An homage to Shadowrun and tabletop RPG— or how I came to hate something that I briefly loved

Martin Pelletier
Aug 28, 2017 · 5 min read

In 2015 there was “Future day” on October 20 to mark the day when in the second Back to the Future movie Marty, Doc, and Jennifer travel to the future to save it. A singular event where reality met fiction and which gave us pause to reflect on our past visions of the future. A lesser known event occurred recently, the day of the Great Ghost Dance, on August 17, 2017. If you don’t know what it’s about, there’s no blame on you: it’s role playing stuff. As in “Dungeons & Dragons” but an other brand, called Shadowrun.

The world of Shadowrun is set in the future. There’s dragons, elves, orcs, magic, etc, but also cyberspace and cybernetic body parts, megacorportions and high-tech guns. It’s a wonderful mishmash of two genres, sci-fi and fantasy, bound together gloriously. And the day of the Great Ghost Dance happens to be important because that’s the day magic makes a big come back (but not quite. Connoisseurs will have to forgive my shortcuts). And it reminded me of my last experience playing the game and my departure from the activity altogether.

I’ve got no one to blame, really. There are books, dozens of them, but there’s basically just one book which you have to read, and at that just the rules of said book to know how it works. So while I had played before and read some stuff, I failed to actually read the rules. Rules are boring. Rules are there to help the story, but it’s the story that counts. Right? Besides, all the experienced players assured me they’d help me out and I could just learn on the fly. How foolish…

So, here’s a retelling of how that last adventure went down. There were more people at play but I’ve narrowed it down to three people: the storyteller (ST), Power Player (PP), and me. The storyteller was an all around cool guy who did the best he could, really, to please everyone. The power player was the opposite of me: he had read the rules, and had learned the world and setting on the fly. He was experienced in rules in this and other games.

(Some details have been enhanced or altered for entertainment)

ST: Let’s get started! Have you all got your characters ready?
Me: Yes! Here! (hands over a binder of backstory). I didn’t want to play a character that’s too tropey, but I’ve been reading on Wikipedia about the history and background of the world in the late 21st century and essentially I have this well fleshed out character that’s a bit outside my usual comfort zone. I’m playing a fixer, an older human male, married, with an elvish daughter. I’m rather open with the metahuman community, I carry on the inside my coat a prized “Dunkelzhan/Haeffner 2057” electoral button… (etc)
ST: Ok… Who’s next? PP?
PP: I’m a grunt named Grunt (hands over single Doritos covered character sheet).
S
T: Great
[…]

ST: It’s fight time!
PP: *grunts* I pull out my semi-automatic [more specific name here] and fire at the leader. (throws handfuls of dice multiple times) 16 successes!
ST: The leader is dead. You’re next. (points at me)
Me: Hey, I have a gun too, but I didn’t put a lot of points in the skill… I could have negotiated the leader’s ears off but now he’s dead. I’ll shoot one of the henchmen. (throws a pitiful amount of dice) One success.
ST: The armour absorbs it. The henchman retorts. Critical hit! You’re badly bleeding!
Me: Oh no, I wasn’t prepared… I mean, ok, that’s fair.
PP: He-he
[…]
ST: New round!
PP: (same thing but more dice somehow?!?)
Me: I… I’m bleeding out. I think I’ll just… hide? Can I hide in a corner?
ST: Yes. Throw for stealth.
Me: I don’t have much of that.
PP: You should have invested in stealth if all you had planned on doing was hide.
ST: Well, yeah…
Me: OK… here goes nothing… No successes.
ST: So, instead of hiding in the corner you just end up hiding in a spot along a straight wall. Facing the enemy.
Me: … That’s the opposite of hiding.
PP: You failed your throw.
Me: I know, (talking to ST) but still, don’t you think someone with (looks at character sheet) a B.A. from Seattle U would at least know the difference between hiding and standing in plain sight? And look, in my characters’ pass-times he plays strategy games. So there’s some leeway there…
PP: You failed your throw.
Me: I know!
ST: (sighs) I’ll give you another chance.
Me: Thanks. We’re in an office, so I’ll just dive under a desk.
ST: Fine. Throw for athletics.
Me: (looks at character sheet franctically) That’s not listed….
PP: You should have invested in…
Me: Motherf…!

And that is how I quit table top role playing. Not because of one combat with a poorly (admittedly) constructed character in terms of raw stats, not because of an overly (also admittedly) fleshed out character, but simply because I failed to do my homework (which honestly felt like homework) of studying the rules. I liked the setting too much, and the mechanics too little. And while a greatly fleshed out character can be interesting to a storyteller (and what I had prepared, which was evidently less than a binder, helped the story along) ultimately the story has to advance and will, no matter the backgrounds. The reward for research was too little, and the punishment for not knowing the rules is character death (i.e. a bad time). Shadowrun has a great, vastly detailed backdrop that’s essentially untapped in the average game (because I’ve played others) because it’s often about fighting. Or rather, if some players are there to fight, they will fight, but if other players are there for a story and interaction, that may very well deter the fighters after too long. So there’s fights. The story leads from one fight to the next, and soon the story becomes the fights. And your well thought out character ends up hiding in plain sight along a straight wall. The opposite of hiding.

I only have myself to blame, really. Study the rules, forget the beautiful setting, throw for initiative. Well, no thanks, I’ll pass my turn.

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