Shadowrun World Reboot Options

[Dr.Rockso]

Also by "rebooting" ShadowRun would lose its hallmark notation of having never issued a ret-con.

Are you certain? I think they did early on, between SR1 and 2. I think AH or Bull mentioned something about it recently.

[Cube]

I don't think a Reboot is needed.

It's the GM's job to create the setting, after all. There are 4+ Editions of Established Setting to build on, but you don't have to use all of it. You don't even have to pay attention to it. How the Sixth World feels is ultimately up to the GM.

[MYST1C]

Are you certain? I think they did early on, between SR1 and 2. I think AH or Bull mentioned something about it recently.

AFAIK SR1 had the Soviet Union still alive in 2050.

[Abstruse]

Are you certain? I think they did early on, between SR1 and 2. I think AH or Bull mentioned something about it recently.

There have been retcons, but it stems from the fact that almost all of the game world information comes from sources of varying reliability -- everything's written in-character by someone in the universe (typically runners but sometimes corporate press releases, news articles, etc) who may be misinformed or flat-out lying. All they had to do was point out how the last poster was wrong and move on from there. So technically a retcon, but done in a way that's transparent and doesn't break the fourth wall.

[Draco18s]

AFAIK SR1 had the Soviet Union still alive in 2050.

2029 to 2031, I think. One of those years.

There have been retcons, but it stems from the fact that almost all of the game world information comes from sources of varying reliability -- everything's written in-character by someone in the universe (typically runners but sometimes corporate press releases, news articles, etc) who may be misinformed or flat-out lying. All they had to do was point out how the last poster was wrong and move on from there. So technically a retcon, but done in a way that's transparent and doesn't break the fourth wall.

Which actually makes the gameworld more alive. We get conflicting news reports all the time, finding new--contradictory--information about a real world event is common place. When the gameworld is presented in the same fashion it only makes it a more rich environment.

Hell, 99.999% of the world (the collective NPC) still thinks Big D was assassinated. If you don't like the Dragonheart Trilogy, bam, you change nothing by ignoring it. The only people who know Big D committed suicide is pretty much: Big D, some dead aids, the cyberzombie and the latent drake from those novels, and possibly a couple people at the Draco Foundation.

[Platinum]

2029 to 2031, I think. One of those years.



Which actually makes the gameworld more alive. We get conflicting news reports all the time, finding new--contradictory--information about a real world event is common place. When the gameworld is presented in the same fashion it only makes it a more rich environment.

Hell, 99.999% of the world (the collective NPC) still thinks Big D was assassinated. If you don't like the Dragonheart Trilogy, bam, you change nothing by ignoring it. The only people who know Big D committed suicide is pretty much: Big D, some dead aids, the cyberzombie and the latent drake from those novels, and possibly a couple people at the Draco Foundation.

You aren't talking about conflicting reports. You are talking about Historical events.

There isn't any reason that a reboot that starts today, won't be any less cyberpunk than sr2. The reason sr4 is cyber-emo is that it was designed to be. if you have a clear understanding of what makes something cyberpunk you can steer the storyline towards those elements. If you want the Japanese to start taking over the US, then rig your storyline that way.

ie. The US and China start throwing nukes and bio weapons. Devastate 1/2 the world's population, and whittle each other down into nothing. The Japanese hit another manufacturing boom and start taking over the US again. Simple as that.

The problem is that those elements were replaced by new elements. Corporations weren't at war on the streets/facilities anymore, they battled in the boardrooms. Shadowrunners lost the ability to attack a corporation because they became immortal. Much like dragons. Shadowrun was better before it starting sticking corporate and government politics into it. The loud break in and smash things to get what you want changed to stealth and schmoozing.

Reboot it, just make sure what you want things to look like in the end.

Punk > Emo

[Czar Eggbert]

There have been retcons, but it stems from the fact that almost all of the game world information comes from sources of varying reliability -- everything's written in-character by someone in the universe (typically runners but sometimes corporate press releases, news articles, etc) who may be misinformed or flat-out lying. All they had to do was point out how the last poster was wrong and move on from there. So technically a retcon, but done in a way that's transparent and doesn't break the fourth wall.

I always looked at it like this: The Crash of '29 destroyed much of the worlds information, and what was recovered was not always correct. As the years go by more accurate information becomes available or, conversely, people start pulling a 1984 and changing history in a way so nobody notices. If everything is digital, how do you prove it was changed. No more history books, no more paper newspapers, everything else can be faked. What do you do when you convert everything to bits and the bits fail? This is how I forgive SR for inaccuracies. The Crash of '29 is a great “get out of jail free” card..

[Platinum]

I always looked at it like this: The Crash of '29 destroyed much of the worlds information, and what was recovered was not always correct. As the years go by more accurate information becomes available or, conversely, people start pulling a 1984 and changing history in a way so nobody notices. If everything is digital, how do you prove it was changed. No more history books, no more paper newspapers, everything else can be faked. What do you do when you convert everything to bits and the bits fail? This is how I forgive SR for inaccuracies. The Crash of '29 is a great “get out of jail free” card..

-- removed as my comment didn't add anything to the conversation.

[Doc Byte]

Also by "rebooting" ShadowRun would lose its hallmark notation of having never issued a ret-con.

There was a small retcon in Europe, changing the ECU into Euros.

---

Personally I don't need a reboot. The only thing I'm really missing is some more global warming / climate change in the world of SR.

[Abstruse]

I always looked at it like this: The Crash of '29 destroyed much of the worlds information, and what was recovered was not always correct. As the years go by more accurate information becomes available or, conversely, people start pulling a 1984 and changing history in a way so nobody notices. If everything is digital, how do you prove it was changed. No more history books, no more paper newspapers, everything else can be faked. What do you do when you convert everything to bits and the bits fail? This is how I forgive SR for inaccuracies. The Crash of '29 is a great “get out of jail free” card..

It also works as a good "Why is tech so different?" After the sacking of Rome and burning of the Library of Alexandria, the Western world lost a lot of knowledge. Hell, we didn't learn how to make concrete again for 1500 years. "How come our a pocket secretary in 2050 can't even do what a 1995 cell phone can?" Because they lost the plans in the Crash and had to re-engineer everything from scratch. Same with cars, guns, everything else. Also a great way for the Japanese to get their footing back in the corporate world...typically they're not great at creating new technology, but are amazing at making tech better.

[Abstruse]

Personally I don't need a reboot. The only thing I'm really missing is some more global warming / climate change in the world of SR.

Null point in Shadowrun. The Awakening screwed up the climate more than our polluting ever could. The regrowth of the Amazonian rainforests, spirits, volcanic eruptions, massive magical mind-bending walls of glamour, ginormous human sacrifices creating astral dead zones, nuclear and chemical weapons being used, etc. etc.

Originally, it was a way for them to fiddle with the climates of various cities without having to do a ton of research on every new location they did a write-up on, but it also works on things like global warming/climate change.