Man, there really is a lot of history around these parts. I was really looking forward to DDH, because it seemed like a return to the good ol' days of the SR Supplemental and all kinds of other great fan material that has been lost to the ages...

Started playing Shadowrun back in 1991 or so. Have been playing it off and on since then.

My current Shadowrun Missions character is a continuation of the same character I started in the very first Virtual Seattle adventure back in 1993. Same archetype he was before, Burned-Out Mage. Only a few decades older, way behind the SOTA, and infinitely grumpier. I use a picture of Old Grumpy Bruce from Batman Beyond as his avatar because it projects the right level of cantankerous pissed off elderly ninja.

I still make references to earlier edition rules which confuse the hell out of the younger folks I play with.





-karma

Been into SR1 since 89/90 - forget exactly when.

Been around Dumpshock since the 90s I think. I used to live for reading the CLUE files and Blackjack's guides.

- J.

I've been playing Sr since 1993. I got introduce to the game by the SNES game of all things. I'd been doing DnD for a few years and was starting to branch out into other games. SR is the only one other than DnD that's really stuck with me.

I'm not even sure exactly. Since before I moved out of Tennessee the first time, I still remember the last session of our first campaign. This was way before fourth edition of course, and I sort of miss those days. There are some things I still prefer about third edition. namely cyberdecks, which to me were the staple of hacking. I have to admit, I was turned off when they were replaced with commlinks.

Many of the things we did I still make cameos of. The pink leopard spotted card makes a showing everytime I run a certain stock session, and the "I-jin" incident, my first completed campaign, is still mostly considered cannon by my games. In every campaign I've run since, the "Jagged Nails" is still a possible meet up point (though it's more so the version from the SNES game than the one from our old group) and Atma's Bar is a good place to get equipment.

I started playing with the release of 1st Edition, and SR has been my first Cyberpunk-style RPG (before SR, I played DSA 1st Edition (The Dark Eye, before that system turned in a rules-heavy nightmare), D&D (Red Box) and (Original) Traveller.



Jup. I intend to wait until I've turned into a Troll, then start a Shadowrun LARP (Hey, +1 Reach with a Latex Sword, Wheee!)

Nerps, for when you need that certain extra something while pleasuring your Troll significant other.
Nerps, for when your neighbor's kids aren't causing enough mayhem.
Nerps, for when that hot bi Elven chick finally calls you back.
Nerps, just because.

Began playing SR with 1st edition in 1989. Left when I discovered girls. Came back in '05 when 4th edition was released.

Been playing since 92 or so, was a member of ShadowRN mailing list for awhile before leaving university.

Khadajico

Got SR1 in December '89. Started playing sometime in the spring '90. Converted to SR2. Stopped playing before SR3 was published, and I never mangaged to play a single game of SR3. Started teaching RPG at a youth club, and introduced them to SR4.

Joined Shadowrn, I think it was when it was at iTRIBE, and stayed through jackpoint.org and dumpshock.com until the big server crash in 2007. Joined Shadowrn again in 2010 when I found out it was alive at http://shadowrn.understairs.nl

Joined forums.dumpshock.com in 2003.

Started doing proofreading in 2009. The first official Shadowrun book my name appeared in was Running Wild.

Lars

First intro was a buddy reading to me about some crazy shit where the ambulance shows up with guns blazing. Sounded interesting. Then another guy started talking mana bolts and the like, so I read up on it. That was '95/96, graduated High School in '98. So I'm definitely not the oldest of the mods, but I have the best smile, despite what Redjack says.

Played all the editions except for 1st, although I have most of the books. I jumped over to 4th edition as soon as they changed the karma cost from relearning higher force spells. What can I say, I'm a karma whore.

Joined up on Dumpshock a few years back, although I'd read online on and off as the tides of my interest waxed and waned. Now I think I've become part of the landscape.

My early Shadowrun history is very genre appropriate.
BTW, I feel a great deal older than my born on date indicates.

Twas in the Fall of 1989
While my middle class family unit was supporting my sisters college cheer leading goals, we (everyone but Dad who was slaving for a Mega) traveled with my sister. That's right, middle class mom, cheerleader daughter and young brat son(thats me) in tow. In Santa Barbara California while my sister was at some pre game party ^H^H^H^H^H practice, I stopped at a chain gamestore, Gamekeeper. I saw the Elmore art and was intrigued. As I picked it up , the kid behind the counter asked
"Have you played RolePlaying Games?"
"Ohh Yeah, I play D&D, AD&D and some of the smaller games"
"Well, this game is pretty adult. What are you 13? I don't know if its for you"
"Hey dude, its 14 and I am so totally ready for adult games. I am in a Cyberpunk game at Alpha Omega Games, in Bellflower"

Some more banter later and I whine to my mother until she buys it for me. Yes, I whined and cried like a little brat. Thus, I was tricked into getting my mother to buy me something, with dads megacorp income, by reverse psychology.

In 1990, some little brats stole my BBB. My Shadowrun group and I, as socially inept as we were, hit the pavement and started asking around. Three days later, we found the book and the person who stole it. Mostly by rumors of them giggling at us for playing "one of those stupid games with books". However, when we took it back (nerds in my day traveled in packs and packs scare people), he asked where he could buy one and how to play.

Thus, some ganger kids stole our mission critical gear. After confrontation, they realized they wanted to move up to being Runners.

The next section will only make sense to those who have played the First Edition Modules
In 1995, She entered the group. It wasn't long before She got her claws into Him. It didn't take long for Him to betray us for Her and the group fell apart. There was no choice for Him, he had to do it for Her.

Sometime after that I found DS, not this ID, and I poked around. Didn't stick though because without a group, I can't stick my interest to a game. Then in 2001, under yet another name, I put a "Looking for" post on here and started a group. Which fell apart when some drekhead just went off and killed the entire campaign.

Then I made this account, BlueMax, founded the group thats been running three years now. Truth be told, this was my first characters name, and I should have had it the whole time.

I would like to offer a bounty to anyone who can find my first DS ID but sadly, I have no way to confirm the results.

BlueMax

What is the difference between SR1 and SR2 ? I've started in mid 90s. We are still playing and we still love it !

Lesseee... Been playing SR since '97, that would be 2nd ed. Some one I know introduced me to this game and I was instantly hooked. The guy who introduced me to this world had this amazing SR library, so I had to marry him. That is Dutch-DK by the way. We've expanded the library since then and pretty much got everything. *checks* Yeah, pretty much.
Been around on the web since Deep Resonance where I think I was Kitten, then on to Dumpshock as Bitten by the Bug, then Life sort of happened (I miss the Lounge though, GREAT fun) and gaming is very sporadic at the moment. I write instead. Badly, but still it makes the itch bearable. Tried my hand as a GM, I like being a GM, but then there is Life and Stuff.

I want to play more, but with kids, husband and work? Meh. I miss being a Cat/Mantis/Spidershaman. *pouts* Or just plain cruel and evil. Waith, I am a mom, I already am!

It's pretty extreme. I never played SR1, just read the book (got it as a wedding present )

SR1 mechanics were a bit rougher (you rolled for each bullet in autofire). A lot more buggy. But the style was really far out, extremely pink mohawk, over the top, physads punching through tanks. Beautiful art.

SR2 brought in a lot of refinement, but it also made it (from what I could tell) a little less A-team and more Mission Impossible.

Being arrogant WITH REASON other than "i'm an elf" is the best reason for playing cat shamans ^^

This topic is full of people who started playing SR when I was two years old. *fp* Two years old, the very thought of how venerable you are brings me pain.

That said, the Shadowrun game on SEGA Megadrive dragged me into the setting, it was around 2000 or so I believe; and while I knew it was based on a PnP RPG, I had noone to play those with. So I only got into actual gaming once I found an online community to game with, just a couple of years ago.

I remember my entry into SR because it was the same month that I got married...in 1989.

Even all these years later...I am still with SR and my wife!



edited: misplaced an 'am' and it sounded stupid without it.

In the core rules physads were not introduced until 2E. As far as buggy rules how about spellcasting damage? If memory serves me all damaging spells started out at L damage and then depending on the spell (power/mana dart/bolt/blast) were staged up with successes. For instance I believe dart had a staging of 3 while bolt had a staging of 1 or 2. My first character John, was originally based off of the bodyguard archetype in Sprawl Sites. The bodyguard archetype was later added to the core rulebook (albiet with a beard) in 2E. Also, again if memory serves me, armor acted as automatic successes in damage resistance tests. /rambling

I remember casting a Stunbolt with a SR1 Initiate, throwing all of my Channeling dice into the mix (I think that my total pool ended up being 30+ for the roll) and killing my target twice over with overflow damage.

Actually, spells were cast at a base damage level and then staged up with successes, so a Mana Dart did base L, Bolt did base M, etc. The base damage level also set the base drain. This requires so many different spells, however, that it became a needlessly complicated mess. You went over essentially the same spell with the same options, but written out four times each.

Actually, spells were cast at a base damage level and then staged up with successes, so a Mana Dart did base L, Bolt did base M, etc. The base damage level also set the base drain. This requires so many different spells, however, that it became a needlessly complicated mess. You went over essentially the same spell with the same options, but written out four times each.

Oh, you poor thing.. Life is harsh when one is so young...
Sorry, couldn't resist.

Been in since '94. I started playing Battletech at a young age, and the ads for Shadowrun that came in my map packs caught my attention. I was learning D&D at the time, and this world that was familiar and yet so different that I knew I had to be a part of it.

I have my first edition book buried in the boxes in my garage, and have been playing on and off since those early days. Heck, I've been posting here since the early days of the forum, though no one noticed my penchant for changing names for a very long time. I always found that interesting, especially since this was the name they seemed to latch on and identify me with.

We started playing Shadowrun 1e in '92 when we were getting burned out on D&D. Once we played SR we started splitting our sessions between the two games. Depending on the needs of the group I had three runners I switched between; a private investigator with some cyber in him, a journalist that I created with the Shadowbeat rules and a Physical Adept.
We played all thru the '90's till the group broke up in '98. Since then I played when I could till '06 when the main focus moved back to D&D.
I am just now getting back into it and really love the 4th edition, so I really hope CGL keeps producing new stuff.

Grexul

My screenname is missing an 'x'

Well, my first encounter with SR was long before I ever started gaming.

I've always been a reader. My older sister had problems learning to read, so when I was 4 (1983) she was given special "Learn to Read" books by the school. I read them along with her. By the time I hit kindergarten and the other kids were reading "See spot chase the ball." I was reading Stephen King.

Fast-forward to 1991. I was in a used bookstore looking for something in particular and happened to find a used copy of Into the Shadows. I was hooked on the SR novels instantly, but, being that I lived on a farm in the bible belt, they were kinda hard to find. Over the next few years I found a few here and there, but never enough to satisfy. I never knew it was also an RPG.

Then, in 1993-94 or so, I discovered AD&D 2nd Ed. Over the next five years I collected books and played almost weekly. I ended up moving to Colorado in 1997, I was 18. I came home one day determined to move out of the shitty little Kansas town I was living in, and because I'd been working, and getting payed, since I was six, I had a nice little four digit bank account, a gun collection, two wheeled trunks packed full of AD&D books, and a car big enough to hold everything I owned.

I moved several times over the next few years trying to find somewhere I liked. Woodland Park Colorado was the worst. They call it "Hoodlum Park: Where you go on vacation, and leave on probation." I was arrested three times, had my door kicked in twice (no warrant), and no charges were ever filed (hell, I hadn't done anything, I was just a young, pierced and tattooed, freaky-freaky with money, which in their eyes automatically made me suspect), and quickly decided to get the hell out of there. So, I moved to Casper Wyoming. Where I found a nice little gaming store downtown on 2nd street (or maybe it was B street).*shruggs* I spent more money in that store than in all the other gaming stores I'd ever visited, combined. And, I found a new game, playing twice a week, though I had to DM. I didn't really mind though, I had the books for it.

By the time I moved back to Colorado Springs in 2001, I had an AD&D collection that filled 4 wheeled trunks, with just about every D20 variant game supplement I could lay my hands on, including a bunch of AD&D specific books that couldn't put AD&D on their covers because someone else made them. If any of you have seen the non-TSR Dungeon Survival Guide or the Wilderness Survival Guide AD&D books, then you know which book line I'm talking about.

Life happened for awhile, as it tends to do, and my books sat in their trunks for several years, completely untouched.

Then, in September of 2008, I was looking for Poor Richards Bookstore downtown on Tejon, and low and behold, there is a gaming store next door to it.

I went in just to take a look.

I wandered to the D&D section and spotted some kind of weird AD&D 3.5 thing, and thought, "Wafuck? When did that happen? I don't even remember a 3.0." Then I noticed a book misfiled in the middle of that WotC abortion. "Odd. What's this black book?"

By this time I had amassed 35+ SR novels, but had never seen a SR rule or supplement book. Perhaps I had been oblivious to anything that didn't use a d20. But I recognised the name. Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Core Rulebook, 5th printing, 1st printing by Catalyst Game Labs. Hmmmm. I bought it.

I read it.

And, a week later, I took four trunks full of books back to that gamestore. They gave me 50% of the marked value for ALL of them. I got screwed, without lube, and didn't give a damn. I walked out with a $3400 check, and until just now I hadn't even thought about D&D since.

A month later, I was looking at the websites in the credits section. "Dumpshock? What's that?"

Barring internet and computer malfunctions, I've been here ever since. And, though I've GMed 30-40 games, I've still never played SR.

Good of you to mention that, in german that's important ^^

Damn. Well hey, for the first time in years I'm in a discussion with people that don't make me feel old. Or at least much older than the group average.

Started back in '95 when the game store in the City started stocking SR. First thing I bought myself was the good ol' Street Samurai Catalog (1st ed)...I loved the fantasy aspect, but it was always the cyberware that caught me. And the guns. Was pretty active back in the day, we even managed to arrange a couple of meets with the venerable Fortune down in the seedier side of the City. I believe photographic evidence may even still exist on the dumpshock yahoo group.

Kinda lost track during the transition to 4th ed, and moved away from the City...so haven't had access to either games or stores.

ed.
Went back and checked. Yep the photo is still there, and dear lord, my hair was long...I had hair!

Anyway, for all you new kids here is the link - Dumpshock Member Gallery
And for our little band of misfits - The September '02 Meet

I'm pretty sure that would be Level 12 which was on 2nd Street, though I'm not sure how you would have made it outta there without seeing SR. The owner (Mark Bull) was a hugh Shadowrun fan, and I spent a helluva lot of money on SR in that store (although during that time frame I was probably buying more Warhammer...)

Should I look into changing it? Don't want to cause any international incidents!!!

Grexul

My screenname is missing an 'x'.

I ran into role playing games in 1978, when a buddy of mine handed me a copy of the boxed set of Dungeons & Dragons. "Here, learn this and teach the rest of us." So I did. My wife, my buddies and I played a couple of times a week. I went to my first convention a couple of years later(I think?)... Gencon at Kenosha. Great introduction to cons, that was! Anybody remember "Gee Whiz!"? My wife and I created a whole world together, spending hours drawing and colouring the maps, making notes about characters and cities. She killed my first PC with a falling rock when he left the cave with arms full of treasure. Things went downhill from there for the two of us.

I think it was at Gencon in Milwaukee a year or two later than Kenosha that I found Shadowrun. The founders of Virtual Seattle were running an event there. They lived just up the road from my city. Eventually I ended up playing with them at home. I have been playing Shadowrun for about 20 years now, I guess. (Duh! Anniversary issue, dude.) My second ex-wife is an excellent player and GM. Ran the most amazing AD&D world ever. She's also published 10 novels. Could be why she writes good adventures. Amazing character development for her Shadowrun PCs, but convention games didn't reward it. Too bad. Some good feedback and she could have been one of the game's shining-star writers. Role playing extended beyond the gaming table. The dwarf warrior and the priestess of the Earth Goddess had some good times.

Myriad other games, wonderful experiences, but the one game that sticks with me is Shadowrun. I think in part it is because it seems so easy to step from this world into that one, and so it is easy for me to imagine myself there. My wife now (This one's the keeper!), a deliciously complex woman who plays as long as I keep the game session shorter than a marathon, worries about all the time I spend involved in this game. If only she knew what it was like in the beginning.

With her and on my own, I have adventures and runs to do in this life. Lost cities in the tropical forests of Peru. Derelict internment camps in the backwoods of Alberta. But I still come back to the Shadows.

Nah.
But you could get the "My screenname is missing an 'x'." into your signature, so you don't have to retype it every time.

I have to get my 10 posts in so I can have a signature! I'm not one to just post willy-nilly though.

Grexul

My screenname is missing an 'x'.

I started playing RPGs using various homebrew and book systems in 1978. (Played with some superb GMs, which helped a lot.)
[In addition to some impressive homebrews, we played a lot of Gurps, some Runequest, and dabbled with other systems.]
I GMed Shadowrun first edition, starting before any of the supplements came out. It suited my style very well. (I understand corporate machinations far better than I understand feudal lords.)
I lost touch with SR (and most other active gaming) when I moved cross-country in 1994.

Yours,
Joel

I've been hooked since the first edition. I fondly recall the BBS system before the internet was the internet. I've seen all the incarnations of forums. I lurk alot and comment a little.

I started playing in 1993 after the SNES game came out. We liked it so much that we bought the SR2 main book, as well as Street Samurai and one or two others that I can't remember anymore. I haven't played since 2001 since I can't find a group. I very badly want to play SR4a, so if anyone is in the Columbus, OH area and needs a player please let me know.