Shadowrun Returns - Kickstarter Campaign Final Hours

Back in the day, Shadowrun was (and still is) one of the coolest tabletop RPGs out there. A fusion of a modern day D&D and cyberpunk set in a future version of America, the game was streets ahead for its time (early 90s) where you could play Street Samurai, Riggers, Mages, and Deckers. During that time, several video games were made based on Shadowrun, the best among them being for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, both with their own unique storylines and characters. Since its origins, its seen 4 editions of the tabletop RPG, and some less than stellar video games, but that is all about to change.

 Jordan Weisman, the original designer of the original Shadowrun game/concept, has licensed back the game and is about to embark on a recreation of his original work in another video game aptly named Shadowrun Returns, and will be released for the Mac, PC and Linux (for the true Deckers out there). They asked for $400,000 to make it, and with just under 60 hours left in the campaign they are currently over $1.5 million.

 

You can pledge your $15 here for whats likely to be a fantastic game, or more for some awesome swag.

Don't know much about Shadowrun? Oh son, read on and learn


The World of Shadowrun
Right, so Shadowrun...imagine once upon a time there was a world full of magic and elves and orcs and trolls and dragons and all that crazy shit that over time just faded away and became stuff of legend and fairy tales. Then, in the future of today, all of a sudden **POOF** everyone who is an ancestor or the elves and orcs and so on (d)evolved back to those races and were all like "Holy shit! I'm a Legoas". Then, a few days later everyone realized "eh, you're still the same asshole you were a few days ago, nothing new" and went back to their Xboxes and those who pretended to know magic suddenly did know how to use magic, and it became a pretty epicly awesome place that suddenly got a lot more dangerous because, you know...dragons are real now too.

Thats more or less a bastardized version of the games backstory, but its not far off from the truth (check out the official Shadowrun Primer for more real details). In the game players get to pick a race as well as the equivalent of a class like street samurai (a samurai who knows the streets), a mage (a mage), or a decker ( a computer hacker who uses their mind). America went broke, and mega-corporations now rule the world, and you are up against them.

The game has a rabidly loyal fan base, although the license has passed from place to place over the years (originally FASA who also made Battletech, and now held by Catalyst who also now makes Battletech) and has always been a fun RPG to play. To show you how much fun you can have while playing, watch this wonderful video FASA made to promote it




Can you believe that FASA went out of business? But seriously, Shadowrun is fantastic, and definitely worth your $15. From the overfunding that has happened so far, backers will also get the following in addition to whatever was promised at their pledge level:

• Bonus playable classes
• Bonus missions that link Shadowrun Returns to the SNES and Genesis games
• An additional city to explore (doubling the original intended size of the game)
• Game editor to make your own missions
• They hired the guys who made the music from the SNES/Genesis games to make the soundtrack for this one because they were kickass then

So yeah, if you made it this far you should head over to the Kickstarter page and give it a serious read. Give them your $15+, and tell them we sent you.