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I purchased and played this edition back in nineteen ninety-one. And reading this electronic copy brings back many memories of reading and playing this game throughout the nineties. This is a review for an edition of a game I will likely never play again. But let’s first talk a bit about Shadowrun 1st Edition.
Shadowrun 1st Edition introduces the reader to the world of Shadowrun, the future of our world a mere 26 years away at the time of writing this review but one that won’t happen since a few events have not occurred in our sacred timeline. Given this is the first book of the game line we get a few broad brushstrokes of this future that fired up the imagination and encouraged me to get creating characters and playing as soon as I could. An easy task at the time as I already agreed to play, had purchased the game book in preparation and had a lot of free time at hand as I was a University Student at the time.
Although a setting merging the two genres of [D&D] fantasy with cyberpunk does not seem terribly unique now, back in the early nineties Shadowrun was my first introduction to the concept and I was happy to have it, play it, and for the next few years was buying many Shadowrun supplements and novels as they hit the shelves.
The book itself is a faithful reproduction to the original printing, with mainly black and white pages and a few colour pages of the character archetypes and critters (in the physical copy I had at the time these were shiny shiny pages). The artwork does show its age but at the time helped flavour the setting for the reader and distinguish itself from the popular fantasy roleplaying game(s) of the time.
Reading the 1st Edition system again after familiarity with later editions reminds me again of how clunky some of the rules were and why it wasn’t a difficult decision to switch to 2nd Edition in 1992. The damage rules having more complexity than needed is the main thing I recall, and the limitations on character growth were a bit of a downer - I originally thought you couldn’t increase attributes but reading now I see I had poor reading skills as the costs were not included in the table of karma cost for skills but were detailed in the text above and were limited to one above the initial rating from character creation. Later editions removed this limit but at the time creating a character with attributes at a low priority did not seem to be the best use of such a limited resource but were left with little choice when wanting to create a metatype magician. I did enjoy the priority system (and was disappointed with 4th Edition removing it) as it sped up creation of a character - except if Tech was highest then many hours would be spent buying equipment - cyber or otherwise.
The magic system was unique to me for the time given the genre and my admittedly limited exposure to other fantasy roleplaying game systems of the time. Shadowrun’s magic was more complicated than merely casting the spell, rolling damage dice and marking down that you couldn’t cast that spell again before resting. A magician could keep casting as long as they were able to resist the drain of the spells (as well as avoiding getting get shot by excitable street samurai screaming “Geek the mage first!”).
Adepts (Physical, Magical, Shamanic) and Initiation were not introduced until the Grimoire supplement with 2nd Edition moving rules for Adepts into the core rules and later editions also included Initiation in the core. So in comparison to 2nd edition onwards, 1st Edition magic was more limited when using just the core rulebook - the Grimoire was one of my first purchases soon after buying a copy 1st Edition back in nineteen ninety-one.
Karma! Another poorly thought out concept - the game’s version of experience points but useable both during play (Instant Karma) to change the odds (re-rolls, buying off the Rule of One, buying success, etc…), or between adventures to improve character scores (Good Karma). My fellow players and I assiduously avoided using Karma as Instant Karma unless it was a choice between a few points of Karma or loss of a favourite character.
Despite these flaws I was playing weekly with no sign of slowing down.
When second edition was released I was quick to switch over as the improvements to the system made the game easier to play and run (and read) and the majority of the game sessions I played of Shadowrun were of 2nd edition. This re-release of 1st Edition is a celebration of 35 years Shadowrun and other than a few intrepid souls willing to play this edition I think the majority of people will get this as an item of nostalgia or, with regards to the physical version Catalyst has also published, as a collectible or perhaps to replace a well-worn copy on the shelf.
I myself gave in to the siren call and also ordered a physical copy, and highly anticipate its eventual arrival so I can breathe in the nostalgia because a digital version doesn’t have the same new book smell.
Addendum: the physical copy smells as good as I recall and came with a hard cover, whereas the copy I had way back then had a soft cover.
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