(An explanation of the items in each book review can be found here.)
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Released: 1990
Author: Boy F. Peterson Jr.
ISBN: 1-55560-111-1
Price: $15.00
Pages: 175 + 4 color + fold-out map
Status/Availability: out of print/common
Sections: Introduction, Welcome to Seattle, Facts At Your Fingertips, History, Downtown/Seattle, Renraku Arcology, Aztechnology Complex, Council Island, Bellevue, Tacoma, Everett, Renton, Auburn, Snohomish, Fort Lewis, Redmond, Puyallup, Government, Economy, Crime, Maps
Overview: Not, as the FASA catalog says, loaded with maps. In fact, there are only 13 pages with maps in the back of the book, and all these are of the different districts in Seattle. (And guess what? They don't even fit together!) The major part of the book is an overview of all the districts that make up the Seattle Metroplex, with histories, geographical descriptions, demographics, and so on given for each district as well as Seattle as a whole. The most important part of each district chapter consists of short descriptions of various buildings and locations. The last (shorter) chapters talk about how the 'plex is governed, organized and non-organized crime, and other things that are handy to know. As with most Shadowrun sourcebooks, there are lots of decker comments everywhere, so make of the text what you will. The book is almost essential to run a campaign in Seattle, because it gives a much better insight into the city that the short text in the back of the Shadowrun rules does.
Similar Products: Denver — The City of Shadows, New Seattle
Survey Rating: 7.0 (33 votes)
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Released: 1991
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-130-8
Price: $12.00
Pages: 136
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Sections: Peacekeeper: A Prologue, Introduction, The Adventure, Picking Up the Pieces, Legwork, Cast of Shadows, Player Handouts, Native American Nations, Salish-Shidhe Council, Sioux Nation, Pueblo Corporate Council, Ute Nation
Overview: The largest part of this book is the adventure Peacekeeper. What follows on from this is a short guide to four of the Native American Nations, described in a similar way as in most other Shadowrun sourcebooks: basic text with comments by people who think they have something to say. As with the Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, the information provided doesn't go very deep but is sufficient to get some idea on what is going on in each country. I personally would have liked to see more game-specific information as well as more things on topics like how to cross borders, but that is just my personal opinion. Players might want to read this book, especially if their characters are Native Americans, but otherwise it's mostly a gamemaster's book, giving ideas for adventures if you read between the lines a bit.
Survey Rating: 5.9 (27 votes)
Similar Products: Aztlan, California Free State, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tir Tairngire
Notes: For details on the adventure Peacekeeper, see the adventure reviews.
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Released: 1991
Authors: Carl Sargent & Marc Gascoine
ISBN: 1-55560-131-6
Price: $15.00
Pages: 152 + 16 color
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Sections: Introduction, Great Britain, London, Britain Beyond London, Gamemaster's Section
Overview: This is the sourcebook about the United Kingdom in general, and London in particular. It describes the way Britain has changed since the turn of the century, and what it's like in the early 2050s. The book focuses on London, with about a third of the book devoted to that city and its districts, but also talks about the rest of the country, touching on other British cities such as Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and more, plus details of the countryside (or what's left of it).
As it was written by Sargent and Gascoigne (called the " Wonder Twins" by someone on the ShadowRN list), it probably won't be a surprise to learn that elves seem to dominate the higher classes of society and all the other races are shoved down into the slums. Another thing that irks me about this book is the seemingly needless destruction of the country by the writers in the interest of making it a different place than it is today. (This isn't peculiar to this book, but it's just more obvious here than in most other Shadowrun books, except possibly the Germany Sourcebook.)
Oh, and as with seemingly all Shadowrun location books, it's described as grossly inaccurate by people actually living in the areas the book describes... It hasn't bothered me here, but then, I felt that way about Target: Smuggler Havens.
Similar Products: Germany Sourcebook, Target: Smuggler Havens, Tír na nÓg
Survey Rating: 5.2 (21 votes)
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Released: 1994
Authors: Jens Eggert, Martin Ellermeier, Guido Hölker, Michael Immig, Irene Fehlberg, Alex Kleesen, Hartwig Nieder-Gassel, Jörg Raddatz, Thomas Römer, Carsten Scheibe & Andreas Wichter
Translation: Reinhold H. Mai
ISBN: 1-55560-186-3
Price: $18.00
Pages: 160 + 8 color
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Sections: Welcome To Germany, Fast Forward, History, Government, German Society, State Security, Economy, Rhine-Ruhr Megaplex, South German States, Awakened Lands, Free State Of Westphalia, Berlin, German Magic, Game Information
Overview: This is the English translation of Deutschland in den Schatten ("Germany in the Shadows"), which was published in 1992 by the German company Fantasy Productions GmbH (FanPro) for the German market. The translation is well done, except that the FASA version lacks a few chapters of the German version, namely those with contacts, archetypes, and equipment, and the chapter on the city of Hamburg. Most likely these were deemed unnecessary for an American/world-wide audience, and to tell the truth the equipment was a bit munchkinous anyway. FASA also changed all the art, except for the cover.
That out of the way, it's a fairly standard location sourcebook: it describes the history of the country, how to get there and how to get around once you're there, followed by chapters dealing with specific regions that can be interesting for adventures. The final chapters concern game rules, mainly for magic-related things unique to Germany. All in all not a bad book, but like all location sourcebooks it won't be much use to you unless you plan on running at least a few games in Germany.
Similar Products: London Sourcebook, Target: Smuggler Havens, Tír na nÓg
Survey Rating: 5.3 (21 votes)
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Released: 1990
Authors: Nigel D. Findley & Chris Kybasik
ISBN: 1-55560-024-7
Price: $12.00
Pages: 56 (Missing Blood) + unknown (handout)
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Overview: This is perhaps the most sought-after Shadowrun book in existence. Despite its serial number indicating it as a sourcebook, it is really an adventure (Missing Blood) and a large player handout, bundled together in a paper sleeve; it's definitely not a book you can read and get adventure ideas or world background information from—except for the truth about the Universal Brotherhood, the well-known charity organization. The idea behind the package is that the players go through the adventure, and at some point discover the handout, which the gamemaster then lets them read—they certainly should not see it before that time! The adventure itself is fairly straightforward, but will be discussed in the adventures reviews.
Survey Rating: 8.9 (18 votes)
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Released: 1990 or 1991 (the book contradicts itself)
Authors: Sam Lewis, Anthony Prior, Stevie McBride, Richard garret Molpus, Stephan Wieck, Nigel D. Findley, Paul R. Hume, Christopher Kubasik & Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-135-9
Price: $15.00
Pages: 128 + 6 double-sided fold-out maps
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Sections: Introduction, Neo-Anarchism, California Free State, San Francisco, Confederated American States, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Republic of Québec, Québec City, United Canadian and American States, Federal District of Columbia, Chicago, New York City
Overview: What does North America look like in the 2050s? This is the book that explains. Sort of. Even though it claims to be a guide to North America, you will need Native American Nations Volume One and Volume Two, the Seattle Sourcebook, and Tir Tairngire to get a more or less complete picture; this book is concerned mostly with the areas occupied by Anglos. Anyway, this Guide describes some areas of North America in the well-known fashion of text filled with decker comments, but also gives an idea of what neo-anarchism is all about. The text is supported by three-color maps in the back of the book: every major city that's discussed has two maps, one that shows the complete city and one to illustrate the downtown core, and there is also a map of almost the whole of North America. All this combined gives a reasonable picture of Shadowrun's North America, but doesn't really go into details. Of course, that is to be expected from a book that describes half a continent. As for usefulness, again mostly for the gamemaster, and only if you want to know more about the world, or if your players want to venture out from Seattle to explore the lands beyond.
Similar Products: Aztlan, California Free State, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 6.7 (29 votes)
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Released: 1991
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-158-8
Price: $12.00
Pages: 108
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Sections: First Strike: A Prologue, The Adventure, Legwork, Cast Of Shadows, Picking Up The Pieces, Player Handouts, Native American Nations, Algonkian-Manitoo Council, Athabascan Council, Trans-Polar Aleut Nation, Tsimshian Nation
Overview: This is the second Native American Nations book, dealing with the four countries remaining after Volume One (above). Again, the first part of the book is an adventure, this time called Eye Of The Eagle, followed by descriptions of the countries. Very much like Volume One, and if you own one you probably will also want to have the other.
Similar Products: Aztlan, California Free State, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume One, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 5.8 (31 votes)
Notes: For details on the adventure Eye Of The Eagle, see the adventure reviews.
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Released: 1992
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-165-0
Price: $15.00
Pages: 104 + 8 color
Status/Availability: out of print/uncommon
Sections: Introduction, Finding Your Feet, Security Blanket, Fringe of Space, Killer Accessories, Dressed to Kill, DocWagon's New Medicine, Seattle on 30¥ a Night, Guarding the Till, Eating Fast and Fearlessly, Best of Home Security, Sharper Image, One-Way Communication, You Are Your Credstick, Rules
Overview: Lots of background material mixed in with useful and less-useful new equipment and rules, The Neo-Anarchists' Guide to Real Life gives an insight into security systems, fashion, medical clinics, coffin hotels, credsticks, and a few more things of interest to Shadowrun players. The book is very useful for getting to know a bit more about how the world of Shadowrun works, and what you can expect to encounter in the sprawl. The section on credsticks is really just a slight expansion and reprint of the rules in Sprawl Sites, however. For gamemasters, the chapters on security provide good information on how corps and others guard their compounds, houses, and places of business, while for the fashion-conscious players there are some fashion-weapons and equally-fashionable armor and goodies (finally! I like useless gadgets for my characters...). The last chapter provides specific game rules for all subjects covered. All in all, I'd say you could do a lot worse than buy this book.
Similar Products: Chromebook Conversions
Survey Rating: 7.4 (32 votes)
Notes: stats for things like weapons and gear are included for both first and second edition Shadowrun.
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Released: 1996
Authors: Hilary Ayer, Michael Blum, Rob Cruz, Jak Koke Ed Methany, Lori Methany, Gordon Monsoon, Michael Mulvihill, Steve Perrin, Diane Piron-Gelman, Anders Swenson
ISBN: 1-55560-193-6
Price: $18.00
Pages: 160 + 8 color + fold-out color map
Status/Availability: out of print/uncommon
Sections: Introduction, The California Question, Free State Fast Facts, Northern Crescent, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, Big Sur Coast, Los Angeles, Mojave Desert, The Players, Game Information, Maps, Index
Overview: the now out-of-print Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America dealt with California Free State in one of its chapters, but this sourcebook expands on the data given there, and updates it to 2057. If anything, it only makes the situation worse from the one described in the older book, making California a patch-work of semi-independent areas more or less under threat from each other and the countries bordering on the Free State. Anyone planning to set a campaign in California will need this sourcebook, and for those just visiting for a while it can also provide good adventure ideas. However, if only a short visit is planned, the information in The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America will be sufficient for most gamemasters. Also added are some new rules for California-specific things, although these mainly deal with magical side-effects and complications. There are also rules for mutant and toxic critters, which can be useful in other areas of the world as well. In the back of the book are maps of the various parts of California, and one for the whole state.
Similar Products: Aztlan, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 6.7 (25 votes)
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Released: 1993
Author: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-197-9
Price: $18.00
Pages: 152 + 8 color
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Sections: Introduction, First Impressions, Geography, How It Came to Be, Politics, Tir Society, Economy, Telecommunications, Laws, Tir Tairngire Peace Force, Portland, Salem, Eugene, Open Conference, Map
Overview: Finally good information on the Tir. After lots of contradictory statements in earlier books, this one attempts to give a view behind the curtain, sorry, wall that surrounds Tir Tairngire. This is, in my opinion, one of the best country sourcebooks, mainly because it not only focuses on the country's customs and laws, but also on how those laws are implemented, when you have to watch out, and more along those lines. Like most of the country books, this one is most suitable for gamemasters in order to write adventures based in Tir Tairngire, but it also contains useful information for players who want to check up on the world behind the game system. We also get a look at the most important people in the Tir government, with a lot of hints dropped that not all is as it seems to be. Three cities (Portland, Salem, and Eugene) are also described in reasonable detail, and a map of the country is provided at the back of the book, something I feel FASA should have done in all sourcebooks. However, since Tir Tairngire is not very easy to enter (sort of East Germany-style inaccessible), the book is not really useful for players operating from Seattle, unless, of course, some Tir noble decides to hire outside help.
Similar Products: Aztlan, California Free State, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tír na nÓg
Survey Rating: 6.6 (27 votes)
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Released: 1993
Authors: Carl Sargent & Mark Gascoigne
ISBN: 1-55560-209-6
Price: $18.00
Pages: 168 + 8 color
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Sections: Introduction, Welcome To Tír na nÓg, History, Government, Laws, And Power, Economy, Ways And Paths, Tír Provinces, Dublin, Belfast, Path Magic, Additional Magic Rules, Druids, Arms And Equipment, Street Slang
Overview: Tír na nÓg is the new name of Ireland, and thus this book is about the changes that happened in that country in the 21st century. Like Tir Tairngire (see above), it's an elven "promised land" that is much different on the surface than below it, and this book does a good job describing both the country and setting up ways in which shadowrunners can become involved in it. However, some major problem with this book (which was not so much the case with Tir Tairngire, I feel) are the way it paints elves as the very height of human evolution, how they came to power in Ireland, and what happened once they got there. Now I freely admit don't know much about Ireland, but the 21st century history of the country as presented in this book is a bit difficult to believe for me, and the whole mythology-slash-religion the majority of elves in Tír na nÓg apparently follows is something that I feel would fit very well in a typical medieval fantasy game, but not in Shadowrun—the way I see it, such a belief system might develop over a much longer time than the two or hree decades the books talks about. This last factor is also what makes the whole elven thing unrealistic to me, because I cannot make myself believe that in 25 years or so, someone can transform a country the way "the elves" apparently did to Ireland. Another hard-to-believe part, to me anyway, is that all elves behave the same way—if you go by Tír na nÓg, though, every bloody elf (no, there's a Y at the end :) in the country sees him- or herself as standing above the rest of (meta)humanity. That sort of thing just doesn't happen, I think.
Anyway, the book itself is pretty good, it's mainly some of the events described that I don't agree with. A problem for shadowrun campaigns is that Tír na nÓg is very restrictive about what's allowed, and especially about getting into the country, which limits the potential for shadowruns quite a bit.
Similar Products: Germany Sourcebook, London Sourcebook, Target: Smuggler Havens
Survey Rating: 6.6 (27 votes)
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Released: 1994
Authors: Nigel D. Findley, Bill Lenox, Tom Wong & Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-236-3
Price: $25.00
Pages: 168 in the players' book, 62 in the gamemaster's book
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Sections: Players' book: Introduction, Read All About It, What You Need to Know, How It Got This Way, How It is Now, The Real Power, The Nexus, Aztlan Sector, CAS Sector, Pueblo Sector, Sioux Sector, UCAS Sector, Ute Sector, Index
Gamemaster's book: Introduction, Spirit of Denver, People, Locations & Organizations, Rules
Overview: Yep. Two books in a box. The box is of the same size as FASA uses for BattleTech products (if you play that one), with one of the books being for the players to read, and the other the property of the gamemaster. The players' book is set up as a Neo-A guide to Denver, in the familiar style, and contains no game rules whatsoever. Each of the city's sectors is described, with its notable locations, but the book does more than just give a city description. It also spreads rumors about the Nexus, a sort of decker-heaven (if you can get in), and its inhabitants, and the book gives a history of Denver as well as a good description of the current fucked-up situation (and that is just an understatement). As usual, the players' book doesn't tell the whole truth, as this is up to the gamemaster to decide by using his or her gamemaster book.
Taking the gamemaster book to hand, this is set up in such a way that the players could read it if they want to, and still not know what is truly going on. You see, the gamemaster is given three choices for everything described, so he or she can choose which to use in the campaign. The rest of the gamemaster book is a section with rules; these include credstick rules (from Sprawl Sites), legalities rules (from Shadowtech or Sprawl Sites), security and search rules (from The Neo Anarchists' Guide to Real Life), and more previously-published rules as well as some new rules on police response times and typical equipment used by Denver border guards.
The idea behind this set is to run a campaign in Denver after you've bought it. If you plan on staying in Seattle (or wherever), there's no real need to buy this campaign set, I feel.
Similar Products: Aztlan, California Free State, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, New Seattle, Seattle Sourcebook, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 7.3 (27 votes)
Notes: The box contains a players' book, a gamemaster's book, a small (about 28 x 44 cm) full-color map of the whole of Denver, a large (about 55 x 90 cm) full-color map of downtown Denver, and two credit-card sized visitor passes to two different sectors (I got Aztlan and CAS, but there's a pass for each sector, as far as I know).
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Released: 1995
Authors: Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-257-6
Price: $18.00
Pages: 184 + 8 color + fold-out color map
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Sections: Introduction, Inside The Big A, The Civil War, History, Aztechnology, Religion An Magic, Fast Facts, Getting In, Living In Aztlan, Tenochtitlán, Game Information, Index
Overview: By the mid-2050s, Aztlan is all of Central America—from present-day Mexico to parts of Colombia and Venezuela, and everything in between. Nominally it's an independent country, but everyone knows the megacorp Aztechnology is actually in control. This sourcebook, in my opinion the best location sourcebook published by FASA, has information about Aztlan and Aztechnology in the usual Shadowrun style, and there's enough of it here to either run one-off adventures into Aztlan, or even to run a campaign set entirely in Aztlan if you want to. All through the book there are hints that Aztechnology is up to something BIG and very nasty, especially in the comments made by assorted other powerful inhabitants of the Sixth World, in addition to the more mundane information shadowrunners need to survive in Aztlan. The last chapter of the book has game rules for Aztlan-style magic (which you don't want to get involved with, trust me), NPC stats, and some new equipment and vehicles (although these use Rigger Black Book stats, Rigger 2 has updates for most of them). As with all location sourcebooks, it won't be of much use if you don't plan on going there, except as general background, but for those wanting to run in Aztlan this book is indispensable.
Similar Products: California Free State, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 7.3 (32 votes)
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Released: 1997
Authors: Steven Kenson, Linda Naughton & Jonathan Jacobson
ISBN: 1-55560-314-9
Price: $15.00
Pages: 104
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Sections: Introduction, State Of The Union, Boston—The Hub, Detroit—Motor City, Chicago—Oblivion's End, Game Information
Overview: Target: UCAS is a book that tries to accomplish two things: first, to update the Shadowrun timeline to early 2058; and second, describe areas of the UCAS not previously covered in-depth. It's the first of the "Target" books, dealing with specific regions of the world in a slightly different way than the older sourcebooks did. For example, there are no lists of bars, restaurants, and other buildings, instead the book focuses on describing three cities (Boston, Chicago, and Detroit, in case you missed the Sections bit above), focusing mostly on what's of interest to shadowrunners—"who does what to whom and how"-style information, in essence. In this respect, the book is a handy source for the gamemaster, though I suspect the data given is not really enough to build a full campaign on (to be fair, that would be asking too much of a book this size).
That's part of the sourcebook section. The other gives the State of the Union for 2058, as read by UCAS president Kyle Haeffner (this also appeared on FASA's web site), and additional information about the commission investigating Dunkelzahn's assassination, as well as discussion and conclusions based on the current state of affairs in the UCAS. Also, the chapter about Chicago deals with the resolution (if it can be called that) of the Bug City crisis. Then there's the chapter with game information, which deals mostly with issues runners can encounter in the three cities described, including some rather nasty ones, as well as the option of using ghouls as player characters. Yes, you read that right...
Similar Products: Aztlan, California Free State, Denver — The City of Shadows, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 6.6 (29 votes)
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Released: 1998
Authors: Steven Kenson, Jonathan Szeto, Bill Agular, Chris Hussey, Linda Naughton & Michael Mulvihill
ISBN: 1-55560-341-6
Price: $15.00
Pages: 110
Status/Availability: in print/common
Sections: Introduction, New Orleans: The Big Easy, Vladivostok: The Wild East, Off The Deep End, Smuggling On Land, Game Information
Overview: First up, this book is intended as much for use with Cyberpirates as it is with more traditional Shadowrun settings. The setup of the book is similar to that of Target: UCAS, so I won't discuss that here again. Target: Smuggler Havens describes locations as well, but is not limited to North America—except for the New Orleans and Smuggling On Land chapters, the rest are in Europe and Asia. The inclusion of Vladivostok may seem strange, but it is included mainly because one of the Japanese megacorps relocated to the Russian city, suddenly turning it into a kind of Seattle on the other side of the Pacific. The chapter Off The Deep End deals with things on and near the water, such as the Sea of Japan, the North Sea, the Baltic, and countries aruond these. It also talks about arcologies built into these seas, the companies which constructed them, and underwater security. The final Game Information chapter has all the usual stuff, like living expenses and peculiarities of the cities covered, plus some critters, equipment, and new rules for situations that may come up as a result of using this book for game background. On the whole it's a book that mixes useful information with not-so-useful information, but I guess it depends mostly on what the gamemaster wants the PCs to do—if the primary setting is Seattle and the PCs don't venture out, you can better spend your money elsewhere. For travelling groups, and/or groups wanting an alternate setting, Target: Smuggler Havens can provide good ideas.
Similar Products: Aztlan, Denver — The City of Shadows, Germany Sourcebook, London Sourcebook, Native America Nations: Volume One, Native America Nations: Volume Two, Target: Smuggler Havens, Target: UCAS, The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, Tír na nÓg, Tir Tairngire
Survey Rating: 7.0 (25 votes)
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Released: 1999
Authors: Stephen Kenson & Jon Szeto
ISBN: 1-55560-342-4
Price: $20.00
Pages: 136
Status/Availability: in print/uncommon
Sections: Introduction, The Reason We're Here, The Pacific Northwest, Welcome to Seattle, History, Downtown Seattle, Around Town, The Barrens, The Body Politic, The Corporate Sector, The Seattle Underworld, Game Information, Locations Index, Index
Overview: This replacement for the Seattle Sourcebook is probably the best-looking book published for Shadowrun at the time this review is written (March 1999). However, you probably don't buy books because they look good, but because they have useful information. New Seattle does that just as well. It describes the Seattle Metroplex and its history, as well as giving basic information about the surrounding area. Downtown (i.e., Seattle itself) is described in detail, with the remaining districts gettign a bit less attention, but still there's enough to get an idea of what each is like and what sets it apart from the others. The major gangs and some important locations for each district are also included, as are Lone Star's security ratings to show how well-enforced the law is in the different areas of each district. The artwork is absolutely excellent, and really provide a feel for what the districts look like, the art for Redmond and Puyallup especially so. Further chapters tell us the basics of the politics, corporations, and criminal elements in the 'Plex, and there's a chapter with game information that mostly deals with the behind-the-scenes aspects of law enforcement, and that finally gives actual response times that the gamemaster can use to judge how much time the players have to get away from the firefights they so often get involved in (my only complaint is that the times are a bit too short for my taste). Some adventure hooks for each district and a list of the main locations (hotels, bars, etc.) in each district round out a book that I feel is well worth the purchase. If you also own the Seattle Sourcebook, there does not aoppear to be much overlap between the two, so the earlier book remains usable as well.
Similar Products: Denver — The City of Shadows, Seattle Sourcebook
Survey Rating: (Not rated)
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Released: 1994
Authors: Tom Wong & Nigel D. Findley
ISBN: 1-55560-227-4
Price: $10.00
Pages: 80
Sections: Facts At A Glance, Geography, History, Government, Economy, Cultural Forces, Military Forces, Honolulu, New Totems
Overview: Although mainly an adventure book, the last third of Paradise Lost has a sourcebook section about the Kingdom of Hawai'i, independent from the UCAS since 2017. This gives a fairly standard description of the country, like other location sourcebooks do, but nonetheless manages to give good information in only a few pages. For running the adventure in Paradise Lost, it's very useful, though not essential. The book is rounded out by some Hawai'ian totems.
Similar Products: Target: Smuggler Havens, Native American Nations: Volume One, Native American Nations: Volume Two
Survey Rating: 6.9 (17 votes)
Notes: The adventure is reviewed here.
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Released: 1998
Authors: David Hyatt, Brian Schoner & Robert Boyle
ISBN: 1-55560-347-5
Price: $15.00
Pages: 88
Sections: Welcome To The Shutdown, Prologue: Dance With The Devil, Subversiom, On The Outside Looking In, Shutdown!, Slaves Of The Machine, Devul's Playground, Rats In The Walls, The Nightmare, Game Information
Overview: Although called an adventure by FASA, it's actually a location sourcebook about what happens to the Renraku Arcology (that BIG building in downtown Seattle) in late 2060 and who's behind it. The largest part of the book is taken up by sourcebook sections that, as usual, don't tell the full story but only what's known on Shadowland (whose denizens, naturally, did some digging). These chapters are just as suitable for players to read as they are for the gamemaster, since they represent information available in the game world; only the last chapter, Game Information, has some stuff that players should stay away from. Anyway, this book is very handy if you want to run adventures based around the arcology's "shutdown" (actually, it's probably never been more active :) and/or need ideas for new and terrifying threats to the stability of the Shadowrun world, but if you want to stay away from the whole arcology plot thread, there is absolutely no reason to pick it up. In my opinion, that's a very good way to write a gaming book.
Similar Products: New Seattle, Seattle Sourcebook
Survey Rating: 7.7 (21 votes)
Notes: Additional chapters can be found on FASA's web page, and some additional information by one of the authors was posted at the currently-defunct Shadowland. Furthermore, the third-edition revisions of the otaku rules (the original rules are in Virtual Realities 2.0) are now available from several places on the Internet, since FASA has released them as a kind of errata. (In case you need them, they are here.)
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