Six hundred years after the Cataclysm, the old regimes have fallen by the wayside, replaced by Megacorps that dictate their own policies. At the bottom of it all are the SINless, the outcasts and unwanted.
Studs' Liquor Barn is a common joint for the dregs of society to wet their whistles, but the griffon never expected her to return.
Prereaders: PhycoKrusk, Forgoten Null
A/N: A Shadowrun-ified MLP story. If you are unfamiliar with the Shadowrun games (PC, Snes or tabletop) then this story is probably not for you.
Chapters (1)
Kinda reminds me of Netrunner for some reason.
Please more !
Geez Sparks. Pick your battles much? I assume those Suits came back from doing not nice things, maybe, but you could have at least done the stuff outside the bar. Sheesh.
Great start. I could only hope this serves as a prologue to a much bigger series down the road that could continue off this while revealing bits of the past from time to time.
This one plays out more like the Genesis version imo. It's just so much grittier than the SNES version. Not that I'm that in-depth with either as I was pretty casual with them back in the day.
5445799
Was there much of a difference between the Genesis and the SNES versions? I always assumed they were identical, though given Nintendo's "family attitude" I can understand why they would be different.
One of my proof readers actually mentioned that it was far closer to the second edition of Shadowrun than the later iterations, which makes sense given that was my primary version I was exposed to.
I don't care if I'm unfamiliar with the games, this is AWESOME!
5446059 wow... yes. Yes they are TOTALLY different games. While the SNES had a more story focused diving into the matrix experience which was cool and all, the GENESIS version was quite literally a different beast of a game. It's like the Skyrim of the two. SEGA was always about authenticity. The games really stuck to the Shadowrun verse a lot. The whole Shadowrun system between the two is even completely different. Like that fox hybrid chick at the bar in the SNES version you can recruit? Well, they don't stay with you forever and they tend to be limited/weak. In the Gen version you can literally take the first person you recruit and take them through the end of the game so long as they don't actually die.
You really have to play both versions to really get the full scale of how awesome that game was. I've yet to have the time these days to play games, but I was very stoked to see them release a new game on PC. No spoilers though I'd like to go in fresh on that one when I do get the chance!
But yeah, the genesis and snes versions are like night and day. Seriously. Your story very much brought out the nostalgia of the Gen version with your Sparks. The settings are very different too. Gen actually feels like what you tried to show here. It's not a safe or kind world. SNES was awesome, it just wasn't THIS epic in terms of grit. And Sparks has loads of grits! XD
Seriously hope you expand on this some day. It was great!
5445620
Well, Netrunner more or less provided the bases for most Cyberpunk universes, Shadowrun included.
It bothers me, like, a lot, that the most exposure people here seem to have with Shadowrun is either the SNES or Genesis games, rather than the pen & paper game.
Particularly since the SNES game is Shadowrun in name only, and the Genesis game is so narrowly focused, and has such experienced NPCs you can recruit that there is literally no reason to play anything other than a Predator-wielding street samurai.
And so the run begins ...
5447013
Uhhh, netrunner was released in 1996, whilst the first edition of Shadowrun was 1989 (I've got the 1992 second edition manual myself!) But, before either of those were ever even dreamed of, there was Neuromancer (1984) and the lesser known Burning Chrome (1982).
There are other movies and books in the cyberpunk genre, but this particular style was mostly influenced by the Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson. Netrunner came about fairly late in the game.
5446598
Well, once I get through Shadowrun Returns (I got about half way through that and got mega bored) and Dragonfall (a lot more exciting than Returns) I'll have to get the old genesis emulator out and give it a try.
I want to get back into the game, but from the sounds of it with Fourth and Fifth Ed, they've moved away from the gritty cyberpunk. 5447048 was actually the one who told me that, so I am a bit iffy about getting back into it. That, and I'd have to repurchase all my books for Fantasy Grounds II.
5447552
That would be an accidental misrepresentation on my part. They've moved away from gritty cyberpunk, yes, but that doesn't mean that postcyberpunk is all shiny and bright.
Through 3rd edition, the alienating factor was definitely technology. All that changed when the AI Deus broke out of the Renraku Archeology and into the wild, where it caused all sorts of havoc before finally being decompiled (as far as we know, at any rate) after an epic battle with dozens of deckers around the world, but only after it had already put its doomsday failsafe into effect, permanently crashing the entire worldwide Matrix in 2063.
This allowed it, by 2070, to be replaced by the Matrix 2.0, which was designed to fully leverage wireless technology and allowed it to become part of the social zeitgeist; having lived without the 'trip, people finally came to accept it more or less fully, rather than seeing it as an oppositional force. From 4th edition on, technology no longer alienates and oppresses metahumanity.
Metahumanity now alienates and oppresses itself, since the new Matrix allowed to megacorps to establish even stronger control. And with the spread of wireless integration with cybernetics and other devices (almost everything is connected now), new avenues of attack open up; why should a decker shoot you with a gun when it might be easier and safer to enter your PAN through the wireless node in your gun and hit you with Blackhammer, against which your fancy body armor is no help? Conversely, your commlink is connected to the campus' database, so you know with just a flicker of thought that the wall that decker is hiding behind isn't going to protect him in the slightest once you pop the mag out of your Predator (again, needing only a flicker of thought) and slap in some APDS, so why not just load up on IC and connect everything you own with impunity? The question is not whether technology will kill you, but whether it will enable someone else to kill you faster than it enables you to kill them.
The world slides closer to complete ruin every day, and you're either in front of the wave and about to be crushed, or your riding it and seeing just how far you can run in the shadows before you run out of luck.
Welcome to the Sixth World, chummer.
5447535
My apologies then, I'm still very new to the genre.
I've read a bit about it before, but last week after I got Shadowrun Returns is when I really got into it.
5447728
I would highly suggest two novels then: Neuromancer by William Gibson, and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Both can be found with an audiobook version somewhere on the net, if you aren't keen on buying them, but both are pretty damn good reads. I'd suggest Neuromancer first, as it is older and the writing doesn't hold up to Neal Stephenson's quite as well, then move onto Snow Crash.
Definitely both worth it, if you are interested in the cyberpunk genre.
5447803
I'll keep them in mind (and have added them to my Amazon wishlist), personally though I wanna try and hunt down some of the old Shadowrun novels.
I've read some synopsis' on the wiki and I'm very interested.
I would enjoy seeing more of this world. Mostly fur curiosity as to what caused such a rift
Ugh, god you make me want to join on Denver, but I can't keep active on MU*'s, much less forums nowadays.
Please tell me you have more SR planned, or will even cross over into Netrunner: Android.