Shadowrun
| Shadowrun | |
|---|---|
Shadowrun logo |
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| publication | |
| Author (s) | Bob Charrette, Paul Hume, Tom Dowd |
| Original publisher | Catalyst Game Labs |
| original language | English |
| German publisher | Pegasus games |
| World and system | |
| genre | Cyberpunk , fantasy |
| Game world | The sixth world |
| Ascent | XP purchase system |
| cube | W6 |
Shadowrun is a cross-genre pen & paper role-playing game of US origin that was first released in 1989. It takes place in the near future and combines the technical and dark future aspects of cyberpunk with magical influences of fantasy such as magic , elves , dwarves and dragons . Thus, it differs significantly from other game systems that only focus on one genre (e.g. Cyberpunk 2020 , The Black Eye ). The German edition of the current sixth edition is published by Pegasus Spiele .
Game world
Based on the real world at the end of the 1980s, the makers of Shadowrun spin the development of humanity in the sense of the dystopian direction of the cyberpunk by William Gibson ( Neuromancer trilogy ) and the Dark Future . According to the background story, corporations have expanded into global structures that are only subject to a few laws. The largest multinational corporations - so-called megacons - have some form of extraterritoriality , which allows them to operate on their own property , free from state laws. Police tasks are also carried out by individual groups. Large parts of the earth have been destroyed by ruthless exploitation and catastrophes. The disasters, together with several pandemics of a highly mutagenic virus - which killed a third of the world's population - have strongly polarized urban society: a comparatively wealthy layer of corporate employees who live in protected enclaves of their respective corporations and a large layer of the poor who Live largely without rights outside the corporations. Outside the cities that have grown together to form megaplexes, many areas are becoming overgrown or becoming small autonomous states.
Parallel to this development, however, magic also returns to the world, which is now referred to as the sixth world according to the Mayan calendar . Many people are born as elves, dwarves or orcs or are transformed into them in the course of the "goblinization", while primitive peoples like the Indians rise up against their oppressors with the help of magic and establish their own states, which leads to the Balkanization of many states and magicians become indispensable components of the modern warfare makes. Beings like vampires and dragons only make the sixth world more dangerous. Racism is increasingly directed against the orcs and trolls, who are decried as violent or criminal, while the corporations have discovered a new source of income in magic.
In this world, players mostly play “shadow runners”. These are officially non-existent mercenaries who are hired by corporate representatives to do illegal work against other corporations. The spectrum ranges from data acquisition and industrial espionage to contract killings ("wetwork"). Thanks to the progress made in the field of technology and science, the player characters have access to a variety of different technical aids - for example in the form of cybernetic implants or specially grown organs. The installation capacity in the human body is limited here; with each additional device, the character's organism becomes less reliable. If a certain limit is exceeded, the body stops functioning.
One of the primary locations is the almost 4000 km² large, approximately three million inhabitants megaplex Seattle, which was created through the merger of Seattle with the surrounding districts. Because of its location, Seattle serves as an important trading hub in the game, so that almost every major corporation has a seat here. The “Allianz Deutscher Länder” (ADL), ie future Germany, is an important place of action, especially in German-language publications.
The stand-alone role-playing game Earthdawn forms the background story to Shadowrun. It is set at the time of Atlantis and is technically based on completely different rules. The interweaving of the background worlds of both games has only rarely been discussed since 1997 and only received more attention again as part of the Dawn of the Artifacts adventure series by Catalyst Game Labs.
In an essay published online, the religious scholar Michael Blume explains that Shadowrun playful early on questions of the future such as the discussions of the Mayan calendar , the longing for a “re-enchantment of the world”, the simultaneity of “globalization and regionalization” as well as the merging of man and technology in transhumanism processed.
Game system
Characters
Shadowrun is based on a stepless and classless system, in which the characters with attributes, skills and implants can be expanded as the player imagines. However, individual aspects influence each other here. For example, technological implants can impair a character's ability to work magic. Usually, besides ordinary people, the players also have elves, dwarves, orcs and trolls to choose from; additional creatures or “metavariants” such as centaurs can be added through supplementary volumes. All in all, exotic and curious mixtures are possible, such as cybernetic samurai orcs, troll bodyguards with corporate past or magical elven reporters. The game offers so-called "archetypes" for orientation. These are templates for character creation that are intended to make it easier for beginners to get started with the game.
cube
Dice tests are carried out exclusively with six-sided dice , D6 for short. The basic rule is the so-called "success system", which is designed differently in the third and fourth versions. Following the 3.01 rules, the players try to exceed a given value - the "minimum throw" (e.g. 5) - with several throws. Every die that shows the minimum roll (ie 5 in our example) or surpasses it (shows 5 or 6) counts as a “success”. The number of successes determines whether and how well a test was passed. In rehearsals between competing parties, the successes achieved in each case are compared and the “net successes” are determined. In the 3.01D edition, the minimum throw was modified by the game master based on various tables and his assessment of the situation, i.e. increased or decreased. In the 4th edition, the game master also imposes so-called dice pool modifiers according to tables and feeling, which change the number of dice that are available to achieve the minimum roll.
According to the rule system of the 4th Shadowrun Edition, the minimum throw does not reflect the number that must be achieved with the dice, but the number of successes (against a fixed difficulty of 5) that should be achieved in total. Instead of modifying the difficulty - as in 3.01 - the game master has the option of increasing the minimum roll (i.e. the number of successes that must be rolled) or of modifying the number of available dice. According to Shadowrun 3.01, a roll of 1, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6 against the minimum roll of 6 would have resulted in two successes, after Shadowrun 4 a minimum roll of 6 would not have been fulfilled (since there were no 6 successes against the fixed difficulty of 5 gave). For this you would have to roll six fives or sixes.
In the fifth edition of Shadowrun, there are limits to the number of valid successes that are derived from the attributes of the character. Each character has a physical, a mental and a social limit.
If a skill is not available, a more difficult test on related skills or an attribute can be avoided.
karma
"Karma points", which roughly correspond to the so-called experience points of other systems, are used to further develop a character . These are given individually by the game master depending on success and style of play. With these points, the character can be expanded by buying attribute or skill improvements at given “prices”. The costs for such an increase are always increasing as the game progresses.
Game material
The basic rules are required to play. It contains all the necessary rules of the game, instructions for creating characters, general lists of skills, equipment and magic, and templates for copying the character sheets. There are also extensions and "source books" that provide background information. These describe interesting aspects, locations, equipment and events of life in the game world and offer further rules. Special adventure volumes are also available.
development
Shadowrun was developed by Robert N. Charrette , Paul Hume and Tom Dowd for the US company FASA Corporation and was released in 1989 in its first version, which is set in 2050. The revised second version, set to play in 2053, was released three years later. In 1998 the third version appeared, which takes place in 2060 and combines various additions from expansions that have since appeared. At the same time the presentation was changed from realistic to comic-like drawing style.
In 2001, Seattle-based WizKids took over the Shadowrun license after FASA was dissolved and transferred it to FanPro . The fourth version appeared in October 2005. It again summarizes many rules of various extensions and in some cases greatly simplifies them to make it easier for beginners to get started. The framework story will be moved to the year 2070 and the presentation will be made more realistic. The current English edition of the Shadowrun edition is published by Catalyst Game Labs . Catalyst was founded in 2007 by In Media Res Productions for the publication of Battletech and Shadowrun material.
Traditionally, the German edition of Shadowrun always incorporates the latest errata and encores about the German game world, which in turn are then also published in the English edition. Earlier editions were published by the German industry publisher FanPro . The translated works were marked with the suffix “.01D”, for example “4.01D”. FanPro published its own background volumes for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, some of which were also translated into English.
Other Shadowrun Products
Books
A series of paperback books has been published by Heyne Verlag since 1991 , which continues the official storyline. The order of the German edition differs significantly from the English version, and some of the cover pictures are reversed. In Fantasy Productions also several books have been published since the 1997th These were written by German-speaking authors and mostly deal with Germany and Austria. Fantasy Productions no longer exists as a publisher. The rights to Shadowrun are currently held by Pegasus Spiele , but the option for the novel rights was not initially drawn (as of 2012). Shadowrun novels have been published by Pegasus since 2017.
Game console, computer and internet
In 1993 Beam Software released the action RPG Shadowrun for the SNES , which is roughly based on the first novel trilogy. This game greatly simplified the rules by eliminating numerous character values and focusing on the story. A version of this game was also published, completely translated into German.
In 1994 BlueSky Software developed another RPG under the same name for the Sega Mega Drive . This has no relation to the SNES game and presents itself in direct comparison with a more open gameplay and closer proximity to the pen & paper original and is therefore sometimes viewed as an early example of an open world role-playing game for consoles . However, it was only released in the US and parts of Asia.
In 1996 another game, simply titled Shadowrun , was released for the Sega Mega-CD exclusively in Japan. This variant developed by Group SNE combines elements of the adventure genre with turn-based fights from a bird's eye view typical of Japanese role-playing games of the time. It should be noted that this game is visually manga- style as it is based on a Japanese manga template.
Since May 30, 2007, Microsoft has been selling a multiplayer action game entitled Shadowrun for Xbox 360 and Windows Vista , which is loosely inspired by the role-playing world and uses Live Anywhere technology. There are several MUDs and MUSHes on the English-speaking Internet, some of which are used as role-playing platforms.
In 2012, Jordan Weisman (co-founder of FASA Corporation ) very successfully raised money through Kickstarter.com for Shadowrun Returns , a computer role-playing game on various platforms. In the same way, Jan Wagner ( Cliffhanger Productions ) was able to provide funding for Shadowrun Online , a turn-based and cooperative multiplayer game for various platforms.
There are numerous radio plays that have been produced by fans for fans, such as "The Preacher Chronicles".
Trading cards
In 1997/98 a shadowrun trading card game appeared in several versions - in German at FanPro . In addition to the base game, the expansion underworld appeared . The aim is to be the first to achieve a certain amount of “reputation”. To do this, “runs” (orders) must be completed successfully. This is done either through stealth or open combat. Due to the unbalanced balance, most of the games are played with combat-oriented groups, so that teams without classic firepower hardly have a chance.
Tabletop
From 1989 Grenadier Models produced shadowrun pewter figures . By 1991, 29 figure sets had been created. Ral Partha, who at that time had been producing Battletech miniatures for FASA for several years, took over the license and produced the miniatures until the company was sold to FASA in 1998. Since 2001, the old series have been produced by the newly founded company Iron Wind Metals.
In 1990 FASA released a board game called DMZ Downtown Militarized Zone . As part of the normal role-playing game publications, three additions to DMZ (floor plans, game characters and a game scenario in an adventure book) appeared, but the board game concept was quickly abandoned.
WizKids released a tabletop system called Shadowrun Duels in 2001 , but it was unsuccessful and was discontinued after the second series.
Card game
In 2014, Shadowrun: Crossfire , a cooperative deck-building card game for 1 to 5 players, was released. What is unusual for deck building card games is that the players' characters receive karma points for which permanent skills can be acquired, which is one of the characteristics of an RPG . In 2014 and 2016, two character expansion packs and new "runs" or adventures were released in the Las Vegas Expansion (2015) and High Caliber Ops (2015). There is no German translation of the game.
Awards
- Nominated for the shortlist of the German RPG Award 2016 in the accessories category with "Boston exclusion zone"
- Awarded the German Role Play Prize 2017 in the accessories category: "Datapuls ADL"
Web links
- Official website (German)
- Official website (English)
- Shadowrun Universe ( Memento from October 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Official joint portal of Catalyst Game Labs, Harebrained Schemes and Cliffhanger Productions
- Shadowhelix - largest German Shadowrun Wiki
- Shadowiki - German Shadowrun Wiki
- Shadowrun Universe - German blog about Shadowrun
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chronolog Nature of Faith: Shadowrun, the Maya and the Future
- ↑ PC Games Hardware from May 9, 2010: Linux gets the penguin, Windows 'Live Anywhere' (PCGH Retro, May 9)
- ↑ escapistmagazine.com : News from April 4, 2012 (English, accessed April 18, 2012)
- ↑ Kickstarter crowdfunding ended on April 29, 2012
- ↑ deinkult.de ( Memento from August 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ): message from June 18, 2012 (German, accessed June 20, 2012)
- ↑ Kickstarter crowdfunding ended on August 14, 2012
- ↑ Shadowrun: Crossfire on BoardGameGeek , accessed January 26, 2018
- ↑ Source, en: Shadowrun: Crossfire in shadowhelix.de, accessed on January 26, 2018
- ↑ German RPG Award. June 2, 2016, accessed June 14, 2016 .
- ^ The winners of the German Role Playing Award 2017. June 11, 2017, accessed on June 12, 2017 .