Shadowrun: Reviews of Recent Revisitings
Not edition wars, but comparisons and musing about media tie-ins
As mentioned recently (Shameless Plug), I have been binging some of the old Shadowrun content, not FASA and later.
Nigel Findley’s Novel 2XS (we miss you Findlerman!)
Tom Dowd’s Novel Burning Bright (and his accompanying Book Club Appearances for Second Edition Shadowrun RPG)
The Classic Editions (1,2,3) and many Rigger Orientated Sourcebooks
The newish Shadowrun Anarchy RPG (rules lite, narrative heavy)
Several very cool Discords and two hilarious Actual Play Podcasts
Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun video games (Dragonfall!)
Let’s take the overview from outside of RPGs to the nerdier content later.
Shadowrun novels are hit-and-miss. The FASA error books suffered from editing issues to some very questionable story decisions. Nigel Findley is one of the most famous and prolific writers to ever be attached to an IP that was created from a TTRPG. Not only did he write a not-insignificant amount of the early material, but he wrote the early release 2XS, a novel that is pure noir cyberpunk about a drug that is far more compelling than Snow Crash. There are dozens of editing errors: misspelled words, wrong words, punctuation mistakes, and a host of strange tone shifts that could have been easily handled in the decades since these (beloved) stories were published.
They persist in the current ebook formats, and that slots me off, omae. Big time.
Why not handle these with the re-releases? I can’t speak for the current recovers, but the other files are riddled with issues that literally dumpshocked my writer’s ass out of the re-read dozens of times in the final act alone.
FASA always had issues, and Catalyst hasn’t been great with the modern stuff either. It is sad and infuriating. I get the feeling that I spend more time editing my own work than they did back then (or since).
Tom Dowd’s Chicago story about dangerous happenings via the spirits that will rename Chi-town to Bug City in the setting is a joy to read. Even if the hermetic mage protagonist is 2-dimensional and boring. This book does more for showing us how magic works in the setting than any other novel that I am aware has been written. And it dovetails beautifully with Paul Hume’s wonderfully intricate system from the TTRPG. Shamanic magic saw its spotlight in the first trilogy (written by Robert N. Charrette) through the protagonist of Sam Verner (Twist), the boy who summoned a dog totem. It was engaging and truly compelling, but Dowd’s treatment from the perspective of the other big tradition (Hermetic Magic) really got me thinking.
You see, Shadowrun’s Grimoire (by Paul Hume) had two versions (one for each of the original editions). It was through, it evolved, and it shaped how I wanted to see magic play out in my imagination. I recently found out (see that YouTube link above for the Book Club) that Paul Hume was a practicing magician in real life. His worldview wasn’t just a fanciful idea for a setting, but was a treatise on how he imagined a true awakening could (would?) affect the future.
Whoa. Mind blown, officially.
When I began writing my own fantasy stories about Mages these idea had wormed their way into my subconscious. I cannot think about all the ideas in Ar’rin now without realizing that I was influenced by Hume’s writings for Shadowrun. Bigtime!
TTRPG Tie-ins
However, I will smack Dowd’s wonderful book around a bit anyway because It has no ending.
It. Just. Ends!
No resolution for the protagonist. The quest for his missing loved ones (spoilers) has no answers. No justice. Every thread left dangling. Mitch and Melissa Truman-no idea? The Ally Spirit (amazing character) is just there, free, with. an undefined “purpose”/destiny. And Hanna, the beautiful secretary/sidekick/love interest (who was off screen for over a hundred pages) shows up on the last page to do…nothing. What!?!?
This made me angry.
But more so (why didn’t you write an epilogue Tom?!?!), there is a huge missed marketing point in this book. Because our (MC*) mage, Kyle Teller, shows up in the tie-in RPG sourcebook, Bug City. Even so far as giving an in-character anonymous interview about the situation. But still no resolution.
There should have been a direct (time jump?) correlation to the material in the Bug City sourcebook. And also (seriously FASA) why is there no giant ad for Bug City on the next page?!? This is a dream of a gateway media product. If you are going to cliffhanger the reader, tell them they can go play out their (own) resolutions in the damned roleplaying game.
Like for real. Seriously. WHY?
Footnote
*MC=Main Character
I feel you RDJ, RDJ. Thanks for the sentiment above.
The Bug City hunt for answers led me to the old products, and I have lost many hours of sleep over the last two weeks revisiting the copies I can find online and then the ones in my humble bundle from years ago.
Kyle and many others characters are in the sourcebook, all set up for you (the GM and Players) to go sort out your own in-world answers to the end of Burning Bright. Which is great…and frustrating. Because the product is a relic from another time and place. Not as useful or well laid out as modern TTRPGs and so harder to fully grok*.
Footnote
*grok. See Heinlein. It’s Martian. Stranger in a Strange Land. Read it!
Now as a (forever) gamemaster with decades of experience, I did the only reasonable thing I could: I started putting together a group and dragged my best friend (who introduced me to the game in the 90’s) back into the Sixth World with me.
First session is this Friday. But I am using a more modern RPG: The Sprawl by Hammish Cameron. Maybe we will even find out about the end of Bug City.
Maybe, chummer.
