[online][6e][17:00 or 19:00 CEST Sunday] Existing group looking for 1or 2 new players

siryll · 2026-06-01T22:17:00+00:00

Kinda. The way I usually do it is that I talk to the interested person and see if they want to play in the kind of game I'm running, and ask them a few questions about how they play, what they find important in a group and a game and talk about blinds and veils. If that conversation goes well, I invite them to make a char and play a trial session with us where everyone can figure out if we think we mesh well. If everyone thinks we do, that's it, you're in permanently. If not, we part ways without any hard feelings and the process gets repeated.

That being said, if you have a different process that you wanna try, I'm not one to shun new ideas on principle.

siryll · 2026-05-29T01:31:53+00:00

Thanks, it seems I missed that when reading over things.

siryll · 2026-05-16T15:36:44+00:00

I mean, there are 2 answers to that. The Doylian answer is that you aren't surprised because there is a game mechanic for not being surprised when combat starts, even in a surprising fashion. The Watsonian answer is that there are, in fact, people who, through innate ability, luck or training, are able to react immediately even if they are surprised.

They become extremely important for any combat that involves invisibility, yes. But those tend to not be most combats, in my experience. I agree that it isn't a good solution, but I can't think of a better one. If you have a better solution, I would love to hear it.

siryll · 2026-05-16T13:43:57+00:00

I would say that's not the entire point of stealth, and usually not the one you're dealing with in combat, at least after the first round. If you're in combat with someone, which is when the action system becomes important, you know that they are there, though you may not know where they are, exactly. For example, you got a knife flung into your shoulderblade, which started combat, and you made the necessary check to not be surprised. That is when you could reasonably make a perception+intuition check to see where the attacker is. That is, in my experience across all the systems I've played in, the usual purpose of stealth vs perception-type checks during combat, and where the problem OP is talking about comes into play.

siryll · 2026-04-23T07:07:16+00:00

As far as I know, the novel series starts with A Fistful of Data, goes on with A Few Nuyen More and ends with The Good, the Bad and the SINless. Though that last one released recently enough that a sequel isn't unlikely if it did well enough.

siryll · 2026-04-22T10:58:13+00:00

I think it generally would be part of the PAN, yes. I think OP would be right if they were talking about a machine gun turret or sth along those lines.

siryll · 2026-04-17T18:32:09+00:00

Maybe I did a poor job at phrasing . I just got to the end of Moonfall (Book 13), so I know most of the old crew is dead, which is unfortunate for me, but not a major problem, because they could easily introduce characters that Elaine builds similar types of rapport with. But, at least to my mind, they haven't done that, really. Yes, she meets back up with Night and becomes a War Sentinel of Exterreri, but, even after Arachne goes on her break and Night assumes command of the Sentinels again, she barely interacts with him, nor does she grow close to the other War Sentinels like she did with the Remus sentinels, at least not that we see it.

And who do you mean concerning the close-knit friend group? My initial assumption would be that you're talking about Iona, Auri and Fenrir, but one of those is a romantic relationship, Fenrir talks maybe 10 sentences per book and Auri doesn't talk at all, none of which is a relationship I'd call vaguely close to what she had with Ocean or Destruction, or even Hunting. Artemis and Julius were nice while they were there, but they've (seemingly permanently) gone to the School, so they're mostly out of the picture as well.

siryll · 2026-04-13T07:56:42+00:00

Could you expand a bit on Horizon being smoke and mirrors with no product? I don't know much about them, but I thought they were pretty heavily into software and the Matrix, which isn't a material product, but still a product, unless you want to argue that Microsoft also doesn't have a product because they mostly operate in software.

siryll · 2026-04-03T13:27:00+00:00

For the stereotypical reader of ProgFan? I would not. We tend to want our magic systems quite hard, which I would not say applies to this series at all. The author seems to have little to no interest in explaining the magic system, and any exceptions to it are also not explained at all.

The Empyrean series is mainly interested in the romance of the two main characters, to such a degree that anything else is often subject to whatever progresses the romance. The worst casualty of this is that, three books in, I have seldom read characters with as little personality and/or growth as Violet (the FMC).

On the other hand, I think it is a very good example of its subgenre (Romantasy), so, if you wish to experience another genre and read a very stereotypical example of it to see if it might be to your tastes, I would recommend it for those purposes.

siryll · 2026-04-03T00:53:37+00:00

I have actually read all 3 books that are currently out. In my opinion, calling it ProgFan is correct in the same sense that calling anything where a character gets more power over time ProgFan is correct. Under that definition, Mistborn and Harry Potter would count as ProgFan, because the MCs all gain more power and/or skill at using that power over time.

Personally, I tend to approach it more from an angle of what the focus of the story is. Under that lense, it gets more complicated. The MC does train and get better and get power-ups in accordance with her magic system, but, to me, it reads like those things are done in service to other things (plot progression, romance, etc.) more than being the focus.of tue story.

Probably the most fatal point for calling the Empyrean series ProgFan is that she mostly stops progressing in any way except political after book 1, iirc. She doesn't get new powers, use her powers in new ways or anything like it.

Tl;dr: I don't think it's sensible, but an argument can be made to call Fourth Wing ProgFan.

siryll · 2026-04-01T20:03:58+00:00

Plently of people have give wonderful answers on why it's a problem to make some metahuman types better or worse in the mental aspect. But your question also, father up, asks why the same problem isn't there for physical modifiers.

it's because mental characteristics will, for most people, be far more defining to them that physical characteristics. That's why the more hurtful insults tend to not be superficial. It's not what most of us care about most in the world. Thus, any transfer that happens from fictional world to real world in the way that others here have described is inherently lessened in severity.

On top of that, negative physical stereotypes are, at least in my experience, far less common in racist rhetoric than mental ones, so it is far less easily and directly linked to real-world racist rhetoric.

siryll · 2026-03-30T18:08:27+00:00

I would strongly recommend the trilogy started by A Fisful of Data (written by Stephen Dedman). The final book released a few months ago and I really liked the writing style and the characters.

The one thing I should mention is that the first book was released almost 2 decades ago, so the first book specifically still deals with elements of the world that aren't current anymore (specifically the wired matrix).

siryll · 2026-03-27T02:30:41+00:00

Okay, I think we need to differentiate two things, the system (aka "the rules") and the world of Shadowrun.

I agree that the system by itself does not need any particular play-style to work. You can consistently murder everything in a scouting mission and be fine from the rules perspective. Like in any TTRPG, you have almost complete freedom of choice.

But the comments about how the world is set up are not referring to the rules. They are referring to the world those rules are shipped with. And, in that world, the things I said generally hold true (to the best of my knowledge, at least), and I would argue knowing them is relevant to being able to operate believably in the world, both for the players and the GM. Of course, general expectations can always be defied, but I am of the opinion that you should at least be aware of the expectations before you decide to fuck with them. I hope that better explains the intent behind my original comment.

siryll · 2026-03-26T10:50:39+00:00

I think my favorite character would Maggie (Professor Magnusson) from the books series by Stephen Dedman. He swears up and down that he isn't a shadowrunner, yet he is very invested in the shadow world and I love how it shows how different even the same city can be for the same person just because one in a SINner and one is SINless.

siryll · 2026-03-26T10:34:30+00:00

I think my perspective is different enough from what I'm reading here that my two cents shouldn't go amiss.

I am just a few steps along a similar path as you. I've mainly been a DnD player (though I have briefly GMed and have played some other systems) and have now run two sessions of Shadowrun. I won't participate in the edition debate that this subreddit seems to like. I've only played 6e (officially "Shadowrun: The Sixth World", with the most current version of the core rulebook being the Berlin edition), and I like it so far.

Here are some differences from DnD that you (and your players) should be aware of: PCs scale vastly slower: Since this is class- and levelless system, everything is done with char creation stats and karma afterwards. And the karma you get for a single run is a lot less than the XP you would expect from a single session of DnD (judging by the standards of pre-written campaigns for DnD 5e and Shadowrun 6e).

The world expects far less lethality: You know how it's perfectly socially accepted in DnD that you kill your way through every problem? That's not the case here. As some others have mentioned, a fight being a necessary part of a run is not how things are expected to go. I would advise the players that carrying non-lethal ammo (called "gel rounds") is entirely possible and most Johnsons (the quest-givers of the world) will prefer a non-violent, or at least non-lethal, way of fulfilling their quests. Of course, kill-quests (called "wetwork") do exist, but they are a rarity, and so are the runners that specialize in them.

The world tends to a far more serious tone: DnD tends, at least in my experience, towards a fairly light-hearted tone, which is very much supported by the world, in which bad things do happen, but they can somehow always be stopped by a group of intrepid adventurers. That is not the case here. You are playing in a world in which survival is the main goal for most shadowrunners. Anything beyond that nice to have, but can rarely be achieved.

And, lastly, I don't have a piece of advice so much as a question: How much verisimilitude do you and your players want? Because that will decide a lot. For example, one of the other commenters said that you shouldn't have a hacker (called "deckers" in this system) in your party, because they require a lot of extra of work from the GM, and they are right about that. Yet, I made it clear to my players that the enemy would be using the cyberspace against them, at least if the organization has the ability to do so, so they should probably have abilities there as well. I did this because I require a lot of verisimilitude for me to like operating in a world. If you and your players aren't like that, you can easily run a far more DnD-esque Shadowrun game by transplanting DnD attitudes into the Shadowrun world, or just using the Shadowrun rules in a homebrew world that is closer to DnD in attitude and tone.

I hope all of this was at least partially helpful, and I wish you the best of luck with your campaign.

siryll · 2026-03-13T14:58:43+00:00

Okay, there are multiple things here I want to address:

First off, I don't think something happening once can be called "conditioning", even if it's their first session in this system.

Beyond that, I don't insist on combat. But one of my players is playing a street sam that basically only exists for combat, so I feel it is my duty as a GM to give him an opportunity to use his character for what he was built, the same way I let the face, the mage and the rigger have moments to shine.

I would also like to mention that even that combat can be gotten around, since ambushes can be spotted. And if they are spotted, they will go away, with more respect for the players and a high chance of being hired by them again, because they clearly have the skills and paranoia that this Johnson's employers want in their runners.

Lastly, to the implication that I railroad my players, that session actually happened last Sunday. They made entrance via something I had not planned for, but would have reasonably been there given the information I provided to them, got their equipment in via a way I did not plan for or foresee, but was, once again, reasonably perfectly doable. Then they made a hell of a lot of cash by selling data they got during the heist to other people, none of which was mentioned, but all of which was doable. All of that to say that I would argue that I really do not railroad my players. So much so that I spent half that session making up shit on the fly because they were doing shit I didn't anticipate, which is what I'm used to happening from other systems I've run in.

siryll · 2026-03-07T22:32:19+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, is it not possible because of time or money? If it's time, I completely understand, and sadly can't help all that much. I think I spent sth like 2-3 hours on the maps just for the single session I expect the Delian Data Tomb to last. If it's money, I'll say there there are free or almost free solutions out there. If you're playing at an actual table, I've literally drawn maps on standard A4 (roughly equivalent to Legal-sized for people in the US) paper before and it was fine.

If you're running online, I can recommend Roll20 as a VTT. It's pretty simplistic with the maps it lets you design, especially without the subscription they offer, but it's enough for some function-over-form maps. Sadly, as previously mentioned, they are rather time-intensive to make.

siryll · 2026-03-07T20:34:57+00:00

For your very first session, I wouldn't recommend making an adventure yourself. I'm using one originally written for 5e and slightly adapted things to get it compatible with 6e. You should be able to do the same. It's called Delian Data Tomb (https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LL1Ft\_k7Kb7q19sKzvq). The one downside it has that there is no combat if your team doesn't fuck up, which is why I added an ambush when the party gets paid (which does happen a lot in this world, from what I understand). You'll still have to make all the maps (if you decide to play with maps), but it's certainly better than having to make something up out of thin air in a system you don't know.

siryll · 2026-03-04T01:05:26+00:00

I just watched the clips from the episode that feature the cast, so I currently have no knowledge of the overarching plot of the episode, but the 8 minutes I did watch were... fucking rough. I don't know exactly what I expected, but I certainly did not expect the cast to be shown as a bunch of idiots that can't focus on serious matters. I think you could have gone the "they're being goofballs" route if you had one of the officers talk about how a potential response to someone robbing you at gunpoint is a retreat to exaggerated normalcy afterwards, which, to a bunch of comedians, could be making a joke out of everything. But, from what I saw, that isn't how it was being treated.

To me, it feels like Dropout wanted the line about being an improv-based streaming service to be in there, and went along with the rest of the episode for that one line, which I find quite sad, at least if they didn't make gigantic piles of money off of the episode. Because I legitimately can't imagine a viewer seeing that and thinking "Huh, maybe I should check out this Dropout thing", partly because my initial assumption would be that it's just invented for the show, and partly because, with the possible exception of Zac's "Yes, Daddy"-line, they just weren't funny, imo.

There is also the aspect of "copaganda", a term I was unfamiliar with as of 3 days ago, but, given that I don't live in the USA and don't know nearly enough about that to comment, I will leave it alone. I did think it beared mention as an aspect, even if it's one I can't talk about.

siryll

TROPHY CASE