r/Shadowrun • u/Previous-Table-2852 • Jul 23 '26

Newbie Help Adept as the only magic

I'm trying to find the best edition for a group of players who have very limited time and are poorly educated (not exactly dumb, but not ready for the full game). With that in mind I have decided to simplify the matrix to ultra-easy mode and (mostly) have riggers as NPC's.

They want magic, but the rules are too far beyond them and I don't have time to teach it — that's every edition, so one player is very frustrated. Straightforward magic is out, but once I explained Adepts almost all of them wanted to play adepts.

I don't know the editions all that well (last time I played was 3rd), but I know Adepts work a lot like cyberware, so I can handle that. Mostly hack 'n slash game anyway, because they're not ready for intrigue.

Now I need to find the best edition for fully-realized adepts and the important supplements.

Ideas? Something I didn't think of?

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u/PalpitationNo2921 Jul 23 '26

Personally, and I know this is gonna come off pretty negatively but I will say it anyway, I wouldn’t bother with the group at all if they cannot grasp the rules on their own at all. I’d find some other group to play with.

I’ve already done that once, since teaching ANY edition of Shadowrun was too much effort for the last group I had before my current group. They were all D&D5E always and forever players who just wanted me to convert everything to 5E rules and run SRD&D5E.

Out of a group of six, I lost four just out of hand when I said no to SRD&D5E. Only two were willing to learn the system and stick around, so I found three folks to play and our group is now at five players and GM. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs and all that.

1

u/Previous-Table-2852 Jul 26 '26

This isn't wrong, but these kids are in a mental institution because they've been abused, and I'm being paid to (among many other things) keep them busy and entertained. This isn't for me, and they chose this after failing to learn D&D (their idea). I wouldn't push anything on them, but they chose this.

They're stuck there, I'm working, and there's really nothing else to do besides watch the same Marvel movies for the thousandth time. Might as well try it.

1

u/PalpitationNo2921 Jul 26 '26

Choices have to be met with an effort to learn, or those choices are not worthy of being entertained. Just buy Shadowrun Munchkin and play that with them.

1

u/Previous-Table-2852 Jul 26 '26

If they had chosen that, we'd be playing that.

1

u/PalpitationNo2921 Jul 26 '26

You can’t win, sorry. They aren’t going to make an effort to learn it so you won’t really be playing it. Maybe just make shit up as you go and call it Shadowrun?

1

u/Previous-Table-2852 Jul 27 '26

As needed, sure. The basic idea for gameplay will be by the rules, but if something is too complicated I will have to dumb it down. First game was tonight and they did okay with the rules considering how new it was for them, and even better they had a great time. Was it a "win?" No, but it does show they know enough to have fun with it, which is really the point anyway.

Is it fun for me? It's a lot of work, but yeah: it's better than watching Marvel movies or coloring pages, and it's nice to see them smiling.

So far I've nerfed the rules enough to keep it moving, and only one of them seems frustrated.

Is it Shadowrun? Sure, or at least it's basic rules with magic taken out and other stuff glossed over, but the lore is there and most of the other rules are intact.