Monthly Archives: April 2016

Sometimes we like to come out with Missions that are not part of the regular Missions schedule, and sometimes we like to do things with those Missions that are a little experimental. In that vein, we bring you the new Mission, UnCONventional Warfare, wherein the type of Shadowrun adventure often played in a convention setting is an adventure with a convention setting, because we hope reality will fold back in on itself enough times to usher in the Singularity.

Along with its bold setting, the Mission features a whole new look that in many ways may seem primitive but in other, more important ways is totally futuristic, because it has emojis all over the place, and nothing says hip, hot, and futuristic like emojis. Shadowrun line developer Jason Hardy said about this design choice: “I love almost everything about Shadowrun‘s art and design, but there is one glaring flaw: an almost total lack of emojis. We need more emojis. More emojis! Emojis everywhere!”

Shadowrun art director Brent Evans took the whole thing in stride. While the decision was made a little late to allow Mr. Evans to actually participate in the design, he noted his enthusiasm thusly: “My head is swimming with the visual possibilities.  We could run amok with this.” And run amok we shall!

Legendary design and layout guy Matt “Wrath” Heerdt was somewhat less sanguine, saying “Oh nice, you drop an emoji project on me with no warning? And let me guess, production will have to develop those? Do you have any idea how swamped I am and how much time a smiling-winking-troll emoji would take to design? I’ll shuffle some projects around, just don’t expect the troll emojis to be twice as big as the elf emojis …” At that point he shuffled off to hide under a warm blanket with his laptop and a huge carafe of coffee.

But enough build-up. Why don’t you see the triumph of emoji-based design for yourself? Since this Mission is such an experiment, we’re giving it away for free. Here’s the link: SMH 2016-01 UnCONventional Warfare

And we’ll note that whatever else this Mission is, it’s entirely playable. Have fun!

Seriously. I can. I know, it’s late right now, and maybe I’m not thinking clearly, but here’s the deal–I typed something, innocently, into Facebook. Something my toddler daughter said about pandas that was nonsense. She said “Pandas like to blow up fire.” Really, she said that. And I thought it was cute and funny, but that was it. But then this panda creature that blows up fire (whatever that means) came across my screen as a whole illustration–a pandamander.

So great. I knew what it looked like. But what does it do? More importantly, how could I use it in Shadowrun game terms?

I didn’t have to wonder for long. Soon, this arrived:

Pandamander-2

It’s clear, then. With the work I have been doing on the upcoming critter book, Howling Shadows, I have gained the ability to summon new beasts out of thin air. Either that, or I know some really creative, really weird people who do things when whims strike them. Which is also good.

h/t to Kat Hardy and Jackson Brunsting