Metasprawl: A Variant Setting for Shadowrun

Shadowrun 5e Cover Art, Catalyst Game Labs

Welcome to the Sprawl

Classic Dungeons and Dragons has debuted a number of distinct worlds with their own histories and sense of style. It is also fun to create new worlds for players to delve into, homebrewed campaign settings that fit a personal play style and allow for major differences in the history and overall feel of the universe. But there aren't as many of these variant settings for some of the other major brands of tabletop RPG. 

So now I would like to share some details on my own variant of the Shadowrun setting, the world known as The Metasprawl! This 'hack' of Shadowrun makes some key changes to the setting, and any of these concepts are free to borrow or use as the basis for your own creations.

"New Hotness"

The first change is a more modernistic aesthetic that trims out some of the more retro aspects of the setting. Wireless connections and smaller computer systems are more common, but corporations still resort to closed circuits that can only be accessed from local terminals to keep their systems safe from hackers. The term 'decker' also goes the way of the dinosaur, as does anything else that evokes the age of punch-cards and CRT screens.

Magic is more subtly integrated into the setting. Metasprawl takes place in an alternate history where magic was always real but mages were driven into hiding. They re-emerged during the first world war as they became a part of global escalation of warfare. Depiction of mages in this setting was heavily inspired by modern urban fantasy settings like The Dresden Files. Mages can openly practice their craft, but they are part of a relatively closed society.

By IzzyMedrano via deviantart

The Metatypes

The Awakening is the definitive event in Shadowrun, but in The Metasprawl, its cause and effect have been changed. Firstly, The Awakening did not give birth to the various metatypes of humanity. They are instead products of science, being created through the advancement of genetic modification and recalibration of stem cells during the Transhumanist Wars. The metatypes are identified by simple signifiers like 'elf' and 'dwarf' but they are all humans with augmented DNA.

Elves were bred by the more decadent nations to be beautiful and graceful, ideal for roles in the entertainment and fashion industries. Their potential as assassins was later realized by opportunistic military contractors.

Dwarves were bred as a working class by some of the more fascistic nations. Hearty and stout, they made for an ideal labor caste. Gnomes are a sub-race of dwarf that were intended for the more technical positions, crawling through maintenance tubes to fix wires and circuitry.

Instead of Half-Orcs, The Metasprawl has Bio-Men. These big guys are lifted straight from the video game/TV show Defiance, and they are the product of an American super soldier project. Simple minded and huge, they are named based on the batch of genetic material they were produced from. These are designated by the names of US Presidents so they bear names such as Woodrow-99 or Barack-112. They are huge, strong, hairless, and their skin color ranges from blue to purple.

Trolls in this setting are replaced by Sasquatches, or Squatches for short. These are chimeric hybrids of man and beast that were developed to challenge The Bio-Man Project. The Western Squatches tend to look simian in appearance, while the Eastern-bred variants look like humanoid bears.

Of course the majority of the population are your basic humans, but even these are most often loaded up with cosmetic gene alteration and cybernetics. The zeitgeist in this universe is one of 'correcting God's mistakes' using whatever means science can provide. Fashion is based on being wildly original, so recolored skin, crazy hair and nanofiber tattoos are all the rage. You never know what you'll see next on the streets of the sprawl. 

Awakening, Aether, and Metasprawl

The namesake of this universe is The Metasprawl, a super-powered infinitely fast computer network built by tapping into The Aether, which happens to be the source of all magic. This fixed every conceivable digital obstacle by providing infinite data processing and a network that moves at the speed of thought. Unfortunately the intrusion of the Metasprawl permeated the membrane between the planes of reality. And that allowed all sorts of weirdness to cross over. That's where most the more supernatural stuff comes from... everything from the shaman's spirits to devils, mind-flayers, gremlins, and elementals.

This means that the matrix of the Metasprawl is technological as well as magic in nature, so there is some crossover between the worlds of the mage and the hacker. At times, a hacker might even be able to see something from The Aether through the walls of the digital world. And mages actually embrace technology because of the fact that it is now integrated with the source of their powers.

Image by Eidos and Square Enix 

"Gimme the Deets"

Other than that, it's still Shadowrun with all the megacorps and hackers and cyberpunk themes you know and love, though with its own unique factions and history

In this setting, for instance, "Papa Doc" the Haitian tyrant was an actual voodoo shaman and avatar of the voodoo loa known as Kalfou. Doc was killed by a mage from New Orleans, and that man's descendant, Remy Duverne, is now a head of the White Council. The Council is the global ruling body that manages the affairs of mages. All magic users are considered to have neutral citizenship and must register with the Council, who oversees their activities. Your Shadowrunners won't be too concerned about abiding by those rules, of course.

Some other concepts I have used in this setting:

• Yakuza minions run the Neo-Tokyo underworld, where they trade with the biker gangs and deal in various street drugs and cyber-crime.
• Rising crime and poverty levels in Detroit led to its evacuation and conversion into a city-sized penitentiary. It is now filled with labrynthian walls of scrap metal and patrolled by Cyberdyne's robotic security units.
• Illithids (mind-flayers) have formed a cult by manipulating the dreams of humanity. Many important executives and movie stars now unwittingly serve their sinister purposes.
• There is a biker gang in Japan who are enamored with archaic Western media and all dress like classic characters played by Johnny Depp.
• Video games are a mainstream professional sport, and in some locations are some of the most-watched events being streamed.
• Private military contractors are popular among the corporations, most dangerous of which is Shining Wolf, a company of 'splicers' who use injections to alter their DNA and become werewolves.
    

So there it is, a unique new take on an old school setting. May it inspire more exploration and interest in the world of Shadowrun, and hopefully provide some material for even more unique home settings. 

Until next time, see you in the sprawl.