Shadowrun (Setting)
| This page is currently under development. |
|---|
Shadowrun is a scifantasy roleplaying setting that merges high-tech cyberpunk dystopia with the resurgence of ancient magic. Set in a parallel timeline where magical forces return to Earth in the early 21st century. The world has become a chaotic, or interesting depending on who you ask, landscape of global megacorporations, metahumans, spellcasters, and hackers. The Awakening has reintroduced dragons, spirits, monsters, and magical traditions into a future already shaped by virtual reality, cybernetics, and corporate rule. The Sixth World is a compelling narrative of a planet fractured into into arcologies, policlubs, and extraterritorial corporate enclaves, while independent operators known as shadowrunners survive in the....well, shadows.
Metahumanity
Humanity has undergone significant transformations in its genome since the new millenium began, with the term metahumanity messily used to describe humans and their (arguably) close relatives. In the modern nights of 2080, in Shadowrun 6th Edition, humans inhabit the world alongside a wide variety of races, including Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs, and many more forms called Metavariants.
The Sixth World
The politics of the Shadowrun setting are as complex as any game can be, probably second only to Rifts. The return of magic to the world has occurred alongside the continued development of technology as we know it, creating a heck of a landscape.
The world as it exists in Shadowrun includes a balkanized North America, the rump state of UCAS (United Canadian and American States), dragon-run city states, arcologies, arcologies turned into AI slaughterhouses, arcologies infested with eldritch horrors, elven princedoms, independent Native American Nations, a risen Aztec empire, orbital corporate courts, and much more.
The published literature of the setting has created a rich an complex setting, with everything a good storyteller might want.
Magic & (Or Versus) Technology
In the Shadowrun setting, Magic and Technology are often directly opposed, mechanically. There are situations, such as Technomancers, where the line is blurred.
Magic in the Sixth World
Magic exists and functions in the Shadowrun setting, like many TTRPGS, but so does advanced technologies we've seen emerge since the creation of the series. Spellcasters come in every flavor one could want, from hermetic magus to catholic priest, and Physical Adepts internalize it to perform superhuman physical abilities powered by it.
Spirits of every shade exist, from traditional fantasy elementals found in glades and areas of powerful magic to alien inspect spirits bent on infesting our world.
Technology in the Sixth World
Technology has progressed in throughout the Shadowrun editions in a very connected parallel to our world. The game first started with a pretty traditional cyberpunk vision of the future, with your standard soul-sucking cybernetics, but was marked by what may have been the first introduction of the Matrix in western literature.
Megacorporations
TBD
A Diverse Cast of Characters
TBD
External Links
- Shadowrun Wiki on Fandom.com - External Link
