Ghost in the Shell setting for Shadowrun 4e?

[Ralasha]

I just finished watching my complete set of Ghost in the shell, after having been playing shadowrun 4e for a while.

It hit me today... that SR 4e would be a near-perfect match for a Ghost in the Shell universe shadowrun game.

There would however, be a number of small differences.

1: No Gene-tech.
2: Biotech is not quite at the same level.
3: Most cyber-tech would be re-listed as 'prostheses'.
4: Megacorporations exist, but not as governmental level institutions.
5: No SiNs.
6: no magic.

It would, it strikes me, be a rather grungy setting.

I am requesting assistance with what I believe will be only minor balance issues, and the over-arching theme.

The major balance issues would of course be the prostheses.

According to GitS, they are expensive. Most people cannot afford many parts, though they are apparently superior to biological components in majority.

Certain bodies are apparently buy-able at discount as an entire prefab product. With minor costs for customization of shape and coloration.

Anyone interested in assisting me?

[Anderlith]

Magic is a core tenant of Shadowrun. If you want to try to remove it more power to you but I thing you'd have more successs by trying a different system

[Ralasha]

I run into this type of argument/statement quite often.

My only counter is my normal one.

People will often deny something can be done. such as breaking the sound barrier, flying, reaching the moon.

More power to me.

My only wish is this: That instead of merely denying the ability to do something because of a problem with the idea. I wish they would supply alternatives. After all, lacking any alternatives, there is no other option. Therefor, they are suggesting using another option that does not exist. I wish they wouldn't do that.

Pure Negativity is annoying.

Also, considering magic is primarily covered in a non-core book... I don't see how it is 'integral'. Especially since the game functions perfectly well without it.

[slowplay]

Originally Posted by Ralasha

Also, considering magic is primarily covered in a non-core book... I don't see how it is 'integral'. Especially since the game functions perfectly well without it.

I used the White Wolf rules from Abberant/Trinity for a similar adaptation. I did a lot more tweaking, of the rules to match the setting, but I was happy with the result. Deletion is much easier than addition. Ghost in the Shell has no magic? Just rip out the magic rules, or whatever else you don't like.

It's been a long time since I played SR, but I think you're going to need to design a lot of hardware to match GitS; mostly vehicles.

I'm curious to see how this turns out!

[Ralasha]

Cyberlimbs already cover all of the artificial parts. Such as cyber-head, eyes, body, legs, etc.

The only bad part is the magic. So, that's gone. And the game already has vehicles.

[hiryuu]

This wouldn't be too hard at all. Magic in the SR system is relatively modular: you can literally ignore it completely and nothing much about the system changes. I did this once, only allowed technomancers, worked out really well. Somewhere I think I might even have stats for the powered armor suits that the military uses because I like the idea of powered armor. They can make walking drones that look just like humans for cyborgs, but they don't have stats for spider tanks and powered armor in the books? Bah. I understand they don't want players tooling around in them, but what if I want to give them to CorpSec? Jerks.

Anyway, your solution for people like the Major and Batou is to use the cyborg rules with a little less "oh, you're also insane" and use the humanoid drones from Arsenal. Those are the super expensive prosthetic bodies.

If you don't have it, might I suggest Chummer?

[Ralasha]

Originally Posted by hiryuu

Anyway, your solution for people like the Major and Batou is to use the cyborg rules with a little less "oh, you're also insane" and use the humanoid drones from Arsenal. Those are the super expensive prosthetic bodies.

If you don't have it, might I suggest Chummer?

Exactly. And thanks, got it.

[Anderlith]

Originally Posted by hiryuu

This wouldn't be too hard at all. Magic in the SR system is relatively modular: you can literally ignore it completely and nothing much about the system changes. I did this once, only allowed technomancers, worked out really well. Somewhere I think I might even have stats for the powered armor suits that the military uses because I like the idea of powered armor. They can make walking drones that look just like humans for cyborgs, but they don't have stats for spider tanks and powered armor in the books? Bah. I understand they don't want players tooling around in them, but what if I want to give them to CorpSec? Jerks.

Anyway, your solution for people like the Major and Batou is to use the cyborg rules with a little less "oh, you're also insane" and use the humanoid drones from Arsenal. Those are the super expensive prosthetic bodies.

If you don't have it, might I suggest Chummer?

Arsenal has rules for power armor. Walking Tanks... eh you could cludge it together with the rules

[hiryuu]

Originally Posted by Anderlith

Arsenal has rules for power armor. Walking Tanks... eh you could cludge it together with the rules

It does, but if I recall correctly, like most of Shadowrun the rules are ridiculous overcompensation and have to be scaled back to be of any real use coupled with ridiculous "why would anyone ever use this" flaws. You could make better power armor just by taking the rigger pods out of Arsenal and then modding a motorcycle.

And yeah, for a spider tank, you'd have to come up with some kind of mod, since because runners apparently don't know how to put wheels and legs on the same thing, but it's not hard.

[Anderlith]

Originally Posted by hiryuu

It does, but if I recall correctly, like most of Shadowrun the rules are ridiculous overcompensation and have to be scaled back to be of any real use coupled with ridiculous "why would anyone ever use this" flaws. You could make better power armor just by taking the rigger pods out of Arsenal and then modding a motorcycle.

And yeah, for a spider tank, you'd have to come up with some kind of mod, since because runners apparently don't know how to put wheels and legs on the same thing, but it's not hard.

You don't need legs in Redmound, legs are slow, slow gets you killed.

[Ralasha]

So, anyone here willing to assist me with developing it over-all?

I plan on keeping the basic rules in place, and just subtracting magic from the equation.

Could this be problematic?

What I want help with is the development and rebalancing of the prosthetic bodies.

I would also be grateful for assistance with the tachi, and the tanks.

[hiryuu]

There isn't a whole lot you need to rebalance, though. Mtisuhama has some drones listed on page 120 of Arsenal that are ideal for full-prosthetic cyborgs, though there's only two listed, so that should maybe be expanded. And perhaps cheapened a little. Augmentation has the rules for full body cyborgs, all it needs it a CP cost for it, which, honestly, the difference between a full body cyborg and a rigger pod isn't as much as the writers think it is. I have to spend more character points to put myself in more danger? Huh?

For tanks, there's a Walker Mode in Arsenal, as well as a grappler arm attachment that works out pretty well. Powered armor? Slap a rigger pod inside a motorcycle and add arms and legs, and you get the stats for it.

And, as before, the magic system in SR is a module. You could swap it out and disallow the magical edges/flaws and you won't even notice it's gone.