Shadowrun is a cyberpunk-with-magic role-playing game, set in the not too distant future, following a great cataclysm that has brought use of magic back to the world, just as it begins to embrace the marvels (and dangers) of technologies such as cyberspace, genetic engineering, and everpresent computer networks.

You are not limited to playing humans, as orcs, trolls, elves and dwarfs (and certain diverging subspecies', like gnomes, giants, minotaurs, and a lot more,) commonly called "metahumans", have evolved by being given birth by or changed from humans. (Called Unexplained Genetic Expression.)

The emergence of magic, the outbreak of the VITAS plagues (Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome,) the Computer Crash of '29 (caused by a complex and nearly unstoppable virus called "The Crash Entity",) the Euro-Wars, in which the western-european countries once fought off an invasion from neo-communist Russia and then a pan-islamic invasion like that 800 years ago, and the feavers for independance of American Indian tribes, chinese provinces, etc. left the world gouvernments tumbling and falling. Out came the mega-corporations as the new superpowers. Immune to domestic law, responsible only to themselves, regulated only by the Corporate Court, an assembly of the 7 (10 by 2059) largest corporation in the world:

- Ares Macrotech, Detroit-based conglomerate of automobile, steel, arms and space industry companies, led by Damien Knight.

- Aztechnology, a corporation from Atzlan (former Mexico, recreated in Aztec image) heavily involved in comsumer goods, chemistry and magic.

- Fuchi Industrial Electronics, a Computer giant build by the Nakatomis and Yamanas from Japan and Richard Villiers from Boston. Desintegrated during the Corp War of '59 - '60, in which Novatech sprang up as its north american successor, led by Villiers.

- Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, startet as money laudering operation for the Yakuza but soon surpassed their investors income by the nth-fold.

- Renraku Computer Systems, mainly computer and arms-producing giant from Croatia and Japan.

- Saeder-Krupp Schwerindustriegesellschaft, the word's largest corp, a german conglomerate based on the production of steel, heavy-industrial goods, cars (BMW), arms and communication in Europe. Its majority chairholder and chairman is Lofwyr, a Great Dragon, who bought the company stocks from hoarded ressources.

- Shiawase Corporation, an old family business, which survived the turmoils of the early 21. century unscathed, quickly able to expand in energy production, biotech and environmental procedures. As the oldest mega-corp who first fought for mega-corporate souvereignty (falsely called extraterritoriality, which means exemption of law on foreign soil. Yet corporate territory is not foreign soil but corporate soil, just like its employees are corporate citizens, though dual citizenship (corp/nation, never corp/corp!) is common) it now is more conservative with its decisions.

- Yamatetsu Corp, a shipping and infrastructure giant, of japano-philipine origin.

- Later Wuxing Inc., a Hong Kong - based company, and Cross Applied Technologies, a Free Quebec - based company joined the exclusive club of AAA-corps (those with a seat at the Corp Court.)

They all (and a lot more minor companies) fight each other not only in boardroom or with tricky deals but with physical destruction, clandestine operations, hostile extraction of vital personnel, and other means of sabotage. Because no corporation wants to be hold liable for damage caused, it has to be done by deniable assets. That's where the characters come in: They are shadowrunners, invisible to the system where every citizen is tagged with an ID, the System Identification Number (SIN). They are cast-outs, from the streets or disillusioned ex-corp/gouvernment/military personnel who threw off the shackles of corp society to achieve freedom. They chose or were forced to work in the shadows cast by the gigantic corporate buildings to support their living.

Despite the Crash, in which a lot of data was lost, technology has advanced in a tremendous rate. Cyberware, technical implants, or Bioware, gengineered implants, which enhance a person's abilities, emerged. Direct neural interface technology enabled (meta)humans to directly access computers and the matrix, the global computer network restructured after the Crash, or vehicles.

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The game is skill-based rather than class-based, but "Archetypes" are presented in the main book to give players and gamemasters an idea of what is possible with the system.

The combat system as well as the general skill system uses dice-scaling (the more powerful the attack, the more dice you roll.) Shadowrun uses 6 sided dice exclusively.

Shadowrun was retroactively linked to Earthdawn, and is set in the "Sixth World", where Earthdawn is the "Fourth World" and our modern day earth is at the tail-end of the "Fifth World". Such links are not necessary for play, but there is some crossover potential.

Very closely based upon the writings of William Gibson, although less closely than the Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game, with a much more North American focus on the world than most cyberpunk genre fiction.

Shadowrun was developed and published by FASA until early 2001 when FASA closed its doors, and the property was sold to WizKids LLC, who license the RPG rights out to the current publisher, Fantasy Productions LLC.

Some people complain that Shadowrun separates different types of characters too far. Fighters are useless in computing. Deckers (computer experts) are useless in magical encounters. Magicians can't drive well. Each specialty is so far removed from the others that it can be difficult to write an adventure which involves all the players at the same time.

The archetypes are not character-classes, however. So the player is allowed to cross boundaries. The afore-mentioned restrictions are not imposed by the system itself, but by the player seeking a specialized character. Because character-building ressources (Building Point or Priorities, depending on the playing group's preferred method of creation) are limited, the player has to weigh whether he wants his character to specialize in one game aspect (magic, matrix, combat, etc) while neglecting other aspects. Or he chooses to broaden his character's skill base while binding ressources necessary to become expert in one field.

Overall, Shadowrun is one of the most flexible systems concerning character types and creation. It equals GURPS in this aspect.

On balance, the "contacts" system makes it quite easy for players to acquire the use of skills that their characters don't have (usually for a price), and, unlike most other roleplaying games, the use of one skill does not automatically preclude any other.

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