GURPS Shadowrun

[LoneWolf23k]

Decided to resurrect this thread, as I've recently gone back into Shadowrun as a setting, and naturally as a GURPS fanboy, conversion to GURPS rules is a common thought about every RPG I see.

I'm on the fence about the Hacking/Netrunning rules, but I do like the Pyramid 3.21 Hacking rules, so I'd recommend using those.

Interestingly, I'd say GURPS' Spell Magic system is perfect for representing Shadowrunner Mages, although I'd ban most of the College of Technology spells, as Tech and Magic don't exactly link up.

Conjuration, the art of calling, binding and banishing Spirits, can be represented through Ritual Magic, limited to the Spirit college.

Essence Loss related to Cyberware is a more complicated matter, although piling up disadvantages would represent the loss of Humanity, while Magery-capable characters would habe "Taboo Trait: cannot get Cybered".

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

Interestingly, I'd say GURPS' Spell Magic system is perfect for representing Shadowrunner Mages, although I'd ban most of the College of Technology spells, as Tech and Magic don't exactly link up.

Well, IMHO spell magic would need a few important rulings for SR, anyway... Some important ones:

- For standard magic in SR it is very important you have to see the target, through your own eyes or any direct optical device. Compensations with high skill - the default in GURPS Magic - should not be allowed for that aspect.

- Reach: AFAIK mages in SR don't get range penalties for spells. There is only the differentiation between touch-range and visible range - and for things out of sight, there are rituals etc. (e.g. using the blood of a distant victim)

- Loss of fatigue and mental stun damage makes it harder to cast a new spell (penalties). Basically any physical wound would have this effect, too, but I'd say this can be ignored as GURPS deals with damage in a different way than SR and leaving it out should be balanced for mages and mundane characters in comparison.

Essence Loss related to Cyberware is a more complicated matter, although piling up disadvantages would represent the loss of Humanity, while Magery-capable characters would habe "Taboo Trait: cannot get Cybered".

Maybe something like a permanent penalty on all magery (-1 / lost level of essence) would be adequate...

[Crakkerjakk]

I think I already mentioned this in this thread, but a nifty way to mimic the variable drain from casting in SR is to allow fatigue reductions based on margin of success instead of absolute skill levels. Thus it's variable, but encourages high skill levels. You can start it at 1 FP/5 MoS, and vary the ratio to make magic more on par with guns. For my games I found the sweet spot to be about 1 FP/3 MoS.

[Kallatari]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

I think I already mentioned this in this thread, but a nifty way to mimic the variable drain from casting in SR is to allow fatigue reductions based on margin of success instead of absolute skill levels. Thus it's variable, but encourages high skill levels. You can start it at 1 FP/5 MoS, and vary the ratio to make magic more on par with guns. For my games I found the sweet spot to be about 1 FP/3 MoS.

That's pretty much what I do, except that I reduce the energy cost by 1 FP per 2 points of success. I even created a new Cost Fatigue (Margin-Based) limitation to allow me to make powers and abilities along those lines. I've been using this house rull for magic in all my campaigns for the past couple years, and it works pretty well.

In my Shadowrun conversion, specifically, to represent physical drain, what I did is that one-half of the energy cost, rounded down, is paid for with HP instead of FP (or energy reserve). On a successful roll that reduces the energy cost, it's the HP cost that is reduced first.

For example: You have a spell that normally costs 5 energy to cast and 3 energy to maintain. In my conversion, it therefore costs 2 HP and 3 FP to cast, and then another 1 HP and 2 FP to maintain each minute. If you succeed your skill roll by 2, this reduces the cost to 1 HP and 3 FP to cast, and 2 FP to maintain. A margin of success of 4 reduces it to 3 FP to cast and 1 FP to maintain. A margin of 6 makes it 2 FP to cast and no cost to maintain. etc.

Although I didn't use this particular rule all that long as I only had a single "Shadowrun" adventure in my campaign (it was a world/dimension-hopping adventure from my normal primary campaign setting; I ruled the HP cost for casting spells to be a setting effect), for the time it was there, it seemed to work rather well. My spellcasters certainly weren't throwing spells around at will unless they knew it at a really high skill to ensure no damage was taken while casting.