OK so what have you learned from playing Shadowrun? Honest question and I know I am potentially opening a can of worms where people are going to say something silly or some type of joke, so lets not. Lets try to keep it straight and honest.

I learned what arbitrage was (corporate shadowfiles) and Keiretsu (cyberpirates) No its not a martial art or a type of dish:)

I learned a little bit of Japanese, but after 15 years only remember a couple words. Also learned enough about Native American Tribes in Pacific NW to surprise a college anthropology teacher.

A bit Japanese, a bit worldwide mythology . . don't trust anybody, especially not your coplayers <.<

Had exposure to a lot of physics.

Guess that happens when your players study physics,
and start scrutinizing the rules.

How Incorporated (ie Corporate structures) actually work. Came in really handy several times.

I don't trust You enough to tell You that

with a paranoic Dance
Medicineman

All the fun one can have with mergers and aquisitions. Short Selling, poison pill, white knight. corporate shadow files (SR2) had a very interesting tidbit on why corps hired runners and sometimes against others in the same corporation. Amazing bit of RL stuff in there for the uninitiated Highschool student at the time (20+years ago).

Math tricks, a bit of programming (cuz I wanted to change how some things worked in Chummer), how to make PDF forms, some interesting things on the native groups across Western North America and that Seattle was rebuilt and the underground actually exists.

Like a lot of people posting on this thread so far, I learned real world stuff from Corporate Shadowfiles that actually was a help to me back when I was first learning the ropes of what would become my long-term career (financial translator). That is a book that was readable and fun, but at the same time delved deeply enough into the nuts and bolts of what underlies so many shadowruns, that it remains the ultimate adventure hooks resource. Amazing book - good old Nigel had a few flaws as a game writer, but his strengths more than outweighed them. RIP.

I started playing in my last year of high school.

I now work in computer security. I pick locks as a hobby. I also write for Posthuman Studios. Aside from the lattermost, I can't say these things wouldn't have happened if I hadn't fallen for Shadowrun ... but they wouldn't have been as likely. I also did brush up on my calculus and probability a little, thanks to Shadowrun and Kage specifically, and I came to have a new appreciation for the 80s, thanks to WR, and to worship the Drop Bear, thanks to individuals who, should I mention their names, my life would be forfeit.

- Probability math. Much more important in SR2/3 games if you wanted to accomplish stuff.
- English language skill. Battletech laid the foundation by making me care (grades improved, much), computer games and SR continued the trend. Nowadays I prefer English books and films.
- Thinking about how people work inside, how they react. SR is close enough to the modern world to make the conclusions generate insight from RL situations.
- Corporate Shadowfiles is one of the best supplements, ever. Corps act, but they are made of individual action. I went on to study economics.

Some of that is already the effect of simply playing RPGs for some 25 years. Old...

- Organizing a group based on personal authority (if any), and keeping it running on individual motivation (the important part). Enjoying someone else running the show, and participating.

Hmmm - location, distance and names of the majority of NorAm cities, including vacation spots and government offices. (I'm Australian, Yank.)

The realisation that it's not spite or malice that drives people, but self-interest, both altruistic and greedy. That, and never pass off as a calculated act anything that could be explained by shortsightedness or stupidity.

Planning, documenting things, rather than relying on my memory (I can recount the plays, and rolls of our first shadowruns, and the next 30 or so. And the DND ones)

The happy realisation that no matter how big the world was, we'd be able to talk to someone we met, no matter where they are.

A great respect for security protocols.

Corporate structure (seriously, the corp stuff should be mandatory for business studies)

Telling a story, and having the audience along for the ride.

Knowing when to crack a whip, and knowing when to let the shit flow:)

Spelling.

A greater appreciation of good classical black-line drawing. Also the old-fashioned and respectable use of cut-out decal shading. It made the Advertising industry what it is today.

The certain knowledge that people just need a cue, they paint the picture in their heads better than I could in RL.

Acronyms.

Patience.

Advanced math skills.

Grimdark.

A strong urge to reject stuff that's "almost" and just stick with superior.

That the tech curve for replacing stupid meat eyes is flat due to lack of immediate need. (So, start VITAS or start blinding the more idiotic Conservative factions of the world?)

How to have fun.


-Tir

dice roll probability is a bitch. Or the work of satan. Or God really hates me.

SYL

This is a joke but actually true as well.

I learned that the word 'Ganger' has a real world meaning that make it best not to use around the office.

As mentioned, Corporate Shadowfiles taught me more about economics than my Business 101 courses. And I'd say it can still offer better information than many modern financial planners on the internet.

There is no problem that cannot be solved by enough duct tape.

There is no plan, however crazy, that cannot be made crazier with the addition of a snowplow.

If you didn't see the body, they're not really dead. Even if you do see the body, shoot it again just to be safe.

Finally, a tale that needs some explaining: every single time I've GM'd Shadowrun, I've critically fumbled at least once per game. That's an unbroken streak going all the way back to 1989. Back then, you needed to roll all 1's; the smallest fumble was on 3 dice, and the biggest was on 13. After SR4.x hit, the increased fumble chances just made it happen more often. Despite the statistical absurdity of this, my players soon used some very convoluted math to figure out how likely it was that I'd fumble a given roll, and planned accordingly. Even though the odds of it might be millions or billions against, they knew it would happen.

So the moral of the story is: When Cain GM's, million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten.

That happens with my primary SR GM all the time; it doesn't matter the game, the type of dice rolls, or the dice themselves. Only in his case, he has phenomenal success. He used to roll dice in front of us as a GM, and still does as a player. As a GM it made for some very unlikely shots from NPCs and the resulting PC deaths. Assuming he was cheating or we had a bit of cognitive bias going on after experiencing this phenomenon for years, with his assistance we recorded every roll (and variable affecting a roll) he made for a couple game sessions. No, he really does have phenomenal success. To compensate, he started designing his NPCs have less skill than they should and he rolls behind a screen in order to fudge rolls in favor of the players on occasion, as plot demands. On any other GM, that would bother me. But with him, I consider it the price of admission to his awesome games.

On topic and relating to the above: Just because it is statistically unlikely to happen, doesn't mean it won't happen, just that it's unlikely to.

I finally understood the axiom "plans never survive first contact with the enemy."

I learned that just because another PC is willing to hang my PC out to dry, the player behind that PC likely is not. (Barring extreme exceptions.) This was driven home when I later larp'd.

I also learned that no matter how good you are in your field, there is always someone who is better and faster.

-Temperance

brain implants, where they would go, and what would they do. not in real life but i like to talk

i'll assume you have read Discworld?

Yup. Not only that, I met Terry Pratchett at a con in the early 90's. That one's a bit of a blur, I had a lot to drink that weekend, but I think that was the one involving a troll and a tutu. I'm positive that was the weekend where I ran a con game, and fumbled four times in one session. Who knows, I might have inspired that line.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you. Seriously, PRISM wasn't much of a surprise for me. If they can do it, they will do it. Shadowrun taught me to use the internet very carefully. Don't trust a corp like Google or Facebook. Everything has a price and the currency of the internet is your privacy.

Economic Basics (mostly thanks to Corporate Shadowfiles), a lot about the Natives of the Pacific Northwest, Seattle Area geography.

What have I learned?

Not being behind cover gets you splattered.

None of my (former) teammates have learned that yet.

Well, there was this real-world meeting with some real-world bikers were knowing about the Athabascan gained me some respect... wierd moment.

Shadowrun taught me to be a professional cynic, and the world keeps living up to my low standards.

One of the first times I was ever in Seattle my wife and I took the wrong exit off the I-5 and ended up in an industrial area south of downtown. Once we were on the surface streets I realized that I knew my way around the area because I had used an aerial photo of that area to make a SR map. It was kinda surreal, like an "I know Kung fu!" moment from the Matrix movie.

On my neurobiology final in medical school there was a question about the function of the reticular activating system that I'm pretty sure I only got right because of SR.

Pretty much every time I see atropine or scopolamine I think of Shadowtech.

I learned a lot about how fiction isn't real life nor should it be. When I was much much younger I wanted "realistic" rpgs once I learned some things in real life I came to find out the game was way more fun than the reality.

Heh, I did the same thing: some terms in nursing school, I knew from Shadowrun. I seem to recall getting a few Anatomy & Physiology test questions right for the same reasons.