Although 3rd edition Shadowrun has numerous "updates" that modernize its context and make it less 80s specific, for me, Shadowrun will always be fun because of the 80s element that was so strong in its earlier source materials and novels.

Once upon a time, when I was still in elementary school, I read a Shadowrun novel at a bookstore. I don't remember what its title was, but I remember that it had cybered up street samurai remembering the words of their asian mentors, it had runners wearing yukatas and drinking cheap Japanese beer, and then it had this thing that took place in the Matrix that really confused me at the time.

For years after that I wanted to play Shadowrun but never got the chance; no one was interested or knew how to play it, and I wasn't even sure how to get the sourcebooks. So, in the meantime, not ever believing that I would be able to play it with other groups of people, I played the Super Nintendo version repeatedly which I found as a ROM somewhere, since I didn't actually have a Super Nintendo.

When I was in middle school, I finally got to play some Shadowrun with one other guy. He was completely a killer GM and I had to make a new character every session because I would literally take the D wound within the first 20 minutes of each session. But I was so enthusiastic to play that I played with this GM for a long long time, all the way through high school. It was funny because every time we played, all the PCs would die within the first 20 minutes. I think we shifted to D&D after a while for a change of pace, and then went back to Shadowrun so we could resume dying in the first 20 minutes. While I was in high school, a friend gave me as a gift yet another Shadowrun novel. This one was about some elf chick who was a bushido-minded security person, and so naturally it was filled with chock full of Japanese culture references.

Now, the thing is, I'm half Japanese. I was born in Japan, although I grew in New York City. For me, the 80s Japan obsession has always been extremely amusing and quaint. It's so silly and so much fun and so blatantly unrealistic and such a fantasy on the one hand, and on the other hand it fills me with these powerful nostalgic memories of my childhood. (I was born in 1982.) Don't get me wrong. I don't like it because a lot of Western authors were in fear or awe on some level of Japanese culture. I like it because when Western authors wrote in this manner what they wrote was so silly and so over-the-top. 80s ninja novels by Eric Van Lustbader still make me snort and laugh when I read them today.

I think the reason I liked Shadowrun so much initially was that it was full of evil Japanese corporations, hamfisted bushido references, and street sams wearing leather jackets with 80s hair. I mean, just look at the cover of SR2. Those runners are so 80s.

For me, part of the fun of SR is the intense leather/hair and outrageous Japanophile cultural aspects of it. For me, no matter what year it is in real life, and no matter how many years I continue to play Shadowrun, it will always embody the 80s to a certain extent with me.

I've been GMing for years now, but even today the last game that I GMed concerned itself explicitly with 80s ninjas.

Just my personal feelings.

For myself, the over the top parody of the real world, the exaggeration and exacerbation of life to points beyond is what makes Shadowrun cool. It doesn't matter if it uses 80’s stereotypes or today's: it's the bizarre mixture of fantasy and sci-fi stirred by a crazed mad scientist that makes the game. In fact, I prefer evolution to stagnation, the changing reflection of the world through that misty pool.

But you can never have enough ninjas .

Ninjas should be used as the basic unit of measure for Shadowrun games.

Example:
"We had an awesome session yesterday we-"
"How many ninjas did you fight?"
"uh 4"
"Woah"

Anyway, I think growing up in the 80s/early 90s means you have some wierd affinity for ninjas and samurai. For example, I have a friend who says "ninjas" whenever he can't think of a word. It's odd, sometimes he'll just say things like "I went to the... uh... ninjas."

*Twitches*

*Ninjas*

It's not cool to make fun of Sally Tsung's hair...or outfit.

I actually had a combat map I used entitled "the swampest places".

because of that butler, cuban(?) is the new japanese

You see a dead German soldier.

You see a dead American soldier.

You see a dead person.

~J

Lighten up, Francis...

there, back on the 80s!!!

It was very painful. You should consider… the alternatives.

~J

A GM friend of mine who lives down in LA has a rule for both Cyberpunk 2020 and Legend of the Five Rings (AEG's Samurai RPG that became 'Oriental Adventures' for D20)...

"You know you have a good plot when there's intrigue, lust, murder, and the opportunity to write - at any given section of the plot - the phrase: 'Suddenly.... NINJAS!"

Which, incidentally, is an excellent rule the new Zatoichi movie follows.

I concur, Wounded Ronin. Here's to the 80s, playing Billy Idol while your runners spike their mohawks and straighten their fingerless gloves, and to the love/hate Japanophilia of the 80s.
(Though I don't think Japanophilia has died, just changed forms. I am, admittedly, majoring in Asian Cultural Studies, though.)

Nowadays, I think most Americans think of Japan in one of three ways:

1) The dyed-in-the-wool anti-Japanese. Usually holdouts from either the KKK, or folks with really bad memories of WW2.

2) The people who think of Japan & Canada in the same terms: that place. Over there. Dunno what they do over there. Pass the sugar.

3) American Otaku. 'nuff said.

I'd say most Americans fall in the #2 category nowadays. We don't hear anything about Japan unless it's major news (death of the Emperor, troop in Iraq, etc.). Even then, it's swept under the media rug after a couple days.

don't get me wrong, i loves me some ninjas. one of these days, i'm going to produce an RPG called Ninjas, Pirates, and Cowboys, and it will rule over all other RPGs.

however, i hated the 80s. they weren't quite as bad as the 70s (disco... ugh), but they still gave us Flock of Seagulls and David Bowie's crotch. say what you will about the 90s, at least MC Hammer didn't wear tights.

Mmm, but Valo does. Bring on the naughts.

[edit] Except that whole showing the belly crap, leave that alone.

Link The Official Ninja Web Page

Hobos
Commies
Electrical Engineers
Korean Guys
And The Internet are all the new ninja.

What sort of SURGE effects would allow a runnerteam to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

~J

Ninjas in SR are something that is required to occur for everyone at least a half doezn times if not more. Half our great SR "remember the time..." stories involve ninjas. My Location (to the left there) is a parody of the most famous.

Yes, SR could use a little more 80s cyberpunk grittyness. But I think the real cause of its fade is the obession with technology of today. If you check out most of the new material, its focused more on high tech and ways of getting around high tech than anything. Which sorta puts you, as a character, in a bind. Either you can deal with the tech by using tech or you can be unable to complete runs.

Which is sorta one reason the whole "this run must parallel RL" thing turns me off. If everything had realistic levels of security, then every runner that wasnt a top notch techno-toyed up professional wouldnt make it past real run one.

Compromise the reality of the game for some flavor, and dont forget the genre's history. MMmmm flavor... better than soy....

What about the astronauts, though?

~J

isnt there allready a rpg about ninjas?

How the hell do you make a "Black-Pyjama-EVA" suit? YOU try being sneaky with a pack like that on your back? And what if he accidently nics it with one of his "poison-coated-ninja-throwing-death-star-shuriken?"

Hmm... death star. Cool name. I might use it sometime...

Billy Idol..ah...blast from the past...especially this "Cyberpunk" album...
"I'm crying in the rain
for how long
tomorrow people..."

"my body's sweating toxins
of my own demise..."

Fairly true...this 80s feel...I couldn't put my finger on it, but that's definitely the original Shadowrun spirit...and it's true the game has taken a hi-tech Clancy-like bend...

i thought about including astronauts, and also dinosaurs, in my RPG, but i decided it wouldn't work, thematically. yes, i know i could have the cowboys ride the dinosaurs, or have the samurai (samurai are implicit in ninjas) be the astronauts, but i wanna keep it real, yo.

How is it that we speak of the 80's influence in Shadowrun and nobody mentions elves with mullets!?!? The run I GM'd just a few days ago had an elf with a mullet...come to think of it, one of my players seems to consider himself a ninja too...

hey, pal. we don't allow foul language on dumpshock. say the M-word again, i'm reporting you to the admins. you are warned !!

Billy Idol rules. As do Mohawks. Mullets not so much. Mullethawks definately not so much.

*Runs hand through mohawk*

The style of the 80s isn't as important as the THEMES of the 80s. In the 1980s, there was real anxiety about globalization and the information age. In 2004, they're here. Those fears aren't obsolete, but they are less acute because it all seems less threatening.