigger chunk of my time and brainspace, I have less ability to keep up with crunchy systems or systems with rules bloat. Can you give me any solace on that front?

I really appreciate what you're doing here, Imveros! Even if I never Run over to the Shadowy side, this is a great addition to the community.

[Silk]

I'm one of the people who fell in love with the game setting because of the story and not the game itself. I have even started reading all the Shadowrun novels in order, and I am on the 5th one. I have realized that I have read 3 of the five novels so long ago that I remember only bits and pieces of the books.

I've applied to four games as a player and got into two. And I am one of the two who has advertisements up to DM a Shadowrun game. I am nervous about my first game as a DM on this site, but if it goes well, I might just get a second game going before too long.

@BiBo:
As to the aspect of having players know the Lore of a game system that you as a DM know little about, I've had that happen before. I love to read, but I am also absent-minded most day's so remembering specific Lore is hard for me. I've taken to telling my players that know more about the setting than I, that I am doing it this way to keep the game going and it would be too much work to change it now and to 'just go with the flow.' Sure you might upset a player or two but if they don't leave the game will go on.

Thanks for doing this Imveros. I'll be following this thread. Mainly to add anything that I may have forgotten to type as I am quite tired today and may have missed something

[GleefulNihilism]

I'm one of the established Shadowrun players I suppose. And frankly, to run a game I'd need Time. I'm a Physics PhD student, so probably not going to happen.

[BiBo]

Originally Posted by Unko Talok

I've found as I've gotten older and as my career / other endeavors take a bigger chunk of my time and brainspace, I have less ability to keep up with crunchy systems or systems with rules bloat. Can you give me any solace on that front?

Honestly I don't think of Shadowrun's mechanics as super difficult to learn, just that it is a bit disorganized, particularly the current edition. At its core, the main mechanic you need to know (at least for the current edition) is you throw a number of d6's equal to your skill+relevant attribute and count up the 5's and 6's. The more you get, the better you did. It's not THAT hard. Sometimes you do have 2-3 dice rolls involved in checks (usually when you are doing something against someone else), but it's otherwise not all that impossible to learn the mechanics. Like any system, stick to the parts of the book that are relevant to your character and you'll be fine. For example, if you don't use magic, there's no reason to worry about the magic system. Your character probably knows nothing about magic anyway, so if you don't know anything about it, it will make sense for your character

The difficulty comes a bit in chargen (there are a lot of options available because it is a super flexible system, even only using the core rulebook, so first time players often have a bit of decision paralysis in creating their character), understanding the setting (and its consequences), and the fact that a game has no similarity to D&D beyond the cosmetic ideas of fantasy races and magic. In D&D you don't have to worry about surveillance, the internet (matrix), the astral plane, the legality of what you are carrying on you, or the fact that you can be killed in a single lucky gunshot no matter how high leveled you are (unless you're a troll, but they are silly). Where D&D is basically a tactical war game where you are expected to fight your way through everything with little consequence, Shadowrun is more subtle and you are far better off if you avoid combat entirely. There's no resurrection or instant healing and the more hurt you get the harder it is to do stuff. Walking through the city with a battleaxe in D&D won't get you a second glance, but doing the same thing in Shadowrun can get you arrested or worse. There are no evil monsters to slay. Everyone is a person and killing them is murder, so don't get caught. It's all a very different mindset.

[The Rat Queen]

Originally Posted by Imveros

Group 2) Established Shadowrun players.

What would it take to convince you to run a Shadowrun 5e game?

*fears teh GMing*

Seriously though, I just upped my workload in RL (RL...boo, hiss!), and I don't think I have nearly enough of a grasp of the overall rules to actually run a game. Of course, I'm often playing next to Shadowrun Godlings like AwesomeEli, Raizen, UngainlyFool, etc. (Apologies to all the SRGLs I left out.) Kinda intimidating to a neonate like myself!

Maybe I'd do a one-off quick adventure at some point, where if everyone either died or wound up ruling the world, it wouldn't matter cause there'd be no cleanup. Might be worth considering, and could potentially be a lot of fun.

[Trinity]

Group 2) Established Shadowrun players.

What would it take to convince you to run a Shadowrun 5e game?

A controlling interest in Ares

The last game I ran ended up with me spending about an hour searching up some obscure, poorly written rules before I could make a post, then have it debated and argued about and so on. It just becomes a real slog to the point where I'm barely even interested in playing it. Not to mention dealing with the munchkining and people actively trying to break the system.


The other problem is it's always the exact same thing. For a world that has more options than most other systems for stories it always comes down to the Johnson calls up a bunch of randos that get stuck together for some run, the lore tells the players to be paranoid, the players (at least one anyways) acts like a total dbag to prove how tough they are. Other players get mad, the game falls apart. New players get a bad taste from it and go back to d&d. If the game doesn't fall apart there it gets stuck in the infinite planning loop.

[AwesomeEllie]

I’m currently running a game here that’s been going pretty well, I feel, in spite of some RL hiccups on my end, and I’ve found that rapid contact between members of the group (my game uses a discord server I have) and being a little more permissive in what the players can retcon has both been really beneficial to my game, and the SR games that I am a Player in.

I haven’t really seen a lot of power balance issues personally, as typically the PCs are diverse enough that they’re never directly competing against one another, but that also means balancing on the fly, which some GMs may not feel comfortable with.

I’m looking at trying out some mechanics from other systems to see if I can’t streamline the planning phase in the PbP format too. Things like Blades in the Dark’s flashback mechanic allow for slick “planning” without bogging down the game for a month and a half, is the hope.

There can be some issue managing player expectations in SR, in part due to how diverse you can get for characters’ motivations, MOs, and personalities, but more rapid, less formal communication has helped address that too, from what I’ve seen here. Being able to quickly and casually talk something out means that perceived problems get addressed more quickly and don’t have time to grow worse. Of course, that’s dependent on soft skills of everyone involved, but it’s helped a lot from what I’ve seen.

[Roekahs]

Originally Posted by Imveros

What would it take to convince you to run a Shadowrun 5e game?

I love the setting and have a good bit of knowledge of the flavor from the Harebrained Schemes video games. The hangup for running a game is simply not knowing the mechanics of the tabletop with any certainty yet. I definitely need at least a game under my belt (and probably a second with a matrix based char). I would like to eventually run a game - and I am especially intrigued by RainyDayNinja's game of 'good guy' runners - I just need a better grasp of the system first.

Originally Posted by AwesomeEli

Things like Blades in the Dark’s flashback mechanic allow for slick “planning” without bogging down the game for a month and a half, is the hope.

I am hoping to get into my first 5E SR game soon (so I can't speak to the SR side of this) but I was in a short-lived Blades game on this site and I loved this mechanic. Not only did it completely remove planning for a heist but it really seemed cinematic and epic. If planning is an issue, I can't recommend this mechanic enough!

Originally Posted by BiBo

The difficulty comes a bit in chargen (there are a lot of options available because it is a super flexible system, even only using the core rulebook, so first time players often have a bit of decision paralysis in creating their character), ...

I completely agree with this, chargen is intimidating at first, especially when approaching it with the DnD mindset. I do see a lot of similarities in chargen to a few other systems though in Fate and 13th Age. I am just learning the SR system, but it seems like the cleanest chargen is to come up with your 'high concept' first. The system is so flexible that you can pretty much make whatever you want to play.

[Phettberg]

Oh the Planning Phase in Shadowrun. It is especially painful as a Gm when you know that there will be one or multiple twists that will render parts of it useless - which happens often enough. I don't mind that either, because as a player I don't really enjoy a scenario where we plan for ages and then everything goes smoothly without a single hiccup - that's barely a story honestly.

Generally it helps to limit this phase. More commonly this is done through story, as in "You have x days to do the job". Which is fine, but you can also just agree on an artificial span of game time devoted to this phase after which the players have to get moving. Around a table this might be an hour, in pbp one could just set it at 3 or 4 cycles of posts maximum.

As for crunchy rules and overly edgy and paranoid characters - that's a bit tougher to handle. But with the former I don't have too much of a problem, i like the system in general. If there is a rule I can't find in a certain amount of time then it is getting winged, players have to accept that.

Characters are a different matter, but setting up a slightly different scenario could be the way to go. We will be able to ask rainyday once he has his game up and running.

When I was still running an SR campaign in person, mentioned above, I kept the game fairly street level for similar reasons without changing the mode of character generation. I just did not care to run a game that was too bleak, even though the setting allows for it. I was more interested in gangs than megacorps, which were only a very rare target for runs in the campaign - usually at the end of a story arc.