2011 was an awesome year for gaming. Old classics like Call of Cthulhu, Vampire the Masquerade and Rifts: Vampire Kingdoms made a comeback. We had new products like Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Hell, I even enjoyed some of the Dungeons & Dragons releases this year and I’m not a fan of Fourth Edition at all. With 2011 coming to an end though, there was one franchise that stood head and shoulders above everything else. It released a slew of products in 2011 and all of them ranged from “not very newcomer friendly, but still well done” to “Holy crap, I can’t believe I’m getting this level of quality for this little Nuyen!” That game…was Shadowrun.
I don’t even know where to begin. You had an amazing string of low cost but high quality adventures with Shadowrun Missions This year’s season, in the old classic standby of Seattle were top notch adventures that you and your friends could play through in a single evening – complete with top notch production values and full cover art. Add in the $3.95 price tag and no other series of adventures could touch what Catalyst Games Labs were putting out. High quality + low cost? Seriously, nothing came close. Then you have full length adventures like 99 Bottles, Anarchy Subsidzed, New Dawn and more that were a little pricier, but a lot longer and still holding to the same quality. Awesome. You had sourcebooks that catered to long time fans like Conspiracy Theories and things that were campaign changers like Artifacts Unbound. Everything with the Shadowrun label that hit this year wowed me. I haven’t been this much of a Shadowrun fan boy since FASA was running wild with Second Edition and I was regularly playing the old Sega Genesis video game based off the tabletop product.
When I can honestly sit here and say that I enjoyed literally EVERYTHING from the Shadowrun franchise this year, it’s a hallmark of quality. Yes the 90s had a comeback this year with classic titles getting pushed strongly, but while I had fun reading the anniversary editions of Vampire and Call of Cthulhu, it didn’t make me want to go out and PLAY THEM. Everything Shadowrun put out however, was something I couldn’t wait to experience with other gamers. If you’ve never played Shadowrun, this is the best time to start. If you haven’t played in some years, it’s time to return to the fold. You won’t be disappointed. It’s the best RPG of 2011 after all.
-Alexander Lucard
Okay as far as I can tell it's an award from this one site, that means nothing, but still I was surprised to see Shadowrun winning any award for anything. It's like seeing 4e praised on the gaming den, it's one of those things that doesn't happen.
Does he really, really like attacking concentration camp survivors for Nazi artifacts? WTF?
OgreBattle wrote:"And thus the denizens learned that hating Shadzar was the only thing they had in common, and with him gone they turned their venom upon each other"
-Sarpadian Empires, vol. I
Interesting note: he doesn't actually name any of the sourcebooks, unless you count Conspiracy Theories, which I do not. The items on the list for the year were War!, Attitude, Spy Games, and Conspiracy Theories. They were all noted for being incredibly poorly researched, having little if any usable mechanics, and in general being basically just the condensed forum ramblings of some poorly informed fans.
There were zero A-level releases for the entire line. None. There were no rule books or even rule supplements. The "game" got basically nothing.
Kot wrote:@CapnTthePirateG: What survivors? Spirits of victims!
Okay, killing holocaust victims--AGAIN.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
