According to my brief intro in the respective subforum I am currently on the fence, if I should put in effort to create a session of Shadowrun which may or not be turned into a full campaign. Because of this I have joined this forum with the intent of using it as a sounding board as it won´t be a run-of-the-mill Shadowrun experience but a crossover which in this case would be the Vietnam War. So I want you, the reader, to give me an honest opinion, if you or your RPG associates would deem my idea interesting or if it would be too niche to have large scale appeal.

And now to the details. The game system would be Shadowrun 1st edition because of nostalgia and the fact that only the earlier versions of this franchise honour the 80s and thus retro sci-fi in a proper way. And it doesn´t stop there. I also have interest in the Vietnam War and have read various material about this era from the perspective of people being right there at the time (e.g. Peter Scholl-Latour and American helicopter pilots). Currently I am reading "The Vietnam War" by Geoffrey C.Ward and Ken Burns.

So how would these settings now mesh together? There are in the moment two possible ideas, which are not set in stone, for such a "Weird War War/Cyberpunk" setting which would take place in an alternate timeline to not mess with the current affairs of Shadowrun:

1. Humanity reverse-engineered cyberware directly at the end of WWII with the help of downed alien crafts scattered around the globe. The aliens themselves take no part in the forthcoming events. There is no magic and thus no metahumans, no matrix and no rise of corporations ruling the world. The players would be American special-ops soldiers loaded up to the gills with cyberware and sent on various missions during the Vietnam War. Most missions would occur in the wilderness but quite a few would also take place in larger cities such as Saigon or Hanoi to have the experience of an urban area covered in neon lights and the ever present rain.

2. It´s 2050, as it is the case in Shadowrun 1st edition, and a second wave of goblinization hits the area of Indochina. This time humans in this region are suddenly turned into goblins and the turnover rate is about 99%. The idea of turning a group of people from history into goblins was stolen from the Freebooter´s Fate tabletop pirate game in which former plantation workers are represented by goblins. Various mega corporations who intend to profit from the sheer chaos which such an event creates have the intention of claiming territory in Vietnam (Cochinchina, Annam and Tonking). The mega corporations take the place of the USA, French, China and Russia who were the main players in history. The players would be individuals working for an American mega corp.

I am looking forward to your suggestions. In the meantime I am enjoying this new fantastic Vietnam War book on my balcony with a cool drink. See ya, chummer!

You piqued my interest with Shadowrun and you further piqued my interest with the Vietnam War. I'm imagining a troll wielding a M60 listening to Fortunate Son in Da Nang. Anyway, putting my general interest here.

@Passable Writer get in on this.

I'm not super knowledgeable about either shadowrun(played most of one of the videogames, but that's it) or the Vietnam war. I am, regardless, intrigued.

For my money, I think set in the past would be more fun, but I'd miss the involvement of fantasy races. I think part of the charm of shadowrun, with my admittedly limited experience, is the mix of fantasy and sci fi.

I have started RPGs in the 90s and had several groups of which two were the most important ones as we played multiple years roleplaying games. In the first group we played quite a few different systems and the DM changed each week as we took turns. Later in the other group I took the permanent role of DM for a D&D Ravenloft setting which ran for a couple of years. I introduced a single crossover session in the current campaign and the two of the three participating players were not very fond of it to put it mildly. That´s why I am asking here on the forum how people think about crossover games in general.

I searched on the interwebz first for dedicated Shadowrun forums only to find out that I found a single German one which had died as traffic was pretty much non-existent. In addition to that I wanted to find out what people would think of the second goblinization event mentioned in "elevator pitch #2" which turns the local populace into goblins. This idea was stolen from the Freebooter´s Fate pirate tabletop skirmish game in which former plantation workers/slaves are being represented by goblins. The reason for this is obvious. The developers didn´t want to face accusations of racism so they turned this group into the goblin faction.

I intended to do this too in version 2 as some people might take offense, if I just do a reenactment of the Vietnam War. This might turn out in the end to be a case of overthinking and making it more complicated than it needs to be but that´s why this thread is for after all. I just want to hear people´s opinion on these takes. Another thing would be the choice of the ruleset. Hardcore fans of any franchise have their favourite editions and Shadowrun is not an exception. In my case the retro bug bit me and I could not resist buying the first edition (35th anniversary). On this decision alone people might not want to try it out as it pretty much represents retro sci-fi where characters plug themselves into machinery with data cables and the mere mention of wifi would sound like forbidden black magic. In case of clothing and fashion in general the 80s are very present in this edition. This also helps to differentiate Shadowrun from the later Matrix movies where everyone walks around in sunglasses with black trenchcoats.

Apparently I am on to something. Somebody else made a NAM crossover too. Here it is:

youtube.com/watch?v=2DK714V3Grw

Ptw.

So there hasn´t apparently been an outcry against introducing goblins to represent the majority of the Vietnamese population in the 2nd elevator pitch. This means we can discuss another topic: The tone of the setting. Here are two suggestions but honestly there could be more or anything in-between:

1. Grim, gritty and/or brutal.
This means the session would lean more heavily into a simulation and for lack of a better term the DM would try to create a more "realistic" environment. Players would need to be more cautious when making decisions in dangerous situations as things can and will go south pretty fast, if a gung-ho approach has been chosen. Characters need to be no nonsense career soldiers or go home early in a body bag.

2. Cinematic, cheesy and/or silly
Players have more leeway when being in tight spots and here and there is also room for comedic moments. The player character themselves do not need to be as serious as in the above version. A valid example could be the following: A cast akin to the Charlie´s Angels (2000 version with Cameron Diaz) make up the player characters. They are all in a punk band, obviously with big 80s hair, entertaining the troops in Vietnam and boosting morale with their gigs. They constantly move from base to base via chopper to play for the soldiers. Although they can´t always evade danger and when things get tough they themselves can lay down the law as they are also loaded up to the gills with cyberware just like their more serious counterparts.

I'd pefer option 1, personally.

Here is a clip for those of you who never heard of Shadowrun:

youtube.com/watch?v=8GPGQoR6f6w&t=9s

So after several years of not doing a RPG game my Vietnam War/Shadowrun (1st) session "Jungle Hike" has been played with complete strangers over at a youth centre. The resonance at the end was pretty good. The session was peppered with Vietnam War references and the player characters went through a two-year boot camp to make them ready for Vietnam in 2050. And there a certain notorious drill sergeant gave them nicknames just like in "Full Mithril Jacket":

- Fortunate Son

- Medusa

- Movie Monster

- Tranquility

- Valkyrie

- Wrecking Ball

There were a few moments where PCs could earn tokens to avoid future encounters via answering questions via a quick quiz which would present itself via an encounter with NPCs. Those questions referred to the Trashmen, Paint it black, Surfin Bird and We gotta get outa this place. There were also easter eggs hidden in the true names of some of the characters.

Here is a clip for those of you who never heard of Shadowrun:

youtube.com/watch?v=8GPGQoR6f6w&t=9s

I feel this one also gets to the point across (well, shadowrun in the original cyberpunk universe)


And of course there's the meme that shadowrun's orks are cuter.

Technically, as this is likely not to use cyberpunk elements, this is going to be closer to the lesser-known Earthdawn or Delta-Green genre.

In any case, I'm here for it.

I am reviving this thread with the intention of doing a sequel to the "Jungle Hike" scenario which has been posted above. This would mean in-silico roleplay. A very short summary of the previous scenario follows:

Six G.I.s (five humans and one ork) survive a helicopter crash in enemy territory. They need to march 60 miles through more or less dense jungle vegetation including hills and mountains to reach the safety of the next American military outpost.

Sequel:
Title: R&R in Saigon
Description: The characters are recovering from their ordeal of walking through enemy lines. So they enjoy sight-seeing in Saigon. Though despite being on vacation they can´t rest too easily as trouble finds them even in such a more or less "safe region".

Note:
I have never done online roleplay before so what do you think is the best approach:

1. Write the ENTIRE story beforehand and make notes where players are to be involved and where they can choose more or less the path to change/affect the plot?

2. Advance the plot on a weekly basis?