News — Shadowrun

I make no bones about artist Jeff Laubenstein being my favorite fantasy artist of all time.  Maybe that makes me odd, or maybe it makes me a genius, but whatever the case, there is no argument with the fact that Jeff has been doing RPG work for thirty years, and his contributions to non-D&D are astounding.  Today, I look at just random pieces of his that have always brought me joy. The 'Ladies Laubenstein', certainly a subject matter of his that has always kept my interest A nice trio of characters, and he certainly has a way with creating distinct...

I have to say, at one time during my early college years I was a Shadowrun junkie. The game was so cutting edge at the time, so ‘real’, and yet so far-fetched, I just couldn’t help but buy everything I could get my hands on. I remember my roommate at the time, Jason, who was a non-gamer, pick up the 1st Edition Core book, read some of it, and then said ‘This game is on this side of cool’. For a pre-med student, that was pretty high praise, and I absolutely agreed with him. One of the first supplements I...

On this fine Monday I’m going to take a look at FASA’s Shadowrun Adventure, Bottled Demon. Produced for Shadowrun 1st Edition in 1990, this module was written by James D. Long and art directed by Dana Knutson. I was always taken with the cover by artist John Zeleznik. To me, it looked much like the woman was the demon, but after many years with the image I would now determine her to be some kind of African-Indian shaman who has unleashed the power of a nefarious idol. The texturing of the image, and the nakedness covered only by the turn...

There is only one time in my life when I can recall actually be scared when it came to a game supplement coming out.  I’m not sure if this was just about that particular time of my life, the fact that I was obsessed with the game in question, or that it struck some primal cord, but for whatever reason, the rise of insect spirits in Shadowrun truly freaked me out, from Queen Euphoria, to The Universal Brotherhood, and at last to Bug City. Today, I’m taking a look at the art from the latter, Bug City, which was produced...

In 1990 author Stephan Wieck was charged by FASA to create a Shadowrun adventure featuring something completely new and horrible to the setting.  His answer to the call; Queen Euphoria. I once asked artist Jeff Laubenstein, who worked in many roles at FASA, how they got Dave Dorman to do the cover, but I think a better question would be why did the company screw up the artistic credits on the inside so badly? FASA, and senior editor Donna Ippolito, credits the cover to artist John Zeleznik.  This, however, was not the case, as Dave Dorman was artist for this...