Catalyst Game Labs Celebrates 20 Years of Shadowrun!
FASA Corporation launched what would become one of the best selling RPGs of all time in 1989. While building off of the blocks laid by the emerging dystopian future-cyperpunk genre, Shadowrun took a very different route by slamming that concept head-on into traditional fantasy elements of dragons, magic and fairy folk.
Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Anniversary Core Rulebook
To celebrate 20 years of this seminal RPG, Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to announce the Shadowrun, Fourth Edition 20th Anniversary Core Rulebook, which includes a host of upgrades for any Shadowrun player.
- A cover-to-cover full-color treatment allows for a stunning presentation of all the visuals Shadowrun has to offer.
- While fully compatible with all Fourth Edition-published books, much of the information has been re-presented for better usability.
- To make this the ultimate core rulebook resource for the entire Shadowrun game line, a 22 page Master Index has been generated and included, covering the 20th Anniversary Edition, as well as the following core rules expansions: Arsenal, Augmentation, Runner’s Companion, Street Magic, and Unwired.
Never has a core rulebook been so fully meshed with its full line of expansion rulebooks; check out the PDF previews of all this great book has to offer!
Shadowrun, Fourth Edition Anniversary Core Rulebook Previews
Runner’s Toolkit
To continue the Shadowrun celebration, several anniversary projects are in the works. The next is the Runner’s Toolkit, a box set of tools that any runner or GM will find useful for any type of game play. The Toolkit contains the following:
- A deluxe, 4-panel hard-cardboard GM screen featuring a stunning full-panoramic illustration of Seattle.
- A 32-page booklet of additional sample contacts and adventure seeds.
- On The Run, a 56-page “first run”.
- Anatomy of a Shadowrun, a fictional account of a shadowrun, annotated with how game rules apply to the fictional run; a perfect “first-time-player” companion.
- Big Book of Tables, a 64-page booklet drawn from Shadowrun Fourth Edition as well as all five core rules expansions for an easy-to-use guide when trying to equip your characters with the latest and greatest during character creation.
- The Pre-generated Auxiliary Character and Kit System (PACKS) allows players and gamemaster’s alike to quickly assemble player and non-player characters using plug-and-play character profiles and equipment kits.
- 6 heavy cardstock, double-sided reference sheets provide quick and easy reference for a variety of tasks, from how to resolve combat, to hacking, to summoning and more.
And that’s just the beginning. Other 20th Anniversary projects, along with a full line of supporting Shadowrun books, will release throughout the year. Look here for more announcements in the future!
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March 11th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
[...] Catalyst Game Labs has just announced that Shadowrun turned 20 years old. Some of you will recognize Shadowrun as an average online multiplayer first person shooter that I believe was the first game to allow PC and console owners to duke it out. The majority of the staff here know it as one of the big players in the tabletop RPG arena that is an amazing blend of cyberpunk and fantasy in a future dystopian setting. Click the link above to see the goodies that Catalyst has planned to celebrate that includes a very special edition of the core rulebook. Josh will be all over this. [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 5:41 am
That new core book certainly sounds great- SR art definitely deserves the full colour treatment in more books.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:48 am
More accessible writing than the confusing original corebook had sounds plenty good to me. The full-color art sounds just as good. I’ll be buying this book once it’s out.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:47 am
[...] celebrate the 20th anniversary of Shadowrun, Catalyst Games has announced the release of the 4th Edition 20th Anniversary Core Rulebook (doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue…). This beastly full color tribute includes all of [...]
April 6th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
The 20th anniverary edition of Shadowrun looks amazing! Full colour!
Don’t dish the Xbox game too much, it brought me to Shadowrun and I know I’ll have an easier time converting my friends now that they have at least an inkling of some of the themes. Corps, tech vs magic, essence loss…
Now that the book is in colour (well, in August), I’m going to gift wrap a second copy.
PS: Loved Arsenal. Despite reviews it is not Core, I disagree. You’d be hard pressed coming up with some ideas of the cool ideas presented in vehicle mods. I love flipping through this book, each time picking up stuff I’ve previously missed.