Shadowrun hit a home run back in 1989 with its fusion of cyberpunk and fantasy, adding classic D&D races and magic to a near future corporate dystopia. Since then it’s gathered a significant fan base and seen multiple video game adaptations dating all the way back to the Sega Genesis. One thing that was never a clean hit, though, was the rules. While the first two editions of Shadowrun had quirks that were on par with most 80s RPGs, the game got truly overwrought in its third edition and spent fourth and fifth trying to clean things up (without really succeeding). The sixth and current edition, Sixth World, attempted to peel back the rules bloat but did so while both alienating most existing Shadowrun fans and still failing to fix the editing.
Now, I like Shadowrun. I have a soft spot for cyberpunk as many readers already know, and have had some good fun in the campaigns I ran across its fourth and fifth editions. That said, from a mechanical perspective, Shadowrun isn’t a shining star. The attempts to layer multiple magic systems alongside perennial headaches like hacking and vehicle rules make the game tricky for the players and utter masochism for the GM, and as much as the sixth edition did introduce some needed streamlining it still ultimately suffers from the same problems.
And that is why we’re here today. We want to play Shadowrun! At the same time, we really, really don’t want to play Shadowrun. This System Split gives an overview of three games that are well-equipped (and to many, better equipped) than the good old d6 dice pools to give the fantasy cyberpunk fusion experience you’re actually looking for. First we’re going to start with a game that was obviously inspired by Shadowrun, even prior to any of the fantasy elements being introduced in a supplement. Then we’ll move on to mixing cyberpunk with some old-school D&D, a move I’m not always a fan of but that will work very well for this particular use case. Finally, we’ll wrap up with a generic system that may make you roll your eyes but that honestly fits the bill perfectly.
The Sprawl: Touched Prime
The Sprawl has always been about Shadowrunning, even if that term wasn’t the one used. When the game was originally released in 2016 it was one of the first to take on the heist story framework with Powered by the Apocalypse, though by the time the Touched supplements were released Blades in the Dark was on the scene. While both the Touched and Touched Prime supplements aimed to add some supernatural flair to the base game, it’s Touched Prime that aimed directly at Shadowrun, expanding the game to look a lot more like its original influence. Touched Prime adds four playbooks, but Adepts and Mages in particular aim to, if not emulate, at least resemble the two primary avenues of magic use in Shadowrun. Equally obvious as to what inspired it, Touched Prime adds fantasy races to the mix, though doing so with a light touch that roughly equates to giving the character one additional move that aligns with the species’ idiom.
One nice thing about cyberpunk in Powered by the Apocalypse is that the system doesn’t force GMs to contend with ‘balance’ in the same way a purely mathematical, wargame-driven system does. Even in vanilla The Sprawl, characters are encouraged to take as much cyberware as they want, because each piece of tech provides another opportunity for drama as its downsides show up during play. Similarly, while most of my time playing The Sprawl was without the supernatural additions, I know that the system can fold in the story details without needing more mechanics to do so. Although Powered by the Apocalypse is a very different way to game than Shadowrun, The Sprawl, especially with Touched Prime, is the game here that’s aiming the closest to the Shadowrun experience.
Cities Without Number
Kevin Crawford has garnered a lot of attention for his old-school, sandbox-forward approach to game design, and this is especially true for his ‘Without Number’ games. Stars Without Number, the first game in the de facto series, took a base chassis of D&D and added elements of Traveller to create a new yet familiar space opera RPG. This was followed by Worlds Without Number, using the same rules to create a hybrid between old-school D&D and d20, and then by Cities Without Number, a Cyberpunk twist on the formula.
I first read Cities Without Number comparing the game to Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, and came away feeling like the genre wasn’t as well represented as it could be. Crawford clearly has years of experience with D&D (and with Traveller, honestly), but Cities Without Number is at a bit more of a remove from its key genre influences than the other two games. Beyond that, keeping the D&D-style advancement will always be a sticking point for me, as expanding hit point pools don’t feel like they keep the scale appropriately centered at a human level.
Honestly, though, power level inflation is a lot less of a problem if your benchmark is Shadowrun, the game whose most significant memetic impact on gaming is buckets upon buckets of dice. Beyond that, Kevin Crawford has the whole old-school D&D tradition from which to crib magic and magic rules, and crib he does. In addition to fairly easy cross-conversion between Cities Without Number, Worlds Without Number, and pretty much any game based on pre-3e D&D, Cities Without Number also has an entire appendix devoted to adding magic systems directly into Cities Without Number for a more Shadowrun experience. While it’s not my first choice for cyberpunk in general, the magic support combined with the sandbox tools make Cities Without Number an excellent choice for crafting your own gun-toting cyberfantasy campaign without any d6 dice pools.
GURPS
I know, I know. “Just use GURPS” is a punchline over on RPG Reddit, given that the game is so often recommended (and often recommended by fanboys who didn’t read the post they’re responding to closely enough). That said, for this particular situation, GURPS is actually a pretty great choice.
First, GURPS is great for mainline cyberpunk. With the Ultra-Tech supplement, you cover cyberware and weapons to at least the breadth of Cyberpunk 2020, if not even further. Add Bio-Tech to that and you have a wide range of science fiction character possibilities for any cyberpunk or transhumanist sci-fi setting. It gets good, though, when you add the Magic supplement. GURPS Magic includes 24 magic colleges, and technology is already written in as a college. Each of these colleges has a sophisticated, thought out tree of spells which build upon each other in a way that makes magic flexible and rewards inventive players. It’s not going to emulate Shadowrun, per se, but it’s a great platform to make a cyberpunk fantasy with an equal (or greater?) amount of crunch should that be what you want.
There is a caveat here, which has to do with how magic is balanced in GURPS. Spells can be very expensive in GURPS, which puts spellcasters at a bit of a disadvantage compared to other, more mundanely powered characters. This is not an insurmountable problem, but it does mean that magic in GURPS may not necessarily feel as over-the-top as it would in some of the other titles recommended here (or Shadowrun itself). Still, the range of both near-future tech as well as magic, in addition to the ruleset that ties them together, make GURPS worth recommending in this case.
Honorable Mentions
I have a couple honorable mentions that are worth noting, but don’t really fit the parameters of a System Split in the traditional way. The first one is a hack, and a bit of an old one at that. While I think it’ll scratch the itch for people who are interested, it is a bit less accessible than a published product (yes, even GURPS). The second one, well, it’s not not Shadowrun. You’ll see what I mean.
Interlock Unlimited is a Cyberpunk 2020 fan project which is being hosted on Datafortress 2020, a site ‘best viewed in 1024×768 resolution’ if you want to take a guess at its age. If you can get over the distinctly Web 1.0 vibe, Interlock Unlimited not only pulls in and rationalizes all the Cyberpunk 2020 supplements and fan works from places like Datafortress 2020, the Blackhammer Cyberpunk Project, and all the other best Cyberpunk Webring sites (yeah, webring. You heard me) into a cohesive whole. Interlock Unlimited also got official blessing from the Pondsmiths, and though the documents don’t quite conform to the current fan policy (because the Interlock Unlimited core rules are playable without owning Cyberpunk 2020), it’s been grandfathered in from what I can tell. Most importantly for this particular System Split is Interlock Unlimited’s Arcane rules, which add magic into Cyberpunk through a specific Role and Special Ability, and then give access to a whole slew of spells. Is it balanced? Who knows! Probably at least as well as Shadowrun, honestly, and there are a whole bunch of other options in the Interlock Unlimited rules library including psionics and supers. If you both want your cyberpunk fantasy hybrid to be more like Cyberpunk 2020 and you appreciate the boundless energy of old-school web communities like Datafortress 2020, Interlock Unlimited is at least worth checking out.
The second honorable mention is Shadowrun: Anarchy. Now, Shadowrun: Anarchy is still Shadowrun, and it has some strong commonalities with mainline Shadowrun (i.e. the editing, oof). That said, the lighter, more narrative mechanics do tamp down on the worst excesses of the Shadowrun core rules, and everyone I know who’s actually played Anarchy has really enjoyed it. I don’t have much experience with Shadowrun: Anarchy (less than I do with Interlock Unlimited, actually), but given the endorsements I’ve heard and the fact that it’s basically a first-party attempt at being not-Shadowrun, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it.
With all of these recommendations, something should go without saying. Shadowrun is an acquired taste, even many of its fans have a love-hate relationship with the game. That said, if you like Shadowrun, warts and all, just play that! There is nothing wrong with loving the games you love. Indeed, this whole article comes from a place of wanting to love Shadowrun, of spending many months across two campaigns having fun with the game but often having fun in spite of the game. That’s my personal experience, it may not be yours, and that’s perfectly fine. That said, I know I’m not the only person who’s bounced off Shadowrun, who likes the ideas but not the execution. It’s from that perspective that I hope more people can engage with the delightful mashup that Shadowrun is built upon, even if that means using a different game for it. The Sprawl, Cities Without Number, and GURPS are all great choices for bringing a cyberpunk fantasy hybrid to your gaming table in a way that works for you, and that cyberpunk fantasy hybrid is only one of the many RPG experiences that deserve alternate modes of execution. What other games need some solid alternatives? You’ll find out in the next System Split!
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Cannibal Halfling Gaming 
I think that any game set in modern or near future (settings without Tech as pure fantasy), have a problem with scale. As modern people (which of course, is a floating baseline), we are aware of a multiplicity of facets present in our version of reality. If modern for us was hunter gatherer culture, we would know more about tracking and seasonal plants and animal migration patterns.
When we game in different time periods from our own, we generally simplify the settings to match our own lack of knowledge. Which can be both easier to run, but sometimes harder, as we have more descriptive knowledge to fill in for the players. So, less overhead, but sometimes lacking in concrete levers and coherence.
Magic, The Network, Cybernetics, Biotech … all add levels of complexity to the workload of the GM. So games have to try to solve that. Some go deep into systems, some use pop culture analogues, others handwave the complexity and some forbid it from direct gameplay, moving those layers to the background.
I don’t know of any game that really solves the Net and the Astral (magical space) easily.
Shadowrun doesn’t handwave those areas, and it is a lot to try to sort. I keep trying to come up with new framings of each in my current game. So far, I am still struggling.
One of the newer games (Tokyo: Otherscape or maybe, New Edo?), tries to solve the Net by having all of the Player Characters participate in the Net runs together. It is an interesting, and possibly logical, solution. Because really in Cyberpunk (or at least in Shadowrun) we are no longer dealing with the Net of the 1980s – 1990s. Most characters are likely to have a Net presence similar to an Avatar in current world meta spaces (2nd Life, et. al.). In that context, the Net is just a new reality we can all operate in, even if we are not Wizards (Hacker-Decker-Programmers).
I have been trying to work out how that could function in Shadowrun. It also brings up the possibility of trying to approach the Astral in a similar style.
I think Space settings are even vaster in their scope and complexity, but we tend to just focus on simpler elements. (Not withstanding something like Traveller 5 or Eclipse Phase.)
Finally, none of this speaks much of Shadowrun’s actual systems. I too, am still searching for something that works the way I like to GM, is understandable by my Players, and doesn’t require that I treat the game as a full time job.
I like a lot of aspects of how Shadowrun’s systems create good world building. But it is a lot to manage for the GM. I think your suggestion of GURPs is a good one. Magic might need to be helped out a bit with modifications to the power points rules, to get a more fluid outcome. But overall, GURPS maps well to Shadowrun’s complicated world.
Sorry for the ramble. There is just so much to consider (as is typical of Shadowrun).
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Thanks for the comment. I think ultimately the recommendations in this article, instead of being an exhaustive list, are aimed at different audiences: those who like the setting but have little desire or patience for Shadowrun’s form of mechanics (The Sprawl), those who like the setting and type of mechanics but ultimately want a higher level of abstraction (Cities Without Number), and those who are actually trying to replace Shadowrun and everything it aims to do (GURPS).
I think the reason I personally would probably gravitate to The Sprawl for this is that, when you take the supplements into account, it’s the game that actually has accounting for all of the elements that Shadowrun does (maybe not Astral, but what a mess). It doesn’t, however, insist on codifying that setting mechanically. That works for me, but I know it doesn’t work for a lot of people.
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I am not personally all that invested in Shadowrun, but am fortunate enough to have a friend that has shared his passion. We have played in the setting using Nathan Russell’s Neon City Overdrive (and supplements Psions and The Grid) and found the result quite pleasing.
I would personally recommend it for a group that wants a quite light ruleset where you still roll handfuls of d6s (pool of +ve and -ve dice, equal numbers cancel, and highest remaining read as 6 success, 4-5 mixed and 1-3 fail) and are happy figuring out the fictional implications of different types of magic and tech by discussion and abstract mechanics. A follow up game Hard City has improved Harm rules in my opinion, and pairs wonderfully if you want to play a more hard-boiled investigative take on Shadowrun.
My other (untested) idea for Shadowrun is adapting the WEG Ghostbusters d6 system (or retroclone MiniSix) as this also has a familiar game feel of d6 dice pools and lends itself to a flexible, high-action experience driven by a metacurrency (I’d call it Edge instead of Brownie points) that greases the wheels.
Ultimately as you and the other commenter say, there is something about the setting that lends itself to many approaches to play, and hence there is no one perfect game to explore all its facets.
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