Post by cosmicstoryteller on Oct 19, 2015 22:40:26 GMT -5
Hey guys. As the title implies I have been dying to either run or play in a Shadowrun game. I really love the setting and think it would make for some awesome storytelling. Unfortunately Shadowrun has been plagued by "Gurp-syndrome", ever since it first came out back in like the 80's or something. Anyone who has ever played Gurps knows what I'm talking about. An interesting concept bogged down by minute details and micromanaging rules.
5E had done a lot to streamline things, but it is still a hot mess. Let's take a look at few examples.
BLASTS IN A
CONFINED SPACE
When a grenade detonates in a confined space, such as a hallway or room, the gamemaster must first determine whether any barriers (usually walls) stood firm against the explosion. Consult the Destroying Barriers rules (p.197). If the walls or doors hold up, the blast is channeled. Otherwise, determine blast effects normally. If the walls hold, the shock wave reflects off of them,
continuing back in the direction from which it came. If this rebounding shock wave maintains enough Damage Value to reach a character, that character is subject to the appropriate blast effect. If the character is struck a second time by the shock wave (once as it headed out and again as it rebounded), the Damage Value of the blast is equal to the combined Damage Value of the two waves.
Theoretically, a detonating explosive’s blast could rebound repeatedly off each of the six surfaces in a small, well-built room, raising the effective Damage Value of the blast to a value far higher than the original damage of the
grenade. This is known as the “chunky salsa effect.”
Phew! who wrote that, Stephen King? I highlighted that last bit because it sounds awesome. But, seriously do you really need to add in all of that extra math just to see if the explosion... you know, blows stuff up. Can't GM just go, hmmm...the rat is in a metal tool box and they just tossed in two grenades. I think I'll triple the damage. Instead you get this...
Cutter and his 405 Hellhound pals managed to snag themselves a devil rat and they’re looking to have a little sick and twisted fun. They drop the devil rat into an old concrete sewer junction and watch it run around while they subscribe a pair of fragmentation grenades to their wireless network and then toss both of them into the concrete cylinder. The gangers climb up
onto a tower for a good vantage point and then detonate both grenades simultaneously.
The cylinder is 2 meters wide and both grenades land against the rim opposite the devil rat. If the damage was just calculated from the two explosions the devil rat would face 23P (18P – 1/m (2 meters) + 9P – 1/m (2 meters)) for the grenades. Nasty. But the blast is in a confined space, which means multiple opportunities for damage as the shockwaves bounce off the walls. The devil rat will face 23P on the initial hit, plus another 23P when the blast has reflected, plus 19P after the blast has reflected and returned, along with another 19P on that reflection. This is followed by 15P + 15P, then 11P + 11P, 7P + 7P, and finally 3P + 3P. This totals 156P. That rat has progressed beyond chunky salsa through puree and into a fine mist.
If there had only been one grenade the damage would have been a mere 80P—a difference of little consequence to the devil rat....
All of that just to figure out grenade damage. And that's just one example. I mean there is like a 5 step process to decide how to shoot someone. Did you hit, ok, did you pen his armor, ok did the armor oak the damage, ok now he rolls to see if his body can take the damage, ok now he takes sun./physical. It's freaking overkill. There's even rules for recoil and treading water. Not just swimming, but actually treading water. I get it, I really do. Some people are really into super crunchy game systems that require you to be a rocket scientist to figure out the rules and/or require you to spend full years salary on all the dice you'll need to make your rolls. I hope you have the extensions put in on your table, cuz you're gonna need lots of room.
And that's fine if that's your thing. But, I believe in keeping things simple. Like I mentioned above. Why do we need a rule to determine damage on the blast waves from an explosion. All the GM needs to look is look at a situation and decide if it merits any special modifiers. Same thing with things like recoil and treading water. Get rid of them. Instead of counting every bullet, let them spray and pray. If they do so over multiple turn you and toss in an on the fly modifier. Hmm.. They've been shooting on full auto now for two turns and they just hit the target by 1 or two points. I'm going to call it a miss instead due to recoil. Maybe that seems unfair or underhanded, but it is better than taking an hour to count up all of the mods and stuff. Plus if it works both ways then it's fair. As for treading water. Heck if a player can swim they should be able to tread water. I know there are slight differences, but none big enough to create a separate rule.
Okay rant over.
So what are the options. Do I stick with it and deal with all of the rules and stipulations? Do I take out the rules I don't like or change them? Just about every system out there says to do just that in their GM section. But if I do that with Shadowrun, I'm probably going to be rewriting half the rules. I could do it, but it might end up turning into a shadow of it's former self -pun intended.
One idea I've been contemplating is converting the Shadowrun stuff over to the Alternity system. Some may argue that it is also a complex system, but it is nothing compared to Shadowrun 5E. Plus it already has a lot of stuff baked into it that would make the conversion easier. Unfortunately it is a dead system that not many people will know about and in an online PbP game that can be a deterrent. If not Alternity, there are other systems, but which one would work best?
Right now I'm leaning toward taking everything I like about Shadowrun and throwing out what I don't like and replacing it with my own rules, if it evens needs to exist. I don't need blast wave rules, sorry. So what do you guys think of the Shadowrun rules and how would you handle running a Shadowrun game?