Shadowrun Book Reviews Legend

The following is an explanation of what the terms used in the reviews of the various books and other products on this site mean.

If in a review anything is marked with a question mark, the reviewer is not sure of whether or not the data is correct, or simply doesn't know.

All reviews by Gurth <gurth@xs4all.nl> unless otherwise indicated.

Ratings System
Rulebooks & Sourcebooks
Adventures
Trading Card Game
Magazines
Magazine Adventures
Miniatures

	Poor
	Marginal
	Average
	Good
	Excellent

A simple ratings system is used to gauge the qualities of the products reviewed. This assigns ratings of 1 through 5, per the table to the right, to a number of different factors, which are listed below. Not all products use the same factors, since not all will apply to every type of product (for a 25 mm figure, "artwork" has little meaning, for example), but the following is a list of the ones that can be encountered.

• Anatomy: how anatomically correct a miniature figure is; this is mainly concerned with correct body proportions — length of limbs, size of heads and hands, etc.
• Artwork: the quality of the art in the book.
• Complexity: an indication of the complexity of an adventure's plot. A high rating means the plot is complicated, while a low rating indicates it's simple or easy to understand. Complexity is not included in the Overall rating, however, because it does not say anything about the quality of the adventure.
• Content: the quality of the text; a book that tells you what you want to know scores high in Content, while one that uses a lot of words to say nothing in particular (like a politician :) gets a low rating.
• Ease of Use: how easy the product is to use during a game session; books that have information scattered all over the place have lower ratings than those that have a good index and group information about a single topic together, for example.
• Layout: how cleanly the book has been laid out; this is partly also factored into the Ease of Use rating, as the two are related. Basically, Layout (together with Artwork) is a rating for the book's "look."
• Overall: the statistical average of all the other ratings assigned (except for Complexity), rounded to the nearest whole number.
• Plot: how good the plot of the adventure is.
• Price: the relation between the price and the other ratings — something like a cost-effectiveness or "bang for buck" rating. Note that a product that scores low here costs much money for little gain, while one that gets a high rating is inexpensive for what it offers.
• Sculpting: the quality of the sculpting and the detail of a miniature figurine, as well as how cleanly it has been cast. A high rating indicates fine detail that has come out of the mold well, whereas poor detail and/or lots of flash, for example, lead to a low Sculpting rating.

It is important to keep in mind that these ratings are assigned by the reviewer, and so you may find that you disagree with them in some way. They are not to be taken as an ultimate rating, but rather as a short overview of the entire review.

Each rule- and sourcebook discussed on these pages is rated for the following aspects:
Title: obviously, the book's full title as it appears on the front cover. It's preceded by FASA's stock number.
Released: the year in which the book came out.
Author(s): who is to blame for writing it.
ISBN: the book's ISBN number, to make ordering easier.
Price: the price in U.S. dollars as listed on the back of the book
Pages: the number of pages in the book, obviously
Status/Availability: split into two parts, the first indicates whether the book is in or out of print, while the second part gives an indication of how easy it is to find. Note that this latter rating is very subjective, based on the reviewer's observations.
Sections: the sections (chapters) into which the book is divided, in the order they appear in the book.
Overview: a short general discussion of the book, from which it should also be apparent as to how useful this book is to which kinds of players.
Similar Products: links to other reviewed products that are similar to this book; this mainly refers to books dealing with similar subjects and/or which are similar in setup.
Survey Rating: the rating the book got in the 1999 Shadowrun Product Survey held on the ShadowRN mailing list in February 1999. This is on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being pretty awful and 10 indicating very high quality. The number of votes for the book is also shown to give an idea of its popularity and of the reliability of the rating.
Notes: any notes to the publication, if any.

The adventure reviews use a slightly different format than the sourcebook pages do. This is mostly because adventures are set up in a different way, and so cannot really be treated the same as sourcebooks.

Title: as above.
Released: as above.
Author(s): as above.
ISBN: as above.
Price: as above.
Pages: as above.
Edition: Which edition the game stats in the adventure are for. First edition adventures need only a little tweaking to be usable in second or third edition, however—mainly, changing the NPCs' dice pools and the weapon stats. Second edition adventures need even less adjustment for use with third edition rules.
Plot: a short, objective overview of the plot, mainly what's going on, what the player characters (PCs) are supposed to do, and similar matters. (This part, by the way, is why the check occurred when you tried to load this page; players should note that reading the plot overview can seriously reduce the fun in playing the adventure. Turn back while you still can :)
Thoughts: some of the reviewer's opinions about the adventure. These are not intended to be unbiased, unlike the plot overview, as they are mainly intended as a viewpoint on how useful the adventure is. However, as always, feel free to disagree. Where others have offered their thoughts as well, this is indicated at the start of the paragraph.
Similar Products: as above.
Survey Rating: as above.
Notes: as above.

The Shadowrun Trading Card Game needs different data than sourcebooks because, well, cards aren't books.

Title: as above.
Released: as above.
ISBN: as above.
Price: as above.
Cards: the number of cards in one package (starter deck or booster pack).
Overview: as above.
Survey Rating: as above.
Notes: as above.

A different format is used in the magazine reviews than for books, mainly because a lot of the data given for books does not apply to magazines.

Issue: the issue number and/or release date.
ISSN or Stock Number: The magazine's ISSN number, or the publisher's stock number for the magazine.
Editor: The magazine's editor. Note that this is only indicated when the review is of a complete magazine, rather than of individual articles in a magazine.
Articles & Authors: The titles of the articles in the magazine, and who wrote those articles. This also includes an indication of the kind of article it is.
Pages: For Shadowrun-specific magazines, how many pages the magazine has. For others, this indicates on which page(s) of the magazine the article(s) appear(s).
Overview: What the articles are about. The reviews do not talk about any short stories that may be in the magazine, mainly because the reviewer has better things to do than re-read every issue to decide whether or not the fiction is any good.
Similar Products: as above.

Title: the adventure's title. Adventures from magazines are sorted alphabetically, rather than by the name of the magazine they're from.
Source: the magazine the adventure appears in, with its issue number and date.
Author(s): as above.
Page: the page number at which the adventure article begins in the magazine.
Edition: as above.
Plot: as above.
Thoughts: as above.
Similar Products: as above.
Notes: as above.

Name: the set's full title as it appears on the package or box cover. It's preceded by manufacturer's stock number.
Price: as above.
Figures: the number of figures in the package.
Parts: the number of parts in the package; if this is more than the number of figures, some assembly is most likely required, or there may be some extras in the set.
Overview: a short general discussion of the contents of the package, including such things as how much assembly is required and how well the detail, anatomy, animation, etc. of the figures is.
Similar Products: as above.
Notes: as above.