Is there a history of the development of Shadowrun? What it was originally going to be like, how the idea(s) were developed over time. Every thing up to the printing of 1st ED.

Thanos

I have very little knowledge on this sorry.

Adam, can you help us out on this?

There's been a few interviews with the game designers, but nothing I have on hand.

What? The room full of monkeys has nothing?!

Banana break. Ook ook.

I'm sure there's no blueprint from way back when. RPGs tend to run in spurts as writers come and go. Ideas are abandoned or forgotten.

You'd actually likely have to snag Jordan Weisman for the skinny on that, but no telling how forthcoming he'd be. If he hasn't said anything by now, not too likely he will.

Maybe no one's asked him. I'm not looking for a blue print. Nothing creative has a blue print. Well, ok, buildings. Just how the idea(s) were developed and how they changed.

Thanos

Cliff Notes Version: Jordan Weisman turns to someone and says "Hey, wouldn't it be kinda cool if there were a game that mixed D&D and Cyberpunk?" 15 years later (give or take several months), Shadows of Europe comes out.

The Abstruse One

Actually, a friend of mine played with the thought of developing an RPG that would have fantasy elements like orcs and trolls and elves and magic, but in a modern setting. I still remember how he said to me "Imagine how cool it would be: an orc with a rocket launcher! Man!" Ok, he wanted to set it in the present and not in the future but he was still happy as can be when he found Shadowrun.

I can imagine Shadowrun starting on a similar premises.

I personally like to envision Jordan, Paul Hume, Bob Charette, Tom Dowd, and Nigel linked together like a blood gestalt evilly plotting the usage of my free tiem and dollars. Oh and all of them are laughing maniacly. A lot.

I like that version.

Stiggybaby had an interview with Ross Babcock, try to find it.

I attended a GenCon seminar put on by Dowd et al back in '93 where they talked a bit about the origin of Shadowrun.

It started out without magic. Originally, it was going to be their Cyberpunk RPG.

Then either Paul Hume called Tom Dowd or vice versa in the middle of the night and said he'd just had this great idea to add magic to their cyberpunk RPG.

Dowd's follow up comment was that he hadn't gotten much sleep since, but that his mortgage banker appreciate all the support .

Somewhere I have a microcassette with the seminar on it, but I very much doubt that I'd be able to find it. (Or a player.)

I believe the impetus for the fantasy elements came from one of the developers reading some of the Borderlands anthologies, edited by Terri Windling.