Just watched “Bright” on Netflix and the Shadowrun world was there more than shown. Anyone familiar with Shadowrun could easily pick up the clues (and even those not shown).
All primary char classes are there, Humans, Orks, Elves, Dwarves (only mentioned), Riggers (yes drones got a mention) and even… Dragons! Only on a quick split screen, but they were there.
So the general basics are reproduced, yet without the Matrix/deckers. I can understand this dropping out, as living in our hi-tech world, no one in the early 80s could have expected that the reality actually surpassed their original distopian projection of technology.
The same goes for bodytech, I loved the Chulos Gang but as this is a form of Shadowrun in our current timestream (not spun off back in the 80s), our current bodymods are not what you can find in SR2050.
So what is Bright in terms of Shadowrun? Basically it’s a Shadowrun reboot without 30 years of distopian fiction to build on. This is Shadowrun imbedded in a closer reality to our own 2017 (apart from the cars, many of the mobiles used, seemed a bit old so we can have a discussion of where exactly the split happened).
Thankfully this gives some new focus to a fascinating PnP rollplaying game, that is in need of a reboot, both from the rules (too complex for newbs) and the world in general (too stuck in it’s extrapolation of its own timeline since the 1980’s). I’m dreaming of a Pathfinderesque Shadowrun spin off in the sense that the core lives on but the world becomes more accessible.
I hope Catalyst games made some cash from this and will use it wisely to reignite the Shadowrun World, profiting from an excellent sci-fi movie that borrowed heavily from a well written, and often revisited distopian world.
ashes and embers 