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Echobeats
2014-06-02, 04:43 PM
I came across the sourcebook for Shadowrun recently and the setting looks very cool, but I'm not too keen on a system where you have to roll ridiculous numbers of d6s all the time just because the designers didn't think people would be willing/able to buy a set of proper dice. Is there a d20 version of Shadowrun or a similar game?

Ilorin Lorati
2014-06-02, 05:27 PM
The closest thing that I can think of is d20 Modern/Future with the Urban Arcana supplement, but to be honest there's probably a fan-made Shadowrun d20 game somewhere out there at the very least.

Ailowynn
2014-06-02, 10:48 PM
There is no d20 Shadowrun that I know of. But the reasoning behind dropping the d20 is that it Normalizes the results. The more dice, the more often you'll get close to the mean number of hits (5s and 6s). With d20, a highly skilled guy might have +10 to a skill check, but he can still lose out pretty easily to Joe Schmoe, with +0--roll a nat one and he has almost a 50/50 chance to beat the master, mainly because every result has a flat 5% chance. With Shadowun, there are more dice per roll, so the results are much more centered around a mean; the chance of you rolling above or below that is less the chance of you rolling the mean.

Rhynn
2014-06-03, 02:37 AM
I came across the sourcebook for Shadowrun recently and the setting looks very cool, but I'm not too keen on a system where you have to roll ridiculous numbers of d6s all the time just because the designers didn't think people would be willing/able to buy a set of proper dice. Is there a d20 version of Shadowrun or a similar game?

You realize that using dice pools gives you completely different probability distributions, especially when you account for numbers of successes and --

Ah, never mind.

Shadowrun d20 does not exist, fortunately. d20 conversions of games that should not be d20 are horrible. (Looking at you, d20 Elric.)

There's a d20 Modern/Future sourcebook for cyberpunk (Cyberscape), though (it's got the worst Net of any cyberpunk game I have ever encountered, tying with Cyberpunk 203X).

DigoDragon
2014-06-03, 07:31 AM
The closest thing that I can think of is d20 Modern/Future with the Urban Arcana supplement

I've never seen a d20 conversion for Shadowrun, but I'd imagine the above is the way to go to make your own.


There was a Cyuberpunk conversion for GURPS. I imagine sprinkle magic into that and you essentially have Shadowrun, if you want to use a 3d6 bell-curve system. The point-based system would make it easier to tailor your characters than a class system would (but that's just my pref).

obryn
2014-06-03, 08:03 AM
I came across the sourcebook for Shadowrun recently and the setting looks very cool, but I'm not too keen on a system where you have to roll ridiculous numbers of d6s all the time just because the designers didn't think people would be willing/able to buy a set of proper dice. Is there a d20 version of Shadowrun or a similar game?
There's more reasons than "people won't buy funny dice" to use different die-rolling systems. :smallsmile: This is not to say that Shadowrun's system is flawless; IME, it's pretty far from it, but switching in a d20 won't fix anything that's wrong with it.

Despite the hype of the early 00's, the d20 chassis isn't a good fit for everything - or, really, most things.

Now, with all that said, if you're set on d20, d20 Modern shouldn't be very hard to adapt, I guess?

Knaight
2014-06-03, 11:17 AM
I came across the sourcebook for Shadowrun recently and the setting looks very cool, but I'm not too keen on a system where you have to roll ridiculous numbers of d6s all the time just because the designers didn't think people would be willing/able to buy a set of proper dice. Is there a d20 version of Shadowrun or a similar game?

I can easily think of a half dozen mechanics in Shadowrun that only work because of the die system - glitches, for instance, where if you succeed with enough failure dice rolling a 1 there's a freak downside, which is something d20 can't model nearly as well. The designers of Shadowrun assumed that people would buy dice - there's a certain number of d6 that people tend to have just lying around from casual board games and such, and there's a certain number of d6 that are basically required to play Shadowrun. While I can't pin either of these down to a particular number, I guarantee you that the second is way higher most of the time. Were it not for the existence of Mythender, Shadowrun would be a serious contender for the game that needs the most dice.

DigoDragon
2014-06-03, 01:58 PM
The designers of Shadowrun assumed that people would buy dice - there's a certain number of d6 that people tend to have just lying around from casual board games and such, and there's a certain number of d6 that are basically required to play Shadowrun. While I can't pin either of these down to a particular number, I guarantee you that the second is way higher most of the time.

On the plus side, d6s are the most common die type around and you can go to a dollar store to buy them in 12-packs.

Knaight
2014-06-03, 03:37 PM
On the plus side, d6s are the most common die type around and you can go to a dollar store to buy them in 12-packs.

Oh, absolutely. Shadowrun was still clearly made on the assumption that dice would be bought, and anyone likely to buy Shadowrun knows how to get ahold of non d6 dice easily enough.

Rhynn
2014-06-03, 04:56 PM
There was a Cyuberpunk conversion for GURPS. I imagine sprinkle magic into that and you essentially have Shadowrun, if you want to use a 3d6 bell-curve system. The point-based system would make it easier to tailor your characters than a class system would (but that's just my pref).

In what sense is either of them (GURPS Cyberpunk or GURPS Cyberworld) a conversion? They're sourcebooks, one for a genre, one for a setting... neither is based on another game (GURPS Cyberpunk was based on so much original, first-hand research that the FBI raided SJG, took their computers, and then illegally never returned them all or their data, forcing them to mostly start all over), and GURPS doesn't have a setting or even a genre by itself...

Anyway, GURPS is actually really great for any kind of cyberpunk (or any other type of scifi or modern game that's bent towards realism), and GURPS Cyberpunk is, as almost any GURPS sourcebook, useful to anyone interested in the subject in games. And GURPS Cyberworld is pretty great and unusual (the international prominence of Russia, the general cultural/linguistic melting-pot feel, and the lack of Anglo or Japanese domination is pretty nifty), even if it's really 80s. (But if your cyberpunk isn't 80s, you're doing it wrong.)

Oh, and then there's GURPS CthulhuPunk. I've never been into future-Mythos, though (but I'm all for Robert Howard and Clark Ashton Smith and stuff modelled on their version).

Svata
2014-06-03, 06:19 PM
As others have said, no, and there are several good reasons for it.