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Shadowrun is a Role-Playing Game published by FASA Corporation. Shadowrun is fairly unique among RPG's because it combines elements of Tolkienesque fantasy with Gibsonesque cyberpunk science fiction. To some extent, Shadowrun is what you get when mix J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings with Gibson's Neuromancer or Count Zero. A near-future setting with lots of magic and technology floating around. Mix in some political chaos and you start to see what Shadowrun is.
The year is 2058. You are a shadowrunner . . . You're the guy the megacorps hire when they want something dirty done but don't want to soil their hands-or their public reps. No government knows you, your name doesn't appear in any database. You may be a cybered-out street samurai or a deadly combat mage. The world runs wild with magic, with elves and trolls and dragons and every type of magical creature you could possibly imagine, including a few you might not. In short, the world is going to Hell in a handbasket, and you're along for the ride.
In Shadowrun, characters are not limited to shadowrunners. While the main rules are based around that premise (as are most adventures), Characters in Shadowrun may be members of a SpecOps group (the government equivalent of shadowrunners), or a DocWagon High Threat Response Team (EMTs with attitude!), members of a team of trideo reporters, or any number of other possibilities (fixers, mercs, street-level gutterpunks, I've even seen some talk of doing games where each player controlled a megacorp, hiring shadowrunners, running business, etc). Generally, characters tend to be shadowrunners, mostly falling into a few basic archetypes. Players tend toward street samurai, decker, rigger, and magician characters mainly because those are the basic character types. They are by no means the only possible character types (ask Bull:).
Shadowrun also has an evolving game world, as time progresses in the real world, so does time in SR. In fact, SR recently finished up with a presidential election and assassination last year. The conspiracy theorists are still having fun with that one:). After the assassination of everybody's favorite great dragon, Dunkelzahn, things have really picked up in the shadows, so expect newbie runners to have plenty of jobs in 2058.
All articles at The Shapeshifter's Lair are copyright by their original author(s). Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. Original Shadowrun material Copyright 1994 by FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
