#shadowrundragonfall

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but for me, community is one of the best aspects of gaming. 

And those communities come in as many flavors as pantone colors: my original group in High School--Chad, Tony, Scott, Amy, Kater, Jeff, Denby, Manu...--that we grew into a 20+ member BC Legion that played games (mostly BattleTech) every week; my current D&D group split between my family and about 10 kids/adults that show up every other week; groups from long ago that I interacted with, like The Dark Ones--Jesse, Sam...--that first showed me how great a gaming community could be; to groups I’ve interacted with for long years, like the Steel City MechWarriors--Rich and Brian....--via play testing and convention play (just faced off against Rich in a Masters & Minions BattleTech game that was one of the hardest and most enjoyable games I’ve ever played); or groups that are apart of our demo agent teams, such as the fantastic Canadians--James, David...--that invade across the border and help to make such massive shows like Gen Con possible; to brand new groups we run into, such as the various fantastic Shadowrun Cosplay we love seeing. [Sorry, way too many names in there to list everyone....]

I could go on and on, both gushing, humble and thankful to be apart of and to see such wonderful communities elevating our hobby to something more...precious (yes, I just had the tone of voice going through my head as well, ha!).

This time, though, what brought it into focus was seeing new ways in which communities are running wild and making extremely cool things for all of us to enjoy.

If you’ve not already played it, please, do yourself a favor and check out Shadowrun: Dragonfall. The latest offering from Harebrained Schemes, it’s a brilliant computer game that will have you lurking in the shadows of the Sixth Worlds sprawls, and keep you almost breathless with great story and action.

But the reason I bring that up is the following:

I just saw a notification on Google+ from Jason Miller (for those that can access Google+): 

If any of you play Shadowrun Dragonfall, be sure to check out our (+Shadowrun Identity ) first full length campaign mod, based on the paperback sourcebook Mercurial, published back in 1989.

So you’ve got multiple things going on here.

First, you’ve got a brilliant computer game based upon the Shadowrun tabletop RPG (which is where Shadowrun all started when it first published in 1989). Then that game has a massive editing tool set that allows for an unlimited sandbox of play (literally the tools the designers at HBS use to make the game they give out with that game). Then the community steps up and goes back to the very first tabletop adventure in Mercurial published for Shadowrun and re-creates that adventure in this computer game setting which anyone can go and play! (Check it out in the Steam Workshop!)

And for the great, subtle links provided by this fantastic community, the art they’re using for Maria Mercurial is actually from Shadowrun 2050, a tabletop sourcebook Catalyst published a few years ago to coincide with Harebrained Schemes’ first Shadowrun game, Shadowrun Returns (and if you’re not yet aware of it, you’ll notice there HBS’ Shadowrun: Hong Kong, their next installment, is just about out!).

Now that...is...just...wiz! To have such layers permeating back and forth between computer games and the tabletop, spanning decades of great shadowrunning and all powered by the enthusiasm of a community.

Can’t say how much I love seeing that sorta thing. If possible, it makes me enjoy the Shadowrun universe all the more; and of course, I’ll need to try that Shadowrun Identity and see how I do in a “world of megahit rock stars, dreamchip addiction, sleazy talent agents, corp hitmen, toxic waste, and Yakuza sorceresses.”!

Thanks to all of you, for your great passion and creativity, no matter what part of the geek-sphere you harken from...