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Conspiracy Theories is about exactly what you would expect from the title and there are some crazy ones in the Shadowrun setting, some of which may actually even touch on the truth. It is a very useful book for fleshing out the world and the craziness that goes on in the background of the Shadowrun world.
Conspiracy Theories: A Shadowrun Sourcebook written by Jason M. Hardy, Jeff D. McLane, James Meiers, John Schmidt, Brandie Tarvin, Malik Toms, Michael Wich, Robert Wieland, Russell Zimmerman and published by Catalyst Game Labs.
Conspiracy Theories is a guide to (spoilers!) conspiracy theories in the Shadowrun setting. These
cover a great deal of ground: the draconic civil war, insect spirits, the real secret of Aztlan, and so on. If there is a crazy idea in the background that you have wanted to know more about, it is probably mentioned here.
Additionally two cities at the center of various conspiracies, London and (Washington) DeeCee, are presented in considerable detail, in the usual Shadowrun fashion with both general information and questions that shadowrunners will need the answers to. Nine plot hooks, each several paragraphs long, provide ties to the various conspiracies presented earlier in the book.
A variety of powerful rituals finish off the work, including some that are fabulous plot hooks as they involve collecting such items as dragon’s claw clippings, Excalibur and other obscure and wonderful things.
It should be noted that Conspiracy Theories is entirely background and setting information, there are no new rules here. It is just a setting book expanding on various interesting and shadow corners of the Shadowrun world.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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http://www.teilzeithelden.de
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Die Rezension zum ersten Band der Artefaktjagd-Kampagne gab es schon [LINK], hier folgt die Kritik zum zweiten von insgesamt vier Bänden.
Erscheinungsbild
Diesmal sind es 56 Seiten Umfang, fast ebenso wie bei Teil Eins also, und wieder fällt einem zunächst die hohe Auflösung des Deckblatts positiv ins Auge. Allein wegen der äußeren Faktoren, die die Atmosphäre schon in der Spielvorbereitung gut unterstützen, macht die Kampagne Lust auf mehr. Im zweiten Band scheinen es deutlich weniger Schwarzweißzeichnungen passend zu den beschriebenen Situationen zu sein (ich habe nicht genau durchgezählt), aber man vermisst auch nicht, dass es diesmal weniger sind.
Einen Index gibt es nicht, dafür jedoch ein Inhaltsverzeichnis, was durchaus hilfreich ist, um bestimmte Szenen oder NSC rasch noch mal nachzuschlagen.
Inhalt
Der Name der Kampagne kommt nicht von ungefähr, und so geht es auch im zweiten Band darum, ein wichtiges Artefakt zu finden und an sich zu bringen, diesmal den Sextant der Welten. Wieder ist es dieselbe Auftraggeberin, die die Runner schon auf ihre Suche nach der Karte des Piri Reis im ersten Band mitgenommen hat. Herauszufinden, wo sich der Sextant in etwa befindet und in wessen Händen, ist nicht allzu schwierig, doch ihn in die Finger zu bekommen gestaltet sich da schon weitaus schwieriger.
Der Weg führt die Charaktere zunächst nach Chicago, dann nach Denver und schließlich nach Los Angeles. Damit punktet dieser zweite Band nicht damit, einen ungewöhnlichen Hauptschauplatz zu nutzen (im ersten Band war das Lagos), dafür jedoch damit, die mit coolsten Schauplätze der Shadowrun-Welt überhaupt zu nutzen. Man erinnere sich: Chicago, die Bug-City aus den 2050ern, in den 2070ern rechtlose Zone, quasi WiFi-los, voller chaotischer Magie, Tauschhandel und längst abgehakt geglaubter Treibstoffe. Denver, Ghostwalkers Stadt, die nicht weniger als vier Grenzen verschiedener Nationen mit entsprechenden Sicherheitsmaßnahmen aufweist. Los Angeles, nicht nur Stadt der Engel, sondern vor allem Stadt der Erdbeben – und entsprechend reichlich Armut und Existenzängste, gespeist durch Stromausfälle, Netzausfälle und Rationierung.
Diese drei Städte bilden ein perfektes Gerüst für die Stimmung des zweiten Bandes, die vor allem als temporeich beschrieben werden kann. Kaum Zeit und Gelegenheit, Luft zu holen, sich zu regenerieren oder Vorräte aufzustocken – das setzt die Runner ganz ordentlich unter Druck und erfordert gutes Planungs- und Verhandlungsgeschick sowie starke Nerven, denn „Durchhalten!“ ist hier wohl eine besonders wichtige Parole.
Der Aufbau des Abenteuers ist wie üblich: Vorweg gibt es für den Spielleiter einiges an Informationen, einen Überblick über die Handlung mitsamt wichtiger Informationen, Daten und Fakten. Die einzelnen Szenen, von denen manche zwingend gespielt werden müssen und andere optional eingebracht wurden, werden ebenfalls nach verschiedenen Punkten beschrieben. Es gibt auch für Spieler eine Übersicht, stets mit einem kleinen Abschnitt versehen, den der Spielleiter 1:1 vorlesen kann, es werden verschiedene Wege der „Beinarbeit“, des Handelns, des Erreichens von Informationen, beschrieben.
Noch detailliertere Informationen erhält man im „Abspann“ des Bandes, wo sich ausführlichere Informationen zu wichtigen NSC befinden, es gibt Sachinformationen über die Städte, in denen man sich befindet, diesmal allerdings deutlich knapper gehalten als die Informationen über Lagos im ersten Kampagnenband, doch ausreichend.
Neben Aufhängern und einer Standardablaufbeschreibung bieten die einzelnen Szenen noch Möglichkeiten, Nebenhandlungen der Geschichte breiter anzulegen oder das Geschehen durch Erleichterungen und „Daumenschrauben“, entsprechende Erschwernisse, zu modifizieren. Gerade unerfahrene Spielleiter profitieren sicherlich von dem „Keine Panik“-Bereich, der Anregungen enthält, wie man eine Szene, die einem zu entgleiten droht, wieder ans Laufen bekommt und die Spieler wieder mehr in den vorgesehenen Szenenverlauf.
Es ist im Prinzip möglich, diesen zweiten Teil losgelöst von allen anderen Bänden der Kampagne zu spielen, doch gedacht ist es so, dass der zweite Teil möglichst dicht auf den ersten folgt und an ihn anknüpft. Das kann möglicherweise problematisch werden, nämlich dann, wenn die Ereignisse des ersten Bandes nicht wie angedacht gelaufen sind – und wann läuft am Spieltisch schon mal alles so, wie es sollte? Hierzu bietet „Mitternacht“ einige Hinweise darauf, wie mit solchen Schnitzern im Vorfeld umzugehen ist. Sollte der Auftrag des letzten Bandes nicht so gut gelaufen sein, ist dies nicht so problematisch wie schlechtes Benehmen, denn immerhin handelt es sich um dieselbe Auftraggeberin. Und wer nimmt schon unfreundliche und unfähige Chaoten ein zweites Mal? Im Zweifel wird vorgeschlagen, den Band dann eben mit einem anderen Team, also anderen Charakteren, zu spielen. Sicherlich eine gute Wahl, wenn es den Spielern vor allem um die Geschichte der Kampagne geht, sonst eher unbefriedigend. Und ebenso gestaltet es sich damit, diesen zweiten Band isoliert vom ersten spielen zu wollen. „Mitternacht“ entfaltet storytechnisch in dem Fall einfach nicht sein ganzes Potenzial.
Um das Abenteuer zu spielen, benötigt man eigentlich nur das Grundregelwerk, auch wenn Kenntnis oder Besitz weiterer Quellenbücher hilfreich und sinnvoll sind.
Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis
Für ein PDF und vor dem Hintergrund, dass es sich um eine vierbändige Kampagne handelt, die im Ganzen mehr als fünfzig Euro kostet, kann man die Kosten für diese Kampagne eigentlich nicht anders als unverschämt bezeichnen. Die Tatsache, dass das englischsprachige Original günstiger ist, derzeit durch ein zeitlich unbegrenztes Angebot um etwa die Hälfte, macht es nicht gerade besser. Hier wäre eine generelle Preisreduktion oder zumindest ein deutlich günstigeres Bundle aller vier Bände mehr als angebracht.
Fazit
„Mitternacht“ bietet eine Menge Action, coole Schauplätze (und ebensolche Fraktionen) und etliches zu tun. Die Story vermag zu fesseln und zu unterhalten in einem Maße, dass man schon bei der Lektüre und der Spielvorbereitung richtig Lust auf die Umsetzung bekommt.
Nicht ganz so optimal ist die enge Verknüpfung mit dem ersten Band der Kampagne, der zwar nicht unbedingt das Spielen von „Mitternacht“ an sich erschwert, wohl aber die Umsetzung der zusammenlaufenden Fäden, aber hey, es ist eben eine vierbändige Kampagne.
Unsere Bewertung
Erscheinungsbild 5 Stimmungsvoll, passend, gute Qualität
Inhalt 5 Temporeich und fesselnd auf verschiedenen Ebenen
Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis 2 PDF-Only kostet die gesamte Kampagne mehr als 50€, deutsche Version teurer als Original
Gesamt 4
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‘Elven blood’ is a great product to review on the heels of ‘Land of Promise’ and Elves seem to be flavour of the month for Catalyst. The ninety-eight page book offers five Shadowrun Missions-style modules, complete with Contacts handouts and the requisite paperwork we expect from these modules.
Whilst the intro to the book mentions five or six other sourcebooks that they draw from, I didn’t find any absolutely necessary to run these modules. The only book you might like to look up is ‘Elven fire’ an SR2 module which provides the backstory for the first module in ‘Elven Blood’, but again it’s more for those with a completest bent than actual use in game play.
The five missions take place either in Seattle with the Ancients, or running about the countryside (and Tir Tairngire) working for a Tir Prince. The modules run the gamut from a scavenger hunt (‘Ancient Pawns’), smuggling operations (‘Hopping the Fence’), investigating organised crime (‘Domestic Tranquility’), scouring the land of magical reagents (‘Grocery List’) or the classic ‘hung over and can’t remember the run’ (in ‘The Hung Over’). Each run offers something distinct, and there are in-game expectations about how certain actions will be accomplished, but with plenty of freedom for the ‘runners. ‘Ancient Pawns’ is probably the best example of this, as the PC’s must gather items in competition with another team, but under the loose rules of a ritual challenge. They are encouraged to be as creative and inventive as possible, and thinking ‘outside the box’ will yield dividends at the end. All of the other modules offer similar levels of open-endedness, and this should be a warning to the GM to prepare.
Additionally, there were clear cinematic moments throughout all of the modules (kung fu brawls on top of speeding hijacked trucks, leaping from burning attack helicopters – you get the picture) which support players who like this style of play.
The layout and editing problems endemic in the last few SR Missions products are thankfully absent from this collection, and quality control seems to be back on board. The artwork is an interesting mix of new material and images taken from earlier editions of SR (which is especially fitting for ‘Ancient Pawns’). The developers ta Catalyst seem to have a keen interest in tying the current projects back to Shadowrun’s earlier days, but are doing so in a manner which makes old hands like me smile and reminisce, but wouldn’t detract from the enjoyment of a new player.
Speaking of ealier days, what makes me really want to run this with my group is the elevation of Blackwing to Tir Prince (and one of the key Johnson’s in the modules). My players have encountered him via some of the SR2 modules, and the looks on their faces when they start working for him will be priceless. Just goes to show, no hard feelings, it’s all biz.
This is probably the best value for money supplement Catalyst has released this year, in terms of both price (which has recently dropped) and quality.
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‘Land of Promise’ is a mixed bag of goodies which essentially updates the 2e Tir Tairngire sourcebook. In fact, I’d highly recommend a purchase of that book to go with this one in order to get the best value. This book is a succinct 24 pages, broken up as intro fiction (4pages), travelogue (15 pages) and game information (5 pages).
The travelogue section is written as a Corp-speak advertisement for the Tir which is soon hijacked by the regular Jackpointers. To be honest, part of this is wasted opportunity, as the ‘pointers debate the merits and authenticity of the information and then eventually provide their own overview of the country. Whilst the information is useful, the point that the Tir is glossing over their problems and putting Corp-spin on everything is belaboured. Once the information from the Jackpointers starts rolling in, so does the usable game-worthy data. That said, attention has been paid to giving each of the posters their own evolving personality, and the faux-BBS style is delivered in usual believable style as small arguments occur and general pettiness is revealed.
The game information features eleven one-paragraph story starters to inspire your own ‘runs involving Tir Tairngire, but there is a note that purchasing the new supplement ‘Elven Blood’ would be useful. One questions why Catalyst didn’t just publish this as a larger sourcebook, rather than as two supplements. The information in ‘Land of Promise’ is predominantly for the GM, so adding in five modules wouldn’t have altered the audience. The game information also includes stat blocks for some of the unique denizens of land, a new spell and a new Magical Society.
The main question for me is: what niche does this fill in my SR collection? I’m viewing this as an update to the Tir Tairngire sourcebook I already own, so $5.95 is a decent price for what is involved. I wouldn’t recommend trying to use this book without that sourcebook. Bottom line is that if you wanted to invest in a Tir campaign, you could pick up the original sourcebook ($8.00), this book ($5.95) and Elven Blood ($6.99) and be set for quite a while. I’d consider a five-module story arc plus setting books for around twenty dollars to be good value (given that SR Missions modules are $3.95 each; and that’s dirt cheap), and with this in mind, I have no hesitation in recommending ‘Land of Promise’.
I think that whilst the writing could have been tightened up, and perhaps a little more substance to the information presented, it is still worth the price tag. This is also a region of the SR setting worth keeping an eye on, as there were plenty of hints about future shake-ups in this country. We might see more supplements emerge next year about the Tir.
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This is a terrible railroad of an adventure but I love it. The back story is deep, real deep with multiple goals and a great simple bodyguard mission as the top layer of this convoluted cake. Its worth the price just for the crazy backstabbing stories alone. The GM will have to modifiy this one to get rid of the railroad bits but this one should get your GM juices flowing. You can also reskin the players and factions several times and your players will never know.
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This could have been a great book but just falls flat. 2/3rds of the book are all about whos who in 2050. Its like cliff notes from corporate shadowfiles and some other books. Then you get to the rules for magic and frankly with how easy it is to summon spirits in 4e its either mages suck or the GM has to be a dick to the shaman player as the rules are basicly shamans get free mentor spirits and loose binding, mages have to bind their spirits (6 pages). Moving on the matrix chatper is bringing back the 1e stats to 4e matric rules, though with lower numbers so its slightly less bean counting. The only real prblem with the matrix rules (if you wanted 1e stats with 4e rules) is a lack of good explination on how 1e matrix functions, it assumes you understand it a bit which would be fine if the authors had not spent the first 140 pages explaining about the world like you never read or played a previous edition. Matrix chapter comes in at 16 pages. Last is gear... which 90% is a complete waste of space as its gear SR4 books already had in them. I dont know how the featured reviews can rate this book so high other than nalstagia or blind love of the product line.
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Originally posted at http://secondleft.blogspot.ca/2012/09/review-shadowrun-land-
of-promise.html
So recently Shadowrun: The Land of Promise was released by Catalyst in PDF format. I picked up a copy from DriveThruRPG and had a read.
For those who don't know, The Land of Promise is the translation of Tir Tairngire the predominately Elvish country that was established to the south of Shadowrun's default Seattle setting. It's a country that has seen its fair share of turmoil over the last 50 years of the setting (currently in 2074 as of this supplement.)
So what do you get. Well for $5.95 you get a 24 page PDF. The production quality is of the current usual Catalyst standard, that is pretty good and as you'd expect from a RPG product these days. It's colourful, with a good density of text and a reasonable text to graphics/whitespace ratio.
The 24 pages break down as:
1 page for the cover painting, which while nice enough kind of evokes a sensation of Rivendell if it where on Minbar
1 page is the obligatory Jackpoint login screen informing you of what is coming next, and some news
4 pages are taken up with a vaguely interesting piece of short fiction that sets the scene for some of the action going on in the Tir these days
13 pages of information on the Tir (well most of it is your favourite Jackpointers talking about the Tir)
1 page of adventure hooks
3 pages of NPCs for people the average shadowrunner may encounter during their stay
1 page (well half a page really) detailing briefly a magical society, The Moonlight Thorns
What it isn't. This isn't a guide to the Tir, for information on the history of Tir Tairngire, culture etc you'll need to look at The Sixth World Almanac, or the older first edition Tir Tairngire sourcebooks.
What it is. It is presented as an edited down copy of a delightfully cheesy Tir Tairngire travel brochure for prospective tourists (complete with Grimmy the Grimoire icon telling you all about the Tir. Think that annoying paperclip from older versions of Microsoft Office and you'll have the exact right idea.) When I say heavily edited it means the majority of the would be text in that brochure has been deleted and replaced by commentary by the usual suspect posters on Jackpoint commenting on the realities of what goes on. While this may sound annoying, long time Shadowrun readers know that the real meat and details are often in these posters comments giving the realities (and sometimes completely incorrect information) on the topic at hand, and The Land of Promise is no exception to this rule. In fact the Jackpoint comments make up perhaps 80% of the text of the book outside the opening fiction and NPC section. It should be noted that the single largest topic of conversation here is the princes of the Tir, what they stand for and what they're currently up to in the run up to the next election.
What little art is in the book (other than Grimmy the Grimoire) consist of some character drawings that seem to be representative of princes of the Tir, but its not obvious. The art is adequate, but doesn't seem to be trying to fill a particular purpose as the style doesn't always seem to fit with the descriptions of the princes it's presumably trying to illustrate. It's almost as if they just had a load of spare character art lying around and decided to use it in this book.
One thing I don't particularly like about the book, and Catalyst please take note, is the attempt at illustrating the different sections of the travel guide and which section is currently being read. Imagine images like below
Subject 1
Subject 2
Subject 3
- Subject 4
where the Subject 4 item is the section of the guide currently being read. I can see what they're trying to get at and it does give some framework to hanging the sections of conversation off of, but it just serves to illustrate what could have been in the book but isn't, and this could be confusing to someone who doesn't get what they're trying to do.
So value for money. Well I recently purchased the hardcopy of The Clutch of Dragons (review coming later), a 152 page softcover for $29.99 (that's just under 20 cents a page.) Compare that to $5.95 for a 24 page PDF leaves you at just under 25 cents per page, and that's only a PDF not a hardcopy, and it seems a bit pricey. I'd really expect to pay perhaps $3.95 for this rather than the six bucks, especially given the higher margins (but perhaps lower sales.)
The product does really rely on you being up to date on the Shadowrun background for the Tir and the civil unrest and political upheaval of the last decade to get the most out of it, so if you're not familiar with that and just want a book to give you some information then you should look elsewhere. If you want an update on the political situation and some more tidbits of information plus filling in more holes in the continuing Shadowrun metaplot, then by all means have a look.
If you're planning on having the players run in the Tir during the upcoming election, then there is plenty of information in here to use as plot hooks for what will bean interesting time.
Overall I'm not convinced this is a must buy at the price and for the content. I'm a Shadowrun completist so I'll buy anything they produce for it but your mileage may vary.
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Call me naive, but I went into this episode with very different expectations. Given the title, I expected a tale of tragic, doomed love (and possibly a corporate extraction), but nothing could be further from the truth.
The plot hinges on some familiarity with a convention exclusive module offered a few years ago, which is not easily accessible anymore. To be fair, there is a sidebar summary of the events in that ‘run, but it is no substitute for the full module. I’d still like the opportunity to run the preceding module to give this story more context, and the release of this SR Missions instalment would be a good case for a ‘reprint’ (or whatever the correct term is for digital publishing). I noted that ‘Assassin Nation’ suffered from poor editing, and this is even worse. There are a lot of typographical errors and there are some layout concerns which make the end product look less polished. As with ‘Assassin Nation’ I’d like to see Catalyst invest some time into rectifying these errors and re-releasing a better copy.
That out of the way, let’s look at the plot. To be honest, it is very simple and straightforward, and it does lack the flair I’ve come to associate with this season of ‘runs. The plot meanders through various scenes, and the general story is disjointed by two scenes in particular which seem to offer a new direction, but fail to deliver anything meaningful to the resolution of the game. The choice of antagonist, whilst billed as ‘creepy’ by the authors, actually has more potential to turn the game into a slugfest more reminiscent of a first person shooter than an RPG. It felt at many turns as though this was a missed opportunity for highlighting the really sinister nature of the magic-infused Sixth World.
An enterprising GM with time on their hands can turn this around, though. The structure exists for a basic plot which could be reworked and remixed to create something memorable. Given the framework is there, plus NPCs, stat blocks and some interesting locales, it is worth the $3.95 as ideas fodder. I’d never consider running this ‘as is’, but have covered my printed copy with sticky note alterations for when it does see play. I’m not a fan of writing ‘runs from scratch, so even though this isn’t ideal, it does give me a starting point, and for that, I’m happy to pay the nominal price tag.
Shadowrun has a lot of potential to showcase the horror genre without resorting to zombie hordes. There are far richer sources of more intelligent, sinister horror, and I’d encourage any GM with this module to seek them out.
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‘Assassin Nation’ continues the fine season of Shadowrun Missions and manages to offer something new, exciting and engaging (as the season is winding up). The metaplot for the season has focused on the passing of a Bill to create a new district in Seattle – the Ork Undergorund. Obviously this is not as cut-and-dried as a zoning permit, and every man, metahuman, and corporation has a stake (and something to lose) either way the Bill falls.
As real progress is being made, the runners are hired for a simple job. Good money, short job, easy pickings. Null sheen, what could possibly go wrong?
I won’t go into details as a lot of the plot does rely on a lack of spoilers; but the module offers treachery and betrayal, break and enter, investigation and detection and some serious consequences for the team if it all goes wrong, or they make bad choices. The main advice I’d give any group is to try and keep thinking a few steps ahead – the scenes are mostly written to be played at a brisk pace, so the chance of ‘acting in the moment’ is quite high. This will lead to a lot of ‘roleplaying challenges’ and will affect the outcome of the scenario drastically if they stack up.
A lot of old characters return, with plenty of opportunities to develop those relationships which players of the previous episodes in this season will have come to rely upon. It also introduces a brand new, and interesting, villain who I hope will appear in later modules.
The writing is uniformly good, the layout lends itself to quick reference and my ‘fast and loose’ style of GMing, although the number of typographical errors have multiplied, which do detract from the reading enjoyment. It would be nice to see these fixed and new, higher quality (in terms of editing) version released soon.
That said, this product is well worth the $3.95 pricetag. Catalyst have been very canny about the price point and this is – by far – the best value for money product the company produces. I have mixed feelings about this season now – whilst the direction of this module has me excited, I’ll be sorry to see such a great season come to a close.
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Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/09/25/tabletop-review-shadowr
un-elven-blood/
Now THIS is more like it. The last few Shadowrun releases have disappointed me a bit. Romero and Juliette was flat out terrible. Land of Promise, while well-written, was far too short for what the subject matter needed. Then things like Mil Tech Spec 2, Used Car Lot, Sprawl Sites: North America and Magical Societies were a stream of mediocrity broken up only by the awesome Assassin Nation and The Clutch of Dragons release. So while 2011 was an amazing year for Shadowrun, 2012 has been blatantly less so. Well, Elven Blood is thankfully a step back in the right direction. Originally planned as a convention exclusive, things have changed, and CGL has made this collection of five adventures available to general public – something I specifically asked for in my Land of Promise review. For your $6.99, you’re getting five fun missions that revolve around elves in some way, nearly 100 pages of content, and best of all, it’s done in the Shadowrun Missions format, which makes things exceptionally easy to run, no matter how inexperienced your troupe’s GM is. You can’t beat the price, as it’s a little over a dollar an adventure, and after playing all five, you and your friends will no doubt have cause to debate the old Sixth world adage about trusting an elf…
Your first adventure is called Ancient Pawns, which is a direct sequel to Elven Fire, a first edition Shadowrun adventure. Unlike the debacle with Romero & Juliette‘s better half, Elven Fire IS readily available for purchase still. The only downside is that it’s first edition, so those of you who haven’t been playing Shadowrun that long may need some help converting the adventure to 20AE if you want to play it. This adventure places the PCs in the middle of a civil war of sort. There’s an Elven gang known as the Ancients. The current leader of the local chapter is a lady named Sting, while her lieutenant, Belial has decided it’s his time to go for the top spot. Instead of some sort of knockdown drag out fight, forcing members of the gang to choose sides, both potential leaders of the gang enlist proxies for them and send them off on a “Scavenger Hunt” – sixth world style. Activities range between saving some bliss enslaved prostitutes from a set of dwarven pimps to hijacking a truck. Of course, for those that want a little more violence, there’s also options like taking out a gang of trolls or a local Humanis chapter. All in all, it’s a set of easy activities for the PCs and at the end of the day, they should have the leader of the Ancients indebted to them.
I really liked Ancient Pawns. It’s a really fun adventure and it’s proof that not every adventure has to be grimdark or change the face of the Sixth World in order for players to have a good time. It’s about as light-hearted as a Shadowrun adventure gets and I’d purchase the collection just for this one. In fact, it would be a wonderful adventure for anyone completely new to Shadowrun, as it gives you a taste of various missions and a strong ally in Seattle. 1 for 1.
Hopping the Fence is your second adventure in Elven Blood, and it’s the first of four slightly connected adventures within the Tir Tairngire. Hopping the Fence is your standard smuggling adventure. You’ll be getting goods and services from across and into the Tir. There are a few unique aspects to this adventure however. You’ll be having to deal with the largest dairy farm in North America, a helicopter based shoot ‘em up, and who their employer really is. Again, this isn’t a hard adventure by any means, but it’s a nice balance between roll-playing and role-playing, which means all of your players should be happy with this one. As well, Hopping the Fence is another great adventure for newcomers to Shadowrun. It’s very straight forward, there aren’t a lot of layers or any backstabbing going on, so this works great as a “Gamer’s First Smuggling Run” adventure. Lots of fun here. 2 for 2.
Domestic Tranquility is an interesting adventure as it combines Romeo & Juliette with an ECW style Fatal Four Way. The players are still in the Tir (specifically Portland, OR) on a tourist visa, thanks to their employer from Hopping the Fence. Suddenly, in the midst of pomp and circumstance, gang related fatalities occur. This greatly annoys the PC’s employer, so he throws a few credsticks their way to solve the problem – permanently. What I love about this adventure is how open ended it is. The GM can decide the real cause of the violence and the players can decide to solve things diplomatically or with unchecked violence. It’s a lot of fun and it’s so great to see a published adventure being THIS flexible. It’s so well designed that it can accommodate any and every mix of player types. Although players that choose to say, shoot Smiles-Like-the-Sun in the head during a meeting of all four gangs to remove a bone of contention between them might find themselves in a more… stressful situation than others. 3 for 3.
The fourth adventure in Elven Blood is entitled Grocery List. This adventure is basically a series of fetch quests straight out of a video game RPG. PCs will be gathering five powerful reagents. Now this might not sound like the most exciting adventure, but there are three things to remember. The first is that PCs will be out in the wilderness, and thus outside their element (unless someone made a D&D style Elven Ranger…). The second is that players will effectively be poaching from the High Prince himself, which means stealth and subtlety is key. Third, some of these components don’t want to be poached. Smart DMs will want to peruse books like Parabotany to give the adventure even more flavor and/or depth. I also really enjoyed that the way the adventure ends is up to the GM. You’re given a choice between an encounter with a group of Paladins who catch the players poaching or a dragon. I think the vast majority of GMs will go the dragon route for the sheer coolness of it. However, my suggestion would be to run the dragon only if the PCs are good at keeping their hunting activities on the down-lo. If they’re loud and blatant, they should have to deal with the High Prince’s warriors instead. The only downside to this adventure is that some players and/or characters will balk at the killing of magical/Awakened species. Shadowrunners may all be mercs, but quite a few have a code of ethics. If you find wetworks style missions are ones your players refuse to do, you might have even more trouble asking them to, say, get the beak of an innocent griffon. All in all, another fantastic adventure that should make you want to run all of Elven Blood as a formal campaign, especially for newcomers to Shadowrun. 4 for 4.
The final adventure in Elven Blood is The Hung Over and makes for a nice finale while also bringing back NPCs from throughout the collection. The adventure starts with the PCs waking up in a hospital with no memory of recent events or how they ended up wearing nothing but dressing gowns. After locating their stuff and getting out of the hospital, the runners catch up with their boss, and discover they were in the midst of making some deliveries to various organizations when they were set up, taken down, drugged and dumped in a land rover. Now the PCs have to who did it and why. There are four possible options that the GM can choose from, although only one really works for the full flow of the adventure. The other three are definitely doable, but it will feel forced, more or less, if it is one of them. Still, it’s nice to have options. The adventure ends in a nice little bloodbath, with the PCs getting some cathartic revenge with the help of Sting and some Ancients from the first adventure. Everything wraps up nicely, and it’s a good, climactic and interesting way to wrap up the collection as a whole. 5 for 5.
Overall, Elven Blood is the best adventure collection Shadowrun has seen this year. You’re paying like $1.40 per adventure, and each one of them is wonderful, so this is an unbelievably good deal. Add in the fact that each adventure uses the Shadowrun Missions layout (although lacking the full colour spread of that line) and you have a terrific collection that anyone could run with little to no fuss. If you’re even remotely a fan of Shadowrun, you’re going to want to pick this up. I still can’t believe they considered making this a convention exclusive, as it would have deprived the vast majority of gamers the chance to read/play/experience/run this, and that would have been a damn shame. Seriously, go over to DriveThruRPG.com right now and pick this up. It’s one of the best adventure collections I’ve read this year, and arguably the best Shadowrun release of 2012 to boot.
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I remember playing a ton of Shadowrun in my youth, with the very first edition, and I really enjoy the nostalgia trip provided by Shadowrun 2050. It uses the latest version of the Shadorun rules, which is an improvement, although I fondly remember the clunkiness of the original rules... There really should be an addendum allowing characters to die by tripping over their own feet...
The book is logically laid out, with a very good overview of the setting as it was in 2050, and with a very interesting section on the various factions, and why they would use runners, which would be useful even in a more current game.
After that, magick and decking is explained, as it works in that era, with no wireless access.
Finally, there is an overview of the equipment, so that we can all use the guns that we know and love.
The book is well laid out , and very clear, with some very attractive art.
I enjoyed it for its nostalgia value, and I think it would give new players an interesting setting in which to play. A more thorough explanation of how the world and feel of 2050 is different from 2074 would have been a good addition, but other than that, this is an excellent book.
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2050 was going to be an easy sell for a nostalgic grognard like myself. Most of my memories are of cutting my teeth on SR2, with an overly large dose of conversion between the SR1 books and modules. I was entering this book with the idea of a trip down memory lane, but there is a lot more to this book.
The basic premise is simple – this is the sourcebook for those folk who want to explore shadowrunning during the year 2050. By the current timeline, that’s about two and half decades ago. What becomes immediately apparent is how much work the respective companies who have worked with SR have put into the setting throughout the publication history. This showcases the roots of the setting and is an excellent yardstick for how different the setting of SR4 is from it’s beginnings.
The book gives an overview of the world at this point in future history, covers the ‘Big Eight’ MNCs, law and order, popular culture (Maria Mecurial, Jet Black, Queen Euphoria all make an appearance), followed by an almanac of three sprawls (Seattle, Chicago and Hong Kong). The rest of the book covers the types of jobs available to runners in 2050 (handy for any timeline, really), and the rules for creating a character for this period (bearing in mind the lack of commlinks, Technomancers and anything more advanced than an Ares Pred II). The nice touch here is that the authors took all of the archetypes from SR1 and gave them an SR4 update. You’ll see little nods like that throughout the whole book, and they are tastefully done – that is, neither cheesy, nor inaccessible to the new reader. Slang, magic and gear round off the book – but the depth of material here is great.
Weighing in at 144 pages, this is a cleverly designed book overall. It is jam-packed full of content from rules to setting information, and the writing style is uniformly excellent. It is very clear that a lot of work went into pulling this book together, and it deserves to become a fan favourite. The art is great throughout with some recycled pieces (which is very appropriate given the topic) and the layout of the book makes it a pleasure to read.
I’d highly recommend the purchase of this supplement just based on the nostalgia factor, but after reading through the book, it is clear that 2050 has so much more to commend it’s purchase. If you’re new to the setting, this might inspire you to check out the back catalogue of material, and pick up a few of the classic modules. Whilst those will require a bit of conversion work, it’s well worth the effort.
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Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/09/21/tabletop-review-shadowr
un-missions-romero-juliette/
If you’ve been reading my reviews of various Shadowrunproducts for a while, then you know I’m a huge fan of the Shadowrun Missions series. These adventures are exceptionally cheap, costing less than a comic book, but are of extremely high quality. With full color artwork, comprehensive instructions to help even the most inexperienced Gamesmaster run the adventure, and great storylines, Shadowrun Missions adventures are the best deal in gaming today.
…then there’s Romero & Juliette. This thing is almost the antithesis of Shadowrun Missions. While it’s not the worst product for Shadowrun CGL has put out this year (that would be Damage Control), it is the worst Shadowrun Missions release I’ve ever encountered. I’m honestly sitting here writing this, shaking my head, unable to figure out how this got released in this condition.
Let’s start with the editing job. Yes, I know CGL has been slacking in the editing department this year, but Romero and Juliette is a copy editor’s nightmare. If this is the condition it was released in, I’d hate to see earlier drafts. Typos and grammatical errors litter this piece from beginning to end. Usually it’s just simple little mistakes like, “As the runners leave the meeting with Nazaire, they witness as pedestrian being gunned down in a gangland-style hit.” They add up quickly though and you’ll be noticing sentences with MULTIPLE errors in them like, “Either this guy is good enough to give out is real name without having to worry anout it, or he’s a rank amateur.” This is the sloppiest I’ve ever seen CGL and it’s a damn shame.
Now let’s talk the adventure itself. Romero & Juliette is meant to be a direct continuation of nearly three year old Shadowrun Mission from 2012 – Humanitarian Aid. There’s a couple problems here though. Humanitarian Aid is not freely available to the general public. Try and find it on DrivethruRPG.com or RPGNow.com. You won’t. Try looking for it on the official Shadowrun website. You won’t. Do a Google search and you’ll find only vague references to this nebulous adventure. Why is it harder to find than some of the items in Dunkelzahn’s will? It was a convention exclusive. Yes, they actually released an adventure to the general public that is a direct sequel to a convention exclusive and the adventure strongly encourages the GM to have read through Humanitarian Aid to boot. This is a decision that is so incredibly boneheaded, I don’t even know where to begin. It’s like common sense just dissipated here. How can you make a direct sequel to something very few people will be able to find and even less have directly experienced? To make things even worse for this adventure, let’s take a look at last year’s Shadowrun Mission entitled On a Silver Platter. This Mission was a direct sequel to yet another 2010 convention exclusive entitled Copycat Killer. Yet On a Silver Platter included said convention exclusive for free, and it was a far superior adventure to boot. So not only does Romero & Juliette ignore last year’s precedent for a similar situation, but the team behind it seems to have forgotten Humanitarian Aid was a convention exclusive. I have no words other than this is yet another example of how Romero & Juliette is not only the exact opposite of everything a Shadowrun Mission should be, but is the first real black mark on what has otherwise been an amazing season of adventures. If you’re going to do something like this, make sure the first “chapter” in the adventure path is available SOMEHOW, be it as a bonus, an add-on, or just sold seperately. The idea is to draw the audience in for more, not frustrate them when they can’t get the full picture.
Then there’s the plot. Romero & Juliette is meant to be a Halloween themed adventure. So much potential here with that theme. What do they give us instead? Zombies. Boring, overdone, uninspired zombies. Look, here’s the thing. Unless you are playing All Flesh Must be Eaten, Call of Cthulhu, or Ravenloft where all of your characters are first or second level, zombies really don’t work in a tabletop roleplaying game. They especially don’t work in the Sixth World. Seriously? Zombies in SHADOWRUN? Where half the player characters are cyborgs? Where dragons walk down the street with impunity? Where vampires and ghouls are not uncommon sights and there is even a large scale effort to let the undead be treated as equals with the rest of metahumanity? How can even the most inexperienced runner be phased by a zombie? Hell, even a mundane resident of the Sixth World should be nonplussed at the concept of shambling corpses. I’ll take dealing with a horde of zombies than five minutes in Bug City any day. The whole adventure just falls apart on the idea that characters or their players would remotely be bothered by the concept of zombies. It’s just terrible in concept and execution, and how this got through quality control is beyond me. I know it’s not just me because EVERY SINGLE SHADOWRUN GAMER I KNOW sighed in dismay when I told them what Romero & Juliette was about. Hell, go play the old Shadowrun game for the Sega Genesis. Your character is blowing up literally dozens of ghouls at the very beginning of the game. Zombies are lower on the undead pecking order, so how is this even remotely interesting to anyone? Bottom line: an entire adventure revolving around zombies is a sign that you are at the point of creative bankruptcy…unless of course you’re talking about All Flesh Must Be Eaten. That system gets a pass because well, it’s ALL about zombies and someone keeps coming up with insane but original twists on the motif.
There is so much missed opportunity here. Look at all the things they could have done instead. The adventure involves an artifact known as the Jade Cup. Instead of tying into zombies, why not tie it into something else Halloween but that also works in the Sixth World? Why not bring in a mummy? Holy crap, you don’t see many of those in Shadowrun…but they can fit in pretty easily. Why not a werewolf? You could replace the whole “Shedim possessed corpses” (which is pretty tired and played out itself) with a disease that is a mixture of lycanthropy, hypertrichosis and some sort of super rabies. So it won’t be pure horror fantasy but it will still fit Shadowrun wonderfully. Why not do an adventure that touches on the themes and plot threads from Another Rainy Night? Vampires are not only a good theme for a Halloween adventure, but there is so much going on with the ones in the Sixth World, I can’t believe they haven’t been touched in forever and a day. Again, I’m just really disappointed this adventure even got approved by someone, much less actually published.
So what do we have so far? A badly edited adventure with a plot that a ten year old could have come up and it’s tied to a convention only exclusive. At this point the question shouldn’t be what’s so bad about Romero and Juliette, but what is actually GOOD about it? Well it’s surprising to say, but there are some things. The first is that it’s not too late for CGL to edit this PDF and rerelease it, perhaps tied in with a copy of Humanitarian Aid. It doesn’t have to be a two for one either. Just make the first adventure of the two publicly available SOMEHOW. The next is the art. It’s a lot of fun and fits the theme of the adventure wonderfully. Of course, there’s also the core format of Shadowrun Missions. These things are designed so wonderfully it’s hard to find fault with the format. Whether you’re a veteran GM running one of these at a convention or it’s your first time running an adventure for ANY system whatsoever, the Shadowrun Missions format has you covered. It basically holds the hand of a GM, telling them what to say, what the stats of enemies are, potential trouble areas, ways to make the adventure harder or easier based on the skill level of the troupe, and so much more. Legwork, NPCs, maps, and everything you need for the adventure save for dice and PCs are contained in this PDF. These things are top notch in terms of format and layout, even when the writing and editing goes tits up. I also like the locale of Shirley’s Ghost and the idea of an annual mock battle with the Halloweeners. That’s about all the niceness I can throw at this adventure though.
All in all, while this is the worst adventure for the Shadowrun Missions line in some time in terms of both plot and editing, the adventure IS playable even if it is boring and trite. I suppose newcomers to Shadowrun or people who are obsessed with zombies might have some fun with this, but I found it to be god awful in nearly every way. The only thing saving this is the fact that CGL can fix some of the errors with a rerelease and that the Shadowrun Missions format is so amazingly good. Other than that though, I would advise running screaming from this pile of drek. Get all the other Shadowrun Missions from this season instead. Seriously though. Steven? Jason? If you want a Halloween themed adventure in the future, you can do a LOT better. Hell, you can hardly do WORSE. Grab someone that has written for a horror line but that also knows Shadowrun extremely well and let them go to town. Don’t let something like this happen again, please.
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MilSpec Tech 2 continues to fill the need experienced by most SR GMs and players - a resource which gives access to more guns, drones and vehicles. For some reason, no matter how many previous books including variations of these three types of gear you read, you’re always open for one more. MST2 is presented as a file hacked from Ares, complete with CorpSpeak and a running commentary from the usual suspects which makes a book of equipment stats much more readable.
The highlights for immediate insertion into my campaign are:
- The Tan Dem, a humanoid shaped drone deployed at dangerous sites as security, or in areas where a corp is too stingy to pay for flesh-and-blood troops. Given that they come with weapon mounts as standard, a GM can have a lot of fun building unique variations on this theme.
- The Nizhinyi BMV-3, a 2.9million nuyen troop transport that is also spawning an Ares-funded MMO, and the GD Longstreet, the preferred LAV of the CAS military. Both have a cool visual signature, and more than enough firepower to make a hot zone a very unpleasant place to be (or turn a perfectly liveable area into a hotzone).
- The Ares Pulse Fire reminds us that this is a futuristic setting and that lasers are still coming a long way from their roots in SR1.
There are plenty of warships, submarines, planes, helicopters and rocket launchers to round off the catalog, and it feels as though not a single page is wasted material. This is several steps up from what a regular team will be able to afford; but is the perfect accompaniment to recent books like ‘War’, ‘Hazard Pay’ and ‘Spy Games’ and provides a lot of new opportunities for militarised mayhem in your SR4 game. It is reasonably priced, and production values remain at Catalysts’ usual high standard.
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Great Halloween-themed Mission. Lots of options to expand the adventure if you're running it outside of a convention. I just wish the "prequel" convention mission was available too.
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