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Out of Print Shadowrun Books Available as PDFs
The current design team for the Shadowrun table-top RPG, FanPro, has intended to make out of print resources available via the web for quite a while. In what is hopefully the first in a series of such offerings, they've made the Gamemaster's Screen and Critters Sourcebook available for download in PDF format.
Cool, 2 direct downloadlinks on the frontpage. Bye bye server. ;)
That's one thing that annoys me about most paper and dice RPGs, there isn't any way look at the materials and give them a good try unless you know some gamers or have the willingness to shell out cash for something that you might not use again.
Stop the world; I need to get off.
Well, according to an old CA rumor, anyway:
November 10, 1997... "This film may be based in part on a novella called 'Virtual Realities', originally published in the sourcebook of the same name for the 'Shadowrun' role-playing game. Briefly, it's the story of an entity named Renny which lives in the global computer network called the Matrix. Other people, human beings, are able to enter the Matrix and manipulate data, but Renny is much better at it because he's spent his entire life in the Matrix. Eventually, one of the human beings hired to help 'train' Renny discovers that Renny isn't an artificial intelligence at all, but a real human child that has been cut off from all 'real-world' stimuli so that he focuses solely on the Matrix world -- the only world he knows. The story, by Christopher Kubasik, is excellent and well-told.
"Having spoken with the line developer of the 'Shadowrun' RPG, I know that a film based on this novella is in the works. However, all references to the RPG are being removed in the interest of streamlining the story (and possibly avoiding licensing fees). That would explain some of the plot differences, as well as the fact that the film is set in 2197 rather than 2059 (the date of the game world). It's hard to say what similarities the film will have to the original story, but I'm still looking forward to it."
Also, there was a fantastic "MMORPG" (we called 'em MUDs) located at shadowrun.com:4321, back in the bad old days. Great source material.
And new material for that matter. For example, right now their newest game HARP is available as a PDF for just $2. This is less than I spent on the plastic lyfjacket cover for my printed copy!
ICE
the worst cyberpunk RPG system to come out,
EVER
FASA has a unique ability to overcomplicated gaming rules
{try playing a magic class in shadowrun}
Great story/ background plot though
go look at Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. from R. Talsorian Games
{yes it doesnt have magic, but its easy to build in }
or even steve jackson games gurps cyberpunk
back in the day we didnt have no old school
This is really great news. Shadowrun has been one of my absolute favorite RPG's ever since it was released.
;-)
Admittedly, the first edition rules were a little rough around the edges, but the stories and setting were all absolutely top notch, and with the second edition rules streamlining a lot of things, I was really impressed.
I would love to see some of the other rulebooks released online, too. Now if I could just find someone to play this with. . . haven't played a table top RPG in years.
Topher
Yes, playing a mage char in Shadowrun could be somewhat awkward, but that was probably more due to the fiction than the actual mechanics, from what I saw.
In the Shadowrun scenario, only 5-10% of the population were supposed to be magically active in any way at all. Magic users were NOT common, and neither were incidents involving magic. People throwing fireballs at each other after the escalation of a violent argument wasn't something you saw every day.
The other thing you might have found awkward was the fact that there was a hell of a lot of detail there...check out the Grimoire sourcebook as probably the best example. Very very detailed astral space system, and all sorts of other cool stuff.
So yeah...it was hard, and it was rare...but it sure looked worth it, gameplay wise.
rolling 10+ D6 to attack, and 10 D6 multiple times to determine if it did anything gets old after a while.
So long as the files aren't DRMed, I'm cool with this. I've had to give up on alot of gaming material because with an international move coming up in a few months, I really can't afford to get books in any other format EXCEPT electronic - but there's no way I'm going to get the DRM stuff that alot of companies are putting out through White Wolf's Adobe-ebook based pay-for-play site.
I applaud FanPro on the release of these PDFs and hope they continue to release more. I already own the originals that FASA published, but maybe this will help attract new players. I haven't played in years, but I might be able to attract some friends to the game without having to worry about them abusing my copies of the books. I just hope they release some of the out of print Battletech sourcebooks also. FASA had promised for years to do so since there was still a demand for the books, but not enough to reprint. Unfortunately FASA is no more so that never materialized.
It appears I missed the news back in June and True Fantasy Live Online was also cancelled. There is a response from Microsoft posted here.