Shadowrun General > General Discussion
Cyberpunk Settings
Banshee:
The thread about the cyberpunk documentary got me to thinking. Question to the masses?
If you were looking for an alternative setting to Shadowrun, what would it be like?
Completely original? Based on an existing novel, series, movie, ect? If so which one?
Hobbes:
For me the main appeal of the Shadowrun setting is the "Mash-up" aspect.
Games like Torg, Rifts, Starfinder also scratch that itch for me.
"Cyberpunk" gets real table specific. I've played Shadowrun games that are essentially high fantasy kind of campaigns and had plenty of fun.
Stainless Steel Devil Rat:
I'm kind of sour on the mashup nature, but I think it has more to do with unbalanced game mechanics than not liking the atmosphere. Honestly i think Shadowrun would be vastly improved if spirits were just taken away ;)
Setting-wise, though... call me morbid but Shadowrun is kind of too "Happy Bright Future" for my cyberpunk tastes. Nowhere near enough despair and dystopia. A cyberpunk-supernatural mashup I could totally dig is Cyberpunk/Cthulu.
Ixal:
--- Quote from: Hobbes on ---For me the main appeal of the Shadowrun setting is the "Mash-up" aspect.
Games like Torg, Rifts, Starfinder also scratch that itch for me.
"Cyberpunk" gets real table specific. I've played Shadowrun games that are essentially high fantasy kind of campaigns and had plenty of fun.
--- End quote ---
For me too. Although Rifts is limited by the rules and imo too post apocalyptic while Starfinder ignores the SciFi aspect too much and is too much geared towards dungeon crawls far away from any form of civilization. I do not know Torg.
So from all those mentions only Shadowrun really does a "mash-up" of technology and magic.
MercilessMing:
--- Quote from: Stainless Steel Devil Rat on ---Setting-wise, though... call me morbid but Shadowrun is kind of too "Happy Bright Future" for my cyberpunk tastes. Nowhere near enough despair and dystopia. A cyberpunk-supernatural mashup I could totally dig is Cyberpunk/Cthulu.
--- End quote ---
Same here, I'd prefer less high fantasy, more occult. And Shadowrun definitely pays more lip service to cyberpunk themes than they actually support it in game terms.
If we're talking about a Shadowrun game with a different Shadowrun setting, where Cyberpunk and Magic are mashed up, I think I would just like a setting that's more tightly designed, to be honest. Instead of a setting where Tech and Magic are blended all over the place (despite what the books say about them not playing well together), I'd like a tech-heavy setting where magic is rare, lower powered, and represents chaos in a world obsessed with control. So it has a cyberpunk purpose, because it's f'ing magic. When magic is powerful and you need magic to fight magic and it boils down to just another dimension of combat, it becomes ubiquitous and predictable and it ceases to be magic for me.
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