Shadowrun: Discussion

It turns out there's more than a few people interested in playing Shadowrun, but there's no GMs. In my search for one, I find GMs and then as soon as I mention PbP, the GM flees. Additionally, whenever I bring up 6e, I'm inundated with reasons why I should not run 6e. Some of these, I know, are the usual comfort with the current system vs. learning something new, but others are in-depth, mostly having to do with bad wording and explanations not matching. I know only the quickstart is out currently, so leaving aside, 6e... a few questions:

1) Which version of Shadowrun (1e-5e) are you most familar/comfortable with?

2) Which version of Shadowrun (1e-5e) do you feel is the most PbP-friendly? (Note that this is a different question from #1.)

3) Are you interested in being an assistant GM? (No keeping up with story necessary, just rule-handling.) Would you be willing to read a version that is not your favorite in order to be an assistant without comparing versions unfavorably?

1) For me, it's 5e, hands down. I know 4e alright, though.
2) Frankly, none of them are particularly PbP-friendly, but rarely are a lot of systems good for the medium anyhow. That said, I do know of a few tricks that can make 5e work a little easier on most GMs.
3) See above remark. That said, I do consider myself fairly knowledge about the mechanics of SR 5e, but not a master of it by any extent. Regardless, I'm happy to help with teh crunchy side of things.

Sounds like a starting point. Let me see what everyone else chimes in with, and then we'll go from there (barring of course, that someone doesn't volunteer to GM before I'm ready to).

Let's hear from others. I've run 1e to 5e before, and, like any other addict, will want to give 6e a shot once it comes out. Currently only the Beginner Box is available, but 2 other sourcebooks are in the works.

However, if people prefer to play an earlier edition, answer Falconloft's questions! :)

I've played a tiny bit of 4e and some occasional 5e. I have a general understanding of how 5e works but not enough to be of any real help with the rule-handling

1) 5e is about all I'm really accustomed to, and that's by definition for me a very vague understanding. I'm new to the world of TTRPGs, but there's a company that's done a run of games under the Shadowrun license that I think (don't hold me to it) they based their stuff off the 5e ruleset in the way the game calculates things for attacks and what not. Still, I've read over the beginner's guide a few times and found myself interested in learning the system.

2) 5e? And that's only cause of my small bit of knowledge. PbP is really new for me in general too. I'm only in two games (one start up on here and a prior one on discord that's just started into a combat portion, but it's D&D 5e) thus far, so I'm not too familiar which how everything works quite yet. From what I gather and understand, perhaps it would be worth while trying to streamline a version that works specifically for PbP?

3)I am for sure! Both for rules and story, as I'm a writer and I've turned to TTRPGs as a means to try and push past the current block I've been having with my other works (so far so good yay!).

I'm probably not much help in this situation, but seeing things from the eyes of a newbie helps at times as well so... *shrug*

So, for those of you new-ish to Shadowrun 5e, I may have a rather handy link: Corporate SINs 'How to Play Shadowrun'. I'm not a big fan of watching videos, but this series of videos comes highly recommended from the community of Shadowrun Subreddit (ya know, if you care about those things). Furthermore, for anyone who's planning on GMing SR 5e, I have this stack of article links that are quite useful.

Otherwise, my biggest advice, besides reading the rules a few times, is to go download Chummer5. While it's not the most elegant of chargen programs, it's the gold standard in usability and usefulness for chargen programs.

First of all, thank you for making this thread.
1) I'm most comfortable with 5e, although I could also read up on 4e and 3e again.
2) Since I'm relatively new to Pbp, I really wouldn't know.
3) I think I'll have my hands full just playing, tbh.

Okay. 5e it is then. (With maybe a possible look into moving to 6e when the full set comes out IF the move isn't too jarring.)

Here's what I'd like to do. I will come up with the story. There's going to be rules that I don't understand, and for that, I'll ask Yamazaki.

NovelStout, I'd like you to point out rules that you don't understand so we can get a FAQ going, and I'll leave that up to you to curate. Add things that YOU have to ask about so we know we're getting good basics, and if anyone runs across any help online, they should direct that to you as well for inclusion.

Does that sound good for everyone?

Alright I can do that. Might take me a few days, but I should have some free time this weekend to dedicate to it. Do you want this on here or would you like me to put it in a Google Doc?

Here would probably be easier access. I'll start a forum up as soon as I verify that everyone is on board.

Sounds like a plan. I have a pretty good understanding of most of the rules, save for a few advanced and/or corner case rules (bouncing explosions, car chases, etc), but I have been compiling up some handy resources for people to use.

EDIT: side note - so far what I've seen of 6e does not inspire confidence in the new edition. I got teh beginner's box and was not a happy camper with the changes to the system (it's quite different, IMO). Honestly, I'm actually hoping this new edition crashes and burns hard so that someone else can snatch up the IP from Catalyst...

Maybe Shadowrun will get its own Pathfinder xD

I haven't looked at 6e at all yet

One last thing. Do we want a setting that's had every flange riveted down, or do we want to go with a location that's not been touched as much?

I recommend whatever you feel most comfortable with. If you're really familiar with SR Seatle, go wild. If you'd rather create your own locale, find a place that's mostly untouched in the lore (or hasn't been mentioned much in the last few editions).

That said, this is your show, so the lore is malleable. If you wanted to put the action in the middle of Chicago and say that Bug City never happened (or happened somewhere else), so be it.

Sounds good, location wise I'm up for anything.
It doesn't have to be just one location either, if you want to do that.
Thanks again for organizing this.

Alright. Game is HERE. We'll get more into detail about characters and starting specifics in the game forums.

I've sent out invitations. We have one spot open, might be a second, depending on the answer I get from someone, so if anyone you know wants to hop in, now's the best time.

I’ll take that spot.

Done.

A little late for the discussion, however, I will try to contribute.

1) 5e, though my knowledge is not extensive and it's been a while since I read the book.

2) I don't have much of an experience with SR and the only one I know is 5e, however, it does seem to be a bit challenging for PbP.

3) I don't have much knowledge about SR and even less experience with it, so I don't think I would be of much help there. However, I would very much appreciate if I could read the adventure and I provide my thoughts and suggestions about it.