Playing Shadowrun without the mythic races?

[Roc]

Is this possible? I don't want my cyberpunk ruined my tolkein's toybox but I love the system. Are there any central changes that would need to be made... I'm planning on keeping magic and dragons for simplicity's sake.

[Britter]

Besides having to refluff some aspects of the world, you would not have any mechanical issues if you remove the non-human races.

You would lose some of the setting specific tensions and distinctive imagery of the franchise, but the rules would hold up just fine.

*I am refering only to 2nd and 3rd editions, with which I am most familiar, though I suspect the it would be the same with 4th

[JellyPooga]

This topic came up here a little while back, so you might want to do a search to take a gander. Having said that, I'm not exactly an afficionado of Shadowrun having never actually played it before, but I do know the rules (4e.) and from what I can see, I see no particular problem inherent in omitting metahumans. Obviously there would be setting/fluff implications, but I'm assuming that's a given that you've already considered. Excluding magic might have more problems as (as far as I can tell) there would be no downside to getting cybered up the wazoo because Essence only has implications when it comes to magic, but just turfing out the metahumans? Shouldn't be a problem.

Previously, I would have said that if you don't want metahumans to go play Cyberpunk 2020 instead, but having actually looked at and assimilated the rules of Shadowrun, I think the system is better than CP2020 myself and more than a little closer to a modern perspective of what the cyberpunk genre should be (e.g. batteries that last more than half an hour and wireless networks).

[Doc Roc]

4E rules are very very good. Be aware that removing the metahumans will make most published adventures difficult to run, but it will cause no other issues if you basically stick to Seattle . You must understand that if you plan to run outside of just Seattle, the metahuman issues are pretty critical to world affairs.

The other thing that I've done is remove any mechanical differentiation from the meta-humans, which means that the prejudice they face is often enough to keep players from running them.

[shadow_archmagi]

You know, I had the impression that the whole idea of Shadowrun was

"What if we took bladerunner and then fed it to Tolkien and then waited an hour and then punched him into the stomach until he threw up and then sold the vomit?"

Surely you could just find the original product? I feel quite certain there's an alternative cyberpunk RPG.

[NPCMook]

Just expect everyone to run Mr. Lucky

[Tengu_temp]

I feel quite certain there's an alternative cyberpunk RPG.

Yes, Cyberpunk 2020. It has the benefits of an okay setting and fast gameplay, and the drawbacks of having absolutely awful mechanics that go against how a cyberpunk game should look like, and in many cases even against common sense.

[JellyPooga]

Surely you could just find the original product? I feel quite certain there's an alternative cyberpunk RPG.

There are. Cyberpunk 2020 is the most obvious. GURPS can obviously be run as a cyberpunk game. Traveller is capable of it if you pitch it right. That's three off the top of my head. Having said that, Shadowrun has a wealth of non-fantasy stuff in there that can make for a decent pure cyberpunk game (with a little tweaking). If you're already familiar with the Shadowrun rules and wanted to play a non-fantasy oriented cyberpunk game, there is no reason at all to go out and buy a whole new system and learn it just for that...far better (to my mind) to just tweak SR and run it as you see fit.

[Doc Roc]

Yes, Cyberpunk 2020. It has the benefits of an okay setting and fast gameplay, and the drawbacks of having absolutely awful mechanics that go against how a cyberpunk game should look like, and in many cases even against common sense.

Yes, dear god.

Also, you give shadowrun way too little credit. Shadowrun, say whatever else you will, is one of the games that actually has a cleanly articulated tie between fluff and mechanics that ends up being really fun, really cool, and great at the table.

Remember:
Never deal with a dragon!
Always bring an extra clip!
There's always trace ice!

[NPCMook]

Yes, dear god.

Also, you give shadowrun way too little credit. Shadowrun, say whatever else you will, is one of the games that actually has a cleanly articulated tie between fluff and mechanics that ends up being really fun, really cool, and great at the table.

Remember:
Never deal with a dragon!
Always bring an extra clip!
There's always trace ice!

Cont'd:
Its never that easy!

[kjones]

Metatypes (other races) are only one part of the Shadowrun world. You could make everyone human pretty easily.

(I know people have said this already - I'm just confirming it)

[Swordguy]

There's no real difference between what the OP is suggesting and a group that chooses to play all humans. Which works just fine, mechanically. If the OP is willing to do a good chunk of refluffing the game, there's absolutely no reason why this couldn't work.

You'll all also note he's not saying "get rid of magic" - he's saying "get rid of metahumans" (you Humanis scum, you). It's a distinct and critical difference.

And for the love of god, stay away from CP2020 and GURPS Cyberpunk. CP2020 is fine...as long as you're not expecting mechanics that make the game feel syberpunk-y. And GURPS is just bad. I never recommend a "universal" system when there's a perfectly good system that's actually built to portray the genre you want available.

[comicshorse]

A lot of anti-Metahuman feeling can be replaced with old fashioned racism, the big difference is going to be nations that are specifically run by certain Metahuman races ( and yes I'm pretty much talking about the pointy eared dandelion eaters).
Still Tir na og and Tir Taingire could be re-done with minimum re-writing as instead being run by groups who see themselves as superior through their magic and so have created Kingdoms to match the 'good old days' when the peasants new there place.

Are you going to get rid of paranatural critters too ?

[Oblivious]

You know, I had the impression that the whole idea of Shadowrun was

"What if we took bladerunner and then fed it to Tolkien and then waited an hour and then punched him into the stomach until he threw up and then sold the vomit?"

Surely you could just find the original product? I feel quite certain there's an alternative cyberpunk RPG.

I would say Neuromancer, rather than Bladerunner.

[Tiki Snakes]

Yeah, for the politics of situations, if you and your group trust yourselves to be mature about it, you could just switch the Meta-types to actual human racial groups? But, really, that's icky territory that I would only tread with people I really trusted, and frankly, it depends on exactly what kinds of stuff is attatched to the original-versions of the cultures you are re-fluffing.
(Not being familiar with the setting, I couldn't say. But given the way many worlds orcs are portrayed, suffice to say I see lots of room for WRONG if not handled carefully).

Personally, I tend not to use pre-published settings often or willingly anyway, though, so it sounds like it would be a completely problem-free solution if you are happy to make the setting your own anyway.

[Glimbur]

Cont'd:
Its never that easy!

Always geek the mage first.

On topic, I'd agree with the other posters: you would change some of the dynamics of the game world but it should not destabilize everything like removing iron from Dungeons and Dragons (Darksun is very different, which proves my point).

[Gaiyamato]

Grab cyberpunk and few genre related books and use them re-do the fluff and it is all good.
We often used to ban trolls etc. when we played it.

[wadledo]

My suggestion if you want an alternate system entirely(which you don't have to, I'm just offering up another option) would be to use M&M.
Just say no magic and drop it down to say, 5 PL (though 7 could work if you want them to be super-star material) and throw them out there.
It's what I think of when I read stuff like Neuromancer and Snow Crash.