#RPGaDAY 2017, Day 3: Finding Out About New Games

The #RPGaDAY writing prompt for today is “How do you find out about new roleplaying games?” — a question I don’t have a good answer for. I mean, I used to read message forums and know about cool things that way. I also used to enter the neighborhood bookstore and stumble across something new. This is how I found out about Shadowrun, through a copy of Bug City sitting on a shelf at a Hastings in a slowly-dying mall in Bryan, Texas. It’s also how I found out about 7th Sea. (But that was at a used bookstore, a month or two after I discovered Shadowrun, so my big college era game was more cyberpunky than swashbuckly.)

I guess these days it’s social media.

Well, that and working on layout for books then getting told what’s coming out down the line but I can’t tell anyone about it until the company makes an announcement.

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The Next Shadowrun Game: Decision Time

If you haven’t been following along these past few weeks, I’ve been going back and forth between Shadowrun: Anarchy and The Sprawl for my next Shadowrun game. ((Assuming there is a next Shadowrun game in the plans.)) The decision was surprisingly difficult to make. Initially, I was certain that The Sprawl was going to be the game for me, but the more I read Shadowrun: Anarchy, the more I was leaning towards that. Until I looked at The Sprawl again, then that looked better. But then I’d look back at Shadowrun: Anarchy and that one…

It’s close. But I think I’ve finally made up my mind.

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Shadowrun: Anarchy and The Sprawl Comparisons

“Can I play Shadowrun in it,” is the question I see asked when a new roleplaying game comes out. Now there are two that are vying for my attention to be my next Shadowrun game: The Sprawl and Shadowrun: Anarchy. I wrote 1300 words on Shadowrun: Anarchy on Thursday and a few more than that on The Sprawl on Friday.

While I tried to keep each post focused on each game system, a bit about Shadowrun: Anarchy seeped into the last post, comparing gear and how one gets it during the game. Here, I’m going to directly compare how the two systems handle certain tropes and note where I’m having difficulties.

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