| The Roleplaying Game | |
|---|---|
 1st edition box set cover (1993) | |
| Designers | Ed Stark |
| Publishers | West End Games (1993-1997), Precis Intermedia (2011-Present) |
| Publication | 1993 (1st Edition) West End Games 2011 (Classic Reprint Edition) Precis Intermedia |
| Genres | Science fiction, Cyberpunk |
| Systems | MasterDeck System |
| The core system is a variant of WEG's TORG RPG. | |
Shatterzone is a space opera role-playing game by West End Games. The game went out of print in 1997 after the company went bankrupt. The game is now back in print, owned and published by Precis Intermedia.
The universe of Shatterzone shares some structural similarities to the Star Wars expanded universe including an intergalactic government called the Consortium (like the Republic from Star Wars) run from a central region of space known as the Core Worlds, large megacorps that run galactic affairs (a theme common in the cyberpunk genre of storytelling), and a super-industrialized capital world, called Centaurus, but similar to Star Wars' Coruscant. Likewise, there is a sentiment of xenophobia in the setting similar to that of the Empire in Star Wars. Humans, Glahns, and Ishantras, the three ruling races of the Consortium and a few others are given full citizen status while other races suffer under prejudice and second-class-citizenship. In an interview with the creator of Shatterzone, Scott Palter, he refuted the connection stating that his intention was for a "darker setting, more to my tastes than Star Wars" citing inspiration instead from C. J. Cherryh’s Company Wars.
The namesake feature of the setting is the "Shatterzone", an uncharted and mysterious sector of space consisting of dark matter and strange gravitational phenomena as well as strange energy storms and asteroid fields. The Shatterzone is home to cult worshippers, bands of alien exiles called "bolters" seeking to flee Armagon oppression, and groups of deep space miners looking to make a fortune off the rare minerals to be had in this unusual sector of space.