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Singularity

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« Reply #735 on: <05-11-19/0106:54> »
Hello! I just joined here after having heard about the new 6th edition coming out and reading the news release. I've played a lot of tabletop RPGs, but mostly fantasy with just a bit of SciFi mixed in.

I swear I'm not a spammer! Then again, that's exactly what a spammer would say, isn't it?  ???

I heard about Shadowrun from a co-worker, and after watching a few YouTube videos talking about the new edition it sounded like fun, so I decided to make an account here. He logged into his account to show me how, and then I made mine. I do have many questions to start off with. If this isn't the right thread to put them in, please let me know! So here are the questions, in no particular order:

  • When signing up, the terms stated to not use copyrighted materials, etc. However I noticed that most people seem to have a forum avatar; I am assuming that all these different avatars are not each user's own work. As such, is using art found on the internet for an avatar OK, or is there a specific place I need to go for pictures (for example Paradox Interactive makes you choose from several sets that they provide)?
  • One of the videos I watched mentioned "quick start rules." Are those available, and if so where can I find them? I thought I found a download for them, but after reading I think it may be from an earlier edition.
  • Is there a specific background book that brings me up to speed on current events, culture, etc? For example my co-worker mentioned some kind of 'techno-virus'(?) that was ravaging the population in many areas of the world. Is that still a thing, and if so is there some kind of sourcebook that details the overall game world stories happening?
  • After listening to him (my co-worker) explain the game's major events, setting, and classes (archetypes, I think he called them?), I think I want to start off with an orc (or possibly troll) hacker type, maybe one of those drone controllers or possibly do both! If the last one, he mentioned that there was something called (I think) a technomage that used to have the ability to do both. He wasn't sure if they still were, as he had to quit playing some time back due to real life issues. Are they still a thing, or did that virus thingy wipe them out?
  • Assuming they are still a thing, are they a viable option for combining hacking with drones (droning?), or do I need to think about going a different route to do so?

[li]Or is it still too early to know these things, given that 6th edition was just announced? I'm a bit confused on that point, as some people seem to have gotten copies of rules; there's an actual play video on Youtube from the Shadowcasters Network channel, and another channel was talking about quick start rules.[/li]

[li]Assuming that I know very little about cyberpunk (a safe assumption to make), what materials (other than Shadowrun books) would give me a good idea of cyberpunk? He recommended a novel called 'Hardwired' and I bought a digital copy of that; are there any other 'must read/watch' titles out there (preferably things that are still fairly easy to get)?[/li][/list]

Hmm, I'm sure I will have a ton of additional questions in the future, but I think that's it for now! Now I apparently have many, many hours of reading! The website here had all kinds of links for stuff to read. Additionally, there is a LOT of stuff on the forums here! It's looks rather daunting to go through, to be honest. Any suggestions on where to focus on first? Thanks in advance for any answers!

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #736 on: <05-11-19/0429:30> »
Welcome! I can't speak for other people's avatars, in my case it's some art I commissioned.

Quick-start rules for SR6 will be in the Beginner Box. It's nice if you have a group that's new, it's not recommended (by me) if you have an experienced group because the shortcuts it takes with some rules may be confusing. Beginner Box is planned to come out next month.

Background book: There's going to be another recap book, Cutting Black in September, which summarises the SR5-to-SR6 plotlines:
A new edition of Shadowrun requires new stories, and Cutting Black launches Shadowrun, Sixth World Edition with a bang! Following on the immersive style of classic Shadowrun books such as Universal Brotherhood and Bug City as well as newer successes like Dark Terrors, Cutting Black sets up storylines full of dark dealings and intrigue that will shake the Shadowrun setting and inspire game campaigns for months or longer. Players and gamemasters alike diving into the new edition will need this book as a resource to find out what’s happening in the Sixth World and to keep up with its twists and turns.

Technomancers are capable of decking, and as they submerge they can develop the ability to Rig with their minds. They can't do it straight out of the box.

Rigging had its problems in SR5, we haven't seen SR6 yet but supposedly some things change significantly to make it much easier to play. Only time will tell though.

There are 3 groups that have the rules right now, of which only 1 is really allowed to talk stuff (Non-Disclosure Agreements and all): The Shadowcaster group was given stuff to help advertise, the playtesters/authors still have their stuff, and the errata team apparently received copies last week so they can give it a first run.

As for where to start: Ignore the mechanic-discussions, those will get you nowhere since SR5 was significantly crunchy and they changed some things a lot in SR6. Maybe Secret History?
How am I not part of the forum?? O_O I am both active and angry!

Singularity

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« Reply #737 on: <05-11-19/0445:33> »
Welcome! I can't speak for other people's avatars, in my case it's some art I commissioned.

Quick-start rules for SR6 will be in the Beginner Box. It's nice if you have a group that's new, it's not recommended (by me) if you have an experienced group because the shortcuts it takes with some rules may be confusing. Beginner Box is planned to come out next month.

Background book: There's going to be another recap book, Cutting Black in September, which summarises the SR5-to-SR6 plotlines:
A new edition of Shadowrun requires new stories, and Cutting Black launches Shadowrun, Sixth World Edition with a bang! Following on the immersive style of classic Shadowrun books such as Universal Brotherhood and Bug City as well as newer successes like Dark Terrors, Cutting Black sets up storylines full of dark dealings and intrigue that will shake the Shadowrun setting and inspire game campaigns for months or longer. Players and gamemasters alike diving into the new edition will need this book as a resource to find out what’s happening in the Sixth World and to keep up with its twists and turns.

Technomancers are capable of decking, and as they submerge they can develop the ability to Rig with their minds. They can't do it straight out of the box.

Rigging had its problems in SR5, we haven't seen SR6 yet but supposedly some things change significantly to make it much easier to play. Only time will tell though.

There are 3 groups that have the rules right now, of which only 1 is really allowed to talk stuff (Non-Disclosure Agreements and all): The Shadowcaster group was given stuff to help advertise, the playtesters/authors still have their stuff, and the errata team apparently received copies last week so they can give it a first run.

As for where to start: Ignore the mechanic-discussions, those will get you nowhere since SR5 was significantly crunchy and they changed some things a lot in SR6. Maybe Secret History?

Ok, and thanks!  ;D

AJCarrington

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« Reply #738 on: <05-11-19/0845:12> »
    • Assuming that I know very little about cyberpunk (a safe assumption to make), what materials (other than Shadowrun books) would give me a good idea of cyberpunk? He recommended a novel called 'Hardwired' and I bought a digital copy of that; are there any other 'must read/watch' titles out there (preferably things that are still fairly easy to get)?

    Welcome!

    Hardwired is an excellent novel and great intro into the cyberpunk genre. You might also want to check out some of the early novels (ie Neuromance, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) from William Gibson as they pretty much  defined the genre back in the day.

    I would also recommend the novels and short story anthologies (Spells & Chrome, Sprawl Stories, Drawing Destiny and World of Shadows) that CGL has released over the last several years as they will  give you a very good taste of then SR world/setting. Most of these are readily available in print and/or digital format. CGL has also released a number of the "original" SR fiction in digital format...the Secrets of Power trilogy is pretty iconic to the setting.

    Beta

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    « Reply #739 on: <05-11-19/0905:31> »
    There is so much reading you could do.  Really, so, so, soooooo much.  So you'll need to pick and choose.

    For novels, yah, Hardwired (by Walter Jon Williams) is a good starting point.  A couple of other classic cyberpunk novels are Neuromancer by William Gibson and Gravity Fails by George Effinger.  There have also been a lot of shadowrun novels written.  I've not read them myself, but apparently some are pretty good. 

    TV and movies tend to not do quite so pure cyberpunk, but you get some of the feel from Escape from New York, Robocop, or in a way even Aliens (no, Cyberpunk doesn't do interstellar travel, but the attitude of the corp handler is a good match, and the horror of dealing with bug spirits is somewhat akin to Aliens). 

    Thanks to the wayback machine, you can read an old Shadowrun primer here:  https://web.archive.org/web/20150909110710/https://s3.amazonaws.com/www.harebrained-schemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/shadowrun_primer.pdf  It only goes up to game year 2062, we are currently in 2080 (maybe 2081?)  The game universe advances year by year with ours, always ~61 or so years ahead of us, but the timelines diverged back around 1990 or a bit earlier.

    You can also find a fairly detailed timeline on the shadowrun wiki, at:  https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Shadowrun_timeline  (and of course the wiki has a lot of other info too, although it hasn't been kept particularly well up to date).

    You will need other people to play with.  If you don't know people who are interested, some stores and many conventions will host 'Shadowrun Missions' play.  These are ~4 hour adventures that are designed to be sort of a common, shared, experience, so that you could take a character that has run in some of them in one place and play more of them somewhere else.  So far those are all written for fifth edition -- the first ones using sixth edition probably won't be out until next year.  So if you are interested in playing those you should looking at trying 5th.

    And good luck with the amount of info out there, and have fun!  (or, to use the classic shadowrun catch phrase:  "Watch your back.  Shoot straight.  Conserve ammo.  And never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.")






    FastJack

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    « Reply #740 on: <05-11-19/1124:19> »
    Welcome Singularity! Hopefully your name is just for fun and you're not planning on bringing on the AI apocalypse or generating a black hole. Anyway, relax, have fun, ask questions, but stay away from the corner over there. There's a bit of a haunting going on, and the ghosts aren't as friendly as Harry Potter house ghosts.

    Singularity

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    « Reply #741 on: <05-11-19/1232:44> »
    Hopefully your name is just for fun and you're not planning on bringing on the AI apocalypse or generating a black hole.

    Can't it be both?

    Ahem!

    I mean:

    Lies! Vicious rumors! My name has nothing to do with the eventual rise of our digital overlords, nor the potential spaghettification of the planet! Nothing!

    >.>

    <.<

    I'm not too worried about ghosts; it's the Harry Potter fanfic that is really terrifying! That stuff will scar you for life. SCAR. YOU.  :o


    Thanks to everyone who listed items for me to check out; I'll make sure to look them up! Of course the Shadowrun specific fiction is a must, and I'll probably start with what is on the main website (many, many links) and work from there.

    Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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    « Reply #742 on: <05-11-19/1238:28> »
    One of the next books to come out is the Neo-Anarchist's Streetpedia.. which sounds like it's an in-universe shadowrunners' wikipedia.

    It should be an amazing source for setting lore.
    RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

    Singularity

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    « Reply #743 on: <05-11-19/1241:38> »
    One of the next books to come out is the Neo-Anarchist's Streetpedia.. which sounds like it's an in-universe shadowrunners' wikipedia.

    It should be an amazing source for setting lore.

    I have my eye on that one! It will probably be my first Shadowrun rules book (Source book? Setting book?).

    Redwulfe

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    « Reply #744 on: <05-12-19/1232:04> »
    Welcome Singularity,


    I would also recommend picking up No Future as a sourcebook as well. It deals with a lot of pop culture in the universe and will probably be a good compliment to the upcoming streetpedia. It will also get updated for 6th so you don't have to worry about it having outdated rules data.
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    Singularity

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    « Reply #745 on: <05-13-19/0144:37> »
    Welcome Singularity,


    I would also recommend picking up No Future as a sourcebook as well. It deals with a lot of pop culture in the universe and will probably be a good compliment to the upcoming streetpedia. It will also get updated for 6th so you don't have to worry about it having outdated rules data.

    I just saw that yesterday, along with the announcement that it would be updated when 6th edition came out, so I went ahead and made that my first official Shadowrun purchase! ^^

    PatrolDeer

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    « Reply #746 on: <09-14-19/1733:10> »
    Hey there
    Just bought SR6 rules couple of weeks ago. I encountered SR5 rules, and I think SR4 rules waay back when I was at elementary school, but I have never played Shadowrun, as the rules were intimidating and extremely complex for me, especially from a GM perspective. But now I decided to fulfil my dream and launch a proper cyber punk campaign!

    I do struggle a bit with making clear understanding of a few things here and there in the new core book, but nothing serious. I have to say that the community around here surprised me in a very positive way and I am glad that such a place exists. Looking forward to learn and contribute!!!
    Cheers  :)

    FastJack

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    « Reply #747 on: <09-14-19/2018:00> »
    Welcome! Feel free to ask questions of anyone, and have fun! Ignore the grumbling trolls in the corner, they haven't gotten their grog yet.

    ZeroSum

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    « Reply #748 on: <09-20-19/1439:23> »
    Hoi, chummers. Long time 'runner returning to the fold.

    Been playing since 1st Edition back in the day, but kind of fell off mid-4th. Picked up a lot of the books for 5th for the lore, but never played it. Discovered this week that 6th Edition came out, and found this place. Looking forward to seeing what's happened with the plot!

    FastJack

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    « Reply #749 on: <09-20-19/1941:55> »
    Welcome ZS! Have a look around, ask questions, check out some stuff in the metaplots boards. Just watch out for the pitfall traps around the safehouses. Some runner's got a bit carried away when they heard Aztechnology was looking for them.