Shadowrun's appeal was that it felt modern but was still fantastic. Problems were contemporary in nature, usually dealing with some kind of industrial espionage. If you wanted a gun, you picked your shooter from a proper catalogue. If you couldn't get in through the door you could try hacking. Also there was magic, an interesting system with Magicians, Shamans and Adepts. The game has a strong cultural influence from Native American history and folklore.
The game is still running as a RPG and is still quietly popular but it's never quite made a good transition to video gaming. There were 3 modest console releases (and a fourth one cancelled) and a PC/Xbox 360 release in 2007 which was priced too high and flopped.
Out of that fiasco the game's creator, Jordan Weisman, managed to negotiate a deal with Microsoft who now own his game and he's starting up a kickstarter project. You can see details here. They need $400k by 29th April to go ahead and they're just over $250k raised so far.
[Update 5.4.12. They've now made it. Well done them and thanks to any of you readers who supported the project.]
At the basic donation of $15 you get a copy of the game plus a PC wallpaper. $15 for a half-decent Shadowrun game would be an absolute snip, it really is one of the most interesting settings for a game ever written. And there's every reason to think it will be a good game because Weisman is heavily involved and writing a lot of it and they'll have a freedom as a small indie that they didn't get when they were at Microsoft.
Let's hope it comes out. And if it does come out, remember:
Shoot Straight. Conserve Ammo. And Never Cut a Deal With A Dragon.
I loved Shadowrun PnP back in the day but haven't played it in probably 20 years now.
ReplyDeleteI just hit the Kickstarter link and they're at 403K now, so they've met their goal. I'll kick in my $15 anyway, though. It sounds like it could be decent.
Oh that's fantastic news!
ReplyDeleteI'll see you in a dark alley somewhere, prepping a fireball.
This is awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe mechanics of Shadowrun were never my favorite among PnP games (I'm a sucker for the non-standard dies), but the setting was the dream of my teenage years. seeing how I liked the writing, too (it felt like you gave a bunch of political and history science PhDs a truckload of acid and let them write down whatever they came up with), I splurged (compared to my typical kickstarter choice) and spent $30 which includes a collection of short stories – which you'll probably find on the Internet soon after release, but it's the though that counts, right?
The Shadowrun stories have tended to be really good. I read quite a few of the novels and they definitely raised the bar for tie-in fic.
DeleteThanks for the heads up on this!
ReplyDeleteNP, if there's multiplayer we should hook up in game.
DeleteI was a bit puzzled by the popularity of this because I'd never associated Shadowrun with being a successful (or even good) computer game.
ReplyDeleteI get that people loved the RPG and setting, but ... yeah.
I think it's just for the setting, Spinks.
ReplyDelete