Euchrid
Aug 22 2005, 05:40 PM
As anyone who's had a look at a 1st or 2nd ed. ShadowRun sourcebook will know, the early days of the game were very heavily influenced by the eighties, even once the decade was over and the nineties had begun. Big hair, bangles, mokawks and neon everywhere.
My question is thus: does this continue on to the present day in your ShadowRun game? At least one other member of our group is a big fan of the eighties, and we both enjoy injecting the flavour of the period into the game. Obviously it doesn't have a big impact on the game, and we understand (if only grudgingly) why the newer art does go in that direction, but it's our game and that's how we enjoy playing it.
I was just wondering if anyone else flavoured their games in the same way, or in some other similar fashion?
Supercilious
Aug 22 2005, 05:50 PM
I always have a lot of a disco-clubs in my games. Nothing like a shootout in a disco.
Nyxll
Aug 22 2005, 06:24 PM
I think that the bangles and bands were something that shaman's typically were drawn with.
The makeup, mohawks and glowing hair are more from the punk/goth genre rather than the 80's. 80's was neon colours and really big hair or a mullet.
I try and keep the genre, more 90's than 80's. I had glowing/transmorphic nanite tattoos back in 94.
Wounded Ronin
Aug 22 2005, 06:32 PM
For me, SR is all about the eighties. Whether I'm a player or a GM, I try to maintain that 80s flavor which I feel is essential to the game. To this effect, as a player, I've run the following characters:
1.) A troll with a big sword who was a pretty clear knock-off of Conan from Conan The Barbarian.
2.) A ninja named Sho Kosugi who was exactly like Sho Kosugi in his many 1980s ninja films.
3.) More than one paramilitary dude with a big mullet based on an amalgam of Snake from Escape from New York and Snake from Metal Gear who was in turn just a rip-off of the original Escape from New York Snake. So, mullets and automatic fire abound, Golan-Globus style, heh.
As a GM, I've often included many elements to ensure the 80s-ness of my game. These elements include,
1.) Ninjas. I've had so many ninjas for years that eventually some of my players got tired of them and I had to change them up a bit.
2.) Evil Japanese corporations who draw their sorcerous financial buy-out powers from the blood of sacrificed Midwestern auto workers. Well, not really. But I always would emphasize/ham up the importance of the Japanacorps in my game for more of an 80s feel.
3.) Japanese culture shtick, in the tradition of Eric Van Lustbader and Showdown in Little Tokyo. Tatami mats and tea whenever possible. Hell, I even had Nicolas Linnear as a NPC once.
4.) Tall looming buildings with neon lights, like in Blade Runner. Also used imagery concepts from the Redsun 2020 Deus Ex mod, which basically captured that same look/feel.
So in the end, I feel that 80s ness is one of the huge staples of Shadowrun. Shadowrun without the 80s isn't really Shadowrun at all.
SFEley
Aug 22 2005, 06:40 PM
No mohawks for me. I could stand just about everything in old SR except for the mohawks.
Wounded Ronin
Aug 22 2005, 06:42 PM
QUOTE (SFEley) |
No mohawks for me. I could stand just about everything in old SR except for the mohawks. |
Oh come on. Better a mohawk than an Oral Slasher.
FrostyNSO
Aug 22 2005, 06:43 PM
I would say WR just about summed it up...
nezumi
Aug 22 2005, 07:17 PM
Hmm... Yes, I draw on what I remember from the 80's.
The smurfs, Voltron, my little pony, teddy ruxpin and that show with the little green underwater creatures with snorkels. Oh yes, and sea monkies. Gotta love the sea monkies.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy the 80's like some dinosaurs wiser people here, so it reflects more 90's stuff (and grunge/punk). Not so many mohawks, but I try to put at least a few grungy, overstuffed bars full of punks in leathers and studs and maybe one or two Harrison Ford look-alikes.
Supercilious
Aug 22 2005, 07:25 PM
Solid Snake was more of a stealth badass, than a kick your ass with a panther cannon kinda badass.
kobura
Aug 22 2005, 08:19 PM
Certain things hold up for me: Razorgals, joygirls, weird gangs, ninja clones, smart dolphins. A lot of my games tend to land on the side of 80's action flicks like Cobra, Commando, Delta Force, Megaforce (heh remember that one?). But then again, I'm a child of the 80's. So cultural references are a given. I had one run where the team attracted the attention of a little boy that thought they were like the cartoon characters from "Captain Commando" (clearly a rip-off of G.I. Joe).
I noticed the sourcebooks have moved away from the 80's kitsch though, so I roll with it. I don't see the future as being that bleak either. But you can't escape that 80's feel of wastelands like Mad Max (That's what I think of when I think of gangers) and a sprawl like (Bladerunner).
Slacker
Aug 22 2005, 08:23 PM
Alot of my games/characters have influences from the cheesy movies of the 80's. A couple that come immediately to mind would be "Bruce Leroy" from the movie "The Last Dragon." (Anybody remember that one?)
And both the story and characters from "Big Trouble in Little China." I've played Jack Burton in several games
hahnsoo
Aug 22 2005, 08:39 PM
QUOTE (Supercilious) |
Solid Snake was more of a stealth badass, than a kick your ass with a panther cannon kinda badass. |
Down with Solid Snake. All Hail Snake-Eyes!
*runs off screaming "Yo Joe!"*
Snow_Fox
Aug 23 2005, 02:06 AM
Eighties fashion for women were big big hair, and either black lace (early madonna look) or BIG shoulder pads. Trust me guys. I lived through it.
Mullets are more southern, you can still see them not, but for guys hair look at Mel Gibson in the Leathal Weapon Movies. big hair all round, not just the mullet in the back. Or Michael Beck in Xanadu.
Kagetenshi
Aug 23 2005, 02:09 AM
The '80s are neat, but I prefer the '70s.
My Shadowrunners gonna wind up in a Disco Inferno!!!
~J
Angelone
Aug 23 2005, 02:21 AM
QUOTE (Slacker @ Aug 22 2005, 03:23 PM) |
Alot of my games/characters have influences from the cheesy movies of the 80's. A couple that come immediately to mind would be "Bruce Leroy" from the movie "The Last Dragon." (Anybody remember that one?) And both the story and characters from "Big Trouble in Little China." I've played Jack Burton in several games |
"Who am I?"
"A #1 Duke of New York"
"Shocktow (or however you spell it)"
Actually watching it right now.
Lived in Germany throughout the 80s so not sure how it was like over in the US. Mad Max, Bladerunner, and GitS seems to have a heavy influence in the games I've been in.
EDIT- Solid Snake would own Snake-eyes.
hyzmarca
Aug 23 2005, 03:20 AM
QUOTE (Angelone) |
"Shocktow (or however you spell it)"
|
Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem
He has one of the best lines in motion picture history.
"Keep your money. You just get that sucker to the designated place at the designated time, and I will gladly designate his ass... for dismemberment!"
Certainly, street level games should have that particular flavor - with posturing yet ultimatly ineffectual gangers who actally turn down money to kill someone due to a preexisting fued and glowing adepts wo catcth bullets in their teeth.
Sabosect
Aug 23 2005, 03:32 AM
Meh. The games I play are more a mixture of eras. You have the 80s-style buildings and neon sharing space with people who run the gamut from the 1950s to the 2000s. Then again, with my games, you can't really trust anyone in the Shadows. Hell, one of my own characters, Nerlata, would gladly shoot someone in the head for a measly 750 nuyen plus ammunition prices.
So, yeah, it's dark and gritty.
Shrapnel
Aug 23 2005, 03:48 AM
When I think of punks and gangers in Shadowrun, I always tend to stick with the 80's style punks.
I don't care much for today's style of gangs, even though a "Shadowrun: San Andreas" does sound interesting...
I think some of the greatest inspirations for punks in my games have been movies like Death Wish 2, with Charles Bronson. That movie had some of the greatest 80's punks I have ever seen. The neon pink wrap-around sunglasses are definitely a nice touch.
I think movies like that tend to set the mood for me. Gangs pretty much rule the sprawl, and the police are powerless to fight them. People are so scared of the gangs, and tired of the police doing nothing, that they tend to look up to the vigilantes who protect them.
I personally like the idea of a world so gritty that your average citizen trusts and respects a shadowrunner more than they do the local police.
Of course, what the poor pedestrians don't know is that the vigilante who just saved them is even more dangerous than the gangers could ever be...
imperialus
Aug 23 2005, 04:22 AM
one location I've used in previous games is a bar called 1984, complete with posters of George Orwells famous cover, the Dead Kennedys playing in the background and once a week they would show either Red Dawn, Mad Max, or the Warriors on a 50 inch screens.
Euchrid
Aug 23 2005, 04:59 AM
To be perfectly honest (and this is a controversial opinion, I know) I feel that cyberpunk is quintessentially eighties in flavour, especially in terms of the fear of expanding corporations taking over the world. Anything else is post-cyberpunk.
Wounded Ronin
Aug 23 2005, 05:32 AM
QUOTE (Snow_Fox) |
Eighties fashion for women were big big hair, and either black lace (early madonna look) or BIG shoulder pads. Trust me guys. I lived through it. Mullets are more southern, you can still see them not, but for guys hair look at Mel Gibson in the Leathal Weapon Movies. big hair all round, not just the mullet in the back. Or Michael Beck in Xanadu. |
Ha ha, I loved the gigantic shoulder pads. Nothing makes for a funnier visual, really. Shadowrun should have +1 impact armor Shoulder Pads of Doom for women!
Erebus
Aug 23 2005, 05:58 AM
QUOTE (hyzmarca) |
QUOTE (Angelone @ Aug 22 2005, 09:21 PM) | "Shocktow (or however you spell it)"
|
Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem
He has one of the best lines in motion picture history.
"Keep your money. You just get that sucker to the designated place at the designated time, and I will gladly designate his ass... for dismemberment!"
Certainly, street level games should have that particular flavor - with posturing yet ultimatly ineffectual gangers who actally turn down money to kill someone due to a preexisting fued and glowing adepts wo catcth bullets in their teeth.
|
Now kiss the Converse....
Who's the Master? Sho'Nuff!
Classic film.
Nikoli
Aug 23 2005, 08:14 PM
hehe, always loved Bruce Leroy's sensei..
"A true master would have used this to hold up his belt."
Fresno Bob
Aug 23 2005, 10:23 PM
I run my games like the Streets of Rage series. The PCs pound on wave after endless wave of guys with palette-switched mohawks.
TokenFemme
Aug 24 2005, 03:58 AM
Ahh yes, punk and glam and goth and Max Headroom! Although I am not sure when it happened, the games I've run and been in have lost that 80's touch in favor of more recent influences, as well as a lot of surrealism.
Some of this I am sure can be blamed on my addiction to Takashi Miike, yakuza movies, and most specifically Asian horror films...but then, most of my games are pretty heavy on the "Ugh" factor. Those, on top of my personal distaste for things like 80's mohawks have sort of pushed the better or some might say worse traits of the 80's by the wayside. For me, at least, it seems to adapt well and still keep its theme, although that could be debated by others.
Then again, 80's camp is so much fun.
Starts working on a "LoPan" style antagonist.
Angelone
Aug 24 2005, 09:50 AM
Max Headroom! Funny you should mention him. When my group of RL friends started playing Shadowrun he was our Johnson. I had no idea who he was so when the GM mentioned who the J was everybody but me groaned. I asked who he was and got laughed at. There were many chainmail dicebaggings that day. Only found out who he was a few days ago, 10 years later
Wounded Ronin
Aug 24 2005, 05:49 PM
QUOTE (Voorhees @ Aug 23 2005, 05:23 PM) |
I run my games like the Streets of Rage series. The PCs pound on wave after endless wave of guys with palette-switched mohawks. |
Does MIDI techno music blare in the background?
Bee-beep bee bee bee beee-wheep! Bee-beep bee bee bee beee-wheep! Dook! Dook! Dook! Dook!
Fresno Bob
Aug 24 2005, 07:43 PM
Yeah, but I make the noises with my mouth while they decide on their actions. It annoys the crap out of them.
Sabosect
Aug 24 2005, 08:20 PM
QUOTE (Voorhees) |
Yeah, but I make the noises with my mouth while they decide on their actions. It annoys the crap out of them. |
I must borrow this...
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please
click here.