Quote from: Celestial;880135The wireless Matrix kicked in in 2070.

Yes and no.  Augmented Reality kicked in in 2070 but the wireless matrix had been around a lot longer.  3rd edition really started to break the doors open on wireless hacking and the Matrix book published in 2000 really expanded the rules.  Of course in 2000 no one even used Google yet and Youtube, Facebook, etc were all still science-fiction that no one saw the point of.  Those things at least existed when SR4 came out in 2005 so we had a frame of reference to build around but even then AR seemed like magicy bullshit at the time because most people still didn't have cellphones and tablets weren't a thing yet.  Again there was no frame of reference for those of us at the table to really understand the impact of these technologies.  It's ridiculously crazy how much things have changed in the past 10 years of real life -- it's hard to even remember how backward we used to be.

This was of course back when Shadowrun was still a vital game with decent to great writers working on it and some sort of actual editorial vision and competence to direct it.  Now it's fallen into the White Wolf trap of being navel-gazing bullshit.

Quote from: Itachi;879546Omega, while Traveller was really big in the 80s, nowadays it seems really small compared to games like D&D, Pathfinder, World of Darkness or Shadowrun (arguably the current big 4). And Battletech never had much traction in the roleplaying sphere, just on the wargame one.

I suspect the biggest, pure, sci-fi game nowadays is Eclipse Phase. (which baffles me, as I find its rules unplayable lol ).

fixed that for you

Quote from: Skarg;879579at Shadowrun is not Cyberpunk per se, it's hybrid Fantasy/modern... I didn't even know some people considered it Cyberpunk. Can you play Shadowrun as a computer geek who ignores reality and just does virtual reality hacking and stuff?

as it was all ready said yes yes you can and yes its defiantly cyberpunk of a form though its closer to what most ppl call tv or video game cyberpunk then what you find in novels

Quote from: Mostlyjoe;879664Shadowrun was kinda it's own thing. Cyber enough, but it really didn't scratch the itch compared to full body conversions, etc. The whole essence thing kinda mehhed me.

That said, Shadowrun was fun, if cumbersome.

I migrated from Cyberpunk 2020 to Gurps Cyberpunk games. Then...well the genre kinda died out after the late 90's mecha game craze.

I was using Tri-State for some cyberstuff before the market dried up.

Shadowrun in some fashion just kept chugging along.

actually i think thats part of why its stayed popular its just different enough

Quote from: kosmos1214;880702actually i think thats part of why its stayed popular its just different enough

Since when is that a guarantee for success in RPGdom:D?

And I just want to ask the Shadowrun fans a question. Seriously, guys, how do you even deal with the system? I tried to run an adventure for Free RPG Day, and three hours later, after finishing the first firefight, the group just decided unanimously to not even approach it any more. Even the D&D veterans seemed to have a dicerolling overload.

Then we switched to a different system and continued with the same characters, managing to finish a full run in the time allotted for the session. But that's another story, which might be told some other time;).

I DMed 1st Ed and it was pretty easy. But I totally botched a few details and had to rewind after accidentally exterminating the runners through my own mistake.

I played as a player extensively with 2nd ed. Went pretty well really. Though I actually played the whole time knowing nearly nothing of the mechanics behind what I was doing.

Quote from: CRKrueger;880138Makes perfect sense if your natural response to the second crash of the global network would be to make everything on earth plug into the third iteration of the matrix wirelessly thus eliminating the one last security feature you had. :rolleyes:

Decentralization was the general idea, make it impossible to actually crash the entire matrix again. The wireless stupidity was more commentary on exactly what people are doing now. Your toaster can have wireless connectivity, but I still wonder why you would. Hasn't stopped many people.

Quote from: MrHurst;880840Decentralization was the general idea, make it impossible to actually crash the entire matrix again. The wireless stupidity was more commentary on exactly what people are doing now. Your toaster can have wireless connectivity, but I still wonder why you would. Hasn't stopped many people.

White Wolf's d20 Gamma World (AKA: NanoWorld) took that to the Nth degree. Making fully sentient AI was absurdly easy. So they stuck the things in EVERYTHING. And so you have the toaster sitting there going quietly insane. Or the biotech in Amazing Engine's Kromosome where its used extensively, then too extensively.

Quote from: AsenRG;880831...

And I just want to ask the Shadowrun fans a question. Seriously, guys, how do you even deal with the system? I tried to run an adventure for Free RPG Day, and three hours later, after finishing the first firefight, the group just decided unanimously to not even approach it any more. Even the D&D veterans seemed to have a dicerolling overload.

Then we switched to a different system...

Despite running and playing 1st through 3rd, or perhaps even because of, I, like you stopped using the Shadowrun system and used another.  Gurps for a while, and Savage Worlds most recently.

I have the later editions main books, but the system actually got worse rather than better IMHO.

I never understood the Shadowrun love. I played 1e... but I'd been a big fan of cyberpunk sci-fi from the get-go, so it affected my ability to like the fantasy-elements. I found them... unnecessary... to run the kinds of games I was running. I felt like someone was trying to intrusively insert D&D-Fantasy into my Gibson-Williams-Rucker-Sterlingverse. So Shadowrun never left a positive impression on me nor my gaming circles in LA.

CP2013/2020 however was rabidly played by us. I met a lot of new gamers that I'm still in contact with to this day.

CP does a really good job of hitting the high-points of the genre. I noticed while most noobs were concerned with maximum-metal cybered-up murder-hobos, I ran games that really homed in on the unease of class-warfare and the realities of life in the end-zones of those spectrums. Especially when the game roamed outside of the cities into the wastelands in-between and on the edges.

So while I'm sure I could do this with Shadowrun, I never had enough interest back then to explore that. Most GM's that ran it in my circles just ran it like it was low-grade CP2020 w/magic (by my standards).

I've considered picking up the new Shadowrun... just to give it a fair shake... but never got around to it. But that Interface Zero is looking nice... and CP2077 is ever waiting in the wings (still waiting for the batsignal on that one)...

Quote from: AsenRG;880831Since when is that a guarantee for success in RPGdom:D?
snip

true but it makes it stand out in the crowd of cyberpunkesc rpgs

Quote from: MrHurst;880840Decentralization was the general idea, make it impossible to actually crash the entire matrix again. The wireless stupidity was more commentary on exactly what people are doing now. Your toaster can have wireless connectivity, but I still wonder why you would. Hasn't stopped many people.

or like the megaman battle network series every thing has a computer in it and is linked to the internet stoves and toilets included maybe theirs a reason cyber terrorism is such a problem.

Quote from: Brander;880931Despite running and playing 1st through 3rd, or perhaps even because of, I, like you stopped using the Shadowrun system and used another.  Gurps for a while, and Savage Worlds most recently.

I have the later editions main books, but the system actually got worse rather than better IMHO.

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it was a 4e game when it started:D! If the system was getting worse, that might explain the experience.
I actually switched it to an extremely simplified 3d6 Fuzion/Unisystem/Synergy v2 hybrid, which reduced the average number of rounds in fights to 3 against cyborgs. But I was left wondering how people would deal with every session losing hours upon hours on a single fight:).

Quote from: tenbones;880936I never understood the Shadowrun love. I played 1e... but I'd been a big fan of cyberpunk sci-fi from the get-go, so it affected my ability to like the fantasy-elements. I found them... unnecessary... to run the kinds of games I was running. I felt like someone was trying to intrusively insert D&D-Fantasy into my Gibson-Williams-Rucker-Sterlingverse. So Shadowrun never left a positive impression on me nor my gaming circles in LA.

You and me both, FWIW:).

Quote from: kosmos1214;880947true but it makes it stand out in the crowd of cyberpunkesc rpgs

Not really, it doesn't.
It just excludes it from the crowd of cyberpunk RPGs while sending it to the crowd of kitchen sink fantasy RPGs.
And there it doesn't stand out. Like, at all;).

Quote from: tenbones;880936I never understood the Shadowrun love. I played 1e... but I'd been a big fan of cyberpunk sci-fi from the get-go, so it affected my ability to like the fantasy-elements. I found them... unnecessary... to run the kinds of games I was running. I felt like someone was trying to intrusively insert D&D-Fantasy into my Gibson-Williams-Rucker-Sterlingverse. So Shadowrun never left a positive impression on me nor my gaming circles in LA.

Its  not an uncommon view. Most arent aware it was more a urge to not be seen as a copycat of Cyberpunk. Do something different. They took a risk and it payed off. They did the same with Crimson Skies. Pirates+Aeroplanes.

Quote from: AsenRG;881016Not really, it doesn't.
It just excludes it from the crowd of cyberpunk RPGs while sending it to the crowd of kitchen sink fantasy RPGs.
And there it doesn't stand out. Like, at all;).

Not really, it does.
Otherwise it would have been seen as a copycat, "ho-hum not another one."  unoriginal idea in the cyberpunk crowd while sidestepping sending itself into the crowd of "fantasy kitchen sink." RPGs.
And there it does stand out. Like, totally.:rolleyes:

Quote from: tenbones;880936I've considered picking up the new Shadowrun... just to give it a fair shake... but never got around to it. But that Interface Zero is looking nice... and CP2077 is ever waiting in the wings (still waiting for the batsignal on that one)...

I parted ways with SR some time ago - the only people who consider playing it insist on using the latest edition and it's way too complicated for my comprehension. It might be only me (I realize I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box), but way I see it, its ruleset is harder to learn than one of popular programming languages, so I'm not sure why anyone would choose to sacrifice that much time and energy to pick up such a complicated thing for the purpose of entertainment only. :duh:

Luckily enough, I'm part of a group playing Kuro. We don't consider it full CP experience, but we enjoy it so far, more than any other CP-lite game we know about.

I miss these times when CP2020 was still a thing around here. Unfortunately, every player I knew is either dead, or moved abroad.

I knew both, preferred CP2020, but when I was playing lots when I was in Bremerton, WA, a lot more people were playing Shadowrun and that's what we ended up playing. Even though we mostly played it fantasy-element lite.

I really liked the writing on CP 2020... it had some of the rare flavor text I liked. But you can tell that their art budget was a shoestring compared to Shadowrun.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;881040I parted ways with SR some time ago - the only people who consider playing it insist on using the latest edition and it's way too complicated for my comprehension. It might be only me (I realize I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box), but way I see it, its ruleset is harder to learn than one of popular programming languages, so I'm not sure why anyone would choose to sacrifice that much time and energy to pick up such a complicated thing for the purpose of entertainment only. :duh:

That was my experience as well. And I can run LotW without consulting the rulebook...
Really, the version of SR I experienced, either 4e or 5e, was lots of complexity for no or negative gain.

QuoteLuckily enough, I'm part of a group playing Kuro. We don't consider it full CP experience, but we enjoy it so far, more than any other CP-lite game we know about.

There are always other new games. I prefer Fates Worse Than Death, myself;).

QuoteI miss these times when CP2020 was still a thing around here. Unfortunately, every player I knew is either dead, or moved abroad.

Hopefully, for most of them, it was moving abroad:D!