Re: [BNW] Detail in BNW

["Malcolm Knight" <malcolm.knight@cableinet.co.uk>]

From: Matt Trent <mtrent@bigfoot.com>

<About Shadowrun>
> Well, having just came out of a very fun and enjoyable 4 month campaign
> I will say that it was quite a bit of fun (Armageddon was even avoided!
> WooHoo).  My guess is that you start seeing the flaws when you stare at
> the system until your cross-eyed and then think about the details too
> much *looks at the post on the ratios of deltas to normals*, but maybe
> that is a problem for you.

    Gah! This sums up my entire point, and where people seem to be losing
that point (that's why I'm replying to the list, not just you). A good GM
with players all in the right frame of mind can have a good game of just
about anything. The difference the game (book) really makes is how inspiring
it is and how much work it saves the GM from doing. BNW is a good idea, but
that idea was probably given away for free with the promotional handouts.
The background doesn't need stuff like, "The Coalition has 2324 nuclear
missiles", it need stuff like what the operating procedure of Delta Prime
is. Telling us that DP uses the DRA laws as an excuse to be evil is all very
nice, but what do they actually do? What's a day in the life of a DP agent
like? It can't be like being in the Gestapo, or can it? I assumed that DP
were like the Rifts Coalition, most of them are normal people who have been
bombarded by massive propaganda, making them do things in the name of
National Security which (by our standards) would be immoral. The BNW main
book is not very clear on any of this, and Delta Prime is the main thrust of
the game! Some information on how things work in the BNW is much more
necessary than descriptive passages along the likes of "The Delta
Registration Act made Deltas who refused to register criminals, though in
truth it was just a tool for Delta Prime to arrest any unregistered Deltas."
Well duh. That sentence doesn't mean anything, true it's paraphrased from
memory, but I'm sure it says that a law to allow the feds to lock up deltas
who don't play ball is really used to lock up deltas who don't play ball.

> It's a great system to just have some relaxing fun with.  However,
> like all things it depends on the GM.  Many people won't touch GURPS
> around here because of a bad experience with a crappy GM, which makes it
> almost impossible for me to get support for my Matrix/Natzi's in
> space/Celt/Discword campaign.

    I hope that's four separate games of GURPS you want to run. Why don't
you encourage people to play by telling them that your not going to use the
advance combat rules? "Well let me see, your active defence fail to avoid
the bullet, then your passive defence which is really quite useless fails to
stop it as well, meaning it hits you in the.....head, sub-location jaw, that
adds 1 to your armour, which is also quite useless....blah, blah, blah." I
actually knew someone who played in a GURPS campaign and refused to turn up
to the session if there was going to be any combat.

> If you have anything specific you dislike about SR then I'll be happy to
discuss it off list.

    Ahh, whilst I could slag Shadowrun off all night, there isn't really
much point. Even if I did convince you that the reasoning behind why I think
Shadowrun is rubbish does stand up, all I'd do is succeed in spoiling for
you what you consider to be a good and enjoyable game. I'm a big Cyberpunk
2020 fan myself, and if you sit down with the intention of maxing out you
can make things that will have you laughing so hard you won't know what hit
you. (My favourite is the play-bunny solo, those armoured body stockings
kick arse).

    Malcolm.