The End of an Era

On Thursday, January 25th, the Shadowrun gaming community found out that it was to be losing an old friend.

FASA Corporation, after 20 years in business and 12 years of creating, nurturing, and expanding the game we all love, is closing its doors.

The announcement came suddenly--so suddenly, in fact, that as I understand it, even many FASA employees didn't know about it until the end. This isn't surprising, in retrospect--I've had enough experience with corporate America to know that's how they do things: business as usual for the worker-bees until the axe comes down from nowhere. But unlike a lot of companies, FASA is at least trying to make a graceful exit. They're not shutting down immediately or declaring bankruptcy or any of those other nasty things, but simply announcing an orderly shutdown over the course of the next couple of months so they can clear their inventory, pay off their writers, freelancers (of which I am proud to say I was one, even if it was only for one proofreading job), and creditors.

If it had to be done, I admire them for the way in which they're doing it. It could have been a lot worse.

I'm not going to talk about Wizkids or what's in store for Shadowrun in this editorial for two reasons: one, I have no idea what's in store, and two, that's not my purpose. For factual information check out the Dumpshock forums where I am sure data will be posted as soon as it's known.

No, what I wanted to talk about here is Shadowrun. To me, and I'm sure to many others out there, it is an old friend. From the first time I picked up Shadowrun I at PolyCon in San Luis Obispo to my latest game just last week, I have loved this game. Just when I was starting to get jaded and think that maybe I'd just outgrown RPGs due to the preponderance of fantasy and science fiction games at the time, along comes a new game with all the things I'd been looking for: it's set fairly soon in the future so I didn't have to learn a whole new mindset; it's got tech for the tech-heads but not so much that it would turn into the dreaded "space game," it's got fantasy races but with a good solid explanation for why they're there, it's got intrigue and world-reaching plots but also the room for the small character driven "people stories" that I love so much--in short, for me at least, it was just about the perfect game.

Of course Shadowrun wasn't perfect then and it still isn't. I disagree with some of the directions the game had been taking in the last few years--as one of the supporters of the Immortal Elves/ Horrors/Dragons/World-Reaching Plots camp, I was sometimes dismayed at how much attention was being lavished on things like the mob and the corporations and AIs and technology, but I knew that, as it always happened, if I waited long enough the pendulum would start swinging back my way again--as it was poised to do with things like Year of the Comet and Boo Scary and Target: Awakened Lands. We were finally coming out of the forest of rulebooks and into the light of "world" books and new plot developments.

And then this happened.

I sincerely hope that Wizkids, run by Jordan Weisman who was one of the original creators of Shadowrun, will take the game and continue to treat it as the treasure it is, continuing with the plans of the past "administration" but also bringing new innovations and fresh life into the game. I think there is room for coexistence between the "rules and tech" group and the "magic and big plots" group, and I look to Wizkids to listen to the players, use their input, and take Shadowrun to the next level.

As for FASA, as I mentioned above this is a tremendous shock for me. Attending Gen Con for the last two years, I got to know quite a few of the FASA staffers and writers, past and present: Mike, Sharon, Fred Hooper, Jim Nelson, Michelle, Mike Stackpole, Tom Dowd, Steve Kenson, others...I saw the dedication they had for this game. I wish all of them nothing but the best in their future endeavors, and I hope that they all end up doing exactly what they want to be doing--whether that's continuing to work on Shadowrun or moving on to new challenges. It was a hell of a ride, FASAfolks, and I thank you for putting your lives into such a great game. It's not only helped me make many new friends, but it's also done wonders for helping me improve as a writer and a web designer, and it's given rise to some characters who are as much a part of my life as many real-life people.

The end of an era, perhaps, but I hope with all my heart that this is the beginning of a new era. May Shadowrun enjoy a long and profitable continued existence.

Hey, I'm dying to find out what the plans are when it's really 2011 and people don't start sprouting pointy ears.

Then again, who knows? Me, I plan to be a mage.

--Rat, 1/28/01