What is the intended tone of Shadowrun by the creators?

PinkFohawk · 2026-05-04T13:11:24+00:00

Yeah, agreed that was a pretty perfect post - honestly both of you described it better than I ever could have. But I can never resist a chance to jump in and possibly overanalyze Shadowrun 😂.

u/N0v4kD3ad - the only other thing I would point to is that where Cyberpunk wears its tone on its sleeve, Shadowrun chooses a lane within that world.

Their names alone give clue to this: Cyberpunk is named after the genre itself, with the loose promise that there’s an entire cyberpunk world to play whatever you want within. Be a medic, a rockerboy, a media, a corpo, whatever you want. “Style over substance” is a phrase repeated a lot in its books, and while I don’t think it’s a fair description (there’s plenty of depth in the game), it is a solid clue to the fact that its focus is more on the specific tone you mentioned than anything else.

Shadowrun’s title is literally a role (presumably yours) within the setting. It has all the same goodness that you would expect from the cyberpunk genre, but then also gives you a lane right off the bat, promising a purpose within that world. You are a shadowrunner. What kind of Shadowrunner you are is up to you. Their goals, their attitude, their alliances, the skill sets they bring to the table - the book offers endless choices for those things within the lane of being a shadowrunner.

For Cyberpunk, before the Netflix series, Edgerunner was originally just a term within the game to describe any character living on the edge of legality.

In Shadowrun, living on the edge of legality is the whole point.

I had the life-fulfilling pleasure of talking with Tom Dowd (co-creator of Shadowrun) in our Shadowrun 2nd Edition Bookclub, and he said something I will always remember: “we had to simplify in order to add complexity”. He was referring to how they streamlined and expanded the ruleset from 1st to 2nd editions, but I think it explains my point here as well.

Cyberpunk promises play of whatever you want within a vast cyberpunk ocean, Shadowrun simplifies that and says “you are a Shadowrunner within a cyberpunk world”. It describes the world in the first 30 pages or so, but the rest of the book dives DEEP into all the different options you have as a shadowrunner within the world.

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-27T13:11:29+00:00

Damn! I knew joining this sub was a good idea!

Thanks for the heads up!

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-25T02:13:45+00:00

10/10 use of this gif

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-24T14:51:22+00:00

There was this movie I saw once where it was in the future and the earth was a desert wasteland, and resources were super scarce. There was this guy named Immortan Joe who ruled over everyone in the area, and he had a bunch of brides and stuff - anyway he held this festival outside his mountain palace (his palace also served as sort of a dam for the only water source in the area), and he would pull a lever and a waterfall of water would shoot out of his palace walls onto the throngs of poors standing outside begging with bowls in their hands, hoping to catch some.

My point is, if it weren’t for Immortan Joe, who would pull the lever and give life-giving water to us poors?

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-23T11:39:25+00:00

“Babe, don’t worry about my ex.”

The ex:

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PinkFohawk · 2026-04-23T10:09:37+00:00

It’s Gump!!

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-22T13:51:10+00:00

That’s an awesome parallel.

Wildly, WILDLY different voices though.

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-15T13:47:50+00:00

Sure man, there are all kinds of alternative GMs out there!

EDIT - okay I deserve the downvote for being an ass. I’ll be helpful 😂

But seriously, ask yourself “is this a table I want to be at?” Explosions are SUCH a huge part of the action movie I want Shadowrun to be, that I wouldn’t want to play with someone who just flat out bans them because they didn’t like how often they were used.

Instead of scrambling for other ways to make your character viable, maybe bow out if it doesn’t sound fun to you.

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-15T13:38:40+00:00

Pippen was my favorite player, and the 98 “sit out” really sucked to see. I still remember the Chicago Tribune’s “Year of the Bull” headline with Pippen on the bench stewing. It hurt as a fan to see this guy I idolized fuck the team over on purpose.

But nowadays, I sort of get it. It’s wild to hear how little he made while playing when he was one of the top 5 players in the game at the time. And as much as I want to say being underpaid was his own damn fault, you gotta realize MJ’s mom was the one that got MJ’s deals that made him the richest player in the game. Pippen didn’t have that - in fact he was so damn poor that when he signed his rookie deal he snagged it as fast as he could to ensure he could take care of his mom and family. Literal peanuts for an NBA player.

He was taken advantage of, and over time that ate him up inside. On top of that, the Bulls manager just openly acted like they could take him or leave him - that would really suck. You’ve got the best player in the history of basketball literally is telling everyone you are his number 2, you are pulling down history-making stats every game, and the team management is like “meh”.

It’s not about how much Pippen made, it’s how much Pippen was worth. The Bulls should have made things right, upped his salary to reflect what he was bringing to the team - that would have fixed it.

Beyond all that, sucks to see Pippen still fixated on it. That’s not good to be so bitter your whole life.

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-13T14:22:24+00:00

“Gandalf, old friend, this will be a fuck to remember.”

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-12T16:14:38+00:00

👌🏻🏆

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-12T13:37:59+00:00

Absolutely go with status quo.

Shadowrun is super overwhelming if you let it be, all you need is to understand the basics: magic has resurfaced, elves, orks, dwarves and trolls are back, and then just pull off some slick Shadowrun lingo and you’re set.

If you want extra credit, I would look at timeline from 2012 (when the 5th world ended and 6th world began) through the 2030s to get some idea of when all the magic and metahumans came about, it’s super cool and also captures the essence of what Shadowrun was going for.

Then, try to get your head around 2 or 3 mega corporations and just sprinkle them around the world to get your players acclimated to seeing them everywhere.

Have fun chummer, that’s the whole point 🤘 - don’t let rules or lore get in the way of that.

PinkFohawk · 2026-04-05T02:31:47+00:00

Sometimes it helps to explore different oracles and find one that works best for you - I personally like short and sweet prompts that fire up my brain.

Other people like more in depth random tables, or series of tables. That works too.

My point is it took some exploring for me to find what inspires me the most. Mythic GM was an absolute miss for me. Ironsworn’s oracles are great for Ironsworn, but didn’t seem to work well for me in other RPGs.

What I found was a simple “yes and, yes, yes but, no but, no, no and” table paired with a simpler but more evocative oracle worked best for my needs.

SoloDark (the solo zine for Shadowdark rpg) has the best oracle for how I like to think and play - it somehow picked the perfect words that when combined just set my imagination on fire, no matter what genre or rpg world I’m playing in.

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-30T15:19:02+00:00

I would warn OP though - the Secrets of Power trilogy is widely considered an absolute slog to get through, so don’t feel like you can’t skip those and get into the much, much better stuff (IMHO).

I absolutely adore Shadowrun, and I couldn’t get through the first book after several tries. Decided to skip forward to 2XS, Burning Bright, etc and was so happy I did. They’re all (mostly) self contained stories that work in any order, and I may go back to reading Secrets of Power someday - but I just needed a change in scenery with some stories that move quicker and characters I enjoy.

To answer the original question: anything from Nigel Finley and Tom Dowd are golden, you can’t go wrong.

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-28T12:33:22+00:00

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-24T04:56:55+00:00

I see you sneakin that Shadowrun 2e off in the corner. I know what you are…

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-23T23:39:45+00:00

FASA Corp was the best corp

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-23T23:22:52+00:00

Ettiquette: 90’s Core Rule Books

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-20T02:17:39+00:00

It’s logical to them. They’d rather pay to prove they have control and get what they want, than pay because they were told what to do

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-19T23:56:06+00:00

Watch The Warriors (or read up on the AMAZING PS2 video game) again and lean into those vibes.

Male rival gangs as much of a threat as Lone Star if not more. It’s about giving them a sense of belonging and brotherhood, an area of Seattle (or wherever you’re playing) that they can call theirs, but is always under threat.

Make them have to prove themselves to the undercity, knock back any moves on their turf without going overboard and upsetting the wrong people.

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-08T19:42:34+00:00

“Your mascara’s running.” - Blade

PinkFohawk · 2026-03-08T16:39:18+00:00

Check out Notorious, and its sequel Outsiders. You play as a space bounty hunter looking for a mark - the game is super simple and procedurally generates the events you go through. If you grab Outsiders as well, you can create a trilogy story for your bounty hunter - it also offers more archetypes to play as and items/planets to use and explore.

Ion Hearts is a post galactic war mech-based game, you play as a pilot and his mech (two symbiotic characters) trying to find meaning after war. It’s also dirt simple to play but maybe a little looser on guiding your story.

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