The future is here! According to Shadowrun, the role-playing game for nerds who don’t want to choose between Dungeons & Dragons and William Gibson, today is when Goblinization happens.
In the game, that’s the worldwide event when 10% of humanity, for no apparent reason, spontaneously transform into orks (that’s how you spell “orc” in the Shadowrun game system) and trolls.
Back in 1989, when the rules for the fantasy-meets-cyberpunk world of Shadowrun were first published, 2021 seemed like a far-off time. Remember, this is when Intel’s 486 processor, Nintendo’s Game Boy, Corel DRAW!, and zip files were brand new things. 640K was considered to be a lot of RAM. We were so technologically backwards back then that if you wanted something like wifi in the Shadowrun game, you had to cast a spell. Arthur C. Clarke was right!
No word on the orks just yet.
To close this post, I now request that you all please rise for the Cyberpunk National Anthem:
...and by that, I mean, being completely ignorant of the larger world outside the U.S.…
Wednesday, August 7, 1991: A sunny day at Toronto’s CNE Grandstand, and what a lineup:…
The cover painting says it all.
