[RPG]: Shadowrun: On The Run, reviewed by grandmaster_cain (3/3)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12237.phtml

Cain's Summary:

An excellent resource for starting Shadowrun GM's, but only a moderately good adventure.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Ancient History]

I respect Cain's review, but on the shadowy plot thing I'd like to add that (heavy spoiler follows)

On the Run refers back to an early Shadowrun module called One Stage Before about the semilegendary rocker JetBlack, who was so scared of death he accepted an offer to become a vampire. New players won't spot the link, but I know older players who got misty-eyed over it.

[grandmaster_cain]

It's not so much the shadowy plot thing that made me crazy, it was the fact that it all boiled down to the "Vampiric power play" plot. It'd be like saying the power behind the scenes was really Drizzt. It wouldn't matter if it was Drizzt the cyberzombie, packing a set of monoswords, with a lot of other references (and believe me, if AH says there's a reference to it, there is!) we've still got a plotline based on the drow.

Some things just don't belong in a Shadowrun module. I'll happily leave the vampiric plots to World of Darkness. Shadowrun's got no shortage of antagonists, for it's into it really should have focused on something unique to itself. It doesn't matter if it's a "Shadowrun elder vampire", it'd be just the same if it was a "Shadowrun Drow"* or a set of "Shadowrun Power Armor". They're elements that are wholly unnecesary and more than a little contradictory for the Shadowrun world.


(*) And yes, I'm more than aware of the "dark ones". They're not drow, they're muppets with a goth fetish.

[Ancient History]

and believe me, if AH says there's a reference to it, there is!

Heh. Thankee.

I can't claim impartiality to this story; hell Robyn was kind enough to give me a shout-out because she accepted one of my suggestions. Still, I hope no one thinks the module useless. Even if you don't railroad players through it, there are, as pointed out, some nice tips for GMing SR4, and a few interesting characters and locations that can be reused.

[grandmaster_cain]

Oh, if it were only advertised as a GM aid, then it'd be very good. Unfortunately, my playtest didn't show me that the adventure was really anything more than blandish, and highly World of Darkness-ish. From my own personal experience, you'll have to do an awful lot of work explaining the Shadowrun world to a new player if you try this one on them. I highly suggest that if you are going to purchase it, don't think of it as a Shadowrun module with GM aids; think of it as a GM aid with an example adventure.

On the Run was clearly written with the GM in mind. It makes for a fairly decent intro for new Shadowrun GM's. It doesn't work nearly as well for new Shadowrun players, though. It's not as bad as the Quick Start runs, which had new runners meeting Richard Villiers and fighting a cyberzombie, but it still manages to miss the needs of new players.

I *am*, however, going to stand by my reccomendation that you should never even consider buying the pdf, if you plan on printing out a hardcopy. Even with Adam's offer, it was too much hell to go through. FanPro really needs to start puttinf out print-friendly versions alongside their technically-proficient eye-candy versions.

[Valanti]

I think the reviewer's biases come out too much in the review - some of the criticisms aren't valid because they're based on the -opinions- of how something "should be" in their mind, instead of something more objective.

The difficulties of printing the .pdf are valid and worth considering if you're buying a download, but as you can get the book now in print...

Granted, this is rpg.net, but I thought the "let's all boycott FanPro" was unprofessional and not constructive.

The criticisms about plot are also valid - a lot of the adventure DOES hinge on how curious they get about their job, and it should have probably had more info on how to go about the legwork w/out a hacker in the party.

But the rest is just a rant. So what if the main villain is a vampire? There are vampires in Shadowrun; they aren't White Wolf just because they have a vampire and dice pools. And, as Ancient History has pointed out, it is, in fact, related to an older Shadowrun adventure.

[Harlequins_Back]

He's being way too nice to the book-- it's a piece of crap, written to push up a badly-developed game. It's a sad follow up to One Stage Before-- and a really pathetic way of trying to prove that nSR tastes the same as classic SR. It's still New Coke, no matter what they try to do to it.

[grandmaster_cain]

I think the reviewer's biases come out too much in the review - some of the criticisms aren't valid because they're based on the -opinions- of how something "should be" in their mind, instead of something more objective.

All reviews are based on something subjective, on how things "should be". Everyone's going to have their own opinion. The whole point of writing a review is to demonstrate yours.

Granted, this is rpg.net, but I thought the "let's all boycott FanPro" was unprofessional and not constructive.

Not: "let's all boycott FanPro." It's: "Don't buy FanPro pdf's until they start bundling print-friendly versions." I think you should support them on their hardcopies.

But the rest is just a rant. So what if the main villain is a vampire? There are vampires in Shadowrun; they aren't White Wolf just because they have a vampire and dice pools.

Yeah, and there's vampires in D&D as well. Vampires as a critter to fight is one thing. Vampires as the plotting schemers who move their pawns, while never getting their hands dirty, is mostly a World of Darkness thing. Even D&D Ravenloft never presented Straud as an unstatted bogeyman, capable of anything the GM wanted.

I like Shadowrun because it's *Shadowrun*. There's lots of things that could have been done here. The Shadowrun world and history is so rich, there's dozens of things they could have pulled from, without once even coming close to World of Darkness themes. I mean, even now, GM's are still pulling useful things out of Dunkelzan's Will. AH is probably the biggest Shadowrun metaplot expert out there, and I'm sure he could give you dozens of hanging threads without needing to think about it. I'm not nearly as good as he is, and I can do that.

He's being way too nice to the book-- it's a piece of crap, written to push up a badly-developed game.

Uh, no. It's not terrible. It's a pretty good GM aid, and it's a medicore module. It just happened to miss the Shadowrun style. Adam and co have enough style to make up for that.

[Cynthia Celeste Miller]

Originally Posted by Harlequins_Back

It's still New Coke, no matter what they try to do to it.

Well, that's sheerly an issue of opinion.

As far as I'm concerned, the problem with your analogy is that New Coke tasted worse than the original, whereas New Shadowrun tastes infinitely better than its respective original.

[cartoonlad]

Unfortunately, [the legwork section] relies heavily on there being a decker character on the team, which I didn’t exactly have.

Does the adventure really require a decker/hacker/technomancer character or does it require some sort of Matrix legwork? One thing that I've seen between older versions of Shadowrun and SR4 is that in SR4, the Matrix seems to be a lot more open to non-Matrix specialists. Several players I've gamed with didn't realize that they, the non-Matrix specialist, could actually look things up in the Matrix. (Granted, they won't be breaking into Aztechnology's datahub, but still.)