1 comments about Magic in the Shadows (Shadowrun).

1. Magic in the Shadows is essentially a consolidation and update of the Grimoire and Awakenings: New Magic in 2057. Most of it seems to be the Grimoire but they did include (in abbreviated fashion) material from Awakenings.

   It updates all the advanced magic stuff like initiation and meta-magic to 3rd edition rules and does a pretty good job of it. My only gripe is that section on Voodoo is cut down and a lot of the "flavor" of Voodoo from Awakenings is gone.

   I'm not totally up on the 3rd edition magic system but it does appear to have been cleaned up quite a bit and simplified. I'm sure this removes some of the complexity but I think overall it's for the best.

   This book was written by Stephen Kenson who seems to be the magic guru of the Shadowrun universe. It's not an entertaining read just for fun but it's a better "textbook" than the previous magic books were. There's more examples, clearer definitions, and better organization. It provides a little new information on ghosts as well.

   If you have magicians in your games your going to need this book sooner rather than later. It's pretty easy to find and you might have some luck finding cheaper used copies of it.

No comments about California Free State (Shadowrun RPG).

2 comments about Awakenings: New Magic in 2057 (Shadowrun RPG).

1. This manual adds lots of flavor to the Shadowrun game. There are all types of new twists added to the standard magic system by this book. This book spends lots of time making magic much more personal. There are many tales of Lore from the perspective of the magician in this book. It also adds new twists to the Meta-Magics. It also nearly doubles the number of physical adept powers. This book also gives rules for many new and interesting totems. And, of course, there are many new spells.



2. This book is an important improvement to the SR arsenal for magical characters. It is unfortunate that this book wasn't released about 5 years ago!! It is _the_ book if you have someone that has never plyed a magical character in SR before. It gives an excellent explanation of SR magic. Other important features are multiple takes on how magic 'really' works, as well as expanded rules for both mages and phys-ads. I highly suggest using this as your primary SR magical resource, using the Grimoire2 as the book you go to when your characters mature sufficently to need all that fancy sutff.

1 comments about Rigger 3 (Shadowrun RPG).

1. If you want some extra rigging rules, droids, vehicules, etc this is the book you want. Specially considering this is the revised edition which includes upto date errata and corrections.
   As usual, the main Shadowrun book is enough to do some rigging but if you plan on doing it for serious, get this.

1 comments about Shadowrun Companion (Shadowrun).

1. This version of the Shadowrun Companion has been updated for 3rd edition. I sneaked a peek at the old edition of the Companion and they don't seem all that different though I imagine the tables, rules, and numbers have been tweaked quite a bit.

   Depending on how you look at it the information in this book is stuff that should have been included in the rule book. IMHO, however, the rulebook was thick enough as it was and most of this is optional rules you won't need for a while.

   The highlight of the book is probably the point based character creation system which is more flexible than the stanard priority based one. It also gives some brief data on metahuman sub-types that is interesting. It gives the game master a little advice on how to run a game (though new GMs would benefit from more examples) and some optional rules that give your games a little more realism (albeit at the cost of some more complexity).

   You don't need this book to start playing Shadowrun but I'd reccomend picking it up after you and your players have some new runs under your belt. A little bit hard to find and probably sold at full cover price.

1 comments about New Seattle Sourcebook (Shadowrun).

1. New Seattle is pretty much a total remake of the previous Seattle Sourcebook that served for 1st and 2nd edition Shadowrun. While Seattle was always a useful sourcebook and possibly the most important sourcebook other than the rulebook this volume does a good job of updating and consolidating the metroplex. It's somewhat quicker and easier to read than the original and gives a few more adventure ideas than the old Seattle book.

   It follows the trend of 3rd edition books to have less artwork but it does have one author which helps lend consistency to the book. While the background history of the sprawl in New Seattle may not be current anymore it's a hell of a better than using an old 1st edition book. The backstory has been updated for the corp war and the mob war and the death of Dunkelzhan.

   You should probably pick this up if you're starting a new group. There's enough floating around that you can probably find it used for less than the cover price. Fanpro may reprint it later, I'm not sure.

3 comments about Shadowrun Quick Start.

1. A friend of mine owns a gaming shop, and we popped open a copy to use as the store copy. Got some people interested in the game at a relatively small cost, and the SR3 books started selling off the shelves like hotcakes and i got 8 new people wanting to play my game. If you already own any Shadowrun stuff it's not worth it, but if you just want to check the game out it's a great tool for new players. You'll still need to nab SR3 or SR2 if you want to seriously play, but this book is a good way to see if you're interested especially if you don't know anyone who owns a copy of either edition that you can borrow or read.



2. I'll be honest. This book helps you with the basics. But you NEED the SR3 book, its just so much better. This book provides a pretty good START, but if you wish to continue, you would do better to check out the subjects described in the book, in the SR3. It's not even an equipment list! Whats up with that? An if you want to start off by creating your own characters, you should get the SR3 too. My final rating? Useless without SR3, great for explaining basics. (Also it's great for players generally... cuz it explains the basics VERY well) But FASA should do better next time. Besides... what about the sample mission? GREAT. That's one of the highlights in my opinion...



3. I bought this book thinking I didn't have to spend thirty bucks on a game i might not like. so anyway the book has minor details but is very very confusing. I already shelled out cash for first run and have to buy the 3rd edition rules anyway =) so this book was mainly a waste of cash.If you need to start everyone is saying to start with third edition right away...to third i go =)

No comments about Shadowrun: Wake of the Comet (FPR10654) (Shadowrun).

5 comments about Cybertechnology: A Shadowrun Sourcebook.

1. I love this book. All the info is well sorted and easy to find. It even has a plot to what is happening, and supprisingly, it was great. Everything was explained in great detail, and even has the personal quotes, which i thourgly enjoy. Great buy, but i only wish it had a little more info about deltaware.



2. If you are reading this, I must warn you not to by this book. Alone it's pretty good but... Fasa will be releasing a book called Man & Machine: Cyberware to outdate this book. It will be combinging Shadowtech and Cybertech. Something for you street sams to cream your jeans about. Cybermany is pretty cool, but thier are so many drawbacks that becombing a "cyberzombie" would mean what your charicter will die excedingly fast [wasting all the time and efoort you put into it]and HE WILL be under the control of whater orginization did this for him.



3. The entire section on Cybermancy, and everything to do with it, is complete and total nonsense. Without any apologies, borgs and cyberware pretty much work out like Appleseed in my campaign (try getting any Bri-type character in Shadowrun's crippled Essence-Loss/Cyberware mechanic; HAH!). Borgs and cyberpunk go together, and that's the final say on the matter.

   The coverage of the various pieces of equipment by a single "shadowrunner", giving his opinions, lends a sort of unified flavor the beginning of the book, which I did like.

   Be prepared to spend money for sections you'll never use, though (specfically, Cybermancy).




4. This book is great, with some good gear, but a whole lot of this stuff depends on one's knowledge of the stuff in the Street Sam catalog, Fields of Fire, and Shadowtech



5. WARNING-if you own fields of fire,shadowtech,and the street sam catalog, buy this book. if you don't own them, wait a bit,as the bulk of this book deals mainly with revising the explanations of gear found there....and since FASA is reprinting all of them into one 3rd edition book anyways....... While most players drool and their GM's cringe over the implications of delatagrade cyberware and cybermancy, I found the most useful section of the book to be the various updates on compatibility of implants from previous books('say, CAN I get Muscle augmentation if I have 3 vyberlimbs, and how will that affect my new adrenal pump'?). Dowd's framing technique was very effective and entertaining.

2 comments about Corporate Security Handbook (Shadowrun, No 7118).

1. Has a lot of good info on spicing up those standard "there's a package in research center 4-B we want you to get" runs. Nice new info on anti-magical security and executive protection too. Good if your runs are staring to go a bit bland, but hardley a fundemental.



2. The corp security handbook has informtion involving corporate security that I don't believe any book has captured to date. The rules may have been republished in other newer source books, but much is lacking in the reprinted material.