Court of Shadows Design Files #1: Unearthing Tír na nÓg
So much awesome to share today. First, while we’ve talked to distributors about the alternate setting book Court of Shadows, today’s the first time we’re going to start sharing art and design blogs.
What’s the Court of Shadows, you say? Well, here’s the text from the back of the book:
You have seen it. You have felt it. The dream where you are falling, falling, and you cannot see the ground but you know it is there waiting. You may try to brace yourself, you may try to force yourself awake—you do anything to avoid the impact that keeps rushing toward you.
The Seelie Court is the realm of the hidden, the rumored, and the unknown. Fairies, spirits, and enchanted creatures mingle there, building alliances, plotting, scheming, toying with the realm of humans—and with each other. The court has long held a distant attachment to the material plane, influencing it like a dream influences our waking hours. But now a new connection has emerged, allowing humans to infiltrate the courts and influence its proceedings. At a time when magical power is ever in the rise, the mix of human and fae could set both worlds into a calamitous plunge, and no one will want to be awake when they hit bottom.
Courts of Shadow is an alternate setting for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, emphasizing the magic and intrigue of the Seelie Court. With full setting, character, and plot details, as well as information on using SR5 characters in the Seelie Court, this book presents all-new ways to play Shadowrun and to live in the mystical intrigue of the planes of fairy, capturing the magic of the dream world—and seeing if they can prevent its fall.
Second, I’ve known Monica Valentinelli for a good while now and have always enjoyed her and her work. When this project came along I knew it was the perfect opportunity to work alongside Monica as she brought her considerable skills to bear on a great new angle for Shadowrun.
Here’s the first art we’re showing, by I. Widulinski...a great bit of Shadowrun-style intrigue, mixed with the flavor of this book. And below that, Monica’s first of several design blogs discussing this project.
My name is Monica Valentinelli. You may have read my work before, but just in case you haven’t, I’ve been in the industry for over ten years now and I’ve contributed to game lines such as Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition and Unknown Armies Third Edition. I developed the Firefly RPG line, and I’m now developing the Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition core rulebook. If you’re still curious about me, you can check out my website at: www.mlvwrites.com.
Today, I’m here to hint about a brand new addition to the Shadowrun line that is set in Tír na nÓg and land beyond called the Court of Shadows. Every book begins with an idea and, in my case, it started with a meeting filled with them. At Gen Con: Indy 2015, Jason Hardy and I sat down to discuss the raw bones of what a Shadowrun book set in the realm of faery might look like. The possibility of adding a nuanced and bold new setting for Shadowrun was really exciting to me, and my head was bursting with “What if...” questions. My Shadowrun games had typically involved mega-corporations to varying degrees, for example, so I was curious to explore what a street samurai or a rigger would do in the Seelie Court and associated realms. Would a technomancer be able to better navigate the realm than a decker? How would they get there? Which faeries would be active in the realm, and what motivates them to act? And, most importantly, why would a group want to play there in the first place?
Of course, these questions speak to the fundamentals of game design. What do the players do when they’re sitting together in a group? And what motivates the individual player to act? In order to answer those questions, Jason had already framed a basic outline for the book by the time I came on board which was, in part, based on our Gen Con discussion. Then, we brainstormed several possibilities to build off of the scorebook (pp. 29-30, SR5) and add exciting options and styles of play. Before we could address all of the deeper aspects of the realm of faerie, however, we needed to identify the two key aspects of the Seelie Court itself: what types of faeries will the players encounter, and how are they organized.
Before I talk about how we’ve decided to frame the Court, which I’ll address in my next post, I want to dive into the fae themselves. To stay true to the Shadowrun setting, Jason decided to pull from folklore and myth that encompassed Celtic lore, but also wanted to incorporate multicultural myths and legends. This was a pretty easy task for me to research—especially given the size of my library at home—so I tapped into several different books and used a few sites to cross-check naming conventions. I was able to quickly put together a giant list of faeries that included Chinese fox spirits, the English bogle Old Cutty Soams, the Algonquin Wendigo, the Japanese Chin-chin Kobakama, the Slavic malevolent Blud, and dozens more based on type of environment and nationality. Then, Jason was kind enough to ask me to recommend writers for the project, too, to ensure that our team would build upon this core foundation from different angles and perspectives. I’m happy to report that though the Celtic focus remains integral to the Seelie Court setting, the list of fae creatures that’ll be addressed in this book definitely speaks to the many different types of characters found in Shadowrun.
While writing about the various types of faeries and what they can do is incredibly important to this new way to play Shadowrun, I opted to dive into worldbuilding for my contribution to the book. I was really drawn to the bones that Jason and I had set, and wanted to flesh out the factions of the Court. Next time, I’ll talk about what those are, and why I think you’ll be as excited as I am by the Court of Shadows.
Look for the next installment soon!
