Watch for Falling Prices part 1 of 2
In high spirits from a successful run, the Shadowrunners head down Mulberry ave towards fun, profit, and an increasing numbers of bullets.
Intro Music: Cyberpunk Underworld by Futant
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You don’t need 5th edition. It was a step backwards in many ways.
Maximum number of hits one gets with a gun has a set value. So eventually the number of dice you have is just a hindrance
Made Deckers have to lug around Decks again instead of something small which makes sense, with the growth in technology
And that is before getting into the other problems
@Sam Thanks for the heads-up. Getting a good grasp of the rules of any edition of Shadowrun has always been a time consuming process for me (even though I fudge them in many ways during this game) and it’s good to know I might be disappointed in the new edition.
And they have to carry decks again? They made a big deal in 4th edition that the term “deckers” was antiquated due to the reference to obsolete hardware. Ah well, luckily my players don’t care about any of that as long as they get paid.
Personally I like some of the changes. Decks instead of comm links is a plus in my book for example. SR4 the difference between a cellphone you can buy on any street and a computer designed to hack into anything in the world is software.
BTW this episode made me think. Is there a way we can send you stuff? You know a toaster, a new RPG book, A bomb. (I’m kidding on one of the three).
@Lucek – I could use a new toaster! But seriously, we’re always open to chatting with people via e-mail at fandible AT gmail.com Hit us up there if you want to talk about sharing something outside of the comments.
That is really cool. Now I know what to do with those novelty bomb candles my Uncle sends me every year.
I love how this entire episode was more-or-less a result of three failed rolls. That, or Dave was already planning this, and just made it work. Either way, very entertaining as always.
Nope! David actually thought this would be a pretty short mission. Because of those rolls, we ended up making this game stretch out for two game sessions.
But I honestly liked what these failures did for us. It really opened my eyes to how messed up the Shadowrun World is!
I think the thing that makes Fandible really stand out over other podcasts in my eyes is how you’re all willing to take botched rolls, and turn those failures into your own.
Instead of trying to come up with frantic contingency plans to explain why you really DIDN’T just fail that encounter, you instead delve into the depths of failure and laugh about how things just got really terrible for your character. Often while offering helpful suggestions to the GM as to how things could get even worse.
5th ed isn’t terrible, it is just a new edition that hasn’t been tweaked. A lot of people would have given you the same speech about 4th ed after it came out, the decker/hacker thing being a constant place of contention in the fanbase between progression of technology and iconic cool factor. Being a decker was something so genuinely Shadowrun that when the old guard lost their decks outrage ruled for a time.
Point is it is always fine to look into the rules for a new edition even if some people don’t like it, but at the same time just because a new edition comes out is no reason to abandon an old one. I know plenty who still play 3rd after all.
I am somewhat surprised the fandible crew has yet to implement a tipjar/donate button.
As a group, we always found that failures and flaws always make the best characters and moments. Its always leads to the best situations. The point of a role-playing game, in our opinion, is not to be the most badass, but the most interesting. Also, Its funny to see a physical character fail a agility roll and fall down a flight of stairs.
@Jared I usually keep an amorphous collection of ideas in the back of my head to help fill out the world that will let me emphasize the so-familiar-yet-somewhat-alien setting of a cyberpunk game, and those three rolls gave me my chance to strike.
As for the new vs old rules, I’m always up for learning new systems, but Shadowrun adds the element of progressing it’s in-game culture and meta plots with every addition as well, making me wary of picking up a new book too quickly. As for the decks/coms discussion, I can see both sides there but man I don’t miss putting more work and time into my character’s deck than my actual PC only to have him take a sucking chest wound and get carried off by DocWagon.
And did I hear an idea for a “tip jar”? Oh hell yes! We can put little drawings on it and write a cute little horoscope on some paper and stick it on there (like “The stars think you are overburdened with money”) and leave it next to the register.
“Fandible: Baristas of the imagination.”
Well it looks like it’ll be sitting on a desk till Monday.
Thank you, Fandibles, for another rousing Fandisode of Shadavidrun.
If any of the other FandiListeners are up for it, here’s a FandiGame you can play while enjoying the recordings: What Disney movie is this Fandible game similar to?
David mentioned The Little Mermaid during this episode, and the comparison is quite apt, even beyond the obvious reasons. (Mermaaaaaids.) Consider: The Little Mermaid is a story about a young girl with a huge collection of junk [i.e. equipment and loot], who’s always trying to get hold of more stuff, and who makes a pact with an evil Sea Witch [gets a contract with a corporate Johnson] so she can upgrade her fishy tail to human legs [afford cybernetic implants]. She’s accompanied by a cantankerous, emotionally high-strung crab [Grannek] and a knowledgeable seagull who gives her ever-so-useful advice [Griff]. And then there’s the randy mermaids [Mermaaaids!].
In fact, when Daku was introduced as a cabin boy on Cpt. Rub-a-tummy… sorry, Cpt. Rubio’s boat, it would have been completely in character for him to be singing sea shanties in his outraaageous French accént. Perhaps something to the tune of ‘Les Poissons’ from The Little Mermaid:
***********************
DAKU:
Zhadowruns
Zhadowruns
How I love zhadowruns
Love to chop Bads and Zonyas and gangs
First I cut off zeir legs
Zen I pull out my guns
Ahh, mais oui
Ça c’est toujours bang-bang
Zhadowruns
Zhadowruns
Hee hee hee!
Hon hon hon!
My katana will hack you in two
But if Zweeperz appear
I vill zqueal out in fear
Drek, I flee like a coward
Don’t you?
***********************
(If you’d like to hear the rest of the song, please insert another quarter.)
Or maybe Griff is going to hack Daku’s cyber-implants as a practical joke, and get his loudspeakers to play that song. What speakers, you ask? Well, it’s an inescapable fact of life that all forms of electronics are factory-built with audio speakers, simply to enable the gizmo to play horridly annoying bingeley-bingeley-beep noises to notify the user when an error prompt or system message pops up. Why would the world of Shadavidrun in 2074 be any different?
Continuing the FandiDisney topic: Billy wow’d the world with his performance as BarshAladdin in a recent episode of Rogue Trader. The comparison between the RT Warhammer 40k world and Agrabah is also rather interesting – there’s a theory that has been percolating on the internet for some time, based on a few hints in the movie (i.e. Genie using pop cultural references from the 20th century, and mentioning however many thousands of years it’s been since he was last released from the lamp, etc.) which some people have seen as evidence that Agrabah is a post-apocalyptic future version of the Middle East. Magic things (like Genie, the flying carpet, Jafar’s staff) are really technological devices that are sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic.
This could have FASCINATING implications on the life of the Shadow Labyrinth’s crew (mostly because David would be super hot in harem pants).
[PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD]
PS: David, did you plan the ‘Zap is wearing someone’s face as a mask, again’ reference to Angela’s HEX game in advance? Or did the idea of the Johnson’s slap mask and the way of using electricity to remove it, just kinda arrive as a natural progression?
PPS: Re: Daniel’s Russian doll/Matryoshka penis… err, pistol. Pistol! *Ahem* Umm, the link below seems extremely relevant to this episode:
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/07052010
PPPS: Do you think David would allow John Lee to acquire a copy of the special gun from Punisher: War Journal? Y’know… the gun that shoots swords? 😀
@Pencil-Monkey A good “rule of thumb” that the Fandible gang knows from email exchanges with me is “If it’s longer than two paragraphs or needs dividers, David’s probably not going to read it”. This rule will serve you well in future posts.
To answer your questions though (which I would have missed altogether) the idea of the Slap Mask is one that I believe I read about in a William Gibson novel.
Also I’m thinking of arming Daniel’s character with actual Nerf guns in an attempt to balance the game. I fear my plan will backfire, however.