TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS:
THE SHADOWRUN RUNDOWN #1
“Frippity Froopah Frippety Fray!
I got a frickin’
feeling it’s gonna be a fabulous day!”
I love Dungeons and Dragons and I love pen-and-paper roleplaying. I have been playing these games, more or less, once a
week for over three years and I don't ever plan to stop playing. Most of
the times I've played Dungeons and Dragons, I have been the Dungeon
Master. For those who don't know, a Dungeon Master, a term that is expanded to Game Master for various kinds of games, is the guy who is in
charge of telling the story, determining what monsters and characters
the other players come across and, in essence, is the god of the world
the players explore. As an author, it gives me a chance to flex my
creative muscles.
Yet,
while Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games can
breed a lot of original ideas, it doesn't hurt to fall back on familiar
ideas, tropes and characters inspired by works of sci-fi fantasy. I find
myself borrowing/parodying from all masters of the imagination; from L.
Frank Baum to Frank Oz. Today's subject is a twisted parody of one of one man and the empire he built that defined family friendly entertainment for a generation, Walt Disney.
What is it about Walt Disney that draws inspiration and attention? I suppose it is for a number of reasons: arguably Walt Disney was a genius who managed to tap into the fairy tale world of the past and create timeless films that exude nostalgia. Or maybe its his impressive ability to create/manage a lucrative media empire that grew to be one of the largest controllers of entertainment but control a number of other businesses. Yet, I think what draws me and many others to satire his squeaky clean image is the cult of personality that surrounds him. Walt Disney created an image for himself and his company. The ideals he pursued are quite admirable, but his methods of maintaining this image seem like small-scale fascism with a special security force, strict rules and regulations (for example, if you have tattoos on your arms you have to cover your arms with long sleeves), and a number of secrets and technologies cooked up by a cadre of creative engineers or "Imagineers" that build mechanical men.
There is something about poking fun at the idealistic post World War II America that crumbled under the backlashes of anti-Vietnam sentiment, Water Gate, and the civil rights movement. It is my opinion that the main villain of Bioshock borrows some characteristics from Walt Disney's charismatic personage. And so when it came time to create a unique setting for my Shadowrun game, I decided to create a cyber-punk version of Disney world ruled by a tyrannical animatronic cyborg that is the version of Walt Disney that gives hapless hipsters and sarcastic sotts an intellectual hard-on.
Before we get to the introduction to my first Shadowrun campaign, I should probably explain what the game is about. Shadowrun is is a role-playing game, similar to Dungeons and Dragons but running on a d6 system, set in a near-future fictional universe in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy fiction, horror, and detective fiction. It is a mix of inspirations ranging from Blade Runner to Ghost in the Shell to the Matrix into an rpg that bubbles with personality and complexity. In fact, the game was and is so complex that I would say learning to run a game, making characters, and just running a single session was one of the most difficult trials of my career as the GM.
Rather than review the game, which is quite advanced but interesting, I want to just expose you guys to some of the material I wrote for the setting. This following is something I acted out to begin our first session.
