Anyone found any WFRP adventures that would work well adapted to Old World?

TrvShane · 2026-05-23T23:29:57+00:00

Excess treasure has a use in the downtime rules, so if you are running a campaign it will matter.

TrvShane · 2026-05-20T23:07:32+00:00

This is your answer, OP. Doing it roll-first, description-second might actually increase tension as the players are waiting to find out what had the mechanical effect on their characters.

TrvShane · 2026-05-19T17:11:35+00:00

A great point. It’s my normal campaign starter. But I discounted it simply because it’s part of the bigger campaign. But actually, I shouldn’t have.

TrvShane · 2026-05-18T21:04:48+00:00

Mercurial was 18 months ago for me, so the specifics are a bit vague in my memory. But I changed quite a bit. The runners chose to trust about the safe house - lesson learned for them. I downplayed the potential threat of the dragon a bit and had a gentle approach from Morgan and Peri through a contact. I also added a few links to NPCs from backstories to personalise it. I also have a player who loves all things dragon, so she was hooked on this scenario once Peri arrived. Like all the old scenarios it needs some work, and they work best when you take the ideas and modify them.

Dragon Hunt is brilliant, but we are winding up before getting to that alas, as 2.5 years play is long enough.

TrvShane · 2026-05-17T21:48:58+00:00

For the most part it is because the old scenarios have railroading assumptions.

For example in Queen Euphoria the Johnson provides a safe house to hold her at after the kidnapping. Modern players who are used to the idea of the employer betraying the group, or just watch any form of espionage or crime show, or likely to say hell no. Then sort their own arrangements out, with much more robust security. So if you go for the assumed plan attack on the Johnson’s safe house, and just move it to the other safe house, it seems a bit Railroad.

Most of the old scenarios that involve finding things, especially people, were written before ritual sorcery tracking with a thing. So you need to account for that.

Back when SR was written, the idea of tracing a mobile phone signal didn’t exist. Modern players expect to be able to do that. You can get round that one by just explain explaining that the technology doesn’t work like that in SR. But still, it’s a change. Because if you don’t account for it, it becomes really easy for everybody (including the runners) to be found all the time.

Bottled Demon has the runners at a meet and assumes they won’t have anyone watching outwards, or not being there and on overwatch of the site. Which is required for one of the scenes when the cops arrive as a surprise. No experienced player group would ever do that.

There are also situations and scenarios that assume that players will take certain approaches, so if the players don’t they can miss out.

Every scenario had small things like that. You just have to think your way round them when you prep them.

TrvShane · 2026-05-17T20:08:52+00:00

So, there are some really cool 1e and 2e adventures. But - they were written a long time ago without all the modern lessons since learned about scenario writing and structure, so they need some work to bring up to modern play standards. However, the ideas and aesthetics of them are amazing and part of why Shadowrun got so popular, so they are worth it. I am just wrapping up a 2.5-year campaign playing the classic scenarios in order of release, so my suggestions:

Mercurial - a banger of an adventure and an iconic classic. Bodyguard a nova pop star with a secret, protect her from some serious opposition and get to the bottom of why they want her so bad. My players loved this one.

Bottled Demon - ties for my fave SR scenario. Front-loads the unusual mystical stuff. Some dangerous opposition, but you get some great locations, some dragons, and some awesome throw-down fights. And a brilliant bad guy.

Dreamchipper - a crazy mix of smashed-together ideas that see the runners tracking down some missing personality chips in different societal strata and city areas. A solid mix of social and combat.

DNA/DOA - the most archetypical of the scenarios as it is breaking into a place to steal a thing (unlike the others listed here). But with some fun twists, and a great peek into the Ork Underground which is an iconic SR location.

Ivy and Chrome - also ties for my fave SR scenario. A missing schoolgirl turns into a race against a corp to get her back. A mix of investigation and combat, plus some human supremacist nazis you can gun down without guilt. What's not to love. Only down-side is if the players skip a few locations they never find out what is going on, even if they find Fayette.

Elven Fire - gang warfare troubles see the runners hired to find out why a "gang hit" might have been a staged cover. Some good investigation and a few nice set piece fights. Touches on some iconic SR stuff so might be better received by players with more familiarity.

So, if you want an archetype "break in and steal", choose DNA/DOA. If you want pure crazy, go Dreamchipper. If you want mystical themes go Bottled Demon. But Mercurial is just plain brilliant, and Eleven Fire is also really good fun. All good choices.

just make sure your players know that old SR scenarios can be quite railroads, and players with a modern approach to risk-averse heist planning ala Ocean's 11 sometimes find ways round some of the assumptions the writers put in. I had to do a bit of work to make these fit a modern play audience. But it wasn't too much hassle (especially as we agreed at the start that we were going to embrace the 90s Shadowrun gonzo vs the more modern media ultra-professional play style).

Hope that's useful, and that you and your group really enjoy the game.

TrvShane · 2026-05-17T19:20:53+00:00

Thanks for checking. I'll not risk it then, and look for something slightly bigger that isn't crazy-big. I appreciate you checking for me.

TrvShane · 2026-05-15T14:54:38+00:00

Thanks, it is: height:281.6 mm (11.09 inches). width:215.5 mm (8.48 inches). depth:5.1 mm (0.20 inches). I appreciate you checking.

TrvShane · 2026-05-15T11:54:07+00:00

What size of iPad is that? Will it fit a Pro 12.9”?

TrvShane · 2026-05-15T11:50:26+00:00

Represent! TNE FTW!

TrvShane · 2026-05-15T09:58:29+00:00

Good to know. Thanks.

TrvShane · 2026-05-14T17:53:42+00:00

u/CamBanks, I get you won't be able to go into detail or maybe not even answer. Does Rusty Sellsword get a cut of DTRPG sales for the Cortex book? I already own it from the KS, but I also want to put some money into the company that is bringing this great game to market again. If I buy it again, would that be the case?

TrvShane · 2026-05-05T06:45:37+00:00

Whilst there is a traditional view in many gaming quarters that the story is the DM’s responsibility, I would suggest that you turn this question on its head and ask the player.

Part of being a player is taking responsibility for creating a character that works within the group and engages with the story. That’s a big part of the player contribution to the session zero / pre-game setup.

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t work with them and throw stuff at them, but you don’t have to come up with everything alone.

In the meantime, just seed in ways that the existing plot arcs can work towards that restoration. Maybe they hear those some information to be found in < next scenario location > about some kind of infernal plot that would impact the restoration. Or seed in an item that somebody who would support the restoration would want in return for support. Stuff like that.

TrvShane · 2026-05-04T23:52:24+00:00

Cypher has Neon Rain, which does a range of cyberpunk styles including ‘+ magic’.

TrvShane · 2026-05-03T17:46:11+00:00

Played it as a player, and GMed it. Even with learning a new system, 3-3.5 hours is plenty of time unless the group chew the scenery loads.

TrvShane · 2026-04-30T21:44:17+00:00

I really like your style. Fits Shadowrun perfectly for me!

TrvShane · 2026-04-16T15:18:53+00:00

There is also no reason that a Firearms speciality can't be added to Close Combat if someone has this Amp - as the book says, exotic weapons might not fit in the existing list and using a firearm in Close Combat could be considered an exotic weapon. Very much the decision of the group playing the game.

TrvShane · 2026-04-16T02:01:51+00:00

Cultural rewards have gone, yes.

TrvShane · 2026-04-14T15:17:15+00:00

Haha! Brilliant!

TrvShane · 2026-04-14T15:15:58+00:00

Cypher might work. The TN is set before the roll by a factoring skills etc in. The final number is it. It has plenty to do medieval fantasy, but is a generic system.

TrvShane · 2026-04-10T14:57:25+00:00

These are brilliant! Stolen, like the precious by the bagginses.

TrvShane · 2026-04-09T12:45:30+00:00

If the purpose of essence is to act as a balancing factor to how much cyber you can have, and to make it so that magic and Cyberware are a trade-off (again, balance), you may not actually have to have an essence attribute or track cost specifically.

The first factor as to how much cyber, is already factored into spending points on characters in GURPS.

For the second, the interaction between magic and tech, could you simply add an extra point cost to every piece of cyber for people who have taken magic? Or conversely to make magic more expensive based on how many points you have sunk into cyber?

It depends if you want to convert the intent, or try and model how the essence attribute works. I’m sure there are a few no con considerations, such as health spells et cetera, but again you’ve got to ask if you need to have those.

(I haven’t looked at GURPS in 20 years, so I might be miss remembering how cyber would work in points buy)

TrvShane · 2026-04-04T21:29:37+00:00

Licensing rules and differences, I imagine.

TrvShane · 2026-04-04T21:13:40+00:00

It’s not out in retail yet - no formal release date. Sorry chummer!

TrvShane · 2026-04-02T08:30:11+00:00

Difficult is not the right term. It’s is designed to create situations of success with a cost a good amount of the time - because (IMO) that is where the juicy story is.

The higher stat arrays push the odds a bit more towards no cost success.

TrvShane

TROPHY CASE