#courtofshadows

We’ve got so much action unfolding in Shadowrun this year...big stories, unique new elements...just an exciting time to be a Sixth World fan.

Court of Shadows is the first, full Alternate Setting sourcebook for Shadowrun. And it reveals some huge shake-ups that’ll bring exciting opportunities to every gaming table. 

As usual, when we release a new book, I love sharing the full cover illustration. And this particular illustration is so perfect at encapsulating the nature of the Seelie Court and the idea of “come inside!” The artist, Alyssa Menold, really did a brilliant job.

Next up, we’ve got another dev post from Monica Valentinelli, the product developer on Court of Shadows.

Court of Shadows #5:  Naming the Factions and Designing their Templates

In the last two design essays, I talked a lot about the War of Sorrows and how it influenced the overarching theme for the worldbuilding in this book. Today, I am pleased to announce the first ten factions of the Seelie Court. And, I will also share with you how they will be presented to you in Court of Shadows.

The first ten factions, which are inspired by the Sixth World Tarot magical artifact are:

Bastard

Magician

Aes Sidhe Banrigh

Higher Power

Hermit

Hanged Man

Death

Dragon

Comet

Eclipse

Each faction is presented in a template that’s designed to serve as both an overview and as a section filled with story hooks and character names. Here’s how the templates will break down, using the Dragon faction as an illustrated example:

Title: Dragon

Quote: This quote is meant to be something a member of this faction might say. In this case, they’d quip: “Sorry, you call yourself a what now? An Adept? Silly human, do you really think your magic is superior to mine?”

Nickname(s): I really liked the vocabulary presented in the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition corebook, and I wanted to bring that through here. So, members of the Dragon faction are called: Mana Masters, Mana Hoarders, Lizards (vulgar), Dragon Slaves (vulgar), True Fae, Heart of the Seelie.

Motto: Each faction has two outward facing signs they exist. A motto, which encapsulates their philosophy, and symbols they use. For the Dragon, their motto is “By right and by line, we are the True Fae.”

Token (or Symbol): Most of the factions have tokens or symbols that are plants/flowers and other, more obvious, icons they attach themselves to. Sometimes, these symbols can be tricky to figure out, because they might be commonly found—which is great to add a little mystery to your adventuring! The Dragons use the snapdragon flower, yin and yang symbol, and a golden egg.

Description: This is a section describing what the faction is all about and, in some cases, their beliefs and attitudes are highly complex, sharing both positive and negative attributes—just like any tarot card. For the Dragon faction, they are proud they can call themselves the True Fae, and their racial superiority oozes with arrogance.

Organization: I decided to add a section outlining how each faction was organized, in part because I wanted to avoid the monolith I had mentioned in an earlier post. Some factions might have a hierarchical structure, for example. In the case of Dragon, their faction is viewed by outsiders to be flat, where no one member has more power or authority over the other. Once initiated, however, it’s a different story as members must prove their birthright and lineage. Some faeries might even go to obsessive lengths to present the truth of their bloodline, too.

Membership & Recruitment: Like any active political organization, the factions have attitudes towards retaining and recruiting its members. Those are outlined here, and some commentary is given if it impacts the Court as a whole. As you might have already guessed, the Dragon faction tends to seek out faeries with a pedigree.

History: The foundation of each faction is outlined here, and I varied these sections to avoid telling the same story over and over again. Some faction histories include bits of poetry or other interstitial works to illustrate a point. For the Dragon faction, I decided to err on the political side and told the story of a conspiracy theory involving Lady Brane Deigh and two Rites known as the Rite of Identification and the Rite of Attraction.

Representative(s): Some factions have easily identifiable representatives; others either have a sub-group or their reps are more obscured out of necessity. The Dragon faction’s representatives are a sub-group called “The Crimson Order”. Their members include the Book of Memories—which ties back to the conspiracy theory outlined in the faction’s history.

What/who are the Book of Memories? I’ll tell you next time, in my upcoming design notes.

-Monica

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Enjoy!

Next Court of Shadows design blog from Monica is here, along with another fantastic illustration preview, this time from artist P. Stone.

In my last post, I talked about how focused we’ve been on world-building for Court of Shadows, and how we wanted to avoid presenting a monolithic stereotype of the fae. To quickly recap, we announced that the modern factions of the Seelie Court are fractured into groups that are both inspired by and based off of Sixth World tarot cards. I’m going to be writing about that aspect in particular quite a bit over the next couple of design posts, but today I need to take a step back and talk about the techniques we used to deepen a sense of mystery and awe.

If it seems like we made some key world-building decisions out of order, we so did out of necessity because Court of Shadows, as a supplement, is unique. It is neither an update to a previous book, nor is it a brand new setting. Instead, it’s a book set in a fully fleshed out universe that’s inspired by a few mentions including the Tír nations, characters such as Liam O’Connor and Lady Brane Deigh, and the Seelie and Unseelie Courts on the faery metaplane.

After successfully avoiding the monolith, I decided to take a look at the Shadowrun setting on a broad scale. How was it structured? What existing elements could I build off of? As I reviewed the books, I noticed that the setting is built around key events that go far and beyond the Year of Chaos. Shadowrun currently takes place in the Sixth World, and this era follows after the world we know, called the Fifth World. I thought about that sense of time and how important it would be to establish the building blocks for the faery metaplane, so I decided to establish that the Seelie Court did exist in the Fourth World, with hints that it may have been established in prior eras as well. By doing so, I felt you would understand that the faeries have been active, as characters, for hundreds (if not thousands) of years prior to their discovery in the Sixth World.

That immensity of time allows for a lot of creative freedom, which is why I decided to deepen my world-building strategy and take it a step further. I thought about how the return of mana affected the earthly plane in the Sixth World, and wondered what would happen in reverse. Would mana be depleted evenly and fade away, giving the meta- and astral planes enough time to prepare for the disconnection? Would any faeries be stranded on Earth, permanently separated from the Seelie Court? What would happen to the faeries that were forced to remain?

In addition to these questions and quite a few more, I wanted in particular to create a piece of the setting that irrevocably changed the Seelie Court forevermore. This event is so significant, it created the backbone for the reasons why the Tuatha de Danaan are the way they are today. I call it “The War of Sorrows.”

Imagine the terrible grief the faeries must have felt at the dawning of the Fifth World. Picture being robbed of the ability to see your stranded family members, your lover(s), your friends ever again because you cannot cross the barrier between worlds. If, by some miracle, you do cross over—you won’t be able to recognize them, because they’ve each suffered a partial, and unique “death.” Whatever magic that made them fae is gone, leaving only the husk of a human, plant, or animal behind, some living and some dead.

Isolated, alone, and mourning their considerable losses, the faeries processed their grief and eventually succumbed to rage for all they could not save. And in that moment, in that terrifying window between anger and acceptance, all of the faeries went to war with one another, because they blamed each other for what happened. This war—the aforementioned War of Sorrows—caused a ripple effect, and the repercussions of those bloody battles can still be felt today. How? When? Why?

Stay tuned to find out.

–Monica

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Enjoy!

Next Court of Shadows design blog from Monica is here, along with another brilliant illustration preview.

One of the challenges with worldbuilding is something I like to call the “monolith”. Sometimes, to describe an alternate world quickly and efficiently, an entire continent is covered with lush, rich jungles, or a city home to millions of people is filled with high-tech skyscrapers reaching for the sky. Our world, though, our reality, history, and our peoples aren’t like that at all. We may default to stereotypes because that’s a shortcut, but just like New York isn’t all skyscrapers and South America isn’t one big jungle waiting to be explored, the world of Shadowrun is as diverse as our own.

In any faerie setting, there are certain tropes tied to the existence of a court, fairy ring, or a fairy mound. Often, there might be an exotic banquet hall filled with food mortals can’t/shouldn’t eat or drink, and fae who are all alien and terrifyingly beautiful. Historically, these fae tend to be ageless, timeless creatures beyond our understanding, who have lived so long their existence is a fading memory, and they do not follow the rules or laws of mortals.

Of course, in order to be considered a world of faerie, I feel that certain tropes—like the Unseelie and Seelie Courts—need to be included to ground you and help fulfill your expectations. And, certainly, we will be exploring some of those tropes in Court of Shadows through the lens of the Shadowrun setting with a new twist. As we discussed the setting further, however, we became concerned that the less details we provided, the more we ran the risk of creating a monolithic faery culture—which would only wind up boring you at your gaming table. So, after we focused on ensuring the Court of Shadows would highlight so many different types of fae, we decided to build off of that to avoid the monolith and create a unique, diverse setting fitting for runners everywhere.

Thus, Jason and I decided to do something really cool, something tied to Shadowrun in a meaningful and thematic way—that would also fuel your imagination as well. We decided to use the Sixth World Tarot thematically in order to develop fully fleshed out the Seelie Court’s factions that are active in this world. Each represents a group of fae that are not only pursuing a goal that best represents the Major Arcana, but also helps add layers of meaning to the faeries you and your players will encounter in the Court of Shadows. In fact, this bit is so important I’m going to write about it next time, too, because you’ll get to see how and when and where all these pieces will align in new and interesting ways.

Next time, I’m going to talk about the tarot and how it applies to the fae. Stay tuned, runners, for more about the upcoming Court of Shadows.

--Monica

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Look for the next installment soon!

Enjoy!

So much awesome to share today. First, while we’ve talked to distributors about the alternate setting book Court of Shadows, today’s the first time we’re going to start sharing art and design blogs.

What’s the Court of Shadows, you say? Well, here’s the text from the back of the book:

You have seen it. You have felt it. The dream where you are falling, falling, and you cannot see the ground but you know it is there waiting. You may try to brace yourself, you may try to force yourself awake—you do anything to avoid the impact that keeps rushing toward you.

The Seelie Court is the realm of the hidden, the rumored, and the unknown. Fairies, spirits, and enchanted creatures mingle there, building alliances, plotting, scheming, toying with the realm of humans—and with each other. The court has long held a distant attachment to the material plane, influencing it like a dream influences our waking hours. But now a new connection has emerged, allowing humans to infiltrate the courts and influence its proceedings. At a time when magical power is ever in the rise, the mix of human and fae could set both worlds into a calamitous plunge, and no one will want to be awake when they hit bottom.

Courts of Shadow is an alternate setting for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, emphasizing the magic and intrigue of the Seelie Court. With full setting, character, and plot details, as well as information on using SR5 characters in the Seelie Court, this book presents all-new ways to play Shadowrun and to live in the mystical intrigue of the planes of fairy, capturing the magic of the dream world—and seeing if they can prevent its fall.

Second, I’ve known Monica Valentinelli for a good while now and have always enjoyed her and her work. When this project came along I knew it was the perfect opportunity to work alongside Monica as she brought her considerable skills to bear on a great new angle for Shadowrun. 

Here’s the first art we’re showing, by I. Widulinski...a great bit of Shadowrun-style intrigue, mixed with the flavor of this book. And below that, Monica’s first of several design blogs discussing this project.

Hey Runners!

My name is Monica Valentinelli. You may have read my work before, but just in case you haven’t, I’ve been in the industry for over ten years now and I’ve contributed to game lines such as Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition and Unknown Armies Third Edition. I developed the Firefly RPG line, and I’m now developing the Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition core rulebook. If you’re still curious about me, you can check out my website at: www.mlvwrites.com.

Today, I’m here to hint about a brand new addition to the Shadowrun line that is set in Tír na nÓg and land beyond called the Court of Shadows. Every book begins with an idea and, in my case, it started with a meeting filled with them. At Gen Con: Indy 2015, Jason Hardy and I sat down to discuss the raw bones of what a Shadowrun book set in the realm of faery might look like. The possibility of adding a nuanced and bold new setting for Shadowrun was really exciting to me, and my head was bursting with “What if...” questions. My Shadowrun games had typically involved mega-corporations to varying degrees, for example, so I was curious to explore what a street samurai or a rigger would do in the Seelie Court and associated realms. Would a technomancer be able to better navigate the realm than a decker? How would they get there? Which faeries would be active in the realm, and what motivates them to act? And, most importantly, why would a group want to play there in the first place?

Of course, these questions speak to the fundamentals of game design. What do the players do when they’re sitting together in a group? And what motivates the individual player to act? In order to answer those questions, Jason had already framed a basic outline for the book by the time I came on board which was, in part, based on our Gen Con discussion. Then, we brainstormed several possibilities to build off of the scorebook (pp. 29-30, SR5) and add exciting options and styles of play. Before we could address all of the deeper aspects of the realm of faerie, however, we needed to identify the two key aspects of the Seelie Court itself: what types of faeries will the players encounter, and how are they organized.

Before I talk about how we’ve decided to frame the Court, which I’ll address in my next post, I want to dive into the fae themselves. To stay true to the Shadowrun setting, Jason decided to pull from folklore and myth that encompassed Celtic lore, but also wanted to incorporate multicultural myths and legends. This was a pretty easy task for me to research—especially given the size of my library at home—so I tapped into several different books and used a few sites to cross-check naming conventions. I was able to quickly put together a giant list of faeries that included Chinese fox spirits, the English bogle Old Cutty Soams, the Algonquin Wendigo, the Japanese Chin-chin Kobakama, the Slavic malevolent Blud, and dozens more based on type of environment and nationality. Then, Jason was kind enough to ask me to recommend writers for the project, too, to ensure that our team would build upon this core foundation from different angles and perspectives. I’m happy to report that though the Celtic focus remains integral to the Seelie Court setting, the list of fae creatures that’ll be addressed in this book definitely speaks to the many different types of characters found in Shadowrun.

While writing about the various types of faeries and what they can do is incredibly important to this new way to play Shadowrun, I opted to dive into worldbuilding for my contribution to the book. I was really drawn to the bones that Jason and I had set, and wanted to flesh out the factions of the Court. Next time, I’ll talk about what those are, and why I think you’ll be as excited as I am by the Court of Shadows.

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Look for the next installment soon!

Enjoy!