I've never played Shadowrun. What do I need to know?

[Roxxy]

I'm getting into the Shadowrun Returns video game, and I'm not familiar with the setting or its mythos, as I never played the pen and paper rpg. What do I need to know to better follow the universe of the game?

[Winds]

Actually...I had Shadowrun Returns recommended as a way of learning the setting to play pen-and-paper. Just follow along, and you should catch how things work without much trouble. That said, Shadowrun setting goes like this:

At the end of the Mayan calender (or thereabouts, since it isn't the same as modern-reckoned calanders), the Fith World ended. More particularly: Magic came back.

Something of a surprise, really. People thought magic wasn't real, then an eastern dragon woke up and buzzed past a bullet train.

After that, dwarves, elves, orks and trolls starting being born, along with some varations on that theme. All five+ races are genetecly human, but the term 'metahumanity' is used to refer to everyone.

From there, it gets more complicated than I want to explain via text. Suffice to say, cyberpunk and magic rule the day, and society at large is trying to get the hang of it.

Society, by the way, is pretty much run by the Big 10 Megacorps. Corporations big enough to count as counties, some of them literally are, and are up to things about like you'd expect.

Shadowrunners are people who don't agree with that. They've got the skills to make their own rules to various degrees-they're always the underdog, but they're out to get things done. Reasons run from 'I need to pay the rent' to 'Modern day Robin Hood'.


And that...should be most of what the game doesn't explain one way or another. Or you can shoot me PMs if you want to ask for more details. Have Fun!

[Yukitsu]

I would recommend watching Johnny Mnemonic then reading the dresden files books. A sort of mix between the two of them gives a good idea what the setting is like.

[Deathhappens]

Actually...I had Shadowrun Returns recommended as a way of learning the setting to play pen-and-paper. Just follow along, and you should catch how things work without much trouble. That said, Shadowrun setting goes like this:

At the end of the Mayan calender (or thereabouts, since it isn't the same as modern-reckoned calanders), the Fith World ended. More particularly: Magic came back.

Something of a surprise, really. People thought magic wasn't real, then an eastern dragon woke up and buzzed past a bullet train.

After that, dwarves, elves, orks and trolls starting being born, along with some varations on that theme. All five+ races are genetecly human, but the term 'metahumanity' is used to refer to everyone.

From there, it gets more complicated than I want to explain via text. Suffice to say, cyberpunk and magic rule the day, and society at large is trying to get the hang of it.

Society, by the way, is pretty much run by the Big 10 Megacorps. Corporations big enough to count as counties, some of them literally are, and are up to things about like you'd expect.

Shadowrunners are people who don't agree with that. They've got the skills to make their own rules to various degrees-they're always the underdog, but they're out to get things done. Reasons run from 'I need to pay the rent' to 'Modern day Robin Hood'.


And that...should be most of what the game doesn't explain one way or another. Or you can shoot me PMs if you want to ask for more details. Have Fun!


Pretty much this. I got into Shadowrun via Shadowrun Returns, myself, and despite having zero knowledge about the tabletop it never came to a point where I couldn't follow the story and relevant terminology. A few things to note:
-Orks, Elves,Trolls,Dwarves...etc are not separate races, but rather mutated humans (or Metahumans, as the game calls them).
-The Internet has been replaced by The Matrix, a virtual reality which functions pretty much exactly the same (there are even message boards!), except that hacking plays out essentially exactly like real combat.
-

[JustIgnoreMe]

Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon (old Shadowrunner proverb).

Also, geek the mage first (translation: spellcasters are a significant threat and should be treated as priority targets in combat).

[Telwar]

Mechanics:

You'll want a bunch of d6s. 12-18, preferably.

Specialization is typically rewarded better than being a generalist.

Speed is life; a good initiative and more initiative passes (# of times you go in a turn) is objectively better than going slowly and less often.

You geek the mage first because whatever they do to you, you can resist less effectively than you can the troll with the combat axe (who at least has to go through your armor).

The corollary is if you are a mage, try desperately not to look like one, and learn to hide behind the troll with the combat axe.


Setting:

It's huge, and there's a ton of information out there. The typical shadowrun is a heist movie, so think those combined with fantasy/cyberpunk; you have your ork with an AK covering a dwarf plugging their head into the computer. The world is heavily balkanized (lots of fun borders to cross), and corporations that are large enough are treated as nation-states, with their own militaries and legal jurisdictions. Everything is online, even when it's a stupid idea (and later editions started taking that into account).

And really, everything is about the bottom line. Approach it like that, and you'll do well. Corporations won't mind you taking their stuff (too often), that's the cost of doing business. Do it too often, or cause too much collateral damage, and they'll come after you; hitting a guard with a gel round to knock them out is less likely to get heat after you than splattering them across the pavement.

[Marcelinari]

I've tried to simply introduce Shadowrun to a variety of people over the last 3 years or so, and these are the relatively important points that keep coming up. There are a lot of them. This usually takes forever.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall did not fall.

In the 1990's, children started to be born with strange genetic traits not present in their parents. Known as 'spike babies', these children were the first new Elves and Dwarves in approx. 5000 years.

In 1999, due to the ongoing Trucker's Strike, the food shortage in New York becomes so desperate that a mob attacks a truck carrying medical waste from the Seretech corporation in the mistaken belief it holds food. A running battle ensued in which more than 200 people died. Later, the courts ruled that Seretech was in the right to protect its property with lethal force, effectively giving corporations the right to maintain a private army.

In 2001, an eco-terrorist organization called TerraFirst! allegedly attempted to attack and breach a nuclear power facility operated by the Shiawase Corporation. Thanks to the above Seretech incident, the attack with stopped with extreme force, and Shiawase spun the attack into a right of extraterritoriality - Shiawase-owned property was sovereign land subject to the laws of the Corporation, not the government.

In the mid-2000's, the USA forcibly relocated the majority of Native American tribespeoples to re-education camps, in order to allow the commercial exploitation of Reservation land.

In the late 2000's, a plague called 'VITAS' (Virally-Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome) swept across the globe, effectively making people violently allergic to the air. Approx. 1/4 of the human population was killed.

In 2012, the magic came back. At the end of the Mayan Calendar, the Fifth World ended, and the Sixth World began, bringing with it dragons, elves, dwarves, and magic. Daniel Howling Coyote walked out of an Amerindian camp with several hundred followers, shrugging off bullets.

From here on, it's a little more freeform.

In an act of high magic led by Daniel Howling Coyote, known as the Great Ghost Dance, the Native American Nations won their land and independence from the USA by simultaneously detonating 5 volcanoes across the continent. The entire West Coast returned to the Amerindian tribes, with the exceptions of Seattle, which remained part of the USA, and California, which became the California Free State.

In an event known as Goblinization, a great number of humans across the globe spontaneously transformed into Orcs and Trolls. This was met with much panic and bigotry.

Mexico's government is toppled by drug cartels, which subsequently legitimize themselves as the megacorporation Aztechnology, renaming the nation Aztlan and bringing back ancient Aztec religious ceremonies.

Germany shatters, and is reformed as the Allied German States. The Great Dragon Lofwyr becomes CEO of the megacorporation Saeder-Krupp.

The Irish Republican Army pushes the British out of Northern Ireland, and the two Irish States merge to form Tir na nOg, the first Elven Nation.

The Crash Virus manages to destroy the internet as we know it, although it is eventually destroyed by military hackers using Virtual Reality. The Matrix is built in its place, resulting in a wired, virtual-reality playground. In 2067, this Crashes again due to a simultaneous war by the AI Deus, the Jormungandr Worm virus, and the white-hat hackers (and friendly AI) attempting to stop them. The newest Matrix is wireless.

The USA schisms, splitting into the South (the Confederate States of America) and the North (which merged with Canada to form the United Canadian and American States). In 2057, the Great Dragon Dunkelzahn is elected President of the UCAS, although he dies on the night of his inauguration in a car-bombing.

An infestation of Bug Spirits in Chicago is cleansed with a tactical nuke. Chicago is still under quarantine.

Japan reinvents itself as the Japanese Imperial State, starts its military back up, and invades Korea, China, and California. Japan's military success and the prevalence of Japanese megacorporations leads to the adoption of Nuyen as the global currency standard.

To regulate each other, the 10 most powerful megacorps form the Corporate Council, which mediates and governs the actions of the megas from the Zurich Orbital Bank.

The about covers it, I think.

You are a shadowrunner, a deniable asset to the most powerful organizations on earth and a professional ne'erdowell. You do bad things for clients, so that those clients can say that they never did it. Sometimes, you do the right thing. Sometimes, you shoot people in the face for money.

TL:DR


Corporations became sovereign powers
A bunch of countries changed
The internet is now wireless virtual reality
Magic came back, people turned into elves/dwarves/orcs/trolls
Prosthetics got better than flesh
Lots of people died
Everyone else got culturally imperialized by the Japanese

[Skaven]

After that, dwarves, elves, orks and trolls starting being born, along with some varations on that theme. All five+ races are genetecly human, but the term 'metahumanity' is used to refer to everyone.




Just to add on to this:

They weren't just born from humans, a great deal of humanity started to transform in to these things (plus more such as yeti's / minotaurs, but these are the 'basics'). They called this 'goblinisation'.

Also many magical creatures came about from other species, for example Hellhounds / Cockatrices etc started to appear from some dogs / chickens.. some horses to Kelpies, etc. Other magical creatures started to just suddenly appear from 'nowhere'.

Some of these species even came together to make their own 'lands'. iirc there is an elven land.

By the timeline of Shadowrun Returns most 'metahumans' are born, with the exception of elves which are *really* long lived (becoming an elf was basically seen as a good thing, unlike becoming an orc which just lowered your lifespan and made you ugly) so its not unusual to find one who used to be human.

[Akodo Makama]

I would recommend watching Johnny Mnemonic then reading the dresden files books. A sort of mix between the two of them gives a good idea what the setting is like.

I would recommend reading (http://www.flawedart.net/courses/articles/Gibson_Johnny%20_Mnemonic.pdf) Johnny Mnemonic.

Then imaging if he had a D&D sorcerer for fire support.

[Yukitsu]

But Keanu Reeves screaming about room service. :smallredface:

[DigoDragon]

I would recommend watching Johnny Mnemonic then reading the dresden files books. A sort of mix between the two of them gives a good idea what the setting is like.

I always recommend watching the old tv series Leverage for ideas on how the actual team runs work. Ideally the team shouldn't see much combat if the job goes down well. You might get chased out by security, but that's where having a good escape plan (or three) come in handy).

[aspekt]

1. Buy 1lb bag of Chessex d6.