Master Shake For Shadowrun Product Line Developer, The Future Of Shadowrun Options

[Master Shake]

Some of us see Shadowrun as a public trust while others see it as merely a job. Ancient History and I can attest that it is often the passive observers of Shadowrun who know and care more about it than the so-called professionals whose job it is to keep this thing going. The best way to satisfy both groups is to make Shadowrun stronger by appealing to new players. This will improve finances and paychecks and insure that the Shadowrun world will continue to be developed. Everybody wins.

The most important point to recognize is that there are better ways to spend your time and money. Video games are making books obsolete, so only the best ideas and products can survive in rectangular analog form. To compete with video games, Shadowrun has to be big and bad ass and as spectacular as possible. Why should someone pay $20 a book for this stuff? Conflict, action, drama, personalities and atmosphere are fundamental. Shadowrun is a cool concept, it’s cyberpunk with magic. If done right, it can appeal to more people than it reaches now, but only by staying true to what makes it unique. Here are my unique and Copyrighted ideas on how to make Shadowrun competitive and appealing to new players.

Shadowrun is about atmosphere, it’s about a dystopian future. Too much of the focus in Shadowrun has been on game type instead of the game world. Street level neo-anarchy appeals to some, but there’s no reason to limit the scope of the game, especially when the goal is to expand the Shadowrun base. The focus needs to be developing a rich atmospheric world with a strong and dramatic narrative and letting people play whatever kind of game they want to, not railroading them into dumpster-diving poverty. The master narrative is the story of all the great personalities in the game, from Dragons to Runners to Corporations. There have been too many plot hooks and not enough plot lines recently. Big events have to happen all the time to keep players interests. Even if it doesn’t directly involve them, the world has to by dynamic and interesting as a background while players do what they want to.

Shadowrun has done a poor job of defining its dystopian nature. The political-economics are half-assed bourgeois. A nations strength is its tax base, with extra territoriality, corps owning politicians and the total collapse of national tax base, nations cease to exist in any meaningful way. I like the Shadows Of... concept, but the focus of SoNA and SoE is on nations. Nations don’t exist in Shadowrun unless they have a spiritual (magical) foundation to them like the Elven Nations, the NAN, Aztlan, Amazonia, Great Britain, Tibet or Japan. That is the dystopian cyberpunk reality that Shadowrun hints at but never got around to fully embracing. The political and economic situation in Shadowrun should be more like the video game Syndicate Wars with ruthless corporations openly fighting while everyone else watches helplessly. With machines and drones, human beings are increasingly obsolete. People aren’t needed so there is absurdly high unemployment and crime with no government social support or even public schools. This is contrasted by the elite lives of the corporate slaves who live in comfortable isolation and confinement. That is cyberpunk, that is dystopian, that is the source of the action and conflict and violence and desperation that is the soul of Shadowrun. The point is to define the atmosphere of Shadowrun, and to use its personalities to create drama. Corps, Dragons, IE’s, monsters and the desperate masses all thrown in a blender. Push the conflict, push the cyber-robotics-nanotech development, push the magical adepts and magical threats angle. Shadowrun needs to define itself, and then constantly blow itself up.

Shadowrun needs to appeal to D20 players. That’s where the new players will come from. In order to fix some of the problems with the Shadowrun rules, and to appeal to D20 players, Shadowrun needs a 4th edition. The rules focus is on Shadowrun rules, but every product should be compatible with D20. The goal is to get D20 players into Shadowrun and then have them drop the D20 rules for Shadowrun rules. So keep the D20 conversions to the bare minimum (feats, basic rules for rigging, decking and magic), but this will allow old and new players to buy and play the same books. What good is it to have just a Shadowrun D20 Rulebook, but not have D20 for the sourcebooks and adventures? To appeal to new players, it all has to be compatible, so they will buy the other products. This is a simple and elegant way to fix the old rules and make it easy for new players to get involved. Because Shadowrun is futuristic and atmospheric, the new art should be predominantly computer generated and focused on the dystopian landscape. Visuals should give an idea of the game environment, focus not on individuals, but the relationship of individuals to the urban sprawl or the rural wilderness and highlight magic which is the unique spin to cyberpunk.

After the general rulebook to introduce Shadowrun, there have to be books that give more background and atmosphere to players and GM’s. A Runners Guide which is part Players Companion, part Sprawl Survival guide will give more character options in both rules formats, give them ideas on the kinds of characters and games they want to play- from gutter-trash, to mercenary, to racist elf supremacists, to all magical, to Lupin the 3rd style capers- and develop the game world from the players perspective. A Fixer’s Guide will be part MJLBB and part Shadowrun textbook. Give GM’s NPC’s for contacts or targets, help them to plan different sorts of games and styles to meet what their players want, but to really focus on the themes of Shadowrun. The conflict between urban sprawl and the wild wilderness inhabited by awakened creatures that make the rural areas no-mans-lands, the desperate poverty of freedom and the soul destroying corporate slavery, the active policlubs fighting for a cause and the neo-anarchists, corporations fighting each other for minds and souls, the magical world vs the mechanical world, organized crime preying on the poor while they protect them against the worst abuses of the corps and magical threats, the hope of humanity and the threat of the Horrors. Focus on what Shadowrun is and its atmosphere and give players and GM’s as much freedom to play any way they like.

Rules Expansions have always added rules (now in D20 as well) and options to the game, but the focus needs to be on adding atmosphere first, then rules, then connecting it to game play. These books shouldn’t be sterile, but filled with plot hooks and all should have one short adventure focusing on using the new rules. So RE: Matrix needs to develop the matrix as a cultural phenomenon, how everyone uses it and has a datajack, why it matters to non-deckers. Then add the decker rules and give ideas for decker characters and plot hooks, and have a short adventure that features decking prominently and in an appealing way. RE: Equipment would be part CC but with more useful items like electronics and how runners would use them, sneak suits, et al. RE: Magic would clean up some of the magical rules (like F1 Improved Invisibility) but still focus on atmosphere, rules, and connecting it to your own game. RE: Cyberware would be similar to MM but with more atmosphere and game ideas. RE: Rigging would be very visual like Equipment, but showing futuristic cars and jets will really help people visualize what Shadowrun looks like. SOTA is a good way to trickle in new toys and to update news and atmosphere of the game world.

Those books establish the atmosphere and boundaries of the game, but everything else needs to focus on blowing shit up. The biggest problem is the disconnect between cyberpunk dystopia and lingering bourgeois notions about nations and economics. The first major narrative needs to be the collapse of the nation state as it exists in Shadowrun now, with how it would be in the context of dystopian Shadowrun. Two interesting and underdeveloped Shadworun concepts are the policlubs and organized crime. Policlubs represent where the nationalistic energy will go, into small, highly motivated groups of thugs- political anarchy is the spirit of Shadowrun. Organized crime is too tied to the ethnic concepts of current passed OC. Shadowrun OC should be more like the Zaibatsu’s. It makes sense that OC would follow the patterns of the mega-corps by focusing on profits, not ethnicity. We should see the rise of a vast Shadow Corporation, not a syndicate, but The Syndicate that operates outside the bounds of the Corporate Court and exists as almost like a franchise from sprawl to sprawl.

Sourcebooks on Policlubs and The Syndicate that is part atmosphere, part rules and ideas for players and GM and part adventures that introduce these concepts and connect to the larger narrative conflict lead to a campaign adventure. Policlubs and Syndicate start off the Narrative which leads to an adventure book that puts the characters into the conflict between rising patriotism that threatens the Corporate Court which issues an Omega Order on weakling nations (without some spiritual foundation). Poltical groups like New Revolution rise up to take back power from the corps combined with help from urban socialists guerillas, social justice groups and similar Policlubs looking for their chance with organized crime which leads to massive violence, political assassinations and the Corporate Council abolishing the UN, EU and all such political organizations and setting itself up as the world gov. GOD takes charge of the Matrix, they form other corporate policing bodies to monitor magical threats and The Syndicate becomes a shadow member of the Big Ten(11) for joining the Corps in fighting off and putting down the popular uprising. Let players decide how it ends, give them a chance to blow up the Zurich Orbital in petty retaliation and once it’s been played, they send in response cards and the majority opinion becomes official Shadowrun in the next SOTA. It’s important to reach out to players and let them determine outcomes to get them more involved in Shadowrun. Every major campaign should end with the players deciding the final outcome and having it become canon. Once this campaign is over, Shadowrun will be realigned to its true dystopian nature and will allow for clearly defined conflict between corps, runners, policlubs, The Syndicate, Dragons and other Immortals. This is all about defining and refining what Shadowrun is. There’s plenty of stuff similar to the now, Shadowrun’s appeal is that it’s a new world, with new problems and menaces, so the Shadowrun world needs to be new and distinct.

It’s important to tie Sourcebooks to the games. So include plot hooks and adventures and even connect them to a larger game narrative. Here are some other ideas for Sourcebooks and narratives. Lofwyr vs Alamaise - players decide which one lives and which one dies- can introduce more IE’s and some deep background plus involves corps and policlubs. The Immortals- give actual stats for Harlequin and other immortals, including info on vampires and playing vampires. Connect this to a campaign featuring Harelquin (Harlequin Returns) which involves the Books of Harrow from Dunk’s will, Horrors, Darke and the establishment of a new Shadow School, in a space station orbiting earth (why not?). Could use the Atlantean Foundation to introduce Laura Croft-style relic raiding characters and adventures. Deep Space- Develop space travel, space stations, colonies on the moon and mars. Push the tech envelope, and open up space travel and space adventure. Robotechnology- Androids as player characters, advanced drones and machines, cyberzombies and typical Ghost in the Shell stuff. Deus Ex Machina- campaign connected to Robotechnology, Deus’ split persona’s are united in android bodies, some of which gain their own personalities, players decide how it all ends. Iniatiates Sourcebook- focusing on advanced magical concepts like the Earthdawn adepts. Shadowrun archetypes, even for some non magical types, like the otaku. Introduce the Lightbearers and the Horrors as initiatory groups, some advanced metamagic and could connect it with a larger campaign, perhaps Harlequin Returns or something specific to Aztechnology who is now evil again. The point is to make it as big as possible. If players don’t want to play big adventures, they don’t have to, but you attract new players and define the game atmosphere by being dramatic. All the best stuff in Shadowrun was big and dramatic.

The strength of Shadowrun is the atmosphere, the unique magical angle and the personalities. Aztechnology had a personality when they were evil, once the morons tried to water down the Big A, what was the point? Who cares about just another corp? You have to develop personality or nobody will care. Aztec was defined, Ares, SK, Renraku, Novatech, Yamatetsu are defined. Cross, Mitsuhama, Wuxung and Shiawase are poorly defined and need more personality. What ever happened to Mercurial? Bring back all those characters you let slip away. Lofwyr is the spirit of Shadowrun, Dragon magic and Corporate dystopian, Harlequin is the spirit of shadowrunners. Use characters that are clearly the strengths of the game, make this stuff interesting and worth spending $20 on the next book to see what happens.

The Shadowrun website needs to be redesigned to reflect the new dystopian focus and visuals and to offer more player and GM support. More NPC’s, free adventures, downloadable floor plans, more game atmosphere that gives new players a real sense of what Shadowrun is all about. Make Shadowrun as easy for beginners as possible. Translate all the old adventures and books to 4th Edition, and offer them free or cheap downloads. Especially for a game like Shadowrun, the website and the internet content has to be interesting and impressive.

Atmosphere and the conflict that defined personalities can create made Shadowrun great, but those two factors are exactly what Shadowrun has been shrinking away from for years. If Shadowrun has a future, it has to get back to what made it interesting in the first place, and reach out to new players. Simply, there has to be a new focus on players- new players and the game world they play in.

For information on where to send my six figure consulting fee, contact mastershake@fastmail.fm