Speaking of Gibson, I recall him slamming Shadowrun in one of his blog entries. Something about him not wanting to be linked to the SR property in any way.

Well the way the first version of the rules looked, I didn't want to be associated for buying the first rule book. I can't blame Gibson.

Before the flame war starts. I love the Shadowrun universe, but it is an excepted fact that the frist version of the rules are terrible. Later versions helped to correct some of the problems.... I will leave it at that.

I did not realize Gibson had a Blog. Off to Google I go....

Just to put in my 2 cents about cyberpunk books, by far my all time favorite trilogy is the Eclipse trilogy (Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona) by John Shirley.

I prefered him over Gibson, most likely since I can relate to him better. John was heavy into the punk scene during the early 80's as I was in my younger years. :devious:

Here's the excerpt from Gibson's Blog regarding Shadowrun:

"SHADOWRUN: GAG ME WITH A SPOON

No relationship. No permission. Nothing. Nary a word exchanged, ever.

Except that the admixture of cyberspace and, spare me, *elves*, has always been more than I could bear to think about.

I've just been ignoring it for years, and hope to continue to."

Sounds like he's not too pleased about it... I have to admit, the startling similarities between Gibsons work and Shadowrun have given me pause, too. I guess I wish that FASA had at least approached Gibson and gotten permission, because the more I read (the more of Gibson I read, and the more familiar I become with Shadowrun) I have to say, it really smacks more of wholesale theft than any sort of homage.

On the same note, Tolkien's people should probably be just about equally angry.

That's the thing, though. I don't know if Shadowrun outright playgerized any of Gibson's work, but there's obviously cases in role-playing games of people making things based on inspiration from other sources. Heck, a running joke around here is that the Tolkien estate could sue TSR (now WOTC) seven ways from sunday, but TSR's lawyers are so good that Tolkien would probably lose. Of course, TSR did go on a sueing spree (did you know they own the copyright to cleric?), and apparently only left the Tolkien estate alone out of respect.

If Shadowrun did start out based in (at least partially) Gibson's work, it was only half the world.. And that's the big trick that sets Shadowrun apart (well.. until d20 Modern Fantasy came out, which I found looking around my nearby Borders). And especially in the last few years, the game's really been striving to become an entity of its own. Weither it succeded or not, I leave up to the individual to decide. ;)

Athenor

You're right, of course - it's almost impossible to come up with a new idea these days.

I might argue that Shadowrun is more Gibson than fantasy, though, since it takes more of the cyberpunk setting and tech and just throws in liberal helpings of dwarves, elves and magic, etc.

At any rate, Shadowrun is the closest I think I'll find to being able to play in Gibson's world, so by no means will my slight discomfort at the similarities dissuade me from playing the game.

Nope. There's Cyberpunk 2020.

And to save you the trouble of finding Gibson's particular blog entry...

I think the point we're all missing is that Tolkein and Gibson were both influenced and drew from other source materials to create their worlds. Tolkein did not invent the concept of elves, dwarves, dragons, troll, etc. Heck even his premis of "Lords" was taken from a story called "Ring of the Neiblum".
As for Gibson... you can't tell me the sci-fi genre of the 30-60 didn't influence the development of his works. Old pulp and film stories were full of computers taking over the world... men machines etc. Gibson deserves a nod for his refinement of the material. But, for Gibson to be pissed about the evolution of a genre is a little elitist in my opinion. There is an old saying about success being made on the shoulders of giants.
I enjoy Shadowruns twist on two genres. While seperately the concept of fantasy and cyberpunk are not original... what Fasa did by combining the two was. Two great tastes that taste great together.
Enough speculation about plageruism. Shadowrun is entertaining me. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and I'm enjoying ignorance.

I, for one, was not talking plagerism. I think the similarities are funny and entertaining. By reading Gibson's books, i get a better feel for the SR world, and vice versa.

Gibson himself admits that he broke out in a sweat when Blade Runner came out - it was the visual representation of all the stuff he was writing at the time: New Rose Hotel, Johnny Mnemonic, and his then unreleased first novel, Neuromancer ... so no one is completely original.