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Shadowrun: Safehouses $4.95
Average Rating:4.1 / 5
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Eric T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/28/2015 10:46:26

Very useful material...though I wish I had know that most all of it can be found in RUN FASTER. Save the money and just buy RUN FASTER.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/21/2013 15:59:54

Safehouses is about the care and use of that most useful of place, a safe house to hide from your enemies (or occasionally your allies) in. After some in-character advice, which nicely gives a feel for the problems and possibilities of hiding in the Shadowrun world. Then, there are rules, these build off of the lifestyle rules in the Runner’s Companion for constructing hideouts and safe houses. Lastly a set a set of example safe houses wraps up the product. If you are playing the sort of long term campaign this could prove to be a useful resource and it is an amusing read.

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.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Roger L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/06/2012 08:17:00

Was machen eigentlich Shadowrunner, wenn sie sich irgendwo zurückziehen müssen zwischen den Aufträgen? Safehouses von Catalyst Game Labs gibt mögliche Antworten

Erscheinungsbild

Das 18seitige pdf-only Produkt ragt nicht sonderlich hervor aus der Masse der Shadowrunprodukte. Das vollfarbige Cover, welches einen Runner auf einem Bett vor einem AR Display liegend, zeigt, ist noch der hübsche Teil des Buches. Im Inneren finden wir schwarzweißen Druck, durch Tabellen und Artwork aufgelockert. Ein Inhaltsverzeichnis oder Index ist nicht existent, aber das braucht es bei 18 Seiten auch nicht

Inhalt

Tja, was macht der Runner von Welt eigentlich, wenn er nach Hause möchte, aber nicht kann, weil der Run fürchterlich danebenging – sei es durch Betrug oder durch einen schlechten Wurf? Lone Star jagt Ihn, er hat einen Blutmagier verärgert, gar einen freien Geist? Er muss untertauchen und sich irgendwo am besten eine oder mehrere Bleiben schaffen, in denen er sich verstecken kann, bis er wieder mit dem Rest des Teams zusammen kommen kann.

Das Buch ist zweigeteilt. Zum einen finden wir zwei Kurzgeschichten, eine über Kat und Kane, die andere über Kat O’Nine Tails. Nein, die beiden Kats sind nicht die Gleichen. Mich hat es auch kurz verwirrt. Dennoch sind beide Geschichten recht angenehm zu lesen und helfen einem, sich in die Materie dieses kurzen Buchs zu versetzen.

Der zweite Teil bedient Spielmechaniken. Zum einen wird dem Leser der Unterschied zwischen den drei Typen von Verstecken bolt holes, safehouses und off the grid erklärt, zum anderen finden wir hier auch einen Baukasten, der uns erklärt, wie man ein Versteck zu welchen Kosten absichert. Für Quantifizierbarkeit ist also gesorgt.

• Bolt Houses gehören den Runnern und wurden von Ihnen ausgestattet und möglicherweise auch erbaut. • Safehouses gehören anderen (Meta)Menschen und werden in irgendeiner Form angemietet • Off the Grid – Naja, genau das, wonach es sich anhört. Das ist das komplette Abtauchen, vielleicht der Wechsel einer Identität, chirurgisches Verändern des Äußeren, das Leben unter Squattern. Kurzum: Weg. Ganz weg.

Zusätzlich kriegen wir qualities für die Verstecke, was ungefähr Vor- und Nachteilen entspricht. Weitere Regeln zur Absicherung, zum Einbrechen und auch zum Auffinden sind auch beinhaltet. Immer wieder lockert Shadowtalk wie gewohnt die Texte auf und so manches Mal musste ich auch lachen.

Preis/Leistungsverhältnis

Naja, viel ist da nicht drin. Der Baukasten mit Erschaffungspunkten, nach denen sich laufenden Kos-ten richten, ist eine nette Idee. Die Kurzgeschichten sind … naja… nett, aber auch nicht mehr. Aller-dings kostet es auch nur 3,97 EUR zum derzeitigen Wechselkurs. Falsch macht man damit nichts. Vor allem genannter Baukasten sorgt für Regelfairness in der Runde.

Fazit

Ich weiß nicht so recht. Ja, jeder Runner wird mal in die Situation kommen, sich verstecken zu müs-sen und nach Unterkünften suchen. Auch kann es passieren, dass Dinge einmal so grundsätzlich schief gehen, dass man ganz verschwinden muss (Kann man eigentlich seine arkane Signatur verän-dern? Dass man sie verstecken kann, weiß ich). Ein Regelwerk dazu – hmja. Mir gefällt eigentlich die Tabelle mit den verschiedenen Sicherheitsleveln und den damit verbundenen Kosten am Besten. Wer unbedingt Regeln für alles braucht, kann sich das Buch sicher kaufen. Wer nur mal wissen möchte, was möglich ist in ungefähr, sollte auch hier zuschlagen. Der Preis ist ja fast zum Geschenkt-Level. Der Rest lässt die Finger weg. Es ist keinesfalls schlecht, es ist auch dem Preis angemessen, aber neben den beiden genannten Zielgruppen wird es wohl keinen interessieren Unsere Bewertung

Erscheinungsbild 3 – Standard Shadowrun-Stil, aber Innen nur schwarz/weiß Inhalt 3 – Naja, wer braucht und selbst keine Ideen zu Verstecken hat, sollte kaufen. Preis/Leistung 4 – Der Preis ist wirklich fair und passt zum Umfang Gesamt: 3.5



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by John O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/02/2012 10:42:54

A great storyteller book and a valuable game niche, but it's gonna see limited use in my games. I very rarely hand down the kind of failure that would cause a team to need a safe house after a run. It's fun once or twice, but becomes a punishment quickly in my experience. That said, the book's resources can also be quickly adapted to creating a Runner's stronghold for day to day -secure- living and that's where I get most of my use for the book from. Either in helping my players come up with something good for their characters or for creating an opposition runner's stronghold for them to assault. It could have used some example builds for quick use, cause the book was short.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Eric A. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 03/22/2012 14:10:28

A very nice supplement for those who are serious about their Shadowrun.

The key feature for me was the breakdown of the different types of safe houses and their lifestyle costs. The examples are well done to.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by William G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/07/2012 05:59:53

I'll be honest, I will likely not use the actual game mechanics in the book. My Runners have never put ay effort into the advanced lifestyle rules, and have shown no indication that they are going to start. That is not way I bought this book. I bought it because it captures the sourcebook tone I love from Shadowrun. The fluff is a great story, and the safehouse descriptions will provide plenty of interiors for your runners to encounter when they start knock in doors at random. I think it was a bit expensive for its size, but it seems to be the going rate for RPG pdfs, and I am going to be able to cannibalize this into nearly any game I run.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Russell P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/02/2012 07:24:35

Originally reviewed at: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=36748&view=findpost&p=1143432

Safehouses. All runners need safe houses to operate from or hole up in. Over the years, I thrown a number of them together off the top of my head as a team has reached out to fixers or landlords or similar contacts. At $5.00, I snapped this up as soon as it came up. Initial impressions of artwork and content were very positive. Initial impression of quantity left me with a "what?". For $5.00, I didn't expect 250 pages, but neither did I expect 18. This under 20 page count is becoming a disturbing trend from CGL. For example, Burn, the latest Missions module weighs in at 32 pages for $3.95. I like bite sized content, but I feel like the bags of chips that are over 1/2 full of air... deep down I feel wronged for paying for air.

That out of the way, let's dig into the content. The artwork was very good and relevant to the product; the latter is just as important to me. Several short fictions to wet your appetite. I liked Wedge's list; it even covered the thing most people forget about: entertainment. The safehouse Point cost was a good addition. I haven't crunched the numbers, but at a glance they look reasonable enough. I especially like the qualities.

4.5/5 Artwork: Seven, good quality, mostly relevant pieces including the cover. 5/5 Content: Just what the runner ordered. 4/5 Additional Features: Qualities, cost tables, descriptions all in the format used in Runner's Companion. No new equipment/sensors/gear. frown.gif 4/5 Overall Value: Page count is way low comparably. A well written rules book for a relatively frequently used topic combine to raise the value to me.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Alexander L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/21/2012 06:07:09

originally printed at http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/02/21/tabletop-review-shadowrun-safehouses/

Shadowrun: Safehouses was released the same day I got married. Is the Sixth World trying to tell me something? In all seriousness though, Safehouses is a great little release from Catalyst Game Labs.

Safehouses is a nice mix of in-game fiction and mechanics that gives a detailed look at an oft-overlooked aspect of shadowrunning. After all, whether you’ve run a Shadowrun campaign or you’ve played in one – inevitably something goes horribly wrong. Maybe it was planned or just a truly terrible roll of the dice, but suddenly you’ve got everyone from Lone Star to Aztlan blood mages after you. You can’t go home because someone (or something) will be waiting for you there. Your friends, family and Johnsons are probably being questions as you try to regroup, but where can you (and maybe your team as well) go where you can be sure you won’t wake up to a bullet in the face? That’s where safehouses come in. When this situation comes into your own campaign, turning to this pdf lets a GM stay in control instead of scrambling for how to deal with a worst case scenario.

Half the PDF is comprised of in-game fiction. You get two short stories, one about Kane and Kat, and the other is about Kat O’ Nine Tails. For people who don’t pay close attention to the metaplot or newcomers, you might be confused by the two different Kats at first, thinking the second story is a continuation of the first, but don’t worry – it’s not. The other piece of fiction takes us to Jackpoint where Fastjack has made /dev/grrl write a report on safehouses. There are several bits, both by dev and the Jackpoint community, that made me laugh out loud – the best of which involved Man-Of-Many-Names making a reference to 1960s R&B band The Animals. The “report” gives you the flavor text to go with the last half of the pdf, which is all game mechanics.

There are three types of buildings where a runner on the run (Wow that phrase sounds awkward) can lay low. There are bolt holes, safehouses and off the grid. A bolt hole is a location owned and setup by the runner. A safehouse is run by someone else that a runner pays to stay at. Off the grid is exactly what you think it is. The mechanics gives you everything from a list of all the items a good bolt hole should have to a point/cost table for a safehouse. You also get a set of lifestyle categories (Entertainment, Necessities and Security) for designing safehouses, a list of “qualities” for a safehouse (think Merits and Flaws from Vampire: The Masquerade) along with a list of what qualities from Runner’s Companion can also be applied to a safehouse or bolt hole. The whole piece then wraps up with some samples of each.

Safehouses is quite short, coming in at only eighteen pages. With a price point of $4.95, it’s about half the length of one of the Shadowrun Missions suppliment, while costing a dollar more. This season of Shadowrun Missions is also in full colour while Safehouses is in black and white, so at first glance Safehouses might not seem like a very good deal to newcomers or casual Shadowrun fans. The truth is that Shadowrun Missions is pound for pound the best deal in tabletop gaming today, so ANYTHING compared to it will look unfavorable. For less than five bucks, this pdf-only release may not be a must own for every Shadowrun fan, but it does help to flesh out exactly what happens when a run goes tits up. It’s informative, well written and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it and can say it’s easily worth a five spot. Any Shadowrun fan that picks this up will be happy with the purchase, although the actual in-game mileage one gets out of Safehouses may vary.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Shadowrun: Safehouses
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Adrian S. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/15/2012 19:29:08

We've all had it happen in a Shadowrun game when the stakes are simply too high, the Johnson has lied, we've been double-crossed or simply need to drop out of the line of fire for a while. 'Safehouse' is a great little supplement (at eighteen pages) which gives you new rules for Boltholes and Safehouses which allow runners to customise their home-away-from-home. Narrated by FastJack, the supplement brings back a sense of the quirky and dry humour of the Shadowrun world and is told in tandem with the much younger runner /dev/grrl. The interwoven story is a good backdrop for the explanations given and the segue from descriptive narrative to hard rules is done well. It gives, as mentioned, new rules for constructing these establishments, but also a good list of 'must-have' gear for the safehouse, new qualities (as per Runners Companion) and some sample safehouses. Overall, it is quite a lot of information given the brevity of the page count. If nothing else, it will give your runners something to plan for and add to the somewhat paranoid edge that should be present on all runs. Highly recommended.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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