We’ve been sharing interior art over on our Tumblr and we’ll continue to do so…but time to unveil the cover!

I’ll admit it—I’ve reached the point where I’m a little intimidated. I know that when Victor Moreno is assigned to do a Shadowrun cover, he’s going to rock it. He’s going to take the art notes and find the Sixth World heart of them, making an awesome piece of cyberpunk goodness that absolutely brings the art notes to life.

Which means if there’s something wrong with the piece, it’s probably because there was a flaw in the art notes. So that’s the intimidating part—I need to raise my game to match Victor’s, or the cover is not going to look right and it’s gonna be my fault. With an artist of Victor’s talent (you can check out his work on the free GM screen wallpapers), that means I need to work hard to be sure I don’t bring him down.

Another challenge with the cover is that there is so much going on in the Run & Gun book, making it tough to select just what should be on the cover. After all, there are new offensive and defensive options, new weapons of all kinds, martial arts, explosives, and more—the kind of things that are tough to fit on a single coherent image.

But this is when the leadership of our glorious art director Brent Evans comes in. Back when we were planning Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, a group of us were gathered with a huge collection of Shadowrun sourcebooks spread out on multiple horizontal surfaces. The point was to look at cover art throughout the history of Shadowrun and decide what worked—and why. As Brent led us through analysis and discussion of the art, one thing that became clear was that character-focused art often leads to great covers. For Run & Gun, then, that meant not focusing on the tools and tricks the book contains, but the people who use them.

So the idea started to come into focus. The cover of Fields of Fire served as a major inspiration. It’s a great image of a tough-looking team ready to do business in a classic Sixth World urban wasteland. Since the cover of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition had more of a downtown setting, having an urban wasteland, Barrens-ish setting would be a nice change of pace. The team should look battered but ready, because that’s the condition shadowrunners are in about ninety percent of the time. And there should be a good cross-section of runners—not just different metatypes, but also different types of fighters. So we’ve got the pistol-toting dwarf, the ork who looks more inclined to hand-to-hand fighting, an elf ready to lay down automatic weapons fire, and a human loaded with explosives. Then we just have to put them in the Barrens and watch ‘em shine.

Naturally, Victor took the ideas in the art notes and made them better. One of the fun things about seeing the art come in after writing the art notes is to see how the artist interpreted the original idea, and also see what details they chose to throw in to make the image come to life. The Run & Gun cover is full of fun things to look at: the elf’s exposed cyberskull, the multiple arm scars on the ork from years of hard fighting, the cigar-and-cybereyes face of the dwarf, the roto-drone flaming out behind the crew, and plenty more. It’s a tough image of brutal people who look intent on surviving no matter what is thrown at them, which makes it pretty perfect for Shadowrun.

-Jason Hardy

Working in gaming is really good for reminding you that you are far from perfect. Repeatedly. Anyway, after spending time playing and enjoying Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, we noticed that there were some changes and improvements that needed to be made. Those changes are listed in an errata document now available right here or on the Battleshop or DriveThruRPG. A few important notes about the errata document:

• The document is a layered PDF, meaning you can print it without all the background material to save you some printer ink.

• The document lists substantive changes to the book. We have also found some typos, grammatical issues, and other minor things that need changing, but they are not included in this document, as we wanted to focus on things likely to affect gameplay.

• The changes in this document and the aforementioned typos and such will be incorporated into the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition PDF in the near future. At that time, people who have bought the PDF will receive notification that they can download an updated version.

• Note that there will likely be updates to this document as time goes by–we’ll try to announce when a new version comes out.

That’s about it! We hope this helps you have even more fun playing Shadowrun!

We’ve been sharing art from the Digital Tool Box (as well as other upcoming books) on our Tumblr…feel free to check that out.

However, Tumblr doesn’t allow a pop-up window and for sharing this poster I felt you really needed to be able to zoom in some on the details on the North American map (circa 2075). And of course, Echo Chernik’s marvelous cover on the back of the poster (from the Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware portion of the Digital Tools Box)…even better large!

We’ve got a doozy of a release for you today! You might have heard about our two upcoming box sets–the Beginner Box Set,  which adds characters, NPCs, and adventures seeds to the quick-start rules to make it easy to discover the world of Shadowrun, and Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware, which expands on the quick-start rules, provides more adventures, adds character details, and in all ways gives you more tools to run a fast and fun game of Shadowrun with your friends. The print versions of those boxes are moving ahead, but if you don’t want to wait, you can get the goods now with the Shadowrun Digital Tools Box! All of the content from the boxes are here, for the low price of $19.99 (available at the Battleshop and DriveThruRPG)! And not only do you get the content, you also get codes that provide discounts on pre-orders of the physical boxes!

Whether you are trying Shadowrun for the first time, looking to introduce new players to adventure in the Sixth World, or simply want a fast, easy way to play Shadowrun, the Digital Tools Box is for you! Need more info? Well, check out the full description:

SHADOWRUN DIGITAL TOOLS BOX

The Shadowrun Digital Tools Box is 2 box sets in 1! Whether you’re just getting into Shadowrun or you’re a runner that’s been hitting the streets since the 2050s, you’ll find useful material here for running any type of game. Here’s what you get!

BEGINNER BOX

The Shadowrun Beginner Box is the easiest way to dive into the intrigue, grit and action of one of the most enduring role-playing settings of all time! Tailor-designed for an easy-on-the-credstick entry, the Beginner Box includes the following:

• The Edge of Now gives the flavor and background of the Sixth World
• Quick-Start Rules: Fast rules and a quick adventure to whet your appetite for more.
• A pre-generated character booklet: Allows for a gamemaster and one person to run a solo adventure.
• 5 pre-generated character sheets: Details that’ll allow up to five players to play with the help of a gamemaster.

Whether you’re new to Shadowrun or new to roleplaying, this package will get you into the fun of hacking, shooting, and spellslinging your way to the top!

RUNNER’S TOOLKIT: ALPHAWARE

Scan This, Chummers:

• Do you play Shadowrun now and are looking for a set of tools to allow you to more easily run your existing group, or that’ll allow you to introduce new gamers to your favorite RPG at your local game store or hangout?
• Are you a gamemaster ready to give Shadowrun a shot, and you want a few extra tools at your disposal from the first toss of your dice?
• Have you tackled the Beginner Boxand are ready to move up in the Sixth World?

Say yes to any of those? Then the Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware is the box set for you.

Designed to provide adventures, maps, and tools to use in conjunction with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, or to be the perfect stepping-stone between the Shadowrun Beginner Box and the core rulebook, this box can fill a number of roles. Whether you’re looking for more tools to help your existing gaming group, or adventures and options to move beyond the Beginner Box, laying the groundwork for your gaming group to move fully onto Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, you’ll find this kit invaluable.

This box has all you need to play a game of Shadowrun, including:

• Rules of the Street: An 88-page rulebook designed to be accessible and simple to use.
• Plots and Paydata: 80 pages of adventures and tips for any Shadowrungamemaster.
• Eight double-sided maps to help players and GMs track the action.
• 110 spell, weapon, and gear cards for quick reference.
• 5 pre-generated characters players can use right away.

FIRE & FROST NOVEL EXCERPT

An exclusive, first access to a 48-page excerpt from the forthcoming Shadowrun novel, Fire & Frost, the first all-new original Sixth World novel in years!

PRINT PRE-ORDER CODES

A PDF of codes is zipped with this Digital Tools Box. Once the pre-orders on the physical Beginner Box Set and Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware go live at www.battlecorps.com/catalog, you can use these codes for $5, $10 or even $20 (depending upon the box set(s) you want) off your pre-order!

With holidays and sickness out of the way, time to get back to regular posts surrounding all the awesome-sauce Shadowrun stuff coming down the pipeline.

First up as we get back on track, here’s the pre-final Crossfire game play example that appears in the back of the book; I say pre-final because it might change very slightly between now and the final rulebook (which, if my evil plans work out, we’ll be leaking soon).

No, I don’t have any details on when it will be available. Still swimming through production and that’s a miasma of ‘fun’ that simply precludes our ability to provide any details. Once we’ve hit some better bench marks we’ll share those details.

Enjoy!

Randall

If you’re a shadowrunner who brings a lot of guns to the table, you might have seen how cards help keep your arsenal organized and easy to reference. We recently released Gun Haven Heaven 3, which has game information on more than thirty firearms, and we’ve now made the game information and art available on card form! Whether you want cards with the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition stats or cards with the Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition stats, we’ve got a deck for you! Each card has a full-color image of one of the firearms, as well as the game stats for that piece. So load up and make sure you’re carrying the right collection of weapons for any situation!

We’re constantly asked by the community whether they can use X or Y illustrations/graphics on their website or in their materials for running a game…not to mention retailers as well.

We’ve put together an SR5 Media Kit zips file of a variety of graphics/images that anyone can grab and use to enhance their Shadowrun games!

We just started to send this material off to distributors/retailers and I immediately wanted to share the details with all of you!

Here’s the letter we’re sending to distributors/retailers:

To All Retailers,

As part of the Year of Shadowrun, Catalyst announced a Shadowrun Introductory Box Set, which would be the first ever “starter” box for Shadowrun. Unfortunately, as happens to us sometimes, our passion got the better of us, and right as we were ready to send it to print we realized it was trying too hard to do too many things.

Ultimately we came to the conclusion that regardless of how well put together the overall box was, the following elements would damage its ability to achieve its goals of bringing in new players while providing a plethora of useful tools for existing players:

• The price point was too high for an “introductory” item;
• There was too much information for new players to absorb;
• Existing players would potentially have too much material that was not as useful to them, which would lessen the perceived value

After numerous discussions that included talks with retailers and distributor in our industry, we’ve thus determined that the best way to solve the issues above was to create two new items:

Shadowrun Beginner Box Set ($19.99)
Shadowrun Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware ($59.99)

This split allows both boxes to focus on a single primary objective, as opposed to the jack-of-all-trades syndrome plaguing the initial box.

The Beginner Box is 100% about new players, providing an easy-on-the-wallet quick taste of Shadowrun, making the barrier of entry into the game lower than it’s ever been (see the sellsheet for additional details on contents).

Meanwhile the Runner’s Toolkit: Alphaware can focus on helping existing players obtain a variety of useful tools for easing into multiple adventures of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, while also acting as the perfect bridge product for new players between the Beginner Box and Shadowrun, Fifth Edition (see the sellsheet for additional details on contents).

Note that because we previously conducted a solicitation of the Introductory Box Set, we felt the only way to eliminate as much confusion as possible was to completely discontinue that name. And the use of the Runner’s Toolkit title with the Alphaware suffix sets up the eventual publication of Runner’s Toolkit: Betaware, the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition version of the spectacularly selling Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Runner’s Toolkit.

Finally, to help maximize retailer (and ultimately the community’s) understanding of this change, we’ve pushed both items back to spring releases to ensure a full 4-month solicitation cycle.

Thanks for your understanding and we hope you’re enjoying the return of Shadowrun as much as we are!

Catalyst Team

I’ll continue to share additional details on those box sets in the coming weeks. Additionally, we’ll be releasing a “Shadowrun Tools Digital Box” that combines both of these print boxes into a single great set of electronic tools for players, for sale in the near future.

Randall

Do you have some holiday shopping to do this week for the gamers on your list? Including yourself? Well, we’ve got good news for you—two new e-books have been released as PDFs, and the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition Gamemaster’s Screen hits stores this week! Let’s take a look at all the stuff coming out, shall we?

First up—guns, guns, guns! Yes, it’s Gun Haven Heaven 3 (Battleshop, DriveThruRPG), and it is, as you may guess, full of guns! With more than thirty firearms, this book increases the options for any Shadowrun player, with weapons ranging from vintage collectibles to heavy-hitting machine guns. And it’s dual-statted, meaning that you can use it whether you are playing Shadowrun, Fifth Edition or Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition!

And if you like the gear cards and spell cards we’ve released for Fourth and Fifth Edition, keep your eye on DriveThruCards in upcoming weeks for cards with all the Gun Heaven 3 weapons on them. We’re planning two decks–one with SR5 stats, another with SR4A stats.

Here are a few more details on the bevy of firearms waiting for you:

Lethal Force

You’re not a noob. You’re not a poseur. You’re a shadowrunner. When you pick a weapon, it’s with a purpose, and 99 times out of 100, that purpose is to bring suckers down. You’re going to choose your weapon carefully, and you know that the more options you have, the better your final choice will be.

Gun H(e)aven 3 is about options. Pistols, rifles, machine guns, even a flamethrower—they’re all in here, ready to take out to the streets. Take a look, check your options, and then pick a weapon that will stop your enemies in their tracks. Because when the guns come out, you want it ended quick and ended right—with you still in your feet.

Gun H(e)aven 3 has more than thirty new firearms, and they’re ready to use in either Shadowrun, Fifth Edition or Shadowrun, Twentieth Anniversary Edition. So whatever you’re playing, get ready to add more force to your arsenal!

Next up, we have Coyotes (Battleshop, DriveThruRPG), a full-featured book about border crossings. Whether you are trying to slip across a contested border like the line between Aztlan and the CAS, or you’re moving from territory controlled by the Seattle government to corporate territory by entering a headquarters, you need to know what security is going to be watching and how you can avoid being noticed. You also might want some help from a Coyote, someone who can help you slip across those invisible lines. With short fiction, tactical information, details on border security, Coyote NPCs, and even a short adventure, Coyotes has a wealth of information to add to your Shadowrun, Fifth Edition game!

Here are a few more details:

Over the Edges

The Sixth World has been carefully divided and partitioned to keep people in their place, living under the thumbs of those who draw the lines. Shadowrunners, though, have never been good at staying where they’re supposed to be. They’ve got goods to smuggle, bounties to avoid, and a host of other reasons to cross the walls and borders the rest of the world has put up.

These crossings aren’t always easy, and that’s where Coyotes come in—trained professionals with nerves of steel and steady hands who can help you sneak, talk, or just blast your way past almost any border. You may have to dig deep in your pocket to pay their asking price, but it’ll be worth it when you see the heavily armed checkpoint fading in the rear view mirror.

Coyotes has a wealth of information on border crossings, including details on Coyote tactics, descriptions of security at a variety of borders, sample Coyote characters, and even a short border-crossing adventure. It’s the complete package for cross-border excitement!

Coyotes is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

And finally there’s the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition Gamemaster’s Screen (Battleshop pre-order), a vital Runner Resource that is scheduled to hit stores on December 18th. With a fine collection of tables from the book on one side and beautiful art showing shadowrunners inside the legendary Dante’s Inferno nightclub, the screen is the perfect accessory to make playing the game faster and easier—and to keep your players from seeing how you’re planning to make their lives very difficult.

 

Don’t blink . . . I must not blink! I’ve heard that as long as you are looking at a Mage, they can’t do anything to you. And one just walked into the room with me.

Sure, it’s probably all just superstition, but then I’ve seen what a Mage can do. How can they have so much power? Where does that power come from? I just don’t get it.

In Shadowrun: Crossfire, the Mage is the master of deck manipulation and dealing damage. The Face is all about people skills, the Street Samurai is about smashing things in a fight, and the Decker is about hacking (which is what I do), so let’s tap the net for specs on the Mage.

The Mage’s role color is Blue, which are spells that manipulate your deck, allow you to draw cards, and do a ton of damage. Two of these mechanics are combined in one card: Deathtouch.

First, Deathtouch lets you look at the top 3 cards of your deck and then put them back in any order. And second, it does an additional point of colorless damage for each spell card revealed this way. With its base damage of two Blue to begin with, you can crank out 5 damage with this spell! And if you want to know why rearranging your deck can be so helpful, take a look at Stunbolt.

You reveal the top card of your deck and do one Blue damage plus colorless damage equal to that revealed card’s cost. Then you put the revealed card back on top of your deck. So you use Deathtouch first and stack the top of your deck with your biggest card, then reveal that card for maximum damage when you cast Stunbolt.

Next are a pair of cards that allow you to draw more cards to help you get through your deck faster. The first is Clairvoyance, which allows you to draw one card and then discard a card along with doing one Blue damage.

Clairvoyance also has an assist ability, which can be played only during another runner’s turn. The assist is exactly the same as the main ability, except that it will affect the runner you play it on instead of yourself.

The second card of the pair is Guiding Spirit.

This card allows you to discard your entire hand and then draw that many cards. It also does one Blue damage and one colorless damage. Remember that if you run out of cards in your deck to draw, draw as many as you can, reshuffle your discard into a new deck, and then finish drawing the cards you need. Don’t forget, however, that you have to play a Spell card in order to buy Guiding Spirit from the Black Market, making it much harder for anyone other than the Mage to purchase it.

Next are the pure damage spells starting with the powerful Lightning Bolt.

This Spell card clears two entire levels of an obstacle’s damage track. It doesn’t care what the color of those levels are or how many colorless damage is needed; it just clears them. This spell also has a purchase restriction of requiring you to play a Spell card in order to purchase it from the Black Market, meaning that you’d better focus on magic if you want to use a Lightning Bolt.

And finally there’s the Fireball.

It does two colorless damage plus two Blue damage. It also does splash damage of one level to up to three different obstacles, which can really be helpful when the team has already beat down the obstacles facing them. It doesn’t matter who those obstacles are facing, so spread the damage around.

Well, I now understand a bit more about Mages, but they still make me nervous. Maybe after this run they won’t creep me out so much. Who knows?

— Conan E. Chamberlain

The following product has a Street Date of DECEMBER 18TH, 2013:

Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen ($19.99)

Every shadowrunner knows the value of good information. The right fact, the perfect piece of data, can be the difference between success and failure on a run, between life and death. And in the right hands, information can be more than valuable—it can be powerful.

The Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen provides a collection of useful tables from Shadowrun, Fifth Edition for ease of reference in game play. With range tables, action lists, combat modifiers, social modifiers, and more, this is a critical game aid to make your Shadowrun games faster and more fun. And to provide that all-important secrecy so that the players don’t know what you’re up to.

This screen is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to announce that Lone Wolf Development will release Shadowrun, Fifth Edition data package files for Hero Lab in the first quarter of 2014.

“We’ve gotten off to a fantastic start with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition,” said Randall N. Bills, Managing Developer of Catalyst Game Labs. “We’re starting to get out a series of Runner Resources—such as the Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen and Gear and Spell decks—in support of Shadowrun 5 to make the game easier to use than ever. But for digital space nothing beats Hero Lab and its ability to easily customize and upgrade your character during game play…we can’t wait for this brilliant support to be available. “

Released almost a decade ago, the ENnie award-winning Hero Lab includes an easy-to-use, intuitive interface atop a versatile database engine. Data packages for more than a dozen different role-playing games from a wide range of publishers are already available. Users can add their own custom content to existing games or even create data files for entirely new game systems. The combination of powerful, user-friendly software and the diverse RPGs it supports make Hero Lab one of the most successful character management tools ever released.

“We’re thrilled to be adding support for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition to Hero Lab” said Rob Bowes, President of Lone Wolf Development. “We’re very happy to continue our relationship with Catalyst and bring the newest edition of Shadowrun to the world of digital tools. As one of our most popular game systems, we’re proud to give new and experienced Shadowrun players and GMs a way to quickly and accurately create characters for use in their games.”

About Catalyst Game Labs
Catalyst Game Labs is dedicated to producing high quality games and fiction that mesh sophisticated game mechanics with dynamic universes-all presented in a form that allows beginning players and long-time veterans to easily jump into our games and fiction readers to enjoy our stories even if they don’t know the games.

Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC, which specializes in electronic publishing of professional fiction. This allows Catalyst to participate in a synergy that melds printed gaming material and fiction with all the benefits of electronic interfaces and online communities, creating a whole-package experience for any type of player or reader. Find Catalyst Game Labs online at www.catalystgamelabs.com.

About Lone Wolf Development
Lone Wolf Development specializes in creating innovative digital tools for the tabletop gaming industry, allowing players to streamline game preparation, eliminate errors, and spend more time playing the games they love. With Realm Works, the company has created an entirely new vehicle for RPG publishers to distribute their material to fans. With an ever-growing suite of tools, including the award-winning Army Builder® and Hero Lab® products, Lone Wolf’s digital tools are the industry standard and are in regular use by tens of thousands of gamers, from miniatures games to role-playing games. Find out more about Lone Wolf Development at www.wolflair.com.

The following products have a Street Date of NOVEMBER 20TH, 2013:

Splintered State ($19.99)
Federal Agent Seth Dietrich has a secret. Actually, multiple secrets. One of them made him go underground, hiding from the people desperate to learn just how much he knows. And the other is keeping him from surfacing, because he’s found he can’t even trust himself.

If Dietrich were in his right mind, he’d cover his tracks like a pro, and no one would find him. Especially not shadowrunners getting their feel for life on the streets. But he’s not in his right mind, which means a group of shadowrunners finds themselves in possession of some very valuable information—information the highest powers in Seattle want for themselves. What started as a simple job turns into a scramble for their lives, a scramble that could become profitable if the runners play their cards right.

Splintered State is an introductory adventure for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. Whether you have played previous Shadowrun editions or are new to the setting, this adventure helps players and gamemasters learn the new rules while wrapping themselves in the intrigue, excitement, and danger of running in Seattle.

Shadowrun, Fifth Edition ($59.99)
There are cracks in the world. They’re slender, dark, and often cold, but they are the only things that keep you hidden. Keep you alive. They are the shadows of the world, and they are where you live.

You are a shadowrunner, thriving in the margins, doing the jobs no one else can. You have no office, no permanent home, no background to check. You are whatever you make yourself. Will you seek justice? Sow seeds of chaos? Sell out to the highest bidder? It’s up to you, but this much is certain—if you do nothing, the streets will eat you alive.

You can survive—even flourish—as long as you do what it takes. Sacrifice part of your soul for bleeding-edge gear. Push the limits of your will learning new and dangerous magic. Wire yourself into the Matrix, making your mind one with screaming streams of data. It’ll cost you something—everything does—but you can make it worth the price.

Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is the newest version of one of the most popular and successful role-playing worlds of all time—a fusion of man, magic and machine in a dystopian near-future. With rules for character creation, magic, combat, Matrix hacking, rigging, and more, you have everything you need to face the challenges of the Sixth World.

NOTE: Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is once again available.

Good news, Shadowrun players, especially those of you playing Fifth Edition! We have all sorts of new things available now to make playing with the new rules faster, easier, and altogether more fun, and there are a number of ways for you to get a hold of them. Take a look at the wealth of options below, and make sure you check out the free wallpapers we just put out. What free wallpapers? Read on!

Every shadowrunner knows the value of good information. The right fact, the perfect piece of data, can be the difference between success and failure on a run, between life and death. And in the right hands, information can be more than valuable—it can be powerful.

The Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen provides a collection of useful tables from Shadowrun, Fifth Edition for ease of reference in game play. With range tables, action lists, combat modifiers, social modifiers, and more, this is a critical game aid to make your Shadowrun games faster and more fun. And to provide that all-important secrecy so that the players don’t know what you’re up to.

This screen is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen (Pre-order From BattleShop)

You can download a zip file of a plethora of different sizes of wallpapers:

Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen Wallpapers (Free From BattleShop)

Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen Wallpapers (Free From DriveThruRPG)

Or you can find the wallpapers here.

(Photo of the Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen, with its packaging wrap.)

Shadowrun Gear Cards, Series 1

The right gun, the right vehicle, or the right piece of equipment can be the difference between life and death. Shadowrun Gear Cards provides quick reference to 54 different pieces of gear. Containing game stats and illustrations of guns, vehicles, drones, and more, these cards will help keep the game moving and make sure characters have what they need to come out on top.

Shadowrun Gear Cards PDF (Buy From BattleShop)

Shadowrun Gear Cards Print Preorder & PDF Combo (Buy From BattleShop)

Shadowrun Gear Cards PDF and/or POD (Buy From DriveThruRPG)

Shadowrun Spell Cards, Series 1

Everyone in the Sixth World wants to geek the mage first. Your job is to make sure that won’t happen by being faster, deadlier, and more powerful than they are. Shadowrun Spell Cards make spell casting faster and easier, with easy-to-reference game statistics for 54 different spells. Grab a pack and use it to call down a whole hellstorm of mana when you need it most!

Shadowrun Spell Cards PDF (Buy From BattleShop)

Shadowrun Spell Cards Print Preorder & PDF Combo (Buy From BattleShop)

Shadowrun Spell Cards PDF (Buy From DriveThruRPG)

In the Shadowrun: Crossfire adventure deck-building game, the Decker is all about data. We hack into terminals to bypass security and search the Matrix for that crucial piece of intel. Unlike a Street Samurai and their ability to protect your back in a fight, the Mage with their arcane wisdom, and the Face who seems to always have “a guy” for anything, I’m the true master of information and technology. You want the latest tune before it’s released? I’m your man! I’m also the guy to get you through the door, disarm the security systems, and retrieve the megacorps’ most prized information.

The Decker’s role color is green and the green cards are all about fun combos. Get the right set of cards in hand and you can do some crazy damage. Some of those combos are easy and basic, such as Icon Grab.

Play Icon Grab with another Hacking card and you get 2 damage out of the card instead of one. Plus that second damage gives you a choice of colors, which can be critical for knocking out pesky obstacles in your way.

The next card, Retrieval Agent, is also fun to combo with.

Using the Retrieval Agent card allows you to bring back Hacking cards you used in previous turns. Remember that cards played this turn don’t go into the discard until later, barring effects that have discard a card as part of their cost, such as Pair Programming.

Pair Programming lets you play with the other runner’s discards. And to combo it with Retrieval Agent, discard a Hacking card to use Pair Programming on an expensive card, and then play Retrieval Agent to put the card you discarded back into your hand.

What was that? You want to play with your own discard pile? For that we have Jacked In.

When you play Jacked In, it just does its damage. But once it’s in your discard, you can get it back by discarding another card from your hand. This is a great way to upgrade the damage from a basic card, or a good option if you only have a red card in hand and you need to do additional green damage. Because Jacked In can provide a constant source of green damage, it’s very popular with non-Deckers that want to interact with the Matrix. Don’t expect to use Jacked In more than once a turn, however, because after you play it you’ll have to wait until the end of your turn for it to be in the discard.

Next we have Backdoor.

Played normally, it does a hefty 2G damage. But play it on another runner’s turn and you get the assist ability instead. Played that way, you can cancel the ability text on any obstacle and deal G damage. It’s perfect for neutralizing obstacles that can heal or that place restrictions on your team.

Finally we have my favorite Hacking card—Hack the World.

You get to reach into the Black Market and play something for free! On top of that, you get 2GG damage as well. The card gives you the ultimate flexibility since you can usually get exactly the card you need for any given situation.

Well, we’re back. Look’s like no one else has shown up yet, so I think it’s time to dig into some ramen!

-Conan E. Chamberlain

We announced the coming of an Introductory Box Set way back in February, providing some solid details on why we’re doing a box set and an overview of its contents. So I’m not going to spin our wheels going over that again.

Instead, I’m going to start showing the box set off, as this should be heading to print in less than two weeks. Here’s what the full lid wrap looks like as we send the file to the printer (make sure and click on ‘em for a much bigger view!):

“What? It’s just going to print now?! Why so late!” I’m sure those questions are bubbling and they’re very valid. Primarily we ran into two issues:

1. I’ve said this many times before, but it’s worth saying again…we tend to be too ambitious for our own good. Now, at the end of the day, more often than not, that ambition turns out some really cool stuff…but it often can bite is in the short term. And our ambitions for the launch of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition were almost limitless, trying to do all at once what not even FASA ever did for Shadowrun. So while it took us longer than we expected, I believe the final result will be well worth the wait and provide a fantastic way for new players to leap into the Sixth World. There’s a ton of stuff piled into the box of goodies, after all…

2. Second was manufacturing. Again, I’ve mentioned before, we’ve tried very hard to move as much printing as possible back to the States. Just 5 years ago everything but softcover black & white work was printed outside of the US. Hardcover, full-color books were printed in Thailand, hardcover, B&W books were printed in Canada, and anything with plastic, wood or punch-out components was printed in China. We’ve managed to move all but the very last bit back to the States.

That works absolutely great for books. However, for items such as the Introductory Box Set that have a variety of different types of items, you can’t just pile it all into one domestic company (at least not yet). Instead, you have to take those elements that are all alike and match it up to a domestic printer that specializes in that work to ensure you’ve got the lowest price for best quality ratio.

For example, for the Shadowrun Introductory Box Set, we’re using 5 different printers: All the booklets are printed at one location, all of the laminated maps/character sheets at a another locale, the spells/gear cards at another printer, the dice still sourced from overseas (simply cannot find what we need domestically), and all of that shipped to the company printing the rigid set-up box for final collation and casing to ship to the warehouse.

Now that’s a lot of extra shipping, and even the costs of printing are still slightly higher…but all of that roughly comes out to printing/shipping in from China. Actually, honestly, it still doesn’t. China is still cheaper. However, the price is close enough that it’s worth dumping an extra month off of the shipping time and not having to deal with foreign manufacturing to suck up the difference (yup, that’s right, our experience is all of that coordination across all of those companies is still less of a migraine than dealing with foreign manufacturers).

What does all of that mean? It means some items we’ll publish still have to be done overseas…but we’ve managed to get this one printing domestically It means the Introductory Box Set is hopefully, finally going to print in less than two weeks now that we’ve got everything lined up. When is the Street Date? Sorry, as always, we never give that out until it’s in our warehouse…we’ve learned that lesson the hard way too many times.

However, in the coming weeks I’ll keep posting blogs surround the guts of the box set and how you can use it to introduce new players to the world we love.

Randall N. Bills

Here at Shadowrun HQ, the leaves are turning and starting to fall, which puts us in mind of falling bodies, which makes us think about assassination, because that’s just how our minds work. So we have a new ebook for you, The Assassin’s Primer (Battleshop, DriveThruRPG), to guide you through the challenges and dangers of wetwork. Here’s the rundown:

The Job of Death

Some people call it wetwork. Others call it murder. A small group calls it justice. It’s assassination and it’s one of the jobs shadowrunners might be hired to do. And given that people are, you know, pretty protective about their lives, anyone who takes such a job is going to have to be at the top of their game to pull the job off and collect a payday. Especially if they plan to make it a regular activity.

Assassin’s Primer is a vital guide for assassins in the Sixth World. With tips on tools to use, techniques to employ, and the different kinds of killers you may meet in the field, this is a critical reference for anyone looking to bring an assassination flavor into their Shadowrun games. And it has a new sniper rifle and a handful of new Qualities for Shadowrun characters to boot!

Assassin’s Primer is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

You might be wondering why there’s not been a Sprawl Gangers update in a while…well, I’ve not had my head in it for the last two months. Convention season always swallows up swaths of time, then there’s the work on the Shadowrun Introductory Box Set and Shadowrun: Crossfire, as well as other work, that simply has been swallowing up most of my time.

Add to that that Playtest Cycle 3 was wrapping up, and well…didn’t have my head in the rules/presentation side very much.

Now, that doesn’t mean that work on the production side has not been progressing. I’ve been in numerous meetings with various people that we hope will help us solve the miniatures production issues and give us high-quality miniatures within a time frame that is appropriate. In fact, I’ve got another such meeting this week.

In the meantime, I’ve finally got enough bandwidth to be allocating some time each day to starting to review all the playtest reports from Cycle 3, compiling them, making notes on which issues are brought up by multiple groups and which, despite vociferous arguments, are just an issue with a single group, which issues I immediately see a solution to and which I’m currently at a loss for how to handle…and so on, and so forth. Pretty standard process, but it can swallow a lot of time, especially as I wear a lot of hats (as much of you are well aware).

In the meantime, thought I’d try something a little different. I really enjoy pulling back the curtain, so to speak, and showing off how the whole process works. And at this stage, the easiest way to do that is to share a playtest report. I’ve scrubbed out the names of the individuals involved, but really beyond that, this is a straight report from players: Sprawl Gangers Playtest Report 3-1.

Now imagine about 15 to 20 of these (some much shorter, some much longer; though in the first playtest cycle we got back almost double that number), and hopefully you’ll start to get a sense of the work involved in digesting it all and bringing it into a sense of order that is helpful when making calls on what needs to change and what doesn’t need to change.

Randall N. Bills

So with the PDF version of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition setting sales records and the print version selling out before its street date, we figured there were a lot of people anxious to play this game, and we should provide adventures to help them roll. We brought out the compilations Sprawl Wilds and Firing Line already, but now we have two all-new adventures written specifically for Fifth Edition.

The first is Splintered State available now for print pre-order and PDF purchase (Battleshop, DriveThru). It’s a wild and rollicking ride designed to introduce players and gamemasters to Fifth Edition. Here’s what lies in wait:

It Can Always Get Worse

Federal Agent Seth Dietrich has a secret. Actually, multiple secrets. One of them made him go underground, hiding from the people desperate to learn just how much he knows. And the other is keeping him from surfacing, because he’s found he can’t even trust himself.

If Dietrich were in his right mind, he’d cover his tracks like a pro, and no one would find him. Especially not shadowrunners getting their feel for life on the streets. But he’s not in his right mind, which means a group of shadowrunners finds themselves in possession of some very valuable information—information the highest powers in Seattle want for themselves. What started as a simple job turns into a scramble for their lives, a scramble that could become profitable if the runners play their cards right.

Splintered State is an introductory adventure for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. Whether you have played previous Shadowrun editions or are new to the setting, this adventure helps players and gamemasters learn the new rules while wrapping themselves in the intrigue, excitement, and danger of running in Seattle.

On top of that, the new season of Shadowrun Missions begins with Chasin’ the Wind (Battleshop, DriveThru), which brings exciting Missions action to the chaotic feral city of Chicago! If you’re brave enough to venture into the wilds of the Containment Zone, here’s what you’ll encounter:

Deadly Cold Wind

It’s been nearly twenty years since disaster struck the city of Chicago, transforming it into an urban hellscape, and some people now believe it’s suffered enough. The Governor of Illinois has initiated and ambitious plan called Project: Takeback to reclaim the feral urban jungle. What’s more, he’s put money into the effort, and that’s the language every corporation on Earth understands. Suddenly, the race is on as the megacorps scramble to claim pieces of the Windy City. They’ll be butting up against the dangers of the Containment Zone and each other, so they’re going to need all sorts of deniable assets. The shadows of Chicago are coming back to life.

In Chasin’ The Wind, what starts as a simple run into the Containment Zone gets more complicated by the minute, and before the night is over shadowrunners might encounter rogue assassins, a feral runaway, and a mysterious massacre in the heart of one of the worst urban areas in the world. But if they survive, there’s more than just pay waiting for them at the end. There’s pizza—Chicago-style.

Chasin’ The Wind is the first adventure for Season 5 of Shadowrun Missions, Catalyst Game Labs’ living campaign for Shadowrun. It is designed for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

So that’s what’s out there waiting for you! Grab some adventures, grab your friends, and hit the shadows!

We are thrilled to announce that the first printing of 15,000 copies of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition has sold out from Catalyst Game Labs before the standard edition has hit its Street Date this month. Additionally, well over a month since the book became the best-selling PDF of all time in the more than ten years of DriveThruRPG operations, it is still in the number one slot!

“Every time I think the Shadowrun community can’t surprise me with their brilliance, they surprise me again,” said Randall N. Bills, Catalyst’s Managing Developer. “We were confident we’d sell out by end of the year, but in mere weeks?! Once again, Shadowrun players stepped up in a fantastic way, showing how much life beats within the Sixth World … and how much life yet beats in the tabletop roleplaying community as a whole!”

Catalyst Game Labs is immediately starting a second print run to minimize any chance of a retailer or player trying to purchase a copy and being told it’s “out of stock”. Additionally, we have multiple items all heading to print simultaneously with this second print run so that they can hit store shelves roughly at the same time as the second printing. These include Splintered State, the first full SR5 adventure; Equipment and Spell decks of cards that make for easier game play; and the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition GM Screen.

It’s important to note that while Catalyst Game Labs is sold out, the Street Date for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is September 25th. This means that orders made through retail stores should be available this week. Additionally, orders through such venues as Amazon have been shipped to those companies (though when those companies will ship to customers is beyond our purview). Finally, if retailers sell through their copies they can immediately start taking preorders again (if a player is unable to preorder your copy through a local retailer, you can preorder online).

Check out shadowruntabletop.com and www.shadowrun.com in the near future to learn more about these fast-approaching additional releases and their specific street dates!

Catalyst Game Labs

Catalyst Game Labs is dedicated to producing high-quality games and fiction that mesh sophisticated game mechanics with dynamic universes, all presented in a form that allows beginning players and long-time veterans to easily jump into our games, while helping fiction readers enjoy our stories even if they don’t know the games.

Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC, which specializes in electronic publishing of professional fiction. This allows Catalyst to melds printed gaming material and fiction with all the benefits of electronic interfaces and online communities, creating a whole-package experience for any type of player or reader. Find Catalyst Game Labs online at www.catalystgamelabs.com.