Iconochasm
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.
1yr ago
but I just don't get how throwing high fantasy into the cyberpunk future wouldn't detract from both...
No, it adds to it. Shadowrun is a hilariously awful hellscape that merges the alienation of cyberpunk with the sheer danger and wonder of urban dark fantasy, against the mundane reality of A Boring Dystopia. Imagine being a wage mage whose day job is just walking a perimeter around some megacorp chip factory, casting the same ward against nature spirits every 6 minutes. Being in the poor part of town and hearing there are literal flesh-eating ghouls in the sewers. Or seeing an entire assault helicopter full of a Fast Response Team crash and burn because some teenaged punk had a dream where Dragonslayer taught him Lightning Bolt, and told him to go rage against the machine.
like you can't dispatch the kill teams after the players for doing something dumb
Noooo, Shadowrun has kill teams a plenty. On top of the cyberwarriors and elite hackers, they also have combat mages who can track you through the astral based on blood traces you left at the crime scene, and then levitate invisible snipers into overwatch positions.
The real "trick" of doing shadowruns is that the world is a nightmare of jurisdictions, so if you can evade or hold off pursuit long enough to get extra-territorial, you can probably dodge consequences for the time being. But over time, every team will build up a list of corps and governments that want you dead, so that gets harder and harder, unless you take active measures about it.
And that's why it's so fun that it's based in the real world. There is so much real history, that hundreds of writers have built on over decades of the game, so that most stuff actually is pretty nailed down. You can do a run in a new city, and look up which corps or governments control which areas, then bring up Google Maps and plot out your getaway route on real highways.
But because of that, Shadowrun really only works super well if you have a whole group of mega-nerds who want to learn deep lore on top of intense crunch.
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Notes -
No, it adds to it. Shadowrun is a hilariously awful hellscape that merges the alienation of cyberpunk with the sheer danger and wonder of urban dark fantasy, against the mundane reality of A Boring Dystopia. Imagine being a wage mage whose day job is just walking a perimeter around some megacorp chip factory, casting the same ward against nature spirits every 6 minutes. Being in the poor part of town and hearing there are literal flesh-eating ghouls in the sewers. Or seeing an entire assault helicopter full of a Fast Response Team crash and burn because some teenaged punk had a dream where Dragonslayer taught him Lightning Bolt, and told him to go rage against the machine.
Noooo, Shadowrun has kill teams a plenty. On top of the cyberwarriors and elite hackers, they also have combat mages who can track you through the astral based on blood traces you left at the crime scene, and then levitate invisible snipers into overwatch positions.
The real "trick" of doing shadowruns is that the world is a nightmare of jurisdictions, so if you can evade or hold off pursuit long enough to get extra-territorial, you can probably dodge consequences for the time being. But over time, every team will build up a list of corps and governments that want you dead, so that gets harder and harder, unless you take active measures about it.
And that's why it's so fun that it's based in the real world. There is so much real history, that hundreds of writers have built on over decades of the game, so that most stuff actually is pretty nailed down. You can do a run in a new city, and look up which corps or governments control which areas, then bring up Google Maps and plot out your getaway route on real highways.
But because of that, Shadowrun really only works super well if you have a whole group of mega-nerds who want to learn deep lore on top of intense crunch.
Ok that does sound more interesting
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