I read 'Burning Chrome' and 'Neuromancer' by William Gibson, several years ago.

When I played the Shadowrun videogame for Sega Genesis, I was struck by the similarities between Gibson's 'cyberpunk' world and the game. Deckers, implants, Chiba, Armitage, the matrix... the similarities seemed too strong to be coincidence.

Now, I know next to nothing about the Shadowrun RPG or its history, so I don't want to blindly accuse Shadowrun of 'liberally borrowing' from Gibson.

Can anyone with a more complete knowledge of the subject shed some light on this connection?

By the way, anyone looking to read some really good cyberpunk sci-fi, with a definite 'Shadowrun' feel (at least, the tech aspect and gritty future parts), go read Neuromancer. It's great.

During the 80's, there was a massive cyberpunk push in culture, kinda a doom and gloom about the world, and the worry of loss of humanity. And why not? We were living in a time where technology was increasing by leaps and bounds, the government was seen as more and more corrupt, and people had lost their faith thanks to Vietnam.

Shadowrun actually came near the end of this movement, in '89. It borrowed liberally from Cyberpunk, Neuromancer, and Blade Runner (and even bits of Terminator), but then interjected its own twist: Tolkien. Now, no.. Shadowrun's "Sixth World" does not line up with Tolkien's ages, but it is the same concept -- what would happen if these fantasy worlds re-awoke from their long slumbers?

The world has been portrayed as a little more bright these days, to represent the perserverance of human hope. Now, it doesn't exactly become knights in shining armor, but it does become a world of people with good intentions, even if they do bad things... the ultimate example of which being Dunkelzahn.

I think now is a good time to quote a book probably no one would expect to be quoted...

It is a book called "High Tech and Low Life: The Art of Shadowrun", and its probably the only book I've seen dedicated to the authors and artists showing what they've gotten from Shadowrun, and where their inspiration has come from. Oh, sure, it may only be a gallery of book covers to some people.. but they are durned cool! ;)

I would type up more of the 2 page essay, but it is hard enough typing when the book won't stay open, due to its still decently fresh spine. ;) Still, Werner Fuchs' and Jim Nelson's words resonate much better than any I can say.

So.. I guess.. ya, Gibson's work is a primary influence on Shadowrun. ;)

Athenor, king of the innane posts

Gibson is credited largely with popularizing the Cyberpunk genre, but he is far from the only contributer to it (And to Shadowrun). Neal Stephenson is another great source of material (Read Snowcrash sometime for some great visuals for the Matrix), as is Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the later movie version, Bladerunner, which adds a bit more "punk" to the cyber.

However, another major inspirational source that is often overlooked is a series of novels called Borderlands. This website has a little info, but is woefully out of date (And is a testiment to the power of the net to keep info alive. I mean, it hasn't been updated since '96! :)). The first book, Borderland, was released in 1986 and the basic premise was the return of a fantasy elven land to the modern day. It's a lesser known series, but has been mentioned as one of the inspriations behind marrying Gibson to Tolkein.

The Shadowrun Ages are actually not Tolkein inspired, but are rather inspired by Mayan mythology. The beginning of the 6th World actually corresponds roughly to the end of the current "world" and the beginning of the next according to the Mayan calander (The dates vary depending on your source, since it's ahrd to translate the calnder exactly, apparently. Plus, regardless, Shadowrun's a game. It doesn't have to be historically 100% correct :)).

As I said, Gibson is credited heavily for Cyberpunk, and rightly so, to an extent, but... The Cyberpunk genre as a whole is a concept and idea, and a conglomeration of ideas from numerous sources (Gibson himself owes a lot to several earlier authors that he himself took ideas from). As such, there's no stealing (or "liberally borrowing") involved, anymore than George Lucas or Gene Roddenbarry "Liberally borrowed" from Issac Asimov, at least :]

Bull

Thanks, guys, your input was very enlightening.

'Snowcrash' is actually on my reading list, a friend recommended it to me, along with Cryptonomicron, recently.

As long as Shadowrun has so much Gibson influence, here's hoping that we see a Molly Millions-esque character, complete with fingertip blades and built-in optics.

or a character with my namesake: case! :)

Cyber-punk has influenced a few ccg's as well, before the Shadowrun CCG made it's appearance, there was the Heresy game, which was a beautifully presented (though terribly complicated) ccg that mixed cyber-punk with religion, so instead of techno-elves you got cyber-angels. I believe another cyper-punk'esque ccg was Dark Ages: Feudal Lords, that featured a lot of Brom artwork.

Brom used to be a big contributor to Shadowrun as well.. Probably one of the most distinct images I can think of for the game was his cover for "Harlequin's Back".

As for the built-in optics and fingernail blades? that's -easy- to get in Shadowrun, almost any illegal chop shop doc in Seattle can get you those... :grin::laugh::p You can also get spurs (foot and a half long blades, 2 of 'em, that can be retractable that are mounted to attach to your forearm right beofre the wrist).. you know, if you are looking for that pseudo-Wolverine look, or even true "iron lungs" that contain compressed O2 for use when air is not available.. and that's only a little bit of the stuff -- they have bioware, head-installed computers, chips that can tell your brain how to do things directly, nanomachines that help your body, and now even genetic manipulation on a body-wide scale!


Oh, and on the ages thing.. *Smacks forehead* Damn. Considering how important the doomsday clock is to Shadowrun, I can't believe my mind blanked on that.

Athenor

Most Cyberpunk games give some nod to Gibson as well as several other Pioneer writers such as Bruce Sterling. If memory serves R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk game came before Shadowrun.

The original Gibson Triliogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive) have the most cyberpunk feel. His second trliogy is also very good.

Gibson is given a number of nods not only in Shadowrun, but in other areas of Geek Culture. For instance, in the movie Hacker's the Mainframes are reffered to as Gibson's. The Firewall program, BlackIce is a reference to the lethal anti-intrusion countermeasure programs used in Neuromancer and Burning Chrome.

It was Gibson and the other Cyberpunk authors that made the whole genere and there would be no Shadowrun without their work.

And we couldn't thank 'em enough.

BTW, the Matrix part of the game, which is going inside of computers and surfing around virtual reality, uses such things:

White, Grey, and Black IC, where IC stands for Intrusion Countermeasures.. But only newbies call it IC, you call it Ice. ;)

Athenor

gibson actually has some supernatural stuff in some of his novels. a few of his books deal with loa, or voodoo spirits. the "magic" in those novels isn't as obvious or pervading as it is in Shadowrun, but its there.

yep. there's a lot of loa refs in mona lisa overdrive....

btw count zero- count zero's my fav book outta the trilogy (the 1st Gibson book i read and addicted me to the cyberpunk genre... and to think it was on the reading list of one of my college courses!)

You would be correct. When SRun first came out, it was billed as "Cyberpunk with a twist". I can remeber that it and two other games (Rifts and Torg) were briefly grouped together in a new catagory called Science-Fantasy.

Torg, by West End Games. Very similar in idea to Rifts. West End was the maker of the d6 version of Star Wars, and best known for Paranoia.

Rifts was by Paladium makers of Ninja's and Superspies and Teenage Mutant Turtle's game.

Both games were Science-Fantasy but neither were a true Cyberpunk. GURPS Cyberpunk and some game by ICE, which I can't seem to remmber... but I know it had the name Cyber in it.

Just popping in to say that I picked up Snowcrash today based on the recommendations in this thread. Thanks.