Nerd Pride Radio

Did you hear that they are going to release a new version of Rifts using Savage Worlds rules? Rifts had some good ideas but it always seemed a bit too goofy, like an overly serious 12 year old to me. Plus, the mechanics were a mess. The owner was so tight fisted with the property and so behind the times on things, I'm shocked that this happened. I haven't read the new version but Savage Worlds is pretty neat. Hopefully, the Savage Worlds people are able to have enough control to create a decent game.

This made me think. What other games could use a redo? You might have heard that Mike said he would kill Shadowrun if he had the chance, because the rules are needless complex (or something to that effect, my hearing aint so good). I never played Shadowrun but read the core book for one of the editions (2nd?). It's a fun kitchen sink setting. Some things are dated now but Apocalypses and their post- are all the rage now, so Punkish things should be able to find an audience.

Finally to the original question, If you had the opportunity to redo Shadowrun (or create a clone), what rules would you use and how would you update it? Ya know, maybe 5e D&D would work ok. It's quick and flexible, it could easily be better than D20 Modern, which was good but got bogged down in it's details, like the designers fell in love with their own mechanics without thinking enough about emulation. With 5e, you have race, background, and class. With a Shadowrun version, I'd make backgrounds meatier to set up faction history or something.

If you want to keep it fairly complex, Pathfinder could easily do the job as well. Pathfinder has been branching out recently, there's probably enough near future stuff that you'd hardly have invent many mechanics - just keep magic as option with the tech

Or, are there other settings that you'd love to throw away the mechanics and keep the ideas?

I really can't think of an off the shelf system that can do what Shadowrun does. But then, the system and the world have been intertwined since they got going in what, 87, 88?

Shadowrun's system does Shadowrun very well. At least 3e and 4e did...I don't know past that. I'm not sure Pathfinder/d20 would capture the feel of Shadowrun properly. There's something about Shadowrun being gritty and hard and dangerous. d20 ends up being too heroic for my Shadowrun tastes. Man, I haven't played Shadowrun in ages. That would be a fun time!

But yes, Shadowrun is bulky and slow and combat does take a long time. But you shouldn't be in combat if you can help it. Hmmm, I don't know how to speed that part up and keep the intensity of the game that is built in other situations. I probably just don't know enough alternatives.

It would take some NERPS level work, but I bet you could make FATE power Shadowrun effectively.

I don't know about more recent editions of Shadowrun, but earlier editions (back when I played) were very reminiscent of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Reminiscent in the sense that there were many different kinds of systems to run the various archetype characters, and they were all very specialized in that knowing the ins and outs of the spell magic or hacking (decking) or combat or cyberware or rigging or adept magic didn't necessarily mean you had any understanding of any of the others. They all had similar dice pools, but otherwise were extremely specialized systems.

AD&D was a lot like that, and maybe even moreso. The advent of D&D3 was revolutionary, because it unified all those disparate systems so that they all operated in roughly the same way. Any sea change in the workings of Shadowrun would need to do something similar, while maintaining the gritty and potentially deadly feel of a typical run. For all I know, the latest editions of SR (all created in the wake of D&D3) may well do that, but I have no idea. Really I just don't like dice pools.