Shadowrun

[Cyclopsw]

I was kinda wondering if anyone knows if there is a Pathfinder Psfrd equivalent to Shadowrun

[TheCountAlucard]

Nope.
/10characters

[Khedrac]

Nope.
/10characters
To clarify TheCountAlucard's reply - Yes we know - No there is no such document.

Note: Shadowrun came out well before the concept of the SRD was invented.

[Anonymouswizard]

Extra note: even though the later editions of Shadowrun have come out after the concept of an SRD, they still don't have one because why would you want to make it easy to spread your game? (sorry, I'm a big proponent of giving people a free or PWYW digital version of your corebook to make getting into your game easier, and feel like the pfsrd counts)

[daniel_ream]

[...]why would you want to make it easy to spread your game?

Economics?

[Coidzor]

I believe there are some quick start guides floating around, possibly for free, so that can help ground players in some of the premises and some of how the rules work before delving into the gritty details of one of the actual books.

If you mean a way to run a Shadowrun-esque game using the Pathfinder system, uh, not without spending a fair amount of time homebrewing, refluffing, and looking for other peoples' homebrew.

[LibraryOgre]

Quickstart rules for the last 3 editions of Shadowrun (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=shadowrun%20quickstart&test_epoch=0&page=1&sort=0d)

As for "why would you want to make it easy to spread your game?", it's because most games can be played just from the corebook, and, as I understand it, the corebook tends to greatly outsell anything subsequent. Giving away your corebook heavily cuts into your profits. If you're the biggest name on the block, with a massive multinational corporation behind you, you might be able to weather the hit. If you're a smaller company, it's a lot more risky.

Bear in mind that the purpose of the SRD was not so people could play the game without paying for books. The purpose of the SRD was to define what was covered by the OGL. If covered by the OGL, then I can make an adventure for it, provided I avoid the things not covered by the OGL (like feats, monsters, or rules considered "Product Identity"). I can make all the adventures I want, even sell them, but can't include things like Displacer Beasts or Mind Flayers. Why? Because if someone wants to play MY adventure, they likely have to buy a PH, and a DMG, and/or a Monster manual. Oh, and anything *I* make under the OGL also is OGL, unless I am very careful.

This is speculation, but I think the SRD kind of got away from Hasbro/Wizards. The explosion of easy access to the internet everywhere meant that it was far more convenient to get access to on-line versions of the SRD than they may have intended. If I'm talking about d20, chances are I'm going to access the d20srd, which is free and easy to get to. Those parts I can't access from there? Probably aren't worth the casual player's time. And so long as ONE person has the non-OGL parts of the book, the rest of us don't need it.

In short, it increased accessibility, but it decreased profits. WotC wanted to make it up in volume, and they seem to have (3.x had a good run, as editions go). But a smaller company, with what's considered a more niche game? Not going to be as worth it to put the all the milk out, since then no one will buy your cow.

[daniel_ream]

This is speculation, but I think the SRD kind of got away from Hasbro/Wizards.

It's not speculation. The OGL was created specifically so that no individual company could control D&D. Dancey sold Hasbro on the idea by borrowing a lot of the claims of the open source software movement. Had Hasbro understood exactly what he was doing (or done even a smidgen of due diligence on how well the open source software movement is doing financially) I have no doubt he'd have been fired on the spot.

Once you've released the text of your game under an open license, it is inevitable that somebody is going to create an online SRD. At least if you do it, you can slap some advertising on the pages and try to recoup your hosting costs.

[Cyclopsw]

Thanks guys for helping me out