shadowrun character sheet should look like

#Shadowrun character sheet should look like full

Also included is a glossy fold-out map of Seattle with location call-outs on one side, and building maps specific to the adventure on the other. I found the Battle Royale adventure under the rulebook I’ll talk more on that below. I found the quick start rules fairly comprehensive while playing, and the tables in the back were handy. Since is an introductory product, there are no rules for creating characters, and you may note that some things listed on the character sheet are not used for simplicity.

#Shadowrun character sheet should look like full

The quick start rulebook is, naturally, a condensed version of the full core rulebook coming in August. The four characters represented are a diverse selection of Shadowrun archetypes: an ork combat mage, a troll street samurai, an elf face (the PR guy), and a dwarf decker (computer hacker). Overall, the dossiers are a brilliant idea. This was really helpful in understanding the mechanisms of the game. One column told a story in a narrative format the next column framed all the character’s actions in the story using game terms, explaining what was rolled, what tests were used, and so on. A cool surprise was the included sample run. Each 8-page dossier contains an annotated character sheet, character history, tips on role-playing the character, and play tables specific for that character. Photo: Erik StanfillĬontinuing on, I found four character dossiers. Beginner Box map, welcome sheet, and Sixth World guide. The term “sixth world” has a double meaning here, referring to both the new sixth edition of the Shadowrun RPG ruleset and the in-universe narrative of a magical awakening which took Earth out of a mundane “fifth world” that has existed for much of (meta)human history. It’s a LOT of content to summarize, given that Shadowrun’s story has been built upon by many authors over the past 30 years, but it is well written. I do not envy whoever assembled this material. Next in the box: An Instant Guide To The Sixth World is exactly as advertised, condensing over 80 in-universe years of a rather insane world history into four pages. Opening it up, I was greeted by a glossy welcome sheet giving a handy overview of the contents and instructions on where to begin.

A deck of 54 quick-reference tool cards for items, weapons, spells, and stats on non-player characters (NPCs) used in the Battle Royale adventure.

4-page overview of the Sixth World Setting.

Photo: Erik Stanfill Components of Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box This world is as earnest as it is big and weirdly eccentric. There hasn’t been lack of in-game information on innumerable other domestic and international locales there’s even a splatbook for Butte, Montana of all places. Shadowrunners’ lives are about team-sport survival getting the job, doing the job (a “shadowrun”), trying not to get killed on the job, and getting paid for the job while living in a world that sees them both as fringe denizens and expendable resources.Ī big reason Shadowrun interested me years ago was that the Pacific Northwest serves as a default setting Seattle is an intrigue-filled cosmopolitan sprawl, and my hometown of Portland is the capital of a xenophobic elven nation (which makes a lot of sense, actually). These talents are valued by those who need certain things done but don’t want to get their hands dirty. In the game, player characters are an off-the-grid team of mercenaries, or “shadowrunners” for hire, each with unique magical, technological, or tactical talents. Shadowrun seems to owe as much to the sword and sorcery genre as to William Gibson, Terri Windling, and classic heist films like The Italian Job. You will find cyber-enhanced dwarf mercenaries with machine guns, elf mages slinging combat spells while riding motorcycles, elite hackers in the ubiquitous computer-connected Matrix, and even dragons holding down C-suite roles at tyrannical mega-corporations. Photo: Erik Stanfill What is Shadowrun?įor the uninitiated, Shadowrun is a technicolor mix of classic cyberpunk and urban fantasy. The Beginner Box previewed this past week at Origins Game Fair, with a retail release in July. As someone who has played Shadowrun off and on since the 90s, typing “30th” makes me feel quite old.Ĭatalyst also kindly sent me copies of the first Sixth World products hot off the press: the Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box along with No Future and The Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia books.

As previously announced, Catalyst Game Labs dropped a surprise last month by announcing the sixth edition of their Shadowrun role-playing tabletop game and a release schedule of new books and products for its 30th anniversary.