Hoi, Chummer
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a huge nerd I like tabletop roleplaying games. One of my favorite games is Shadowrun. If J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and William Gibson’s Neuromancer had a baby, it would come out looking a lot like Shadowrun. It’s a blend of traditional fantasy and 1980s cyberpunk tropes.
So, for instance, you can play an elf sharpshooter with a gun that plugs into your brain. Or a troll mercenary with cybernetically enhanced reflexes. Or a street mage who can melt faces, astrally project, and summon powerful elementals. You might find yourself fighting against — or working for — monolithic corporations, organized crime families, or even ancient and mysterious dragons. If it all sounds a little ridiculous, well, maybe it is. But it’s also all kinds of awesome, and a ton of fun.
Shadowrun has been around for about 25 years on the tabletop, but there’s a new massively-multiplayer online game in the works and they’re seeking funding through Kickstarter. You can read a lot more (and watch videos of gameplay) over at the Shadowrun Online Kickstarter campaign. There’s only six days left as I write this, and they’re still quite a ways from their funding goal. So if you like the taste of fantasy in your sci-fi (or sci-fi in your fantasy), go check it out and consider backing it. Maybe we’ll meet each other online. I’ll be the troll with dermal plating and muscle grafts.