Introduction

This story starts like so many of my other stories. I went to Humble Bundle and saw that they offered a ShadowRun 5e bundle. Mostly, I heard about the game during the fight over the WotC decision to rework the common license for D&D because they built it on that license. Every now and then, I get an itch to try out Steampunk content. This bundle finally scratches that itch. So, I decided to check out the core rulebook and report back my ShadowRun first impressions.

Can I say again how much I love Humble Bundle? I paid 18 dollars for 17 eBooks and got basically a starter kit for a new tabletop roleplaying game. The trouble, as always, is that I have nobody to play with. I mean, Chris always seems down for something new, but we rarely find the time to get together more than a couple of times a year. We use those for MTG mostly. So, eventually, I need to find a way to enjoy this game solo.

They Have Stories to Tell

Before I talk about the core rulebook, give me some time to tease out that last statement. From what I see online, may nerds have the same trouble as me finding play groups. How can so many of us have the same difficulty without a workable solution? I know that I feel far too old and antisocial to reach out to new players. My most recent playgroups are my youngest son and 3-5 middle school kids at my D&D club.

Sorry about that. As I drove my son to do life guard training (long story not at all related to anything here), I just thought about all of that and it inspired me to share. Now that I have, I can talk about the part of the book that I read so far.

The first couple of sections of the book, as far as I can see, are simply a couple of short stories outlining some of the lore of ShadowRun. While I generally enjoy story telling in games, this time I skipped right by them. Maybe when I come back later to actually play the game, I can give you my opinion on the stories.

Humble Beginnings

Instead, I kept scrolling until arrived at the character creation part. To be honest (am I’m nothing if not honest), I only skimmed this part of the book so far, too. Since I work during the week, I have no time to actually try these games. Therefore, without the proper incentive, I see no reason to make a character yet.

However, I looked through the process and it looks mostly straight forward. However, I liked that they start the generation with your concept and backstory. For someone who prefers the story aspect of games, this feels more natural. Granted, I never have an issue with creating a story based on dice rolled, but I sometimes feel limited when asked to do that.

The Verdict

That’s as far as I got in the book. So, these are very early ShadowRun first impressions. I hope to get some sort of character creation and game play soon and update next month with my thoughts on that. Come back for that and for more as April showers bring us gaming opportunities.