I experimented with the organizational structure of Dungeon World and applied it to one of the crunchiest games out there today…Shadowrun. Take a look and see if there’s potential in it for you!
Originally shared by Ed Gibbs
This is every major action in Shadowrun, worded in a player-facing, “move” fashion, a la Dungeon World.
The intent here was to create something players and GMs alike could look at and play right off the page, without having to weed through the exact wording of the text or having to commit whole procedures to memory. Being a Playbook in the PbtA style, this document exclusively covers actions taken by the runner. Anything not directly affected by the runner him/herself, such as recoil, is not listed here (If/when I get time, I’ll do something similar for GM stuff).
On the other hand, I’ve taken the liberty of breaking some things that aren’t actions into “special” actions. These actions are designated as such in the document. For example, getting shot in combat now has the action “Resist Damage.” It specifies in the action description that this action is actually a part of the attacker’s successful attack action.
So ideally, the flow of the game is like this:
Player A: “I shoot the ork ganger!”
GM: “What gun are you using?”
A: “My SMG!”
GM: “Okay…single shot, short or long burst?”
A: “Umm…what’s the difference?”
GM: Check the “Fire Weapon, Single shot,” “Fire Weapon, Short Burst,” and “Fire Weapon, Long Burst” moves.
A (glances at them while the GM fields another few questions from other players): “Okay, short burst!”
GM: Alright, follow the move, and apply -1 for recoil, unless you’ve got any recoil suppression on that SMG.
A (follows the move as written in the playbook, the GM rolls dice for the ganger): “I got him! Says here he must then make the Resist Damage move…”
GM: Got it (checks Resist Damage move, follows rules listed on the move): “Ouch! The ork doubles over and slinks to the ground, blood seeping out of holes in his abdomen.”