Running Shadowrun with Mutants and Masterminds

[Kid Jake]

So I've been wanting to run a Shadowrun campaign for some time now, but ever since starting M&M my players have flat told me that they will boycott any game that doesn't use this system. Truth be known, I'm not as familiar with the system as I'd like to be and remembering how they responded to D&D 3.5 (the guy playing a sorcerer nearly had an aneurism trying to figure out why he had to use different dies for different actions) I'm of the opinion that converting Shadowrun to M&M would require significantly less effort than trying to explain a new system to either of them.

I'm a little worried it might lose so much in translation it won't be recognizable anymore, but some things seem like they might just click. Has anyone here tried this before? How did it go?

[squiggit]

I've never tried it, but a low PL could work pretty well for Shadowrun. A scaled down crimefighter or weaponmaster archetype (just for reference, I know hardly anyone uses those) would fit really well in the setting though.

The two biggest problems I see is that... your players would be kind of constrained because it's a much lower power universe. You're looking at say, PL5 characters, and a world where things like personal flight are not normal.

The other big problem I see is that your average shadowrun game is a game about mercenaries doing things to get rich. Shadowrun doesn't have to be that, but that is the standard model.... and M&M doesn't track wealth. Which could end up feeling kind of awkward.

[Kid Jake]

In my current M&M game that I've been posting to the forums we've been tracking cash because they decided to start robbing the Mafia out of spite and wanted to watch their booty pile grow. I figure I'll just use Shadowrun prices out of the book and try to convert stats to M&M as best I can.

Also, concerning the lower PL, my current game started at PL5 and I noticed that a single punk with a shotgun was enough to floor a player if they didn't tread carefully. That was one of the things that made me think Shadowrun might fit in with the system despite the obvious differences.

[CombatOwl]

So I've been wanting to run a Shadowrun campaign for some time now, but ever since starting M&M my players have flat told me that they will boycott any game that doesn't use this system. Truth be known, I'm not as familiar with the system as I'd like to be and remembering how they responded to D&D 3.5 (the guy playing a sorcerer nearly had an aneurism trying to figure out why he had to use different dies for different actions) I'm of the opinion that converting Shadowrun to M&M would require significantly less effort than trying to explain a new system to either of them.

I'm a little worried it might lose so much in translation it won't be recognizable anymore, but some things seem like they might just click. Has anyone here tried this before? How did it go?

I guess you could run Shadowrun in M&M, but I don't see why you would. I can definitely understand running Shadowrun with a different system (Fate, Savage Worlds, GURPS, etc), but M&M does not seem like a very good choice for that. Doable, but a little pointless. M&M is meant for superheroes. Do superheroes.

[Kid Jake]

We've been doing Superheroes and it's been a blast, but I'd just like to branch out and do other things too. I know it's not ideal, but neither of them have the time/inclination to learn a new system so I'm working with what I've got.

I'm thinking that if I loosely stick to PL5 for the characters themselves (No stat can be above +5 before racial modifiers or cyberware are applied) but let weapons (and armor to a lesser degree) take you beyond what the PL would normally allow, it could make for fairly quick and lethal combat. Add in some bastardized initiative passes/dice pools and it might start looking familiar.

[J.Gellert]

Don't let the Superheroes fool you; M&M is a generic system as good as any. Better than most, actually. The only reason it's not marketed as such is that True20 exists.

If you want to make it less cinematic (and you don't need to), remove Hero Points.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Another option for increasing lethality might be to let different types of weapons have different thresholds for degrees of damage.

Say, for example, unarmed attacks are the typical 5 points per degree, but blunt trauma is four points, edged weapons are three points, and ballistic weapons are two points. So if you get shot and fail your Toughness save by 4, normally still just a bruise, it drops you straight to Staggered.

Add Dying as the result of a four-degree failure against Damage, and Dead as the result of a five-degree failure.

Maybe say you can apply Impervious multiple times, and each application increases the points-per-degree by one, up to a max of 5.

I don't know if those are the right numbers, depends on how lethal you want I suppose, but something like that maybe.

EDIT: For balancing purposes, maybe make each -1 to points-per-degree also a +1/rank Extra.

[Kid Jake]

Another option for increasing lethality might be to let different types of weapons have different thresholds for degrees of damage.

Say, for example, unarmed attacks are the typical 5 points per degree, but blunt trauma is four points, edged weapons are three points, and ballistic weapons are two points. So if you get shot and fail your Toughness save by 4, normally still just a bruise, it drops you straight to Staggered.

Add Dying as the result of a four-degree failure against Damage, and Dead as the result of a five-degree failure.

Maybe say you can apply Impervious multiple times, and each application increases the points-per-degree by one, up to a max of 5.

I don't know if those are the right numbers, depends on how lethal you want I suppose, but something like that maybe.

EDIT: For balancing purposes, maybe make each -1 to points-per-degree also a +1/rank Extra.

I like that, I was just adding an extra +3 to bump light-->medium-->serious-->deadly, but that was going to get out of hand quick. Making failure worse rather than success harder might just be the way to go.

[vartan]

Can you trick them into playing true20? It may save you some work. Though admittedly I have no xp with Shadowrun.