Shadowrun RPG

From Sixth World Wiki

Shadowrun is a cyberpunk-urban fantasy cross-genre role-playing game, set 63 years in the future,following a great cataclysm that has brought use of magic back to the world, just as it begins to embrace the marvels (and dangers) of technologies such as cyberspace, omnipresent computer networks, genetic engineering, and the merger of man and machine called cyberware.

Contents 1 Production history 1.1 Foreign Language Editions 2 Setting 3 System 3.1 Mechanics 3.2 Archetypes 3.3 Character creation 3.4 Essence 3.5 Karma 3.6 Fourth edition changes 4 Influences and links 5 Spin-offs 5.1 Novels 5.2 Movies 5.3 Video games 5.4 Machinima 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Production history

Shadowrun was developed and published by FASA Corporation from 1989 until early 2001, when FASA closed its doors and the property was transferred to WizKids (a company founded by people from FASA). WizKids licenses the RPG rights, originally to FanPro (who were already publishing for the German version), and currently to Catalyst Game Labs (a publishing imprint of InMediaRes). WizKids itself produced an unsuccessful collectible action figure game based on the property called Shadowrun Duels.

The Shadowrun role-playing game, various expansions, and a Shadowrun collectible card game have won Origins Awards. The fourth edition also won the prestigious independent Ennie Awards for Best Rules as well as for Best Product in 2006.

Shadowrun's fourth and current edition was released at GenCon in August, 2005, and brought significant changes to the game's system and setting. The new system caused some controversy among fans, although third-party reviews were positive. FanPro USA had some problems with their production schedule and the game was out of print from December 2006 to April 2007. In April it was announced that production and development of the game was changing hands to the aforementioned Catalyst Games, and publishing of the core game and new supplements has resumed.

[edit] Foreign Language Editions

The Shadowrun core rules along with some supplements are or were published in several other languages:

• German: 1st edition 1990, 2nd edition 1993, 3rd edition 1998, 4th edition 2005, over 50 translated sourcebooks, 10 sourcebooks published exclusively in German mostly dealing with specific matters for shadowruns in Germany, 1 sourcebook first published in German and later translated into English (Germany Sourcebook). Many of the translated sourcebooks had the additional title "version X.01D" added to indicate that the original material was updated and/or additional material was included.
• French: 1st edition 1990, 2nd edition 1993, 3rd edition 2000, 4th edition 2006, 14 translated sourcebooks, 1 sourcebook published exclusively in French. In 4th Edition four of the translated sourcebooks have additional French content.
• Czech: 4th edition core rules translated in 2006.
• Hebrew: 2nd edition rules published in 1996
• Hungarian: Though there never was a Hungarian version of Shadowrun, one sourcebook was published exclusively in Hungarian ("Magyarorszag").
• Spanish: 2nd edition in 1994, 3rd edition in 1999, 14 translated sourcebooks.
• Italian: the 2nd edition core rules were translated into Italian in 1996.
• Japanese: 4th core rules were tranlated into Japanese, there are also six sourcebooks and adventures published exclusively in Japanese.

[edit] Setting

In exploring the Shadowrun setting, some important places to begin include the races, metavariants, nations, corporations, the Matrix, and the Awakening.

[edit] System

[edit] Mechanics

The Shadowrun game mechanics are based entirely on a 6-sided dice system.

The game is skill-based rather than class-based, but archetypes are presented in the main book to give players and gamemasters an idea of what is possible with the system.

Before the fourth edition, skill and ability checks worked like this: All actions in the game, from the use of skills to making attacks in combat, are first given a target number that reflects the difficulty of the action which is then raised or lowered by various modifying factors, such as environmental conditions, the condition of the character, the use of mechanical aids, and so forth. The character then rolls a number of dice equal to their level in the relevant skill, and the number of dice rolled that meet or exceed the target number determines if the character is successful performing the action and the degree of success the character has. As an example, a character with a high firearms skill not only has a better chance at hitting a target than someone with a lower ranked skill, but also is more likely to cause more damage to the target. Target numbers may exceed 6, in which case any dice that show a 6 have to be re-rolled (a target number of, e.g., 9 is reached by rolling a 6 followed by at least a 3; thus, a target number of 6 and one of 7 are identical). For even higher target numbers, this procedure has to be repeated; thus, an action with a target number of 20 (like attempting to procure military-grade weaponry) will only succeed if 3 successive dice rolls result in sixes, and the fourth gives at least a 2. This system allows great flexibility in setting the difficulty of an action.

In addition to this basic mechanic, players can use several task-specific dice pools to add bonus dice to certain tests, though dice that are used do not refresh until the end of a turn. This adds an extra tactical element, as the player must decide where best to spend these bonus dice. For example, combat pool dice could be spent to improve attacks or to improve defense, or some of each. Players also have Karma Pool that can be used to reroll any dice that failed to reach the target number. Karma Pool refreshes rarely, typically once per scene or less, at the GM's discretion. The combination of Karma Pool and dice pools gives players a considerable amount of freedom to decide how important a task is to their character. Two characters with identical statistics could perform very differently on the same tasks depending on their priorities (and thus, allocation of dice pools and Karma Pool).

[edit] Archetypes

Although the skill system is freeform, certain combinations of skills and equipment work well together. This combination of specialization in skill and equipment is known as an archetype. The most notable archetypes are Street Samurai, characters who have heavily augmented their bodies with cyberware and bioware and focus on physical combat; Adepts, characters who have magical abilities that increase their physical combat abilities; Deckers or Hackers who are experts at manipulating computer networks; Riggers who augment their brains to achieve fine control over vehicles and drones; and Magicians who cast spells and can view emotions and call spirits from astral space.

However, the archetypes are not character classes: the player is allowed to cross boundaries. Restrictions are not imposed by the system itself, but by the player's specializations. Because character-building resources are limited, the player has to weigh which game resource he wants to specialize in and which he has to neglect. This allows high character customization while still ensuring that characters are viable in the setting.

[edit] Character creation

The fourth edition of Shadowrun uses a point-based character creation system. Earlier editions used a priority-based system with point-based character creation as an advanced option. Priorities are divided into race, magic, attributes, skills, and resources. All things that do not explicitly fall under the first four classifications, including contacts in third and earlier editions of Shadowrun, are given cash-equivalent values to be bought with resources.

Shadowrun characters are created with contacts, friends and acquaintances who serve as key nodes in the character's social network and who will often help the character out. Through the contacts system, players may uncover information that their characters cannot independently acquire. Additionally, players can often negotiate for the use of skills that their characters do not themselves have, a radical departure from most role-playing games.

[edit] Essence

Essence is a measure of a living being's lifeforce. Most humans and metahumans start with a value of six. It powers magic, and as essence fades, so does magical aptitude. Cyberware, bioware, nanotech implants, and other major changes to a being's body can damage its essence as well. Generally, if a being's essence ever reaches zero, it dies. Cybermancy allows metahumans to survive with an essence rating of less than zero.

[edit] Karma

In third edition and earlier, players were awarded Karma points as a game progressed. These points are usually added to a total called Good Karma, which can be used to boost attributes and skills. Skills that are already well-developed cost more Good Karma than skills which are undeveloped, which helps encourage specialized characters to become more flexible by spending Good Karma on weaker attributes. Karma also makes characters more powerful in general because every tenth (or twentieth for metahumans) point is added to the Karma Pool instead of Good Karma. The Karma Pool allows players to re-roll dice or "purchase" additional dice in certain situations. Karma can even be used to avoid certain death, at the cost of all Good Karma and Karma Pool points.

In fourth edition, Karma Pool is replaced by a new attribute called Edge which can be used in most of the same ways as the third edition Karma Pool. Experience and character advancement is still tracked with Karma, although Good was dropped from the name as it no longer needs to be distinguished from the old Karma Pool.

[edit] Fourth edition changes

With the new edition, major changes to the rules system were adopted.

Out of the original six attributes (Body, Quickness, Strength, Charisma, Intelligence, and Willpower), Quickness was split into Agility and Reaction, while Intelligence was broken into Intuition and Logic. A new attribute called Edge was introduced to replace Karma Pool. Instead of starting from a base, characters buy their Magic attribute like a normal attribute. The statistic originally called Reaction has had some of its functions taken over by the new attribute by the same name.

The initiative system was modified to affect only the order of actions, not the number of initiative passes. The number of initiative passes taken by a character is now determined solely by external influences, like implants, magic, and drugs. It is no longer possible for an unmodified character who is not under the influence of magic or drugs to have more than a single initiative pass, except through the use of Edge.

Several of the archetypes were modified. Deckers were merged with riggers and renamed hackers. Many distinctions between shamanic and hermetic magicians were removed, and the magic system was designed to allow many other variant traditions. Otaku - individuals who have the same roles and abilities as deckers, except without needing any cyber augmentation or technology - were renamed Technomancers.

Skills were changed from the target number system to a "hits" system. The target number is fixed at 5, and to complete a skill test, a player takes a number of six-sided dice equal to the skill and its linked Attribute, and rolls them, counting the number of dice that show 5 or 6 as "hits". The number of hits is compared to a pre-determined amount (or Threshold) set by the GM for the roll. If the number of hits equals or exceeds the threshold, the roll is a success. This mechanic, not coincidentally, happens to very closely match the new World of Darkness system. In addition, dice pools were removed, eliminating most of the tactical allocation of dice during combat, spellcasting, hacking, and other activities. These changes were intended to speed up the resolution of skill tests and combat.

The "Rule of One" of previous editions has been changed. A "glitch" is when at least half of the rolled dice come up 1s. A glitch results in a minor inconvenience or setback for the player, though it does not necessarily mean failure as long as enough hits were still scored. However, if a person rolls a glitch while scoring no hits at all, it is considered a "critical glitch", and is substantially more serious or potentially even fatal.

Rules for combat, magic, hacking, and other activities were changed to accommodate the new skill system. The modified rules are typically similar in outline, but the details are necessarily different.

Since the rules in the Fourth Edition are mechanically dissimilar to those in earlier editions, balance issues differ between editions. Characters from previous editions do not easily convert to the new edition with their strengths and weaknesses intact.

There were a few changes to the fictional setting in the Fourth Edition. The main premises remained unchanged while the timeline advanced by five years. The largest change in setting was the addition of a global wireless matrix that allows people to have augmented reality displays: visual overlays on real-world scenes. This encourages hackers and technomancers to join their teammates physically rather than provide matrix backup from a remote location, a change designed to make coordinating and integrating online and real-world actions easier for the GM.

There were also other changes to Shadowrun society at large, as illustrated in the flavor text. For example, up to this point, cursing had been illustrated with a variety of colorful made-up words, such as "drek", "frag", and "slot". FanPro eschewed these in SR4 (to some player complaint, as many fans believed this added social color to the game) and decided to use their contemporary, real-world counterparts.

[edit] Influences and links

Shadowrun is linked to Earthdawn, and is set in the "Sixth World", where Earthdawn is the "Fourth World" and our modern-day Earth is at the tail end of the Fifth World. Such links are not necessary for play, but they allow crossover potential.

The concept of the "Worlds" is directly linked to the ancient Mayan belief that the world is renewed every five thousand years. Incidentally, the ancient Mayan calendar will restart in December 2012.

Shadowrun is influenced by the writings of William Gibson (particularly Neuromancer), who reacted in a less than favourable light to its release.

In December 2005 Robert Boyd from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland robbed a lingerie shop at knifepoint in Belfast while wearing a blonde ladies wig. During his trial Boyd stated he was playing Shadowrun, specifically the role of criminal elf Buho, at the time and may have "blurred reality and fantasy". Two jurors believed his story, but ten did not and he was convicted of robbery in March 2007.

[edit] Spin-offs

[edit] Novels

FASA released 40 Shadowrun novels in collaboration with Roc publishing between 1991 and 2001. Shadowrun novels went out of production between 2001 and 2005, making the books produced towards the end of FASA's ownership of the license hard to find. A 41st novel was announced, but never released.

In 2005, WizKids began publishing new Shadowrun novels, again through the Roc imprint of the New American Library. Six novels were released in the new series, with no current plans for more.

Several additional novels were published in foreign languages only. More than 30 written in German by German and Austrian authors published by Heyne (since 1991) and FanPro (since 1997).

[edit] Movies

Despite various rumors, no Shadowrun movie has been produced so far. In 1999, Shadow Pictures, led by Kenneth Stange, tried and failed to create the first Shadowrun spinoff movie. Due to an unaccepting crowd and a lack of funds, the project was trashed. In the recent years, however, FanPro's promotional fan film competition has brought forward a variety of German fan-based short films depicting numerous aspects of the Shadowrun world in numerous levels of quality, some in subtitled versions. American-made Shadowrun movies do exist, but are few in number.

In 2000, Matthew Antolovich, a user named Dunkelzahn of the GameFAQs website and volunteer employee of FASA, had started working on a CGI Shadowrun movie. There was 4 minutes of it released, and rumors had spread that it was an official movie. Matthew had stated that it was a fun project he was doing himself, and that it was obviously not official since it was very poorly made. Production of the movie was stopped after Matthew was sent a Cease and Desist order and threatened by multiple lawsuits if he had continued making the movie.

[edit] Video games

Four video games have been developed based on the Shadowrun franchise, the first in 1993 was an action RPG titled Shadowrun developed by Australian software company Beam Software (now Melbourne House) for the SNES console. The second also titled Shadowrun was for the Sega Mega Drive in 1994 developed by US company BlueSky Software. The third game was an interactive fiction adventure game developed by Japanese company Group SNE in 1996 for the Mega CD console, again titled Shadowrun.

A fourth and latest game is for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista, with the working title Shadowrun developed by US company FASA Interactive owned by the Microsoft Corporation, which is also producing the title. However, many fans of the roleplaying game have not appreciated the major changes to story, races, and magic in the 2007 title and the new Shadowrun is an FPS (First Person Shooter), which enraged many fans of the RPG series. The publishers of the Shadowrun role-playing game have issued a statement saying, "Microsoft rewrote the timeline and setting for this game, so it is not in continuity with the tabletop RPG. It may be more accurately described as a game loosely based on Shadowrun."[1]

• 1993 - Shadowrun (Beam Software, SNES)
• 1994 - Shadowrun (BlueSky Software, Sega Genesis/Megadrive)
• 1996 - Shadowrun (Group SNE, Sega/Mega CD)
• 2007 - Shadowrun (FASA Interactive, PC and Xbox 360)

[edit] Machinima

Rooster Teeth Productions produced a machinima mini-series in 2007 titled 1-800-Magic, using the X-box Shadowrun game.

[edit] See also

• Earthdawn - Set in the same world as Shadowrun but many thousands of years in the past.

[edit] External links

Official sites

• Official Shadowrun RPG website

Unofficial sites

• Dumpshock, a large collection of information and sub-sites
• #S-Run Community, world's most active IRC-based Shadowrun community

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