Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Talmor on <06-23-11/1650:36>
-
So, I'm ashamed to admit that my knowledge of Cyberpunk (or post-Cyberpunk, or Cyperprep, or Transhumanism) is sorely lacking. What books should I check out for some solid ideas and inspiration for running a Shadowrun game?
-
Neuromancer, by william gibson, is one of the classics of cyberpunk. another of his books, johnny mnemonic, was made into a movie.
theres also the movie Bladerunner, which is based on Phillip K Dick's 'do androids dream of electric sheep'.
-
Loosely based on DADOES.
Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams is Critias' (Just do a search for him here and Dumpshock) favorite novel, inspired him to get into SR, and is a great depiction of rigging.
Snow Crash is fun. Probably more of a commentary/farce of CP at this point, but it's a great read.
I cannot recall offhand many more. As much as I am loathe to say this, you might want to scan the Wikipedia page for CP (and Shadowrun, which was once a featured article on Wikipedia's front page). I wrote this (http://crimsondude.tumblr.com/post/121366139/who-they-are-not-where-they-live) a long time ago about how there are two types of inspiration for SR: tone and technique. I love reading the old first edition books for the tone and atmosphere they provide.
We're never going back to that.
We know, or can discover, too much about the world to just accept that. Cyberpunk works amazingly well on a micro level. However, Shadowrun has built a macroeconomic/political/social setting for two decades. There's some amazingly dark or cool or both things that you get inspiration from at the micro level from Robocop (One of the best CP movies ever made if not the best).
My best response to CP and Shadowrun now is that it's hard to describe CP as a (sub)genre now because it came to pass and no one cares. That can be said about the settings themselves—people in those worlds let the world that exists come to pass without doing something else for some reason.
-
The Takeshi Kovacs novels, Thirteen and Market Forces by Richard Morgan.
-
Hmm, maybe I should try to find some old SR books at the used stores--I've never played SR before the Anniversary Edition.
If CP is a dead genre, what about, for lack of a better term, the "running" genre. The movie sthat made me want to play/run SR wasn't Blade Runner or Johnny Mnemonic, but Ronin and Heat.
-
It's not dead, it's just turned into the Post-Cyberpunk, such as the Transmetropolitan Graphic Novel series. Yeah, life is still in the sewers, but it now looks pretty. As long as you don't scratch the veneer. The main difference is how the protagonists are portrayed, actually.
If you can find it: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. Excellent work all around!
-
Well, it's not dead. It's just ... It's not Gibson. As far as meeting the bare criteria for cyberpunk now, the author who comes immediately to mind (much as I loathe to say it) is Cory Doctorow with books like Little Brother.
Ronin and Heat are just fantastic for the function of how runs get moving. The cable series Leverage would make a great SR show if it didn't suck. However, it has the standard loadout of character types nicely fitted into their niche/specialty (Kind of like how I joke that if you try, you can hear Joss Whedon rolling a D20 in the pilot of Firefly each time a character is introduced) as essentially a runner crew.
If you're really going for more of that professional heist crew in the future idea, I think I'll just plug my tumblr site and suggest you hit the archive for the earliest articles.
-
If you're really going for more of that professional heist crew in the future idea, I think I'll just plug my tumblr site and suggest you hit the archive for the earliest articles.
How's this? (http://youtu.be/hyeYs8JPqdY)
1950s style, IN SPACE!
EDIT: Sorry, Swinging Sixties!
-
If you're really going for more of that professional heist crew in the future idea, I think I'll just plug my tumblr site and suggest you hit the archive for the earliest articles.
How's this? (http://youtu.be/hyeYs8JPqdY)
1950s style, IN SPACE!
EDIT: Sorry, Swinging Sixties!
That's a very nice trailer..... :)
-
That's a very nice trailer..... :)
Sizzle Reel. Not trailer. It's to get people interested in investing and getting the show in the first place.
On the flipside, it shows a great example of a personality mod for a firearm!
-
Anything by William Gibson really, most of his books revolve around a central concept with several often unconnected (until the end anyway) protagonists working in synch towards an unknown final goal (Mona Lisa Overdrive, Idoru and Count Zero are prime examples of this)
Not read any of those books for a while now, need to pick them up again.
Gibson seems to have moved away from 'true' cyberpunk with things like Pattern Recognition which has the same concept and 'feel' but not the CP atmosphere
-
It's just different. You don't need to construct a #color box to hack anymore like you did when he wrote Neuromancer.
Now you have kids in Africa who don't need OLPC because they have three cell phones made by Nokia-who sells photos for the third world market specifically-and who were using an SMS-based e-banking system ten years ago before we had decent e-banking on the web let alone banking apps.
What he said is still true: the street will find its on purposes for technology. THAT is cyberpunk.
-
Thanks for all the advice. I hit up my local used bookstore and got a couple of books I hope will give me more background and inspiration.
Richard Morgan--Altered Carbon
William Gibson--Burning Chrome, Neuromancer
Walter Jon Williams--Voice of the Whirlwind, Hardwired, Angel Station
I also grabbed a couple of the Shadowrun novels
Nigel FIndley--Shadowplay, 2XS, Lone Wolf
Got a bit of reading to do now!
-
Oh, yeah. Findley's SR novels.
Duh.
-
Another genre you might check out is urban fantasy. Urban fantasy is essentially fantasy elements such as lycanthropes, vampires, and witches in a modern setting. Stuff like the earlier Anita Blake books, the Dresden Files, and so on. While typically set in modern, rather than post-modern, times, they still give a good feel for how modern civilization would adapt to things like magic or the undead.
-
As far as runs, there are also dozens of movies out there with good run inspiration depending on which style of play you lean toward.
Current SR doesn't really feel Cyberpunk so much as just Cyberish Future (since true cyberware and wired connection is quickly becoming outdated). The real trick to it is getting the setting right and that depends largely on just how dystopian you want your world to feel. I suggest Fahrenheit 451 and Nineteen Eighty-Four for more insight into the dystopian feel if that's what you're looking for.
I think my favorite over type style inspiration movie is still The Big Hit. If you prefer you game to have a little more bad action movie camp to it I definitely suggest it.
-
Big Brother is watching. Fortunately so is all of *HIS* brothers, and they don't like each other and don't talk to each other any more.
-
There is a dystopian anthology you might want to consider. It has some Vonnegut, Gaiman, Bradbury, etc.
-
Urban fantasy
AKA: romance novels with werewolves and vampires ;)
I used to get so mad when I'd pick up one of these and it sounds good, then get into it and realize I'm reading a romance novel. I gave up on the whole genre. I just have bad luck picking them up.
Not knocking the genre or people who read it, like I said, my luck is horrible. lol
-
Anita Blake, Vampire Humper?
-
Anita Blake, Vampire Humper?
Yeah, the first book or two were ok--sure, they had romance and eroticism in them, but they kept pretty straight to the "supernatural investigator" angle. Later books became increasingly about the freaky sex life of sex life of Anita, who ended up being a werepanther I believe, and going into heat, where her lust was unsated despite having multiple lovers--including a werewolf, werepanther, and vampire--and often at the same time.
Not exactly what I want to run for Shadowrun...
-
I have to say I mostly look for good character ideas from stories, movies, and books. What if Johnny Knoxville and his JackA$$ crew ran the shadows of Redmond. Pulling off outrageous capers trying to top themselves and maybe posting it to the shadow boards. What would happen if the PC's had to square up with them, could they survive a prank war? Stuck in a rut on villians? Break out Ming the Merciless, the Fatman from Maltese Falcon, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Scaramanga the man with the golden gun, or Jesse James. Good characters make good stories. I have been using the world from that Tom Cruise future crime movie with some obvious modifications for the setting pieces. The characters are what give it life and finding them is the funnest part.
-
Urban fantasy
AKA: romance novels with werewolves and vampires ;)
I used to get so mad when I'd pick up one of these and it sounds good, then get into it and realize I'm reading a romance novel. I gave up on the whole genre. I just have bad luck picking them up.
Not knocking the genre or people who read it, like I said, my luck is horrible. lol
Even Charlie Huston? I wouldn't expect that from him, but then as much as I LOVE his other work I hate vampires so much I only got halfway through his first vampire P. I. book.
-
Urban fantasy
AKA: romance novels with werewolves and vampires ;)
You're doing Glen Cook and Jim Butcher a disservice. :P
The Garrett Files is very noir, in the fantasy past!
The Dresden Files started out noir, and got more awesome from there. And Harry doesn't get laid enough for it to be a romance novel. His brother, on the other hand...
-
Like I said, not knocking the genre. Just seems every book I try out tends to end up with some vampire/mage/werewolf/fairy hunter type chick sandwiched between several paranormal species and a midget, who may or may not be undead/magical/paranormal.
I've looked at the Jim Butcher books, but they've never really piqued my interest. I like noir, but every [suedo-noir fanatsy/ sci fi I've picked just hasn't done it for me.
-
Jeff-Somers - The Electric Chruch is a good read
-
Have you read Huston's Sleepless? It's pretty old school cyberpunk noir.
-
I can't add much to the literary advice, but I will add some video ideas. The old Max Headroom TV series is an excellent source of inspiration/ideas and it still holds up today. The recent movie Repo Men is also a good choice for ideas and inspiration, it gave me the Jones to run Shadowrun again, a;so Strange Days is a good choice even if it feels dated in places(just ignore what year the movie is set in).
-
Jeff-Somers - The Electric Chruch is a good read
Yesssss. The whole series had me thinking of shadowrun when I was reading it.