Drunken Review: Shadowrun 5

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:19 am

yeah, and there's the bullshit docking money for making the merc choice and not being the goody two shoes as well . .

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:41 am

I seriously think part of Bull is always going to be in the SEGA Genesis version of Shadowrun, where 'runners spend have their lives pursuing dangerous runs for relatively small payments.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:51 am

this is such a big part in the fucking magic run problem though.
the karma/money balance is tipped seriously to one side of the equation.

TheFlatline · Post by **TheFlatline** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:33 am

Ancient History wrote:I seriously think part of Bull is always going to be in the SEGA Genesis version of Shadowrun, where 'runners spend have their lives pursuing dangerous runs for relatively small payments.

Even then 30 minutes or so in the matrix doing random runs usually generated you enough money to basically do anything except buy top tier matrix equipment.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:27 am

I can understand that someone plays a game where nobody gets a high lifestyle because the runs the GM writes up don't pay enough. I can imagine Street Samurai and Rigger players resenting the fuck out of that GM, but I can imagine it happening. What I can't understand is writing an entire basic book for Shadowrun that explicitly says that that is the one true playstyle and offers no suggestions at all for playing in any other way.

-Username17

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:14 am

It's kind of weird - isn't Shadowrun all about self-interested assholes who aren't going to do X out of the goodness of their heart? Where only the promise of lots of money will get players to accept X?

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:39 am

Yeah. In fact, IIRC, they even have that as a factor on the chart; something like "feel good job, -20%; puppy kicking job, +20%". Which - for one thing, those are not nearly far enough apart. But more importantly, it explicitly states that one category of job is "puppy kicking, with extreme danger to you", and that Shadowrunners will supposedly take that job for a rather piddling amount of nuyen.

And also IIRC, when it was mentioned that various things such as stealing cars were more much lucrative and less dangerous, the response was something like "well maybe in the future you can't steal cars or they aren't worth anything."

Smirnoffico · Post by **Smirnoffico** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:48 am

And money for the run is generated in advance by the storyteller game master. Rewards are a game mechanic, not something the is generated/happens in the game. Money the team gets depends on the number of players, takes into account the opposition players is yet to meet or even to know of and so on. This feels extremely like a video game reward screen.

Rawbeard · Post by **Rawbeard** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:39 pm

I like the "did job fast" modifier in the "pre start" cash reward calculation table. Yep. That is what divination spells are for, I think.

Smirnoffico · Post by **Smirnoffico** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 2:23 pm

Also Johnson has to know how many people you'll kill before you even accept the mission. Because you get bonus money only if you fight them

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 2:53 pm

Section.10: Helps and Hindrances

This chapter is 38 pages of stuff that didn't fit into other chapters. It has some discussion of NPCs, some discussion of guard stats, and a very short writeup of animals. That seems like kind of a theme when you look at those, like it could be a “these are the people in your neighborhood, the ones you might have to shoot in the face.” But um... this chapter also contains the poisons and drug addiction rules. For um... some reason? I don't know. Their description of the chapter doesn't make this make any more sense. Unless people around you regularly talk about “Mr. CS Gas” or “Citizen Novacoke” the segue is going to run you off a cliff in a rainstorm.

Now, Non-Player Characters are really important for a game like this. Because the difficulty chart lacks any real examples and the entire page and a half they dedicate to explaining what skill numbers mean is provably false, the only metric you have to decide what your character can actually do on a lot of tasks is to compare penis size with NPCs in your field. No, this isn't nearly as bad as Scion, and many skills have fixed difficulty thresholds for performing certain tasks. You can figure out how fast you can move or whether you can pick a lock by looking up the difficulty in skill and equipment descriptions. But remember that the generic stunting difficulties are just a reminder that it is more difficult to get 4 hits than it is to get 2, not any solid example of what you should be able to do with one or the other. So if you want to go outside the box and use a skill to perform a novel action, you're pretty much back at the “is this a thing that such-and-such a type of NPC would be expected to be able to do?” method of difficulty generation.

This book gives seven levels of NPC. These range from “Thugs” who seem to have about 3 in most of their stats, and 3 in a couple of skills, and that's it all the way up to “Elite Special Forces” who have Agilities of 9 and Athletics of 10. So bullshit characters roll 2 dice in skills they don't have and 6 dice when actually swinging their weapons of choice, while badass elites roll 19 dice. So you can kind of backform the idea that a threshold 1 or 2 is a task for a random person while a threshold 5 or 6 is a task for someone who gets the Master Ninja Themesong. But the rules don't actually say that anywhere. I'm not even sure the players are supposed to be reading this section, despite the fact that it's the first and only time the book actually addresses the incredibly important question of “How good are your characters supposed to be?” And let's be honest: it does so in an incredibly tangential fashion that you have to kind of figure out for yourself.

[img]data:image/jpeg;base64,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[/img]

The other type of character they talk about are “prime runners.” These are obnoxious NPCs who have plot immunity except at certain dramatic points in the Gamemaster's story. They are made by a complex system where they get amounts of Karma to spend based on how experienced the PCs are. The idea, I guess, is that these assholes are supposed to be a relatively even match for the PCs and show up to vex them time and time again like this was a comic book from the 1970s. But the system doesn't actually output characters that are necessarily good matches for the PCs at all. The difference between two starting characters and their effective karma valuation can vary by hundreds. You could very easily make a starting character whose best dice pools exceeded the elite special forces goons, and you could just as easily make a character whose main dicepools weren't much different from those of the mouth breathing thugs. The professional rating 1 “Gang Scum” has between a B and a C in Attributes according to this stupid priority system. You could very plausibly come out of chargen with a character who was worse than level 1 stock mooks. With such a wide disparity in player side character power outcomes, the prime runner creation methodology is a complete waste of time. They would have been better to just say “write down whatever numbers you feel like, give them final dicepools kind of similar to whatever your players are rolling.” That would have saved about a page of text and been about a million times more helpful.

One of the things that was really fun in the original big blue book was its big list of contacts. Everyone got contacts, and they primed the pump with a genuinely big list of people you might know. Yakuza boss? Police Officer? Metahuman Rights Activist? News Reporter? Tribal Elder? Sure, why not. It was helpful to set the scene for the game, it was helpful for character generation, and it was helpful for the GM because they had a long list of stock NPCs to use. Bounty Hunters, Talismongers, Company Enforcers, Corporate Wageslaves, it was a genuinely great list. It could obviously have been longer, and I've often wanted a book that was basically just that chapter from 1st edition expanded out to 120 pages. Throw in 16 pages of social system rules and 8 pages of bookend fiction and you have a 144 page “Book for Faces” that people would want. The need isn't as high now that we have the internets, but I genuinely don't understand why such a book never came out in like 1997. Garbage Collectors, Janitors, Soda Machine Maintenance People, Political Statisticians, Forensic Pathologists, the list goes on. Or at least, it should. Going on for 120 pages would have been easy and useful. And you could throw in some memorably strange ones like novelty children's entertainers and shit.

SR5 has eight sample contacts. This is a very small number. I don't understand why there are only eight. This used to be a great fucking resource in previous editions, and it's not hard to make this shit happen. This book is like five hundred fucking pages, and they can't give a contact list that is half as long as what 1st edition hooked us up with? Fuck this book. You might think that the contact list might help players and GMs figure out how badass player characters were supposed to be, but they really don't. There's only eight of them, for fuck's sake. So you have a “Mechanic” and he rolls 12 dice on Automotive Mechanic. Is that good? Is he supposed to be like Q from James Bond, or is he just some guy who works at the Old Volks Home? I don't even know. There's no real context here to determine whether these contacts are badasses in their field or not, so being better or worse than them has no intrinsic meaning.

Shadowrun has an extensive bestiary.

One of the core ideas of the Shadowrun world is that when magic “comes back,” animals as well as people get magic powers. And those magicked up animals turn into creatures of legend. Now, this plotline has never really been mathhammered properly and the realities of animal numbers never seems to have sunk in for any of the authors who wrote on this subject. But basically, just as some percent of humans turn into magicians, some percentage of chickens turn into deadly cockatrices and some percentage of dogs turn into terrifying barghests. Now the thing that no Shadowrun author working on a critter chapter or sourcebook seems to have “gotten” is the sheer number of domesticated animals there are. Before we go any farther, I want you to consider two things: the first is that 1% or more of these animals can now breathe fire or something equally insane, and the second thing is this:

Shadowrun is a world that has a really really large number of deadly deadly chickens. And magic pigs. And hell cows. And so on and so forth. But none of the editions seem to have twigged to what that really means. That there are more flying pigs in this setting than there are Latvians. That hell cows outnumber magic lizards by like a million to one. Because in Shadowrun: demographics is destiny. And your destiny is that you are going to be eaten by a mystical goat.

Some Shadowrun critters are frankly pretty weird.

But regardless of Shadowrun having persistently failed to drive home the vast disparity in numbers between different kinds of paraspecies, the fact remains that it has really a lot of canonical monsters. There are paraspecies for every species, and after several critter books in several editions, there are really a lot of magical beasts that have been written up at various points. And SR5 doesn't do justice to it. It doesn't even try. There are eight monsters (two of which are humans turned into monsters via magic virus), and three flavors of dragon. And that's it. It's terrible.

The Toxin rules in SR4 were famously bad. The numeric inputs were just far, far too large. Basically, toxins went from having a power set the target number to power setting the threshold, and the numbers stayed the same. And that was terrible. It was difficult getting people to accept that the numbers had to be way smaller when I did the disease rules, and the moment I walked away from it the next crew to touch the disease rules jacked the threshold up to like 8 and things went to fucking Crazy Town, where they then ran for office and became the Mayor. After that fiasco, there's actually no excuse for there to be toxins on this fucking list with a power greater than 6, and honestly having toxins with a power greater than 4 is pretty messed up. And yet, the very first thing on this list is CS Gas at power eight. They really love the number eight in this fucking chapter, and it is always, always bad. And just in case you thought that might be a momentary lapse of insanity: that is literally the lowest toxin power in this fucking book. Fuck this book.

There's even an example they wrote up to show you how fucking useless Toxin Extractors are because the numbers are fucking insanely high and no number of dice you could conceive of rolling on a resistance test is ever going to do fuck all for you. The entire Toxin and Drug section doesn't belong in this chapter. This chapter is nominally about living creatures, and “Pepper Spray” doesn't even have a fucking master's degree. The whole toxin section should be cut. Not just from this chapter, where it doesn't belong, but from the entire book. Having no poison rules at all and forcing GMs to ad hoc all poisons would almost have to be better than what they actually wrote. I am not sure it's actually possible to write a set of rules for poisons that are worse than this.

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:20 pm

Sorry, can you explain the difference between target number and threshold? Did your toxic-resisting dicepools used to add 1:1 to your ability to resist toxins and they changed it to adding 1:3?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:48 pm

John Magnum wrote:Sorry, can you explain the difference between target number and threshold? Did your toxic-resisting dicepools used to add 1:1 to your ability to resist toxins and they changed it to adding 1:3?

Shadowrun used to be a variable target number system. So the number you had to roll on any die to get a success was different on each roll. So with a target number of 8, you needed to roll an 8. Now that might seem hard to do on a d6, but really it just meant that you needed to roll a 6 and then roll a 2+ on a bonus die. You expected to succeed on about 6 dice. When SR4 happened, they went to a fixed target number system and spent more time varying the number of hits required. With threshold 8, you need 8 actual hits, which you expect to get on twenty four dice. Obviously, you are not going to have that.

So the toxins were just plain poorly converted into 4th edition. It was a genuine scandal. And it's 9 years later, someone should have fucking rewritten that shit.

-Username17

silva · Post by **silva** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:55 pm

Id love if Shadowrun had some procedure for generating runs that linked to scarcity more or less like in ApocWorld.

Then your fixer would show up with a job for murdering an innocent person and another one for robbing clean some honest local biz. "Sorry chum, thats all Ive got for the month" he would say. And then you realize that your scarcity metter would go up if you refuse and you could end up starving, or having your Rapier break permanently, or get a complication from some debts that could spill over to your innocent sister.

And then you make your ugly choice for the month. But Hey, at least you do have a choice this month, right ? Most samurai wannabe scum like you dont have that luxury, so be grateful chummer.

Fucks · Post by **Fucks** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:02 pm

Steven Ratkovich would love you.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:10 pm

Honestly, no. There are different play styles and "tough choices made by poor people" is only one of them. Some people want to play Ocean's Eleven with Orcs instead.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:19 pm

FrankTrollman wrote: So the toxins were just plain poorly converted into 4th edition. It was a genuine scandal. And it's 9 years later, someone should have fucking rewritten that shit.

-Username17

This is why I always had to tamp down the urge to run chemical warfare riggers. Drones throwing around nerve gas would be stupidly, ridiculously powerful, but the two systems were so obviously broken that doing so was kind of in bad taste, and my MC was a genuinely nice dude.

Fucks · Post by **Fucks** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:50 pm

Grek wrote:Honestly, no. There are different play styles and "tough choices made by poor people" is only one of them. Some people want to play Ocean's Eleven with Orcs instead.

Different play styles aren't supported by the current SR5 dev team any more.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:47 pm

silva wrote: more or less like in ApocWorld.

I almost want to give you points for self-parody here. But I'm pretty sure it's unintentional, so only almost.

silva · Post by **silva** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:27 pm

Sorry Josh, didnt get what you tried to say. Care to elaborate for a non-native speaker ?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:30 pm

@silva
there was such a system in Mr.Johnsons little Blackbook actualy.
WAY the fuck back then . .

Smirnoffico · Post by **Smirnoffico** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:37 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:That there are more flying pigs in this setting than there are Latvians.

That perfectly explains how India became a weather-controlling magocracy. They're just run by three million awakened cows.

wotmaniac · Post by **wotmaniac** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:41 pm

He's saying that you seem to see everything through the prism of AW; even going out of your way to actively look of correlations between AW and every other game.
And the fact that you did indeed do that here, it looks like you are intentionally mocking yourself; but you're not because you're being genuine.

@Josh: does that seem like a reasonable translation?

silva · Post by **silva** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:34 pm

Thnks Wot. Well, ApocWorld just happens to be about scarcity, a theme I ser in some flavors of cyberpunk and think that fits nicely in Shadowrun.

Stahl, I have Little Black Book here but never noticed anything related to that. If you could provide some page numbdrs I would be happy to read it.

Ikeren · Post by **Ikeren** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:46 pm

And that XKCD image is based on pounds; I want to know how many cats/dogs per person there are in the USA:

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet ... stics.html

83.3 million—Number of owned dogs
95.6 million—Number of owned cats

Just to be clear, even before thinking about the food animals, for every 3 mages in the US, there is one rakasha and one barghest (or whatever else dogs/cats get to be). The odds that they awaken in the same house is low, so the US sees a 1% depopulation event alone from crazy-magic-cats waking up and slaughtering their owners.

Which is totally the start of my next D&D campaign.