Geek

It’s April 30, 2021 — Happy Goblinization Day!

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.

The original 1989 cover for the Shadowrun rule book, back when it was published by FASA.
Tap to view at full size.

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!

Thanks to Reddit and social media, more than 10% of humanity has already been transformed into trolls — in fact, we had a troll president for the past four years!

No word on the orks just yet.

To close this post, I now request that you all please rise for the Cyberpunk National Anthem:

Joey deVilla