I first came to Shadowrun for the stories. The cover art of those first rulebooks showed stories that begged to be told, and the wonderful, complex world planted seeds of a million more stories. I started playing and writing for Shadowrun because I wanted to tell those stories — and hear the stories others could come up with.

Shadowrun: Anarchy is a new ruleset for Shadowrun designed to set those stories free. It’s not a new edition — we still love the detailed ruleset of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and its simulationist approach to the Sixth World — but it offers a new way to play in Fifth Edition’s framework. Anarchy puts storytelling front and center, streamlining some game mechanics while offering new rules that provide incentives for good storytelling and break down some of the traditional barriers between players and gamemasters.

In traditional RPGs, players are responsible for the actions of their characters, and gamemasters are responsible for mostly everything else. This can help players become fully immersed in the game world, feeling like they are living in a sweeping novel, but it puts definite limits on their contributions to the story. Anarchy removes many of those limits. As a narrative-focused game, Anarchy encourages players to introduce new non-player characters or other story elements, and to work together in forming the kind of memorable story that gamers talk about for years.

So how do we go about encouraging this kind of contribution from players? The easiest thing to do is to make sure the rules state that it’s allowed, but that’s not enough. Rules can’t just allow for something to happen; if they are to work well, they need to provide reasons for these things to occur. One of the key mechanisms in Anarchy that encourages good storytelling is the Plot Point. Players can spend Plot Points for a wide variety of purposes — taking an action when it’s not their turn, having their character move extra fast, heal some damage, and more. Plot Points are earned through good storytelling, so players who want access to this powerful resource need to contribute interesting developments and fun twists to the ongoing story.

Some other roleplaying mechanics have been altered to encourage player contributions. Many games have some sort of perception test, where characters make a dice roll to determine how much of the environment around them they notice. Usually, if they succeed, the gamemaster gives them more details, but in Anarchy, success means the player has the chance to fill in some of the details themselves. Success means getting the chance to add more to the story, which is exactly the feel we want the game to have.

While some mechanics reinforce the storytelling aspect of the game, the rules can also play a significant role by simply getting out of the way. Combat in Anarchy has fewer dice rolls and moving parts than Fifth Edition, meaning the storytelling can move to the front since the mechanics can be determined and resolved relatively quickly. Magic and tech remain important parts of the Sixth World — what shadowrunner doesn’t love their toys? — but the range of effects they have is narrowed, and their powers are easily noted on the single-page character sheet.

Along with moving quickly in gameplay, Anarchy is also simple to prepare. With a healthy amount of pre-generated characters and a variety of story outlines to follow, gamemasters and players can get into a game within a few minutes of picking up the book. The game is designed to be fast, easy to play, and approachable.

It also has the advantage of working with the wealth of Shadowrun material available. Need plot ideas tied to Sixth World megacorporations? Market Panic is there for you. Want to take your game to the wild, untamed metaplanes? Try combining Anarchy with Court of Shadows, which can be especially fun given the intrigue-based nature of the latter book.

We’ve long said that no matter how you like to play games, we want you to be able to play Shadowrun. Anarchy gives roleplayers who like to focus on narratives, or anyone who wants to share in telling a good story, a new way to play in one of roleplaying’s most enduring settings.