Shadow Files

Changeling Population in the Sixth World

How many SURGE-affected changelings actually exist in the Sixth World? Using data from Shadowrun sourcebooks, this post walks through the math to estimate the global changeling population, the breakdown between mild and overt expressions, and how that population might be distributed across six Changeling Collectives.

What Happened to the Other National Laboratories?

Los Alamos gets all the attention in Shadowrun lore, but what about the other 16 DOE national laboratories? This article speculates on the fate of each lab by 2084, assigning them to the nations carved out of the old USA and imagining how megacorps, dragons, and elven princes shaped their missions.

Welcome to Shadow Files

What this corner of the site is for, and what to expect out of it between any potential future book releases.

Cut Content: LAM Airport & Cicada Whisper

Metahuman Generations in the Sixth World

Human generations assume a 15-to-25 year cycle. The span from birth to when a generation starts producing its own children. That math starts breaking in different directions when applied to each metatype in Shadowrun. Orks compress it, dwarfs stretch it, and for elves it may not apply at all.

Metahuman Lifespans in the Sixth World

How long do metahumans actually live? Canon sources in Shadowrun gives only broad strokes, but the Sixth World's stratified nature of healthcare in the dystopia of the Sixth World means even a long lifespan is a luxury item. Some metatypes haven't even been around long enough for us to know their true natural spans are.

Design Diary: Cats of Los Alamos

Why do the Bast and Rakshasa in The Secret City work the way they do? Because I spent too long thinking about cat tails, tiger folklore, and better balancing the pros and cons of two Changeling Collectives for player characters.

Human Generations in Shadowrun

Shadowrun spans over 70 years of in-world lore. How might its generations break down from a human perspective and what would define each cohort's worldview? A speculative dive into how humans of the Sixth World might continue to break down generations in comparison to how generations are broken down in the real world.