The title is taken from the game's main premise – a near-future world damaged by a massive magical event, where industrial espionage and corporate warfare runs rampant.

Deckers (futuristic hackers) can tap into an immersive, three-dimensional cyberspace on such missions as they seek access, physical or remote, to the power structures of rival groups.

[1] It was released as a PDF in July 2013, with a limited-edition softcover version of the Fifth Edition core rulebook sold at the Origins Game Fair in June 2013.

Catalyst had been in collaboration with Nordic Games and Cliffhanger Studios to create Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown online RPG, however it was shuttered 30 November 2018 with the producers citing lack of funding and the end of the license terms for use of the IP.

The end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ushered in the "Sixth World",[note 2] with once-mythological beings (e.g. dragons) appearing and forms of magic suddenly emerging.

In North America, indigenous peoples discovered that their traditional ceremonies allow them to command powerful spirits, and rituals associated with a new Ghost Dance movement let them take control of much of the western U.S. and Canada, where they formed a federation of Native American Nations.

When conflicts arise, corporations, governments, organized crime syndicates, and even wealthy individuals subcontract their dirty work to specialists, who then perform "shadowruns" or missions undertaken by deniable assets without identities or those that wish to remain unknown.

Characters in Shadowrun can be humans, orks, trolls, elves, dwarves, as well as certain diverging subspecies (known as metavariants) such as gnomes, giants, dryads, etc.

In the early days, when magic returned to the world, humans began to either change into, or give birth to, elf and dwarf infants, a phenomenon called Unexplained Genetic Expression (UGE).

The emergence of magic, the outbreak of the VITAS plagues, the Computer Crash of 2029, the Euro-Wars, and the fevers for independence of Amerindian tribes, Chinese provinces, and everything else that came with the many struggles that ravaged Europe and Asia left the world's governments tumbling and falling.

Taking advantage of the laws that had been passed years ago, and using their newfound freedom, the megacorps began impressing their power on the failing governments.

Some, like the California Free State, simply declared independence, while yet others became de facto corporate subsidiaries like Aztlan (the former Mexico), the headquarters of the Aztechnology megacorp.

The monolithic "enemies" of the Shadowrun world (borrowing heavily from cyberpunk mythos) are the corporations, dubbed "megacorporations", "megacorps", or simply "megas" or "corps" for short.

The AAA corps, as well as numerous minor corporations, fight each other not only in the boardroom or during high-level business negotiations but also with physical destruction, clandestine operations, hostile extraction or elimination of vital personnel, and other means of sabotage.

In Shadowrun, Fourth Edition, the Matrix rules have changed, thanks to the setting's constant evolution and a drive to match real world technological developments.

Hackers were thus forced to acquire specialized, larger variants of commlinks with better processing power, which were swiftly colloquially named "cyberdecks" after the devices of old.

The most notable archetypes are street samurai, characters who have heavily augmented their bodies with cyberware and bioware and focus on physical combat; adepts, characters who have magical abilities that increase their physical (and sometimes mental) combat abilities; faces, highly charismatic characters who specialize in negotiations and social manipulation; deckers (hackers), experts in electronic surveillance, security, and augmented/virtual reality monitoring, combat and response; riggers, who augment their brains to achieve fine control over vehicles and drones; and magicians, who cast spells and can view emotions and call spirits from astral space.

In Fourth Edition, with the setting change, deckers are replaced by hackers, who manipulate computer networks with augmented reality via ubiquitous commlinks; they also tend to take over the rigger's role.

All things that do not explicitly fall under the first four classifications, including contacts in third and earlier editions of Shadowrun, are given cash-equivalent values to be bought with resources.

Cyberware, bioware, nanotech implants, extreme cases of substance addiction, and other major changes to a being's body can damage its essence as well.

The date of the beginning of the "Sixth World" is based on the ancient Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, which when Shadowrun was developed was correlated as finishing a 5,200-year-long cycle on 24 December 2011.

[13]In 2007, Robert Boyd from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, robbed a Belfast lingerie shop at knifepoint while wearing a blonde Harpo Marx wig.

During his trial, Boyd stated he was playing Shadowrun, specifically the role of criminal elf Buho, at the time and may have "blurred reality and fantasy".

In 2012, Weisman's company Harebrained Schemes launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of Shadowrun Returns, a 3D turn-based single player role-playing video game.

Jan Wagner's Cliffhanger Productions also ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for an online 3D turn-based strategy role-playing video game that can be played either alone or with other players.

"[26] In the September–October 1989 edition of Games International (Issue #9), Lee Brimmicombe-Wood was impressed by the production values, calling it "beautifully laid out and with some of the best illustrations I've seen outside of French rolegames."

"[32] The German magazine Envoyer reviewed the third edition of the game and noted, "The new set of rules continues the tradition of the existing works in terms of its structure, but has overall become more user-friendly ...

Editor Paul Pettengale commented: "Shadowrun's strength lies in the cleverly designed background, which creates a unique setting that actually works and is continually evolving.

Steven S. Long commented: "Shadowrun second edition belongs on the list of best hobby games because it so superbly integrates the gaming-specific material with the setting information.

In doing so it satisfies what many gamers see as their twin needs: hard-and-fast rules that make gameplay fun; and an immersive setting that enhances the gaming experience, rather than detracting from it.