Post by Shadowdragon on Nov 2, 2003 12:34:09 GMT -5
The Year Is 2053
Watch your back. Shoot straight. Conserve ammo. And never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.
--Street Proverb[/i]
The world is changed, some say Awakened.
A lull in the flow of mystical energies subsided, and magic returned to the world. Elves, dwarfs, orks, and trolls assumed their true form, throwing off their human guise. Creatures of the wild changed too, becoming things of myth and legend. Modern society fights on, despite the odds, in an effort to assimilate the ways of magic into a technological world.
The decades that followed the Awakening were years of turmoil, panic, and chaos, as the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse seemed to race across the Earth. Primitive cultures that had never lost touch with their mystical past began to use magic against the great nations that had surpressed them for so long. The vast, global telecommunications network collapsed under an assault by a mysterious computer virus. Nuclear missiles were launched, but failed to detonate. Dragons sorared into the skies. Epidemics and famine ravaged the world's populations. Clashes between newly Awakened races and the rest of humanity became common. All central authority crumbled and the world began to spiral down into a black abyss.
But man and his kin are hearty animals. Out of devestation and anarchy, order slowly emerged. Cybertechnology eradicated the last vestiges of the computer virus and replaced the old telecommunications network with what became known as the Matrix. New nation-states of Amerindians, elves, orks, and dwarfs were formed. Metroplexes, vast city-states, sprawled over the landscape. Central governments were replaced by megacorporations that had become a law unto themselves. People who accepted their sovereignty were protected. The outcasts, dissidents, and rebels were exploited and abused, continuing a condition that has existed between the weak and the powerful since time began.
Technology, too, has changed people. No longer only flesh, many have turned to the artificial enhancements of cyberware t make themselves more than human. Stronger, smarter, faster is the human of today.
In the world of 2053, the metroplexes are monsters casting long shadows. And it's in the crack between the giant corporate structures that shadowrunners find their home. When the megacorps want a job done but they don't want to dirty their hands, it's a shadowrun they need, and they turn to runners who are teh only ones who can do it. Though a shadowrunner's existence is not listed in any governmental or corporate database, the demand for his or her services is high. She might be a decker, sliding like a whisper through the visualized databases of giant corporations, spiriting away the only thing of real value--information. Or perhaps he is a street samurai, an enforcer for hire whose combat skills and reflexes make him the ultimate urban predator. Or perhaps he or she is a magician, possessing an ancient gift, the ability to wield and shape the magical energies that now surround the Earth.
And that's exactly the kind of firepower you'll need if you get hired to make a Shadowrun
This is the description of the game world from the first chapter of the main rules.
Comments?
Watch your back. Shoot straight. Conserve ammo. And never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.
--Street Proverb[/i]
The world is changed, some say Awakened.
A lull in the flow of mystical energies subsided, and magic returned to the world. Elves, dwarfs, orks, and trolls assumed their true form, throwing off their human guise. Creatures of the wild changed too, becoming things of myth and legend. Modern society fights on, despite the odds, in an effort to assimilate the ways of magic into a technological world.
The decades that followed the Awakening were years of turmoil, panic, and chaos, as the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse seemed to race across the Earth. Primitive cultures that had never lost touch with their mystical past began to use magic against the great nations that had surpressed them for so long. The vast, global telecommunications network collapsed under an assault by a mysterious computer virus. Nuclear missiles were launched, but failed to detonate. Dragons sorared into the skies. Epidemics and famine ravaged the world's populations. Clashes between newly Awakened races and the rest of humanity became common. All central authority crumbled and the world began to spiral down into a black abyss.
But man and his kin are hearty animals. Out of devestation and anarchy, order slowly emerged. Cybertechnology eradicated the last vestiges of the computer virus and replaced the old telecommunications network with what became known as the Matrix. New nation-states of Amerindians, elves, orks, and dwarfs were formed. Metroplexes, vast city-states, sprawled over the landscape. Central governments were replaced by megacorporations that had become a law unto themselves. People who accepted their sovereignty were protected. The outcasts, dissidents, and rebels were exploited and abused, continuing a condition that has existed between the weak and the powerful since time began.
Technology, too, has changed people. No longer only flesh, many have turned to the artificial enhancements of cyberware t make themselves more than human. Stronger, smarter, faster is the human of today.
In the world of 2053, the metroplexes are monsters casting long shadows. And it's in the crack between the giant corporate structures that shadowrunners find their home. When the megacorps want a job done but they don't want to dirty their hands, it's a shadowrun they need, and they turn to runners who are teh only ones who can do it. Though a shadowrunner's existence is not listed in any governmental or corporate database, the demand for his or her services is high. She might be a decker, sliding like a whisper through the visualized databases of giant corporations, spiriting away the only thing of real value--information. Or perhaps he is a street samurai, an enforcer for hire whose combat skills and reflexes make him the ultimate urban predator. Or perhaps he or she is a magician, possessing an ancient gift, the ability to wield and shape the magical energies that now surround the Earth.
And that's exactly the kind of firepower you'll need if you get hired to make a Shadowrun
This is the description of the game world from the first chapter of the main rules.
Comments?
