Can I Make Shadowrun Stuff?

This is a gamer’s reading of public policies, not legal advice. If real money is involved, ask Catalyst or an actual lawyer.

You’ve thought about it. A homebrew adventure, a better character sheet, maybe a wiki or a whole VTT. Then a little voice asks whether you’re even allowed. The honest answer is “depends,” which I hate as much as you do. It depends on whether you’re selling it and how much of Catalyst’s material you copy.

Who owns the toys

Shadowrun, Sixth World and Matrix, along with their logos, are trademarks of The Topps Company. Catalyst Game Labs licenses the game from them, and the Catalyst logo belongs to InMediaRes Productions. Catalyst spells this out in a legal notice that has to appear on any fan product sold through their program. It’s worth keeping in mind for everything else here.

The front door

If you want to sell Shadowrun fan material, Catalyst has a program for it called Holostreets, hosted on DriveThruRPG. It’s open to any edition, from First through Sixth World, and any year of the timeline from 1999 on. Your work is non-canon, so you can tell the stories you want without touching the official setting. You can even use established characters, though that doesn’t make your version official.

The rules are what you’d expect. Nothing explicit, with Catalyst’s test being “Blade Runner 2049 or John Wick” rather than anything harder. Nothing that promotes discrimination. Nothing from other settings, and they name BattleTech and Earthdawn specifically, which surprised me. On art, you can only use the packs Catalyst provides or art you have rights to, and AI-generated art can get a product pulled. Every product carries the Shadowrun and Holostreets logos plus that legal notice. Revenue splits three ways between the host site, Catalyst and you, so you do get paid.

Everything else

Free fan content is where the map runs out. I looked and couldn’t find a Catalyst policy covering free sheets, wikis, tools or blog posts. Their AI statement says they can’t control free community content that uses AI, but that’s about AI. Nobody should read it as a blanket permission slip, and I’d be wary of anyone who does.

What fans actually do is pretty consistent. Fan-made Foundry VTT systems for Shadowrun Anarchy call themselves unofficial, repeat the trademark notice and tell you to own the rulebook. The system supplies the tools and you bring the content. Fan-made sheets and hacks credit their sources and write their own text.

That points to a simple rule. A tool that starts empty and lets players type in their own stuff is a very different animal from one that ships with Catalyst’s gear tables or rules text inside it. The same goes for wikis. Your own summaries, your own house rules and links to the official books are one thing. Copied book text is another.

My rules of thumb (rule of thumbs?)

These are habits, not official policy. Write original material and explain rules in your own words. Use your own art or art you’re licensed to use. Put an unofficial-fan-project notice and the trademark text on your pages, and don’t suggest Catalyst endorses you or borrow their logos as your own. If you plan to charge money, take it through Holostreets or ask first.

That last part is the main reason to email Catalyst, and there’s no need to wait on it before you start building. A free site is one thing. A site that earns money while wearing their trademark is another, so ask before the money shows up. Catalyst has a contact page, a short polite note costs nothing, and a written yes is worth more than any amount of guessing.