Blog Posts

The Differences Between Cyberpunk and Shadowrun

In the vast and complex landscape of cyberpunk fiction, two prominent universes have captured the imaginations of fans worldwide: Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. While both exist within the gritty, neon-lit framework of cyberpunk, they diverge significantly in their themes, with Cyberpunk focusing on legacy, and Shadowrun focusing on the living. I hope to highlight how each universe uniquely defines the essence of its characters and the worlds they inhabit and why this matters to you and your game.

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Top Five Cyberpunk Movies

Sometimes you just need a movie to get your Cyberpunk on. What better way than to catch some of the best Cyberpunk movies out there. Anyone running Shadowrun should have at least seen these movies mentioned in order to get some insight into the minds and feelings surrounding the game as its inception. Some of these are newer movies but based on much older properties.

What is Cyberpunk?

This is a question that is often asked when it comes to trying to wrap your head around the Cyberpunk Genre. Often it’s referred to as “High Tech, Low Life” which does encapsulate the idea rather well. To me, cyberpunk is the struggle for the common person to push against a society that has been devoured, body and soul, by consumerism, and is hiding its blemishes under neon lights and synthetic moods.

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What Should I Play in Shadowrun?

Books Useful for this article.

• SR1 Core - PDF
• SR2 Core
• SR3 Core - PDF
• SR4 Core - PDF
• SR5 Core
• SR6 Core - PDF

This question is more common for new players than most GMs realize. Without classes and sets of specific dynamics to choose from, some players (especially those from games like Dungeons and Dragons) have a hard time understanding what kind of character to put together and that makes character creation overall much more difficult. I’m going to lay out some old school archetypes for you and what the perks are for trying to fit that role. This discussion should be more or less edition agnostic, so from 1st to 6th, this should get you going.

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Unusual Rewards for Shadowruns

Books Used in this article.

• SR3 Core
• Mr. Johnson’s Little Black Book

Shadowrun is a game about high risk and high rewards. Too often we however only see rewards of nuyen. Some Gamemasters stretch their legs and add in things like extra contacts or some exotic ammos, but when was the last time you had something like a program, spell or exotic material for resale? Each of those rewards can lead to more stories and more stories is ALWAYS better!

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Spells - Buying, Learning and Forms

Books Useful for this article.

• Magic In The Shadows
• SR3 Core
• Street Wyld

One of the things a lot of people may overlook in Shadowrun is how spells are purchased/learned in game. I think it’s very important to understand that mages and shamans need to get access to either teachers or buying formulas. This can also be an excellent opportunity to bring in new NPCs and teachers. In most games I see a lot of people just spend the karma and poof! New Spell! Also character creation is much more exciting when you add personal touches to your character in this way.

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Affliation and Moving Forward

After doing a lot of thinking about this little side project of mine, I had decided I perhaps needed to begin to supplement the cost of this website/hosting for tools/investment of time. I hate to make any kind of clutter or cause anyone any strife when it comes to reading my articles, using my tools, or just generally enjoying the spirit of the reason my site exists. However, seeing the cost continue to rise, I will need to come up with something.

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Magical Traditions in Your Game: Part 2

Books Used in this article.

• Magic In The Shadows
• SR3 Core

As my introduction to magical traditions seems to have gathered a good deal of attention, I thought I would continue on with this. As always, if people have specific things they want covered, please send me an email, or reach out to me on Discord, and I’ll be more than happy to sit down and write something up for you.

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Magical Traditions in Your Game: Part 1

Books Used in this article.

• Magic In The Shadows
• SR3 Core

I’ve always been drawn to various faiths as I grew up. What people believed and why was always so interesting to me. Being able to walk into a new church, temple or holy place and seeing the customs, hearing the music and enjoying lessons the faiths had. I tend to gravitate towards character concepts that have faith as their foundation. In Shadowrun, this often meant a Magical Tradition.

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Custom Shadowrun 2nd Edition Sheets for Roll20

As we continue to march forward in reclaiming our past a few people stepped up and created tools for our future. One such person is Lord Nago. He has created several pieces for a 2nd Edition Shadowrun Roll20 setup. With his permission i am making this post and hosting these files for him. Feel free to reach out to him on Reddit if you have questions or requests!

Here is his original post on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/1bu2c8i/custom_sr2e_sheet_for_roll20/

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Shadowrun 3rd Edition - Errata

This is a scrape from the https://www.shadowrunrpg.com site for ALL of their Erratas. They seem to have kind of let this go to seed and I know a TON of people are looking for this. I take no claim for any of this, I just want to preserve it for future generations to have the corrections they might be looking for.

Shadowrun 3rd Edition Errata

Version 4.1 Date: 02/28/2004

All changes are reflected in the corrected thirteenth printing of Shadowrun, Third Edition (the fourth printing by FanPro). Many changes have been made over time, so some earlier printings may not have all of the corrections. The printing on which a correction was made is noted in [brackets] after each entry below.

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