Shadowrun 4th Edition Review

I told myself I wouldn't do it. Don't you believe me? When I saw that the local Hastings had Shadowrun fourth edition in stock, I looked at it. I eyed the cybernetic implants. The magic. The Essence drain. I told myself it would be unbecoming of me. I mean, it's Shadowrun! It's the cheesy B-movie of roleplaying games, and there are actual cheesy B-movie action games. What are you doing?, I told myself as I glared into the mirror, my uncompromising eyes matching my accusing gaze. This is the path of madness you tread! A strange grin cracked my face; Why, I told myself, I know. I took a hand off the wall, balled it into a tight fist. And I find it to my liking, I uttered, before shattering my reflected facade. Everything after "B-movie action games" and up to "facade" was a gross exaggeration. But yeah, I thought I was getting in over my head, especially since I had just ordered World of Darkness: Chicago (a fantastic book, by the way).

The day I got WoD: Chicago, I placed an order for Shadowrun 4th. Maybe it was because I got the Shadowrun CCG in a Big Box of Free Stuff a week before. Perhaps I was ridden by an unseen spirit. No... Deep down, I just effing love cheesy, melodramatic, over-the-top action sci/fi fantasy otaku-friendly dystopias. Oh, and it was the second RPG I ever heard of. Two years after I browsed through an ADnD module at a Virginia school, I found a Shadowrun novel at the library in my new town. I read it, found it interesting. Then I found out it was a game.

And so here it is. Man, just holding it makes me feel all funky.

In a No Man's Land of Dead Trees

The book is a hardback, about average RPG height and average RPG weight. It's got a semi-enthusiastic shadowrun-in-progress going on in the front cover. If that guy's the combat mage, why does he have an implant pokey? ZOMG INCONSISTENCY. That dwarf, being beardless, fails to inspire confidence. But the major themes get across quick: ninjas, monsters, magic, cyber implants, and floaty car things. Also, rats.

The book feels a bit weird. It's all loosey; I can wiggle it back and forth along the spine. It holds up pretty well, though I have yet to use it in extenuating circumstances (because we all have to game during, say, a spontaneous gang war on occasion). It's not terrible-looking, and the sellin' text on the back is reasonably convincing.

I still feel funky looking at it. A good kind of funky.

Welcome to 2070, Here's Your Wireless Matrix(tm)(c)(r) Connection.

So, the story of Shadowrun is its noble attempt to make all this chicanery seem reasonable. The first thing you notice is

Wait Just a Frikkin' Second, They Copyrighted "Matrix?!!!"

Holy shit, they did. Damn, I need to sit down and process this. I mean, I'm sitting already, but I'll have to hypersit to process this.

Okay, It's Been a Few Minutes, Let's Give This a Whirl.

So, uh. Shadowrun. The story.

The first story is a shorty story at the beginning of the book. Suffice to say it ain't no Snow Crash. The F word is slung about, and feels weird. Cuz I kind of liked that nonsensical slang. O well. There is violence. Violence happens. Betrayal happens. It's kind of a massive spoiler for every standard-issue shadowrun imaginable, so, uh, maybe it wasn't a good idea to put it in.

Afterwards we get "Welcome to the Shadows," which opens up with a cool illustration, followed by The Usual. Man, I hope the guy who writes "Roleplay What Is" gets paid well. Maybe that's a specific job description? Roleplay What Is Writer Guy. Writeman. Writeperson?

The basic character roles are divulged, along with an introduction to the various ways you'll whore out to the megacorperations in exchange for currency. (I'm not too fond of the assumption that a healthy chunk of your jobs will be at the merciless whim of the MegaCorps.) After that, we get to A History Lesson for the Reality Impaired, which also has a cool illustration, and a thurough and rather well-written history of the Shadowrun 'Do. It does a good job of selling the setting. Fun story: upon reading it, I thought, "Man, some historical games would be really cool." Then I realized "historical games" meant "the stuff that got played in Shadowrun 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition." The sense of history hit me so hard I was spitting up chunks of enamel days after crossing my ocular nerves across ye text.

Life on the Edge spills out the world (including a section on fashion, although it's not strutted out as The Big Thing) and some slang that I've unfortunately integrated a trillion times faster than the Chinese slang I promised myself I'd learn from Serenity. At least I haven't uttered "slot" in polite conversation yet. Perhaps that's a sign of its authenticity. It feels about right. Although I've mixed up some of it with slang from the two seminal cyberpunk texts. ("Burbclave," for the win!)

Fat Stacks of Stats

There's a chapter on game concepts right before character creation, which is neat. Character creation gets the do did in a nice order. The picture of the orc chick on page 66 is unintentionally hilarious. Really, only the troll manages to not make an ass of himself. Woo troll! There's a lot of attributes, although I don't mind. "Logic"/"Intuition" is a great idea. Qualities get some of the basics done, but I feel there should be more to make characters more diverse.

The creation summary chart is right next to the color pages, where it's easy to find. The art for the sample characters is friggin' awesome. Best art in the book. Exempting that Chinese orcish gun-fuist. Attempts to blend "pretty" with "orc" are doomed to failure.

Skills are bought individually or as packages. Packages are nice, and save a lot of point-shuffling by grouping together various skills. Free points are afforded for knowledge skills, which I like, and there are no bizarre tiny nonsense skills (i.e. "Use Rope"). An extensive "this means that" chart spells out everything you need to know about what ratings are (perhaps almost too much).

To be continued...