"They'll negotiate, they're corporate."
"So's the Yakuza."
Probably everyone knows I recently picked up on Shadowrun 5th Edition. Fourth edition was mostly skipped over by my group for a few regrettable reasons. For one, it wasn't unilaterally better, and changed several base mechanics. It was a new team, so I sort of forgive them the attempt. The second and more egregious is that it didn't really feel like cyberpunk as we knew it. With technology marching forward it started to feel a lot less like Johnny Mnemonic and a lot more like Ghost in the Shell. Different strokes for different folks, and 4e just wasn't my kind of stroke.
Anyway. Fifth Edition was obviously developed by a huge team of third edition grognards, so it feels a lot closer. You can tell they have a lot(maybe too much) of love for 3e by little hints in the book(Turn to Goo has returned) as well as the hilariously out of place homage to Blackjack in the critter section. If you're lost on that, he was an insightful Shadowrun blogger back in the ancient days of the Internet. I'm not going to do a whole post reviewing Fifth, so please consider what I'm about to say my full thoughts on it. If you'd like, skip the bit between the roses if you want to just get to the point of today's post.
@}-,-'--
Fifth edition's not bad, and it's far more "pick-up-able" than 3e is. It's easier to understand and I like the idea of a static target number better. Skill checks being your stat plus your skill means stats are more valuable. It's less dense, which some people may enjoy and others might not. The equipment and cyberware sections are very insightful, with this edition giving rules for things that I've either always wanted or never knew was missing. Things like portable circular saws or mini-welders are the sort of B&E gear the game needs, and the cosmetic cyberware including treatments to specifically make orks and trolls more "presentable" to humans made me wonder why that was missing previously. Dice pools are gone and replaced by a standard defense check, meaning playing the "fast guy" is a viable and fun way to play instead of just being a glass cannon.
Now, for the bad. They introduced "limits" to avoid people leveraging a huge number of dice on tests, which is a non-problem many people enjoy complaining about in third edition. People who haven't ever played Shadowrun frequently bring up "all dem dice" as a reason the game is bad. Basically, in 5e there's almost always something restricting the maximum amount of successes you can apply to a test, usually defined by a derived stat or something set by your gear. The issue is that limits range from a non-issue when it's your specialty to severely damaging when it isn't. It mostly only serves to lock people into their specializations by making it harder to branch out, heightening a minor issue 3e had. It also invalidates a lot of gear and makes melee weapons a problem due to relatively low limits in their "accuracy" rating, which can't be brought up with accessories like gun accuracy can. Out of I'd say 20 melee weapons across the books, maybe 5 of them are viable choices. In addition, their armor rules are as follows: Wearing armor gives you anything from 8 to 17 more dice for resisting damage. This means someone like an ork wearing 5e's equivalent to security armor can easily be rolling 25 to 30 dice for damage resistance. With no limit. Good job, you fucking hypocrites.
Spirits are even more overpowered. Vehicles and riggers are straight fucked up. There's an extreme lack of customization(the fun part of vehicles in 3e) and vehicles are much less survivable, to the point that a guy with a Predator V can probably beat the best book standard drone in one or two shots. This is partially the fault of the game's damage system, but also because there's no "specialness" to vehicle's armor and body beyond it not taking stun damage. The 'wireless' layer of gear complexity is part of the story, sure, but it's unwelcome, dumb, and a weak way to give deckers "something to do" in combat. Finally, there's a lot of space in some certain books dedicated to pointless mechanics like extra ways to call a shot that could have gone to reprinting 3e's best features: the spell, firearm or vehicle creation rules.
Overall, it's two different games. It pains me to say that, but it's the truth. It's not going to replace 3e for anyone, but I knew that going in and still had fun.
@}-,-'--
So finally I tell you why we're talking about 5e at all. Remember some of the problems we talked about with 3e? Well, Fifth Edition makes a concerted effort to fix them, and today I want to cherry pick some and talk about some simple 3e house rules. Do I think 3e desperately needs a rebalancing? Nah. Do I think it might be super interesting to play around with it? Absolutely. Don't worry about the workings of 5e, because I'll be hand-adapting when necessary to avoid having to explain huge swaths of 5e's rules.
Street Index. This is the simplest one. 5e doesn't HAVE Street Index, in an effort to simplify and streamline. Considering Street Index really only serves to fuck over people trying to upgrade or replace cyberware, I could see removing it entirely. There may be some items that need their price adjusted to compensate, but I didn't see any when I researched in preparation for this post. 3E's book even claims this is a cost that players will be paying(and I quote) "99.99% of the time" so I'm not really sure why they even bothered.
Cyberware Grade Cost Adjustments. The thing about 5e is that it reduces the range of money overall. Most cyberware costs far less, but you also get less money for Resources. "The Million" in 5e is "the 450k". Which sounds way less exciting, but overall this means upgrading cyberware hurts less. Adapting that would be far too much work, but what we can do is take a page from their adjustments to cyberware grades. The essence reduction remains the same, but the cost is far lower, as follows.
Alpha: x 1.2
Beta: x 1.5
Delta: x 2.5
We can't quite go that far down without altering what things cost. That'd be pretty nuts. What I recommend is something like this:
Alpha: x 2
Beta: x 3
Delta: x 4
Essence cost, availability adjustment, and the rigamarole you have to go through to find a Delta clinic are unchanged. This way, buying something that's delta in this house rule is the same as buying beta in the core system. It also means starting characters are untouched, which is very important. It's still rough, but I'm not comfortable bringing it down any further. Removing Street Index would help a little too. If you think this is insane as it is, please remember that the cybernetic character still has to pay doctor's fees and the cost of the new ware he's installing in that little essence hole he's making. That always was the fucker of cyberware upgrading: Even after all that money blown, you still had to buy the next piece of ware.
Initiation Costs. In 3e, the base multiplier for the karma cost of initiation is 3. An Ordeal reduces this by 0.5, and a group reduces this by 1, for a total reduction of 1.5, or 50%. In 5e, these both reduce the cost by 10%, and an additional option of spending 10k nuyen for schooling reduces it by an additional 10%. This would mean that instead of two options providing a 50% total reduction, three options would provide a 30% total reduction. This also makes getting a group together less important. This is another place where I'm not sure I'm going far enough, but I'm making a deliberate attempt to avoid rocking the boat.
Karma Pool. 5e doesn't have karma pool. It's got a stat called Edge, which you buy up like any other stat like Body or Strength. It does the same thing as karma pool, but you choose when to raise it. Humans get a bonus point of edge to begin with. You can just straight up adapt that if you really want, since stat karma costs are identical in both systems. However, a compromise version is that, instead of metahumans getting half the karma pool that humans get, humans get one additional karma pool and everyone gets an additional one every ten karma. It'd mean a ton early on(which I can't really help) but much less later. 50% less karma pool is just pretty freaking harsh, especially on elves who are getting far less mileage out of that +1 Agility in 3e as compared to 5e.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you I have a fix for vehicles being so tough, since that's one area where 5e drops the ball pretty significantly. In addition to that, their fix for deckers is...well, it's suspect. Being able to manipulate wireless capabilities may be neat for some people, but it's also very ingrained in the way 5e is: It's a wireless explosion, with the whole world being covered in a virtual reality shell, assuming you buy the glasses or contacts to see it. It's an intrinsic part of 5e's story, and can't just be adapted down to 3e, which is dealing with decidedly different themes than 5e is.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Mister Fuckup
"Watch me go from bad to worse!"
You can probably guess from the title that we're not talking about Shadowrun like I planned. No, we're having a discussion I sincerely didn't want to have. We already talked about problem players. I really thought that'd be enough and I wouldn't have to talk about the other sort of problem player. I'm not going to win any friends talking about this concept. Half of you will probably think I'm whining and the other half will think I'm picking on them specifically like I'd ever resort to vaguebooking on this blog. Some people even think this is a perfectly acceptable way to play. More on that below.
Problem players have a particularly kind of image to them. We see them as uncaring jerks doing whatever they want, preoccupied with themselves and their own goals. We never think it could be us, because everything we do is motivated by building and playing our character. Therein sort of lies the problem, we frequently miss or even forgive the fact that we're being severely disruptive simply because we meant to do it. I built a character. He does these things. I am absolved. It's all in-character.
Before we go any further, I want to talk about inter-party conflict. No, I am not saying it's wrong. Most of the time, it can be a lot of fun. Even some deliberate planning for this can be fun, but there's a line. I firmly believe you'll come to understand where the line is as you continue reading, but here's a few tips. First, if you're planning for inter-party conflict and you haven't told anyone or tried to work with them, you're just being a dickhead. Discuss plans with them to make sure everyone is going to have a fun time. Everyone has a different line of what's fun and what isn't. Try to play a somewhat reasonable character and not a caricature of a jerkass even though that sounds like a good time. Resist, and try not to severely impact the group's fun.
And that's what this is really about. Disrupting the game is usually defined as deliberately failing encounters, messing up puzzles or challenges on purpose, consistently stealing the spotlight, severely delaying the party or making things much harder on them through your actions. Nothing justifies disruption, not even meaning to do it. Especially not meaning to do it. Designing your character around a disruptive concept doesn't make it okay. The pacifist in a game of amoral mercenaries can be precisely as bad as its opposite, a killer among a moral group. In fact, it's just as bad as more preposterous concepts since it's likely to provide the same amount of derailing and disruption.
Some people want to succeed the encounters and challenges they're given. That's the fun of the game. Some people don't mind inter-party conflict but grow to hate the fact that the other players of the game end up being their greatest challenge. In fact, your author is sick of it. By deliberately failing a challenge or making the game significantly harder, you're impacting their ability to enjoy the game.
But you're not being fair, I'm just playing my character. Being told to calm down impacts MY fun.
Well. First off, if your fun comes primarily from seeing people fail, watching things go wrong, and disrupting the game, Pen and Paper ain't for you. I suggest a rousing game of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Space Station 13, Rust, DayZ, or any of the rest of the video games where the entire point is acting like a raging cock-hole. Pen and Paper RPGs are a collaborative effort, and completely checking out of that collaboration means everyone but you is having less fun. Yes, even the GM. I haven't seen a GM yet who appreciated the "help" a disruptive player gave them by making everything harder. No, you're even pissing THEM off, because dealing with your shit sets their plans and plots back.
Maybe you still think I'm not being fair. Maybe you don't understand how much kindness, generosity, or good will you're benefiting from and thumbing your nose at. People naturally work to keep the group together, keep people playing the characters they want, and keep the game moving forward. It's natural and automatic to most people who use pen and paper games as a hobby.
What I mean is, you're rarely facing the proper penalties, punishments or consequences for your actions. The GM will destroy or severely impact your character as a last resort most of the time, since he knows you want to continue playing them. The other PCs will overlook a great deal or refuse to retaliate in the ways they truly want to or should, because on some level they know they're stuck with you. You're a fellow player. It's a rare person who enjoys it when two PCs come to blows, and you're very often spared that fate despite your actions.
Maybe I'm rambling. Maybe this post was impacted negatively by my staunch avoidance of real examples. It's fine. If there's one thing I want you to take away from this, it's that deliberately building a disruptive character does not forgive disruptive behavior. It's not "okay" just because you meant to do it. Your character acting as a moral authority constantly giving away the PC's bluff checks, deceptions or informing to authorities is precisely as bad as my character who punches everyone he meets at full force. They are equally disruptive. The difference is that I'm very likely to be caught and reprimanded very early for making Slamface the Obnok, whereas you?
You'll end up continuing to play, continuing to disrupt the game and irritate the other players until the game goes sour and everyone feels like quitting.
So it's your choice. Plan for conflict. Enjoy conflict. Make sure everyone is enjoying conflict. Don't deliberately fuck up the challenges the GM has set forth. Bend, don't break, to avoid disrupting the game and making it less fun for everyone else.
You can probably guess from the title that we're not talking about Shadowrun like I planned. No, we're having a discussion I sincerely didn't want to have. We already talked about problem players. I really thought that'd be enough and I wouldn't have to talk about the other sort of problem player. I'm not going to win any friends talking about this concept. Half of you will probably think I'm whining and the other half will think I'm picking on them specifically like I'd ever resort to vaguebooking on this blog. Some people even think this is a perfectly acceptable way to play. More on that below.
Problem players have a particularly kind of image to them. We see them as uncaring jerks doing whatever they want, preoccupied with themselves and their own goals. We never think it could be us, because everything we do is motivated by building and playing our character. Therein sort of lies the problem, we frequently miss or even forgive the fact that we're being severely disruptive simply because we meant to do it. I built a character. He does these things. I am absolved. It's all in-character.
Before we go any further, I want to talk about inter-party conflict. No, I am not saying it's wrong. Most of the time, it can be a lot of fun. Even some deliberate planning for this can be fun, but there's a line. I firmly believe you'll come to understand where the line is as you continue reading, but here's a few tips. First, if you're planning for inter-party conflict and you haven't told anyone or tried to work with them, you're just being a dickhead. Discuss plans with them to make sure everyone is going to have a fun time. Everyone has a different line of what's fun and what isn't. Try to play a somewhat reasonable character and not a caricature of a jerkass even though that sounds like a good time. Resist, and try not to severely impact the group's fun.
And that's what this is really about. Disrupting the game is usually defined as deliberately failing encounters, messing up puzzles or challenges on purpose, consistently stealing the spotlight, severely delaying the party or making things much harder on them through your actions. Nothing justifies disruption, not even meaning to do it. Especially not meaning to do it. Designing your character around a disruptive concept doesn't make it okay. The pacifist in a game of amoral mercenaries can be precisely as bad as its opposite, a killer among a moral group. In fact, it's just as bad as more preposterous concepts since it's likely to provide the same amount of derailing and disruption.
Some people want to succeed the encounters and challenges they're given. That's the fun of the game. Some people don't mind inter-party conflict but grow to hate the fact that the other players of the game end up being their greatest challenge. In fact, your author is sick of it. By deliberately failing a challenge or making the game significantly harder, you're impacting their ability to enjoy the game.
But you're not being fair, I'm just playing my character. Being told to calm down impacts MY fun.
Well. First off, if your fun comes primarily from seeing people fail, watching things go wrong, and disrupting the game, Pen and Paper ain't for you. I suggest a rousing game of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Space Station 13, Rust, DayZ, or any of the rest of the video games where the entire point is acting like a raging cock-hole. Pen and Paper RPGs are a collaborative effort, and completely checking out of that collaboration means everyone but you is having less fun. Yes, even the GM. I haven't seen a GM yet who appreciated the "help" a disruptive player gave them by making everything harder. No, you're even pissing THEM off, because dealing with your shit sets their plans and plots back.
Maybe you still think I'm not being fair. Maybe you don't understand how much kindness, generosity, or good will you're benefiting from and thumbing your nose at. People naturally work to keep the group together, keep people playing the characters they want, and keep the game moving forward. It's natural and automatic to most people who use pen and paper games as a hobby.
What I mean is, you're rarely facing the proper penalties, punishments or consequences for your actions. The GM will destroy or severely impact your character as a last resort most of the time, since he knows you want to continue playing them. The other PCs will overlook a great deal or refuse to retaliate in the ways they truly want to or should, because on some level they know they're stuck with you. You're a fellow player. It's a rare person who enjoys it when two PCs come to blows, and you're very often spared that fate despite your actions.
Maybe I'm rambling. Maybe this post was impacted negatively by my staunch avoidance of real examples. It's fine. If there's one thing I want you to take away from this, it's that deliberately building a disruptive character does not forgive disruptive behavior. It's not "okay" just because you meant to do it. Your character acting as a moral authority constantly giving away the PC's bluff checks, deceptions or informing to authorities is precisely as bad as my character who punches everyone he meets at full force. They are equally disruptive. The difference is that I'm very likely to be caught and reprimanded very early for making Slamface the Obnok, whereas you?
You'll end up continuing to play, continuing to disrupt the game and irritate the other players until the game goes sour and everyone feels like quitting.
So it's your choice. Plan for conflict. Enjoy conflict. Make sure everyone is enjoying conflict. Don't deliberately fuck up the challenges the GM has set forth. Bend, don't break, to avoid disrupting the game and making it less fun for everyone else.
Monday, August 14, 2017
What's Wrong with Shadowrun 3rd Edition?
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! You know, all my life, I've been careful to stay in my own corner. Lookin' out for Number One, no complications. Now suddenly, I'm responsible for the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD! And everybody and his mother is trying to kill me if, IF! My head doesn't blow up first. "
"Maybe it's not just about you anymore."
"Listen. You Listen. You see that city over there? THAT'S where I'm supposed to be. Not down here with the dogs and the garbage and the fuckin' last month's newspapers flying BACK AND FORTH! I've HAD IT with them! I've HAD IT with you, I've had it with ALL THIS!
I WANT ROOM SERVICE! I want the club sandwich. I want the cold Mexican beer. I WANT A TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR A NIGHT HOOKER. I want my shirts laundered. Like they do at the Imperial Hotel. "
Hi. I'm not dead, I've just spent the last month plagued with Pneumonia. I tried to do some writing, but it just wasn't going to happen. I have been reading a lot about Shadowrun 5th Edition and even playing some of it, though. My research into that game has got me thinking about 3rd a lot and comparing the two, since SR4 was...sort of booted out of existence for being too different from Shadowrun's core feels. More on Cyberpunk as a genre later. SR5's efforts to fix some things got me thinking about where SR3 goes wrong.
So that's what we're talking about today.
I still have plenty of love for SR3. I'm always going to. I think it's a great game that captures the feel of Cyberpunk better than any other game I've ever played, even Cyberpunk 2020. No offense, Grand-dad. However, SR3 is far from perfect. It could even use some house-rules stolen wantonly from SR5 to improve balance between concepts. It's dense and rules-rich, but we're not going to be going into any subjective problems. No mentions of how deadly the system is, no talk about how dense the rules are and how often you end up hand-waving some of them, et cetera. I'm sticking to objective problems. Places the system goes wrong and causes inequality. In fact, inequality is probably its biggest problem.
Samurai vs. Physad. In fact, let's talk about that first. Sammies, or individuals who buy cyberware to increase their effectiveness, fill roughly the same role with physads. Early in publication each concept had a fair amount of strengths over the other, but as publications came out, the strengths of the samurai were chipped away. the supplement State of the Art 2063 added some decent, interesting bioware, but State of the Art 2064 came out soon after and dropped Christmas present after Christmas present on magic types in general, and physads in specific. Suddenly there wasn't anything a physad couldn't be excellent at. Even if you keep the rules-as-written rule of metahumans getting half karma pool(more on that later) this guides the player toward shoring up defenses and strength by playing an ork or troll physad and saving technological character concepts for severe BOD/STR stacking shenanigans or mere style.
Samurai vs. Physad 2: Improvement Costs. Here we go. Here we fucking go! We joke all the time about Physads being a black hole from which no Karma escapes, but really, all of this is the other way around. Physads live on core improvement easy street while technological concepts are blown out an airlock like Jayne should have been. Let's dazzle you with some fucking math.
First off, Page 242 of the core rulebook says a run could be "up to 10 or 12" karma for an especially difficult run. We'll ballpark an average run being 5 karma, but go ahead and look at what the book says if you'd like. I'd wager most runs are going to be between 4 and 6.
Next, page 100 of the Shadowrun Companion suggests base monetary rewards for runs. Assassination, Destruction, and Smuggling runs pay out 5,000 nuyen at base, with few of the options being above that. While some, potentially a lot of runs are going to pay less than that, let's take that as our average.
So, our average run is going to be 5 karma and 5,000 nuyen. Keep that in mind.
Our boy the physad can spend karma on initiation to gain extra power points to spend on powers. He has the option to join a group to reduce the cost, or take an ordeal. Both of these practices are incredibly common. If he's done both, his first initiation will cost 9 karma. Now, an ordeal is not and should never be a "nothing" challenge, even though some are. However, this hardship is balanced out by the fact that they get Metamagics which end up being pretty god damn useful, so we're tossing both concepts out of the conversation. He'll get this in two sessions, but let's say three sessions because he needed to blow a few karma founding or joining a magical group.
The sammie needs to improve the grade of his cyberware, to reduce the cost and gain more out of his six essence. He never gets more than that, so playing a sammie means essence budgeting. For most people, that's the fun of it.
The largest, cheapest piece of ware an average runner is going to have is easily wired reflexes, so let's say he's trying to improve that. Our sammie started the game with Alpha Wired Reflexes 2, which cost him 330k nuyen and takes up 2.4 essence.
He wants to upgrade that to Beta. He has to take the old system out and replace it. The new system will cost 660k nuyen and take up 1.8 essence, so we're currently fishing for an upgrade of 0.6 essence. Used cyberware has a purchase modifier of 0.5, so let's say he can sell his old system for 0.25 the cost, or 82.5k nuyen, leaving him with a total bill of 577.5k nuyen.
our sammie will free up his 0.6 essence in a total of 115.5 sessions. That's a hundred and fifteen and a half sessions. I didn't even factor in the cost of filling that essence with a piece of cyberware. I swear to you, this is the best scenario I could find.
But there's an alternate rule that lets you trade karma for cash. Yes, and the base, book listed version of that rule suggests that one point of karma gives you up to a thousand nuyen. Be still my beating heart, that will surely fix the problem.
But you can simply give more nuyen. This helps, sure. The problem being that the physad is also getting this reward and is spending it on foci or fun things that the sammie is denying himself to try and improve his character.
but-...you know what, we're not talking about fixes just yet.
The Physad did pay build points for his powers. That's very true. However, most people miss the fact that money, too costs build points. The physad can easily build off the five thousand you get for "zero" points in money, and I've seen plenty do just that. That means being a physad cost him 25 points. Most samurai, on the other hand, buy "the million" in nuyen. that's 30 points. Oops.
I also want to address bioware. It's even more expensive than cyberware and has higher street index, and has a separate limit of 3 plus the sammie's remaining essence. This means, no matter how you slice it, a sammie starts with 9 points of "power" as opposed to the physad's 6. It's another fair comparison, but doesn't assuage the above concerns: assuming power points and essence/bio index are roughly the same(they're not, but it's close) the physad will "catch up" in three initiations and surpass in four. That's 32(9+ 11+12) karma to catch up, and another 14 to surpass. The physad is better than the samurai in a mere ten sessions. The samurai, at this point, still has another 105.5 sessions to go before he can upgrade his wired reflexes and free up enough essence for a combat benefit.
Karma Pool and Metahumans. Whew. Now that the big one's out of the way, let's relax and point out a smaller problem. I've mentioned this one before, too. Metahumans receive a point of karma pool every 20 karma earned, whereas humans get one every 10. Karma pool is pretty important, and this is a huge hit. However, being a metahuman brings a lot of stats to the table, and even though my groups abolish this rule, I can see why it exists. I can see why you'd want some sort of mitigating factor to playing an ork, a troll, or even a dwarf because they give strong, universal benefits.
Try as I might, though, I can't think of a reason elves take this penalty too. They get a bonus to agility, which isn't that useful considering a +1 isn't going to net them another point of reaction on their own. They also get a +2 to charisma, which unless you're summoning spirits, does fuckall for your character except minorly reduce the cost of raising charisma linked skills. Big deal.
Deckers. I don't have a huge amount to say on this, and really I'm only including it because it's SR3's classic problem. Both 4e and 5e took a lot of steps to fix this, and not everyone likes what they came up with. While decking during legwork phases flows easily and is simple to manage, as soon as the team infiltrates the facility in question, all hell breaks loose and it becomes a nightmare. That's because not only does he has to split his attention between two places, but one of those places runs at a different time speed than the other. This problem often leads to two things: Either players play "legwork deckers" and take care of their job before the run starts...or more often, playing a decker is seen as a burden or more work than its worth.
Vehicle Damage. This one's pretty contentious. I've gone back and forth myself. Vehicles in Shadowrun 3rd have a blanket protection when they get attacked: 1/2 power code and -1 damage level before you do any calculation. I'm mostly fine on this considering they have low body dice(in general) and, well...it's a vehicle. Not many people are going to get anywhere punching a car, even if it's a Saturn. It's a bigger problem when you consider drones are vehicles, and many drones have an incredible amount of armor on them. This combined with a rigger's control pool means riggers are holy terrors, on the level of a GM having to take care using one as an NPC. The fact that anti-vehicular weapons are all either non-concealable, expensive, non-man-portable, and/or hard to find doesn't help.
--
So that's it for now. I'm sure there are other problems, but I feel I hit the big points. There's even a lot of more subjective ones like Street Index being a terrible concept in execution, and totally not helping the cyberware upgrade issue above. I love Shadowrun, particularly 3rd edition, and I feel it's a fairly well balanced game. Why'd I do this, then? Well...no system is perfect, and I wanted to show that. Really, the fact that I can boil its issues down to one post means it's doing pretty fucking good. Shadowrun has it sort of easy where a lot of its problems can be fixed in simple house rules, and I'll likely be going over some I've been thinking about in the future. It doesn't have any systemic problems like Call of Cthulhu, or any problems caused by a giant, hard-to-tackle mass of issues like Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 or classic World of Darkness.
"Maybe it's not just about you anymore."
"Listen. You Listen. You see that city over there? THAT'S where I'm supposed to be. Not down here with the dogs and the garbage and the fuckin' last month's newspapers flying BACK AND FORTH! I've HAD IT with them! I've HAD IT with you, I've had it with ALL THIS!
I WANT ROOM SERVICE! I want the club sandwich. I want the cold Mexican beer. I WANT A TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR A NIGHT HOOKER. I want my shirts laundered. Like they do at the Imperial Hotel. "
Hi. I'm not dead, I've just spent the last month plagued with Pneumonia. I tried to do some writing, but it just wasn't going to happen. I have been reading a lot about Shadowrun 5th Edition and even playing some of it, though. My research into that game has got me thinking about 3rd a lot and comparing the two, since SR4 was...sort of booted out of existence for being too different from Shadowrun's core feels. More on Cyberpunk as a genre later. SR5's efforts to fix some things got me thinking about where SR3 goes wrong.
So that's what we're talking about today.
I still have plenty of love for SR3. I'm always going to. I think it's a great game that captures the feel of Cyberpunk better than any other game I've ever played, even Cyberpunk 2020. No offense, Grand-dad. However, SR3 is far from perfect. It could even use some house-rules stolen wantonly from SR5 to improve balance between concepts. It's dense and rules-rich, but we're not going to be going into any subjective problems. No mentions of how deadly the system is, no talk about how dense the rules are and how often you end up hand-waving some of them, et cetera. I'm sticking to objective problems. Places the system goes wrong and causes inequality. In fact, inequality is probably its biggest problem.
Samurai vs. Physad. In fact, let's talk about that first. Sammies, or individuals who buy cyberware to increase their effectiveness, fill roughly the same role with physads. Early in publication each concept had a fair amount of strengths over the other, but as publications came out, the strengths of the samurai were chipped away. the supplement State of the Art 2063 added some decent, interesting bioware, but State of the Art 2064 came out soon after and dropped Christmas present after Christmas present on magic types in general, and physads in specific. Suddenly there wasn't anything a physad couldn't be excellent at. Even if you keep the rules-as-written rule of metahumans getting half karma pool(more on that later) this guides the player toward shoring up defenses and strength by playing an ork or troll physad and saving technological character concepts for severe BOD/STR stacking shenanigans or mere style.
Samurai vs. Physad 2: Improvement Costs. Here we go. Here we fucking go! We joke all the time about Physads being a black hole from which no Karma escapes, but really, all of this is the other way around. Physads live on core improvement easy street while technological concepts are blown out an airlock like Jayne should have been. Let's dazzle you with some fucking math.
First off, Page 242 of the core rulebook says a run could be "up to 10 or 12" karma for an especially difficult run. We'll ballpark an average run being 5 karma, but go ahead and look at what the book says if you'd like. I'd wager most runs are going to be between 4 and 6.
Next, page 100 of the Shadowrun Companion suggests base monetary rewards for runs. Assassination, Destruction, and Smuggling runs pay out 5,000 nuyen at base, with few of the options being above that. While some, potentially a lot of runs are going to pay less than that, let's take that as our average.
So, our average run is going to be 5 karma and 5,000 nuyen. Keep that in mind.
Our boy the physad can spend karma on initiation to gain extra power points to spend on powers. He has the option to join a group to reduce the cost, or take an ordeal. Both of these practices are incredibly common. If he's done both, his first initiation will cost 9 karma. Now, an ordeal is not and should never be a "nothing" challenge, even though some are. However, this hardship is balanced out by the fact that they get Metamagics which end up being pretty god damn useful, so we're tossing both concepts out of the conversation. He'll get this in two sessions, but let's say three sessions because he needed to blow a few karma founding or joining a magical group.
The sammie needs to improve the grade of his cyberware, to reduce the cost and gain more out of his six essence. He never gets more than that, so playing a sammie means essence budgeting. For most people, that's the fun of it.
The largest, cheapest piece of ware an average runner is going to have is easily wired reflexes, so let's say he's trying to improve that. Our sammie started the game with Alpha Wired Reflexes 2, which cost him 330k nuyen and takes up 2.4 essence.
He wants to upgrade that to Beta. He has to take the old system out and replace it. The new system will cost 660k nuyen and take up 1.8 essence, so we're currently fishing for an upgrade of 0.6 essence. Used cyberware has a purchase modifier of 0.5, so let's say he can sell his old system for 0.25 the cost, or 82.5k nuyen, leaving him with a total bill of 577.5k nuyen.
our sammie will free up his 0.6 essence in a total of 115.5 sessions. That's a hundred and fifteen and a half sessions. I didn't even factor in the cost of filling that essence with a piece of cyberware. I swear to you, this is the best scenario I could find.
But there's an alternate rule that lets you trade karma for cash. Yes, and the base, book listed version of that rule suggests that one point of karma gives you up to a thousand nuyen. Be still my beating heart, that will surely fix the problem.
But you can simply give more nuyen. This helps, sure. The problem being that the physad is also getting this reward and is spending it on foci or fun things that the sammie is denying himself to try and improve his character.
but-...you know what, we're not talking about fixes just yet.
The Physad did pay build points for his powers. That's very true. However, most people miss the fact that money, too costs build points. The physad can easily build off the five thousand you get for "zero" points in money, and I've seen plenty do just that. That means being a physad cost him 25 points. Most samurai, on the other hand, buy "the million" in nuyen. that's 30 points. Oops.
I also want to address bioware. It's even more expensive than cyberware and has higher street index, and has a separate limit of 3 plus the sammie's remaining essence. This means, no matter how you slice it, a sammie starts with 9 points of "power" as opposed to the physad's 6. It's another fair comparison, but doesn't assuage the above concerns: assuming power points and essence/bio index are roughly the same(they're not, but it's close) the physad will "catch up" in three initiations and surpass in four. That's 32(9+ 11+12) karma to catch up, and another 14 to surpass. The physad is better than the samurai in a mere ten sessions. The samurai, at this point, still has another 105.5 sessions to go before he can upgrade his wired reflexes and free up enough essence for a combat benefit.
Karma Pool and Metahumans. Whew. Now that the big one's out of the way, let's relax and point out a smaller problem. I've mentioned this one before, too. Metahumans receive a point of karma pool every 20 karma earned, whereas humans get one every 10. Karma pool is pretty important, and this is a huge hit. However, being a metahuman brings a lot of stats to the table, and even though my groups abolish this rule, I can see why it exists. I can see why you'd want some sort of mitigating factor to playing an ork, a troll, or even a dwarf because they give strong, universal benefits.
Try as I might, though, I can't think of a reason elves take this penalty too. They get a bonus to agility, which isn't that useful considering a +1 isn't going to net them another point of reaction on their own. They also get a +2 to charisma, which unless you're summoning spirits, does fuckall for your character except minorly reduce the cost of raising charisma linked skills. Big deal.
Deckers. I don't have a huge amount to say on this, and really I'm only including it because it's SR3's classic problem. Both 4e and 5e took a lot of steps to fix this, and not everyone likes what they came up with. While decking during legwork phases flows easily and is simple to manage, as soon as the team infiltrates the facility in question, all hell breaks loose and it becomes a nightmare. That's because not only does he has to split his attention between two places, but one of those places runs at a different time speed than the other. This problem often leads to two things: Either players play "legwork deckers" and take care of their job before the run starts...or more often, playing a decker is seen as a burden or more work than its worth.
Vehicle Damage. This one's pretty contentious. I've gone back and forth myself. Vehicles in Shadowrun 3rd have a blanket protection when they get attacked: 1/2 power code and -1 damage level before you do any calculation. I'm mostly fine on this considering they have low body dice(in general) and, well...it's a vehicle. Not many people are going to get anywhere punching a car, even if it's a Saturn. It's a bigger problem when you consider drones are vehicles, and many drones have an incredible amount of armor on them. This combined with a rigger's control pool means riggers are holy terrors, on the level of a GM having to take care using one as an NPC. The fact that anti-vehicular weapons are all either non-concealable, expensive, non-man-portable, and/or hard to find doesn't help.
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So that's it for now. I'm sure there are other problems, but I feel I hit the big points. There's even a lot of more subjective ones like Street Index being a terrible concept in execution, and totally not helping the cyberware upgrade issue above. I love Shadowrun, particularly 3rd edition, and I feel it's a fairly well balanced game. Why'd I do this, then? Well...no system is perfect, and I wanted to show that. Really, the fact that I can boil its issues down to one post means it's doing pretty fucking good. Shadowrun has it sort of easy where a lot of its problems can be fixed in simple house rules, and I'll likely be going over some I've been thinking about in the future. It doesn't have any systemic problems like Call of Cthulhu, or any problems caused by a giant, hard-to-tackle mass of issues like Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 or classic World of Darkness.
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