#1 Welcome to the Sixth World!

Greetings, friends, Éirinn fans and other well-wishers!

Here begins our foray into the Sixth World: the magical, cybernetic futuristic dystopia of Shadowrun. Before we start, let's get into what Shadowrun is and where it came from. Shadowrun was originally a pen and paper RPG setting created by FASA Interactive - the brainchild of Jordan Weisman, who Wikipedia describes as a serial entrepreneur. FASA also created Battletech, which spawned the groundbreaking Mechwarrior action-sim video games and a charmingly awkward animated series.

One might contrast Weisman against Gary Gygax: the latter, better known, lost control of his Dungeons and Dragons to corporate forces while the former managed to not only hold onto his settings but personally oversee their adaptations into other media. Weisman was particularly savvy about the continuity between tabletop gaming and video games: besides Battletech and the Mechwarrior series, Shadowrun games appeared on the market five times (including twice on noted 16-bit consoles) before Weisman's new company Harebrained Schemes released Shadowrun Returns in 2012.

So what is Shadowrun?

Shadowrun represents the confluence of post-Tolkien fantasy, 1980s cyberpunk (complete with the fear of Japanese corporate dominance) and a strange, eclectic approach to magical and spiritual world-building best exemplified in Neil Gaiman's Sandman or American Gods.

It's an dystopian,cyberpunk, urban fantasy setting and it wears all three labels proudly.

Set in an alternate future (just a hypothetical future in the '80s), it describes a planet wracked by plague, natural disaster and spiritual upheaval. Megacorporations have gained the rights of nations, nations have removed many of the civil rights they once upheld, and both rule of law and respect for safety and autonomy have been all but taken away. Police and militaries have themselves been privatised, armies for sale to the highest bidder.

Once-familiar countries have splintered through secession and infighting or bought out by corporate powers. About 30% of the world's population was destroyed by plague alone. Scarcity and poverty are so rife and pollution so bad that goods that rely on extensive farming like meat and coffee beans are restricted to the rich (hope you like soy!) -- and human rights determined by wealth, not citizenship. Corporate and national atrocities are ubiquitous. Prison camps, illegal experimentation, openly racist hiring and government policies? Just a sample of the toxic cocktail of unchecked corruption in the Sixth World.

The barrier between people and machines has broken down completely -- cybernetics are common, brain implants are used for hacking computers and interfacing with vehicles at comptuer-like speed, and addictive VR simulations called simsense -- basically virtual reality drugs -- are all the rage, alongside their illegal, more powerful Better-than-Life counterparts.

Because who wouldn't want an escape from a world like this?

But most bizarrely, magic has returned after being gone since the Age of Atlantis, marking the end of the Fifth World, a long age without magic. The dawn of the Sixth World has revived long-forgotten metahuman genes and given us a planet where magical creatures walk the earth alongside elves, dwarves, orks and trolls. Mages coax power from the atmosphere, masters of qi achieve inhuman feats with sheer inner strength and shamans bargain with spirits from elements, both natural and artificial. There are even dragons. But rather than burning down villages and kidnapping princesses, most dragons manipulate the world, amass wealth and treat their two-legged underlings like pawns. And with power, there is also prejudice - in new and terrible forms and scales.

To live in this world is to have a universal Systems Identification Number (SIN) number that tracks you wherever you go -- or suffer limited opportunities to work, purchase or vote. To be SINless is, essentially, to be illegal -- to live in the shadows. But there are those who exploit SINlessness. They claim that true freedom from prejudice, categorisation and the ubiquitous national/corporate propaganda only exists in the shadows. They are untraceable, living on the edges of society - criminal mercenaries, always on the run from corps and nations while happily doing jobs for both.

Shadowrunners don't merely live in the shadows - they thrive in them.

Welcome to the Sixth World. It's hell for most people, a place of boundless opportunity for very few, and it looks both pretty cool and pretty bleak either way. Our Antumbra story is set in futuristic California -- the California Free State, one of several regions to secede from the United Canadian and American States (UCAS) in 2037.

Immediately after that, the elven nation of Tir Tairngire attacked from the north, followed by the terrifying corporate puppet nation of Aztlan, which struck from the south and took San Diego. In a reckless gamble, the governor of California called upon the Japanese for help - and they sent their Imperial Japanese Marines (Japan has an Empire again!) who took control of San Francisco to “protect Japanese lives and corporate assets” in the Bay Area. And so we're left with:

Good job, Governor.

Antumbra itself is a User Generated Campaign for Shadowrun Returns, later updated for Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. It's the first of three campaigns, and together they're my favourite user-generated content for the game. I'd say they're up to standard with HBS' own work. I've finished all three numerous times and I've decided to (finally) share them with an audience, or at least the first one.

Sure, why not?

The creation interface greets me like an old friend.

I've already settled on an ork character (for plot reasons). You can also see the 'archetypes' all neatly lined up -- Shadowrun uses a skill-based progression system, not a level based system. You distribute karma points into skills and attributes, similar to the Fallout games or Skyrim but without any levels. I've already spent a lot of time expositing so I'll get to each class as we encounter it in-game. Archetypes exist to help guide new players into the character building process, but I won't need them.

I usually go custom. The build I'm taking this time is closest to a street samurai.

Street samurai are simply the game's 'fighter' class - people who are very good at close or ranged combat. They're also a class that isn't hurt by getting cyberware, which I plan on doing eventually.

Then I pick my appearance. The easiest way to do this is to cycle through premade combinations and just pick one I never chose before.

There are a couple of portraits that take on great significance in the campaign so I try to avoid those too.

Thanks, game.

I'm not going to go step-by-step through my spending of karma points.

Here's the 'levelling' interface.

Shadowrun's statistics are:

-- Body (governs health and toughness),

-- Quickness (governs dodging and ranged combat),

-- Strength (governs thrown weapons and close combat),

-- Intelligence (governs Biotech -- medical skills -- and the ability to hack systems with Decking and control machines through Rigging)

-- Willpower (governs arcane magic and qi power)

-- Charisma (governs shaman magic and summoning, also gives 'Etiquettes' which allow shadowrunners to relate to people of various backgrounds or expertises)

Skills are grouped under the attributes that govern them, like Dodge under Quickness or Close Combat under Strength. I get a bonus point to Body as an ork but lower caps on Intelligence and Charisma than a human would. I do get higher caps on Strength and Body.

Ah, I'm being tempted now.

Well, considering what his portrait looks like - with that elaborate breathing mask...

I know, I know. L33t-speak in the 2050s? Isn't that cheesy and dated? But then HBS gives us a 19-year old girl in 2056 who goes by the moniker of Is0bel and we're supposed to take that seriously, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. At least I didn't add a 'Darth'.

Here's our loading screen.

Nightclubs are always big business in futuristic cyberpunk dystopias. And don't get me started on black leather clothes.

A "Mr Johnson" is an anonymous employer of shadowrunners. He's the reason - or excuse - for us being at this nightclub at this time. And the upcoming conversation is going to be fairly long, so I think this is a good place to pause for now. The ball is officially rolling. See you all soon, unless a basilisk eats me. Thanks for tuning in!