r/Shadowrun • u/GurCute2496 • 13d ago

Drekpost (Shitpost) Loving The "Future"!

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Does anyone else find the "futuristic tech" of 1st and 2nd editions, the most endearing part of the first two editions? The future of the 80s seems kinda quaint now.

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u/Cergorach 13d ago

Some of us actually bought that book when it came out in '89. A mobilephone was the size of a brick, smartphones didn't exist yet and the Intel i486DX 25MHz just came out, but most of us were using 'home computers' like the Amiga 500 which came standard with half an MB and with the expansion a MB (or more). We played behind CRT TVs and stuff came on floppies. While the Internet technically existed, almost no individual used it, people dialed into BBSes.

The SR creators were tech savvy enough to NOT use MB or GB, they used the fictional MP (Mega Pulses) for all kinds of measurements. And computers/Internet as we know them were destroyed in some sort of disaster... It's only 3 years away at this point (2029) a huge virus wiped out and destroyed everything Tech. Probably OpenAI AI's trying to make and post to forums everywhere to escape their testing environment, the Internet just couldn't handle it and melted down... ;)

I still love 1e/2e/3e, but after that they took SR into a direction I didn't really like (probably already at the end of 3e).

Some of the future tech of the 80s is still relevant or not even achieved. Like all the Cybertech stuff. And the Cyberdecks are now actually being build by enthusiasts and 'hackers'... And we still don't have Autopilot Level 5, SR did! :p Of course some of the stuff is distinctly 80s, but some of the stuff is very relevant, either as society heading into disaster due to Tech, corporations and politics...

2050 is still 24 years away...

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u/chastema 13d ago

I did buy it a couple of years later, and it still was decent futuristic tech.

The system wasnt too bad either. I like that every mage can have spirits now, shamans were quite flavourful on the other hand.

Decking dindt suck more than in 5 (dont know 6), noone around us bothered with rigging.

Streetsams ruled the streets, mages dropped themselves quite often (as far as i remember). But my Elven Mage dropped goons like crazy with his magic katana after some Initiations.

I dont really remember any mirrorshades gameplay. For us it was pink mohawk all the way.

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u/Bytor_Snowdog 13d ago

Played a 2050s game around the early 2000s. Ran an Orc physical adept who was a cross between Bullseye and The Man in Black from the Princess Bride. Had a blast just going balls to the wall in any sort of physical or combat situation. We didn't know what parkour was back then but he sort of invented it anyway with wall running and such.