I've been trying to get into Shadowrun for years. I understand the basic setting, but what I don't understand is all of the terminology that the books are loaded with. I've only really played 4th, so I haven't grown up with books that probably explain things. As such, I'm finding a massive number of barriers of entry when trying to understand Shadowrun, make characters, and run games.

For example, what are the Barrens? I keep seeing this word come up, but I don't recall ever seeing a description of where or what it is. Likewise, what exactly is the Sprawl, and why are there always gangers there (as opposed to the Barrens)?

Other words that I keep coming across but lack description include:
-Combat Biking
-Sims (versus Trids, which I get)
-Goblin Rock
-Urban Brawl
-Troll Thrash Metal (although I can kind of figure that one out)

In addition to these, can anyone else provide some words that always get tossed around, but never defined or explained? What other lingo shows up iN Shadowrun? I was hoping that the Sixth World Almanac would contain some of this, but it seems to be absent.

As a related note, is it time for a small book or document to be released/be fan-made that contains words like this, definitions, and maybe some of the evolution of the terms?

Thanks.

The Barrens - Super ghetto areas, where angels (or rather cops) fear to tread. Lawless urban wastelands, low on society and utility, etc, etc. In Seattle, the biggest Barrens areas are Puyallup and Redmond.

The Sprawl - The Seattle Sprawl (since the city grew over time to become a metroplex, taking in not only Seattle but all of its outlying neighborhoods, turning all of them into one massive, sprawling, urban center). The Barrens have gangers, too, but Sprawl Gangers are just a reminder that not JUST the Barrens are dangerous).

Combat Biking - A popular sport, played by opposing teams of crazy bastards on tricked-out motorcycles, with lances and clubs and guns and whips and other awesome/over-the-top stuff, in a playing field made up specifically of ramps and stuff. The best resource for CB remains Shadowbeat, an older edition book with lots and lots of fluff, but it has featured prominently in the novel Dead Air, has a sort of update in Attitude, and you can find seasonal comments and news tidbits in several other books.

Sims (versus Trids, which I get) - Sims are higher-tech educational or entertainment programs that can feature more than just sight and sound for the audience. Made through cybernetic implants or other high-tech electronics, and best viewed THROUGH the same technology (according to many), sims are ways to not only see and hear the awesome stuff Karl Kombatmage does in his next action flick, but to feel the rush of power he gets from casting a spell, smell his street samurai buddy, feel the lips of his girlfriend, and get the full experience of being a badass action movie combat mage (or whatever).

Goblin Rock - Similar to Troll Thrash Metal, only Goblin Rock features orks as well as trolls. It's a whole scene, based around the traditionally "ugly" metaspecies, who then throw that ugliness back into society's face. Lots of leather, lots of spikes, lots of noise and attitude.

Urban Brawl - Similar to Combat Biking, Urban Brawl is a popular combat/sport, and also grew out of feuding gangs. Urban Brawl is played primarily by pedestrians (though each team does have an Outrider, who races around on an armored motorcycle with a gun mounted on it), as teams compete through a genuine cordoned-off stretch of city blocks (that folks may have lived in a week ago!), blasting at teach other and trying to get a ball into a goal. Players are regulated by the armor they can wear and the guns they can wield, but melee weapons and implants are nigh-unlimited, so the action is fast and furious and casualties are very, very, common. Drones with cameras zip around and record the whole thing for broadcast, and if you think of it as the bastard child of football and gunplay you're not far wrong. Shadowbeat has the best info, again, A Killing Glare is an old adventure that also has them, but the rules can also be found through a little googling, the German sourcebook Blut & Spiele just recently came out, and a Missions CMP adventure (Super Brawl Sunday) just updated the leagues, went over the rules again, and includes some abstraction rules that can be used to run an Urban Brawl game with PCs.

Troll Thrash Metal (although I can kind of figure that one out) - Pretty much exactly what you're thinking. Big ol' trolls, big ol' guitars, big ol' drums, big ol' headbanging.

I think it's important to note that the Puyallup barrens are also irradiated, IIRC.

EDIT: Also, page 53 of SR4A has some slang, and there are more sidebars sprinkled around the books.

Thanks for the quick reply. Can you think of other terms that still pop up, but date back to older books that better explain them?

Most of Puyallup is just covered in a layer of sooty ash from a nearby volcano, though rebreathers are still suggested. Parts of the Redmond Barrens are (the subtly named "Glow City" region), though.


It's not so much that older books better explained them, necessarily, it's that a lot of them have just sort of sprung up as game ideas and then been fleshed out, or have just been used until everyone got to know them (like real life slang terms). It's hard to point to one book about all of these, basically, because many of them have been around for the whole history of the game, and just been used the whole time without a hard and fast glossary or dictionary or something being posted. SR1's Slang Glossary page (or whatever it was called) also features some obsolete stuff like "frag" and "drek" and "chummer" so it might not be the biggest help, but it's the closest thing I can think of to what you might be after.

Like real-life slang, the important thing when you come across any of these is to focus on the context in which they're being used. Even without knowing the rules for Urban Brawl, hopefully it's possible to piece together that they're talking about a sporting event of some sort, or a team, or a player, or whatever -- so that the sourcebook you do have remains legible to you, if not entirely illuminating (since it's trying to chatter about 20+ years of game). If you run into more such speedbumps, don't hesitate to ask. It's what we're here for.

Sims is short for Simsense, which is a sort of replacement for movies in Shadowrun. Critias summed it up nicely. Running in VR in the Matrix is Simsense as well, BTW.

BTL, another one (Although I think this is explained) is Simsense with no limits on it, and literally allows you to experience things as the acronym stands for: "Better Than Life". Hot Simsense hacking is BTL-grade Simsense.

Goblin Rock is Punk, cranked up to 11. Troll Thrash Metal is Industrial and the Heavier Goth, cranked up to 12. We now have Centaur Metal, BTW, which is exactly what it says on the tin.

The Sprawl speaks more than just Seattle, it speaks about Cities that expand out and swallow up their smaller communities that used to be independent. Toronto, Ontario has become a Sprawl IRL, for example. Seattle is just a prime example of it for Shadowrun, as it's swallowed up all it's surrounding areas in order to keep those areas in the UCAS rather than have them absorbed into the Native American Nations (A political trick, but a legal one.).

I doubt TTM has anything to do with Industrial/Goth, but rather refers to realworld thrash metal, performed by trolls (for added badassery). Industrial/Goth sounds quite differently (guitars not mandatory, rare even) than metal (guitars mandatory).

Related to this is Orxploitation: a period when orks were hip, because of the recent discovery (due to a bequest in Dunkelzahn's will) of Or'zet, an ancient ork language.



"The Sprawl" dates back to William Gibson's writings (Neuromancer etc.) in which The Sprawl is the agglomeration formed by everything from Boston to Washington DC to (IIRC) Miami and New Orleans growing together into one big city, and became a cyberpunk cliche. In SR a Sprawl is any megacity that resulted from rampant growth.

Barrens are extremely-poor neighbourhoods, left to their own devices by Big Capital, Government and Society in general. Many/most of the inhabitants are SINless, disenfranchised non-citizens. Law enforcement rarely goes there, and "public order" is mostly the result of Mafia and Yakuza protection rackets.
The most famous Barrens areas are Puyallup and Redmond, in Seattle.
Redmond used to be a prosperous neighbourhood full of high-tech companies (Microsoft!), but the great network crash of 2029 put a stop to that. Since then there's also been a nuclear meltdown. Redmond is predominantly human.
Puyallup is the "weird" Barrens; Mt. Rainier had a volcanic eruption as a result of the Great Ghost Dance, which ruined the place. There's an elven ghetto for those elves that didn't get into Tir Tairgire. A plane crashed into a jail, releasing the inmates, and the place has never been reclaimed. Metahuman outcasts tend to end up in Puyallup.

Trid is Trideo: TV but in 3D. It's still the most direct medium for news.

Simsense takes some time in a studio to edit before it's ready for consumption. It's basically a full-sensory recording, often with emotional/thought track of what the simstar experienced. When you run it, it's like you are the star.
BTL is simsense, but it's been artificially made Better Than Life: emotional track amped up. This can be really addictive. BTL junkies are also called Beetleheads.

Decking is hacking, but from earlier editions, where you recognized the hacker because he had a cyberdeck.

There's also one certified (certifiable?) Decker still around. And he has a Panther Assault Cannon to back his argument up.

You might see him around the forums here, goes by the name of "Bull". Don't take him by the horns. They're shape charges.

The name "chipheads" is more common. Just my $.02.

Attitude pg 45 lists some of the musical terminology.

IIRC it is also a dated term that they no longer have the copywrite on or simply no longer use.

No longer use. Otherwise every time Bull opens his mouth, CGL would be in trouble.

...

Moreso than usual when Bull opens his mouth, I mean.

Could be. Of course, since people no longer use decks but little smartphones instead, decking became a strange sort of archaic term, too.

Actually, calling it "hacking" is strange too. I mean, that's like saying we no longer "ring people up" with the phone because we don't use dialwheels anymore, so we'll call it telegraphing again. The word hacking would have been obsolete during 1-3rd ed.

Have you read the slang guide in the official shadowrun page?

I seem to recall there was a slang listing in the original SR4 book as well? Looks pretty much the same from what Mäx just posted though.

If this sort of thing drives you crazy, try to figure out what the definition of a NERP is.

Net Enhancement Role-Playing Supplement. There's a reason NERPS can do anything.

The whole point of NERPS is that it isn't defined to be anything. It's known to be ubiquitous - everyone uses it all the time, it's legal, but we're never quite told what it's for. But the NERPS commercials are everywhere.

I thought it was something like Non Essential Role Playing Substance. What is the drink? It's NERPS. What color is the sky today? It's NERPS!

NERPS for the Matrix. NERPS for the Sprawl. NERPS for the SINless. NERPS for breakfast! NERPS for dinner! NERPS for the hell of it. NERPS for HSV-5!

You need NERPS to keep on going. It's the only thing that makes this existence bearable.

NERPS! Get it now!

What are CalHots? BTL porn, or something?

Calhots are basically BTL that runs a little bit higher then normal regulations will allow. THeir called calhots because their legal to produce and use in California but illegal everywhere else.

It's kind of amusing when you think about it, with all the corporate run dystopia going on there's sitll laws against the drug trade.

Simsense chips from California that are just on the edge of legal - almost BTL, but depending on jurisdiction, maybe not quite.

Yeah, it's strange. Perhaps it's to keep housewives worried about drugs instead of about corporate nastiness. Keep the proles distracted and all.

Keeping the monopoly, guys. Keeping the monopoly.

Hmh. Sometimes I feel like talking like one of those runners from splatbooks.

Two reasons for that:

One: There is a possible link to neurological damage done by CalHots, which is debated quite extensively. BTL chips do cause neurological damage as well as extensive psychological damage. This, in turn, creates lots of social and cultural issues that are very, very negative. Which is never good. It's the opiate of the masses, and keeps them quiet, until it either stops working, or, worse, possibly makes them sociopaths. It's the same reason that Heroin and NovaCoke are illegal, but are considered "Soft Drugs" now, compared to chips.

Two: As Seriously Mike put it, "Keeping the Monopoly". Aztlan has some of the strictest anti-drug policies on the planet, provided said drugs aren't made by Aztechnology. A common cold remedy in the CAS is a nefarious and illegal street drug in Azzie-Land that'll get you ten years in prison. An Aztlaner prison at that, so it might as well be a life sentence, 'cause your chances of getting out alive...

For combat biking, see: Death Race
Only with motorcycles.

Urban Brawl is like Rollerball or The Running Man.

Desert Wars... Hell, Gulf War One!