Re-Bootin Shadowrun, What would it be like if done today? Options

[Gerzel]

Trying to take the same "feel" and "stories" of the SR universe but to update them today.

So first of all you'd have the milestones moved up.

2018: The Shiawase Decision -- Or perhaps not through the same type of events but Corps gain extraterritoriality, or vastly increased power. I'd see this more through a telecoms strike rather than nuke.

2023: New York Quake -- Needed to get the UN off of US soil or perhaps removing the UN entirely. The idea of government between nations and the power of nations needs to be weakened for the Corps to really rise.

2030: VITAS

2031: The Awakening

2032: The Big D

[Edit for clarification of what I mean. Posted here for anyone joining the discussion]

I mean to do a what-if if the timeline for SR 1st ed was written today still keeping the basic feel of a somewhat dystopian world which mixes magic and tech where you have "Shadowrunners" or individuals who work outside the law committing heinous felonies for money mostly hired by big multinational Corps against each other.

The jumping off point, or the point of divergence that John Q. Public would know about and notice can be no earlier than Oct 15, 2007. Basically that means that the major newscasts are going to be the same in this world up till this date.

[mfb]

moving the Awakening to 2031 would be much less cool. moving it to 2012 i could see, though.

[Glyph]

I think the whole extraterritoriality thing is the most implausible thing of all, given how dim a view people already have of the big corporations.

More importantly, the big corporations themselves wouldn't really want it - right now, they exert vast influence on government, to the point that you have legislators worrying about how cold medicine manufaturers will feel about an anti-meth bill, or big oil companies invited to sit in on an "energy task force" meeting. Corporate welfare and the military-industrial complex are billion, perhaps trillion, dollar industries. Right now, they get subsidies and tax breaks, and a big say in public policy, without having to worry about roads, or schools, or any of the other troubling things that they would rather have governments deal with.

Rather than this moronic, implausible corporate feudalism, the mega-corporations should be more like Genom in the Bubblegum Crisis series, or hell, any evil coporation in just about any novel, anime, or comic book. Let them be sprawling behemoths who have a bazillion secret projects and own high-ranking public officials. Have hotshot journalists and maverick police detectives constantly being pressured by "upstairs" to make a troubling investigation go away. Have skullduggery going on, and have troublesome witnesses or agitators disappear. People have been doing evil corporations for years without extraterritoriality!

[Wounded Ronin]

Among many other things the armor in the BBB would be better reflecting improved flexible body armor since the 80s.

[GrepZen]

And cybernetics to get a fish with a laser would have to come much sooner. You doubt me?! Tell me what was the first cloned mammal...a sheep...named Dolly. Technology is driven by scientists with an odd sense of humor.

[FrankTrollman]

Yeah, there weren't remote control sharks with lasers on their heads in Shadowrun until Michael and I made it happen in Augmentation. That means that they were new technology in 2070. Seriously dude, sharks with frickin lasers on their heads should have been old tech in 2050.

-Frank

[Cthulhudreams]

The DOD is working on insects with computer controls like, right now.

Edit: The real difference is the technology is going to be considerably more advanced than is portrayed across the board.

[raggedhalo]

I think you keep the Awakening and maybe VITAS where it is; it's the subsequent instability that leads to the Seretech and Shiawase Decisions, meaning there's more magophobia in the early days (leading to the Night of Rage). Or perhaps the Night of Rage is what sets the scene for the Shiawase Decision.

[Cthulhudreams]

The flipside of looking at it is maybe a dystopic setting like SR isn't the correct choice for a new millenia setting, like a post apocalyptic setting it's gone kinda out of date.

OR, can I suggest changing to a global warming future, where there has been massive population displacement and famine, and the rich live in utopic cities surrounded by seething seas of the poor who trade stuff with the rich.

[GrepZen]

So...kind of like Bladerunner or Battle Angel?

[Kagetenshi]

Keep the time where it is, remove the collapse of the USSR (rework into a decline similar to that of the USA/UCAS), emphasize a massive breeding campaign/population explosion amongst Native Americans in the '80s and '90s. Reduce governmental power further—it makes no sense that corporations would rely on influence with crumbling governments when they can just do it themselves.

~J

[Cthulhudreams]

[nezumi]

Make it clear the timeline diverges in 1989. Keep the USSR together as the big red threat, at least until around 2040. Otherwise don't bother trying to 'update' Shadowrun.

Ultimately, if you keep trying to update Shadowrun to take into account real changes in technology and culture, it will stop being Shadowrun. The new thing might be a lot of fun, but it would quickly become not Shadowrun (possibly transhumanism paranoia or something). While things like extraterritoriality are a little silly in regards to realism, they're a pretty major piece of the setting, and even replacing it with a gov't guided by private industry, will completely shift what Shadowrun is into something new.

[Kagetenshi]

[Kyoto Kid]

[nezumi]

I have no idea what you are talking about... Reagan won in 1980, not 1989. I'm pretty sure that everything you mentioned happened before 1989.

[FlakJacket]

China seems to have stepped into Japan's shoes as the big economic, and with them possible military/diplomatic, threat of current times plus the whole Japanese economy imploding bit means things are going to be rejigged a fair bit. That I think is going to have to be one of the major setting departures.

Another thing that I think you'd see would be much more concentration on genetech and molecular engineering or the like straight from the start in tandem with cyberware rather than just cyberware.

[Gerzel]

hmm I think I may be a little misunderstood here.

I mean to do a what-if if the timeline for SR 1st ed was written today still keeping the basic feel of a somewhat dystopian world which mixes magic and tech where you have "Shadowrunners" or individuals who work outside the law committing heinous felonies for money mostly hired by big multinational Corps against each other.

The jumping off point, or the point of divergence that John Q. Public would know about and notice can be no earlier than Oct 15, 2007. Basically that means that the major newscasts are going to be the same in this world up till this date.

[Gerzel]

[Kagetenshi]

[hyzmarca]

If a Mandate of Heaven Emperor takes over China again, it should be Sing-Ling, the Mandate of Heaven Emperor who ascended to the throne in Redemption Part II, the twenty-second episode of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Cain protected him from assassins who were trying to stop is coronation ceremony.

[Lindt]

I like the awakening date as is. The whole maya long count thing is just too cool to ignore.

[Kagetenshi]

Yeah, if anything I'd move it to match up with the actual Long Count end, but I also like the "the Mayans weren't exact" thing.

~J

[Kagetenshi]

Another thing I'd change is that I'd strip out all but the merest mention of "hooding", and fill Shadowtalk with active scorn for the concept.

~J

[Fortune]