(An explanation of the items in each book review can be found here.)
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Released: 1992
Authors: lotsa folks
ISBN: 1-55560-196-0
Price: $30.00
Pages: 296 (incl. 16 color) + 24 color + fold-out map
Status/Availability: out of print/very rare
Sections: Welcome to the Shadows, The Year Is 2053, Plus Ça Change, And So It Came To Pass, Game Concepts, Metahumanity, Creating A Character and Archetypes, Skills, Combat, Magic, The Matrix, Behind the Scenes, Contacts, Critters, Gear, The Modern Northwest, Seattle, Developer's Notes, Sourcebook Updates, Index
Overview: this is the main rulebook needed to play second edition Shadowrun, and it's essential for anyone who wants to gamemaster it. It includes all the rules necessary to play the game, and is a good improvement over the first edition rules, including as it does most of the improvements and rules expansions published between 1989 and 1992. However, in 1998, Shadowrun, Third Edition was published, making this rulebook obsolete. Just about the only reason to buy a second edition main book would be if you collect all books for the Shadowrun game system.
Similar Products: Shadowrun — Where Man Meets Magic And Machine, Shadowrun, Second Edition (softcover), Shadowrun, Third Edition
Survey Rating: 7.7 (20 votes)
Notes: This hardback was a limited edition of only one print run, but it was otherwise indentical to the softcover.
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Released: 1992
Authors: as for the hardcover.
ISBN: 1-55560-180-4
Price: $25.00
Pages: as for the hardcover.
Status/Availability: out of print/uncommon
Sections: as for the hardcover.
Overview: as for the hardcover.
Similar Products: Shadowrun — Where Man Meets Magic And Machine, Shadowrun, Second Edition (hardcover), Shadowrun, Third Edition
Survey Rating: 7.7 (29 votes)
Notes: The softcover book is the main version of the second edition Shadowrun rules, having at least 11 print runs between 1992 and 1996, I believe, and probably more after that. It has been superseded by the new third edition.
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Released: 1992
Author: Tom Dowd
ISBN: 1-55560-185-5
Price: $12.00
Pages: 38 (Archetypes & Contacts book), three-panel screen, double-sided card, "standup characters"
Status/Availability: out of print/rare
Sections: Archetypes & Contacts book: Archetypes, Contacts, Decker Record Sheet, Magician Record Sheet, Rigger Record Sheet, Street Samurai Record Sheet
Overview: This is just your basic, average gamemaster screen. It's a three-panel affair with fairly nice art by Janet Aulisio on the front, while the back has the tables and stuff you'd expect of a product like this. A separate sheet has tables for less-common events, like decking and magic. Also in the package is the Shadowrun, Second Edition Gamemaster's Screen Archetypes And Contacts Book—which proclaims itself to be the "Winner of the 1992 Game Alliance Longest Title Of The Year Award" :) and which is not much more than all the archetypes and contacts from Sprawl Sites and Shadowrun first edition that didn't make it into SRII, updated to conform to second edition rules where necessary. The final item is a thin cardboard sheet with die-cut counters for characters—press them out, fold them over, and use them to show where each character is in a firefight. Not much more than the ones that come with DMZ but with different art. All in all, if you don't have a GM screen this is fairly useful, but if you have one that you can improvise with, it's not really worth the bother, I feel.
Similar Products: Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen, Shadowrun Gamemaster Screen, Third Edition
Survey Rating: 6.3 (24 votes)
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Released: 1992
Author: Paul R. Hume
ISBN: 1-55560-190-1
Price: $15.00
Pages: 142
Status/Availability: out of print/common
Sections: Introduction, The Ways, The Arts, The Higher Mysteries, The Beings, The Places, Magical Threats, Spells, Index
Overview: Just about useless to all other kinds of characters, any magician will find this one invaluable simply because of all the new things it details. Most of the information presented in The Grimoire is immediately useable in any campaign, provided your character has enough Good Karma to spend. Things like initiations, astral quests, spell design, new spirits, and rules expansions all combine to make magicians more powerful and more dangerous than ever. The druid rules from the London Sourcebook are also included and updated to second edition Shadowrun, and some magical threats are introduced, giving gamemasters some very nasty surprises to spring on unwary players.
Similar Products: Awakenings — New Magic in 2057, Magic In The Shadows, Tech Specs, The Grimoire — The Manual of Practical Thaumaturgy, 14th Edition, 2050
Survey Rating: 7.9 (32 votes)
Notes: This is the reworked version of the original Grimoire (from 1990).
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Released: 1995
Author: Paul Hume
ISBN: 1-55560-271-1
Price: $18.00
Pages: 176 + 8 color
Status/Availability: in print/common
Sections: Introduction, Interlude 1: Welcome To The Matrix, Matrix 2.0, Interlude 2: Things To Come, Grids And Hosts, Intrusion Countermeasures, Interlude 3: SOTA In Fear, Mapping Matrices, Interlude 4: Worlds Of The Matrix, Deckers, Cyberdecks, Programs, System Operations, Cybercombat, Hacker House, Matrix Law, Artificial Intelligence, The Otaku, Matrix Hot Spots, Appendix, Index
Overview: This book presents a complete overhaul of the Matrix system, changing things down to almost the basic principles of how the Matrix was run before. It attempts to make decking easier for players and gamemasters, in which it succeeds for the most part. For example, the complicated business with nodes populated with IC is replaced by rules in which deckers enter complete systems that activate particular pieces of IC when the decker gives away his presence. The more obvious you'll go stomping around the Matrix, the more intrusion countermeasures will get fired your way. A few drawbacks of the book are that it requires everyone who is used to the old rules, to convert to the new ones without a set of conversion guidelines for old characters or systems, and that the rules are scattered all over the book, making it hard to find specific rules in a hurry. All in all, though, it makes the Matrix a lot more playable than Virtual Realities ever did. The color plates are also nice, all of them computer-generated artwork, even though they don't really give all that much of an idea of what the Matrix is really like.
Similar Products: Virtual Realities
Survey Rating: 7.3 (34 votes)
Notes: replaces both the Matrix chapter of the SRII rules, as well as the complete Virtual Realities book. The basic rules were incorporated into SR3, but Virtual Realities 2.0 has much more information than appears in that book.
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Released: 1996
Authors: Zach Bush, Jennifer Brandes, Chris Hepler, Chris Hussey, Jonathon Jacobson, Steve Kenson, Linda Naughton, Brian Schoner & Michael Mulvihill
ISBN: 1-55560-298-3
Price: $15.00
Pages: 136
Status/Availability: out of print/uncommon
Sections: Introduction, In Their Own Words, Character Creation, Skills And Training, How To Hire A Shadowrunner, Contacts And Enemies, Advanced Rules, Running The Game, Alternate Campaign Concepts, Shadowrun Character Sheets, Index
Overview: The advanced rules supplement for the Shadowrun game as a whole, most of this book expands existing rules, adds optional new ones, and clarifies others. It is in no way required to play the game, but it's quite a good add-on to increase the scope of the game itself as well as of the game world. Among the topics covered are a whole new character generation system (points-based, rather than a priority system), edges and flaws to make a character more unique, new metahuman races, a new skill web, rules for learning and improving skills (making this more involved than just spending Good Karma), and more. There is also a chapter that builds on the Behind The Scenes chapter from Shadowrun, Second Edition, giving more advice to gamemasters, and a chapter with alternate settings for campaigns, such as making all player characters employees of DocWagon™. Al in all it's a good investment for players who know the intricacies of the basic Shadowrun rules, although I wouldn't recommend it to groups who are relatively new to the game.
Similar Products: Shadowrun Companion, The Player's Guide to Shadowrun House Rules
Survey Rating: 6.8 (36 votes)
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Released: 1999
Authors: Zach Bush, Jennifer Brandes, Chris Hepler, Chris Hussey, Jonathon Jacobson, Steve Kenson, Linda Naughton, Brian Schoner, Michael Mulvihill & Robert Boyle
ISBN: 1-55560-380-7
Price: $15.00
Pages: 136
Status/Availability: in print/common
Sections: Introduction, Character Creation, Skills And Training, How To Hire A Shadowrunner, Contacts And Enemies, Advanced Rules, Running The Game, Alternate Campaign Concepts, List Of Actions, Shadowrun Character Sheets, Index
Overview: This is a reworked version of the original Shadowrun Companion, above, updated for use with the Shadowrun, Third Edition rules as well as fixing some bugs. Additionally, some material from older books, that are now hard to find, has been added — for example, the security measures and DocWagon™ response times from The Neo-Anarchists' Guide to Real Life and the swimming rules from Cyberpirates!. All in all much the same comments apply as to the earlier version of this book: useful for experienced players, but for those new(er) to the game it's best to not use this book just yet. Still, the chapter about gamemastering should be useful to read for new gamemasters, as it explains a lot of the basics (which really means it probably should be either in the SR3 main rules or the gamemaster's screen).
Players who already own the second edition Companion can probably do without this book, even if they play with third edition rules.
Similar Products: Shadowrun Companion: Beyond the Shadows, The Player's Guide to Shadowrun House Rules
Survey Rating: (not rated)
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Released: 1997
Authors: Jonathan Szeto, Diane Piron-Gelman & Robert Cruz
ISBN: 1-55560-304-1
Price: $18.00
Pages: 176 + 8 color
Sections: Introduction, A Night In The Life ..., The Rigger, Standard Vehicle Operations, Sensors, Special Vehicle Operations, Mission Improbable, Vehicle Combat, Vehicle Gunnery, Drones, Electronic Warfare, The Duelists, The Security Rigger, Advanced Vehicle Rules, New Toys, Vehicle Design And Customization, Vehicle List, Power Plant Table, Chassis Table, Index
Status/Availability: in print/common
Overview: Rigger 2 is in my opinion the definitive vehicle book for Shadowrun. Whereas the Rigger Black Book was mainly a catalog with some vehicle rules added on for good measure, Rigger 2 is the opposite—in-depth rules for just about every aspect to do with vehicle operations, with very few new vehicles. Among the rules is a vehicle design system, which for the first time allows players to design consistent vehicles as well as modify existing ones (the Rigger Black Book's system was based too much on hazy stats to be really usable). There is also an extensive list with Rigger 2 stats for nearly all vehicles published in previous Shadowrun books.
If vehicles feature prominently in your campaign, this is one book I think you can't really do without; for those with a passing interest in including vehicles in Shadowrun, it is also worth considering.
Similar Products: Janes Rigger Registry, Rigger Black Book
Survey Rating: 7.6 (37 votes)
Notes: The basics of the Rigger 2 rules have been added into Shadowrun, Third Edition, but Rigger 2 remains a useful sourcebook if you own SR3, mainly because it gives rules for situations not covered by those in SR3, and you get the vehicle design system as well.
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Released: 1999
Authors: Stephen Kenson, Rob Boyle & Mike Mulvihill
ISBN: 1-55560-358-0
Price: $20.00
Pages: 176
Sections: Introduction, The Awakened World, The Paths Of Magic, The Awakened Character, Magical Skills, Initiation And Metamagic, The Planes, Spirits, Magical Threats, The Grimoire, Adept Powers, Totems, Arcane Lore, Index
Status/Availability: in print/common
Overview: The book that replaces The Grimoire and Awakenings as the main magic book for use with the third edition rules. It doesn't really have much new information as such, rather it's an update of existing rules to conform to the third edition's revised magic system. All the expected items are there: spell design, allies and free spirits, magical groups, initiation, toxic and insect spirits, new adept powers and spells, and so on; most of these have appeared in previous publications, but as said, they're updated for third edition in this book. Some new sections were also added, mainly in the area of metamagic (having many more powers than were previously available), and some more magical traditions, such as Chinese wuxing and shamans who follow multiple totems. Some items were changed slightly (sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse, in this reviewer's opinion) so it pays to read the book thoroughly even if you already know the magic system.
So is it worth buying? Yes. Even if you already own the previous magic books, Magic In The Shadows has enough new stuff to make it worth the purchase, especially because many of the rules in The Grimoire and Awakenings don't mesh very well with the third edition magic system.
Similar Products: Awakenings — New Magic in 2057, Tech Specs, The Grimoire — The Manual of Practical Thaumaturgy, 14th Edition, 2050, The Grimoire — The Manual of Practical Thaumaturgy, 15th Edition 2053
Survey Rating: (not rated)
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