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.

Comments

Good for them.

[OneDeeTenTee]

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.

Re:Good for them.

[Dan Ost]

That's why it's so important to support your local gaming shop. When something
new comes out, I always flip through it at the store to determine if it's
something worth buying and I've never been hassled. If you get everything
online and the local stores disappear due to lack of community support, you
will always be at the mercy of whatever content Amazon (or whoever) decides to
make available to you.

Also, people who run local gaming shops are far more likely to have a personal
interest in the material than large retailers (like Walden's). Get to know
them and they can be a wonderful resource for getting introduced to new systems.

The Matrix was based on Shadowrun

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

ICE are also releasing pdfs of old material.

[rjforster]

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

Re:ICE are also releasing pdfs of old material.

[FLEB]

I won't look down on them for opening up the opportunity (both to themselves and to the customers), but I have to say... I don't think I could play a whole game (assuming it was a book of any decent size) through a PDF. When playing an RPG, you need a lot of content, quickly and easily. I suppose a laptop with the PDF loaded could fit the need pretty well, but I'll take dead trees any day.

Although, this would be a good buy for your players, so you don't have to play "Who needs the book this week?" all the time.

Great news!

[Christopher Cashell]

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. ;-)

Re:this was....

[mbourgon]

The difference between Cyberpunk (which I've played) and Shadowrun (which I've been playing for 14+ years now) is that Shadowrun is Cinematic. The good guys pull through by the skin of their teeth. The bad guys always get away - even if a trunk is dropped on them from A Great Height. SR1 was clunky, especially during large combats using burst-fire. But SR3 has really improved things, and our group's been loving it. Once everyone knows what they're doing, it's quick and fun. Even for mages. *grin*

That being said, I'd love for their to be some sort of SR RPG. Tactical simulator, too, while you're at it. Rumors have abounded for years about an SR videogame - c'mon, guys, where is it?

Re:no DRM.

[Drantin]

Nope, they're just plain PDFs...

Thanks FanPro

[Captain Chaos]

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.

Re:Thanks FanPro

[SR Developer]

You'll see both Shadowrun and Classic BattleTech PDFs appearing next month at www.drivethrurpg.com and www.battlecorps.com -- and these will be non-DRM PDFs to boot. We'll also have the Shadowrun Quick Start Rules up on www.srrpg.com as a free PDF later this week.