Tabletop Roleplaying Games · Shadowrun
Shadowrun 5E
Shadowrun is a science fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that mixes cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime fiction in a near-future world where cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures coexist. FASA first published it in 1989 and ran the line until closing in 2001, after which the property passed to WizKids and later to Fantasy Productions and Catalyst Game Labs. Catalyst published the Fifth Edition (SR5) in 2013, with Jason Hardy as Shadowrun line developer, and the sixth edition followed in 2019, set in 2080. SR5 builds on the Fourth Edition rules, makes combat deadlier, streamlines the Matrix, expands the gear options and speeds up character creation. The franchise also includes the living campaign Shadowrun Missions, more than 50 novels, a trading card game and several video games.
The system directly evolved from Shadowrun Fourth Edition, and it was succeeded by Shadowrun Sixth World (2019), which removed limits and cut the skill list from 80 to 19.
Description
Players take on shadowrunners, deniable operatives hired by megacorporations to do data theft and break-ins. Street samurai, mages, adepts, riggers and hackers each handle a part of the job, and the Game Master (GM) runs missions, with Seattle as the main setting. Magic has returned to the world, bringing metahumans such as orks, trolls and elves, and dragons hold high corporate and political posts.
The game asks a table for system knowledge. Characters are defined by skills, not classes, with large pools of options for gear, magic and cybernetics, and reviewers have found the rules awkward or fuzzy in places. It suits groups who like planning a heist, optimising a build and playing in a layered, gritty world, and who are happy to read.