If you’re in the mood for some card collecting, you should turn your attention towards Catalyst Game Labs’ Kickstarter campaign for Shadowrun: Edge Zone. Based on the official Shadowrun CCG from the ’90s, this new project promises updated art, tweaked game mechanics, and basically just a new print of cards.
Seeking a modest $10,000, the campaign was launched for two weeks, but it managed to hit its initial goal in 42 minutes, currently sitting at $48,417 and working towards some stretch goals.
Story
The year is 2080.
Magic came back into the world nearly seventy years ago, bringing orks, elves, trolls, dwarfs, dragons, and all kinds of spells and magical critters. Dragons and megacorporations rule the skies and seas and everything in between with iron fists. Government power has faded as the corps wrap international economies around their bejeweled fingers. Most people survive by selling their souls to the megacorps, slaving away for their entire lives to stay safe and fed.
However, not everyone is willing to bend.
Some simply don’t fit into the mold the corporations have prepared for them. They live in the cracks and margins of society—in the shadows. To survive, they do the things others won’t, performing the grey ops the megacorps need in order to keep up with the competition.
You are one of those: a shadowrunner.
The good news about shadowrunning is that there is a practically limitless number of jobs out there. The bad news is, pretty much all of them come with a chance of fatal complications. You may make your way by slinging spells, swinging swords (or fists), firing bullets or hacking the matrix. It doesn’t matter. In the long run, you just have to be half a step ahead of everyone else if you want to survive. There’s an immeasurable number of people out there who want your blood, from corpo security to violent gangers to mutated magical critters and any joe-shmoe who has more bullets than sense.
To stay alive, you trust yourself, you trust your team, and you remember a few simple pieces of advice:
Watch your back. Shoot straight. Conserve ammo. And never, ever cut a deal with a dragon.
What Is Edge Zone?
Some of you likely remember the Shadowrun trading card game from back in the ’90s. Well, we’ve been updating the graphics, putting in some new art, tweaking a few game elements here and there, and getting it ready for re-release!
Each player assumes the role of a shadowrunning team, enlisting runners with several different skills, and acquiring equipment, contacts, technology or mystical items to complete several types of missions.
Edge Zone will start with more than 300 cards in each deck, with extra cards available as stretch goals.
Card Types
- Objectives: Each player has an objective in front of them. Send your runners after your objective or anyone else’s.
- Challenges: Play challenges on objectives to slow down your competition.
- Locations: Pay nuyen to visit locations for special privileges listed on each card.
- Contacts: Slip some nuyen to a contact for some special abilities and effects.
- Runners: Build a team up to 6 Shadowrunners (and prime runners) to take on the Challenges and achieve Objectives to gain Reputation points.
- Gear: Spend some nuyen on your Runners to beef them up before sending them to face Challenges and Objectives
- Special: Different powers, abilities, spells, and/or spirits to ensure this mission either is or isn’t a milk run. Your choice.
Token Types
- Nuyen comes in 1 and 5
- Damage tokens come in 1 and 3
- Shadowrun tokens to help track special abilities/conditions as needed
While both Box Sets share some of the basic cards (everyone needs an Ares Predator), the Mayhem box allows you to build teams of Deckers and Riggers, with all the gear and cyberware that comes with them, as well as play Challenge cards of a more cybered nature. Cyberdecks, drones, giant turret machine guns – who doesn’t want that?
The Magic box allows you to build runner teams of Conjurers and Mages. Want spells and spirits? This is the box for you. Don’t forget to slow down the chip-heads with some Bug Spirit Challenges. No one wants to go near that.
Though don’t get it twisted, you can find a mage or shaman in the Mayhem box and a decker or rigger in the Magic box, it’s just not where the box focus is.
Edge Zone will come in two boxes, the Magic deck and the Mayhem deck, that let you choose your area of emphasis. You can build two decks and get playing with either box, or you can get both boxes to make your decks exactly the way you want them to be! Get your cards together, build a team of runners, and make sure they have all the right gear and skills. Once you have your team assembled, you’ll take them on runs and face some of the fiercest obstacles the Sixth World has to offer. Be the first to meet the Karma goals for the game, and you win!
How many can play? 2+
There’s no max number of players, it depends on how many boxes you have, decks you can make, and how many you can handle.
Who are you?
You take the role of a Fixer.
Decide how many reputation points to play to.
Each player places an Objective on the board. The reputation earned by achieving the Objective is listed on the card.
Place Challenges (or decoys) on on each Objective face down to slow down the other Runner teams from achieving their objectives before you.
Gain nuyen or draw cards each turn. Choose up to 6 Shadowrunners to add to your team, and spend nuyen on gear and special abilities to make their run smoother.
Play contacts and locations to help your Shadowrunners succeed.
When you are ready, send your Shadowrunners on a mission to achieve any Objective on the board. Flip each Challenge as you encounter them to see if your team can succeed. Deal and take any damage. If your runners succeed, discard the Challenge and take on the next one. If they lose, well…that’s the risk of Shadowrunning. Discard the dead, and heal the survivors for your next turn.
Once all Challenges are cleared, take on the Objective and earn the Rep. The first fixer to the Reputation goal set at the beginning of the game is the winner, and earns the street cred of being the best Fixer in Seattle.
Why Edge Zone?
It’s been over twenty years and we figure that’s long enough for the game to sit around gathering dust. So we’re brushing it off, giving it a facelift and injecting new life into it with a simple, straightforward Kickstarter.
This campaign is meant to be simple, with few rewards tiers, and no complicated gymnastics required during fulfillment so that you get your cards as soon as humanly possible.
So why are we doing this now?
Well, it’s always been a goal there behind everything. No matter how you game, we want you to be able to play and enjoy shadowrun. We have the TTRPG, the Harebrained Schemes Video Games for PC, video games for the Xbox, even a board game.
The card game was the next logical step.
We have the artwork and the assets already and they’re at the printer, so we can get everything to you as soon as humanly possible following the conclusion of the kickstarter.
Now, you can play shadowrun however you game.
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