Well, it could be twenty-two years ago today, but I sure as hell can’t remember specifically. I can say that right about now twenty-two years ago I was working on the final bits and pieces of the original Shadowrun role-playing game, which was in the final throes of production at FASA Corporation so that it could be rush-printed in time for the Gen-Con game convention that looming August.
What astounds me, and the reason I am writing about this now, is that Shadowrun the game is still out there and still going strong. Twenty-two years later. That’s stunning to me. When I worked on the original Shadowrun as a freelancer with Bob Charrette and Paul Hume I was in grad school, living at home, and chunking out my sections on my trusty Apple ][e. We were concerned that R.Talsorian’s Cyberpunk RPG which had beaten us to market the prior Gen-Con had stolen our thunder and we hoped that the wacky blend of magic and cyberware would allow the game to carve out a niche in the table-top role-playing game market. Twenty-two years later I guess we can confidently say that it did.
While I can say that it is going strong it is not exactly smooth sailing. Catalyst Game Labs, who currently publishes Shadowrun paper game products, is going through (to put it mildly) difficult times do to some internal financial issues regarding the owners and co-mingled business and personal funds. I’m not going to comment on the situation one way or the other. If you are interested you can find out more information through a press-release at the CGL site here, and threads at the Dumpshock and RPG.net forums here and here. I warn you, there’s a lot to slog through, and its messy and nasty.
I am more than proud that Shadowrun has endured thus far, and I am confident that it will continue to do so. It will be interesting to see what rolls around for its 25th anniversary in 2014.
Shadowrun was blessed by the attention of many talents, not only Hume & Charrette but also, of course, the much-missed Nigel Findley, as well as the terrific art by Jeff Laubenstein, Janet Aulisio, and many others. And it was your editorial hand, Tom, that permitted and encouraged this platoon of great talents to achieve, in many cases, the best work of their careers. Your early standout products like Harlequin and The Universal Brotherhood dramatically established the Shadowrun line’s greatness, giving it the momentum that has carried it forward to today.
(And a shout out to your successor as SR line developer, Mike Mulvihill, who maintained your high standards on the SR line for most of a decade at both FASA and Fantasy Productions.)
Oh, Allen, totally. I was going on about that on Dumpshock yesterday as well. In many ways much of Shadowrun’s heart can be attributed to Nigel and his passing was such a loss. And I think Mike M. has just about recovered from his tenure at the helm. 🙂
When did we start measuring our lives in decades, huh? I remember that Gen-Con, Tom… FASA’s enormous booth (dwarfed, of course, by the TSR structure. I don’t recall if WhiteWolf had gone mammoth yet at that point) and the bright glittery jewel that was Shadowrun. It was a ground-breaking creation that caught everyone’s imagination.
The fact that it’s endured is a testament not only to the idea itself, but it’s execution. I remember thinking, “Wow… FASA has got it going on!” (I paraphrase, of course). Now, decades later, the machine has been dismantled, but the pieces live on.
That pride is well deserved. As we continue to move through our lives and watch the years tumble by, it’s those enduring achievements (large and small) that provide perspective and a kind of stability amid the many changes around us.
::goes to dig out his copy of Shadowrun::
Yea, when all of this mess with CGL came to my attention I realized it was twenty-two years ago and let out a string of expletives that startled the cats… and they’re used to hearing me go off like that… And yea, the “FASA temple”, as they called it, was quite the sight. I remember the crowds we used to get around that first miniature city we made for demoing the game. Me standing up on a chair and playing to the crowd was part of what got me the job as Shadowrun line developer. 🙂
I remember playing-testing Shadowrun at I-Con in 1988 (Gods, is it that long ago?) and I still remember how psyched everybody in the room was to play. It was hard edged like it’s competition yet not so terribly nihilistic. And you guys really tapped into what was going on in the pop-culture and were several years ahead of a lot of folks with the cross-genre content we are seeing in film and TV regularly now. You are also at fault for the current 2012 hysteria! Thanks for that! 😉
Not to make you feel old, but I was 12 years old in 1992 when I first got my copy of Shadowrun 2nd Edition. I ended up owning three copies of that book because I kept reading and re-reading and re-re-reading them so many times they would literally fall apart into loose pages. I’m 30 years old now and I’ve spent most of this weekend prepping a 4th edition game for a group of friends who have never played before.
Oh yeah, and I’m converting the original Food Fight myself, as well as putting them through Harlequin, Universal Brotherhood, and all the other stuff you wrote or helped develop back all those years ago.