Author Archives: jhardy

Two new PDF Shadowrun books have come up, and they’re ready for runners to unleash all manner of chaos on them! First up we have Lethal Forces (Catalyst shop, DriveThru), an adventure that will test even experienced runners. Here are the details:

The Price of Power

Value is not a secret. When something is worth a lot of money, or conveys a lot of power, or both, people of the Sixth World know. They make it their business to know. That means that when you’re tracking down something with a lot of value, be cautious. You won’t be the only one after it.

In Lethal Forces, Mr. Johnson comes along spinning tales about secret research in a highly secure facility, which is definitely the sort of thing that has a lot of value. Mr. Johnson may not tell the runners who else might come calling, but what self-respecting team of runners relies on Mr. Johnson to give them the information they need? They’ll have to stay alert, keep their wits about them, and be ready for any and all opposition—including ones with scales.

Lethal Forces is an adventure for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, especially for experienced runner teams ready for a challenge. The plot elements can also be used with Shadowrun: Anarchy.

Then we have a new Mission for you—Mission 07-06, entitled Windy City Chaos (Catalyst shop, DriveThru). And I’ll tell you this—this Mission more than lives up to its name. Here’s something to whet your appetite:

The Lost Colony

Maybe you might misplace a commlink. Or lose a box holding a few stray bullets. But who loses an entire community? Well, it’s Chicago’s Containment Zone, where a large group of people disappearing is not the strangest thing to happen this month. Or this week. Or today. But even if it’s not the strangest thing, it’s the one someone is willing to pay runners to investigate. So it’s important.

The thing is, a whole group of people doesn’t just disappear easily. Or nicely. Some of the powers that like to stay hidden in the Containment Zone are going to make themselves visible, and shadowrunners need to survive their appearance. And see if they can save some lives while they’re at it.

SRM 07-06: Windy City Chaos is an adventure for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. Whether you have played a Mission before or are diving in right here, it presents a strong challenge for runners to see if they can survive some of the city’s extremes. Plot elements from this Mission can also be used with Shadowrun: Anarchy.

Shadowrun Missions, Season 7, Adventure 6

When you work for a game company, the phrase “Gen Con will be here before you know it” fills you with simultaneous excitement and dread. Because while Gen Con is an awesome experience of games and people and non-stop activity, it’s also a lot of work to prepare for it. Some of that preparation involves getting books ready to sell, and the good news for all of you out there is that we need them to be done before the con if we want to sell them there. Which means they’re done now and at the printing press. If they’re done, we see no reason why you shouldn’t have PDFs of them if you want, so get a jump on the big con by checking out the electronic versions of two new books!

First up is The Complete Trog (Catalyst shop, DriveThru), your guide to orks and trolls in the Sixth World, with lots of flavor about the ork and troll experience, as well as game mechanics and rules to enhance playing these characters. It works with both Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and Shadowrun: Anarchy! Here’s the full summary:

Big, Bad, and Awesome

They can call you a trog. Sure they can. Let ’em think it’s smear. Let them show you what they don’t know. Let them ignore history, the great accomplishments orks and trolls have made in every field in the Sixth World, the homes and enclaves they’ve built out of nothing. There’s enough talent in the trog population to punch, hack, rig, charm, or enchant that smug smile right off their face. You know what you are. They’ll learn—fast, if they know what’s good for them.

The Complete Trog is the definitive guide for ork and troll characters in Shadowrun. With information on what it’s like to be an ork or troll in dozens of spots across the globe, details on working in corps as a trog (including in ork- and troll-dominated corps) and the heroes and enemies of trog culture, the book helps players add flavor and depth to their characters and the world around them. On top of that, it has gear, qualities, and life modules compatible with both Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and Shadowrun: Anarchy. Plunge into the rich culture of trogs and watch them turn that slur on its head.

Next up is Ripping Reality, and adventure that completes a Denver trilogy following Serrated Edge and False Flag. Whether you’ve played those other adventures or not, Ripping Reality (Catalyst shop, DriveThru) will take you on a wild ride as a life-or-death conflict involving some of the Sixth World’s major powers drags shadowrunners into its wake–and gives them the chance to affect the outcome. Here’s some more info:

Chaos Rising

The Denver sprawl has always been a battleground, but lately it seems to be at war with reality. People are disappearing from the streets, never to be seen again. Strange creatures are materializing out of nowhere, and sometimes they bring entire landscapes with them. Something has gone desperately wrong, and the stakes are so high that two enemies who had been locked in combat are setting aside their fight to find out what is happening and why.

If investigations into bizarre occurrences need to happen, then there are shadowruns to be done. The right team will have the chance to bring in an impressive payday, but they’ll have to navigate their way past old grudges, tainted magic, and creatures of pure destructive power waiting to be turned loose on the sprawl.

Building on plot strands from the previous Denver adventures, Serrated Edge and False Flag, Ripping Reality sends players on a wild ride through a sprawl that seems to be tearing itself apart, giving them a chance to try to keep it together.

Ripping Reality is for use with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition.

Jump into these books and enjoy the fun!

Lots of new Shadowrun thrills and possibilities have erupted into the world today! Like an overcast fireball lighting up the hallways of some corp lab, a new advanced magic book called Forbidden Arcana is now available for PDF purchase at the Catalyst shop and DriveThruRPG.

Now, before we discuss the content of the book, eagle-eyed viewers of the above paragraph and the Catalyst shop may notice that there is, at the moment, no link for a print pre-order. Don’t worry–that doesn’t mean we have forsaken print books! With the new Catalyst web shop and the ongoing work to make our sales and distribution processes function as we’d like them to, at present pre-order will not occur until the book is in the warehouse, ready to be sent out. But we can assure you that Forbidden Arcana is at the printer now and will make its way to game stores and online ordering before long.

That said, let’s take a look at what’s in the book:

Hey, we’ve got a new Mission for all of you today, and we’re releasing it for free! And we’re here to tell you that it’s completely, totally normal in all possible ways. Yep. Nothing weird going on here. No, sir. The content? The characters? All totally normal. Certainly not the products of someone who clearly spent a lot of sick days watching too much television when they were young. Nope. Definitely not. It’s all just as it should be.

And it looks normal, too! Sure, it may not have been laid out by, you know, a professional layout person or anything, but there are words inside a PDF, so hey, it’s pretty much the same, right?

But the important thing is it’s free. Completely free. So even if it were a little weird or something–and it’s not! Definitely not!–it would be worth checking out for the price, right?

You can download the totally normal Mission right here: SMH 2017 Scene It All Before