Introduction

So you’ve heard of ShadowNET, and now you’ve decided to check our community out. The first question to ask: what exactly is it?

To make a long story short, ShadowNET is a Reddit-based Shadowrun living campaign; Redditors create characters for Shadowrun Fifth Edition, apply to “jobs” (games) as their characters, and are picked by the Game Masters to fill a complementary team for the game. Just as no two games on ShadowNET are the same, no two compositions of teams will be the same, mimicking the freelance nature portrayed in the lore of the core books and giving Redditors the chance to play with many different people while (role)playing the Shadowrun setting.



Getting Started

Introduction to the Subreddits

The main subreddit, where in-character interaction takes place and games (jobs) are posted

The character generation subreddit, where players submit characters for Core and ShadowNET legality checks and advice. Characters must be approved by the chargen team before applying to jobs.

Shhhhhh, it’s a secret! The Game Master subreddit, where GMs can bounce ideas off each other and submit potential jobs for review when needed. The only private subreddit of the four, we don’t want the players to have runs spoiled for them!

Our governing subreddit, where the Council (community leaders, chosen as Head of one of five divisions by the Senate) and Senate (elected by the community to represent the community’s interests when choosing council members) post rulings and updates for the community to see.

First Steps

Now that you’ve been made aware of all of them, on to the TODO list!

Join the Discord Server ! This is the community hub of the Net, where job announcements are posted, character generation advice is given, and constant hanging out occurs. Get yourself a copy of the Shadowrun Core Fifth Edition and read it, then decide on a character you’d like to play Read over The ShadowNET Charter - quick explanation as to who we are and what the community is about, as well as how the leadership is structured. The ShadowNET Bylaws - explanations on the responsibilities of different community members and election procedures The Player Rules - house rules and clarifications we’ve made to keep everyone on the same page when creating and playing their characters. Download a character generation tool: Chummer 5a (free) or HeroLab (paid). These tools will help you keep track of your characters both during character generation and after. Now it's time for Character Generation!

Character Generation

Head on over to ShadowChargen, where our crack team of community members will help you make sure your character complies to both ShadowNET rules and the rules presented in the Core Rulebook. Please check the ShadowNET Chargen Guidelines Please check the Player Rules page on how we handle things, and if you have any questions not answered there ask in #rules on Discord! A chargen member will be along to help you out, as well as provide suggestions as to ways to improve your build. As we are a community focused around player agency, you are welcome to use or discard these suggestions, though Core and ShadowNET legality are a prerequisite to playing games on ShadowNET. Please keep in mind that the volunteer chargen team lead busy lives and do their best to get everyone’s characters approved as soon as possible, though during busy times of the year (holidays/finals) the process can take a bit longer than normal. Once your character is approved by a chargen member, you’re all set to move on to playing games on ShadowNET!

Playing Games on ShadowNET

On ShadowNET, Game Masters (GMs) will post their games on the main Shadownet subreddit, with a brief description of what a player can expect on the job, such as datasteal, extraction, or wetwork. Postings will also contain a date and time, usually in 24-hour Universal Time Coordinated or UTC. Players apply to jobs in-character, usually responding to a short prompt by the Game Master, and link their character sheet for the Game Master’s perusal. Shortly before the run time (this varies between 1 week to 15 minutes depending on the run/GM, they will generally announce this when initially posting) the Game Master will notify selected players that their character has been hired for the job, and play commences! The games are typically played using the Discord server for voice communication and Roll20 for a virtual tabletop

Useful Notes

Game sessions are usually referred to as “jobs”, “runs”, or simply “games”.

Be methodical when checking if you can apply to a game! Sometimes the time posted in UTC can be on a different date than the one specified. Example : 0200 UTC on the 7th is really 2100 EST (eastern) on the 6th.

Playing on ShadowNET is different than a home game: we use a “living campaign” model where all players play in the same shared universe, and can interact with each other directly and through consequences of jobs. The living campaign of ShadowNET takes place primarily in the metroplex of Seattle , though more dangerous jobs can take runners all over the globe. Example : Runner Team 1 pulls a heist on a small-time corp in Renton. The next day, when Runner Team 2 gets hired to steal some paydata from another facility in Renton, the GM could choose to make the job more difficult due to the heist pulled just the other day; the other corps would be on the lookout.

While we try to not stray too far into the territory of official lore books, sometimes the most dangerous jobs can have far-reaching consequences for both the target and the team The team is hired to break into a company building and steal some data, but the decker doesn’t/isn’t able to wipe the security footage of the team breaking in, resulting in the corporation having video evidence of the perpetrators. Such evidence could result in needing to take on a new identity and burning the old one, or if the job was especially detrimental to the corporation the runner might find themselves waking up to a few not-so-friendly faces with some questions. So scrub those astral signatures and wipe those security feeds, chummers!

Sometimes jobs will result in a team being awarded a contact by the Game Master. These contacts are shared , and are the responsibility of their creator to update runners who have the contact with any changes. For example, if one runner does a job for the contact to increase the contact’s connection, anyone with the contact should increase the contact’s connection.

, and are the responsibility of their creator to update runners who have the contact with any changes. For example, if one runner does a job for the contact to increase the contact’s connection, anyone with the contact should increase the contact’s connection. Some jobs have less than happy consequences for contacts. Maybe they stick their nose out too far, or maybe a team was hired to geek them. If a contact is killed or put out of commission, all runners with the contact feel the same effects, be that a loss of connection or loss of contact entirely. Make sure to not put your contacts in a position where they can be geeked!





Game Mastering on ShadowNET

First things first: Read over the ShadowNET GM Rules. It answers all questions you might have as to Game Mastering on ShadowNET, but here’s a short list of the process.:

Complete three games on ShadowNET The purpose of this is to give you a feel for the community and its players, as well as some experience with Shadowrun 5e if you’re new to the system. Send a private message to the GM Head or one of the Deputies asking for an entrance interview and linking the three runs you participated in. The reason for the interview is to help the GM Head get a feel for how to best help you develop your Game Master craft ??? Profit, aka run some games!

Getting Involved with the Community

If you’re interested in helping out any of the Heads with their duties please feel free to send them a private message on Reddit or to send /r/ShadowNET a modmail on Reddit.

If you have a suggestion or constructive criticism, feel free to contact one of the Heads. All constructive and civil criticism and suggestions are always welcome!







