I've been searching the net, and nowhere can I find a short solid version of what shadowrun really is, Are we doomed to read to books to get a grip of the wonderful dystopia of the sixth world?
So my question is, if you are asked to describe what shadowrun is in all is glory and without resorting to the emergency backdoor of "its an RPG", how would it sound?

I find it best to describe Shadowrun as "The Matrix, with elves and trolls and magic".

To steal from TV Tropes, here's a decent short summary:


Mind you, it's not perfect, but it's a good summary--and you did ask for something already on the net.

Now, if you're willing to branch out into movies... Think Blade Runner, but with magic, elves, trolls and dragons.

*shivers* works still, it feels like downvalueing SR

Shadowrun should be proud to be compared to The Matrix!

The first movie was pretty good, but still Shadowrun was around long before the wachowiski's even opened a Neuromancer strip
(and yea, we dont want matrix fanboys ruining the entire thing now do we?)

Here's a short blurb I use at times. I'm known for my 2-hr dissertations on the history of Shadowrun, but this is a super short "Are you interested now?" kind of spiel.

"It's 60 years from now, and the world has really gone to hell. Plagues have come and gone, wars have tested the resolve , corporations are now their own countries and Magic has returned to the world. Elves, dwarves, orks and trolls walk the land while Dragons move things in the backgrounds. And beneath everything are the cogs of the machine, the quasi-legal inhabitants of the world upon whom everything seems to hinge: The Shadowrunners. You play a person toeing the line of the legal and illegal, accomplishing the jobs that corporations don't want to dirty their hands with. You'll be dodging bullets, spells and luck itself as you make your way through the dystopian world of Shadowrun. Welcome to the Shadows, chummer."

"Futuristic world in which magic has reawakened in. cybernetics, nanotechnology and heavy weapons mixed with mages, elves and orcs." thats usualy the tagline i use when trying to recruit people.

Sounds like right from the book Jhaiisiin
Welcome to dumpshock Daier

LOL Funny part is that I'm at work and wrote that from the top of my head. If it's right from the book, it's an indication I need to get out more. hehehe

Yes.

I do. That's how I like my Shadowrun.

That, or Fast and Furious.

Man you should really cut down on beetle's

And to think, I'm considering picking up the SR novels and adding their info to my internal datastores. I may not ever get cool enough to match Ancient History, but it doesn't hurt to try.

It's shooting people in the face for money - with elves.

You, Hyz, win the thread.

hahah, seems like not even dumpshockers have a single view of shadowrun ^^

I describe it as "Where Man Meets Magic and Machine."

But then I'm old fashioned.

Hyzmarca - you get the prize for your Zen like summation of the very essence of Shadowrun.

Bibliophile20 - I really like that summary and will be more or less using it next time I need to provide a fast intro.

-K.

please tell me you were being sarcastic

Of course not, you can lock five dumpshockers in a room together, ask them a question and get seven opinions back.

haha made my day ^^

My high concept, Hollywood go-to line was always, Its Lord of the Rings meets The Matrix.

People has no movie education anymore, what happened to classics like blade runner?

I must admit I don't see the matrix connection with Shadowrun or even other cyberpunk. I mean really if you think about it the matrix has no megacorps, no cyberware (other than the funky electrical outlets in their bodies) no Shadowruns, no... well matrix. Unless you consider the entire world to be a crazy UV node. I suppose you could say it has funky physads but really that's about it. It has the transhumanist aspect down pat but really transhumanism is a tiny subgenre within cyberpunk and one that Shadowrun rarely touches on.

If you want to only use cinema references:
In a world like Akira/Ghost In the Shell (when I'm in front of anime fans)/Blade Runner/Minority Report/Renaissance meets The Lord of the Ring, you play the role of some kind of A-Team and pull jobs just like Ocean's Eleven, with the addition of some John Woo action from time to time.

I just tell people it's 30% Lord of the Rings and 70% the Terminator.

Or simply "The Game where Players Shoot people in the Face for Money."

It depends on who you're playing with.

Either it's a game about well-intentioned anti-heroes fighting to survive in a balkanized corporatocracy


OR


It's a game about money-hungry psychopaths and their splattery deaths.


Either way, it's got orks and elves in it.

Hyz definitely gets karma points for that summation.

And that summary isn't original to me; I gave the link to the Tv Tropes page that I quoted it from in my original post. But I do have to agree that that is a good summation (of course, if I didn't think it was good, I wouldn't have used it)

Comparing to LotR? Old JRR would turn in his grave over that comparison
compared to books, similar in names of creatures only, compared to films.. heck those were three movies about walking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0sc-gS9AqM

Shadowrun takes place in the Sixth World, which is nothing like today's world. Society is old, tired and broken beyond repair, technology has led to the damnation and virtual slavery of the human race to its own greed, and even magic, the very stuff of legend has been twisted and left to rot on the vine as metahumanity drowns in its collective shit.

Oh, and if that weren't enough there are things that would make CoC's Elder Gods wet themselves just waiting until the time is right and they can cross over and eat everyone's face.

I have to say, that sounds more like THIS world.

*shrugs* To each their own, I have found that the older I get the more upbeat I become about the future.

Well cast Control Thoughts and tell me my name is Susan - I think we just agreed on something!

Not strictly about Shadowrun exactly, but still...

Well Susan from reading your posts I suspect that we actually agree in broad terms at least on more then we disagree upon with the exception of Shadowrun of course.

Imagine a world where the government has no power, where 10 Corporations run the world, to the point that they ARE the United Nations, but with their own military. Imagine you have a number, and you need this number to buy food, pay your rent, drive to work. but, it is beatter then not having a number, where the private corporation police force can arrest you without grounds, or just shoot you for fun, because, well, you don't really exist..and those are the lucky ones. Now, imagine where everywhere you go, you are getting digitial information, where you are tracked, your purchases catalogued, while at the same time you can have that stereo you want shipped to your home without ever having to set foot in the shop. Imagine that you wrk in a mile high building, that other people live, work, shop, party, get married, and even go on vacation in. Now, imagine you get into that elevator, and the guy standing next to you is 8 feet tall, horned, a mass of muscle in a business suit, with deposits of bone growing under his skin. Imagine that you get off the elevator and there is this cute receptionist. She owes the Yakuza money. you know this how? Because your identity to get here is fake..and you are there to kill her....

Cardul, you're description wins by far
well that and the hyz one sentence

Indeed Cardul, <golf-clap>

Nice one Cardul!


Actually I sometimes think that SR's world isn't as desperate as ours because it's still around in 2070 and doesn't suffer from global warming...

Generally, I try to avoid explaining Shadowrun to strangers on the street, 'cause I don't want to be that guy.

Deadly serious, actually.

Nervegas! it must be nervegas.. they were all hallucinating

I was momentarily puzzled by what you were trying to say. I thought for a minute that this was some strange new slang term for Las Vegas.

Is it you that is damaged from Beetles or I that use trollgrade english?

Probably a bit of both.

I always tell people who I know care nothing about the game (such as my co-workers) its "D&D with guns". That usually makes them go away.